Clippers gear up to play Lakers on Saturday

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The next skirmish in the NBA’s version of the ‘Battle of L.A.’ is Saturday night when the Clippers play host to the Lakers at the teams’ shared home court, Staples Center.

The Clippers are coming off a 95-89 overtime win over the powerful Miami Heat on Wednesday. But Clippers point guard Chris Paul said his team couldn’t rely on momentum from that victory when they face Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

‘We cant get too high with different wins this year and we cant get too low with different losses,’ Paul said after the Clippers practiced Friday at their Playa Vista training center.

‘We just got to continue to take advantage of these days of practice and get better,’ Paul said. Against the Heat, ‘we fought hard, there were some good things we did in that game, but there were a lot of things that we didn’t do well.’

The Clippers likewise don’t expect a boost from the fact that they defeated the Lakers twice in pre-season games last month, he said.

‘Pre-season is all good and well but it’s really not the intensity of a regular-season game,’ Paul said. The Lakers contest, he added, ‘is a division game for us, a big game for us.’

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-- Jim Peltz