Griffin says Clippers-Warriors isn't a rivalry: 'We're trying to get where they are'

The Los Angeles Clippers have said in no uncertain terms that the Golden State Warriors were lucky not to have had to play them in last year's postseason, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the Clippers wouldn't have been able to do much to stop the Warriors' runaway train.

On Thursday night, for the second time this season, the Warriors took the Clippers' best punch and came away unblemished.

At home back on Nov. 4, they overturned a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit - the span of about two minutes - to beat the Clippers by four. Just over two weeks later, in Los Angeles, they came back from 23 points down (including 10 down with under five minutes play) to win by seven and improve to 13-0. The Clippers have played the defending champs tougher than anyone this season, and have nothing to show for it.

Though the two teams have engaged, over the past two-plus years, in an entertaining war of words, a heated and physical playoff series, and countless thrilling, high-paced shootouts, Clippers power forward Blake Griffin feels it would be disingenuous to call what they have going a rivalry. Since the Clippers knocked them off in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals in 2014, the Warriors have five of the team's six meetings.

"I wouldn't really say this is a rivalry," Griffin said after Thursday's comeback, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. "We're trying to get where they are."

Which, let's be real, is what all 29 teams outside the Bay Area are trying to do. The Warriors are just the fifth team in NBA history to win their first 13 games of the season. Three more, and they'll stand alone.

The Warriors have no equal. The Warriors have no rival.