Sunday NBA Insider: The changing bright lights of L.A.

The Timberwolves play rare back-to-back games in Los Angeles this weekend, two nights in the same Staples Center arena but yet so different.

For once, the Wolves won't see the Lakers' 16 championship banners hanging high above both nights.

New Clippers coach Doc Rivers has made sure of that, ordering them covered with portraits of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, etc., on days his team plays there.

Lakers guard Nick Young, among others, was offended. Others who were born there and know L.A. — Hall of Famer and TNT commentator Reggie Miller, Wolves star Kevin Love — applaud Rivers' intent.

"I think it's great, it's Doc being Doc," Love said. "It's good to establish a new identity for that team. They've been playing extremely hard and they're only going to get better."

Love was born in Santa Monica, played his one collegiate season at UCLA, and even though he grew up in Portland, Ore., he still considers himself an Angeleno.

In his 25 years, he has known you're a Lakers fan, a Dodgers fan or maybe even a Kings fan if you're from Los Angeles. But until recently, almost never a Clippers fan.

"If they win," Love said. "How many titles do the Lakers have? I don't see it ever really being a Clipper town, just because of the tradition and the past. But with Doc there and a new identity and the players they have, it sure seems to be going that way. It's tough. They're definitely on an uphill battle."

The Clippers won a franchise-record 17 consecutive games last December, yet lost to Memphis in a six-game, first-round playoff series last spring.

Both the Lakers and the Clippers started this season 3-3, the Lakers even without Bryant winning decisively on opening night in a "home" game at Staples.

Still, the Clippers have the kind of showy, if not exactly Showtime, vibe this season that the Lakers seemingly have had forever. They've traded for their title-winning coach and acquired shooters J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley, but the question is can they win big with Griffin and Jordan on the floor at game's end.

"For us to be talking about the Clippers as if they are the Lakers in the second coming is astonishing," Miller said before the season started. "Right now, it is Clipper Nation in Los Angeles. For them to take the next step, they have to compete for a championship. The Lakers pride themselves on championships. It's all about those banners. That's what separates the two. It's about the mind-set.

The Lakers won five championships from 1949 to 1954, when they played in Minneapolis. Their other 11 came in Los Angeles, the most recent in 2010. That's a lot of fabric that needs covering on Clippers' game nights now.

"To own L.A., it's going to take more than just one brilliant year," said former NBA coach Doug Collins, an ESPN commentator. "I don't think there are any questions right now that the Clippers are the superior team. But their report card is coming in April, May and June."

NBA short takes

Will the real K-Mart please stand up?

New York's Kenyon Martin was nicknamed that long before a teammate started calling Timberwolves guard Kevin Martin the same years ago.

After last week's victory at Madison Square Garden, Wolves star Kevin Love said, "Kenyon Martin was over there talking about the fake K-Mart. I said, 'Who?' He was 5-for-5 from three, had 30 points. Right now, that's the real K-Mart to me."

Said Kevin Martin himself: "Last time one of my teammates called me that, the other K-Mart got kind of mad. I guess I'm not K-Mart until I get back to Minnesota or wherever we're going next."

Superman's Kryptonite

Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers played Thursday night for the first time since star Dwight Howard left what became another nighttime serial in L.A. last year and signed as a free agent with the Rockets.

And Howard and the Rockets lost at home to a Lakers team missing injured Kobe Bryant on Steve Blake's catch-and-shoot winner over Howard's outstretched arm with 1.3 seconds left.

He said it

TNT studio commentator Chuck Barkley to host Ernie Johnson regarding that last-second Lakers victory and the Rockets' game-ending defense Thursday: "When you say dramatic, you mean stupid."

Wolves week ahead

Sunday: at L.A. Lakers, 8:30 p.m. (FSN)

Monday: at L.A. Clippers, 9:30 p.m. (FSN)

Friday: at Denver, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday: vs. Boston, 7 p.m. (FSN+)

Player to watch:

Chris Paul, Clippers

Like another Kevin Love, only a lot smaller: a double-double machine — points and assists, of course — who has recorded them in his first six games this season, seven consecutively if you go back to last season's finale.