Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum showed the Clippers who runs L.A. Wednesday night. (Getty Images)
The season hasn't gone as well as they would have liked. The offense seems incomplete, the bench can be atrocious. There has been friction with the two biggest stars and the head coach. They had a failed trade, lost their heart in one trade, their soul in another. Their third star can't seem to avoid embarrassing situations and there's some debate about exactly who is making decisions for the tea's future. 

But you know what?

The Los Angeles Lakers are still better than the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Lakers beat the Clips 113-108 Wednesday night to win the season series 2-1. Big Brother is still Big Brother and Little Brother still can't get past him. It was a game that featured maybe the dunk of the year by Blake Griffin on Pau Gasol, but highlights don't win championships. Neither do regular season wins, but the Lakers are still able to hold onto the superiority in execution and production. 

Kobe Bryant had arguably the best game of his season, if we're looking at how he played and not just volume of points. 31 points on 19 shots, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and just 2 turnovers. He played in the system, he got other players involved, he hit tough shots over bad defenders and punished the Clippers for their horrendous defense of him. When Bryant plays that brand of basketball, the Lakers, even this version, are extremely difficult to stop. 

But the player of the game was Andrew Bynum with 36 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. It was Bynum who took over after Pau Gasol was embarrassed destroyed immortalized annihilated dunked on by Blake Griffin twice. Bynum showed to be the physical force inside that Gasol could not, and even with some lazy moments (one of his dunks was off a cherry pick in which he made zero effort to get back), he was fierce and relentless inside. Do those two things at Bynum's size and no one, especially not the Clippers, will stop him. 

On the Clippers' side... you hate to belabor a point, but this was a coaching malfunction. It's one thing to leave Eric Bledsoe and Nick Young in to try and sustain while Chris Paul is on the bench with Mo Williams out. But you have to keep them playing within the system. You have to coach them to not play recklessly. Both of the young players wound up costing the Clippers with desperate possessions. 

Meanwhile, you have to be able to build some sort of defensive scheme to cover for your weaknesses. It's OK that DeAndre Jordan can't defend Andrew Bynum. No one can and Jordan is still learning to be a great defender. But you have to bring help. Nick Young and Randy Foye aren't going to slow down Kobe Bryant. But you can't leave them on an island against one of the best scorers in the world. That's how you get beat. And they did. 

The theme of this game was "One team got the highlights, the other got the win." But the two aren't really related. The Clippers' highlights counted for points just like Pau Gasol's jumpers did. The Clippers didn't lose because they were hunting highlights, they lost because the Lakers are a much better team who has played together much longer, was better coached and executed at a higher level. 

It's not little brother's fault he's still little brother, and you have to give him time to grow up. 

But for now, at least, it's clear that Los Angeles is still very much run by the Lakeshow.