The two best players in Los Angeles squared off. (Getty Images)

The battle for Los Angeles is so much more than just seeing if the Clippers can finally stand up to the Lakers on a consistent basis. 

After being the mat the Lakers wipe their shoes on before they enter the Staples Center for years, the Clippers have finally put together a team not just worthy of challenging the Lakers but worthy of challenging any team in the NBA. The fact that the Clippers are title contenders for the first time in their history in Los Angeles shows you just how far they've come from fans wearing bags on their heads and pretending Darius Miles is going to be a good thing.

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But the real battle on the court went from the Lakers vs. the Clippers to Chris Paul vs. Kobe Bryant. These are two of the fiercest competitors in the NBA, capable of taking over games with their jumpers and their ability to get shots off from the most impossible of angles at any time. Friday night, they decided seemingly decided to battle not just for their team's victory but in order to prove who was the best player in the city.

Even in Kobe's resurgent scoring year, finally putting up efficient points more than just enough shots to get him a scoring title, Chris Paul has shown us all season long that he's the best player in Los Angeles. Tonight, he proved it with a spirited effort in a shootout against Kobe Bryant and the 16-time NBA championship franchise.

Kobe was fantastic. The Clippers kept going on runs and Kobe kept coming at them. Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace kept fizzling out before they could offer any help and it didn't matter. Kobe still made shots. Dwight Howard committed stupid fouls and it didn't matter. Kobe still scored points. Jodie Meeks couldn't get his jumper going and it didn't matter. Kobe was putting up buckets.

And yet no matter what Kobe was able to answer with throughout the night, Chris Paul was there answering on both ends and in more facets of the game than Kobe could muster. Chris Paul has become the best player in Los Angeles not because of a decline in Kobe's game necessarily, but mainly because Chris Paul is just that good now.

He manages and affects the game in ways no other point guard can do. He drops jumpers on the competition, gets into the paint for layups, dazzles the crowd and his teammates with an impossible handle, draws fouls when he needs to, sets up teammates, and makes plays when the Clippers need to put games away.

He's the most fearsome crunch time player in the NBA right now because there is nothing the defense can key in on. Pay too much attention to him and he'll rip your heart out like you're chanting in the Temple of Doom. Don't pay enough attention to him and he pulls up for quick jumpers to pull his team away from yours. You're constantly stuck in limbo against Chris Paul, having to guess what he'll do and hope for the best.

With Dwight Howard and his back unable to affect the game the way we've seen in the past and Kobe no longer to give a consistent effort on defense, it's Chris Paul who rules the court in a way that only LeBron James and Kevin Durant can do on a consistent basis.

Kobe had a phenomenal and heroic game with 38 points on 15-of-25 shooting. He denied Paul the ball at big moments in the fourth quarter when the Lakers were keeping pace and charging back. It still never mattered too much because CP3's 30-point, 13-assist effort was just too much for any one team to handle. 

It's conceivable the Clippers could falter a bit in the second half of the season and the Lakers could surge back to prominence. I don't think it would honestly shock anybody out there. But it is going to take some kind of genetic mutation for anybody in the city of Los Angeles to consistently be a better player than Chris Paul right now. 

Kobe Bryant is still great. But Chris Paul is the Point God we can all rely on right now.