Opinion: LA Clippers are the best thing to happen to the NBA playoffs

LOS ANGELES -- Just in case you needed reminding, there's a second team in the first-round playoff series involving the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

They’re known as the Los Angeles Clippers – and they’re the best thing to happen to this NBA postseason.

Monday night’s stunning reverse in a game where the Warriors were so far in front they thought they could cruise over the finish line, sip a cold one and wipe their mouths with the checkered flag, has spawned many things.

However, in a reflection of the way we view sporting celebrity, they have all been Warriors-related. Twitter went berserk with numeracy jokes, pointing out that the 31-point comeback contained the same figures as Golden State’s 3-1 Finals lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

DeMarcus Cousins’ quad injury was a topic of conversation. So, too, was the Warriors’ level of motivation and whether they could rebound from this. Had they been too lethargic? Were they taking things seriously enough?

Yet it's worth remembering at this point that while blowing such a mammoth lead requires some level of culpability from the losing party, it also needs some rare and spectacular things from the team that found itself so far behind.

MORE NBA:

• Doc Rivers tells story of how a stranger saved him from losing $2,000 he dropped
• 76ers tie playoff record with 51 points in third quarter of Game 2 rout
• Best (and worst) performances from opening weekend of NBA playoffs
• Sign up for our NBA newsletter for must-see moments, exclusive content

Fortunately for the Clippers, those things – resiliency, fighting spirit and a refusal to accept common basketball thinking – are the personality traits upon which they have quietly built an outstanding season.

They're a collection of players who care little for the Warriors’ apparent cloak of invincibility, nor for the superstar standing of their opponent’s starting lineup. They showed fearlessness Monday because they’ve shown it all year and have no interest in dwelling on the statistical weight of evidence that makes gloomy reading for lower-seeded teams.

Early in the season, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers relaxed in his office at the team’s training facility and reflected that his squad, which had performed unexpectedly well in the opening weeks, had the ability to upturn a lot of popular NBA thinking.

“We have got something with this group,” Rivers told USA TODAY Sports. “Only time will tell what they can do. There will come a time when they need to battle for each other and if they do, we will see what happens.”

The Clippers are commonly viewed as one of the league’s hardest-working teams, which is a pleasant compliment but also comes with some kind of veiled knock on their talent.

But the reality is that as much as Rivers enjoys and fosters the reputation and mentality of a blue-collar group, Los Angeles didn’t get to this point by earnest toil alone. The fearsome bench duo of Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell were outstanding again at Oracle Arena, Danilo Gallinari has pieced together a mostly healthy and consistently productive season and Patrick Beverley’s penchant for intensity (with an added shot of agitation) makes him the trickiest kind of playoff foe.

And so here are the Clippers, an eight seed with a pulse, tied at 1-1, getting ready to come back to a city where they still live in the shadow of a failing neighbor to try to make more magic happen.

While the role of the scrappy underdog fits so neatly, it may not last long. The Clippers have kept their roster superstar-free by design, even shipping arguably their best player – Tobias Harris – off to the Philadelphia 76ers via trade. Spoiler alert: It's not because they don’t like superstars. It's because they're playing the long game and trying to land themselves a big one.

Owner Steve Ballmer has grand ambitions less than 15 months after the Lob City era formally ended with the trade of Blake Griffin to Detroit. The Clippers have somehow rebuilt without going through a rebuild.

While the personal peculiarities of the NBA’s elite players remain something of a mystery, there are a couple of things we know about many. They like to be the big man on campus. They like to live in trendy cities. And they like to win.

More than anywhere else in the league, the Clippers now offer that opportunity. Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, even Kevin Durant would find in free agency a team that knows how to compete while offering uncontested first-line placement on the billboard.

Maybe the Clippers’ moment in the playoff sun this year will be short-lived. Monday might have been a blip and nothing more. Perhaps the Warriors will remember the inconvenient truth that you actually need to finish games. Whichever way, by delivering an embarrassing shock to the biggest team in the sport, the Clippers have invigorated these playoffs, and potentially set themselves up for a gleaming future.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' columnist Martin Rogers on Twitter @RogersJourno