LOS ANGELES -- Three months after a heated recruiting battle that pitted Los Angeles' two NBA teams against one another for the services of Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers and Lakers took the fight to the floor, where talent acquisitions are transformed into stardom. Years of planning, posturing, billboards and flight tracking finally translated into actual basketball between two teams who play in the same building and who each has a claim as title favorites.

Angelenos are notoriously late arrivers, but on Tuesday night, they filled the bowl at Staples Center early, as if they were concerned they might miss something. It was an entirely appropriate response now that four of the best 10 basketball players in the world -- LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis and Paul George -- compete in Los Angeles.

Though the Clippers hosted and won the season opener 112-102, the raucous crowd was a house divided, which has been the case for years at Clippers home games against their intracity rivals. The Clippers have spent the past decade mounting the sports world's most aggressive rebranding campaign, but their introductory video was an unsubtle nod to the long shadow that extends over that effort:

Grit Over Glam, Street Lights Over Spotlights, Squad Over Self, L.A. Our Way.

When after the video Leonard took the microphone to welcome Clippers fans -- "We're going to work hard every night. Let's get it going" -- he was showered with a cacophony of cheers and boos. He was booed during the game with the same spirit Lakers fans roared during their team's third-quarter flurry with James on the bench. The message to Leonard from the fans of the incumbent Lakers, who lead the Los Angeles series 102-53: You might have residency in Southern California, but universal esteem won't come without a banner.

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Though a tagline like grit over glam is often nothing more than a hollow pitch, the Clippers' slogan bore a sharp resemblance to the on-court product Tuesday night. Their victory over the Lakers was very much an industrial-grade product, powered by Leonard's brute force in the half court, a sound effort on the glass and a heavy dose of the lunch-pail hustle that defined last season's overachieving squad.

Coach Doc Rivers sounded the "one of 82" refrain pregame. Nobody on either team nor anyone present in the stands really bought it. George, still a few weeks away from his Clippers debut as he recovers from shoulder surgery, might have donned a handsome tuxedo, but Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was so intensely engaged in the game that he ripped a hole in the elbow of his button-down.

Madison Square Garden might be the NBA's hallowed cathedral, and the Chase Center in San Francisco its glitzy new mall, but Staples Center is undoubtedly the league's seat of power until further notice.

-- Kevin Arnovitz

Our NBA experts' biggest takeaways

Kawhi caught fire

Leonard's debut got off to a shaky start, but it didn't take him long to make James, Davis and the Lakers feel his presence.

Following an 0-for-2, two-turnover opening, Leonard put on a show by making seven consecutive shots and scoring 15 of his 30 points in a torrid seven-plus-minute stretch. The Leonard tear, which came on an array of contested midrange shots and pull-ups, was a turning point in the game. The Lakers opened confidently with a 13-2 lead. By the time Leonard's burst was over, the Clippers were up six, and it felt like the Lakers were shaken. The contest might have been tied entering the fourth, but this felt like the Clippers' game to lose. Only Rivers could slow Leonard down, taking the Finals MVP out in the midst of his hot shooting midway through the second quarter, perhaps an indication of how Rivers will play and substitute. Leonard came out around the six-minute mark in the first three quarters.

Entering the season, one of the big questions surrounding this matchup was how the Clippers would stop Davis. However, perhaps the question should be what answers the Lakers will have for Leonard.

-- Ohm Youngmisuk

The Clippers' bigs showed up

Montrezl Harrell played more minutes -- 38 -- than anyone. The Clippers won those minutes by 15. His gravity as a roll man energized the Clippers' offense. He unlocked shots for teammates, dished four assists himself and laid the ball in when the Lakers forgot about him. He completed two and-1s in the fourth quarter against mismatches, the last after a classic Patrick Beverley flying offensive rebound on a free throw.