Pouring One Out for The Los Angeles Clippers

During the 2022-2023 NBA postseason, The Los Angeles Clippers were paired against The Phoenix Suns in a match-up that should’ve been a lot more equal than what happened. Having acquired Russell Westbrook in the previous months, this was going to be The Clippers’ shot at redemption. Instead, it was something commonly referred to as The Clippers Curse™. For as great as the team had done during the regular season, they were ending it with a host of problems. Following his first true playoff game in several years, Ty Lue told reporters to just wait and see what Kawhi Leonard had in store. He would be injured before the next game. Similarly, Paul George suffered a minor injury that led to one of the most underrated memes of the year.

Once Leonard was gone, Westbrook was promoted to leader and did what he could to keep the team in the competition. To his credit, he was working overtime to make what little success they had happen. However, any sensible viewer could tell that The Suns had outlasted them by a considerable margin. Two days before the game everyone now predicted to be the season’s swan song, news came out that “Paul George is ready to play in the next round.” If I was more optimistic, I would’ve read that with hope that The Suns suffered a fate worse than Luka Doncic, but instead I knew how comical this was. Begrudgingly, I watched and, predictably, The Clippers lost, preparing to enter the off-season with desperate need to rebuild.

I say all this as a preamble to the 2023-2024 season because I do think that The Clippers had such a notorious collapse the previous year that a lot of pressure was on them to have ANYTHING come together. The 2024 summer will mark the fifth anniversary of the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George acquisition that was celebrated late one evening and ushered in a new era for Los Angeles. It would be “L.A. Our Way.” Leonard was coming off of a championship with The Toronto Raptors. It should’ve been the silver lining peering over The Hollywood Hills to put some respect on this franchise. Even in the days leading up to the start of 2024’s playoff season, people were quick to point out that Leonard had won a ring every five years. The signs were there.

At some point this thinking gives way to pseudoscience, but there is an exhaustion with being a Clippers fan under this current regime. The narrative was building to the greatest kiss-off in modern NBA history. Not only would 2023-2024 mark the biggest “comeback,” but the gang would move into The Intuit Dome and have their own official stamp on the city. Add in the FX series Clipped, and it felt like everyone was preparing for The Clippers to have a real moment. 

Subtle

Instead, watching The Clippers play The Dallas Mavericks in the postseason was the most disappointing sight next to Giannis Antetokounmpo bowing in the first round two years in a row after being ostensibly the best player in the league. In his case, it could be chalked up to bad luck. However, with The Clippers, it’s hard to not stop and suggest that things should’ve turned out much differently. It could even be seen on Steve Balmer’s face during the notorious Game 4 comeback game where The Clippers almost blew a 31-point lead to Dallas. The usually happy-go-lucky man had a grave expression for most of the third and fourth quarter. Even if they won with a phenomenal push and tied the series 2-2, I think it was clear how screwed they were.

Before getting back to the playoffs, I want to step back and explore the regular season. As usual, judging The Clippers by their numbers would suggest that they’re one of the best teams in the league. Everything was coming together and the fine tuning was really paying off. However, I think there was a point early on where it became clear that the actions of the previous few seasons were impacting their public reputation.

The most noteworthy example came with a newly instated NBA rule that teams couldn’t bench multiple uninjured star players for multiple games. Before the law even took hold, many articles were quick to put up a picture of Leonard and George as prime suspects. While others were still burned by 2022-2023 and wanted them to be fired, this rule can be at best considered motivation. Nobody had any reason to sit out. To their credit, The Clippers managed to get Leonard to play more regularly and often had a significant impact on the game. 

While I’ve always been more defensive of George for at least being regularly active, Leonard is a player I’ve struggled to admire. I’ve seen enough of his jerseys at games. He’s been actively involved in marketing campaigns like New Balance. However, something has always frustrated me about him. I’ll admit it’s just luck of the draw, but of the four games that I’ve been to over the past three years (two when Leonard was “healthy”), I have never seen him in a jersey. Hearing that he was accepted to play for Team USA in The Olympics baffles me because he can’t even play continuously enough to be considered “promising.” When I saw them play The Denver Nuggets during the preseason, I was unfortunate to attend the one game where none of the main three played. While it convinced me that Nikola Jokic is the real deal, I was losing faith in my team before things even started to count.

For what it’s worth, the things I love about The Clippers was still there. Ivica Zubac has been an underrated anchor who has thankfully been given due respect this season. I enjoy seeing Terrence Mann and Norman Powell land some killer shots. The bench is full of these small names that feel special to me and will make me root for them even when they move to other teams (take care, Nicholas Batum). Bones Hyland was that big draw from the preseason game and while the postseason was brutal to watch, seeing Hyland get some playtime was still nice. 

Still, there was a lot going into the season that made me believe that this was our year. Well, maybe not championship level, but I believed when you had George-Leonard-Westbrook in connection that they could at least get to The Western Conference and lose to The Nuggets with grace. I had seen enough to believe they had something…

And then there was The James Harden Trade™.

I don’t think there’s any player that has become increasingly divisive over the past five years quite like Harden. There was a time when he was on The Houston Rockets where you believed he was this ingenue. He had a gift that made him stand out in a crowded room. Then, due to conflicts with management, he got traded to The Brooklyn Nets to form a super team with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. After an inaugural season of “almost” making The Finals (it’s complicated), the remainder of their existence is quantifiably the biggest scam in modern basketball. I believed so much in The Nets’ potential because of The Big Three only to be let down by the strangest type of in-fighting, including jokes that Harden was either asleep or replaced with a robot during the playoffs. By The Philadelphia 76ers, Harden was proving himself to be unreliable. Looming expectations that he wanted to be on The Clippers filled me with dread because it felt like it would ruin our good thing.

Something about The James Harden Trade™ was immediately repulsive. I couldn’t buy into his messaging that he would reshape the very game they played. Even as he compensated by saying that it would take a few games to find the rhythm, I was more willing to believe that this was the beginning of the end. Forget the idea that the top four stars on The Clippers were all Southern California boys. For as cute as that notion was, I was reminded of Harden’s past. It was less that he was aging and clearly falling into role player expectations. It was that he was stubborn enough to allegedly wear a fat suit to be traded from The Rockets. It’s his unwillingness to show up to training for The 76ers. There’s also the fact that the last time he was with Westbrook ended in one of the most notorious falling outs of a duo. Similarly, I had already been let down by The Nets’ super team. What was this going to do for us?

I guess I don’t learn from my mistakes because, much like The Nets, I was convinced that The Clippers had figured out the playbook. Westbrook would be moved to the bench for a b-team role. Having three leads rotate in and out meant that there would be an unexpectedness akin to The Golden State Warriors during their height. Fears of overworking Leonard into yet another injury felt like a problem of the past.

Most of all, I wanted to believe they figured it out because this was now sold as crunch time. As mentioned, the Leonard/George era was approaching five years and the receipts had to suggest something. There was belief that this was “go big or go home.” Everyone’s contracts were approaching their ends. Hypothetically, a playoff win would mean everybody came back and made The Intuit Dome a new dynasty. A loss would mean The Clippers would more than likely crater.

Naively, I believed in the potential of the super team. When looking at the match-ups for the postseason, I was convinced that The Clippers had something. There was no way that they’d lose to The Mavericks for one sole reason. Doncic was their only saving grace and Irving was unreliable. I’ll admit that there was something fun to seeing how many miracle games Doncic had this season, but it wouldn’t be enough for The Clippers. Why? Because we had George. We had Westbrook. We had Leonard. We had Harden. When you have four guys rotating against one, I expected Doncic to tire out after seven games, unable to find all of their weak spots. 

Luka I love you, but you're bringing me down

There was an excitement in Game 1 where I watched Zubac dominate. Every other play felt like him reaching up to the net and stealing the ball away. I loved listening to announcers discuss Zubac as this underrated force of nature. The Mavericks weren’t exactly in top shape, but they could’ve likely been feeling things out as well. The win was hard fought, but it almost seemed too easy compared to what was to follow. The initial razzle dazzle was intoxicating and convinced me that this really was going to happen. I love The Mavericks, but Luka would be no match.

Remember how I discussed my antipathy towards Kawhi Leonard earlier? Well, Games 2 and 3 are great examples of how he’s far from the saving grace that the media wants to paint him as. Is he a good player? Yes. At a different time, he may have been a necessary force for change in The Clippers. However, he’s only played three games in two years of recent playoffs history. In 2024, he was looking sluggish. Part of it was simply not playing with the team for weeks. However, it was also evidence that maybe years of load management were finally taking a toll on his body. Dexterity was disappearing and he was no match for people who were playing every day. Game 2 of the playoffs was not the place to start career rehab.

Depending on what type of fan you are, there’s the hypothesis that The Clippers would’ve won Game 2 had Leonard not played. He was so at odds with the team that any kinetic energy was difficult to keep up. With that said, there was a point in Game 3 when he was pulled from the game and he looked like he was ruminating on something deeper than the game simply not swinging his way. Maybe it was a recognition that his best years were behind him or, given competitive mindset, it was just the reality that he was yet again injured and couldn’t be there for his team. This was now his legacy. Stephen A. Smith would call him one of the worst stars to have because of his unreliability and constant injuries during major games. As much as I don’t want to agree with Smith, he had a point.

But the dream was still alive. It was Game 4 and we still had George, Westbrook, and Harden. That’s enough to do something with. In fact, there was a moment where I truly believed that Leonard was the only problem. Infamously, this was the game where The Clippers were up in the first half by 31 points. The victory lap was short-lived, as The Mavericks unleashed the fury that they had shown in the previous two games. There was a point where the conversation shifted from The Clippers taking the series to The Mavericks potentially making history with the second-highest comeback win in playoff history. 

Did it make for great basketball? Not exactly. I am still mad that The Clippers lost that 31 point lead and struggled to maintain any lead in the closing minutes. While it speaks to how much I had ignored The Mavericks’ supporting players, it also suggested that The Clippers Curse™ was finally taking hold. 

However, the finale was great basketball and maybe the last time I truly had faith in The Clippers in the series. Out of nowhere, Harden was shooting floaters that carried The Clippers over the finish line. Between him and George, they had 66 points. There was this belief that they were going to be unstoppable. All they needed was to be backed against the wall. Given that Doncic suffered a leg injury during the game, I wanted to believe this was The Rosetta Stone to success. Doncic was not going to have his A-Game. Even if I now recognized that Irving wasn’t messing around, would it be enough to take The Clippers down?

Well, add in some surprise action from P.J. Washington and the final two games weren’t all that pretty. Whereas Game 4 suggested that maybe The Clippers could put up a fight, everything after marks a collapse so notorious that I’m not sure how long it will take me to get over the bitterness. There is a part of me that wants to side with the “blow it up” crowd because I refuse to believe that what I saw was the same team that was unstoppable a month ago. Forget the Kawhi talk. My hesitations around Harden were manifested. I was disappointed with George and Westbrook. As much as I want to hold onto those two, I saw the trade rumors and thought, “Makes sense.”

For starters, Game 5 was a home game that also featured The Clippers’ biggest playoff loss in history of 30 points. It wasn’t even a hard fought loss. There was something that fell out after the first quarter that made everything so brutal. Even as the second half started, I clenched up and hoped that George would land a few shots. Given that they went over 10 minutes without a point, it made sense why The Mavericks were winning. Okay, not entirely. Doncic may say he was injured, but whatever doctors he’s got working for him do wonders. He still managed to dance circles around players who were supposedly in better health.

If I’m being honest, I couldn’t be bothered to focus on Game 6 with the same enthusiasm that I had for the first five. I thought of the joke, “Paul George is ready to play in the next series” as I settled down and watched the predictable burial happen. It was over before it started. Every now and then, I looked up and it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. For reasons that didn’t make sense, P.J. Tucker started despite only playing a few minutes after the white flag was thrown in during Game 5. It felt like nobody cared. 

Whereas 2022-2023 was sad because resources had been depleted, this season has been unbearably frustrating. Maybe it’s just the newness of the exit, but it feels painful to be so dedicated to a team that has everything in their power to win and doesn’t. At the end of the day, Harden was just as unreliable as ever. Leonard still failed to rise up. Credit to The Mavericks for putting up a great fight, but The Clippers shouldn’t have been down that badly. Having historic losses (even when they won) suggested that something was fundamentally wrong with the infrastructure. Given that marketing started the season by suggesting that this was one of the most important seasons in the modern franchise’s history, it doesn’t make sense to suffer a demolition that massive.

The best that can be said is that the off-season is going to be a very memorable one. I don’t wish to address any trade rumors, but I have to believe something is going to be moved around. It has to. After five years, there’s been so little to show for the efforts. For as much as I loathe the Lebron James era of The Los Angeles Lakers, they at least won The Finals and made it to The Western Conference last season. There’s something to show for their momentum. The Clippers records only benefit The Clippers Curse™ conversation which, hey, is a perfect time to plug Clipped: a TV series about the wacky hijinks the team got into when Doc Rivers came on. How fitting.

As of this moment, I remain a fan. I’m eager to attend a game during the inaugural Intuit Dome year. There’s something special about this team that I don’t think ever truly culminates into something greater. However, I don’t enjoy having to realize that my conversation points for the next few months is going to have a lot of caveats, including whether we were truly right about The James Harden Trade™. In fairness, he fit as a role player… when he was good. I still think he has some great moments. They’re just inconsistent and usually dismantle at the worst possible team. 

If this is the end, then it’ll have been a long, strange, underwhelming era. For the life of me, I can never fully criticize Paul George even if his best wasn’t enough this time around. I don’t know what to really say other than I hope to not get to Game 6 in the first round next year and find the headline “Kawhi Leonard is available to play in the next series” staring at me on Twitter. Unlike some jokes, this isn’t the power of threes. The Clippers clearly aren’t the power of fours either. Whatever they are, it’s a tough thing to love.