The ‘Lob City’ Los Angeles Clippers were one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the NBA in the last decade. Led by Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, the Clips managed to become one of the best teams in the West, but they never capitalized on the good basketball they played and went ringless.
Griffin and Paul left the team without winning anything when everybody believed they could at least contend for the title.
Paul recently spoke about what went wrong with the team, claiming they were unlucky and that was what they missed to put their hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy.
“Doc used to always say in order to win a championship, you gotta be lucky,” Paul said in the Quibi documentary “Blackballed,” via Farbod Esnaashari of Sports Illustrated. “We never were lucky. I don’t think the Donald Sterling thing had anything to do with our shortcomings as a team. It was definitely a bump in the road, something unexpected, but that’s life.”
Well, if you think about it, Rivers is right. Whenever you talk about a championship team, you know the things that happened and helped them become champions. A good streak, a critical moment, a specific play, there is always something that makes the difference for them and takes them to the promised land.
The Clips, however, never had a moment like that. In fact, they were on the other side of the street. Just like Paul said, they were unlucky, he suffered injuries, as well as Blake Griffin. They blew a 3-1 lead in 2015 against the Houston Rockets when everything looked set for them to advance to the WCF.
They had good moments, though, like the time they beat the San Antonio Spurs in one of the most memorable playoffs series in recent times, but that’s not enough to win a championship. Now the Clips have a great team, led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Things look very favorable for them and their chances to become NBA champions for the first time ever.
