When the Los Angeles Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the offseason before the 2019-20 season, there was no doubt in the minds of many players and personalities around the NBA that they would win a championship quite soon. Things haven’t quite worked out that way for them, with the first season when they were at full strength ending in the Western Conference semifinals at the hands of the Denver Nuggets.
The Clippers were surprisingly better even without Kawhi Leonard last season, winning two games in the Western Conference Finals. And that may have had something to do with the fact that the 2020 playoffs took place in the Bubble in Orlando thanks to the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic at the time. Marcus Morris Sr. has said as much to ESPN, suggesting that the only reason Clippers lost was because of the Bubble.
“We only lost that s— because we were in the bubble,” Morris told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “[If] we weren’t in the bubble, we’d beat the s— out of them. Put that on the record. … Guys are out of their comfort zone. Kudos to Denver.”
The Clippers went up 3-1 in that series, before choking huge leads in the following 3 games and losing the series 4-3. Both Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray averaged over 22 points per game that series and came through in the biggest moments, proving to be quite unstoppable for a Clippers squad that was supposed to be the best defensively.
The Bubble did affect a lot of players though, perhaps none more so than Paul George, who was quite bad in the series against the Nuggets, earning scorn from the media as well as NBA fans. Considering how close they were to winning the series, Morris might have a bit of a point. Regardless, they lost and they haven’t been able to reach the NBA finals like they were designed to yet.
