Paul George has finally admitted the Los Angeles Clippers have big expectations this season after mightily failing last season to reach the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history, leaving fans without the highly-anticipated battle of Los Angeles between them and the Los Angeles Lakers.
They have fresh expectations for this campaign and things seem to be going better than last year for the team. They are having a very good season with Tyronn Lue as their head coach and a couple of additions that will take their game to the next level. PG13 is very confident in his team but he also admitted this season is very important for them and anything that’s not a championship will be a failure for them.
During a recent appearance on NBA on TNT, Shaquille O’Neal asked the swingman if this season was ‘championship or bust’, he tried to keep it as real as possible (2:13).
“I mean, absolutely. You know, absolutely. We got high hopes. I can’t look ahead. But for sure, we definitely want to be the last team standing. And we want to get to the Conference Finals first and foremost. So you know, it starts with these games; we got to build them; I think we building something.”
“We’re starting to learn like I’ve been saying. We know who we are individually and as a team so you know; we got to go; it is a bust. We want to get to the promised land. We got guys that know how to get there, guys have been there. You know, so I’m gonna try to help steer the ship there.”
Even though they are showing different things this season, the Clippers are still surrounded by questions, especially from fans, who aren’t confident that they can come out of the West after blowing a 3-1 lead vs. the Denver Nuggets last season in the bubble.
George, Kawhi Leonard, Rajon Rondo, and co. are ready to change the narrative about this team and if they at least play in the Finals, that would be huge for this franchise, which has been trying and trying to win without any success. Right now, they rank 3rd in the West with a 38-18 record, only trailing the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns.
