The Clippers have never qualified for a conference finals in franchise history, and given how their second-round series against the Nuggets has gone, it’s fair to wonder if they ever will.
They did, after all, jump out to leads of 16 and 19 points in the third quarter of their past two games — yet went on to lose both. It was like deja vu, watching the Nuggets claw back, then use that momentum shift to completely dominate the entirety of the game from then on.
It was expected that the Clippers would just be able to close out the young Nuggets, especially with two-time Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard on their roster. The Clippers have the deepest roster in the playoffs, yet they’ve now blown a 3-1 series lead, and anything can happen in Game 7 on Tuesday night.
Head coach Doc Rivers was asked about how the team let Game 6 get away from them, and he had this to say in response.
“There’s no secret like potion that something happened,” Rivers said, via Ohm Youngmusik of ESPN.com. “The two things that we didn’t do, clearly defensively, they shot almost 60% in the second half. The one thing that did stand out, they went to the free throw line like on every play.”
“I think from the time when Murray went down with that injury,” Rivers added of the Nuggets shooting 12 of 16 free throws in the third after the Clippers led by 19. “I think that’s human nature. You see a guy go down, there’s no call on the play, and then the next thing you know you’re at the free throw line. And give Denver credit because they understood that and they started being aggressive.”
There’s no margin for error for the Clippers going forward, so they’d better learn from their mistakes, or they’ll be watching the rest of the playoffs from outside the bubble.
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