LOS ANGELES – On Saturday afternoon, the LA Clippers did what they've been doing for the entire first week of April: they played for their playoff lives despite being shorthanded and arguably less talented than the opposition. The Denver Nuggets came into Los Angeles and won their fifth game in a row and seven of their last nine, 134-115, officially eliminating the Clippers from playoff contention with just two games remaining in the regular season.
LA trailed by double figures for most of the second half, and when the starters took a seat with under about four minutes left in the game, reality had begun to sink in. The team with the never-say-die mentality that, if we're being honest, had no business playing important games in April considering what they'd been through, would come up less than a handful of games short of reaching the NBA playoffs.
Players, coaches, and fans alike knew what was at stake, and a somber mood set upon Staples Center as the six-year run of postseason appearances, the longest in franchise history, officially came to an end.
Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers took an extra few minutes to get to the media room for his postgame press conference, presumably addressing his players on the hard-fought season that came up just short. Usually, media asks questions first and Rivers responds. This time, Rivers, decided to speak first, and by the end of his presser, he sounded more like a proud father than a coach of a basketball team.
“I have never been more proud of a team that didn't make the playoffs,” said Rivers. “This team has been through so much all year. So many more things that people do not know.
“You know our 45-day guys have been exceptional all year and most of the days that they were with us, they couldn't practice because we are trying squeeze the days out of them. You think about a rookie that is playing on an NBA team that can't even be in the gym when his team is practicing and then the next night we fly him on a commercial flight and he has to get off the plane and then go play in an NBA game. That is the stuff that this team has done all year, and yet somehow, we kept our heads above water.”
Rivers has been coaching 19 years, with only two losing seasons in his career excluding his 11-game stint with the Orlando Magic in the 2003-04 season which he was let go. He says this team, with everything they've had to endure in the 82-game regular season, should've been the third one on his record. Instead, they'll finish with at least a 42-40 record in one of the highest Western Conference races in recent years.
“I have coached a long time,” Rivers added as he recalled memories his coaching career. “I don't know how many years this is, 18, and I think I've had one or two losing seasons in my entire coaching career. This should've been the third one when you think about it, and somehow it isn't. We are above .500, had a chance to make the playoffs and at the end of the day, honestly, we played against the teams that have a chance to make it and they are better. But we won a lot of games against teams that are better than us and I thought as a group, I don't think I have been more proud of a group, maybe ever, than I have been of this group. We have asked a lot of guys to do a lot of stuff that they should not have had to do and yet they did it. You look at this team and you see the whole backcourt basically out. Four or five of your starters, from the beginning of the year, have been out most of the year and yet we kept winning.”
Has any team had more impressive and improbable wins this season than the Clippers? With four starters out, LA ended a 14-game losing streak to the Golden State Warriors in Oakland thanks to a superhuman performance from Lou Williams, who had a career-high 50 points.
They defeated the Houston Rockets on the road, overcoming 51 points from this season's MVP, James Harden, when Austin Rivers (36 points, seven assists) and Lou Williams (32 points, seven assists) combined for 68 points, 14 assists, and 13 three-pointers.
The Clippers are one of only two teams to sweep the season-series with the East-leading Toronto Raptors. Throughout the season, LA's ‘second team' has been able to overachieve and come up with big wins.
“You know… I have gotten a lot of credit, but I am telling you it is the guys,” said coach Rivers, praising his players for their resolve and inability to quit. “It is them. They have been so easy to coach, and so it is easy for coaches to look good when you have a bunch of guys that are easy to coach and that was this group. Not the year that I wanted, not the year that I thought we would have, but it is the year that happened and so I think we have restarted out franchise. I think we are headed in the right direction and I would have loved to have gotten this group, over any group, in the playoffs because I just thought with their effort and the things that they have been through they really deserved it.”
While the Clippers season will officially come to an end in the next couple of days, fans have a lot to be proud of and a lot to be excited about moving forward, including a meaningful NBA Draft for the first time in seven years.
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