Earlier this week, the NBA finalists for several awards were announced, including the Sixth Man of the Year, and to the surprise of many, one name that was not one of the three candidates was Los Angeles Clippers guard Normal Powell. Instead, the three finalists chosen were Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Malik Monk of the Sacramento Kings, and Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks, and while Powell didn't have the statistical numbers of those three candidates, he did provide a great degree of depth and versatility to a Clippers squad that finished fourth in the Western Conference this year and is currently up 1-0 in their first round playoff series vs the Dallas Mavericks.

Recently, Powell was asked about his perceived snub for the award and didn't hold back his feelings on the decision.

“I think it’s BS, to be honest… playing with four HOFers, limited touches… I think it sucks… at the end of the day, main focus is to win a championship,” said Powell, per Law Murray of The Athletic on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

This year, Powell averaged 13.9 points per game on impressive shooting splits of over 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from three, keeping defenses honest all year and filling in whatever gaps are left behind by the star trio of Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Paul George.

Fans might remember a year ago when Powell stepped up big time in the absences of George and Leonard in the Clippers first round series vs the Suns, nearly single handedly willing his team to victory in Game 3 of that series despite being so shorthanded.

How far can the Clippers go?

Oddly enough, the Clippers were one of two teams in this year's playoffs to be the Vegas betting underdogs in their first round series despite having home court advantage. Los Angeles quickly erased that notion on Sunday, eviscerating the Mavericks despite playing without Leonard, who has missed the last several games with a knee injury.

Instead, James Harden turned in one of the most impressive playoff performances of his career, and Paul George caught fire late to hold off any potential Dallas comeback en route to the win and the 1-0 series victory.

Of course, any realistic chance that the Clippers have of competing for championship glory still hinges on the health of Leonard, although it should be noted that the winner of this series figures to have a relatively favorable matchup in Round Two, as neither the Oklahoma City Thunder nor the New Orleans Pelicans looked particularly convincing in their Game 1 on Sunday evening.

Unfortunately for the Clippers, the NBA only gave one day off between Game 1 and Game 2 of the Mavericks series, which means a bit less time for Leonard to recover and potentially return from injury, although there will be a two day gap between Games 2 and 3, which is slated to tip off on Friday evening from Dallas.

In the meantime, Game 2 is scheduled for 10:00 PM ET from Los Angeles on Tuesday.