After fighting and scrapping for weeks, the LA Clippers were finally eliminated from the NBA Playoffs on Wednesday night. Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns defeated Paul George and the Clippers in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1993.

It took a superhuman effort from Chris Paul in Game 6, scoring 41 points and dishing out eight assists with no turnovers on 16-of-24 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

Paul George did everything he could for the Clippers, leading them in points, rebounds, assists, and minutes played by a wide margin. His postseason run, leading the franchise to its first ever Conference Finals appearance despite not having Kawhi Leonard for the last two weeks, went a long way towards redeeming himself in the public eye.

Still, he never understood why he was so over-criticized.

“The narrative of me not being a postseason player… I never understood it,” George said. “I'm the same person. I've dealt with stuff, as we all do. Makes me no different than the next man. I came up short again. I'm proud of what we did as a team. My good wasn't enough.”

Kawhi Leonard suffered his sprained ACL during Game 4 of the Conference semi-finals against the Utah Jazz. He missed the final eight games of the postseason, and never really looked particularly close to returning. Unfortunately, the Clippers couldn't get far enough without him to find out for sure.

George believes had Leonard been healthy, the discussions happening now would be a lot different.

“Oh, we would be going on,” Paul George confirmed. “This series would've been a lot different. You're talking about one of the best players in the league going out & yet we were inches away from getting to the next round so definitely it's a, ‘what if,' but fact is we just didn't do enough.”

The Clippers outscored the Suns by 17 in the first five games of the series, winning two games by 14 and losing their three games by a combined 11 points. They finished the 2021 postseason with a 10-9 record and a mind-blowing +77 points differential.

“It's no excuses. Healthy or unhealthy, we were literally one possession away in each game up to this point, one possession, of this series being a lot different. The healthiest team usually wins at this time. We were very unfortunate to be on the bad side of that.”

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The Clippers now head into an offseason with a little uncertainty. While Paul George is locked up for the next few years, Kawhi Leonard, Nicolas Batum, and Reggie Jackson will hit free agency with big decisions to make. George expects to be playing a role in those recruitment talks.

“Obviously Reggie has played himself into some options, for sure, coming down to free agency,” George said with a smile. “Rightfully so, he played his ass off, but of course I would love Reggie to come back.

“One of the commitments that I made signing was to show that I'm here for the long run. Hopefully that weighs on anybody's decision, but it's no hard feelings… Definitely will try my hardest to recruit and that's all I can do.”