The Los Angeles Clippers pulled off an epic collapse against the Denver Nuggets, losing the last three games of their second-round series to fall short of the conference finals yet again. The Clippers blew double-digit leads in each of these games as they folded under pressure over and over.
After the shocking Game 7 debacle, several Clippers pointed to chemistry issues as to why LA couldn't live up to its championship expectations. Now, the postmortem leaks are already starting when it comes to these problems.
One such anecdote comes from Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes, who has information on an incident between Clippers star Paul George and Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell from Game 2. Early in the second quarter of that game, a 110-101 Clippers loss, George committed two turnovers in less than a minute. After the second one, Harrell reportedly confronted George about the risky pass he made in the big man's direction.
George reportedly didn't take responsibility for the turnover, which set Harrell off:
Harrell responded with something along the lines of, “You’re always right. Nobody can tell you nothing,” and expletives were uttered from both players, sources said. George eventually toned down his rhetoric, but a heated Harrell wasn’t having it. Teammates began clapping on the sideline, in part to disguise what was going on and in an attempt to defuse the situation. The incident deescalated shortly after as coach Doc Rivers took his seat to go over the game plan.
While the situation quickly deescalated, this is a window into some of the apparent dysfunction within the Clippers. There were rumblings of chemistry issues all season, and they came to the forefront at the most inopportune time.
George almost certainly isn't going anywhere this offseason, but Harrell is set to be an unrestricted free agent. He struggled mightily against Nikola Jokic and is viewed as one of the scapegoats of this collapse, though George and Kawhi Leonard deserve their share of the blame for their respective Game 7 duds.
Still, with stories like this one already coming out, one has to wonder if Harrell will be going elsewhere this offseason.
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