AN EPIC L.A. FAIL
Trying to escape their past, the Clippers add another inglorious chapter to the book
Into 31 years of their sordid Los Angeles history, the Clippers crumbled.
Into 45 years of their awful franchise history, the Clippers collapsed.
Into the worst fears of thousands of Staples Center fans who howled for three quarters, yet wound up stunned and silent, the Clippers cracked.
Attempting to advance to the conference finals for the first time Thursday night, the Clippers added just another sorry chapter to their horrific saga by blowing a 19-point lead in the final 15 minutes in a 119-107 loss to the Houston Rockets.
One moment, the Clippers were winning the series four games to two and moving to within four wins of a spot in the NBA Finals. The next minute, they were hesitating and gasping and falling backward into paralyzing reluctance and tentativeness.
They were outscored 40-15 in the fourth quarter, and that is not a misprint.
“Whoo, Lordy, Lordy,” said Clippers Coach Doc Rivers when he walked into the press conference room.
One moment, they were the reborn Clippers of a fierce Chris Paul and a flying Blake
Griffin. The next minute, they were the same old Clippers of Michael Olowokandi and Benoit Benjamin.
DeAndre Jordan was missing a dunk, Griffin was blowing layups, and Matt Barnes was throwing up an airball, and the Clippers simply stopped guarding anybody.
Griffin missed all five of his fourth-quarter shots. Jamal Crawford missed all four of his fourth-quarter shots. Paul made just two of seven fourth-quarter shots.
“They wanted it so bad, sometimes when you want something so bad, you can’t get it because you get in their own way,” said Rivers. “They wanted it so bad they couldn’t think straight.”
One minute, the fans were standing, howling, jeering, celebrating and even coronating. The next moment, they were standing with mouth agape and hands on their heads. In the end, many walked away early, throwing their hands up in disgust, one gentleman pointing directly at me.
“Hey, Plaschke, don’t write about this game,” he shouted. “Seriously, just don’t write about it!”
The fans want it to go away, but this one will live forever, and now the Clippers are headed to Houston Sunday for a Game 7 that could be best described as Seventh Hell.
Of 119 Game 7s in NBA history, the visiting team has won just 24 times. Suddenly, it seems like the Rockets could become only the ninth team out of 228 in NBA history to overcome a three-games-to-one deficit to win a series.
The bottom began dropping out Thursday in the final seven minutes, after the Rockets had closed the gap to six. Paul scored on a layup through traffic, and everyone sighed, but that was the beginning of the end.
Josh Smith hit a threepointer. Paul missed an off-balance rushed shot. Jordan missed a dunk. Smith hit an open layup.
With 4:36, the Clippers still led 102-100, but then Griffin missed a layup, and Corey Brewer scored on a fast break layup to tie the score.
Moments later, Griffin missed another layup, and, on the other end, Brewer sunk a three-pointer with J.J. Redick showing up late on defense, giving Rockets a three-point lead they never lost.
In the final minutes, to add insult to embarrassment, Jason Terry made a jumper and screamed at the crowd. Later, Smith hit a three-pointer and stuck out his tongue at the crowd.
Rivers warned about this before the game, saying, “Desperation will make you play hard and dumb sometimes.”
The Clippers played really hard, but really dumb, and seemingly scared.
Rivers also predicted that, “We’re going to have a win a game when they play their best.”
Well, for a second consecutive game, that didn’t happen. The Rockets showed up twice in a row in this series, the Clippers lost both games, and now they face questions they thought had been answered in the first round against San Antonio, doubts about their ability to close games.
Before this season, the Clippers had only been this close to a conference finals once, in 2006, when they lost to the Phoenix Suns by 20 points in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. They were never really competitive in the game, and were actually outscored 45-0 at the three-point line.
“We cannot be a one-shot wonder ... we cannot be Milli Vanilli,” said Sam Cassell at the time, “We have to be the Jacksons.”
Turns out, nine years later, they reverted to Olowokandis and Benjamins, and history still awaits.
Actually, everyone should have known this would happen. An omen appeared with 2:18 left in the first quarter, with the Clippers rolling and Staples Center rocking.
Just when it appeared that this was the night the Clippers would shine the brightest, the darkest parts of their history walked in the building.
Amid much fussing, Shelly Sterling took her seat at midcourt.
For now, the Clipper Curse lives.