1. 2013-2014 Season – Close, But No Cigar
The Clippers entered season one with Doc Rivers with tons of optimism. Steve Ballmer’s entrance was coming after Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA by Adam Silver, Doc Rivers was in his new home in LA and Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan were gearing up for another run.
Doc led the team to a franchise record 57 wins, a three seed and built what would become a winning culture after the departure of Vinny Del Negro.
Fun fact, the Clippers are the last team in the Western Conference to defeat the Warriors in the playoffs. It has been that long since the Warriors lost in the Western Conference playoffs. At the time, Mark Jackson was still at the helm and the Warriors were not what they are now, but the Clippers winning in seven games was a huge accomplishment for a team recovering from the turmoil of being under a terrible owner.
The Clippers would then face the Thunder, who at the time were an outstanding team with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka under Scott Brooks, so the series of course would be a tough one for Doc in his first season.
The Clippers were tied 2-2 going into game five and took a one point loss that took the life out of the team and eventually led to a six-game series loss, but the 13-14 Clippers were easily the funnest team to watch under Rivers because they had something to prove.
The team also did what it was able to when Chris Paul missed 19 games and everyone saw how amazing Blake Griffin really was, the Clippers just ran into a stacked team and took a tough loss at the wrong time. This season also brought a winning culture to the “other” LA team, something it was just starting to gain since the early 2000s.
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