Playoffs Round One: Clippers Earn Number One Seed and Face Spurs
The Clippers earned the top spot in the Western Conference despite their two superstars missing out on All-NBA honors even though Kawhi and PG were selected to All-Defensive teams.
Doc Rivers earned Coach of the Year honors after leading his team to a league best 58-24 record.
King James won the MVP award, Zion rightfully won ROTY, Schroder kept pace and won Sixth Man of the Year, Draymond won DPOTY and Jordan Clarkson snuck in the win MIP.
Here are the Clippers team leaders for the regular season ahead of their matchup against San Antonio.
PPG : Kawhi Leonard – 22.7
RPG : Montrezl Harrell – 8.6
APG : Landry Shamet – 5.0
SPG : Kawhi Leonard – 2.0
BPG : Montrezl Harrell – 1.5
Here are the first round playoff matchups in the Western Conference.
1/8 : Clippers(58-24) v. Spurs(43-39)
4/5: Nuggets(50-32) v. Jazz(47-35)
3/6: Lakers(56-26) v. Warriors(48-36)
2/7: Rockets(56-26) v. Thunder(45-37)
Westbrook versus the Thunder says enough here. These matchups would be very fun to see. Curry versus LeBron, Rivers versus Pop and Jokic versus Gobert. A surprise miss in these playoffs is Portland, who finished 37-45 on the season. OKC managed to keep pace and stay in the postseason to everyone’s surprise. Let’s get to the results of round one for the Clippers and the Western Conference.
Clippers defeat Spurs 4-0
Nuggets defeat Utah 4-3
Lakers defeat Warriors 4-1
Rockets defeat Thunder 4-1
All top four seeds managed to move on in the West. The Clippers had the only sweep of the first round, including the Eastern Conference, making easy work of San Antonio in a round that saw Kawhi Leonard average 27.5 PPG against his former team.
Out East, the Nets defeated the Knicks to move on to play Toronto. Philly and Boston will have a chance to renew their rivalry again as both made easy work of Milwaukee and Chicago.
The Clippers matchup in round two against Denver is intriguing but scary. The Nuggets are deep at almost every position and Jokic could cause problems against LA with his unique ability to play make at the five. Let’s head to round two.