Kevin Durant reaffirmed his pick of the LA Clippers as 2020 NBA champions.
Back in October, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant was asked on a local radio station who he thought would win the NBA Finals. His choice was the LA Clippers with the impending arrival of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Fast forward to an appearance on the “Play For Keeps” podcast yesterday, KD’s stance hasn’t changed on who wins it all in the Bubble.
Recovering from a Torn Achilles that sidelined him for the 2019-20 NBA Season, Kevin Durant has made rounds on numerous podcasts and radio stations stating that he has the LA Clippers winning the 2020 NBA Finals.
When the question was brought up once again on the “Play For Keeps” podcast (48:00), KD reiterated that he believes the Clippers will advance past the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and beat the Bucks in the NBA Finals.
Should KD’s prediction come to fruition, this would be the Clippers’ first NBA championship in the franchise’s 50-year history.
Durant added why he trusts the Clippers depth over any other team in the Orlando Bubble.
"“They’re just so deep, I think once they figure [it] out, that talent is just undeniable to me when you have PG and Kawhi at the wings. That’s what you need to win is wings.”“Then you have the two best bench scorers, well not the two best, but the best combo, they perfectly fit with the big [Montrezl Harrell] and guard [Lou Williams], they play off of each other well.“Their whole team can play in a Playoff game!”"
Durant goes on to talk about the rest of the Clippers roster in detail stating that can go, “11 players deep in the Playoffs”.
It comes as no surprise that KD knows so much about the Clippers as he played them in the 2019 NBA Playoffs when he was a member of the Golden State Warriors.
He saw first hand just how scrappy that team was and how they got after it on a nightly basis as the Clippers pushed that Warriors team to 6 games in the first round of the Playoffs.
It took a 50-point effort in Game 6 of that series to eliminate the Clippers, with KD praising the way the Clippers played throughout that whole series.
Looking at where the Clippers stand today, they are still without Montrezl Harrell, who is dealing with the loss of his grandmother and Patrick Beverley (left calf contusion) as they play in their final 5 seeding games.
The Clippers are two bounces away from potentially being 3-0 in the bubble without their full roster. The team looks to end the regular season on a high note as they’ll be playing 3 games in the next 4 nights.