LA Clippers: Denver series was a microcosm of bigger problems

The LA Clippers’ loss to the Denver Nuggets was a microcosm of bigger problems this season.

The LA Clippers blew another 3-1 series lead in the second round of the Western Conference Finals. What exactly went wrong? Oh, just the same things that have been going on all season.

No Urgency

Let’s start with the obvious. The Clippers often take their foot off the gas, especially when up big. We saw the team do this in both Game 5 and Game 6 of the series versus Denver but it happened all year. Let me be honest. I’m writing this immediately after the Game 7 loss, so forgive me for not having specific examples. They happened though, even if the Clippers did ultimately still pull off the win.

Rotations

One of the biggest issues versus Denver was the rotation. To his credit, head coach Doc Rivers did realize quickly that Reggie Jackson wasn’t viable in expanded minutes in this series but failed to make any other significant changes. We saw way too much of Montrezl Harrell, something that had plagued the team all season. When Ivica Zubac was forced to play late game minutes, he was put into a position he was unfamiliar with.

There were other options available, too. Rivers refused to use JaMychal Green as the team’s five despite the stats supporting his play. He refused to see that the defensive combination of Lou Williams and Harrell did not work. There were so many small adjustments that could have been made but just weren’t. The team continued to play 9 guys major minutes. Had they experimented earlier in the season with different combinations, perhaps the team would have been more comfortable when late-game situations required different lineups.

Chemistry

The one area that both fans and players are openly agreeing on is the lack of chemistry. After the Game 7 loss, both Paul George and Lou Williams addressed this directly. Both felt that with the moves the team made mid-season, combined with the newness of both stars to the team, they were unable to get their chemistry down.

This is fair. The Clippers load managed through the season and likely would have toned it down and continued to work on their playoff lineup chemistry as the season progressed but the COVID-19 outbreak stopped them from doing that.

When the team finally got to the bubble, several players arrived late (Landry Shamet, Ivica Zubac) while others had to leave and missed time during the play-in games (Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell).

When you are trying to make a championship run, chemistry matters a ton. If the players felt that they didn’t quite have that down, we should take it at face value. They didn’t feel comfortable on the court together and it showed late game in the last three games as the players began to not trust the offense and fell into the habit of playing iso ball.

There were more issues that hurt the LA Clippers throughout the season and came to haunt them in the postseason but we’ll address those over time. For now, let’s just start looking forward to next season.