The LA Clippers got over that second round hump in the 2020-2021 season, and we’re forever grateful for it.
That being said, we were of course a little bummed about how the Western Conference Finals went down.
Having one of the deepest rosters in basketball, the Clippers were absolutely right in the thick of championship discussion when they entered the series. A few things didn’t go our way, and there are pretty clear explanations for why we didn’t fare as well as we wanted to.
No. 1 explanation for postseason disappointment from the LA Clippers: Health
The LA Clippers had an incredibly tough time staying healthy this postseason. It happened all year, but the playoffs in particular really gave them trouble.
Both the top two centers for the Clips ended up going down. First, it was Serge Ibaka only being able to play in the first two playoff contests. Then, it was Ivica Zubac missing the last two.
Obviously, the biggest injury blow happened when Kawhi Leonard had to miss the last two games of the Western Conference Semifinals, and then the entire Western Conference Finals with his feared ACL injury.
There are many teams who ended up having players miss a lot of time this postseason. Even our opponent in the Phoenix Suns had Chris Paul out for the first two games of the series due to COVID-19. This health plague certainly didn’t skip over our team, and with us hobbled all season and postseason long, we weren’t able to establish as much chemistry within the team as we needed.