No. 1 reason the LA Clippers will win Pacific Division: They already had the mental edge
As I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t just the playoffs where the LA Clippers faced a heap of injuries.
Our entire starting five missed significant time during the regular season.
We still, however, finished three seeds over the Lakers, and the Warriors couldn’t even make the playoffs.
We were already the tougher team heading into the postseason. We handled the injuries so much better than how the Warriors and Lakers did.
The Warriors were only down Klay. The Lakers did have their two stars sporadically out at the end of the regular season, but again, so did we.
We toughed it out and finished as the fourth seed, while LeBron James just sat around complaining about the play-in format.
James even tried to fake injuries during the play-in game. The Lakers are Hollywood. The Clippers are the hard-nosed, tougher team.
It’s why we swept the Lakers last year, and why we have the mental edge over them and the Warriors this year.
The Suns are a tough team too, so maybe this reason doesn’t pertain to them as much, but the other two reasons certainly do.
The Clippers will be winning the division this year. It’ll be tough to get off to a hot start with Leonard sidelined, but we will get there when it’s all said and done.