Everybody who made it to the second round in the West gets a Good Effort ribbon. There's no shame in losing to the Thunder or Spurs, who are both good enough to be champions. A second round exit is about what I expected for the Clippers. So if they lose, the season isn't a failure -- it's just not a success. Now the Rockets, that was definitely a failure.
I would say that anything short of the WCF would be a disappointment for the Clips; that's said, losing to OKC (or SAS) is nothing to be ashamed of.
Was the expectation to hire Doc Rivers and lose in the 2nd round? Doesn't matter if the Thunder and Spurs end up just being better teams. Everyone knows they are great teams and as likely to make the WCF as not. The point remains one would assume the expectation was to make it past the 2nd round. Well, tight series, against a great team, ball bounces one way or another... ok. The Clippers almost lost in the 1st round... also against a very very solid team. Surely that would have been a failure right? The ref excuse is ridiculous. The right call was a foul. The right call after forgetting to call the foul was Clippers ball. Nobody wins there. The Clippers were still ahead in the game eve after the final call there was made. They were still up 7 with 45 seconds left. I have to vote failure. The fact that the West is stacked doesn't matter. The goal is to be the best of those great teams, not one of the 4 best in the West and better luck next year, hope San Antonio finally gets old type thing.
It would tell me something about Chris Paul, that's for sure. He's never been past the 2nd round in his career. Other PGs, Westbrook, Parker, Deron Williams, Rose, Rondo, etc. have all been to the conference finals. Yes some of them have had easier roads, but that doesn't excuse Paul from not making it once in his career up till this point. If people are going to criticize guys like Howard, Melo, etc. for not having success in the playoffs, Paul should be at the top of that mountain of criticism. Maybe people already do, but I always hear Melo and Howard's name before I hear Paul's and both of those guys have been further with their teams than Paul has ever been with any of his.
They could go either way. Clippers and Thunder are very equal. Whereas Rockets would have lost to any playoff team east or west due to incompetent coaching.
The raptors were a succesful team making the first round but yall kill Tmac for not passing the 1st round? Cmon man, nobody but one team ends up with a ring. The Rockets failed just as hard.. maybe its up to your personal interpretation of expectations but I doubt any of you thought in October that the Clippers would be in the finals taking miami out
Not just projected, OKC won more games than the Clippers. Clippers are right where they are supposed to be - they won the third most games, and ought to get knocked out in the conf semis. No improvement over last season might be a concern for them? But they simply aren't the Thunder or the Spurs, so nobody should expect them to progress past the conference semis stage. Having said that, they aren't out yet. They have a home game to force 3-3 and then game 7 anything can happen.
No, they wants to go to the wcf or finals but just weren't good enough. I think a Carmelo for deandre or ibaka trade is only way they can beat an okc team in a 7 game series. Paul just can't score like parker
Was that the expectation or the hope? If they were projected to be the 3rd best team in the west, then they expectation would be that they lose in the 2nd round - and with some good fortune, go further.
Paul took some really ****ty Hornets teams as far as he could and clearly elevated his game during those series. He's the reason they got where they were, not the reason they lost.
That's what I said... He's been with the Clippers since 2011. He's had 3 seasons (assuming they lose again) to get further than any time during his Hornets days. All I'm saying is, the best players often get criticized no matter how well they play for how far they go. If other stars who have already done more than him are still getting criticized for coming up short, he should definitely be right there in those criticisms at this point in his career if he isn't able to lead his team past the 2nd round once again.
Sometimes in the NBA you do not see linear improvement. I think that the Clippers are better than they have been the last two season, but I also believe the West as a whole has improved. My point is that everyone is calling the Rockets season a failure. However, they won almost 10 games more, were the 4 seed and lost to the 5 seed. I think that the Rockets should have won the series.... but I do not think that is means disaster in the future. Things change quickly. When the season ended there were a lot of people in the media and on this site saying the Clippers were the best team in the West. The narrative was that Doc Rivers turned the Clippers around, that Griffin became elite and that the Clippers addinf Reddick and others made them a championship caliber team. So far they edged out a Warriors team without Bogut (which I think actually helped the Warriors), and now are losing to the Thunder. In close games the Clippers are .500% and people are criticising Doc Rivers coaching. A week from now we could be talking about how the Thunder blew the series, and Brooks should be fired. I find it interesting, all small the margin of error is.
Who was calling the Clippers the best in the west? Id love to see some credible sources here. I seem to remember the Spurs on an ungodly run that kept them way up in the 1st place spot and OKC doing plenty of damage without westbrook. The Clippers suffered a ton of injuries and people didn't even really recognize Blake until Chris Paul went down with the shoulder injury.
If Sterling doesnt leave, I expect Doc Rivers to resign...im being really serious...that would be a huge blow to this team.
Better than the one and only Tracy McGrady...Still think they got hosed in game 5...those were some terrible refs...
