Place J. Terrill/Associated Press
This wasn’t supposed to happen to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Now not losing in the 2nd spherical to the Denver Nuggets. Now not blowing a 3-1 lead. And no longer earlier than they had a chance to face the Los Angeles Lakers in a highly anticipated showdown in the playoffs.
As a substitute, they misplaced Tuesday’s Game 7 to Denver 104-89, which left them rather livid.
“We’re pissed off,” Lou Williams stated, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated. “Easy and simple, we’re pissed off.”
He additionally pointed to a lack of chemistry, together with, “We had championship expectations. We had the expertise to design it. We didn’t maintain the chemistry to design it.”
Chemistry is a form of things in sports that is sophisticated to account for but surely contributes to winning.
It veritably comes with playing together for necessary time, and the Clippers added two stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George this offseason actual to switch attempting a series of avid gamers scramble out and in of the lineup with damage considerations.
That the season was interrupted after which moved to Walt Disney World Resort attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic surely didn’t design wonders for L.A.’s ability to construct continuity and familiarity with each and each diverse, either.
Quiet, chemistry would now not precisely relief the ball scramble in the hoop, and Leonard (6-of-22) and George (4-of-16) were each and each abysmal from the discipline with the season on the road Tuesday.
Fatigue would possibly per chance presumably well additionally simply maintain additionally been a matter, as Spears shared:
“I used to be by no manner relaxed,” head coach Doc Rivers stated, per Spears. “By no manner was. Conditioning-wise we had guys who couldn’t play minutes.”
Name it a lack of chemistry, name it fatigue problems or name it a unhappy shooting night time, but it was a full give plan for a Clippers crew that had championship expectations. It is no wonder Williams was so upset after the loss.
