During the early and mid-2010s, the Lob City Los Angeles Clippers were supposed to be the next big dynasty. With Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan on the team, there was this sense that they could go all the way and win multiple titles. In the end, that’s not what happened as the team never even made it past the second round. Their biggest failure came in 2015 as the team gave up a 3-1 series lead to the Houston Rockets, all while blowing a massive lead in the fourth quarter in Game 6.
Not long after this series, the stars on the Clippers went their separate ways and rumors began to run rampant as to what happened to their chemistry. This past week, Griffin and JJ Redick got to clear the air on this as the two sat down for an in-depth conversation about their time in L.A. As Griffin noted, the team just couldn’t get it done when it mattered although apart from that, nothing nefarious was going on.
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“2015 was just a complete mental breakdown. I don’t think pettiness is why we lost in the playoffs, especially not that year. Or the year before, we lost to Oklahoma City. Pettiness didn’t lose those seasons for us,” Griffin said. “I’ve said this to people when they always ask me about the Clippers. I am in the camp where it wasn’t quite as bad as people make it out to be. Maybe towards the end, maybe like when some other things happened. That’s not the reason we didn’t win a championship. Our two chances to win a championship were those two years (2014 and 2015). After that, the Warriors and LeBron, they were just going back and forth.”
Griffin is now looking to win a title on the Brooklyn Nets while Paul is trying to do the same on the Phoenix Suns. One could even make the case that next season, they will probably compete against each other in the Finals. Whether you agree with that or not, there is no doubt that both players have found success post-Clippers.