The LA Clippers are on their way home. After going 3-1 up in the series, they suffered a catastrophic collapse and let the Nuggets win 4-3. It was an awful shooting night for the whole team, as they managed only 89 points all night and lost by 15 points.

During the post-game press conference, both Paul George and Doc Rivers had a few excuses for the defeat. George sais, “We dealt with a lot of adversity. Guys had to go home for rightful reasons. We just missed a lot of time being together. With injuries in the regular season and inside the bubble. We didn’t get much time to be together. …I think internally, we’ve always felt this is not a championship or bust year for us. We can only get better the longer we stay together.”

Coach Rivers also had similar things to say.

What went wrong for the LA Clippers?

In their biggest game of the season, their star players disappeared. Kawhi Leonard shot 6/22 from the field at an atrocious 27% from the field, finishing with just 14 points. What made it worse was that in the final quarter, when they were behind and needed the most help, Leonard went 0/5.

George had a similar performance. He shot 4/16 from the field, shooting 22% from the field. He kept chucking threes despite clearly struggling, as he went 2/11 from deep. Like Kawhi, he was invisible in the fourth quarter, shooting 0/6 from the field.

The Clippers had a lead of 12 points at the start, but then as seen throughout the series, they choked. The Nuggets made the most out of their misery and kept piling on the points at the other end. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were the best players on the court, and they helped the Nuggets to achieve their comeback.

The supposed title favorite Clippers only have themselves to blame and should have breezed past the opposition with the talent they possess. Since they were formed in 1970, the Clippers have now gone half a century without going past the Conference Semifinals.