Almost a week ago, the final whistle sounded, Ballmer sat lonely among the silent crowd, the audience behind him was already sparse, the $282 million spent on the ledger was a passing cloud, they lost to the Pelicans, and this year's playoffs have decided that the loud slogan of Beat L.A. will not be played again.
Tyrone Lew didn't have much regret after the game, saying: "We've built the right team culture. ”
This is not too much of a problem. In 2019, Leonard fled Toronto to recruit Paul George, and the Clippers have since become a championship team centered on these two forwards, when one of their biggest rivals is next door.
excited. The old Clippers Beverly made remarks on the night of the two-sided combination: "I feel like I've won the championship. And when this lineup really stood on the field, it really worked well, in the 2019-20 season, they were second in the West, second in the offensive efficiency league, and fifth in the defensive efficiency league, Beverley grabbed Curry to share the joy: "The times have turned over friends, and the next five years are ours." ”
Three years later, Timberwolves guard Beverley is still running around the court, but the Clippers are already setting off for fishing. But three years ago his excitement wasn't unreasonable, it was supposed to be their best time, Leonard and Pepper were both under 30 years old, both had just played a year close to MVP level, and most importantly, they were both healthy, and then they walked into bubble hall, they threw the ball to the edge of the rebound, they blew a pretentious whistle on their exit, and they were turned over after taking a 3-1 lead. Morris's mournful cry is still in his ears: If it weren't for the centralized closure, we would have punched the nuggets out of. ”
Then the Clippers literally turned the clock around, they kept the double forwards, coach Rivers and some of the players grinned and went away, and Tyrone Lou came. The "Ship of Theseus" asks the question, if the wood on the ship is gradually replaced until all the wood is not the original, then is the ship still the original ship? The appearance of Lu's guide gave an answer, there is no need to replace all the wood, sometimes for a piece of wood, the ship may be different.
By the time it came to the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers had indeed become a completely different team, and they had finally learned to dig holes for themselves and bury others in. They trailed 2-0 in the opening round and eventually won seven against the Mavericks. In the second round, they started 0-2 again, and then broke four games in a row to knock out the league's first Jazz. Of course, now that we look back, we will suddenly find that the Jazz are another team that was overturned in 2020 with a 3-1 lead, and it turns out that the Jazz have been so knighted a long time ago. But at the time, onlookers have to admit that the Clippers of 2021 did something remarkable, they became the first team in history to face 0-2 and then flip the series multiple times in the playoffs in the same year, they created the first trip in team history to the divisional finals, in the past 50 years, they have had 8 wins to make it to the Western Conference Finals, they have lost 8 games, Averaging 14.9 points per game, Game 6 of 2021 against the Jazz was their ninth chance, and they trailed by 25 points at one point before winning by 12 points.
Beverly was more excited than anyone, having been the longest-serving player for the team since he was traded in 2017, "I poured blood, sweat and tears into this team. Injured, friends being traded... It's special to be the last person to stand here and write history. ”
Perhaps even more special may be Beverley's spirit of Mr. Tree, who is always crazy, always has a face, and always has a sense of ownership of the team. However, the glory of 2021 passes faster than ever, Leonard tore the cruciate ligament in the series against the Jazz, the Clippers are destined to be only passers-by in the Western Conference Finals, Paul stepped on the old home to the Finals, and he will be greeted by a higher level defeat.
And Beverley is greeted with being abandoned, abandoned again, and where he will continue to bite has nothing to do with the Clippers. What really has to do with the Clippers is Leonard's knee-soaked elbow.
The team's core duo, who have taken a combined 133 breaks in 82 full regular season games this year, knew Leonard wouldn't be back at the start, lost Pepper two months after the start of the season, and then Traded Norman Powell in February, but broke his foot in three games.
In the face of this situation, Coach Lou and his players have every reason to lie flat, but they did not, they became the first team in the past 25 years to be able to flip the game from 24 points and above three times in a single season, and in the past two years, the Clippers have successfully turned the tables five times when they are 20 points behind and above, and of course, they have also won the league.
The Clippers turned over more than just a few games, after 82 games they were in 82th place in the West, with them 42-40 and the 9th Pelicans in the West, 36-46.
In 2019, Lu guided him out of the Lakers' manager selection, not only because the 3-year 18 million contract was lower than his expectations, but also because there was a momentum: "I am here to win, not to coach James." ”
Now he's pretty much demonstrating that in the Clippers, like Spoolstra did in Miami, without James, without Leonard and Pepper, he could do something with a team.
In the end, they didn't make it to the end, standing on the technical stage was Beverley, surrounded by teammates was Ingram, the Clippers lost two lives, complained about others, hemp rope was picky and broken, Leonard never came out, Pepper suffered from the new crown to avoid the last pot, and Kennard, the league's highest three-point shooting rate, was suddenly injured before the playoffs.
So Director Lu finally said the phrase "If we can stay healthy..."
If the Clippers are healthy, they could have a core lineup of Leonard, Pepper, Powell, Batum, Morris, Covington. We've been saying this all along, and Pat Riley imagined the future NBA's strongest lineup, which is 5 players of about 2 meters, vague positions, unlimited rotation.
But "if" is probably the most useless word in the competitive sports world besides being used to cheat on manuscript fees. Loyal Clippers season ticket holders have begun to follow the track of realism, such as Bill Simmons, who said he was willing to trade Leonard for James. And with a losing season came rumors that Leonard was "once again" at odds with the team on medical opinions about injuries. San Antonio fans sent congratulatory messages.
But do you know when and how the last time the Clippers leaked out rumors about Leonard disappeared? After being turned upside down in 2020, Leonard was described as a team bully who even had to dominate the women's locker room, and similar news did not appear again in 2021.
When a bad thing is presented to you in unexpected ways, conspiracy theories will always become very marketable, which is universal human nature, but there is nothing special about it. What they got from the 2019-20 season was an inexplicable starting point, and three years later, the promises they made when they built the team remained unfulfilled, but you can't say that the Clippers should break up, Leonard and Pepper still have at least 2-year contracts, they are only 33 years old before 2024, most of their core players still have fixed contracts, and all they have to do in front of them is to find a backup center and another point guard, and then see how to keep Batum and Covington, and finally, they still have Tyrone Lu. The Clippers do have a very full "if," and if Ballmer believes in that "if," he could have waited another two years.
The truth is that since 2019, the Clippers have not done anything wrong, more things in this world are not judged by right or wrong, the Clippers have gone through these three years in this way, and it is not only them who are changing, but also the world.
We didn't do anything wrong in 2019, but what we got was the impact of the "Morey Incident" and the "China Men's Basketball World Cup" on the industry, and then the new crown epidemic. Three years ago Wuhan was far away from us, and three years later Shanghai is very close to us. Recently, when I was in the boiler room closed, I often looked out the window, and the end of the chimney was mostly blue sky, very windy and sunny. There is a public bathhouse behind the boiler room, which has 7 shower heads, and every night I go to take a shower, especially to wash my feet, the smell is too flushed. On the way from the boiler room to the bathhouse, there will be a few factory cats coming to spoil, if there is nothing to eat, don't stir them. After 8 hours of work, you can continue to study, you can also choose to relax, it is okay to read books, it is good to watch videos, if you practice words, you can't be too involved, because it will be dark in a flash.
I think of the days before 2019, when the sky was also very blue and the time was equally long, and I thought that this unhappy life would go on forever, but now that three years have passed, the world is different, and I no longer intend to try to understand everything.
However, when I think that Leonard and peppers may also be fishing under the same sky today, and this clipper ship always has the ardent hope and boundless enthusiasm brought by "if", I will consciously have a feeling of stealing pleasure, after all, although they are billionaires, I am a boilermaker, but we must all have the same kind of good wishes, we all hope that tomorrow will be good weather, we all hope to end this life as soon as possible.
Although we don't know how the future will end such a life, whether it is worse or better.