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NBA POWER RANKINGS 1/22/2024
illastrate wrote:Can we please be serious and put the Lakers away this time? Goofed around too much the first two matchups.
Wammy Giveaway wrote:Clippers are forced to win this third game. Lose, Lakers win the season series, and they will have all the psychological edge needed to perhaps sweep Clippers out of the playoffs. For a team so excited to enter their new arena, they don't wanna go out like that, not with the fates of Paul George, James Harden and Russell Westbrook all on the balance.
However, if Clippers can at least tie the season series, we are on a course for a playoff match. Over the years, Clipper's playoff opponents have usually been against those whose season series were tied with. Have a look:
2012 Lockout Season: Grizzlies (2-1), Spurs (1-2)
2012-13: Grizzlies (3-1)
2013-14: Warriors (2-2), Thunder (2-2)
2014-15: Spurs (2-2), Rockets (2-2)
2015-16: Blazers (3-1)
2016-17: Jazz (3-1)
2018-19 (Revenge Of The Role Players): Warriors (1-3)
2019-20 (shortened due to COVID-19 Pandemic): Mavericks (3-0; 1 game cancelled), Nuggets (2-1; 1 game cancelled)
2020-21 (shortened): Mavericks (1-2), Jazz (1-2), Suns (2-1)
2022-23: Suns (2-2)
Season Series Results to Playoff Results
Victories: 7, 2-5
Defeats: 4, 2-2
Ties: 5, 2-3
As you can see, Clippers fair very poorly against teams they've won a regular season series against, that's easy. A 2-2 record against teams they've lost to seems great, but take away the 2019 Revenge Of The Role Players season because of a semi-rebuild with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the record should really read 2-1: now we're talking... small sample size, however.
It's the ties that intrigue me. Three years the Clippers were in the playoffs, their opponents were all against season series ties, 2014, 2015, 2023. If you want to throw away the 2023 loss because George and Leonard got injuries at the worst times, making it a 2-2 record, you can. The matchups against season series ties feels the most complete, three of the four meetings lasted seven games, and the Clippers-Spurs series has become one of legend for many a hardcore NBA archivist. It only feels right that a Clippers-Lakers playoff matchup requires a season series tie, but the fanboi in me predicts we won't get this unless a former Clipper savior humbles himself with a buyout for two to three months of futile revisionist history. Who knows if he'll play after his latest hand injury, but by George, Chris Paul vs. Clippers 3.0 would be a reckoning unlike any other playoff matchup in all of NBA history.
So I pen you this question: want to lose the season series and get swept out of the playoffs, or tie the series and face their greatest test ever as an NBA competitor?
Wammy Giveaway wrote:Clippers are forced to win this third game. Lose, Lakers win the season series, and they will have all the psychological edge needed to perhaps sweep Clippers out of the playoffs.
esqtvd wrote:Wammy Giveaway wrote:Clippers are forced to win this third game. Lose, Lakers win the season series, and they will have all the psychological edge needed to perhaps sweep Clippers out of the playoffs. For a team so excited to enter their new arena, they don't wanna go out like that, not with the fates of Paul George, James Harden and Russell Westbrook all on the balance.
However, if Clippers can at least tie the season series, we are on a course for a playoff match. Over the years, Clipper's playoff opponents have usually been against those whose season series were tied with. Have a look:
2012 Lockout Season: Grizzlies (2-1), Spurs (1-2)
2012-13: Grizzlies (3-1)
2013-14: Warriors (2-2), Thunder (2-2)
2014-15: Spurs (2-2), Rockets (2-2)
2015-16: Blazers (3-1)
2016-17: Jazz (3-1)
2018-19 (Revenge Of The Role Players): Warriors (1-3)
2019-20 (shortened due to COVID-19 Pandemic): Mavericks (3-0; 1 game cancelled), Nuggets (2-1; 1 game cancelled)
2020-21 (shortened): Mavericks (1-2), Jazz (1-2), Suns (2-1)
2022-23: Suns (2-2)
Season Series Results to Playoff Results
Victories: 7, 2-5
Defeats: 4, 2-2
Ties: 5, 2-3
As you can see, Clippers fair very poorly against teams they've won a regular season series against, that's easy. A 2-2 record against teams they've lost to seems great, but take away the 2019 Revenge Of The Role Players season because of a semi-rebuild with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the record should really read 2-1: now we're talking... small sample size, however.
It's the ties that intrigue me. Three years the Clippers were in the playoffs, their opponents were all against season series ties, 2014, 2015, 2023. If you want to throw away the 2023 loss because George and Leonard got injuries at the worst times, making it a 2-2 record, you can. The matchups against season series ties feels the most complete, three of the four meetings lasted seven games, and the Clippers-Spurs series has become one of legend for many a hardcore NBA archivist. It only feels right that a Clippers-Lakers playoff matchup requires a season series tie, but the fanboi in me predicts we won't get this unless a former Clipper savior humbles himself with a buyout for two to three months of futile revisionist history. Who knows if he'll play after his latest hand injury, but by George, Chris Paul vs. Clippers 3.0 would be a reckoning unlike any other playoff matchup in all of NBA history.
So I pen you this question: want to lose the season series and get swept out of the playoffs, or tie the series and face their greatest test ever as an NBA competitor?
Just win, baby. After 40 years of misery and disappointment, beating a 36 year old Steph Curry or a 106 year old LeBron James wouldn't make it even the tiniest bit sweeter.
KingCrimzzon wrote:
This. In the end hardware is all anyone will ever remember. Nobody cares/remembers that Durant, Klay, Looney, Boogie were all hurt when the Raptors won their Chip.
KL2 wrote:I wish Leonard was more selfish.
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