Column: It’s another year of waiting for the Clippers breakthrough, and it’s getting old

As soon as once more, it’s wait ‘til subsequent 12 months for the Clippers. It at all times is.

The workforce that made a behavior of staging exhilarating second-half comebacks this season below the intelligent steerage of coach Tyronn Lue, that prided itself on clawing and scratching to stay aggressive and earn the eighth-best report within the West despite the fact that Kawhi Leonard by no means performed and Paul George missed an enormous chunk of the season, turned the workforce that twice couldn’t maintain sizeable leads when a ticket to the playoffs was on the road.

They’d two probabilities to get previous the NBA’s contrived play-in format and earn a spot within the playoffs. Two probabilities to make one. They whiffed.

“You don’t wish to see it finish like that,” Lue mentioned after the Clippers’ 105-101 loss to New Orleans on Friday at Crypto.com Enviornment. “We knew [about] the play-in earlier than the beginning of the season. However it’s robust.”

First, they couldn’t maintain a seven-point lead at Minnesota on Tuesday after Karl Anthony Cities had fouled out they usually scored solely 20 factors within the fourth quarter of a loss to the Timberwolves. Given a second likelihood at house on Friday in opposition to the late-blooming Pelicans, the Clippers overcame the surprising absence of George, who had entered COVID protocols earlier within the day, and the continued damage absence of three-point maestro Luke Kennard to guide by 16 within the first half and by 13 early within the fourth quarter.

The Pelicans, equally well-coached by former Clipper Willie Inexperienced, didn’t waver. In a second captured by TV microphones earlier than the fourth quarter he informed his gamers they’d absorbed the Clippers’ finest punch but had been down by solely 10. “We ain’t giving it up. You’ve obtained to combat,” he informed them.

They outfought the Clippers, who had been counting on a tighter rotation by utilizing a small lineup and easily wore out. The Clippers’ season-long rebounding woes damage them once more with no extra probabilities to repair them, they usually light badly, outscored 31-17 by New Orleans within the fourth quarter.

“I imply, it was a great season,” Marcus Morris Sr. mentioned. “Clearly we wished to make the playoffs. From the season we had, all of the ups and downs, we deserved to. Give them credit score, they performed effectively, stayed resilient once they was down, obtained the win.”

The world, typically rollicking and deafeningly loud when the Clippers had been at their peak, grew quiet as actuality set in amongst followers and it turned apparent the Clippers didn’t have one other miracle comeback left.

“This one is a tricky loss to take,” Reggie Jackson mentioned. “Had an opportunity. Two cracks at it. Didn’t get in, sadly.”

Afterward, Lue and his gamers spoke concerning the closeness they’d developed in the course of the many ups and downs this season, praising their development as people and as a workforce. It took a number of believing in Lue and in one another and a number of tenacity to complete at 42-40, their eleventh straight season of compiling not less than a .500 report, and there’s so much to admire in that.

Additionally they turned accustomed to coping with adversity, compensating for accidents and the COVID-related points that just about all NBA groups confronted at one time or one other. They get factors for resilience, however that doesn’t win championships.

“I do know we didn’t make the playoffs,” Lue mentioned, “however contemplating all of the issues that went on this 12 months, I’m very happy with our guys.”

They hope to be again collectively they mentioned, although it’s too early to guess what may occur over the summer season. Most gamers had been too dazed to get into specifics Friday, nonetheless absorbing the finality of the loss that ended their season and despatched the Pelicans — who received six fewer video games than the Clippers in the course of the common season — to a first-round playoff collection in opposition to the No. 1 Phoenix Suns.

The Clippers most likely wouldn’t have had a lot success in opposition to Phoenix however they didn’t even give themselves an opportunity regardless of getting two photographs at it.

“Unhappy in the present day,” Nicolas Batum mentioned. “Sure, it sucks. We wished to play in opposition to Phoenix. Bang, transfer on, we see what occurs subsequent.”

As in wait ‘til subsequent 12 months. Once more.

The issue with that philosophy is there aren’t any ensures that Leonard will probably be his previous self subsequent season or that the chemistry would be the identical or that another person received’t get damage and skinny their depth. That elusive triumphant “subsequent 12 months” appeared very far off Friday, however Jackson noticed it in any other case.

“I don’t take a look at it as a failed season. Moreso of a season to study from,” mentioned Jackson, whose 27-point, eight-assist efficiency impressed the sellout crowd to repeatedly chant his first identify. “I believe so long as we method it like that, hopefully God prepared we will get all people wholesome, it is going to be one other enjoyable season subsequent 12 months. I’d wish to see how the blokes mesh, how all of us mesh.”

Principally, how they’d mesh with Leonard and George.

“I believe the sky’s the restrict if you get these two,” Jackson mentioned. “It’s going to be about hopefully getting them wholesome, meshing and all people bettering individually, then us coming collectively as a collective to determine how we could be higher as a workforce, hit the bottom working subsequent 12 months.”

It’s wait ‘til subsequent 12 months for the Clippers. It at all times is, and that’s getting drained.