Chris Webber: 'The Clippers were Hollywood'
The 2020 LA Clippers were supposed to be different than the 2015 Lob City Clippers. Instead, they met the same exact demise, in nearly the same exact way - a blown 19 point lead in Game 6, leading into a blown 3-1 lead.
When Chris Webber and the rest of the NBA saw the Kawhi Leonard Clippers, they expected something different. Much to everyone's surprise, the 2020 Clippers were just as Hollywood as the Lob City Clippers. They weren't about blue collar grind, they weren't about hard work, and they weren't about the pressure. Everyone expected a team that could comeback from any deficit, that was mentally stronger than any Clipper team in history.
"I definitely thought the Clippers had it," Webber said. "It’s funny. The Clippers were Hollywood. I thought they wouldn’t be the team that was Hollywood. I thought they would come with that effort every night."
Yes, the Clippers choked. Yes, the Denver Nuggets have the lowest net rating entering the western conference finals in modern NBA history. The second lowest belongs to the Houston Rockets in 2015, a team the Clippers also choked to. Despite that, you still have to give the Nuggets credit. They are quite literally, the most resilient team in NBA history.
"Give Denver credit," Webber said. "To come back and beat this team after being down 3-1, and have these six elimination games, it’s special what they did.”
Unless the LA Clippers win a championship with Kawhi Leonard, they're never going to have the same reputation as they did before the 2020 playoffs. They will forever be looked at as Hollywood, all bark and no bite, and the same old Clippers. The pressure is now higher than ever for them to succeed.
