The Clippers season is over. Rams and Chargers maneuver on draft day, and Josh Rosen is traded.
Hello, one and all, my name is John Cherwa, and I’m guest-hosting this here newsletter for just two more days as Houston Mitchell sees how much he can get above face value for the Game 7 Clippers-Warriors game ticket in Oakland.
Clippers
Sorry, Clippers fans, but the season is over. You knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any less painful. In the newsletter’s effort to heal, we offer up this little song to listen to, expressing our sentiments to you for the offseason. Just click here.
Bet you’re smiling.
Now for the autopsy of the game, we turn to Andrew Greif’s first quick take. (Or given the way the Clippers were never in the game, is it more of a necropsy?)
“There was one, final push.
“Of course there was.
“The Clippers, a team that never met a deficit they didn’t believe they couldn’t overcome, trailed top-seeded Golden State on Friday at Staples Center by 19 at halftime, 26 in the second half and 23 with 10 minutes left in their season.
“But then, Lou Williams sank a step-back, Patrick Beverley scored a layup, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a mid-range jumper and, with 7:19 to play, Danilo Gallinari dropped a transition dunk over Draymond Green’s head. The arena’s volume was up and deficit down to 109-95 – a pittance compared to the holes they’d come back from all season.
“All those comebacks left Clippers coach Doc Rivers lovingly referring to his team as unkillable “roaches.”
“But in closing out Game 6, and this first-round playoff series, Kevin Durant was the exterminator.
“Durant made a fade-away jumper on the very next possession and was fouled. When he sank the free throw, he had 50 points and the final word in a series where he had been questioned at times.
“The Warriors won, 129-110, behind Durant’s outburst, scored in 42 minutes, and Stephen Curry’s 24 points.
“’The ultimate weapon,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said of Durant.
“Durant joined Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Russell Westbrook as the only players in the last 35 seasons to score at least 45 in consecutive playoff games.”
Clippers 2019 playoff results
(Warriors win series, 4-2)
Game 1: Warriors 121, Clippers 104
Game 2: Clippers 135, Warriors 131
Game 3: Warriors 132, Clippers 105
Game 4: Warriors 113, Clippers 105
Game 5: Clippers 129, Warriors 121
Game 6: Warriors 129, Clippers 110
Today’s NBA schedule
(All times Pacific)
Philadelphia at Toronto, 4:30 p.m. TNT (First game of series.)
San Antonio at Denver, 7 p.m. TNT (Series tied, 3-3)
Clippers arena
When it comes to those plots of land that use to house Hollywood Park and the adjacent but renovated Forum, nobody knows it better than our own Nathan Fenno.
