Greatest non-Finals teams to never win the NBA title this century
12. 2014-15 LA Clippers
The LA Clippers earned the league’s fourth-best record in 2014-15 at 56-26. They possessed a top-ranked offense and a net rating boasted only by the Golden State Warriors.
Chris Paul and Blake Griffin comprised an All-Star duo. DeAndre Jordan led the league with a career-high 15.0 rebounds per game. Despite a mediocre team defense, both Paul and Jordan were named to the All-Defensive First Team.
They seemed to have broken through a proverbial playoff wall following a brutal seven-game series victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. Thanks to the heroics of Paul advancing them via a game-winning floater in Game 7.
A 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets in the conference semis brought them to the proximity of the franchise’s first-ever conference finals. As the stories go, not even a 19-point Game 6 lead could seal that deal, as the Clippers wound up eliminated in seven games.
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Of all the seasons for the Clippers to go get a championship, 2014-15 was the prime target looking back on the Lob City era.
LeBron James had dismantled his championship-proven Miami Heat in favor of a still-in-progress Cleveland Cavaliers — that wound up severely depleted in the Finals. Despite holding the title of defending champs, the Spurs only had so much left in the tank after back-to-back Finals. As good as they were all season with the league’s top record, Golden State remained unproven on the playoff stage.
CP3 remained perched near the top of the league’s point guard hierarchy. Griffin had seemingly ascended into superstardom after first-round averages of 24.1 points, 13.1 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.
This was a window for the battle-tested Clippers to slip into a spot atop the league’s hierarchy hardly ever vacant. They didn’t, and the good times of Lob City will always be slightly hollowed because of it.