2021 NBA Playoffs: Contender or pretender with all 16 teams

2021 NBA Playoffs: Contender or Pretender – LA Clippers

The LA Clippers should not only be a contender, but on paper, this team should be the title favorite. They are top-three in most team metrics, including first in many. They have a team bursting with experienced postseason players, including multiple players who started on title teams. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are the best pairing of wings in the league. LeBron James and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers have to play their way up from the bottom of the other bracket in the West.

Why then doesn’t this team feel like the overwhelming favorite? The biggest reason is that this same basic core flamed out last season, their wills broken by the Denver Nuggets. The ghosts of that loss are unlikely to have left this group, and the moment adversity strikes in the postseason it will resurface again.

This is a franchise that has never made it past the second round in fifty years of existence. While Leonard’s postseason record speaks for itself, George is battling a reputation as a playoff phony. Key rotation players in Reggie Jackson, Nic Batum and Rajon Rondo were effectively cast-offs by former teams, even if Rondo has proved his value as a flip-the-switch playoff player.

The Dallas Mavericks and likely the Utah Jazz will be their first two opponents, hardly an easy path out of the second round. Then the Conference Finals could be the defending champions, former Clipper Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns, or perhaps even the ultimate ghost in the Nuggets. The Clippers are capable of winning these series; they have the firepower. What no one can predict is the emotional element, and whether this team has what it takes to win 16 games.

Verdict: Contender – but not one to be confident in