Doc Rivers’ playoff story collapses, explained

The Los Angeles Clippers were on the brink of a trip to the Western Conference Finals with a 3-1 series lead over the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs. While the Clippers had never made it to conference finals in franchise history, this year was supposed to be different after acquiring Kawhi Leonard and Paul George during the offseason. Anything less than a championship would be considered a disappointment.

With the Lakers beating the Houston Rockets by five games in the second round, it sure looked like the Battle of Los Angeles in the conference finals that seemed inevitable all season was about to happen. That’s when LA started to unravel:

• The Clippers blew a 15-point lead to lose Game 5
• The Clippers blew a 19-point second-half lead to lose Game 6
• The Clippers totally collapsed in the fourth quarter to lose Game 7

Thus, the Clippers season ended. Denver rallied from a 3-1 deficit against the Utah Jazz in the first round, and did it again in the second round against a more powerful Clippers team. It’s a feeling Clippers coach Doc Rivers knows all too well.

Of the 13 teams that came back from a 3-1 playoff deficit in NBA history, Rivers has been on the losing end three different times in three different decades. Rivers won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008 and helped the team reach the Finals in 2010, but it’s impossible to ignore the entire playoff series he’s been a part of after Boston’s enchanted run.

Here’s a look at Doc Rivers’ worst moments as a playoff coach.

2003: Rivers’ Orlando Magic give Detroit Pistons a 3-1 lead

The eighth seed Orlando Magic was supposed to have no chance against the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons. Orlando had finished 42-40 and lost Grant Hill to terrifying complications from the season-ending ankle surgery during the regular season. The Pistons, meanwhile, were the only East team to win 50 games.

Orlando had something going for him: the league’s best scorer in Tracy McGrady. McGrady averaged more than 32 points per game to win his first scoring title that year. In Game 1 of the series, with high school student LeBron James in the stands, McGrady lost 43 points to lead Orlando to victory.

Detroit would win Game 2, but Orlando took advantage of Game 3 and Game 4 to get ahead of a 3-1 lead in the series. Then the Pistons had three consecutive victories to win the series.

Pistons coach Rick Carlisle made more adjustments than Rivers in the series, most notably using rookie wing Tayshaun Prince as McGrady’s defender after he won a DNP in Game 1. Prince would become a big part of the game. rotation of the Pistons throughout the game. playoffs before being eliminated by Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets in the conference finals. The Pistons would win the championship next year after hiring Larry Brown as head coach and trading him for Rasheed Wallace.

Rivers would be fired by the Magic the following year after starting the 1-10 season. He was signed by the Boston Celtics the next season.

2015: Clippers beat Houston Rockets 3-1

The Clippers enjoyed perhaps their best moment in franchise history when they outlived the Spurs in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series in 2015. Chris Paul struck out the winner of the game, but also suffered an injury at the hamstring that made him lose the first two. team second-round games against the Houston Rockets.

The Clips stunned the Rockets in Game 1 without Paul, then lost Game 2. LA roared to win Game 3 and Game 4 with CP3 in the lineup, putting them ahead 3-1 and on the verge of the first appearance in a end of conference for both. Paul and the franchise. You know what happens next.

After losing Game 5, the Clippers were in position to close the series in Game 6. Los Angeles led Houston 87-68 at the end of the second half. Houston coach Kevin McHale decided to bench James Harden for almost the entirety of the fourth quarter, but the Rockets bench lineup led by Josh Smith and Corey Brewer produced one of the most shocking upsets in history. of the NBA.

The Rockets would win Game 7 and advance to the conference finals, where they lost to eventual champion Golden State Warriors. The Clippers were never the same again after blowing what seemed like their best chance. LA would lose in the first round for the next two years before trading both Paul and his co-star Blake Griffin.

Athletic took a good look at the adjustments Rivers may have made on the fifth anniversary of the defeat. True, LA had basically zero depth that season, but Rivers could still have played less against Jamal Crawford and his son Austin as he increased minutes for a versatile defender in Matt Barnes. The Clippers could also have led the offense more through Griffin, who has become a legitimate playmaker at that point in his career.

2020: Possibly the Clippers’ worst collapse yet

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for the Clippers in the final three games of their series against Denver. Los Angeles depth, believed to be a major asset to the season, turned out to be disappointing, with Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell notably battling throughout the series finale. The Clippers stars weren’t much better. In Game 7, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George failed to score in the fourth quarter. The game plan was flawed, too, as Rivers decided to put double-team Denver star Nikola Jokic on the post at every touch despite Jokic being the best passing center of all time.

Perhaps more than anything, the Clippers just couldn’t execute. The collapse against Denver is certainly not just Rivers’, but all the team members who let it happen. However, there are some alarming trends for both the coach and the team right now.

Not only has Rivers lost a 3-1 lead, he has also blown three separate 3-2 series leads, including one in the 2010 Finals:

For the Clippers, it’s their sixth series lead in their last seven playoff appearances. Whitney Medworth of SB Nation recounted the Clippers’ disappointment in the playoffs in 2017.

2013: 2-0 lead against the Grizzlies

The Clippers blew a nice old-fashioned lead against the Grizzlies this year.

2014: 1-0 lead over Thunder

Donald Sterling’s TMZ tape was released this postseason. And while they beat the Warriors in Round 1, who knows what kind of effect it had later.

2015: 3-1 lead against the Rockets

Chris Paul played with a tough hamstring injury and despite building a 3-1 lead, they still let him slip away.

2016: 2-0 lead against the Trail Blazers

Paul and Blake Griffin both came out with season-ending injuries before Game 3.

2017: 2-1 lead against Utah Jazz

After going 2-1 in the series, the Clippers lost Griffin through injury.

Does this mean that Rivers is a bad coach? Of course, no. He’s a champion for a reason, and is said to have a rare knack for handling superstar egos. Part of training is being a leader and demanding respect from a locker room, and few are better than Rivers at that. Who could forget Rivers’ powerful social justice petition in late August?

Where Rivers occasionally falls short is in making mid-series adjustments in the playoffs. Some coaches prefer to stick to the game plan they tried to perfect throughout the year and are confident that their team will eventually win with their basic strategy. Rivers fits into that category. Other coaches throw everything on the wall and try to manufacture whatever lead they can as they see what works and what doesn’t over the course of a set. Carlisle has a reputation for being a coach who adapts on the fly, and Toronto’s Nick Nurse experimented with a variety of strategies last year during the Raptors’ run to an unlikely championship.

Rivers won’t be fired even after such a bad playoff collapse against Denver. It’s reportedly one of the main reasons Kawhi Leonard decided to sign with the team:

Perhaps the Clippers will reorganize their roster during the long offseason to push the team to the limit. Maybe they just need to have more luck on open shots or show more discipline when executing their game plan.

The Clippers will compete to win a title as long as they have Leonard, but there’s no question this season qualifies as a major disappointment with a second-round exit from the playoffs. It’s just that maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, given the history of the franchise and its head coach.