Paul George Reveals Main Reason Why LA Clippers Blew 3-1 Lead Against Nuggets

After the successful acquisition of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard last summer, the Los Angeles Clippers entered the 2019-20 NBA season as the heavy favorite to fully dominate the Western Conference and bring home the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Unfortunately, despite having a pair of the best two-way players in the league on their roster, they were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the Playoffs. The Clippers actually started their best-of-seven series with the Nuggets strong, establishing a commanding 3-1 lead.

However, they struggled to earn their fourth win, and the Nuggets overcame a 3-1 deficit for the second time after doing the same against the Utah Jazz in the first round. From being the No. 1 title favorites, the Clippers suddenly became the laughingstock of the league after suffering a major loss against the Nuggets. In a recent appearance on All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, via YouTube, George talked about the Clippers’ embarrassing loss against the Nuggets in the second round of the 2020 Playoffs.

After winning three of the first four games of the series, George admitted that the Clippers were overconfident that they could easily advance to the Western Conference Finals and face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. When the Nuggets found their rhythm and began winning, however, George revealed that the Clippers didn’t bother making adjustments to their game.

“During that whole process we never worked on adjustments,” George said, as transcribed by Blake Schuster of Bleacher Report. “We never worked on what to do differently. We’re just literally having the same s–t happen over and over again. It started to play a trick on you like ‘Man, what’s going on?’ We’re talking amongst each other, the conversation is like, ‘Nah, we’re going to be all right,’ the conversation should’ve been like, ‘Nah, we need to change.'”

With the attitude they showed in the Playoffs, the Clippers star admitted that they never really deserved to win the NBA championship title.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think we deserved it,” George said. “We wasn’t prepared enough going into it…. We didn’t put the work into it.”

Coach Doc Rivers took all the blame for the Clippers’ defeat. In September, he was fired as the team’s head coach and was replaced by Tyronn Lue. Despite the rumors surrounding their two superstars, they decided to continue building around George and Leonard this offseason. After signing Serge Ibaka to address their need for a starting-caliber center, they remain active on the trade market, searching for a true point guard.