The conference semifinals are over. The Los Angeles Clippers are home or on vacation. Chris Paul and Doc Rivers should be out of the headlines by now. But meme makers prefer to keep them there.
Why? Because it was a choke-job of epic proportions, only the ninth team in NBA history to lose a 3-1 lead in a playoff series. This is something that has happened to Doc Rivers before, making it an even more tragic occurrence.
And there’s also the focal point of this collapse. The 19-point lead the Clippers managed to fumble out of their fingers in the third quarter heading into the fourth trumps all in examples of how the Clippers had this series all sewn up and squandered it.
Now, some are thinking that the criticism wouldn’t be as harsh if they had lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, something everyone expected of them. But the later the loss comes, the more difficult it is rebounding from it.
