The Clipper Curse lives. The hex that has haunted this crew because it arrived undesirable and unloved to Los Angeles 35 years in the past rose up once more Tuesday evening with its most chilling ramifications but.

The monumental Hallway Collection is lifeless, and the Clipper Curse killed it.

The historic NBA Western Convention finals playoff battle between the Lakers and Clippers is over earlier than it began as a result of the Clipper Curse obtained there first.

Needing a win towards the overmatched Denver Nuggets crew Tuesday to advance to play the Lakers within the postseason for the primary time, the Clippers blew a double-digit lead for a 3rd straight recreation and stunningly misplaced a sequence, a season and an opportunity to shake off a little bit of their horrid previous.

As a substitute, on a depressing evening stuffed with an underachievement that felt so acquainted, that historical past was embraced in all its black-and-red gory.

In a quarantined health club close to Orlando, Fla., the Nuggets blew out the Clippers in crunch time, received the deciding Recreation 7 within the convention semifinals 104-89, and can now play the Lakers for a spot within the NBA Finals.

“That hurts, that hurts,” repeated a somber Clippers’ Paul George afterward. “It hurts, it hurts.”

Don’t look now, however by being simply the perfect crew remaining within the NBA’s closing 4 — which incorporates Boston, Miami and Denver — these Lakers might have simply received a 17th title. In the meantime, although, the Los Angeles sports activities panorama loses what would have been a scrumptious chunk of drama.

There might be no Battle for L.A. There might be no Metropolis Championship. There might be no probability for a long-awaited postseason collision between two groups which have spent a lot of their lives uncomfortably circling one another whereas hoping for this second.

As soon as once more, in flashbacks to the times of Donald Sterling and Michael Olowokandi and the rat-infested Sports activities Enviornment, the Clippers ruined every little thing. Sure, they’ve been embarrassing earlier than, however, in dropping a three-games-to-one lead regardless of having a crew favored by many to win the NBA title, they’ve by no means fairly blown it like this.

They’re endowed by Steve Ballmer, the richest and arguably greatest proprietor within the NBA, and so they nonetheless blew it.

They’ve Kawhi Leonard and George, two of the highest 10 gamers within the league, and so they nonetheless blew it

They’ve new uniforms, a brand new vacation spot tradition, plans for a brand new $1.2-billion area undertaking, and so they nonetheless blew it.

The notion is that it’s a brand-new group. The truth is that it’s the identical previous Clippers. The reality is that the Clipper Curse has by no means appeared extra actual.

Even the hardened Los Angeles sports activities followers, lengthy resistant to the Clipper troubles, could have problem forgetting this one. Regardless of all the crew’s enhancements, this loss will value it any probability of gaining any kind of elevated foothold in a market whose affections they so desperately crave.

It should additionally value town an opportunity to expertise a sequence with a magnitude unmatched in these elements. The Dodgers and Angels have by no means performed one another in a World Collection. USC and UCLA have by no means performed one another for a soccer championship or within the NCAA basketball event. The Kings and Geese have met as soon as within the Stanley Cup playoffs, however it was within the second spherical, not the convention finals.

Though the Lakers and Clippers have met 224 occasions within the common season — the Lakers maintain a 150-74 edge — that they had by no means met on this stage, and it was going to be nuts.

Oops. The sports activities occasion of the yr simply obtained Clippered.

Their newest crumble started Friday, when the Clippers led the Nuggets three video games to 1 and wanted only one victory to advance to the convention finals for the primary time within the franchise’s 50 years, a drought that’s the longest in American sports activities historical past.

That evening they blew a 16-point lead and misplaced. Two days later they blew a 19-point lead and misplaced. Then they confirmed up Tuesday and blew a 12-point first-half lead by being outscored 50 to 33 within the second half.

And throughout Los Angeles, Laker followers are saying, “I informed you so.”

They’ve seen this earlier than. They’ve seen this so many occasions earlier than.

The Clippers arrived right here in 1984 and had dropping information in 22 of their first 25 seasons. Throughout that point their haplessness was epitomized by the truth that they by some means blew two possibilities to accumulate Kobe Bryant. They handed on him first within the 1996 draft, then years later Bryant left them on the altar after verbally committing to hitch them as a free agent.

Story continues

Lately, at the same time as their star energy has elevated, so has their incompetence.

Their infamously failed “Lob Metropolis” crew of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin blew a three-games-to-one result in the Houston Rockets within the convention semifinals in 2015.

A yr earlier, amid the furor of the NBA banning proprietor Sterling for racist remarks, the crew collapsed within the semifinals towards Oklahoma Metropolis.

However this season was speculated to be totally different. This season was speculated to be particular.

Their wealthy and gifted squad raced to a second-place end behind the Lakers within the Western Convention whereas gaining a status because the deepest roster within the league.

They usually have gregarious coach Doc Rivers. Doesn’t everybody love Doc Rivers?

“We obtained to play free, we obtained to play exhausting, we’ve obtained to play good,” Rivers informed his crew earlier than Tuesday’s recreation.

Seems, they did none of that persistently, and the blame for this lastly has to fall on, yeah, Doc Rivers. He’s the one fixed in all their current collapses. All through Tuesday’s second half, as with these different collapses, they once more appeared unprepared and out of types.

When the stress rose, the Clippers wilted. They stopped taking good photographs. They stopped enjoying good protection. The Nuggets have been centered, the Clippers have been misplaced.

“I’m the coach, and I’ll take the blame for it,” Rivers mentioned afterward. “I imply, hear, clearly I might have finished one thing extra. I at all times assume it’s me it doesn’t matter what.”

It was additionally others, notably two others. Leonard and George went a mixed 10-for-38. Each have been scoreless in a fourth quarter throughout which the Clippers made six baskets. Their trademark protection lapsed and allowed the Nuggets, notably younger stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, to run the courtroom at will.

The Clippers insist that with all the brand new elements this season, and with a number of gamers shifting out and in of Orlando’s bubble for household causes, they by no means had an opportunity to search out themselves.

“We did have championship expectations, we had the expertise to do it,” mentioned guard Lou Williams, who continued his disappointing playoff play with simply seven factors. “I don’t assume we had the chemistry to do it, and it confirmed.”

However Williams additionally cited the plain, the one reality that can stick to a metropolis’s sports activities followers as they marvel what may need been.

“We have been up three to 1…. We should always have closed it out, and we didn’t,” he mentioned.

No, as soon as once more, it was closed upon them, the Clipper Curse forcefully simple, endlessly undefeated.

Plaschke reported from Los Angeles.