The 2020 NBA Playoffs were held at the Orlando, Fla. bubble, and the Los Angeles Clippers underperformed maybe as much as any team who earned the right to compete for that year’s title. Heading into the playoffs, the Clippers seemed destined to make quite a deep run. The team finished the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference with a record of 49-23.
Plus, Los Angeles was led by one of the more talented duos in the NBA at the time in Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Leonard wasn’t far removed from leading the Toronto Raptors to their first title in franchise history in 2019.
But the Clippers’ time in the 2020 NBA Playoffs came to an end in the second round, and Gilbert Arenas recently chalked up the team’s disappointing stint in the bubble to the fact that its players couldn’t go out and to strip clubs.
“And y’all wonder why the Clippers couldn’t win in the bubble?” Arenas began. “The reason is they functioned as a strip club city. So they — like Miami, Atlanta, New York, that trip right there, them boys all got 30. They all ballin’. That 2020 Clipper team — Paul George, Lou [Williams]. That team right there, they functionin’ rock stars. What f—– them up, mental problems is they can’t go nowhere. Work can’t come. They can’t go to the strip club. They gotta sit there and be professionals. And they’re like, ‘S—, I need a bottle or lap dance for me to go out there and — I got motherf—— callin’ me you alright?'”
In the opening round of that year’s playoffs, the Clippers took on the Dallas Mavericks, who were led by a young Luka Doncic. The Mavericks proved to be quite the test for Los Angeles thanks largely to the play of Doncic, who averaged 31.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game.
Also, the best-of-seven series was knotted up at two games apiece at one point before the Clippers eliminated Dallas in six games.
But after the Clippers earned a hard-fought series victory over the Mavericks, the team was eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the following round. Los Angeles had ample opportunities to advance to the Western Conference Finals too as the team held a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets.
The Clippers lost Game 5 of the series by six points and then dropped both Games 6 and 7 by double digits. In the deciding Game 7, Los Angeles received just 24 points combined from George and Leonard, while Jamal Murray dropped a game-high 40 on 15-of-26 shooting from the field and 6-of-13 from 3-point range for Denver.
The team that went on to win the 2020 NBA title was none other than the Clippers’ crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers, who were spearheaded by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, beat the Miami Heat in the championship series.
