Clippers Clinch Unexpected Playoff Berth

The Los Angeles Clippers became the fifth team in the Western Conference to clinch a playoff berth with a 122-111 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.

Danilo Gallinari led all scorers with 25 points for the visiting Clippers, who won their 45th game of the season at Target Center. A year after missing the postseason with a 42-40 record, LA is playoff-bound for the seventh time in the past eight seasons.

Head coach Doc Rivers was well-aware of the pundits who said the Clippers had no chance of making the postseason in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. 

"I'm just really happy for our guys," Rivers said. "Before the year, we went through all the articles about us and how bad we were going to be. I just told them, they don't know us."

The majority of the offseason chatter focused on the Los Angeles Lakers—who were eliminated from postseason contention last week—but it was the Clippers who emerged as the City's best team.

Despite sending forward Tobias Harris—an All-Star snub—to the Philadelphia 76ers via trade in February, the Clippers continued to win against all odds. The Clippers are 15-5 since dealing Harris. They have ripped off six straight victories, the longest active streak in the NBA, and are 11-1 in March.

Clippers have beaten bookmakers win total by 12 games and have six more to go. Doc Rivers is well aware after they clinched last night pic.twitter.com/7gXGld4bRo

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 27, 2019

The Clippers used a dominant first quarter to bulldoze the Timberwolves, outscoring the hosts 42-23. Minnesota managed to trim the deficit to six in the fourth quarter, but never got closer. Karl-Anthony Towns led Minnesota with 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, two of the best bench players in the league, carried the Clippers’ second-unit. Williams scored 20 points with seven assists and four rebounds. Harrell registered 18 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots.

The only NBA team so far to clinch a postseason berth without an All-Star, the Clippers relied on their unmatched bench to exceed expectations. The 25-year-old Harrell has had a breakout season, accumulating career-bests in points (16.6), rebounds (6.7), assists (1.9) and blocks per contest (1.4). Harrell and his teammate Williams will be up for Sixth Man of the Year honors.

The Las Vegas over/under win total was just 33.5 for the Clippers. They were forecasted by Vegas to finish 12th (based off win total) in the West, but now have a realistic shot at attaining home-court advantage in the first round of the postseason.

"It's so hard to make the playoffs in the West," said guard Patrick Beverley, who exited the contest early with a hip point injury after scoring 11 points with five assists and two blocks in 18 minutes. "To be in the category with some of the teams that we're in the category with, it's truly a blessing."

Lance Stephenson Trade Opens the Door for Paul Pierce to Join Los Angeles Clippers

                Doc Rivers doesn’t foresee Lance Stephenson starting at small forward for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2015-16. Stephenson, acquired from the Charlotte Hornets on Monday in exchange for Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes, is expected to serve as a role player, according to Rivers.

             “I like that [Stephenson] can play multiple positions -- really 2, 3 and 1 -- because he’s a terrific passer,” Rivers, the Clippers head coach and Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, told The Beast 980 on Wednesday. “I don’t know if I made the trade for him to be a starter, per se, I look at him really more to be a utility player that can come in and play literally three different positions for us. When you look at us, we needed toughness and more athleticism and we get that.”

            Stephenson had a disastrous 2014-15 campaign after signing a 3-year, $24 million contract with Charlotte last offseason. He averaged just 8.5 points, 3.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds last season, shooting a dreadful 17.1 percent from three-point territory. Stephenson, who led the league in triple doubles in 2013-14, fizzled out in Charlotte, never fitting in with the team’s offense and even recording some DNPs at the tail end of his woeful season.

            Rivers believes Stephenson, who will be 25 years old by the start of next season, has the best chance to right the ship for his career in a backup role in Los Angeles. With Barnes dealt in the trade and Rivers declaring Stephenson a bench player, who will start at small forward for the Clippers?

            Paul Pierce’s name has been thrown around in the Clippers' rumor circles of late. The future first ballot Hall of Famer is coming off a strong postseason for the Washington Wizards, averaging 14.6 points on just 9.9 shots per contest. He led all players in three-point shooting, hitting an incredulous 52.4 percent of his jumpers from behind the arc. Overall, he shot 48.5 percent from the field and 85 percent from the free-throw line. Pierce hit seemingly every clutch shot he attempted for Washington, most notably his buzzer-beating, “I Called Game”, dagger against the Atlanta Hawks in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.

            Pierce and Rivers won a championship together with the Boston Celtics in 2007-08 and were a game away from winning the title in 2009-2010. Pierce has a $5.5 million player-option for the upcoming season with the Wizards and has maintained his happiness in D.C. throughout the year.

            Rivers coached Pierce for nine seasons, but could he persuade the small forward—who grew up in Inglewood, Los Angeles—to bolt to the Clippers? Rivers will have to convince Pierce that the Clippers have a better chance at winning the championship than the Wizards. The Clippers have the better team, but the Wizards play in the much weaker Eastern Conference. A title seems like a longshot for either team, but the Clippers present more of an upside for the upcoming season.

Doc Rivers will be courting Paul Pierce this offseason. (Alex Brandon/AP)

              Last offseason, Rivers chose to sign Hawes over Pierce—a terrible decision by a highly respected coach who has had his share of struggles adjusting to the role of player operations. While Pierce is not the type to hold grudges, joining Los Angeles seems less likely now than it did a year ago. 

              A Boston reunion is not out of the question for Pierce either. He wanted to finish his career with the Celtics and was devastated when he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets two summers ago. Yet Pierce has continued to have a strong relationship with the city and its fans, and the team’s immense improvement from this past year—coupled with their ample cap space to sign 1-2 top-tier free agents—could lure him back to Boston, where he played the first 15 seasons of his storied career.