Draymond Green Blames Lakers For Clippers' Rotten Playoff Luck
Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green believes your Los Angeles Lakers are to blame for the Los Angeles Clippers' terrible injury luck in these playoffs, as he explained in a recent episode of his intensely listenable ear worm of a podcast:
"The Lakers screwed the Clippers. How? What are you talking about?" Green said. "Because the Lakers getting in [to the playoffs], means LeBron James is in. LeBron James is always going to be a marquee game, Steph Curry is always going to be a marquee game. So in turn, the Clippers end up playing every other day. And you got Kawhi Leonard playing 40 minutes. I saw a statement where Kawhi played 42 minutes and [head coach] Ty Lue said, 'This is what we've been preparing for.'"
Essentially, then, Green is claiming that the Lakers and his own Warriors are indirectly culpable for the Clippers' less favorable postseason scheduling (they've only had one day off in between games through each of the first four matchups in their series), because their health and rest schedule takes precedence in the eyes of the NBA and its broadcasting partners. Through the first three games of the Lakers' ongoing series against the Memphis Grizzlies, there have been extended three-day breaks between each contest. That stops now, with just one day off between bouts the rest of the way.
I think claiming that somehow the star power of LeBron James and Stephen Curry trumps that of the players involved in the Clippers' own series is a bit of conspiratorial stretch, given that the Clippers, featuring two of the league's other big stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, plus a recent MVP in ex-Laker Russell Westbrook, are in a (probably doomed) battle against the Phoenix Suns, a team that boasts three of the biggest names in the game with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Chris Paul.
Green recorded this particular episode after the news had broken that Leonard had incurred a knee sprain and would need to miss Game 3 of the Clippers-Suns 4-5 Western Conference playoff series. He would subsequently be held out of Game 4, as well. George, meanwhile, has been ruled out for the entire series.
"For [Leonard] to be able to play 42 minutes right now, and then he's out for Game 3 sucks. Because he's dominant. But he's having to miss Game 3. If there's two days in between... It's totally different. But what you have to understand that all that stuff is based on the TV schedule. TV slots matter. So LeBron gets the TV slot, Steph Curry gets the TV slot, the Clippers were on NBA TV last night. But they playing every other day. It changes everything. It changes the series."
It was always going to be an uphill battle for LA to win the matchup without George, but Leonard, when healthy, had looked like the best player on the floor, and had made an honest go of it with the series knotted up 1-1 while he was available. The Clippers have lost their last two games with both George and Leonard on the shelf. They're now trailing the starry Suns (2018 No. 1 draft pick Deandre Ayton rounds out their "Big Four") 3-1, and seem doomed for an early playoff exit now, with Kawhi's status for Game 5 up in the air.
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