The 2019 Clippers Were Defiant

One word describes the 2019 Clippers, and that word is defiant.

From before the season started, until the very end, the Clippers refused any expectations that were placed upon them.

During the off-season, Patrick Beverley claimed that the Clippers were the best team in LA - analysts laughed at that. When the season started, Clamp City was expected to win an average of 34.2 wins by all analysts - the Clippers won 48 games.

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The moment LA traded Tobias Harris to the Sixers, everyone immediately assumed that the team was tanking - they made the playoffs instead. Even when the Clippers made the playoffs, everyone believed the Warriors would sweep them - LA pushed Golden State to 6 games, and had the biggest comeback in the history of the NBA playoffs. A comeback that had a .01% chance of even happening. The odds simply just didn’t matter to this team; they refused to acknowledge them.

Every single time the Clippers achieved any type of feat this season, people were there to discredit them. Despite that, the Clippers overachieved after each and every negative statement.

One thing to remember about this Clipper team, is that all of these low expectations were placed on them by outside forces. If you were to ask any member of the team, they knew they would be a playoff contender. They refused any and all expectations that analysts placed on them.

“Y’all were the ones that said we weren’t gonna be that good, and put expectations on us. We didn’t care, we played with what we had in the locker room.” - Montrezl Harrell

Throughout every scenario this season, the Clippers remained defiant in all of them; preseason, regular season, playoffs, multiple 20+ comebacks, it simply didn’t matter. There are very few times in history where a team sets a new largest comeback in franchise history, 3 times in one season. That’s the type of team the 2019 Clippers were. Defiant until the very end.

What was your against-the-odds moment from the 2019 Clipper season?