Paul George, left, and the rest of the Clippers were knocked out of the NBA playoffs by the Denver Nuggets last Tuesday.
Mookie Betts, center, of the first place Dodgers gets congratulations on hitting his league-leading 15th home run this season last Sunday at Dodger Stadium against the Houston Astros.
Dodger's third baseman, Justin Turner was named the team's representative for the MLB's annual Roberto Clemente award given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team", as voted on by the fans and members of the media..
Blame it on the Bubble. Blame it on chemistry. Blame it on the coaching staff. You can blame it on a lot of things but the fact is the Clippers folded with a stacked deck. They blew a three game series lead to the Denver Nuggets and you could hear Clippers fans crying all over the world.
"I am the coach and I will take the blame but we did not meet expectations," said a dejected Clippers head coach Doc Rivers on zoom after the game last Tuesday. "It was hard because I have a good group of guys but I will look at this and try to figure it out."
Denver was relentless. "A lot of our guys missed a lot of time in the Bubble but I am not going to make excuses," said Rivers. "Denver beat us. Denver was the better team. For me right now I am in the place to give Denver more credit."
The Clippers had one of the most talented rosters in the NBA that included one of the best players in the world in Kawhi Leonard and a perennial all-star in Paul George but that was not enough to stop the bleeding.
"Talent bailed us out but chemistry failed us," said Clipper guard Lou Williams after game seven against Denver. "We understood that this was going to take some time. This was our first year together and we are a highly talented group but we came up short and we have to live with it. But at the end of the day we were up 3-1 and we should have closed it out but we didn't so give credit to Denver for continuing to play."
A lot of people in the basketball world were hoping to see the Lakers versus Clippers in the NBA Western Conference Finals but Denver changed that. The two teams with start their series tonight (Friday) in Lake Buena Vista, Florida inside the Bubble at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on TNT.
The way both teams have been playing it should be a very entertaining series. The Lakers have three 7-footers that can guard Denver star Nikola Jokic but the way he has been playing they may need to put LeBron James on him.
The Rams and Chargers are both 1-0 going into their Sunday games. The Rams will travel to Philadelphia to battle the Eagles at 10 am. and the Chargers face the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at SoFi Stadium at 1:25 p.m. in Inglewood.
The Sparks played their first playoff game last Thursday against the Connecticut Sun in the Bubble in Florida. The Sparks are led by Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray and Nneka Ogwumike. They are coached by former Laker player Derek Fisher.
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