LA Clippers

The Clippers have to stop pretending they've accomplished something

Published Mar. 16, 2017 2:21 p.m. ET

Brett Pollakoff

The Clippers carry themselves like a team with a long and impressive history of postseason success, when the reality is they're anything but. L.A. is cruising through the regular season as if the team knows it can flip a switch once the playoffs begin, when at no time in recent history has it demonstrated an ability to do so.

The confidence Doc Rivers attempts to project publicly, that everything is just fine despite the Clippers being closer to sixth place in the Western Conference standings than they are to fourth, is simply ridiculous.

Before losing a close one at home on Wednesday to (an admittedly surging) Milwaukee Bucks team that's below .500 on the season, Rivers denied the fact that his squad is struggling, while wondering why the Warriors and Cavaliers aren't undergoing a similar level of scrutinization.

“To me, I like where we’re at,” Rivers said told reporters, via the L.A. Times. “I would like to be playing better, but I think we will. I have a lot of confidence in where we’re headed. So, I don’t look at it as negative as the outside world looks at it.”

“I don’t think we are struggling. I think we’re playing OK. We’re not playing great. I just think there are times, and I’m just being honest, we’re looked at in a different lens. I don’t think Golden State is worried about struggling right now. It’s part of the season. Cleveland has lost four out of five, but for whatever reason, if we don’t play great, it’s a different lens. I don’t get that."