In a conference call on Wednesday with SLAM, Jeff Van Gundy said that the Clippers “dominated” through six conference semifinal games, and L.A. “should have been up 5-1” against the Rockets.
JVG followed that up by saying there’s “no disgrace” in blowing a 3-1 series lead to a “really good team.”
“I think after six games the Clippers should have been up 5-1. I thought they had dominated that series except for Game 5 where they didn’t play well.
“I don’t think there was any strategic thing except Kevin [McHale] I thought showed a lot of coaching courage in that he was riding the hot unit and didn’t go back to James Harden. And Josh Smith I think made, what, 3 or 4 threes during that run and they got hit by an avalanche and they couldn’t buy a bucket.
“And so then in Game 7 they just got outplayed. I thought Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan played well in Game 7, but I didn’t really think anybody else had a particularly good game.
“I think the main key is not to overreact. The Western Conference, you could not make the Playoffs and be a good team. You could lose in the first round and be an all-time team like San Antonio.
“So there’s no—there’s no disgrace in losing to a higher seeded Houston team who’s very, very good. I just think being up 3‑1, you know, people expect you to advance. But to lose to Houston? Houston’s a really good team.”
