{"id":711729,"date":"2026-04-16T12:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711729\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:15:20","slug":"the-clippers-curse-continues-after-l-a-blows-13-point-4th-quarter-lead-to-steph-curry-warriors-in-play-in-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711729\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Clippers Curse’ continues after L.A. blows 13-point 4th quarter lead to Steph Curry, Warriors in play-in collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are collapses, and then there are Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> collapses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest chapter of the Clippers Curse was authored on Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome when L.A. unraveled in the fourth quarter, blowing a 13-point lead to the Golden State Warriors<\/a> that ultimately ended their season.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Clippers latest meltdown felt so familiar, so painfully on-brand, that it felt less like a loss and more like a highlight reel of the franchise\u2019s greatest hits of heartbreak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Clippers led their do-or-die elimination play-in game by for 85% of the game. A majority of it by double-digits. They were up by 13 with nine minutes left, and they still found a way to lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pissed off,\u201d said Clippers head coach Ty Lue after the season-ending loss. \u201cWe had the game in our hands. To be up 13 in the fourth quarter we have to finish that game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. But finishing off a diminished Warriors team playing without Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody is not what the Clippers do. It\u2019s not in their DNA. This is a franchise that keeps changing jerseys, logos, and arenas more than leaves change colors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in Los Angeles, the ending never changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night the Clippers didn\u2019t just blow a big fourth quarter lead to the Warriors, they surrendered it piece by piece, like a team unsure if they even deserved to win in the first place. They committed 18 turnovers, gifting Golden State 26 points. They allowed a 43-point fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With their season on the line, they couldn\u2019t even execute an inbounds pass. Possession after possession, chance after chance, it all slipped through the Clippers\u2019 fingers like sand.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the inbounds we threw the ball away,\u201d said Lue. \u201cThat was a big momentum shift for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The momentum didn\u2019t shift on that turnover, it shifted when No. 30 across the floor put on his cape and took over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steph Curry<\/a>, who only returned from a knee injury four games ago, scored 27 of his 35 points<\/a> in the second half. Each bucket louder than the last, until his dagger three with 50 seconds left echoed through a building that had turned against the home team. As he drilled the go-ahead three and fell into the front row, the arena erupted in chants of \u201cMVP!\u201d and \u201cWarriors\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This may have been a road game on paper, but it sure as hell didn\u2019t sound like it in the arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s on the floor, you always have a chance,\u201d said Draymond Green of Curry.<\/p>\n

The Clippers had every chance to win too. Maybe a dozen or more chances to put the game away. That\u2019s what makes this sting. That\u2019s what makes this different\u2014and yet exactly the same.<\/p>\n

Because we\u2019ve seen this before.<\/p>\n

We saw it in 2015 when a 3-1 lead vanished against Houston. We saw it again in the 2020 bubble when another 3-1 cushion disintegrated against Denver. We saw it last season in a Game 7 collapse in Denver. And now this\u2014another double-digit lead, another fourth-quarter fade, another season ending not with a fight, but with a shrug.<\/p>\n

Here in Los Angeles, we call it the \u201cClippers Curse<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s real.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kawhi AP<\/p>\n

Even Kawhi Leonard couldn\u2019t escape it. The stoic star, who had his best season in two years, looked shell-shocked in the fourth quarter. When the game mattered most, he disappeared into the margins, picked clean by Green on a possession that could have breathed life into the Clippers, instead they were left gasping for air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDraymond is a hall of fame defender. It was hard to get shots up,\u201d Leonard admitted.<\/p>\n

Hard isn\u2019t supposed to mean impossible. The Clippers didn\u2019t lose because of bad luck or coincidence. This is who they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only the Clippers could start the season 6-21, and then complete the single greatest in-season turnaround in NBA history<\/a> only to choke away a 13-point lead in the final minutes of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the embarrassment doesn\u2019t stop at the final buzzer. The loss drops them into the lottery\u2014except their pick belongs to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> who now have a 9.4% chance of a top-four selection and a 2% chance of the number one overall. The rich get richer while the Clippers stare into another offseason with nothing but questions, and an NBA investigation into Leonard-Aspiration<\/a> and salary cap circumvention looming over their head like a dark cloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even their past came back to mock them. Chris Paul\u2014discarded midseason<\/a>, unceremoniously shipped out before getting the retirement tour he deserved\u2014watched from afar and posted the internet\u2019s coldest meme<\/a>, the digital equivalent of showing up in a black suit just to confirm the burial.<\/p>\n

Petty? Sure.<\/p>\n

Accurate? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

This was supposed to be a new era for the Clippers. A new building. A new culture. A new hope. It was supposed to lift the curse, not continue it.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin once famously said that nothing can be certain in life but death and taxes. The Clippers have added a third certainty\u2014finding the most painful way possible to lose when it matters most.<\/p>\n

The curse didn\u2019t just follow them to Inglewood.<\/p>\n

It beat them to the door and let itself in.<\/p>\n

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