The Los Angeles Clippers were one of the exciting teams to watch in the 2010s, a team that relied heavily on their up-tempo offensive style of play. With players like Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan on the roster, it was not surprising their nickname became Lob City.
One of the better feats that Clippers team achieved was the 17-game win streak they had in the 2012-13 season.
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The winning run started on November 28th but came to a close on January 1st, 2013, losing to the Denver Nuggets, 92-78.
Griffin admitted they only had themselves to blame for that loss.
“We’ve got to be better than that. We’re not going to sit and cry on the plane and get beat down. We’re not going to cause ourselves to lose our confidence, despite what people want us to do. That’s the best thing about the NBA – you’ve got another game,” Griffin said via the Associated Press.
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The Clippers’ streak at the time was the longest since the Boston Celtics had theirs on December 23rd, 2008. The loss also ended the team’s franchise-record seven-game winning streak on the road.
Clips played atrociously
Unfortunately, the Clippers wouldn’t beat anyone the way they played that night.
They shot poorly from the three-point region, converting only 5 of their 29 attempts for a dismal 17.2 percent clip. They also shot it poorly from the free-throw line, making only 13 of the 29 from the charity stripe for a 44.8 percent clip.
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The performances of Griffin, Paul and Jordan were not up to par. Blake finished with only 12 points on 36.4 percent shooting from the field and 57.1 percent from the free-throw line. His point output was way below his regular-season averages of 18.0 points per game at the time.
Jordan had 11 points in that loss while Paul managed to only get 10. Chris admitted that their shots just didn’t fall although he admitted that having off nights was normal.
“We got all the shots that we wanted. There are going to be nights like that. It just hasn’t happened for a while,” CP3 mentioned.
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Finishing strong mattered over streaks
Beyond that 17-game winning streak, the Clippers did well overall in the regular season. They finished with a 56-26 win-loss record to snag the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
They faced the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs. L.A. started well, taking the first two games of that series. And just when it appeared the Clippers would close out the series, the Grizzlies racked up four straight wins to shock the Clippers and send them crashing out of the postseason.
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Vinny Del Negro, then calling the shots for the Clippers, was fired after that disappointing playoff exit. While that was understandable, rumors came out that Paul had a hand in the head coaching change.
It just so happened that Del Negro and Paul’s contracts with the Clippers were up for renewal. Word got out that the All-Star guard’s renewal would depend on whether Vinny would be back as head coach or not.
Paul felt that Clippers management could have done a better job handling the Del Negro firing and clarifying that he had no involvement in that dismissal. According to NBA Insider Chris Boussard, CP3 had nothing to do with the axing of Del Negro, so management could have at least put him in the clear.
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Despite that controversy, Lob City stayed together until the 2016-17 season. But even with Paul, Griffin and Jordan, they couldn’t get further than the Western Conference semifinals. (2012, 2014 and 2015).
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.