The Mavericks-Clippers series isn’t done yet, but Stephen A. Smith has seen all he needs to see.
Game 5 was an absolute disaster for the Clips, who suffered an embarrassing blowout loss on their own home court.
The team’s veteran All-Stars like Paul George and James Harden went missing in the content and were roasted by fans afterwards.
Harden shot 2-11 from the field, while George finished the night on 4-13 shooting.
Smith says LAC would be wise to make some big changes this summer.
“It was a catastrophe. There’s no way around this. And I want to say this off the top… I want wholesale changes in Los Angeles. Steve Ballmer just needs to blow it up. Enough is enough, okay?,” Smith said on First Take. “…Now, if a change takes place and somehow someway… they come out a win Game 6 and then they come back to win Game 7, that might be a different story, but I don’t expect that to happen. We see James Harden, we’ve been raving about him, we saw him perform in a couple of games this series, we saw what he did in a couple of games without Kawhi Leonard… and then what happens last night? Seven points? Really? Really?”
The narrative that the Clippers could win it all ‘when Kawhi is healthy’ is getting pretty tired.
After five seasons of PG-13 and Kawhi playing together in Los Angeles, the Clippers have only advanced past the second round once when they played the Suns in 2021.
There are plenty of rumors surrounding the team’s core players moving on. The most recent being that the Magic are interested in Paul George – who will become one of the most touted free agents this summer.
If LAC don’t make it past the first round, Stephen A. Smith could be right.