Holy **** I'm tired of this we need to continue to improve ******** and we can learn from this ********. How long is our current core going to have a window in the NBA? 15 years??? No. Maybe 8-10. That's it. And we need to take steps now that we have the opportunity to take. Winning this game last night to get to 3 games behind the 5th seed would've been a huge step. We can legit beat the Clips multiple times in a series. Hell, imo, maybe even win the series if we let our balls drop. It was there for the taking and we let it slip away.
So now, the 7th or 8th seed and a sweep is quite likely. What does that do for us exactly other than psycholoigcally tell our players we're decent to good but not near great? We'll go into next year having won no playoff games and Hayward (who I'm not singly blaming here but rather singling out since he's paid the most and is our "best player"), who needs more experience already will have had six full seasons under his belt. Seriously, when do the excuses stop? How many ****ing seasons does the guy need to play in the NBA before we can hold him (and others) accountable?
If healthy, what can we do next year? Make the 4th seed? But will we have the poise to win that series against the Clips or someone else? Bottom line. We have to win a playoff series next season. Nothing else is tolerable. We can't enter Hayward's 8th year with him at 27.5 years of age with no playoff series wins.
Last night would've been such a huge mental hurdle to cross for us. And we clipped the 10th hurdle with our toe and fell flat on our fucing face.