In June of 2019, Laker fans rejoiced when the team traded for Anthony Davis, a once in a lifetime talent that would take their championship aspirations to new heights.

However, they would only have a month or so to celebrate, as their roommates, the Clippers, signed Kawhi Leonard, the game’s best two-way player, freshly crowned his second Finals MVP. Leonard had made clear his intentions to become a Laker as soon as possible, but the thought of playing in LeBron’s shadow seemed to ward him off, and he chose the other LA team.

Although they lost out on Kawhi, it seemed the duo of James and Davis would still comfortably run the West. But then Paul George, another man who made his Laker dreams public, forced his way out of Oklahoma City and into Kawhi’s gigantic hands, forming a duo plenty fit to challenge the Lakers, and then some.

Suddenly, the party began to falter. The beer got a little warm. The DJ turned down the music.

The Lakers were going to march to the Finals with little resistance. But then two of the game’s best on both ends found themselves together with a supporting cast that got themselves to the playoffs without them a season ago, and nearly the entire basketball world locked in the Clippers for the title.

Laker fans were hopeful, but when the Clippers downed them on Opening Night, the entire season, despite the Lakers’ great record and many successes, felt like a ton of build up that would only be destroyed when they inevitably met the Clippers in the postseason and lost.

But the Lakers kept winning, scoffing the critics and continuing to fine tune their team. And when March rolled around, they trounced Philly, the powerhouse Bucks, and those big bad Clippers in succession, looking like they had put it all together at just the right moment.

But then COVID-19 happened.

The league was forced into a deep-freeze, and with the uncertainty of a restart, Laker fans felt another precious year of LeBron’s greatness waste away.

But after an agonizing few months, the NBA came back in bubble form, finding solace in Disney World, of all places.

The bubble games came and went without much juice, as both LA teams’ seeding spots were mostly solidified.

The Lakers downed the Blazers despite a Game 1 loss, and the Clippers handled Dallas’s best from their young magician, Luka Dončić.

The two teams set to clash since the summer of 2019 were each one series away from their fated battle for the rights to Los Angeles.

In front of the Lakers stood a Houston Rockets team with the offensive firepower to make any matchup interesting. Once again they dropped Game 1 prior to four straight games of dominance. The Rockets went down swinging, but the better team won, and LeBron and the Lakers waited for the Clippers.

And it looks like they’ll keep on waiting.

Because the LA Clippers coughed up a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in spectacular fashion, and are going home to watch the Lakers play on, and probably strategize their next fake tough guy response to Dame and CJ on social media.

Give Denver all the credit and then some, doing what no team in the history of the league has done in coming back from down 3-1 twice in the same postseason. Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić have shown the world their two man game is the league’s best, and they will be the Lakers’ biggest threat yet.

But man oh man, I thought they were coming to dethrone us.

That their defense was impenetrable.

That it was Kawhi’s town now; a Clipper town, no longer a Laker town.

Well, looks like it still is.

The Second Round Wonders are still without a Western Conference Finals appearance, and they were in their bag of excuses as soon as they showered off their pitiful loss.

They load managed stars throughout the year and bubble, then blamed a lack of chemistry for the reason they lost. It’s odd a Laker starting group with three new faces (AD, Danny Green, Avery Bradley) washed their chemistry issues away in the regular season by, oh I don’t know, actually PLAYING TOGETHER.

It was also reported that several Clips’ players were tired, barely managing to string 2-3 minutes together on the court before needing a blow. It’s odd a load managing bunch with months off due to COVID-19 and a 3-1 series lead got tired for a Game 7, but what do I know.

What I do know is Leonard was more silent down the stretch than he is in real life, shooting 1-11 in the second half. Paul George made less baskets than draft picks given away for him in the biggest game of his career, etching another performance for us to refer to when we write our semester papers on his ability to disappear when the bright lights come on. The unstoppable bench tandem of Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell were complete defensive liabilities, when they weren’t being just as useless on offense. The aforementioned “dawgs” that were going to sniff out soft teams like the Lakers and Nuggets, the likes of Patrick Beverley and Marcus Morris Sr., looked more like the maltipoo puppies currently sniffing daisies in my backyard. Head coach Doc Rivers dropped a 3-1 lead for the third time in his career, dude. Third.

A literal team-wide choke fest, top to bottom.

BUT, YOU KNOW, CHEMISTRY AND TIRED AND STUFF.

So as we await a battle between the storied Lakers, led by two first team all-NBA talents, and the scrappy, gutty team of destiny from Denver, I would like to propose a toast to the LA Clippers.

You brought in arguably the two-best two-way players in all of basketball. You surrounded them with a great supporting cast and an experienced coaching staff. You told the world that LA was your town now, and marketed heart over talent, grit over glam.

And instead, you will watch an old man and his unibrowed buddy compete for a ring, playing for the team your stars wanted to play for their whole lives, but were too scared to come to when they called.

Rent is due on the 5th.

Cheers.