Though head coach Tyronn Lue acknowledged there was a sense of "shock" in his locker room following a 130-103 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, he and his players were proud of what they accomplished.
After rallying from 0-2 deficits to win their first two series against the Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz, the Clippers could not do the same against the Suns with injured star Kawhi Leonard sitting out the entire series.
Despite falling short of winning their first championship, they took solace in completing the franchise's deepest postseason run.
"I'm proud of our guys," Lue told reporters. "We've been through a lot this season, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of injuries, but our guys stayed the course.
"We did something special this year. Even though we didn't complete what we wanted to complete, I thought we did a great job of doing something special, doing something this franchise has never done before.
"Like I told those guys in the locker room, I love those guys and I'd go to war with them any time. I'm just proud of them. Even though we came up short, it was a great run, despite everything we had to go through."
Atop that list in the playoffs was the loss of Leonard, the two-time NBA champion who was averaging 30.4 points per game in the playoffs when he went down with a knee injury in Game 4 of the Jazz series.
Leonard missed all eight of the Clippers' remaining games, leaving the burden of carrying the team to Paul George.
"I thought this team squeezed everything we could out of what we had," George said. "We squeezed everything out of one another and I thought we got stronger and better as the season went on."
Proud as George was, the 31-year-old once again missed out on making his first trip to the NBA Finals.
"It is what it is -- I came up short again," he said.
"I wasn't out to prove nothing to nobody, but to show up as a leader for this team, put us in a position to get to where we got to. Came up short. Our good wasn't enough."
Though the odds certainly were stacked against them late given Leonard's absence, Lue said there was an air of disbelief their their season was actually finished.
"I think it's a shock to a lot of guys in that locker room, and that tells you a lot about the team," he said.
"No matter who's playing, we still feel like every night we have a chance to win. I thought we ran out of gas."
Having sat out two games due to guidelines put in place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the superstars were cleared to return to action for the Clippers at the Orlando Magic.
George had 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the convincing 116-90 victory on the road, while Leonard contributed 24 points.
They combined for 35 points in the first half as the Clippers improved to 15-5 for the season, meaning they sit behind only the in-form Utah Jazz – who have won 10 in a row – in the Western Conference standings.
"I was super relieved that we were both healthy, first and foremost," George told the media. "We had been playing so well that it was unfortunate that we had to take the hiatus, but safety is first."
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue was able to rest both George and Leonard in the fourth quarter with the Clippers in complete control.
Speaking after the win, Lue said having the pair back was "huge", considering they make life so much easier for the rest of the roster.
"I think on a night when guys were a little tired, just having their presence was big for us," Lue said.
"It was huge. Just making plays for everybody else, making the game easy.
"When teams double-team Kawhi or PG on the post-ups or pick-and-roll, it just makes it easier because our guys are getting open shots, so we needed those guys."
The Clippers went 1-1 without George and Leonard at the start of a six-game road trip; they are back in action on Sunday, taking on the New York Knicks.
The Clippers beat the Miami Heat 112-109 on Thursday to continue their streak. They have also now won six in a row against the Heat, their longest such sequence in this matchup since the teams' first meeting in 1988.
With Kawhi Leonard still on the sidelines, fellow All-Star George has been the Clippers' main man this season, with his usage rate up to 34.3 per cent.
He is averaging 26.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game – his best marks outside of his All-NBA First Team season in 2018-19. His 5.4 assists per game are a new high.
George had 27 points against Miami, again leading the team, but he also had a negative plus/minus (-1) for the first time in this winning run.
While the forward's 38 minutes ensured he remains the Clippers' most used player this year (388 mins), there were signs of fatigue and Lue called his man back to the bench in the third quarter.
Crucially, however, the Clippers had a positive point differential of four in the 10 minutes George sat in this game, prompting the coach to laud a team effort.
George was one of five players to score double-figures and one of three to pass 20 – also Reggie Jackson (22) and Eric Bledsoe (21).
"In that third quarter, PG was a little tired, so we had to get him out early," Lue said.
"That group we had on the floor increased the lead, so it bought him more time. It was just a total team win. We did a lot of great things."
Leonard's absence with an ACL tear represents a big blow to the Clippers, but they are now 7-4 this year as George excels.
However, when Leonard went down halfway through last season's playoff campaign, George improved from averaging 24.9 points per game to 29.6.
Indeed, since the pair joined the team together in 2019, George has 26.8 points across the regular season and postseason when Leonard is missing, versus 21.7 when his team-mate is also in the lineup.
This responsibility may suit George this year then, and asked how he was coping with the strain, he simply replied: "I'm still going, still going."
The Jazz had won nine straight games and 20 of their last 21 NBA contests coming into Friday's game.
However, their streak came to an end as the Clippers emerged triumphant 116-112 in a battle between two championship contenders.
Leonard led the way for the home Clippers with 29 points as they improved to 22-9.
Donovan Mitchell had a game-high 35 points, but the Western Conference leading Jazz fell to 24-6.
Leonard had missed the previous three games with a lower leg contusion, while George was back after seven games out with a swollen toe.
The win came two days after the Clippers had lost by 18 to the Jazz playing without Leonard, George and Nicolas Batum.
"They are the best team in the NBA right now, record-wise, we knew that they won 20 of 21 coming into it – we understood that," Lue said after the win.
"We got our guys back and we wanted to win this game and the guys went out and did a hell of a job.
"Our defense was pretty good until the heroics of Donovan Mitchell down the stretch.
"Pat Beverley and PG, we did a decent job on that first half and second half, he [Mitchell] got going, that's what great players do.
"Overall, defensively, I thought we were pretty good like I said until the last 40 seconds or whatever it was of the game."
George had 15 points, six rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes.
"I wasn't ready to play 30-plus," he said. "Got to get back to that basketball conditioning.
"I probably would have hurt the team if I'd been on the floor past the minutes I was."
The Jazz were outrebounded 45-38, leaving Mitchell and Rudy Gobert clear where the game was lost.
"We lost the game on the boards," said Mitchell. "It was second-chance points that really hurt us.
"If you look at the overall game, we played solid defense throughout, but they just came out there and got the extra boards and rebounds and we just got to do a better job of that.
"This is a bump in the road and a good one."
Gobert feels the loss will ultimately benefit the Jazz.
He said: "If we get those rebounds, we win this game. [The Clippers are] a very good team.
"They came out rested, they came out ready and it felt like a playoff game – the intensity, the tough shots that they were making all night.
"It was a good opportunity for us to just keep getting better."
