And it goes like this: The Clippers were defying expectations, at just one game below .500. Baron Davis was in shape. Blake Griffin was healing. Young players like Eric Gordon were getting it. Rasual Butler was playing D. They had won five of six, and those five were against the Celtics, Sixers, Blazers, Lakers and Heat.
The Clippers were up a dozen points, shooting 63% from the field against the Grizzlies in Memphis. Baron Davis was at the free throw line near the end of the third quarter.
They were, compared to almost any other moment in recent Clipper history, on fire, even to the point that the arena's emergency lights started going crazy, and the scoreboard told everyone to evacuate the building.
No kidding!
As it turned out, a water main had broken.
Whoops. There was a 17-minute delay as the plumbers did their work. When play resumed, nothing was the same. During those 17 minutes, somehow that magic scorer's touch transferred from Davis to Memphis big man Marc Gasol, who went crazy. The Clipper lead evaporated quickly, and they lost by two.
On the plane home, the team learned that Blake Griffin would need season-ending surgery.
The Clippers then went on lose their next three and 31 of the next 41. Dunleavy was fired twice -- once as coach, and later as general manager. And the season has generally been revealed to have been the kind of bust sportwriters always thought it would be.
