PHOENIX — Amid a trail of three-pointers and a litany of nifty passes leading to easy baskets, the best season in Clippers' history ended abruptly Monday night.
The Phoenix Suns defeated the Clippers, 127-107, at US Airways Center to win the NBA Western Conference semifinal series, four games to three. The Suns will play the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals beginning Wednesday.
The Suns' trademark long-range shooting could not be stopped -- they made 15 of 27 shots from three-point range, continuing a trend in which they connected on a league-record 837 three-pointers during the regular season.
In the end, the Clippers met a fate similar to that of their city rivals, the Lakers, both falling by lopsided margins in playoff Game 7s against the Suns.
Of course, the Clippers were still playing Monday while the Lakers' season had ended 17 days before, a fact not lost on long-suffering Clipper fans.
"They did a good job in this game; they played hard," said Gal Ifrah, a 22-year-old from Reseda who watched the game with a small but vocal group of friends at a Woodland Hills bar. "What can I say? They went further than the Lakers."
Whether the Clippers have turned the corner for good is debatable. Among some NBA observers there is hope; among others, skepticism.
Charles Barkley, a Hall of Fame player who is now a studio analyst for TNT's NBA telecasts summed up the situation for many when he said Monday, "Getting to the Western Conference finals one time in 25 years doesn't mean you've turned the corner. You haven't even gone halfway down the block."
That understood, this season's success was unprecedented for the Clippers and owner Donald T. Sterling, whose Midas touch as a Beverly Hills developer had previously escaped his basketball team.
Since the Clippers moved to Los Angeles from San Diego in 1984, this is only their fourth playoffs series, and their winning percentage has hovered around .340, meaning they were losers in two of every three games.
But the Clippers were 47-35 during this regular season, their best record in L.A. and their second-best mark in the 36-year history of the franchise.
Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor has amassed a talented young roster that has been shaped on the court by Coach Mike Dunleavy and rewarded financially by Sterling, who only recently cast aside his reputation as a miser.
