Stephen A. Smith shockingly calls for Clippers rebuild after Game 5 destruction

On Wednesday evening, James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers had a golden opportunity to come within one game of defeating the Dallas Mavericks and advancing to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in round two (in a series in which they’d likely be favored). Instead, Harden reverted to the “one of the most notorious playoff droppers of his generation” version of himself and the Clippers were demolished by a Mavericks squad that looked hungry to prove that Game 4’s result was nothing more than a blip on the radar.

One person who was frustrated by what he saw from the Clippers on Wednesday at the Crypto.com Arena was none other than ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith, who recently took to First Take to not only bash Los Angeles, but call for a full-scale rebuild of the organization.

“It was a catastrophe. There’s no way around this. And I want to say this off the top… I want wholesale changes in Los Angeles. Steve Ballmer just needs to blow it up. Enough is enough, OK?” said Smith, via First Take on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “…Now, if a change takes place and somehow someway… they come out a win Game 6 and then they come back to win Game 7, that might be a different story, but I don’t expect that to happen. We see James Harden, we’ve been raving about him, we saw him perform in a couple of games this series, we saw what he did in a couple of games without Kawhi Leonard… and then what happens last night? Seven points? Really? Really?”

A rough night for the Clippers

Indeed, not much at all went right for the Clippers on Wednesday evening after they had previously secured an emotional road win in Game 4 of the series on Sunday in Dallas, first racing out to and then relinquishing a 31-point lead before Harden guided them to victory down the stretch.

Of course, the major storyline of this series so far has revolved around the health of Kawhi Leonard, who appeared in two games but looked nothing like himself and has since been shut down with a knee injury. This marks the fourth straight postseason that has been significantly hampered by a Leonard injury, and while there’s no denying the future Hall of Famer’s greatness when he’s healthy, the “when he’s healthy” caveat might just be enough to destroy an era that started out with so much promise back in the summer of 2019.

It should be noted that the Clippers are not dead yet and will have a chance to bounce back and force a Game 7 on Friday evening in Dallas. However, doing that will require both Harden and Paul George, who also laid an egg in game 5, to have resilient performances in what figures to be an extremely hostile environment down in Texas.

Game 6 is slated to tip off at 9:30 PM ET from the American Airlines Center and will be carried nationally by ESPN.