The clippers finish with only 3 more wins than Denver and another 1 or 2 more than the rest of the west contenders and they are still considered this unbeatable dream team full of all of these awesome superstars.
At the beginning of the series every ESPN commentator had the clips easily winning (most in 5 games) and none going to a game 7.
Denver was given a 22% chance to win the series and even after game 6 the clips were favored in game 7 by 6.5.
Easy to see how Malone could get em motivated.
Well at least the clippers get some extra time to load manage and stable their prized horses now.