On Dec. 20, with the Los Angeles Clippers sitting at 6-21 and one half-game out of last place in the Western Conference, Clippers blogger Robert Flom unwittingly turned his favorite team's season around through the power of posting. He will soon have to make like a beaver and eat some paper to pay for his alterations to the cosmic weft.
Specifically, Flom responded to a tweet from ESPN's Dave McMenamin, in which the Lakers propagandist quoted Clippers coach Ty Lue projecting a plus-15 win differential for his team over the course of the rest of the season. Upon some cajoling from another Clippers fan, who joked about the team going 15-3 upon trading for the decrepit bones of DeMar DeRozan, Flom made his fateful proclamation:
Hours later, the Clippers demolished the Lakers, kicking off an improbable stretch in went they went 14-3. The Clippers are good now, which is shocking given how they began the season. Kawhi Leonard has been playing like a superstar for a month now, and he's in the midst of his best regular season as a Clipper, and certainly the best scoring season of his career. James Harden, meanwhile, has also been scoring at the highest rate of his post-Houston career. They missed Ivica Zubac for a few games, which could have killed them but instead prompted a smallball renaissance. Meanwhile, most of their lower-end competition in the West has pivoted to tanking, and the Clippers seem destined to at least make the play-in. Things are going great in L.A.!
Heading into Sunday's game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Clippers knew they held Flom's digestive fate in their hands. Could former Net James Harden save Flom by playing a horrible game? No, and it was near-instantly apparent as the Clippers won the first quarter 38-14. Brooklyn's Michael Porter Jr. had his lowest-scoring game of the season and the Clippers won by 37, their second-biggest margin of victory this season. The Clippers' wall sported huge printouts of the fateful tweet, and spent portions of the game chanting at Flom.
Kawhi Leonard, Ty Lue, Ivica Zubac, and other Clippers players all talked about it after the game. Clips' broadcaster Jim Jackson urged Flom to "put a little water on it." Flom says he will eat the tweet tonight. Take it from me: you have to have your beverage stack lined up.
