Every NBA team’s greatest playoff moment

Los Angeles Clippers: Finally, a win (2006 Western Conference First Round)

As the Buffalo Braves in the 1976 NBA Playoffs, the eventual Los Angeles Clippers won a first round series (a three-game series back then). A move to San Diego and then to Los Angeles later, they didn’t make the playoffs again until 1992. But entering the 2006 playoffs, they still hadn’t won a series since their time in Buffalo. And while things may have changed since the arrival of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, it was getting over the hump in 2006 that goes down as their biggest moment.

The Clippers entered the 2006 postseason as just the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, matched up with the No. 3 seed Denver Nuggets. With a core of Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley, Sam Cassell and exciting young guard Shaun Livingston off the bench, though, they were wholly unafraid of their Carmelo Anthony led foes.

With a balanced attack from their core, the Clippers simply had too many weapons to throw at the Nuggets in the series. Los Angeles stole both games on the road to jump out to a 2-0 lead and then dropped Game 3 at home before winning the second in L.A. and then ending the series back on the road in the Rocky Mountains.

Often the Clippers and the playoffs comes with a designation of them being a cursed franchise. Though no one believes in curses, there’s definitely something that holds the Clippers back perpetually. Even since the arrival of Paul, Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, they’ve still not been able to get past the second round — and likely won’t in 2017 with Griffin injured again. The franchise has more mountains to climb, but finally getting out of the first round in 2006 is their greatest playoff achievement to date.