Posters don’t matter. It matters if you’re moving on to the next round, which is what it looks like for the Blazers, winning three games in a row after losing the first two by a combined 41 points.
Advertisement
In an odd start to Wednesday’s game, the Blazers and Clippers played in front of a almost empty Staples Center. But Game 4 injuries to their two biggest stars devastated their playoff chances. We can either stand and fight, or just lay down. He scored 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, and the Blazers capitalized on the absence of injured Chris Paul and Blake Griffin to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 108-98 on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by McCollum and Lillard, who scored 19 in the second half, put Portland up 102-86 with 4:13 remaining in the contest. The Blazers were already threatening to make it a series with L.A. after taking Game 3 in Portland.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers said the team would somehow seek to shrug off the double injury blow ahead of Wednesday’s crucial game 5 in Los Angeles. I mean, it’s the worst that I’ve seen.
Paul underwent surgery on his right hand Tuesday morning and will be reevaluated in four to six weeks after fracturing his third metacarpal in the third quarter of Game 4.
Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers wishes he could lean on mom: Clippers coach Doc Rivers suddenly found it hard to speak. If you’re looking to have a play on the total, the UNDER represents good value as the final score has gone under in each of the last five meetings at the Staples Center. The pair combined for almost 39 points per game in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals against Portland, which is now tied at 2-2.
Golden State and the Clippers are seeded to meet in the West semifinals, but the teams’ injury concerns have cast a cloud on their playoff prospects. But that didn’t stop them from clinching a playoff spot in the crowded Western Conference, eventually booking a first-round matchup with the team one spot above them, the Los Angeles Clippers. They are 2-10 all-time in Game 5 of a best-of-seven series.Over the last three years, the team has not played a single game in which it had DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford and J.J.
“Like they turned their energy up in the beginning of the third (quarter), and we were exhausted”, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.
When the pyrotechnic smoke cleared and the lights came back on, Crawford, Redick, Jordan, Austin Rivers and Paul Pierce were announced as the game’s starters. Griffin stayed in the locker room during the game. It’s not like they have guys who can’t play.
Both teams would improve in the second, though the Clippers would get the upper hand by scoring 20 points in the paint on the way to shooting 54 percent from the field in the quarter.
Advertisement
Rivers knows this – he’s been either one of them or around them for 30-plus years.
