A seven-point collapse in the final 49 seconds, a failure to win a closeout game in three chances, the loss of two superstars to injury within minutes during the same playoff game.
Advertisement
Rivers no doubt was praising Portland’s defensive effort again early on Wednesday after the Clippers missed six of their first seven shots. “We don’t pay too much attention to what’s being said, we don’t read into that too much”.
Less than a week ago who would have thought that the Golden State Warriors would hope that the Los Angeles Clippers hold off the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, thus setting up a No. 1-versus-No.
In ATS trends, the Clippers are 3-1-1 ATS in their last five games following a double digit loss at home and 1-4 ATS in their last five road games, while the Blazers are 7-18-2 ATS in their last 27 Conference Quarterfinals games and 4-1 ATS in their last five home games against a team with a winning road record.
There’s only two issues: No Chris Paul and no Griffin.
Portland’s CJ McCollum scored 27 points to lead the Trail Blazers to a 108-98 win at the Clippers.
The Clippers immediately sought some historical context, pointing to their comeback from an identical 3-2 deficit in the first round of the playoffs last season against the San Antonio Spurs.
Although nobody remembers who finishes second place, people do tend to looked fondly upon “what if” stories, the stories begging to be finished that leave us either wanting for more or longing for another taste. That’s all we’ve got to do.
Remembering the Alamo may not be all that helpful. Since Jordan seems to be the only one who was consistent enough in nearly all the season, with both Paul and Griffin putting down the team with their injuries, it is highly likely that the Los Angeles Clippers will look into trading the latter two.
Griffin underwent a procedure on his left quad muscle, a process similar to platlet-rich plasma therapy.
One thing is for sure, the Blazers have come a long way since those cold dark early January days when halfway into the season they were widely accepted as one of the worst teams in the National Basketball Association.
Playing without the injured Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clippers seemed to wear down in the fourth quarter of Game 5 after it was tied at 71 through three.
Steve Kerr won the NBA’s coach of the year award.
“Same as they’ve always been”, Stotts said when asked how the team was on the morning of Game 6. Jamal Crawford was miserable from the field, stepping into one bad midrange look after another that the Portland defense eagerly surrendered to his trigger-happy hands.
Not everyone was so inert. They’ve played a lot together this season, but they haven’t exactly been effective.
“We’ll be better”, Doc Rivers said. Their defense picked up, aided by another cold shooting night for Portland, and players like Jeff Green and DeAndre inserted themselves into the action.
As described by Brian Palmer of Slate – and many others in the last few years – we love rivalries not only because our brains are wired to understand meaning in terms of contrasts but also because the psychological rewards of conquering an opponent during a competition are familiar. “When things are going great, great”.
Advertisement
Rivers is reminding his players to have great resolve and embrace their hard challenge.
