Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum, center, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Redick, left, and center DeAndre Jordan defend during the first half in Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, in Los Angeles. Playing Prigioni more frequently may not lead the Clippers to a victory in Game 6, his performance in Game 5 warrants a bump in playing time. They were aggressive and opportunistic on offense and held Damian Lillard to six points through the first three quarters of the game. Moe Harkless added a nice boost as well, posting 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Jordan had 16 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. Take the Blazers to come out firing and finish off the series with a big win at home. The Clippers were able to tie it back up at 71-71 at the end of the third, but the Blazers made it clear that they would be able to take advantage of their superior talent late.
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The game was evenly poised at 71-71 at the start of the fourth quarter but a quick burst of scoring by Lillard put Portland in control and set up the win.
Game 6 tips off tonight in Portland at 10:30pm EST, and there’s no doubt that the arena will be extremely loud. “He will get evaluated tomorrow but obviously it doesn’t look great for him”, Rivers said of Paul. Lillard, who had been mostly contained this series, erupted at last in Staples Center, sending in a number of hard makes and wild banked three-pointers to seal the game and quite possibly the series.
To support Austin Rivers and Jeff Green’s aggressiveness (that must continue), Redick and Crawford need to heat up and stay hot. Both he and Lillard forced the issue and began to get more comfortable against a Clippers rotation not used to playing so many high-pressure minutes. We’ve just got to figure it out.
Mason Plumlee had another fantastic game down low and it’s really beginning to feel like they are going to move on in the NBA Playoffs.
With the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder squaring off in the other Western semis, and the Eastern side of things coming into focus, how might the Warriors fare without Curry against the severely overachieving Trail Blazers? Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers told reporters Griffin has a “50-50” chance to play in Game 5 on Wednesday. After showing how much the loss of Paul and Griffin weighs down on them in Game 4, though, both emotionally and for the major blow to their offensive structure, it looks more likely that the Blazers will close out the series in Game 6.
The fact that Rivers lost his two best players at such a crucial time may well have created an emotional environment in the locker room, and that seemingly carried over to his pregame press conference Wednesday. Paul and Griffin have been averaging 23.8 and 15 points, respectively. That’s the nature of the NBA Playoffs, which saw the Western Conference remain pretty unscathed through last postseason – not coincidentally, the top seed won every series previous year.
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After a scoreless six-minute spell in the third quarter, though, the absence of Griffin and especially Paul to attract defenders and create space for others was extremely detrimental to the team. Griffin had been limited to just 35 games this season after dealing with quad problems and a broken hand in addition to a four-game ban for punching a Clippers equipment manager in January.
