Spurs eke out massive road win over Clippers in pivotal Game 5
The first-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs has been tight enough for games to be decided by a single decision, shot, or call. Tuesday night’s Game 5 at Staples Center came down to a few inches. The Spurs escaped with a 111-107 win, a 3-2 lead, and the chance to end the series at home in Thursday’s Game 6, but things very easily could have gone the other way.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
Any number of moments could be viewed as game-deciding, but the final few possessions were as dramatic as any we’ve seen this postseason. Down 108-105 with 30 seconds remaining, Clippers wing Matt Barnes salvaged two missed free throws from Blake Griffin with an offensive rebound and was fouled in the act of a putback attempt to head to the line for two of his own freebies. He made both, but that still gave the Spurs a chance to serve up a dagger. They got the shot they wanted via an open three-pointer for shooter Danny Green near the end of the shot clock, but it missed short and ended up in Barnes’s hands. He called timeout immediately to advance the ball and allow the host Clippers an opportunity for a buzzer-beating victory.
It seemed to go their way. Jamal Crawford could not inbound the ball to as desired, but he was able to find Griffin with a lane to the basket. He made a few dribbles into the lane and pulled Tim Duncan away from the basket, providing the option of putting up a perfectly reasonable runner or attempting an alley-oop to DeAndre Jordan, who was being attended by the much smaller Tony Parker.
Griffin chose the shot, which wasn’t a bad idea given the quality of the look and the safety net of Jordan holding excellent rebounding position. Unfortunately, the Clippers ended up with the worst possible scenario. Jordan tipped the ball in but was whistled for offensive interference on a ball that wasn’t necessarily coming out for a rebound. Take a look:
It’s very tough to argue with this call, because Jordan pretty clearly touches the ball while it’s still in the cylinder. Referees reviewed it quickly but only ended up adding a few tenths of a second back onto the clock. Danny Green missed the second of two free throws at the other end, but the Clippers failed to rebound (albeit with no timeout left to advance the ball) and allowed Kawhi Leonard the chance to end the game.
The conversation around Jordan’s non-winner is going to revolve around a series of “what-ifs” for the Clippers — what if Paul hadn’t fallen down (or been pushed?) on the inbounds pass, what if Griffin had thrown the oop, what if Jordan had jumped a bit later, what if he hadn’t touched it at all, etc. That second-guessing is more existential than tactical. This was the kind of game that should make a team and its fanbase why a few sound decisions went the wrong way rather than what exactly the coaches and players did wrong.
That’s because the Clippers played well enough to win against most teams in this postseason (and arguably all but the one they faced on Tuesday). Los Angeles got off to a strong start and held a 27-13 lead after 10:41 of game time, due in large part to the early dominance of Griffin. The star power forward continued to exploit one of the Clippers’ clearest matchup advantages in the series with 13 points, six rebounds, and two assists in the first quarter, using his athleticism and face-up abilities to attack the rim and open up space for mid-range jumpers. Griffin did not explode to the basket with his usual regularity this season, but that was apparently all part of a plan to conserve his energy for the postseason. That approach largely appears to have worked — he has gotten the Clippers out to several early leads this series and has put up excellent numbers in all but the outlying Game 3 blowout loss.
However, the Clippers’ advantage proved to be short-lived. San Antonio’s bench closed the first quarter on a 9-0 run and got two three-pointers from Patty Mills and Manu Ginobili in the opening minute of the second to take a 28-27 lead. But that 15-0 run was easily the longest of the night. No team led by more than seven points from then on, and the game was more often a one-point possession in either direction.
As you would expect, then, the first half was a bit of a mixed bag for each side. The Spurs got a terrific performance from the bench and found excellent scoring balance throughout the rotation on their way to 6-of-12 shooting from deep and 46.5 percent from the field. But they also turned it over 10 times against 11 assists in a not particularly crisp passing display. Meanwhile, the Clippers got the big-time performance they needed from Griffin (21 points, on 7-of-10 FG, eight boards, three steals, three assists), but the bench regressed from a result-shifting Game 4 to score only seven points on 3-of-12 shooting. Doc Rivers has shrunk his rotation with each successive game of the series and only played Jamal Crawford, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, and his son Austin Rivers in this one, but that decision sort-of defeats its own purpose when no one performs at a high level. The Clips also shot just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc, a number that arguably should have led to a big halftime deficit. They were lucky to go into the break with a 54-53 lead.
If that margin showed an advantage in the game, even if only in a symbolic sense, then it evaporated in a long, brutal third quarter that the Spurs bent to their stylistic will. The teams played to a relative stalemate over the first six minutes before Gregg Popovich gave the order to start fouling DeAndre Jordan away from the ball, which resulted in intentional free throws starting at the 5:22 mark. Jordan made five of his first seven attempts but clanked the last three to force Doc Rivers to substitute Davis with 3:26 remaining. The Spurs didn’t see a huge advantage on the scoreboard during this period — they only added two points to a preexisting one-point lead — but they managed to assert control over the game and make it clear to the Clippers that the rest of the game would be played on their terms. Even with Jordan out, the final few minutes of the quarter involved a number of foul calls (some questionable, some not) as the Clippers lacked offensive flow and struggled to get non-Griffin players into ideal situations. If not for a late flurry from the bench that included several major hustle plays by Davis and a game-tying buzzer-beater from Rivers, they would have entered the fourth with a lot of work to do. Somehow, they faced the final 12 minutes of regulation in an 82-82 tie.
It is hard to sum up the fourth quarter in a few sentences, but it’s fair to say that the Spurs were the better team even before they eked out the victory. Paul showed signs of dominating late for the second straight game, primarily on an absurd hesitation move to get by Green. Yet he was limited throughout the game despite quality stats (19 points on 7-of-10 FG and 10 assists) and picked up a costly technical foul with 4:48 left in regulation as the Spurs were building their biggest lead of the second half. (Paul initially appeared to have done nothing but throw the ball back to the referee with some heat, but he didn’t argue the call and therefore probably said something, as well.) At the same time, Griffin began to suffer from fatigue (perhaps hastened by a hard fall in the third quarter) and shot 3-of-15 in the second half to finish with 30 points. With no players making big steps up, some struggling, and no three-point shooting to speak of (the Clippers attempted four in the second half and missed them all), this quite simply did not appear to be theirs to win.
If this article appears to focus heavily on the Clippers, then it’s chiefly because the Spurs’ late-game execution and general in-game awareness are so well established as to be cliched topics of discussion. Frankly, this was not one of the team’s better games — Leonard was disappointing offensively (5-of-16 FG, 0-of-3 3FG) and Parker and Green combined to go 8-of-24 from the field. Nevertheless, they worked to get good shots and relied on the ageless Tim Duncan (21 points on 8-of-13 FG, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and one huge late block on Griffin) for big plays. They also happened to get pretty lucky — Boris Diaw made a game-changing contribution by scoring eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter but saw two buckets go down on near-prayers with the shot clock winding down.
Given the finish and the general course of the second half, it’s tempting to say that the Clippers scuffled late and lack the Spurs’ championship character. But this was no failure of will — they worked their way back from a 107-100 deficit with 2:11 on the clock and were a few inches from coming away with the game-winning play in the final seconds. Game 5 was a reminder that not every result has to serve as a referendum on each team’s moral fiber. Sometimes the winners and losers are decided only because regulation isn’t allowed to last longer than 48 minutes.
If we’ve learned anything from these five games, it’s that the difference in quality between the Spurs and Clippers is very small and perhaps nonexistent. This particular game was pivotal in that it left San Antonio one win from moving to the second round. The Clippers didn’t win, but they were absolutely worthy of it. These are two of the best teams in the postseason, and it’s a shame that one of them won’t make it past the end of the weekend.
– – – – – – –
Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
