Paul, Griffin help Clippers take 2-1 lead

LOS ANGELES (AP)

If the Los Angeles Clippers hadn’t been so inept at the free throw line, Rudy Gay’s last-second shot wouldn’t have mattered.

GRIZZLIES VS. CLIPPERS

• Clippers grab 2-1 series lead
• McDonnell: Clips get physical
• Photos: Game 1 | 2 | 3
• NBA Playoff Central

Chris Paul had 24 points and 11 assists and high-flying Blake Griffin added 17 points for the Clippers, who beat the Memphis Grizzles 87-86 Saturday only after Gay missed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

”That’s the way we planned it,” Paul joked. ”They aren’t going to give us anything. They’re never out of the game with an electrifying scorer like Rudy Gay.”

The Clippers won their first home playoff game in six seasons to take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference playoffs. Game 4 is Monday night.

The long-suffering Clippers fans, who turned Staples Center into a sea of red, very easily could have gone home disappointed.

Paul hit a fadeaway jumper with 2:02 left for an 82-80 lead. On the next possession he had a no-look bounce pass to Griffin coming in off the baseline for a monster slam.

Trailing 86-80 after two free throws by Paul, Gay hit a 3-pointer with 12.9 seconds left, Memphis’ first field goal since 7:10. After Los Angeles missed three of four free throws, Gay hit another 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds to hush the crowd.

Eric Bledsoe missed two more free throws, Gilbert Arenas rebounded for Memphis to set up Gay’s final shot. Gay, who had 24 points, got some room to shoot, and quickly let go. But it the shot bounced off the rim.

”At the end of the game I wanted to make a quick play,” Gay said.

Memphis had another big advantage at the free throw line, like it did in winning Game 2, but couldn’t capitalize. The Grizzlies made 30 of 39 while the Clippers were just 13 of 30.

”We missed 17 free throws?” Paul said. ”We did? It shows how much fight we have. It’s unacceptable.”

2012 NBA PLAYOFFS

• Playoff Central: First-round schedule
• Top 10 playoff storylines
• Amico: Eastern preview
• Kiki’s Keys: Western preview
• 10 players with most to prove

Paul did his part at the line, making, seven of eight. But Griffin missed six of nine while Reggie Evans missed six of eight.

Memphis had seemingly taken the crowd out of the game in the third quarter, when it outscored the Clippers 25-14 to take a 71-64 lead.

The Clippers’ lull extended into the fourth quarter. Marc Gasol made a field goal with 7:10 left for a 77-71 lead, but that was Memphis’ last basket until the first of Gay’s two 3-pointers in the closing seconds.

”We shut down and only scored 15 points in the fourth quarter,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. ” We took too many quick shots and gave up second-chance points. We gave them the back door and Blake took advantage of it.”

Said Gay: ”We missed a couple plays we wish we had back. We had a couple letdowns. `’

The Clippers, who rallied from 27 down to win the opener on Sunday night at Memphis, started this comeback with just more than four minutes to go.

Evans made a strong inside move against Marreese Speights to rebound Bledsoe’s missed free throw and score to pull L.A. to 79-77 with 4:08 left. Randy Foye then hit a huge 3-point shot from the left side with 3:13 left to tie it at 80 before Paul and Griffin took over.

”He’s tenacious,” Gay said of Paul. ”He doesn’t give up. He makes plays and finds people. We can’t have other people doing what they did today. The Clippers pushed us tonight. They got into the lane. We’ll see how we respond on Monday.”

Forward Caron Butler started for the Clippers, wearing a splint on his broken left, or non-shooting, hand. He was hurt in Game 1, and missed the next game. He scored four points.

The Clippers used an 18-1 run spanning the first and second quarter to take a 36-23 lead, but the Grizzles turned around and dropped a 13-0 run on Los Angeles to tie it.

Griffin put an exclamation point on the first half when he stole the inbounds pass from Speights and swooped in for a dunk at the buzzer to give the Clippers a 50-46 lead.

It was the first home playoff game as Clippers for Paul and Griffin.

”I won’t forget my first playoff in this building,” Paul said. ”The energy in the crowd and seeing fans celebrating motivate us. The crowd won the game for us. ”

Said Griffin: ”It was unbelievable. The fans were on their feet and with the energy through our warm-ups, we had no choice but to play hard.”

Zach Randolph scored 17 for Memphis while Gasol had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Quincy Pondexter had 11 points.

Foye had 16 for L.A.

Notes: Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro tried to play coy before the game about Butler’s status, but added after: ”Maybe we underestimated how tough he is `’ … Paul was impressed that Butler played. ”If he can fight with one broken hand, what can the rest of us do?” … Butler played just more than 22 minutes. … Gay committed two fouls in the game’s first five minutes and sat out until early in the second quarter.

Related posts:

May 6, 2012 | Categories: Sports | Leave A Comment »

Harden steps up in 4th to fuel Thunder

DALLAS (AP)

Down by 13 points with less than 10 minutes remaining, youthful Oklahoma City could have easily have been content knowing they could go home for a Game 5 still needing to win only one more game.

THUNDER VS. MAVERICKS

• Harden sparks Thunder sweep
• Engel: Is Durant ready for ring?
• Mosley: This is no surprise
• Photos: Game 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
• NBA Playoff Central

The Thunder, with their 20-something All-Star duo Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, are instead going home to wait and see who they will play next.

And it was their other emerging star who led the way.

James Harden scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, including nine in a 12-0 run, and the Thunder rallied for a 103-97 victory Saturday night to complete a first-round series sweep of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

”I got into attack mode. I was determined to make plays,” Harden said.

”He was phenomenal,” said Durant, who scored 24 points. ”His pick and roll game is unreal. It’s fun to watch, fun to be part of. The best part about our team is that we have a lot of guys who can play off each other, and we complement each other well.”

Dallas led 86-73 after Jason Terry hit a 3-pointer with 9:44 left before the Harden-fueled surge over 3 minutes when the only other score was a 3-poitner by Durant.

Oklahoma City finally took the lead, and kept it, after Westbrook stole the ball from Dirk Nowitzki and passed to Serge Ibaka for a two-handed slam that made it 92-91 with 5:17 left.

”This goes without saying, I’m excited we won the series,” coach Scott Brooks said. ”James had an incredible game. We ran pick and rolls at the angles. … He was making plays for himself or our shooters.”

2012 NBA PLAYOFFS

• Playoff Central: First-round schedule
• Top 10 playoff storylines
• Amico: Eastern preview
• Kiki’s Keys: Western preview
• 10 players with most to prove

Durant had 11 rebounds, while Westbrook and Fisher had 12 points each.

Oklahoma City plays the winner of the series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver. The Lakers lead that first-round series 2-1 going into Game 4 on Sunday night in Denver.

It was the first four-game postseason sweep for the Oklahoma City franchise since 1996, when they were still the Seattle SuperSonics and swept the Houston Rockets in the second round.

Dallas is the second defending champion in five years to be swept in the first round. Miami lost in four games to Chicago in 2007, after beating the Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals.

Dallas had never been swept in a best-of-seven series. And the Mavericks hadn’t lost four playoff games in a row since 2006 against the Heat.

But now they are the oldest team in the NBA, and vastly changed from last year’s championship squad.

”It was an up and down year,” said Nowitzki, the 11-time All-Star who had 34 points. ”We weren’t consistent enough throughout to be an elite team.”

Even when Harden bobbled the ball after Oklahoma City took the lead for good, Fisher ended up with it and drove for a layup to make it 96-91. Fisher, a late-season addition to the young Thunder, won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Nowitzki then had a shot that hit the rim a couple of times before falling out, among several near misses for him down the stretch.

”If you want to be an elite team in this league, you got to have two or three guys who can go off at any time,” Nowitzki said. ”I just thought they had more weapons than us.”

PICTURE PERFECT

See the latest NBA playoff photos.

• Thursday’s playoff action
• Wednesday’s playoff action
• Tuesday’s playoff action
• Monday’s playoff action

Oklahoma City finished off the Mavs without starting center Kendrick Perkins, who left the game with 4:09 left in the first quarter with a right hip strain. He had two rebounds, two assists and missed his only shot in his 8 minutes.

Jason Kidd, the Mavericks’ 39-year-old point guard, had 16 points and eight assists. Jason Terry had 11 points in what might have also been his last game in Dallas.

After Terry’s 3-pointer, Harden scored seven in a row – on a three-point play and two other baskets. Durant then made a 3-pointer. After Nowitzki was short on a 14-footer, Harden drove for a powerful two-handed slam that got the Thunder within 86-85.

”He got up a head of steam and was great,” said Rick Carlisle, the Mavs coach whose four-year contract is up. ”We tried everything, five or six different coverages going. We needed to be better but it was more about how good he was.”

The Mavs had looked like they were ready after halftime to at least force the series back to Oklahoma City, where they opened the series with two losses by a combined four points before losing by 16 at home in Game 3.

The game was tied at halftime before Nowitzki had 12 points and Kidd made three 3-pointers in the third quarter, when the Mavs scored 34 points to take an 81-68 lead.

Nowitzki drove around Ibaka for a tiebreaking one-handed reverse layup less than a minute into the second half, and the lead was up to 64-54 when Shawn Marion had a slam.

Carlisle had talked about the Mavericks controlling their emotions after his outburst in the first quarter of Game 3. He had to be held back by an assistant coach when he charged onto the court and was pointing and screaming at an official because of what he said were three missed calls on one possession, ending with Oklahoma City scoring on what appeared to be basket interference.

Before the end of the first quarter Saturday night, Carlisle was mad again – and for good reason.

Kidd had bad pass that went out of bounds, but officials missed that the ball was deflected in the air by Harden. Replays showed clearly that Carlisle had a gripe and that the loud boos were warranted. Fisher then made a 22-foot jumper.

”Not our year. Take your hat off to them. They’re a good young team,” Terry said. ”The balls were definitely bouncing their way. You have to give them credit. It just wasn’t our time.”

Notes: This was Dallas’ 23rd best-of-seven playoff series. The only time the Mavericks had ever been swept in the postseason was in the a first-round series in 1990 when they lost a best-of-five against Portland. …. Ibaka fouled out with 2:14 left.

Related posts:

May 6, 2012 | Categories: Sports | Leave A Comment »