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Long Film Session Helped Turn Page For Game 4

Rowan Kavner

PLAYA VISTA, Calif. – The Clippers didn’t run from a blowout Game 3 loss.

They meticulously watched the entire performance, spending more than two hours in a film session prior to a bounce back Game 4 performance which couldn’t have gone much better. What they learned was as bad as Friday went, it wasn’t time to make an overhaul.

“What’s crazy about it, we were in there for like two and a half hours and the thing I think we all took away was we don’t have to change our game plan,” said Blake Griffin. “We don’t have to change our schemes. We just have to do what we were supposed to do better, and we didn’t do that on Friday night. I want to say we didn’t do a single thing that we wanted to do Friday night, and (Sunday) was different.”

Austin Rivers said it was “painful” to watch all the mistakes on tape Saturday afternoon from the night prior, but it was also necessary. They followed that film session by redeeming a 27-point loss to win by nine in San Antonio.

“It was good for us,” Rivers said. “We held each other accountable in the meeting and guys said what they had to say and it helped us. It was a big growing moment for us.”

As DeAndre Jordan remembered it, the players talked some, but head coach Doc Rivers did most of the talking.

Chris Paul recalled the same thing.

“Doc pretty much went at all of us, told us about ourselves, told us about what we didn’t do in Game 3,” Paul said. “And he told us when it comes to the playoffs, it’s the players’ time. So we tried to come out aggressive, on both ends, offensively and defensively. We’ve got to find a way to not let things like Game 3 happen for us, and respond like this. The great teams come out that way regardless, and hopefully we learned something.”

What Jordan took out of the film session was more about lackluster effort and sub-par pressure.

“They got into us early in the ballgame, and we just kind of were laid back,” Jordan said. “They were more physical in Game 3.”

After playing back the game for hours Saturday, the Clippers made sure the same wouldn’t happen again a day later. Just as Austin Rivers had said, Jordan echoed that Friday’s game was tough to see again, but it also played a role in flipping the script Sunday.

“Blame it on us five, the starters,” Jordan said. “We didn’t come out (Friday) with the right intensity or the pressure that we’re supposed to, and it rolled over. (Sunday) was different. We made the adjustments, and we came out with that fight we’re used to coming out with.”