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Look Back: Clippers-Spurs Matchups This Year

Rowan Kavner

Pick a Western Conference playoff team, and it’s likely the Clippers finished .500 or better against them this year.

The Clippers went 14-12 this season against the other seven playoff teams from the West, including a 2-2 record against the Spurs. They only had a losing record against the Warriors (1-3), while they had a winning record against the Mavericks (2-1), Pelicans (2-1) and Trail Blazers (3-1).

After dropping their first two matchups of the season against San Antonio, they needed to win their final two to split the season series. That’s exactly what they did, handing the Spurs two of their final 10 losses of the season.

Blake Griffin said he’ll study Spurs tape from the regular season and from past playoff appearances. He’s looked back at all four games the teams played against each other this season, including the matchup he missed while recovering from elbow surgery.

“I thought it was a good kind of tool, even though I don’t think they were really playing the same type of basketball at that point,” Griffin said. “I’ve watched two playoff games from last year. I don’t know how many playoff games I’ll watch from last year. You can take a little bit of both from this year and last year. But I’m more focused on this year’s games.”

Head coach Doc Rivers said when studying the Spurs, he looks at the Clippers’ tape and film from other teams who’ve played well against the Spurs.

“But even when you do that, if that other team that played them well doesn’t do what you do, then you throw that out,” Rivers said.

Rivers added that just because San Antonio’s had the same nucleus of stars for years, that doesn’t mean the Spurs do everything the same each season. Because of that, most of the study will be on this year’s Spurs team.

Here’s a look back at how each of the four games went earlier this season, prior to two of the league’s hottest teams now meeting in the first round of the NBA Playoffs:

Spurs 89 @ Clippers 85 (Nov. 10)

This was Kawhi Leonard’s biggest game of the year against the Clippers, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three assists. The Spurs needed that performance to win at STAPLES Center, considering they went just 2-of-19 from 3-point range.

Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 23 points, also adding 10 rebounds and six assists. Chris Paul finished one assist short of a triple-double. The Clippers led by seven points after Paul hit a shot with 5:48 left, but there were too many miscues down the stretch. The Hornets (11.9) are the only team that averaged fewer turnovers per game than the Clippers (12.3) this season, but the Clippers coughed the ball up 15 times in this game and forced just eight San Antonio turnovers.

The Clippers had four turnovers in the final two minutes and didn’t make a field goal in the last five minutes of the game, somehow still only trailing by two points with a second left before Leonard iced the game away at the line. Griffin was the only Clippers player with more than 13 points. Tiago Splitter didn’t play in that game with a calf injury that held him out both early and late this season.

Spurs 125 vs. Clippers 118 (Dec. 22)

No Leonard for the Spurs in this one, but they did get Tony Parker (hamstring) back from a five-game absence, and that provided enough of an offensive spark. Parker scored 26 points while the Spurs as a team dished out 37 assists. Parker would go on to miss more time with hamstring issues, but that didn’t matter that night against the Clippers.

The game was completely different from the first matchup. The Clippers shot 50 percent from the floor, but the Spurs hit 63.6 percent of their shots, with Boris Diaw and Manu Ginobili combining to go 16-of-22 off the bench. The Clippers still managed to keep things close, outscoring the Spurs by seven points in the third quarter and tying the game up in the fourth.

They just couldn’t get enough stops down the stretch. Paul had a team-high 25 points and nine assists, while Griffin added 22 points and J.J. Redick had 21. The strong offensive nights weren’t enough to make up for defensive lapses.

Clippers 105 @ Spurs 85 (Jan. 31)

The Clippers weren’t thrilled about losing the previous night to the Pelicans. They took that out in San Antonio, led by Griffin’s 31 points and 13 rebounds. Unlike the previous two matchups, there wasn’t much of a doubt in this one. The Clippers had a comfortable advantage most of the night.

The Spurs were struggling to score, hitting just 37.3 percent of their shots. Griffin and Paul combined for 51 points, while Parker and Tim Duncan combined for just nine points on 4-of-15 shooting. Ginobili didn’t do much better, adding nine points. Leonard and Danny Green were the only San Antonio players to score in double figures.

DeAndre Jordan pulled in 19 rebounds in what would be a preview of what was to come in the final matchup between the teams this season. The Clippers’ starters got to watch the end of the game from the bench, leading by more than 20 points with three minutes remaining.

Clippers 119 vs. Spurs 115 (Feb. 19)

The Spurs happened to catch the Clippers while Jordan was going through his most electrifying stretch of the season. After two straight 20-20 games with Griffin out from his staph infection, Jordan proceeded to post a career-high 26 points to go with 18 rebounds against San Antonio.

Many of those points for Jordan came from the line, where he was 10-of-28 in the game. As the Clippers nursed a small lead, nearly the entire fourth quarter consisted of the “hack-a-DJ” strategy, something Jordan’s well aware could happen again in the playoffs.

The Clippers were still nursing a lead when the hacking ended, ahead by four points with four minutes left. Jamal Crawford and Paul combined for 12 of the Clippers’ final 14 points, as the Clippers managed to hold off the Spurs and keep the lead throughout the quarter. Paul had 22 points, 16 assists and five rebounds. Crawford added 26 points off the bench, as the Clippers brought enough offensively to counter Tim Duncan’s 30-point night.