Rowan Kavner 
Digital Content Coordinator
LOS ANGELES – Chris Paul watched Game 3 again. And again. And again.
By the end of Sunday morning’s team film session, roughly 12 hours after the game ended, the Clippers’ point guard – who typically watches a game’s film before he goes to sleep the night of a game – had already watched Game 3 three times.
It mostly reaffirmed what he already knew. But the multiple viewings are still helpful for him, specifically as he keys in on his minutes on the floor, watching what’s happening defensively, how fouls are called, where turnovers came and the shots he got.
If it seems like it might be emotional watching what happened in a loss just hours after it ends, it is.
“But it’s all in trying to get better and learning and seeing,” Paul said. “You’re always learning and studying … You sit up and talk about it, try to figure out what you could’ve done. You try to get some closure to it, then (Monday) you see if you put it into play.”
Blake Griffin also watched the game immediately after it happened, then again the next morning with the full team.
“It was a pretty awful film session,” Griffin said. “It wasn't even the last two minutes, it was throughout the entire game. You know, really from the beginning, we let them get comfortable.”
Griffin said the Clippers didn’t execute, didn’t move the ball from side to side and didn’t do anything that made them successful in taking a 2-0 lead to Portland.
The Clippers, after an out-of-rhythm and uncharacteristic Game 3 performance, didn’t see much that surprised them.
“It’s what I saw during the game,” said head coach Doc Rivers. “It wasn’t much of a change.”
Rivers said most coaches do what Paul and Griffin did, watching film again the night of the game, then getting up and watching again in the morning. He’s no exception, even after frustrating losses.
In fact, that helps him start the process of putting the game behind.
“If you don’t watch it, I don’t know how you would go to bed, because then you’re thinking about everything you thought you saw,” Rivers said. “And then when you watch it, you can’t go to sleep because now you’re either happy or pissed, so you can’t sleep. So that’s why we get up and watch it again, and the second watch is always better than the first watch.”
The re-watching, Rivers said, is more analytical. The emotions of what just happened slowly begin to fade.
“You watch it in a saner mind,” Rivers said. “You’re watching it like you should watch it.”
For Paul, watching the film a second time the night of the game gave him a jumpstart on that process. Rivers said he’s never seen two guys who watch more film than Paul and Rajon Rondo.
“They’re so similar in a lot of ways, in that way,” Rivers said. “You know when you come in and you have your stuff, you better have it right, because they do. It actually puts you on your toes a little bit, it alerts you. You’ve got to be right, because they know what you’re saying, they know if it’s true or not.”
That may be a trait of most point guards, but Rivers believes Paul and Rondo’s film study is unique even to the position, which requires players to take a more cerebral approach to the game.
“I don’t think a lot of them do it to that degree,” Rivers said.