Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – Some players can carry a team to the second round on their backs. Chris Paul did it on one leg.
Paul strained his hamstring in the first quarter, returned in the second quarter and finished with 27 points, six assists and a runner off the glass with one second remaining for the game-winner in a 111-109 Game 7 victory, sending the Clippers past the defending champion Spurs.
“We talked about if we get down into a last-second shot what we wanted to do,” Paul said. “We’ve been in that situation a lot of times already this year, and most of the time I hadn’t made it, to tell you the truth. We talked about it, and finally it worked when we needed it.”
The Spurs got their biggest lead of the fourth quarter, going ahead, 97-92, on a bucket from Tim Duncan. After two free throws from Blake Griffin, who had his second triple-double of the series, Kawhi Leonard nearly put the Clippers’ deficit back at five, but the shot off the glass went in and out. J.J. Redick answered on the other end with a 3-pointer, tying the game back up for the first time since 86-86 early in the quarter. When Duncan came back with a lay-up, Redick then gave the Clippers the lead on another 3-pointer, the Clippers’ 13th of the night.
“Easily one of the best games I’ve ever played in,” Redick said. “This series was incredible. The amount of emotional, physical, focus, fortitude and strength you had to show every game just to be in the game the last few minutes and then to figure out how to win was unlike anything I’ve had to experience in my life.”
It was back and forth all night, with 31 lead changes and 16 ties. The Spurs immediately took the lead back in a see-saw game courtesy of Tony Parker, and Griffin answered on the other end with two more free throws to swing back the momentum and take back the lead.
That’s how it went the entire quarter – and the entire series. When the Spurs got their lead back up to three at 105-102, Matt Barnes answered with his third 3-pointers of the game.
“There were a lot of big sequences,” said head coach Doc Rivers. “I thought Matt’s three was as big as they came.”
Three different Clippers finished with at least three 3-pointers apiece, with the Clippers hitting a total of 14 3-pointers in the game. They’d hit a total of 10 in their previous three games combined.
Once again, in a first-round series for the ages during an NBA Playoffs with very few of them, every time one team started to make a run, momentum would shift the other way. The Spurs went ahead on a shot from Parker with 1:23 remaining, which was followed by a lay-in from Jamal Crawford at the other end to tie it up.
“Playing against them, it’s like being taught during a competition on how to act, how to play and how to trust,” Rivers said. “They did it, and then we did it.”
A miss from Leonard gave the Clippers the ball and led to a jumper that was off from Paul, but a foul was called. He sank both free throws. That gave the Spurs the ball with 13 seconds remaining, leading to a drive from Tim Duncan and a foul call, as he proceeded to hit both free throws.
It all set up for Paul’s magic, as he somehow mustered the energy on one leg to drive and finish off the glass, sending the Clippers to the second round as they made the stop at the other end with a second remaining.
“It was clean, solid, beautiful basketball by both teams,” Rivers said. “I’m a better person because I went through this series, I guarantee you that.”
Paul wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do after hurting himself in the first quarter, but he thought if any teammate was in his situation, they’d do their best to return.
He would eventually, but as Paul sat early in the second quarter, the Clippers didn’t panic.
They kept the deficit within four points and ended up taking the lead after back-to-back buckets from Jamal Crawford. Not long after, Paul came out of the tunnel and checked back into the game, proceeding to score four points while gutting out the injury. By the end of the half, despite Paul’s injury, the Clippers had the lead.
“I told our bench, just keep the game,” Rivers said. “That’s what I told them before half. Think about that first half, Chris is injured, Blake is in foul trouble, and we lead the half with a two-point lead…I thought that was the difference in the game, that stretch.”
Even after the halftime break, as the adrenaline could’ve started to wear off, Paul returned and drilled the first points of the second half with a 3-pointer.Eventually, he had to take a seat as he continued to clutch at the hamstring. But the Clippers never got behind by much, leading 76-72 before the Spurs answered on a 6-0 run.
Paul returned just in time to bank in a 3-pointer from 37 feet out to give the Clippers a 79-78 lead entering the fourth quarter, at which point there were already 19 lead changes, nine ties and Paul with 18 points and six assists on one leg. As it turned out, the energy and tension would only increase in a wild finish to one of the wildest first-round series ever.
“Unbelievable,” said Jamal Crawford. “If you wrote a script, this is how the ending would be.”
NOTES: The Clippers will play Monday against the Rockets to start Round 2 ... Rivers said he’s not sure if Paul will be able to play in the first game of the series … Blake Griffin finished with his second triple-double of the series … The Clippers had never won a best-of-7 series when trailing, 3-2 … The Clippers shot 52.6 percent from the floor in the win … Barnes scored 17 points and Crawford added 16 points off the bench … The Clippers are now 3-2 all-time in best-of-7 series …