Clippers-Grizzlies Preview

Posted Apr 28 2012 7:07PM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) The Memphis Grizzlies have been unbeatable at home lately and are preparing to open the postseason on their own court for the first time in team history when they host the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Grizzlies are riding a franchise-best 11-game winning streak at home. They went 26-7 at the FedExForum in this shortened season, but they do not plan on resting on that success in their first-round Western Conference series against the Clippers.

"We still have got to come out and play," Memphis forward Zach Randolph said Saturday.

"We can't just think because we've got home-court advantage it's going to be easy. It's a basketball game. We've got to come out focused with the understanding that we have our fans behind us, which is going to give us more energy and we're going to feed off of that. But we've still got to be ready and have a defensive mindset."

The Clippers won two of the three games between these teams in the regular season with each winning at home.

The Grizzlies' defensive challenges in this best-of-seven series will be guarding the Clippers' pick-and-roll offense. They want to try to control the pace of the game and keep the Clippers' big men from living up to their Lob City reputation by throwing down more thunderous dunks.

The key is containing All-Star guard Chris Paul, the man orchestrating of the Los Angeles performance. Only Boston's Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash of Phoenix had more assists than Paul (9.1) per game this season. Paul didn't practice Friday with a strained left groin but did work some Saturday. He is expected to play Sunday night.

"He tries to dictate the game by getting everybody involved," Memphis guard Tony Allen said. "When it's time for him to be Chris Paul, he definitely turns up the volume.

"You just try to contain him. Make things tough for him in that pick-and-roll. We know that's his bread and butter, and we have to be alert."

Indications Saturday were that Randolph, who missed 37 games with a knee injury, might start Sunday night. He was used primarily off the bench since his return in March, but did start the season finale against Orlando.

"It feels good to get out there with the first group," Randolph said. "From the start, you feel the energy, getting the vibe going."

For the Clippers, they are where the Grizzlies were this time last year - young and the team expected to be eliminated in the first round. They didn't help that perception by finishing the season by losing three of their last four.

"People don't expect us to win, and I think we realize that" Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. "Hopefully, we play with that chip on our shoulder a little bit."

Memphis' defense led by Allen and guard Mike Conley, who finished second in steals behind Paul, could be the key in this series. But Memphis coach Lionel Hollins doesn't see a need to try to ratchet the intensity up from the regular season.

"We've got to go out and play just as hard as we have in most of the 66 games we just finished," Hollins said. "I think too much is made of `we've got to be at a different intensity level.'

"It's going to be a high intensity level simply because both teams will be on the same level of rest and of hopes and dreams."

The way the Grizzlies play defense should be just fine in the postseason. They averaged an NBA-best 9.5 steals per game on their home court, 1.7 more than when on the road. They also blocked 5.23 shots per game.

"They try to muck everything up," Clippers guard Randy Foye said of the Grizzlies. "They try to make everything chaotic. They try and pressure you and make you do things you don't want to do. The biggest thing for us is stay poised, work together and understand if we play our game our chances are good."

Griffin said steals help the Grizzlies get their offense and everything else going.

"It gets the crowd into the game, it gets everything going for them," Griffin said. "For us to take care of the ball is very important."

Paul, who led the NBA himself with 2.53 steals a game, said the Grizzlies have plenty of weapons. But he thinks the Clippers need worry about themselves and not Memphis.

"We're not that bad either," Paul said.

Clippers rally from 27 down, stun Grizzlies 99-98

By TERESA M. WALKER
Posted Apr 30 2012 1:37AM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Chris Paul begged coach Vinny Del Negro to put him back into the game for the fourth quarter and not give up despite being down 21 points.

The result was another Clippers comeback - one of the greatest in NBA playoff history.

Paul hit a pair of free throws with 23.7 seconds left, and the Clippers rallied from a deficit that had been as much as 27 to stun the Memphis Grizzlies 99-98 Sunday night in the opening game of their Western Conference series.

The key, Paul said, is to keep believing.

"Unfortunately, that's how we play," he said. "We get killed in the first three quarters and in the fourth quarter we like to try to stand up for ourselves, and we found a way to win tonight."

The Clippers tied the NBA playoff record for largest deficit overcome at the end of three quarters, when they trailed by 21.

"I don't think I've been part of a game like that ever," Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. "It was unbelievable."

Rudy Gay missed a 15-footer with 0.9 seconds left after the Grizzlies squandered a lead they held for the first 47 minutes, with a 24-point cushion disappearing in about nine minutes.

"Obviously, we gave it away, and everybody's kind of down," Gay said. "We're still into it. It's a long series, and we're ready to fight. That's all this means. We've got to fight hard."

The Clippers lost Caron Butler to a broken left hand, and he said he thinks he caught his hand in Gay's jersey on a screen. Del Negro said other players will have to step up.

Nick Young did just that, scoring 19 points off the bench with three 3-pointers in the midst of the Clippers' 26-1 run. Paul finished with 14 points while playing a team-high 38 minutes despite a groin injury that kept him out of the regular season finale against the Knicks. Griffin had 17 and Butler 12 before leaving the game.

Young said he didn't even see the score, being on the court down the stretch for a change. He said he looked up late and saw they had a game when he started hitting his shots.

"It's crazy. It's a blessing," Young said. "It shows how hard we fought. How we rallied together as a team, and just made stops down the end."

Gay finished with 19 for Memphis. Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo had 17, and Marc Gasol scored 14.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

The Clippers outscored the Grizzlies 35-13 in the fourth quarter, the most points in the final period by a Memphis opponent this season. Los Angeles also hit 13 of 17 from the floor, including 5 of 6 beyond the arc after hitting only one the first three quarters.

The Grizzlies looked ready to roll as they ran out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter and were up by 27 twice in the third, the last on a pair of free throws by Mayo with 1:34 left.

The Clippers finally got going in the fourth, as the Grizzlies looked like they shut it down way too soon. They had five turnovers in the fourth. Even though the Clippers had seven themselves, the Grizzlies looked lost as they just lost the ball going into the lane or put up shots that had no chance of going in.

"We just got careless," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. "We just lost a little bit of our discipline from a defensive perspective. But offensively, we just started walking it up and trying to throw it into the post instead of running it in. We ran earlier. We attacked. We were in transition earlier. We just stopped doing that and got conservative and it cost us."

Reggie Evans gave the Clippers their first lead at 97-96 when he scored inside with 58 seconds left.

Gay answered with 28 seconds to go with a 10-foot jumper on the right baseline over Paul, ending a drought where the Grizzlies went nearly 9 minutes without a field goal.

Tony Allen fouled Paul, sending him to the line for the clinching free throws.

Boston came back from 21 down after three quarters against New Jersey on May 25, 2002.

The Grizzlies had won six straight overall and the last 11 on their home floor to grab the No. 4 seed and start this series at home. Mayo said there would be no sleep until they fix what went wrong.

"We turned something that we worked so hard for - home-court advantage - to an ugly loss in Game 1," Mayo said. "We've got to come back Game 2 with the attitude we can't quit."

The Grizzlies seemed to be clicking all across the board. They even hit 11 of 16 from 3-point range after ranking 25th in the NBA this season beyond the arc at 34.5 percent. Against the Clippers, they opened by hitting their four. So did Conley, and he hit three straight, the last with 7:19 left in the third, putting the Grizzlies up 69-48.

Memphis fans couldn't have been more ready for this chance to start the postseason at home with a sellout crowd on hand. With a good luck charm in a St. Jude patient singing the national anthem, fans had their free T-shirts on and waving the free towels before tipoff.

The Grizzlies were ready too. They opened the game hitting their first five shots and seven of the first 10 in jumping out 15-6, forcing Del Negro to take a timeout. They quickly led by as much as 20 and had a 34-16 lead by the end of the first quarter, tying the most points scored this season in that period.

This is the Clippers' first trip to the postseason since 2006. Paul has plenty of playoff experience with 23 games while in New Orleans, but this was the postseason debut for three starters - Griffin, Randy Foye and DeAndre Jordan - along with four of their teammates.

Paul looked a little rusty in the first half with only one point and three assists, all in the first quarter. He sat out the Clippers' final game of the season with a strained groin, and Los Angeles lost that game to the Knicks along with the chance to start this series at home. Paul picked up his third foul with 6.5 seconds left in the first half.

The Clippers made a run in the second quarter and got within 50-39. But after Gay missed a pull-up jumper, the Clippers had a shot clock violation. The Grizzlies scored the final eight points, the last on a dunk by Gasol just before the buzzer for a 58-39 halftime lead.

Notes: The Grizzlies scored 34 in a quarter three other times. ... The Grizzlies went 17-1 when leading after the first and 16-1 when leading at halftime. The lone loss came in double overtime March 13 to the Lakers. ... The Grizzlies made nine 3-pointers twice during the season, the last on April 3 against Golden State.

Notebook: Clippers 99, Grizzlies 98

Posted Monday April 30, 2012 12:34AM

By Marlon W. Morgan, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Coaches tell players all the time to just keep playing no matter what the score is. On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Clippers showed why. Trailing by as many at 27, and down 95-71 with 9:13 remaining in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series against Memphis, the Clippers held the Grizzlies to just one field goal the rest of the game and pulled off an improbable 99-98 victory before a stunned, sold-out crowd of 18,119 at FedExForum. Nick Young ignited the rally off the bench for the Clippers, knocking down three consecutive 3-pointers during the comeback and finished with a team-high 19 points.

QUOTABLE: "It's crazy. It shows how hard we fought, how we rallied together as a team and made stops at the end. All of it came from the bench tonight, and that's a part of the team. When things aren't going right, we felt we had to get our starters going."
-- Young.

THE STAT: The Clippers trailed by 21 points entering the fourth quarter and still won, with their comeback tying the playoff record for the largest deficit overcome in the shot-clock era. The last time a 21-point deficit was overcome in the fourth quarter of a playoff game was on May 25, 2002, when New Jersey led Boston 74-53. The comeback also set a Clipper record -- regular season or playoff -- for the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.

THE STAT II: For three quarters, the Grizzlies were nearly unstoppable offensively, shooting 50 percent from the floor and 66.7 percent from 3-point range. But the fourth quarter was a different story. In that crucial period, the Grizzlies shot 26.3 percent (5-for-19) and scored just 13 points. In the final 9:13, they made just one basket and that was after going nearly nine minutes without one.

TURNING POINT: The Clippers pulled to within 96-84 with 5:08 to play. The Grizzlies then failed to score on five straight possessions. All of the sudden, Young got hot and knocked down three straight 3s to cut the Grizzlies lead to 96-93, giving them the belief they could complete the comeback, which they did.

GOOD MOVE: Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said he considered pulling point guard Chris Paul around the six-minute mark due to his injured left groin. His decision not to pull him came up big as Paul was the calming influence the Clippers needed to pull off the incredible win. His two free throws with 23.7 seconds left proved to be the winning points.

BAD MOVE: When asked before the game if he would consider putting Tony Allen on Paul late in the game if the score was close, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said probably not unless Mike Conley was in foul trouble. He said he preferred to have the guy who has been guarding Paul all season defend him. But with the Grizzlies leading, 98-97, Allen came out of a timeout defending Paul. He gambled trying to steal the ball from Paul after he picked up his dribble, but was whistled for a foul, sending Paul to the line for the winning free throws.

HOT: During the regular season, the Grizzlies were one of the NBA's worst 3-point shooting teams. But Sunday night, the hit 8 of their first 10 from long range and finished the game making 11-of-16. Conley led the way going 5-for-5.

NOT: Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph was inserted in the starting lineup, but he was far from the player who dominated the playoffs last season. Randolph scored six points on 3-of-13 shooting and committed three turnovers.

QUOTABLE II: "It's the little things that cost you in games like this and playoff games aren't meant to be blowouts. Sometimes they are, but when you have two evenly matched teams, you can expect that both teams are going to be in the game at the end. The Clippers got back to win the game. We just didn't make enough plays and they did."
-- Hollins.

NOTABLE: Clippers guard Caron Butler suffered a fractured left hand in the third quarter and did not return. After the game, Butler, with his hand bandaged and wrapped, said he was unsure if he would be out for the series. ... Grizzlies' forward Rudy Gay was playing in his first playoff game after missing last year's run to the Western Conference semifinals with a shoulder injury. Gay had a chance to hit one of his patented game-winning shots, but his jumper at the buzzer over Kenyon Martin came up short. Gay finished the game with a team-high 19 points. ... Grizzlies center Marc Gasol was dominant in the first half, scoring 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. In the second half, however, Gasol was held scoreless, taking only one shot.

UP NEXT: Game 2 will be played Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET.

• Clippers: Billups, Leslie
• Grizzlies: Arthur, Selby

• Clippers: Jordan, Paul, Williams
• Grizzlies: Speights

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 2

• Arena: FedExForum, Memphis, TN
• Officials: #57 Greg Willard, #42 Eric Lewis, #49 Tom Washington
• Attendance: 18119
• Duration: 2:31