Grizzlies-Clippers Preview

By BERNIE WILSON
Posted May 04 2012 9:05PM

The Los Angeles Clippers want to get more physical with the Memphis Grizzlies while reintroducing their long-suffering fans to playoff basketball.

To Blake Griffin, it's simple.

"We have to be the more aggressive team. That's the biggest thing," Griffin said Friday.

The Clippers will get their chance in front of a friendly crowd at Staples Center in Game 3 on Saturday. The winner will take a 2-1 lead in the opening-round series.

The Clippers haven't played a home postseason game since 2006. The next two games will be in Los Angeles.

"Playing in front of the home crowd definitely can give you a little more confidence," Griffin said. "You're a little bit more relaxed. Their fans are loud and they love playing in their home arena, and you can feel that energy from their team. Taking them out of that element and also putting our guys in our home element, hopefully that gives us a little boost I guess."

Chris Paul agrees.

"I think for us it's all about Game 3. Game 3 puts us back in the driver's seat," Paul said. "But in the playoffs it's all about controlling your home court. We went there and got one and now we've got to take care of our home court."

The Clippers stunned the Grizzles in the opener by racing back from a 27-point deficit to win 99-98 Sunday night. Memphis evened the series with a 105-98 win Wednesday night.

"We've got to get more physical," Paul said."We've got to figure out a way to get to the free-throw line more and cut down on theirs. We came out aggressive but I don't think we sustained it for 48 minutes. So hopefully we can do that at home."

Memphis scored 31 points at the free-throw line in Game 2 while the Clippers scored 13. The Grizzlies shot 21 more free throws than the Clippers.

"They're physical as it is the regular season, but they've stepped it up in the playoffs," Griffin said. "Sometimes it's tough to differentiate between that line of being extra physical and getting called for fouls. So we've got to find that and take it to them.

"I think it's just about being more aggressive and taking it to them first and not have to pick that up halfway through the game. Just being the team that attacks first."

Said Memphis center Marc Gasol: "It's going to be a physical series. It's the playoffs. We don't expect anything less than that for the next game."

Clippers fans regularly packed Staples Center this year.

That won't matter much to the Grizzlies.

"It's nothing like home, but it's nice to be on the road and try to take something from the other team," Gasol said.

"There is definitely no difference in preparation," coach Lionel Hollins said. "I just think those guys are at home and we're in a hotel. Their routines are normal and ours are a little bit different because we are in a hotel. As far as the preparation, the practice, the mental part of it, outside of that, it's all the same."

Clippers forward Caron Butler practiced Friday on a limited basis while wearing a brace on his broken left hand. Coach Vinny Del Negro said he received a good report from a hand specialist and isn't ruling Butler out. The coach said he'll decide Butler's status on Saturday.

"Caron is a tough guy, he's a battler, he wants to be out there," Del Negro said. "But we also want to be smart about it, so I'll evaluate it tomorrow. It was good to see him out there. I think it gives ours guys a boost because he is such a big part of our team. I give him a lot of credit for even being out there."

Paul, Griffin lead Clippers over Griz, 87-86

By BERNIE WILSON
Posted May 05 2012 9:48PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) If the Los Angeles Clippers hadn't been so inept at the free throw line, Rudy Gay's last-second shot wouldn't have mattered.

Chris Paul had 24 points and 11 assists and high-flying Blake Griffin added 17 points for the Clippers, who beat the Memphis Grizzles 87-86 Saturday only after Gay missed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

"That's the way we planned it," Paul joked. "They aren't going to give us anything. They're never out of the game with an electrifying scorer like Rudy Gay."

The Clippers won their first home playoff game in six seasons to take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference playoffs. Game 4 is Monday night.

The long-suffering Clippers fans, who turned Staples Center into a sea of red, very easily could have gone home disappointed.

Paul hit a fadeaway jumper with 2:02 left for an 82-80 lead. On the next possession he had a no-look bounce pass to Griffin coming in off the baseline for a monster slam.

Trailing 86-80 after two free throws by Paul, Gay hit a 3-pointer with 12.9 seconds left, Memphis' first field goal since 7:10. After Los Angeles missed three of four free throws, Gay hit another 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds to hush the crowd.

Eric Bledsoe missed two more free throws, Gilbert Arenas rebounded for Memphis to set up Gay's final shot. Gay, who had 24 points, got some room to shoot, and quickly let go. But it the shot bounced off the rim.

"At the end of the game I wanted to make a quick play," Gay said.

Memphis had another big advantage at the free throw line, like it did in winning Game 2, but couldn't capitalize. The Grizzlies made 30 of 39 while the Clippers were just 13 of 30.

"We missed 17 free throws?" Paul said. "We did? It shows how much fight we have. It's unacceptable."

Paul did his part at the line, making, seven of eight. But Griffin missed six of nine while Reggie Evans missed six of eight.

Memphis had seemingly taken the crowd out of the game in the third quarter, when it outscored the Clippers 25-14 to take a 71-64 lead.

The Clippers' lull extended into the fourth quarter. Marc Gasol made a field goal with 7:10 left for a 77-71 lead, but that was Memphis' last basket until the first of Gay's two 3-pointers in the closing seconds.

"We shut down and only scored 15 points in the fourth quarter," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. " We took too many quick shots and gave up second-chance points. We gave them the back door and Blake took advantage of it."

Said Gay: "We missed a couple plays we wish we had back. We had a couple letdowns. `'

The Clippers, who rallied from 27 down to win the opener on Sunday night at Memphis, started this comeback with just more than four minutes to go.

Evans made a strong inside move against Marreese Speights to rebound Bledsoe's missed free throw and score to pull L.A. to 79-77 with 4:08 left. Randy Foye then hit a huge 3-point shot from the left side with 3:13 left to tie it at 80 before Paul and Griffin took over.

"He's tenacious," Gay said of Paul. "He doesn't give up. He makes plays and finds people. We can't have other people doing what they did today. The Clippers pushed us tonight. They got into the lane. We'll see how we respond on Monday."

Forward Caron Butler started for the Clippers, wearing a splint on his broken left, or non-shooting, hand. He was hurt in Game 1, and missed the next game. He scored four points.

The Clippers used an 18-1 run spanning the first and second quarter to take a 36-23 lead, but the Grizzles turned around and dropped a 13-0 run on Los Angeles to tie it.

Griffin put an exclamation point on the first half when he stole the inbounds pass from Speights and swooped in for a dunk at the buzzer to give the Clippers a 50-46 lead.

It was the first home playoff game as Clippers for Paul and Griffin.

"I won't forget my first playoff in this building," Paul said. "The energy in the crowd and seeing fans celebrating motivate us. The crowd won the game for us. "

Said Griffin: "It was unbelievable. The fans were on their feet and with the energy through our warm-ups, we had no choice but to play hard."

Zach Randolph scored 17 for Memphis while Gasol had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Quincy Pondexter had 11 points.

Foye had 16 for L.A.

NOTES: Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro tried to play coy before the game about Butler's status, but added after: "Maybe we underestimated how tough he is `' ... Paul was impressed that Butler played. "If he can fight with one broken hand, what can the rest of us do?" ... Butler played just more than 22 minutes. ... Gay committed two fouls in the game's first five minutes and sat out until early in the second quarter.

Notebook: Clippers 87, Grizzlies 86

Posted Saturday May 5, 2012 9:14PM

By Dan Arritt, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: The Clippers did everything required to earn a victory Saturday afternoon in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Grizzlies. Everything except make their free throws. The Clippers missed five straight from the line in the final 12 seconds, and Memphis forward Rudy Gay sank two 3-pointers in the final 13 ticks before missing another at the buzzer, allowing L.A. to escape with an 87-86 victory at Staples Center and take a 2-1 series edge.

QUOTABLE: "We did a nice job clamping down in the fourth quarter. Rudy had a couple of tough shots and we missed 17 free throws. This was a gutsy performance and we turned it up there in the third quarter and were able to stay close."
-- Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro

THE STAT: The Clippers weren't just bad from the line in the closing seconds, they were awful the entire game. They shot 13-for-30 from the stripe (43.3 percent), worst than their 3-point shooting percentage (47.1). The poor free-throw shooting shouldn't come as a surprise, as the Clippers shot 68 percent from the line during the regular season, the worst in franchise history and the lowest percentage in the NBA since the 2000-01 season.

TURNING POINT: A 9-0 run starting with 3:16 remaining in the game gave the Clippers an 86-80 lead with 23 seconds left. Gay then sank the first of two desperation 3s with 13 seconds on the game clock. Clippers back-up guard Eric Bledsoe was immediately fouled, made the first free throw and missed the second, but back-up forward Reggie Evans slid under Marc Gasol and grabbed the offensive rebound. He was immediately fouled and proceeded to miss both foul shots, which would have given the Clippers a six point-point lead. Gay then sank another 26-footer, cutting the deficit to one point with eight seconds left. Out of timeouts, the Clippers managed to inbounds the ball to Bledsoe, a 71.8 percent free-throw shooter in his two-year NBA career. This time, he missed both. Out of timeouts, Gilbert Arenas collected the rebound, brought the ball up the floor and passed to Gay, who let go of an off-balance 3 pointer with Randy Foye on his hip. The ball hit the front of the run, the backboard and then bounced straight out to the relief of the Clippers and their faithful.

HOT: After going scoreless the first 17 minutes of the game, Gay scored 24 points on 13 shots, none bigger than his back-to-back 3s late in the game. Chris Paul had 24 points, 11 assists and four steals to lead the Clippers, and Blake Griffin contributed 17 points and drew a number of fouls that put a few key players on Memphis in foul trouble. On the downside, Griffin shot 3-for-9 from the line and committed a team-high five turnovers. The player who stepped up most for the Clippers was Foye. After being held to one 3-pointer in the first two games of the series, he shot 4-for-5 from beyond the arc to finish with 16 points. His 3-pointer with 3:16 remaining finally got the Clippers even after they fell behind midway through the third quarter.

NOT: Since the Clippers' atrocious free-throw shooting has already been documented, and remarkably did not end up costing them the game, the next-biggest letdown came from Memphis starters Mike Conley, Tony Allen and Gasol. All three scored below their regular-season averages, leaving Gay (24 points) and Zach Randolph (17 points) to carry the load. Gasol finished with 11 points and took just five field-goal attempts, Conley shot 3-for-10 and scored nine points and Allen was held to four points and lost his one-on-one battle with Foye for the first time in the series.

GOOD MOVE: The Clippers used an 18-1 run to take a 13-point lead early in the second quarter, then gave it all back courtesy of a 13-0 run by the Grizzlies later in the quarter. Griffin gave the L.A. fans something to be excited about during halftime, however, stealing an inbounds pass after Paul had made two free throws with 2.3 seconds left. He took the ball right at the basket and scored on a slam dunk just as time expired, giving the Clippers a 50-46 lead.

BAD MOVE: Bledsoe is a great change-of-pace guard with tremendous speed and long arms that can make things tough on opponents, but playing him down the stretch over Nick Young or Mo Williams was a big gamble. Both Young and Williams are more experienced, cooler under pressure and can hit clutch free throws. Don't expect to see Bledsoe on the floor late in close games during the rest of this series.

QUOTABLE II: "I liked [Bledsoe] on Conley with his foot speed. Chris had logged a lot of minutes ... defensively, his physicality and his rebounding helped us. "
-- Del Negro.

NOTABLE: The Clippers were playing their first home playoff game in six years. ... Evans finished with 11 rebounds for the Clippers, seven more than his nearest teammate. ... The Grizzlies were 3-0 in one-point games during the regular season but 0-2 in three playoff games. Gay also missed the game-winner at the buzzer in a one-point loss in Game 1.

UP NEXT: Game 4, Monday @ Staples Center, 10:30 p.m. ET.

• Grizzlies: Pargo
• Clippers: Billups, Leslie

• Grizzlies: Speights
• Clippers: Griffin

• Lead Changes: 9
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #9 Derrick Stafford, #30 John Goble, #71 Rodney Mott
• Attendance: 19060
• Duration: 2:54