Rowan Kavner 
Digital Content Coordinator
PORTLAND – The Clippers shot their worst percentage since March, but that wasn’t their primary concern after Saturday’s Game 3 loss.
Portland’s Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, both shooting below 42 percent the first two games of the series, each shot 50 percent and combined 59 points – but that wasn’t their primary concern after a Game 3 loss.
Doc Rivers felt the focus decreased from Game 1 to Game 2, but that wasn’t the main problem or the primary concern in his mind in Game 3’s loss, either.
What Maurice Harkless did, grabbing an offensive rebound and putting it back with a dunk to put the Trail Blazers ahead by five points with less than a minute left – that was more along the lines of the Clippers’ concerns after Game 3’s loss, which gave the Trail Blazers their first win of the series.
Rivers said he thought the Trail Blazers played hard, were tougher, ran harder, got to their spots quicker and got to loose balls faster.
“And they destroyed us on the glass,” Rivers said.
For those reasons, Rivers said he thought Portland deserved to win the game. And, going on a 15-3 run to finish Saturday’s Game 3, that’s what The Trail Blazers did.
“You just have to bring more energy,” said Blake Griffin. “They beat us in almost every facet of the game. They outhustled us; they were better on the glass; they got the 50-50 balls; they had more energy; they flew around. They executed their game plan, and you could tell they wanted to go early. They were tougher than us.”
All of those areas frustrated the Clippers more than their 40.9 percent shooting or Lillard’s 32 points and McCollum’s 27.
The Trail Blazers pulled down 16 offensive rebounds, none more important than Harkless’ late board and putback. The Clippers had to figure out a way to slow down Portland’s explosive backcourt, but it came at the expense of the glass.
“Obviously, we’re putting two people on the ball a lot of times, and that was allowing Harkless tonight to kind of get a running start from the corner on offensive rebounds,” Redick said. “He hurt us in the second half.”
Six different Trail Blazers finished with at least two offensive rebounds, which the Clippers felt wasn’t going to cut it for a Portland team already playing with more gusto back at home for the first time this series. Many of the Clippers felt the Trail Blazers were more aggressive, which the Clippers knew coming in couldn’t happen if they wanted to put Portland away.
“They pushed, and we didn’t really push back,” Griffin said. “You have to be the team that initiates it. You can’t be the team that responds to it. They did everything, I felt like, they wanted to do.”
And, it’s those areas where the Clippers will start when looking at what to fix Monday to try to go ahead 3-1 and head back to Los Angeles with a chance to close Portland out at home.
“That’s tough, to work hard all game long and for it to go like that,” said Chris Paul. “It’s tough, but you have to let it go and be ready for Game 4.”