LOS ANGELES – Blake Griffin walked up to his spot at the post-game podium. A few seconds later, Chris Paul did the same. While that’s a nightly occurrence, with the two Clippers often the standouts of their wins, what Paul did next isn’t typically necessary.
Paul moved a few feet to his left and made room for someone else to take center stage Friday night, sandwiched by the two Clippers superstars.
“I ain’t used to this,” Marreese Speights said, shuffling his way to the postgame podium after his fourth-quarter jolt gave the Clippers what it needed to get over the hump and come back from 19 points down to finish off the team’s biggest come-from-behind win of the season.
Seconds earlier, Griffin wrapped his arm around a smiling Speights with less than a minute left in a tight game against the Bulls as the two big men walked back to the Clippers’ bench with a five-point lead. Speights waved his arms in the air to pump up an animated STAPLES Center crowd after “Mo Buckets” did more than just score 11 fourth-quarter points to finish off the comeback victory.
With an early 19-point deficit, it was the type of night that called for the unconventional – a night head coach Doc Rivers said he had to throw out the coaching book and try out combinations he’d never used before until something clicked. Part of that meant late minutes for Austin Rivers, Raymond Felton and Speights.
Before the game started, Doc Rivers talked about how this summer he wanted to get as many veterans who were “over themselves as possible.” By “over themselves,” Doc said he was referring to the type of player who was ready to win and cared less about his minutes and touches and more about being part of something bigger than himself.
It’s the type of player who can get over four largely unproductive minutes in the first half, then forget about it and be the hero in the second, the way Speights was Friday. It’s the type of player who can sit most of the night, then explode for five points in three minutes in the third quarter and score another 11 in the fourth, the way Speights did Friday.
And, maybe more importantly, it’s the type of player whose biggest play isn’t necessarily any of those 16 points, but the willingness to grab an offensive rebound to keep a possession alive in the final minute, the way Speights did Friday as he recovered a Jamal Crawford miss, then found Crawford again for a reverse lay-up to put the Clippers in control in the final minute.
“Congrats to Mo, because he hung in there,” Doc Rivers said. “He could’ve easily been upset. I gave him four minutes, didn’t think he was playing well, yanked him out, then bring him back early in the third and keep him there for the game. That was a great example of – you just got to figure it out. There’s nights like this. When you win games in nights like this, it makes you feel good.”
Doc Rivers rewarded Speights with minutes, and Speights made good on each of them in the second half, spacing the floor in a seldom-used lineup that allowed Griffin to roll and Speights to pop.
“He gets buckets,” Griffin said, alluding to Speights’ nickname. “But, he knows when to make the next play, when to take a shot, when to be aggressive, when to draw the foul. He makes the game easier for us.”
As the Clippers continued to cut the Bulls’ lead but failed to break through and tie or take the lead the majority of the night, Speights said Crawford was on the bench telling the reserves all it would take is a bucket and a stop from them to provide the spark.
“I feel like we did that,” Speights said. “That’s what we’re on the bench for, to look at the game and see what we can do better.”
The reserves did that again late Friday, the way they’ve done the majority of the year.
And no one appreciates that more than the two stars surrounding Speights in that postgame press conference.
“We have a great locker room of vets and guys who have been through so many things,” Paul said. “We have pros, guys that take care of their bodies and do their work, because we haven’t had an opportunity to practice. It’s a mindset. When guys are down, we pick each other up. It’s fun right now with us…Anybody in our locker room, you can feel it right now.”