Basketball is a team sport often boiled down to individual performances and star athletes. On Sunday, when a dozen well-deserved columns are published on Chris Paul or SportsCenter replays Tim Duncan's incredible moments of immortality over and over again, the 48 minutes of the game itself may be, in a way, overlooked.
NBA playoff scores 2015: Clippers and Spurs combined for a legendary Game 7
Los Angeles advanced past San Antonio in the first round, but the game itself was something special.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
As the Clippers beat the Spurs, 111-109, in Game 7 on Saturday to advance past their death match of a first round series, it wasn't a game filled with fractured individual moments, but the sum of all the parts equaling something incredible. On the court, 10 players combined in beautiful basketball poetry. Paul hit the game-winning shot on a bad leg, but in the fourth quarter alone, there were J.J. Redick three-pointers, Matt Barnes defensive plays, huge Blake Griffin free throws. Likewise, the Spurs had dozens of moments that all throughout the game that won't be celebrated in the same manner as Paul's will be, because the clock wasn't winding down and the score wasn't tied. But put it all together and you leave with a game that has to be historic is some way or another.
A highlight reel can’t relive the experience of watching the Spurs and Clippers bobble the lead back and forth like a game of hot potato. It was a free-for-all brawl, with nearly every single player getting a chance for a big moment to help their team. Of “you had to be there” moments, this game reigns supreme. You really had to be there, watching along in stunned disbelief as crazier and crazier things kept happening.
For six games, Los Angeles and San Antonio had played truly spectacular basketball. We all know how well-oiled the Spurs machine can be and how Gregg Popovich runs it to perfection. We're learning how great the Paul and Griffin tandem is. This was the only meaningful first-round series in this year's NBA playoffs, the only one to go the distance, but even before Game 7 was played it had made up for the others' lack of intrigue.
But to have a legendary performance like this in the decisive game is something remarkable. Maybe it’s recency bias, but it really does feel like this is a game that will be remembered and referenced for a decade. It feels legendary. And that’s not because of one incredible shot or one ridiculous individual, but because 10 players came together all at once to script some of the finest played basketball we’ve ever seen.
3 other things we learned
Is this the end of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili? Duncan is 39 and a free agent, while Ginobili has acknowledged his declining play and said basketball isn’t the most important thing to him anymore. All good things must come to an end, but hopefully this isn’t it -- not yet. Duncan is still producing at a high level while Ginobili still dropped in a couple of important three-pointers and seven assists. Then again, if this is the last time we ever see one or both of them on a basketball court, what a hell of a way to go out.
You really shouldn't forget about Jamal Crawford. The sixth man extraordinaire scored 16 off the bench with three assists, but it was his work when Chris Paul went to the bench in the first half that really stood out. He hit a layup and three-pointer to close out the first quarter and when the second started, he immediately dished assists to Redick and Griffin before nailing a couple more shots of his own.
Sneaky Player of the Game candidate: Jamal Crawford had 9 points, 2 assists during 7ish minute span Paul said. Accntd for all 15 LA points.
— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneySAEN) May 3, 2015 If Paul is out for Game 1 against the Rockets, a lot of the ball handling responsibility will fall on Crawford. They’ll need him to step up just like his Game 7 showing.
Danny Green regained a little bit of that free agency money. Coming into the series, Green was averaging seven points and two rebounds on 30 percent shooting from the field and 27 percent from the three-point line. To be blunt, he was having a godawful series and his poor play was a huge factor in the series tied at 3-3. In Game 7, his team still lost but by not fault of his own, as Green went off for 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, plus eight rebounds, three assists and an incredible five blocks. Of the major free agents on the Spurs' roster, Green probably has the best chance of skipping town for a big money offer. His Game 7 should remind teams what they're paying for.
Play of the Night
How can it be anything else?
7 fun things
Duncan and Paul share this emotional moment. They go waaaaaay back.
Will Duncan and Ginobili return? Let’s go to Pop. Any updates, Pop? “The paycheck’s pretty good.” OK, thanks Pop.
Speaking of Pop, he was Hulk mad about this clock mishap with a second remaining.
How did Danny Green block this shot?
This quintessential play sums up the entirety of Austin Rivers' AND Manu Ginobili's career, respectively.
Final score
Clippers 111, Spurs 109 (Clips Nation recap | Pounding the Rock recap | SB Nation recap)
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