Clippers Survive Game 7 In Memphis, Beat Clippers 82-72

Williams, a starter most of his NBA career and an All-Star in 2009 with Cleveland, was thriving in his sixth man role, but there was little else in reserve for the team.

Slowly but surely, the reinforcements arrived. Evans’ foot healed and he made his season debut in the sixth game, immediately becoming the first big man off the bench and a STAPLES Center favorite. Martin got out of his contract in China early and joined the team on February 8. Bledsoe returned to the lineup in early February as well, though he was brought along slowly as he tested his knee and tried to regain game shape. Young was acquired for Cook and a second round pick at the trade deadline in mid-March.

The Clipper and Grizzlies might not have provided the best basketball experience of the NBA Playoffs first round, but Los Angeles and Memphis sure provided the best viewing experience. What a series.

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But the Grizzlies have stormed back, winning Games 5 and 6 to force a decisive Game 7 in Memphis on Sunday. Now holding the momentum, and with the home court advantage for the decisive game, the Grizzlies would have to be considered favored to become the ninth team ever to climb out of a 3-1 hole.

Both teams want to win and move forward, of course. But the stakes are even higher for the Clippers, where this isn’t just a single basketball season, but a prolonged courtship of Chris Paul.

When the Clippers came from 27 points down to win Game 1 in Memphis, no one would have guessed that this series would be remotely interesting, but it’s made it all the way to Game 7 because of an injury to Paul and the inability of the Clippers to guard Memphis’ forwards or create any offense except for the offense that Paul creates by himself. He is the best player in this series and can win Game 7 by himself, but if he is not healthy, the Clippers are underdogs on the road.

Game Date/Time: Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

Paul looked like a shell of the best version of himself with 11 points and seven assists before he fouled out. He took just nine shots on the night and did not have his usual explosiveness. Griffin finished with 17 points and five rebounds.

For complete coverage of Friday’s Game 6, keep checking this StoryStream. For all news and information regarding the Los Angeles Clippers, please visit Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For updates and perspective on the Memphis Grizzlies, head on over to Straight Outta Vancouver.

On the other hand, I do not, as was recently suggested on twitter, wear Blake Griffin pajamas and flop into bed every night. For some readers, my perceived bias will render anything I write here completely invalid, but believe me when I say that I am choosing my words very carefully and making as completely objective an argument as possible. If you can’t get past the ClipperSteve thing, stop reading.

Next: I understand where the perception of Blake Griffin as flopper comes from. I get it, I do. He whines to refs, he embellishes contact, he sells fouls, and then he puts you on his poster. People find the combination of freakish athletic specimen and dubious whiner untoward, unseemly. I get that. In fact, I would bet that I wrote on the subject long before pretty much anyone else. In January 2011, three months into Griffin’s NBA career, I wrote this:

Ramona Shelburne from ESPN Los Angeles gave additional news:

If the injury Paul suffered Wednesday night in Game 5 of the series (won by the Grizzlies 92-80 to stave off elimination) is serious, if it limits him in the remaining games, if it keeps CP3 from being CP3, then the Grizzlies will likely become just the ninth team in NBA playoff history to win a series after falling behind 3-1.

Almost immediately, with the Clippers now down 10, he was back at the scorer’s table waiting to check back in to the game. The smart thing to do at that point, down double digits with less than four minutes remaining, was to live to fight another day. Based on the earlier results in this series, no one would have been the least bit surprised had an uninjured Paul and the Clippers completed the comeback and left Memphis with their close-out complete. In fact, it’s probably what most people expected to happen. But that all changed when Paul pulled up lame. Rather than playing Paul in a quixotic attempt to win Game 5, clearly the smart play would have been to start resting and treating the injury as soon as possible in order to get him as healthy as possible as soon as possible for the remaining games. Strained muscles need rest and ice immediately to reduce inflammation and begin healing. Playing on a strained hip flexor only serves to delay healing at best, and could aggravate the injury at worst.

Blake Griffin went down with an apparent knee injury Wednesday as the Clippers battled the Grizzlies in Game 5 of their NBA playoff matchup. After returning briefly to shoot his free throws, Griffin headed to the bench for further evaluation but did return to the game for the stretch run. One would think he’d be good to go for the rest of the series, but the Clippers are planning to reevaluate him on Thursday.

Following the game, the team told reporters Griffin would undergo an MRI on his left knee after returning to Los Angeles.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

On the next possession, Paul tried fighting for a defensive rebound and came down awkwardly on his groin. The Clippers are diagnosing the injury as a strained groin. His status for Game 6 will become more clear after the game.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

However, after staying on the ground for several minutes, Griffin hobbled back into the game and has tried to fight through the pain. Because of that, ostensibly, the Grizzlies fans booed, thinking he was faking the injury.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

Many people on Twitter are tired of the Los Angeles Clippers flopping. This one Memphis Grizzlies fan speaks for all those people here.

UPDATE: Upon closer inspection, this gentleman is wearing a great, great mask and an awesome Star Wars shirt. Well done, sir.

Well put, Lionel. Of course, shutting down Chris Paul is easier said than done.

In yet another classic in this series that is carrying the 2012 NBA Playoffs the way that Paul has carried the Clippers in countless fourth quarters, the Grizzlies overcame a 10-point deficit in the final four and a half minutes of regulation, only to watch Paul break their hearts again in the overtime period. With the win, the Clippers took a commanding 3-1 lead as the series heads back to Memphis. During regulation of the three Clipper victories, a total of two points has separated these teams. That’s how close this has been. Any or all of those three games could easily have gone the other way.

The Clippers took a six-point lead into halftime, but the Grizzlies battled back, attempting to even up the series. Memphis reeled off an 11-1 run late in the fourth quarter to help them tie the game, 87-87, sending the game into overtime.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

The 2012 NBA Playoffs have been pretty boring so far, let’s be honest. Of the eight series, five of them are currently 3-1, one of them is already over after a 4-0 sweep and one stands at 3-0. In most of these series, the team with the better seed is winning, the exceptions being the Philadelphia-Chicago series that has seen last season’s MVP lost for the season and the Boston-Atlanta series where everyone suspected Boston was the better team all along.

Almost single-handedly making up for the other less compelling series, the Clippers and Grizzlies have played three hard-fought, entertaining and exciting games. Even before the playoffs started, this was the series that most people picked as the most likely to be close. The four seed and the five seed are usually going to be evenly matched, and both teams finished the season playing their best basketball, with the Grizzlies closing the season with 14 wins in their final 17 games and the Clippers going 14-5 in their last 19. Home court advantage in the series wasn’t even decided until the last games of the season as the Grizzlies edged past L.A.

They didn’t call timeout, and ended up with a missed shot by Gay at the buzzer.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

Despite some poor free-throw shooting down the stretch, the Los Angeles Clippers escaped game three with an 87-86 win. The victory gives the Clippers a 2-1 lead in the best of seven series.

Game 4 of the series is scheduled for Monday May 7, at 10:30 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Clippers fans haven’t attended a home playoff game in six years, so I’ll cut this one some slack for looking a bit out of sorts, to say the least.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

For all news and information regarding the Memphis Grizzlies, please visit Straight Outta Vancouver. For updates and perspective on the Los Angeles Clippers, head on over to Clips Nation or check out SB Nation Los Angeles. For complete coverage of the 2012 NBA playoffs, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NBA hub.

In a postseason that’s seen more blowouts than tight ones, this series has two evenly matched teams that are easy to root for, and the pick-and-rolling and offensive talent of the Clippers facing off against the defensive grit of the Grizzlies makes for an interesting fight. Here’s how to catch tonight’s Game 3:

On Wednesday night, the Clippers turned the ball over 20 times in 88 possessions, nearly a 23 percent turnover rate. (Nearly one out of every four Clippers possessions ended in a turnover. During the regular season, that number was one in eight. That’s an astounding shift.) Of those 20 turnovers, 13 were registered as Memphis steals, which means they were “live-ball” turnovers. That (and sure-handed play by the Grizz) allowed Memphis to win the fast break 20-6. On Wednesday, Memphis forced L.A. into more live-ball turnovers than the Clips usually give up in total turnovers.

Memphis killed the glass, too, which was not unexpected coming into the series: L.A. is a mid-rung defensive rebounding club and the Grizz finished the season No. 3 on the offensive boards. The inverse is also true: L.A. is No. 4 in offensive rebounding and Memphis is middle of the pack on the defensive glass. On Wednesday, the Grizz picked up 16 offensive rebounding in 40 opportunities -- a very strong rate of success. The Clippers had ... four in 25 opportunities. That’s not good.

Coming into Game 2, many wondered how the Memphis Grizzlies would respond after blowing a 24-point fourth-quarter lead in their 2012 NBA Playoffs opener against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. In the end, the Grizzlies responded by being themselves, grinding out a 105-98 win to knot the series at one.