Grizzlies-Clippers Preview

By BERNIE WILSON
Posted May 06 2012 5:45PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) The Los Angeles Clippers know they probably won't get away with another inept performance at the free-throw line in the Western Conference playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies.

"We just can't let leads go like that, when we're up six with, I think, 40 seconds left," Nick Young said Sunday. "We had everybody in here shooting free throws today."

The Clippers missed 17 of 30 free throws and almost squandered a six-point lead in the final 23 seconds Saturday, beating the Grizzlies 87-86 only after Rudy Gay missed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

Game 4 is Monday night, when the Clippers hope to take a 3-1 series lead.

Chris Paul, who had 24 points and 11 assists, was the only Clippers player to do well at the line. He made seven of eight, including two with 23 seconds left for the six-point lead.

The Clippers took six more free throws, missing the last five. Gay hit two 3-pointers to keep the Grizzlies in it.

"Some players haven't been in that situation, especially with us being in the playoff atmosphere," Young said. "You've really kind of got like the game in your hands when you're at the free-throw line. That can be a lot of pressure, with everybody telling you, `We need this shot. We need you to make these free throws.

"We've just got to take care of home court, really. You shouldn't have that much pressure at home."

Coach Vinny Del Negro agreed.

"The bottom line is you've got to make the free throws," he said. "We've struggled with that periodically throughout the season. We were able to overcome it but you have to be very good in a lot of other areas when you miss that many free throws.

"I give the guys a lot of credit for buckling down in the fourth quarter and getting stops and making plays when we had to. We gave them some opportunities by missing some free throws. We're going to be aggressive and get to the line as much as possible and guys are going to have to step up and make them."

The Grizzles made 30 of 39 free throws. But they went nearly seven minutes without making a field goal, until Gay buried a 3 with 12.9 seconds left to pull to 86-83.

Del Negro said it's been a big boost mentally to have forward Caron Butler being able to play despite breaking his non-shooting left hand in Game 1. Butler missed the second game but played Saturday with a split, getting four points and three rebounds.

"It felt comfortable enough to be somewhat effective out there, so I gave it a shot," he said. "The role that I'm playing right now, what I'm doing, I can play with no hands. It's not a big deal. I can play."

The Grizzlies canceled their practice on Sunday, opting to just watch film.

Gay said there were no secrets to why the Grizzlies have lost twice in this series, including the opener when they blew a 27-point lead at home.

"I think we know what we can be," he said Saturday. "The first game we got away from how we played basketball. When we play our way, I feel as though we are a better team."

CP3 leads Clips past Grizz in OT to 3-1 lead

By GREG BEACHAM
Posted May 08 2012 4:50AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) One day after Chris Paul's 27th birthday, the All-Star point guard and his Los Angeles Clippers showed they're growing up splendidly together.

Sure, it's not happening without growing pains during a brutal series with the Memphis Grizzlies. After surviving overtime in their toughest test yet, Paul and his teammates are on the verge of an achievement with better rewards than candles and cake.

Paul scored eight of his 27 points in a dynamic overtime performance, and the Clippers moved to the verge of their second playoff series victory in 36 years with a 101-97 win over Memphis on Monday night, taking a 3-1 series lead.

The Clippers blew a 10-point lead late in regulation before finishing without Blake Griffin, who fouled out midway through overtime. It could have been another disaster for a franchise with more than its share, but Paul wouldn't allow it.

"It's fun, it's exciting," said Paul, who atoned for his inability to score at the regulation buzzer.

"The worst mistake I probably made in the game was not getting the shot at the end of regulation," he added. "If I was at home watching it on TV, I'd be talking so bad about me. But you've got to get through it. The (best) thing about it is that I have teammates that have confidence in me. Everything that we do is a team win."

Maybe so, but the Clippers were ever so grateful to rely on their All-Star point guard.

Griffin had 30 points and seven assists before fouling out for the Clippers, who blew an 84-74 lead over the final 4 1/2 minutes before Paul took charge in extra time. He played with the same intensity he showed late in regulation, heedlessly flinging himself over the front row of chairs in an attempt to save a loose ball.

"He's a great player, and that's what great players do," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Memphis, with Game 6 back at Staples Center on Friday if the Clippers can't close.

After Paul hit consecutive jumpers to put the Clippers ahead 99-93 with 44 seconds left, Mike Conley's layup with 8.1 seconds left trimmed the Clippers' lead back to two points. But after Mo Williams hit two free throws with 7.2 seconds left and Rudy Gay missed a meaningless 3-pointer, Griffin and Paul embraced while another frenzied sellout crowd of long-suffering Clippers fans roared.

"Chris is always intense," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "That's what makes him special. Chris is so good, not only at making plays for himself, but making the right play. That's what makes him a star."

Conley scored a career playoff-high 25 points and Gay had 23 on 8-of-25 shooting for the Grizzlies, who couldn't match Paul's late-game poise in another thrilling chapter of a highly entertaining series with four games decided by a total of 15 points.

"It's good TV, man, get the ratings up," Paul said. "We don't want any blowouts. There's a reason we finished 4-5 (in the Western Conference standings) with one game between us. We have a lot of competitive guys that don't give up in this series. We have two teams that are going to fight until the end."

In their breakthrough season since pairing Paul with Griffin, the Clippers need one more victory to win their second playoff series since the erstwhile Buffalo Braves moved to California. Los Angeles beat Denver in the first round in 2006, but hadn't been back to the postseason until this spring.

Caron Butler, playing with a broken bone in his left hand, scored 14 points for the Clippers, who still can't be comfortable after getting outrebounded 47-36 and giving away a big late lead.

After the Clippers rallied from big fourth-quarter deficits in their first two victories, Memphis rallied to 85-83 on Zach Randolph's jumper with 1:25 left. Gay hit the tying jumper in the final minute of regulation, and Paul drove for the go-ahead layup - his only points of the fourth quarter - before Randolph coolly hit two tying free throws with 20.4 seconds left.

Paul couldn't get a shot on the final possession of regulation, with Tony Allen and Gay swarming him - but he didn't quit.

"It's Chris Paul. He made his name off doing that," Gay said. "He's a tough guard. We can try and make it tougher on him, but still he's going to make plays and make his teammates better. That's what he's been doing."

The Clippers led 95-89 when Griffin fouled out, and the Grizzlies trimmed it to two points on jumpers by Conley and Gay. Paul went to work, shaking loose from defenders and hitting back-to-back jumpers sandwiching a turnover by Conley.

"Defensively in the overtime, we got three stops in a row, and Chris came down and hit big shot after big shot," Griffin said. "We keep telling ourselves, and we've said this all year, it starts on defense for us."

Fans filled Staples Center well before tipoff, donning their giveaway red T-shirts and standing to cheer on the majority of Los Angeles' possessions. They raised Staples Center's intensity to a level it hadn't seen since ... well, Sunday, when the Los Angeles Kings' fans roared throughout their second-round NHL clincher over St. Louis.

The tone was set in the first quarter: In a scintillating 2 1/2-minute stretch, the teams combined for six 3-pointers, an alley-oop from Paul to DeAndre Jordan and a technical foul for Gay. Butler, who broke his hand in the opener and sat out Game 2 before surprisingly returning for Game 3, scored 11 points and checked out to a standing ovation in the first quarter.

Memphis kept constant pressure on Griffin, forcing the two-time All-Star to be resourceful while keeping his temper in check. Randolph got a technical foul in the second quarter when he fouled Griffin roughly on the shoulder and then chest-bumped him, but Griffin only chuckled while Randolph, the former Clippers big man, was pulled away from him.

The Grizzlies got tough, but the NBA's leaders in steals didn't get a single steal in the first half.

Notes: Paul picked up his second technical foul of the series, a double T with Dante Cunningham. The Clippers have seven technical fouls in the series to the Grizzlies' six. ... The NBA finalized the start time for Game 5 in Memphis. It will begin at 9:30 p.m. EDT. ... After going 13 for 30 on free throws in Game 3, the Clippers made 10 straight to open Game 4, but finished 28 of 40.

Notebook: Clippers 101, Grizzlies 97

Posted Tuesday May 8, 2012 2:56AM

By Dan Arritt, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: If the Clippers end up winning their best-of-seven series against the Grizzlies, they'll have one player to thank in particular. Chris Paul put the team on his back in overtime Monday night and led the Clippers to a 101-97 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round series at Staples Center, giving L.A. a 3-1 series edge.

QUOTABLE: "He's a great player and that's what great players do."
-- Memphis coach Lionel Hollins on Paul.

THE STAT: The Clippers were getting outscored, 20-0, in second-chance points when Reggie Evans rebounded a missed free throw by Blake Griffin with 3:46 remaining in overtime and got the ball to Paul, who sank a pull-up jumper for a 92-89 lead. The Clippers never trailed again.

TURNING POINT: After the Clippers pushed their overtime lead to six, Memphis scored four consecutive points to get the deficit back to two with 10 seconds remaining. The Clippers, who missed five consecutive free throws in the final 12 seconds of Game 3, giving the Grizzlies a chance to steal the victory, made sure they had veteran guard Mo Williams on the floor this time. After calling back-to-back timeouts to design an inbounds play, the Clippers got the ball to Williams, who was fouled with 7.2 seconds left and hit nothing but net, sealing the victory.

HOT: After a quiet fourth quarter in which he scored just two points, Paul took the bull by the horns in the five-minute overtime period, shooting 4-for-5 and scoring eight of his team's 14 points. He tickled a possible triple-double, finishing with 27 points, a team-high nine rebounds and seven assists. He also committed just two turnovers against the No. 1 team in the league in steals during the regular season. The point guard position also turned out to best option for the Grizzlies as well. Mike Conley finished with a season-high 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out eight assists.

NOT: Memphis center Marc Gasol made his only basket of the night on a slam dunk with 37 seconds remaining in overtime. By then, Griffin had fouled out and the Clippers were more interested in guarding the 3-point line anyway. He finished 1-for-4 from the floor and 6-for-10 from the free-throw line. Rudy Gay, who missed two game-winning baskets earlier in the series, struggled with his shot most of the game, finishing 8-for-25 with 23 points. After a strong Game 3, Randy Foye disappeared for the third time in this series, finishing with three points on 1-for-5 shooting. He didn't even have to contend with Memphis defensive wizard Tony Allen, who spent most of the game guarding Paul.

GOOD MOVE: After making the mistake of leaving second-year guard Eric Bledsoe on the floor late in Game 3, which nearly cost the Clippers the victory when he missed three straight free throws in the final 12 seconds, Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro made sure he had his veterans on the floor in the closing seconds of overtime.

BAD MOVE: The teams have combined for 13 individual technical fouls in the series, but none came at a worse time than the one by Clippers center DeAndre Jordan with 1:19 remaining in the first half. The Clippers were leading by 10 points at the time when Jordan hollered at a referee after he was whistled for an offensive foul on Marreese Speights. Conley made the free throw, Jordan went to the bench and his replacement, Kenyon Martin, fouled Speights on 3-point play, cutting the deficit to six points at the half.

QUOTABLE II: "It's a great battle, it's a great series ... We haven't come out on the long end yet."
-- Hollins.

NOTABLE: The Clippers, who shot 13-for-30 from the free-throw line in Game 3, the lowest-percentage in NBA playoff history for a team with at least 30 attempts, made their first 10 foul shots before finishing 28-for-40. Griffin finished with 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting, but was held under 10 rebounds for the fourth consecutive game. Griffin, who averaged 10.9 rebounds in the regular season, had just four rebounds in Game 3 and five in Game 4 ... The Clippers were 4-1 in overtime games during the regular season, the Grizzlies were 1-2.

UP NEXT: Game 5, Wednesday at Memphis, 9:30 p.m. ET.

• Grizzlies: Arthur, Pargo
• Clippers: Billups, Leslie

• Grizzlies: Cunningham, Gay, Randolph
• Clippers: Jordan, Paul

• Lead Changes: 5
• Times Tied: 9

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #24 Mike Callahan, #19 James Capers, #31 Scott Wall, #47 Bennie Adams
• Attendance: 19167
• Duration: 3:16