Back home for Game 5 of a series that has been controlled by the home team, the Clippers know right where they stand against Memphis tonight at Staples Center.
In fact, Coach Vinny Del Negro went as far as to agree with the proposition that the winner of tonight’s game (Prime Ticket, TNT) will win the best-of-7 series.
“Probably so, yeah, it has a huge impact. This is the pivotal game,” Del Negro said. “We won there last year (in the playoffs) but we can’t look for another miracle, as you would say, so we have to take care of business tonight and we know that.
“In saying that, we’re an excellent road team, they’re an excellent road team, we know how difficult tonight’s going to be and we have to lock in tonight first and control our destiny tonight with our mentality and then we’ll worry about Game 6.”
For the umpteenth time, Del Negro stressed the importance of rebounding, since the team that has won the board battle has won each game. The Clippers will try to return to the form that helped them control front-liners Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph in the first two games.
The Clippers listed no players on the pregame injury report. Reserve guard Keyon Dooling (strained neck muscle) is listed as questionable.
Game 6 is Thursday night in Memphis and if there were to be a Game 7, it would be Sunday at Staples Center. The times for the those two games have not yet been determined.