When the Clippers were down by 22 points in the first quarter of their 101-99 Game 4 comeback victory over Oklahoma City on Sunday at Staples Center, the mood on the bench was probably not as dim as one might think, according to forward Blake Griffin.

“It starts with our whole bench,” Griffin said, when asked what it said about his team that it was able to come back and win with the season on the line. “Even when we were down 20-whatever in the first quarter, everybody kept telling each other, ‘Chip away, chip away. We’re not going to do it in two minutes, four minutes, just keep chipping away.’ That was kind of our mentality for the rest of the game. We just kept fighting.”

The result: a Western Conference semifinals series that is tied 2-2 instead of OKC being up 3-1 heading into Game 5 Tuesday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.