Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis tries to block a shot by Portland’s Chris Kaman in Wednesday’s 98-93 overtime loss to the Trail Blazers/Photo by Jae C. Hong, Associated Press
– This was the kind of loss that can stick with some teams. The Clippers had a 10-point lead with less than three minutes to play in regulation. Chris Paul had a big turnover down the stretch – he had five in the game – and coach Doc Rivers was upset about open 3-pointers by Wes Matthews and Nicolas Batum buried during that time: “Those can’t happen,” the coach said afterward. Now, after falling apart the way they did, they have to travel to Golden State for a game Sunday against the Warriors (47-12), the No. 1 team in the Western Conference standings.
– DeAndre Jordan obviously made a mistake when he took the rebound off Paul’s miss near the end of regulation. Had Paul’s shot gone in, it likely would have won the game because there were just 0.7 seconds left on the game clock. That’s the problem. Jordan had time to put the ball back up, and he was right under the basket. He apparently thought the sound he heard was the horn sounding the end of regulation. Instead, it was the shot-clock buzzer that had gone off. Paul screamed at Jordan to put the ball back up, but Jordan just held it until it was too late. Jordan left before speaking to reporters post-game, so one has to wonder how he’s going to react to what happened. Not only to what he did, but the way Paul screamed at him – almost viciously – to shoot the ball. Jordan has played a huge role in the Clippers’ success without Blake Griffin, so if he goes in the tank for a spell, that will be a very bad thing.
– With all that said, the Clippers hung very tough against a fine team in the Trail Blazers even though they were without Griffin (elbow), Matt Barnes (hamstring) and Jamal Crawford (calf strain). They out-played Portland most of the way until their meltdown at the end of regulation. Their spirit broken, they were unable to hang in overtime.
– Paul scored 36 points and doled out 12 assists. But because there were so many players not playing, he had to take a season-high 29 shot attempts. His previous high was 23. Paul did make 14 of his shots in this loss, but J.J. Redick also had to take a season-high in shot attempts with 27 and he only made 11 (he had 26 points). Redick’s previous high in shot attempts was 16.
– It was a shame to waste such a fine defensive effort the Clippers had on Portland’s All-Star guard Damian Lillard. Lillard scored just five points while making 1 of 13 from the field. Lillard is averaging 21.3 points this season. Interestingly, the 6-foot-3 guard grabbed 18 rebounds. How the heck does that happen? He’s only averaging 4.8 on the season.
