The LA Clippers evened up their first round Playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs at 2-2, following a critical 114-105 road win Sunday afternoon.
Fellow All-Stars Chris Paul (34 points, 7 assists) and Blake Griffin (20 points, 19 rebounds) proved to be the difference, but got some unexpected help from Austin Rivers (16 points off the bench.)
The battle now shifts back to Los Angeles for an all-important Game 5.
Per the OC Register:
Chris Paul rebounded from finishing with as nearly as many turnovers (six) as points (seven) in Game 3 by torching San Antonio for 34 points with just two turnovers. […] Blake Griffin nearly matched his triple-double from Game2, scoring 20 to go with 19 rebounds and seven assists. J.J. Redick scored 17 – his most this series – and the Clippers bench’s 33 points almost equalled the Spurs’ supreme depth.
With people questioning whether the Clippers were tough enough to respond, they went and answered their doubters in convincing fashion. […] “I already believed in it,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “… A one-point loss and a 30-point loss is the same … and the other night we just lost by a lot of points and our guys knew that. It still counted as a loss, and I just thought our guys just (thought), ‘All right, we didn’t play well, let’s lace them back up and see what happens.’ And I thought we did that tonight.”
“It was tough,” DeAndre Jordan said of the (Saturday afternoon) film session. “It stings that we were capable of doing what we’d done before. It was just, we didn’t come out … blame it on us five, the starters. We didn’t come out with the right intensity or the pressure that we’re supposed … Today was different.”
