LOS ANGELES – Blake Griffin embraced his team’s role as underdogs before their first round series with the San Antonio Spurs. He proved that they were anything but on the court as the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the defending NBA champions 107-92 at Staples Center on Sunday.
Griffin had 26 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, three steals, three blocks and had three vicious posterizing dunks on Spurs center Aaron Baynes.
“We had a play working for us there in the third quarter and we just kept going to it,” said Griffin of his back-to-back roof-raising dunks. “This was a great win, but if we learned anything over the years its that you have to finish it out. They are going to come out and make some adjustments, and we need to do the same.”
Chris Paul took on the pressure of the playoffs scoring a game-high 32 points to give the Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in the series.
“Blake [Griffin] and I talked about it before the game. The team goes as we go, and we feed off each other,” said Paul of the Clippers dynamic duo. “Blake was aggressive early, and it opened it up for me later. We both played off one another, then our guys made shots, Jamal [Crawford] was huge, DJ [DeAndre Jordan] was big on the glass.”
VIDEO: Jamal Crawford, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin
Jamal Crawford returned in triumphant fashion and had his best game since coming back from a calf injury. The former Sixth Man of the Year scored 17 points off the bench and Clippers’ center DeAndre Jordan grabbed 14 rebounds.
“They’re the defending champs and you have to respect that,” said Crawford of the game as a whole. “We just did what we’re supposed to do and protected home court, it’s one game, we’ll continue to try and improve and make the proper adjustments for Game 2.
Game 2 is slated for Wednesday night on TNT.
Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 18 points and Tony Parker had 10 for San Antonio who los the opening game of a playoff series for the first time since 2011. The Spurs had won game one of 11 consecutive times before tonight.
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The Clippers led for most of the game, closing out the first quarter on a 9-to-2 run and a 30-18 lead.
“We did not play good defense in the first quarter,” said Leonard. “They scored 30 points. We were not good in transition defense. That was pretty much the game: us turning the ball over, and them getting out in transition.”
The Spurs opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run however and briefly took a two-point lead at 37-35. The Clippers would rally and recapture the lead going into halftime 49-43. They never trailed again.
“We give them a lot of credit, because they sustained it longer than we did,” said Spurs forward Tim Duncan. “They played harder longer. They had the energy with their home crowd behind them.”
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich resorted to the “Hack-A-DJ” strategy early in the first half, but when away from it late with the outcome no longer in doubt.
Game Notes:
This was the first playoff game for the Los Angeles Clippers in the Steve Ballmer era and the atmosphere was drastically different than last season.
“It was awesome!” said Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. “I thought it was better than Golden State in Game 7 last year.”
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