The defense led by DeAndre Jordan swarmed as he dominated the glass and paint, the dunks were ferocious as Blake Griffin threw down thunderous slam after slam including a harsh posterization of Aron Baynes. The Clippers offense hummed nicely throughout the game, it the scoring being led by Chris Pauls 32 points and 6 assists as he looked dominant throughout.
The Clippers started hot early getting to a 30-18 lead in the 1st quarter and they knew The Spurs were going to make runs but the Clips managed to remain consistent. It also helped that The Clippers' sixth man Jamal Crawford seem to look like his usual self in the game. He scored 17 points on an efficient 7/10 shooting.
The highlights of the game came in the third quarter when Blake decided to have some fun and unleash his fury on Aron Baynes 3 times. It got the crowd fire and it's worth noting that Doc said the crowd were better in this game than "last year against Golden State".
The Clippers shot 51.3 percent and went 10-of-18 from 3-point range while holding the Spurs to 36.6 percent shooting and just a 10-of-33 mark behind the arc. Kawhi Leonard was the only Spurs starter to shoot better than 40 percent, going 7-of-12 from the floor.
"There defense was better than our offense said Greg Popovich "that's the bottom line".
Rivers also included Matt Barnes’ play as one of those "little moments," as he scuffled with Aron Baynes for a ball out of bounds. There were plenty of plays that energized a STAPLES Center crowd that was louder than it had been all season.
“For Matt, he's part of the heart and soul of our team,” Crawford said. “He makes plays like that. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He's an emotional guy, and that play was a good, hard, clean playoff play, and it lifted the whole building. We feed off that. We feed off each other. We're fans of each other and we always support each other.”
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