Clip's now up 3-1 against Houston with decisive 128-95 win

The Clippers attempted 44 first-half free throws Sunday night as the Rockets intentionally fouled DeAndre Jordan from the start. The hack-a-DJ strategy still resulted in 60 points by halftime for the Clippers, who would go on to outscore the Rockets by 27 points in the second half and take a 3-1 lead in the series with a 128-95 Game 4 win.

“I thought all of us got kind of freaked out by it early, and after that we were fine,” said head coach Doc Rivers, whose message at halftime had nothing to do with the foul situation.

The NBA Playoffs record was smashed with Jordan's 28 FT's in the game. Overall the Clips went 37 of 63.

But while most people focused on how slow the game became with free throw after free throw, Chris Paul said Rivers’ focus was on defence and the fact that the Clippers only led by six points despite filling up the stat sheet in the first half.

“It’s part of the game,” Paul said. “People talking about should they ban it, no, it’s part of the game. You’re just thinking about, ‘We’ve got to defend.’ That’s one of the biggest things.”

Clippers had created much offence from their stifling defence in the second half, they allowed only 41 Houston points after the half.

“It’s a good win,” said Blake Griffin. “In the first half, we didn’t play that well. We were sloppy on defence. We scored 60 points and were only up by six at halftime. The best part of today is how we responded after the half.”

During the Clips' huge run in the second half came 3 monster dunks from Deandre Jordan which sent Houston reeling and pretty much sealed the deal, it was an impressive blowout win for the Clips have most definity cemented their title contender status and then some. For the Clips to keep their composure through all the hacking was something that Doc and Blake were really impressed by.

“For us to kind of maintain our composure, he hit shots, he hit free throws, we got stops, we just grinded it out,” Griffin said.

Griffin finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers combined for 25 points off the bench. Paul had 15 points and 12 assists in just 25 minutes, with the slow pace helping the starting point guard ease back into action off his strained hamstring.

“I’m sure they’re not fouling to make sure my hamstring feels good,” Paul joked. “If so, I appreciate it, I guess. I’m feeling better. I think that’s all that matters. We’ve just got to stay hungry for the game on Tuesday.”