Many people thought the Clips would have no chance taking a game one from the well rested Houston Rockets without CP3 in the line up due to his hamstring industry but the Clips proved otherwise.
The team en route to victory was lead by a monster Blake Griffin who amassed his 3rd triple double of the post-season with a 26 point, 14 board and 13 assist game. He stepped up as the offensive hub for the Clips and embraced his point-forward role even more with CP3, the teams primary offensive orchestrator injured.
Other players also stepped up in what was a huge team effort, J.J. Redick and Matt Barnes collected 37 points between themselves while DeAndre Jordan came through with a solid double-double (10 points and 13 rebounds).
One of LA's common criticisms this season is there lack of depth but in this game the whole roster seemed to step up adequately. James Hardens well documented struggles against the Clips continued with a disjointed performance of 20 points (6-13) but 9 turnovers. D12 was solid with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Barnes and Redick struggled in the 1st half struggled in the 1st half and Doc was forced to keep things close with the Hack-a-Howard strategy.
James Harden and Doc Rivers going back and forth. Harden giving him grief for intentionally fouling.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 5, 2015
This led to the Rockets' Head Coach Kevin McHale responding with the Hack-a-DJ strategy to the joy of the Houston fans, either way nothing was enough to stop the Clips taking over later in the game. However, there were times in the game when CP3's absence was felt since the Clippers sometimes looked lost on possessions and miscommunications summed frequent but luckily Houston's frequent turnovers allowed the Clippers to capitalize.
#Rockets SO casual with the ball. Why?? Why??? WHY?!?!?!— Robert Flores (@RoFloESPN) May 5, 2015
The Clips proceeded after the halftime to outscore the Rockets 27-37 to grab the lead. The Clippers dominance continued into the 4th quarter as Redick and Barnes started to nail shot after shot on route to a 16 point Clippers win.
It's unlikely harden will struggle as much offensively in future games and the Rockets are likely to step up the game mentally after such a weak showing but the Clips can be proud of what they did without their star point guard. Whether Doc chooses to rest Chris for game 2 after an encouraging game remains to be seen but either way the Clips are ready to go where no Clipper has set foot before. The Western Conference Finals.
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