Rockets 113-100 Clippers Game 7
The Rockets win 113-100. Harden scores 31 points, Howard scores 16 points and 15 rebounds and Ariza scores 22 points. Griffin scores 27 points and Paul scores 26 points and 10 assists for the Clippers. Houston wins West Semifinals 4-3. Harden on Game 7:
It’s the ultimate confidence-booster. There’s only a handful of teams that’s done that. We fought back. We fought three really hard games and came away with it.
On West Semifinals Series:
When you’re down 19 on the road, it’s easy to give in and just say, ‘Maybe next year’. But I think the injuries throughout the entire year kind of made us fight through adversity no matter what. We always find a way to fight, and another case was being down 3-1.
Howard:
Please, we can’t let them pull an us on us.
Griffin on Game 7 loss:
It’s disappointing. We were close, but close doesn’t really count. Almost doesn’t count. We were up 3-1 and didn’t put them away. We can’t look at anybody but ourselves.
Rockets 119-107 Clippers Game 6
The Rockets win 119-107. Howard scores 20 points and 21 rebounds and Harden scores 23 points. Paul scores 31 points and 11 assists, Griffin scores 28 points and Reddick scores 15 points for the Clippers. The West Semifinals Series is tied 3-3. Howard on Game 6:
We kept saying, `We’re not going to quit. We kept believing. We never gave up on each other.
Griffin on Game 6 loss:
We took our foot off the gas, stopped defending, a lot of things.
On Game 7:
It’s about who wants it more.
Coach Mc Hale:
That group just went out there and they just scrambled, they fought and they played their tails off on defense. They had a great sense about them that they were going to accomplish something.
Rockets 124-103 Clippers Game 5
The Rockets win 124-103. Harden scores 26 points, 11 rebounds and ten assists, Howard scores 20 points and 15 rebounds. Griffin scores 30 points, 16 rebounds and Paul scores 22 points and 10 assists for the Clippers. Los Angeles leads West Semifinals Series 3-2. Harden on Game 5 win:
I’m all right. We won, so that’s all that matters.
Coach Rivers on Rockets:
They were more focused. They played like they were the desperate team and we didn’t play very desperate.
Howard on Harden:
This is win or go home and I’m pretty sure he wants this as bad as we all do and he showed that tonight.
Clippers 124-99 Rockets Game 3
The Clippers win 124-99. Reddick scores 31 points, Griffin scores 22 points and 14 rebounds and Jordan scores 15 points. Harden scores 25 points and 11 rebounds and Howard scores 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Rockers. Los Angeles leads West Semifinals series 2-1. Paul on teammates:
I got through. Austin was unbelievable. I was probably his biggest cheerleader in the third quarter. I just kept saying, `I don’t want to play anymore if I don’t have to.
Harden on Game 3 loss:
It was a blowout, but it’s still one game.
Austin Rivers on his father, Coach Rivers:
Our relationship has always been coach-player. He’s hard on me, but it’s because he wants the best for me.
Clippers 117-101 Rockets Game 1
The Clippers win 117-101. Griffin scores a triple-double (26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists), Crawford scores 21 points and Barnes scores 20 points. Howard scores 23 points and Harden scores 20 points for the Rockets. Los Angeles leads West Semifinal Series 1-0.
Griffin on Paul:
Without Chris, everybody has to step up. But it’s not one person’s job, it’s everybody’s job. And if you look at the stat sheet tonight, it was everybody.
Barnes on Griffin:
He’s incredible. He gets in the middle of the field and kind of just picks people apart like Tom Brady. That’s like a grown man triple-double right there.
Harden on loss:
I don’t think we took them lightly. I just don’t think we had energy.
Clippers 111-109 Spurs Game 7
The Clippers win 111-109. Griffin scores a triple-double (24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists), Paul scores 27 points. Duncan scores a double-double (27 points and 11 rebounds) Parker scores 20 points and Green scores 16 points. Los Angeles wins West First Series 4-3.
Coach Rivers on Paul:
just a tough kid. He’s a street fighter. I mean, he really is. I love him to death because of his will.
Paul on Game 7 win:
We’ve been in that situation a lot of times already this year, and most of the time I hadn’t made it. We talked about it, and finally it worked when we needed it.
Duncan on Paul’s shot:
Just unbelievable. I know he was playing a little hurt, and he played through all that, found ways to get it done. I mean, just an unbelievable last shot over two of us. He’s just a great leader, and it was amazing to watch. I wish I wasn’t on the other end.
Clippers 102-96 Spurs Game 6
The Clippers win 102-96. Griffin scores 26 points, 12 rebounds and Paul had 19 points, 15 assists. Belinelli scores 23 points, Diaw scores 17 points, Duncan scores 12 points, 13 rebounds and Leonard scores 12 points for the Spurs. The West First Round Series is tied at 3-3.
Coach Rivers on Game 6:
They are mentally tough. We hear all the stuff about them, but this team is mentally tough. We’ve got to do it again.
Paul on Clippers wins:
It was probably one of the most relaxed games we’ve had as far as our mentality. We just stayed the course. Tonight was one of the funnest games of the series. It seems like it’s easy to say that because we won, that definitely helps, but just the intensity of it. I think we just never got rattled.
Coach Popovich on Spurs loss:
Our execution at the offensive end was really poor. There’s no excuse for it. We should be embarrassed at the way we came out for a close out game.
Spurs 111-107 Clippers Game 5
The Spurs win 111-107. Duncan scores a double-double ( 21 points, 11 rebounds) Leonard scores 18 points. Griffin scores 30 points and 14 rebounds and Jordan scores 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Clippers. San Antonio leads West First Round Series 3-2.
Jordan on Game 5 loss:
It was a dumb play. I hit the ball. We did a good job fighting to put us in a situation to go up one. You can’t blame anybody on that but me. I tipped the ball.
Ginobili on Spurs victory:
That was the play of the game. That’s why I say we got lucky. The ball was going in, and he happened to touch it. That would have put us down one. Instead, it was a completely different ballgame. We got a little lucky on the play.
Coach Rivers:
I thought it was the right call. I couldn’t tell, you know, and I couldn’t see it. … I hope to God it was the right call.
Clippers 114-105 Spurs Game 4
The Clippers win 114-105. Paul scores 34 points, seven assists, Griffin scores 20 points and 19 rebounds. Leonard scores 26 points, Duncan scores 22 points, 10 rebounds and Parker scores 18 points for the Spurs. West First Round Series ties 2-2.
Paul on Coach Rivers:
It’s more than just shooting the ball. Our defense was better and our offensive execution (was better). I think I got more shots because of the tempo of the game that we played at. We played downhill, we set screens; we’re tough when we play like that.
Coach Popovich on Clippers loss:
We lacked a lot of discipline. We didn’t execute sharply enough in what we wanted to strategy-wise or just in general basketball play.
Parker:
Yeah, (we lost our focus) a little bit at the end of the third quarter. We made a lot of fouls that we could have prevented.
Spurs 100-73 Clippers Game 3
The Spurs win 100-73. Leonard scores 32 points, Diaw scores 15 points and Green scores 11 points. Griffin scores a double-double (14 points and ten rebounds) and Jordan scores ten points for the Clippers. San Antonio leads West First Round Series 2-1.
Duncan on Leonard:
He continues to impress me every time he’s out there. He can put on a show like that in a situation like this. It’s not only great for us, but it’s impressive to watch.
Coach Rivers on Game 3 Loss:
We’ve had this happen a couple of times this year, we lose our spirit because we can’t make shots. I thought that’s what happened as the game went on. Every time we missed a shot, we played less and less defense.
Leonard:
I’m just doing whatever it takes to help the team win the game. Tony (Parker) did a good job getting off early and just created opportunities for me knocking down shots and I just got a rhythm.
Coach Popovich on Leonard:
He has really progressed by leaps and bounds on both ends of the floor. He’s turned into a fine offensive player, as well as a defensive player. He’s not a one-trick pony kind of guy. He’s something else.
Spurs 111-107 Clippers Game 2
The Spurs win 111-107. Duncan scores a double-double (28 points, 11 rebounds) and Leonard scores 23 points. Griffin scores a triple-double(29 points,12 rebounds and 11 assists) and Jordan scores a double-double (20 points and 15 rebounds) for the Clippers. The West First Round Series are tied 1-1. Coach Popovich on Duncan’s performance:
He was spectacular. He continues to amaze me with the things that he is able to do. He knows he had to stay on the court and he figured out a way to do it. He continued to be aggressive, which is pretty amazing.
Duncan:
I was awful. I missed two or three layups, I made two or three defensive mistakes, got out of position and gave up dunks to DeAndre (Jordan).
Ginobili:
Seeing the team play like this today was very important. Hopefully we bring the same sense of urgency, the same fire and juice, for Game 3.
Clippers 110-103 Nuggets
The Clippers win 110-103. Griffin scores 22 points, Jordan scores a double-double (20 points, 21 rebounds) and J.J. Reddick scores 20 points. Chandler scores 32 points and Faried scores a double-double (19points and 17 rebounds) for the Nuggets. Coach Rivers on playoff schedule:
There’s nobody that’s not good in the West. You’re going to have a tough series. The teams that embrace that are going to do well and the ones that don’t are going to be out early.
Reddick:
It was down to our team defense. We locked them up. We had to win this game.
Coach Hunt:
I think people are kind of overlooking them because the West is so good.
Warriors 110-106 Clippers
The Warriors wins 110-106 over the Clippers. Curry scores 27 points, Thompson scores 24 points, Lee scores 17 points. Griffin scores 40 points, Paul scores 27 for the Clippers. Paul says of Curry:
The man is tough. They run him off a ton of screens. Three of those shots I was in his chest and he still made them.
Curry:
I knew he was trailing and I thought I could make a move toward the basket and get some creativity in between,As soon as I saw him kind of go down, I knew I had to shoot it and just see what happened. You kind of get a little adrenaline rush because those are kind of cool moments. Thankfully, the shot went in. I didn’t see the bench’s reaction, but they said everybody was going crazy.
Thompson:
We weren’t playing that well but that’s what we’ve been doing all year: bouncing back.