Quote Originally Posted by scalabrine:
BB,
I don't know if you've ever lived on the east coast, but these late playoff games are brutal with their end times at 1:30ish. I just can't make the end of them all. I wish I made the end of this one.
The Blake 4th quarter and late FT misses
The CP3 tech
The rebound at the end of the game with 1.2 left (o... my... god....), with two of the most aggressive monsters underneath to grab it.
If that ball goes in, you are again victimized by the 'ol win but get screwed by a 2 point spread (which would have hurt even more). Brutal.
What can ya say? The Clips finding a way to lose a big game, yet again. History does matter to the Clips...they love to repeat it.
But I just don't think this series is over.
I just heard that Pop is 14-4 in playoffs closeout games in the Pop/Duncan era. That's bad, very bad.
But if you remember, we talked about closing out a team after a gut-wrenching loss back in 2013 after Allen hit that 3 against the Spurs.
In game 7, the line was 6/6.5 and Lebron needed to nail a huge 17 footer late to put the Heat up 4 and Duncan needed to miss a point blank layup to seal (the one where he punched the floor after missing).
The Heat covered the spread on a final late meaningless foul that we see at the end of all these games. My point is, it took a hell of a lot for even the almighty Heat to get over the number at home in the closeout game 7 even with the best player in the world and Wade/Bosh/Allen.
That looms here for me.
I just can't write the Clippers off yet. I've seen seven the entire series and I still do (or at least a clips cover in game 6).
There is just too much firepower and talent on the Clips for it all to end now. In addition, they are too young and finally they still have a game 7 waiting at home for them (which the Spurs did not after that Allen shot). That's all very brief but there is just too much 'substance' per se on the Clips for it to all end here. That game 7 intensity you wanted this game? You'll have it in Game 6. This Clips team doesn't have little ol lady in a shoe manu to F it all up like he did for the Spurs in 2013.
If you go Spurs, write it up (if strong enough) and let me know how they not only win, but get over 4.5/5 pts (which is what I expect the line to be) Your contributions during these playoffs have done the board an invaluable service.
Scal, great postscript. Yes, at least I didn't get moosed, a moral victory of sorts. I really thought about the ML for this game but would have ended up losing all that juice as well. Yes, the Clippers are cursed to repeat history. Blake had three easy shots roll out of the rim (in the 2nd half) with the ball rolling around the rim for what seemed like minutes, and then the one that was gonna roll in for him is touched by DJ. You can't make this stuff up. And the refs. My god, they were brutal. All the 50/50 calls went the Spurs way:
1) Barnes tip-in was called a goaltending
2) Blake's layup called a travel
3) Guys fighting for a loose ball on the floor and Clippers get called for a foul
4) Paul gets a technical for throwing the ball to the ref?!
5) Crawford gets called for a foul on the baseline when it was Parker who hooked him
6) JJ gets fouled out on a play where Parker just rammed into him
In a game this tight, between two good teams, those calls will make the difference every time.
I'll have more to say about game 6. But this series is over.
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