10 things you need to know about Spurs-Clippers Game 7

The Clippers are moving on, and the Spurs are headed home. Here are the 10 most important things to know about how Spurs-Clippers ended.

1. Best. First-round series. Ever.: The 2013 Finals remain the absolute apex of basketball execution that I've seen, but this was awfully close. The 2009 Bulls-Celtics series was the previous holder of this title, an incredible affair that was sparked by the emergence of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and was held up with Ben Gordon (yes, really) impossible shots.

This was way better.

The only shame is that someone had to lose. Many will say that it's a tragedy these two teams met in the first round, yet look at how this series ended for why it's so great it started when it did. Both teams were exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally by its finish, and Chris Paul was clearly injured. If these two had met even a round later, we might not have gotten the incredible series we did.

So much drama in every game except Game 3, so many comebacks for each team whenever their opponent would make a push -- 83 lead changes, 58 ties in this series, 31 lead changes in Game 7 alone. Buzzer beaters, officiating controversy, two heartbreaks for the Clippers, two heartbreaks for the Spurs and an all-time Game 7 for the books. What a series.

This was what decided Game 7 between the Clippers and Spurs. (Getty) — This was what decided Game 7 between the Clippers and Spurs. (Getty Images)

2. Chris Paul is the Point God. Period, end dot.: We'll find out whether Paul had a torn hamstring, a severely sprained (which means a small tear) or a lightly sprained hamstring later. It doesn't matter, really. Paul wasn't 100 percent. You could see that by watching him play, how he was dragging coming up the court, behind screens, the way he grimaced and held his head at every timeout.

But he played through it. The great ones do. "Everyone's banged up this time of year," is a favorite phrase of coaches. Paul knew no matter the injury, there was no reason to sit. There would be no "next month" or "next series" or "next game" if he didn't play. No matter the injury, he was going to go through it.

All he did was go for 27 points, six assists on 9-of-13 shooting. Over the final three games of this incredible series, he scored 64 points, dished 31 assists, grabbed 11 rebounds, swiped 8 steals, put up 48 percent shooting, was a plus-24, suffered a hamstring injury and had ... two turnovers total over those three games.

He touched the ball 92 times in Game 7, via NBA.com. He turned the ball over once.

Paul has become a villain to some, but it should be noted that he is one of the most committed community leaders in both New Orleans, his home of North Carolina, and LA. He is an advocate on social issues, he is the fiercest competitor outside of Kobe Bryant that this league has seen since Jordan, and is an all-time phenomenal player.

Lose next round and all the noise comes back. But for a night, a few days, the world can recognize how truly great Chris Paul is.

3. Tim Duncan will be working over fools in the post when you're dead and gone: DeAndre Jordan actually played tremendous defense in this series. He played Duncan to his middle shoulder, forcing him baseline where the shot is tougher and using his length to challenge him.

Here's how that worked out:

Duncan roasted him. Duncan shot 58 percent from the field with Jordan on the court, averaging 17 points per 36 minutes of time against Jordan. Duncan was incredible in this series. With Duncan it's not just the tree-like strength, it's the quickness and touch, along with the footwork. Here, just look at what he did on shots when Jordan was in the game in this series. It was truly unbelievable. If Duncan is through, he's going out pretty near the top.

4. The Weakest Link breaks free: The typical formula for beating the Clippers has been "make Matt Barnes beat you." You cover J.J. Redick, you contain the Chris Paul-Blake Griffin pick and roll as much as possible, and you leave Barnes open, encouraging the Clippers to give him the ball for shots.

Barnes came up huge in Game 7, hitting 7 of 13 and making a series of great plays. Only Jamal Crawford was better than Barnes in plus/minus Saturday night, and Barnes played completely within himself, save an early heat check. Getting those little battles to tilt your way ... that's how you win a Game 7.

5. 'Our unpredictable, slightly reckless wild card is better than yours:' Crawford really struggled for most of this series, but he turned the corner in Game 6 and carried it over to Game 7, scoring 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Crawford's ability to run the pick and roll with Paul out or limited in the final two games was huge. He was a big reason the Clippers finished with a stellar 1.031 points per possession when the ball handler shot out of the pick and roll, via Synergy Sports.

Manu Ginobili, on the other hand, was a hot mess. He missed passes, couldn't keep his handle, was stymied and generally looked like Father Time had punched his ticket throughout this series. He had a brief stint in the fourth after drawing a ridiculous foul on Austin Rivers -- ridiculous in that Ginobili was in no way shooting and Rivers shouldn't have been near him there -- which sparked a miniature run that carried over to the fourth. But overall, Ginobili was just off.

6. Live by the board, nearly die by the board: The Clippers were tremendous on the defensive glass for most of this series. You cannot give up extra possessions to a team like the Spurs. They will find ways to kill you. The Clippers had held San Antonio to just four offensive rebounds going into the fourth quarter. Then, with Jordan on the bench, the Spurs grabbed nine offensive rebounds and landed 12 second-chance points in the fourth quarter alone.

It was pretty unbelievable and had Paul not hit the incredible winner, it would have been a devastating loss that you could pin directly on the Clippers' small-ball defensive rebounding woes.

7. The defense does not rest: The Clippers' defense does not get enough credit for how well it defended the spiderweb of the Spurs' offense in this series. Watch this possession, in which they manage to patrol the paint just enough to prevent the quick Tony Parker layup, forcing him to reset twice, which actually gave the Clippers back their original cross-matches they wanted, and a bad miss from Tiago Splitter.

8. Data, facts, Kawhi and the undeniable: Speaking of Splitter, he and Parker were clearly not well, and that's a major factor in why the Spurs lost. It's that time of year and no one's healthy. But much of the Spurs' offense this year was predicated on being bigger and nastier than their opponents inside. Splitter's injury restricted this.

Parker has long been the Spurs' engine. His inability to give consistent effort hurt them. He had a great Game 7, but was also 2 of 5 in the fourth quarter, and the Spurs missed Patty Mills' energy and timely shooting as he played just 16 minutes in Game 7. Normally Parker's slide would be OK, because the team has transitioned to Kawhi Leonard being the team's best player, but ...

Leonard was a monster in the series' first three games, especially San Antonio's Game 3 blowout. But as the series went on, the Clippers kept finding ways to disrupt him, and the results were alarming. The Spurs were 27 points better per 100 possessions with Leonard off the floor vs. on in this series, and finished minus-4.8 points per 100 worse than LA when he played.

Those are facts. They can't be denied or gotten around. The Clippers outscored the Spurs, badly, when Leonard was on the court in this series. Leonard shot just 37 percent from the field over the final four games of the series. Those facts don't mean that the reason they were bad was Leonard. It could have been that he was only playing against starter lineups and never the Clippers' woeful bench, or that he was often playing with Parker who was struggling.

The facts in this case don't reassert any sort of narrative. They just tell a simple story: The Spurs did not outscore the Clippers with the Defensive Player of the Year and reigning Finals MVP on the court. Whether that was because of Leonard or not is certainly a complex question, and debatable. It should be noted, though, that Leonard was 1 for 7 in the fourth quarter of Game 7. He was relegated often in this series to three responsibilities: chasing Redick around screens, trying to defend Griffin in the post and guarding Paul off pick and rolls. Those are three assignments that aren't best suited to Leonard's numerous defensive strengths. Taking Redick away doesn't stop the key parts of the Clippers' offense, Griffin is too big and powerful, even for Leonard, and Paul's ability to create space expertly off pick and rolls without ever exposing his dribble to those tentacles Leonard calls arms means Leonard was just trying to bother an un-botherable shot.

LA shot 44 percent with Leonard on the pine. When he was in the game, they shot 48 percent from the field.

9. Blake Griffin, Playoff Monster, has arrived: Here's the list of players to average 24 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists in the playoffs at this point: Oscar Robertson and Blake Griffin. That's it. Now, obviously that's because Griffin has only played one series. But it does speak to his phenomenal performance on both ends, including a triple-double in Game 7.

Griffin hit a new level in these playoffs, and probably silenced a lot of people wondering if he would ever make the leap.

10. The (Basketball) Gods must be crazy: A lot of crazy things happened in this series. I mean, a lot of crazy things: