Can Blake Griffin and Chris Paul rise above in Game 7?
A look at the brilliant play of the Clippers' dynamic duo and how they've almost lead their team to a monumental win over the Spurs. Almost.
By
Matt Moore
•
3 min read
Let there be no doubt, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have stepped up. The two Clippers stars carry a lot of baggage with them. Paul has notoriously failed to advance to the Western Conference Finals, as if somehow magically he could have been the singular difference between success and failure for his teams in the past. Griffin suffered from a tidal wave of hype his rookie season and since then has been battling expectations. Both have done everything they can in this best of seven series vs. the Spurs.
Griffin had several bad turnovers late in Games 2 and Game 5. That tends to happen when you're forced to play over 42 minutes each night because your GM produced a bench that belongs in a catacomb. Focusing on that loses sight of the bigger picture. That bigger picture is what the Spurs are about, what they're lauded for. Not the individual moments, but the bigger commitment to playing the right way. Likewise, you can focus on those turnovers, or you can notice that Griffin is averaging 24-13-7-1.5-1.5 in this series, which no one else has ever averaged in the playoffs. Not a soul, even in a sweep or in one series.
We're used to Griffin as the tip of the spear, the monster exploding to the rim to dunk on fools. Griffin has done his fair share of that in his series, but he's also combined that athleticism with the proper skillset to attack San Antonio. He's shooting 39 percent from mid-range in this series, but 50 percent in the Clippers' three wins from that area. That's crucial for being able to punish the Spurs for committing to Chris Paul in pick and roll situations.
His rebounding has been the astounding part. Griffin is ripping boards out of bigger, stronger mens' hands like inside the ball is the last food to eat on an island. He's securing position and allowing no swipes to disrupt his board. His 25 percent rebound percentage is the highest of his career, and it shows. He's putting all these things together into sequences like this:
Without Griffin, the Clippers wouldn't have made it to Game 7. But they need more, another monster night where that mid-range jumper is falling and Griffin is terrorizing the glass. There have been questions of whether Griffin or Paul is the Clippers' best player. Paul might be their best, but Griffin's their most important. He has to lead them in Game 7.
For Paul, he's finally hit a point where he's walking the line he's struggled with between scorer and distributor. He's staying aggressive on every possession, taking what the defense provides. When the Spurs give him a sliver of space, he's capitalizing:
In the Clippers' three wins in this series, Paul is averaging 28 points and nine assists on 57 percent shooting. In losses, just 16 and seven on 45 percent. Paul has to be great and has to be so against the Defensive Player of the Year and his cohorts that make up maybe the smartest defensive unit in the league. The hardest part for Paul has always been the determination to maintain the scoring edge. But he doesn't have a lot of weapons. The Spurs have neutralized the lob to DeAndre Jordan for the most part. Matt Barnes isn't surefire. It's Griffin, Redick, Crawford, and Paul.
Paul's been the lone star trying to push his team up an insurmountable hill, as it was in 2010. He's been the reluctant scorer constantly trying to get his teammates involved, as he was in 2013. Paul faces the prospect of being the West Coast Melo, only somehow worse since Melo is escaping criticism simply missing the postseason, as messed up as that is. In any sane world, losing to the San Antonio Spurs would be a noble end to your postseason run. Paul is judged on a different scale, though. There's only two ways out. He beats the Spurs by leading the Clippers on an unlikely return from being down 2-1, and then 3-2, or he's relegated to "can't get it done in the playoffs" status.
Bear in mind Paul is doing this without meniscus in either knee, that he's playing 40 minutes per game in this series, that the mental toll of facing the Spurs' pick and roll coverage on both ends is exhausting. None of that matters now, though. The window is open.
Chris Paul and Blake Griffin need one great game together in Game 7. They need to take this home.
