Clippers 112, Grizzlies 91
Yikes, as Ralph Lawler might say. Just one dunk for the guys from Lob City.
Congratulations, DeAndre Jordan.
On a night when Blake Griffin was held to 10 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 3:32 left, the high-flying Clippers enjoyed a 47-23 advantage on the glass.
Check out the locker-room exchange witnessed by old colleague Beth Harris of the Associated Press:
”I just decided not to dunk that often,” Chris Paul said, jokingly. ”Just shoot floaters. I don’t know what Blake’s problem was.”
Griffin bantered back, saying, ”I just wanted to foul.”
The Grizzlies closed within a point early in the fourth on a 3-pointer by former Clipper Keyon Dooling. Los Angeles answered with a 15-3 run to go up 92-79, equaling the 13-point lead it had in the first half. Eric Bledsoe, who had seven points, opened and closed the spurt with layups as the reserves helped the Clippers outscore the Grizzlies 37-22 in the period.
The Clippers’ lone dunk did not even make the NBA’s Top 10 plays of the night on YouTube:
The rebounding totals for the Grizzlies’ bigs: Marc Gasol: 2. Zach Randolph: 4.
Second-chance points were 25-5 in favor of the Pacific Division champions.
“It’s not that big of a deal right now,” Randolph said. “We want to win the next one. If we can’t win the next one, then it’s a big deal.”
Nets 106, Bulls 89
Brilliant six-word lede from vet scribe Brian Mahoney, who has been holding down my old job for nearly a decade now: “The Brooklyn blackout was a blowout.”
If you can describe it in six words or less, especially at the AP, you don’t have a nasty e-mail in your inbox the next morning. Instead, you sometimes get your annual pat on the back – maybe.
Deron Williams scored 22 points, Brook Lopez had 21 and the Nets made 16 of 20 shots during a second period in which they built a 60-35 halftime lead. If you ever wanted to see Tom Thibodeau at an absolute worst level of haggardness, this as the game to be watching.
The Nets wore their road black uniforms and fans were encouraged to wear black as well to make it a ”blackout” for the first major postseason game in Brooklyn since Oct. 10, 1956, when the Yankees beat the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series at Ebbets Field.
Owner Mikhail Prokhorov came onto the court to thank fans for their passion and support, telling them that this playoff appearance was only the beginning. Carlos Boozer had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Bulls, who had Joakim Noah in the starting lineup despite foot pain. But he was clearly limited, and there was no reason to play him more than the 14 minutes he played.
As for Rose?
Thibodeau hasn’t ruled out the former MVP returning in this series, noting the end would be two weeks from Saturday if it went the distance. We’ll believe it when we see it. We’ve been seeing the guy go through warmups and practices for well more than a month now. It’s looking more and more like we won’t see him on the court until October.
What we may see a lot more of is Williams, who is playing the best basketball of his Nets career, and Lopez, who made my All-NBA Third-Team. Below is one of their best plays of the night.
Is that potato eating potato chips?