FINE GRINDERS
Clippers resurrect their old power, and you’ve got to love the lobs
On the verge of a burial, the Clippers took to the air.
Their future in doubt, the Clippers traveled to a parcel of their past.
It’s a ghost town now but, for one night, it came alive with rim-rattling, crowd-roaring and scoreboard-blinking glory.
Remember Lob City? It was back, bold and beautiful as ever, its power resurrected in a 99-91 victory Tuesday over the Utah Jazz that knotted a first-round series at one game apiece.
There were flying alley-oop dunks. There were soft open layups. There were spinning and fighting runners. And in the fourth quarter, when the dunking finally stopped, there was more inside havoc with scrapping rebounds and suffocating defense.
Appropriately, one of the final songs played for the celebrating Staples Center crowd was “Jump Around.”
Also appropriately, the artist was House of Pain.
The series will now go
from Lob City to Salt Lake City, the site of Game 3 on Friday, where the Clippers will show up feeling fully back from the brink.
“This is what we should do,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said afterward.
Three days after a stunning opening loss to a depleted Jazz team in the series opener, the Clippers knew they had to take advantage of the 7-foot-1 hole caused by the loss of Utah’s Rudy Gobert, who injured his knee in the first seconds of the opener and probably won’t return this series.
In that first game, the Clippers inexplicably didn’t attack the rim. They knew they had to attack it now. They knew they had no choice. Only three teams in NBA history have dropped the first two games at home and won a series, and it hasn’t happened in a dozen years, and they surely knew that too.
“We’ve got to get more downhill attacks,” Rivers said before the game.
Downhill, as in directly from the usually measured Clippers attack directly into Lob City, a place last embraced several years ago before they realized that they needed a more balanced attack.
Forget balance. They needed boom, and they got it early. The Clippers’ fourth basket was an alley-oop dunk by DeAndre Jordan on an assist from Chris Paul. Moments later it happened again, only this time Jordan dunked backward. The crowd began buzzing, the Clippers’ destination was clear, and the game proceeded amid a flurry of drives and slams.
“We got into movement. We went downhill a lot more,” said Rivers. “Every time they made a run, we pushed the ball up the floor.”
Scoring 20 points in the paint before the Jazz scored their first points inside, the Clippers went after the rim with a vengeance, Paul hitting layups, Blake Griffin dunking, and even Paul Pierce working inside and knocking down shots. The first 24 minutes ended perfectly with an alley-oop lob from Jamal Crawford to Jordan, who slammed it down to give the Clippers a nine-point lead in a half that included eight dunks.
“It’s a must-win,” Raymond Felton had said earlier this week, and the Clippers played like it, their inside scrapping carrying over to the rest of their game.
The Jazz closed to within six midway through the fourth quarter, but the Clippers battled for three shots on a possession that ended with Paul’s jumper, bringing the crowd to its feet. That was followed moments later by a Griffin layup, while at the other end, Griffin harassed opening-game hero Joe Johnson into a miss, more inside work.
“Our spirit, defensively and offensively, was good,” said Griffin. “We have to be aggressive like that.”
The Jazz hung tough and kept it a six-point game in the final two minutes, when, rather perfectly, Luc Mbah a Moute grabbed an offensive rebound that led to Griffin’s clinching three-pointer.
“It was fun,” said Rivers. “I was not in the game, but it looked fun.”
For the game, the Clippers outscored the Jazz 60-38 in the paint, outrebounded them by a halfdozen, and made more than half of their shots. Jordan was the biggest beneficiary of their inside moves, with 18 points and 15 rebounds and most of the Clippers’ 10 dunks.
“They raised their level tonight,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “They played with an intensity from the beginning of the game. It was impressive. That’s who they are.”
The Jazz’ best move was before the game, when the injured Gobert was spotted lightly jogging into the press dining room in time to sit there, rather strangely, for a taco dinner. The Clippers didn’t care, as long as he wasn’t feasting on them.
“Because we don’t have that anchor, there’s a process of us subtly adjusting to Rudy not being there,” acknowledged Snyder.
Yes, the Clippers are often as confusing as some of their timeout entertainment, which on this night included a dancing orange Tyrannosaurus rex who appeared out of nowhere, and will hopefully return there.
But with Game 3 scheduled for Friday in Salt Lake City, they have made their intentions clear.
Lob City is still a working address. It’s still there if they need it and, yeah, it still feels like home.