It's been a season filled with ups and downs already for the Clippers who have struggled as of late during their road trip which ended with a lopsided defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns. The Clippers would also enter the game without their leading rebounder and most consistent defender in Marcus Camby so a victory seemed highly unlikely for this Clipper team that had only seen two victories against opponents over .500. But the team did something it hasn't done well in the past few years which was execute down the stretch and close out a game.
The game remained relatively close with the exception of the stretches where the Celtics would push their lead into double digits with consecutive baskets through a combination of outside shots from Kevin Garnett or in the post with Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace but the Clippers were able to keep the game close with defensive stops and baskets of their own to only trail by 4 at 73-69 going into the final period.
The 4th quarter usually has Clipper fans expecting to see a collapse as they have seen a number of times this season. The Clippers consistently send the ball down to Chris Kaman in the post down the stretch where he tends to be doubled teamed and is pressured to get rid of the ball. However on this night, Kaman didn't see those double teams due to the way that the Celtics opt to not send double teams and at one point, Kevin Garnett was barking at Kendrick Perkins to maintain his focus when defending Kaman. A number of other things were played out differently, especially in the closing minutes of the game. Kevin Arnovitz of True Hoop wrote an entry this morning titled, "The Play Before The Play", which was referring to the play that set up a Rasual Butler 3-pointer. The video is seen below courtesy of ClipperBlog:
It's almost shocking at this point to see Ray Allen miss a jumper with less than a minute to go in a close game but that's what happened, giving the Clippers a chance to tie the game with a 3 pointer. On this play, the Clippers opt to not use a time out and immediately get into their set. Kevin Garnett comes out on Baron Davis at the top of the arc, the first to pressure the ball out of his hands and the second time he is out of position to help defend the paint. At this point, since there was no time out called, the Celtics are not given a reminder that the lead is 3 points and on a night where they had a number of mental mistakes, this play was the most costly. They defended this play as if it was a routine play at any other juncture in the game where their instinct would be to collapse on Baron Davis' drive to the basket but doing so on this play left Rasual Butler and Eric Gordon open for 3 pointers and Rasual Butler was able to knock it down to tie the game.
On the other end the Celtics get the ball back and utilize the clock to near perfection and Rondo is able to draw a foul with 1.5 seconds left. Luckily for the Clippers, Rondo is a poor foul shooter and misses both free throws and the Clippers are given an opportunity to win the game in regulation and have overtime as a worst case scenario.
In the huddle, Baron Davis asks Coach Dunleavy to be given the ball and was confident that he would make a turn-around jumper to beat the buzzer. And on the ensuing play...
It brought back memories of vintage Baron Davis who hit a similar shot to beat the Celtics nearly at the buzzer in his final season with the Golden State Warriors.
But this was no doubt the biggest Clipper victory of the season. The team desperately needed this victory to keep from falling farther below .500. Clipper fans can hope that this victory will get the team's momentum rolling and that they can continue to see Baron Davis lead the team and take charge at the end of games and essentially become the coach much like Sam Cassell did during the 05-06 season. It started with his commitment in the off season and his hard work has paid off. After last night's game, there shouldn't be anyone in Clipper Nation who doesn't believe in Baron Davis.
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