It was 1:30 a.m. when the Los Angeles Clippers’ flight from Phoenix landed Wednesday in Los Angeles. But Tyronn Lue had no intention of sleeping.
Once in his car off the tarmac, he phoned forward Paul George on their late-night commutes home. Then the Clippers’ coach called guard Patrick Beverley. He kept calling on down his roster, not wanting their shared heartbreak from three hours earlier, when the Clippers had fallen two games behind in their first Western Conference final on a last-second lob, become their final takeaway of the night.
“Just called a few guys and said, listen, it was a tough game, but at the end of the day it was on their home floor,” Lue said. “It hurt. I was hurt a little bit, as well, because we had a chance to win one on their home floor. But it didn’t happen, so now we’ve just got to move on.”
Said Terance Mann: “Short conversation. We knew what we had to do.”
Less than 48 hours later, what the Clippers did was summon yet another comeback in a postseason where they have become the defining characteristic of a team that refuses to wilt, their 106-92 Game 3 victory at Staples Center again proving the perils of counting these Clippers out — even as their rotation shrunk even further while Phoenix added a healthy Chris Paul.
After 12 games in their last 22 days, the Clippers are gassed. Between free throws in the third quarter, George tugged at his shorts, bent over while breathing deeply. He played 43 minutes, 11 more than any teammate, but finished with 27 points, 15 rebounds and eight rebounds and blew kisses to fans with both hands after his three-pointer from a step inside the halfcourt line ended the third quarter, giving the Clippers an 80-69 lead.
But there was enough energy for Mann to flex his biceps amid his momentum-shifting, 10-point third quarter, six days after he’d supercharged the Clippers’ second-round series clincher in the same quarter.
There was enough in the tank for Beverley to again hound Phoenix’s Devin Booker, who made five of 21 shots in one of the Clippers’ grittiest defensive efforts of their entire season.
There was enough for Marcus Morris to play 24 minutes, scoring eight points with five rebounds, on a left knee injured enough that the team feared he would not play at all, and Ivica Zubac to score 15 points with 16 rebounds, the best playoff performance of his young career.
There was enough for Reggie Jackson to pound his chest after his five straight points with six minutes to play pushed the Clippers’ lead back to 11, a steadying response after a wobbly start to the quarter.
And when the Suns took a timeout four minutes later, the Clippers leading by 16, Jackson wiggled his fingers to the crowd of 17,222, asking for more noise when the building had seemingly hit its limit.
“We never really have doubt,” Jackson said. “We continue to just chip away, try to chip away, try to figure out ways we can be better and try to figure out ways to impose our will on our opponents. This team is just hungry. It’s always hungry to get better.”
The Clippers’ ambitions of their first NBA Finals haven’t slowed, and it all started on a tone-setting flight.
“Guys were still pretty loose,” said Jackson, who scored 23 points. “It was tough after a tough loss. I think it hit hard quick, and then guys were over it.”
Paul, whose arrival to the Clippers 10 years ago in a trade from New Orleans opened this franchise’s championship aspirations, could not close the door on his former team’s realistic chances. No team has recovered from a 3-0 deficit and won in playoff history. He scored 15 points, with 12 assists, but shot five of 19.
Paul had spoken with teammates via video chat after each of their two wins; his appearance on the team’s bus to shootaround Thursday morning “was pretty cool for everybody,” coach Monty Williams said, after the guard spent one week within the NBA’s COVID protocols, but “right after that, everybody got right back to business.”
Except, for a team riding a nine-game winning streak, it did not begin as business as usual.
Booker, donning a transparent plastic mask after suffering what he called a “crooked” nose Tuesday, and Paul each made two of their 10 shots in the first half. One game after a career-high 29 points, Cameron Payne limped off early, an ankle hurt. The Clippers led by eight after one quarter, only to see the advantage erased midway through the second quarter through self-inflicted measures.
Turnover-free for 13 minutes, the Clippers committed four in their next four minutes, with three by Rajon Rondo, the player the Clippers acquired in March with the expressed purpose of leaning on his reputation of postseason stability. Instead, the Clippers were outscored by eight points in his eight minutes and Phoenix was up two at halftime despite shooting 11 fewer free throws.
Then they unveiled the most important third quarter of their season. Lue, praised for his adjustments this postseason, kept Rondo on the bench, where center DeMarcus Cousins also stayed after two uneven games.
They were among the Clippers who rushed onto the court to meet George after the third-quarter buzzer, after he banked in his shot, a moment that helped a tired but undaunted team kiss Phoenix’s hopes of a sweep goodbye.
