Led by a vintange performance from 38-year old Tim Duncan of 28 points and 11 rebounds, the San Antonio Spurs overcame Blake Griffin’s first career Playoff triple-double and sent their first round series with the LA Clippers back to Texas deadlocked at 1-1.
Griffin was spectacular in Game 2, finishing with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, but blamed himself for the 111-107 overtime loss.
Blake Griffin: "That game was pretty much 100% on me… I turned it over. The game's on me."
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 23, 2015
Late-game miscues cost the Clippers a golden opportunity to take a 2-0 series lead.
Per the OC Register:
The botched Blake Griffin-DeAndre Jordan lob mattered. The J.J. Redick missed free throw that seemed to park on the lip of the rim before idling to the floor? Mattered. The Chris Paul game-winning try that wouldn’t fall over Tim Duncan’s out-stretched arm? Oh, you bet it mattered. Those Griffin turnovers? Yeah, they mattered. […] And that Redick 3 that was maybe a centimeter too long? Yup, it mattered too.
Led by Duncan (28 points), San Antonio played with higher levels of energy, intensity and execution than they did in Game 1. […] “They were in our airspace a little more,” Paul said. “Early, we couldn’t keep them off the free-throw line and I think it got them into a rhythm.”
“We’re going to be in this,” Rivers said. “It tells me it’s going to be a hell of a series.”