It was a nail-biting fight (literally) to the finish last night in Dallas as the LA Clippers fell 97-95 against a scrappy Mavericks team.
Doc Rivers thought about resting Chris Paul and Blake Griffin for this game, but decided against it, most likely assuming it would not include Paul being crushed by Nerlens Noel on a bad landing, J.J. Barea shoving Blake Griffin to the ground due to his frustration over running into a screen, and numerous collisions from opposing players over loose balls. The 10th seed Mavericks made it clear they were not going down without a fight, and they actually did not go down at all; they won.
Though our team lost in the end, this game was very enjoyable to watch. That is, unless you appreciate good NBA officiating. You can’t completely blame the refs for struggling to keep up with the amount of physicality in this game. It’s not like that is their job.
Some of the debatable calls included a play in the fourth quarter where Austin Rivers was on the fast break and Wesley Matthews reached through his armpit from behind clearly grabbing his wrist and pulling it back as Austin went for the lay up. The referee closest to the obvious foul called it a clean poke resulting in the Clippers in bounding the ball rather than shooting free throws.
Blake Griffin is a post-playing power forward, and took 23 shots in this game. It is very unlikely that he was only fouled twice during those 23 shots against the aggressive Mavericks. As the game went on and the teams traded blows and leads, (11 lead changes, 10 ties total) more contact occurred while less was called for both the Clippers and the Mavericks. One call that we appreciated was hot-head J.J. Barea being ejected for sending Blake Griffin to the ground with five minutes and thirty seconds left in the third.
The team did not lose completely because of the refs though. 17 turnovers off of sloppy passes and an attentive Mavericks defense were big factors in the close game. Paul Pierce was also questioningly used in the rotation rather than Brandon Bass, Alan Anderson, or Wesley Johnson for unknown reasons. J.J. Redick got a nice three pointer attempt off with just about a second remaining in the fourth quarter to win the game, however it was in and out.
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