For just the second time in franchise history, the Los Angeles Clippers are now one game from the conference finals following Sunday's 128-95 trouncing of the Houston Rockets. Back in 2006, the team featuring the likes of Elton Brand, Sam Cassell and Chris Kaman was beaten by 20 in Game 7 of their second round series against the Phoenix Suns, which was the closest the team has ever been to this stage of the playoffs.
Unquestionably, the story of Game 4 was Houston's relentless hacking of DeAndre Jordan. Jordan shot 34 free throws Sunday night (making 14). His 34 attempts were four more than the entire Rockets team, and the second-most of any player in a single playoff game since 1985. As a team, the Clippers shot 63 foul shots, making 37. D.J. wound up with a game-high 26 points and 17 rebounds, to go along with a pair of blocked shots.
And really, that's all the Clippers even needed. Houston paraded bench player after bench player into the game for no other reason than to use their available fouls on Jordan. Unfortunately for the Rockets, they were largely unable to capitalize on the possessions following Jordan free-throw misses. At one point late in the second quarter, the Rockets went scoreless on 10 consecutive possessions as they were fouling DeAndre on the other end. L.A. used a surge just before the half to take a 60-54 lead into halftime and never looked back.
The Rockets temporarily abandoned the hack-a-D.J. early in the third, and the Clippers made them pay. LAC ran out to a 17-4 run immediately following the break and the game was essentially cooked. The Clips unleashed a barrage of threes and CP3-to-DeAndre alley-oops that Houston had no prayer of stopping. For the game, L.A. went 13-for-31 from three-point range, thanks to J.J. Redick (4-for-7), Chris Paul (3-for-4), Austin Rivers (2-for-3) and Jamal Crawford (2-for-6). Even Spencer Hawes hit a couple of threes in this game.
It was evident that the Rockets had abandoned all makings of an actual gameplan in favor of just fouling DeAndre Jordan repeatedly and hoping for misses. That's what they did. In a crucial playoff game, their hopes for winning hinged almost completely on whether or not D.J. could hit his foul shots at a decent clip. When he would actually miss, which was quite often, Houston would have no offensive rhythm and would either settle for a terrible shot of their own or turn the ball over. Once L.A. built a halfway decent lead, the Rockets appeared to have zero urgency whatsoever, and that was that.
Houston was led by James Harden's rather meek 21 points, though he shot 5-of-12 from the floor and was never really able to put his stamp on the game. The same can be said of Dwight Howard, who struggled with early foul trouble and was never able to find any sort of rhythm. He was ejected early in the fourth quarter after fouling out and receiving his second technical foul, finishing with just seven points and six rebounds.
The Clippers will have three chances to put the Rockets out of their misery, starting on Tuesday back in Houston. Only eight teams in NBA history have come from 3-1 down in a series to win it, and obviously the Clippers would rather not be the ninth. No team has accomplished the feat since 2006, when Phoenix came back and defeated the Lakers in their first round series. The Rockets, for what it's worth, are one of the eight franchises that has done so, back in 1995 on their way to their second consecutive championship.
However, given the way the Clippers have looked through this series' first four games, the chances they blow this are looking rather slim. Instead of looking fatigued from having played a game every other day since April 21st, the Clips look more spry than any other team left. The first round win over San Antonio has clearly given L.A. the confidence they needed to realize they're as capable of winning a title as anyone else.
If they get the job done on Tuesday night in Game 5, perhaps they'll be rewarded with a little bit of rest before the Western Conference Finals get underway.
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