Los Angeles Clippers Ride Chris Paul's Heroics into 2nd Round of NBA Playoffs
LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul had one good leg to work with.
He'd pulled up lame with a left hamstring strain late in the first quarter and hobbled his way through the final two-and-a-half frames of Game 7 between the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs.
Apparently, one good leg was all Paul needed. With the clock winding down and the score tied at 109 apiece, Paul drove to the hole, tossed a high-arching shot over the outstretched arms of two Spurs and watched as it dropped through off the glass—all on one leg.
A subsequent Spurs lob to Kawhi Leonard, spoiled by a false buzzer from the scorer's table, went wanting, and the Clippers went limping into the second round with a 111-109 win over the defending champs.
"[At walk-through today] we talked about if we get down into a last-second shot what we wanted to do," Paul relayed after the game, his game shorts still on under his jacket and brimmed hat. "We've been in that situation a lot of times already this year, and most of the time I hadn't made it, to tell you the truth. We talked about it, and finally it worked when we needed it."
"That was huge for us, just the shot," Doc Rivers marveled. "I'm so happy for him. The shot alone, no balance on the shot, falling backwards, amazing."
The same could be said of the entirety of Paul's Isiah Thomas-like performance. He answered Doc Rivers' pregame call to be aggressive, scoring 22 of his 27 points and shooting 4-of-5 from three after returning from the locker room in the middle of the second quarter.
"He's just tough—he's a street fighter," Rivers said of Paul.
To be sure, Paul wasn't the only hero for L.A. on Saturday. The Clippers did well to hold their own while Paul was holding his head in disgust. Jamal Crawford scored nine of his 16 points while Paul was getting worked on by the team's training staff.
And the rest of the Clippers stepped up throughout a game that featured 16 ties and 31 lead changes. Blake Griffin turned in his second triple-double of the series (24 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists). Matt Barnes made the Spurs pay for ignoring him, to the tune of 17 points. J.J. Redick finally got off from three (4-of-7), in addition to making plays and hitting shots off the bounce.
But Paul did his part to pick right up where he'd left off.
"It was unbelievable," said Griffin. "To be injured like that, when he came back, I was like, man—I asked him, 'What can you do? Can you do anything?' He's like, 'We'll see.'"
Paul's own trepidation was well warranted. He's been party to his fair share of shortfalls in the NBA, including his 19-foot miss at the end of regulation in Game 2.
Not to mention his collapse down the stretch in Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder last spring.
Had Paul come up empty this time, he would've at least had an alibi. After all, it's no easy thing to shine under pressure at basketball's highest level, especially against a team like the Spurs—and especially with only one good leg.
Heck, Paul wasn't even sure he'd be able to keep going after feeling that first twinge behind his left leg.
"We do everything we can to prepare for a game," Paul explained. "You get your rest, you train, you work out, you eat right, try to take care of your body. And I was just overcome with emotion because I was frustrated, because I was like, 'All this time, all season long, and then Game 7, my body is going to let me down.'"
But Paul didn't succumb—not to physical pain or mental fatigue or the ghosts of postseason failures past.
"At any time, we could have let go of the rope and just thought, 'It's these guys,'" Paul said. "We fought hard and we could have just conceded, but we kept fighting and guys made plays in order to win."
Granted, Paul wasn't alone in his lack of reliable limbs. Tim Duncan was basically a human pogo stick in this series—as he has been for the past several seasons—but still managed to average 17.9 points and 11.1 rebounds, with four 20-10 games mixed in. Tony Parker, who battled discomfort in his Achilles throughout this seven-game slugfest, did what he could to pick on Paul, to the tune of 20 points and five assists.
"Everybody is dinged up and nicked up," said head coach Gregg Popovich, who fell to 3-3 in Game 7s as a coach. "We tried to get Tony to get in some positions where he could be aggressive, but that's what we do with Tony anyway."
Now, the task of taking advantage of Paul's one-leggedness will fall to the Houston Rockets, who will host the Clippers at the Toyota Center on Monday. Rivers guessed that his superstar point guard would likely have to sit out Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
"I know my grandmother back in North Carolina is praying right now," said Paul. "She's praying, and she'll let my mom pray over it and all that, too, and it will be alright."
The Clippers will probably be joining Paul's family in their prayers. Taking down James Harden, Dwight Howard and company—after escaping the Spurs by the skin of their teeth—would be no easy task, even with their full squad. Losing Paul would be a crushing blow to L.A.'s hopes at the outset against Houston.
But if Paul has one good leg to stand on, that might be enough for the Clippers.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter.
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