April 30, 2017

Gordon Hayward scored 26 points , and the Jazz eliminated the Clippers at Staples Center on Sunday afternoon with a 104-91 victory.

The Clippers were eliminated from the 1st round of the playoffs for the 2nd straight season.  They’ve also blown a series lead in the last 5 postseasons.  Last season LA was eliminated by Portland when both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were injured.  This year, the Clippers were without Griffin, after losing him to a toe injury in game 3.

George Hill and Derek Favors each scored 17 points for Utah, which won its first playoff series since 2010.

“We’ve been through some pretty hard downs,” said Hayward.  “It definitely feels really good to go from 25 wins to where we were this year making the playoffs, winning a series.”

DeAndre Jordan led the way for the Clippers with 24 points and 17 rebounds, and Jamal Crawford scored the majority of his 20 points late in the game, but it wasn’t enough to rally the Clips.

The Clippers’ starting backcourt struggled.  Chris Paul, who was double teamed for much of the afternoon, scored 13 points and had 9 assists, but was just 6-19 from the field.  He also tweaked an ankle in the 3rd quarter, which slowed him down.  JJ Redick, who struggled for most of the series, had 3 points on 1-5 shooting.

Paul was disappointed, but attributed part of the problem to defense.  “It came down to today to keep us afloat, keep us alive,” he said.  “We’re done.  Late when we did start scoring, we couldn’t get stops.”

After an even 1st quarter, the Jazz opened up a lead as large as 11 points in the 2nd quarter, and took a 46-39 lead into halftime.

The 3rd quarter saw the Jazz open up with a 23-9 run, which blew the game open, and extended the lead to 69-48.  With Rudy Gobert in foul trouble, Boris Diaw contributed 8 points in that stretch, and the Jazz complete 3 different 3-point plays.

Utah was in command for most of the 4th quarter, ahead by as many as 17 points, despite the fact that Favors and Gobert were plagued with foul trouble, as both big men fouled out.

Redick’s only basket of the game, a 3-pointer with 3:28 to play, cut the Jazz lead to 98-90, but the Clips could not get any closer.  A 13-foot jumper by George Hill, a Redick missed layup, followed by two made free throws by Joe Johnson pushed the lead back to 12 with two minutes left.

The only lead of the game for LA was by a single point just minutes into the game.  They shot 44% from the field and were outscored 56-46 in the paint.

The Clippers now head into the offseason with a multitude of questions hanging over them.  Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have the ability to opt out of their contracts’ and become free agents.  JJ Redick will also become an unrestricted free agent.  Re-signing any 2 of them would require incurring luxury tax penalties.

Game 7 may also have been the final game of Paul Pierce’s NBA career.  The 19-year NBA veteran had 6 points and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes.  He has previously said this would be the final season of his Hall of Fame career.

The Jazz now face the Warriors in the 2nd round of the playoffs beginning on Tuesday night in Oakland.

April 30, 2017

The Ducks scored a franchise record 6 goals on Sunday night in Alberta, defeating the Oilers 6-3 in game 3 of their 2nd round series.  The Ducks now trail 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

The final score was not indicative of how competitive the game was.  Anaheim jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the Oilers fought back to tie the score, putting together a relentless attack in the 2nd period.  However, the Ducks scored 3 unanswered goals to retake control of the game, and get back in the series.

Rikard Rakell, Ryan Getzlaf, Chris Wagner, and Ryan Kessler scored for the Ducks, as did Jakob Silfverberg, who scored a pair.  John Gibson made 24 saves, including several on a pair of big stops on a 3-on-1 Oiler break in the 2nd period.

The Oiler goals came from Patrick Maroon, Anton Slepyshev, and Connor McDavid.  Cam Talbot made 22 saves for Edmonton, but he had a moment in the 2nd period he probably wants back.

Less than a minute after the Oilers tied the game, Wagner fired a slap shot from a sharp angle from the right wing boards, which deflected in off of Talbot’s blocker.  That ended up being the game-winning goal, at 9:28 of the 2nd period.

Anaheim caught several breaks after that.  The Oilers were on a power play a few minutes after Wagner’s goal, when Leon Draisaitl beat Gibson cleanly with a sharp angle shot.  Unfortunately for the Oilers, that shot bounced off the post, keeping the Ducks lead at 4-3.

Then in the 3rd period, when Silfverberg scored his 2nd of the game at 4:56, it appeared as though he was offside on the play.  Despite a coaches challenge, the officials ruled that it was a goal.

Kessler would close out the scoring halfway through the 3rd period, and the Ducks were on their way to their first win of the series.

Rakell took a long pass from Getzlaf and got behind the Oilers defense to score on a breakaway just 25 seconds into the game.  That was the fastest playoff goal to start a game in franchise history.

Silfverberg pounced on a loose puck a little over 5 minutes into the game when Adam Larsson was unable to clear the puck away from Talbot.

Getzlaf made it 3-0 at 8:09 of the 1st when he intercepted Darnell Nurse’s clearing attempt around the boards, then beat Talbot with a wrist shot.

With just 40 seconds remaining in the 1st period, Maroon deflected a shot past Gibson to put the Oilers on the board and give them some momentum heading into the 2nd.

Just 1:28 into the 2nd, the puck deflected off of Slepychev’s skate and into the net to pull the Oilers within 3-2.  Then McDavid tied it with a spectacular goal at 8:40, spinning away from Sami Vatanen and rifling a shot past Gibson.  The Oilers kept the pressure on throughout the period, even after Wagner’s goal, but Gibson continued to withstand the pressure.

Game 3 will be on Wednesday night in Alberta.  In the meantime, the Ducks will travel to Kelowna, B.C., to get away from the madness of Edmonton over the next few days.

April 28, 2017

The Clippers forced a 7th and decisive game with the Jazz by defeating Utah on Friday night 98-93 in Salt Lake City.

Chris Paul led the way with 29 points and 8 assists, and held off a late Utah rally to force the 7th and deciding game of the best-of-7 series on Sunday afternoon at Staples Center.  The winner will play the Golden State Warriors in the 2nd round.

Doc Rivers said game 6 was all about CP3.  “It’s just Chris,” Rivers said. “He is as competitive as a human being as I’ve ever been around. When you put that with the talent and the will, that’s why he has performances like this in big games.

The Clippers began to pull away late in the 4th quarter, and went on a 9-2 run which was capped by an Austin Rivers 3-pointer with 3:58 remaining.  That gave the Clippers a 91-77 lead.

After another Rivers 3-pointer, the Clippers opened up a 96-86 lead with 90 seconds left to play, but the Jazz weren’t done fighting.  Gordon Hayward would score seven straight points to pull Utah within 96-93.  The Jazz had a chance to tie it in the final seconds, but Joe Johnson’s 3-pointer missed.  Paul made two free throws to put the game away.

Hayward led the Jazz with 31 points, George Hill added 22 and Rudy Gobert finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn’t enough.

“We had to dig down on defense,” DeAndre Jordan said. “We had some big stops on defense. And then guys like Austin, CP, Jamal, they made big shots. But they made big shots because of our defense.”

Now the Clippers will have an overwhelming advantage in game 7 at Staples Center.  80% of home teams in NBA history have won game 7.  The Clips are 3-3 all-time in game 7’s.