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OAKLAND, Calif. – At halftime on Tuesday, while his team was 23 points behind the Golden State Warriors, Clippers' coach, Doc Rivers, tried to inspire confidence in the players.
What has he said?
"That we were going to win," said Rivers. "Hang in. Hang on long enough, I was honest with them, I said:" I do not know how. " I said: "We are going to get by, but let's stay together with each other." "
His team would accumulate 31 points in the second game of the West Conference's first round series against the Warriors at Oracle Arena, but, as he said, the Clippers held up and came back to victory. – 131 in what has become the biggest post-season return of the history of the NBA.
"We stopped playing," said Warrior head coach Steve Kerr. "We sort of slipped out midway through the third quarter, we lost our defensive advantage, they scored 85 points in the second half, we did a really good job in the first half, so we messed up the game a bit. When you do that, you have problems, especially in the playoffs. "
The Warriors fear that the All-Star center, DeMarcus Cousins, has mutilated itself before its MRI Tuesday, announced ESPN.
Doc Rivers ended its pre-game press conference before Game 2 of the Clippers' West West quarterfinal in Oakland, telling the story of a random act of kindness that amazed the assembled media.
1 related
The Clippers defeated the Seattle Supersonics by a 29-point win, which allowed them to defeat the Seattle Supersonics in 1989. The Clippers also came back 27 points behind in a playoff win against the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012.
But it's not as if the return of such an important deficit was new for these Clippers.
Prior to this season, no team had gained more than 25 points in a season since the release of game play data in 1996-97. But this season, the Clippers have recorded three returns of 25 points or more, according to research by Vincent Johnson of ESPN Stats & Information.
"For me, on national television, we have family, friends, people who admire you," said Lou Williams, the Clippers reserve guard, who scored the highest point of the game with 36 points. "We understand the type of team we are playing against, so you do not want to be the group of guys you criticized on national television, and on top of that, we've been a resilient team all year round. deficits like this before, we live with our hard work. "
1:35
After the Clippers came back from a 31-point deficit to beat the Warriors in the second game, Doc Rivers told the media that they had bigger goals in sight.
The 85 points scored by the Clippers in the second half are the second points in the second half of a playoff match in the history of the NBA, behind the Milwaukee Bucks 87 points in the third game of the half Final of the 1978 Western Conference against the Denver Nuggets. Search for ESPN statistics and information.
Before the second game against the Clippers on Monday, Kerr had raised the possibility of a disappointment with his team that already had a game lead in the first round series.
"You warn them," Kerr said of his players. "You warn them and hope for the best."
But what will happen next at Oracle Arena will remain a failure that the Warriors will not soon forget – and no one else will forget it.
"We have lowered our guard," said Warrior guard Klay Thompson. "We were no longer the aggressors – we did not deserve to win this game – the gods of basketball did not reward us – I peeked wide open on top of the key, in and out.This happens.I will bounce.I will bounce.All the team will do it.We will straighten the boat.
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Warrior coach Steve Kerr admits that midway through the third quarter they broke up and DeMarcus Cousins' injury is "serious".
Warriors star Kevin Durant had nine turnovers, his best in a game since joining the Warriors, and scored 21 points on just eight throws before escaping. Stephen Curry had 29 points, but he was embarrassed by big problems. He also missed a potential three point pointer nine seconds from the end.
"This game is difficult," said Curry. "It's hard to win playoff games, no matter what game you play, no matter the history, the regular season, team against team.It's hard.For six and a half quarters we played Exceptionally, we had a 31-point lead, I know we can get it back, we obviously showed that the basketball level was there for us, we had to gather 48 minutes, just a collective energy, a face positivity to everything we did. [the] the locker room was down, as it should, because every game counts for us. We just have to bounce back. "
But Rivers said his team could not be satisfied.
"That's not enough for us," Rivers said. "You can hear them in the locker room, they do not talk about it, they talk about coming back and winning, they have expectations, this team knows it, nobody wants to agree with us, and that's what they want. Well, we're fine. But we have our own expectations and we will keep them. "
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