Clippers pick and roll defense has terrific. They have blitzing and trapping the ball-handlers (especially Lillard) and made life miserable for Portland. Glen Davis and DeAndre Jordan have been excellent on defense in fourth quarter. Lillard having a nightmare.
DeAndre Jordan intimidating so many of Portland's drives. Multiple sequences of Blazers guards passing out of drives for midrange shots instead of taking it hard to the basket simply because Jordan is near and might come over and challenge the shot.
Clippers have tried a hack-a-jordan. It has worked well but they still cannot score on the other end of the floor so they are not cutting into the Clippers lead. Doc takes Jordan out for an offensive possession (due to FT concerns) but gets unlucky with a near 2 minute run of play before Doc can get Jordan back in. Portland go on a run and make it close. Jordan back in. Play out of a timeout, Doc gets JJ Redick curling off a screen, drives, layup. Clippers back in control with a 5 point lead and less than a minute remaining.
Blazers basket. Redick misses tough jump-shot. Next possession, bad gamble by Turkoglu, misses the steal at midcourt, leaves Batum wide open for a three from left wing. Batum nails it. Tie game. Last possession. Chris Paul drives down lane (beats his man one-on-one), bad pass behind D.Jordan, turnover ... no, CP3 chases it down and forces Batum to knock it out of bounds. Clippers get it back. 2.5 seconds left. Chris Paul catches it left wing, dribbles past Batum, leaner off glass, in and out. Unlucky. Overtime. Clock malfunction, Jordan stopped playing when he had a chance to tap it back in.
Funny sequence. DeAndre Jordan under the rim rebounds Paul's miss. Jordan thinks the game is over. He extends his arm as high as possible with the ball in his hand. Chris Paul is screaming at him. Telling him to shoot. Game is not over. CP3 starts jumping up and down trying to get the ball from him. Can't reach the ball in Jordan's outstretched hand! Time runs out. Overtime.
Blazers win in overtime. Bad loss for LAC. The Clippers ran out of steam. They were riding some guys pretty hard late in the game and didn't have enough left in the tank after Portland forced overtime. Excellent comeback by Portland. They really stuck with it and kept plugging away no matter how bad things were looking. Impressive mature performance on the road against a top team in LAC. The type of comeback Championship teams make.