Award winning Los Angeles based sports journalist covering major events around the world since 1973. Please check out my new book and audio vault. Follow me on Twitter & Instagram (@tedsobelsports).
There’s a nice vibe inside Staples Center before tonight’s 2nd game of the opening round playoff series between the Clippers and Grizzlies with L.A. up 1 game to none…but it’s not as nice as it should be standing in front of the locker of Clips guard Jamaal Crawford who lost out to J.R. Smith of the Knicks for the NBA 6th man of the year award.
We got the chance to get Jamaal’s take on missing out on the award and he was gracious as usual…
Jamaal Crawford:
When I walked out of the Clippers locker room former NBA All-star Chris Webber was standing in the hallway and I shook his hand congratulating him on the start of his new career in broadcasting. I always liked C.Web’s candor inside the locker room and he’s rounding into form as a professional analyst because he’s one of the few who actually speaks his mind. Chris was kind enough to give me a few minutes as we chatted about both the Clippers and Lakers playoff series along with thoughts on Kobe Bryant being ‘FanMamba’ tweeting during game one from his rehab room.
Chris Webber:
We also got some pregame comments from Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro on tonight’s game and about his special 6th man falling short of the league award.
Vinny Del Negro:
Game 2 is about to begin between the Clips and Griz…and remember that you can hear all Clippers games on KFWB Newstalk 980.
The Clippers grabbed a 1-0 playoff series lead over Memphis with a solid 112-91 win. The Grizzlies never led in this one, falling behind early by 13 points and whittling it down to just 1 with about 10 minutes to play before the Eric Bledsoe show began. The Clips super-sub scored 14 of his 15 points from that point to the finish line sending the fairly subdued but faithful crowd home a happy bunch. The entire L.A. bench contributed 49 points including some key physical help down low by Rony Turiaf and Matt Barnes (who else?)!
Speaking of physical, it was just as we surmised with Blake Griffin and Zack Randolph going at it all night long (that is when they weren’t sitting on the bench in foul trouble). The one negative L.A. stat that stood out for me until the 4th quarter was the points in the paint that were dominated by Memphis. But the Clips quickly turned that around along with the points on the scoreboard and it turned into a rout down the stretch. And speaking of a dominant stat–the Clippers out-rebounded Memphis 47-23 including a 14-4 advantage on the offensive glass. If that continues, this will be a quicker series than most expect.
The following are my postgame locker room interviews including entire newsconferences with Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro along with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul’s.
Coach Vinny:
Blake Griffin and Chris Paul:
Chauncey Billups:
Matt Barnes:
Jamaal Crawford:
Rony Turiaf:
Willie Green:
So now we look forward to game 2 on Monday night with the Grizzlies needing to make some major adjustments or quickly fall behind 2-0 in this series. I still think this could be a long and tight series but the Griz have to find a way to get more scoring from outside the paint while the Clips would simply prefer to enjoy their own Memphis-style BBQ of Grizzly meat before heading back to Tennessee for games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Saturday.
The Clippers are warming up as I write this to face the Memphis Grizzlies here at Staples Center in game one of their best of 7 opening round playoff series. We had a chance to speak with Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro before the game and then I ran into ESPN analyst and Hall of Fame coach Hubie Brown in the hallway on his way to the booth and he was kind enough to give me a few minutes of analysis for both the Clips-Griz and Lakers-Spurs series.
The Clippers have been the talk of the town this season for local basketball fans but now they must walk the walk (and not just dunk the dunk) as they open their first round playoff series on Saturday night at Staples Center against the always tough (in more ways than one) Memphis Grizzlies and with a 7 game winning streak going in. Both clubs were 32-9 at home and 24-17 on the road this season but that’s old news now. And the Clippers need to show more of their 17 straight wins team as opposed to their mid-season lackluster go-through-the-motions version.
ZeBo vs. Griffin, hopefully a healthy ‘Mr. Big Shot’ vs. his ‘ol Detroit championship buddy L.A.’s own Prince named Tayshawn, Jamaal shooting and Conley’s passing, and the other Jordan and the other Gasol…all fun guys to watch in this series but as Coach Vinny has told me a few times, it comes down to a better team DEE (especially vs. the 3) and the famous Chris Paul offense that will make the difference. Or simply put–as CP3 goes–that’s where his Clippers will go!
BUT, the Griz will be growling even more than usual coming into this one losing out on home court advantage mainly because of their recent home loss to the Clips. And let’s not forget about last year’s Poster Boy choke of chokes, blowing that 27 point lead in their series opener in the greatest 4th quarter comeback in NBA playoff history before finally being sent into the golfing season by the Clippers in a home 7th game. Can you say major REVENGE???
Before the 2nd to last regular season game, I had a few minutes to chat with the Clippers legendary play by play guru Ralph Lawler who always speaks his mind (the way it should be) and I wanted to get his feelings on these playoffs as compared to last year’s for his beloved Clips?…
Also excited but for a totally different reason is Clippers rookie guard Maalik Wayns (who I’ve told to his face is simply the best of the Wayns’ brothers). How about just getting signed for the rest of the season and having the opportunity to be a part of a very special locker room? Well whether he plays any minutes at all, what an experience for a first year guy…
Oh me oh my…this ought to be one tight gritty physical series and my prediction is…the Clippers in 7 (or possibly 9 or even 10). Enjoy folks and remember that every game can be heard on my radio station KFWB Newstalk 980 starting with Saturday’s pregame Lob City at 6:30pm.
Utah lost as expected in Memphis earlier on Wednesday so the big incentive for the Lakers was to beat Houston to avoid having to face the much quicker and athletic Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers were far from pretty in missing 12 straight shots at one point in the 4th quarter but fortunately for them, the Rockets played quite ugly themselves so an overtime win sends the Lakers to San Antonio for game one of their best of 7 series on Sunday afternoon.
I had some great postgame locker room chats that unfortunately I won’t be able to share with you since they were messed up by a microphone malfunction. So I’ll post whatever I was able to salvage while missing out on some of the classic responses from Mr. Triple Double Pao Gasol, Steve Blake and Antawn Jamison (the latter two I was able to put together something for you to hear).
Steve Blake coming off his Laker high of 24 points, started out by telling us that his guys must play it from the inside-out (FINALLY!) to have a chance against the Spurs…
Jamison is always a great quote despite not getting to hear his fun responses to some of my questions but here’s the gist of our late night chat…
Guard Jody Meeks didn’t have his best game but continues to contribute nicely off the bench and I got a few minutes to get his thoughts on finally reaching the playoffs…
Earl Clark’s minutes have diminished lately but he told me how confident his guys are to face the Spurs…
And rookie backup center Robert Sacre (who’s always smiling) gave me a few minutes to share his thoughts on his first playoff run…
So no Kobe and SO FAR no problem for the Lakers who are 2-0 since their Hall of Famer went down with a ruptured achilles tendon. But reality sets in immediately against the heavily favored Spurs who have lost only 6 home games this season. Their big BUT is all about health, mostly Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. My key is Parker who if he plays to his usual all-star caliber will make it almost impossible for the Lakers to pull of the big upset. But if he plays anything like his stinky performance in the last Lakers win over the Spurs–anything’s possible. And remember that San Anton closed the season losing 7 of their last 10 games including last Sunday at Staples. FYI, with Kobe the Lakers were 1-2 vs. the Spurs this season and lost by a total of just 5 points in the two losses.
My pick is San Antonio in 5 or 6 games (if the Spurs are hurting) but it would be fun to see the new-look gutty Lakers take them to the limit and see what D’Antoni’s guys are truly all about against a top quality contender. But the reality is that they could easily be swept into the off-season. My Clippers playoff post comes tomorrow including an interview with the voice of the Clips Ralph Lawler.
The Clippers cruised to a 93-77 win over the collapsing Portland Trailblazers who lost their 12th straight game while the Clips go into tomorrow night’s final regular season matchup in Sacramento with a 6 game winning streak. It was a game that the Clippers were expected to win handily especially by the folks in Vegas who set the line at 15 1/2 and as typically happens, garbage time made it closer than those who took the action would’ve wanted after the Clips once led by 27 while ending the night early for the starters late in the 3rd quarter.
Chauncey Billups returned from his strained groin for L.A. to get in 17 minutes of work and was rusty as expected missing all 5 of his field goals (4 of them from 3 point land) and he picked up 5 assists but most importantly felt fine as he told us afterwards…
Coach Vinny Del Negro’s postgame newser sounded cautiously optimistic just wanting to take care of business in Sacto first before getting ahead of themselves…
Chris Paul scored 8 points with 11 assists in his 25 minutes and he was also only thinking one thing…get the win on Wednesday and earn the best home court advantage possible…
Blake Griffin had 16 pts. and 6 boards before he got some nice bench time and he had plenty to say to set up the next few days going into the playoffs which will likely start on Saturday at home for the Clippers…
My other postgame locker room interviews…
Center DeAndre Jordan:
Forward Matt Barnes who once played in Sacramento so I asked him about this possibly being the Kings swan song game there while feeling better about his club than a few weeks ago…
Guard Willie Green:
And finally forward Lamar Odom who has 2 rings with the Lakers, is ready to get it on when it really counts and says the DEE is the key:
So there you have it…we’re down to one game left to decide who’s playing who and where in the NBA playoffs. And you can hear every minute of it on my station KFWB Newstalk 980 starting with the pregame on Wednesday night from Sacramento at 7pm.
Have fun Clippers fans!
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