- follow along with this video for highlights to watch them as I explain them.
With the Clippers down 31 against the Warriors and 7:31 left to go in the 3rd quarter, about half of America turned off their TVs and went to bed. Those who stayed awake though were rewarded with witnessing the greatest comeback in NBA history as the Clippers came all the way back from the brink to win 135-131.
In fact, the previous record holder also happened to be the Clippers They did it in the first round of the 2012 playoffs. Led by Nick Young and Reggie Evans, they mounted a 27 4th quarter comeback to win Game 1 on the road against the Grizzlies.
Unlike that team though, this is a Clippers team that is used to making comebacks. This season the Clippers had a historic comeback in Boston (down 28). They came back from 25 down against the Pistons. Three days later they overcame a 20 point deficit against the Hornets. As a result they were the first team in the last 20 seasons with 3+ 20 point comebacks in 5 games. So the Clippers are no strangers to overcoming huge holes.
So the Clippers understand what it takes to come back, but what exactly needs to come together for a comeback of this level to occur? It takes seven factors.
1. You need a hustle guy who will get sneaky buckets for you - i.e.: offensive rebounds and tough layups.
2. You need a scorer who can make tough shots down the stretch once you get the game within 5 points.
3. You need a role player/three point shooter who can lose their mind and make a few big heat check shots for you down the stretch even when they haven't been in the moment before.
4. You also need free throws…a lot of them. You also need bad free throw shooters to make free throws they don't normally make.
5. You need some great defense.
6. You need the other team to play poorly and make mistakes. Often times defense is not enough. You need the opposing team to make defensive mistakes that allow you to get easy buckets on offense and vice versa.
7. Finally, you just need to get lucky. This can be any form of luck - calls, foul trouble, substitutions, anything really.
To give you an example of how this works I want to show you the Clippers previously historic comeback against the Grizzlies in 2012. I wanted to pick the same franchise in a similar situation with completely different players. That way you can see how applicable these principles really are.
1. The hustle guy: Reggie Evans - didn’t start the game and finished with 13 rebounds including two big offense rebounds down the stretch.
2. The scorer: Chris Paul/Blake Griffin - they made big free throws down the stretch and created offense when the team needed it.
3. Three point shooter who loses his mind/irrational confidence player: Nick Young - he made three 3s in a row to get the Clippers within three points.
4. Free throws - The Clippers made 4 of 6 free throws in the 4th quarter. Not great but they did everything else well so this stat can be overlooked a bit. Bad free throw shooter making clutch free throws - Blake Griffin (52%) made two clutch free throws with 1:30 left to bring the Clippers within 1.
5. Defense - The Clippers put the clamps on the Grizzlies once they went down 27 and forced the Grizzlies into only 5 made field goals for the entire 4th quarter.
6. The mistakes - Tony Allen missed a put-back with 1 minute left and the Grizzlies had four turnovers, including two that were unforced.
7. Luck - Mike Conley (an 86% free throw shooter on the year) missed 1 of 2 from the line and he also missed a two foot layup. Maurice Speights also missed a layup and Zach Randolph missed 3 of his patented mid range jumpers.
See? If you do all of those things then you can come back from 20+ points down. So how did the Clippers do with this checklist? Let's go down 1 through 7 and see how they did.
1. The hustle guy: Montrezl Harrell: Harrell came off the bench and scored 25 while grabbing 10 rebounds. He was 9/9 from the field and grabbed 40% of all available defensive rebounds. More importantly though 6 of his 10 rebounds came in the 4th quarter. His points were either on put backs or dunks at the rim when he dove off of the Lou Williams pick n' roll. Hustle guy - check.
2. The scorer: Lou Williams. Without a doubt this is Sweet Lou. He scored 12 of his 36 points in the 4th quarter and he made two clutch mid range jumpers with 1:10 left to tie the game (8:09 in the video) and 46 seconds left to keep the game within 1 (8:39 in the video). You could also credit Harrell with the scoring load because he had 17 points dating back to the 3rd quarter. It's even better to have two scorers but remember - what matters most is having the guy who can get you a bucket once the game is close. Lou was that guy. Scorer - double check.
3. Role player: this is an easy one to fill - Landry Shamet, the irrational confidence rookie who had the guts to take and make the go-ahead three with 16 seconds left. What makes this shot even more incredible is that fact that this same shot was blocked at the 9:46 mark by Sean Livingston. The fact that the block did not derail is confidence is incredible. Heat check role play guy - check.
4. Free throws: The Clippers went 25 of 31 from the line all game including 7 of 9 in the 4th quarter. Bad free throw shooter who actually makes them when it counts: this is a familiar face. Montrezl Harrell was a 65% free throw shooter in the regular season. In the 4th quarter tonight he made 4 of 5. Free throws - once again, double check.
5. Defense: The Clippers forced 12 turnovers since the 7:31 mark in the 3rd quarter. Beverly drew multiple charges and SGA had a handful of steals off of bad passes on the night. Next in the 4th quarter, the Clippers did a good job of driving Steph Curry off the 3-point line and forcing the ball out of his hand. They also took Durant out of his rhythm by drawing multiple offensive fouls on him. This forced Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut to try to score on offense. Exactly what the Warriors do not want. A good example of this is at the 6:30 mark in the 4th quarter. The Warriors were forced into an offensive set (because of the Clippers ball denial) where Bogut was forced to take a tough hook shot. This was exactly the kind of shots the Clippers want the Warriors to take. Good defense - check.
6. Poor play and mistakes: this was evident all throughout the game - Durant had nine turnovers, fouled out, and took eight shots. Curry didn’t score a single point in the 3rd quarter and the Warriors committed five turnovers in the 4th quarter alone because of bad passes and offensive fouls. They helped beat themselves on Monday night. Mistakes and poor play - check.
7. Luck - There weren't too many lucky plays but I think a few lucky whistles helped the Clippers. First was when Mychal Green fouled out. This forced Doc River to put Harrell back in the game which gave them more scoring sooner. That wasn't intentional by Doc so I consider that lucky. Next was a near over and back call by Lou Williams to Pat Beverly in the 4th quarter that I believe could have gone either way. Luck - a little check.
And that - is how you mount a comeback.