Golden State Warriors vs Los Angeles Clippers: Game 4 Story Lines From L.A. – Distracted Be Thy Cause (Photo: Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — In the aftermath of the Donald Sterling controversy overshadowing Game 4 between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, it was understandable that most of the national press — largely dominated by those hailing from The City Of Angels, one of the top two markets in the NBA — would have a bent more towards the distractions of the game, rather than the game itself.
Here’s a smattering of those national beatwriters. Hardly any of them pointed to the small-ball lineup strategy that the Warriors employed…
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times:
They began the game huddled in a concrete hallway, arms locked, bodies swaying, desperately begging each other to stay united through the storm.
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“It’s just us . . . only us . . . we’re all we got!”
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They ended the game trudging through the same hallway in single file, heads down, eyes vacant, sighs heavy, their earlier hopes lost in the echoes of the silence.
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The Clippers tried. Oh, did they try. One day after being dragged into the center of national outrage with the release of an audio containing racist statements purportedly made by their owner, Donald Sterling, the Clippers tried to play through the storm.
Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times:
They took the court for warmups, all of them taking their blue warmups off in unison and dropping them near the mid-court circle. Then it was revealed their red shooting shirts were turned inside out, the Clippers’ logo hidden as they went through the layup line.
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They also wore black wrist bands and black socks.
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“It was just something we thought of as a group,” guard J.J. Redick said.
Sterling, who was at Game 3, didn’t attend Sunday’s game.
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But his wife, Shelly Sterling, sat courtside across from the Clippers. She wore black.
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“It doesn’t bother me,” reserve guard Willie Green said about Shelly Sterling being at the game. “I saw her sitting across from our bench.”
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The Clippers couldn’t get a grip on Stephen Curry and the Warriors’ three-point shooting.
Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com:
Rivers gathered the team together at its hotel for a 45-minute meeting during which everything, including boycotting Sunday’s Game 4, was discussed. It was a chance for the players to voice their frustrations and anger among themselves before practice. They agreed that Rivers would handle all questions about Sterling publicly. Paul, who is the National Basketball Players Association president, also called Sacramento Mayor (and former three-time NBA All-Star) Kevin Johnson and asked him to help him with the union and speak on behalf of the players as he focused on basketball.
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There was never a question that the players were going to have some kind of protest, but there was some debate as to what exactly it should be. Rivers was against doing anything and wanted the focus to be on the game, but left that up to the team captains — Paul, Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. By Sunday morning, they had decided on a couple of simple gestures that wouldn’t get in the way of the game or distract them from the job at hand.
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They gathered at center court before the game, took off their Clippers warm-up shirts and left them there. They then warmed up wearing inside-out, red shooting shirts that did not display the Clippers name or logo. And during the game, players wore black arm or wrist bands and black socks.
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports:
“You know, from a coaching standpoint, you’re concerned,” Rivers said. “They’ve been pulled in a million directions over the last 24 hours, and so that’s a fact.”
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Rivers said the Clippers had tried to prepare for the game as normal as possible, but admitted the controversy had become a distraction.
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“The mental preparation, on the other hand, I just – honestly, I don’t know,” Rivers said. “Because, listen, as much as this is basketball, this is life. And our guys, they have family. They have friends. And they have cell phones. And I can’t imagine how much they’ve been pulled on and talked to and what you should do and what you shouldn’t do and what you should say. And that’s abnormal to a normal playoff game.”
J.A. Adande of ESPN.com:
Stephen Curry wasn’t going to shoot 29 percent from 3-point range forever, and the market correction came quickly and drastically when he made five of his first six 3-pointers and the Warriors were on their way to a 39-point first quarter.
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For anyone watching — and probably for the Clippers themselves — they will always wonder whether the game would have been more competitive if the Clippers hadn’t been caught in the vortex of sports’ current controversy.
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As Johnson said of the Clippers players: “You saw the first half. They are carrying a burden.”
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“Maybe our focus wasn’t in the right place,” J.J. Redick said.
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For the past week, Clippers coach Doc Rivers told the media that his task was to remind his players that they were playing the Golden State Warriors. It’s not about living up to expectations or dealing with the officials; it’s simply a matter of dealing with the primary opponent in their way. It’s not so easy when the “peripheral opponents” come from within their own organization, when the preparation for the game was sidetracked by a debate over whether they should play the game at all.
Spears again, in Yahoo Sports:
“There was a lot going on today,” Redick said. “Unfortunately besides all the peripheral stuff, we played a team that played a great basketball game.”
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Said Davis: “You’re going to think about it. It’s on your brain. It’s on your mind. You can feel it. But you got to move past it and move forward.”
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The Clippers, who are taking Monday off from practice, are still contemplating making a strong statement at Game 5, which they will host in Los Angeles, but are uncertain what to do, sources told Yahoo Sports.
Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram:
Right away it seemed the Clippers were not as focused as they were the previous two games — both wins — because the Warriors and Stephen Curry bolted to a quick lead that twice grew to as many as 23 points late in the second quarter.
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Although the Clippers scratched and clawed their way back into the game by pulling within nine points with eight minutes left, that was all they had as the Warriors defeated them 118-97 before an extremely noisy crowd of 19,596 at Oracle Arena.
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Two Warriors fans in a suite held up signs. One read, “I brought a black guy 2 the game.” The African-American fellow next to him had one that read, “I’m black.”
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