The Clippers’ postseason to remember has been put in jeopardy by a fourth quarter they can only wish they could forget.
Imperfect but impossible to count out in Game 4 of their Western Conference final against Phoenix, the Clippers were given shot after shot to even this series at two games.
And over and over, they missed.
They missed shots they wanted — just five of 31 behind the three-point arc. They missed 16 of their 19 shots in the fourth quarter.
It was appropriate that, even in the final seconds, they missed shots they wanted to miss. When center DeMarcus Cousins stepped to the free-throw line with 5.8 seconds left, and the Clippers trailing 81-79, he intended to miss the shot and grab the rebound to set up a game-tying attempt. Instead, his shot hit the square above the rim, and the possession was immediately given to Phoenix.
It typified a night where the Clippers were 0 for 12 in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie or take the lead, the most field goal attempts without a make in the fourth quarter in the last 25 postseasons.
The result is something new, even in a postseason that has been utterly unique for this team: a 3-1 deficit with Game 5 in Phoenix on Monday.
In NBA playoff history teams in the conference final are 52-4 when leading 3-1 and 251-13 in any series.
Before Phoenix’s Chris Paul left the court, he heard chants of “MVP,” the kind of noise he was used to hearing when he played for the Clippers. Playing with two fingers taped together on his right shooting hand, he made the final two free throws with 1.3 seconds left for the final margin on a night when he scored 18 points.
The Suns were little better, shooting four for 20 from deep overall and just four-of-19 in the fourth quarter. Against a Clippers team that has often burst through and claimed victory when given a sliver of opportunity, they gave the Clippers multiple opportunities to steal the victory.
And still the Clippers, dragging after weeks of every-other-day games, did not have the legs to finish off the Suns, even after Devin Booker fouled out and Deandre Ayton’s effectiveness waned.
Paul George scored a team-high 23 points but made one of his nine three pointers and missed six of his 18 free throws. The Clippers set an NBA record for free-throw accuracy this season but will be haunted by their 21-of-32 shooting at the line.
After George missed a free throw with 10:07 remaining with a chance to tie, the teams combined to miss 15 consecutive shots and failed to score for the next three-and-a-half minutes, a streak whose misses were punctuated with “oohs” from a crowd watching the Clippers miss every opportunity to take control. The scoreless streak wasn’t broken until Paul lofted a lob to Ayton for a dunk slammed with anger. The Clippers still had not led, and their streak without a field goal eventually lasted more than five minutes.
With the injured Kawhi Leonard missing his sixth consecutive game and watching from the same suite he occupied Thursday, the Clippers trailed by 12 within four minutes and 14 at halftime. Even for a franchise with a fraught playoff record, their four-for-22 three-point shooting led to just 36 points — matching the fewest scored in a first half in the team’s postseason history.
Using only eight players after Rajon Rondo was dropped from the rotation entirely following Game 3, the Clippers often saw their shots hit the front of the rim, a telltale sign of fatigue. Meanwhile, Suns center Ayton finished a lob with a one-handed flourish, grabbed offensive rebounds over the top of an ultra-small lineup and made a turnaround jumper in front of the Clippers’ bench, his presence leading to 28 first-half points in the paint for Phoenix. The Suns made the Clippers’ work for their offensive chances, yet in other moments, they could not get out of their own way.
After Booker fouled George on a transition layup, George pushed Booker and earned a technical. After smartly drawing Paul into an offensive foul in the third quarter, Patrick Beverley slapped the ball out of Paul’s grip — directly in front of an official, who called the technical to Beverley’s disbelieving reaction.
But the pieces began falling into place in the third quarter. Phoenix could not get comfortable. Booker, after blowing a layup to miss for the eighth time on his 13th shot, tossed the plastic mask he has worn since being bloodied in the nose in Game 2 to the sideline. Backs against the proverbial wall, the Clippers were in their element, their 15-point deficit down to single digits on a dunk by Ivica Zubac, then down to just one on a layup by Terance Mann with 95 seconds still to play in the quarter.
Reggie Jackson’s pull-up three-pointer in front of Paul turned the arena raised the volume in the arena; then a mid-quarter performance by Fatman Scoop ended with the artist tearing off his jersey.
Only weeks after Lue remarked that all championship teams, in his opinion, could take control of a game out of halftime, the Clippers have taken that to heart by outscoring Phoenix by 13 in Game 3’s third quarter and 11 Saturday.
It put them in position to win — and it wasn’t their only opportunity. But one after another, the Clippers could not convert.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.