Clippers C DeAndre Jordan made a major fall from grace with his controversial final play and a game-worst 9 missed free throws.
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The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 5 of the first round of the 2015 NBA playoffs in a 111-107 victory.
The Clippers got off to a sensational start, with G Chris Paul, C DeAndre Jordan and F Blake Griffin setting the tone with a 14-point lead over the Spurs in the first quarter. Griffin in particular would have arguably the best perofmrnace of the entire game with a 30-point double-double that included 14 rebounds.
Griffin set the tone early with an incredible dunk that had the entire Staples Center electric:
Chris Paul – who had a double-double with 19 points and 10 assists after his incredible 34-point performance on Sunday – gave the Clippers their largest lead of the night on a short shot in the middle of the quarter.
But the Spurs could not be kept down and mounted a comeback of their own thanks in large part to a great performance off the bench by Patty Mills, who had 13 points and an incredible 4-for-4 on three-point attempts. Mills got the Spurs took back the lead early in the 2nd quarter on one of his successful shots.
Blake Griffin was hit hard amidst an incredible back and forth throughout the second and third quarters that included too many lead changes to count. At halftime, the Clippers led 54-53.
The Clippers would tie the game up at the end of the third quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating shot by Austin Rivers – his only points of the game.
The Spurs took a definitive lead late in the fourth quarter thanks to a three-point shot by Boris Diaw.
But the Clippers were able to get back into it, and a missed shot by the Spurs with less than 10 seconds remaining opened the door for Los Angeles to make one last play.
But on their final possession, C DeAndre Jordan became the goat of the series when he illegally touched the basketball on the rim, negating a probably FG by Blake Griffin that stalled their comeback attempt and gave the victory to San Antonio.
With the win, the Spurs move to 3-2 in the series and will play Game 6 in San Antonio later this week.
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