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After a couple of scares in the Western Conference Semifinals, the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-1.

It’s the Thunder’s fifth straight home playoff win, which is their longest such streak since winning six straight in 2002.

Kevin Durant finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds for his sixth 25-10 playoff game over the last two seasons. That’s tied with Zach Randolph for most in the NBA during that stretch.

For the series, Durant averaged 26.8 points and Russell Westbrook, who scored 28 points in Game 5, averaged 25.6 in the series. It's just the fourth time teammates each averaged at least 25 points in a playoff series against the Lakers. Durant and Westbrook, however, are the only pair to lead their team to a series victory.

A big key to the Thunder’s success was that they outscored the Lakers by 13.8 transition points per game during the series, including by 17 in Game Five.

Westbrook (6.4), Durant (6.4) and James Harden (5.6) all averaged over five transition points per game in the series.

Despite the tight defense, Kobe Bryant did his best to keep the Lakers in Game Five.

His 42 points gave Bryant his 13th, 40-point playoff game, tying Wilt Chamberlain for fourth most all-time. It was the most points Bryant has ever scored in a playoff game when facing elimination.

Bryant accounted for 44.0 percent of the Lakers field goal attempts, but accounted for 52.9 percent of their made field goals in Game Five.

He did struggle however when guarded by Durant, especially in the fourth quarter this series.

Bryant shot 1-for-10 in that situation whereas he shot 41.7 percent (10-24) against all other Thunder defenders. Only two of Bryant's 34 fourth-quarter attempts were inside of five feet and both of those came against Harden.

This is the fifth time the Lakers were down 3-1 with Bryant and they have gone on to lose the series each time.

The Lakers loss means there are seven different teams who have more playoff wins than them over the last two seasons. That includes the Memphis Grizzlies and their longtime rival Boston Celtics.

The Thunder, meanwhile, advance to the Conference Finals for the second-straight season.

The only other time the franchise advanced to the Conference Finals in consecutive seasons was when they made three straight appearance from 1978-1980 as the Seattle SuperSonics.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- What was once indifference between the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies has descended into hostility over six games. These teams actively dislike each other. The Clippers have made light of Memphis' "Grit 'n' Grind" handle and generally annoyed the Grizzlies with their posturing. Memphis has countered that the Clippers are a bunch of floppers -- its head coach going so far as to accuse Chris Paul in a live interview during Game 4. When the topic of Paul's injury came up after Game 6, Zach Randolph fired back that he didn't even know Paul was hurt, implying that the Clippers' injuries were merely incidental, a sideshow.

All of it will come to a head on Sunday afternoon in Game 7.

The health of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin
Whatever Randolph says at the podium, the Clippers simply aren't the same team with Paul and Blake Griffin hobbled. On Friday night after the Grizzlies' Game 6 win in Los Angeles, Paul, Marc Gasol and Randolph pointed out that nobody is 100 percent this time of year. True, but the Clippers can't function as an offensive team without Paul and Griffin. When the Clippers had their offense rolling late in Games 1 and 3 and most of Games 2 and 4, the formula was simple: Make the Grizzlies choose between bringing bodies to the paint to stifle Paul's penetration, which presents problems on the perimeter and with balance, or yield seams to Paul and pray that the help will come from the right place at the right time.

Paul clearly doesn't have the same burst off the bounce or the ability to change speeds, probe, beat his guy and get to his spot for an elbow jumper before the defense can recover. Without that, the Clippers' offense suffers from rigor mortis. Paul can't split a trap, and ultimately, the Grizzlies can play him straight up, while the help can stay home on the Clippers' perimeter shooters. With Paul on the court in Game 6, the Clippers shot only 39 percent.

Meanwhile, Griffin pummeled Memphis in his breakout Game 4 as the roll man with Paul, posting up and going decisively into his move. That's the key: Griffin's knee won't prevent him from being on the floor, but without a confident face-up game, he must rely entirely on those up-and-unders, spins and step-throughs. With the bum knee, he's a step slow -- and you can slice a few inches off the vertical. That's the difference between wreaking destruction at the rim and having to finesse his way to the basket.

The Grizzlies' inside job
Gasol got what he wanted after a frustrating long weekend in Los Angeles during Games 3 and 4: He's again the centerpiece of the Memphis offense. On Friday night, there was a lovely balance to Gasol's game, an exhibition of his versatility. Memphis used him to run a pick-and-roll in the left slot, from where he was able to beat the Clippers' rotation on the dive. They posted him up on the left block, where he launched that pretty hook over the Clippers' defense. And when the Clippers came hard at Gasol in the high post, he dumped it off to Randolph (the recipient of all three of Gasol's assists) in Memphis' savvy high-low game.

The pinpoint bounce pass that Gasol delivered to Randolph at the three-minute mark in Game 6 was a thing of beauty. Mike Conley and Gasol ran that angle pick-and-roll on the left side. Gasol stopped at the edge of the paint and received the pass as the Clippers trapped Conley, forcing Kenyon Martin to rotate up from the baseline. As Martin approached, Gasol hit Randolph wide open beneath the hoop on the right side. A perfectly executed play by Memphis at the biggest moment of the series, which is how you advance in the postseason.

Randolph has found his legs and looks more like the bully from last season's playoffs than the player who was struggling to carve out space for himself down low. For Randolph to be successful, he needs to rip through and keep his defender moving. That's how he creates that space, and that's what he's been doing the past few games.

Having two big men with diverse but overlapping skill sets allows Memphis to do some interesting stuff in the half court. Sometimes the offense just needs a nudge.

Who else for the Clippers?
With Paul and Griffin banged-up, the Clippers must get something exceptional from one of the supporting actors. Randy Foye, Caron Butler, Mo Williams and Nick Young have each had their moments over this season and, to a lesser extent, in the playoffs. In Game 5, that performance came from second-year dragonfly Eric Bledsoe.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro isn't predisposed to trust young players. Whether it's because he's risk-averse, conflict-averse or just more comfortable with guys who've "been there," Del Negro favors vets. With Paul hurting and Williams suffering a hand injury in Game 6, Del Negro had to lean on Bledsoe for significant minutes -- and it's about time.

Bledsoe doesn't stretch the floor for the Clippers, but he's their best perimeter defender on and off the ball. He has an uncanny synergy with Paul in the backcourt. For aforementioned reasons, the two played together for only 76 minutes in the regular season. The Clippers scored 111.4 points per 100 possessions during that time and gave up only 93.5. In this series, Bledsoe is a plus-35. When Bledsoe on the floor, Conley is minus-34 (and plus-47 when Bledsoe is off).

Both Bledsoe and Foye, who has struggled in the series, will have to make major contributions on Sunday for the Clippers to escape Memphis with a W. The Clippers also will have to be more resourceful because their two best creators are limited. When Reggie Evans is your roll man off the high ball screen, life doesn't become any easier, because now two defenders are blitzing Paul. As it is, Tony Allen and Conley make things difficult enough because they can play the Clippers' perimeter straight up. Getting the shooters clean looks at the basket will have to come via flare screens and a ton of movement in the half court.

So who's it going to be?

The battle on the margins
In many ways, this series has been fought in the periphery -- on the offensive glass, in passing lanes, at the foul stripe. Neither team has gotten much of what it wants offensively, but there have been ample opportunities to supplement that cruddy output with extras. For instance, the Grizzlies have annihilated the Clippers on the offensive glass, where Memphis has collected more than one out of every three available rebounds -- its 33.7 offensive rebounding rate is tops among postseason teams. (As a frame of reference, the Bulls ranked first in the regular season with a 32.6 offensive rebounding rate.)

For the Grizzlies, this is vital because they're a terrible shooting team. They've been outshot by the Clippers in the series but have been able to make up ground by getting additional looks at the basket -- at short range, no less. Memphis' prowess on the offensive glass is especially impressive when you consider that the Clippers were a pretty decent defensive rebounding team during the regular season. Overall, the Grizzlies have racked up 15.4 second-chance points per 48 minutes, with only 10.2 for the Clippers.

In the turnover event, the Clippers protected the ball better than any team other than Philadelphia during the regular season, and Memphis led the league in opponent turnover rate. Something had to give, and true to form, the Clippers and Grizzlies have played to a draw with identical 12.69 turnover rates. The Grizzlies had been winning the turnover battle but coughed the ball up 22 times in Game 6 -- the only reason the Clippers were in a game in which the Grizzlies shot better and controlled the glass decisively.

Then there's the foul game. Both teams hack with impunity, and both are spending plenty of time at the stripe in this series. But the team that has gotten to the line with greater frequency has won five of the six games -- the Clippers' Game 3 rally the only exception.

Here, the Clippers have to be careful on Sunday. When players are gimpy, they have a tougher time staying in front of their guy. They're more desperate defenders and, in turn, tend to be more likely to foul. Paul didn't foul out of a game all season but was whistled for six fouls in Game 6. Evans, who likely will pick up some of Griffin's minutes, is a foul machine. With the Grizzlies re-establishing their inside game, there will be more pressure than ever on the Clippers' defense to body up on the block. They'll have to do so carefully.

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Information in this post was provided by NBA.com.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Marc Gasol never quite understood how and why the Memphis offense got away from him. He expressed those sentiments after the Grizzlies coughed up a 27-point lead in Game 1 and his frustration came to a head in Game 4 in Los Angeles, when the ball was coming to him late in the shot clock or after the Clippers' help defenders had sniffed out the plan.

On Wednesday during shootaround he was asked if his dormancy in the series could be chalked up to the work of the Clippers' big men fronting him. He politely rejected that theory, pointing out that his defender wasn't the guy doing to fronting, but the Clipper big man hulking on the back line ready to pounce if the ball was delivered to Gasol at either the foul line or the low block. And, furthermore, the Grizzlies guards -- the ones charged with delivering him the ball at his preferred spots -- were getting hounded by the Clippers. So there was that, too.

Translation: I'm seven feet tall! Just pass the ball over the top of the defense and I can figure it out from there! Haven't you watched me play? And if you're not in a position to make those passes, let me know how I can help.

Granted, the Clippers have nobody to match up with Rudy Gay. And, yes, Mike Conley has become a pretty good pick-and-roll practitioner on the right side if Zach Randolph isn't clogging the right block. And of course Gasol is also your best screener, so he's often useful in other capacities.

A playoff series flows in cycles, and in Game 5 the Grizzlies returned to what's worked best for them offensively all season: Starting with Gasol as the fulcrum to leverage the Clippers' defense.

From the opening tip, the Grizzlies created a better work environment for Gasol in the half court. The Clippers' big men are mucking things up? Then have Gasol and Randolph cross low before delivering the ball to Gasol at the foul line!

Defenders are fronting Gasol at his favorite spot? Then let's find some other angles on the side. You'd rather work your offense in the middle of the floor, but sometimes games against tough opponents call for adjustments. So rather than bang your head against the wall, which the Grizzlies did over a long weekend in Los Angeles, take 80 percent of what you like and compromise on the rest.

It wasn't just Gasol's teammates and coaches who would have to accommodate. Gasol would need to work quickly, which we saw at the 4:10 mark of the first quarter when, fronted by Blake Griffin, the ball was delivered to Gasol off the right block -- but closer to the baseline. That's usually an invitation for quick help, but not if you catch and go! Gasol caught and went, spinning baseline before Griffin or any other red jersey could respond.

We saw this old friend again in Game 5. We also saw Gasol trailing in transition, where he's so dangerous.

Better yet, we saw Gasol with a renewed spirit, a mood that was a long departure from his pouty disposition in Game 4. When the Grizzlies missed him on one possession after he'd established prime position Griffin, he turned and growled at the bench after Randolph turned the ball over. If the Grizzlies needed a moment to reset, Gasol rallied his teammates into a huddle. He was emotive and feisty, feeding off a home crowd that was as eager as he was to see the ball in his hands.

It wasn't a perfect night for Gasol or the Grizzlies' offense. 18 of Gasol's 23 points came before intermission, and the Clippers' zone complicated things for Memphis. As is often the case, Memphis' anemic shooting from outside allowed the defense to gradually constrict the Grizzlies' half-court stuff -- with Gasol as the most acute victim. Watch the possessions again and you can see that the Clippers effectively ran a box-and-one, with Reggie Evans or DeAndre Jordan attached to Gasol.

But such is the nature of playoff basketball: one long exercise in problem solving. For a good, long stretch of Game 5, the Grizzlies and Gasol figured things out.

LOS ANGELES -- There was a moment toward the end of the first quarter in Game 2 between the Grizzlies and the Clippers when Memphis walked the ball upcourt after getting beat in transition. As Mike Conley tried to deliver the ball to Rudy Gay on the wing, Zach Randolph barreled into Blake Griffin just inside the arc.

The contact caught Griffin off guard, and he stumbled backward like a fighter who’d been hit. Just as Griffin regained his balance -- now below the foul line -- Randolph delivered another elbow to Griffin’s torso, knocking the Clippers’ brawny power forward further into the paint.

Back up at the top of the court, Bobby Simmons denied that intended pass to Gay. Conley was fortunate to recover the ball and, when he did, he saw Randolph primed in the paint. Easy entry pass to Randolph, who took a single power dribble and muscled the ball up off the glass with his left for an easy layup. After staggering early, Memphis trailed by only five points.

The Grizzlies ultimately won the game and much of their success was attributed to pushing the Clippers around at will.

A playoff series develops certain storylines, and a dominant one to emerge from the Grizzlies-Clippers matchup has been physicality -- who is manhandling whom beneath the glass, in the paint and any other place on the floor where there's contact between opponents, which seems to be any arbitrary point between the east bank of the Mississippi River and the coastline of the Pacific Ocean.

Designated brute Reggie Evans said the Clippers got “punked” in his team's Game 2 loss in Memphis. Back in Los Angeles prior to Game 3, the Clippers posted a quote from commentator Charles Barkley on the locker room wall:

Other than Kenyon Martin, [the Clippers] are not a physical team … If I was coaching the Grizzlies, I would say "We are not letting them dunk." They want to get the "play of the day." They don’t want to be rough and tumble.

When the Clippers eked out a win in Game 3 by dodging a bullet at the buzzer, they claimed victory in the physical sweepstakes. "Overall, I thought we did a good job of being the more aggressive team," Griffin said. "That was kind of the plan, to be the aggressive team from the jump. That’s [the Grizzlies’] whole M.O., being aggressive, their whole ‘Grit ‘n’ Grind’ thing."

On the Memphis side, Rudy Gay was despondent after the game. Gay is a genial guy, but about as milquetoast as they come when it comes to declarative statements about team and individual performance. Yet he could hardly contain his frustration at the podium following Game 3.

"We're supposed to have a physical team," Gay said. "They took that away from us today. They pushed us. They did all the things that we usually do to teams. ... They really imposed their will on us tonight."

Evans might have struck the most balanced note after the game, one that acknowledged fewer instances like the one Griffin suffered back in Memphis, but stopped short of wholesale praise.

"We did pretty good, but we can still improve," Evans said. "We still have a little more work. We don't want to get too comfortable, too relaxed and too happy with the results. Even though we won, found a way to get a win, we still have to go back to the drawing board and see what we did wrong."

Evans understands that victory in the manhandling event tends to be assigned retroactively.

If Gay's last-second shot fell through the net, would he have bristled the way he did about the Clippers' seizing the mantle of schoolyard bully? Would the Clippers have been peppered with questions about whether their inability to control the trenches would be their undoing in this series?

"Physicality" is an ambiguous term whose definition changes player to player. When Evans was asked about it, he cited the offensive rebounding numbers. To Paul after Game 2, physicality meant Memphis' willingness to tug, pull and push him wherever and whenever he tried to navigate in the half court. Randolph's moments come when he and Griffin are wrestling for position.

And for Gay, it's about luring the opposing defense into illegal contact by being aggressive with the ball. For the Clippers, physicality doesn’t come without a price. They might have done a better job of holding their ground in Game 3, but they also let Gay and Randolph combine for 23 free throw attempts. There's smart physical and silly physical, and the Clippers simply can't foul Memphis the way they did on Saturday afternoon. Setting aside Memphis’ Game 1 exploits from the perimeter, the Grizzlies aren’t going to win this series from the perimeter. But they have big men who can stroke it from the foul line, and Gay has the capacity to turn a mediocre shooting performance into a charity drive, as he did in Game 3.

The Clippers can take down the bulletin-board material for Game 4. They did an acceptable job on the glass and Paul was more elusive to the Grizzlies behind the pick-and-roll. But there's still work to be done. Cutting down on the aforementioned fouls. Inspiring Griffin to leverage his big frame and plant a stake on the left block. Staying active on the glass. Fighting over those high picks for Conley.

The physical battle is usually portrayed as a bout, but it's just as much a game of wits. The Clippers worked harder in Game 3 -- and good for them. To take a decisive edge in Game 4, they now have to work smarter.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Once the Grizzlies digested the Game 1 meltdown (come to think of it, they might not have been able to keep that one down), they went back to work, watched the film and likely came to a reasonable conclusion:

Memphis dominated the Clippers for 39 minutes on Sunday night.

If an NBA team defines success by their capacity to get the shots they want over the course of the game, Memphis achieved that for most of Game 1. If not for settling into their prevent offense, what Gilbert Arenas called "stalling," almost a four-corners style of play, this exercise might be a one-way exchange:

What do the Clippers need to do to get back in the series?

Chris Paul is aware of this dynamic. "I think Gilbert [Arenas] said it yesterday," Paul said. "[The Grizzlies] don't have to change anything. They beat the life out of us."

As good as the Grizzlies looked for three-plus quarters, they'll tweak their plan for Game 2. Meanwhile the Clippers have a ton of work to do to stave off the rigor mortis that afflicted them for most of the game:

Now starting at small forward for the Clippers against Rudy Gay...
Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro has been coy about his plans for the 3 spot in the Clippers' starting lineup, and for good reason. With Caron Butler lost to a fracture in his left hand, the Clippers have a couple of imperfect options. The first is journeyman Bobby Simmons, who hasn't seen much action lately. Simmons offers Del Negro better size against the rangy 6-foot-8 Rudy Gay. The Clippers staff likes Simmons' defensive judgment, but he's been an offensive liability, tallying a very sad Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 6.06. He's shooting 31 percent from the field and doesn't get to the line.

After playing the role of co-savior on Sunday night, Nick Young would be the natural candidate if the Clippers wanted to throw maximum firepower at Memphis with their starting lineup. But both Young and Del Negro have expressed a comfort with Young's role in the second unit. He's a one-on-one player and inveterate shooter who best operates as a microwave in a less structured game. Over the course of the season, Del Negro has been inclined to maintain order on his bench and elevate better defensive options to plug holes in the starting unit. Don't be surprised if Simmons starts, but Young finishes.

This decision for the Clippers is less about Simmons-Young and more about Gay, who was able to find mismatches at will over the first three quarters. Time and again, Gay would zip off down screens and force the Clippers' big men to switch out. Or Memphis would go to their "Pistol action," which forces a mismatch for Gay against one of the Clippers' guards. Had the Grizzlies not collapsed and stayed true to what was working for them offensively, the headline Monday morning might have read, "Gay carries Grizzlies to Game 1 victory."

Work through Marc Gasol
The Grizzlies don't boast the most efficient half-court offense, but you never would've known it by their performance in the first quarter in Game 1. Memphis' best-looking offense originated with Gasol, both as facilitator and scorer. When he wasn't draining face-up jumpers, Gasol was distributing the ball. He dished out six assists, at least one to each of the other four Memphis starters. Gasol's gifts were a beautiful composite of what makes the Grizzlies offense tick: A high-low pass to Zach Randolph, hitting Tony Allen (twice) on baseline cuts, a pair of kickouts to Conley when the defense collapsed, and a well-run handoff play for Gay.

Whether the Grizzlies have Gasol flash to the foul line where he can act as the distribution hub on the offense, or they put him into pick-and-roll plays on the left side which will pressure the Clippers' big men to make decision, he's the catalyst for Memphis. They got away from late in Game 1 and it might have cost them the game.

Can Z-Bo be Z-Bo?
By his own admission, Randolph isn't 100 percent, and you can see it in his work down on the right block. When Randolph is right, he uses his feet and mass to put his defenders on their heels. By keeping his defender moving, Randolph is to create that layer of space he needs to get that sweet shot up, with his countermove if necessary. Right now, he's hesitating and Blake Griffin and Reggie Evans are standing their ground and denying Randolph that coveted space. That needs to change if the Grizzlies want to have that inside-out look. The aforementioned Gasol-oriented sets are vital to the Grizzlies' success, but so is the Randolph-based stuff. Randolph might not demand a double-team right now, but he can't allow the Clippers' big men to establish position -- and confidence -- in his kitchen.

Feed the big dog
Speaking of the inside-out game, the Clippers have some issues of their own to address. Griffin needs more touches in the post, not just for his own productivity, but to get the Clippers' half-court offense humming. Griffin has superior speed and athleticism to anyone in the Memphis frontcourt corps, and he must get ample opportunity to exploit that advantage.

Force the Grizzlies to either play Griffin straight-up or send a double-team, out of which Griffin is a capable and willing passer. Much of the Clippers' perimeter game is predicated on Paul's penetration, but plenty of good looks materialize with Griffin leveraging the defense. That's when the ball starts moving in the Clippers' offense.

"This is the way our offense is set up," Randy Foye said. "It's about where the trap comes from. [Griffin] posts up on that left block. When he turns middle, they collapse, and put him in a situation where they make him pass the ball. I move over the weak side to try to get open, and he knows where to find me."

The turnover game
It's the immovable object and the irresistible force. The Clippers ranked second in the NBA in protecting the basketball (thank you, Chris Paul) while the Grizzlies led the league in forced turnovers (thank you, Mike Conley). In Game 1, the Clippers were out of character, coughing up the ball 18 times in 91 possessions. Memphis generated 20 points off those turnovers, a bounty that sustained them for much of the game. Memphis will need a similar output against a team that's far more efficient offensively. They also need to keep the Clippers off the offensive glass. Memphis has been no better than an average defensive rebounding team all season, but letting the Clippers collect nearly a third of their misses is, for all practical purposes, a turnover in its own right.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Any team that blows a 27-point, second-half lead will assume the role of league punching bag until it suits up for their next game, and the Grizzlies have absorbed plenty of hits over the past 48 hours.

The early stages of Game 1 seem like an afterthought now, but if you're the Grizzlies (or the Clippers), a screening of Memphis' first-quarter reveals a team that got anything and everything it wanted in the half court on Sunday night. And most of those play calls were focused around one man -- Marc Gasol.

The Grizzlies aren't a very efficient offensive team in the half court. They have trouble spreading the floor because none of their starters drains more than one 3-pointer a game (Mike Conley's prolific, outlying Game 1 explosion notwithstanding), and there isn't a single player on the roster who hits at better than a 38 percent clip from beyond the arc. Their big men provide a little stretch -- and that can create pockets of space -- but they can't fully stretch a defense.

The Grizzlies staff understands those deficiencies better than anyone. They've designed a half-court offense whose best sets force the defense into impossible choices by putting the ball into the hands of their most skilled practitioner, Gasol.

Here's my favorite Grizzlies set, one they used to jump out early on the Clippers in Game 1.

Please look at the pair of smaller panels on the left side of the frame. The possession begins with an angle pick-and-roll with Zach Randolph screening for Conley, the Grizzlies' point guard. Conley then dribbles right of the pick. As Gasol flashes to the middle, Conley hits him with a pass (It's worth noting that, in the third quarter, the Clippers ran so far under this action, that Conley chose to use all that space to launch 3-pointers at will).


Now we're at the main event, which you can see in the larger panel on the right side of the frame. This is where all the good stuff happens for Memphis.

Know what's impressive about this set? Once the ball goes into Gasol at the foul line, all five guys on the floor are viable scoring options. If Gasol has space, he has a clean turnaround jumper (3rd quarter, 10:15). Rudy Gay can slice, picking up a handoff from Gasol, and rubbing his defender off the big center in the process. Now Gay is on the move with the ball with separation from his defender. He can drive or, if he prefers, he can stop and pop (1st quarter, 11:00). If the defense helps off of Tony Allen in the right corner, Allen goes back door with an aggressive baseline cut to the basket, where Gasol hits him with a pass (1st quarter, 10:07). We've seen beautiful high-low passes from Gasol to Randolph, and if Conley is left alone on the perimeter, Gasol can kick the ball back out to him.

You'll also see the Grizzlies run this with different combinations of big men. Marreese Speights doesn't have the full toolbox Gasol has, but if he flashes to the foul line unaccounted for, the Memphis ball handler can hit him there for an easy face-up jumper. We saw this toward the end of the first period, a bucket that gave the Grizzlies a 34-16 lead.

So what happened?

"We got away from it," Gasol said. "We took too many good shots and we turned the ball over. That was our fault. [The Clippers] also did a better job of showing. So we stopped running it or I'd set the pick."

Which is one way you blow a 27-point lead.

In fairness, the Clippers made an adjustment. Their harder shows, as Gasol alluded to, made the pass from Conley to Gasol harder to thread. The Clippers also stopped helping off Allen, which slammed the back door shut and opted to lay off Gay, who can't do as much harm from distance. If instead of going into Gasol where he's so dangerous, Conley decided to shuttle the ball to his right with Gay at the top of the floor one-on-one, the Clippers can live with that. Most of all, Reggie Evans and Blake Griffin brutalized Gasol at that spot, not only denying the pass, but pushing Gasol farther out on the floor.

The Grizzlies will inevitably make a counter-adjustment. They're unlikely to shoot 69 percent from 3-point range again, and will need to manufacture quality possessions by leveraging Gasol's capacity to make good things happen from his preferred spot.

After Blake Griffin landed in the Los Angeles Clippers' lap in the summer of 2009 after a disastrous 19-63 season, the organization gradually committed itself to a rebuilding blueprint. This later became known to Clippers fans as "the Oklahoma City template," once the Thunder took off during the 2009-10 season.

The Clippers would build around their future superstar (Blake Griffin) and his trusty perimeter sidekick (Eric Gordon), both of whom were on rookie-scale contracts. In the meantime, the team stockpiled intriguing assets, such as DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu. The Clippers managed to unload Baron Davis for the shorter, less-expensive contract of Mo Williams. Though the front office had meager offers for Chris Kaman, they held onto their All-Star center with the appreciation that he'd fetch more as his contract nudged closer to expiration.

There were a couple of hiccups along the way. The draft pick they sent to Cleveland along with Davis projected to be in the 8-12 range turned into a Kyrie Irving, a stroke of bad luck (the lottery pick had only a 2.8 percent chance of landing at No. 1). But for the most part, general manager Neil Olshey exercised discipline and foresight. Rather than overspend for middling talent in a dash for the No. 8 seed, the Clippers took a waiver on low-cost options such as Gomes and Randy Foye during the summer of 2010. Neither set the world on fire, but the Clippers' primary objective was keeping the balance sheet free of clutter as Griffin and Gordon approached their primes, even if it meant visiting Secaucus for a couple more years.

By agreeing to a three-year with Caron Butler, $24 million deal, the Clippers have taken a detour from their planned route. A franchise that's been protective of its cap flexibility will now pay $8 million to a small forward who is coming off a severe knee injury and has posted a player efficiency rating (PER) of 13.77 and 14.25 each of the past two seasons, respectively. Since the 2005-06, Butler hasn't played more than 67 games in a single season.

D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog took a look at where Butler stands, three months shy of his 32nd birthday:

Here’s the biggest problem with Butler -- [Butler] is a high usage scorer. Butler’s career usage rate (the percentage of offensive possessions used by a player during his time on the floor) is 22.7 percent. Last year in an injury-shortened season on a championship Dallas Mavericks team, it was at 25.1 percent. That ranked him seventh in the NBA for small forwards, ahead of guys like Paul Pierce and Rudy Gay. Short version: Caron Butler uses a lot of possessions.

... With Chris Kaman coming back healthy and demanding a big chunk of the looks (he hasn’t passed up an open 15-footer since, oh, 2005), and Gordon and Griffin demanding more possessions if anything, where are all these shots for Butler supposed to generate from? Who loses all those possessions?

... Let’s say, despite all that, you’re sold on Butler as the scorer the Clippers need. Sixteen points a game at 44 percent shooting is nice. He’s got a nice midrange game and can slash. OK. I’m with you.

But if the priority is placing shooters around Gordon and Griffin — and unless something has changed, it is — then why add Butler? Prior to what can probably be labeled as a statistical outlier (43 percent in 29 games last season), Caron Butler was a 31 percent career 3-point shooter. On his career, he’s attempted less than two 3-pointers a game. He’s not a deep threat or a spot-up shooter by any means, and he doesn’t really stretch the floor because all of his damage is done in iso situations, off his own jab steps. If you want to chase good 3-point shooting numbers in a small sample size, Al-Farouq Aminu’s start to last season works just as well.

The Clippers don't have a legitimate ball-mover on the floor to help jump-start their gummy 23rd-ranked offense. Now they'll have a player at the small forward position whose assist rate ranks below the likes of Kaman, Zach Randolph, Chris Wilcox and Corey Maggette.

Is Butler an upgrade over Ryan Gomes? Yes, so long as he's in uniform -- something he often isn't. The small forward market is dwindling by the hour, so it's likely the Clippers felt the urgency to do something at the 3 spot. But for a team that hopes to add a max player alongside Blake Griffin (who, himself will demand a max contract before the expiration of Butler's deal) and needs to find money to retain Eric Gordon and DeAndre Jordan in the next year, the cap hit for an aging small forward with a high injury risk and ball-stopping tendencies doesn't conform to a model of smart team-building that have made the Clippers relevant and potentially on the cusp of something bigger.

In an ongoing effort to better understand Zach Randolph's game and exorcise my Z-Bo skepticism, I've been looking for answers to questions I'd previously thought pretty conclusive. For example, I'd always accepted as an article of faith that Randolph was an atrocious defender and, more specifically, uniquely awful as a help defender.

Looking back on Randolph's time with the Clippers during the 2008-09 season, I feel as though I can count on one hand the number of instances I can recall Randolph sliding over from his perch on the weakside block to contest penetration or a shot attempt. Whereas Marcus Camby loves nothing more than to scamper from wherever he's set up on the floor to challenge shots at the rim, Randolph was like a shut-in -- he seemed to stake out a single spot beneath the basket and never, ever left home.

What accounted for Randolph's inability or unwillingness to move on the defensive end of the floor? Was it conditioning, inattentiveness or a lack of effort? Is it even possible that Randolph was incapable of reading defenses, some kind of Steve Blass disorder for help defenders?

When I put these questions to someone who knows Randolph really well, I got an interesting response. The insider told me that my impression of Randolph's reluctance to move away from his roost beneath the weakside glass wasn't incorrect -- but not for any of the reasons I listed.

Randolph isn't lazy, spacey, sluggish or anything like that. Just the opposite.

According to my Z-Bologist, the primary factor behind Randolph's reluctance to lend help beyond his sphere of influence underneath is that, more often than not in the half court, Randolph has spent the entire possession scrapping, wrestling and bullying for position underneath. That effort is one of the primary reasons his 20.1 rebounding rate ranked fifth among qualified players in the NBA who logged more than 20 minutes per game.

Watch some Grizzlies game tape, I was told. In fact, don't even watch the ball, but focus underneath where, from the very outset of a defensive possession, Randolph is engaged in a battle with his counterpart for rebounding positioning. Watch Randolph's consternation when he realizes he might have throw away all that hard work in order to meet an opposing player on the far side of the lane as Memphis' last line of defense.

I called up a game between Memphis and Minnesota, which features Kevin Love, one of the only players in the league with a better rebounding rate than Randolph.

Sure enough, there on the game's very first possession, Randolph is put in the predicament of having to leave Love underneath to challenge a diving Darko Milicic. Even as Milicic catches the ball on the move through the lane, Randolph manages to keep his right forearm on Love beneath the rim, while trying to challenge Milicic. And as much as you might admire Randolph's attempt at multitasking, this isn't an effective formula for keeping a 7-foot big man from finishing, as Milicic scoops the ball up and in.

The suggestion to keep my eyes on the Randolph-Love battle underneath, even at the expense of missing the action on the ball, was stellar and certainly more entertaining than the macro Grizzlies-Timberwolves. Randolph and Love are like two sumo wrestlers on every trip downcourt when Minnesota has the ball. They hook each other with their forearms and leverage their weight like a couple of linemen in the trenches.

And my tipster was correct:

Randolph's willingness to help defensively on a given possession is inversely proportional to the likelihood that helping will result in forfeiting position beneath the glass. For instance, when Luke Ridnour beats Mike Conley off the dribble, Randolph meets Ridnour in the paint. Why is Randolph so willing? Because he has Love sealed off and has the opportunity to contest Ridnour's shot and still collect a potential miss for a rebound (and does).

But when Michael Beasley works his way into the lane past the Grizzlies' perimeter defenders, Randolph again tries to split the difference, keeping his body on Love underneath while offering a slight strain of resistance to Beasley's drive.

Whether it's Wes Johnson slashing from the wing, Milicic flashing to the middle or Beasley on a dribble-drive at close range, Randolph is a reluctant helper. But it would be completely unfair to characterize Randolph's defense as half-hearted or lazy. Nobody on the floor is working harder than Randolph during these possessions, with the possible exception of Love -- and only because Randolph is forcing him to do so.

Randolph is merely the careful party planner who has 10 beautifully appointed table settings for a dinner -- only to be ambushed by an 11th guest who forgot to RSVP.

Undoing all that hard work and preparation makes him squeamish, because he's a rebounding power forward with O.C.D.

Those predispositions aside, Randolph has become a more willing help defender, according to the Z-Bologist. While we won't mistake him for Kevin Garnett or Marcus Camby, Randolph has learned that certain possessions call for improvisation, even if that means the tide of the game washes away your sand castle.

The Memphis Grizzlies faced a 10-point halftime deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but came roaring out of halftime with an 18-5 run and never looked back. The Grizzlies who advance to their first Game 7 in franchise history improve to 5-1 at home this postseason.

Coming off a Game 5 performance in which he scored a playoff-low nine points, Zach Randolph broke loose for 30 points and 13 rebounds in Game 6. This was his fourth 30-10 game this postseason and for some perspective, no other player has more than two such games. Not surprising, Randolph did most of his damage down low as he scored 18 of his 30 points in the paint.

The Grizzlies defense also stood firm as they held the Thunder to just 29 second-half points on 28.9 percent shooting. They also held the NBA’s leading scorer Kevin Durant to 11 points (career postseason low) and 21.4 percent (3 of 14) from the field, the worst playoff shooting performance of his career. In fact, Game 6 was Durant’s first career game with 35-plus minutes and 11 points or fewer. Also, in 331 career games played (including postseason), this is only his 12th time Durant has recorded 11 points or fewer.

Over the last two games Durant has tallied 30 points total, which is interesting considering he’s had 30 or more points in five games this postseason.

As a team, the Thunder franchise falls to 4-22 in potential series clinching road playoff games. Good thing for Thunder fans, Game 7 is Sunday in Oklahoma City where they are 5-2 this postseason.

The Thunder will be playing in their eighth Game 7 in franchise history (4-3) and first since the 1997 Western Conference Semifinals. The Grizzlies meanwhile are just the fourth eight-seed in NBA history to force a Game 7. History is not on their side though as each of the previous three teams all lost.

This will be the first NBA Game 7 since the 2010 NBA Finals. In case you were wondering, the home team has won 80.2 percent of the time in Game 7s over the course of NBA history (85-21).

Down 18 points in the second quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied to tie Game 4 of their series with the Memphis Grizzlies in regulation, then won 133-123 in triple overtime. It was just the sixth triple-overtime postseason game in NBA history and the first since the Bulls and Celtics in 2009. (The previous three winners of a triple-overtime postseason game wound up losing the series.)

Russell Westbrook scored 40 points while taking 33 shots from the floor, both playoff career highs. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the seventh 40-point playoff game in Thunder franchise history and the third this postseason. Kevin Durant had the previous two against the Nuggets in the first round.

For Memphis, Zach Randolph scored 34 points and grabbed 16 rebounds and Marc Gasol added 26 points with 21 rebounds. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us it was the first time since 1970, and just the fourth time in NBA history, that one player had 20 points and 20 rebounds, and his teammate had 30 points and 15 rebounds in the same postseason game.

With the Heat-Celtics game going to overtime earlier in the night, Monday marked the first time since May 16, 1995 that there were two overtime playoff games on the same day.

Entering the fourth quarter, the young Memphis Grizzlies found themselves down by 13 points to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the franchise’s first ever Conference Semifinal home game. From there, Zach Randolph and the Grizzlies defense took over as Memphis grabbed a 2-1 series lead.

The Grizzlies outscored the Thunder 23-10 in the fourth quarter including a 15-4 run that closed the quarter and forced overtime. The Thunder’s 10 points were tied for the third-fewest in a postseason fourth quarter since 2005. Over the duration of the fourth quarter and overtime the Grizzlies outscored the Thunder 38-17 thanks to an 18-to-8 points-in-the-paint discrepancy and a +4 turnover ratio.

During that span Randolph scored seven of his 21 points and boarded seven of his 21 rebounds. Randolph not only recorded his first career 20-20 postseason game, but he is the first player to do so this postseason. It's also the first 20-20 game in the postseason by a Grizzlies player, and Randolph becomes the first NBA player to do so since Carlos Boozer had 22 and 20 against the Denver Nuggets last season while with the Utah Jazz.

As well as things went for Randolph and the Grizzlies in the game’s final two frames, the same can’t be said for the Thunder’s dynamic duo as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for eight points (3-of-17 FG) over the final 17 minutes.

Durant received a touch on 40.6 percent of Oklahoma City’s 32 possessions over the fourth quarter and overtime period, but was just 2-for-10. He may have forced some looks as there were two stretches where the league’s leading scorer did not touch the ball for over two minutes on offense. There were also five possessions where Westbrook shot without passing.

Entering Game 3, Durant had been tremendous in the final five minutes of regulation and OT, shooting over 50 percent from the floor compared to just 26 percent for Westbrook. Both struggled down the stretch on Saturday, combining to go 0-for-10, with the lone points coming on a pair of Westbrook free throws.

Overall Durant finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds while Westbrook recorded 23 points and 12 assists. He also had seven turnovers, including five in the fourth quarter and OT. It's the seventh time this postseason that Durant and Westbrook have each scored at least 20 points, the highest total of any set of teammates.

Game 4 is back in Memphis where the Grizzlies are 4-0 this postseason (0-6 all-time entering 2011). And if that wasn’t daunting enough consider that in the history of the NBA playoffs, there have been 178 instances in which a best-of-7 series was tied at one after two games. When the home team wins Game 3, it has gone onto win the series 70.7 percent of the time.

The Memphis Grizzlies won Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, 114-101 over the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are the second No. 8 seed to win an opening playoff series and then win Game 1 of the semifinal series, joining the 1999 New York Knicks -- who went to the NBA Finals.

Zach Randolph led the way with a playoff career-high 34 points, adding 10 rebounds, his fourth 25-10 game of this postseason. Marc Gasol added 20 points and 13 rebounds for his third straight double-double. The two Grizzlies big men combined to shoot 21-for-33 from the field.

They scored 18 points and shot nearly 80 percent on post-up plays, but they really did their damage from the outside, making the Thunder pay for helping on driving guards.

The duo combined for 23 points on jump shots from 10 feet and farther, far more than their average from this distance against the San Antonio Spurs in the first round.

Russell Westbrook had 29 points, eight rebounds, six assists and seven turnovers; it’s his first game this postseason with more turnovers than assists, and his 1.4 postseason Assist-to-Turnover ratio pales in comparison to the 2.1 he posted in the regular season.

Serge Ibaka chipped in with 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for the Thunder, making him the first player with five blocks in three straight playoff games since Tim Duncan in 2002.

The Grizzlies carried their postseason success from the first round into Game 1 with Oklahoma City, outscoring the Thunder by 14 points in the paint. They’ve outscored their opponents by 48 points in the paint this postseason.

The Grizzlies scored 23 points off of 18 Thunder turnovers while the Thunder got just eight points off of eight Memphis giveaways.

The Memphis Grizzlies beat the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs, just the fourth No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed under the NBA’s current playoff format (adopted in 1984). They’re only the second No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in a seven-game series, joining the 2007 Golden State Warriors, who beat the Dallas Mavericks.

Prior to this series, the Grizzlies were 0-12 all-time in the postseason, having been swept in each of their three previous trips to the playoffs. The Spurs get knocked out in the first round for the second time in three seasons, after advancing past the first round for eight straight years.

The Grizzlies went 1-for-9 from three-point range, making them the fourth team in the past 15 seasons to clinch a series in a game where they made just one three-pointer.

Zach Randolph was the star, scoring a postseason-career high 31 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, outscoring the entire Spurs team 13-11 in the final 4:25 of the game. Over the past 15 seasons, that’s the fifth-best fourth quarter in a potential series-clinching game, putting Randolph in pretty good company.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us the Grizzlies are just the fourth team to sweep the Spurs at home -- regular season and postseason combined -- in the Tim Duncan era. That’s good news for Memphis fans, as two of the previous three advanced to the NBA Finals that season.

Looking ahead, the Grizzlies won three of four this season from the Oklahoma City Thunder, their opponent in the second round.

The Memphis Grizzlies put on a basketball clinic in the second half of their destruction of the San Antonio Spurs, moving the Western Conference's top seed to the brink of elimination.

The Spurs shot 55.3 percent in the first half, seeming to shake their series-long shooting funk -- only 41.7 percent shooting in the first three games -- and actually led at halftime.

After the break though it was the Grizzlies who got hot, opening the third quarter on a 14-0 run and never looking back.

So what changed in the third quarter?

The Spurs turned the ball over seven times and had just four assists. This came after the Spurs turned the ball over a total of eight times in the first half.

While San Antonio was struggling to score, Memphis shot 62.5 percent from the field on two-point field goals. The Grizzlies also got to the free throw line 12 times in the period, making 10.

The Spurs took just two free throws in what turned out to be the game-changing period.

Memphis was able to dominate the second half in rather unconventional fashion. The Grizzlies -- who scored more points in the paint than any team in regular season -- rode a wave of hot jump shooting in their rout.

The first-half game footage showed the Grizzlies made just five of their 17 jump shots. However, in the second half they made 14 of their 26 jump shots. Those 26 jump shots accounted for 65 percent of their field goal attempts in a second half. Despite the unusually high reliance on the jumper, Memphis shot 55 percent from the field as a team.

In the first three games of the series, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol combined to score 40.9 percent of the Grizzlies’ total points, but in Game 4, the two big men scored just 20 of the team’s 104 points (19.2 percent). After a Gasol layup with 2:04 left in the third, neither player got a touch over the final 28 possessions as Memphis extended its lead.

Memphis’ bench scored 18 of 22 points during a crucial 22-9 run from 1:43 left in the third quarter to 5:43 in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies bench shot 7-of-9 during the run, led by Darrell Arthur, who went 5-for-5.

When the teams meet in San Antonio on Wednesday, the Grizzlies will be just the fourth No. 8 seed to take a two-game advantage into a potential series clincher since postseason expansion in the 1983-84 season.

The most recent time it happened was 2007, when the Golden State Warriors led 3-1 before ousting the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in six games. However, the previous two times it had happened the higher seeded team won three straight to take the series (2003 Pistons, 1993 Suns).

Still, history is against San Antonio making a comeback. This marks the sixth time during the Tim Duncan Era that the Spurs trail a series 3-1. Each of the previous five times San Antonio lost the series.

First ever playoff victory (check). First ever home playoff win (check). First ever playoff series victory…not quite yet. However after the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the San Antonio Spurs they moved one step closer to accomplishing that goal as they took a 2-1 series lead.

The Grizzlies are just the seventh No. 8 seed to be up 2-1 in a series since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams during the 1983-84 campaign. This is only the third time its happened since the first round expanded to a seven-game series in the 2003 playoffs.

Memphis still has some work to do though as of the six different No. 8 seeds to lead a series 2-1, only two of them went on to win the series.

Still the Grizzlies now have proven they can beat the Spurs in the playoffs with Manu Ginobili in the lineup. In fact it was Ginobili who had the ball in his hands at the end of the game with a chance to tie, but was unable to even get a shot off.

Much like its Game 1 victory, Memphis was led by their frontcourt tandem of Zach Randolph (25 points) and Marc Gasol (17). The duo combined for 42 of the teams' 91 points, and outscored their counterparts Tim Duncan (13) and Antonio McDyess (8) by 21 points.

In the two wins for the Grizzlies this series, Randolph and Gasol have outscored Duncan and McDyess 91-to-40. However in the Grizzlies Game 2 loss the duo combined for just 23 points, only outscoring Duncan and McDyess by two.

Looking ahead to Game 4, the Spurs may have found a better way to match up with the Grizzlies front court, particularly Randolph.

After Randolph scored 14 points (6-11 FG) against McDyess and DeJuan Blair in the first half, Duncan shifted over to guard the Memphis forward for much of the final two quarters.

He held Randolph to seven points in the second half, helping the Spurs make up a nine-point halftime deficit before falling by three.

Like they did in Game 1, the Spurs struggled to make jump-shots in Game 3. San Antonio was tied for fourth in the NBA during the regular season, making 40.2 percent of its jump shots. In its two losses this series, the Spurs were held to just 30.8 percent.

Credit Memphis for closing out on shooters in the series as the Grizzlies allowed opponents to make 38.8 percent of jump-shots in the regular season, tied for 16th in the NBA.

The Grizzlies defenders really bothered the Spurs on three-point field goals as they went just 2-for-15 from beyond the arc in Game 3. During the regular season the Spurs were the NBA's best three-point shooting team making 39.7 percent of their attempts.