What made the Clippers massive comeback Sunday night in Memphis even more amazing was how slowly it came at first, how impossible it seemed with about four minutes to go, and then how fast it actually happened. The Clippers were still down by 24 with eight minutes remaining, and they turned the ball over three straight times between the 4:20 mark and the 3:16 mark of the fourth quarter, seemingly blowing whatever chance they had of completing the rally against the Grizzlies in Game 1.

To pull off a comeback while playing such imperfect ball requires just about everything else to go exactly right, pretty darn quickly. A dozen little things added up to one historic rally. The Grizzlies offense collapsed, in part because coach Lionel Hollins sat Zach Randolph for nearly four minutes down the stretch, an understandable move (Randolph is still trying to get back into game condition and he looked shaky for much of the night) that nonetheless allowed Blake Griffin to guard Marreese Speights while Reggie Evans battled Marc Gasol for every inch of territory. Speights, never a plus defender, couldnt handle Griffin down low on the other end. Tony Allen missed a put-back and was improbably exposed on defense when finally given the go-ahead to take Chris Paul. Other horrible things happened for Memphis.

But if you had to pick one factor that made the game winnable, it was this: The Clippers made a bunch of three-pointers in a really small span of time. Two-point buckets simply wouldnt do; they needed threes, and they got them, thanks to a complicated mix of factors. Lets take a look at the Clippers last four three-pointers, starting with Eric Bledsoes seventh three of the entire season:

Its fashionable to mock Griffins unrefined post game, but doing so ignores how effective he is, and how much attention that unrefined post game draws from defenses. Here, Griffin catches on the right block, with the capable Gasol defending him. And yet, look at how fascinated the rest of the Grizzlies are:

Every Memphis player is paying attention to Griffin. Look especially at Mike Conley and Rudy Gay on the weak side, sagging off Bledsoe and Nick Young, respectively, in order to clog up the middle. You can see Bledsoe (right in front of the dot in Grizzles.com along the sideline) beginning his cut from the left side to the right corner. Heres what the world looks like when Bledsoe is halfway through that cut, under the rim:

Whoops. Both Conley and Gay have rotated out to Young on the left wing, leaving Bledsoe uncovered. Young is the more threatening shooter, of course, but no defensive coach would recommend what happens here. Bledsoe made just six three-pointers all season, but this is a practice shot, and nearly every NBA player looks like a shooting genius in practice.

Three minutes later, Youngs barrage begins with this play out of a timeout:

This is a nice play from maligned coach Vinny Del Negro. The Clippers have been good all season at using back screens away from the ball to free shooters, and Griffin here nails Youngs guy (Gay) with one at the left elbow while Gay has his eyes on the Paul pick-and-roll on the right side of the floor (Paul is driving by Gasol in this still):

Original post:
LOWE: Anatomy of a comeback -- and collapse