The Clippers\u2019 Blake Griffin posted his first double-double of the playoffs in Tuesday\u2019s game five of the Western Conference Semifinals, but it wasn\u2019t enough to keep the Thunder from taking a one game advantage heading into game six at the Staples Center on Friday. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Date\/Time: 10:30 p.m. ET, Thursday, May 15, 2014<\/strong>
\n Venue: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California<\/strong>
\n Broadcast: ESPN<\/strong>
\n Spread: -5 Clippers<\/strong>
\n Over\/Under: 211.5<\/strong>
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Oklahoma City rode the tails of point guard Russell Westbrook, who hit three late free throws to cap a 38-point effort, to down LA 105-104, just two days after letting a 16-point fourth-quarter lead vanish in game four in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
The win gives the Thunder a 3-2 lead in series.<\/p>\n
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But as good as Westbrook was \u2014 posting his highest scoring game of the postseason \u2014 turnovers played a bigger part in the win, as the Thunder scored 23 points off 17 Los Angeles turnovers in game five.<\/p>\n
The Clippers did however, do a good job defensively, containing league MVP Kevin Durant, who struggled mightily in game five, suffering through a 6-of-22 shooting performance despite finishing with 27 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Griffin meanwhile led Los Angeles\u2019 offensive charge, with 24 points and 17 rebounds, while point guard Chris Paul, one of the Clippers most consistent players during this playoff series, finished with just 17 points and one rebound.
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\nHe did dish out 14 helpers, but turned the ball over five times in the second half \u2013 two of which came late in the game, one possibly changing the outcome with just seconds remaining.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, DeAndre Jordan didn\u2019t score a single point, but Jamal Crawford continues to be a force off the bench, scoring no less than 18 points in three straight games.<\/p>\n
The Thunder shot 42.9 percent from the field in game five, and are averaging 107.8 points on 47.9 percent shooting. Defensively, they are allowing 108 points on 45.8 percent shooting.<\/p>\n
LA returns home where they average 111.4 points and allow 101 points.<\/p>\n
Matt’s Prediction:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Clippers beat themselves in game five \u2014 a game they should have won with no problem.<\/p>\n
Now that they’re back on their home court and facing elimination, I expect some big performances from both Paul and Griffin, who seems he may have found his stride when his team needs him most.<\/p>\n
With their backs against the wall, I like the Clippers in this one.<\/p>\n
Clippers 112, Thunder 110 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oklahoma City vs Los Angeles NBA Odds The Clippers\u2019 Blake Griffin posted his first double-double of the playoffs in Tuesday\u2019s game five of the Western Conference Semifinals, but it wasn\u2019t enough to keep the Thunder from taking a one game advantage heading into game six at the Staples Center on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":978,"featured_media":76412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3490,22536,749,2381,12357,62121,8471,54566,54360,11979,54567,1983],"class_list":["post-77105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-game-6","tag-l-a-clippers","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-okc-vs-l-a","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder-vs-l-a-clippers","tag-oklahoma-city-vs-l-a","tag-round-2","tag-thunder-vs-clippers","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77108,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77105\/revisions\/77108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}