MEMPHIS -- Doc Rivers’ demeanor doesn’t change much after games.
Whether the Clippers win or lose, he will grab a final box score, take a deep breath, look at the reporters before him and wait for the first question. He’ll shrug his shoulders at any inclination that a win was anything more than just one win. He'll roll his eyes at any suggestion that a loss was anything more than just one loss.
In Rivers’ eyes, there’s no such thing as a big win or a big loss because there’s no such thing as a big game over the course of an 82-game season.
But there was something different about the Clippers’ 97-79 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. It will count as just one win in the standings, but that’s not exactly the reaction it elicited from the Clippers as they put the finishing touches on arguably their biggest win of the season.
Four days after he dropped his head following a game-ending turnover against the Grizzlies in Los Angeles, Chris Paul was yelling at the Clippers' bench after a game-clinching 3-pointer in the fourth quarter in Memphis. He had 19 points -- 11 in the fourth quarter -- and three assists. Not only did Paul get his revenge, but the Clippers also found a way to beat a Grizzlies team to which they had lost in eight of their previous nine meetings.
“It still only means one game,” Rivers said afterward.
It’s understandable for Rivers to take that never-changing stance, but the noise emanating from the Clippers locker room after the game told a different story.
The Clippers needed a game such as this. Sure, they’re simply trying to survive without Blake Griffin right now. No, a loss Friday wouldn’t have been the end of their season. But at some point, the Clippers needed to beat the Grizzlies, and they needed to beat them in Memphis to build some confidence that they could actually do it if they end up meeting each other in the postseason.
“Maybe I’m just dumb and I don’t see it,” Rivers said. “For me, it doesn’t stay with me. With the players it may. They may have needed this for them. For me, I believe we can beat them. Whether we won or not, I was still going to believe that after this game.”
Rivers has talked about basically trying to survive the grind of the regular season since the start of training camp, with his lone goal being to win enough games to qualify for the playoffs. He’ll concede seeding is important, depending on the team he has, but of secondary importance to finishing the season healthy.
After Friday’s win, the Clippers are the sixth seed in the West but just one win from moving up to the fourth or fifth seed. Even more important, they might not be far from getting Griffin back and being healthy going into the stretch run of the regular season. While the Clippers have been on the road this week, Griffin has been at the team facility rehabbing and sending positive reports to his teammates via group text.
Last season, the turning point in the Clippers’ regular season came when they lost Chris Paul for five weeks and found a way to not only stay afloat but also move up in the standings. The Clippers have found a way to do it again this season without Griffin; they have won five of their past seven without their All-Star forward, including wins over the likes of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Memphis.
“We’re competing,” Rivers said. “It’s tough. When Chris went out last year, we had [Darren Collison] still, but Spencer [Hawes] has been up and down this year, so with Blake out this year, it matters. We have to play with pace because we don’t have the extra passer with Blake out. What we got away with last year with Chris out was Blake was still our passer, so we still had a guy who could facilitate.”
Instead of an extra facilitator now, the Clippers have seen DeAndre Jordan blossom into one of the best big men in the game. He had 15 points and 22 rebounds Friday and has been averaging 18.4 points and 19.7 rebounds in Griffin’s absence. A player who didn’t have a 20-20 game before this month is averaging that over the past seven games -- out of necessity for his team.
“We need Blake. Don’t get it twisted: We need him, and we need him bad,” Paul said. “But what this has done is give everyone else an opportunity to step up a little bit, and I think that will help us when Blake comes back. Everyone will have more confidence, and we’ll really get rolling.”
Rivers knew the Clippers were capable of this, but sometimes a team needs to do it before it can really believe it. On Friday, the Clippers did it, and now they finally believe what their coach has been telling them since the start of training camp over four months ago.
“Our guys are really starting to believe we’re as good as I’ve been saying all year,” Rivers said. “You can play with teams, and we know when we get everyone back that will make us even better.”