By Broderick Turner, Los Angeles Times –
SAN ANTONIO — The next big challenge stands in front of the Los Angeles Clippers, even bigger than winning a Game 7 on the road in Memphis on Sunday against all the odds
Playing the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals Tuesday night is now the only concern for the Clippers.
They acknowledge they have to get by the emotionally and physically draining seven games against Memphis, a series that pushed the franchise to the second round of the playoffs for only the second time in 31 years.
“That series is over,” Caron Butler said after practice Monday. “We celebrated last night, the victory on the flight over. Now we’ve got to come off the high and get prepared for one of the best teams in the game. That’s the San Antonio Spurs. We are definitely aware of all of their experience, what they have done in the past. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
It’ll be even more of a challenge for the Clippers because they still aren’t healthy.
Blake Griffin has a strained left knee that limited him in Games 6 and 7 during the first round.
Chris Paul has a sprained right hip flexor. Butler has a broken left hand, Mo Williams has a sore right hand and Reggie Evans has been dealing with back issues.
But all of them will play.
Griffin is the worst of the group, but he was the first Monday to emphatically say, “Yeah, I will be playing tomorrow.”
Griffin, who was injured in the third quarter of Game 5 against the Grizzlies, said his knee is not 100 percent healthy and that it is true that he would sit out two weeks to rest the injury if it were the regular season.
“I’m feeling about 80 percent,” Griffin said. “Hopefully, more than that, but realistically about that. … My knee hasn’t gotten worse so that’s the encouraging thing.”
He had Sunday and Monday to rest and get treatment on the knee.
“I feel better than yesterday,” Griffin said. “Just rest is what’s going to get us there.”
Paul left during the fourth quarter of Game 7 at Memphis to get stretched out, but he said he is feeling much better.
“I’m feeling all right,” Paul said, “as well as you can feel right about now.”
Butler said his fractured right hand has affected his game.
“It affects it a lot just because you can’t hold the ball and do some of the things that you want to do,” Butler said. “As much as you try to protect it and try to play cautiously, you can’t get around it in a physical series that we just played in and continue to get hit on it. You have little minor setbacks here and there. But winning is always rewarding and takes the pain away.”
The Spurs are coming off a 4-0 sweep of the Utah Jazz in their first-round series.
San Antonio ran its winning streak to 14 games in a row since the regular season.
The Spurs have won 27 of their last 29 games.
And they are well-rested, being off eight days since they last played.
Not so for the Clippers.
They are bruised and tired and about to face a fresh Spurs team.
“Does it feel fair?” Paul said. “It’s not about being fair. They did what they were supposed to do and handled their business early. They won four in a row and got a chance to rest. So it’s not about fair right now.”
