Surging Clippers back up their talk vs. Thunder

LOS ANGELES — At its essence, professional basketball
isn't so much a sport as it is an exercise in bravado, of sizing up an opponent
and — with body language or the spoken word — asserting your dominance.



It might be in the form of Blake Griffin's glare, Kobe Bryant's sneer or Kevin
Garnett's motor mouth. If the tools differ, they all hammer home the same point:




You've got no chance.

 

And so, when Nick Young was asked after the Clippers' victory in Oklahoma City
last week how much credit he should take for Kevin Durant's
uncharacteristically poor shooting, he viewed the question as an invitation.



"Call me Bruce Bowen," Young said with a smile, referring to the
retired lockdown defender.



When word of this bit of hubris filtered back to Durant, a leading MVP
candidate, he had a few choice words for Young — and other Clippers, too — when
they reconvened Monday at Staples Center.



"He was talking about how I couldn't guard him and all that," Young
said. "I guess he heard about it in the papers, that I said I was locking
him up. That kind of motivated me too. He said, 'C'mon Swaggy P, c’mon.”



And, so beckoned, Swaggy P did just that.



Young did another solid if not quite Bowen-like job on Durant, and discovered a
swag-worthy offensive touch in a way he hadn't since arriving from the Wizards
at the trade deadline. Young had a team-high 19 points off the bench, including
a trio of 3-pointers in the third quarter, as the Clippers rallied to roll the
Thunder, 92-77.



It was another sign that Los Angeles' other team, like Young on Monday, is
coming on.



The Clippers clinched a playoff berth, their first since 2006, with Houston's
loss earlier in the evening and stayed on the tail of the Lakers, who lead the
Clippers by one game (and hold the tiebreaker) with five to play.



And, for a night at least, they appeared to get into the head of one of the
best players in the game. Durant, who scored 24 points, missed all seven 3-pointers
he took, plowed into Young for a charge, bulled into Griffin's screen for
another foul while chasing Young, and picked up a technical foul for yapping
with the Clippers' Mo Williams, who was seated on the bench at the time.



Afterward, Durant's demeanor had cooled. But his frustration may have manifested
itself in a case of amnesia.



"I didn't say a word to Nick," Durant said. "I was talking to Mo
Williams."



When Young’s contention — that Durant said Young couldn't guard him — were
relayed to Durant, he replied: "No, I didn't say that."



Then he looked up and smiled.



"I guess he was hearing things," Durant said.



His reaction was reminiscent of his first playoff series two years ago, when
Durant was hounded and harassed by Ron Artest into a poor shooting series,
though he came within a 3-pointer at the buzzer of pushing the eighth-seeded
Thunder to a seventh game against the Lakers. He was reluctant then — just as
he was Monday — to give the defense credit.



"If you go back and watch this game, man, we got great looks," Durant
said.



But Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said that series against Artest was
valuable in Durant's development.



"It challenged him in ways that at that time I don't think he was quite
ready," Brooks said. "He was 21 years old and playing against a guy
that was probably 50 pounds heavier and he got pushed around, but it helped. It
gave us opportunities to show film and how to combat that and get better. I
think [getting physical] is what teams try to do. Now, I think he's able to
hold off his man and get open much easier."



Caron Butler and, down the stretch, Kenyon Martin took turns on Durant, but
most of the work landed in the lap of Young. In the Wizards' 105-102 win over
Oklahoma City in January, Durant made just 2 of 10 3-pointers and turned the
ball over seven times. In the loss to the Clippers last week, he made just 7 of
21 shots and missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer that was
contested by DeAndre Jordan. He turned the ball over five times Monday.



Meanwhile, after throttling the Clippers, Lakers, Heat and Bulls in an 11-day
span in March and April, the Thunder have been pedestrian since, dropping five
of their last nine. In the second half Monday, the NBA's second-highest scoring
team could muster a mere 25 points.



If the Thunder's confidence is flagging, the Clippers' most certainly is not.
They have won 12 of their last 14, and when Oklahoma City's inevitable double
teams came toward Chris Paul and Griffin, there was little doubt when the ball
swung to Randy Foye, Williams and Young, who combined to sink 8 of 12
3-pointers.



When Williams sank a 3-pointer early at the start of the fourth quarter, it
gave the Clippers — who once trailed by 11 — their first lead since the opening
moments.



In the final quarter, it was Williams who carried the Clippers, scoring all 11 of
his points. But not long before that it had been Young, who shouted
"that's what I'm talking about" after sinking his final 3-pointer.



It had been that kind of night for him, some early one-bounce jumpers and
enthusiastic defense getting him into the game, and his conversations with
Durant keeping him there.



"Once you get out there and get a hustle play or something it gets you
going," Young said. "You need to get that adrenaline rush going and
it helped that they were talking trash. It was one of those games you want to
be a part of, talking back and forth, everybody. That's my thing right there.
It felt like you were playing on the street."



One that, for the Clippers, no longer looks like a dead end.