With Poor Decisions By Both Teams In Final Minute, Clippers Tie Series

The Los Angeles Clippers overcame a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to topple the Thunder and turn the series into a best of three, though the final 30 seconds of the game involved a mess of bad choices by both teams.

Jamal Crawford and Darren Collison each contributed 18 points from the bench, but while Collison's layup gave his team an important four-point lead, he could not defend Russell Westbrook, who blew by him effortlessly to make it into a two-point game with 27 seconds left. The Thunder point guard had a decent look for the win in the final seconds, but the shot clanged off of the rim. (Serge Ibaka's flubbed putback came after the buzzer, so it wouldn't have mattered.)

There were brain farts on both sides. OKC had no timeouts left when it needed one—that's on coach Scott Brooks—and no one fouled a Clipper to force free throws with a little over 24 seconds remaining. Los Angeles could have kept possession until the last second before tossing up any shot that hit rim to close out the game, but for some reason, Blake Griffin attempted a layup (that missed) with substantial time left, and a Thunder player got the rebound. Fortunately for the Clips, OKC had no timeouts left to draw up a final play, leading to the long Westbrook three. There were errors on both sides, but the Clippers squeaked out the comeback to force a Game 6, at the very least.

[ABC]