WSD Sports Page: Clippers lack playoff experience, costly against Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers in six games, and another blown lead--not any calls from the refs-- was the main story again.

Photo from TheHoodgirl

Once up 16, the Clippers let everything slide away again in the second half and lost by a 104-98 final margin. Kevin Durant was incredible, putting up 39 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 assists in an incredible night, nailing all 10 free throws. The whole team was aggressive getting to the foul line and it paid off. They went 29-of-33 from the charity stripe while LA hit just 12-of-20.

That +15 edge at the line overcame the Clippers having a +24 advantage in the paint.

Clippers fans were obnoxious during the whole disaster, but this time, they don't have the aid of a controversial finish and a Doc Rivers breakdown to latch onto. Two straight games blowing double-digit leads doomed the team, and while they looked like the best team in the NBA at times throughout the season, playoff experience prevailed for the Thunder.

People forget that LA's other team, despite becoming more popular than the Lakers, simply have next to zero playoff experience in their franchise history. The team is trending in the right direction, and they'll continue to be a factor as they re-tool the team and continue being led by the trio of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan.

But for now, the Thunder get the opportunity to play the San Antonio Spurs, a.k.a the West's Finest. They won't get the luxury of blown leads this time around.

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NBA: Pacers advance with beatdown of their own

The Wizards couldn't take advantage of a dominant Game 5 and fizzled at home in a 93-80 loss. Finally, Indiana put their foot down after getting embarrassed at home. Now the question is, how ready are they against the Heat?

MLB: Cain grabs first win in Giants' 6-4 win over Marlins

After 11 straight winless starts, San Francisco's Matt Cain finally grabs a victory, and it was technically his worst start of the season after giving up back-to-back jacks in the first two innings. San Francisco's lineup is red-hot after two games, and figured out Nate Eovaldi's fast ball pretty fast rocking nine hits in the first 4.1 innings.

CBB: Oklahoma State clinches Big 12 regular season title

The Cowboys lock up the one seed in the Big 12 tournament next week after defeating their in-state rival, Oklahoma, in the opening game of a three-game series and TCU lost to Baylor. OSU has now won 11 straight games overall, six in Big 12 play.

NBA: Lakers GM says Bryant isn't going to be involved in coaching search

Obviously, Kobe wants to have his say on who's going to become the next coach LA's more historic franchise, but Mitch Kupchak won't give him a seat at the table to talk. Which is fine, because that's not Kobe's job. It's not in his contract to help the team pick a coach. That doesn't mean Bryant can't give his input, and it's not like Kupchak won't give it consideration.

NBA Draft Combine: Wiggins jumps a billion miles in the air

Look at this picture of Wiggins during a workout. Dude's got some serious hangtime.

Today's Slate

(Central times listed)

TENNIS

ATP/WTA BNL d'Italia (Qtrs) - 5:00a TNNS

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 2

-Kings at Ducks (Game 7) - 8:00 NBCS

NBA

Scouting Combine - 9:00a ESPNU / 12:00 ESPN2

MLB

Padres at Rockies - 7:40 MLBTV

Dodgers at D'backs - 8:40 MLBTV

-Marlins at Giants - 9:15 MLBTV

CBB

11Washington at 1Oregon St - 6:00 P12

20TCU at Baylor - 6:30 FSSW

-19Texas at Kansas St - 6:30

Los Angeles Clippers didn't 'get robbed' in loss to Oklahoma City Thunder

Late last night, controversy surrounds Game 5 between the Clippers and Thunder, again showing that cooler heads always prevail and there were always more than one reason teams lose a game.

It's a natural reaction to look at last night's game and completely dismiss how everything went down. The ball should have been called out on Oklahoma City on the Matt Barnes' reach in and even more controversy surrounds Chris Paul's foul on Russel Westbrook, sending him to the line for 3 shots as they then sat down by two points.

Doc Rivers went on a horrible tirade after the game and both killed the calls and killed the refs. Despite actually admitting that the Clippers could have played better down the stretch, they "got robbed." Yup. Having a 13-point lead and blowing it with a shade over four minutes left is certainly getting robbed.

Even more nauseating than Rivers was the absolute breakdown over Twitter. College basketball analysts were spouting off, oh, where are the people that defended NBA refs and crucified NCAA officials? Please, go back to watching tape on the Ivy League. Naturally college refs are going to be worse because there's a bigger pool to select from, and they clearly get more calls wrong and remain inconsistent at best throughout games.

Replay haters were spouting off how it failed again. Enough. We all know replay rules are stupid and I've explained multiple times how they can create a replay system that works fast and can look at everything. And replay haters don't understand what they're complaining about because replay actually gets it right -- it's the refs that can't go back and say something was a foul. So first, replay haters need to figure out what to bitch about before yelling off their soap box.

Then there's Clippers fans, who go off on tangents about how the refs are the worst -- never mind refs helping them advance in one of the games against Golden State -- and that this could cost them the series! Oh, the stupidity. There's so many things that happen throughout the course of the game, plenty of other things could have happened to prevent last night's outcome. Begins with finishing a game and Chris Paul doing anything differently than that disaster he owned up for in the final seconds. Maybe Westbrook could have missed a free throw.

But no, let's just bitch about the controversy because that's easy fodder to throw around on Twitter and sports media. God help us all when some people can't look past a couple plays and don't realize that there is always, always more than one reason why there's an outcome of the game -- unless rain forces a postponement.

The sooner people figure that out, the less vitrol, bitterness, and hatred will spew on social media.

• NHL: Rangers complete comeback, Blackhawks advance - Pittsburgh chokes as they'll face uncertainty heading to the offseason, and Sidney Crosby will face plenty of scrutiny after scoring just one goal -- a game winner in Game 3 -- during the entire playoffs. On the flipside, Patrick Kane had his sixth goal in the game-winner and lucky bounces are always the king of hockey.
• NBA: Pacers back to normal after Wizards beatdown - Marcin Gortat had 31 points and 16 rebounds. Roy Hibbert had 4 points and 2 rebounds. Let me know when you figure it out, Indiana.
• MLB: Braves 5, Giants 0 - Ryan Vogelsong wasn't backed up by the offense, who had just one hit through the first six innings. This was Mike Minor's first win of the season.
• NCAA: ACC considers non-conference games against itself. It sounds weird at first, but it's better than seeing Clemson take on The Citadel.
• MEDIA: Clay Travis tries to defend Donald Sterling with some horrible rant about how actions should speak louder than words. Travis also never brings up Sterling heckling players, being sued by Elgin Baylor, and forcing out Latino tenants. Why? Because research is a hard thing, and it's much easier to go on a 1,000-word tirade filled with one-sentence fragments.

Today's Slate:

(Central times listed)

TENNIS

ATP BNL d'Italia - 4:00a TNNS

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - CHAMPIONSHIP

Benfica at Sevilla - 1:45 FS1

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 2

Canadiens at Bruins (Game 7) - 6:00 NBCS

-Ducks at Kings (ANA 3-2) - 8:30 NBCS

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 2

Nets at Heat (MIA 3-1) - 6:00 TNT

Blazers at Spurs (SA 3-1) - 8:30 TNT

MLB

Rockies at Royals - 1:10 FSKC

Nationals at D'backs - 2:40 MLBTV

-Braves at Giants - 2:45 MLBTV

Padres at Reds - 6:10 MLBTV

Marlins at Dodgers - 9:10 MLBTV

WSD Sports Page (5-6-14): Rutgers withdraws commencement invitation for Eric LeGrand

Rutgers' disastrous decision to rescind an offer for Eric LeGrand to speak at commencement, the Clippers and Wizards start off the NBA conference semifinlas with a bang, the Giants and Buccos play over five hours of baseball, and an incredibly disturbing rape story emerges with top Oregon Ducks players, all today on the sports page.

The Lede

Rutgers withdraws commencement invitation for Eric LeGrand

Days after Rutgers gave an invitation to paralyzed football player Eric LeGrand to speak at commencement, they pulled it out from under him to let a political figure speak.

LeGrand announced on Twitter last night and spoke to multiple media outlets on his displeasure that athletic director Julie Hermann called him on Monday to say that they moved in a different direction for a commencement speaker -- former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean.

This apparently happened just days after he got a call from Rutgers chief of staff, Gregory Jackson, who offered LeGrand to speak at the commencement after Condoleezza Rice opted out.

To put it simply, Hermann's first year as Rutgers AD has been nothing short of a disaster, and that just piles on to this huge list in a damning article by Brian Hamilton at Sports Illustrated last month which highlighted her comments that she'd be happy if the The Star-Ledger newspaper just went ahead and died. She showed no remorse for the many people that got laid off a week prior.

There was a clear disapproval of who should be Rice's replacement as the commencement speaker at the school. There's nothing wrong with having Kean speak at the event, but it looks incredibly bad when you announce that he will speak moments after you tell somebody else that they were invited.

Double-down on the terrible when the school shuns LeGrand, a big figure at Rutgers who remains the only player to have his football number retired and is an inspiration to many people. Instead of pulling out the rug from under him, is it hard to have two speakers at this event and just roll with it?

Apparently so. God forbid these graduates and their parents stick around for 15 more minutes at commencement. Time is valuable, and they would get nothing out of anything LeGrand has to say, right?

Other Headlines

NHL: Los Angeles win first two games at Anaheim

The Kings were dead tired as they clinged to a one-goal lead in the 3rd period, but Dwight King quickly stole the puck when the Ducks pulled their goalie and slammed in the game-ender with 58 seconds left for a 3-1 final. Marian Gaborik scored his sixth goal of the playoffs just 34 seconds into the contest to put the team up early and they didn't look back. 

Jonathan Quick continued to be vintage, and the team has killed off 22 of their last 23 power plays against them. They went into last night's game killing 19 straight. Of course, a fight broke out between the fans after the game, resulting in one of the fan's apparent girlfriends taking a throwdown, but got back up and continued to break up the fight. Because she's a hockey fan.

NBA: Chris Paul drains eight 3's, Blake Griffin adds 23 in LA Clippers' rout over Oklahoma City

Paul had 32 points and 10 assists, including shooting 8-of-9 from downtown in a 122-105 dominating victory on the road. OKC had 17 turnovers (6 from Russell Westbrook) and the game got out of hand early with the Clippers outscoring the Thunder 39-25 in the first quarter.

MLB: San Francisco defeats Pittsburgh 11-10 in 13 innings

Both teams combined for 21 runs, 36 hits in nearly 5.5 hours of action. Reliever Jean Machi picked up his fifth win of the season, and did so by landing a sacrifice bunt on offense that resulted in the Pirates' reliever to send a throw wide and giving Hunter Pence the go-ahead run.

The Giants rebounded from an 8-2 deficit after five innings with a 5-run sixth inning to get back into it. Hector Sanchez recorded four hits and three RBIs and the top three in the order -- Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence, and Buster Posey -- had three-hit games but just a combined two RBIs, both from Posey. Even more impressive, SF went 8-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

Page 2's

NBA: Indiana does it again with another home loss

Speaking of first quarter disasters, the Pacers were down big against the Washington Wizards. Roy Hibbert had zero points again, and Tracy McGrady makes a pretty good point afterwards.

NFL: Denver's Peyton Manning still not 100 percent after neck surgery

Manning went on the Late Show with David Letterman and announced that he still wasn't fully recovered from his surgery. He sure looks pretty good considering, and I'd still take a sub-100 percent Manning over many other QBs in the league.

NCAA: Oregon basketball sees mass exodus of players after rape scandal

Something did happen to the victim, but the conflicting statements by her leaves the case falling flat. But Brandon Austin, Damyean Dotson, and Dominic Artis to likely all be history, with Artis already transferring. The story is pretty sickening if true. Potentially, all three players had sex with her at a house party, performed oral sex, forced her into a cab, and then did more stuff with her at an apartment leaded to Dotson and Artis. All three players contest that it was consensual.

NCAA: FSU's Jameis Winston avoided security according to police report

But Winston still denies stealing the butter and claims he put it in a sale bin, like that should redeem him a little. All of this screams a non-traditional way of handling grocery shopping, because a whopping zero people would ever walk out of a grocery store without intent of shoplifting.

Today's Slate

Central times listed.

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

Hull City at Man United - 1:45 NBCS

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 2

Bruins at Canadiens (Tied 1-1) - 6:00 NBCS

Blackhawks at Wild (CHI 2-0) - 8:00 CNBC

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 2

Nets at Heat (Game 1) - 6:00 TNT

Blazers at Spurs (Game 1) - 8:30 TNT

MLB

Giants at Pirates - 6:05 CSBA/RSPT

Dodgers at Nationals - 6:05 SNLA/MASN

D'backs at Brewers - 7:10 FSAZ/FSWI

Rangers at Rockies - 7:40 FSSW/ROOT

Royals at Padres - 9:10 FSKC/FSSD