OKLAHOMA CITY -- Doc Rivers was angry, so he started his postgame press conference going off on a monologue about how his team was robbed.
Chris Paul was upset, so he started his postgame press conference talking about how dumb he played and how much he let his team down.
And you thought the Thunder were going to have a hard time snapping out of its Game 4 funk, didn't you?
Well, it might have taken awhile to get going, but the Thunder did, winning Game 5 after falling apart at the end of Game 4 Sunday in Los Angeles.
Now, it's the Clippers turn to be questioned, and it's hard to believe they could shake off what happened in Game 5 very easily.
Not when Doc Rivers said a bad call with 11.3 seconds left -- one that he thought should have gone the Clippers' way -- didn't work out. Rivers called it series-changing.
And not when Paul said he's never made the kind of mistakes he made in the last minute, like the two turnovers as well as the hard-to-believe foul of Russell Westbrook with 6 seconds left that gave Westbrook three shots and ultimately gave the Thunder the lead.
Those are situations not easily forgotten. Unlike the Thunder, who lost their way offensively and defensively at the end of Game 4, the Clippers deficiencies Tuesday night seem to hold more-lasting ramifications.
"We've got to put this behind us," Clippers forward Matt Barnes said. "It's a tough blow. It's a very tough blow, but we're still alive. We have to regroup. There were stuff down the stretch that caused us that loss."
The Clippers do have the comfort of playing Game 6 at home, but unlike the Thunder after they lost Sunday, Los Angeles faces elimination.
And at some point, you'd think all of the distractions, the refereeing, whatever, would catch up with the Clippers. The Thunder didn't have to deal with any of that and certainly haven't had to deal with any of the off-court issues like the Clippers have.
Plus, with the way Rivers and Paul reacted after Game 5, you'd think there would be a lot of lingering issues. After all, the Clippers had Game 5 right there for them. Kevin Durant was 3-of-17 shooting through three quarters, didn't start the fourth quarter and didn't even have an attempt until less than 4 minutes remained. No chance Durant repeats that kind of poor effort, right?
But instead of holding onto a 13-point lead, Los Angeles ended the game on the business end of 17-3 run. The Thunder lost their 16-point, fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 because Blake Griffin and Darren Collison played great, but the Thunder didn't play great down the stretch on Tuesday, the Clippers just played so badly, OKC got back into the game.
The Clippers earned the Game 4 win. They gave away Game 5.
"Toughest game I've been through, basketball wise," Paul said after Game 5. "It's bad. It's bad. To work that hard and then give it away."
"We were robbed," Rivers said.
How do you rally past all that?
Follow Andrew Gilman on Twitter: @andrewgilmanOK
