LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul sat in a corner of the Los Angeles Clippers locker room Saturday afternoon trying to figure out what went wrong.
He blamed himself. He did so many things badly on the critical play of the game against the San Antonio Spurs that he almost didn't know where to start.
Chris Paul doesn't do these things. He doesn't make major mistakes, doesn't throw bad passes, doesn't try to do too much.
Saturday, he did. If anything good comes of it, it's that the Clippers won't forget.
"It should hurt," forward Ryan Gomes said. "And we should hold that feeling."
They probably will. A 103-100 overtime loss to the Spurs at Staples Center isn't going to die quietly in the Clippers' memories. A victory would have pushed them ahead of San Antonio into second place in the Western Conference. A loss stunned them.
"We felt like we gave it away," Blake Griffin said.
There was no other way to look at it. The Clippers had possession of the ball and a 95-92 lead with 9.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. All they had to do was get the ball inbounds, wait to get fouled and knock down at least one foul shot.
But Paul made what he later admitted was the worst play of his career. Worried he might commit a backcourt violation, he took Gomes' inbounds pass and tried to throw it to Randy Foye before he crossed the midcourt line. Instead, his pass went into the hands of San Antonio's Gary Neal, who nailed a 3-point shot with 5.7 seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.
Here's the rub: Paul would not have been called for a violation because he didn't have his feet set in the frontcourt at the start of the play. But he didn't know that at the time.
"That's probably the worst play I've been a part of since I've been in the NBA," Paul said. "It was totally my fault."
"We were taking the ball out, and we knew they had to foul. As I'm sprinting to the ball, I probably should have slowed down. I was running to the backcourt, and the ball came, and I saw I was about to get a backcourt violation. The dummy that I am, I threw the ball and it went right to Gary Neal."
Still in a state of disbelief over what he had done, Paul said, "Me, of all people. It hurts to know I put us in that situation."
Neal doesn't miss those shots too often. As Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, "That's what he does, shoot the ball. He knows what he gets his paycheck for, and he's always looking for his shot."
The victory kept alive the Spurs' winning streak, which now stands at 10 games. Six of those victories have come on the road. They might be getting old, but the Spurs remain a disciplined, well-tuned unit.
"The Spurs aren't going to beat themselves," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "You have to beat them."
The Clippers looked as if they might. They overcame a 15-point deficit in the third quarter by running off 17 unanswered points, 10 by Foye. They hit critical free throws down the stretch and got big lifts from Foye — who had 21 points — and backup guard Eric Bledsoe, who gave the team a shot of energy off the bench. Griffin had his first career 20-20 game, finishing with 22 points and 20 rebounds in 43 minutes.
But Paul's mistake put the game in overtime, and Neal sank another three-pointer with the game tied 98-98 and 41.5 seconds left to give them a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"Every loss hurts, and some of them are worse than others," Clippers forward Kenyon Martin said. "This is one of them. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite us down the stretch."
If it does, it certainly won't be because of Paul.
"I pride myself on execution," he said. "I don't think it'll ever happen again."
