wo bodies. >> mike: paul, three-point game! >> mark: the mentality of chris paul he's coming off that screen and roll as a corer er scorer now. >> mike: motiejunas. rebounded by paul. griffin! it will go the other way. >> jeff: we have to stop this after a pass calling charges and taking away from greats onnive plays, the referees are instructed to call it, but to me, that's a -- it used to be called like that, play up, now they don't like those train wrecks, it takes away from good,

exciting nba basketball. >> mark: i disagree. i think it was the right call. >> jeff: yeah, that was real exciting. >> mike: rockets, still a chance to get to within one or tie for l.a., paul! beverley circles the world, shot clock at 4. redick defensively, step-back take. rebound by jordan. deandre's got 19 of them. >> mark: it's simple pick-and-roll. chris paul made a play out of it.

it's too easily defensively for the clippers. >> mike: griffin calling for it. contact. no call. harden on the push. last touched by the clippers. it will be rockets ball whenith 2 sln 13 to go. lot of contact. >> mark: lot of wondering where the whistle was from the clippers' side. hasn't been pretty. but it's tight now. 2:13 to go.

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>> mike: we found ourself a ball game. chris paul struggling early. >> mark: underneath the screen and roll, establishes confidence. how about this? back off. there's a price to pay. hand down, man down. paul with the long ball. tied up. little over 2:00 to go. >> mike: chris paul, the last seven clipper points. ariza floats to the left. harden. guarded by paul. terrence jones is going to take the three and knock it down! terrence jones, just his ninth three-pointer of the year. >> jeff: and goes with the signal of the three like there was no doubt. >> mike: 8on)5t 25.

redick now out of the corner, got to go. barnes, beautiful cut and one! and barnes is shaken up. >> mark: give credit to redick, that play was designed for him to have a spot-up shot from the corner. good defense by ariza. he put his head down and made a play and matt barnes has been doing it for a long time, moving without the basketball and gets the contact. going to the line with a chance to tie up this game. >> mike: matt barnes has had that right leg tied pretty tightly because that hamstring has been bothering him. look as he tries to guard ariza here. check his movement. final 90. one-point game. >> mark: if i'm houston i would let harden to play one-on-one. they're allowing the clippers to double-team when they bring up the screen. >> mike: shot clock is at 4.

on the.e"y(i left. to motiejunas, did he get that in time? no good, anyway, rebound, griffin. clippers for the lead. clippers ahead. jones shut him down. paul, couldn't finish! rebounded by ariza. harden inside. pull-up, over paul, wanted to draw the contact. motiejunas and harden gets fouled by paul. conversation here. great job as the officials step in. we mentioned clippers&dz

the fouls, no free throws. >> jeff: great individual defense but then no one blocked out motiejunas good bounce-pass by motiejunas. >> mike: time-out taken here by 31 seconds. side out for the rockets leading by one. (brad) my friends, i give you... ...the apartminternet. the new apartments-dot-com is bigger. stronger. faster. and bigger.

it's got so many more apartments than on, on that old internet. how do we do it? we're powerd by web five-point-o. what about web three-point-o and 4-point-o? we skipped them. 'cause they're not good enough. the new apartments-dot-com. change your apartment. change the world. >> mike: he did so much over his brilliant college career and endeared his legacy for many so duke fans, the name of the show is "i hate christian laettner" tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on espn. and our college hoop experts will breaking down the bracket.

what are we looking down the stretch? >> mark: chris paul began to make plays. felt comfortable in the pick-and-roll, established his offense. give him credit. all of a sudden it wasn't so easy for james harden on the offensive end. i expect to see them put the ball in his hands and him making a play out of it. >> jeff: mchale tookb])/ motiejunas out out. will doc rivers keep blake griffin a and chris paul in the game? there's a nine-second differential. i'm going to play in transition and go. so they can't get their defensive group back in the game. >> mark: that's a great point, same point that i was about to make. if i get a stop and i'm the clippers, i'm not calling a foul. >> mike: paul on harden. beverley is guarded by redick. ariza has it.

guarded by griffin. trying to get to harden. paul won't let it get there. griffin, ariza. contact. it's going to other way. offensive foul on blake griffin! >> jeff: at first glance i liked the call. trevor ariza back pedaling. to me that's a very good call. >> mike: mark? >> mark: i agree. i agree. he takes the hit. again, sacrifices his body. blake griffin, in disbelief. >> mike: the rockets call time-out to advance the ball. 12 seconds left.

>> jeff: very physical defensively chris paul locked up with james harden and on the switch, blake griffin with the steal, trevor ariza back pedaling, to me, that's an easy correct call. you have the right to be going backwards and blake griffin went right through him and now, how do you keep the ball out of harden's hands. >> mike: fans wanted the five-second count. it will be a time-out here.

they wanted a travel as well as ariza pivoted along the sideline. time-out, rockets. their last. i've always done whatever it takes to get to the next level. how bad do you want it? he's got a world of talent. jabari parker off to duke university. push it! come on! no pain! parker! the bucks select jabari parker. let's go! come on! jabari parker being carried to the lockerroom. it never gets any easier. but i will get stronger. because my story is far from over. gatorade recover. protien for athlete building. >> mike: we saw ariza pivoting on the sideline. now, kevin mchale uses -- i don't know why he didn't the first time out -- to advance it

here. harden breaks away from barnes, gets free. fouled him. finally deandre jordan does. clippers wanted the call earlier. harden, 16 of 16 at the line. interesting play here on the sideline with the inbounds and ariza pivoting. >> jeff: he establishes his left foot as a pivot foot, that's legal and that's legal. now, the five-second count you could call,añxxñ you know, i didn't count z7rit but they usually give you six. >> mike: hasn't missed, made all 17. 18 for 18. his career best. in college basketball, for what it's worth, and in high school as well, you have a three-foot radius, keep your pivot foot in travel, that's not necessarily the case.

for 18 for 18 and a three-point lead. finally missed. rebounded by jordan. time-out -- clippers. they'll be able to advance it at #.2. >> jeff: i would have thought about fouling deandre jordan right there. >> mike: lingering at the clippers' huddle some of the rockets. back in a moment.

>> mike: 91-degree marathon sunday in los angeles, aerial coverage provided by goodyear more driven. it's hot in here. brilliant finish. let's go back to that inbounds. close to a five-count as well. he got the time-out in time at 4.8. i would love to see a five-second clock started when the referee gives the ball to the player. you can be exact on that. not a very difficult thing to do. all right, so here we are, 8.2.

clippers ball in the frontcourt. >> mark: the rockets are switching the pick-and-roll with blake griffin and chris paul. if i were the rockets i would foul jordan. >> mike: redick coming. there's jordan setting the screen. chris paul to the basket for the tie. no. air ball and the rockets win. so, they go to chris paul who got hot as the game went on but he can't hit the game-winning shot and the houston rockets snap their two-game slide. but they earn a split, in case of the tiebreaker with the clippers down the line, three up in% >> mark: putting five on chris paul, so ariza able to get over the screen, chris paul not as comfortable and then the contest, that's good, stellar defense by the rockets and

especially trevor ariza. >> mike: 7 of 21 on the game for chris paul, he had 23 points. nothing at the end. lisa is standing by with the mvp candidate, 34 for james harden tonight welcome welcome from where you were playing out on the court, take me through that last defensive stop? >> trevor ariza has been doing it for us all year. one-on-one defense against chris paul is tough. he did a great job. >> lisa: you guys were up 15 at one point, they got back in it what changed? >> they're an explosive team especially at home. we knew they were going to make a run. we made some big plays. >> lisa: back in first half, it seemed like you got body slammed by matt barnes, what led to that? >> it doesn't matter. we won. >> mike: james harden and the

rockets are 44-22. they have done a great job in the absence of dwight howard, they got orlando, denver and phoenix for their next three. set their sights towards portland. and san antonio a loss ahead. couple of good games today oklahoma city holds off chicago. and the rockets hold off the clippers. for the entire crew, mike tirico, thanks for watching abc, the home of the nba finals. sage steele and the company. they'll share their thoughts with you. from staples center to our abc studios right across the street. i'm sage steele. thanks to mike tirico and the crew. it came down to the end. the clippers were down 15 at in that third quarter ability

midway through, it looked like it was over, the crowd was out of game, jalen, what happened? >> the lanes clippers had really good opportunity, especially with their comeback getting chris paul involved in the second half. there was too much james harden, allowed him to get to the free-throw line and he started to making threes, the team gets confidence, he's an mvp candidate. at times you saw chris paul on him. at times you saw matt barnes on him. normally under regular circumstances, j.j. redick or even rivers, that would be the key matchup that you would like to see, but you have to give harden credit to continue to attack. >> chris paul really gave them a chance to win the game, they were down and he had that stretch where he had seven straight points getting t$e ball to the rim making the key shots or whatever and we'll take a look at that here, you see they were down eight and chris paul

goes to work here, the best mid-range shooter in the nba, all these screens, he's going down hill, he backs off and knocks down the three to tie the game. i thought what hurt the rockets, they were in a nice rhythm and they started getting the shot clock against them and getting a lot of one-on-ones james harden can get a shot on him any time. >> look at other top offensive guards we have in the game, a player like kyrie irving doesn't have the responsibility consistently to guard not only his position but other wings. steph curry, same thing. you see cp3 guarding point guards and also guarding james harden. also guarding kevin durant you don't excuse me shooting a

low-percentage air ball at the end of the game. but that does have an effect. >> we talked about this in our pregame show, chris paul, he's the guy, you're going to take late in the game n the playoffs for your money guy, yes, bad shot there, without him, leading up to that -- >> exactly. we want to focus on that last play. >> however, we talked about this pregame, clutch shot, quite often for chris paul, hasn't gone down. >> they had no chance to win this game. so much is magnified in the nba on what happens on the last play, the last play doesn't win or lose the game. what happens up to that point wins or loses the game. we want to focus in on what happened last. big today for the rockets. they lost 11 of 13 to the clippers. get this win today, they hadn't

been playing well. harden had two straight games under 20 points. they had been badly outrebounded in games. how about this, you think the western conference playoffs are going to be good, this would be a first-round matchup. seven-game series to get out of the first round. >> oh, yeah. >> you can't overstate his usage in the league. score a run and be first in isolation difference. they have to look to hopefully get blake griffin playing at an all-star elite-caliber level to take some of the pressure off of the perimeter play. >> when you look at the clippers, who on their team can get a shot at end of the game? >> jamal crawford and he's injured. >> so, it goes back to chris paul. >> can you evaluate blake griffin in his first game? >> i thought he was rusty.

but he made a nice play, little out of control, he didn't like the call. he got that offensive foul. he'll be fine, he needs to get his rhythm back. their bench irf&uz going to be critical for them. when they go to that bench, you talked about nate robinson austin rivers, spencer hawes, are they good enough can they get them deep in the playoffs? >> if you're the clippers, you're kicking yourself. you beat the rockets from the three-point line, normally, those are games that you try to find a way to get. they weren't able to get it done. >> that's a tough one especially at home. so, that's the final there. the first game of our double header was a really good one in oklahoma city as well. couple of good plays in case you missed it. westbrook was incredible. he had 36 points. >> attacking the basket.

even though it's late. eight seconds to go, what you see is what you get now. >> and now, they are in the eighth spot. it's a real tight battle between the thunder and the pelicans. the pelicans play tonight. that could switch tonight. because the pelicans have the tiebreaker. >> the pelicans had the opportunity to go up two games with a win today. >> how much can this thunder team continue playing this way without kevin durant and before you answer that question scott brooks said yesterday that he's a week out and he's going to come back 100%, durant. >> you know how much pressure is going to be on golden state in the first round, they have been a feel-good team in the playoffs, two years ago, they went in and they beat denver, maid san antonio well, last year they got beat in the first round. steph curry, klay thompson

big-time pressure. you don't want to lose one of those first two at home and lose home court. >> not only okc making moves, they have been making moves to oppose golden state by adding big bodies down low to take advantage of them on the boards and in the post. >> a lot they have added here. you talked about kanter and his influence on this team. 18 points is a career high for him. you said the best offensive big man that the thunder have ever had. >> they wanted pau gasol who played for the bulls today. the thing that's -- how long will it take to get k.d. back to their efficiency. they got a lot of things they have to put together too. >> they'll have serge up front. and k.d. can play some four in

smaller lineup and okay, the chicago bulls, still have a ton of questions, jimmy butler is out, derrick rose is out. >> the east has been jumbled. washington hasn't taken advantage of opportunities, toronto neither. i think it's the cleveland cavaliers' conference to lose. chicago bulls could push the envelope. >> it's going to be interesting. because mirotic, he can play. will they be able to play him in the fourth quarter? i liked him out there with pau gasol and joakim noah. i mean it's interesting to me if that's four/five matchup, who gets home court. >> with the chicago bulls you can never count those teams out, joakim noah down in the middle as well. >> i'm closing my eyes for the seventh and eighth seeds in the

east. under .500. please, open seeding. >> good job jalen rose that's it for us. "world news" or your local news is next for you. for jalen and doug i'm sage, have a good night.

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>> sunday night. excitement and anticipation as both villanova and temple wait to hear from selection committee open the selection sunday. >> a well known search and rescue team joined police in the search for missing woman in montgomery county. >> big story on "action news" tonight is arrest of 20-year-old man in connection with shootings of two police officers in furgeson missouri. >> tonight the suspect says the officers were never his intended target. prosecutors say the suspect jeffery williams admitted he fired the shots and gun used was recovere