Clippers

1. The Lakers closed out properly against the Clippers. OK, so maybe it's frustrating the Lakers coughed up a 12-point lead. So what else is new. But they demonstrated how experience pays off over the Clippers mainly by closing out in appropriate fashion. Kobe Bryant's jumper gave the Lakers a 105-104 lead with 2:58 remaining. Metta World Peace's swipe on the next possession ensured the advantage. Ramon Sessions punished the Clippers for doubling up on everyone else, as he extended the lead to 108-104 with 47.4 seconds left.

The San Antonio Spurs swept the Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals, but there was no love lost between Tim Duncan and Chris Paul. After the Spurs closed the series, Duncan walked down the hall to say hello to Paul and his 2-year-old son, Chris. Paul prompts little Chris to tell Duncan where he wants to go to college. "To my birthday," little Chris said.  Paul then helps his son out. "Wake Forest," he said.  After little Chris repeated his father's words, Duncan, a Wake Forest alumni, flashed a huge smile.

Staples Center is home to four professional sports franchises, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks. Each team has a different set-up on the arena floor. It is up to the crew overseen by the Staples Center operations department to reconfigure the floor for each game. Several times a year they must make the changeover twice or more over one weekend in between games. Last Saturday afternoon, while fans were still heading for the exits after the Clippers' 103-100 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 65 workers began transforming the arena for the Kings' game against the Calgary Flames that night.

Clippers All-Star point guard Chris Paul was named to the NBA’s first-team All-Defensive team that was announced on Wednesday by the NBA. Paul led the league in steals during the regular season with 2.53 per game and in total steals with 152. In becoming the first player in Clippers’ franchise history to make the All-Defensive team, Paul had 33 total voting points, getting 13 first-place votes and seven second-place votes.

After the Clippers beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 87-86, in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series, Chris Paul's son sat in his father's lap as the All-Star point guard was interviewed by reporters. Paul was asked about a fourth-quarter sequence in which he dished the ball to Blake Griffin, who made a huge slam dunk with less than two minutes remaining to put the Clippers up by four, 84-80. "I just know I got into the lane," Paul said. "I saw the two guys looking at me and I saw Blake [Griffin]

Three decades ago, the Lakers had an unofficial mascot who got too big for his tuxedo. He was an entertaining fan who became so popular, he eventually wanted money to continue being that fan. The Lakers tried paying him but couldn't pay him enough to keep him happy, so he stopped coming to games and eventually faded into anonymity. Remember Dancing Barry? He's about to be joined by Clipper Darrell. The Clippers' unofficial cheerleader, the rotund dancing guy in a red and blue suit named Darrell Bailey, caused a stir this week when he issued a statement on his website claiming that the Clippers, "no longer want me to be Clipper Darrell.… I am devastated!"

SAN ANTONIO - After Thursday night's 105-88 loss to the Spurs, Clippers players said that they understand the task ahead. Down 2-0 in their playoff series with San Antonio, they acknowledged that they need to win their next two games at home. History suggests they especially need to win Game 3 on Saturday, as no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. But after back-to-back 16- and 17-point losses, getting wins in Los Angeles may be easier said than done.

SAN ANTONIO — There was an interesting tweet from Magic Johnson on Wednesday, the Hall of Fame guard saying what so many in Clippers Nation want to believe and what the Clippers themselves firmly contend. "The Clippers can win this series, but they are going to need both @blakegriffin & @CP3 to play not good, but great. " And therein lies the problem for the Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs. It is impossible to know whether Blake Griffin and Chris Paul can deliver, as they have all season, because of their injuries.

Here's one for you: What would you do? I've grown to like the Clippers, love what Chris Paul has brought to them and appreciate what Blake Griffin has to offer. It's a fun group, Randy Foye and Caron Butler solid as individuals and Eric Bledsoe and Nick Young out of control but always in the cause of making something happen. Mo Williams is sour, but there's always one, or two, if you want to count Kenyon Martin . But who needs them if DeAndre Jordan is in the room?

SAN ANTONIO - He might be getting older, but Spurs power forward Tim Duncan does not appear to have lost a step. For the second straight game, Duncan schooled the younger Clippers defenders in footwork and fundamentals, and helped lead his Spurs to a 2-0 series advantage with a win in San Antonio on Thursday night. The two-time NBA most valuable player scored 18 points on nine-for-14 shooting to help San Antonio cruise to a 105-88 victory. The win takes the 36-year-old yet another step closer to his fifth NBA title.

Listen to what Chris Paul offered as a key step for the Clippers to improve next season after a successful 2011-12 campaign. "First of all, I know one thing that can get us better is I have to get better," Paul, a first-team NBA all-defensive selection, said Monday. "It starts with each one of us individually. " Translation: There are times when the best improvements a team can make come from within. That means every player taking stock in his physical condition, and to be ready when training camp begins in October.

The Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday evening following a 102-99 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series. Even though they were swept out of the postseason, many consider the team's season a success, regularly selling out Staples Center , reenergizing their fanbase and making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Here's a glimpse of what Coach Vinny Del Negro and the players had to say in their post-game interviews.

Some 12 hours after they were swept 4-0 by the San Antonio Spurs and eliminated Sunday night from the Western Conference semifinals, the Clippers experienced a day for reflection about a successful season despite the pain of being pushed out of the playoffs. Monday also was a day for the Clippers to discuss the future and how they could sustain what was built during the 2011-12 season. The two people in charge of running the organization, President Andy Roeser and vice president of basketball operations Neil Olshey, have several key decisions to make.

Placing surreal moment atop surreal moment - on Sunday at Staples, they were piling up like pancakes - the sun starts to vanish about 5:30 p.m. at L.A. Live. What they call an annular solar eclipse has begun, a cockeyed celestial event that looks as if it were penciled out by Picasso. First thought: They've assigned me to cover the Apocalypse. Second thought: Wow, the 110 is really gonna be a mess. Sunday was just another Sunday here in the City of Playoffs, except that you had this cosmic convergence of a major bike race, a hockey playoff game, a basketball playoff game and a playoff eclipse, all within hours of each other at L.A. Live, the softest spot in our city's stuccoed soul.

He is the well-dressed player sitting on the Clippers' bench, the sage veteran offering advice and encouragement during this playoff push for his teammates and coaching staff. But make no mistake, Chauncey Billups said, it has been killing him not to be dressed in a uniform and playing and helping the Clippers with his skills on the court. Billups hasn't played in a game since suffering a season-ending left Achilles' tendon injury Feb. 6 at Orlando. The 14-year veteran guard now says it was easier for him to not play when "I didn't travel.

Like many of his teammates, Clippers guard Nick Young has been coping with an injury throughout his team's playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs. His malady hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as Chris Paul's strained right hip flexor or Blake Griffin's sprained left knee, but regardless, Young's tooth really hurts. The Reseda Cleveland High School and USC alum has been putting off dental surgery to extract a wisdom tooth so he could keep playing in the playoffs. After joining the Clippers in March, Young's scoring spark off the bench has quickly become indispensable.

SAN ANTONIO — So what do you want, the feel-good, feisty yarn about how the Clippers never give up? Or maybe an uplifting reminder how the Clippers came from 27 down to win before, pronounced dead in the last series after six games, only to triumph? Do you believe in more than one miracle? Or maybe something to lessen the sting a little with a cute little exchange between father and son: "Bad shot again, Daddy?" says Chris Paul's 2-year-old son, Chris, while walking through the locker room.

The Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday evening following a 102-99 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series. Even though they were swept out of the postseason, many consider the team's season a success, regularly selling out Staples Center , reenergizing their fanbase and making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Here's a glimpse of what Coach Vinny Del Negro and the players had to say in their post-game interviews.

I'm sitting here watching a game the Clippers have no chance of winning and it's still a hoot. Who gets up for a game when already down three games to none to the Spurs and losing the last one after being up by 24? The Clippers should be deflated, but they are winning, 75-74, after three quarters. Their playoff run is over, and yet they don't seem to know it. Inspired effort is what fans have been getting from the Clippers all season long, and right now there are 19,000 fans on their feet.

The Clippers didn't go easily when they could have, when many thought they would have. They played Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs right up to the final few seconds of the game Sunday night. Still, in the end, the Clippers dropped a 102-99 decision to the Spurs at Staples Center, getting swept out of the playoffs. Chris Paul had been the Clippers' savior all season, their closer. But he couldn't save the day this time, missing two shots late when the game hung in the balance.