By George Devine, Sr.

The Golden State Warriors took the first round of the NBA playoffs as far as they could, playing the underdog throughout seven games and making it count until the end. But when the final buzzer sounded, the Los Angeles Clippers won the best-of-seven series Tonight’s determining game at Staples Center in Los Angeles was close much of the time, and Golden State led by 8 at the half. The final score of 126-121 in the Clippers’ favor sends them to the next round and sends the Warriors back to Oakland to deal with speculation and rumors concerning the future of head coach Mark Jackson.

In a way, the back story for the series was written before it began, once it became clear that center Andrew Bogut would be out for the duration. This enabled the opposition — in this case the Clippers — to score in the paint to a higher degree than Golden State did, given the determining factor of Bogut’s defensive ability. In tonight’s game, Los Angeles outscored the visitors from inside by 62-38, and that told the tale of the showdown.

Warriors center Jermaine O’Neal was unable to be of great help. He underwent an MRI on Friday that revealed a bone bruise of his right knee cap. He was listed as questionable for Game 7 and played for only 2:55. He was thus unable to fill in for Bogut on preventing field goals, and only scored one of his own, out of two attempts. He suffered the injury at the 9:39 mark in the second quarter of the previous game at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Most of the Warriors’ starters played for the bulk of the game. Stephen Curry was in for 45:50 and had 33 points, going 16-16 from the charity stripe. He also contributed 9 assists. Draymond Green played for 39:41, pouring in 24 points and contributing 7 rebounds. Klay Thompson was good for 38:51, scoring 13 poiints and making an equal number of rebounds. Jordan Crawford scored 12 points.

For Los Angeles, Blake Griffin was the key player. He scored 24 points and contributed 6 assists in 42;10. His ability to draw fouls and make the subsequent free throws made the difference in the final score. DeAndre Jordan was in for 41:21, scored 15 points and had 18 boards. Chris Paul played 42;06, scored 22 points and had 14 assists.