Clippers can't overcome problems in Game 5 loss to Trail Blazers

The trauma from seeing Chris Paul break his hand, from knowing Blake Griffin wouldn’t be on the court again this year, from having a chance tu to a near-impossibility, didn’t manifest Wednesday night at Staples Center.

It could’ve. It probably should’ve been the reason the Clippers lost Game 5, 108-98.

It wasn’t.

Professional athletes aren’t like the rest of us. Scream while they shoot a free throw, they ignore it. Cover their face during a jumper and they see through it. Stand between them and the rim, and they jump over you.

Doc Rivers knows this — he’s been either one of or around them for 30-plus years. Maybe that’s why he said he wasn’t worried about his team’s mental state after a worst-case-scenario loss in Portland on Monday night.

Maybe he was just lying. Or maybe, he knew he had bigger problems than his team’s mindset.

Without Paul and without Griffin, the margins for error disappeared almost completely.

That Paul Pierce looked every bit of his age, it mattered more than on most nights. That Jamal Crawford couldn’t quite get going, it was huge. That J.J. Redick couldn’t shake a defender off him often enough, it was all just so magnified.

Jumbling his starting lineup, the Clippers went with Pierce, Redick, Crawford, DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers. That group was on the court for just four of the nearly 4,000 minutes the Clippers played this season.

The depleted Clippers showed plenty of fight, building an eight-point lead in the second half, coming back from nine down in the third.

But there was no answer for Damian Lillard. There was no answer for C.J. McCollum.

There weren’t stops or rebounds. There weren’t enough made shots, enough trips to the foul line, enough movement.

It wasn’t energy. It wasn’t disappointment. It was logic.

Without their stars, the Clippers were going to have to be great Wednesday, and just not enough of them were.

DeAndre Jordan, the lone unmaimed member of the Clippers’ Big Three, had 16 points, 17 rebounds and three blocked shots.

But, he could only be so many places.

Jeff Green, who got the call quickly when it was clear Pierce couldn’t create playoff magic, scored 17 to go with six rebounds.

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