At no point, Clippers guard Norman Powell maintained, did he waver in his belief in himself. At no point was he going to shy away from taking shots with the game hanging in the balance, despite missing many of his shots.
Powell said he has worked too hard all season to lose his confidence now, even if the stage has gotten bigger because the Clippers are in the playoffs against the Denver Nuggets.
He missed his first five shots in Game 2 on Monday night, but Powell kept shooting.
Then he made three of his last four shots in the fourth quarter, during key moments, big-time shots that helped the Clippers pull out the tense game to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1.
Powell shot five for 14 from the field and finished with 13 points. But it was his seven points on three-for-four shooting in the final 12 minutes that showed how he impacted the game.
“Obviously for me, shots or buckets aren’t coming as they have been all year,” Powell said after practice Wednesday. “But it’s just about staying confident, riding the waves of the ups and downs of it. I’m trusting my work and just continue to take the shots that are open. Every shot that I’ve taken in this series have been shots I’ve made all year. It’s just not going in, but I have unwavering confidence in myself. My teammates [and] the coaching staff does.
“Throughout the course of the first two games, they’ve kept telling me to be aggressive and look for my spots, look for my shots, and late in the game I was able to convert on some of those shots … when we needed them, and that’s what matters most is just continuing to believe in myself and find ways to be effective.”
Powell’s floater with 6:30 left gave the Clippers a 91-90 lead. His floater with 5:16 left gave them a 96-92 lead.
It was his three-pointer with 1:35 left, off a pass from Kawhi Leonard, for a 103-100 lead that proved to be biggest of all in the Clippers’ 105-102 win. Getting the ball in that big spot showed Powell how much faith his teammates have in him.
“It just shows that they trust the work and they trusted my abilities as a player, as a teammate. Like I said, around this time you need that. You need the confidence in your two star players,” Powell said, referring to Leonard and James Harden. “You need the confidence in the supporting cast and the role players to go out there and execute and win.
“It’s a team game. Those guys are going to do what they have to do to put us in position, but it’s everybody stepping up and making plays throughout the course of the series, throughout the course of a 48-minute game that’s going to dig out wins. Not just going to be one guy, but everybody around here knows the amount I put into this game each and every day. Whether it’s a good game, bad game, I’m here the next day putting in the work, getting better, watching film and seeing how I can be the best version of myself for this team. So it means a lot.”
They will need Powell again when the Clippers play Game 3, which will be their first playoff game at their new home, the Intuit Dome, on Thursday night.
Coach Tyronn Lue doesn’t care that Powell is shooting only 38.5% from the field in the series, averaging just 12.5 points after averaging a career-best 21.8 during the regular season and shooting 48.4% from the field, including 41.8% from three-point range.
Lue had a conversation with Powell to offer encouragement.
“He’s got to trust in his work,” Lue said. “He works too hard. Sometimes I think too much. So, left him in at the end of the game. We saw what he did for us last year at the end of the games and so this wasn’t any different. So, I’m glad he was able to make those three shots in the fourth quarter and hopefully that gets him going throughout the course of this series.”
Clippers applying full-court pressure
There have been times in this series when the Clippers applied full-court pressure on the Nuggets.
Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. would defend Denver point guard Jamal Murray full court in an attempt to wear him down.
Ben Simmons would pick up Denver center Nikola Jokic full court to try to slow him down.
“It helps a lot,” Lue said. “I think it allows them to get into their triggers later in the clock, which takes away Joker’s decision making being able to pass the ball three or four times and make a play. It also wears them down when they are playing so many minutes, so many heavy minutes. I thought when Ben came in the game and picked up Joker full court and kind of denied him and got into him, I thought it wore him down.
“Then DJ picked up Jamal and then Nico [Batum] was up picking up the floor against them. I think as the series goes along and the more minutes they are playing, the more we can be physical, picking up full court and trying to wear them down, it will be good for us.”