Blake Griffin says he would hate to guard a player like J.J. Redick

When both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul opened Game 6 struggling to make shots, J.J. Redick kept the Clippers in the game.

Redick had 14 points on five-for-eight shooting in the first half. Paul, meanwhile, missed each of his seven shots from the field in the first half, and Griffin only had eight of his 26 points at halftime.

The sharpshooter’s play helped the Clippers overcome a 10-point second-quarter deficit to enter halftime tied at 51-51.

“J.J. was all over the court tonight and I would hate guarding a player like that because it seems like he never stops moving,” Griffin said. “If you do that, you will end up getting shots and good looks.”

Redick averaged career highs this season for the Clippers in points (16.4 a game), field goal percentage (47.7%) and three-point percentage (43.7%).

In the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against the Spurs, however, Redick’s averages have dipped to 13.7 points a game on 43.9% shooting from the field and 37.9% shooting from beyond the three-point line.

Redick has struggled against the Spurs defense at times throughout the series. In the Clippers’ 100-73 loss to the Spurs in Game 3, Redick had only seven points on two-for-seven shooting from the field.

After that loss, Redick said that Kawhi Leonard, the Defensive Player of the Year, was taking him out of his flow.

Said Redick on April 24: “I think part of the shooting struggles are that I’m not getting easy looks. I can make tough shots, but when the majority of the shots are tough shots, it’s a little harder. ... I can’t remember too many games recently where I take seven shots in 30 minutes. They’ve done a really good job of taking away any clean looks.”

Since that game, Redick has done a much better job of figuring out how to be the scoring threat that he had been during the regular season. He had 17 points in the Clippers’ Game 4 win, 13 points in their Game 5 loss, and 19 points in their Game 6 win.

Redick also made a huge play in the fourth quarter on Thursday for the Clippers. With 3 minutes and 27 seconds left and the Spurs within three points of the Clippers, 89-86, Redick made a three-pointer to give the Clippers a six-point lead, 92-86.

“Down the stretch, the one play that J.J. got the three, that was a set that we have run all year,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “We have not run it, I think, since Game 2. The fact that they could remember the signal in a pressure situation, and run it and execute it was huge for us. That was nice to see.”

The Clippers went on to win Game 6 in San Antonio, 102-96. A winner-takes-all Game 7 will be in Los Angeles on Saturday at 5 p.m. PDT.

“I said the other day, I don’t believe in momentum in a series,” Redick said. “I think you get the same amount of wins every time, same amount of tallies in the win column every time, whether you win by 30, five, an overtime win or whatever it may be.”