Over the past three games, the Clippers have started to play highlights of the second unit to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” and the #ATribeCalledBench hashtag has started trending on Twitter in Los Angeles during Clippers games.
It’s no surprise that the nickname has caught on over the past three games. During that stretch no Clippers starter has seen the court in the fourth quarter (except for Caron Butler being forced to play the final 1:36 during Sunday's 102-83 win over the Toronto Raptors after Matt Barnes was ejected). In fact, in four of the past five games, the Clippers haven’t needed to turn to their starters in the final stanza once.
“Our starters do a great job of wearing teams out, and then we try to bring in the knockout blow,” Crawford said. “That’s why this team was built this way. Seeing Chris [Paul], Blake [Griffin], DeAndre [Jordan], Caron and Chauncey [Billups] play heavy minutes and getting beat up last season, by the time the playoffs were here everybody was either injured or tired.
“Now with our depth, those guys will be fresh the whole way. When they’re fresh, we’ll be a much better team.”“We know what our ultimate goal is,” Barnes said. “We have a very talented team and guys have to make sacrifices ... whether that’s playing time, shots or whatever it may be. Everyone has bought in and the more time we have together, the better we jell and the better we play. It’s important when you like your teammates, and we all get along on and off the court. I think that carries onto the court and I think that’s big for us.
“We’re just having fun out there,” he said. “We know we have something special here.”
Arash Markazi, ESPN Los Angeles
