In the end, it came down to basketball, thrilling, offensive basketball. The Clippers put aside Donald Sterling and distractions from the outside world, and, after scaring their fans with a lackluster first half, stormed back to outshoot, outmuscle, and outplay the Golden State Warriors.  Their pulsating 126-121 victory put an exclamation part on one of the greatest first-rounds I can ever remember in an NBA playoffs, and capped one of the most turbulent weeks that any professional sports team has had to endure.

On a night when Floyd Mayweather Jr. defended his welterweight title, the Clippers and Warriors staged their own version of a title fight, going toe-to-toe in a battle of shot-makers. Both teams refused to lose; it was almost a shame that one had to.  With both teams seeming to want it as much as the other, it came down to the Clippers’ superior talent, and an intangible that doesn’t show up in a box score: unity in the face of adversity.

“It shows our will, our fight,” said Chris Paul afterwards. “This was a slugfest, a dogfight.”  Paul, battling a sore left thumb and strained right hamstring, managed once again to show why he’s the best point guard in the league, leading the Clippers with 22 points and 14 assists, and hounding Stephen Curry into a 7-17 shooting night (though Curry did make all 16 of his free throws for a 33-point night).

At the very end, the defining moment of possibly the greatest win in Clippers history was Doc Rivers, who’d held his team together with leadership skills that went well beyond his coaching duties, finally letting his emotions loose; screaming; hugging players, and high-fiving a fan behind the Clippers bench.

"I just thought with all this stuff, this team just needed this win,'' Rivers said. "This was a hard week. It feels like two months. I just needed to be able to smile and laugh and cheer, and be proud of something. And I was very proud of my players. Our guys faced a lot of adversity and found enough energy to win this game.”

These were not familiar conditions for either team. The Clippers had never played a Game 7 at home; the Warriors hadn’t won a Game 7 anywhere since 1975, and, incredibly, hadn’t won one on the road since they were known as the Philadelphia Warriors back in 1948.

Mark Jackson, who had said after Game 6 that the pressure to win was all on the Clippers, faced his own pressure: speculation that this might be his last game as Warriors coach.  But he shrugged off any notion that it could be a distraction. “I take every day like it could he my last day doing every thing, so it’s pressure every single day,” he said.

And Rivers was worried about Paul.  “He can't get away from anybody offensively," Doc said before the game. "When you watch him on film, he really struggles.... We're trying to use more picks just to get them off his body and that hasn't been very effective."

Rivers was confident his team had enough left in the emotional tank, but early on, it was the Warriors who came out blazing.  They shot 72% in the first quarter, many of them on unforgivably open looks in the corners.  Curry, who didn’t even take a shot for the first eight minutes, facilitated, and the benefactor was Draymond Green, who had a career night with 24 points, including five from beyond the arc. The Clippers looked lethargic and tentative; the Warriors controlled the pace and tempo. 

Early in the second, with the Warriors up 34-22, Curry sat, and the Clippers’ second unit led an important 7-0 run that kept the game from getting out of hand early.   But every time the Clippers cut into the lead, the Warriors responded.  Curry, who heated up in the second quarter, closed the half with an acrobatic four-point play that helped the Warriors to a 64-56 lead at the half.  

The sellout crowd, decked out in red Clippers “It’s Time” shirts, was apprehensive.

The entire building –which included a sizable number of Warriors fans - pretty much knew that the opening minutes of the third quarter could decide the series.   If the Warriors shot out to a 15, 20-point lead, the Clippers did not look capable of recovering.   

But as Griffin recounted later, “No one was down at halftime. We took a breath… realized they couldn’t keep shooting the way they were.” 

Added Paul: "Last night, guys were texting that this can't be over. It's not time for this to be over. We just felt in the timeouts and at halftime, we just knew it wasn't time for our season to be over…. Doc had said, if we trust each other, we’ll find a way to win.”

They trusted, and in the third quarter, the Warriors finally blinked.  They’d won Game 6 with their own decisive third quarter; in Game 7 the Clippers returned the favor.  They tightened their defensive rotations, started moving the ball crisply and efficiently, and took over in the paint.  Curry missed five of six shots; JJ Redick brought the Clippers back with 10 critical points, and with 5:53 left, his 20-foot gave the Clippers their first lead, 73-72, and send the crowd into a frenzy.    The Warriors shot just 36.8% for the quarter, and were outscored 31-20.  Heading into the fourth, with L.A. holding a three-point lead, the Warriors faced this daunting statistic: the Clippers were 34-0 at home when leading after three quarters.

The fourth quarter was a track meet; everything you could ask for in a winner-take-all playoff game.  An early 8-0 run gave the Warriors a 92-89 lead; a 9-2 Clippers spurt, keyed by a 3-pointer by Matt Barnes and a Griffin steal and layup, got the lead back for good.  But every time the Clippers stretched the lead to 4 or 6, the Warriors would slice it right back, with threes by Green and Andre Igoudala keeping them in it.

Three signature plays will make the Clippers highlight reel for years to come:

DeAndre Jordan’s block on Curry - after Curry had seemingly spun past him for a layup, before Jordan got his hand up and pinned the ball against the glass – which then lead to a fast break Lob City pass to Griffin for a monster slam that gave the Clippers a 112-109 lead.

Jordan’s clutch put-back of Paul’s miss as the shot clock was expiring, to extend the lead to 114-109, and then, with the lead down to three, Griffin’s circus shot behind his head, fouled as he fell to the floor, giving the Clippers a 116-111 lead that they never gave up.

For the Warriors, who took their last lead of the season with 2:21 to play, it was a tough end to a series in which four of the seven games were decided by fewer than five points. "We fought so hard this whole series, this whole season,'' Curry said. "It stings. It's disappointing for sure.''

The Clippers, meanwhile, will try to get out of the second round for the first time in their history.  Mentally, Doc Rivers has been preparing them for this moment from the time he took over as coach.

Back in September, before the Clippers’ very first practice of training camp, Rivers handed each of his players a piece of paper with the map of Downtown L.A. on it.  The players were told to pick their championship parade route, even though they had never won a championship or had a parade.

The Clippers have never won a championship before and therefore have never had a parade, so they could choose their own route.

"I did that right away -- you have to," Rivers said. "I just think you have to have a destination. It just can't be a journey…  every year our team has to have a destination."

The Clippers’ journey continues Monday in Oklahoma City, Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.  The destination, hopefully: Figueroa Street in June.