It may be too early to call the Clippers a team of destiny, but their season is getting more magical by the minute.  What began as a Mother’s Day Massacre turned into a Mother’s Day Miracle, as the Clippers stormed back from a 16-point fourth quarter deficit and overtook the Thunder, 101-99, to even the series at 2-2.

It was one of the most deliriously improbable comebacks the Clippers have staged. It came with a “small ball” lineup the Clippers rarely use. It came with a defensive matchup almost never seen: the six-foot Chris Paul guarding the six-nine Kevin Durant. It came with Blake Griffin playing with five fouls, and playing, as coach Doc Rivers had urged him to, as if he had just one. It came with the Clippers hitting 13 of their final 16 shots, after they started the game missing 21 of their first 25. And it came with Clippers facing a must-win situation, or else fall behind 3-1, a hole that few NBA playoff teams have climbed out of. It was a day when the Clippers refused to die, even after they’d long been left for dead.

Heroes abounded, none more unlikely than Darren Collison, once a UCLA teammate of Russell Westbrook, who scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and, post-game, was awarded the game ball by Chris Paul.  "Darren Collison was amazing. You just got to love a guy like that who plays with so much heart and never gives up,” said Paul.

But it was Paul who did what all great leaders do: stepping up to do the dirty work when his team needed it most; in this case, switching on to Durant who, two minutes into the fourth quarter, had already torched the Clippers for 35 points. Though Durant wound up with 40, on 12-24 shooting, he took only 3 of his team’s final 15 shots, with Paul disrupting his dribble and with swarming double teams that forced Durant into three critical turnovers that the Clippers converted.

“I don’t think that’s brilliant coaching, it was desperate coaching,” said Rivers about the decision to put Paul on KD. “We were just looking for any combination.  Yesterday at the staff meeting, we had talked about how Durant was beating us off the dribble… but if you put a guard on him, you take that away; make him a post-up player.”

Asked about how the Clippers contained him, a subdued Durant shook his head.  “Nothing changed; they didn’t do nothing," he said. “He didn’t guard me one-on-one; they did a good job double-teaming me.”

“I just tried to make it as tough as possible for him,” said Paul.  “Tried to crowd him… it was tough trying to defend him and be aggressive offensively.”

But Paul was just that, scoring 23 points and adding 10 assists, including a gorgeous give-and-go to Griffin that tied the score at 94 late.

The comeback began in earnest with 9:01 remaining in the fourth and the Clippers down 82-66.  By that point, the Thunder had seemingly fended off every Clippers charge; the lead had hovered around the 10-12 mark for almost the entire second half.  The building was dead; fans could barely be summoned to wave the white towels that had been placed on every seat.  Griffin had five fouls, DeAndre Jordan, Matt Barnes, and JJ Redick had combined for a paltry 13 points, and Durant and Westbrook were having their way.

Finally, it seemed, the Clippers had tapped whatever was left in the tank.  They appeared listless when the game started, with OKC jumping out to a 29-7 lead and hitting 9 of their first 11 shots, many of them uncontested threes after Rivers had preached the need for defense pre-game.   By the end of the first quarter, the Clippers had made just 6 of 24 shots and trailed by 17.

Led by Paul, they climbed back into the game in the second, as OKC cooled, the Clippers remembered their defensive rotations, and Sixth Man of the Year Jamaal Crawford came off the bench for 11 badly needed points.  But after trailing by 11 at halftime, they couldn’t make up ground in the third quarter, and by the fourth, things looked bleak.

Said Collison later: The whole time I'm thinking, we can't be down 3-1… we just can't be down 3-1 going to Oklahoma."

With 8:44 to go, Griffin replaced Jordan and joined Paul, Collison, Crawford and Danny Granger to form the small lineup that would turn the game around.  "I'm not sure we ever used that lineup," Rivers said later. "But that group won the game for us tonight."

As always, it was a very physical game, with lots of chippy play, shoves, pushes, and players entangled, be it arms or legs. In the fourth quarter, the referees let the players play, to Griffin’s benefit; he could’ve easily picked up his sixth foul on a Westbrook drive with six minutes remaining and the Clippers down 8.   But there was no call; Paul converted a runner on the other end to bring the deficit down to 6, and the charge was on.   The Clippers outscored the Thunder 38-24 in the fourth, with Paul, Crawford and Collison combining for 27 of those points.

And while Durant and Westbrook remained an almost unstoppable duo, combining for 67 of the Thunder’s 99 points, in the end it was the Clippers’ collective trust, will and balance that prevailed.  In those frantic final minutes, it seemed like any one of the five Clippers players on the floor could take a shot; by contrast, any OKC player not named Durant or Westbrook all but disappeared.

"Even though we didn't play well throughout the game, we were able to get a win," Collison said. "That feels more impressive than anything we did."   After the disappointing loss in Game 3, when the Thunder stars stepped up to hit the big shots while the Clippers’ stars faltered, it was the Clippers who made all the big plays and right decisions in Game 4.

“We were almost on the mat and we got off of it. We didn't get pinned," said Rivers. "They're seething right now. They had an opportunity to go up 3-1 and now it's an even series."