Last night, the L.A. Clippers came into the biggest matchup of the season against the Golden State Warriors ready and focused.
They may have been a little too focused, however, as they were whalloped by the team with the best record in the league, 115-98. Aside from an uncharacteristic first quarter that saw a turnover-fest by the Clippers, both teams were pretty even in the scoring department during the second, third, and fourth quarters.
L.A. turned the ball over nine times in the opening period, including five times by Blake Griffin (season-high seven turnovers in total). Those nine miscues resulted in eight points off of turnovers for Golden State, as well as 12 points in transition alone. They weren't dead-ball turnovers either, as the Warriors collected a total of seven errant Clippers' passes in the quarter alone.
Ahead of Thursday morning's practice in L.A., Clippers' coach Doc Rivers said his team was simply trying to do too much in what everyone deemed a big game for them.
“I didn't think we played well yesterday, but I thought we wanted to. Watching the tape, we came to the game with good intentions, but sometimes you want to beat a team so bad that you can't beat a team. That's what I saw. I thought that we put so much pressure on ourselves to win that game that we were in the way of ourselves.”
Down 37-19 after one, the second unit helped the Clippers pulled to within seven points mostly because the team played the entire second quarter without committing a single turnover. The damage was done, however, as L.A. couldn't put together enough runs to get back into the game. Bad passes made out of double teams, passes made in mid-air right to the opposing team – all things that helped lead to 27 Golden State fast break points when it was all said and done.
Despite the blowout loss, Rivers isn't worried about Wednesday night's loss.
“When you see those turnovers, those are bad turnovers. Those weren't turnovers that we normally have – jumping in the air. Everybody was trying hard, so when I watched the tape, I was better and pissed at the same time. You have those games.
“I've played in them and I've coached them where your team wants to beat a team. Even if you're better or you think you're better, you just show up and you do too much. I thought individually, everybody tried to do way too much yesterday. The ball didn't move, the stops, we didn't run. The second group kind of got it going because they had all the motion going.”
L.A. ranks 10th in the league in turnovers at 12.4 per game, but turning the ball over against the Warriors, especially the live-ball turnovers, presents the best offense in the league with easy opportunities to score.
“We're low in turnovers, and I think we're turning the ball over too much as a group. This year I feel like we've been turning it over more than usual, for me. And to me, spacing is a bigger problem for us. Blake gets those turnovers and he forced a couple, but there were four times in his passes that, in my opinion, guys weren't in the right space in transition. We got to fix that.”
The Clippers held their first practice of the regular season in late October and held their second practice of the season this past Tuesday before taking on the Warriors, a whole 22 games later. By the end of this week, they will have had two more practices on Thursday and Friday as well as four days to rest.
Maybe this week, despite the losses, is exactly what the Clippers need to get back to the way they played during the first four weeks of the season, when they compiled a 14-2 record and established themselves as the best defensive team in the NBA.
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