LOS ANGELES – Paul George and the LA Clippers‘ seven-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday night at the hands of Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and the visiting Chicago Bulls.
Sunday marked one the ugliest shooting game of the month for LA, shooting just 35.8 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from beyond the arc. Beyond that, the Clippers energy was lacking all night. Maybe it was the byproduct of playing the second night of a back-to-back set, but it's not an excuse.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue can't quite pinpoint why his team is getting off to so many slow starts.
“I don't know,” Lue explained after the 100-90 loss. “I think until you get a chance to see how a team really plays, you know, it's kind of tough, with the cuts, with the backdoors, how Lonzo does pass the ball, they attack early. So like I said, it's a tough start for us, we didn't want those kind of starts, as we've been talking about the last week or so, about getting off to better starts and tonight was another one of those games.”
The Clippers have had a number of games this season where they get behind early and have to claw back into the game. Through the first 11 games of the year, they rank 26th in net rating in the first quarter (-12.5), but first in second quarter net rating (16.7), 11th in third quarter net rating (10.3), and ninth in fourth quarter net rating (4.4).
Eric Bledsoe, who finished with 21 points on the night, felt the Clippers didn't have the same pep in their step to match the fire Chicago came out with.
“We didn't match their energy,” Bledsoe added. “They came out with tons of energy and that was the game. They just played extremely well offensively. They're elite offensively and they caught us in some bad rotations and capitalized on it, so that’s pretty much what happened.”
"We didn't match their energy. They came out with tons of energy and that was the game.
"They just played extremely well offensively. They're elite offensively and they caught us in some bad rotations and capitalized on it."
Eric Bledsoe on where the game was lost for Clippers pic.twitter.com/qrozrm2lKq
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 15, 2021
Chicago improved to 9-4, continuing their strong start to the regular season. A big part of the Bulls' hot start is newly acquired guard Lonzo Ball, who is shooting a career-high from three at 42.4 percent from three. Ball's shooting and defense makes him the perfect ‘third guy' for the star duo of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.
“He just makes the game easy for everybody out there,” Paul George said of Ball, “I think where he made the best jump is him being able to shoot the ball. Before, you could kinda load off him, help off him, but he's shooting the ball well. His strengths are he plays defense, he rebounds, he kicks the ball ahead.
“For them, it's tough. They had so many ball handlers tonight. Caruso brought it up, LaVine, DeMar, Lonzo, like, it was tough cuz they played fast and they have multiple guys that can bring the ball up so it was an issue to start to try to get matchups and somebody on the ball, but I think that’s where he’s just so valuable. For LaVine, he’s kind of able kind of get some easy ones cuz of Lonzo’s ability to kick it up ahead and pass the ball so well.”
“He just makes the game easy for everybody out there. I think where he made the best jump is him being able to shoot the ball. Before, you could kinda help off him, but he's shooting the ball well, plays defense, rebounds, kicks the ball ahead.”
– Paul George on Lonzo Ball pic.twitter.com/NzrGv9OP2j
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 15, 2021
The Clippers took their first lead of the second half on a tough Paul George bank shot early in the fourth quarter. Chicago responded with a 9-0 run to retake the lead and never gave it back up again.
Tyronn Lue repeatedly said he was looking forward to Tuesday night's game, brushing off Sunday's loss due to fatigue and lack of legs in their jump shots. Instead, Lue chose to have his Clippers focusing on start a new winning streak against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Clippers came into Sunday having won every game in November, averaging 115.3 points per game while winning by an average margin of 12.6 points. They'll try to improve to 8-1 in November on Tuesday night.
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