The Los Angeles Clippers entered their Tuesday night matchup against fellow playoff hopefuls Minnesota Timberwolves losers of their past two games. However, those two losses came against two of the three-best teams in the Western Conference and they came in overtime; with the Clippers trying to integrate a few new pieces, needing a bit of an adjustment period was understandable.
However, head coach Tyronn Lue may not have expected the adjustment period to be this difficult given the veteran talent on the roster. Following a dispiriting 108-101 loss to the Timberwolves, Lue expressed his frustrations over his team's shortcomings, particularly their inability to take care of the basketball. The Clippers ended the game with 25 turnovers (compared to the Timberwolves' 19).
“It's 25 possessions where we didn't get a shot. That's way too much,” Lue said, per ClutchPoints Clippers beat reporter Tomer Azarly. “We got to take care of the basketball and when you want to be a good offensive team, you just can't turn the ball over that many times. It's just too hard to recover. I don't care if you have Michael Jordan, Shaq. When you turn the ball over 25 times, it's hard to win a game.”
Ty Lue shares his thoughts following the game tonight against the Timberwolves🎙@LAClippers | #ClippersLive pic.twitter.com/ECokjc2B5D
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 1, 2023
During crunch time, the Clippers had two straight possessions that ended in turnovers, which essentially made the late-game deficit too difficult to overcome.
Nonetheless, Tyronn Lue believes that the revamped Clippers just need more time to acclimate to one another for the team to start getting the results they're looking for.
“We just got to get guys used to playing with one another. We just can't have careless turnovers. Those are the ones that kill you,” Lue added. “We got to go back to the drawing board, start with basketball 101.”
The Clippers have 18 games left to figure things out; Tyronn Lue has to be careful with all the experimenting he's doing, however, for there is a very real possibility that the Clippers fall off the pace and fall off the play-in tournament picture entirely.
Nonetheless, there's just too much talent present in the Clippers roster for them not to figure things out. The only question now is could they do it before the 2023 postseason beckons?
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