No matter how it's spun, the L.A. Clippers had a really disappointing showing Tuesday night when they were routed 120-75 on the Golden State Warriors‘ home floor.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers didn't miss the chance to throw sticks into the fire by downplaying the importance of the game and making the Warriors seem like they were playing a different game.
"I thought we showed up to play an exhibition game, and they came to play a game" – Doc Rivers postgame
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) October 5, 2016
While that argument holds very little water, Rivers has been known to be the ultimate optimist and speak wonders of his players while downplaying other team's feats — which makes him such a good players' coach.
Preseason or not, home or away, if a team finds itself down by 53 points — like the Clippers were at the third quarter — at some point it starts speaking more about their poor performance instead of the team that's on top.
Rivers played three of his starters less than 15 minutes while the Warriors main cogs played around 22 minutes each. Worth to note is that this is L.A.'s first preseason game and the second for Golden State, as Steve Kerr had put a tighter minutes restriction on players during their first game in Vancouver.
Regardless, the Clippers starting unit was stifled, combined a 5-of-20 from the field and allowing the Warriors to shoot at a 62-percent clip. Preseason or not, a hand up on defense once in a while doesn't hurt anyone.
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