LOS ANGELES – Just a few days removed from an ugly loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, the L.A. Clippers suffered their worst loss of the season to Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Back in Los Angeles after a four-game road trip, the Clippers fell 121-98 to a team that, by the midway point of the first quarter, only had eight players healthy and available to play.
Tobias Harris led the way for the Clippers with 20 points, six rebounds, and two steals, but shot just 8-of-19 from the field in 36 minutes of action. Lou Williams had 18 points, three rebounds, and five assists. Danilo Gallinari added 12 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists. Montrezl Harrell had 10 points, nine rebounds, and three blocked shots, but finished with a season-worst plus minus of -25.
Here are my three ClutchTakes from the Clippers lopsided loss to the short-handed Heat.
A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Loss
There's no way around this one, unfortunately. This was a bad, bad loss for the L.A. Clippers. A team on the second-half of a back-to-back set with only eight players available to play shouldn't be able to out-hustle a team on two days rest at home. But this is life in the NBA. Unlike the Memphis game, where you could see the Clippers' effort defensively and the struggle to score, the Heat got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, for the most part.
Derrick Jones flew in for a personal season-high 11 rebounds, including an inexplicable five offensive rebounds by himself. Miami finished with 24 second-chance points and 52 points in the paint on 55.3 percent shooting in the painted area.
“You can still win the game if you defend,” said head coach Doc Rivers after the game. “I just didn’t think we did that. We gave up offensive rebounds and free-throws. There are so many fundamental breakdowns tonight that will never allow you to win the game. And today I think we got away from our formula. If we don’t come and play with great intensity and play hard, we’re not like some of the other teams, they can still win. We’re just not one of those teams. For us, our energy and how we play is part of what we have to do to win. And we just didn’t do that tonight.
…
“It started in the first half, we gave up 60 points. Give Erik [Spoelstra] and his team credit. Their two best scorers were out of the game. They didn’t play [tonight], they played last night. Yet [the Heat] played with energy. Give them credit for coming in here and for playing harder than us.”
Hat-Tip For An All-Time Great, Dwyane Wade
With the Heat down a handful of players and only eight players available to play, Dwyane Wade came through when his team needed it most. Just 24 hours after posting a season-low two points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field, Wade put up a game-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists. He shot 8-of-21 from the field, but knocked down a season-high five three-pointers on 10 attempts.
“Dwyane Wade was the MVP of this game,” said Clippers forward Danilo Gallinari after the loss. “He was the best player on the court and unfortunately, he was able to play his best game tonight. He is an amazing player and being able to do what he did tonight, at his age, is impressive.”
Wade has battled with a number of players for a decade and a half. One of those guys is Lou Williams, who wasn't surprised one bit at Wade's performance.
“No, he’s still Dwyane Wade,” said Williams. “He’s still Dwyane Wade. Kobe had 60 in his last game. Guy's got superpowers. Some guys just got superpowers.”
48 Minutes of Zone Defense
In a surprising move for an NBA game, the Heat elected to play a 2-3 zone defense the entire game, and it worked to perfection. You don't often see the zone defense thrown into schemes, but if it is, it's usually just for a few plays to give the offense different looks defensively. Miami played it for all 48 minutes, and it threw the Clippers completely off their game.
“I thought their zone bothered us a little bit,” said Rivers. “We were getting layups and wide open shots and didn’t make them. It’s one of those nights the ball didn’t go in.”
Not a single player shot over 50 percent for the Clippers, who shot just 37.1 percent from the field on the evening, their second worst shooting game of the season. The seven made three-pointers were tied for the second lowest total in a game this season. The 24.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc was also the second worst they've shot all season from beyond the arc.
“It's a big challenge,” said Lou Williams after the game. “It's something that we hadn't seen. They played it for four quarters and it went their way. You give them credit, it definitely through us off balance a little bit.”
Harris was one of the Clippers that needed to get going in what was a sluggish game, but one who appeared to be most affected by the zone. He shot just 1-of-5 in the first quarter, 6-of-14 at the half, and 8-of-19 for the game.
“This is a bad loss for us,” added Tobias Harris. “They came out, they attacked us, they had more energy with the stuff they were running. They stumped us with the zone and we were unable to make shots or get stops. The biggest thing is we were just terrible defensively, so it was just a bad loss.”
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The Clippers will now head to Phoenix on Monday night where they'll take on the injured, struggling Suns. The Suns have been the perfect, slump-busting team to go up against for many NBA teams this season. The Clippers are in a funk of their own, however, having now lost three of their last four games. Monday night's game is approaching ‘must-win' territory for L.A.
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