Clippers’ Doc Rivers happy with team’s play despite loss
By Tom West
After a close-fought first half and some promising spells of play, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers is happy with how his team played in their loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The Los Angeles Clippers did better than expected as their latest contest against the Golden State Warriors got underway, only trailing by two points at the half. Blake Griffin was still forced to watch as he waits for his quadriceps injury to fully heal, while Andrew Bogut returned from a two-game absence to give the Warriors their starting center.
Even with no Festus Ezeli and Andre Iguodala, the reigning champions were obvious favorites at home in Oracle Arena, ultimately delivering in typical fashion behind the Splash Brother’s 65 points to win 114-98. The reigning champs haven’t lost in the Roaracle for 51 straight games now, so the Clippers were always going to need a herculean effort to deliver without their superstar power forward.
In the first half, they performed fairly well. In fact, as they went into the third quarter down just 51-49, the narrow deficit was impressive on their part, particularly with both Chris Paul and J.J. Redick struggling to make their shots fall. However, as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson heated up and the Clippers’ bench wasn’t enough in the second half, poor shooting (42.4 percent for the game) let them down.
When Paul and Redick combine for only 22 points on 8-of-29 shooting, it’s going to take an awful lot from the second unit to make up for it. As expected, that wasn’t the case as the game wound down with DeAndre Jordan (19 points and 20 rebounds) doing his best to lead the way.
However, despite losing to the Warriors’ increasing pace and sudden three-point runs in the third quarter (largely courtesy of Thompson who buried seven treys), Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said he was still happy with the team’s play overall, praising their energy which has been absent over the last two performances (per Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com):
"“I liked how we played, I loved their energy, I thought DJ was the most dominant player on the floor, overall. We just missed shots we normally make.”"
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While it’s hard to call Jordan the most dominant player when the Warriors collectively took over late in the game, he was by far the Clippers’ top performer of the night, contesting shots in the paint, gobbling up rebounds and causing havoc with emphatic rolls to the rim and the occasional post move, too.
As Kavner added in his report, Paul admitted how difficult it would be to win if he and Redick continuously failed to make their shots, saying “I think it’s going to be tough for us to win if me and J.J. can’t throw it in the ocean.”
Paul’s succinct analysis is spot on. Austin Rivers adding 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, Jamal Crawford chipping in with 12 and Jeff Green adding 13 was never going to be enough to overcome the Warriors’ superior depth and defense.
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Unfortunately for L.A., their losing streak has now stretched to three and they’ll be dealing with the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night to complete their current back-to-back. In order to regain momentum and simply record another W, this is a must-win game for the Clippers.