As great as the LA Clippers (10-2) have been to start the 2016-17 NBA season, Doc Rivers believes his team can still get a lot better. And that’s all they’re focused on.
After beginning their season with a major franchise-best 10-1 record (their previous best start was 5-1), the LA Clippers were somewhat brought back down to earth as they watched Marc Gasol bury a corner three-pointer in the last 15 seconds of Wednesday night’s game. As Gasol hit that shot, took the lead, and did his best Conor McGregor shimmy after, the Clippers felt the game slip away after they’d pushed back into the lead in the fourth quarter to recover from losing the second quarter 35-18.
The Clippers’ bench was a weakness in a way that it hasn’t been up until now, mainly because they simply struggled to hit shots and the Grizzlies proceeded to break away in that lopsided second quarter. Then again, much like we can’t overreact too much to the Clippers’ highly impressive start to the season, we can’t overreact to this loss.
If Gasol missed that corner three (a distance he’s suddenly fallen in love with this season), we could easily be sitting here with the Clippers at 11-1.
However, regardless of what has happened in the Clippers’ 10-2 start, with their league-high net rating (+14.9) and league-best defense, Doc Rivers knows his team can get better. That’s all he’s focussed on, as he explained to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne:
"“You get tired of losing. The whole second-round [playoff ceiling the franchise has yet to break through] … I don’t think our guys care about that, they just want to win. At some point guys just get tired of losing. I think our guys are at that point…“I don’t care really,” Rivers said, dismissing the best-team-in-the-league talk. “We like us. As good as we’re playing, we can play a lot better.”"
Blake Griffin expanded on the pain of losing playoff series and even a 3-1 lead as they did against the Houston Rockets in 2015. Griffin knows such losses aren’t easy, possibly breaking teams apart. But he believes the Clippers have only gotten closer:
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"“It happens. You saw it happen to Oklahoma City, you saw it happen to the Warriors in the Finals, the Indians if you want to go baseball. That’s part of it. As a team when you go through something like that, it can do one of two things: It can make you grow apart and resent each other, start pointing the finger. Or it can make you closer together. I think that’s what that’s done.“Even last year, going through that season and that ending, I think it’s brought us closer together.”"
It’s still early in the season, but the Clippers have clearly been locked in and aggressive in a way we have rarely seen before. This level of defense is still surprising after the first 12 games. And whenever there’s a lapse, or anything less than perfect, the players, such as Griffin, have been calling themselves out on it.
Next: 'No sign' that Blake wants to sign with OKC next year
Despite clear improvement so far, at least with their initial dominant burst out the gate, the LA Clippers still want to focus on getting better and nothing else. Come the playoffs, when they want to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time and pursue an upset against the Golden State Warriors, they’ll need to be better than ever.