The LA Clippers are 2-5 in their last seven games and have fallen into some bad habits. They know they’ve lost their competitive, dominant form, but can they bring it back quickly?
After earning what was easily their best start in franchise history at 14-2, the LA Clippers have since gone 2-5 in their last seven games. Now at 16-7, with ugly losses to the Reggie Jackson-less Detroit Pistons, Paul George-less Indiana Pacers, the Brooklyn Nets, and most recently getting blown out at Staples Center 115-98 by the Golden State Warriors, the Clippers haven’t just had one or two off nights.
An initial lapse in Detroit as the second game of their six-game road trip has started what’s turned into a full stretch of largely poor play. The Clippers’ 113-94 win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland to break up the road trip losses was clearly impressive, but it feels even more surprising when looking at the performance that has come each side of that victory (except for a 114-96 win over the New Orleans Pelicans).
The disappointing effort level against the Warriors on Wednesday night, outside of a few runs and trimming the lead to seven in the second quarter, felt like the tipping point. Everyone watching knows the Clippers need to get back on track and the team have admitted it themselves.
As Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com reported, Doc Rivers said the team is trying to get their mojo back:
"“Tonight was a bad night,” Rivers said after the loss to the Warriors. “We’ll be back tomorrow and watch film and the next day in practice try to get our mojo back, because right now we’re not playing well… Because of the turnovers, I thought we lost a spirit, and we never really regained it.”"
Chris Paul isn’t happy either. He started the Clippers off downhill early in the first quarter against the Warriors, a period they managed to lose 37-19 to put themselves out the game. Early on, Paul received a technical for making contact with a ref when he wasn’t happy about a turnover call.
Like Doc, Paul says the Clippers need the right spirit:
"“Doc was right – our spirit wasn’t right. Our early turnovers, and me getting an early tech like that, you can’t do that in a game like that… As well as we started off the season, you lose three in a row, you still need to know that feeling of winning. For us, right now, losing that many games – I don’t even know how many it is – but it’s definitely a different feeling than when we were winning those games. We’ve got to find it, and I think we will.”"
The Clippers still rank 2nd in defensive efficiency, 5th in offensive efficiency, and 2nd in net rating at +8.4, per NBA.com. However, over the last seven games while they’ve trudged through this slump, they’ve ranked a mere 21st in net rating at -3.7.
It’s hardly what you’d expect against sub par teams, and even in what was supposed to at least be a competitive game against the Warriors.
What will frustrate fans at times like this, though, is that rediscovering the right “spirit,” or the kind of intensity that led the Clippers’ dominant, league-best defense in that 14-2 start, is easier said than done.
Even though they had some spells in the second and third quarter against the Warriors that showed some fight, early complacency, poor transition defense and not playing with urgency throughout wasn’t just an issue against Golden State. These problems have appeared for much of this 2-5 spell.
“The big takeaway for me after the game last night was just, we’ve got to play with some joy,” J.J. Redick said to Kavner on Thursday.
Having fun has been the defining characteristic of Golden State Warriors basketball over the last couple of years along with their historic three-point shooting. One of the reasons why they’ve been so dangerous is that they play to their style and don’t ease up on the pace. They move the ball and their play to their strengths, playing so freely that they usually don’t have such uncharacteristic down spells (*currently restraining self from making another 3-1 joke*).
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Can the LA Clippers do the same? Cut out the complacency, mature in that regard, and simply go back to the dominant, cohesive, dominant two-way basketball they were playing just a couple of weeks ago?
Marreese Speights certainly wants that to be the case. “Guys just got to sacrifice, do some other things than scoring, do some other things than your personal goals. Just try something new,” he said to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register. “They’ve been doing it here for four or five years and it hasn’t been working, so it’s time to try something new.”
While this isn’t the kind of talk you’d ideally want coming from someone who’s been with the team for 23 games, perhaps a new voice, the competitive voice of a 2015 NBA champion who came from the Warriors at that, will shake up the Clippers’ mentality and help.
With the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards and Denver Nuggets as their next six opponents (before a game against the San Antonio Spurs on December 22), they definitely have a favorable schedule to put a run together.
Next: The good, the bad and the ugly vs. the Warriors
These LA Clippers are more than capable of recovering to the level of play we saw at the start of the season, but how quickly they bring it back is the question. The longer it goes on, the bigger the ramifications to playoff seedings we’ll see.