Clippers must refocus ahead of another busy stretch
Twice in six days, the Clippers gave up significant double-digit leads late in a game en route to losses, glaring indicators of perhaps defensive lapses, too many turnovers or a lack of perimeter shooting.
They led the Lakers by 21 points before succumbing, 116112, and the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks by 15 before handing the Eastern Conference powerhouse a 113-106 victory on the second night of a back-to-back.
“They're all bad losses, however you look at it. But coming off it back-to-back, whether Giannis (Antetokounmpo) played or not, we knew it was going to be a tough game,” coach Tyronn Lue said after Monday's loss in Milwaukee.
Lue said the team ran its normal plays and attacked in the second half against the Bucks' zone, but “just didn't get to the basket. We got open looks, got good shots, (but) we just didn't make the open 3's that we normally could make.”
Yet, as bad as it looks, the Clippers are not alone in their lategame follies. Lately, several teams have encountered similar fates. The Boston Celtics coughed up a 22-point lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers; the Lakers gave away a 19-point first-quarter lead to the Sacramento Kings and the Minnesota Timberwolves let a 17-point lead slip away before pulling out
UP NEXT
Today: Bulls at Clippers, 1 p.m., a close victory Thursday against the Indiana Pacers.
All to say that the Clippers are not concerned about trending even though they were staring at a 20-point deficit to the Houston Rockets in the first half of Wednesday's contest before coming away with a 122-116 victory to close out a three-game trip.
“They (Rockets) were playing faster, playing more aggressively than us,” James Harden said. “Getting more second-chance points — just basically everything as a coach you don't want to give up, we're giving up. We talked about it (in the) second half and we were a lot better.”
The Clippers need to refocus their energies as they head into their second five-games-in-sevendays stretch this season, starting with this weekend's tough backto-back home games against the Chicago Bulls today and the Bucks on Sunday. Both are matinee games at Crypto.com Arena.
They then will again face the Timberwolves at home before heading to Chicago and New Orleans, where they will finish their second such string of games next Friday in New Orleans. But it won't be their last five-in-seven this season.
After a home game on March 17 against the Atlanta Hawks, the Clippers play four games in six days.
The task of closing out the final 21 games could be more difficult if center Ivica Zubac continues to experience discomfort on the court. Zubac missed two games and sat out the second half against the Rockets because of illness.
“I just didn't think Zu was all the way there,” Lue said. “I know he had some headaches before the game and talking to him when he first came out, he said he couldn't breathe early on . ... We didn't want to risk that. He said he wasn't feeling well . ... As a staff, we just thought it was best that we didn't chance it.”
The Clippers also are without Russell Westbrook, who had surgery this week on his fractured left hand. The team did not offer a timetable for his return, but the reserve point guard returned in less than a month after having surgery on a broken hand in 2014.