Rivers rips ‘selfish’ team
Coach calls out effort after frustration comes to a head in eighth straight loss.
He called the 102-87 loss to the equally struggling Charlotte Hornets “a bad one.” He called out his players for “individual play” and being “selfish” as the Clippers lost for the 10th time in 11 games, and the Hornets ended their six-game losing streak.
He called out his team for falling apart in the fourth quarter, when the Clippers stood a chance of winning.
“This was the first game that I wasn’t happy as a coach,” Rivers said, adding that his evaluation of the team’s effort wasn’t up for discussion with his players after they got outscored 2916 in the fourth quarter.
“No, it wasn’t up for comment,” Rivers said. “It’s just what I saw. We’ll get it right. We’re just going to keep plugging away.
“You could see both teams were struggling and the team that hung together was going to win and I thought it was them. I thought we came apart.
“I can take losing poorly if we play right. I just didn’t think we played right.”
Both teams were playing back-to-back games, so L.A. couldn’t use that excuse.
Kemba Walker didn’t slow down, scoring 26 points and handing out six assists for Charlotte. Dwight Howard was a force, producing 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Lou Williams stayed the course for the Clippers, leading them in scoring with 25 off the bench.
So the question presented to DeAndre Jordan: Were the Clippers all the things Rivers said?
“I’m locked in the game, but if it’s that, we got to change that,” said Jordan, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds. “The film don’t lie. If it is that, we’ll see it. At the end of the day, we still got to find a way to win.
“One, we can’t play like that, if it is like that. And then two, if it is, we’ve got to find a way to fix that .... ”
Blake Griffin appeared frustrated, complaining about calls that didn’t go his way and every little slight he perceived, though somehow he avoided a technical foul.
After he finished with 19 points on six-for-17 shooting, Griffin was asked how they get out of this rut.
“We’ve been in basketball enough to know the ups and the downs,” Griffin said. “Everything that happens through the course of the season. We’re banged up right now. If you look at all these games that we lost, not that it helps any or changes our record, but you could make a point that we’ve been in all but two with under three minutes or so. There are little things that we have to change over the course of the game.”