Clippers ready to respond tonight
Lue looks to make counter moves after Game 1 loss to Mavs
Oh, the pressure, the pressure! The Clippers — already under the gun, burdened with the weight of 50 seasons of ineptitude and stinging still from last season’s debacle in the bubble — went out Saturday and lost Game 1 of their first-round playoff series at home to the confounding Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks.
If they find themselves trailing 2-0 with a loss tonight at Staples Center, the proverbial sky might as well fall on the franchise that traded away a boatload of assets for Paul George so they could entice Kawhi Leonard to come aboard too. Leonard has been clear about his intention to opt out of the final year of his current contract at season’s end (for financial reasons, but still ...). So yes, all those marbles rattling around might be enough to make guys lose it.
Right?
Well, not exactly. The grin plastered on Ivica Zubac’s face
throughout Monday’s virtual news conference betrayed no signs of inner turmoil, no real angst at all, actually.
“I mean, last series we played we won the first game and we know how that ended up,” said the Clippers’ good-natured center, with a self-aware nod to last season’s blown 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
“So, we’re not overreacting. It’s just one game.”
Likewise, coach Tyronn Lue laughed easily and often Monday. That included punctuating his answer to a question about what concerned him more about Saturday’s 113-103 loss — Doncic accounting for 58 points or the Clippers’ paltry and uncharacteristic 27% shooting from 3-point range? — with a guffaw: “Both!”
“I’m confident anyways, doesn’t matter what the series is,” Lue said. “You gotta win four games, and that’s how I’m built. They won the first game, they played well. They gotta come out and do it again tomorrow. But like I said, we’ll play better as well.”
To hear him tell it, Lue — who had never lost a first-round game in three postseasons with Cleveland — loves this highstakes chess match that is the NBA playoffs.
“This is my happy place, when I get to the playoffs,” Lue said before Game 1, noting how much he appreciated the opportunity after the Cavaliers fired him in late 2018 – after he’d led them to three consecutive NBA Finals appearances, including their only championship.
“From the Cleveland days, of being let go there and not having a chance, an opportunity to get back in the playoffs again, it’s a blessing, so I’m very excited.”
Zubac said Lue’s enthusiasm for the moment is obvious — well, obviously.
“I can definitely see that,” Zubac said. “To be honest I think every player feels like that.”
Still, he said he can
spot a difference in his coach.
“It’s only been one game, but it’s different,” Zubac said. “Our attention to detail is very, very high. We’re discussing about everything, about every single play, every single coverage, offense, defense, whatever. And it’s been fun and exciting ... what everyone loves about playoffs is just game changes and attention to detail is totally different.
“Everyone’s just watching a lot of film, we’re trying to make adjustments for the Game 2. We’re trying to see where we made mistakes offensive and defense. There’s a lot of places we can improve and when we knock down those 3-point shots with those open looks we get we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”
And Lue seems to see lots of available moves.
Among them, potentially: Assigning Leonard — twice the NBA Defensive Player of the Year — to more often guard Doncic, who torched L.A. for 31 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in Game 1.
Lue also has been on his team about attacking — especially early: “We gotta do a better job of just attacking the paint, attacking the basket, getting downhill, making those guys commit and spreading out for 3s, and then attacking again,” he said.
And especially late, in crunch time if it comes: “Get to the paint or die trying.”
Also, on the boards: “We showed clips of it yesterday to our team – guys are flying in and we have a chance to check and we’re just not hitting bodies . ... We just gotta do a better job of just hitting bodies.”
He also said he’d make more of a point of getting Marcus Morris Sr. second-half touches and that he’d dedicate more defensive attention to Jalen Brunson, the bench scorer who had nine fourthquarter points Saturday.
As for Terance Mann, the Clippers’ versatile second-year contributor — might he join the mix after playing just a few seconds Saturday?
“We’ll see,” Lue said.