Jordan says focus must be full-time on defense
OKLAHOMA CITY — There has been a cause for the recent slippage on defense by the Clippers.
DeAndre Jordan, the team’s defensive signalcaller and guru, has pinpointed part of the problem.
“I feel like it can be a lack of focus sometimes, because we know how to do it,” Jordan said. “We know the game plan. We do it for 30 minutes of the game, but for those other 18 minutes, we don’t do it. And then, that’s when teams score and take advantage of that.
“I feel like we just got to lock in. I feel like it’s maybe a lack of focus sometimes, but we can’t do that.”
No team, Jordan admitted, can play great defense for a full 48 minutes.
“You can’t play 48 minutes of perfect defense, but you can be 48 minutes of being locked in to that,” Jordan said. “We can’t blow coverages that we’ve gone over in shoot-around, [stuff] that we’ve gone over in film, point of emphasis that we’re trying to take away. But if it’s certain stuff, I mean, hey, you’re going to mess up on some things, but not the stuff that we’ve gone over the past few days.”
Beverley is missed
Half of the Clippers’ twoheaded defensive backcourt is missing, leaving a big hole with point guard Patrick Beverley in Los Angeles nursing a sore right knee.
Beverley missed the game Friday against the Thunder and he won’t play against New Orleans on Saturday night after his knee became too painful following the San Antonio game Tuesday night.
Beverley and Austin Rivers had been creating havoc for the Clippers. Beverley was ranked sixth in the NBA in steals (1.90) and Rivers second (2.10).
“They create a lot of chaos,” coach Doc Rivers said. “And they piggyback off each other. I thought what they did a good job of, even without me telling them to do it, Patrick would harass a guard for a while and then if he got tired he’d switch Austin on him. Austin would do it. Then they could do that back and forth. Well, now we don’t have that.”
Beverley had also proved to be a take-charge player. His teammates were listening to his instruction.
“We just miss his leadership,” Doc Rivers said. “Patrick, just his toughness rubs off on everybody and we won’t have that.”
TONIGHT
AT NEW ORLEANS
When: 4 p.m. PST. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 570, 1330. Update: The Clippers will face the NBA’s most dominant big-man duo in DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis. Cousins is fifth in the league in scoring (28.5), third in rebounding (13.8) and first in double-doubles (11). Davis is sixth in scoring (27.5), fifth in rebounding (12.3) and second in doubledoubles (9). Cousins also has one triple-double.