The Clippers played the Mavericks only in the sense that the team opposite them wore Dallas jerseys.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re missing their star players,\u201d said Leonard, \u201cand we can\u2019t get a win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no sugarcoating it. The Clippers, at 5\u201315, are bad, and it\u2019s getting worse. The loss to the Mavs, er, Zombie Mavs came after L.A. blew a 16-point lead at home to the Grizzlies the night before. Sure, there have been injuries. Leonard has missed time, Derrick Jones Jr. is out and Bradley Beal is done for the season<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t explain how the Clippers have gone from the NBA\u2019s third-ranked defense last season to a bottom-five team in this one. Or why every turnover they commit on one end is an automatic bucket on the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe got to stay with it,\u201d said Lue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watching the Clippers is maddening. The offense is simplistic. Harden isolations. Leonard at the elbow. A few plays for Ivica Zubac in the post. They run the highest percentage of iso plays (12%, per NBA.com) and are one of just two teams above 10. Run enough of them, though, and even average defenses will figure you out. L.A. committed 18 turnovers on Saturday, which Dallas converted to 20 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n Defensively \u2026 huh? How good were the Clippers last season? They were top five in opponent points per game. They had a better defensive rating than Boston. They gave up fewer second-chance points than everyone but Orlando.\u00a0<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t a good defense. They were a great defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n SIGN UP NOW. SI NBA Newsletter. Get SI’s FREE NBA Newsletter. dark<\/p>\n What\u2019s happened? The Clippers swapped out some pieces\u2014maybe Norman Powell was more valuable than some thought\u2014but the core of last season\u2019s team remains. Cooper Flagg<\/a>, the Mavericks\u2019 18-year-old rookie, scored 35 points in 38 minutes. Klay Thompson, a game-time decision with a knee injury, shot 61.5%.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI thought our point-of-attack defense one-on-one, especially in that first half, really hurt us,\u201d said Lue. \u201cI thought they got to wherever they wanted to get to on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot of words to not say one: effort. The Clippers\u2019 effort is lacking. It\u2019s obvious. L.A. is sleepwalking through so many possessions. There\u2019s no energy. There\u2019s no fire. There\u2019s no fight. The Clippers have several strong wing defenders, including Leonard. On Saturday, Flagg ran roughshod over them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFixing our energy, as a collective, whether it be our guys at the top or be our rooks [rookies], coaches, whoever it may be,\u201d said John Collins. \u201cEverybody has to genuinely believe that we belong here, and that we\u2019re ready to win. And everybody has to be bought into it or we\u2019re just talking.\u201d<\/p>\n Lue said he still believes the team can turn a corner. He has to. He has no choice. The Clippers have no choice. There\u2019s no trade that\u2019s going to save the season. Gutting the team is pointless as long as Oklahoma City owns L.A.\u2019s 2026 first-round pick. Before the game, Lue said he wasn\u2019t frustrated as much as he was \u201cpissed off\u201d at the Clippers\u2019 start.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard drives to the basket against Mavericks forward\/center Dwight Powell. \/ Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt starts with everybody,\u201d said Lue. \u201cJust be able [to] look yourself in the mirror and see what you can bring better to the team and what helps the team. We all got to be better. We play two or three good quarters, but we can\u2019t sustain it. We can\u2019t do it for 48 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n The Clippers are not a championship team. The days of wondering if a Leonard-led group can reach its potential are over. An aging roster isn\u2019t getting any younger. The question is if they can be a good team. Leonard thinks so. \u201cGot 62 games left,\u201d said Leonard. \u201cWe just gotta be in that second quarter [of the season], the last three-fourths of the season, and see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n It can also go the other way. Standing at his locker, Harden was asked if the season was salvageable. \u201cWhat other choice do we got?\u201d Harden responded. When a reporter noted things could get worse, Harden could only laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt can,\u201d Harden said. \u201cThis is a question that we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n More NBA from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n Listen to SI\u2019s NBA podcast, Open Floor, below or on Apple<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>. Watch the show on SI\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Tyronn Lue had no answers.\u00a0 \u201cGot to play better,\u201d Lue said.\u00a0 James Harden didn\u2019t either.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-316118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n