The Los Angeles Clippers current head coach Tyronn Lue was known for his defensive prowess when he was an NBA guard for 11 years. His team could’ve used that same type of defense Sunday afternoon. As the visiting Philadelphia 76ers cruised to an easy road win 121-107 at Crypto.Com Arena.
It wasn’t just the defense that let the Clippers down, on the offensive end of 94 feet of hardwood heaven, not one Clippers player scored over 20 points. Even with 5 players in double figures, it still wasn’t enough to overcome a Sixers big early lead.
During post game media availability, Coach Lue spoke with reporters about the defense. “It started at the beginning of the game. There was no physicality.” He would then go on to say, “Our defensive mindset to start the game with physicality just was not great tonight, they got comfortable, they made shots and now you’re fighting up hill all night.” Coach Lue was referencing a great early start from Tobias Harris who started the game 5 of 7 from the field with 11 points in the first quarter. Harris finished the game 11 of 19 from the floor with a game high 24 points. Harris’s early aggressive mindset opened up the floor up for his teammates to also get into the offensive groove and exploit the Clippers defense, or lack of. That groove allowed Tyrese Maxey to match Harris with 24 points shooting 9-17 including 3-5 from three, they both would shoot over 50% from the field.
The Clippers defense wasn’t terrible from bell to bell, at one point the defense woke up to help chop down a 21 point lead the Sixers had built up. In combination with Paul George heating up, as he had a quick spurt shooting 4 of 6 including 3 three pointers for 11 of his 18 total points, in the 3rd quarter. That burst gave the Clippers a 79-73, after being down 63-56 at the half. The Sixers then when on a 13-0 run and never looked back. The Clippers might not to have had to come back from such a large deceit early, if the offense was in sink. James Harden started the game in attack mode but shot 2-7 in the first half. Since Harden’s return there has been a noticeable difference in the offensive flow & it seems to slow down Paul George the most. I asked Coach Lue was that schematically or guys feeling out the opponent in the opening moments, he responded “It’s just the flow of the game, I thought James had a good rhythm pick and roll wise, and we wanted to take advantage of that.” He finished by reiterating “when you have three dynamic players it goes by flow of the game.”
Coach Lue went on to talk about the “bad habits” the Clippers keep exhibiting, obviously more times than he would like to see. Visibly frustrated, when asked by another reporter how frustrated is it to keep having to tell the guys the same message and they’re just not doing it. Coach responded “sure, of course it’s frustrating.” Coach Lue left a positive messaging before existing the presser, stating that he has full confidence in this team, and they will get things together. The upcoming schedule should help with that, The Clippers finish the month with the Pacers, Sixers again, Orlando and a very bad Hornets team. The schedule gets as tough as a $2.00 steak in April, as they lock horns with the Kings, defending champ Nuggets, Cavs and back-to-back Suns match ups.
The Clippers must figure out the “bad habits” very soon and find their defense in the paint and closing out on three-point shooters as the regular season whines down and teams start to gear up for the post season push. They sit in the 4th seed in the west, but just .5 a game above the Pelicans. Any team would love to start the playoffs at home, and I’m sure the Clippers and Coach Lue are no different.
Other notes from Sundays match up, positive return for Norman Powell who had 20 points off the bench after missing some time due to injury. Playing 25 minutes he shot a very efficient 7-11 from the field, 3-3 from three and hit all his free throws. The Sixers bench went bananas, led by Cameron Payne who went 8-15 including 5-10 from three for 23 points. Philadelphia’s bench also out rebounded the Clipper’s bench 18 to 11.
Veejay Vernon Huskey- Infanity Tv NBA Reporter
