The Los Angeles Clippers were, once again, expected to contend for a championship this season, but this season has not shown that the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George led team is in the upper echelon of the Western Conference, let alone the NBA, and Sunday’s blowout loss the New Orleans Pelicans did little to change that opinion.
Los Angeles trailed by 33 points, and never led in a blowout loss to New Orleans 135-115, which pushed the Clippers to their fifth loss on their past sever games after they started the season with a stellar 21-8 record. Since that mark, the Clippers have gone 4-7 and have seen teams such as the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns storm past them in the standings, and take their place in the conversation regarding the top teams in the West this season.
Leonard isn’t taking it easy on his team following the blowout loss, pointing to their inconsistency as the main points of frustration.
“It’s very concerning,” Leonard said, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “[If] we want to have a chance at anything, you gotta be consistent. You know, that’s what the great teams do, they’re consistent. They have their nights when, you know, the energy’s not there. But it’s all about consistency, from teams to players to coaches. That’s what makes a team great, players great, coaches great. A consistency of being, wanting to win, and doing pretty much the same habits of winning.”
Clippers head coach Ty Lue expressed his anger when discussing another loss.
“Teams are going at us, and we got to put up more resistance,” Lue said. “I am not discouraged, because we have shown what we can do, and we can play at a high level. But we got to do it every single night. We can’t keep talking about it. We got to f—ing … sorry, we got to do it.”
The Clippers won’t get a chance to breathe, as they take on the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
“If we play like this again tomorrow, it can be another 50-point loss,” Lue said. “So we got to be ready, got to be prepared. And we got to have our stuff together, man.”
