Clippers seek improvement as they try to end 10-game losing streak to Warriors
Channel: I Can
Date: 2017-10-30

PLAYA VISTA — The Clippers don’t have to be perfect Monday night, but it might help. They have tried the alternative and it hasn’t worked out so well in recent seasons. After all, they have lost 10 consecutive games to the Golden State Warriors, and 11 of 12 during a humiliating stretch of futility.

It’s not as if the Clippers have been the dregs of the NBA since their lone victory in that run of games, a 100-86 victory on Christmas 2014. It’s just that the Warriors have been one of the league’s elite teams and there’s little doubt their wins over the Clippers have underscored their superiority.

Last season, for example, the Warriors won four times over the Clippers by an average margin of 21.5 points. The Warriors went on to win their second NBA championship in three seasons, and pretty much everyone around the basketball world assumes they’ll win another one in June.

“You know you have to play a great game to beat them,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said.

No question, the Clippers did not play a great game during a 95-87 loss Saturday to the Detroit Pistons. The Clippers’ first defeat in five games to start the season was still very much on their minds Sunday, when they reconvened for practice and a video session.

Regaining the rhythm and efficiency that carried them to four consecutive victories to start 2017-18 should be enough motivation for the Clippers in the wake of Saturday’s clunker, according to Griffin. Relying on the presence of the Warriors to re-ignite their game would be a bad sign.

“If that’s the motivation we need to play good basketball, we’re probably in trouble,” he said. “I think you have to use the good emotion. The negative emotion, you just kind of have to let it go within the game. You can’t get too down. They’re going to score. Every team is going to have runs.

“We can’t do the hang-your-head thing after they score. You have to run it right back at them.”