INGLEWOOD — During their string of six victories, the Clippers knocked off a couple of top teams, a few of mediocre ones and the Sacramento Kings. Then they faced the Boston Celtics and superstar Jaylen Brown on Saturday, and the result was a 146-115 trashing.
“They played a really good game,” Clippers center Ivica Zubac said. “They were better than us. They shot the ball better, and that’s it. We got to get back to it on Monday.”
Now, 48 hours after that loss, the Clippers face another elite team with a superstar scorer, someone who can go off for 50 points or more. Can they reset quickly to what they had been building against the Golden State Warriors on Monday, or will they revert to their old losing ways?
The Clippers know they need to step up their game against sharp-shooting Stephen Curry and the Warriors if they hope to get back on track and aim for a .500 or better overall record. At 12-22, the task appears as challenging as stopping Curry from hitting a 3-pointer.
“If we let Steph Curry act like Jaylen Brown tonight, then it’s going to be the same thing,” forward John Collins said. “We got to attack their game plan and just be there defensively.
“There’s no excuse for us. We know who their main guys are. We know what we need to do. Again, for me, it’s always energy, effort, intensity. How we approach the game determines a lot.”
What the Clippers know is that Curry is a future Hall of Famer who owns four NBA titles, 11 NBA All-Star nods and a wicked shot from beyond the arc. At 37, he ranks ninth in the league with 28.8 points a game and is shooting 39.8% from 3-point range.
In the Warriors’ last game against the Utah Jazz, Curry scored 20 of his 31 in the third quarter; likewise, Brown scored 19 of his career-tying 50 against the Clippers in the third.
And when Curry began to heat up, the Warriors gained momentum and came away with a 123-114 victory against the Jazz. Now, the Clippers will be looking to avoid a similar outcome.
“We just need to come out with better energy, more urgency, understand things like this happen,” guard Kris Dunn said about the loss to the Celtics.
“But it’s like, how can we bounce back? And I think what got us on that winning street was the way we were defending, the way we were moving the ball, and just get back to what we were doing.”
If the Clippers are looking to get back to how they put together six straight victories, they are going to need Kawhi Leonard to have another big game. The six-time All-Star posted a career-high 55 points against the Detroit Pistons and another 45 against the Jazz, landing 11 of 26 3-pointers.
The team also needs a solid outing from James Harden, who is chipping in 25.7 points and eight assists a game, and John Collins, who has come up recently on the offense and defense, averaging 12.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.9 steals and 0.7 rebounds.
“It’s the same team coming up again on Monday. … so, this was a good warmup test for us, Coach Tyronn Lue said of the loss to Boston. “But we know Golden State, the style they play is very similar. So, we got to be locked in and be more physical and try to control our man and we control where our man goes instead of just letting them slip out so freely.”
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