'Defense on demand' helps Clippers to win after squandering lead
The Clippers stopped doing a lot of things in the third quarter of their 99-92 win over the visiting Charlotte Hornets at Staples Center on Tuesday night.
The Clippers (43-25) stopped executing. They stopped taking care of the ball. They stopped defending. And they stopped knocking down shots.
They allowed the Hornets (29-37) to shoot 52.6 percent from the field including 60 percent from beyond the arc in the third quarter. They were outrebounded 9-8. They committed eight turnovers and forced just two.
What at one point was a 22-point lead in the quarter was just three by the end of it in a game in which the Clippers starters probably shouldn't have seen the floor in the game's final frame.
"With all of the injuries we have and how thin we are when you're starters are on the floor and you have that lead, that's the time to put them away, "Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said. "And what they did they allowed them to hang around and you have to bring your bench in and your bench is thin because you have so many guys out (and) it's going to be hard to score. It just brought too many variables back into the game. I hope that's a lesson for us."
While the Clippers, admittedly, looked up at the scoreboard "playing the score and not the game" in the third quarter, the team never found itself looking up at the Hornets.
On five separate occasions, Charlotte got within one-point of the Clippers and each time the home team responded with a bucket or a stop.
Doc rivers on how the clippers squandered a 22-point lead to Charlotte but held on for 7-point win. @foxs https://t.co/h7svDhUsF6
— Jill Painter Lopez (@jillpainter) March 18, 2015
"We just picked up the intensity and that's what we got to do," Chris Paul said. "It should never fall like it did. We got up and contested shots. Blake (Griffin) and DJ (DeAndre Jordan) had some big rebounds. We made some big plays down the stretch."
Added Rivers: "We've proven we can do that but I still would have rather not have the defense have to step up tonight and just keep the lead."
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Rivers' team put itself in a challenging situation in what was already a challenging night. The team's depth on the wings was tremendously thin. Hedo Turkoglu was forced into the starting lineup for the first time this season.
Matt Barnes was in street clothes dealing with right hamstring soreness. Jamal Crawford continues to be out of the lineup with a calf injury. Jordan Hamilton, who was injured on Sunday in the team's loss to Houston, is unsigned after having his second 10-day contract with the team expire.
With all that went wrong in the third quarter, Rivers and Co. feel there was still more positive than negative to take out of the win that moved the Clippers from the 7-seed to the 5-seed in the Western Conference. A huge reason for Tuesday's victory is the team's ability to dial up the defense and those five occasions the Clippers successfully defended a one-point lead.
"Those are the silver lining moments," Rivers said. "I'm so upset that we were there. Having said that, we never let them take the lead. Every time we needed a stop we got a stop. Defense on demand. That's what it felt like."
