Clippers slip in Atlanta
Players call for team-wide introspection after an 86-74 loss to the Hawks that gives L.A. a 3-13 road record.
By Jason Reid, Times Staff Writer
January 7, 2007
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Hawks 86, Clippers 74
ATLANTA — The Clippers might have hit bottom on the road Saturday night in an 86-74 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in front of 13,200 at Philips Arena.
The Clippers said they couldn't imagine a worse scenario than scoring their fewest points of the season in a loss to a team that had dropped eight in a row and has only five victories on its home court.
Of course, the Clippers didn't envision having a 3-13 mark as a visiting team or being last in the Pacific Division at 15-19, but that's also their situation.
The team's approach does not appear to be working.
"It's pretty bad right now," said Elton Brand, who led the Clippers with 26 points. "When we lost six in a row, I think I felt a little worse than this, but this is definitely pretty close to rock bottom. It's definitely time to reevaluate what players are doing out there. It's time to reevaluate things from top to bottom.
"The guys who are playing minutes out there, they're going to have to play harder and they're going to have to play smarter, from myself on down. We have to do it. We have to look within ourselves. We have done it at times, but we can't sit back and wait when we're not doing it. We've got to go get it."
The Clippers continued to appear listless on the road. They are 1-3 on a six-game, 10-day trip that continues Monday against the New Orleans Hornets at Oklahoma City. The Clippers squandered an opportunity to finish strong on the trip and return to Los Angeles with a .500 mark.
Guard Joe Johnson scored 27 points for Atlanta (10-21) and center Zaza Pachulia contributed 22. Pachulia also helped to limit Chris Kaman to eight points on four-of-11 shooting from the field. The Clippers made only 40% of their field-goal attempts.
With an average age of 23, the Hawks are the youngest team in the league, and the Clippers acknowledged they might have taken them too lightly.
"Coming into the game, we knew that they're a young team and they would come out and play hard," said Tim Thomas, the only other Clipper to score in double figures with 14 points. "I'm just not sure we respected them enough, being that they were at home and that they would come out and play hard. I just don't know."
At this point, though, it's not about any one thing the Clippers have done wrong, players said. They're failing in many areas, and the whole program should be put under the microscope.
"That's definitely fair to say," Brand said. "We were a playoff team last year, and now we're four games under .500 with a terrible record.
"Everybody has to look at themselves from the [general manager], to the coach, to the players to everybody on down. We need to improve and we need to win."
Said Shaun Livingston: "As an individual, if you look at the situation and what we're going through, the only thing you should be asking yourself is, 'What can I do to help the team prosper?' Everybody should do a self-check right now ... and that goes for every single person in this locker room because we have to find something.
"I'm not putting any added pressure on the coaches or anything like that, but we have to do a self-examination. That goes for me too. I'm not singling out anybody, but we just can't let this get any worse. Obviously, it can, but we can't let it.
"It's like win or go home now. It's like ride or die from here on out. It's got to be like that, that's the urgency we have to have, or we're not going to have a chance. That's just really the way I feel with the way things are now."
Motivation would seem to be on your side. After reading some other articles about the Clipps I honesty can see why the total is 180 rather than 175 or something similiar. Not one mention of defense. Every reference to them losing lately has to do with offensive efficiency. Looking at the Clipps recent games I'm starting to like this 1st half over. They had a total of 181.5 against a Wade-less Heat team and they ended up with 205. I can easily see a 98-87. The only thing that keeps the Hornets #'s looks respectable is because the other team don't play any of the starters during the 4th quarter in a 3rd of their games.
