LOS ANGELES – It’s not always going to look perfect in an 82-game schedule.
Shots that normally fall will suddenly miss the mark. Normally routine passes will end up a tick off and lead to turnovers. Energy will come and go, particularly at the beginning of the second game of a back-to-back.
In the past, when these issues occur as they did early Monday, maybe the Clippers don’t leave with a win. Maybe the lulls lead to frustration, and maybe that frustration leads to defeat.
That’s where head coach Doc Rivers sees growth in a Clippers team that’s responded to occasional offensive slippage early in the 2016-17 season with consistent defense, moving to 3-0 with a 116-98 win against the Suns (0-4) by buying time in games for the offense to catch up.
Much like Sunday’s win against the Jazz, Monday’s game started out with the Clippers behind. And much like Sunday’s win against the Jazz, it ended in a double-digit Clippers victory.
“I think they stayed engaged defensively, No. 1,” Rivers said. “That’s what they’ve done all year, and they just kept trusting. Like, it’s going to fall, and eventually it started falling. Once the basket opened up, the way we were defending, we were in great shape.”
The Clippers were just 1-of-7 in the first half from 3-point range, at which point they’d also committed nine turnovers, yet they led at the time by holding the Suns to 12 second-quarter points and forcing 15 Phoenix turnovers before the second half got under way.
An 18-3 run to finish the second quarter put the Clippers in prime position, but it was the Suns who came out of the second half firing, beginning the third quarter on a 19-8 run as the Clippers’ superb defense went through a brief lapse.
It didn’t last.
The Suns got within a point when the Clippers turned on another gear, finishing the third quarter up 12 points as the offense started to click, going 10-for-16 from the floor in the third quarter. By game’s end, the Clippers, who shot 41 percent in the first half, were 50 percent from the floor.
“I just like the fact that they kind of caught themselves,” Rivers said. “Last year, we wouldn’t have. They would have got back in the lead, we would have got frustrated and then the game would have gone on. Today, we kind of had a self-check and played well. It’s maturity.”
In the past, Chris Paul said one of the Clippers’ biggest issues has been getting to the next play. In just three games, Paul, who had a game-high 24 points to go with eight assists, already sees development in that respect.
“I think that shows a lot of growth to see the attention we pay to detail, talking and communication,” Paul said. “It’s not going to be perfect every night, but right now it’s working for us.”
And, as Blake Griffin said, a lot of that stems from the way they prepare.
“Trust has been a big point of emphasis for us, and talking,” Griffin said. “We’ve been eliminating small mistakes by communicating more – that’s been our main focus in practice. We’ve been communicating and calling for each other, and everybody has a pretty good trust.”
That trust has helped gather the Clippers when things haven’t always gone their way.
“You can’t always be perfect for 48 minutes,” Griffin said. “Slippage and then picking it back up is always promising.”
NOTES: DeAndre Jordan underwent X-rays Sunday on a sprained thumb, but they came back negative and he was back on the court again Monday, finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. “It was a scary play for a second,” Jordan said. “I really want to play basketball. I don’t want to miss any games. My teammates were definitely on me about getting it taken care of, but I’m fine.” … Paul Pierce (ankle) and Brice Johnson (back) didn’t play, but Pierce did get in the holiday spirit by dressing up in a Rick James costume before the game … The Clippers equaled the Suns on the glass and haven’t been outrebounded in any game to start the season…