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A Look Back At 6-7 Starts Turning Around

Rowan Kavner

DENVER - The Cleveland Cavaliers know what the Clippers are going through.

Last year’s Cavs team provides an example of what a group with championship aspirations and a new-look roster slowed by a 6-7 start can still turn around and accomplish with its season, regardless of the obstacles it faced.

A 6-7 start is what the Clippers are going through now, and they know it’s up to them whether or not they can reverse their record the way the Cavs did, or fall further into a rut, the way the Nuggets did.

Cleveland, which went 53-29 last year, went to the NBA Finals. Denver, which went 30-52 last year, finished 12th in the Western Conference. The Clippers get ready to see the Nuggets on Tuesday night, and that’s where they hope the turnaround begins and the confusion and lethargy end.

“We’re focused on winning one game,” said J.J. Redick. “This thing can turn around quick. I think all of us recognize that we’ve underachieved to this point and we have to take this and enjoy the process and embrace the process and that process begins tonight.”

This season marks the first time in five years and the first time since Chris Paul joined the Clippers they find themselves with a record below .500 more than 10 games in the season. Doc Rivers has talked about the lack of boxing out and struggles on the glass, as well as the defensive lapses.

But as Rivers knows, the Cavs aren’t the only example of how a sluggish start can end much differently than it began.

Rivers’ Celtics started 4-7 during the 2011-12 season. They were even 15-17 at one point in a season where they started involving Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass in the lineup after losing Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, Kendrick Perkins, Jeff Green and Shaquille O’Neal, despite an otherwise experienced returning roster.

The result? An Eastern Conference Finals appearance which fell just short of another NBA Finals appearance. They fell in seven games to the Heat, who went on to win the title.

Lance Stephenson experienced the same thing a year later.

The 2012-13 Pacers, who were just getting Stephenson more minutes prior to his breakout 2013-14 season, began the year 4-7 and then 6-7. The result?
Just like the Celtics, the Pacers went to the Eastern Conference Finals and took the Heat to seven games.

“This new group of guys is still figuring each other out,” Stephenson said prior to Tuesday’s game against the Nuggets. “Just got to get everybody on the same page, figuring out each other’s game. Everybody has different games, came from different teams, different way of playing. We’ve just got to get used to it.”

Stephenson said it’s only through practice and games where that familiarity can build, but at least history has shown a slow start doesn’t have to lead to a slow finish.

The 2004-05 Pistons started 6-7 before going to the NBA Finals. The 2007-08 Lakers and 2010-11 Heat were both just a game above .500 after 17 games before turning their seasons into NBA Finals appearances. Last year, Oklahoma City started 3-12 last year before going 45-37.

There’s a variety of reasons why teams start slow, from shaken up rosters, to injuries, to effort. The Clippers can look at all of those things, but they know excuses don’t mean much and it’s up to them to swing back into form the way the aforementioned teams were able to.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rivers said. “We’ve just got to do what we do better, harder, execute better. It’s not like we need to come in and make wholesale changes. We’re just not playing well. I don’t think it’s that hard to see.”