Rowan Kavner
New Orleans - The loose balls went to the Pelicans, the deep shots couldn’t fall, and head coach Doc Rivers saw a lack of focus as the late stops and a six-game winning streak both vanished in New Orleans.
The Clippers trailed by 14 points early in the fourth before a furious fourth-quarter comeback cut the deficit down to two, but they failed to come up with the late stops that had defined their play throughout the win streak in a 108-103 loss to the Pelicans.
Rivers said the way the Clippers played, they didn’t deserve to win in New Orleans.
“We didn’t play hard enough, honestly,” Rivers said. “I wanted to win the game, and you want to win games, but sometimes the basketball gods say you shouldn’t win the game. I thought tonight was one of those nights.
“We can be dishonest with each other, but we didn’t have great focus tonight, and we’ve been pretty good. It happens, but our focus was terrible tonight.”
It’s possible the Clippers overlooked a Pelicans squad playing without Anthony Davis, although Chris Paul said that wasn’t the case. Regardless of the reason, Rivers didn’t like the effort all night, as the Clippers looked like a different group than the one that had played the last couple weeks.
A rough third quarter in which the Clippers surrendered two separate 13-4 runs by the Pelicans erased the Clippers’ one point lead at halftime and put them behind by 12 points entering the fourth quarter.
“You think about the beginning of the third quarter, I don’t call a timeout, I think they score the rest of the game,” Rivers said. “It happens. I’m not happy with it, and our guys shouldn’t be happy with themselves. We played awful. If we would have won the game, it would’ve been an injustice. We deserved to lose the game, so we lost the game.”
Rivers said it looked like the Clippers felt like they could step on the court and the game would take care of itself. For a variety of reasons, that wasn’t the case.
The Clippers entered the game top five in the league in both 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage against a Pelicans team not known for its outside shooting, but it didn’t seem to matter Friday night.
The Pelicans made up for the loss of Davis (groin) by hitting from deep, going 13-of-25 from 3-point range, while the Clippers went just 7-of-28. Rivers believed that was the difference in the game.
“We’re one of the top 3-point shooting teams, they’re one of the worst; doesn’t matter,” Rivers said. “If you give a guy a wide-open 3 in this league, they’re going to make them, and they had a bunch of wide-open ones.”
Despite that, the Clippers showed enough life late to make things interesting. The Pelicans went ahead by 14 early in the fourth quarter before a 12-0 run from the Clippers, 10 of which came from Chris Paul.
It appeared the Clippers might be set for a fourth straight late comeback, but the Pelicans had other plans.
The Clippers couldn’t get enough stops, as a 98-96 deficit became a 104-98 deficit with 1:30 remaining after six straight points from the Pelicans, who outrebounded the Clippers by 13 in the game.
“There were a lot of mental lapses on coverages, hustle, effort,” said Matt Barnes. “That’s something we’ve got to clean up. Can’t let games like this get away.”
Paul hit another bucket but was answered at the other end by former Clipper Eric Gordon, who finished with a game-high 28 points. A Jamal Crawford 3-pointer in transition gave the Clippers some life, and the Clippers nearly came up with a steal as the Pelicans inbounded the ball. But Jimmer Fredette came up with it, got fouled, and hit both free throws to put the game out of reach.
“It’s bad, obviously,” Paul said. “We didn’t come in here with plans to lose. We were kind of flat, we weren’t making shots. We weren’t getting stops. Ultimately, it caught up with us.”
NOTES: J.J. Redick made his return after sitting out with back spasms against the Jazz ... The Clippers are 28-3 when shooting a higher percentage from 3-point range than their opponent and 4-12 when they don’t … The Pelicans hit more 3-pointers in the first quarter (4) than they had their previous entire game (3) … Paul led the Clippers with 24 points against his former team … In Austin Rivers first game against his former team, he scored 10 points in 14 minutes … Austin said that’s a win the Clippers were supposed to have, but they can’t dwell on the loss … The Clippers got outscored in the third quarter by 13 points before outscoring the Pelicans by seven in the fourth … The Clippers play Saturday against the Spurs...