Rowan Kavner
MILWAUKEE – The offense went flat Friday. The defense looked lethargic Saturday.
The result was back-to-back losses for the first time this season, as the Clippers dropped the final two games of a three-game road trip that ended with a 111-106 loss to the Bucks, who shot 63.6 percent from 3-point range.
“It’s not good enough,” said Matt Barnes. “We’re a veteran team. We know we need to maintain and be consistent. In order to win a championship, you’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to win games like this, you’ve got to beat the Wizards. We’re just not playing consistent. I think we took our foot off the gas on both ends.”
A late push wasn’t enough Saturday against the Bucks, who held a one-point advantage after three quarters and went on a 13-3 run early in the fourth that was too much to overcome. The Clippers led, 28-26, after the first quarter, but head coach Doc Rivers could tell if the Clippers kept playing that way the lead wouldn’t stick.
“I thought it was fool’s gold, the first quarter,” Rivers said. “We scored 28 points, they scored 26. But I’m looking at our defense thinking, ‘Gosh, they missed like four layups and five wide open shots.’ I’m smart enough to know that’s not going to continue.”
The Bucks outscored the Clippers by 11 in the second quarter before the Clippers responded by outscoring the Bucks by eight in the third. But the early fourth-quarter run by the Bucks left the Clippers playing from behind. The Clippers brought a 95-83 deficit down to five points with three minutes left and three points with three seconds left, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Barnes led all scorers with 26 points, while J.J. Redick added 25. Everyone on the team, including Barnes, pointed to defense as the reason for the loss.
“We’ve got to be on the same page,” Barnes said. “We thought we figured it out with our streak, and I think we got comfortable and got into old habits and didn’t take defense serious and didn’t move the ball on the offensive end.”
The Bucks sent multiple defenders to Blake Griffin all night, leading to Barnes and Redick getting open looks. Griffin finished with only 10 points but added nine assists.
Griffin said he’s seen the attention he got Saturday before, but he couldn’t recall a specific time this year.
“Every team has a different idea, but when you kick it out, you’ve just got to keep it moving,” Griffin said. “When you have somebody come over, it knocks the whole defense out of alignment. I think we need to take advantage of that and I need to do a better job finding people out of it.”
Chris Paul also only finished with 10 points and seven assists before fouling out. He also had six turnovers in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. Paul said he was stunned about the foul circumstances, particularly the offensive fouls.
“They got everywhere they wanted to tonight,” Paul said. “We never really made an impact on the game. Somewhere in the third quarter Matt sparked us and we had a little energy, but just like last night, turnovers. I had six turnovers again. I never did that before. I don’t think I’ve ever had four offensive fouls in a game, either.”
DeAndre Jordan had seven points and 15 boards, but the Clippers got outrebounded by the Bucks. The Clippers forced 15 turnovers but let the Bucks shoot 56.6 percent in the loss. Despite some offensive struggles, shooting 42.9 percent from the field, the majority of problems came defensively.
Jamal Crawford said he’s not quite sure why that happened.
“I don’t know,” Crawford said. “I don’t want to make excuses and say fatigue, but I honestly don’t know. There’s definitely been a little bit of slippage. Yesterday against Washington, it was maybe more so offense.”
Rivers said the dribble penetration destroyed the Clippers and led to easy buckets in the paint. That was evidenced by the 50-36 point advantage in the paint for the Bucks, who entered the game fourth in the league with 45.6 points in the paint per game.
“Defense is so much of an effort thing,” Griffin said. “When you come out flat, it really shows.”
NOTES: Saturday was the first time this season the Clippers have lost the second game of a back-to-back…Chris Douglas-Roberts (Achilles) and Reggie Bullock (ankle) were both active for the game … Barnes went 6-of-8 from 3-point range to help the Clippers shoot 48.3 percent from deep … The Bucks hadn’t beaten the Clippers since Valentine’s Day in 2011…The Clippers fell to 15-2 when scoring 100 or more points this season
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