Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 107-85 loss to New York
1. The second-half collapse was completed in the fourth quarter when it appeared as if the Clippers stopped competing.
Their deficit ballooned to 26 points, with their effort waning every step of the way during their loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night.
The Clippers scored only 17 points in the final quarter.
They shot an awful 22.2% from the field. They missed all seven of their three-point attempts. They stopped running the offense. They stopped trusting the offense.
The Clippers simply did not get it done in the fourth quarter, a surprising turn of events for a team that had been mostly playing hard but had been losing close games during their nine-game losing streak.
2. The Clippers didn’t shoot straight. A lot of that was because they took bad — and sometimes horrible — shots. As a team, they made 37.5% of their shots, 31.2% of their three-pointers.
Austin Rivers continued to struggle, making only one of nine field goals, missing all three of his three-pointers. Blake Griffin missed 12 of his 18 shots, five of his seven three-pointers.
Lou Williams, who had been carrying the Clippers on offense in recent games and weeks, had a rare off night, going two for eight. Patrick Beverley, playing for the first time in five games after recovering from a sore right knee, was three for eight from the field.
3. When things go bad for the Clippers, it usually means they aren’t taking care of the basketball. That was the case against the Knicks, with L.A. committing 22 turnovers.
Williams had five miscues, Griffin and Wesley Johnson had four each and rookie point guard Jawun Evans three.
4. The Clippers did get good energy and extra effort from third-year player Sam Dekker and rookies Sindarius Thornwell and Evans.
They entered the game in the second quarter and helped the Clippers open an eight-point lead. Dekker finished the game with 10 points, Evans had six and Thornwell didn’t score.
5. The Clippers were destroyed on the backboards. They were out-rebounded 51-36 and gave up 14 offensive rebounds.
Center DeAndre Jordan was out-rebounded by his Knicks counterpart, Enes Kanter, 16-9. Griffin had just four rebounds in 33 minutes, 29 seconds.
Twitter: @BA_Turner
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