Three takeaways from the Clippers’ 120-75 loss to Golden State

1. The Clippers did not meet the force the Golden State Warriors brought Tuesday night.

Not even close.

It was as if the Clippers were trying to be cool in their first exhibition game, as if they were waiting for something that never materialized.

Instead of matching the effort and energy the Warriors exerted at Oracle Arena, the Clippers wilted and absorbed a 120-75 whipping.

“I thought they were far tougher,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “Physically, I thought they were the more aggressive team and I thought they played with more of a sense of urgency. You would think it would be us.”

The Clippers know the Warriors have the same disdain for Los Angeles as L.A. has for Golden State.

But only the Warriors played the game like it had meaning.

“It’s a rivalry,” said first-year Clippers forward Marreese Speights, who would know about the deep-seated hatred because he spent the past three seasons with the Warriors. “They wanted to send a message to us, and they did.”

The Warriors won an NBA championship in 2015 and lost in the finals to Cleveland in 2016.

Golden State then went out and added superstar Kevin Durant, giving the Warriors another potent weapon.

The Clippers like to think they are closing the gap on the Warriors.

“I still think it’s Golden State, and they’re a team that has won the West the last two years,” Rivers said. “You would hope that we would have a better sense of urgency. I didn’t think we had that [Tuesday night]. I thought we showed up to play an exhibition game and they came to play a game.”

2. They spent all last week at training camp in Irvine talking about improving their defense. But all that Clippers chatter just rang hollow against the Warriors.

From the start, the Clippers did not defend, their defense getting ripped at every turn.

They allowed the Warriors to make 63.2% of their shots in the first quarter. The Clippers then saw the Warriors make 55.6% of their shots in the second quarter and 52.6% in the third when L.A. got down by as many as 53 points.

For the game, the Warriors made 51.4% of their shots, 51.7% of their three-pointers.

“Defensively, we weren’t engaged,” Chris Paul correctly said.

3. This had to be an anomaly, right?

No way can the Clippers core of guards shoot this poorly again.

Their four primary backcourt players were a combined one-for-25 from the field, zero-for-nine from three-point range.

Paul was zero-for-three, J.J. Redick one-for-seven, Austin Rivers zeri-for-eight and Jamal Crawford zero-for-seven.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner