Clippers closing in on another ‘consistently good’ 50-win season
The Clippers are on verge of winning at least 50 games in the regular season for the fifth consecutive year, four under coach Doc Rivers.
Before playing the Houston Rockets on Monday night at Staples Center, the Clippers were 49-31.
They finish the regular season Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center.
When asked how he would measure another 50-win season, Rivers said he’d leave it up to the media to decide.
“I don’t need to measure it,” he said. “It says that we’ve been a good team for a long time. It says that our franchise has been consistently a good franchise for a long time, even though I do believe this franchise in particular, more than others, if you listen to the outside noise at times, you don’t know that. This has been a very consistent franchise as far as winning games.”
The Clippers were 53-29 last season. In the three seasons before that, they were 56-26, 57-25 and 56-26.
Despite the success, Rivers said the main goal remains winning the NBA championship. And this group has not advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs.
“We just haven’t been the winner and that’s what we want to be, we want to be the winner,” Rivers said. “I want to be the winner, Chris [Paul] and Blake [Griffin] and J.J. [Redick] and DJ [DeAndre Jordan] wants to be the winner. You can win a lot of games and that’s nice, but the goal is to be the winner and we have not done that. Those are high goals. We understand that. We’re fine with that and whatever comes with that.”
Mbah a Moute’s increased minutes
As the NBA regular-season winds down, Clippers small forward Luc Mbah a Moute has seen an uptick in his playing time.
He had played more than 30 minutes in three of his last four games before Monday night, averaging 31.3 minutes a game in the three April games.
Mbah a Moute said he hasn’t asked Rivers for an explanation.
“No, it’s just the way it has played out,” said Mbah a Moute, who has averaged about 22 minutes a game overall. “We didn’t talk about that or my minutes. I guess it’s just the way the games went. I’m just glad I was ready, I guess.”
Twitter: @BA_Turner
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