Doc Rivers wants Clippers to focus on defense

The Clippers led the league in scoring last season, but had some trouble on the defensive end. Coach Doc Rivers said that’s a trap he doesn’t want the team to fall into again this season.

“It’s just offensively, when you’re a high-scoring offensive team, you always fall back on, well, we’ll get a basket instead of getting a stop, and I’ve always thought you can do both pretty good,” he said. “Even our Boston teams, we didn’t score a lot, but if you looked at our offensive efficiency numbers, we were in the top five. So it’s proven you can do both.”

In the Clippers’ first preseason game against Golden State on Tuesday, their defense didn’t exactly look improved from last season.

They committed 37 fouls, and sent the Warriors to the free-throw line 47 times. Chris Paul said he doesn’t want to see that type of thing happen again.

“I’m hoping that we play defense a lot better,” Paul said. “We’re trying to be a unique team that defends very well and plays at a very nice pace, up-tempo. That’s not something that usually goes together like that, so we’re trying to put all the pieces together and trying to keep that continuity going with both units.

“It’s an unbelievable combination if you can do both, and we’re going to try to be that team.”