SAN ANTONIO, Texas _ Just last week, the Los Angeles Clippers held the best defensive efficiency rating in the NBA.
They have tumbled since then, falling and falling again, their defensive lapses once more pulling them under during a 120-107 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night at the AT&T Center.
Before dropping their third straight game and fifth in their last six, the Clippers had trickled to 14th in the league in defensive efficiency to 102.4.
"Uh," Austin Rivers sighed, shaking his head when told of those numbers. "I'm sure it's worse now."
It will be worse, for sure.
The Clippers have surrendered an average of 119.3 points per game in their last four losses. They gave up 141 to the Golden State Warriors and now 120 to the Spurs.
"We've got to be better defensively," said Rivers, who finished with 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting, four for six on three-pointers. "We have no excuse, to be quite honest.
"We have the best defensive five in the NBA. You have the best defensive point guard in the NBA in Patrick (Beverley). I consider myself an elite top-five shooting guard/defensive guard in the league. Me and Patrick are top five in steals in this league. We have too many good defenders. We've got guys like Wesley (Johnson) and we've got Blake (Griffin). They are long and athletic. We should be better."
In the first half, the Clippers were solid on defense, holding the Spurs to 38.9 percent in the second quarter.
That defense apparently stayed in the locker room at halftime, never appearing again.
The Clippers' defense was ripped apart by the Spurs, who shot 63.6 percent in the third to outscore the Clippers 40-21. That turned the tenor of the game, the Spurs opening a 17-point lead they never relinquished.
"I thought the third quarter just did us in," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "Our defense was great in the first half, held them to under 50 percent. Our offense was great in the first half. But in the second half, I thought our defense was awful. ... . Disappointing game."
The Clippers never got a handle on LaMarcus Aldridge (25 points) Danny Green (24) or Pau Gasol (eight for nine for 19 points) or Rudy Gay (22) off the bench as the Spurs shot 53.6 percent for the game.
The Clippers tried to counter with 17 points from Lou Williams off the bench, 15 from Griffin and 12 from Johnson, who started his first game of the season at small forward in place of the injured Danilo Gallinari.
"We've just got to play with more energy," Williams said. "I think we've just got to give ourselves an opportunity to win the game. When you lose one, you lose two, it's natural for you to kind of hang your head when you lose a lead and you start second-guessing everything. I think we just got to start pushing through that."
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