Clippers coach Tyronn Lue can deal with a loss, just so long as his team prepares well and plays with purpose.
When his team did neither Thursday in a 28-point loss at Memphis, it ate at Lue, who said he was frustrated until he arrived at FedEx Forum on Friday.
The team’s middling defensive rankings, he said before tipoff, showed “that we’re not very good.”
“We have the guys to do it, we have the schemes to do it,” Lue said. “We’re doing the same defense everybody else in the league is doing, it’s just they’re doing it better. We’ve got to be better.”
The difference between the performances separated by 24 hours was stark.
After giving up an “embarrassing” 72 points in the paint Thursday, the Clippers gave up 54 in Friday’s 119-99 victory. After watching Memphis make 57% of its 3-pointers in the first game, the Clippers contributed to the Grizzlies’ 32% accuracy the next night.
It wasn’t only on the defensive end where the contrast was pronounced.
Kawhi Leonard had a game-high 30 points, while making all 11 of his free throws and three of his five 3-pointers, to go along with nine rebounds and seven assists while the Clippers dished a season-high 34 assists to pull away on a late 12-3 run to end the fourth quarter as Memphis refused to wilt.
Paul George scored 13 points and had eight assists, though he made just one of five 3-point attempts.
Jonas Valanciunas led the Grizzlies with 22 points and Ja Morant contributed 20, but their supporting cast couldn’t provide the kind of help that contributed to their thorough defeat of the Clippers the previous night.
The Clippers are now 6-0 on the second night of back-to-back games this season.
