LOS ANGELES — The Clippers were outscored 70-35 in the second half in a loss to the Warriors on Thursday night, capping off a fourth straight loss and leaving the team looking as far away from championship contention as they have all season.
In a postgame edition of the Locked On Clippers podcast, host Darian Vaziri discussed whether after the trade for Russell Westbrook and all this losing, the Clippers are broken as a team.
“Against the Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins-less Golden State Warriors team, you expect the Clippers to go out there and get a win,” Vaziri said. “You expect that after three games of losing … that you are in must-win mode.”
Instead, the Clippers lost 125-91 to Golden State on the road, shooting just 36% from the field and turning the ball over 16 times to just 19 assists.
“In the last game, they were flat. In this one, they were beyond flat,” Vaziri said. “It was truly a tale of two halves in this game for the Clippers, and I think overall, the one guy you can look at (whose) individual performance summarized the game for the Clippers was Russ (Westbrook) himself.”
The Clippers’ new starting guard is averaging 14 points and 8.5 assists per game on 46% shooting since joining the team, but Los Angeles has lost each game by a combined 42 points.
“(Ty Lue) has lost this team it seems. They look clueless. They look absolutely clueless. They’re not playing with fire. … Every championship team needs that (emotional leader).”
“I do think they would have had a better chance if they hadn’t made this move. … (A four-game losing streak) is just completely unacceptable for a team that has championship aspirations.”