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Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN editor
LOS ANGELES — Once in first place in the West in early February, cathode sputtering Los Angeles Clippers fell to fifth in the conference Monday night after losing 133-116 At Indiana Pacers at Crypto.com Arena.
The Clippers (44-27) have lost six of their last nine games and allowed New Orleanswho holds the season tiebreaker with the Clippers, to move up to fourth place.
“We have to find our identity”, leader James Harden said. “Teams score easily with us, so it’s difficult to score offensively.
“It’s a little frustrating…I think we’re all trying to figure out what’s going on.”
For the second time in five games, a Clippers star spoke about the team’s lack of identity at the moment. Paul Georges he said I didn’t think the Clippers had an identity after they were destroyed by Atlanta110-93, at home March 18.
Clippers coach Ty Lue described the team’s current identity as “soft.” Indiana shot 60.7% (17 of 28) from 3 on Monday.
“So for us, identity has to be about tenacity,” Lue said. “Which means physicality, mental and physical strength, powerful offense – we can score in a lot of different ways – and we have to have a defensive mindset.
“And so right now, do we have an identity? I think so, we’re soft.”
From December 1 to February 6, the Clippers went 26-5 and looked like title contenders. But since they returned from their long road trip to the Grammy Awards, they are only 10-12 years old.
“When we were 26-5, we had a big identity,” Lue said. “So you can’t choose when you want to lead. You can’t choose when you want to have an identity. You can’t choose when you want to do things the right way.”
The Clippers got Russell Westbrook back after former MVP point guard missed three weeks after surgery to repair a broken left hand.
Westbrook made 5 of 10 shots and finished with 14 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes coming off the bench.
“I think collectively we have to come together in tough times,” said Westbrook, who is one of the team’s most vocal leaders. “To me, adversity is a true measure of who you are as a man and two, who you are as a team. And I think this is the perfect time for us to pull together. elbows, use what we know to win matches. and let’s help each other to win matches.
“All I know is that collectively we have to find ways to compete. The X’s and O’s really don’t matter. You compete and everything else will take care of itself.”
Lue has spoken to the team numerous times about the need to do things the right way and be consistent. But the Clippers have often made the same mistakes and lacked energy, inspiration and fight in several of the lackluster losses of late.
“Just do the right thing and you might be able to get out of this rut,” Lue said. “We have an identity, but right now our identity is shaken because we’re not winning.”
Lue remains confident that he and the Clippers will find a solution before the start of the playoffs. The Clippers, who are just two games above sixth place kingsopen a tough four-game road swing Wednesday at Philadelphia before traveling to Orlando, Charlotte and Sacramento.
“We all have to do our jobs,” Lue said. “Do your job, what we asked you to do.”
