Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Clippers couldn’t quite shake off a bad start and had to swallow a 92-79 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
“I thought the flow was nasty for us offensively. I thought we did a lot of overdribbling,” said Clippers head coach Tyronne Lue. “We missed our shots, I thought we were flat just from the start. We didn’t have a lot of energy.”
Cleveland didn’t have a particularly impressive game, but they did dominate the entire night.
The Cavs had a 23-14 point lead at the end of the first quarter. Completely unsurprising as the Clippers went 4-for-21 from the field and 1-for-11 from three-point range. Only two of the starters, Ivica Zubac and Eric Bledsoe, had made a field goal. Los Angeles registered twice the amount of turnovers in the first period than baskets made.
Not the best start for the Clippers, but they tried to get it together after the break.
As the clock read 8:36 in the third period, a three-pointer by Nicolas Batum cut the deficit to three points. Batum helped Los Angeles make a big push in the right direction. He picked up seven points in the first half, but he turned up the heat and grabbed nine more points less than five minutes into the third quarter.
Reggie Jackson also woke up. Jackson had not scored until the clock had 2:20 left in the first half, and he entered halftime with just two points. However, he made up for it by registering 14 points in the following 12 minutes.
“I was hooping, honestly the ball was moving a lot. I thought that was a benefactor to us, moving our bodies, us moving on defense and ball movement,” Jackson said. “That’s been our key this year and same with last year.”
Someone who did not have a good third period was Paul George, who with 5:10 left in the quarter had picked up four fouls, the same amount of baskets he had made until this point.
The Clippers looked alive after the break, but the fourth quarter still began with a 72-64 lead for Cleveland.
By the end of the night, their offense left a lot to be desired. Los Angeles shot at 35.6% from the field and 22.0% from beyond the arc. They even struggled from the free throw line shooting at 61.5%.
“I thought we got some good looks, it was just a flat night for us,” George said. “We all struggled shooting it and so it’s one of those games, man, nobody can score.”
Up next, Los Angeles will head to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers on Friday night.
