INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue had less than 24 hours to figure out how to get his team to cut down on its turnovers, the kind of mistakes that led to a disheartening loss the previous night.
His solution was, in theory, simple. He said the Clippers needed to “make the easy pass, the easy play. Instead of making the home run play, take what the defense gives us.”
Sounds simple.
And for the first 12 minutes in Tuesday’s second night of a back-to-back, the game was tantalizingly easy for the Clippers. Then it got hard as the Oklahoma City Thunder turned up the heat, forcing the Clippers into turning the ball over and came away with a 126-107 victory to remain the league’s only unbeaten team (8-0).
“The start of the game was really good,” Lue said. “We talked about after last night just taking care of the basketball and not turning the ball over and to have a first quarter where you take care of the basketball was huge,” Lue said. “Then in the second quarter they picked their pressure up and then we struggled with their pressure, with their aggressiveness and we had eight turnovers in the second quarter.”
The Thunder’s eighth straight victory was in large part because star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got hot, scoring 18 of his game-high 30 points in the third quarter at the Intuit Dome. He also had 12 assists and four rebounds while shooting 9 for 14 from the floor (4 for 5 from 3-point range).
Lue’s easy-pass, easy-play strategy might work against most teams. The defending NBA champion Thunder, however, are unlike most teams.
For starters, they return the core of last year’s 68-14 team, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, last year’s league MVP. They are unbeaten, having tied last season’s franchise record start, and given time, might set a few more marks.
“We have a DNA, we understand how to play basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander, who played for the Clippers in his rookie season before he was traded to the Thunder, said after notching their seventh straight victory Sunday. “We understand how to win, you know, games, big moments and it’s done with all five guys on the court on both ends. That’s (ingrained) in us, that’s … almost a habit now.”
It’s a habit the Clippers (3-4) would love to develop if they can stay healthy. Kawhi Leonard sat out Tuesday’s game after turning his right ankle against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, and guard Bradley Beal also missed the second game of a back-to-back set to manage his sore right knee.
Without two of their normal starters, James Harden took it upon himself to carry the team, scoring a team-high 25 points, but he was held to just three in the second half. He also had six rebounds and six assists.
John Collins added 17 points for the Clippers, while Derrick Jones Jr. had 16 points and four rebounds and Brook Lopez finished with 12 points.
The Clippers took Lue’s advice in the early going and caught the Thunder off guard with a 16-2 run to start the game. They continued to rattle the Thunder and led, 33-23, heading into the second quarter without turning the ball over once.
The Clippers, though, fell into bad habits for a spell, turning the ball over eight times in the second quarter, which allowed the Thunder to slowly get back into the game.
One night after turning the ball over 21 times against the Pelicans, the Clippers had 19 turnovers that resulted in 34 points for the Thunder.
OKC overcame a 13-point deficit to briefly take a one-point lead on three free throws by Gilgeous-Alexander with 34 seconds left in the first half. Still, the Clippers, led by Harden’s 22 first-half points, clung to a 57-56 halftime lead.
The game stayed close through the third quarter with the Clippers trailing 88-86 with 1:26 left. The fourth quarter was disastrous for the Clippers, as the Thunder opened the period on a 26-6 run to take control.
“Basketball is a game of runs, defending champs, simple,” Harden said of the Clippers’ uneven play. “It’s a four-quarter game.”
He conceded that the Thunder are better at putting together a complete 48-minute game, unlike the Clippers are currently.
“First of all, we got our own things that we got to correct and things that we got to get better at, but obviously they bring a special dynamic to the game and for four quarters, they just make you beat them for the most part,” Harden said. “They’re very disciplined, pretty much simple.”
Isiah Joe scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting and had three rebounds for the Thunder, while Carson Wallace added 12 points. Former Clipper Isiah Hartenstein finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and Chet Holmgren had 11 points and five rebounds.
