Los Angeles Clippers Search for Solution to Mystery of Early-Season Malaise

PLAYA VISTA, Calif.—It's one thing for a presumptive NBA title contender like the Cleveland Cavaliers to struggle from the opening tip. Their volatile combination of new players, new coach, new schemes to sort out on the court and new chemistry to concoct off of it all but guaranteed that LeBron James would have to instruct the observing masses to relax at some point.

It's another thing, though, for the Los Angeles Clippers to stumble out of the starting gate.

This is the fourth season that L.A.'s Big 3 of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan has been together. Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes have been part of the equation for the last three. They're all in the midst of Year 2 under Doc Rivers, who had them playing at a top-10 level on both sides of the court by the time the 2013-14 campaign came to a close, with a franchise-record 57 wins to boot.

So what's changed? How is it that the Clippers, at 3-2, have been beaten (badly) by both of their NorCal counterparts and barely squeaked by the banged-up Oklahoma City Thunder, the talent-deprived Los Angeles Lakers and the exceedingly young Utah Jazz? Why has their once-top-ranked offense fallen into the middle of the pack, and their defense into the bottom third of the league and their team as a whole resorted to a closed-door meeting after just five games?

"[Gregg Popovich] said it doesn’t matter that we have the same team," Doc Rivers said before Clippers practice on Friday, channeling the San Antonio Spurs coach. "This is not the team I had last year. It just happens."

Added Paul, channeling his coach: "You come into a season and you think you're going to pick up right where you left off, but that’s not the case. At the core, it is the same team. We have a few new pieces around. I think it’s up to us guys that have been here to be the leaders to get everything going."

Those leaders didn't set the best pace during the Clippers' 121-104 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Paul was part of a backcourt that got torched for a combined 47 points by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Griffin, normally a force inside, took just five of his 15 shots in the paint, went to the free-throw line once and managed but a single rebound—just the second time in his career he'd come away so close to empty on the boards.

"I think it starts with me," said Griffin. "I need to do a better job of mixing it up and attacking more and not settling for jump shots. That’s something I’ve got to work on, something I’ve got to figure out. And hopefully that brings a different dynamic to our entire offense."

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These problems seem completely correctible. Griffin and the Clippers have played much better basketball before.

So, again, what's keeping them?

"It’s an effort thing," Rivers went on. "It’s a focus and effort. Focus and effort. I’ve got to figure out why that’s not there. That’s on me."

And where, exactly, has that effort been? More importantly, why hasn't it been where it needs to be? It's here that the case of the underwhelming Clippers becomes a curious one.

"There’s a reason why we’re not playing as hard as we should and we’re not as focused. I don’t know the reason, and as a coach, that's troubling," Rivers surmised. "I want to find out the reason."

It's not a reason that can be sorted out through stats or solved through schematics. The Clippers know what they're capable of. Hence, this team isn't even close to panicking at this point, nor should it be.

"Obviously, it’s a long season," said Crawford, serving reminder to the scrum at the Clippers' practice facility. "The one thing I’ve learned is you never get too high or too low. If you win 17 games in a row, like I’ve been a part of here, or if you lose a few in a row, you can never get too high or too low. Just try to stay in the moment and keep moving forward."

Whatever moments the Clippers have been in, they don't appear to have been all that close to the present. Perhaps this club is already pining for the spring, when its championship chase can truly begin, and hoping the slog of the regular season can be sped along.

That's not at all unusual for teams that have enjoyed success over a period of years. The Miami Heat dropped from 66 wins in 2012-13 to a more modest (but still strong) 54 last season. The Lakers slipped from 67 wins in Year 1 of the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal three-peat to 56 and 58 wins in Years 2 and 3, respectively. Even Rivers' Boston Celtics saw slippage, from a pair of 60-plus-win seasons to begin their Big 3 era to 50 victories in 2009-10, when they returned to the Finals.

The difference is that those squads took home at least one Larry O'Brien Trophy before their effort and sense of urgency waned. The Clippers, of course, have yet to achieve such singular success.

"What have we done?" wondered Rivers.

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Their three playoff appearances, two series wins and strings of regular-season victories therein are nothing to sneeze at. But when the aspirations and expectations now rest in the realm of "championship or bust," even the Clippers' noteworthy accomplishments don't measure up.

And if even the defending champion Spurs, who brought back 14 of their 15 players from last season's road to redemption, can't count on continuity to carry the day, why should the Clippers, who succumbed to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round?

Every season is its own entity, its only puzzle to be put together, regardless of how many holdovers there are on hand. Building a champion is a project and a process that requires months and months of hard work and sacrifice, often within the orbit of years and years of careful planning.

And if we're talking about these Clippers as being so similar to last year's squad, and having to start each campaign from something closer to square one, it makes sense that L.A. would look out of sorts, particularly on the defensive end. Around this point last November, the Clippers owned the league's second-worst defense, albeit while sporting its second-most efficient offense. Only later did L.A. fully grasp Doc's defensive principles and put them into near-peak practice.

"We’re clear on what we’re supposed to do," Griffin insisted. "We just haven’t been sharp on executing what we’re supposed to do. Again, that’s on us. Thats on the players. It’s not our system. It’s not anything that we’re doing differently or doing wrong, except when we go out on the floor and execute, so it’s on us."

Rivers, though, wasn't about to absolve himself of responsibility. "We’re just not playing well, and to me, we’re not playing hard enough, for me. And we have to get that. That’s my job. It really is. Obviously, the players have to do it, but I’m the coach of the team and I have to get them to do it and get them to see the value in it. So far, I haven’t."

See the value? A ring would seem valuable enough to pique the Clippers' collective interest, insofar as it pertains playing hard.

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But there's no jewelry to be won between now and mid-April, only individual accolades. Not until spring will the Clippers have a chance to do something truly special together.

For now, it's incumbent upon Rivers to do what he's always done best and what the Clippers are paying him so handsomely to do: coach. 

Not draw up clever plays or entertain the questions of inquisitive reporters (though he can certainly do those things at a high level) but motivate players to perform at their highest possible capacity.

And, naturally, for those players need to respond with the effort he's looking for, the effort he's seen this team put forth many times before.

Rivers clarified:

"

We deal with people. We don’t deal with X’s and O’s...We actually deal with human people that have human stuff going on in their life...We just have to figure it all out. That’s part of it. In a crazy way, it’s part of the joy of my job. It’s the same part of my job that drives me nuts. But it is the same thing, and it’s part of my job.

"

That job continues on Saturday, when the improving Portland Trail Blazers come to town.

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