INGLEWOOD — The Clippers’ postgame meeting was apt to be long and somewhat harsh. Whether that happened Saturday morning or on the plane to Oklahoma City, there were things the team needed to address before facing the Thunder on Sunday.
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The immediate concern was expected to be the 26 turnovers that led to 33 points for the Lakers and cost the Clippers a chance to overtake their opponents in a 125-117 loss Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“Too many,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We got to be better. They did a couple things, but we got to take care of the basketball. You can’t play a good team and turn the ball over 26 times.”
Nine of the turnovers were at the hands of Darius Garland, setting a career high for the point guard. He is averaging an impressive 28 points over the first two games, but six turnovers. He said his miscues Friday were a matter of the Lakers predicting his passes and not making the easy shots.
“(I have to) go back, watch the film, see where I messed up, slow down the game, relax, be patient and play my part,” Garland said.
Lue said the coaches would sit down with Garland and “show him what it looks like and how teams will try to play him when he’s on the floor. He’ll be better next game. But knowing he’s the head of the snake, he’ll take care of the basketball and also get guys involved.”
No amount of game film can adequately prepare Garland and the rest of the Clippers (1-1) for Sunday’s game against the Thunder, which is averaging 10.2 steals and only 11.7 turnovers in their first two games.
OKC point guard and former Clippers draft pick Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is leading the team, averaging 24.5 points, 3.5 assists and 1.5 assists. The two-time league MVP has turned the ball over only once in 70 minutes of play.
Center Chet Holmgren is adding 16.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Lue, however, isn’t intimidated by the Thunder’s dominating start, which includes victories against last season’s defensive player of the year Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic.
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“We’re going to play hard,” Lue said. “We’re going to scrap to the end. We like what our guys did (against the Lakers).”
Lue couldn’t have been pleased with his team’s dropoff in the third quarter Friday when the Lakers capitalized on a sluggish start by the Clippers to open up a double-digit lead.
Center Isaiah Jackson said he noticed the team came out of halftime missing the spark they had to force a tie game at intermission. It’s going to be another agenda item the coaching staff will need to address.
“Last game (against the Sacramento Kings), we played with a little more energy throughout the whole game,” Jackson said. “I think tonight I sort of declined, especially in the third quarter, and came out without that much energy.
“It’s the beginning of the season. I think we still have a lot of basketball to go and we really can’t hang our heads down on this loss tonight because I feel like we did good. We showed some good things.”
All things considered, Lue maintained an upbeat outlook going forward, given the way the Clippers pushed the Lakers for three quarters.
“We fought, we played hard, but we didn’t play smart,” Lue said. “We fouled their 3-point shooters, we turned the ball over. But I liked our pace on missed shots, the advance and attack, but we just didn’t handle the ball good enough.”
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Clippers (1-1) at Oklahoma City (2-0)
When: 4 p.m. PT Sunday
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City
TV/Radio: Clippervision/AM 570