Throughout the protracted NBA regular season, every club experiences some downs, and it appears like the Los Angeles Clippers are currently experiencing some. They lost badly after watching a double-digit lead vanish in the fourth quarter for the second time in a week.
The most recent incident was against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. For the first three quarters, everything appeared to be going well for Los Angeles, who was battling some fatigue from playing two nights in a back-to-back on the road.
They were catching the Bucks short-handed, as they were without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is dealing with Achilles soreness. Khris Middleton is also sidelined still from a sprained ankle suffered over a month ago.
Late game collapses have hurt the Clippers, who are having a bit of an identity crisis recently. They play a traditional center in Ivica Zubac, and for a stretch of the season, were arguably the most dominant team in the NBA. But teams have begun countering that, with the Clippers’ answer being to go small but it hasn’t always worked as effectively as they would hope.
Being without backup point guard Russell Westbrook, who fractured his hand over the weekend and had to undergo surgery, certainly hurts their small ball alignments. Slightly more concerning, the Clippers offense went ice cold when Doc Rivers and the Bucks changed to a zone defense.
