PLAYA VISTA, Calif. -- After allowing a total of 272 points in their past two home games, the LA Clippers started a rare two-day practice stretch on Wednesday, trying to find their defense and rediscover some of that grinding underdog mentality they had last season.
The Clippers are 26-12, despite shuffling injured players in and out and having little to no practice time. Still, a few of the players from last season's core that overachieved its way into the playoffs want to see the team play the way it did last season.
"I think we just got to get used to understanding what we represent to other teams around the league," reigning sixth man of the year Lou Williams said of the Clippers' contending status. "We've dropped some games because of that, because we went into some games without the same mindset [from last season] and not giving ourselves an opportunity to win. So I think we got to develop some of that [mentality] back and just get back to the grind."
"... We didn't expect to go undefeated, you know?" Williams added. "So it's not like we're ringing no alarm or anything."
Doc Rivers and Paul George say the Clippers haven't played their best or been as locked in as they were on Christmas, when they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111-106. After the Clippers were beaten by the Memphis Grizzlies 140-114 on Saturday at home, Montrezl Harrell harped on something Rivers has repeatedly said to the media: that the Clippers are not a great team yet, and people needed to stop saying that.
"Yeah, we haven't won anything, so that's pretty much the truth," Williams said when asked about Harrell's comments from Saturday. "Great teams have championships. We don't have one, so I agree with that."
The Clippers rebounded with a 135-132 win over the New York Knicks on Sunday at home, but they surrendered 45 points in the first quarter. The Clippers were off Monday and Tuesday to decompress and rest before focusing on defense in practice on Wednesday.
Last season, the Clippers went 48-34 despite trading their leading scorer, Tobias Harris, before the trade deadline. They still made the playoffs and lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors in the first round. The season was considered a success by many because the Clippers far exceeded expectations and overachieved.
But Rivers pushed back on that sentiment last weekend.
"What I know about last year, we were the eighth seed, we were 19th in defense," Rivers argued. "And we lost in the first round. And I just will reject that that was such a great year. ... We did some good things, but it wasn't good enough."
"I hate using that as a benchmark," he added. "... It's frustrating as hell to me. Like, everyone brings it up. It's not a benchmark. That's a losing organization crap."
The players who were on the team last season don't use that record and playoff appearance as a measuring stick. But they remember the hungry attitude and grinding mentality they had and hope they can rediscover some of that in 2020.
"We got two superstars on our team now," JaMychal Green said. "It seems everybody we play has, like, a target on our back and give us their all. It's just a different feel to the game once we come into it."
"Defensively, just got to get back to our identity, playing hard," he added. "We haven't been playing hard defensively, pick-and-rolls have been a little bad, closeouts have been a little bad. We are just not ourselves. We are just trying to get back to us."