MCT/San Antonio


It was a game that was supposed to say something about the Los Angeles Clippers and it did.
They’re nowhere near the team they want to be, the evidence unfolding during another shoddy fourth quarter that doomed them Friday night at the AT&T Center.
The Clippers had persevered through shaky late-game stretches against middling teams but quickly discovered that formula wouldn’t work against the San Antonio Spurs, a 115-107 loss serving as a declaration of their standing in the Western Conference.
“I think we know where we’re at,” Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick said after the Spurs scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to wipe out a three-point deficit. “We’re not as good as San Antonio and Golden State.”
“As a second unit, we’ve got to do a better job at maintaining the lead, and I think we got kind of flustered a little bit over some calls that we thought were missed,” Clippers forward Josh Smith said, “but we’ve just got to move to the next play.”
Clippers point guard Chris Paul had 27 points and 10 assists and Griffin finished with 25 points. It wasn’t nearly enough on a night when the six Clippers reserves who played combined for 20 points.
Rivers acknowledged his bench needed to improve but said he wouldn’t stagger his lineups so that there was always a starter on the court. “We do at times and at times we won’t,” Rivers said. “Honestly, we won’t right now. We’ve only won nine out of 11, by the way, so we’ve been pretty good.”
The needs-improvement list was a lengthy one for the Clippers.
“Execute better, get stops, limit teams to one shot,” said Jordan, who had 17 rebounds and 16 points.
“We’re not there,” Redick said. “We know that. We’re playing better, I think we’ve made some progress in the last 10 to 14 days but we know where we’re at.”