Clippers vow to take better care of the basketball after Game 1 loss to Nuggets

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20-04-2025

Clippers vow to take better care of the basketball after Game 1 loss to Nuggets
Clippers guard Norman Powell loses control of the ball while driving between Nuggets guard Christian Braun, left, and forward Aaron Gordon on Saturday in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
A day later, the Clippers didn't hide from the primary cause of their demise in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series against the Denver Nuggets.
Twenty turnovers doomed the Clippers and put them in a 0-1 hole in the best-of-seven series Saturday. Four turnovers in the extra five minutes during overtime left the Clippers proclaiming they must do a better job taking care of the basketball in Game 2 on Monday night at Ball Arena.
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'It's a little frustrating, just because it's self-inflicted and it's that we have been really good at this the last few weeks,' Clippers guard James Harden said late Saturday night after Game 1. "But [we're] even-keeled, you know what I mean? Come back in Game 2 ready to go even better.'
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said they watched film and his staff showed the group how some of the turnovers transpired. Lue said 11 of their turnovers were 'unforced errors that were "uncharacteristic' of his team.
Read more: Turnovers haunt Clippers during Game 1 overtime loss to Nuggets
Kawhi Leonard had seven turnovers, including one with 33.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Clippers ahead 96-95 and another during overtime.
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It was the turnovers in the overtime that spelled the difference.
Norman Powell turned the ball over with 3:36 left and the score tied at 100.
Harden turned the ball over with 2:08 left and the Clippers down 105-102.
Leonard turned the ball over with 49.3 seconds left and the Clippers down 108-104.
Nicolas Batum gave up his turnover after he took the ball out of bounds and had his pass intended for Harden tipped by Russell Westbrook off Harden's hand with 9.1 seconds left and the Clippers down 110-107.
'The biggest thing for us was our turnovers and it was the careless turnovers,' Lue said Sunday. 'Like, Denver is playing, they are blitzing, they are aggressive, their physicality — so you are going to have 10 turnovers because of that. But you can't have 20, especially on the road. So a lot of those turnovers were careless. We just got to do a better job of cleaning that up.'
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Read more: How do the Clippers match up against the Nuggets entering their playoff series?
The players owned their mistakes and vowed to be better in the second game.
'There's not much to say,' Clippers center Ivica Zubac said Sunday. 'We all know where we made mistakes. There was a lot of unforced turnovers. I mean, a lot of them were forced by them. They played really well after that first quarter. So, we all know we got to be better. We can't turn the ball over that much, so there's not much we can say to each other. We all know what's at stake. We all know where we messed up, so I'm sure everyone will be better next game.'
Another problem for the Clippers was the Nuggets' offensive rebounding — especially in the overtime.
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The Nuggets had four offensive rebounds during the extra period, two apiece by Aaron Gordon and Westbrook.
The Nuggets had 12 offensive rebounds during the game, five by Gordon and four by Westbrook.
Mentally, Lue said, his group is still in a good space. They have room for improvement and they have seen the error of their ways and how they can clean up those issues.
'Yesterday is behind us already,' Lue said. 'We got to move on. It was one game and we got to be better in the second game if we want to go home with the series tied up at 1-1 and we understand that. So, just being better all around the board. We know we can do some things better defensively. Offensively, we have the blueprint and we just have to execute it time and time again.'
Harden's foul problems
To a degree, Lue said, Harden was affected by his foul trouble.
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Harden played 42:48. He scored 32 points and was 11 for 22 from the field, four for nine from three-point range and six for six from the free-throw line. He had seven points in the overtime, making all three of his shots.
But Harden finished the game with five fouls, picking up two in the first quarter, three by halftime and four by the middle of the third quarter.
Harden, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound point guard, was assigned to defend 6-foot-8, 235-pound power forward Gordon, and Lue thinks that may have been part of the reason for all the fouls.
'You could see a few possessions where he wasn't as aggressive," Lue said. "He kind of opened the door, opened the gate a little bit not wanting to get that foul. But we needed him on the floor. So, when he's down under the basket wrestling with Gordon the whole game, that's going to happen. We just got to be smart about it. Maybe mix those matchups a little bit more so he's not on him for the whole game. But I thought he got a lot of them just trying to wrestle around with Gordon and Joker [Nikola Jokic] down on the block.'
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.