Doc Rivers Calls Out Team
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Jim McIsaac/Getty Images(CLEVELAND) — The Los Angeles Clippers (13-8) still have high expectations this season, but fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 88-82 on Saturday for their third loss in four games.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers called the team out after the loss and said they have to work on maturing if the team is going to be in contention in April.
“We did a lot of pouting in the game,” Rivers said Saturday. “You can’t play that way. You have to keep playing. I always call them emotional hijacks, and we had a lot of that going on. That happens, but you have to be able to pull yourself out of it individually or as a group, and I don’t think we did a good job of that.”
Rivers said the team has to focus more on the game rather than the score.
“When we become a good team, if we become a good team, it will be because we miss 30 shots in a row and you wouldn’t know it,” Rivers said. “We just keep playing. You get some bad calls on you and you just keep playing. Right now we’re not at that point maturity-wise. When we go bad, we start thinking bad. That’s an area we have to grow in. …You can preach it but it’s a habit and you have to get over it. There’s been times where we’ve fought it and did good job, and this is one of those nights where we didn’t.”
The Clippers are currently sitting in fourth in the Western Conference.
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