PLAYA VISTA — Heading into their game against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday, the Clippers sat in eighth place in the Western Conference standings. By the end of the night, after beating the Raptors, they were sixth.
Two days later, they were in fifth without even picking up a basketball. Such is life in the tightly packed Western Conference, where the standings change nightly and just two games separate fifth from 10th place.
The wild West keeps center Mason Plumlee checking the standings after every game. He said “it’s a fun race.”
“It’s a lot of good teams and every game matters,” Plumlee said. “So, like I know we’re talking a lot about getting better and more comfortable in progress, but winning is the most important thing right now.”
Winning is a must these days for the Clippers (35-33), who finally regained their footing after losing six games in a row. They have won their past two – against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Raptors – and will be looking to build on that momentum in their remaining 14 regular-season games, starting with Saturday’s midday game against the New York Knicks.
Coach Tyronn Lue said Friday that pushing forward will depend on how quickly the four new players – Plumlee and guards Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon and Bones Hyland – feel comfortable with the game plan, and if the Clippers can keep it together on defense. They showed a solid commitment to reducing turnovers and stopping opponents from getting easy baskets in their past two games.
Lue said the coaching staff would be focusing on those game aspects during their third practice in five days.
“(We are going to work on) some things that we’ve kind of slacked on as far as defensively, things that we can now practice and get back to going over those things so they can see them, then getting the reps,” Lue said.
“I think it’s very important, you know, to be able to get the reps that we need to get. When you got two days in between (games) and…
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