There is no denying the Clippers are in a slump and Russell Westbrook has spoken candidly about the franchise’s struggles.
Westbrook returned from hand surgery he underwent just three weeks ago and notched 14 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes during LAC’s 133-116 loss to the Pacers.
The team have gone 8-10 since the All-Star break and Russ addressed his team’s form after the game.
“You don’t point fingers, you don’t point blame,” Westbrook said. “That’s how I lead… We got to look within ourselves, and figure out how we can better help our team. And I think that’s where we start. We start with ourselves. I start with myself. And then we come together collectively… When we’ve done it the right way it shows we’re a hard team to stop… Ultimately as a leader, it’s my job just to hold guys accountable, hold myself accountable, and make sure that we stay together through this tough little patch that we’re having.”
Clippers head coach Ty Lue wasn’t quite as forgiving after his side endured their third loss in five games.
“Right now do we have an identity? Um, I think, yeah, we’re soft. That can be an identity, if you want to call it that,” Lue said. “Like, we got to be tougher, mentally and physically. But we do have an identity. When we were 26-5, we had a great identity. So, you can’t pick and choose when you want to lead. You can’t pick and choose when you’re going to have an identity. You can’t pick and choose when you want to do things the right way. So, just do the right things every night and everything else will fall in order.
“And, so, yes, we do have an identity. We got to get back to that, because we’ve had it. But when you lose games, it’s easy to go the other way and we’re not going to do that and I’m not going to let our team do that. And I’m tough-minded. I’ve been through everything, and so have these guys. … So, we have an identity, but right now our identity has been shaken because we’re not winning and we’re not doing things the right way consistently.”
As Lue mentioned, the Clippers were an NBA best 26-5 between December 1 and February 5.
In that time, the team went on a 6-1 run during their Grammy road trip, but since then are 10-12.
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