Russell Westbrook returned to action on Monday at home vs. Indiana following a 12-game absence due to a left-hand fracture, but it wasn’t enough for the Clippers, who lost for the sixth time in their past nine games and are now 10-12 since getting off to a 34-15 start.
Monday’s defeat at the hands of the Pacers moved the Clippers out of the top four in the Western Conference for the first time since December. The Pelicans now control the No. 4 seed, with an identical 44-27 record and a tiebreaker edge over Los Angeles.
Speaking after the game to reporters, including Ohm Youngmiusk of ESPN and Law Murray of The Athletic, James Harden said the Clippers “gotta find” their identity, adding that teams are scoring too easily on them. Asked about the team’s identity, head coach Tyronn Lue offered a blunt assessment.
“Right now, do we have an identity? I think, yeah. We’re soft,” Lue said. “That could be an identity, if you want to call [it] that. Like, we got to be tougher, mentally and physically.”
The Clippers got off to a 3-7 start this season, struggling initially to adjust following the acquisition of Harden from Philadelphia. Lue expressed confidence at that time that his team would be fine, and the Clippers rewarded that confidence with a 26-5 midseason stretch. The veteran coach is once again optimistic that his club will ultimately figure things out but suggested on Monday that it will take a change to their mindset and approach.
“When we were 26-5, we had a great identity,” Lue said. “So you can’t pick and choose when you want to lead. You can’t pick and choose when you want to have identity. You can’t pick and choose when you want to do things the right way.”
The Clippers were just 6-6 during Westbrook’s absence in recent weeks, and there’s hope that the return of the former MVP will help invigorate a second unit that dipped to 18th in scoring while he was out. Westbrook spoke on Monday about the role he believes he can play in helping the club reestablish its identity.
“You don’t point fingers, you don’t point blame,” Westbrook said. “Each individual, I think we got to look within, look within ourselves, and figure out how we can better help our team. I think that’s where we start, we start with ourselves. I start with myself. And then come together collectively and figure out how we now bring what we all have and bring to the table.
“As we’ve seen when we’ve done it the right way, it shows that we’re a hard team to stop. And we know where our ceiling is, we know how we need to get there. And I think 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. And to me, it’s as simple as that.”
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