The Los Angeles Clippers have found themselves in a bit of a rut. The team billed by many as a potential title contender has started off the season on the wrong foot, going 6-7, in their worst 13 game start in the Chris Paul era. Naturally, that has led to some frustration from everyone involved with the team. After Sunday’s loss at home against the Toronto Raptors, that frustration reportedly came to a boiling point.
According to Dan Woike of the OC Register, after the game, forward Josh Smith and an unspecified assistant coach could be heard arguing loudly. Woike does not offer any details about what the argument was about, but he does mention that plenty of yelling and profanities could be heard.
Several of the Clippers players and coaches were asked about the incident and none of them had anything to say about what exactly occurred. Head coach Doc Rivers labeled it as a non-story and chalked it up to losing:
It’s (like any) locker room after you lose and play like that. Guys are upset. That’s about it.
Blake Griffin, meanwhile, shared that there is a lot of frustration built up as a result of the team’s lack of success but that the team must work to overcome that, in order to take a positive step:
It’s pretty frustrating. We’ve dropped three in a row. I think it’s pretty normal to be frustrated. But, we can’t let that frustration affect us negatively moving forward. I think we need to do a good job of sitting down, being real and understanding what the real problems are moving forward.
Josh Smith is averaging career lows in points and minutes played in his first season with the Clippers.
