LOS ANGELES — By the time the Los Angeles Clippers pulled into San Antonio last Thursday they had lost nine of their previous 11 games and, with each passing day, valuable time to steer themselves out of their skid.
The Clippers’ roster is loaded with players who are versatile, but not by nature vociferous. But as the losing continued, which included losses to Philadelphia and Utah on consecutive nights that dropped the preseason championship contender into the play-in tournament tier of the Western Conference standings, coach Tyronn Lue wanted one of the NBA’s oldest rosters to find answers among themselves. Guard Norman Powell, wing Paul George and forward Marcus Morris Sr. were the most vocal, said people familiar with the locker-room discussions.
“Guys were like, ‘OK, it’s getting ridiculous, we got to win some games,’” center Ivica Zubac said. “We were talking about that Utah game: We can go on a win streak. We just got to lock in, we got to stick to our plan.”
