INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue sees the games slip by and along with them, opportunities to turn around the season. With their record at 6-18, each loss makes the next game much more critical, down to the minute, even less.
“Every second counts, every day counts, every possession counts,” Lue said after practice on Tuesday. “We’ve played better. We’ve been close. It’s just one turnover that you shouldn’t have (made) or one missed box out or one missed open 3 and you can win the game. We’ve been close.
“Just got to continue to keep plugging away and we got to turn it. … Just we haven’t been able to get over that hump.”
The Clippers currently are second-to-last among the 15 Western Conference teams, just above the woeful New Orleans Pelicans (3-22), and their upcoming schedule makes it more challenging to climb out of the depths of the standings.
On Thursday night, the Clippers play at the Houston Rockets (15-6), followed by games against the Memphis Grizzlies (11-13) on Monday, the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder (23-1) on Wednesday and the Lakers (17-6) the following Saturday.
Yet, if their past three games are any indication, the Clippers could post a few victories before the new year.
On their recent trip, they beat the Atlanta Hawks on the heels of Chris Paul’s dismissal then pushed the Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves before coming up short at the end. Many of the Clippers’ losses this season have been the result of fourth-quarter meltdowns.
“We’ve really played some good basketball and had a chance to win those games,” Lue said. “So, when you look at it and you’re not able to close the game and finish the game, that’s the only thing that’s kind of frustrating.”
Lue said the small positives are encouraging, leading him to believe the season is not completely lost.
“I mean, we definitely can turn it around,” he said. “One big shot, one big rebound, one less turnover, things like that. And when you’re able to do that, that’s when you can start winning games.
“I think we’re getting better. I think. I don’t know if it’s been the best, but guys are putting in the time, putting in the work.”
Forward John Collins has trudged through this kind of season before, having played last season with the Utah Jazz, who finished with a 17-65 record. And from his vantage point, he sees improvement in the Clippers’ play, especially in their flow and team chemistry.
“You want some bigger positives to appear, but for me, for most of what life is, it’s about the little things, them adding up to having a greater net positive,” Collins said. “So, you try to just put what you can into the pot and make sure it’s adding and not taking.”
Veteran forward Nicolas Batum has seen the good and the bad in his four-plus seasons with the Clippers, but nothing quite like this season.
“I won’t say frustrated, just weird, getting weird though,” Batum said. “We expected it to be a lot better.”
Injuries to starters Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard and Derrick Jones Jr. hampered their efforts for a successful start, but Batum said the Clippers cannot pin all their troubles on the missing players.
“It’s not an excuse, but it is a challenge every day to come with a different lineup,” he said.
“When you start losing one, two, three, four, five games, you think about that also. We right now just need to focus on what we have. We have more than enough to beat teams and to be winning games.”
CLIPPERS AT ROCKETS
When: Thursday, 5 p.m. PT
Where: Toyota Center, Houston
TV/radio: FDSN SoCal, 570 AM