Clippers ramp up their defense and good results follow – Orange County Register

Call it swag or mojo, or just a sense of urgency. More likely, though, the Clippers’ sudden turnaround has more to do with a renewed commitment to playing defense for 48 minutes, which resulted in their recent 5-1 record.

The Clippers extended a modest two-game winning streak with a lopsided win over the Utah Jazz on Friday by cracking down on defense, especially when they saw their 38-point lead shrink to 22 in the third quarter.

“We locked in,” James Harden said. “Offensively, you obviously want to make shots every play. But if you don’t make them, whatever happens. But defensively we can control that. I think tonight was a really good step forward for our defense.

Although the Clippers never really threatened to lose to the Jazz, the defensive mistake was symptomatic of what led to an inconsistent February and March, when they couldn’t string together more than two wins. Now they look to add to their recent string of successful outings with a Sunday afternoon game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, third in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s a long season,” Harden said. “As much as you want to win games and everything goes well, it’s not going to happen like that. I think every team goes through this no matter what, no matter what happens, no matter what. So for us it was just bad timing. But now we have an opportunity. We have what, (five) games left to accelerate and improve.

The Clippers (49-28) must close the regular season strong to consolidate their fourth place in the Western Conference. They hold a two-game advantage over the Dallas Mavericks and a three-game advantage over the Phoenix Suns, who are battling for fifth place.

Paul George said the Clippers need to use their last five wins in six games as a springboard heading into the final five games.

“We need to build on that,” he said. “Have some consistency.”

The key will be a consistent level of uncompromising defense. The Clippers have held all but one of their last six opponents to 110 points or fewer, demonstrating their focus on stopping teams.

“I think our defense has improved,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “It was much better, much better (by) paying attention to details, bringing physicality, bouncing the ball well.

“But our defense held us back, so I know offensively we’re going to be a good team and we can make shots. We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we wanted, but defensively it’s what has carried us over these last six or seven games.

When asked what changed, Lue said their defensive improvement was a matter of “just doing it.” He has been talking for weeks about the need to play harder on defense, especially in transition.

“I think we understand the fundamentals of our defense and what we want to do,” Lue said. “And like I said before, we do a lot of blitzing during those periods and we spread out, we turn, we steal to start games.