Doc Rivers livid after blowout loss to Warriors, says they're 'better than us'

Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers went off on his team Wednesday night after an embarrassing 121-104 loss to the Warriors at Oracle Arena. The Warriors blitzed the Clips from the get-go, leading by as many as 29 before the Clippers' bench got it back into "not completely horrible" range in the fourth.

After the game, the players held a players-only meeting (our first of the year!), which Rivers wasn't exactly impressed with. Let's break down the highlights of Doc's comments. From the Orange County Register:

"Tonight was great in the aspect, I kind of said, ‘Something's going to happen tonight. It's going to be good or bad for us. We're going to find out exactly what we need to find out.' And what we found is that they're way better than us right now. It's not even…if this was a playoff series, we'd lose in four games. It would be a destruction."

via Doc Rivers rips his team following loss: Clippers Blog: Orange County Register.

Well, yeah, if your gametracker looks like this:

You are probably not winning a playoff series if the games go like that. And Doc's right in that the Clippers have been skating against bad teams and the loss to the Kings Sunday could have been chalked up as a fluke or an overlook. But getting waxed by your biggest rival is a wakeup call. We'll see if they pick up.

"We've got to rebound better, clearly. (Blake Griffin) has to rebound better. Our guys have to give him room. There was no space today. Listen, Blake is a great player, but if we give him no space, no room, there's no ball movement, there's no people movement and there's no hard cuts, you can guard Blake. The way we moved on the floor tonight…Were we tired? We may have been. Was it five games in seven nights? But what we lacked was heart. I don't mind being tired, and we can use that as an excuse, but listen, I just know me. If I'm tired and getting my butt kicked, I'm going to leave the game with no fouls left. That, to me, was just weak on our part. I've got to do something better. Alright? We have holes on our team, I know that. But, we should be covering up for them. I don't think we're doing a very good job. We're leaving the guys that aren't good defenders on an island instead of being there to help them. Right now, this is not the same group from last year. And it's the same group. So, we have to figure that out."

He's basically calling his team soft/weak/saying they got punked. Which they did. Would fouling more have made an impact? Do you want to send Golden State to the line? It would have made Doc feel better, but the Nuggets have fouled the crap out of the Kings in two games and didn't show any more heart.

Q: What was the postgame locker room message?

"I didn't say much. I just let them blow smoke up each other's asses. That's all they did, in my opinion. I just think if you're going to talk, you've got to be real. I'm not a big fan of group meetings unless they're real group meetings. I think we're getting close with the talk today, but we're not there."

SHOTS. FIRED.

That's a suckerpunch. When you're questioning if your team talking to one another to try and work it out is legit, that's a bad sign. And that's also a pretty clear shot at Chris Paul, who's supposed to be the leader of this team.

Are players-only meetings helpful? Anecdotally, yes, there seems to be a response after they're held. But if they don't work, the problems can actually get worse. Rivers is asking a lot of this team. The Clippers have been "up and coming " for years. They're supposed to have arrived, and the effort just isn't there.

Q: What's the truth they're trying to find? About heart and toughness?

"It's other stuff. I don't know what it is. We've got to talk. That's what you do. But it's got to be real. And, they know it. They're going to get to it.

I use the Chuck Daley line all the time. ‘It doesn't matter if you have the same team; sometimes, you have to wait for your team.' No matter how much you push them, you still have to wait for them, until they're ready to play. So far, we're just not there. No matter we push, we're just not there. We better get there quickly."

Q: How much has Kerr changed the dynamic?

"I think he's changed it, but I think after losing last year, they're coming with anger. We've got give Steve some credit, but we don't want to take credit away from Mark or anyone else. They came here to kick our butts. David Lee, it looked like he worked out for a month just to get back for this game. I mean, my God. They were running to this game. And we ran away from the game."

"We ran away from the game." Again, shots fired. Rivers is clearly frustrated with having to be patient with the team right now. He wants to put his foot behind them and make them give the effort, but he knows that they've got to hit that point on their own.

And the Warriors probably did work out for a month just to get ready for this game. They hate the Clippers pretty badly. They ran to this game, they ran over the Clippers, and they ran off the court. The Clippers kind of wandered onto the court, got run over, and then limped away sadly. Basically doing this:

The Clippers are too talented to struggle like this for long, and the Warriors game may have been the wake-up call they needed. But it's genuinely interesting to hear a coach say that the players' only meeting doesn't mean anything if you're not "really" talking.