The LA Clippers have lost three of its last four games following a 88-82 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday, and coach Doc Rivers didn't mince words blasting his players' poor play and their maturity.
"We did a lot of pouting in the game," Rivers told ESPN.com. "You can't play that way. You have to keep playing. I always call them emotional hijacks, and we had a lot of that going on. That happens, but you have to be able to pull yourself out of it individually or as a group, and I don't think we did a good job of that."
The Clippers have a 13-8 record which is not exactly impressive for a team that was expected to be one of the frontrunners out West. For Rivers, the maturity of his players is one of the reasons why they have been on a slump lately.
He continued, as quoted by ESPN: "When we become a good team, if we become a good team, it will be because we miss 30 shots in a row and you wouldn't know it. We just keep playing. You get some bad calls on you and you just keep playing. Right now we're not at that point maturity-wise. When we go bad, we start thinking bad. That's an area we have to grow in. ...You can preach it but it's a habit and you have to get over it. There's been times where we've fought it and did good job, and this is one of those nights where we didn't."
All-Star forward Blake Griffin, when asked about his coach's comments said: "I wouldn't say pouting. I think guys are frustrated and they want to play better and they want to play well. I guess we have to do a better job of playing through that and trying to keep better body language and a better demeanor, but that's tough."
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