Darius Garland and the Los Angeles Clippers struggled to keep control of the ball throughout their crosstown rivalry game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, Oct. 23.
The Lakers (2-0) capitalized on those mistakes by the Clippers (1-1) and earned a 125-117 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
The Clippers gave up 26 turnovers, including nine by Garland. It was a drastic increase from the 17 turnovers the team had in the 121-96 season-opening victory over the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 21.
The Clippers finished the first quarter against the Lakers with a 31-27 lead but had eight turnovers take place during that period.
The Clippers had only allowed nine total turnovers in the first half against the Kings.
Clippers crumbled vs Lakers
Lue’s team crumbled in the third quarter against the Lakers, giving up 10 turnovers and were outscored 39-26.
“We had to be better,” Lue said. “They did a couple things, but we got to take care of the basketball.
“You can’t play against a good team and turn it over 26 times and expect to win the game. We fought, we played hard, but we didn’t play smart.”
The Lakers scored 33 points off those turnovers.
The Clippers will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, the toughest test for the team so far this season, on Sunday, Oct. 25.
Through the first two games of the season, the Thunder have proven to have players that could generate turnover opportunities.
The Thunder forced 13 turnovers, including three steals by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, during their NBA Finals rematch against the San Antonio Spurs to open the season.
The Thunder improved to 2-0 on the season after Ajay Mitchell and Cason Wallace combined for nine steals against the Denver Nuggets, who turned the ball over 22 times.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Clippers have glaring issue to fix before Thunder game, 'We didn’t play smart'