LOS ANGELES – Can you blame the Clippers for being anxious to get away from downtown as soon as possible?
The schedule-maker struck again this weekend, and even by NBA standards, or the standards of the arena that the Clippers share with the Lakers and Kings, this was extreme: Back-to-back games tipped off within 22 hours of each other, from a 1 p.m. start Saturday to a noon game Sunday, with the “spring forward” aspect of Daylight Savings Time meaning even less rest.
Don’t you think somebody in the league office – somebody anywhere, actually – might have spotted a red flag?
Nope. So, less than a full day after beating Chicago Saturday, the Clippers tipped off against the Milwaukee Bucks with their top two stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, sitting out with, respectively, groin soreness and knee soreness. The result was probably predictable, a 124-117 loss in which Damian Lillard went for 35 points and 11 assists and Giannis Antetokounmpo 34 points and 10 assists.
It shouldn’t have been surprising that Kawhi and PG had the day off. Commissioner Adam Silver can complain about load management techniques, and the league can take steps to make sure its top players play as many games as possible … but at some point, shouldn’t player safety be a priority?
(And here’s a memo to prospective ticket-buyers: It is always wise to check for schedule patterns before deciding when to spend your hard-earned money. No 65-game minimum for postseason awards is going to change that, as long as back-to-backs exist.)
The remedy is in sight, at least, located at the corner of Century and Prairie in Inglewood. The Intuit Dome opens in a few months across the street from SoFi Stadium, and you can imagine the giddiness with which everyone from owner Steve Ballmer on down is anticipating the Clippers having a home of their own. And the bells and whistles that come with an ultra-modern facility will be nice, but the main advantage will be having some say in their home schedule.
“Over the last 3 or 4 years, I think, we’ve had 32 games tip off before 2 o’clock our time, and the next closest team is 14,” coach Ty Lue said before Sunday’s game. “So you do the math.”
Sunday’s opposing coach, Doc Rivers, dealt with more than his share of it during his seven seasons at the Clippers’ helm.
“It was awful,” he said. “I think we did two or three of these a year, these back-to-back afternoon games. It’s just not natural. I thought being here, you got used to it, you know? But … you got used to it and it’s still not something you prefer to do.”
(Rivers’ concern this time: His Bucks had a day off in L.A. between games with the Lakers and Clippers. Obviously they weren’t the worse for wear.)
For 26 seasons, since the arena originally called Staples Center opened in the fall of 1999, the Clippers have been the third tenant behind the Kings, whose parent company, AEG, owns and runs the building, and the Lakers, who were the primary draw from the moment the building was planned.
The Clippers were an afterthought, added after construction had started. At the time, Staples Center was a lifeline, enabling them to leave the musty, dreary Sports Arena (on the site of what is now BMO Stadium). Being wedged into the Staples Center schedule seemed better than the alternative, especially after then-owner Donald Sterling kept declining a full-time move to Anaheim.
Consider the words of Andy Roeser, the Clippers’ vice president at the time the deal was made: “We looked at the schedule before we even started the (negotiating) process, and the fact that we’re here today indicates that we don’t think it will be a problem.”
Then again, he never had to play.
It was obvious at the time that the Clippers would get scheduling leftovers, and Sunday’s was just the latest indignity. It might have made more sense to change Clippers-Bulls to the evening and put the Lakers-Minnesota game in the afternoon. But the only way that would ever happen would be if network TV stepped in because … well, the pecking order is the pecking order.
“Nobody – and I’ve been here a long time – expects us to have the better schedule than the Lakers or the Kings,” Clippers’ TV play-by-play broadcaster Brian Sieman said. “It’s their building. We’re the third tenant. So I expect it. This turnaround is a tight one, and it’s rough.”
It does have an effect. Players won’t make excuses, but the Clippers fell back down the stretch Sunday, outscored 20-11 in just under seven minutes as the Bucks broke a close game open. Heavy legs, perhaps?
“No one’s happy with it,” Ivica Zubac said. “We’re all – it is what it is at this point. It’s been like this for years. We’ve been getting tough schedules every season. But, you know, we can’t make up excuses. We got a bunch of talented guys. I mean, tonight we were a little younger than usual. And when we go out there, there’s no excuses. We got to compete. … You can’t come in with a mindset, ‘it was a tough schedule, we played 20 hours ago,’ whatever.”
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Sieman recalled that Clippers broadcasting legend Ralph Lawler would say about days like this, “If I’m tired, I know they’re tired.”
“And that’s how I feel today, so I know how I feel,” Sieman said. “I always kind of judge it (on) how I’m going to feel in the morning, and I know I’m going to be groggy, and I can only imagine how these guys are, (that) with all they have to put up with on the floor in terms of the physicality of the game that they’re going to be tired too.”
Sunday’s was the 261st doubleheader in the history of this building. The entire Clippers organization can at least savor the knowledge that those days are almost over.
jalexander@scng.com