INGLEWOOD — The Clippers head to Seattle on Friday for a preseason game against the Portland Trail Blazers and another chance to work out the kinks in their offense, clean up turnovers and settle on a rotation.
“We have to continue to keep getting better,” Coach Tyronn Lue said.
The Clippers have less than two weeks to “get better” before the regular-season opener and James Harden is trying to hurry the process by holding after-practice sessions with many of the newer players.
On a recent Clippers broadcast, the announcers called it “Harden University.”
“It’s not even the new guys, it’s just us as a team getting better. I’m a new guy, honestly,” said Harden, who joined the Clippers six games into last season in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. “I think it’s just finding ways to get ahead of the curve. You have got all these teams that’ve been together, their core been together for years where we’re behind.
“So (I’m) just trying to, I don’t want to overdo it, but do as much as we can, kind of get extra work in, five, 10 minutes a day. That adds up and it builds throughout the whole season.”
The Clippers often got off to slow starts in games last season and without Kawhi Leonard, the departed Paul George and adding nine new players, the margin for error is smaller. They can’t afford to allow opponents to jump out quickly or turn the ball over.
The Clippers averaged 12.2 turnovers per game last season and have committed 39 turnovers in their first two preseason games.
“I think the things that we’ve been going over in training camp is very vital and important to getting off to great starts, and then carrying that throughout the entire season,” Harden said. “I think we got to rely on our defense and our transition defense. We got some really, really good defenders, individually and as a team. I think that’s going to help us offensively as well.
“And then offensively kind of knowing what we’re trying to get to and then just doing it consistently and then not turning the basketball over, like giving teams extra opportunities. If we could do those things, which we all can control, we are going to sneak up on a lot of people because people already are looking over us, which is a good thing. We don’t care.”
Lue cares. He said the Clippers need to “hit the ground running” and not ease into games and that requires strong communication on defense, which will help the offense get moving, adding that they cannot afford to be stagnant.
“That’s the thing we’re trying to instill in these guys right now,” Lue said. “We got some good one-on-one players. Still at the end of the day, we got to continue to keep the game going.”
In the first two games, Lue switched up his starting lineup, starting Mann in place of Kris Dunn against the Nets. Mann came off the bench in the preseason opener against the Golden State Warriors.
Lue said he wasn’t sure who would start Friday because Powell was experiencing “something.” Lue declined to comment further on Powell’s condition, saying his availability “depends on how Norm’s feeling tomorrow.”
FORMER CLIPPERS ASSISTANT GETS WNBA JOB
Natalie Nakase, the diminutive former Marina High and UCLA point guard who served as a Clippers assistant coach for five seasons, was named the inaugural head coach of the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries on Thursday.
The Valkyries are the league’s newest expansion team.
“I love it,” Lue said. “One thing about it, she’s going to grind. She’s going to work hard and she’s a true grinder. If she doesn’t know the answer, she’s going to hit everybody up and she gets the right answer.
“But I’m happy for her and I knew it was coming.”
Nakase, who at 5-foot-2 was a walk-on at UCLA who served as a team captain for three seasons, worked in the Clippers’ organization for 10 years, starting as an intern in the team’s video department. In 2014, she was an assistant coach for the Clippers’ Summer League team, becoming the first woman to sit on the bench as an NBA assistant.
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“She’s earned it. From starting here, then going to the Aces, winning two championships and then now getting her own head coaching job,” Lue said. “She’s definitely ready and they’re going to be happy with the selection they made.”
Nakase continued to serve as assistant coach with the Clippers from 2017-2022 but left in 2022 to become an assistant coach with the Las Vegas Aces, joining Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon, the longtime assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.
Nakase and Hammon are the longest-tenured women in the NBA.
Terance Mann was caught off guard by the news, but not really surprised.
“I mean to know where Nat came from to now, that’s just amazing to be able to see that,” Mann said. “I can’t wait to call her. That’s dope.”