LOS ANGELES – Ending a three-game road trip that both started and ended in Los Angeles, the Timberwolves received a sobering reminder of just how far the road rises ahead of them in a ridiculously competitive Western Conference on Monday.
Missing three starters once again and playing for tomorrow against an opponent backed by the billions for today, the Timberwolves lost convincingly 127-101 to the Clippers, who returned to Staples Center from a 6-1 road trip to win yet again. This time, they did it basically by halftime.
"We self-destructed," Wolves coach Flip Saunders said. "We started out, we had good tempo. Our bench came in — same thing in Portland, same thing in Milwaukee — and we took ill-advised shots, one-pass shots and changed the tempo of the game. Once they get going, they're a tough team to catch from behind."
And still the 12-5 Clippers find themselves only seventh in a conference led by 15-2 Memphis and 14-2 Golden State. Three other teams — Portland, Houston and San Antonio — are 13-4 in a season that's just getting started.
"I literally did not know that," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said before his team at home for the first time in nearly two weeks. "You've just got to win. You've got to play every night. That's the conference we're in. It's not frustrating, it's realistic. We're in a hard conference. A good record in our conference means not a lot. Everyone has one."
With 65 games to go, Rivers' team trails Memphis by only three games while the Wolves at 4-12 already are aimed at yet another trip to the NBA draft lottery.
"We have 60 games to catch 'em," Rivers said.
They moved one victory closer Monday when newly named Western Conference Player of the Week Blake Griffin and guard J.J. Redick each scored 23 points before they and the other Clippers starters sat down for the night before third quarter's end. By then they led by as many as 33 points, with the Clippers making 15 three-pointers to the Wolves' two.
"I don't know stats," Wolves guard Mo Williams said. "When you get beat so bad, stats can kind of misleading in a way. The parts of the game where they made plays and it went a different direction, those are the key parts of the game."
Meanwhile, the Wolves continued to play for some time somewhere out there in the future, or at least until they get injured Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic back.
Until then, they continue to groom rookie Andrew Wiggins on both ends of the court, putting him out on a peninsula most night to defend the opponent's best wing scorer. Feeling better after playing sick Sunday in Portland, Wiggins defended both Clippers All-Star point Chris Paul and sixth-man scorer Jamal Crawford in the first quarter alone.
Until then, the Wolves measure progress not by their place above only the Lakers in the West, but in the nightly development of players such as Wiggins, fellow rookie Zach LaVine and second-year prospects Gorgui Dieng, Shabazz Muhammad and Anthony Bennett.
On Monday, they rode Dieng's improved playmaking to a 34-31 lead by first quarter's end before it all come undone by the Clippers' 34-16 second quarter that sent the home team into halftime leading 65-50.
"You're playing against good teams," Williams said. "You want to give yourself a chance to win down the stretch. But when it gets out of hand, it gets out of hand. We're young and we're learning how to play basketball really, and we're playing against teams that are playing for something bigger than the game."
