Bad.
Bad.
There really was no other way to describe the unsightly basketball the Clippers played Sunday night during a disheartening 110-93 loss to an underwhelming Atlanta Hawks team at Crypto.com Arena.
That the Clippers got down by 29 points in the fourth quarter was bad because of the lack of effort they displayed.
They were bad on defense, looking indifferent about doing anything to stop the Hawks from shooting 48.8% from the field, 50% from three-point range.
They were bad on offense, playing too much one-on-one and not sharing the ball in shooting 37.8% from the field, 30.6% from three-point range and having just 17 assists.
They were bad with the basketball, their carelessness creating 16 turnovers.
James Harden, who had missed the last two games with a strained left shoulder, was bad, missing his first seven shots before finishing three for 10 for nine points.
Bones Hyland was bad, turning the ball over five times, missing all four of his shots and not scoring in 11 minutes.
Kawhi Leonard (28 points) and Paul George (26) had decent games, but it wasn’t enough to save the fourth-seeded Clippers from dropping another game in the Western Conference and sitting just one game ahead of the fifth-seeded Pelicans in the race for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
It wasn’t as if the Hawks have been on a roll or playing well coming into the game.
They had lost three straight games and were playing without All-Star point guard Trae Young (injured left hand).
They are the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, holding an unimpressive 29-37 record.
But the Hawks built a 61-40 lead in the second quarter, running by the Clippers to the tune of 20 fast-break points in the first half.
Etc: Clippers sixth man Norman Powell didn’t play because of a left lower leg contusion. It was just the second game Powell has missed all season.