Bear with us until the end, Los Angeles Clippers fans. It’s about to seem like Chris Paul, your All-Star point guard, is throwing some shade your way. But he’s not.
Paul, though, did say he doesn’t feel like Staples Center has become an adequate home-court advantage for the Clippers, per Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (h/t Ball Don’t Lie):
Before the Clippers’ practice Saturday, Chris Paul wanted to talk about the problem, pivoting on a question about quick start to a different line of thought.
“One of the biggest things for us is our home court hasn’t really been a home court,” Paul said. “I don’t know. For some reason we just haven’t made it a tough place to play.
“ … Obviously it’s our mentality. We’re the ones playing. We have to give our crowd something to cheer about, something to get behind. We’ve got to make Staples Center, for our home games, a tough place to play.”
This is the part where you breathe, deeply, and read on.
DeAndre Jordan and Paul would go on to clarify:
“I feel like when we’re at home, we rely on our crowd, we rely on, ‘OK, we’re at home.’ But (when) we’re on the road, we know it’s us against everybody else in this arena, so that’s more motivation, more fire, I guess. So, we’ve got to find that same fire at home.”
And, they’re not pointing fingers at the crowds. They’re pointing them at themselves.
“Don’t get it twisted. Our crowd is behind us all day every day,” Paul said. “But, it’s us that have to give them a reason to a cheer and all that stuff like that. That’s on us as a team. The way we come out, we’ve got to provide that energy.”
See? All good.
The fans clearly aren’t the problem for the Clippers. They do pack Staples Center now. They ranked in the top 10 of total attendance last season, according to Basketball-Reference, edging out the Los Angeles Lakers, who sat at No. 11. That’s not bad for a team so often viewed as Hollywood’s second fiddle.
The issue, judging from what Jordan and Paul say, appears to be mental. But it could also be the opponents don’t psyche themselves up for playing the Clippers at Staples. You were never supposed to fear it, so you don’t, even now that they’re a great club. And if opponents enter without that same tinge of anxiety or preconceived rancor, maybe that allows them to play more freely, and thus better overall.
Whatever, though. The Clippers were 29-12 on their home floor last season, all while playing more than half the year without Griffin. That’s pretty damn good.
