The Grand Prix of Long Beach was contested Sunday, but Clippers coach Doc Rivers on Monday threw out his own yellow caution flag.
One day after his team walloped the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs 107-92 in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series, Rivers was pumping the brakes.
“We can’t get intoxicated with one won game,” Rivers said. “We do, we’re in trouble. And the point is that no matter what happens, you’re playing a team that’s won multiple titles.
“There’s nothing you can do to shake their confidence and you’re just going to have to keep playing. If you come in thinking something different, then it’ll be a long night.”
Game 2 is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Staples Center.
What Rivers said may be true. The bottom line is, the Clippers came up with one of their most impressive victories of the season. When their 18-point lead was cut to nine with less than eight minutes to play, many probably figured the Spurs would get even closer.
They never did. The Clippers came out of a timeout and went on a 7-0 run, eventually leading by as many as 20 points.
Yet, Rivers wouldn’t say it was his team’s best effort of the season.
“I really don’t think so,” he said. “I kind of said it after the game last night that I liked that we won the game. But I felt frustrated during the game, a lot, with the way we were playing. I thought we were playing hard and that might have been the hardest we’ve played.
“But we can be a smarter basketball team for sure on both ends. We missed a lot of shots, but so did they and I think that theirs are the ones that probably frustrated me the most because some of them — they were just really good missed shots — but some of them we just broke our coverage under the disguise of playing hard. We have that saying — hard and smart is better than just hard.”
The Spurs shot just 36.6 percent, and while some of that was solid defense, some of it was shots that went in-and-out.
“I think we can play better,” Rivers said. “I think we’re going to have to, if you want to be honest. We can’t count on the missing wide-open 3s.”
Monitoring minutes
There has been a lot of talk about the Clippers not having the best of benches outside of sixth man Jamal Crawford. The shooting guard scored 17 points Sunday, but only two other reserves scored for a combined five points.
Among the starting five, Blake Griffin played nearly 43 minutes, DeAndre Jordan more than 38 and Chris Paul just under 38. The Spurs, with 43 points from six reserves, got a team-high 33 minutes from starting forward Kawhi Leonard.
Rivers was queried as to whether he is concerned about his starters becoming fatigued if this is a long series.
“No, we’ve been doing it all year,” Rivers said. “It’s not like it’s the one time. In the playoffs, you get days off. It’s nothing like the regular season. I mean, we get two days off on this one and it’s every other day, so I don’t think minutes are going to be a concern at all.”
Griffin averaged 35.2 minutes during the season, Paul 34.8 and Jordan 34.4.
Crawford smiling big
Crawford couldn’t stop smiling in the locker room after Sunday’s victory. He shot 7 of 10 from the field — 3 of 4 from 3-point range. That’s an enormous improvement from the 10-for-36 (27.7 percent) shooting clip he had put up in the final four regular-season games after missing the previous 17 with a calf injury.
“Me and Chris (Paul) talk about it all the time,” Crawford said. “We’re consumed in basketball every single day of our lives. To be out five weeks and not be able to do anything but watch, I mean, you can take some good things from it.
“But it was more bad than good for me because you want to be out there so bad and help your team and just be part of the guys. … The injury is one thing, then coming back and conditioning and trying to get a rhythm, all that stuff sucks. But you’ve go to go through the process sometimes.”
