Clippers Are Last in the NBA in Key Category Through Five Games

The Los Angeles Clippers are 1-4 after a 127-101 loss in Minnesota on Oct. 30, and one number keeps showing up in every loss.

The Clippers are averaging 22.4 turnovers per game, which ranks 30th in the NBA, according to Basketball Reference.

The Clippers have turned it over 112 times through five games.

They had 18 in their opening win over Sacramento, then 26 at the Lakers, 26 at Oklahoma City and 24 at home against the Lakers, all losses, before 18 more in Minnesota.

Opponents have scored 153 points off those turnovers, according to ESPN's box scores, which comes out to 30.6 points per game handed away.

The loss to the Timberwolves followed the same script, as Minnesota used a 20-2 run in the fourth quarter to pull away, and point guard Darius Garland had 24 points but also five turnovers.

Garland is averaging 5.6 turnovers per game, which is the most in the NBA, and he had nine of them at the Lakers on Oct. 23, a game he talked through afterward.

Coach Tyronn Lue did not hide from it after that same game.

"You can't play against a good team and turn over 26 times and expect to win the game," Lue said, according to SportsGrid.

ClutchPoints noted that the Clippers' 94 turnovers through four games were the most by any team since the 1996 New Jersey Nets, citing a stat shared by Tomer Azarly.

The defense is doing its job in this area, as the Clippers force 17.6 turnovers per game, which ranks sixth in the league, but they give the ball right back at an even higher rate, so they are losing the possession battle by almost five a night.

A team that already ranks near the bottom in scoring cannot afford that, and Lue has spoken about the problem more than once already.

Some of this is about who is missing.

Forward Brandon Ingram has not played yet as he recovers from a partially torn Achilles, and forward Max Strus is out with a foot injury, which puts more of the ball-handling load on Garland and rookie shooting guard Keaton Wagler.

Power forward Rui Hachimura returned from a one-game absence in Minnesota with 12 points.

The Clippers look to me like a team with a decision problem more than a talent problem, which is the one piece of good news in an ugly start, since Garland is trying to do too much, and passing into traffic is the type of mistake a coach like Lue can clean up with time.

The concern is that the schedule is not slowing down, and the team has already dropped four straight.

The Clippers visit Golden State on Nov. 1, then return home to face Toronto on Nov. 2 and Miami on Nov. 4.

Cutting the turnovers down to even the high teens would give them a real chance in those games, and if Garland can get his number closer to three a night, I think this team is good enough to climb back toward .500 before the middle of November.