The Los Angeles Clippers are one of five teams in the entire NBA with 21+ losses this season, but Thursday’s 122-101 loss to the now 26-2 Oklahoma City Thunder may have been the most predictable of them all. Oddsmakers had little confidence in the Clips, as they closed as +17.5 point underdogs at tip-off. And no, they did not cover. 

As for what went wrong, that was also all too predictable. The Clippers have an innate inability to take care of the ball even against teams that can’t guard five traffic cones, so it was obvious Oklahoma City’s focus would be on forcing the Clippers into their usual mistakes. Coach Ty Lue made his team very much aware of this going on, but it just didn’t seem to matter. 

“They can guard in all five positions,” Lue said. “No weak links on the floor. They pressure you, they speed you up on the attack, on the dribble, they turn you over. Coming into the game, we talked about not turning the ball over, and we gave up 29 turnovers for 38 points. Our half-court defense was really good, but when you turn the ball over against them, it's too hard to recover.”

If there were any silver linings for the Clippers on Thursday, they at least started the game with some life and hung around for most of the first half. It played out a lot like Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, but Lue was adamant that his team brought a different kind of effort to face the defending champs. Even if it wasn’t all that apparent. 

“I thought the way we started was good,” Lue said. “I thought we came out with the right intent. And then I thought, like I said, their pressure, it came off the bench with Caruso and those guys. They really turned the defense up, and we weren't able to handle their pressure.”

While there’s only one Oklahoma City Thunder currently populating the NBA, the Clippers’ next two games aren’t going to be all that much easier. They have a crosstown date with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday before taking on an elite Houston Rockets team on Tuesday.

To make matters worse, both those games will be nationally televised, so the whole country will have a front row seat to the issues that have plagued the organization this season.