What Went Wrong in Clippers' Crushing Loss to Suns

Two days after ending a seven-game losing streak, the Los Angeles Clippers went to Phoenix on Tuesday and lost 133-110 to a Suns team that had been beaten by 26 points on its own floor on Monday.

The loss dropped the Clippers to 2-8 and 0-5 on the road, and this time they could not blame it on turnovers.

The Clippers led 18-16 with 3:20 left in the first quarter after a step-back three from guard Darius Garland, but the Suns closed the quarter on a 13-0 run and never trailed again.

Guard Collin Gillespie hit a deep three before the halftime buzzer to make it 64-47, and the Suns opened the third quarter on a 22-9 run before the lead grew to 32 points at 91-59.

The Clippers won the fourth quarter 38-34, but Phoenix rested all five of its starters in that quarter, so it does not mean much.

Turnovers have hurt the Clippers all season and they sit near the bottom of the NBA in giving the ball away, but on Tuesday they had only 13 turnovers and forced 19.

A team that wins the turnover battle should be in the game, and the Clippers lost by 23 anyway because they could not get a stop.

Phoenix shot 49-of-88 from the field and 22-of-43 from three, which was seven more made threes than the Clippers on almost the same number of attempts, and that is a 21-point gap in a game decided by 23 points.

Suns guard Jordan Goodwin scored 18 points and made six of his seven threes, and he told reporters after the game why it came so easily.

"How the game was going, it was all coming to me so open," Goodwin said.

That is the opponent saying the shots were open, and the season numbers back him up, because Clippers opponents are shooting 49.7 percent from the field, the worst mark in the league.

Coach Tyronn Lue praised his team's composure after the win over New Orleans, but it was gone in Phoenix, and no team stays calm for long when it cannot get a stop and the other side keeps making shots.

The bench did not help either, as the Phoenix reserves scored 81 points while the Clippers got 62 from theirs.

No Clippers player finished with more than 13 points, and that included Garland, who averages 20.4 points and had 13 with four turnovers, while rookie guard Keaton Wagler shot 3-of-12 from the field.

Injuries are part of this, because forward Brandon Ingram and guard Bradley Beal were both out on the injury report before the game and neither has played this season.

Ingram has said he is close to his debut after heel and Achilles surgery, but one scorer coming back will not fix a defense that gives up open shots.

The Clippers are 13th in the West and 3.5 games behind 10th-place Denver, and they host Oklahoma City on Friday before Charlotte on Sunday and Utah next Tuesday.

I do not see anything changing until the Clippers guard the three-point line, because cutting down the turnovers did nothing for them in Phoenix.