Billups On Loss To Clippers: “Embarrassing”

The Portland Trail Blazers got blown out by the Los Angeles Clippers on the road 116-86, losing by a particularly brutal 30 points. New coach Chauncey Billups waved the white flag of defeat early in the fourth quarter, sending in the deep bench. After the game, Billups put it succinctly, reports Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com: embarrassing.

“It was embarrassing, it was really embarrassing,” said Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. “Just the effort, I didn’t think that we started the game off with the right mindset. We talked in the locker room about the Clippers, they hadn’t won a game yet, two tough losses, they were desperate to get a win, you’re at home. We tried to defend against that but from the very first play of the game — we turned the ball over, we couldn’t get the ball where we needed to go, their pressure really hurt us. It just continued to snowball the rest of the way.”

“We played like we were tired today, but there was no reason to be tired,” said Billups. “We’re in striking distance at halftime. We turned it over a ton, we just weren’t playing very well. Talked about it at the half, showed a few clips at the half and we just didn’t respond. We never competed like we wanted to win the basketball game, and that’s disappointing.”

The Trail Blazers get an opportunity to bounce back at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, October 27th, and they will face the Clippers again on Friday, October 29th. Hopefully home court makes a difference.