Vinny Del Negro Angry With Clippers Following Loss to Cavaliers

The LA Clippers moped through a terrible loss in Cleveland last night, and their performance irked head coach Vinny Del Negro. From the LA Times: “The Clippers were playing their first game since losing Chauncey Billups for the season because of a torn left Achilles’ tendon. But Del Negro didn’t want to hear the Clippers still wallowing over losing Billups. The coach was fine with Blake Griffin scoring 25 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, with Caron Butler having 21 points and newcomer Kenyon Martin providing the team with a lift off the bench with six points, four rebounds, two blocked shots and some toughness. Del Negro was even OK with Chris Paul having a sub-par game, missing 11 of his 16 shots, scoring 16 points but handing out 12 assists. Del Negro dealt with DeAndre Jordan not scoring in 24 minutes, with Mo Williams missing eight 10 shots in scoring five points and with the Clippers making 32 of 78 (41%) of their shots, including three of 15 (20%) three-pointers. ‘But if the energy and the effort and the professionalism is there and the approach, I can deal with that,’ Del Negro said. ‘But when it’s not, that’s not what we’re about … ‘We need all of our players to play hard on the defensive end, have a defensive mind-set instead of worrying about how many touches they get and all that stuff that losing teams talk about,’ Del Negro said. ‘We have to focus in on what we control and that’s our effort, our energy, our focus and how to win games. We didn’t do that tonight and that’s what I’m disappointed about.'”