Before the Clippers took the court Saturday against Utah, their composure was under scrutiny from outside and within.
They picked up three in a loss to San Antonio, acknowledged they’d have to find that level-headed balance, and then picked up two more during their 107-94 victory.
Blake Griffin had the evil-eye for any official in the neighborhood just about every time he attacked the basket. He wasn’t shy about his opinions from the bench, either.
Late in the second quarter, while on the court, he was hit with his 11 th technical foul of the season, one off the league “lead.”
Jamal Crawford picked up his sixth later in the game. With Matt Barnes (10) and DeAndre Jordan (8) and Lamar Odom (5), it’s starting to dawn on the Clippers that this might not be a trend in the right direction.
“It’s a mind over matter type of thing,” Griffin said. “You just have to be mentally strong and I didn’t do a good job, especially in the first half, of not letting it affect me, not letting whatever else was going affect my game. We have to do a better job, I have to do a better job. It’s really just a mind-set.”
The subject was basically the first thing Paul volunteered after the game.
“We’ve got to do a better job with the officials, obviously, because we’re not on the best side of it with the techs, the delay-of-games,” Paul said. “We’ve just got to worry about playing the game.
“It’s tough. We’ve got a lot of aggressive guys on our team. At times you feel like you get fouled and stuff. We’ve just got to do better with it.”