In this article, Something Has Been Off and Clippers Fans Can Feel It, MyntJ dissects the problems with the LA Clippers.. Felicia Enriquez, aka Mynt J, is the host of the podcast BlackLove and Basketball – Compton Edition. She is a Clippers fan, an NBA credentialed creator representing thePeachBasket.
Inglewood, CA | December 20, 2025 — After Ty Lue’s OKC postgame explanation, the disconnect feels impossible to ignore
There’s no advanced metric for it. No lineup data for it. No stat column that explains it. But anyone watching the LA Clippers this season knows it’s real.
Something has been off.
Not just one bad night. Not just one losing streak. But consistently since a series of moments quietly shifted the energy of this team and never fully recovered. Since the Kawhi-era aspirations began to crack, since the Norman Powell trade, since Bradley Beal was ruled out for the season, and since Chris Paul was effectively sent home, the Clippers haven’t looked like the same franchise. The talent is still here. The names are still here. The investment is still here.
The connection isn’t.
Clippers Fans Can Feel It: A Season Defined by Disruption, Not Identity
From September through December, the Clippers haven’t just dealt with adversity. They’ve dealt with constant interruption. Roles have shifted without explanation. Lineups have changed without rhythm. Continuity never had time to settle. The result is a team that doesn’t look like it trusts itself or the system it’s playing in.
The record tells the truth. The Clippers sit 14th in the Western Conference at 6–21. That’s not bad luck. That’s disconnection.
When Optimism Stops Matching the Evidence
Head coach Tyronn Lue has remained publicly optimistic. Optimism is leadership in theory. But optimism without visible adjustment starts to sound hollow. You can’t keep preaching mental toughness while mistakes multiply. A mentally strong team simplifies the game. This team looks like it’s thinking and overthinking every possession.
At some point, accountability has to extend beyond the locker room. What Ty Lue Said After OKC and Why It Matters. After the loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Lue was asked what separates OKC defensively from the rest of the league. His answer was honest and revealing.
Lue pointed to OKC having no weak links on the floor. A team that presses the ball, speeds you up on the dribble, and forces turnovers. He acknowledged the Clippers discussed ball security before tipoff, yet still gave up 28 turnovers, many unforced, leading directly to points for the Thunder.
It’s just too hard to recover, Lue said, summarizing how Oklahoma City’s pressure flipped the game. That explanation matters because turnovers like that aren’t just the result of elite defense. They come from missed reads, poor spacing, and players not operating on the same page. Those aren’t just physical mistakes. They’re system breakdowns.
Lue also pointed to individual moments, like Bogdan Bogdanović handling the ball and John Collins creating mismatches, but noting those advantages after the fact is a theme that’s become hard to ignore.
What the OKC Game Exposed About Development
The OKC loss didn’t just highlight turnovers. It exposed a development gap. When pressure increased, the Thunder didn’t panic. They trusted their reads. Players knew where to be, how to counter pressure, and how to rely on one another. That doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of years of consistency, patience, and intentional growth.
OKC has built a team that consistently grows players, empowers youth, and creates an environment where basketball still looks joyful even when the game tightens. For the Clippers, the opposite happened.
As pressure increased, the offense stalled. Reads came late. Spacing collapsed. Missed opportunities stacked up not because the Clippers lacked talent, but because players weren’t operating with confidence or chemistry. That’s the part that lingers after the OKC game.
So… Can Ty Lue Develop Players Like Elite Coaches Do?
On paper, Ty Lue’s résumé is solid. He’s coached championship talent and navigated playoff runs. But résumés wear off when results stop evolving. Player development has never been Lue’s defining strength especially compared to teams like OKC that have invested in long-term growth, trust, and continuity.
When development works, pressure moments look manageable. When it doesn’t, they look overwhelming. And that difference showed up clearly in the Thunder game.
We can look at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the.clearest example. In many ways, the Clippers did Shai a favor by trading him. Had he remained under Ty Lue in Los Angeles, it’s fair to question whether he would have been developed properly or given the opportunity to become what he is now. In Oklahoma City, Shai was trusted early, empowered consistently, and allowed to grow through mistakes.
That investment turned him into a league MVP-caliber star and one of the engines of a true contender and a cornerstone of a franchise that thrives on development and confidence. That doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because a franchise commits to development, patience, and belief three things Shai likely would not have received in the same way had he stayed in Los Angeles. And that’s the uncomfortable truth for the Clippers.
And Then There’s the Lakers Game
All of this brings us back to the LA Lakers because the issues exposed against OKC didn’t stay there. On November 25, the Clippers were handled 135–118 by the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in NBA Cup play. The Lakers played with pace, clarity, and confidence. Their younger players looked comfortable within the system, trusted in real time, and free to make plays without hesitation.
The Clippers, meanwhile, looked reactive slow to adjust, late on reads, and unsure where the advantage was supposed to come from once pressure arrived. That game didn’t feel like a fluke.
It felt like confirmation.
Now they meet again tonight at the Intuit Dome, and this rematch isn’t about revenge. It’s about whether the Clippers have learned anything since the last time these teams shared the floor. The Standings Make the Gap Impossible to Ignore
As of tonight, the Clippers sit 14th in the Western Conference at 6–21, while the Lakers are 4th in the West at 19–7. That difference matters not just numerically but psychologically. One team is fighting uphill every night.
The other plays with confidence, rhythm, and belief in its direction. Because records don’t just reflect wins and losses.
They reflect clarity vs. confusion.
Can Ty Lue Get Ahead of JJ Redick?
One thing is undeniable about Ty Lue: his basketball understanding runs deep. When he speaks after losses, it often sounds like a scientist narrating mistakes, tendencies, and adjustments.
But tonight he faces JJ Redick a former Clipper player and now in his second season as head coach of the Lakers. Redick brings a younger energy and a different approach, fostering pace, spacing, and proactive adjustments rather than only reacting after the fact.
Lue explains losses. Redick tries to prevent them.
Tonight isn’t about who knows more basketball. It’s about who can apply it faster, earlier, and in the moment.
December 20 Is a Mirror
Tonight’s game against the Lakers won’t define the season. But it will reflect it. If the same issues appear the turnovers, the stalled offense, the lack of cohesion then the answer won’t be new. The Clippers don’t have a talent problem. They don’t have a fan problem.
They have an alignment problem.
And until that changes, the feeling that something is off won’t go away. Because it isn’t imagined. It’s visible.