Clippers’ bad habits exposed by unbeaten Thunder

INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue had less than 24 hours to figure out how to avoid turnovers, the kind of mistakes that led to a disheartening loss the previous night.

His solution was, in theory, simple. He said the Clippers needed to “make the easy pass, the easy play. Instead of making the home run play, take what the defense gives us.” Simple.

And for the first 12 minutes Tuesday night, the game was tantalizingly easy for the Clippers. Then it got hard as the Oklahoma City Thunder turned up the heat, forcing the Clippers to begin turning the ball over and came away with a 126-107 victory to remain the league’s only unbeaten team.

The Thunder’s eighth straight victory was in large part because guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got hot, scoring 18 of his game-high 30 points in the th