Austin Rivers: People are ‘laughing at’ Washington Wizards for 1-5 start

LOS ANGELES — Austin Rivers admitted that the Washington Wizards are being “laughed at” after the team’s season took another disappointing turn with a 136-104 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.

Rivers spoke out after a third straight loss dropped the Wizards to 1-5, just two days after team leaders Bradley Beal and John Wall publicly called for greater effort and responsibility.

“The road ain’t going to get easier,” Rivers said. “Nobody’s going to feel bad for us. People are laughing at us. We have to play with (urgency), otherwise, like anything, (expletive) can get ugly.”

Rivers spoke frankly and with feeling and it came across as just the kind of message Washington needs to hear. But whether it will have the desired effect remains to be seen, as there were worrying signs aplenty at Staples Center against a tenacious Clippers squad, coached by Rivers’ father, Doc Rivers, that never gave the visitors room to breathe.

“Our defense is horrendous,” Austin Rivers added. “I don’t know how we expect to get wins when they are just walking into the paint, (we are) giving up threes. It comes from effort and talking. You have got to have personal pride. You’ve got to get mad when someone scores on you. We are not the Warriors.”

Next up for Washington is a visit to Memphis on Tuesday, followed by back-to-back home games against the struggling Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks.

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