Andrew Bogut: Inside the Warriors locker room after Clippers loss

Andrew Bogut writes exclusively for Yahoo Sport Australia in the first of a weekly series where the Golden State Warriors star will bring you behind-the-scenes details from the team’s playoff run.

It was a fiery locker room after we let the game slip against the Clippers.

We didn’t finish off what we started in that game, we had a 31-point lead and they ended up stealing it away from us.

We were pissed off about it and we need to get better.

But I think that’s a good thing. If it was quiet in the locker room after a game like that it wouldn’t be a great sign.

But a lot of these guys and myself included have been in similar situations in the past.

We know that we can’t take games for granted once the postseason starts and last night was no different, so it was a harsh reality for us.

We put the cue in the rack and thought we were going to waltz to the finish line.

In a playoff series guys get hot and we realise we let them back in the game.

Once they got it back down to 10 the pressure was back on us. We struggled under that pressure and they were feeling good and knocking down shots and they deserved to win that game.

But it’s one game in a long series.

They’ve done their job in winning one on the road and it’ll be tough going back to LA at 1-1 but they have to beat us four times out of seven so we feel like we’re still in a good situation.

It’s a good wake-up call and all we can do is focus on Game 3 and make sure we come out with the right mindset and win.

Today was on off-day so we’ll address it tomorrow at training and have a long film session.

We’ll fix some things and be better in Game 3.

Time to step up without Cousins

We want DeMarcus healthy and playing and to see the way he went down after coming back from his Achilles injury – all the rehab and getting through those dark days and to finally get back on the court – you feel horrible for him.

We’re all disappointed and feel for him but we now have to go out there and try to win for him.

We’ve got a group of guys playing great basketball right now and we have to figure out how to get this series back in our favour.

I anticipate I’ll see more minutes, whether it’s starting or not.

I assume I’ll be starting and we’ll go over that tomorrow morning with what we do with our lineups, but it’s going to be a bunch of guys stepping up.

We’ve got that ‘next man up’ mentality and we just need to make sure that everyone’s engaged and ready.

You hear the cliche all the time – stay ready – because you never know, and this is a prime example of that.

Philly can be brutal

It’s always interesting to me when home fans boo their own team and always funny to watch from afar.

I’ve been in arenas before where fans have booed their own team but that’s the sporting landscape we’re in.

Philly is a brutal place to play. I’ve had a few teammates in the last 14 years who’ve played in Philly in the past and they’ve had some very interesting stories to tell.

That’s kind of a ‘Philly’ thing to do but I guess it worked in a way if you argue it like that because they bounced back and smashed it in Game 2.

Ben Simmons did a phenomenal job.

Embiid’s elbow

Joel Embiid’s elbow on Jarret Allen was a basketball play. His elbow was a little bit higher because the guy is 7-foot-2.

It’s hard to say exactly what he was thinking and I can’t say whether or not he did it on purpose.

He’s the only guy that really knows and everything else is up to interpretation.

But it was flagrant and it was probably assessed right, questionable whether it could have been a flagrant 2.

But it’s the Playoffs and it gets testy and physical and you just hope the referee and the league handles it the right way.