Tyronn Lue claps back over accusations of the LA Clippers tanking to avoid Lakers
Tyronn Lue is setting the record straight.
Amid rampant speculation that the LA Clippers tanked at the end of the season in order to secure a potentially more favorable NBA playoff path, the head coach of the Western Conference's No. 4 seed denied the notion.
"I don't give a damn what anybody else thinks on the outside because I don't listen to that anyway," Lue said.
"We decided to go health over anything else. We finally got our team healthy, and that's what we focused on. … Whatever people say on the outside, I don't care because I don't read Twitter or have Twitter or Insta-twit and all that. I don't care about all that. I'm my own man, and I do what I want to do."
As a quick refresher: The Clippers lost back-to-back games to close out the regular season, resting stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, along with other key players.
The losses came against the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, a pair of teams that had won a combined four games in the months of April and May heading into their respective tilts against the Clippers.
The back-to-back losses ensured that the Clippers would fall below the Denver Nuggets and lock up the No. 4 seed when the regular season came to a close.
In doing so, the Clippers conveniently found themselves on the opposite side of the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoff bracket – assuming LeBron James & Co. win their play-in matchup against the Golden State Warriors for the 7-seed in the West.
Both Leonard and George missed time this season because of various injuries, so Lue's contention that he was prioritizing health isn't baseless.
Kawhi played in 52 of LA's 72 games, while George featured in 54 of them – though both played every game for the Clippers in the month of May, minus the two to close out the season.
But despite Lue's defiant stance, he isn't finding many believers among the pundits.
On "First Things First," Chris Broussard revealed that a source told him the Clippers did prefer to avoid an early date with the Lakers.
In addition, Nick Wright laid out his evidence for a case against Lue's position that the final two games were about rest.
"The case is: The Clippers not just rested their stars but intentionally lost the final two games of the year," Wright said. "For whatever reason. … I would only need to present three pieces of evidence. … First thing you need to know is: Yogi Ferrell. … Piece of evidence No. 2: a man named Jay Scrubb. … And I will leave you with this: Daniel Oturu."
Wright's point is Ferrell, Scrubb and Oturu were largely uninvolved in anything the Clippers did up until the final two games of the season.
Ferrell played an average of just under seven minutes per game in his six appearances with the Clippers coming into the Houston game.
Against the Rockets and Thunder, he played more than 28 minutes.
The story is the same for Scrubb and Oturu, a pair of rookies who got very limited run – until those decisive season-ending games.
Shannon Sharpe of "Undisputed" also called foul on Lue's claim of rest, noting that the Clippers were guaranteed multiple days off between their regular-season finale and the start of their playoff series.
In addition, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith was among the chorus of those not buying what Lue was selling.
"I think the Los Angeles Clippers, and a lot of people in the league think that the Los Angeles Clippers were avoiding the Lakers in the early round because they wanted no part of the Lakers that early," Smith said.
Even if Lue isn't finding much support in the way of believers, he didn't seem to be losing fans as a result.
LaVar Arrington applauded the coach for taking a stand and putting himself at the forefront of the controversy, rather than his players.
Will Lue's decision to rest his players ahead of the playoffs be a gamble that pays off?
Well, there's a reason coaches get paid the big bucks: to make those kinds of decisions and deal with whatever consequences come with them.
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