Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue was not in a good mood during his postgame presser after his team suffered a 125-122 road loss against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday evening.
Lue was not particularly happy with the referees’ whistle despite their slender free throw advantage. It also didn’t help the Los Angeles Clippers that one of their key players, Bennedict Mathurin, fouled out late in the contest.
“Yeah, you saw it,” Lue said via Justin Russo. “Just gotta play through it, keep competing, keep your head, and you gotta get through it. When you’re foul-baiting the whole game, and we’ve run into it every night, it’s tough. These guys are already great players. It’s just tough. It’s tough to stop them at that point. But we did everything we could.”
“It’s hard, man. You try to play hard, and the game kinda stops on one side of the court more than the other,” Mathurin doubled down. “I kinda had to fight through it.”
Los Angeles Clippers News: Ty Lue reveals his true feelings on Kawhi Leonard’s blunt comment about the team
Before the Los Angeles Lakers game, Kawhi Leonard said that he doesn’t consider the Los Angeles Clippers as legitimate contenders this season following their poor start, and head coach Ty Lue doesn’t seem to agree.
“We’re playing to win. Young, old, toddlers — whoever is on the floor, we’re trying to win… Make the playoffs and go from there,” Lue stated. “He said the window was closed to be a contender. To win a championship. So that doesn’t mean make the playoffs. So you have to ask him. If I get in a playoff series, I like my chances.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to play to win? That’s our mindset. That’s my mindset every single night. As tough as it may be, or you start 6-21, whatever it may be, you’re playing to win, so we make it to the playoffs, and anything can happen. Our goal is to make the playoffs. I don’t know why anybody would scoff at that,” he added.
