The Los Angeles Clippers succumbed to their sixth straight defeat, losing 130-116 at home to the Denver Nuggets last night. During the postgame presser, head coach Ty Lue admitted that his game plan to make Nikola Jokic a scorer ultimately backfired.
Jokic registered 55 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and five three-pointers on 18-for-23 shooting from the field and 14-for-16 shooting from the free throw line in 34 minutes of action.
“We planned to try to double him once he got going. But our game plan was to, you know, make him score and just take away his passing, take everybody else out of the game. I thought the first half, we did a good job with that. We knew Jamal Murray would be more aggressive in the second half, but I didn’t think he would score 55,” Lue said.
“You know, he made some threes. He played like a guard when Zubac was on him. Pin downs and all that stuff, which is tough for Zu to try to, you know, try to navigate through. Then, when we go smaller on him, we just post up, and then so it’s just a tough cover,” he added.
Los Angeles Clippers News: Ty Lue sends somber message to the fans amid sluggish start
The Los Angeles Clippers dropped to 3-8 after last night’s defeat, and the team’s fans are understandably frustrated. Ty Lue said he’s aware of it and urged everyone to keep supporting the team.
“S**t, I’m upset too. It is what it is. When you don’t have your best player and your third-best player in Brad (Beal), it’s tough. When you structure training camp and preseason around certain guys, your core guys, and they’re not there — it takes some time to get used to others taking on new roles,” Lue said via SI’s Joey Linn.
“Stay patient. Be patient. We’ve been through this before. As fans, as coaches, as players, as an organization. It’s no different. We’ll figure it out. We’ll be okay,” he continued. “For our fans — they’ve been behind us this long… They’ve seen this story time and time again. To jump off the bandwagon right now, it’s not fair.”
