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PLAYA VISTA – The off-court battle between the LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers took another step on Monday, two whole days after the teams played. On Saturday, it was Sixers GM Daryl Morey who commented on Joel Embiid and James Harden, but before Monday's practice, it was Clippers coach Tyronn Lue who fired back.
Ahead of Friday's game between the Sixers and Clippers, Ty Lue was asked about how he plans to keep his players discipled and mentally tough through all the free throws that Joel Embiid and James Harden were likely to get as they have all season.
“Well we don’t have a choice,” Tyronn Lue responded. “Embiid is number one from the free throw line and James is number three. I think they said if you take away their free throws neither one of those guys would be in the top ten in scoring, so it just tells you how much they’re getting to the free throw line. We just got to do a good job pulling our hands back, making sure we’re playing, not letting them get into the bonus and do the sweep-throughs. They’re going to get some calls because of who they are, but we just got to make sure we’re doing our part.”
Here’s Ty Lue’s full pregame comments on Sixers stars Joel Embiid and James Harden, some of which were taken out of context before last night’s game. pic.twitter.com/1aOQGdNtUK
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 26, 2022
Lue spent the better part of two days praising the Sixers duo, but only a section of his full quote was actually tweeted: The part about Embiid and Harden not being top 10 in scoring if you take away their free throws.
Sixers GM Daryl Morey saw the brief quote that went viral, and responded to the Clippers coach via Twitter.
.@LAClippers offense would rank 30th without free throws
Say it with me again – players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them…
h/t r/sixers https://t.co/Mw9hNJLKbf— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) March 26, 2022
Tyronn Lue was asked if he saw Daryl Morey's comments on Twitter, and it wasn't the response many expected.
“Well, they took it out of context,” Lue said. “I mean, it wasn’t, it was said meaning that if you continue to foul those guys, they can score 50. We want them to make field goals and now free throws because they’re crafty at getting to the line.
“But in response to Daryl Morey, like, should he really be tweeting anything right now? Last time he tweeted, he cost the NBA a billion dollars. So, I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Just worry about his own team.”
“They took it out of context…. It don’t bug me. In response to Daryl Morey, should he really be tweeting anything? Last time he tweeted, he cost the NBA a billion dollars so I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Worry about his own team.”
Ty Lue on Daryl Morey pic.twitter.com/8lmIundiC1
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 28, 2022
Not great from either side.
Hopefully both teams can just move on from this and close out their respective seasons. For the Clippers, they have seven games left between Tuesday and the end of the regular season. Paul George just participated in five-on-five basketball for the first time, so he appears to be nearing a return to the Clippers lineup.
