Tyronn Lue Calls Clippers ‘Soft’ After Pacers Loss

The Clippers are 3-6 in their last nine games. 

“Right now, do we have an identity? I think, yeah. We’re soft,” Lue said, via The Athletic. “That could be an identity, if you want to call (it) that. Like, we got to be tougher, mentally and physically.”

The Clippers are 44-27 on the season. They are in fifth place in the Western Conference standings. 

“When we were 26-5, we had a great identity,” Lue said. “So you can’t pick and choose when you want to lead. You can’t pick and choose when you want to have identity. You can’t pick and choose when you want to do things the right way.”

The Clippers are 12th in the NBA in points per game, 13th in points per game allowed and eighth in net rating. 

“Just do the right thing and you could be able to get out of this rut,” Lue said. “We have an identity, but right now our identity has been shaken because we’re not winning.”

The Clippers have never reached the NBA Finals in franchise history. This year’s team is under immense pressure to win the championship since Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden and Russell Westbrook are getting older. 

“You don’t point fingers, you don’t point blame,” Westbrook said. “Each individual, I think we got to look within, look within ourselves, and figure out how we can better help our team. I think that’s where we start, we start with ourselves. I start with myself. And then come together collectively and figure out how we now bring what we all have and bring to the table.

“As we’ve seen when we’ve done it the right way, it shows that we’re a hard team to stop. And we know where our ceiling is, we know how we need to get there. And I think ultimately, as a leader, it’s my job just to hold guys accountable, hold myself accountable, and make sure that we stay together through this tough little patch that we’re having. And to me, it’s as simple as that.”