Kawhi frustrated by Clips' starters being sat in blowout loss

LA Clippers head coach Ty Lue Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Kawhi Leonard didn't like Ty Lue's surrender against Denver

By Sean Keane | Last updated 1/6/23

Down 34 points at halftime, Clippers coach Ty Lue waved the white flag. Kawhi Leonard didn't like it.

The Denver Nuggets led 66-32 after two quarters of Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers. That's when Lue pulled the plug, sitting all five of his starters to begin the second half.

After the game, Lue told reporters he'd decided the Clippers "didn't have it tonight" when he sat his starters. It wasn't as if his stars had been good: Paul George, who has a sore hamstring, shot 1-9 from the field. Leonard was 2-7 and scored six points. Lue decided the game was a write-off, and with the Clippers playing in Minnesota tonight, he let his bench play the rest of the way.

But Leonard wasn't happy about it.

Kawhi: "Nobody wants to lose by that amount of points... I feel like these are the times where we need to be in there and dig ourselves out those holes and learn what we're doing instead of flipping the page and going to the next game."
— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) January 6, 2023

Leonard, like John Wall, doesn't play both games of a back-to-back, so part of his frustration may have come from knowing he'd miss the Clippers' next game as well. He has played just 17 games this season, after missing all of the 2021-22 season. Leonard's name has become synonymous with the concept of "load management", which players constantly rest without specific injuries, to mage their workload. This also applies to George, who missed 93 games in his first three seasons with the Clippers.

The Clippers have maintained the same stance they've had since they landed the Leonard-George duo: Getting the team healthy for the playoffs is all that matters. Last year, they missed the playoffs after losing two play-in games. This year, they're sitting in sixth place at 21-19, but only a half-game ahead of the play-in spot.

Eventually the Clippers are going to have to get experience playing together through adversity. The first step is actually playing together.

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