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Tyronn Lue helping Clippers with a 'blueprint' to win series

Broderick Turner, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Basketball

Tyronn Lue gathered his team in the huddle during a timeout with 2 minutes and 14 seconds left Sunday in Game 4 and looked them in the eyes with a firmness after the Clippers' 31-point lead had evaporated down to one.

Lue was the calm Clippers coach at a time when the Dallas Mavericks had overwhelmed his team and changed the momentum of the game.

Lue was resolute in the middle of a Mavericks offensive storm in which Kyrie Irving was virtually unstoppable.

Lue was steadfast in his belief in the Clippers during the game's most tense moment even with their best player, Kawhi Leonard, sidelined because of inflammation in his right knee.

Lue crossed his arms after his team took the court, looked at the media while the fans inside American Airlines Center were delirious, smiled and mouthed:

"We'll be good. We'll be good."

 

The play Lue dialed up for was for Paul George down low, but he fumbled the basketball, retrieved it and then knocked down a 23-foot, step-back three-pointer in the corner for a two-point lead the Clippers never relinquished.

When the game was over and the Clippers had tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2, Lue was asked if his steely demeanor when the game hangs in the balance rubs off on his players.

He laughed.

"I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. I think so," Lue said. "Just stay in the moment. I think teams are going to make a run. Dallas has a great crowd, a great fan base, and they're going to be loud. And when they took the lead, I didn't want to see any hanging heads. I didn't want to see [anyone] pointing a finger. Like, let's regroup and let's win the game.

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