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SAN FRANCISCO — LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue rarely gets technical fouls. He did not have any this season going into the Valentine’s Day road game against the Golden State Warriors, one of only five head coaches without one. The only others without a technical foul entering Wednesday’s games were Billy Donovan of the Chicago Bulls, Doc Rivers of the Milwaukee Bucks (Adrian Griffin had three), and Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks. Tom Thibodeau of the New York Knicks just got his first this week.
Things changed with 10:18 left in the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Golden State center Draymond Green fouled Clippers backup center Mason Plumlee. Lue got tagged with a technical foul, upset that Green’s fouls were starting to get unregulated by the officials, a common perception of Warriors opponents.
Forty-one seconds later, Plumlee missed a reverse layup after he thought he was fouled by Green. Plumlee is typically a mild-mannered veteran, but the Clippers trailed by double-digits for most of Wednesday night’s game, and he felt like his teammates were not getting the respect of the officials. Golden State rookie Brandin Podziemski was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Plumlee fouled the rookie hard out of frustration, starting an altercation.
Flagrant 1 on Plumlee. Technical foul on Golden State power forward Jonathan Kuminga, who contacted Plumlee after the play. And Lue, still upset, was ejected by crew chief James Williams.
Lue hadn’t been ejected as a head coach, ever. It was his first ejection since March 2005, when he was playing for the Atlanta Hawks and punched Dallas Mavericks forward Eduardo Najera to earn a one-game suspension.
“I don’t think he’s ever been thrown out of a game, not just with the Clippers,” said associate head coach and de facto defensive coordinator Dan Craig, who took over for Lue to finish Wednesday’s game.
But the Clippers had that dog in them for one last game before booking some much-needed flights away from the grind. The Warriors led by as many as 15 points in the first half, and a Kuminga and-1 through Paul George gave the Warriors a 106-94 lead with 9:29 left to play. From that point on, the Clippers outscored the Warriors 36-19 to win 130-125.
“We were the aggressors, and we got the win,” said George, who fouled out with 3:07 left to play after scoring 24 points.
Lue didn’t even talk to his team on the way out. When asked by The Athletic what he said to Craig, who had to take over, Lue texted, “Nothing. I was too mad.”
James Harden holds back Tyronn Lue as he complains about a call. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
But after Kuminga’s and-1, the Warriors never attempted a free throw again for the rest of the night. Clippers point guard James Harden made 8 of 9 free throws as part of a team-high 26-point night, while small forward Amir Coffey made four of the Clippers’ 11 free throws in the last nine minutes. The free-throw line was a huge factor in a game that saw the Warriors hold an 18-13 advantage in made 3s, with the Clippers outscoring the Warriors 29-13 from the line. And after the Clippers secured an emotional victory, Lue was leading the cheers with his staff in the visitors tunnel.
“Yes sir, way to have my back!” Lue exclaimed, high-fiving his team.
Clippers 130, Warriors 125
All-Star break underway pic.twitter.com/WDXl2T80fg
— Law Murray ❤️🔥 (@LawMurrayTheNU) February 15, 2024
This was the last game before the All-Star break. Signs were already showing that the Clippers needed a whole week off, even as well as they played. The Clippers had a long road trip on the East Coast, one that was successful but far from perfect. They needed a comeback to defeat the lowly Detroit Pistons in a matinee game, and sandwiched around that home game were losses against Western Conference foes New Orleans and Minnesota.
The trip up to the Bay came with the news that All-Star power forward Kawhi Leonard was out for the Warriors game due to a left adductor strain, only his fifth missed game of the season. Disgruntled third-string players PJ Tucker and Bones Hyland were deactivated and left off the trip upstate, which Lue had to address at shootaround in the morning and in the late afternoon before the game.
Stephen Curry looked like he was going to put another memory on the Clippers’ heads. Several 50-50 balls wound up in Curry’s hands after a Golden State offensive rebound or a Clippers ballhandling mishap. Curry wound up with 41 points, 27 of them on 3-pointers.
But Craig had the Clippers trap Curry out of a Warriors timeout, with George returning the turnover for an and-1 through Klay Thompson as part of a 10-0 Clippers run. It was the kind of determined stop that shook the Clippers out of their malaise for most of the game.
“We just knew we had to clean up a lot of the little slippage stuff,” George said. “We gave up a lot of easy baskets with back cuts, with kick-outs, and just losing sight of Steph. I thought we let Steph get away from us. I thought once we locked in and keyed in on those situations, I thought we had a chance.”
The Clippers also had to keep in mind they were playing a team that has had a bad habit of not closing games appropriately. The Warriors have lost nine games this season after leading by at least 11 points at one point. That already matches how many such games they lost last season. Earlier this season, in LA, the Warriors squandered a 22-point third-quarter lead to the Clippers. Twelve days after that, the Clippers beat the Warriors without George, who missed the game with an injury.
“I thought we played harder than them,” George said.
LA now gets eight days off before having to play again. It’s a needed break for a team that hasn’t lost consecutive games since Christmas, responding to each of their last six losses with wins. At 36-17, the Clippers sit in third in the West, 1 1/2 games behind Minnesota and a game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Clippers’ opponent in their first game back from the break, with a tiebreaker on the line.
Completing a season series victory over the Warriors should leave the Clippers feeling like all they need is time to reset.
“Great vibe,” George said. “You want to be on vacation and feeling good about it. It’s definitely momentum going into the second half of the season. So it’s great, we know we’ve got our work cut out for the second half, but I thought we ended the first half on a good note.”
(Top photo of James Harden passing past Golden State’s Kevon Looney during the second half Wednesday: John Hefti / USA Today)
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