Tyronn Lue eased his way out of the quiet Clippers’ locker room, made a right turn down an equally quiet hallway at Crypto.com Arena and made another right into the media room to answer questions about how his team coughed up a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Lakers.
Lue plopped down in his chair, shook his head and eventually said he was taking “responsibility” for a loss that no one saw coming when his team was having its way in building a 98-77 lead.
Lue said he’s the coach of the team and that it is his job to make sure the Clippers stay the course and do not falter the way they did in losing 116-112 to the Lakers on Wednesday night.
“We didn’t get organized, we didn’t do things we were supposed to do and so I take full responsibility for that,” Lue said. “Just making sure we’re organized, knowing what we’re supposed to do. And like I said, then LeBron [James] exploded.”
James scored 19 of his 34 points in the fourth. He was 7-for-12 shooting from the field in the final 12 minutes, 5-for-8 shooting from three-point range.
But the Clippers were bad in the fourth quarter in so many ways, and that was not just on Lue, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden said.
