Reggie Jackson calls Tyronn Lue ‘the best coach in the league’

Victorious in the great widths of the Lakers (27-35, 9th place in the West), last night, the Clippers (34-31, 8th place in the West) confirmed for good their status as the best team in Los Angeles. Evidenced by their four wins this season against the neighbor angelenoin as many confrontations.

Better yet: since the arrival of Tyronn Lue at the head of the Clippers, in the fall of 2020, the latter have outright won each of their seven clashes with the Lakers! An undeniable domination, therefore.

However, this series of invincibility could very well have ended this Thursday evening, if the Clippers had not managed a third quarter of fire: 40 to 18! With in particular this huge “run” of 23-0, in order to increase the score from 69-65 to 92-65, in five minutes.

A return from the canon locker room

A heat stroke made possible by one man, according to Reggie Jackson: “ What kept us in was having the best coach in the league “, estimated the leader of Los Angeles, author of 36 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists against Russell Westbrook.

Before that, the Clippers were indeed in trouble, since they too had taken a “run”, of 16-3 this time, to see their lead gradually melt away at the end of the first half: from +17 to +4. Then Tyronn Lue came by, at the break…

« He wasn’t angry, he just told us to keep going and not let go, because we’ve been in much worse situations before. “, explained in this regard Isaiah Hartenstein, in reference to the many turnarounds successful by the Clippers, in 2021/22.

If no player spoke about the content of Tyronn Lue’s speech at half-time, he still gave some indications on what happened inside the locker room angeleno…

« Our assistant coach, Beau [Levesque], told me: ‘The players are dead, nobody reacts’. So I walked into the dressing room, said some bullshit, made everyone laugh and stimulated. They laughed, then we regained our energy “confided the Clippers coach, still forced to compose without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George or Norman Powell.

The Lakers’ “Black Lue”

Still undefeated against the franchise in which he evolved between 1998 and 2001, Tyronn Lue also seems to have taken these meetings personally against the Lakers. And it could be that, what plays a role in this, is the fact that he himself was not able to become a coach of the “Purple & Gold” in 2019.

Recall that at that time, the Lakers and he had not agreed during contract negotiations. On the one hand, Tyronn Lue wanted to sign for five years. On the other, the Californian leaders only offered him three years, so as to model his future on that of LeBron James, who would then have been free agent in 2022 (without its future extension).

To make matters worse, the “Purple & Gold” also wanted to impose on Tyronn Lue the presence of Jason Kidd in his staff. Except that the historic assistant of Doc Rivers did not want it and he rather preferred to (re) become the right arm of his mentor on the Clippers bench, in 2019/20. Before succeeding him, a year later.

As for the Lakers, they finally hired Frank Vogel as coach and he did not object to the presence of Jason Kidd as assistant. Leading to a title in the “bubble” of Orlando, in 2020. But very deep ills collectively, less than two years later…