Daryl Morey Claps Back at Clippers' Ty Lue for Joel Embiid, James Harden Criticism

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers met for the second and final time this season on Friday night. A couple of hours before the two teams tipped

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers met for the second and final time this season on Friday night. A couple of hours before the two teams tipped off at the Crypto.com Arena, Clippers head coach Ty Lue met with the media for his routine pregame press conference.

As usual, Philadelphia's opponent was asked about facing the dynamic duo that is Joel Embiid and James Harden. Typically those responses are met with praise for the All-Stars as they are a difficult duo to match up with.

While Lue didn't talk them down, he started off his comments with some criticism, which sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy on Friday night.

The Comment

“Embiid is #1 in the league from the free throw line and James [Harden] is #3. If you take away their free throws, neither one of those guys would be top 10 in scoring…”

- Ty Lue pregame yesterday on how well the 76ers duo can get to the line

pic.twitter.com/V6dUSXKqUa

— . (@TheNBACentral) March 26, 2022

"Embiid is number one in the league from the free-throw line and James is number three, you know?" said Lue. "So, I think if you take away their free throws, neither one of those guys would be in the top ten in scoring. 

"That tells you how much they get to the free-throw line. We just gotta do a good job pulling our hands back and making sure we're playing not letting them get to the bonus and doing the sweep rules. They are gonna get some calls because of who they are but we just gotta make sure we're doing our part." 

When Lue's comments initially went viral, they were missing the full context. However, the first part of his statement still left Sixers fans frustrated. And Philadelphia's President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey dished in his thoughts on Lue's sentiment via Twitter on Saturday night.

Morey Claps Back

.@LAClippers offense would rank 30th without free throws

Say it with me again - players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them...
h/t r/sixers https://t.co/Mw9hNJLKbf

— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) March 26, 2022

"Say it with me again - players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them... h/t r/sixers."

Morey raises a logical point. While Sixers big man Joel Embiid has openly discussed his ability to outsmart his opponents and draw fouls in the past, not all of his calls are a result of him baiting defenders into giving him an easy foul.

A lot of the time, Embiid is simply unstoppable when driving to the basket, which causes defenders to foul him even though they are attempting to make a stop on defense, which is Morey's point exactly. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.