Ty Lue's Ridiculous Lineups Suggest He's Running Out of Ideas

Ty Lue is pressing all the buttons on the controller, but nothing is working.

Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Clippers lost their fourth straight game on Monday to fall to 6-20 for the season. Going up against the Memphis Grizzlies in arguably their most winnable game over the next two weeks, the Clippers suffered a desultory home loss, completely falling apart in the second half. LA gave up a whopping 137.5 offensive rating to a team led by Cam Spencer.

This has been a familiar trend for the Clippers all season. They can put together one half of solid basketball, only to collapse in the second half, usually because of their horrendous defense.

Clippers Have No Idea How to Turn Things Around

Head coach Ty Lue has been desperately trying to find answers, but nothing seems to be working. Brook Lopez was a DNP-Coach's Decision again, and John Collins was marginalized, only playing ten minutes in the second half. This left the Clippers without a backup center and extremely undersized.

In fact, as Joey Linn of Clippers on SI pointed out on X, Lue played a lineup of James Harden, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Jordan Miller, Kobe Sanders, and Kobe Brown to close the third quarter. This group was unsurprisingly lit up as the Grizzlies went 7/9 in that span to win those four minutes 18 to 8. What Lue was expecting from a lineup whose tallest member was 6'8" shooting guard Kobe Sanders is unclear, but things didn't improve much in the fourth quarter.

Lue began the final quarter with Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac in for Harden and Sanders. Cam Spencer continued to go off, hitting four threes in a span of a few minutes to end the game once and for all.

As the Clippers continue their tailspin, Lue seems hopeless in trying to stop it. He is pulling players from the rotation and inserting new lineup combinations. On Monday, it was John Collins' turn to be the scapegoat.

What the Clippers need to understand, however, is that the problem is not on the margins. You can play musical chairs with the role players all you want, but the real issue lies within the core three of this team. The Clippers get outscored by 4.1 points per 100 possessions with Harden, Leonard, and Zubac on the floor together this season, per Cleaning the Glass. Those lineups have a defensive rating of 121.6, which would be the second-worst defense in the NBA.

If you get lit up every time your three best players are on the floor together, it means there is a more fundamental problem with your team. It's time the Clippers accept that reality before the trade deadline.