Coach Ty Lue Exposes Clippers Identity Crisis With 1 Word, Days After Paul George Reality Check

The Los Angeles Clippers seem to be in the midst of a crisis at the moment. Their earlier success had propelled them towards securing a high seed on the points chart, and it was up to them to continue maintaining that momentum. The same has proven to be difficult, however, as the Clippers have managed to lose 4 of their last 6 games. Their recent matchup against the Indiana Pacers highlighted the team’s alleged deteriorating state, as they managed to lose by almost 17 points.

In the aftermath of the game, Clippers coach Ty Lue was seen putting out a statement about his team’s performance. The same was highlighted by Sports Illustrated beat writer Joey Linn on his official X account. He wrote how, when Tyronn Lue was asked “Do the Clippers have an identity right now?”, the coach replied “Yeah. We’re soft.”

The ‘identity’ question has been a prominent one amongst the Clippers for quite some time now. It was only a few days ago when small forward Paul George had gone out of his way to state “We want to be a team that’s consistent. We want to establish an identity… Right now I don’t think we have an identity.”

George’s comments had come in light of the team’s 17 point loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Despite the fact that the player and lead scorer James Harden had contributed a combined 54 points to the overall score, the Clippers still ended up losing to the team that were coming off a 3-loss streak.

The Clippers had a great start to the regular season. During the months of December and January, they established a 23-5 record, one of the best that the franchise had seen in a long time. Since the second half of the season commenced, however, the team started to lose its edge. In light of this situation, Tyronn Lue was not hesitant in letting the media know in which area the Clippers needs to improve.

Ty Lue wants his team’s identity to revolve around “toughness”

During the very same presser where Ty Lue called out his team as “soft”, he talked about what the Clippers can do now in order to create an identity that strikes fear in their rivals. “Identity, you know for us, has gotta be ‘toughness’, which means physicality, mentally and physical toughness,” said Ty Lue. While stating that they can “score in a lot of different ways” offensively, the coach also emphasized on the need to possess a “defensive mindset”.

“You can’t choose when you want to pick and lead, you can’t pick and choose when you want to have an identity, you can’t pick and choose when you want to do things the right way” Lue continued. “And so, just do the right things every night, everything else will fall into order”.

What are your thoughts on the Clippers’ ‘identity’ at the moment? Let us know in the comments down below.

READ MORE: Humiliation Against Trae Young-less Hawks Not Wavering Clippers HC Ty Lue’s Confidence