Tyronn Lue made sure to call every player on his team, a move the Clippers coach said was necessary to check the “temperature” of the team before its biggest game of the season.
Lue refused to text his players in a group message because he wanted to “hear their voices” and encourage them before playing in a win-or-go-home Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets.
His players responded and delivered in a 111-105 win over the Nuggets at Intuit Dome on Thursday night.
Lue’s two stars are reticent more than anything else, but James Harden and Kawhi Leonard spoke volumes with their play in forcing a Game 7 in Denver on Saturday night.
Harden had 28 points, eight assists and six rebounds and Leonard finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Norman Powell finished with 24 points.
The Clippers opened a 15-point lead in the fourth on a Bogdan Bogdanovic three-pointer with five minutes and 57 seconds left.
But that lead was sliced to 107-101, forcing the Clippers to call a timeout with 2:43 left.
The Clippers didn’t score out of the timeout, but they got a break when Russell Westbrook missed a layup. But Aaron Gordon scored and Christian Braun made two free throws with 58.5 seconds left to cut the Clippers’ lead to 111-105.
It remained precarious for the Clippers after Harden turned the ball over, but Nikola Jokic (25 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) missed a layup and the Clippers got the ball back again.
Leonard sealed the win after making one of two free throws with 18.8 seconds left.
“Got a great temperature,” Lue said of his players. “Took a lot of temperatures in the last 36 hours. Guys are feeling good. They understand what we got to do. We got to play harder. We got to play with more discipline.”
Lue said he wasn’t going to rely on captains Harden and Leonard to lead the way.
Rather, Lue said, he wanted to take charge, to be the leader.
“It comes from me, like understanding and getting our guys ready to play,” Lue said. “And just talking to every guy last night, just to see how they are feeling, things that we need them to do better, things that they are doing great as well.”
Harden hadn’t played well in the last two games that were losses. His offense had been sub par and he wasn’t aggressive. But that all changed in the first half, with Harden scoring 21 points in the first 24 minutes.
He was seven for 11 from the field and two for four from three-point range.
Lue said he considered making a change to his starting lineup for this win-or-go-home game for the Clippers, but he eventually decided against that move. That was until the start of the second half, when Lue started Nicholas Batum in place of Kris Dunn.
The 6-foot-9 Batum gave the Clippers more size and more consistent outside shooting.
And right on cue, Batum struck early, drilling a three-pointer to open the third.
The Clippers shot four for 22 from three-point range in the first half, but they made four of seven in the third quarter.