Ty Lue complains that the Clippers are an old team. Then he plays the old guys instead of the young guys.

From the time the Clippers lucked out by getting Bones, Lue has resisted playing him. Bones Hyland is a fearless dynamic player. Last night proved it. Maybe Lue didn’t recognize him with the changed hairstyle and put him in thinking he was someone else. Who knows.?

The Clips immediately changed everything when Bones and Mann came in together. Tempo changed. Dynamics changed. It was all positive.

I’m thinking the Clippers will play better without George. It’s all about styles.

Morris sucks. You know it. Everyone knows it.

I just read where Lue may want out. If true, is this why he has made ridiculous coaching decisions? Is it all about getting fired so his contract is fully paid? Lue bailed on the Cavaliers. He has a history of bailing.

Now that Bones has shown what he is capable of, will Lue cut his minutes? I do not trust Lue.

Just two details I viewed differently: a) the uninspired start by Russ you describe. He had 4 assists in 6 minutes, drew a foul and played defense b) putting the scoring drought on Morris alone. I’d add that Gordon also missed his first and third wide open shot, couldn’t initiate whatsoever, Russ had a turnover over this stretch and Kawhi went from phenomenal to non-aggressive/non-assertive. KL had 0 points in 7:23 minutes in the 2nd quarter, his non-assertiveness highlighted by dribbling the ball off his foot. Don’t get me wrong, Kawhi was exceptional overall. But the entire team hit a bad stretch here, not just Morris.

Great write-up nonetheless, for the most part I had very similar observations

Gordon is a different case. Inconsistent but not per se struggling. He could very well be one of the best players again next game. Got no qualms whatsoever with Gordon starting, my issue was Gordon closing the second quarter the way he had played in comparison to Mann.

Gold: Kawhi, Bones, Batum, Ty Lue

Both bigs did the little things/their job. Russ was very good under difficult circumstances, he did not have multiple scoring threats nor spacing with the starters. Which leads me to Morris: not bad on defense, assertive on offense. But failed to fulfil one of his biggest responsibilities, spacing the floor. Gordon similar, very solid on defense but only provided spacing in the 3rd quarter and was terrible on drives/trying to break down the defense. I thought Mann outplayed him defensively by a bit and as a driver and creator of offense by a lot. RoCo applying for minutes once again being a better defender than Morris and hitting his shots.

Nonetheless, apart from Morris’ minutes I loved the idea of the rotation without George. Gordon generally makes sense as a starter, Bones and Mann should be tried further until it doesn’t work and the Russ for Kawhi and Batum for Morris substitutions are exactly how you can provide rest for everyone while having a steady lineup that makes sense. Might run into trouble with the 3-guard second unit in specific matchups but in that case my hope is coach Lue simply replaces the worst-performing guard with RoCo.