Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue made an ironic comment after his team lost Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Boston Celtics 107-94 on Tuesday night.
Lue commented on how physical the Celtics played, using a specific phrase that stuck with people: “gooning.”
“They’re playing tougher than we are. They’re being physical. They’re gooning the game up, and we got to do the same thing. So we gotta be tougher — mentally and physically,” Lue said.
Tyronn Lue on the Celtics physical play "They're gooning the game up and we have to do the same thing." #Celtics pic.twitter.com/OHazQSOWKf
— Chad Amaral (@chad_amaral) May 16, 2018
The irony in his remark is that it was his team that made a goon move during Game 2. JR Smith was called for a flagrant foul for committing a dirty play in the fourth quarter on Al Horford.
Horford was asked about Lue saying Boston was physical and gooned it up. He said that’s just Celtics basketball.
“We just play hard. We got out there, we compete — it’s Celtics basketball. We’re playing hard. We got each others’ backs. And that’s it.”
Marcus Smart didn’t seem surprised, noting that Smith tends to play dirty against Boston.
You get the sense that Lue isn’t irritated with the Celtics’ style of play so much as he’s bothered that Cleveland isn’t keeping up with them.
