Tyronn Lue escalates war of words with Daryl Morey

Tyronn Lue continues to season the NBA’s most random beef.

Before Friday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the LA Clippers head coach Lue spoke about the challenge of defending Joel Embiid and James Harden and stressed the importance of limiting their respective foul shots. Lue added that neither player would be top ten in the NBA in scoring without free throws.

https://twitter.com/joeylinn_/status/1507517704005042179

Lue’s comments offended Daryl Morey, the GM of the 76ers, and Morey fired back on Twitter by taking a shot at the Clippers’ offense. Morey also said that “players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them.”

.@LAClippers offense would rank 30th without free throws

Say it with me again – players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them…
h/t r/sixers https://t.co/Mw9hNJLKbf

— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) March 26, 2022

On Monday, it was Lue’s turn to respond, this time in more savage fashion.

“Should he really be tweeting anything right now?” said Lue of Morey, per Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “Last time he tweeted he cost the NBA a billion dollars. So I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Just worry about his own team.”

Lue also explained his original Harden-Embiid comment and said that it was taken out of context.

Ty Lue explained his quote about Embiid and Harden not being in top-10 scoring without the free throws: "It was said meaning if you continue to foul those guys, they can score 50. We want them to make field goals and not free throws because they’re crafty at getting to the line."

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) March 28, 2022

Lue’s “billion dollars” dig is a reference to how Morey angered China in 2019 with a tweet in support of Hong Kong. The tweet led to China banning NBA games from its airwaves for an entire season. Morey eventually deleted the tweet and would later leave the Houston Rockets, his team at the time, roughly a year after the controversy.

As for the issue at hand, Lue’s remarks on Harden and Embiid seemed tame enough, but they definitely caused Morey to overreact. We know though that Morey is very defensive of his players, especially of his longtime pal Harden.

Photo: Nov 19, 2021; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; LA Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue looks on against New Orleans Pelicans during the second half at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports