He was happy that his team basically was back to being completely healthy, but Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was not happy with how his team performed Thursday night.
Yes, the Clippers beat the lowly Washington Wizards in a blowout, 110-93, at the Intuit Dome. Yes, his team had six players score in double figures.
But the Clippers had 18 turnovers, playing sloppily against a Wizards team with the worst record in the NBA (6-37).
The Clippers had a 27-point lead but saw it sliced to 12 in the third quarter before pulling away from a Wizards team that has lost 12 straight games and is 1-19 on the road.
Kawhi Leonard was back in the lineup after sitting out two games to manage the load on his right knee. Center Ivica Zubac also returned after missing two games because of a corneal abrasion of his left eye. James Harden (groin), Norman Powell (back) and Nicolas Batum (finger) also returned after missing Wednesday’s overtime loss to Boston.
“Not a good game for us. Just a win,” Lue said. “We didn’t play particularly well. We didn’t execute with the basketball. We did some good things as well, but it wasn’t one of our best games. Like last night, I thought we played better.
“But it is a win. We’ll take it, but we got to start stacking wins. But we got to start executing the right way and I don’t think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Harden played with purpose, finishing with 17 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds for his fifth triple-double with the Clippers. It was the 79th triple-double of his career, moving him past Wilt Chamberlain for the eighth most in history.
“It means a lot, just impacting the game in other ways,” Harden said about his milestone. “Scoring is one thing, but rebounding the basketball, facilitating is another thing. And just impacting the game. You don’t get to be the best player on the court by just scoring the basketball every single night. Obviously that helps, but there’s other ways to impact games and you’ve seen it throughout the course of history of the NBA. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
Leonard played 23 minutes 47 seconds, finishing with 15 points and seven rebounds. Powell led the Clippers (25-19) with 22 points, Derrick Jones Jr. had 19, Mo Bamba 13 off the bench and Zubac 11.
The Clippers played their fourth game this week and completed their second back-to-back set.
“We did a good job,” Leonard said about the Clippers’ recent performance. “We won some games. Yesterday they pushed them pretty hard, in that game against Boston, pushing it to overtime. But we still got a tough schedule ahead of us. That’s what the NBA is about.”
Guard Kris Dunn missed his second straight game because of knee soreness.
“I think it’s something that’s going to hold him out for a long time,” Lue said. “Hopefully he’ll be back sooner than later.”