On the second night of a back-to-back, the LA Clippers hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder without two of their starters, Kawhi Leonard and Bradley Beal. Thus, head coach Tyronn Lue surprisingly chose a combination of Kris Dunn and Nicolas Batum. Dunn was right where he should have been, but Lue did not offer John Collins a chance, which is losing the Clippers games and giving their Western Conference competitors the green light to overtake them.
Moreover, last night should have been Collins’ third start of the season with Beal missing two games prior. Yet, fans are still waiting for the day Lue will select the Wake Forest product to run with LA's core.
Consequently, the Clippers lost and now have a losing record. If this keeps up, they will soon slip so far that, no matter how many times Leonard and James Harden score 30 individually, they will be stuck out of the playoffs, making it one less championship-contender for the upper half of the conference to worry about.
Tyronn Lue is not rewarding John Collins with the well-deserved role as a starter
What more could Tyronn Lue ask for from John Collins, who was the LA Clippers’ second leading scorer in last night’s loss, versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, without Kawhi Leonard? He showed his motor on the glass, found clean looks, and did not do anything extra, like trying to play superhero in the absence of the two-time champion.
He finished the contest with 17 points and four rebounds in 25 minutes, shooting 5-8 from the field and 1-2 from beyond the arc.
In comparison, earlier in the season, Bogdan Bogdanovic started and disappointed, and, coincidentally, Nicolas Batum was no better against the Thunder, with three points on one make from five attempts, all from three-point territory.
Furthermore, the best players usually end up where they belong, and for Collins, it is as the Clippers’ starting forward. The only possible reason forcing Lue to wait and delay the inevitable is that seven games is too soon for a permanent change.
However, focusing on the long term is causing problems, as the short term needs much more attention. The Clippers are the tenth seed, with four losses, in the last spot of the play-in tournament.
Sure, the season does not end today, so there is plenty of time to recover, but each shortcoming is one more game that could cost LA a playoff spot.