The Clippers had another comeback win and Lue credited his team for sticking with it early.
The Los Angeles Clippers had no business winning Friday night's game against the Indiana Pacers.
Down 24 points in the second quarter and getting torched by a Pacers team that couldn't miss from deep, it felt like one of those nights where you tip your cap and move on.
But head coach Ty Lue knew his guys weren't going to fold.
"Just, you know, throughout the course of the game, just keep battling, keep fighting, keep competing, and we was able to come out with the win," Lue said postgame.
The Deficit and the Response
Indiana came out on fire, shooting 8-for-11 from three in the first quarter and building a 42-21 lead that ballooned to 45-21 early in the second.
The Clippers looked like they were sleepwalking through the first 15 minutes while the Pacers, who own the league's worst record at 16-58, played like they had something to prove.
But Los Angeles started chipping away before halftime, with Bennedict Mathurin scoring six points in a late 8-0 run that cut the deficit to 10 at the break.
Lue talked about what kept his team in the fight.
"A total team effort, you know, and just um continue to keep competing, you know, you never know what happens," Lue said. "We got down 24. The guys didn't panic and um just stayed the course and we got some stops and then we was able to score the basketball."
Kawhi and Garland Carry the Load
The two biggest reasons the Clippers were able to pull off this comeback were Kawhi Leonard and Darius Garland.
Garland led everybody with 30 points and knocked down six threes while running the offense with five assists, and the pairing of him and Leonard has completely changed what this team looks like since the trade deadline.
Leonard finished with 28 points on 13-of-26 shooting and extended his streak of consecutive 20-point games to 50, becoming just the 14th player in NBA history to hit that mark.
And look, the way the game ended is something that could define their season.
The Finish Nobody Saw Coming
Down 113-108 with a minute left after an Obi Toppin jumper, it looked like the comeback had stalled.
Leonard hit a jumper, Garland made two free throws, and suddenly the Clippers had the ball down one.
Lue called timeout with three seconds left and drew up a play for Leonard, who took a few dribbles from the left side, worked his way to the elbow, and knocked down a mid-range jumper over two Pacers defenders with just 0.4 seconds on the clock.
The final stretch somehow took about nine minutes of real time to finish, with Indiana's Jay Huff getting fouled on the inbounds and missing both free throws to seal the 114-113 win.
The victory gave the Clippers their fourth straight win and improved them to 38-36 on the season while also marking Lue's 400th career coaching victory.
For a team that started the year 6-21 and looked like it was headed for the lottery, the turnaround has been remarkable.
Leonard is averaging 28.3 points per game this season on 50.4 percent shooting, and the addition of Garland has given the Clippers a backcourt that can go toe-to-toe with just about anyone in the West.
Games like Friday's are why nobody should want to see this team in the play-in.