PHOENIX — The best coaches can “take yours and beat theirs and take theirs and beat yours,” that strategy often exemplified in the opening games of the NBA playoffs.
Ty Lue, sporting a glimmer in his eye in the pregame media session, said he loved the chess game, the back and forth with strategies between games.
He clearly played the longest chess game known to man in repeatedly instilling confidence in Russell Westbrook, resisting the urge to sit the struggling guard.
Westbrook’s shots missed short, wide and long — but he often recovered shots short, wide and long, in addition to playing the best defensive game perhaps in his career to help the Los Angeles Clippers steal home-court advantage from the Phoenix Suns with a 115-110 win at Footprint Center on Sunday night.