How Ty Lue's Holy Trinity Tore Up The 'Same Old Clippers' Script

“There is a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters.”

THE above is a small snippet from a quote by legendary Liverpool Football Club manager Bill Shankly.

While Bill originally made the quote in reference to football clubs, and specifically the one he managed at the time, it feels applicable to another sport and team at this time.

In their final game of the 2019-20 season, the Los Angeles Clippers bowed out of the NBA Playoffs at the second round after giving up a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets.

The supporters weren’t in attendance. The pandemic stripped millions of a lot of the things, and people they love so, in that sense, not being able to attend a basketball game felt like a small price to pay at the time.

The players’ character and attitude was being questioned. They had talked all year as if they were already a championship team only to conspire to lose a 3-1 lead to opposition that few saw as a genuine contender before the NBA’s Covid-safe ‘bubble’ began.

The ‘manager’, coach Doc Rivers, was soon fired.

Bill’s idea of a holy trinity, where the LA Clippers were concerned, lay in tatters.

When Ty Lue was appointed to replace Doc it felt like the most sensible choice, but perhaps not the most exciting one. Ty was an assistant coach so he knew the team well and he was more likely to make the kind of adjustments that Doc hadn’t made as he blew his second 3-1 playoff series lead in his Clippers tenure.

While other contenders made big moves to strengthen their chances of winning a title, the Clippers were much more subtle. The additions of Nicolas Batum and Serge Ibaka were practically swaps for the outgoing JaMychal Green and Montrezl Harrell. Luke Kennard was seen as somebody who wouldn’t be making a big splash straightaway.

Lou Williams was also eventually traded for Rajon Rondo, and to be honest that one is still raw.

The Lakers got stronger. The Nets got stronger. The Nuggets, the Suns, the Heat, the Bucks, the Sixers and even a few more teams could make a genuine case that they had strengthened their title aspirations. The Clippers weren’t a sure thing.

And that’s kind of how the regular season panned out. The Clippers had injuries and experienced the worst loss in their history at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks, but also chalked up some memorable performances and comebacks when the chips were down.

With not much noise being made about their chances heading into the playoffs, they were then accused of “tanking” their final few games in order to avoid a matchup with their LA rivals. People were ready to question The Clippers and Ty “Doc 2.0” Lue again.

Those critics must’ve been rubbing their hands over their keyboards as the fourth-seeded Clips fell to 2-0 and 3-2 deficits against the Mavs. The punchlines wrote themselves.

But, despite Serge Ibaka being ruled out for the season after back surgery, the Clippers battled hard and prevailed.

Then there was another 2-0 deficit, and just as it looked as though they’d rope-a-doped another team into taking a lead just to give it all up, Kawhi Leonard goes down. A hammer blow to their chances of even making it out the second round, never mind going the distance.

But the Clippers battled even harder and prevailed again.

Then it felt like the same old story. Another team with a young star starts fast to turn up the heat and go up 2-0, only to lose game three and allow the Clippers to come alive again, but Ivica Zubac goes down.

And the Clippers battled even harder, but this time they didn’t prevail.

The players gave it everything they had, faced the most amount of punches to the gut they could take, and eventually it took its toll.

But what about the supporters?

Well they were eventually allowed back into arenas, though the Clippers and Los Angeles were forced to arrive later to the party than some other teams and cities. Anyway, those supporters hardly make a difference - or so we were told. They’re just in the home of the biggest team in LA covering up their banners, right?

If the script said that those fans were supposed to stay quiet in an arena that doesn’t truly belong to them, they tore that up. When STAPLES was back at full capacity the place was rocking. Game six against Utah will go down in history as one of the best atmospheres these supporters have ever produced. They played their role.

OK, but what about the ‘manager’?

Well that “Doc 2.0” thing was well and truly put to bed. As the Clippers former coach suffered more second round disappointment in Philadelphia, the new guy was showing that his ability to make adjustments could still come up trumps, and that he didn’t need LeBron James to get it done either.

The coaching team he and the front office had built were like a band of brothers, and that was a feeling shared by the players. No hierarchies, cliques or double standards, just a group of guys on the same page and having each other’s backs through it all.

In the end, the ‘manager’ and his staff made the players and the fans proud. The players made the staff and the fans proud. And the fans made the staff and the players proud. The holy trinity as it was intended.

So what happens next? The holy trinity seems to be in agreement about running it back, but we’ve already lost one of our good ones with Chauncey Billups heading for Portland.

There could yet be more departures this summer, but one thing that won’t leave in a hurry is the mentality that has been instilled in this team.

They’ve proved the doubters wrong and they’ve done it all together.

Here’s to the next step.