Ty Lue is sure the Los Angeles Clippers will soon find a way to make things work with James Harden in the team.
The Clippers lost for a third straight game on Friday, going down 126-144 to the Dallas Mavericks.
That was despite a fast start from Los Angeles, who had built a 12-point lead with 1:53 remaining of the first quarter.
"What's the worst that you can be?" Lue asked when reflecting on the rest of his team's display, as they were put to the sword by Luka Doncic's 44 points.
Yet the Clippers coach feels wins will soon come as Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook gain some rhythm with Harden.
"I'm telling you, it's going to be good," said Lue, who rested his starters in the final quarter given the Clippers were trailing by 26 points.
"That's all right. We'll be all right. They better take advantage of it now."
Leonard echoed the sentiment, with the two-time NBA champion saying: "I'm still confident.
"I still feel like we're learning each other, the whole players and coaching staff, and you see a little bit of good things in the game tonight, even last game, having some good leads.
"We're just not sustaining it and once we figure it out, we're going to keep it rolling. So we've all got to stay afloat and stay confident and keep pushing one another to keep that mindset on the goal.
"We have four guys on the floor that are used to having a ball, used to finding a rhythm just by feeling and touching it all game.
"Just playing more, you'll start to figure out, OK, this guy needs this spot here or he got it going, let me buy in into another part of the game where I can make us win."
Leonard led the Clippers with 26 points, with Harden and Westbrook each chipping in with 14. George, though, could only score eight points, adding three rebounds and two assists, in his 23 minutes on the court.
"I feel like you got to learn to just adjust," George said. "It's not from a 'like' standpoint, it's just he's trying this out, too.
"We're all trying to try this out and so I don't know. I don't know, I'm out there to try to just learn on the fly, figure it out on the fly as we all are.
"So I'm rolling with what T-Lue sees out there and again, at some point it's going to work and nobody's going to talk about the rotations and guys on the floor and personnel."
Harden, too, acknowledged it will take time to fully adjust.
"Just getting used to it," he said. "There's just so many great talented players on this team, I got to find a way to still be aggressive, generating shots or creating shots for myself, as well.
"The first quarter felt really good on both ends of the ball, and then from there it went downhill. So trying to find a balance of not trying to step on anyone's toes, but just trying to still be aggressive and be myself.
"It's a process, but it's definitely a little frustrating. We do like to win games."
Malone: Shoe mix-up not to blame for Nuggets' Game 4 loss
Michael Malone refused to blame a bizarre equipment mix-up for his Denver Nuggets' Game 4 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.
Denver headed into the game with a 3-0 first-round series lead, but ahead of a Game 4 where they could have sealed their progression, some Nuggets players warmed up in flip-flops after a delay in their shoes arriving to the arena.
Following the equipment mix-up, the Nuggets fell to a 119-108 loss as LeBron James led the way for the Lakers with 30 points to keep his team in the series.
Despite the pre-match muddle, Malone says to blame that for the ensuing defeat would be a "reach".
"Is it ideal? No," Malone told reporters. "But hopefully we can figure that out and make sure it never happens again.
"If you want to dig into stuff and say, 'well, we lost because for some strange reason our players didn't have their shoes when they got here for their normal warm-ups, that we had guys out there shooting around with flip-flops'. Is it ideal? No. But I'm not an excuse guy. And I'm not going to point to the reason we got our butts kicked in the paint because shoes weren't here."
Denver had been forced to overturn double-digit deficits in all three of their series victories prior to Saturday's defeat, and Michael Porter Jr. again lamented his team's slow start while crediting the Lakers.
"We talked about getting off to a better start," Porter Jr. explained. "It takes a lot of energy to come back from these double-digit leads, down 20, down 15, whatever it is.
"Tonight they [Lakers] did a good job of sustaining it. Whenever we got within 10 or eight, it seemed like they made a 3-pointer or made a big shot. So credit to them."
Tatum points to Celtics' toughness as key to Game 3 win over Heat
Jayson Tatum believes his Boston Celtics team showed their toughness as they claimed a 104-84 Game 3 win over the Miami Heat on Saturday.
As the top seed in the Eastern Conference, Boston eased to victory in the opening match of the first-round series. However, the eighth-seed Heat hit back in Game 2, taking a 111-101 triumph to level the series.
Game 3 belonged to the Celtics, though, with a strong defensive display and a big performance from Tatum, who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, allowing Boston to once again get their noses in front ahead of Game 4.
In Tatum's view, the Celtics were able to match their ability with a strong mindset in Game 3 to help them regain control of the series.
"Everybody knows how talented we are," Tatum told reporters. "But can we be the tougher, harder-playing team?"
"If we can combine that with the talent, it's going to be hard to beat us.
"Can we start off every game, essentially, punching first instead of reacting? That's a test we have to be up for every single night."
The Heat hit 23 3-pointers in their Game 2 victory, but the Celtics' defensive display was a big improvement on Saturday, limiting the Heat to just 84 points.
Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra acknowledged the Celtics' much-improved performance in Game 3, though he still believes his team has the ability to haul themselves back into the series again.
"They were the more physical team," Spoelstra explained. "They bodied us [and] bullied us.
"We have enough to get the job done. We know we have to play hard, and we also have to play well."
'One-game series' for LeBron as Lakers secure lifeline with Nuggets win
LeBron James says the Los Angeles Lakers face a "one-game series" against the Denver Nuggets after clinching a lifeline in their Western Conference first-round battle in Game 4.
The Lakers avoided a sweep with Saturday's 119-108 home win over the reigning NBA champions, halting an 11-game losing streak in head-to-head meetings with Denver.
James had 30 points while Anthony Davis added 25 points and 23 rebounds as Los Angeles finally saw out a lead to stay alive in the playoffs.
They now return to Denver for Game 5 on Monday, knowing no team has ever overturned a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series.
James, however, is taking things one game at a time, saying: "Well, the only opportunity for us is just to play the next game.
"We've given ourselves another life. We've given ourselves another lifeline, and it's a one-game series for us.
"Monday's game is the most important game of the season for us, and we understand that and we know that, it's at that stage where if you lose, you're done. You win and you keep going."
Davis' 25 points came on 11 of 17 shooting, and he is averaging 30.5 points and 15.8 rebounds throughout a series in which he is often up against likely 2023-24 MVP Nikola Jokic.
Davis attracted scrutiny when he appeared to blame head coach Darvin Ham for the Lakers' defeat in Game 2, but James says he doesn't have anything to prove through the rest of the series.
"AD doesn't have to prove anything to anybody," James said. "He's one of the best bigs we have in the game, one of the best bigs in the world. He's showing that again through the first four games."
Davis, meanwhile, was relieved to see the Lakers produce through four quarters, having squandered a 20-point lead back in Game 2.
"We have a lot of confidence in our team," Davis said. "We've had the lead a lot this series.
"It's just been our second halves, actually our third quarters, where we haven't been able to execute at scoring the basketball. So our confidence was never lost at any point in the game."
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