Although an overtime brawl, both the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Clippers were far from being at their best. The Shamrocks featured just three of their starters. On the other hand, the Clippers only had Derrick Jones Jr. from their starting lineup. The LA side has suffered through the injury plague recently. Until now, some of their stars have chosen to be present and endure their respective injuries.

But tonight, having played four games in five days, the workload had the potential to become concerning. And so Ty Lue and the staff opted for a “smart” decision.

“You take it game by game. The biggest thing is as you said our players’ safety. Making sure they’re feeling well. Have a lot of guys on the team with some little nagging injuries that we got to try an be careful with… We just felt smart to let those guys get some rest and hopefully get some of those guys back tomorrow. We’re not sure yet about that but it seemed to be a pretty smart thing to do tonight,” he said after the game. 

Notably, James Harden had played through an illness. But in recent contests, picked up a groin injury on top of it. Furthermore, Ivica Zubac and Powell, two pivotal presences on the court are also dealing with minor injuries. As for Kawhi Leonard, despite him opting to rest in the prior games, the franchise decided it was wise to let him take another game off. Having just returned from a major knee injury, they felt it was the right course of action.

They may have lost. But the decision proved fruitful, displaying the fighting character of the roster. Jones, Amir Coffey, and Kevin Porter Jr. stood out amongst them all, each compiling 20+ point games. Moreover, pushing the defending champions with this unit is another positive Lue can take away from tonight.

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Ty Lue reveals the status on Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac

The impending question for the Clipper Nation might be just how severe are the injuries to their star players. With a game tomorrow against the Washington Wizards, James Harden and Norman Powell could be returning. However, their imposing center Ivica Zubac sustained an eye injury causing his vision to be disturbed.

Furthermore, the Klaw’s status continues to remain fragile as the Clippers look to navigate around his recovery.

Tyronn Lue though did have a conversation with the 2018 Finals MVP. “Kawhi is feeling good” he said about the Clippers keystone. As for the Croatian center, the revered head coach was busy cracking jokes about his appearance. “He had sunglasses on it so you know I got to mess with him a little bit. I didn’t get a chance to say take them off” he told the reporters.

However, he did receive an encouraging update from the Clippers medical team. The Clippers HC revealed Ivica Zubac is “getting better”. But, his vision still remains somewhat blurry. Hence, it’s difficult to ascertain whether the breakout center will feature tomorrow against the Wizards.

Although, Tyronn Lue will hope he will have most of his starting choices present.