Even Tyronn Lue was taken aback by Nikola Jokic’s 55-point outburst
The Los Angeles Clippers will be pushed to the point of desperation. They lost Bradley Beal to a season-ending hip injuryand with John Collins struggling, they look like a big loser coming off the Norman Powell trade. Kawhi Leonard is currently recovering from multiple injuriesand James Harden and Ivica Zubac just weren’t able to do enough to keep LA afloat. To make matters worse, they were on the receiving end of a 55-point outburst Nikola Jokic in the Clippers’ 130-116 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Head coach Tyronn Lue turns to the bottom of his list in search of answers on how to end the Clippers’ rut. In fact, Lue has tried everything — going deep into his bench, playing young guys — to try to steal a game from the surging Nuggets. The game plan for LA was clearly to let Jokic get his own and prevent other Nuggets from jumping out.
Lue didn’t know this was the game plan would eventually bite Clippers on the back.
“Our game plan was to make him score and just take the pass away from him, take everybody else out of the game. I thought (in) the first half, we did a good job with that,” Lue said in his postgame presser, via Oh No He Didn’t on X (formerly Twitter). “I didn’t think he would score 55.”
That Lou at Jokic’s big dinner:
“Our game plan was to make him score and just take the pass away from him. . . . I didn’t think he was going to score 55.” pic.twitter.com/Kso5UbzKSGTn
— Oh no, it’s not (@ohnohedidnt24) November 13, 2025
The Nuggets have a tough counter for Ivica Zubac from the Clippers
Not many centers in today’s NBA can slow down Jokic. Zubac is a rare player who can hang with him on the interior. But on the perimeter, it’s a different story.
The Nuggets know how to counter Zubac, and they do so by letting Jokic roam the perimeter more often and forcing him to shoot threes. His shooting was accurate on Wednesday, and all the Clippers head coach could do was tip his hat.
“He plays like a guard when Zu is on him. Pindowns and all that stuff, it’s hard for Zu to try to work his way through. When you move him a little bit, you just post. It’s just a tough mask. But I don’t think he would get 55.”
2025-11-13 12:15:00
