Ty Lue: Clippers Won't Sit Starters in Finale vs. Suns With Playoff Seeding Unknown
The Los Angeles Clippers still haven't clinched a guaranteed playoff berth, and head coach Tyronn Lue made it clear the team wouldn't be sitting any players for Sunday's season finale against the Phoenix Suns.
"I feel good. I just wanna get in," he added when asked if he's prioritizing avoiding the play-in tournament. "Doesn't matter what seed. Just to have a chance to play after missing it last year. My main focus is doing whatever we need to do to get to the playoffs."
The Clippers are currently in the fifth seed, and a win against the Suns would lock them into the seeding. It would also mean a first-round matchup against a Suns team that is 8-0 when Kevin Durant has played for them this season.
But the Suns—locked into the No. 4 seed already—rested Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton in a Friday loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, the second game of a back-to-back, and none of them will play against the Clippers either:
For the Clippers (43-38), losing would come with the risk of getting stuck in the play-in tournament. Wins by both the Golden State Warriors (43-38) and New Orleans Pelicans (42-39) and a loss by the Los Angeles Lakers (42-39) would bump the Clippers down to the No. 7 seed, with the Warriors having a better record in that scenario and the Pelicans holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Where things could get weird is if the Warriors, Pelicans and Lakers all win and the Clippers lose. In that very specific scenario, the Warriors would get the No. 5 seed, while based on several layers of the three-team tiebreaker criteria, it appears that the Pelicans would claim the No. 6 seed and the Clippers would drop to No. 7.
But with the Suns resting their starters, the Clippers should be able to make it all a moot point. A first-round matchup with the Suns is no walk in the park, but neither would be getting stuck in the play-in tournament and facing potentially either the Denver Nuggets or Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.
