Ty Lue Blasts Clippers: 'Pisses Me Off When' Other NBA Teams Are 'Mentally Tougher'

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue called out his team for not being "mentally tough" in Tuesday's 118-100 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Wolves were playing without Karl-Anthony Towns and trailed by as many as 22 points before turning the tables on L.A.

"They're a good team without KAT," Lue told reporters. "They are going to make runs, and we can't drop our heads and feel sorry for ourselves. ... But just being mentally tougher when things are not going good. There's a lot of things we didn't do great."

The coach added that Minnesota "played tougher than we did, for sure."

"No doubt pisses me off when it comes to that," he said. "Just being mentally tougher when stuff gets hard. You got to get tougher. We can talk about schemes, we can talk about a lot of other things, but we just got to be tougher mentally, and physically got to be better."

The Clippers' fortunes reversed almost immediately after star Kawhi Leonard exited in the first half due to back spasms. He logged just 12 minutes on the floor and Los Angeles was plus-13 during that span.

Some fans are bound to see the collapse as a potential harbinger.

Poorly timed injuries to Leonard and other key pieces are one reason the Clippers have yet to lift the championship that appeared destined to follow his and Paul George's arrival in 2019.

If Leonard is going to be dogged by back trouble, then it could have serious ramifications on Los Angeles' quest for a title.

There's still another month left in the regular season, so it's too early to begin panicking. You can't blame people for thinking they've seen this story before, though.