Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue is focused on limiting one aspect of Nuggets offense besides Jokic

Nikola Jokic is the obvious centerpiece that makes the Denver Nuggets offense one of the best in the league, but Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue knows his team needs to stop something else

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Apr 16, 2025, 7:53 AM Updated: 7:54 am

Follow on Google News

Watch: Nuggets trade Watson — Is the Championship window closing? | Stokley and Evans with Mark Schlereth | 9 mins

The Denver Nuggets are taking on the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue is wasting no time getting his team prepared for one of the top offenses in the league.

The most obvious part of Denver’s offense that Lue and his team needs to stop is Nikola Jokic. Against the Clippers this season, the Joker’s numbers have been down, averaging 28.3/10.0/5.7 lines in three games.

“I think you’ve got to give him different coverages,” Lue said on Monday. “He’s too great. He’s too great just to give him one simple thing … You gotta do different things throughout the course of the game to not try and let him get comfortable. We’ve seen probably what every defensive team has thrown at him. Just try to keep him off balance the best you can, but you can’t give him a steady diet of the same thing.”

When playoff time rolls around in the NBA, the conversation of whether to make the three-time MVP a scorer or a passer always comes up, and it was no different for the Clippers head coach on Monday.

“It’s hard to do, he’s a three-time MVP for a reason,” Lue said. “We gotta do a good job at just trying to take away one of those things so he’s not being aggressive doing both.”

While every team will be focused on stopping Jokic, Lue wasn’t as focused on the Serbian superstar. Jokic is going to get his stats on most nights, that’s just what he does. Instead, Lue emphasized the importance of limiting Denver in another aspect of the game offensively.

“We know what we got to take away from [the Nuggets] because they’re dangerous in transition. We can’t allow them to have 36 points in transition like they did in Game 3 [of the regular season series] … If we capitalize on that we should be in good shape,” Lue said.

The Nuggets score the fourth-most transition points per game in the entire NBA (26.3) and are tied for second in points per possession on transition opportunities (1.18). With Christian Braun getting out and running to the rim, Nikola Jokic throwing touchdown passes and Russell Westbrook flying up the floor, they are very comfortable in transition situations, and Lue knows the importance of preventing that.

The Clippers are a top-12 team in the league in transition defense, allowing 22.3 points per game and 1.13 points per possession. With a healthy Kawhi Leonard fully in the mix now, one of the best defenders in the league when healthy, those numbers are poised to improve even more in the postseason.

Both the Nuggets and the Clippers have their hands full with this matchup. The Nuggets have a new head coach and a top offense in the league while the Clippers have been the hottest team in the league over the last month heading into the playoffs.