Tyronn Lue after Clippers beat Nuggets: rebound by committee, and no slow starts

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Oct. 14, 2026 — The LA Clippers closed preseason with a 122-110 win over the Denver Nuggets at Intuit Dome, and Tyronn Lue’s message afterward was not about the final score. With Isaiah Jackson starting at center and a roster that plays small, Lue kept circling the same phrase: rebound by committee.

Los Angeles finished with 35 assists, 40 rebounds and only 11 turnovers. Five Clippers scored in double figures, led by Rui Hachimura’s 16 points. Off the bench, Baba Miller added 15 on 5-of-6 shooting, and rookie Keaton Wagler started and posted 12 points, five rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes. Darius Garland had 14 points and seven assists.

‘We got to rebound by committee’

Asked whether the balanced scoring night was a blueprint for the regular season, Lue steered the answer back to the glass.

“Yeah, I think points, you know, more so I say it’s more so rebounding,” Lue said after the game. “We’re starting a 6-8 center. Darius is 6-1 or whatever he is, and so we’re gonna be small. So we just got to rebound by committee.”

He has already put a number on Hachimura’s part of that load.

“I’ve challenged Rui to average seven, eight rebounds this season, because he is — he’s probably bigger than Isaiah,” Lue said. “He is the second biggest guy, if not the first biggest guy, in that starting lineup. So I’m just challenging him to be a great rebounder, challenging DJ with his athleticism to be a great rebounder. And so we got to keep improving in that area.”

Jackson finished with nine points and five rebounds in 26 minutes opposite Nikola Jokić, who played only 17. Lue said the matchup is less about stopping Jokić in a preseason sample and more about helping an undersized five when bigger centers post him.

“We got to help him out. He’s got to rebound the basketball. We got to do it by committee,” Lue said. “But when we play against those bigger centers and they’re trying to post him, we got to do a good job protecting him.”

35 assists and a second unit with pace

The offense that produced those 35 assists looked the way Lue wants it every night — paint touches, ball movement and the right play.

“Just overall just having 35 assists, moving the basketball, attacking the paint, making the right play, and that’s how we got to play every night,” he said. On the second unit, led by Miller’s activity, Lue liked “the energy, the pace — they came in with a purpose.”

Wagler’s first start drew a similar review: take shots, stay aggressive, still make the right play, and crash the glass early. “We got to do it by committee with our lack of size,” Lue said.

No more easing into games

Even in a win, Lue did not soft-pedal a slow start. He said the Clippers cannot be a team that digs early holes and then decides to play.

“We can’t be a team this year to have slow starts. We got to come out swinging first and take the game to the opponent,” Lue said. “We can’t just sit back on our heels, let teams attack us and then understand and realize we got to start playing. We don’t want to continue to do that.”

The margin, he stressed, is already slim.

“We can’t ease into games. The margin for error is slim. So we got to attack the game from jump ball. We got to have the aggressiveness, the willingness to play with pace offensively, share the basketball and play the right way.”

Preseason ends Friday for Denver; the Clippers used the night to close their exhibition schedule with the ball moving and the rebounding message on the board.