Just six weeks into his first season as a head coach, Tyronn Lue’s friend finds himself navigating real adversity.

Fortunately for Chauncey Billups, Lue – whose four full NBA seasons as a head coach have presented experience and success aplenty – has made himself available to dispense advice.

The Clippers’ coach spent Sunday evening with Billups, his former assistant who this season has taken the reins in Portland.

Before their teams sparred, they got together to watch the Gervonta Davis-Isaac Cruz boxing match – and to discuss the state of their teams, Billups said before tipoff Monday, via Zoom.

“I did connect with him last night, we watched the fight last night together and we talked a little bit about our team, what we’re going through, kind of what they’re going through,” said Billups, whose Blazers’ turbulent start included the firing of General Manager and President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey after a workplace misconduct investigation.

There have been issues on the court, too. Billups’ short-handed Blazers (they were without Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little on Monday) entered the game with the NBA’s worst defensive rating and having suffered blowout losses in two consecutive home games, to San Antonio and Boston.

Those defeats spurred Billups’ criticism after the Blazers’ 145-117 loss to the Celtics: “Competitive fire and pride, that’s something you either have or don’t have. That’s something you can’t turn off and turn on. … I’ve never seen a team that needs its bench to inspire our starters. That (stuff) is crazy to me. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

It would seem the two old friends had a lot of stuff to talk about.

Especially because one of them, though only 44 years old, has weathered the ups and downs of coaching and come out on top, or close to it – leading Cleveland to three consecutive NBA Finals, including its first championship and then, with Billups at his side, steering the Clippers to their first Western Conference finals appearance last season.

Of course, Lue’s team also had lost seven of 10, making room for some commiserating, possibly.

“We definitely have some conversations,” Billups said. “Obviously he’s been through a ton in his career, in those Cleveland years, for the most part, so I always like to lean on guys like him, and even some other coaches and former coaches too.”

KENNARD GETS START

Lue wasn’t going to share one thing with Billups until he absolutely had to – his starting lineup.

Typically willing to divulge his starters during his pregame media session 90 minutes or so before tipoff, Lue stayed mum about his plans to insert Luke Kennard into the starting lineup for the first time this season until the lineups officially were released at 6:30 p.m.

Kennard, a fifth-year sharpshooter, entered Monday averaging 27.6 minutes per game off the bench – in which he’s put up 10.5 points per game on 43.0% shooting (including 42.6% from 3-point range on 5.9 attempts).

In his 17 starts last season, Kennard averaged 29.4 minutes, compared to 15.9 as a reserve, and he scored an average of 12.9 points on 45.9% shooting (including 41.4% from behind the arc on 5.1 attempts) as a starter.

The move meant Eric Bledsoe came off the bench for the third consecutive game. A starter alongside Reggie Jackson to start the season, Bledsoe has been assigned to work with the second unit –a move that he’s handled with grace, Lue said.

“He’s a professional,” Lue said before the game, via Zoom. “He wants to win. Had no problem with it at all. He said, ‘Whatever you want to do Coach, I’m on board.’ And so those are the type of players you need.”

Related Articles

As a reserve, Bledsoe had eight points and four assists in a win against the Lakers on Friday, and although he shot 0 for 7 in the Clippers’ loss in Sacramento on Saturday, he finished that game with seven assists and no turnovers in 18 minutes.

His pairing with reserve center Isaiah Hartenstein has looked especially promising.

“Bled made my life easy,” Hartenstein said Friday, when two of his five baskets were set up by Bledsoe. “The last couple games, we weren’t really running many pick-and-rolls and so, I think it was like the second quarter or something, he was like, ‘Yo, let’s get more in the pick-and-roll and do it like that.’

“And so just communication, I think Bled coming to me, talking to me like what he sees or vice versa, helped a lot and he’s great in the pick-and-roll, he finds me most of the time, so couldn’t complain about that.”