PLAYA VISTA – Forward Nicolas Batum is not among the people who believe that Sunday’s stunning Oscars moment when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock was staged. No, the slap was too hard.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue took his own swipe – verbally – before practice Monday, playing some fierce defense in response to a critical tweet from Daryl Morey about him and the Clippers’ scoring.

Before he headed back into the gym to coach practice – at which Paul George would again participate after playing five on five Sunday – Lue responded to a question about Morey’s online criticism.

Lue’s response: “Should he really be tweeting anything right now? Last time he tweeted, he cost the NBA a billion dollars. So, I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Just worry about his own team.”

Some context: On Oct. 4, 2019, Morey – then the Houston Rockets general manager – tweeted an image that read “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.” Less than an hour later, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta clarified with his own tweet that the team is “NOT a political organization,” but that didn’t stop the backlash from China.

Chinese officials asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to fire Morey for his remarks, although the league and the Rockets stood by Morey, citing a right to freedom of expression, which initially led to an apparent boycott of the league in China. In February 2020, Silver said the NBA could lose $400 million because of the fallout. And though relations thawed as the season went on, Chinese networks still did not air Rockets games again until January 2021.

On Friday, before the Clippers lost 122-97 to Philadelphia at Crytpo.com Arena, Lue was asked about how his players might avoid getting frustrated by Joel Embiid and James Harden’ knack for drawing fouls: “How do you keep guys zoned in and not get frustrated when calls go against them?”

“Well, we don’t have a choice,” Lue said. “Embiid is No. 1 from the free-throw line and James is No. 3. I think they said if you take away their free throws, neither one of those guys would be in the top 10 in scoring, so it just tells you how much they’re getting to the free-throw line.

“We just got to do a good job pulling our hands back, making sure we’re playing, not letting them get into the bonus and do the sweep-throughs. They’re going to get some calls because of who they are, but we just got to make sure we’re doing our part.”

Going into Friday, Embiid was, indeed, averaging a league-leading 9.7 made free throws per game and Harden was averaging 7.3 per contest, third-most in the NBA. Embiid ranked second in the league in scoring, with 29.8 points per game; Harden was averaging 22.5 points – 25th most.

Against the Clippers that night, Harden, the former Lakewood Artesia High School star, scored 29 points and shot 11 for 11 from the foul line. Embiid had 27 points and went 7 for 8 from the stripe.

.@LAClippers offense would rank 30th without free throws

Say it with me again – players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them…
h/t r/sixers https://t.co/Mw9hNJLKbf

— Daryl MorΞy (@dmorey) March 26, 2022

On Saturday afternoon, Morey took to Twitter to respond to Lue’s analysis: “.@LAClippers offense would rank 30th without free throws. Say it with me again – players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them…”

Lue explained Monday that he hadn’t meant to offend anyone, firstly.

“Well, they took it out of (context),” Lue said. “It was said meaning that if you continue to foul those guys, they can score 50. We want them to make field goals and not free throws because they’re crafty at getting to the line.”

But then Lue, generally cool-headed and tough-minded, added his parting shot, suggesting that Morey should refrain from tweeting and worry solely about his Sixers.

“Thank you,” Lue said then, standing and heading into the gym.

“They took it out of context…. It don’t bug me. In response to Daryl Morey, should he really be tweeting anything? Last time he tweeted, he cost the NBA a billion dollars so I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Worry about his own team.”

Ty Lue on Daryl Morey pic.twitter.com/8lmIundiC1

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 28, 2022

TRANSACTION REACTION

On Saturday, the Clippers – who are 36-39 with seven games to go and the Utah Jazz (45-30) on deck Tuesday – converted third-year wing Amir Coffey’s two-way deal into a standard contract, signed point guard Xavier Moon to a two-way deal and waived veteran forward Semi Ojeleye.

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“Well, first I just want to address Semi Ojeleye,” Lue said. “The job he did when he came here, and just being a true veteran and playing in the stay-ready games and doing whatever we asked of him. That was my first time to really be around him and he’s a great guy, so you hate to lose a guy like that.

“And then, as far as X getting a chance to come up and getting the two-way, that’s good for him. He’s been playing well in the G League, so I’m happy for him.

“And then Amir, he’s earned it. I think the past three years, the work he’s put in, the job he’s done, early on in the season to kind of keep us afloat, he was playing really good basketball. To see him play the way he has this year, it’s definitely exciting to convert him over and give him an NBA contract.”

“I feel great,” Moon said. “Feel like this is where I’m supposed to be, I know I said that before. But it definitely feels great to be back.”

JAZZ (45-30) AT CLIPPERS (36-39)

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/Radio: TNT / 570 AM

Welcome back — welcome? — Xavier Moon. pic.twitter.com/qk57xqHwvE

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) March 28, 2022