The Clippers run L.A. - and maybe soon the entire west.

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Tyronn Lue is all smiles these days — or as close as one can be at this point in such an arduous season.

The Los Angeles Clippers coach doesn’t have to shuffle his lineups on a nightly basis; he can count on his headliners to show up and play well. Even on the occasion when it felt the NBA world was crashing down on the franchise, Lue wasn’t just a steady hand. He was borderline giddy in the middle of an early-season, five-game losing streak in the immediate wake of the James Harden trade. While Harden’s reputation was in tatters following the nonsense with the 76ers, Lue saw a star player capable of being a connector.

It was a matter of time before things turned, and time moved fast.

For the man who used to take losses so hard he had to step away from coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers during the end of the LeBron James era — a two-week break in March 2018 — it’s a stark contrast.

“Go back, (listen to) all my press conferences. I've never lost five or six games in a row and I felt good, but I did feel good,” Lue told Yahoo Sports recently. “How we wanted to play, who fits well with who. It was gonna take time, but I felt really good about our team.”

Following the Clippers’ East-coast swing finale, a 149-144 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, they sit a half-game out of first place in the West and are 26-5 since Dec. 1, best in the Association.

“Acquiring James and being healthy, Kawhi (Leonard) being healthy, (Paul George) being healthy, being All-Stars,” Lue said. “We know we can play with the elite teams in this league.”

To understand where Lue is now, you have to go back to last April, when the Clippers were on the verge of playoff elimination as their stars were again failed by health.

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