Lue calls out Barkley, defends Cavs’ 3 pursuit

6:04 PM ET

CLEVELAND — One day after Charles Barkley said the Atlanta Hawks need to “take somebody out” on the Cleveland Cavaliers to make their Eastern Conference semifinals series competitive again, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue admonished TNT’s popular NBA analyst for his stance.

“I don’t think there’s any place in our game to take someone out if they’re playing well,” Lue said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. “I think you can take it upon yourself to play harder and do things to stop it or stop a team from playing well.

“But when it gets into trying to hurt guys or trying to take guys out, that’s just not right. Hopefully the referees will keep an eye on it and make sure it’s a clean game. We don’t mind if it’s a physical game, but clean and everything that they do and we do is basketball related. I don’t believe in taking guys out and trying to hurt guys because a team or a player is playing well.”

Charles Oakley, a Cleveland native and a former playing opponent of Barkley’s, also took exception with what the Hall of Famer said.

Charles …

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