Tyronn Lue and Daryl Morey will not be exchanging Christmas cards this year.

The Clippers’ coach and Sixers’ president of basketball operations have been sparring for the last several days, and Lue eventually took a swipe at Morey’s tweet that supported democracy protestors in Hong Kong — and cost the NBA a lot of money in China.

It began Friday when the Sixers beat the Clippers, 122-97. James Harden and Joel Embiid combined to go 18 of 19 from the free-throw line, and Lue was a little bit exasperated.

“Embiid is number one in the league in free throws and James Harden is number three. You take away their free throws and neither guy would be top 10 in scoring,” Lue said. “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.”

Morey saw an aggregation of the first half of the quote, about not being top 10 in scoring, and fired back.

“[The] Clippers offense would rank 30th without free throws,” he tweeted. “Say it with me again — players are fouled because the other team cannot stop them …”

Asked about Morey’s tweet on Monday, Lue effectively said that the Sixers’ executive should refrain from tweeting.

“Should he really be tweeting anything right now?” Lue asked. “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.”

In 2019, when Hong Kong citizens were protesting in throngs against authoritarian rule by the Chinese Communist Party, Morey, then the general manager of the Rockets, tweeted, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

The NBA had been working since the late 1980s to cultivate a lucrative relationship with China, and Morey’s tweet was a lit match in a warehouse of dry tinder. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in 2020 that hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue were lost and NBA games, for a short period, were pulled from Chinese state television.

Lue also further clarified his comments about Embiid and Harden, saying they were taken out of context.

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