I fully agree on this assessment as a) opponents will adjust to the biggest offensive threats b) balanced scoring and a versatile offense are always preferable over one guy carrying c) I further agree that Russ tired midway through the 3rd and d) his shooting, especially his outside shooting was unsustainable.

What made his first half necessary was the lack of help he had from the starters in the 1st or as a creator. What helped him in the second half was others providing enough scoring that he could defer without the offense plummeting – while still binding Dillon Brooks some.

What further helped was the game plan. They consistently screened Dillon Brooks away and Russ made it a point to attack Ja on defense.

And obviously the shooting and spacing. All of this combined made the difference. Russ can’t possibly score or assist this much without spacing or with Brooks on him the entire game. Nor will he only take 8 shots in the second half if nobody can score around him and both Kawhi and PG are out.

You need the players who step up in those absences and fortunately we’ve had Nico and RoCo with Russ and Bones creating for them. Gordon also doing his part. I see the fit with Mann but I don’t see the necessary scoring or playmaking/volume production when your team misses multiple good scorers. As someone correctly stated, Mann excels picking his spots and being efficient. Hope he can extend that to consistent production and offensive creation at a higher volume over the next years, he’s still young. He had seven straight games (vs mostly good teams) with at least 10 points in February while being very efficient. If he can have more of those stretches in the future and take it to at least 14 points with more 20+ games, his efficiency could drop a little and that would still be a major plus for the team.

My overarching point here is that Mann (like Russ) should play in lineups with sufficient scoring around. Mann is best with a primary offensive creator in the lineup. Russ is best with play-finishers and shooting around plus one guy he can defer to when he gets tired/to diversify the offense.

Russ was incredible. I’m not even sure he was even this good in OKC b/c of the 5/5 3pt shooting. He really provided the team a lot of leadership when we gave up that 18-0 run at the start of the game. In addition to making a ton of drives and shots at the rim, I think he single handedly got Zu and Covington into the game by getting them both great shot opportunities. Can’t say enough about how huge he was today.

It was fun to see Ty Lue actually coach a game for real. I thought his timeouts and substitutions were pretty good. My only issue was when he took T-Mann out too early in Q3 when we needed better defense and ball handling as Russ was starting to tire. We survived that bad stretch (mainly caused by bad refereeing) and had a great Q4, despite missing 4 fast break layup opportunities. Lue’s decision to put Zu back in the game with 5 min to go gave the Clippers the advantage b/c Ja stopped getting easy opportunities. I even saw Norm Powell actually make 1 great defensive play on Ja.

Robert Covington really likes playing with his old Houston teammate, Russ. You wonder why Lue never experimented with that before. Covington was an alpha scorer tonight and his Q4 defense was really good. 27 points. Dude owned it. Roco made Lue look foolish for so many DNPs.

Bones is a player. 20 pts/6 assists in 21 mins. Outside of a few ragged plays in the first half, he really made his impact from the 3 pt line to the rim. His passing is much better than advertised.

I liked T-Mann’s game today. He was the glue guy. Think he was robbed of about 3-4 baskets due to all the turnovers, but we needed his presence on the court at both ends. I would’ve liked to have seen the team play through him a bit more today, especially when Bones ran ragged in Q2 and Russ started to tire in Q3, but the result was great so that’s that.

This was the big win the Clips needed on this 3 game road trip. I would probably sit Kawhi for the next game and have him ready for New Orleans.

This is win is one makeup game for most bonehead losses. With this win, Kawhi will definitely sit out the back to back.