For this Clippers playoff series vs the Suns, I’m bringing back a classic 213Hoops tradition: postgame player grades. We got the ball rolling after the Clippers’ game 1 win over the Suns, and now we’re back with the Clippers player grades from their game 2 loss to the Suns.
- Russell Westbrook: A-. If game 1 gave us all you could ask from Russ on defense coupled with one of the least efficient playoff scoring performances of the last 25 years, game 2 gave us all you could ask from Russ on both ends. Sure, he wasn’t as good on defense as game 1, but I’m hardly going to hold it against a guy for simply being “good” instead of “having one of the best performances of his life” for the second game in a row. You’re also seeing the start of what will be a controversial trend in this column: I’m not going to be very harsh on the Clipper defense for Phoenix’s second-half mid-range onslaught. The Suns are an outrageously talented midrange team and they had an outlier shooting game–the same way that a 40% three-point shooter is a really good shooter, and the one game a season where he shoots 8-9 from the field is skill mixed with luck. Phoenix had their best FG% game of the season by a couple of full percentage points. I still liked Russ’ performance. Is it his fault that the Suns are using his man to tag the roller while doubling Kawhi? It’s cramping the offense around Kawhi, but without Paul George the Clippers are so deprived of other creative options that Ty Lue isn’t in an enviable position. All Russ can do is make the most of his touches when he gets them, and unlike game 1, where he was 1-11 on 2-point shots outside the restricted zone, he did that tonight, taking just 3 such attempts.
- Eric Gordon: C. Just based on in-the-moment reactions from fans, it feels like Gordon’s value lives and dies on every three pointer that he takes. In a starting lineup where the Clippers play through Kawhi, he gets doubled, the Suns defense doesn’t respect Russ or Zubac as shooters, and Nico can’t hit a shot in this series to save his life, Gordon becomes the sole designated shooter, stepping further and further out to expand his range and try to stretch a woefully collapsed floor. Honestly, 7-16 from deep through two games isn’t anything to complain about, and that deep range shooting is so desperately needed for the lineup to work and such a unique skill that it’s easy to understand why he’s playing so much. I just think that the Clippers need more of a well-rounded offensive contribution from him, too. Tonight he was 0-3 inside the arc and had just 2 assists to 1 turnover. I’m not going to get too caught up on his defense–I think he’s doing a fine job, even as the guy Phoenix prefers to hunt in that unit. And he’s making enough threes. But the well-rounded, three-level scorer/playmaker side of the game was missing in action tonight, such that when he wasn’t making a three-pointer it felt like he wasn’t doing much at all.
- Kawhi Leonard: B+. Kawhi was the best player on the floor in the first half tonight, with 16 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds. He wasn’t bad in the second half, with 15 more points, but he only took 9 shots and had just 1 assist. It’s not that he’s being passive–Phoenix was selling out on doubling him, and when the ball got cleanly out of double teams he can’t control a dreadful role player shooting performance (non-Russ/Kawhi Clippers were just 6/22 from deep, including Gordon’s 4/9). But still, for the Clippers to win games in this series, Kawhi is going to need to be the best player on the floor for entire games, not just halves. Devin Booker was the best player on the court tonight when all was said and done. The Clippers will be hard-pressed to win games where Booker outplays Leonard.
- Nico Batum: D-. Remember when I said it was going to be controversial that I attribute more of Phoenix’s great offensive performance to their shot-making than anything the Clippers did wrong? I’ll still give Nico (and Zu, in a moment) credit for the Clippers staying in scheme, executing different coverages, and, in my opinion, forcing the Suns to beat them the hard way. That gets him a D- instead of an F for what has been a supremely disappointing two games for Nico. He’s 1-7 from three with 2 rebounds in 40 minutes so far this series. Nico is always a guy whose contributions are more intangible than tangible, but the Clippers need something. Even if he had made one of those third-quarter corner threes off of ball reversals, it could have changed the flow of the game. I do have faith in a career shooter of his caliber and consistency finding some positive regression. I also expect to see Ty Lue work in one of his other veteran PF options during these home games, just so that Nico isn’t the only big forward involved.
- Ivica Zubac: D. I guess if Nico is getting a D-, Zu should get a slightly-more-friendly D, since I do think there was at least some more tangible contribution from the Clippers’ big man. But to be honest, I was going to role with a D- for both of them before deciding that Zu was a little better by comparison. Zu is everyone’s favorite scapegoat when guards dance around screens and hit above their average rate on the 46% 18-footers that the defense is designed to give up. I’ve never thought much of those criticisms. I’ll have to wait for more data to come in, but I don’t think the Clippers got hurt a ton on interior defense tonight. Still, that was largely because the Suns were content to pull up, not because Zubac had a lot of drives to rebuff as a rim protector. If you’re looking for areas where Zu impacted the game positively, you have to dig deep. 4 offensive rebounds is solid? 2 steals seems good? But the Clippers need more from his offensive touches than 2-7 and 2 turnovers against the Suns. There’s no way around it, especially with George out–this wasn’t an acceptable performance.
- Bones Hyland: C-. I have a hard time with these Bones games, in no small part because in the grading process I try not to be too tough on guys who more or less get shots that I’m comfortable with and let a couple of makes or misses determine the entirety of my assessment of their performance. That rule of thumb gets trickier with a guy like Bones whose role revolves around bringing a scoring punch. He created a couple of easy buckets for himself by burning Chris Paul off the dribble, which is a matchup where he has such an obvious advantage that the Clippers might want to look to it more. Other than that, he had a hard time connecting on much of anything and had 0 assists as the Clippers only went a +2 in his 14 minutes. That just isn’t good enough against this top-heavy Suns team’s rotated lineups. The Clipper bench needs to win big, and for that to happen 4 times in this series Bones will either need to be scoring or sitting. It’s no secret that I am super high on Bones and his skillset; I think he’s in jeopardy of seeing his minutes trimmed as this series goes on, especially since he’d be the first to go if the Clippers do advance and get Paul George back.
- Norman Powell: B-. I actually kind of liked Norm’s game tonight, even though I don’t think it came together to make up the performance the Clippers needed from him. I’m sure he’s as frustrated as we are that he missed some good looks from deep. In a way, it was the opposite of Gordon’s game–Norm missed his threes, but made his presence felt as a downhill threat, scored at the rim, found a couple offensive boards, a couple steals, and a block. You felt him when he was on the floor, and the Suns did too. This is all nice–but we’re stuck at B-, because not unlike Bones, Norm’s job is to come into the game and score points. He averaged 17 per game in the regular season, 20 in the last 6 games of the year when he returned from his own injury following Paul George’s injury. The Clips need some 20+ action from Norm at some point in this series.
- Terance Mann: B-. Again, not a bad performance, but not enough from him, and repetition of some simple mistakes from game 1. Terance is doing as good a job as anyone on Chris Paul on the defensive end of the floor, and all he did today was have 10 points on 3 shot attempts, including hitting the only two threes from Clipper reserves. But only 3 shot attempts in 26 minutes? No assists? 2 turnovers? Another over-aggressive reach in foul against Devin Booker for free throws late in the third? There’s a Terance Mann who is a solid, well-rounded complementary player that fades into the background, and a Terance Mann who imposes his will on shifts with decisive, forceful play. The first guy isn’t a bad player, but we definitely got him and not the second guy tonight.
- Mason Plumlee: C. I’m gonna take a bit of a cop-out here and say that I didn’t find Plumlee’s minutes memorable, but this is based on a mixture of losing the backup center raw production against Bismack Biyombo and only going +3 in his minutes, which as I established earlier just isn’t gonna be enough of a margin to overcome what Phoenix’s core 4 lineups do against the Clippers’ starters. I don’t specifically remember anything that he did poorly, other than missing a couple of opportunities to intentionally foul Biyombo (a 35% free throw shooter), but that’s sort of the nature of this series–not messing up isn’t enough for the Clippers who get to play against the Suns’ backups. They need to dominate.
Agree with my grades? Disagree? You know what to do.
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