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 followed it up with more grades after game 2. Now we’re back with the Clippers player grades from their game 3 loss to the Suns.
- Russell Westbrook: B+. Figuring out the criteria for these grades is always interesting. Should each half be worth half the grade? Or each end of the floor? I wavered back and forth between a B+ and A- for Russ tonight, and changed my mind several times. Maybe I eventually got it wrong, because he was amazing for most of the second half and had a massive impact on the game. But it’s also hard for me to fully look past a really reckless first half handling the basketball that he himself admitted postgame was one of the team’s big issues in this one. For the second straight game, the Suns came out of halftime looking to exploit his lack of shooting to overload the defense to stop Norman Powell (last game, it was Kawhi), and while it was successful in the opening minutes, a more concerted effort to get Russ involved in the primary action pretty quickly resolved those issues. He ended up with 21 points, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds in the second half, with only 1 turnover that was the result of the most egregious missed call in a night of terrible officiating. Really, it was just an exceptional last ~21 minutes of gametime. I’m talking myself back into an A-. But I thought he hurt more than he helped in the first ~27 minutes. And it’s not like these grades actually matter, so I won’t beat myself up too much over the distinction. If they’d won, I probably would have gone all the way to A.
- Eric Gordon: C-. Gordon never really got going, in part because every possession was eaten up by Russ and Norm, who both had strong enough games that Gordon never really needed to get going on offense. I wasn’t left with the impression that he played badly, and I can appreciate getting 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block from him. But he’s getting the primary assignment on Devin Booker, and while I don’t want to hold transcendent star performances against a veteran journeyman defender unless I can point to specific things that guy is doing wrong on defense, I also can’t really give him credit for doing that job well on a night like tonight. When Kawhi is in the lineup, I get why Gordon is starting–it’s hard to space the floor around Kawhi when Russ and Zu are both also out there, and Gordon’s deep-range shooting isn’t a skill the Clippers can get elsewhere. With Kawhi out, the Clippers are playing through Russ way more (meaning his lack of shooting can’t hurt the weak-side spacing), and Norm being in the lineup adds another good shooter. I said pregame that it would make more sense to me to start Terance in Eric’s spot in this context and postgame I’m still left feeling that way.
- Norman Powell: A. What else can it be? Yes, in classic Norm fashion, he had misdribbles and failed grift attempts lead to four turnovers, but forty-two points on 15-23 shooting is the best basketball game of his life (he had 43 a few years back in a regular season game vs the Pistons–I’m gonna go ahead and say doing this in the playoffs was better). When the Suns went on a 9-0 spurt late in the 2nd quarter to get separation, Norm scored 9 of his own in the final 2 minutes of the half to bring it back within reach. At every juncture, from start to finish, he was hitting big shot after big shot to keep the Clippers in a game they had no business in. It’s a real shame that they couldn’t find a way to win the game of Norm’s life, but he can at least get an A for it.
- Nico Batum: C. I’m back to neutral on another quiet Nico night after being harsher on him in game 2, for a couple of reasons that I think I can defend. First, he actually had several noticeable moments tonight on the defensive end, including a couple of big blocks–you didn’t just forget he was playing as easily as in game 2. Second, he played fewer minutes, which is maybe counterintuitive but a donut is less damaging in a smaller role. And lastly, Nico only took one shot. He’s not responsible for creating his own shots, he’s responsible for standing in the corner and hitting ~40% of his catch-and-shoot threes on ball reversals. It’s not like he was passing up open looks, what was happening is that the aggression from Russ and Norm just kept the ball from ever making that last swing to him. It’s a lot easier to forgive him for being 0-1, since that means the Suns were staying home. If he’s 0-4, it means the Suns are rotating off of him and he’s letting them off the hook for it. Still, I’m just not feeling the impact. I think he needs to play because of his defensive versatility. However, if Kawhi is out again for Game 4, I might think about starting Terance Mann here instead of Gordon’s position. It makes you small, but Russ and Mann are both great rebounding guards and Russ has taken on the challenge of the KD matchup throughout the series.
- Ivica Zubac: C+. I would really like to see Zubac get more touches with the Clippers facing such a talent shortage, but it just doesn’t appear to be a point of emphasis. He only got 22 minutes with the Clippers going small in the fourth quarter, and finished 3-4 from the field with 8 rebounds. For all the complaints about him and drop coverage, the Clippers posted a defensive rating of 108.0 with him on the floor tonight compared to a 138.9 when he sat (this type of tiny sample size isn’t really useful for much of anything, other than to say that in this game they clearly weren’t losing becaus they bled points with him on the floor). C+ instead of C in part because he is a guy who has limited control over his shots, and in part because 8 rebounds in 22 minutes (that’s ~13 per 36) mattered in a game where the Suns grabbed 47% of their own misses when Zu was on the bench.
- Bones Hyland: A-. How about a playoff career high in points and minutes for the youngster? You just can’t underrate what Bones’ speed does for the Clippers in the halfcourt–he’s the only guy on the team who you both have to worry about taking stepback threes and burning you off the dribble with raw pace. Related: he has the highest on-court offensive rating on the team in both the regular season and playoffs. He made a couple threes, did good work going downhill, and got to the free throw line. Defensively, he competed, which is about all you can ask for him at this stage. The rebounding was brutal but I don’t know how much you can hold it against him that he was ending up boxing out Deandre Ayton on a switch in a 5-guard unit. Overall: I just think he’s neat.
- Terance Mann: B. I think I liked Terance’s contributions overall today, but I both have issues with his role in terms of minutes and volume. We know that this is a guy who can be given the basketball and empowered to get to the rim, but he seems to be fully in backseat mode for now. It’s not bad to have him focused on defense, but I can’t recall him doing much transition work in this series, which is a shame. Still, the box is good, with 10 points on 4-6 shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. I think he needs to start if Kawhi is out again, and honestly maybe even if Kawhi is back. Not starting is keeping his minutes in the 20s. Today he played 8 first half minutes and 18 second half minutes. Obviously he’s a guy Ty wants on the floor in different configurations as he leans on him so heavily down the stretch. Let’s get one of this team’s best players on the floor early and often, whether it’s for Gordon or Batum, so he can hit 30+ for the first time this postseason.
- Marcus Morris: D. How much credit do you want to give Marcus for an accidental banked three at the end of the first quarter? Because that was about it. The Clippers tried to play through him for a short full bench shift, and it really went nowhere–though I’m more inclined to blame that bad idea on Ty than Marcus. He was 1-4 on shots that weren’t accidentally banked buzzer beaters, and racked up 4 fouls in 20 minutes while failing to keep up defensively. I don’t blame Ty for going back to Marcus in this series after a couple of weeks off, especially with Kawhi hurt. I do sort of blame him for wanting to play through him when we still have 6 better options active. I also don’t think he earned 20 minutes tonight. I’m not left inspired about him having much left in the tank.
- Robert Covington: B. I guess? This should really be an INC, but again, this column is pretty low stakes, so why not throw a number out there. RoCo only played 4 minutes. He blocked a shot and missed a spot-up three, and the Clippers played those minutes–in an all-bench lineup with both Russ and Norm resting at the same time–even. That feels solid enough? Bs are the new Cs. It’s called grade inflation, look it up.
- Mason Plumlee: F. Maybe I’m being wild here. Maybe it’s 1am and I want to be dramatic in my last grade before heading to bed. But Mason Plumlee cannot keep soundly losing his shifts vs Bismack Biyombo, or the Clippers will be hopeless in this series. He had a game-worst -8 tonight and Biyombo had a game-best +18. I mentioned that for all the complaints about Zu’s drop coverage, the Clippers had plenty of success with him as the anchor tonight. Not the case for Mason: his on-court defensive rating was 150.0, significantly worse than his teammates, which is hard to do in a one-game sample where you’re always sharing the floor with 4 other guys. The Clippers allowed 51 points in Plumlee’s 16 minutes. They allowed 78 in the othe 32. I mentioned that the Clippers only grabbed 53% of available defensive rebounds when Zu sat, which your brain likely immediately attributed to the 5-guard lineups in the fourth quarter–and while yes, that was a big part of it, the Clippers also only grabbed 58% of available defensive rebounds while Plumlee was on the court. None of that is good enough, for the second game in a row.
Agree with my grades? Disagree? You know what to do.
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