The Clippers’ season continues to slog along, and tonight will be one of their toughest matchups on paper of the season so far against a young, athletic, and flat-out better Wolves team playing at home with a rest advantage.
Game Information
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
When: 5:00 PM PT
How to Watch: FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected Starting Lineups
Clippers: James Harden – Kris Dunn – Kawhi Leonard – John Collins – Ivica Zubac
Timberwolves: Donte DiVincenzo – Anthony Edwards – Jaden McDaniels – Julius Randle – Rudy Gobert
Injuries
Clippers: Bogdan Bogdanovic Out (Hip), Bradley Beal Out (Hip), Derrick Jones Jr. Out (Knee), Jordan Miller Questionable (Back), Chris Paul Out (Not with team)
Timberwolves: None
The Big Picture
Well, the good vibes from the road win on Wednesday night in Atlanta almost instantly evaporated. A strong first half by the Clippers in Memphis last night was followed by an abysmal second half where the Clippers scored just 40 points. They still look a bit better than they did a few weeks ago, but the offense is punchless and the defense remains slow and unaggressive. Outside of the promising play of Kobe Sanders, the best rookie the Clippers have had since Terance Mann, there just aren’t many positives, especially with Harden’s play slipping as of late. Maybe the Wolves will be caught sleeping, but the Clippers playing on the second night of a back-to-back on the road does not bode well.
The Antagonist
Despite some ugly losses in crunch time, the Wolves are having a season very in-line with their last two, ranking 6th in the West in the standings but coming in at 7th overall in the league in Net Rating. The Wolves boast top-10 figures on both ends, placing 7th on offense and 10th in defense. They are led by Anthony Edwards, who might not have made the leap to a top-five player but is firmly cemented as a perennial All-NBA level presence. He’s surrounded by players in their prime, including Naz Reid, McDaniels, DiVincenzo, and Randle, who all provide steady contributions. Rudy Gobert has slipped on defense and Mike Conley has stumbled on offense, which are two barriers towards the Wolves’ success this season at the highest levels, but the Wolves are getting just enough from the rest of the roster to maintain status as a fringe contender. At home, with a rest advantage against an old Clippers team, they might look like world beaters.
Notes
The Frustrations of John Collins: I was a big fan of the move to get John Collins from the Jazz, and he’s someone I’ve thought the Clippers should target for a while. Well, I think the team knew some things I didn’t in terms of why they didn’t go after him sooner, as it’s hard to say Collins has been anything other than a major disappointment this season. Collins is fourth on the team in scoring average behind the “Big Three” and has had some nice scoring outputs, but he’s the anti Nic Batum in that it feels like all of the little things are missing. It’s not from a lack of effort or energy, to be clear: Collins is always hustling. But for a player with his size and athleticism, he’s been a woeful rebounder this year, with a rebound% barely above Kawhi Leonard and Kobe Brown and below Cam Christie. His three-point shooting has been awry, with Collins at just over 29% on almost entirely wide-open shots. The defense has been something close to a disaster, with consistent missed rotations and botched help contributing greatly to the Clippers’ struggles on that end. When Derrick Jones Jr. returns, the obvious move to me would be to start DJJ over Collins and return to the Harden-Dunn-DJJ-Kawhi-Zu lineup that had some success last year. I think Collins will be a fine bench player for the Clippers in a more limited role, but his stint as a starter has not gone well.
Tracking Kobe’s Minutes: Kobe Sanders closed the game yesterday, and has clearly won the trust of the coaching staff. When the team is fully healthy there’s a chance Kobe falls out of the rotation, but he’s going to play a lot this year if he stays healthy. Something interesting to track is his minutes total. Kobe has currently played 304 minutes – not a lot, for most teams. But if he plays just 91 more minutes, he will top Kobe Brown’s 394 minutes played in his rookie season, and give him the most minutes for a Clippers’ rookie since Brandon Boston Jr. back in 2021-2022 (760). Terance Mann somewhat surprisingly played just 362 in the 2019-2020 season, so if Kobe clears Boston he will have played the most minutes for a Clippers’ rookie in the entire Ty Lue era of the team. That says something about Kobe, but sadly says much more about the Clippers’ drafting in the past half-decade. Kobe hasn’t even looked *that good* and is still clearly the Clippers’ best prospect since Mann. Yikes.