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Clippers vs Wolves Player Grades

Lucas Hann
Reggie Jackson LA Clippers

It sure was nice to see the Clippers get a comfortable win after the highs and lows of opening week. To track each individual player’s progress, I took at stab at Clippers vs Wolves player grades. While this certainly was a game that the Clippers should have won–against a lottery-bound Minnesota squad that was without their star center Karl-Anthony Towns as well as another starter in Josh Okogie–we shouldn’t downplay LAC’s win. They were without two starters of their own, Kawhi Leonard and Marcus Morris, and went beyond winning to blow the game wide open and earn fourth quarter rest on the first night of a back-to-back.

Clippers Starter Grades

Patrick Beverley: B+. Pat gets credit for avoiding foul trouble (this was the first game where he wasn’t forced off the floor early due to fouls) and having a hot night from deep, but to get in to the A-/A range for me I need to get a more concrete feeling that his defense is impacting the game than I did tonight. He also got a little over-ambitious offensively in the third quarter when patience would have led to better results.

Luke Kennard: A-. This is exactly what you want from Luke as a fill-in starter for Kawhi–he was efficient as a spot-up shooter, he scored at 3 levels, he made plays for others, and he returned to the game to contribute to the second unit after being an early sub. Hopefully after a year between NBA games he’s starting to find himself on the floor again.

Paul George: B-. A pedestrian night for George overall, who had an efficient 18 points but produced most of his offense with the game out of hand after struggling early. I’m also a bit skeptical of the team’s lackluster start after his promise to have the guys ready to play following their loss Sunday, as well as his continued carelessness with the ball (I don’t mind a turnover here or there as the result of aggressive play, like on his charging foul, but he keeps throwing simple passes to defenders).

Nic Batum: B+. Perhaps more than any other Clipper, Batum’s grade curve is shifting as we’ve seen good performances out of him in the early going. His 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists were solid but the offense stalled at times when he missed or passed up on open corner threes. He ultimately got the bump from B to B+ after considering that he drew the tough assignment of D’Angelo Russell defensively, and Russell did much of his damage in the second half after Batum had gone to the bench.

Serge Ibaka: B+. Another almost ho-hum very good game for Serge, who put up 16 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. The assists are particularly surprising and he’s been better than advertised as a rim protector, though he is prone to be blown by and was at fault for some of the lapses in the Clippers’ early defensive play.

Clippers Bench Player Grades

Reggie Jackson: A. Did I just do that? Pressed into 26 minutes of action by a combination of Kennard’s start, the need to match up with the guard-heavy Timberwolves, and extended garbage time, Reggie put forward what is probably the best performance we could reasonably expect of him. He avoided egregious mistakes (yes, a couple of ill-advised plays where he left his feet without a plan), was a positive contributor defensively and got a highlight block meeting 6’8″ forward Jake Layman at the rim, and played a simple game offensively, hitting two threes and notching 4 assists. Others on the third string will lose some credit for the Clippers’ lead shrinking late, but Reggie was a part of the first half second unit that turned a 1-point deficit into a 12-point lead. Any time your bench turns a game around like that, those guys deserve heaps of praise.

Terance Mann: A-. Terance and Reggie shared almost every minute on the floor, so the above notes about first half impact and second half slippage apply here too. Simply put, making important plays to build a double-digit lead is exponentially more important than a mistake in the fourth that caused the lead to slip from 28 to 26. Mann was good defensively and really pushed the team forward in transition, including a gorgeous no-look pass to a cutting Luke Kennard for a reverse layup. This was by far the best he’s looked in meaningful NBA minutes, and Ty Lue might leave tonight really considering what he has with a super-small second unit where Mann can play point forward.

Lou Williams: A. A part of me wants to save the “A” grade for truly vintage Lou Will nights, but he was so impactful in this game even if he “only” scored 20 points. He came in to the game red-hot when the Clippers previously couldn’t buy a bucket, helping the starters come back from down double-digits and make it a close game. Then, he stuck around for the four-guard second unit that flipped the game on its head and carved out a double-digit lead. In the first half, the Clippers won Lou’s 14:29 by 27 points.

Ivica Zubac: A-. I was looking for Zu to use his physicality and size to make a big impact against a Towns-less Wolves team that starts Naz Reid and brings Ed Davis off the bench at center, and he didn’t disappoint. Anchoring the aforementioned 4-guard lineup, Zu was impeccable in defense tonight around the rim and did a ton of dirty work offensively to make an underappreciated contribution to that unit’s offense. In that lineup’s first-half burst he added 6 points, 3 blocks, and 3 rebounds.

Amir Coffey: B. Amir gets a solid B for coming in and more or less doing his job, getting 5 points and a rebound in 11 garbage-time minutes to close out the fourth quarter. The deduction, which applies to everyone in the garbage time lineup, is that the lead actually slipped from a high of 31 all the way down to 20 in the waning moments, with the final fourth quarter result being a -6. On “A” nights, Amir & co. will come in with a little bit more fire and look to extend (or at least maintain) leads.

Mfiondu Kabengele: C-. I won’t give lower than a C- since he didn’t make any egregious mistakes, his lineup didn’t fully blow the Clippers’ lead, and his minutes were not meaningful… but Fi didn’t have a great showing in garbage time tonight. He was 0-4 from the field, missing both his threes, and had 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in his 8 minutes. You can’t blame him for being a little down in the dumps after the Clippers decided to decline his third-year option, but if he wants to prove them wrong and extend his NBA career beyond this season he needs to make more out of these minutes.

Daniel Oturu: B+. Oturu had a nice outing in garbage time tonight, with 4 points, 3 rebounds, an assist, and a block (I thought he got two but only one made it in the box). He made an impact on both ends, albeit in meaningless minutes against opposing third stringers. We’ll save A territory for nights where he either has to hold his own in meaningful minutes as an injury replacement, or at least is part of a third string group that maintains or extends the Clippers’ lead.

Clippers Without Grades

Kawhi Leonard, Marcus Morris, and Jay Scrubb were all sidelined with injuries. Leonard and Morris are both day-to-day, with Kawhi expected to play tomorrow against Portland and Morris’s status more up in the air for the coming days and weeks. Scrubb will be unavailable for most of the year.

Patrick Patterson was the only healthy scratch for the Clippers tonight, and understandably so. The Wolves play a ton of guards, so his absence tonight should be read as having more to do with matchups than a referendum on his play in previous games. However, he hasn’t been impactful in his chances so far this year and tonight’s small second unit looked promising, so Patterson may have lost some standing tonight despite not seeing the floor.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for player grades from the second half of the Clippers’ back-to-back against the Portland Trail Blazers!

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