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 and even more after game 3. Now we’re back with the Clippers player grades from their game 4 loss to the Suns.

• Russell Westbrook: A. Any performance with this kind of volume is going to have some nits to pick, but this would be a pretty silly one to pick at ’em. In a game where the Clippers were down both of their superstars and didn’t pick up volume scoring from anywhere else, Russ took on a herculean role to carry LAC’s offense and keep them within striking distance. A barrage of role player threes never came, but he kept them alive in case it would have. Some context for the 17-29 for 37 point performance: remember when Reggie Jackson stepped up with Kawhi hurt, taking on a bigger offensive role in the 2021 playoffs and then struggling to shoulder that load in the 2021-22 regular season with George also injured? Reggie only took 29+ shots in a game once (in a win over the Lakers). He never made 17 shots in a game (the last time a Clipper did was Kawhi vs Dallas in the opening round of the 2021 playoffs). And his most points scored in that entire year was 36. One more thing about Russ: obviously the Clippers are losing the reputation foul war in this series with the free throw disparity, but of all the Clippers, why the hell can’t he get a call when he’s bumped or hacked on a drive? He took 17 shots in the restricted area and somehow got 0 free throws–the second game in NBA Playoff history, and first in over 30 years, where a player scored 37+ without a free throw attempt.
• Eric Gordon: C+. Gordon didn’t do much bad, but I’m holding fading into the background against him on a day when the Clippers so desperately needed a second scorer. I realize he’s 34 now, but where’s the guy who took 14 shots and averaged 18 points per game for a whole season 2 years ago?
• Norman Powell: D. I mean, this was bad. It was a certified stinker, from the dreadful shooting to not creating anything for others to giving the Suns free points on turnovers and keeping himself in foul trouble. So why not an F? Maybe because, despite all that, he was still LAC’s second-leading scorer with 14–which isn’t enough, but is more than anyone else not named Russ scored. But really, mostly, because it was 36 hours after the best game of his life and the most minutes he’s played this year, and he was clearly physically dragging from the beginning. I have sympathy for that.

• Marcus Morris: F. I got nothing for Marcus, though, besides this: this is Ty’s fault for putting him in this position. The Clippers haven’t gotten enough from the power forward position all series, that much is true. But in no world has Morris earned more minutes than Batum and Covington combined, and in reality Terance Mann should be playing these minutes. I do think that +/- and on/off stuff in this series isn’t super useful from the Clippers side of things because Phoenix’s lineup quality varies so dramatically as they make substitutions (for example, LAC’s starters playing Phoenix even would be a massive win, while LAC’s bench playing Phoenix even is bad). So Marcus’ team-worst -19 in 25 minutes has a lot to do with those being minutes against Phoenix’s core 4 to start and close each half–but those 13 shots (of which he only made 3 anyway) going to other guys while having someone who can move defensively on the court would have mitigated that damage.
• Ivica Zubac: D. Aside from an early team-wide lull on the defensive glass (some of this is Zu helping on a drive and nobody rotating to help him, which is stunningly correlated with Marcus Morris’ return to the lineup, and some was Zu waking up slow), the Clippers did well to control the glass in Zu’s minutes and he led the team in rebounds. The defense even kept the Suns’ starters under wraps in his minutes. But the Clippers are just getting nothing out of Zu on offense, and while I think some of that is outside of his control as a big man who isn’t getting passed to, he can’t go 2-5 with a turnover in his 6 touches, and while 3 offensive rebounds looks fine in the box, his only second chance points were tapping back in one of his own missed bunnies. Zu has been one of the most impactful offensive rebounding bigs in the league in the last 4 years, and while Ayton is a big body who collects a lot of defensive rebounds, the Clippers need more chaos and activity there.
• Bones Hyland: D. Bones being just 4-16 from three in this series is brutal as the Clippers desperately look for both any kind of support scoring punch and effective role player shooting. But we know he can shoot, and in samples this small you just kind of have to ride with it. In this one, it felt like Bones really had no impact on the game until a three and a steal in the fourth quarter helped the Clippers cut the lead to 2. But as quickly as they did, it was right back into double digits a couple of minutes later. A game–and series–of not quite moments for Bones and the Clippers alike.

• Terance Mann: A-. I really liked what Terance brought in this game, but I’m going to echo a complaint I make regularly: we need more of it. If both stars were playing, getting 13 points on 9 shots and 4 assists from Terance would be just right. But just like during the 2021-22 season, and throughout this series, the Clippers need Terance to step up and do more to get downhill with the ball in his hands in greater volume. I know folks like to blame this on Ty Lue and I don’t disagree–Terance is marginalized by coming off the bench behind lesser contributors in Gordon and [insert PF here], and Lue still being stuck on “throw the ball to Marcus and make something happen” takes chances away from other, more effective options. But with all that being said, Terance also needs to demonstrate more consistent aggression with the ball in his hands. I think we often see him play with a purpose on defense and in the margins; I would love to see him playing with a purpose with the ball in his hands more consistently.
• Nico Batum/Robert Covington: INC. Some combination of a D-ish grade for Nico and a C-ish grade for RoCo is probably appropriate, but neither played enough or did enough for me to feel like they warranted a grade. The Clippers aren’t going to get offense out of Nico, but turning to Morris to get points from the PF position is somehow going even worse. They should turn to Terance to get offense out of the PF position, and once you accept that, I think it’s a lot easier to sell yourself on Nico as a positionless defensive Swiss Army knife off the bench in this series. The Clippers still need him to balance lineups on that end. RoCo missed his only two shots, but put the ball on the floor and made a couple of nice plays that neither PF ahead of him is capable of. I don’t like to play the “third string guy comes in and can’t guard Kevin Durant” card but he doesn’t seem to even inconvenience opponents as an on-ball defender (off-ball is another story). In Tuesday’s elimination game, Ty needs to stop playing PF roulette and either give RoCo real shifts or lay in the bed he’s made by not seeing what he had with him all year.
• Mason Plumlee: C+. This is probably controversially low at first glance, as Plumlee filled up the box score and had some memorable highlights. His first half was absolutely an A, both so much fun and so impactful. If he had mirrored that performance in the second half, the Clippers might have won this game. But after 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 turnover in 8 first half minutes, Plumlee had just 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, and another turnover in 11 second-half minutes. He got overeager at times, leading to the live ball turnover as he tried to play point center and defensive sequences where he extended his pressure beyond his ability and wound up in the dust. I mentioned above that the +/- stuff in this series is wonky on the Clippers’ end because of the Suns’ varying lineup quality, but one thing is for sure: they need to win against rotated Suns lineups. Plumlee was the catalyst of them doing that in the first half, but a big part of them losing those minutes in the second half.

Agree with my grades? Disagree? You know what to do.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers vs Suns Game 4 Player Grades
Lucas Hann

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.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers vs Suns Game 3 Player Grades
Lucas Hann

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.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers vs Suns Game 2 Player Grades
Lucas Hann

Longtime remembers might remember that a couple of years ago, 213Hoops ran player grades after every single Clippers game. Ah, the benefits of not having other responsibilities. I lack the time to do nightly player grades all season long now, but I’m going to give an honest effort to keep it up throughout the Clippers’ playoff run. Without further ado:

• Russell Westbrook: C+. Let’s just get the hardest grade to calculate out of the way first. How the hell do you grade a player who was as stellar and impactful on defense as you could have possibly imagined and as inefficient and selfish on offense as you could have possibly imagined? I don’t envy Grizzlies writers who have to assess Dillon Brooks every game. I don’t think I have to explain much here–you all know exactly how hideous the offense was and exactly how great the defense was. If you want to give him an F because 3-19 is irredeemable, I get it. If you want to give him an A because he’s got spunk, god damn it, I get that too. I can’t go much lower or higher when considering both ends of the floor. I’ll say this, though: while we know Russ can have big offensive games, he can be 10x better on offense than he was tonight without doing anything but deferring to teammates and not forcing bad shots. Even being quiet on offense while defending at this level would be a great basketball player. But being destructive on offense offsets a lot of the good work he did on defense.
• Eric Gordon: B+. Gordon had a much quieter night than Westbrook, but he avoided doing harm, too. He had 12 first quarter points as the Clippers built their early lead, and finished second on the team with 19. Did missing back-to-back threes late hurt? Yeah, but they were good shots, and he hit the third one to bring him to 3/7 from deep on the night. While not being one of the defensive players of the game like Russ or Zu, Gordon was still part of an effective scheme on that end and handled a matchup against a hall of famer essentially every possession he spent on the court tonight.
• Kawhi Leonard: A. I’m tempted to leave Kawhi a little headroom, since I don’t think this was quite his best game, but how could it be anything but an A? An efficient 38 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 42 minutes, tackling a variety of defensive assignments throughout (he started the game on Deandre Ayton and ended it on Kevin Durant), and emerging as the best player on the floor as a solo star lined up against Phoenix’s all-stars. Maybe this was a 96% A and the 98%, 99%, and 100% As are still to come in this series. But it was still an A, and the Clippers will have a shot in any game where he is the best player on the floor.

• Nico Batum: C. I think Nico is going to have a thankless job in this series. They need him out there defensively against Phoenix’s starting units, which are the shifts that the Clippers are most likely to lose, and then whenver the Suns rotate bench players in, Ty Lue will have to replace Nico with one of his bench guards that offers superior firepower so that the Clippers can go on runs of their own. The result is a quiet 1-3 shooting night for 3 points where the Clippers went -8 in Batum’s 21 minutes. He’s shuttling across assignments vs Chris Paul and Kevin Durant, so you can only blame him so much. But I would love to see a less anonymous Nico in future games, especially shooting the basketball.
• Ivica Zubac: B. Zu probably had an A first half coupled with a C second half, as he put up 10 points and 11 rebounds before the break and anchored a Clippers defense that kept Phoenix’s high-powered offense mostly in check. This is a good matchup for Zu, because Phoenix’s slower, more deliberate, more mid-range focused attack plays into his strengths as a slower, stronger, positioning-based big. He had 10 points on 5-6 shooting in the first half and only got one real shot attempt in the second half (his other 2nd half FGA was a missed tip-in on a putback). The Clippers need to get the ball to him more as they attack the Suns’ defense.
• Bones Hyland: C-. Another tough one–Bones didn’t do much of note, finishing 1-6 from the field in his 13 minutes (although I think he got a pretty rough whistle on a couple of his drives). But he also held up on defense (credit to Ty Lue for finding the right weak Suns lineups to play him against) and brought his usual energy as his lineups surged to +13. Can’t give a guy a D or F when he’s +13 in 13 minutes. But Bones is going to need to provide more production in these bench minutes if he wants to keep getting them as the series goes on.

• Norman Powell: B. Not Norm’s best game, but far from bad, either. He got the job done in 23 minutes off the bench, scoring 14 points on 5-10 shooting and drawing some fouls. I do think that the Clippers should be making a more concerted effort to use his grifting to aggravate whatever Suns foul trouble situations are going on. I’m also a little concerned that the minutes with him alongside the starters in place of Batum didn’t go super well; that’s Ty Lue’s go-to substitution when things go awry with Paul George out, and while Powell can certainly bring an offensive boost, that sub lowers the lineup’s defensive floor significantly. Shoutout to Norm for scoring 4 big points during Kawhi’s 2 minutes of fourth quarter rest. The Clippers might lose this game without those two possessions.
• Terance Mann: B. I think I also have to go B here? Terance felt like he had a few more notable good moments than Norm, as he finished with 10 points on 3-6 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. Terance closed the game tonight and had a big 3-point play driving against Chris Paul just inside the 5-minute mark. Unlike Norm, who has to be hidden a bit more on defense, Terance primarily saw reps guarding Chris Paul and clearly bothered his elder adversary, who essentially just resorted to repeatedly grabbing Terance’s arm and holding him in an effort to keep up. But Terance had more notable bad moments than Norm, too–4 turnovers and a rough brain fart foul pressuring Devin Booker 80 feet from the hoop with the Clippers in the penalty.
• Mason Plumlee: A-. I’m kind of shocked by my own decision here, and this definitely isn’t how I was feeling as the game went on or immediately after. But Mason actually put in some good work today. He had 7 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists while posting a team-high +16 in just 18 minutes, winning matchups against both backup Suns big men and controlling the glass against a brief Durant-at-center lineup that failed to make headway in the fourth quarter. Less impressive was his defense, but he got to play against staggered Suns bench units that hardly tested him, and seemed resolved to just give fouls when his opponent was rolling to the rim. But between Biyombo (35% from the line on the season) and Landale (75%) combining to go 4-8 on free throws, Plumlee’s fouls might have been calculated (especially on Biyombo–it’s likely in the scouting report to send that dude to the line if he catches the ball around the rim).

Just as an overall reflection, I do think it’s pretty compelling that the Clippers beat the Suns on the road in game 1 without it feeling like very many guys actually had great games? Kawhi was spectacular, Russ was feast-or-famine, and for the most part everyone else was… fine? The Clippers’ role players had their moments, but most of the guys (except Gordon and maybe Plumlee) didn’t play anywhere near the level of their best game in recent weeks. I guess I could retcon this and say because we got a road playoff win vs a more talented team, everyone must have played amazing individual games… but maybe it’s more meaningful in the context of analyzing this series that they got this result without those performances. Agree with my grades? Disagree? You know what to do.

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Clippers vs Suns Game 1 Player Grades
Lucas Hann

The Clippers slid to the fourth seed in the Western Conference after losing the season series to the undermanned Denver Nuggets. Let’s see how each of the players graded out.

CLIPPERS STARTER GRADES

Reggie Jackson: C+. Reggie played about how we’ve come to expect Reggie to play after he’s seemingly fallen back down to earth. He made some catch-and-shoot three’s — cool. He also put together a solid start to the third quarter to help the Clippers take their final lead, but he just doesn’t impact the game in many other ways — although he did manage three steals. 15 points on 5/12 shooting and 3/7 from three are fine for Reggie, but he only had one assist in 30 minutes. I can’t help but miss Pat Bev more and more each passing game.

Paul George: D. This game was reminiscent of one of the bad playoff games from the bubble, and it’s no coincident that Denver was the reason for some of those. Outside of a few early jumpers during the first quarter, PG looked very flustered throughout the game. He got roughed up in the paint (though he wasn’t elevating much) and was impacted by the physicality and the peskiness of the Nuggets defenders — so much so that he gave a frustration-induced flagrant foul on Facundo Campazzo during the third quarter. That flagrant surrendered the Clippers’ one-point lead and they would never recover it. George shot 5-21 from the field and missed four free throws. The only thing positive to take away from the outing was that he made 3/8 from three, but that’ll be drowned out in the grand scheme of things. The Clips probably won’t see Denver again this year, but if they do, PG will have some demons to exorcise. 

Kawhi Leonard: B-. All signs early on pointed towards Kawhi having a dominant performance, but that never materialized. Clearly unwilling to overexert himself in his first game back from injury, Kawhi coasted throughout the game until later in the fourth quarter. He settled from a lot of jumpers — which he made — but didn’t make much of an effort to get downhill. When he did put his head down he found shooters along the perimeter or muscled his way to some tough finishes. But those were too infrequent, especially as his “213” counterpart struggled greatly. We’ll probably see Kawhi ramp it up a few notches as he gets more minutes under his belt, and it’ll be needed. I thought both his health and game looked fine though. 

Marcus Morris Sr.: D. A performance like this one can only be compared to those early season Luke Kennard games; the ones where he was out there for long periods of time but you kinda didn’t notice. Morris Sr.’s fallback to being a complementary piece was quite drastic as he played 29 minutes and made just 2 of 6 shots upon Kawhi’s return to the lineup. This off-beat showing also featured some frustrating fouls (and-1’s and fouled jump shooters) while being the least-important Clipper outside of Patrick Patterson. He did have three assists which were third-best on the team but didn’t offer much else. And when you see Paul Milsap and J-Myke produce on the other end it just makes it feel a little bit worse. 

Ivica Zubac: C. Clippers Twitter had a slightly different view of Zu’s performance than I did for this particular game. To his credit, I thought he defended Jokic as well as you can in single coverage, but also was Joker’s primary defender as he caught some fire in the third quarter and helped create some separation for Denver. He certainly could’ve re-entered in the fourth for defensive purposes, but I was fine with the team riding with Boogie, who had provided both a spark and some much-needed offensive production. That being said, there was nothing about this game that makes me think that there is an option at center that is better for this team than Zu. Him only playing 24 minutes is bad process.

CLIPPERS BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Rajon Rondo: A-. Outside of a couple of three-point attempts that felt like settled shots, there isn’t much to dislike about Rondo’s 18/5/5 line. He was easily the Clippers’ best player all night long and he might have displayed the most energy of any Clipper. What shouldn’t be surprising after nearly a month of Rondo is how explosive he’s been in getting downhill. We figured he’d be good in transition — which he was, but he really gave Denver fits in the half-court setting by bursting to the rim and finishing layup after layup. I’m excited about Pat Bev’s eventual return because it honestly feels like Rondo is having to shoulder too much of the load far too often, which could wear on his body — something we don’t need as the playoffs are around the corner.

DeMarcus Cousins. B+: I can’t give DeMarcus an A-grade because his defense was unspectacular, but I’d be hard-pressed not to acknowledge all the good out on the floor. Boogie probably was on pace to catch a DNP-CD, but Patrick Patterson’s disastrous second-quarter stretch left Ty Lue no choice in the second half. After the game seemed to have gotten out of hand for the uninspired Clippers, Boogie’s effort and energy became contagious as the Clips chipped away before a late Campazzo three all but ended the rally. He has his weaknesses, which are magnified the longer his stints are, but I really appreciate a guy battling his tail off every moment of every game.

Nicolas Batum: D+. Nicardio was in full effect on Saturday night as Nic blended into the background like many of his teammates did. It’s rare that Nic doesn’t have any impact on a game, but the Nuggets’ style of play kept the game slowly-paced and attacked mismatches via post-ups. He played some fine on-ball defense when he had his chances, but it ultimately didn’t provide much of a difference. Nic couldn’t find any rhythm on offense either and was a casualty of the Clipper’s poor ball movement after the first quarter. Let’s hope there aren’t too many more nights like these.

Patrick Patterson: F. The Clippers came completely undone in the seven minutes that PatPat took the floor as his minus-11 probably won Denver the game. From the moment he checked in he was targeted and attacked relentlessly on the defensive end by a variety of Nuggets players. And to make matters worse, each bucket he surrendered he gave away on the offensive end as he missed some open threes to stop the bleeding. At that point, he became unplayable and found himself a seat on the bench for the rest of the night.

Terance Mann: C. Like Nic, the pace of the game really limited Terance’s on-court production — he couldn’t get out in transition, and he couldn’t find his spots on offense due to the lack of flow. There weren’t many opportunities to get himself going on defense, and he was limited to some spot-up threes on offense — which he made. Overall, he did what he could and I don’t think he caused any damage, but he just didn’t provide much.

NO GRADES

Luke Kennard played just five fourth-quarter minutes and did nothing of note, while Daniel Oturu and Yogi Ferrell received healthy DNP-CD’s. Amir Coffey was out due to the NBA’s healthy and safety protocols, and both Patrick Beverley and Serge Ibaka remained out with injuries.

Clippers vs. Nuggets Player Grades
Cole Huff

The Clippers outlasted the Pacers in another high-scoring affair by a score of 126-115. Let’s take a look at how the guys performed in their first game away from Staples Center since March 25th.

CLIPPERS STARTER GRADES

Reggie Jackson: C+. I wasn’t a fan of this Reggie performance. The mediocre stats don’t mean as much to me, I just had a hard time enjoying what he brought to the table this game. He was constantly dribbling without a plan, which resulted in more than a couple of possessions in which he hoisted up a contested jumper at the end of the clock while no one else touched the ball for the whole possession. Equally as frustrating was his on-ball defense. He allowed straight-line drives to the basket while glancing around other parts of the court in an attempt to pick up on plays. For what it’s worth, Reggie only committed a single turnover (an ugly one) and was a plus-13 — one of only two starters that were positive. So, maybe I need to rewatch the game?

Luke Kennard: B-. Lots of up-and-down play from Luke in this one, but let’s start with the good. Luke was pursuing his shot once again — 4/8 from the field and 2/3 from three and turned in four assists after being held without one last game. He was quite bad on the other end of the court, however. Luke surrendered six points at the end of the first half on back-to-back possessions — an unnecessary help off of a corner three-point shooter, and leaving a man under the basket in transition for an easy and-1 layup; fortunately, those miscues didn’t cost the team in the long run. But as I said in the last player grades: Luke is on the court to make shots, and he did just that. Anything else he provides is a treat. 

Paul George: A. How do you follow up three straight 30 point games? Go out and get a fourth, and do it on the court that you became a household name on. It was almost an exact duplicate of the Pistons game, so I’m going to copy and paste my assessment of PG’s game with some slight edits. “From the jump, George was aggressive in bullying his way downhill and finding baskets at the rim and the midrange. It was also nice to see George be a playmaker out of the pick-and-roll.” He had some beautiful passes to open shooters spotted up along the perimeter, and some nice finds to Zubac on the roll. PG’s passing continues to climb, and it’s taking his game to another level. 36/7/8 on 52% shooting with 4 threes is worthy of the game ball for the Clippers’ superstar guard in his revenge performance against the Pacers.

Marcus Morris Sr.: A-. Mook continues to fill the Kawhi scoring void as he nurses a sore foot. He got to all of Kawhi’s favorite spots in the mid-post and isolated his way into a ton of made contested fadeaways and turnaround jumpers. Morris Sr. again was a deadeye from distance going 3/3 from beyond the arc and continues to be a great compliment to the team’s two stars. I didn’t notice him much on the defensive end, but something led to his team-worst minus-10 rating and the defense may have been it. Nevertheless, we’ll gladly take a 22/7/3 performance on 75% shooting from the field. Morris Sr. has been great in his return to the starting lineup and we should expect more of the same.

Ivica Zubac: A-. Zu is a totally different guy finishing at the rim in comparison to when he was acquired in 2019 — you can credit his fully healed hands to his turnaround. He finished everything at the rim and is borderline becoming automatic when he gets into the paint. What’s nice to see is that Zu has been punishing mismatches, too. He sealed low and early and turned straight over his left shoulder to that right-hand hook — these are little things that can help punish teams that are going to be switch-heavy come playoff time. Zu wasn’t as dominant on defense. Sabonis was a tough assignment for him as his combination of skill and slight awkwardness (or craftiness) left Zu unable to impact many of Sabonis’ makes. However, I thought he was stellar as a help defender and did his usual great job around the rim. Add this game to the “keep Zu as the starter” campaign. 

CLIPPERS BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Terance Mann: B+. Terance got his numbers this time around but those don’t begin to tell the story of his impact. Mann’s pure ability to fly in transition and be athletic has created so much of a punch for the Clippers. Even when he’s getting blocked at the rim he’s usually forced a help defender to leave an offensive rebounder. Speaking of rebounding, he always snags those important ones that fend off those teams who are hanging around. A loud 12/4/3 with two steals and two threes just has me happy for the kid and how he’s blossomed into a legit NBA rotational player. 

Rajon Rondo. B: A slight knock on Rondo’s performance because he couldn’t figure out how to to put the ball in the basket, but I thought he did a fantastic job of managing this game. Especially in the first half, he found ways to settle the team down and keep the game close when it had the potential to get a little bit uncomfortable. His stats won’t wow any of us on this night, but his presence was as impactful as it’s been on most of his early games as a Clipper. Rondo ended the night with 4 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists while finishing with a plus-14.

Nicolas Batum: A. Mark down Nic as the fourth of all four bench players that were a net-positive (plus-22) for the Clippers against the Pacers, as he put together another performance that was of player-of-the-game caliber. He led the bench in scoring (14) and did his best Dikembe Mutombo impression with five(!) blocked shots. It’s not crazy to say now that he is a top two or three Clipper defender on the team on a nightly basis, and that he was one of the best free-agent signings this offseason. Again, “Nic has quietly looked more like his beginning-of-the-season self in recent weeks, which is an important development for the Clippers as the playoffs inch closer.” 

Patrick Patterson: B+. Low-key, this was probably PatPat’s best game of the season. At least, it’s a candidate. First and foremost, he was one hell of a passer against the Pacers and his assist totals (4) reflect it. Patterson was phenomenal in making the extra read, which he did time and time again throughout the game feeding opening Clippers shooters for threes against a soft Pacers defense. Also, he’s been pretty good defensively — defending the post to the best of his abilities, and not getting blown by off the dribble. It would’ve been nice for one of those two 3PA’s to drop, but hey, PatPat is competing. Of course, we’d like to see what Boogie could provide, but I’m not mad at the decision-making from coach Lue.

NO GRADES

Amir Coffey, Daniel Oturu, and Malik Fitts received 58 seconds of garbage time, so no grades for them. Finally for the Clippers, DeMarcus Cousins received a healthy DNP against the Pacers, while Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Beverley, and Serge Ibaka were out with injuries.

Clippers vs. Pacers Player Grades
Cole Huff

The Clippers and Pistons engaged in an absolute shootout Sunday night at Staples Center. The game was ultimately decided by the Clippers once they decided to play defense in the fourth quarter. In an entertaining 131-124 victory with an abundance of stats to go around, let’s see how the players graded out.

CLIPPERS STARTER GRADES

Reggie Jackson: B-. After some recent nuclear games, Reggie ended the homestand with a less flashy performance. His shot-making wasn’t at the clip that it was against the Rockets, but he replaced the scoring with 7 assists — tied for third on the team. He had 4 turnovers on the night including 3 ugly ones during a second-quarter stretch where he was over-dribbling, which in part led to his minus-13 mark. However, Reggie was under control for most of the game and also had a nice fourth-quarter that included a momentum-changing fastbreak block that led to a Terance Mann corner three to tie the game. 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists in 29 minutes is a fine outing for a starting point guard. No major gripes with this Reggie performance for the Clippers in a revenge game against the Pistons.

Luke Kennard: B-. It was nice to see Luke look for his shot a bit more in this game and not follow up a non-aggressive game with another. Offensively, Luke was his usually efficient self; he scored 11 points while converting 5 of his 6 shots from the field and 1 of his 2 threes. Yet, in a game where 50 shots were made and 131 points were scored, he failed to register an assist. Not great. What also wasn’t great was his Clippers-worst minus-16 in 24 minutes played, although you can credit a lot of that to some ridiculously hot shooting from the Pistons. There’s been better and there’s been worse this season. But Luke took and made shots, which is what you want from him.

Paul George: A. PG followed up consecutive 30-point games with a third 30-point outing. From the jump, George was aggressive in bullying his way downhill and finding baskets at the rim and the midrange. He did all of his damage (11 points) in those areas before even attempting his first three-pointer midway through the second quarter. It was also nice to see George be a playmaker out of the pick-and-roll. His 9 assists to just 2 turnovers were crucial in such a tightly contested affair. PG was dominant on offense for the majority of the game and then put the finishing touches on his outing by turning back the clocks to his Indiana Pacer days to deliver his best dunk as a Clipper. 32 and 9 gets an A.

Marcus Morris Sr.: A. Mook wasn’t the “best” Clipper, but it’s hard to imagine that they win this game without his shooting efforts that keep them alive through three quarters — every last one of his Clipper-career-high 33 points was needed. In a strange way, Morris Sr. filled the scoring void that was left in Kawhi’s rest — something that was much more likely to expect of him last season after filling it up with the Knicks. If we’re nitpicking here, he looked pretty slow defensively and Sadiq Bey was low-key working him during a third-quarter stretch in which Morris Sr. looked pretty gassed from the energy he was exerting on offense and the fast pace of the game in general. Nevertheless, Mook’s 13/18 shooting and 6/8 from the field were greatly appreciated.

Ivica Zubac: A-. Just when you think you’ve seen it all with Zu he goes ahead and drops a casual 7 assists — which complimented his 13 points and 10 rebounds very well. Credit to both him and the staff for the strides he’s made as a passer. Especially out of the short-roll, Zu has become so poised in reading and reacting to the defense. He’s just finding the open guys and the defenses are struggling to adjust. As the game grew, so did Zubac. He was everywhere defensively per usual and his efforts in the second half are a major reason why this game turned the way it did. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about how much of a steal it was for the Clippers to acquire Zu for a bag of chips, and THEN secure him on such a team-friendly deal for four seasons. He’s just so good. 

CLIPPERS BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Terance Mann: B. Terance was statistically very quiet in this one, but his impact was loud. Some impactful defense, infectious energy, and a quick 5-point spurt at the beginning of the fourth quarter helped the Clippers take control of the game against the Pistons. There isn’t a whole lot to say about Terance in this one other than that he continues to provide whenever his number is called upon.

Rajon Rondo: B. A turnover-filled first half felt like a letdown for the Rondo who we’d last seen picking apart the Phoenix Suns. The regression didn’t last long, though, and Rondo had a very good second half — fourth-quarter specifically. He exited early in the fourth and returned to nail a big three-pointer and then find Morris Sr. on the ensuing possession for a corner three to all but ice the game. His defense wasn’t up to snuff with his prior games, but the communication was still there. We’re going to have varied returns from Rondo on a game-to-game basis, but if he can pick his spots and deliver when needed, it’ll be a worthwhile ride. He finished with 10 points and 6 assists.

Nicolas Batum: A+. On a night in which both PG and Mook topped 30 points on hot shooting, the player of the game was undoubtedly Nic Batum. As I asked the question regarding Morris Sr.’s shooting throughout, do the Clippers win this game without Nic’s fourth quarter? Don’t get me wrong — he was absolutely stellar through three quarters, but in the fourth, he saved the day. 9 points, 4 rebounds, a block, and 3 (huge) threes in the fourth alone for the Clippers are what ultimately did the Pistons in on this night that they played other-worldly. Nic has quietly looked more like his beginning-of-the-season self in recent weeks, which is an important development for the Clippers as the playoffs inch closer.

NO GRADES

Patrick Patterson logged 5 minutes and was pretty unnoticeable, and Amir Coffey received 36 seconds of garbage time — for that, they get no grades. Daniel Oturu, Malik Fitts, and DeMarcus Cousins all received healthy DNP’s. Kawhi Leonard rested, and Patrick Beverley continues to be OUT after undergoing surgery on his left hand, while Serge Ibaka is still dealing with back tightness. 

Clippers vs Pistons Player Grades
Cole Huff

Player grades certainly took a negative turn last night as the Grizzlies handed the Clippers their worst beatdown as a fully healthy roster. Let’s see how the players grades shook out for the Clippers’ loss to the Grizzlies.

CLIPPERS STARTER GRADES

Patrick Beverley: C. Patrick Beverley had another game in which his impact was only moderate. That’s not to say he did anything negative, he just didn’t have much of an effect on either end. He shot 1-3 from behind the arc and again ended up spending a lot of time playing defense away from the ball. It’s hard to point the finger at Pat for this game specifically, but I do expect him to be better.

Paul George: C-. Out of sync; the perfect way to summarize PG’s night. Memphis’ defense took away a lot of what had been working for George — they crowded him on his drives to the rim, picked him up full-court and played him physically, and made all of his three-point attempts tough. This was probably Paul’s worst performance of the season and it felt even worse because not a lot of other guys showed up either.

Kawhi Leonard: C+. Kawhi saw two defenders all night long. As he tried to operate out of the post, he saw the double-team and found open shooters throughout the first half. But once it was clear that the shooters weren’t going to be contributing much, Kawhi began to force the issue a bit to no avail. When he didn’t see a double, Justice Winslow did a great job of matching Kawhi’s strength and athleticism as a one-one defender. Kawhi wasn’t much better on the other end either. Whether it was a communication error, a backdoor cut, or a poor shooter like Winslow hitting a tough middy over him to beat the shot-clock buzzer, things just didn’t break his way. Although he did have seven assists — his most in over a month — there’s nothing else positive to take from this game. The Grizzlies had a plan and they executed it very well. 

Nic Batum: B. Games like these, in which a team is outplayed from start to finish, usually make the little things that a player like Nic does go unnoticed — especially when you look at the box score (4/2/2). That being said, Nic was his usual self. He guarded a bunch of different guys on the defensive end, kept the ball moving on offense, and was making lots of high-IQ plays. However, his shot attempts were low once again and he only made one three. I’d like to see Batum’s production be about in line with his averages, but a lot of that is dictated by how well the superstars are playing — which was not well at all against the Grizzlies.

Serge Ibaka: B+. Good news: Serge found his touch from three, was one of the only bright spots for the Clippers, and his 13 points and 7 rebounds kept the Clippers in striking distance throughout most of the game. Bad news: Serge’s defense continued to look bad. Ja Morant blew by and euro-stepped his way past Ibaka on multiple occasions no matter what the pick-and-roll coverage was, and when he found enough times to recover and contest the shot he had little to no effect. He even bit on a Jonas Valanciunas pump-fake in the midrange area that led to an uncontested finish at the rim. But you know what? This was maybe Serge’s best game in a few weeks and I think that’s what is most important here. It’s just too bad it had to come in a 28-point deficit.

CLIPPERS BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Lou Williams: C-. I credit Lou for subbing in mid-way through the first quarter and immediately giving the struggling Clippers offense some much-needed life. He didn’t bring much else to the table after that, though, going 2-7 in quarters two, three, and four with just a single assist. I want to give Lou a pass because it was his first game back after just having missed a game, but that was just for rest and not injury. Hopefully, he will return to form after getting a game under his belt.

Marcus Morris Sr.: C. Mook put together a decent first half in which he scored all nine of his points — six of which came by way of three second-quarter midrange jumpers. His second-half offense and defense were as bad as everyone else’s and that’s really all there is to say about it. 9 points, 2, rebounds, and 1 assist in 25 minutes won’t cut it.

Ivica Zubac: C. Gameplan and game-flow were the two main reasons why Zu had a quiet outing. Gameplan — the Clippers played “drop” in most of their pick-and-roll coverages, which left Zu watching a million floaters pour in over his head. As a result, he wasn’t able to force any misses and turnovers to get out in transition and rim-run. Game-flow — the Clippers’ iso heavy attack on the offensive end didn’t create many drives to the basket; rendering Zu ineffective as a lob threat or as an offensive rebounder. Eventually, the deficit increased and the small ball unit soaked up more minutes in an attempt to put some points on the board and also switch positions 1-5 on defense. There wasn’t a lot that Zu could’ve done to change the outcome.

Reggie Jackson: C+. I thought Reggie was solid for a good portion of the game. His offense certainly was helpful in keeping the game in striking distance; his pace and shot-making — to be specific. However, for as much as his offense kept the Clippers’ hopes alive, his fourth-quarter defense quickly ended those dreams. The Memphis made it a point of emphasis to hunt Reggie out as much as possible as he repeatedly fouled drivers and put them at the line. He returned late once the game got out of reach and instantly lost all previous sense of responsibility that he had played with while the game was close, hence the four turnovers. Reggie was a positive for the most part, but a few bad stretches fractured what could have been a good night for him.

Terance Mann: C. Not much happened for Terance in round 1 against Memphis. He played six ineffectual first-half half minutes before returning for a second six-minute stint to close out the game. About the only thing of note is that he continues to get the nod over Luke Kennard. 

NO GRADES

Mfiondu Kabengele went 0-2 in six garbage-time minutes, while Luke Kennard contributed a three-point make during those same six minutes. Patrick Patterson did not travel with the team due to personal reasons.

Clippers vs Grizzlies Player Grades (Part 1)
Cole Huff

The Clippers closed out their home stand by ending the Wizards’ five-game winning streak. Just about everyone who suited up had their moments in this game, so let’s see how that factored into player grades for the Clippers’ win over the Wizards.

CLIPPERS STARTER GRADES

Patrick Beverley: B. Not a lot was required of Patrick Beverley in this game. He did his job — being a pest on defense and making life tough of the opposing guards, and was average on offense. He only played 20 minutes tonight which is probably good for his long-term health, so there wasn’t too much to critique.

Paul George: A. How do you follow up on a 34/6/7 performance? How about 30/6/3 in a win. The newly announced All-Star, Paul George, set the tone for the Clippers from the jump, doing it in a variety of ways to the beat of 25 first-half points on 5 of 5 three-point shooting. Aggressive drives to the basket, off the dribble threes and middies, off-ball movement into jumpers — you name it, PG provided it. The production didn’t carry over to the second half in terms of stats, but he was noticeably impactful in creating open looks for the Clippers’ shooters after a late third-quarter sequence in which the offense had stalled out. These are the kind of performances that made George an MVP candidate two seasons ago.

Kawhi Leonard: A. We’re all familiar with the elite counter-punchers in boxing right? They jab and jab all night long and throw an occasional right hook here and there while avoiding being hit, then before you know it the fight is over and they have landed like 200 punches in a dominant victory. That was Kawhi tonight. He just picked his spots and shot middy after middy and sprinkled in a few threes for good measure, and boom: 32 points on 13-20 shooting. He was effective in all four quarters until the lead blossomed late into the game and he wasn’t needed anymore. The 7 boards and 4 assists were about on par with his averages and he had his usual effectiveness on the defensive end. Just another day at the office for Kawhi.

Nic Batum: B+. Am I wrong in stating that this may have been Nic’s best defensive game of the season? He chased Brad Beal around pin downs and tons of off-ball screens, played great one-on-one defense against both Beal and Russell Westbrook, and then once Davis Bertans got hot Batum turned his water off. Nic killed the oft-scrambling Wizards’ defenders with many extra passes to shooters camped along the three-point line and made his usual cuts to the basket to keep the offense sailing smoothly. We got the pre-concussion version of Nic Batum last night and it was great.

Serge Ibaka: B-. I can’t complain about this Serge performance. He was very involved early on, and had probably one of his better first-quarters in terms of overall impact. There were moments in that quarter where he was a true rim-protector, and then was also a scoring threat on the other end with midrange jumpers and finishing in the paint. Serge also battled on the boards and his energy paved way for the other parts of his game to open up. Of course, there was some drop-off as the game proceeded; he fumbled passes, missed a couple of three-pointers, and started to allow baskets at the rim. But his night ended before things could go completely off the rail. 6 points and 6 rebounds won’t get anyone to jump out of their seats, but it was fine for how this game flowed.

CLIPPERS BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Luke Kennard: C+. Playing only 11 minutes in a game that Lou Williams was a healthy scratch is…not great. But it’s better than a DNP-CD. Luke didn’t look half bad actually. His ball movement was noteworthy — making Batum-like passes around the perimeter to open three-point shooters, and I didn’t notice him being bad on defense. The highlight of his night actually came on that end of the court, as he helped off of his man to poke away a live dribble that would lead to a Reggie Jackson dunk. His shot wasn’t falling but I can’t blame him: it’s hard to establish a rhythm when your minutes are all over the place. I don’t know if he did enough good to change that.

Marcus Morris Sr. B-: It was a rare occasion, as Marcus Morris Sr.’s passing was his best attribute. The common theme of the night was how well everyone swung the ball. Batum did it, Luke did it, and Morris Sr. got in on the fun too. It didn’t stop there with Morris though, he had a particularly nice feed to Zu at the rim after pumping out of a three — a connection between the two players that we’ve seen more than once. Morris was just alright in all other parts of the game (11 points on 4-12 shooting and 2-6 from three) but it’s not often he gets others involved. For that, his 4 assists earn him a B-. 

Ivica Zubac: A-. The Zubac that we all had grown to love and appreciate is back. He’s just always in the right spots on offense, with last night being no different, hence his perfect 6 of 6 from the floor (including a monster dunk over Davis Bertans). His rebounding (12 boards) continues to be fantastic after a really poor start to begin the season, and his presence at the rim on defense has been equally as good. Zu is a stud and I’m glad to see he’s figured out how to find his rhythm while coming off of the bench.

Reggie Jackson: B+. Good Reggie! Reggie filled in quite nicely for Lou as a scorer and as a lead guard. I thought he did a really fine job balancing when to be aggressive and when to run the offense. He switched gears a few times in transition to create easy opportunities, and he played his part in the half-court offense by being a floor spacer and also using the dribble to score on slower defenders. He got a little comfortable and put up a few questionable shots but you learn to live with it on nights which his minutes are up. Most importantly, Reggie showed an ability to play high-level defense. Westbrook eventually scored on him a couple of times due to the sheer volume of shots, but Reggie forced a ton of misses by sliding his feet and being disciplined enough to not foul. Again, GOOD REGGIE.

Terance Mann: A. Terance Mann kept the Clippers from blowing the lead that the Lakers had blown the night prior. Mann scored nine straight points for the Clippers from the end of the third quarter through the opening minutes of the fourth, including seven consecutive to open the final frame to push the lead from five to double-digits. The rest of the quarter he just showed off — setting up teammates, flying around on defense, and dropping in an additional three. He finished with 12/4/2 and some timely baskets that helped put the game out of reach. Add this one to the growing list of impressive Terance Mann games.

NO GRADES

Mfiondu Kabengele played four minutes of garbage time and made his first three-pointer since January 20th. Patrick Patterson was the only available player to go unused. Lou Williams rested and did not suit up.

That’s about it for the player grades of the Clippers’ win over the Wizards. What do you all think? Were there any grades that you disagreed with?

Clippers vs Wizards Player Grades
Cole Huff

The Clippers and Nets turned in another thriller, but the good guys fell by four points yet again. Let’s see how all the Clippers players fared this time around against the Nets, with full grades below.

Clippers STARTER GRADES

Patrick Beverley: B. Pat Bev’s defense was sorely missed in that first game and with his return he’d surely slow Kyrie Irving and James Harden, right? Well, Brooklyn is the best offensive team in the NBA for a reason; they were never going to cater to Pat’s strength and just let him play one-on-one defense. Instead, they hunted the matchups they desired, making Pat’s defensive presence less impactful once Harden and Irving opted to attack the pick-and-rolls. Offensively, Beverley’s four assists were wiped away by a season-high four turnovers, which featured a couple of notable one-handed passes through traffic. You don’t really come away from games evaluating Pat’s performance based on his offensive play, but between the poor decision-making with the ball and only one three-point make, he didn’t have much of a visible impact on this game.

Paul George: A-. PG looked more like his usual self against the Nets. For three quarters he was pretty good — picking his spots and operating well on both ends, but he really came alive later in the game. He had 12 points and 2 assists in the fourth quarter alone during a five-minute stretch that cut the lead from 12 to 4. There’s little doubt in my mind that PG would’ve continued to make plays down the stretch, but a minutes restriction ended his night prematurely. You can attribute his six turnovers to rust, or recognize that the high turnovers are just a part of his game. There’s likely a balance but either way, it was too many, and they were especially costly in a game that was only lost by four points. But, perspective again, it was only PG’s second game back after missing a couple of weeks, so you’ll take the efficient 34/6/7 on a minutes restriction.

Kawhi Leonard: B. A late offensive foul (questionable) plagued what was otherwise a good, not great, game from Kawhi. His first quarter was exceptional, as he was basically one of only two sources of offense for the Clippers in that frame, but was somewhat discreet throughout the rest of the game. More of an offensive contribution in the fourth quarter would have been appreciated, however, there weren’t too many opportunities to do so with PG dominating the majority of that quarter the way he did. Still, he was great all night on the boards and was solid defensively. What lacked, though, was the playmaking; Kawhi generated onlythree assists in the game. 29 and 13 should be enough to get the job done on most nights, though, so it’s hard to be too critical.

Nic Batum: B-. Nic was decent last night. I liked that he was versatile enough to switch onto the Nets’ two healthy superstars and be smart enough to make it tough from them despite his lackluster footspeed. Those two guys got the better of him mostly, but that can be said of anyone who lined up in front of them. Batum’s shot-making was absent again in this one, as he has slowly begun regressing on that end of the court — not anything drastic or troubling, but the quiet nights are becoming more of a regularity. He made just a single three-pointer on three attempts, was 0-3 on his two-point attempts, and was 0-2 at the line. I’m sure rust may have something to do with his poor touch around the rim or even the dropped pass that slid from his hands and bounced to the sideline, but still, Nic didn’t play poorly at all, he just wasn’t great.

Serge Ibaka: C. Oh, Serge. I convinced myself that he was due for a breakout game against Jeff Green and Deandre Jordan after having a rough two-game stretch against Rudy Gobert, arguably the NBA’s best defender. Sadly, this game was no different. The box score (8 points, 8 rebounds in 21 minutes) really doesn’t tell the whole story, as many of Serge’s season-long faults remained true against the Nets; he failed to provide floor-spacing, was poorly positioned time and time again in his pick-and-roll coverages, and repeatedly tried (and failed) to score out of the low-post. He couldn’t even hide on 6’4 Bruce Brown, as Brown played the roller and finished over Ibaka in the paint. There were a few possessions in the third-quarter that he had some luck offensively, but that was about it. Serge teased us in late January and early February with a surge in play but has been on a downward trend in recent weeks.

BENCH PLAYER GRADES

Lou Williams: C. This was a very Luke Kennard kind of outing for Lou — 5 points and 2 assists without much impact on the game. Lou never got it going today as either a scorer or a facilitator, and it hurt the Clippers’ chances at winning. He looked fine physically, it’s just one of those nights where shots weren’t falling. He did make an important three late in the game, so I guess that’s a positive. Maybe worth noting is that this is the second time this season in which he was pretty non-existent against the Nets, which could be a problem if the two teams met in the finals – but that’s also getting very far ahead of ourselves. Other than that, I really don’t have too much else to say about this performance.

Marcus Morris Sr.: C. The Brooklyn Nets found their guy, and by their guy I mean a pick-and-roll defender to pick on. When they weren’t terrorizing the drop coverage, Harden and Irving took turns orchestrating switches to get Morris Sr. on an island. He gave a nice effort, but ultimately he couldn’t deter either of the two from finding points. Like Lou, Morris Sr. also couldn’t buy a basket, and was ineffective as a small-bell five this time around. Speaking of small-ball five, he was partially responsible for the DeAndre Jordan game-winning putback, as DJ’s outstretched arms rose high above Morris Sr.’s backside — although there’s not much you can do about that. The bottom line is that if Mook doesn’t have it going on offense he’s got to impact the game in other areas. He didn’t do that last night.

Ivica Zubac: B-. DeAndre Jordan outplayed Ivica Zubac for the second time this season, although one could argue that’s more a result of DeAndre playing really well than Zu playing poorly. Zu certainly had his moments, especially later in the game when the Clippers’ guards fed him for some easy ones under the rim, but it would have been nice to see a consistent effort from him throughout the game. Yet, I think that a lot of that is on coaching — limiting Zu to just 20 minutes of action and not using him to punish some of the Jeff Green at center lineups. In the end, this was an acceptable outing for Zu, and more of him over Serge could’ve changed the outcome of the game.

Terance Mann: B+. It was a bounceback performance from Terance after an off night against Utah. There’s a list of things that I really liked, which included two (!) three-pointers (one coming off of his own OREB), a drive and lob to Zu, and a highlight play that consisted of him fighting around a ball-screen and sprinting downhill to the roller to erase a lob attempt to DeAndre. The final stat line won’t wow anyone (6/2/2 in 18 minutes) but he had lots of positive contributions to this game. T-Mann was damn good last night.

NO GRADES

Reggie Jackson didn’t receive a grade due to only seeing the court for four minutes during the third quarter. Patrick Patterson and Mfiondu Kabengele were unused, as was Luke Kennard, who earned his second consecutive healthy DNP. Amir Coffey was inactive, and Jay Scrubb and Daniel Oturu continue to recover from injury.

Clippers vs. Nets Player Grades: Another Clips Loss
Cole Huff