According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the LA Clippers have traded Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Daniel Oturu to the Memphis Grizzlies for Eric Bledsoe:

The move consolidates LA’s guard depth, as Beverley and Rondo were occupying two veteran backup point guard spots in front of 33rd overall pick Jason Preston, who also has a guaranteed contract on the 15-man roster for next season. With Preston and fellow rookies Keon Johnson and Brandon Boston both with guaranteed deals to be on the 15-man roster next year and Kawhi Leonard likely to miss much or all of the season following ACL surgery, roster spots were at a premium for LAC and it didn’t make sense to carry as many guards as they had on the team after their draft and re-signing Reggie Jackson.

With their draft and free agent classes official, the Clippers had 16 guaranteed contracts on the roster, and only sophomore big man Daniel Oturu as a third string option at PF/C. In order to reach their final 15-man roster, it seemed likely that they would need to make a 2-for-1 consolidation guard trade (likely involving Beverley and Rondo) while also cutting Oturu and replacing him with a veteran free agent big. With Oturu’s salary thrown into this Memphis trade, the Clippers now have a more balanced roster and one open spot to use on big man depth:

By adding a depth 4/5 and factoring in the Clippers’ ability to utilize Winslow at power forward and Mann or Johnson at small forward, it becomes much more feasible for the Clippers to put together a respectable 82-game rotation. (Jay Scrubb is on the roster on a two-way contract, whle Amir Coffey has an outstanding qualifying offer and could still end up back with the team, either in the other two-way spot as they sign a min salary depth big to the 15-man roster, or vice versa)

Bledsoe, for his part, is no savior. The former Clipper was a fixture on the Milwaukee Bucks for recent years before being traded after consistently underwhelming playoff performances, and became a scapegoat for the New Orleans Pelicans falling drastically short of expectations last season (he wasn’t good, and certainly seemed to be coasting a bit, but he was far from the team’s only problem). He was named to the All-Defense 1st team in 2019 and 2nd team in 2020 as part of a stellar Milwaukee system, so the Clippers should be at least optimistic that they can get a similar impact on that end of the floor from Bledsoe as they were getting from Beverley.

While Bledsoe is a worse three-point shooter than Patrick Beverley, whose spot in the offense and rotation he replaces, he’s a better downhill player, which could be a useful addition to an offense that lacked dribble penetration last year and will need to replace Kawhi Leonard’s offensive creation by committee next season. To make up for Kawhi’s absence, LAC will of course need increased contributions from mainstays like Jackson, George, and Morris as well as steps forward from younger players like Kennard and Mann. While Bledsoe is probably an overall lateral replacement for Beverley, that difference in skillset makes some sense for a Clippers team in a transitional year while they attempt to endure Leonard’s injury. It’s also not an insignificant factor that Bledsoe has been a much healthier player than Patrick Beverley over their respective careers, meaning that LAC is now more likely to get a higher number of minutes and games from their backup point guard after this trade.

In terms of salary cap, the Clippers’ picture didn’t substantially change here. Beverley and Rondo were both expirings, while Eric Bledsoe’s $19.4M contract for the 2022-23 season is only guaranteed for $3.9M (though the team won’t be in a position to gain cap flexibility by cutting him and saving that money). The terms of the deal did work out fortuitously insofar as Beverley and Oturu are enough to bring back Bledsoe’s contract by themselves, meaning the Clippers were able to create an $8.25M trade exception for Rondo’s salary. Due to their luxury tax situation and the trade market, it probably makes more sense for them to just sign a minimum-salary depth guy for the time being and explore opportunities to buy low on a role player in that price range. The exception is good for one year from whenever this trade is officially processed, meaning LAC can look for opportunities to use it at this season’s trade deadline as well as next summer’s draft and in next year’s free agency window.

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 Acquire Eric Bledsoe for Beverley, Rondo, and Oturu
Lucas Hann

We’re continuing our 213Hoops Exit Interview series, where we go player-by-player through the Clippers’ roster and break down how each player on the team performed relative to their pre-season expectations, and ponder their future with the team. Today, we’re taking a look at the longest-tenured Clipper: point guard Patrick Beverley.

Basic Information

Height: 6’1″

Weight: 180 lbs

Position: PG

Age: 32 (turns 33 next week)

Years in NBA: 9

Key Stats: In 37 regular season appearances, started 34 times and played 22.5 minutes per game. Averaged 7.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on 42.3/39.7/80.0 splits. In 17 playoff appearances, started 9 times and played 19.0 minutes per game, averaging 4.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists on 42.6/35.1/85.7 spits.

Contract Status: Beverley is entering the final year of his contract, set to make $14,320,998. While his deal no longer represents a negative for trade purposes because of additional years of owed money, he still probably doesn’t have a ton of value in most situations unless his deal is being used to make the math work in a trade where the Clippers are adding value elsewhere.

Expectations

Pat entered the season with deservedly lofty expectations, but several potentially fatally flaws. Everyone knows who Pat is as a player: he’s a tenacious and masterful perimeter defender who is truly one of the best point of attack defenders in the league, pressuring the ball and navigating screens to blow up opposing offenses’ primary actions and derail entire posseessions. From his hustle, awareness, and ravenous rebounding, Bev simply makes winning plays on both ends of the floor.

But his weaknesses are also apparent. While he’s actually quite underrated as an offensive player, he has the noteworthy drawback of not providing much primary playmaking at all from the point guard position. However, as a complementary piece (with someone like James Harden or, in this case, Paul George running the offense), he is a good spot-up three point shooter and certainly capable of driving against closeouts to get to efficient floaters in the lane. Still, he’s not bringing you the isolation and pick-and-roll playmaking that guys like Lou Williams or Reggie Jackson do when they’re in the lead guard slot, and we learned this year just how much pressure that relieves from the shoulders of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

Reality

It’s a bit hard to evaluate whether Pat’s season was an individual success or not, because there’s really compelling evidence to point to each. In the regular season, the Clippers got almost nothing from Beverley–he was injured a few weeks into the season and ended up missing almost half of the team’s games with off-and-on injuries. When he did play, he was almost always managing or recovering from an injury, meaning low minutes and an intensity level below his usual maniacal play. His per-minute stats don’t grade out as a major decline from last season (more points, fewer assists and rebounds, more blocks, better three-point shooting, fewer turnovers), but the real problem was the amount of minutes: just 37/72 games played, and only 22.5 minutes per game. When a guy is the fourth highest-payed player on the team, the longest-tenured player on the team, an established starter, and a locker room leader, you’d really like for him to be on the floor for more than a fourth of your minutes in a given season. And you can’t blame anyone for getting hurt, but at this point the expectation that Beverley is unable to play at his best (with peak aggressiveness and physicality) over the course of a full NBA season is really just a fact that the Clippers have been forced to acknowledge.

It really felt, as this season progressed, that peak Patrick Beverley might just be gone. At 32 years old, with a long injury history and almost no healthly regular season reps heading into the playoffs, it began to feel like a lost year for Pat that would force the team to move on from him after injury also limited his availability and effectiveness in the 2020 NBA Playoffs. When the 2021 Playoffs began, he was rendered mostly ineffective against Dallas, but it wasn’t necessarily surprising–Pat is a 6’1″ All-Defensive Team-level point of attack guard defender who does just enough on offense to get by, and Dallas runs all of their offense through a big, strong 6’7″ point forward. If Pat doesn’t have someone to guard, he’s probably not going to give you much more than average impact.

But against Utah and Phoenix in the second round and Western Conference Finals, Beverley did have someone to guard–and he was brilliant in each matchup. Take a look at how effective he was against Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker:

Beverley’s relentless hounding of Mitchell and Booker forced them into worse quality shots (in Mitchell’s case, more contested threes, in Booker’s case, fewer shots altogether) and held them to lower efficiency and offensive output. He managed to do that while putting them on the free throw line less (particularly Booker), limiting their playmaking, and crucially forcing turnovers at the point of attack, oftentimes not just stopping an offensive possession for Utah or Phoenix but also springing a counterattack from the Clippers in transition. His defensive was brilliant, with those two rounds marking one of the most elite sustained runs of play of his career, and he was absolutely essential to the Clippers’ efforts to eliminate the Jazz and then push the Phoenix Suns to six games without Kawhi Leonard, Serge Ibaka, and Ivica Zubac.

Future with Clippers

Perhaps no other Clipper benefited more from the rise of Reggie Jackson than Patrick Beverley, which is a pretty weird thing to say when Reggie pretty much stole Pat’s spot in the starting lineup. But the truth is that after last season’s bubble flameout, there was a lot of pressure on the Clippers to find a trade that would exchange Beverley for a more consistently available, well-rounded point guard who could contribute on offense as well. While no deal materialized, the Clippers would have been even more aggressive in hunting for a Beverley upgrade this summer were it not for the breakout of Jackson as the team’s starter–namely because Pat missed most of the season, and the team wouldn’t have advanced out of the second round again if Reggie wasn’t doing his thing. Now, Jackson’s emergence (even with a nice helping of regression from his spectacular playoff run) as a probable starter for next season (after helping lift the team to the WCF in that role this year) means that the team can feel more comfortable at the point guard position and embrace Beverley’s immense utility, as detailed above: as a specialist who can be protected from a starter’s minutes load all season and then used as needed in the playoffs, rather than as a core starter the team depends on night in, night out.

I feared (and feared is the right word, because Beverley is one of my favorite Clippers) at the trade deadline that his lack of availability and impact meant that Pat’s time with the team was coming to a close, and it certainly felt that way when he was benched against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. But he proved–resoundingly–that he can still reach elite levels defensively in the later playoff rounds. If the team can re-sign Reggie Jackson in free agency this summer, I’d be very happy to have Beverley back as the backup point guard, playing (probably) alongside Terance Mann and Luke Kennard on the second unit and allowing those younger guys to take on higher workloads while Pat plays 16-20 minutes a game, staying warm, healthy, and fresh for the playoffs. If the team plays Dallas again, maybe he gets DNPs again. But if the Clippers are desperate for answers to guys like Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, or Devin Booker, Pat could become a crucial part of the gameplan in those series, as he did this year.

The caveat is that if Jackson leaves in free agency, I still feel like the Clippers will have a hard time justifying trusting Beverley returning to the starting lineup for a full 82-game season, especially without another reliable point guard on the roster (Mann and Kennard are both better on the wings, and neither Yogi Ferrell or Rajon Rondo are rotation-caliber players). In that case, they’d probably be back to needing to aggressively hunt for another point guard on the trade market, with Pat’s $14.3M expiring deal as the financial centerpiece of most packages.

To that point, it’s possible that Pat could be traded even if Reggie stays, just because of the utility his contract would afford in making big trades possible. It’s kind of like Moe Harkless when he was with the Clippers–regardless of how you felt about him, it was almost inevitable that he would be moved because his $11M expiring deal was really LAC’s only option for structuring a trade to bring in a guy at the trade deadline. The team has more flexibility this time around, with Rondo and Ibaka (if he opts in) also on decently-sized expiring deals, but most ambitious fake Clipper trades for the next 7 months until the 2022 trade deadline will include Pat. That’s why, despite rumors that he wants an extension (and why wouldn’t he?), it seems unlikely to me that the team will work on a long-term deal for Beverley this off-season. For an injury-prone guy with a limited game in his 30s, additonal years of guaranteed money would be enough to make his deal unappealing to potential trade partners–a major reason for LAC to punt on extension talks as well as another major reason for Beverley to push for one and try to secure his future here. The team could potentially wait for the trade deadline to pass and then, if they didn’t move Beverley, engage in extension talks rather than waiting to agree to a new contract in free agency next summer.

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 2021 Exit Interview: Patrick Beverley
Lucas Hann

Clippers starting point guard Patrick Beverley will be out after he underwent surgery Friday morning for a right hand fracture, the team announced in a statement. Beverley is set to be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks, but there is no timetable for his return.

It’s the latest in a string of unfortunate injuries for the Clippers guard, who has played just 31 games this season, with many of those appearances coming with a strict minutes restriction. He was playing in just his second game back after missing 12 games with knee soreness when he fractured his hand chasing a rebound in the fourth quarter against the Suns last night.

If Beverley misses the 3-4 week period mentioned in the release, he would potentially return between the team’s May 1st game against the Denver Nuggets and their May 9th game against the New York Knicks. In each case, he would have either 8 or 5 games to get into a rhythm before the Clippers conclude their regular season and the playoffs begin. However, a return in the first week of May is probably unlikely–the Clippers suggested that he would be re-evaluated in that window, but cautioned that an actual return date was unknown and he would be out indefinitely.

The resulting situation might not be unlike last season in the bubble, when Beverley suffered a calf strain, missed the team’s 5 final regular-season games, and attempted to return for game 1 of the playoffs but ultimately missed the remainder of the first round. When he actually returned for the team’s second-round series against the Denver Nuggets, his minutes were drastically restricted and he simply wasn’t himself in terms of both being fully healthy and being in rhythm. However, new Clipper Rajon Rondo actually also found himself in a similar situation last season. He fractured his thumb in the pre-restart practices inside the Orlando Bubble and missed all eight of the Lakers’ seeding games and their entire first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers. But when he returned for the second round, he hit the ground running, serving as one of the Lakers’ best role players during their title run.

Rondo will now be among the Clipper guards tasked with taking on greater responsibility in Beverley’s absence. While he’s also sidelined for tonight’s game against the Houston Rockets, expect Rondo to receive serious consideration to start at point guard. His main competition for the role will be tonight’s starter, Reggie Jackson, who has had a strong season and started 28 games as an injury replacement. Additionally, Jackson and Rondo serving as the team’s only two point guards will surely free up new opportunities in the backcourt for youngsters Terance Mann and Luke Kennard, both of whom have been squeezed out of the rotation.

Patrick Beverley Out With Hand Fracture, Re-Evaluated in 3-4 Weeks
Lucas Hann

Dr. Shap and Mike Jaglin discuss the continued absences of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Nicolas Batum as the injured Clippers had their 4-game winning streak snapped as they fall to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

Check out the podcast here! Be sure to rate and review us five stars on whatever platform you listen to us on, and give us feedback in the comments below!

Podcast: Injured Clippers Fall to Jazz
Shapan Debnath

In this episode of The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast, Dr. Shap and Robert Flom break down the Clippers’ emphatic win as they ease by Chicago Bulls and answer audience questions submitted on twitter. Follow @213Hoops on twitter for your chance to have a question answered in a future show!

Check out the podcast here! Be sure to rate and review us five stars on whatever platform you listen to us on, and give us feedback in the comments below!

Podcast: Clippers Ease by Bulls, and Twitter Questions
Shapan Debnath

Dr. Shap, Robert Flom, and Lucas Hann discuss a historic 51-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks fresh off the loss, but try and stay positive with the week that was. Otherwise, the Clippers start the season 2-1 with solid wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets. The three discuss storylines from the first week of the season and gear up for four more games in week 2.

Check out the pod here! Be sure to rate and review us five stars on whatever platform you listen to us on, and give us feedback in the comments below!

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.

TLTJTP: Clippers Start the Season 2-1
Shapan Debnath

Now that the Clippers’ 2020 season has reached its disappointing end, 213Hoops will work through the roster player-by-player for our “Exit Interview” series. Today’s exit interview features starting point guard Patrick Beverley.

Basic Information

Height: 6’1″
Weight: 180 lbs.
Position: Point Guard
Age: 32
Years in NBA: 8

Key Stats: In 51 regular season appearances, played 26.3 minutes per game while averaging 7.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.1 steals while shooting 43.1% from the field and 38.8% from three.

In 8 playoff appearances, played 20.8 minutes per game and averaged 6.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 3.9 fouls per game while shooting 51.3% from the field and 36.4% from three.

Contract Status: Entering the second year of a 3-year, $40,000,000 contract. Bev will make $13.3M in 2021.

Expectations

For a Clippers team lacking a true third star, Patrick Beverley came into the season as the Clippers third most important player. Their starting–and only–point guard, he was responsible for running the team’s offense (though most of the creation would happen at the hands of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard on the wings), serving as a point of attack defender, and being an emotional leader to set the tone on a nightly basis.

The knocks on Beverley are his limitations offensively and his inconsistent availability. He’s always been a role player on offense, averaging between 10-12 points and 4-5 assists per 36 minutes. But he’s steady–unlike higher-usage guards like Clippers mid-season acquisition Reggie Jackson, Beverley avoids turnovers and low-efficiency possessions, making good decisions and keeping the trains running on time. As long as you can get the primary source of your offense elsewhere, Pat is going to help things go smoothly.

The availability question is a bit trickier. Despite a career-best 78 appearances in 2018-19, Beverley has an established track record of missing big chunks of the season. He played just 11 games in 2017-18, his first season in LA, but even going back through his four full seasons in Houston, he averaged just 62.5 games per year. If one of the key questions surrounding Beverley going into the season was whether or not he was good enough to be the Clippers’ point guard, the larger was whether or not Beverley would stay on the court enough for it to matter how good he was.

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Reality

It might be easy to say that Beverley’s season ended up being a bit of disappointment, but the areas where he helped and hurt the Clippers were largely predictable. The team posted stellar advanced metrics with Pat on the court, and the intermittent offensive execution woes that plagued them all year–from dry spells in the early weeks of the season to playoff collapses–probably had more to do with the team’s lack of cohesion offensively than Beverley’s individual skillset.

The biggest problem with Pat this year was that instead of having him for 32 minutes a night in their 712 games, they had him for 26 minutes a night in 51 appearances, and instead of 32 minutes a night in 13 playoff games, the Clippers had him for 20 minutes a night in 8. In total, he’s been available for less than two-thirds of the team’s games since they acquired him in 2017–150/236.

Beyond health concerns, Beverley often limits his own impact by getting into foul trouble. In his 8 playoff appearances, he averaged nearly 7 fouls per 36 minutes of play, and took himself off the court in second-round losses where the Clippers needed him by having 5 fouls in just 15 minutes in their game 2 loss and fouling out in 17 minutes of play in game 6. Everyone gets in foul trouble sometimes, but as Beverley has aged and his defensive effectiveness has waned (despite being on the All-Defense 2nd team this year), he’s attempted to compensate for it by scaling up his extra-curricular activity. For a player who is known for his defense, Beverley is a significantly better decision-maker on offense than defense, and he often picks up extra fouls that send him to the bench in situations where he should clearly know better.

Future with Clippers

Beverley just signed a 3-year deal with the Clippers last summer, and he’s probably pretty likely to be back as the team’s starting point guard heading into next season. At 32 years old and with two hefty seasons left on his contract, he isn’t a super attractive trade piece, so his value on the Clippers is likely larger than his value would be in a trade.

Making the guard rotation work around Pat, though, is a trickier task. The Clippers need to find a more stable backup point guard than they had last season to provide insurance for Beverley’s availability issues–but finding a player who can keep the starters on track in Beverley’s stead and also play alongside Lou Williams and Landry Shamet in an undersized, poor defensive second unit may prove impossible.

If the Clippers enter next season with those three as their primary guards again, they’ll have the same weaknesses: Beverley’s availability, Williams’ defense, particularly in tandem with Shamet, and the lack of a true pass-first point guard. But those three also have major strengths, and shaking up the rotation without a clear upgrade could ultimately make the team worse.

If the Clippers choose to pursue a major upgrade at guard, Beverley’s large salary likely becomes the centerpiece of a move–with Williams’ $8M expiring and the young Shamet also possible inclusions. If the Clippers can find a way to land a player like Chris Paul (who has been linked to the Knicks and Bucks), Jrue Holiday, or Ricky Rubio, it’s likely that Beverley would be the financial centerpiece of such a trade. Will the Clippers be able to swing such a deal? We’ll have to wait and see.

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 2020 Exit Interview: Patrick Beverley
Lucas Hann

You’ve probably seen the meme where Spider-Man points at himself. If I could pick one picture to encapsulate where the Clippers currently stand, that’s my choice. Following a brutal game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers are in a position where they can only blame themselves.

But, first and foremost, I want to acknowledge Michael Malone and the rest of the Denver Nuggets players and coaching staff. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit twice in the same postseason is a feat accomplished by no one in NBA history. All credit goes to Denver, but we have to remember that Denver can’t achieve this if L.A. had closed them out earlier in the series.

Game 5

After the Clippers defeated the Nuggets 96-85 in game four, both teams began the first quarter of game five pretty tight. In the second quarter, the Clippers started to pull away. Lou Williams made baskets inside the arc and Landry Shamet and JaMychal Green hit some key triples off the bench to provide the starters with critical help.

An and-1 from Marcus Morris Sr. saw the lead extend to 56-40, which would be the largest lead held by the Clippers. L.A. went into the second half with a twelve-point cushion, but the Nuggets made the necessary adjustments to make a run. Denver didn’t take over right away, but following crucial baskets from Paul Millsap, who arguably turned in his best game of the bubble, Denver set themselves up to make an all-or-nothing run in the fourth.

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray needed to step up on the scoring end, and needless to say, they rose to the occasion. The one-two game between Jokic and Murray clicked at the right time, and Denver flipped the score to take a six-point lead with five minutes remaining. Kawhi Leonard hit some big threes and earned trips to the free-throw line to slow the game down, but the game fell in the hands of Michael Porter Jr., who drilled the biggest shot of the game. Denver outscored L.A. 38-25 in the final 12 minutes.

The Clippers sat on a 16-point lead but watched it slowly evaporate as Denver outplayed them on both ends of the game to force game six.

Game 6

This game gave the Clippers a second chance of closing the series out, and the Clippers started the first half strong yet again. A dominant 16-2 stretch to end the second quarter was exactly what the doctor ordered, but the Clippers were too stubborn to take the medication. Despite Paul George and Leonard taking over the end of the second and setting themselves up to finish Denver off, they allowed Denver to take advantage of their poor tactics on both ends of the court.

After scoring 34 points in the first quarter, the Clippers managed just 35 points in the entire second half. Sixteen of those came in the third quarter when Denver made their huge run to trail by just two to enter the fourth. George took responsibility for 10 of those points, but he didn’t receive any help and Denver hunted the Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams mismatches to burn the Clippers on defense.

A similar theme from game five appears in this one: if you fail to keep your foot on the pedal, you’ll be passed up. You can’t offer a team like Denver the chance to see light, otherwise, they’ll climb out of the dark hole and bury you instead. Once Denver regained momentum, they grasped it with both hands and rode it to victory.

George and Leonard couldn’t carry the load themselves, whereas Jokic and Murray, though doing their jobs efficiently, were supported by Monte Morris, Gary Harris, and others who stepped up because of the momentum switch. The Clippers ended up being the team who lost by double-digits and did the one thing they couldn’t afford to do: go to game seven.

The uncertainty of a game with colossal implications is one the Clippers couldn’t afford to participate in, yet their own mishaps led them tumbling into a game where momentum didn’t favor them.

Game 7

Just like the last two games, both teams kept the score tight, except Denver didn’t allow L.A. to go on a run to end the first half. The Clippers maintained the edge, but the storyline of blowing a significant lead wouldn’t materialize on post-game headlines.

However, the Clippers’ inability to score in the second half did. L.A. only managed 33 points in the second half of a win-or-go-home game. Whichever way you put it, that’s inexcusable. Fifteen of those came in the fourth quarter, where the Clippers showed zero fight; they were ready to go home. It was a relatively low-scoring quarter, but Murray and Jokic opened the floodgates just enough to drown their desiccated opponents.

Obviously, it didn’t do the Clippers any favors that their two stars shot a combined 10-38 from the floor. That’s 26% in a semifinal closeout game; there’s no justifying that type of performance. The two notably scored zero points in the fourth quarter. It’s also why L.A. couldn’t let game seven occur. You never know if the worst-case scenario for your team would happen in the biggest game of the season, but you don’t have to ponder those thoughts if you closed out responsibly.

And if Harrell is your leading scorer after 48 minutes, something went drastically wrong. Denver didn’t completely suffocate L.A. on defense either, because L.A. had open looks. But, you saw George clanking an open corner three off the side of the backboard, which made up one of his nine missed triples from the game. Again, you need to avoid game seven if you can prevent it.

Other Factors

In-game decisions made by Doc Rivers played a massive role in L.A’s downfall as well. Giving Harrell numerous minutes when Ivica Zubac and Green were much better players/matchups definitely cost L.A. points. Harrell’s inability to be a defender at any decent level saw Jokic and company torch Harrell. This stat certainly supports the eye test:

Montrezl Harrell and Nikola Jokic went head-to-head for 35 minutes over the final three games of this series. The Los Angeles Clippers were outscored by 47 points in those minutes.

— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) September 16, 2020

Patrick Beverley fouling out early in game six played a large part, too, as L.A. lost his versatility on both ends and needed to play Williams more often. Beverley quietly turned in arguably the best performance from a Clipper in game seven, but it’s going to be swept under the rug now due to the loss.

Landry Shamet quietly disappeared and couldn’t help offensively either. Shamet’s best asset couldn’t be weaponized efficiently against Denver, as he shot 4-18 (22%) from deep in the series. He played limited minutes in game seven due to injury, but it’s hard to imagine him making a positive impact anyway.

Mike Malone, to put simply, out-coached his counterpart. When Harrell and Williams shared the floor, Denver attacked L.A. with pick-and-rolls, resulting in open looks. Because Lou Williams struggled often and Beverley dealt with foul trouble, Reggie Jackson saw minutes too, which certainly didn’t help the defense any. If Leonard and George couldn’t score, Rivers didn’t have a reliable third option, yet he kept insisting that Harrell and Williams would solve those issues. It might’ve worked in the regular season, but the bench duo was unsurprisingly exposed when it mattered most.

The Clippers are now 0-8 all-time when they’re about to clinch a conference finals berth, fittingly ranking them first in that category, per Elias Sports. Just like their blown 3-1 lead in 2015, the blame falls on the entire Los Angeles Clippers organization. With the expectations coming into the season, the lasting effects of this loss could be incalculable.

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.

The Los Angeles Clippers Can Only Blame Themselves
Sanjesh Singh

The Los Angeles Clippers finished off the Dallas Mavericks after six wildly entertaining games, and though each team suffered roster setbacks, the Clippers received dependable performances from their center Ivica Zubac on both ends of the court.

Despite being the team’s starting center, Zubac doesn’t usually play starting caliber minutes. Instead, Sixth Man of the Year candidate Montrezl Harrell sees the larger portion of the center minutes. But, as this series marked Harrell’s first time playing basketball in months, he reasonably needed more time to shed off the rust, which led to Zubac featuring more often.

Zubac played 25 minutes a game and averaged 11.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 0.8 blocks while shooting 65.8% from the field on 6.3 attempts. Looking efficient and composed, Zubac knew his role, stuck to it, and shined for a team that needed him to.

Before we jump into the clip, it’s imperative to acknowledge the net rating Zubac posted this series: +25.6. His offensive rating reached 127.2 and his defensive rating hit 101.6. That’s an absurd differential considering the playoff atmosphere Zubac was playing in.

In this play, Paul George is telling Kawhi Leonard to get to his spot while Trey Burke frantically calls for a switch. Catching Burke off guard, Leonard easily gets into the paint forcing Maxi Kleber to contest. Zubac finds his spot, shows great patience and puts it in with the left hand. A good combination of footwork, patience, awareness, and finishing from the big man.

On shots less than five feet from the rim, Zubac converted on 22-34 attempts, a rate of 64.7%, which is just under his overall field goal percentage.

The combinations I listed above come back into play in this clip as Zubac somehow turns this possession into points at the rim. Without Dwight Powell and Kristaps Porzingis, scoring down low became a simpler task to accomplish. However, Dallas actually defends this play really well despite Lou Williams’ quickly slashing towards the rim.

Tim Hardaway Jr. cuts off the incoming screen, forcing Williams to slash –  which Williams won’t turn down. Justin Jackson has the pop from JaMychal Green covered and either corner is nearly impossible to kick it out to. That leaves Williams with either taking a contested layup over Kleber or finding a rolling Zubac.

Williams attempts to lob it to Zubac but Kleber’s deflection disrupts Zubac’s momentum. Somehow, Zubac locates the ball mid-air with a contested catch, maintains good footwork, displays patience with the pump fake and scores despite the contact. You can put it any way you’d like, but that’s outstanding from Zubac.

Zubac played 33 minutes in game six, his highest total in one game this series. As he did all series, Zubac turned in another A-grade performance with 15 points (6-8 FG) and 11 rebounds.

Watching the film on Zubac’s baskets throughout these games, Zubac ate Dallas up when their defense broke down. Zubac would either roam the baseline behind the hoop or stay along the edges of the paint if he wasn’t being utilized as a roll big.

If George, Leonard, Williams or another creator penetrated the paint, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Zubac getting to his spot, waiting to pounce on the opportunity to score against a collapsing defense. You saw a similar instance in the first clip with Leonard getting inside; this time, it’s George.

George, in isolation, gets a step on Luka Doncic with a slick jab step. Kleber comes to assist, but Zubac remains wide open with Dorian Finney-Smith not covering him. George slips the pass between the defenders and Zubac finishes it off with a reverse slam.

Moving to the rebounding aspect of Zubac’s game in this series, he almost met his regular season average. Zubac averaged 7.5 rebounds in the regular season and grabbed 7.0 rebounds in this series. That average dropped because Zubac averaged only 4.0 rebounds a game in the two losses Los Angeles took (in which he played fewer minutes).

Zubac grabbed 11 rebounds in game six, his highest single game total in the series. This specific rebound was arguably the most impressive. Zubac defends Doncic on the perimeter fantastically, forcing Doncic to move the ball as he nears the baseline. Zubac then goes back near the rim and grabs the rebound.

If Zubac doesn’t do what he does on this play, it’s an easy putback for Finney-Smith. Zubac is initially guarding the perimeter but as Doncic attempts to drive, Zubac tags Finney-Smith’s run into the paint.

Zubac uses his body to box out Finney-Smith and is in prime position for the rebound following the miss. Just simple, fundamental basketball from Zubac that potentially saved points.

Zubac isn’t known to be a tremendous rim protector, as he has averaged just under one block a game throughout his career, and blocks are still the go-to measure for rim protection. During this series, he’s just around the same mark of 0.8 blocks. It’s not eye-popping, but it’s still solid. We know about Zubac’s offensive impact in the paint, but he also provided a solid interior presence on defense as well.

Zubac isn’t known for his athleticism either, but he makes up for it with instinctive play.

In this clip, Doncic attempts to slither his way to the basket as his teammates roam the left perimeter. Doncic is able to back Zubac down further to the rim, but Zubac does great to alter Doncic’s momentum. Doncic tries to use his footwork to create separation, but Zubac reads the footwork. Zubac gets caught for a split second, but is able to recover for a block.

Now this was one of the more interesting situations Zubac found himself in. A one-on-one situation late in the shot clock against Hardaway Jr. on the perimeter? Sure, Zubac will take it.

Zubac drops back, giving himself enough room as Hardaway drives downhill. Hardaway appears to trip mid-Eurostep, making it easy for Zubac to swat it away.

While the Clippers were still trying to get healthy, with Pat Beverley out and Montrezl Harrell clearly not himself, L.A. could count on Zubac whenever he saw the court. Landing Zubac in essentially a swap for Mike Muscula is one of the more underrated moves in recent NBA history.

Keep your eyes on Zubac going forward, as his role on both ends will be critical in the success for the Clippers in the playoffs.

Ivica Zubac’s Play on Both Ends Helped Clippers Advance
Sanjesh Singh

After playing 20 minutes against the Dallas Mavericks in game one, Patrick Beverley hasn’t played since due to a recurring calf injury. Reggie Jackson has been next up off the bench, but as recent performances against Dallas indicate, Jackson needs to play less, not more.

Game One:

Though the Clippers currently lead the series 2-1, the absence of Beverley is evident on both ends of the floor. As I detailed in a previous piece, Beverley sticks to his role and excels in it. He plays tremendous, physical defense and spaces the floor at a solid clip.

Jackson’s veteran experience failed to show up in 16 minutes of playing time coming off the bench. Jackson went 0-5 from the floor, including a missed shot from deep. He recorded three rebounds and an assist but also picked up two fouls in that span.

In this clip, Trey Burke cuts off Jackson’s path to come around the screen, forcing him to drive towards Boban Marjanovic. Jackson attempts a floater over the towering center only to get blocked from behind. Ideally, you’d want Jackson to look for a kick out pass as the lane to Paul George is open, but Jackson’s narrow focus leads to a block. 

Kristaps Porzingis’ ejection made life easier for the Clippers’ defense as they were able to pull out a victory despite shooting 34% from deep. Beverley’s 20 minutes were scattered throughout the game and he played critical crunch time minutes, but Jackson’s series was already off to a rough start. Combine that with his poor play in the seeding games, and the call to have Reggie Jackson play less was already mounting with Clippers fans.

Game Two:

Jackson got the nod from Doc Rivers to start as Beverley didn’t play due to his calf injury. Offensively, Jackson was L.A.’s best three point shooter on the night, going 3-5. Jackson converted on a pullup three for his first make and then roamed the arc for catch-and-shoot attempts on his other two makes.

Jackson’s attempts reminded me of Beverley’s role on offense. Beverley would let the creators create, and when he needed to shoot, he’d shoot. Jackson got to his spots and supported the main cast with triples, but where he really struggled was on the defensive end.

Besides Lou Williams, the Clippers don’t have a reliable backup point guard. Even then, Williams doesn’t play the same role as Beverley. Unfortunately, the defensive drop-off from Beverley to Jackson is significantly steep and the Clippers paid the price in game two.

This play shows Luka Doncic driving down the lane, and a quick hesitation crossover throws Jackson off balance. Jackson fails to recover and it’s an easy layup for Doncic. Jackson’s lack of lateral quickness is on display here. Because of Doncic’s driving abilities and his own defensive weaknesses, Jackson should’ve left more room between him and Doncic to close off the drive. Jackson made it too easy and the help defense arrived late because the play unfolded so quickly.

Doncic has obtained multiple favorable matchups in pick and roll situations and a similar one occurs here. Late in the shot clock, Doncic combines with Porzingis deep in the half court. Situational awareness plays a big role here. Jackson allows Doncic to catch the high pass rather than getting in his grill and disrupting it. Doncic gets space from the screen to make a move and Ivica Zubac cuts off the dribble drive.

Jackson needs to tag back to the “roller”, as there’s not enough time for a roll and Porzingis prefers to pop anyway. Luka reads the defnse immediately and makes the pass to Porzingis who has enough time to get set and shoot. With Zubac also pointing towards Porzingis, Marcus Morris Sr. is the one who closes out. Unfortunately, he was too late, and Kristaps drained it. All that wouldn’t have been necessary if the roller was stopped from initially slipping out. Porzingis is the better three point shooter than Doncic, and though it’s just a difference of four percentage points, you’d take your chances with the 31% shooter in Doncic than Porzingis who is a 35% shooter. Doncic and Porzingis combined for 51 points in this game and you’d have to believe that figure would be lower if Jackson’s defense was adequate.

Game Three:

Doc Rivers made the switch to bring Jackson off the bench and have Landry Shamet start in his place. Jackson played 17 minutes in this game and strictly stuck to catch-and-shoot attempts. Jackson hit 2-4 threes, which isn’t a bad figure, and tried to do less on offense.

In this clip, Dallas forgets Jackson exists in the left corner and it’s a wide open look. Jackson has plenty of time to take the shot. Jackson didn’t attempt anything besides three pointers and it worked in his favor. Through three games, Jackson is 6-18 (33.3%) overall and 5-10 (50%) from deep. Though both are small sample sizes over the course of three games, it’s not surprising that when Jackson sticks to a specific role, he tends to see better results.

The Shamet-Jackson swap worked on both ends. Shamet only managed two points in 18 minutes in game two, but answered the call with 18 points in 27 minutes in game three. Shamet’s presence tied things better defensively than Jackson as well.

The Clippers won’t have an ideal replacement for Beverley when he’s hurt. Maybe Doc gives the youngsters in Rodney McGruder and Terence Mann a run, but Shamet’s performance in game three gives some hope that the team doesn’t need Jackson to play heavy minutes when Beverley is unavailable.

Jackson can be serviceable when he glues himself to a limited role – the less he tries to do, the better. Until Beverley is back, the Clippers need Jackson to do less in his minutes: just hit threes when the opportunities come. That’s the best way Jackson can make an impact for his team.

For now, with Landry Shamet playing well, Reggie Jackson should play less for the Clippers to be at their best.

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Reggie Jackson Needs To Play Less for Clippers to Thrive
Sanjesh Singh