Los Angeles Clippers: The Clips keep scoring

DeAndre Jordan

• Up and down game for him. Was great at diving to the hoop for easy dunks and lobs. Worked well timing his cuts, as sometimes he needed to wait an extra pass off a screen and roll before entering the lane and catching the pass for a dunk.
• Doc Rivers might have touted him for Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY), but he was just blowing smoke up our ass. DeAndre got owned by The Executioner (Pekovic), who constantly got deep position on him and layed the ball in or forced Jordan into fouls.
• For reference on how ridiculous Doc’s statement about DPOY, DeAndre is allowing 61% shooting on 7.8 shots per game at the rim, with 1.9 blocks a game. Compare that to Roy Hibbert (33% on 10.1 shots), Al Horford (43% on 7.6 shots), Miles Plumlee (39% on 10.7 shots, WTF), and Dwight Howard (49% on 10.9 shots) and it’s clear that DeAndre has a ways to go. A long ways.
• When the Wolves pulled DeAndre away from the hoop to guard Love on the perimeter, the Clippers’ rebounding was horrible. They need Blake to be better in those scenarios and work better on team rebounding.

J.J. Redick

• A very quiet game for him. Didn’t get involved early and looked out of sync as the game wore on.
• Second-guessed a 3 pointer in the third then missed a wide open one in the fourth.
• Played tough defense on Martin for the most part but just couldn’t stop him. Has to do a better job of not letting his lack of touches affect his defense.

Matt Barnes

• You may ask why I am following him. First, he plays winning basketball off the bench and it’s always good to keep a close eye on players like that. My friends from college had some weird fascination that I would be him if I played in the NBA (not sure if its his energy or tats, but I would never do my hair like that), so I really want to see what he does from game to game.
• Matt Barnes was Matt Barnes tonight. Hustle plays abounded as he did all the little things the Clips needed him to do for them to pull out this victory. He was +11 in his 22 minutes and pulled down 8 rebounds, each by finding the ball amongst the trees.
• He even drew 2 fouls on the Wolves in the third that helped the Clips keep them at bay when they were mounting their comeback.
• And of course, there was one hard foul that Barnes will always commit, as he just wrapped his arms around Derrick Williams so he couldn’t even leave the floor. Keep it up enforcer!

Here’s a clip of classic Barnes intimidation