The Portland Trail Blazers snapped the Los Angeles Clippers‘ five-game win streak on Tuesday, taking them down 114-104 at the Intuit Dome. With the Phoenix Suns losing to the Orlando Magic earlier in the day, the Clippers had a chance at getting within two games of them for the seventh seed, but were outplayed and outfought.
With the Clippers being without Yanic Konan Niederhauser and Isaiah Jackson, they were expected to struggle on the glass, and boy, did they. The Trail Blazers outrebounded them 48-30. The visitors hauled in 18 offensive rebounds and converted them into a ridiculous 32 second-chance points. It’s almost impossible to win when you keep giving teams multiple chances, and that’s what happened here.
The Clippers did look to mount a couple of comeback attempts, but never got particularly close in the second half. They have now dropped to 39-37, while the Trail Blazers improved to 39-38 and are breathing down their necks in this play-in race. This was a game the Clippers had to win, and here we take a look at how their players fared on the night.
Kawhi Leonard: B
Game Stats: 23 PTS, 8 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 3 TOV, 7-15 FG, 0-5 3PT, 9-10 FT, 36 MIN
Kawhi Leonard has been simply spectacular this season, but this was a very quiet night by his standards. Leonard only had eight points at halftime as the Clippers trailed 62-46 at the break.
The Clippers especially needed Leonard to step up and carry the load in that second quarter, in which they scored just 15 points, but he failed to do so. While he upped the aggression in the third quarter with 11 points, the Trail Blazers were able to weather the storm and pull away.
Leonard, like the rest of his team, wasn’t great defensively for much of the night either. This wasn’t a terrible performance, but it wasn’t a great one either.
John Collins: B
Game Stats: 17 PTS, 6 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 7-8 FG, 3-3 3PT, 31 MIN
John Collins was nearly perfect from the field here, as he made his first six shots on the night. Collins had struggled from three since returning from a seven-game absence (25.0% from three over eight games), but the outside shot was falling here.
As for the rebounding, the 6’9″ Collins had to fill in at center at times because of the backups being out. He unsurprisingly was powerless to prevent the Clippers from getting manhandled on the glass. He did at least manage to snag three offensive rebounds to give them some second-chance points of their own.
Brook Lopez: B
Game Stats: 18 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 3 BLK, 1 TOV, 7-16 FG, 2-8 3PT, 2-2 FT, 36 MIN
Brook Lopez was quite aggressive on offense against the Trail Blazers, with the 16 field goal attempts being tied for his second-most in a game this season. Lopez also had 16 when these teams last met, but made nine of them that night.
Lopez was inefficient here, with the threes just not falling for him. The veteran big man made his first one, but then missed five in a row.
On the rebounding front, Lopez wasn’t great, but that was to be expected. He has never really been a great rebounder, but he did have three offensive rebounds like Collins. Lopez was also effective guarding the rim, but struggled when he found himself on the perimeter.
Jordan Miller: C+
Game Stats: 16 PTS, 2 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 6-8 FG, 2-3 3PT, 2-4 FT, 25 MIN
Jordan Miller had a pretty good game on paper, but he did most of his damage in the fourth quarter. Miller had 12 points in the fourth when the game was somewhat out of reach. The Clippers didn’t get much from him when it mattered most, but he at least showed some fight at the end.
Derrick Jones Jr.: C-
Game Stats: 1 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 3 BLK, 0-2 FG, 0-2 3PT, 1-2 FT, 23 MIN
Derrick Jones Jr. provided next to nothing offensively for the Clippers on the night, as he set a new season-low for points. It wasn’t the greatest of defensive showings from the 3-and-D specialist either, but he did at least have a few highlight plays, as evidenced by his three blocks.
Jones was tasked with guarding Deni Avdija here, but the Trail Blazers were able to get him off their star forward fairly easily at various points with screens. That contributed to Avdija racking up 28 points on the night.
Kris Dunn: C-
Game Stats: 3 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 1 TOV, 1-2 FG, 1-2 FT, 20 MIN
Kris Dunn is another defensive specialist who didn’t exactly shine on that end against the Trail Blazers. Veteran Jrue Holiday had it going on the night with 30 points, and some of those came on Dunn. We didn’t see him on the court a lot after halftime, and understandably so.
Nicolas Batum: C-
Game Stats: 6 MIN
Nicolas Batum posted zeroes across the board against the Trail Blazers. Batum played four minutes in that disastrous second quarter for the Clippers and then only got back on the court in garbage time.
Darius Garland: D+
Game Stats: 20 PTS, 2 REB, 4 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 5 TOV, 7-17 FG, 3-8 3PT, 3-3 FT, 37 MIN
The only reason Darius Garland isn’t getting an F here is that he did have 20 points on the night. Garland showed off some silky smooth moves, but that was about it when it comes to the positives.
Garland had too many careless turnovers here. He was trying flashy passes when there was no need for them, and the Clippers paid the price for it.
While Garland’s passing wasn’t great, his defense is the biggest reason why he is getting this bad a grade. The Trail Blazers hunted Garland all night long. Avdija and Holiday repeatedly targeted him, and he just couldn’t stay with them. The Clippers had to send help, and that led to the rest of the Trail Blazers getting good looks from three.
This was just a night to forget for Garland.
Bennedict Mathurin: D
Game Stats: 4 PTS, 2 TOV, 2-7 FG, 0-1 3PT, 22 MIN
Bennedict Mathurin was surprisingly quiet on offense here. Mathurin has never been accused of being gun-shy, but he was against the Trail Blazers. He was scoreless in the first half and only got his first points of the night late in the third quarter.
The Clippers were in desperate need of some offense at various points in this game, and you’d have expected Mathurin to provide that spark off the bench. He certainly failed in that task and ended the night with a game-low plus-minus of -18.
