For context, they only won the game by five.Įvery worst fear the Clippers could have about the Jokic/Harrell matchup was on display down the stretch against Denver. During that time, the Nuggets outscored the Clippers by 16 points. The two shared the court for just over eight minutes in Game 5. Nikola Jokic is not Boban’s size - no one is - but he is tall enough and too skilled for Harrell to defend effectively. There is a similar dynamic at play in the second round, another big Serbian center who is having his way with Harrell. Marjanovic was simply too big for Harrell to contend with. In the first round, the Clippers discovered that matching up Harrell with Boban Marjanovic was a losing proposition. +16: Nikola Jokic ’s plus-minus against Montrezl Harrell The starters provided enough offense for the Clippers to win Friday, but the bench - which, admittedly, is a little shorter now that Doc Rivers has tightened up rotation - didn’t get the job done. If he isn’t hitting spot ups, Landry Shamet makes more sense in those situations. The Nuggets were deliberately sending two at the ball-handler and letting Williams take threes in the fourth quarter. But he is now 10-of-45 on 3-pointers in the postseason, and at this point, cannot be relied upon as an offensive option in close games. Most of Williams’ looks, particularly those inside the arc, were quality shots. LA’s bench scored 16 points on 7-of-20 shooting, brought down in particular by Williams going 2-of-10 from the field and missing all five of his threes. Even that number would have been enough in Game 5, when the LA bench went cold. Despite leading the league in points per game during the playoffs, the Clippers are only getting 36.5 points per game from their bench in the postseason. The Clippers led the league with 50.3 bench points per game during the regular season, powered by 18 points apiece from Williams and Montrezl Harrell. His 36 points, nine rebounds, and four assists gave the Clippers a chance to win. He even created two wide-open threes for Paul George and Lou Williams that didn’t go down. Still, Leonard was the only consistent offense the Clippers had down the stretch. Jerami Grant was defending him, but Leonard had two chances to extend the lead instead Nikola Jokic hit a three on the other end, and the Nuggets had the advantage the rest of the way. When the Nuggets brought extra pressure at him, he was making the right reads to find open teammates, even if they didn’t always convert.Ībout the only glitch Leonard had offensively was when he missed two close shots at the rim with the Clippers up 88-86 in the fourth quarter. He was living in the lane early, even throwing down two hammer dunks and generally getting whatever looks he wanted both in the midrange and at the basket. Leonard was in a mild offensive funk earlier in this series, but he firmly broke out of that. It wasn’t all bad for the Clippers despite the loss. Here are three numbers that stand out from LA’s Game 5 loss. The Clippers blew their first opportunity to advance to the conference finals Friday, but they’ll get two more.
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