Even though Ivica Zubac is having a career-best season, the Clippers lack weight and size in the racket. Every night, Tyronn Lue expects more from everyone, and tonight it was his bench that put the team back on track to snatch victory from Portland. Notably Moussa Diabate, who had only played six minutes this season. !
The French rookie rarely gets to see the pitch, and tonight Lue kicked him off at the end of the 3rd quarter when his side were 14 points behind. History to make blow Zubac, and to bring a spark. A paying choice since the substitutes, led by Norm Powell, Robert Covington, but also Nicolas Batum, will completely reverse the course of the match.
Diabate will bring all his enthusiasm with 3 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal and even a decisive counter late in the game. All for a +/- of +19! He’s the best of his team, and that’s impressive in just twelve minutes.
“I played Moussa in the 4th quarter because I felt we needed energy, his ability to change in defense and defend positions 1-5, and also his rebounds,” justified Tyronn Lue. “His energy is just contagious for our team, and all the things he’s done, like switching, blocking, rebounding, tapping, free throwing important.”
For Lue, we must not break a dynamic when players turn well, and manage to change the course of the match. This is why he maintained his confidence in his “second unit”.
“When guys are playing well, you just try to build on it. Our team fully adheres to it. Like Zu (Zubac). He had just done something that hadn’t been done since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but there we played Moussa the whole last quarter as he came from the G-League. Zu cheered on his teammates and everyone is happy with each other’s performance and that’s the kind of atmosphere we want to create. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Paul George | 16 | 34.3 | 45.8 | 37.2 | 85.2 | 0.5 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 4.3 | 3.6 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 23.6 |
| Marcus Morris | 19 | 30.5 | 48.0 | 39.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 14.6 |
| Norman Powell | 21 | 25.3 | 44.8 | 35.6 | 77.8 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 14.0 |
| John Wall | 17 | 22.2 | 45.0 | 28.1 | 60.3 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 5.6 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 12.1 |
| Reggie Jackson | 21 | 29.1 | 44.2 | 35.2 | 93.3 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 4.3 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 11.9 |
| Ivica Zubac | 21 | 30.8 | 61.1 | 0.0 | 66.2 | 3.4 | 8.2 | 11.6 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 10.5 |
| Kawhi Leonard | 5 | 22.3 | 42.2 | 13.3 | 76.9 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 10.0 |
| Terance Mann | 21 | 20.8 | 57.6 | 30.6 | 76.9 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.0 |
| Luke Kennard | 14 | 21.3 | 51.3 | 47.9 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 7.7 |
| Moses Brown | 13 | 5.9 | 74.1 | 0.0 | 48.6 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 4.4 |
| Nicholas Batum | 21 | 18.5 | 41.0 | 35.1 | 61.5 | 0.7 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 4.4 |
| Robert Covington | 12 | 14.4 | 35.0 | 37.0 | 86.7 | 0.2 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| Amir Coffey | 18 | 13.1 | 42.0 | 25.0 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| Bj Boston, Jr. | 5 | 3.3 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 2.6 |
| Moussa Diabate | 2 | 3.2 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Jason Preston | 1 | 2.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
