DeAndre Jordan’s big night helps Los Angeles Clippers clobber Cavaliers

DeAndre Jordan scored 20 and pulled in 23 en route to a Los Angeles Clippers victory over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The word ‘monster’ is overused in basketball. Any player that throws down a powerful slam dunk or has a strong rebound is almost always immediately dubbed ‘a monster’. More often than not, that player in question is not, in fact, a monster.

This is not true in the case of DeAndre Jordan, who recorded a 20/20 game in both of the Los Angeles Clippers’ matchups with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season.

The first came in November, a 113-118 loss. Jordan played strong, scoring 20 and grabbing 22 rebounds, and blocking three shots.

Last night, LA defeated the Cavs by a final score of 102-116. Jordan literally one-upped his previous game vs Cleveland, recording 20 points and 23 boards. He also delivered us a contest-worthy dunk late in the third quarter.

Jordan wasn’t the only Clipper big that had a dominating performance, though. Montrezl Harrell continued on his path of destruction against Cleveland, scoring 20 and grabbing five rebounds in a mere 20 minutes.

Trezz has scored in double figures in 20 of the Clippers’ last 29 games, despite playing 30+ minutes in just five of those. He, too, is a real monster.

Sindarius Thornwell had himself a night, scoring a new career-high 14 points. He did so while being defended primarily by LeBron James. This alone is commendable. But Thornwell also posted a team-best +21 plus/minus rating, while James had a team-worst -16.

That’s right folks — in a way, Thornwell outplayed King James. He was most impressive in what was only his ninth start of the season, and could prompt Doc Rivers to continue starting him over Wesley Johnson while Danilo Gallinari rehabs his hand.

With the win, the Clippers reclaimed the West’s 8th seed. They’ll look to hang on to their position tonight vs Orlando at 7:30 PST.