Battle of the Bench
The Wizards are reportedly fired up for tonight and with Danilo Gallinari’s status still up in the air, the Clippers may have to look to their bench to spark yet another win.
LA has had by far the most productive bench in the league and could arguably have two (way too early) Sixth Man of the Year candidates in Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell.
Harrell’s importance off the bench cannot be talked about enough. Just take a look at these numbers.
Montrezl Harrell this season:
— Garrett Chorpenning (@gachorpenning) November 20, 2018
29 Blocks (10th in NBA)
.667 FG% (3rd)
27.3 PER (4th)
.698 True Shooting % (3rd)
131.1 ORTG (3rd)
.272 WS/48 (2nd)
8.1 BPM (4th)
3.8 DBPM (10th)
He’s also averaging 15.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks across roughly 24 minutes per game.
With no Dwight Howard, Ian Mahinmi will likely get the start. This means Trezz may face off against the likes of either Jason Smith or Marcus Morris. As he usually does, Harrell can feast against these lesser role players.
Another player who may be able to dominate is Boban Marjanovic. After not playing in several games, he was inserted against the Hawks and helped spark the late run. Smith may be able to space the floor slightly, but is not quick enough to make Boban really pay on the defensive end.
In their last meeting (in which Howard also was a scratch), Marjanovic tallied 13 points on 6-7 shooting. Most of this came in garbage time as the Clippers had the win wrapped up fairly early. Still, deploying Boban could be an easy way to keep the team ahead against a fiery Wizards squad.
The game tips off at 4:00pm PST/7:00pm EST on Fox Sports West, Fubo TV and NBA League Pass.
