LA Clippers Grades: Sloppy shooting vs. Utah outweighed by great defense

The LA Clippers pulled off a gritty win versus the Utah Jazz fueled by their defense despite not being able to knock down shots. Here are the team’s grades.

After being blown out by the Jazz in Utah on Wednesday sans Kawhi Leonard, the LA Clippers got a little revenge at home on Sunday.

The team did not shoot well from the field, but hung their hat on defense, holding the Jazz to just 94 points. The victory did take a fourth-quarter surge by Kawhi Leonard to seal the victory, but the team did ultimately have six players score in double figures. How do they grade out? Let’s start.

Guards – B

Landry Shamet is going to have a big game very, very soon. The second-year guard again shot poorly from the field, connecting on 4 of his 12 shots. Yes, he ended the night with 10 points, but he just has not had his shot early on in the season. He’s currently at 36.2% from the field (just 31.7% from deep). Last night was a tough night as the Jazz are a great defensive team, so we’ll cut him a little slack.

Speaking of poor shooting percentages, Lou Williams shot only 33.3%. Luckily, he was able to get to the line six times and finished the game with 17 points. He also dished out a team-high three assists. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, honestly.

Patrick Beverley was solid on defense and tied Williams with three assists, but he was even worse shooting. Just 2 of 7, Bev will have to start knocking down his three-point attempts at some point (he was 0 for 5 on the night). Lucky for all of us, his effort makes up for anything and we’ll gladly take two steals and a block. Oh, and of course, he recovered two loose balls. Who doesn’t love seeing that from Bev?