LA Clippers: 3 players who can’t disappear vs. Mavericks
By Evan Desai
The LA Clippers are rightfully favorites in their upcoming first round playoff matchup.
It’s not that the Dallas Mavericks don’t have a good team, but that the LA Clippers have a very deep roster poised for a very deep postseason run.
The Clippers can easily handle the Mavericks as long as a certain three players play to their potential, and make sure to not disappear on this stage.
One of those players is Clipper guard Patrick Beverley.
Beverley, like many Clippers this year, dealt with injuries in the regular season. Since his return from his most recent injury, he hasn’t played heavy minutes.
That may have to change in the postseason, depending on the game plan for each contest. If Beverley can handle those minutes and be his usual intimidating defensive presence, it’ll pay huge dividends in the series.
Playoff great Rajon Rondo is going to get his minutes this postseason. If the Clippers can rely on both Rondo and Beverley to play at the highest level, the backcourt should look great all series long.
Beverley also can’t disappear on the offensive end. Pat Bev is only dropping 2.1 dimes per contest this season. If he truly wants to be at his best, he’ll need to improve upon that as a starting point guard.
His role on the Clippers isn’t to put up a lot of field goal attempts, so scoring isn’t as key for Beverley this series as his passing should be. That being said, Bev still needs to be efficient in the scoring opportunities that he does get.
That should be no problem for Beverley. He’s shooting 39.7% from three and 42.3% from the field. I’ll take that from Beverley in this series, as long as he continues to show up on the defensive end, and doesn’t disappear in crucial moments.
Beverley has what it takes, and I’m sure he won’t disappoint.
The next player who can’t disappear in this series has quite the chip on his shoulder coming into Saturday.