Marcus Morris Sr., and seemingly every other role player on the LA Clippers stepped up big on Monday night with no Paul George in sight.
George is dealing with an elbow injury right now, so Clip City was without both him and their franchise player in Kawhi Leonard. Morris was sensational, securing his fourth 20 point game in his last six. He went 10 of 16 and two of four from deep for 24 points.
He threw in 11 rebounds too. The Clips out-rebounded the Suns 45-41. Terance Mann and Luke Kennard both secured nine boards and played really well on offense as well.
Mann was seven of 10 for 17 points (one of three from deep), and Kennard was five of nine for 16 points (three of five from downtown). The best part about it was that it wasn’t even just the three of them to step up in the dominant beating that we put on the Suns. We smoked them 111-95.
It was a full team effort to destroy the Phoenix Suns without either Kawhi Leonard or Paul George.
Other than Marcus Morris, Kennard, and Mann, Reggie Jackson did an exceptional job performing at a high level without Paul George on the floor.
He put up 19 on six of 13 shooting and two of four from back behind the three-point line. He made it all happen in just 30 minutes.
The big men did their jobs; combining for six blocks (four from Ivica Zubac and two from Isaiah Hartenstein). Hartenstein had a great game in general, dishing out seven assists and scoring 12 points.
Zubac was everywhere on defense, as it wasn’t only his shot-blocking that stood out, but the fact that he came up with two steals that was huge as well.
The Clippers have now won three straight games without George with us. At first, it could be chalked up to us not playing against quality opponents in those first two contests (Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic). Now with us beating the team who came into the game with the best record in basketball, we’ve proven that we will be legitimate contenders when healthy.