Once Aaron Gordon dunked a walk-off buzzer-beater in game four, fans immediately began to find faults in head coach Tyronn Lue. He was doing great against the Denver Nuggets, but Kris Dunn was on the bench in a critical rebounding situation.
Though this game-winner could have been ducked, Lue should not be having fingers pointed at him. There was no way to predict Nikola Jokic would shoot a picture-perfect air-ball for Gordon to snatch. Had the three-time MVP even grazed the cup with his attempt, the energy would be on the opposite side of the spectrum, up 3-1.
Moreover, Dunn’s own flaws were why he was seated. He was clamping down the Nuggets’ guards and trying his best to deny Jokic the ball, but offensively, he was being treated like he could not shoot.
This type of coverage from David Adelman on Dunn was the downside Lue had to trade off. Adelman’s guys backed up and seemed okay with the consequences if an unreliable three-point shooter beat them by shooting.
Kris Dunn essentially benched himself by shooting so poorly in game four against the Denver Nuggets
If Kris Dunn were any less of an elite defender than he is, Tyronn Lue would save his efforts with the third string. But, because he offers so many dimensions when guarding Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Nikola Jokic, Dunn has played 25.8 minutes in games one through four.
Conversely, Dunn played 21 minutes in game four, his lowest of four, and shot 1-9, 11.1% from the floor, and 1-6 from three. His offensive rating was also 89.7, a duplicate of his +/- of -12, meaning the veteran did nothing good for LA’s offense.
In the Clippers-Nuggets series, Dunn is shooting 33.3% from beyond the arc on 4.5 attempts with the closest defender six or more feet away. The context is worse; he averages 4.8 three-point attempts in four games. This shows how Denver covers his inconsistent jump shot and that nearly all his tries are considered wide-open.
If he were playing ahead of Bogdan Bogdanović, James Harden’s floater try, which was tapped in by Ivica Zubac to momentarily tie the score, likely would not go up as the defender on Dunn could sag off and double the 11-time all-star.
That said, Lue had nothing else to do besides bench Dunn after he had already attempted north of ten shots.