Winner: Terance Mann
I’ve been watching every game of this Clippers/Nuggets matchup and something (outside of the incredible play) has really spruiked my interest: Doc Rivers is subbing in Terrence Mann at the end of the second quarter with the sole reason of shooting the halfcourt heaves and contested jump shots at the end of the half.
He has played in every game and is averaging one minute per contest. During that time, he has attempted five shots and scored a total of four points. He’s third in usage percentage, behind only Kawhi and PG, and is corralling a team-best 26.9 percent of all defensive rebounds.
Now that was very tongue-in-cheek, but I don’t know what to make of this.
On one hand, you have this young player who was at the end of the bench checking in for playoff minutes, but it’s not real playoff minutes is it?
On the other, there are the guys who are leading in minutes who don’t want to take the last second heaves and near hopeless shots because it would hurt their shooting percentages.
On the other hand (in a weird universe where we have three hands), head coach Doc Rivers is signaling that he’s happy with his main guys not taking every opportunity to score and letting someone else go out there and take the lumps (read: mid-court heaves).
Either way, in all sense of the phrase: Terance – shoot your freaking shot bro!