Clippers expect Kevin Durant to play more aggressively on offense in Game 2
PHOENIX — The Clippers would not have won the first game of their first-round playoff series against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night had they not won around the margins.
They grabbed 15 offensive rebounds. There were a pair of key stretches during which their bench extended the Clippers’ lead by one over five minutes to begin the second quarter and erased a seven-point lead by the Suns over the third quarter’s final three minutes.
Yet there was no avoiding that one of the biggest factors was the way one of the biggest players on the court disappeared within Phoenix’s offense.
Suns superstar Kevin Durant didn’t score in the first quarter, erupted for 17 points in the second, then was scoreless again in the third. A fourth-quarter onslaught never came. Durant’s 17-foot jumper with 6 minutes 50 seconds to play in the fourth quarter pushed Phoenix ahead 96-95. Then he took just one more shot the rest of the game and finished with 15 attempts total, third most on his team behind Devin Booker’s 19 and Deandre Ayton’s 16.
“That’s needing to get him the ball in certain spots [and] them doing a good job of denying him the ball,” Suns coach Monty Williams told reporters Monday, one day after the Clippers’ 115-110 win. “But we can create more environments for him to live freely in live-ball situations. Sometimes giving him the ball so he can bring it up the floor and create opportunities.”
Asked Monday what he expected from Durant in Game 2 on Tuesday night, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said “more aggressive.”
Kawhi Leonard had 38 points and the Clippers, led by Russell Westbrook, outworked the Suns late to pick up a Game 1 playoff win.
A day earlier, before Game 1 tipoff, Lue called the concern over Phoenix’s lack of continuity together overblown, after the Suns played only eight games with Durant since they acquired him via a trade in February. But on Monday, he seemed to allow that “it’s new to them, you know, it’s only been nine games they’ve played together.”
Kawhi Leonard guarded Durant on a team-high 29 possessions, with Durant making four of his five shots in the matchup, according to NBA tracking data. Otherwise, the Clippers primarily guarded Durant with a rotation of Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook and Nicolas Batum. Durant shot one for six combined against those players.
“We’re going to be interchangeable, so you got to be ready,” Gordon said.
And the Clippers will be ready for a more aggressive Durant in Game 2.
“We didn’t play the kind of basketball we’re accustomed to,” Williams said. “They had a lot to do with it.”
Altercation review
On Monday, the NBA’s league office began a review of what occurred when Westbrook and a Suns fan exchanged words at halftime of Game 1.
The moment, caught on video that circulated on social media late Sunday, was recorded in Club Gila River, a lounge underneath the grandstands at Footprint Center, steps from the court. It is not an official route for players and coaches to use to access the court but has been used as a shortcut.
Russell Westbrook got into a verbal altercation with fan during the Clippers’ Game 1 playoff win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night.
The video did not show what provoked the exchange, but Westbrook was seen telling the male fan to “watch your mouth” before cursing and leaving for the court. The two were separated by a member of the Clippers’ security detail.
Eddie Gonzalez, a podcast producer who co-hosts a podcast with Durant, tweeted Monday that he was in the club area at the time of the incident and alleged that the “dude called Russ ‘Westbrick,’” a nickname Westbrook intensely dislikes.
Lue said Westbrook is “going to address the situation, but he does a good job. He’s not gonna put his hands on anybody or anything like that. Just gotta be smart about it. People are going to say what they want to say.”
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