Los Angeles needs to trust their stars and not only give them the ball, but get out of the way!
Combined, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are making just about $70M this season. Los Angeles gave up a ton of draft assets and future value in order to bring in Paul George and they spent all of their free agency money a few years back to sign Kawhi Leonard, yet they are not the guys taking the shots late in games.
These are the Clippers best two players who are said to be two of the best players in the entire NBA right now, yet they are not making big plays down the stretch for this team. Instead, guys like Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris Sr. and Terance Mann had the ball in their hands in the final minutes of Game 5 in Los Angeles.
I understand that the Clippers are a really “balanced” team offensively and have numerous guys that can make a shot, but in the playoffs, especially when you are trailing, you get the ball to your superstar player and you get out of the way!
There is no reason that Reggie Jackson should be taking as many or even more shots as Paul George and in Game 5, he took 16 shots! Kawhi Leonard took a total of 19 shots in this game and Paul George took 15 shots.
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At the end of the day, Reggie Jackson could be hot and knocking down shots, but he is not going to lift the Clippers over the Mavericks. Kawhi and PG13 need to demand the ball late in games and be taking all of the clutch shots because that is why they are in a Clippers uniform and that is why they are paid the most on this team!
In the final three minutes of Game 5, Leonard and George combined to take just two shot attempts and both of which were by Kawhi. Mentally, it looks like both of the Clippers’ superstars have already checked out, which is not a good thing for the Clippers if they have any chance of advancing past the Mavericks.
The Clippers offense has been a complete joke in this series and if they are not going to trust in their superstars late in the game, then they might as well not even have them! If the Clippers lose Game 6 of this series, it should not be a surprise to see one of the Clippers’ superstars leave in the offseason.
