The Clippers tried something new Monday in Dallas. They sent forth a fresh starting five whose makeup was motivated by injuries and, likely, by history of the recent and less recent variety.
L.A. was without starting guard Patrick Beverley, who remained in L.A. tending to a sore right knee. Also Serge Ibaka, usually the starting center, was sidelined with a sore lower back, pain that knocked him out in New Orleans just eight minutes into Sunday’s debacle.
On Monday, Reggie Jackson and Ivica Zubac started in their place, Zubac for just the second time this season.
The unexpected twist: That Marcus Morris Sr. would join them on the starting lineup in place of Nicolas Batum, who came off the bench for the first time in his Clippers’ tenure.
“We are starting Marcus over Nic Batum tonight,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue mentioned as he rose from his seat at the end of Monday’s pregame availability, offering no further explanation before wishing those on the Zoom call well. “Y’all have a great day.”
Entering play Monday, the five-man combination of Jackson, Morris, Zubac with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George had shared the court for just four minutes this season, according to NBA.com/stats.
Morris, of course, menaced the Mavericks in the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against them in the bubble a few months ago.
He harassed Luka Doncic with defense that drew the Mavericks star’s ire after Morris stepped on his injured ankle (Morris stressed then that it had been an accident) in Game 5 and then was ejected for a hard foul on Doncic in the Clippers’ series-clinching Game 6 victory.
Offensively, Morris was a force, too: He averaged 12.8 points, shooting 53.7% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range in the series. And he chipped in with 5.7 rebounds 2 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
In two starts this season, Morris has averaged 20.5 points and shot 50% from the field and 63.6% from 3-point range.
A starter for much of his previous nine NBA seasons, and the No. 1 option in New York just a season ago, he volunteered to come off the bench this year when he saw how quickly the Clippers clicked with Batum in the starting lineup while Morris – who signed a four-year, $64 million contract in free agency – was sidelined for the first eight games of the season with a sore knee.
Batum’s production, meanwhile, has faded lately. A veteran glue guy, his impact isn’t entirely measurable in the box score, but his 3-point shooting has gotten quantifiably worse.
Through his first 27 games in a Clippers uniform, the French forward shot 45.6% from 3-point range – and averaged 4.6 attempts per game. In his 10 games since, Batum is hitting those shots from deep just 35.1% of the time, and he’s taking fewer 3s too – just 3.7 per contest. He went 0 for 4 from long range in Sunday’s lopsided loss against the Pelicans.
“The Clippers did me a favor by giving me what I have earned and what I have worked for,” Morris said after his season debut off the bench in January. “I am all team. Whatever they need me to do, I am going to do it. If that’s coming off the bench, hey, I been starting for a long time in this league, guys know what I can do. So I am not here to prove anything to anybody, starting or coming off; I am here to help the team.
“The only thing I am worried about is the Clippers winning.”
That sounded good to Lue, whose team was smarting from Sunday’s loss, in which the Clippers trailed by as much as 33 points, and facing a surging Mavericks team that had won 11 of its past 14 games.
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