Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – As head coach Doc Rivers looked down at the stat sheet, it wasn’t to check on his players’ points, assists or rebounds following Monday’s win against the Suns.
He looked straight at the minutes of DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and J.J. Redick, knowing the sustained play of the Clippers’ backups paid dividends for the starters.
“DJ played 32, Blake played 34, J.J. 27, Chris 31,” Rivers said. “We never had minutes like that last year. That’s fantastic for us.”
The importance of the lessened load for a starting group that played more minutes than any team last season may not be evident tomorrow or next week or even next month.
Where the Clippers hope they see that pay off with performances such as Monday’s, where the bench went 14-for-31 from the floor and had five different players score at least seven points to allow the starters some rest, is in April, May and June.
“It takes pressure off the starters trying to create the energy and momentum every night,” said Josh Smith, whose back-to-back 3-pointers and dish to Wesley Johnson for an alley-oop allowed the Clippers to go to the fourth with the lead. “We’ve just got to keep focusing on ourselves, keep playing the way we’re capable of playing. Eventually everything will start clicking.”
Smith said he’s almost happy the Clippers are only seeing the beginning stages of what their bench can look like.
“As long as we can put it all together when March and April hit,” Smith said.
Smith and Austin Rivers had three assists apiece, and the two of them and Paul Pierce all had seven points apiece. Jamal Crawford scored 11 points, surpassing the career 16,000-point mark in the process, while Johnson went 4-of-5 from the floor for nine points and a team-best plus-15 net rating.
“Last three games, Wesley Johnson has been just fantastic,” Doc Rivers said. “He’s getting it. He’s getting our way, and I’m just happy for him. He’s put in a lot of time.”
When the Clippers went down by eight points in the second quarter, their largest deficit of the game, it was the bench that answered. More specifically, it was Johnson, who scored five straight points to cut the deficit to two before the reserves tacked on another 10 straight points.
By the time the run was over, the Clippers led by seven.
“They found that formula in the second quarter,” Doc Rivers said. “I think they had the advance to Austin for the three-point play, then the advance to Austin and he threw it up to DJ, and then in the second half, they went back to just the advance pass, getting the ball up the floor.”
The Suns went on a 24-7 run in the middle of the third quarter, and once again it was the backups stopping the bleeding, this time with Smith’s shooting and passing serving as the catalyst.
“I thought our bench won the game tonight,” Doc Rivers said.
Smith’s consecutive 3-point baskets and dish to Johnson gave the Clippers a three-point lead after three quarters, and an Austin Rivers bucket to start the fourth added to it. Smith then assisted on each of the next two Clippers buckets.
The play of the backups early in the fourth quarter allowed the starters to enter the game with a lead, which they sustained, though Phoenix threatened throughout the rest of the night.
“The second unit is probably unfamiliar to Clipper nation, and we’re just trying to get familiar to each other,” Smith said. “We’re still working. We’re talking on the court, when we come back out, we’re still talking trying to get everything together. Tonight, it was clicking on all cylinders with the second unit.”
Griffin and the Clippers hope the bench play will pay off for the starters when it matters most.
“You have to take advantage of that by actually being smart and getting your rest, especially on off days and stuff like that, too,” Griffin said. “When the playoffs come, you have to use that.
“I remember the year when we had such a great bench, all the starters’ minutes were down and we felt like we were really well-rested and we lost to Memphis in the first round, so that rest doesn’t do as much good when you don’t use it at the time you need it.”
