Unwanted former Clippers shine in Tuesday's NBA playoffs
Milwaukee Bucks guard Patrick Beverley.
A number of former Los Angeles Clippers came up big for their teams in Tuesday night’s NBA playoffs. Even if their old teams didn’t want them.
The Milwaukee Bucks got 21 minutes out of Danilo Gallinari Tuesday night, and while he scored just four points and gathered six rebounds, he played surprisingly tough defense in Milwaukee’s 115-92 win. Milwaukee outscored Indiana by 15 points while Gallinari was on the floor. He’s only on the team because he tore his ACL last season, got traded by Boston and Washington, then released by the 14-68 Detroit Pistons.
But after Detroit bought out his contract, the Bucks scooped up Gallinari, who played for Bucks coach Doc Rivers on the Clippers. So did Patrick Beverley, who Philadelphia traded for Cam Payne and a second-round pick in 2027, presumably in order to add Kyle Lowry.
Tuesday night, Beverley had 12 assists and had a 12-point second quarter. His plus-minus was a spectacular +36. Like Gallinari, he’s 35 years old, and like Gallo, he helped shut down the Pacers defensively. Beverley also demonstrated the “too small celebration” on multiple occasions.
In Cleveland, Marcus Morris Jr. scored 12 points in a whopping 26 minutes as the Cavaliers beat the Magic, 104-103. With Jarrett Allen out, Morris — who didn’t even play in the series’ first two games —made two big three-pointers while playing nearly the entire fourth quarter.
How did Morris end up with Cleveland? After four seasons with the Clippers, they sent him to Philadelphia in the James Harden trade, then the Sixers salary-dumped Morris to San Antonio, who released him. This unwanted veteran may have saved the series for Cleveland, which now leads 3-2.
The last old, unwanted Clipper to shine Tuesday night was Rivers, who didn’t have Damian Lillard or Giannis Antetokounmpo, but blew out Indiana by 23 points. He’s had to adjust his defenses and improvise rotations, but Rivers is getting huge performances from players like Beverley, Malik Beasley and Bobby Portis.
Rivers has received criticism for falling short with star-studded teams in recent years, but he has a history of getting more imperfect teams to overachieve. Perhaps it took losing his two stars to unlock Rivers’ postseason mojo.
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