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Clippers Hope Teams See Jordan’s All-Star Worthiness

Rowan Kavner

LOS ANGELES, Calif.

– Head coach Doc Rivers has made the pitches. He’s made the calls to opposing coaches.

The Clippers believe DeAndre Jordan has the credentials to go to his first All-Star Game, and it’s efforts such as Jordan’s in the final minute of the first half Monday night – blocking three shots and running down court to finish an alley-oop afterward – that the Clippers hope show how worthy the center is of a spot in New York.

“That was the postcard to all the coaches,” Rivers said afterward.

The odds tend to get stacked against Jordan.

While most All-Stars light up a stat sheet offensively, much of what Jordan accomplishes on a nightly basis happens on defense or on picks and dunks and can’t be quantified as easily as points or assists.

Jordan, who’s first in the league in rebounds per game (13.4) and field goal percentage (73.1), went into Monday’s game 38-of-43 in his last six games. That field goal percentage of 88.4 also happens to be the NBA’s best six-game stretch in the shot-clock era. If Jordan maintains his percentage this season, he’ll top Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time best mark of 72.7 percent set in the 1972-73 season.

Jordan’s also second behind only Anthony Davis in blocks per game this year. Unfortunately for him, affecting the game on the defensive end doesn’t always earn recognition, even if the Nuggets found out just how much Jordan can change a game late in the first half.

“It’s easy to quantify points. If a guy averages 30 points a game, that’s easy to quantify,” Rivers said. “It’s harder when you don’t see a guy.”

Coaches can look at stat sheets and see the points posted by Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, DeMarcus Cousins and other star centers around the league.

Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw said that can hurt Jordan when it comes to events such as the All-Star Game. But it doesn’t take long on the rare occasion an opponent faces Jordan and the Clippers for a team to see how the center changes a game, and Shaw said Jordan deserves to be in All-Star consideration.

“I think you look at the success of the Clippers, and you have to throw his name out there as well,” Shaw said. “Unfortunately for guys like him, the sexiness of what he does in grabbing rebounds and policing the defense isn’t regarded as highly and isn’t as flashy as guys who score a lot of points. But I recognize the importance of what he does for his team to be successful.”

So do Jordan’s teammates.

“I say it all the time, but to me, DJ is an All-Star, he is the Defensive Player of the Year and many other accolades that I think he should have,” said Chris Paul, whom Rivers is also pitching to get in to the All-Star Game for the eighth straight time. “DJ also understands that he does not need all of that to validate him. We all know what he does and he is capable of.”