Rowan Kavner
NEW YORK – He didn’t make it to the All-Star Game, but DeAndre Jordan put on a show in the two games the Clippers had last week prior to the break.
In two games, Jordan had two 20-20 performances in two wins, going for 22 points and 27 rebounds against the Mavericks on Monday and 24 points and 20 rebounds against the Rockets on Wednesday.
It should be no surprise, then, that in this week’s top five, the top three all belonged to Jordan. Here are the top five plays of the week:
5) Barnes rips it away.
If at first you don’t succeed, go and take it back. After a shot gets blocked on a drive, Matt Barnes senses the Rockets are going try to get the ball up court in transition. He sees the pass coming and steals it away, dishing to a wide open Jamal Crawford under the basket for the finish.
4) Baby slam
Typically, it’s DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin getting the bench and the crowd on their feet with dunks. If there’s anyone else capable of getting the bench up, though, it might be Glen Davis. “Big Baby” was able to do that, getting the steal at one end, running the court and getting in position for Barnes to find him for the dunk. That was good enough to get Jordan up and on his feet.
3) Jordan finishes with the putback.
Chris Paul drives through the lane and absorbs some contact but doesn’t get a call as he puts up a shot attempt. No worries, though, as DeAndre Jordan is there to clean it up with the putback slam.
2) Paul sends the alley-oop to Jordan.
Paul’s at the top of the key when he gets the pick from Jordan, who rolls to the basket and doesn’t get picked up by the Mavs. Paul knows how to take advantage of that, finding Jordan with a dart. Most people wouldn’t be able to turn that into an alley-oop finish, but Jordan isn’t most people.
1) Jordan backs down, throws it down.
Most of Jordan’s dunks come courtesy of the lob alley-oop. But with Blake Griffin out, the Clippers need Jordan to do more offensively. Here, he shows his inside game by taking the pass in the key, backing down his defender with one dribble and throwing down the two-handed jam.