Los Angeles Clippers @ Phoenix Suns
Over/Under: 224
Spread: PHX -5.5
The Suns look to continue their winning ways as they are forced to play without Chris Paul for the second straight game. Los Angeles will attempt to even the series before heading back home while holding out hope that Kawhi Leonard could return at some point this postseason.
Injuries
*Kawhi Leonard – Out
*Chris Paul - Out
CPT/MVP
Devin Booker – With Paul sidelined my initial thought was that things would go back to how they were last season for Booker and that was the case on Sunday as Phoenix emerged victorious. Left with the backcourt to himself, Booker scored 40 points (on an efficient 15 of 29 from the field) enroute to a triple double with 13 rebounds and 11 assists. You certainly can’t pick a better time for your first career triple-double and Booker’s usage should continue tonight as he will have the ball in his hand quite often with the Phoenix offense running through him. At this point it is Booker and then everyone else.
Paul George – The two-headed superstar duo has gone down to a solo act as George is left in charge for the Clippers. George continues to pace Los Angeles offensively as he scored 34 points on Sunday while also adding four rebounds and five assists. In four of his last five games George has scored at least 31 points as his offense is showing no signs of slowing down. We know that George is going to carry the load offensively as the number one option for the Clippers. There are other contributors for Los Angeles but none that I would truly be willing to rely on in the captain spot as they tend to be interchangeable.
MID-TIER
Nicolas Batum – We might as well start this off with Batum. The forward isn’t much of a consistent scorer at this point, beyond 10 or so points, although in his last two games Batum did fluctuate from 16 down to five. However, the value can be found in the fact that Batum will be out there for at least 35 minutes tonight and he can fill the stat sheet across rebounds, assists, steals, and the occasional blocked shot. Batum is going to cost you tonight, and while he isn’t someone that I’m looking to force into a GPP lineup, he might have one of the more consistent floors from a cash game perspective.
Reggie Jackson – When it comes to offense, George’s best chance at assistance has been coming from Jackson. In his last three games Jackson has scored between 22 and 27 points and that is a trend I don’t see slowing down either. Someone other than George needs to score and if we were to dub anyone the second option, at this point it likely would be Jackson. We won’t see him hand out 10 assists on a nightly basis as he did two games ago but he should be good for a handful of them. Four games ago, Jackson did throw up a dud (9.7 FD points) so that has to be in the back of our minds, but he gives us the best chance at 35 to 40 points out of this tier.
Cameron Payne – Payne jumped into the starting lineup in Paul’s absence and gave us a nice performance on Sunday. Perhaps we get a little more offensively out of him than the 11 points he put up in Game One of the series, but it’s hard to argue with nine assists and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get something similar out of Payne tonight.
Deandre Ayton – The Phoenix center has carved out a nice role and that continued on Sunday as he scored 20 points while grabbing nine rebounds to kick off the series. Ayton has shown the ability to inch towards 15 rebounds at the high end of his potential, but that is probably the limit of what we can expect from him.
Jae Crowder – The veteran forward is likely going to play around 30 minutes per game and score somewhere in the low teens with some rebounds and a few assists. For the most part Crowder doesn’t deviate from this, but there is the occasional night where he adds a few more in either category that bumps him past the 30-fantasy point mark.
Mikal Bridges – Bridges will score in double-figures on a consistent basis but there is generally not enough else there for the forward to get out of the 20 to 30 fantasy point range.
DART THROWS
Marcus Morris – Initially it looked like Morris would benefit from Leonard’s absence but that ship appears to have a sailed away in the last two games. After scoring 24 and 25 points, Morris followed that up nine points in his last two games. Morris will play at least 20 minutes per night and we know what he is capable of offensively but at the moment he hasn’t proven to be trustworthy.
Terance Mann – We know that Mann wasn’t going to score 39 points again but after seeing him put up nine points in 27 minutes on Sunday, we have seen each end of the range of his potential production. Ultimately Mann will finish somewhere in between but I would expect him to be closer to the nine than the 39.
Cameron Johnson – Johnson impressed off the bench on Sunday scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds in his 24 minutes of action. That was pretty close to the best game of the postseason for Johnson but he does provide some welcome salary relief and we know that he will have a steady role.