LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to get their full complement of players on the court. The team announced that Sixth Man of the Year candidate Montrezl Harrell would not play in Friday night's seeding game finale as he continues to self-isolate.
Harrell has been quarantining since Sunday, when he posted that he was arriving to Orlando on social media. The Clippers' backup forward had been away from the team since mid-July to be by his grandmother's side. Harrell posted that she passed away a little over a week ago, and he returned to the team following her funeral.
Montrezl Harrell's sidekick off the bench, Lou Williams, spoke about his return amid an emotional time in his life.
“Basketball is an outlet,” Lou Williams told ClutchPoints earlier this week. “The two and a half hours we are out on the floor, it allows us an opportunity to escape from the realities of what we deal with in our personal lives. We use that as fuel, motivation, instead of it being a distraction. We deal with those things when we’re off the floor.
“He’s back and ready to work. Obviously, Trez is a high-energy guy. He’s a guy that plays at a high level, an extremely physical player, an extremely emotional player. With some things on his mind, I feel sorry for the other guys on the other team.”
The problem for the Clippers now becomes how to incorporate Harrell back into a team's rotation in the middle of a playoff series. Ivica Zubac and JaMychal Green are both playing fantastic in their roles for the team, and it'll be interesting to see how Doc Rivers re-incorporates Harrell back into the rotation.
“Trez is possibly the Sixth Man of the Year award winner,” Rivers said of Harrell when asked about his return. “When Trez gets back, we're throwing Trez right back out there.”
Through seven seeding games, the Clippers have had either Zubac or Green on the floor for 304 of a possible 336 minutes. Rivers is right in that Montrezl Harrell should immediately slide back into his normal role given he may win Sixth Man of the Year, but will it come at the expense of some excellent JaMychal Green minutes? When healthy, I anticipate Green sliding over to the 4-spot and spacing the floor for Harrell with Reggie Jackson, Lou Williams, and Landry Shamet at the 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Zubac has also seen a significant uptick in minutes and production. In his last five games inside the bubble, Zubac is averaging 14.2 points and 13.2 rebounds on 73.2 percent shooting in 24.0 minutes per game. His minutes will almost certainly decrease with the return of Harrell, but the hope is that Zubac has built some trust with Rivers and the team with his stellar play over the last couple of weeks.
“Zu is so big, we got to punish them if [teams] try to switch and put a small on him, expecting us to try to take advantage of the mismatch that we have,” Paul George said of Zubac's increased role. “Zu has to make himself available in those mismatches as well because he is a big body and he finishes so well. That's what we're on him about most, is just making yourself big down there so we can find you and get some easy baskets.”
As of right now, the bubble minutes split for the Clippers at center has just under 23 minutes per game going to Zubac and a 21.5 minutes going to Green. In the 64 regular games prior to the hiatus, Zu was averaging 18.0 minutes, Green 20.5 minutes, and Harrell 27.8 minutes.
Harrell has been averaging career highs across the board this year with 18.6 points as well as 7.1 rebounds to go along with 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks per game on 58.0 percent shooting from the field.
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