The Clippers remain on four wins in a row including a pretty crazy comeback last night against the Hornets, that’s the first good news. Nicolas Batum, Reggie Jackson, Ivica Zubac, Terance Mann or other Luke Kennard have clearly increased the pace for ten days, that’s another. The icing on the home cook’s cake? Serge Ibaka was finally back last night after forty years of absence, and the Clippers are now one Kawhi close to being complete.
He had spent the last twelve months playing fashion victims on the bench, offering his fans ever more eccentric outfits every evening and sometimes even offering us fashions that only exist in his own head. But last night Serge Ibaka was indeed in shorts during the Clippers’ victory against Charlotte, and if his eight minutes are obviously not intended to draw conclusions about his contribution at the moment T, we bet that the return of Sergio opens up a little more perspective for this cheerful Los Angeles team. Faced with Lolotte Serge first of all made Nicolas Batum breathe at the end of the first quarter, before returning a few times for very small missions, helping to make internal rotation a real strength for Tyronn Lue (Serge, Ivica Zubac and this devil of Isaiah Hartenstein). A first Westbrookien shot, it will come back, but above all a huge tarpaulin on Cody Martin, reviewed by the VAR and then validated, validated as the return of the inside NBA champion in 2019 with the Raptors in a roster which begins to have the mouth in spite of the absence of the best brigand of the bunch.
Defender among the strongest in the League, attacker emeritus because today able to dominate below AND give a little spacing to the attack thanks to his small shot very choupinou, grown up from the experience of 2019 and elsewhere alone ringed player of the roster with his funny friend, Sergio is a real upgrade on his own, provided he manages the feat of holding out for more than two weeks without breaking something, he who has not played since the first round of the last Playoffs against the Mavs, he who had only played eight games until yesterday since February.
We won’t expect Serge to hit us on 12/18 every night, but his mere presence offers an interesting expansion of possibilities for T-Lue. The opportunity to slide Nico Batum more in the wing than at station 4, the advantage of having without interruption a guy capable of slapping the racket, and this little experience bonus that can not hurt to push the younger ones. And quite frankly? We won’t necessarily miss seeing Serge’s oilskin / hat combos on the bench anymore.
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