Clippers Roll Out Chaotic Three-Guard Lineup for Sunday
Lineup alert: Clippers will start Garland, Dunn, Jones Jr., Hachimura, Jackson on Sunday.
The are rolling out a starting lineup of , Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr., Rui Hachimura, and Reggie Jackson on Sunday. If you read that list and immediately checked to see if there was a typo, you are not alone.
This looks less like a cohesive NBA starting five and more like a random 2K MyTeam generated from leftover locker codes. Starting three point guards alongside two forwards and zero true centers is the kind of chaotic basketball experiment that usually happens in a summer pro-am, not a regular-season game.
The obvious culprit here is the injury report. Kawhi Leonard is once again dealing with a familiar cocktail of lower-body ailments, including a right ankle sprain and a knee contusion. When your franchise star is in street clothes, the rotation inevitably turns into a blender.
Los Angeles is trying to bounce back from a 125-117 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. To do that, they are leaning heavily on a backcourt that features Garland, who is fresh off an offseason toe surgery, and Dunn, who has been battling his own ankle issues.
For anyone eyeing the prop market, this lineup is a complete wild card. Without a traditional big man on the floor, rebounding props for Hachimura and Jones Jr. are going to be fascinating, while the defensive matchups against a young, athletic Oklahoma City Thunder squad look like a math problem with no solution.
The tip off against the Thunder on Sunday night. We will find out very quickly if this ultra-small-ball configuration is a temporary stroke of mad genius or just a desperate survival tactic until the medical staff clears the actual frontcourt.