DeAndre Jordan, who played for the Aggies during the 2007-2008 season, is making his fourth appearance in the playoffs and is the favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Jordan’s Clippers are matched up against the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs. During the last 20 games of the regular season, San Antonio had the best offense in the NBA. The Spurs scored 109 points per game, shot 50.3 percent from the field, made 38.1 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc, and averaged 112.8 points per 100 possessions.
Sunday night was a different story with San Antonio coming into Los Angeles to play Jordan and the Clippers stingy defense, who are now 15-1 since March 17. The Clippers defeated the Spurs 107-92 and Jordan scored nine points and led team in rebounds with 14. Jordan recorded four blocks in the first half alone and made life difficult in the paint for San Antonio throughout the contest.
Manu Ginobili told reporters after the game the impact that Jordan had during the game.
“[Jordan] might be the most athletic center in the game,” Ginobili said. “He is long, very athletic, and [the Clippers] know that, so they send you to him and he’s really good. He gets about 15 rebounds a game and I don’t know how many blocks. It’s something that we know, and it forces us to change our shots.”
Despite a 103-91 loss in the first game of the Bucks’ series against the Bulls, Middleton opened the 2015 playoffs strong, scoring a team-high 18 points for Milwaukee in his first ever playoff appearance.
Middleton has had a breakout season this year for the Bucks averaging 13.4 points per game, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest.
Middleton and the Bucks play at 7 p.m. Monday and look to split the two away games to head back to Milwaukee with home-court advantage. The game can be seen on TNT.
Jordan and the Clippers play at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday on TNT.
