Terance Mann's strong claim about new-look Clippers

10/29/2024 09:20 PM

The Los Angeles Clippers have won back-to-back games as they return home for a five-game homestand. As the team prepares to take on the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns on another back-to-back, the team will look to continue proving what Terance Mann said before the season officially kicked off.

At a practice last week, Terance Mann called this Clippers team the best defensive team he's ever been on.

Clippers defense better than ever, says Terance Mann

Through three games this season, the LA Clippers have boasted a defensive rating of 103.2 points per 100 possessions. According to NBA Stats, that's the third best defensive rating in the league behind the 3-0 Oklahoma City Thunder at 90.8 points per 100 and the Golden State Warriors — who played the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers before losing to the Clippers — at 95.9 points per 100.

"I think it’s the best defensive team I’ve ever been on in my life," Terance Mann said at a recent Clippers practice. "I’m excited for that. I just think everybody’s ability to guard the ball one-on-one, to scrap, help, people’s knack for stealing the ball, getting their hands in there, deflections. It’s easily top two, probably one defensive team I’ve ever been on."

There were signs that this could be coming back in the preseason, when the team held teams to 94.2 points per 100 possessions. That's the new-look defense under assistant head coach Jeff Van Gundy.

"It's good. I think JVG does a great job of just getting everybody into it, keeping everybody engaged. Our guys have been excited on the defensive end just to do things the right way, it's a new defensive scheme, it's different than we have been doing in the past four or five years, so just picking it up and feeling good about it. It's good to see."

Head coach Tyronn Lue wouldn't go as far as to say this is the best defensive team he's ever seen in his six years with the Clippers, but he did say they have the ability to be that.

"[For me], it's too early," Tyronn Lue said. "We have the pieces and the schemes to do it, but every night is going to be different, so we have to just take the challenge every night, but I do think it starts with our transition defense, getting back, and making teams play against our half-court defense which I like."

Ivica Zubac is a stellar defensive anchor and communicator, which is a big part of why the Clippers have been a good defensive team over the last few years. But now, Zubac has a pair of lethal perimeter defenders to aid him.

Through two games, Kris Dunn is leading the team with six total steals and Derrick Jones Jr. is right behind him with five steals.

Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. have combined for 11 steals and 22 deflections (per NBA Stats) in 3 games.pic.twitter.com/WucTl7ri6x

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 28, 2024

Dunn is also the team leader in deflections at 12 through three games, with Derrick Jones right behind him at 10 through three.

"Me and [Kris Dunn], we came in here for a reason," Derrick Jones Jr. explained. "That's why we were brought here. We was brought here to guard the ball and be that lockdown defender.

"And we're not going to sleep on my dawg [Terance Mann] like he isn't one of those. He is one of those. I look at them just like I view myself. I have high standards for them on the defensive end. We know that, and the more we're out there, the more we're going to jell, the more we're going to get, the more fun we're going to have fun on the break."

The Clippers' defense will be tested even further in the next week, which features a five-game homestand against the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and Philadelphia 76ers.

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