Clippers will face Patrick Beverley and Timberwolves in play-in game
The Clippers’ play-in tournament matchup is set — and a date with one of the roster’s former core pieces awaits.
The Clippers will travel to Minnesota for a Tuesday game against the Timberwolves and pugnacious Patrick Beverley, the guard the Clippers traded away in August.
Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. PDT from Target Center, with the winner earning the seventh seed and a first-round series against second-seeded Memphis. If the Clippers lose, they would host a game Friday at Crypto.com Arena for the right to earn the eighth seed — and a first-round series against top-seeded Phoenix — against the winner of San Antonio and New Orleans’ own play-in game.
With Paul George and Norman Powell back from injury and the return of Kawhi Leonard remains possible, the Clippers could make noise in the postseason.
Denver’s victory Thursday against Memphis locked Minnesota into the seventh-best record in the Western Conference with a 46-35 record. The Clippers are 40-40 and won the season series against the Timberwolves 3-1 while outscoring them on average by 10 points. But the teams haven’t played since Jan. 3, and both rosters have changed in that gap, with the Clippers adding Norman Powell and Robert Covington at February’s trade deadline.
“It’s definitely not going to be easy because we did see them very early on and they’re playing with a different type of confidence, different dynamic,†Clippers guard Terance Mann said this week of preparing for the Timberwolves.
Beverley has averaged 9.3 points, a career-high 4.6 assists and 1.2 steals and played in 56 games after several years of trouble staying on the court due to injuries with the Clippers. His play earned the 33-year-old a one-year, $13-million extension in February. In a March appearance on the “Old Man and the Three†podcast hosted by former Clipper JJ Redick, Beverley said he wound up on Minnesota after contract extension talks with the Clippers broke down. He eventually was traded to Memphis as part of a package for Eric Bledsoe, before another offseason trade to Minnesota.
“I’m thinkin’ this contact extension is going to be easy, walk in and they throw me a number that I felt like was borderline disrespectful,†Beverley said of his talks with the Clippers last summer. “So the conversation started with [president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank] and it was a heated little conversation and L Frank is my guy. … Man, love him to death, that’s my guy. And I looked him in his face and told him and my agent, man, L Frank knows he has to trade me. If he can’t pay me, gotta trade me. From that point he told me [to] give me my teams and Minnesota was in my top three.â€
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