Cleveland Cavaliers: Jordan Clarkson gets his first win with Gilas Pilipinas
Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Jordan Clarkson just recorded his first win with Gilas Pilipinas.
Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Jordan Clarkson scored 22 points and added 9 assists to lead Gilas Pilipinas, the Philippines’ national team, to a 113-80 victory over Japan in the 2018 Asian Games.
It was the first win of the tournament for Clarkson (he didn’t play in Gilas’ victory over Kazakhstan on August 16th), who’ll get a chance to win another game when Gilas faces Syria at 8:30 A.M. EST on August 31st.
That it was a blowout game that featured his most efficient performance of the tournament (7-16 from the field, 43.8 percent shooting), his best performance as a facilitator, his first game shooting perfectly from the free-throw line (5-5) and his first game without recording a turnover made it all the better.
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Clarkson was averaging 26.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in his first two performances for the Philippines but was only shooting 40.0 percent from the field.
He’s now averaging 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.0 turnover per game in the 2018 Asian Games. He’s shooting 40.9 percent from the field, 30.0 percent from three and 69.2 percent from the free-throw line.
The steady pace and focus on facilitating that Clarkson exhibited against Japan are aspects of his game that fans will hope becomes more of a norm for him.
A speedy perimeter playmaker who bursts through the teeth of a defense like a running back punching through a crack in an offensive line, Clarkson’s aggression and pace is appreciated but sometimes changing up the pace to catch defenses off guard or slowing up the pace to establish a rhythm for the entire team is what works best.
It’s situational but at 26-years-old, it’s about time for Clarkson to ‘think the game’ and not just play it at full speed.
Clarkson’s dedication to getting his teammates involved will be particularly beneficial for the Cavs given that they lost their top facilitator in the offseason in LeBron James. Furthermore, without him, they’ll look to win games with more of a collective effort; part of winning with a collective effort requires an emphasis on ball-movement.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers opt to start veteran George Hill with Collin Sexton in the backcourt in order to ease the rookie into his role as a floor general, then Clarkson becomes the backup point guard.
With that said, though he may still end up on the court with Sexton or Hill, there’s still a substantial amount of time that Clarkson can be the team’s primary or secondary ball-handler. He’ll have to get his teammates involved if that’s his role and not just look to score.
It was an interesting game for Clarkson and getting his first win with his national team is a heartfelt accomplishment.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans are just going to hope Clarkson can bring his game against Japan back stateside.