https://youtu.be/4pkB0bZ0TZA
Terance Mann was not a highly productive player last season, but he did have a 25-point game in the last regular-season Bubble game, which colored my perception of him. Even after that impressive scoring performance, he was a complete afterthought for the Clippers in the playoffs; he appeared in every game, but only averaged two minutes per game in those contests. In only two out of thirteen playoff games did he even attempt a shot, and in five of those games he didn’t record any stats at all.
After a rookie campaign that I interpreted to be “strong” based on a single 25-point game, Mann is having a truly “strong” second season as the primary backup point guard for the Clippers behind Reggie Jackson. A team with championship aspirations probably shouldn’t be running out a Jackson/Mann point guard rotation, so I’m bracing myself for a point guard acquisition that relegates Mann to a smaller role going forward, but we can always look back on the fun times where Mann was scoring in double digits every fifth game and occasionally had games like this one where he was instrumental in a big comeback win for his team.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was seen giving hugs to Mann near the end of this game, after the Clippers had come back from being down 22 points. Unfortunately, the Hawks’ feed didn’t show this particular interaction. They also didn’t show the interaction that certainly happened between Mann and the Hawks’ Rajon Rondo, where Rondo gave Mann some helpful tips on how to look even more like a bugged-out alien.