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Jordan Clarkson had one of his most well-rounded games of the 2015-16 season in the Los Angeles Lakers' 97-77 victory over the Phoenix Suns. Clarkson scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting, and augmented his scoring with 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block in a do-everything performance more reminiscent of his high usage rookie season than the scoring-focused performances he has had this year.
Clarkson's faltering outside shot (he has made just 22.2% of his three-pointers in his last five games after a sweltering start to the season from range) led to him placing an emphasis on getting to the basket against a somewhat disinterested Phoenix defense. The sophomore guard took 8 of his 11 attempts right at the rim, making 5 of them.
Clarkson was asked about his most effective drive of the night, a posterization of Alex Len, and he credited it to Kobe Bryant teasing him for "going to the hole like a light skinned dude," which is vastly more hilarious than if he had just chalked it up to something schematically the Lakers' were doing differently:
Full Jordan Clarkson quote on his thunderous slam tonight, featuring some unusual advice from Kobe: pic.twitter.com/jV7PHvOEDf
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) January 4, 2016
Not bad veteran advice from Bryant, who was probably pleased to get some credit for Clarkson dunking so hard on Alex Len that Nick Young required resuscitation on the bench:
Apparently a major key to "the Kobe System" is just remembering to dunk on people really hard. Seems like a solid tenet of any philosophy.
All stats per NBA.com