Clippers welcome back Montrezl Harrell - OCRegister

“MA this RUN for YOU”

With his grandmother in his thoughts, Montrezl Harrell rejoined his Clippers teammates Monday morning, just hours ahead of tip-off in the Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks.

A month passed since he left the bubble July 17, and, for that matter, 160 days elapsed since Harrell played in an NBA game.

No matter; the Clippers welcomed back the hard-playing reserve center who’d been away mourning the death of his grandmother.

“It was great getting him back,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said, via Zoom video conference, before Game 1 in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World Resort. “I thought Nelson Mandela walked in. That was what it sounded like. We were all laughing about it. It was just good to get him back in.

“Not just out of quarantine that he had been in for so long, but he has gone through a lot of emotional stuff. I think it was good for our guys to be able to be able to grab him and hug him and touch him. Good for him to see us. I thought it was a good medicine.”

Harrell’s presence with the Clippers — who also planned to incorporate Patrick Beverley and Landry Shamet, both of whom had been out nursing injuries during the seeding games — gave the team a full, if limited, lineup for just the 12th time this season.

Even across the way, Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle recognized what a lift the 6-foot-7 Harrell gives the Clippers — on a regular basis, never mind that he’s busting out of an extended seven-day quarantine in which he’s been stuck alone in a hotel room (save for the half-hour a day he was permitted to be outdoors for socially distanced exercise).

“You know, he has an affect on their team with his energy and effort,” said Carlisle, also noting the dynamic threat Harrell poses running the break and rolling to the basket. “I understand he just broke quarantine this morning … that’ll be a challenging situation. But, when he’s out there, you’re gonna know he’s out there, I’m very convinced of that.”

On Sunday, JaMychal Green, who’s been friendly with Harrell since they joined the league, before they were Clippers, said their current squad wasn’t happy about the long quarantine Harrell had to endure. If anything, Green said, it would make Harrell hungry to compete.

“Trezz is doing good, he’s ready to come back with the team,” Green said. “We’re mad about the days he got, but there’s nothing we can do about that but continue to move forward and get to that championship.”

When NBA play was suspended in March, Harrell — who, along with Lou Williams, is one of the Clippers’ two Sixth Man of the Year finalists — was averaging career highs in points (18.6), rebounds (7.1) and minutes (27.8).

But Rivers couldn’t venture a guess about what Harrell would be able to offer in the heat of playoff competition after so little time practicing — not withstanding Harrell’s virtual participation, joining practices and film sessions with his teammates remotely, via Zoom.

“He will be thrown out there, I just don’t know how that will look or how much he will play,” Rivers said. “It’s amazing but we are using a playoff game to get a guy back in rhythm and in condition. Never thought I would say that. That’s the only way we can do, we play every other day.”

Rivers said the Clippers let Harrell make the call about whether he’d be in the lineup Monday, and, well, they needn’t have asked.

“He looked at use like we were nuts,” Rivers said. “And then from that point on, you just throw him out there. He knows most of our stuff. We went over the two or three things that we’ve added with him. I don’t expect him to know those great. We’ll try not to run them when he’s in.

“But again, I think this is more of a conditioning thing. He hasn’t played full court basketball in a month, so I honestly don’t know what we’re gonna get.”

“MA this RUN for YOU ❤️” https://t.co/04cHyGWaB3 pic.twitter.com/NbOZ9IzfaC

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) August 18, 2020

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