Donovan Clingan turned in a monster performance on Wednesday to help lead the Portland Trail Blazers to victory, and the rookie achieved some history in the process.
Clingan produced 17 points, 12 rebounds, eight blocked shots and one assist in a 106-98 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Moda Center. He shot 6-of-10 from the field in a season-high 31 minutes in his first start, with Deandre Ayton (finger) and Robert Williams III (rest) inactive.
The seventh pick became the eighth rookie in history with at least 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks in a game. He is the first rookie this season to record five or more blocks in a game.
His coach, Chauncey Billups, was impressed with the performance.
You know you’re going to get maximum effort. He is starting to understand what people are running. … It isn’t even the shots that he blocked, it is the seven or eight other shots that he changed or them seeing him in the paint choosing to go the other direction. Those things don’t even come up on a stat sheet. You’ve got to give Donovan a lot of credit.
Clingan is averaging 5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks on 53.7% shooting from the field in 13 games with the Trail Blazers. He currently leads the rookie class in total blocks (27) and is third among all players in the league, trailing only Brook Lopez (29) and Victor Wembanyama (46).
The 7-footer is averaging just 15.8 minutes per game after playing primarily in the second unit to start the season, making his top-five ranking in blocked shots even more impressive. His per-36-minute figure for blocks, illustrating how a player could impact games with more playing time, is 4.7 per game.
Clingan is emerging as a critical contributor for Billups in the early going. After picking up back-to-back wins over the Timberwolves, Clingan and the Trail Blazers appear to be heading in the right direction.
“I feel like these past few games, we really just turned around,” Clingan said. “There is nothing better than having everyone on the floor having fun, and I feel like that really showed tonight. It was a great night for the team.”
