DeAndre Jordan has huge game, jokes mom won’t be impressed

DeAndre Jordan played what was arguably the best game of his career in Monday’s 115-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

He finished with a season-high-tying 22 points and a career-high 27 rebounds, the most rebounds an NBA player has had this season. His rebound total was three short of tying Michael Cage’s single-game franchise record of 30 for the Clippers.

Jordan’s mother was in attendance to see his spectacular performance, but the Clippers’ center joked that she wouldn’t be all that impressed.

“She probably is going to say I could have done some stuff better tonight when I talk to her,” Jordan said, “but that’s good.”

It was his second 20-20 game this month, and in his career. He had 22 points and 20 rebounds in the Clippers’ 102-100 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 2, a game in which his team blew an eight-point lead with 1 minute, 11 seconds left by allowing the Nets to go on a 10-0 run.

“This one feels a lot better because we won,” Jordan said. “The other one was cool, but it’s wasn’t as cool because I really get to celebrate this one on the plane ride home with a win.”

It was a much-needed win for the Clippers, who entered Monday’s game having lost a season-high four in a row. The team also found out before playing the Mavericks that it would be without superstar power forward Blake Griffin for at least three weeks after he had surgery earlier in the day to remove a staph infection in his right elbow.

Jordan is averaging career-highs in points (10.5), rebounds (13.7) and field goal percentage (72.5) this season. He leads the league in rebounding, is third in blocked shots (2.4), and has the highest field goal percentage of any player in the league who has played in a significant amount of games this season.

Clippers’ Coach Doc Rivers thought Jordan should be voted into the All-Star game by the coaches as a reserve after he was passed over for the fan vote. Rivers called other coaches around the league and made a case for his center.

“I think if DJ was doing what he’s doing on the defensive end on the offensive end, he’d be in,” Rivers said Jan. 26. “And every coach tells you that they want their players to sacrifice and be All-Star role players, then you have a guy that actually does it and they don’t reward him. It just makes no sense to me. I’m trying to get the coaches to back their talk up basically and vote for DJ.”

Jordan, however, did not end up making the team.

After Monday’s game, Rivers made sure to emphasize that while Jordan may be under-appreciated by some, the center’s contributions to the team are well recognized by his coach.

“DJ, I don’t know why people don’t vote for him,” Rivers said. “It’s too late, but my gosh, 22 and 27, he was dominant. He was guarding guards defensively. He just did everything for us.”