Clippings: Terance Mann is only interested in looking forward

During the 2021 postseason, Terance Mann was at the center of one of the most historic moments in LA Clippers franchise history. He scored 20 points in the third quarter, part of a career-high 39 in total, as the Clippers erased a 25-point second-half deficit to advance to their first-ever conference finals.

Mann has been getting tagged in highlights of that game to this day. His hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts gave him a key to the city back in August. And yet, Mann has never gone back to rewatch that performance.

“I don’t need to watch it, I know what happened,” Mann said at training camp Thursday. “So, it’s whatever.”

Most Clippers fans would agree that game is anything but “whatever”, but Mann doesn’t have time to dwell. He is continuously working to improve his individual skills, whether that’s finding new ways to score with (jump shots, floaters, pull-ups) and without the ball, making smarter reads within the offense, and becoming a better defender.

He’s developing chemistry with his new teammates, like Justise Winslow, who projects to be as positionally versatile as Mann has been throughout his Clippers tenure. Winslow will spend time as a ball handler while also manning the center role as a roller and diver to the basket. Mann noted that Winslow is learning how to cut to the hoop on Mann’s drives so that he’s there for the dump off passes.

Mann is also reacquainting himself with Luke Kennard, who he shared the court with for about 40 percent of his minutes last year. Mann noted that he and Kennard have a good familiarity from the regular season and the “stay ready” games with player development during the year, and that has translated to their pick up runs during the offseason. The two of them figure to be key pieces of the team’s second unit in 2021-22.

The third-year Clipper may have at least one signature moment, but he isn’t hanging his hat on Game 6 alone. This is just the beginning who Terance Mann hopes to be.

“I’m still trying to prove myself,” he said. “I still got a lot of work to do. I still want to prove a lot of people wrong.”

More news for Friday:

• Patrick Beverley says he asked the Clippers to “let him control [his] destiny” when they couldn’t agree on an extension, and that the Timberwolves were in the top 2 of his preferred choices.

• Congrats to former Clipper Ryan Hollins, who will be the new color commentator on the Houston Rockets broadcast.
• The league approved its rule to limit out-of-bounds reviews in the last two minutes to coaches’ challenges.
• Owen Phillips breaks down the preseason betting lines for the major NBA awards.
• The NBA has now reached a 95 percent vaccination rate among players, per ESPN. That number has gone up five percent since the start of training camp. NBA spokesman Mike Bass announced that players who can’t play because of their vaccination status will not be paid for games missed.
• Marc Stein reports that Steve Kerr is likely to be the next head coach of men’s USA Basketball.