In the 2026 NBA playoffs, the Portland Trail Blazers scratched and clawed their way to the 7th seed by defeating the Phoenix Suns in the Play-In Tournament. They would go on to lose to the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs in five games.
There was a lot of blame to go around, but one of the reasons that the Blazers failed that mission was that San Antonio made Donovan Clingan largely invisible. Victor Wembanyama is a tough cover for anyone, but it highlighted one of Clingan’s glaring weaknesses: he has no problem against bigs that fit his profile, but more mobile big men remain a great challenge.
The regular season numbers back that up: while every player has stinkers every now and again versus an ideal matchup, the bulk of Clingan’s worst games came against mobile bigs that can shoot the three and drag him out of the paint, nullifying his greatest strength.
That era of Clingan basketball may be ending, following two straight games in which Clingan faced off against Nikola Jokic and Oso Ighodaro—two diametrically opposed bigs with two entirely different approaches to the game—and dominated both.
Donovan Clingan is evolving and dominating before our very eyes
Across those two games, Clingan has averaged 20.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks on 60/40/83 shooting splits. Nestled within those numbers are 6.5 offensive rebounds per game and a net rating of +23. Up until this point, Clingan is anchoring the eighth-best defense in the NBA, on a team that many experts had initially written off on that end.
While the sample size is extremely small, 6.5 offensive rebounds per game against two completely different players is important, and it’s doubly so that Clingan plays to his competition; it is distinctly of note that Clingan netted nine offensive boards in his matchup against Jokic; he led the NBA in defensive rebounds last season.
Clingan’s numbers before these two games were fair, but he played fewer minutes. His per-36 numbers in the first five games were 14 points, 14.6 rebounds and 3.2 blocks on 50/53/54 shooting splits. This can be attributed to simple team chemistry building, as Clingan’s damage in his last two games was done in 30.5 minutes per game as opposed to 22.2 in the five contests prior.
Many of Clingan’s recent came off putback buckets but many more came from catching lobs and being fed the ball down low. Starting next to Damian Lillard certainly helps, as Lillard is one of the most lethal pick-and-roll players in league history. However, with Clingan operating in tandem with Lillard and Deni Avdija, Clingan’s game opens up immensely; Lillard was never much of a lob thrower, but it’s a huge facet of Avdija’s game.
Look for Clingan to keep it rolling tonight against Walker Kessler and the Lakers, with a highly anticipated rematch against Wembanyama and the Spurs tomorrow.
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