TOP 5 Most CLUTCH Players Of The Season

Last night the Warriors put the Nuggets to sleep in what was a hard fought game down the stretch. Steph Curry scored 9 of his 30 points in the last 3 and a half minutes including the dagger with this layup all around the Denver defense. Steph is leading all players in total clutch points in the playoffs so far, but let’s checkout who were the cold blooded killers in the regular season. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check, let’s get into it.
Number 5 - Kevin Durant
At number 5 we got the easy money sniper averaging 3.9 pts in the clutch. (Clutch - Last 5 minutes of games within 5 points) Durant played 28 tight games this season and scored 109 points total when it mattered the most. The most impressive game by KD was the battle of NYC when he dropped 7 of his 53 points in the last minute securing the win for the Nets. He almost got away with the game winner against the Mavs but then, at the last second Spencer Dinwiddie shocked everyone at the Barclays Center.
Number 4 - Nikola Jokic
The Joker balled out last night against the Warriors too, scoring 11 points in a row for Denver in the finish but wasn’t able to prolong the season for the Nuggets. However during the regular season, he was killing it, scoring 4.0 points per game in crunch time on 49.5%. Nothing represents this better than these classic takeover games against the Clippers and the Pelicans twice. Jokic scored 20 of his 49 points in the last 3 minutes of the 4Q and overtime and willed his team to the victory over the Clippers. And he single handedly outscored the Pels twice this season. On December 8, 17 - 14 in the last 3 minutes of the 4th Q and overtime. And again on March 6, 24 - 20 in the clutch for yet another win.
Number 3 - DeMar DeRozan
Coming in at number 3 we got the master of the mid-range - Demar Derozan. Deebo averages 4.1 points in the last 5 minutes of games that went down to the wire. During crunchtime Demar scored 157 points total on an amazing 53.5% shooting. Talking about amazing stuff, Derozan had himself a pretty amazing back 2 back game winners on the road against the Pacers and the Wizards. He’s not a great 3 point shooter, but somehow managed to nail these tightly-contested threes and secure his name in the clutch conversation.
Number 2 - Joel Embiid
In a game against Charlotte earlier in the season, Embiid scored 13 out of the 16 points that the sixers had in the 4th quarter and overtime. 13 out of 16, that’s proper hero mode. And it’s hela clutch.
Joel had an even bigger game against Minnesota, dropping 20 clutch points in a double overtime thriller but unfortunately for him, Philly lost that one at the end.
Embiid had 4.4 clutch points this season at 47.0% from the field and he’s second on this list.
Number 1 - Ja Morant
And finally, at number 1 we got Ja Morant. I guess he is not the first to come to mind when it comes to most points in the clutch but at 4.6 points in the last 5 minutes of close games, Ja led the league in this category.
Against Phoenix he had a game winner that was pretty much the same play call as the one from game 5 from a few days ago. And against Cleveland he scored 10 points in the last 4 minutes of the game to secure the win for the Grizzlies.
At 42.0% however Ja is on the low end on this list when it comes to efficiency but you can see that some of these shots are extremely tough so I give him the benefit of the doubt.
Let me know in the comments who surprised you the most in the top 5. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.