Jamal Crawford contributes to Clippers in subtle ways

Reporting from Oakland —  Jamal Crawford making things happen in the fourth quarter has taken on a new meaning this season.

The super sub was getting ready to check back into the Clippers’ season opener last week when he told Coach Doc Rivers to keep Paul Pierce on the court after Pierce made a go-ahead basket.

The Clippers won the game and Crawford had made a valuable contribution.

“If somebody has it going,” Crawford said Wednesday, “I’m like, let’s go to him and I understand and I get it. It’s basketball, it’s a team sport.”

That’s not to say Crawford’s game has changed. He’s still the leading scorer among the reserves and usually finishes games alongside a group of starters.

It’s just that he’s probably not going to win another sixth-man-of-the-year award given the infusion of talent around him. The Clippers added Pierce, Josh Smith and Wesley Johnson, making Crawford feel like he’s playing with four new teammates since holdover Austin Rivers joined the Clippers roughly halfway through last season.

Crawford likened his situation to playing for Team USA.

“If you look on that team,” Crawford said, “nobody cares about who’s scoring, they just want to win, and that’s kind of my thought process.”

Crawford surpassed 16,000 points Monday in a career that has spanned 16 seasons, becoming the 16th active player to reach that threshold. His ascent on the list has slowed a bit considering his average in points (11.8 per game before Wednesday) is the lowest it has been since his third NBA season, largely a function of his average in minutes (22.0) dipping below where it has been since his second season.

Crawford, 35, has acknowledged being initially hesitant about the new roster composition, unsure of whether pairing so many proven scorers would work. He was not part of the contingent of players and team executives who converged on Houston in July to convince center DeAndre Jordan to re-sign with the Clippers.

Why wasn’t Crawford there?

“I can’t answer that,” said Crawford, who did note that he hosted a pro-am tournament in his Seattle hometown that started the same day.

Crawford also sent out several cryptic tweets over the summer, although he explained that “some of my tweets are basketball related, some aren’t. There’s blurred lines there sometimes.”

There doesn’t appear to be any confusing his acceptance of the reconfigured bench.

“We have more talent,” Crawford said, “and with that comes sacrifice and I’m fine with that.”

Situational matters

Doc Rivers has used an end-of-game lineup shuffle in the season’s early going to get Austin Rivers and forward Luc Mbah a Moute on the court in certain defensive situations.

The coach said a case could be made that his son is one of the team’s top defenders along with Chris Paul and Jordan, and Mbah a Moute has long had a reputation throughout the league as a stopper.

“Luc came in for two plays and was ready and had a great block out in the game the other night [against Phoenix],” Rivers said. “So that just tells you everybody’s just ready to play.”