Is it silly and churlish to grumble about NBA preseason performances? Absolutely. But if Karl-Anthony Towns can gush after the Timberwolves win over the Warriors last Saturday that “I saw a lot of glimpses of MVP D-Rose,” in reference to Derrick Rose’s 16-point performance, then it is fair to note the re-emergence of “2017-18 Cleveland Cavs D-Rose” against the Clippers on Wednesday night.



It is not Rose’s fault that he is being utilized as a 6-foot-3 shooting guard in the Wolves’ starting lineup and the Clippers happen to have a pair of accurate shooting stretch forwards in 6-foot-9 Tobias Harris and 6-foot-10 Danilo Gallinari. It took one basic switch to get Rose matched up on Gallo for the Clips’ first possession, and the ease with which the larger player ignored Rose’s closeout while burying a 21-footer foretold bad things for the two starting lineups.



On the Clippers next possession they found Harris behind the...