FORMER National Basketball League (NBL) Next Star Trentyn Flowers was a shining light for the San Diego Clippers despite the fact that they ended up falling to Jack McVeigh and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League on Wednesday.

Despite going undrafted at the 2024 NBA Draft, he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers on a two-way contract shortly after, and has been plying his trade with the team’s G League affiliate in San Diego. Since joining the team, he has steadily improved over the course of the season, and is now putting together a tremendous campaign.

Averaging 19.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, he is one of San Diego’s premier scoring options, particularly standing up when the likes of Jordan Miller and Kobe Brown are called into the NBA side. Flowers has certainly justified his claims as an NBA-level talent and delivered another excellent performance against the Vipers.

He was the Clippers most productive player, stepping up when it was a tough shooting night for fellow offensive gun Cam Christie. The Vipers are full of offensive weapons, and one of the toughest teams to match when it comes to scoring production, but Flowers’ efforts kept the Clippers in the match despite the 13-point loss, with his side outscored by 11 in the final term, which decided the game.

The most impressive facet of his performance was his three-point shooting, which has improved out of sight over the course of the season. Initially hesitant to fire off a long range attempt when he joined San Diego, he now is happy to pull up from behind the arc, and can knock down a triple off the dribble or straight out of a catch.

He nailed five three-pointers on eight attempts, and torched the Vipers from behind the arc, making them work harder on close outs when he had the ball around the arc.

It looked as if the Vipers were going to run away with the match in the first half, before Flowers went on an individual 7-0 run to breathe some life into his side on the eve of half time. It was a pure display of shotmaking as he looked to take his defender one-on-one, with the highlight coming in the form of a crafty stepback triple.

It was a mature scoring performance from Flowers, who looked like a serious offensive weapon for the Clippers and was more than capable of playing both on and off ball. While Christie had a quiet game, his passing set up Flowers on multiple occasions, and the former Next Star was the biggest positive for San Diego in a tough loss.

On the other hand, McVeigh finished with 11 points on 4/10 shooting from the field. Always confident in his own scoring ability, the Aussie got to his spots and was a solid offensive contributor for Rio Grande Valley.

He nailed a pair of important triples in the third quarter as it looked like the Clippers were making a charge, steadying the ship for his team with some catch and shoot makes from behind the arc. As he has shown at both NBL and international level, he is as pure of a scorer as Australia has to offer, and delivered some big moments for the Vipers once again.