Hedo Turkoglu makes presence felt with Clippers

Rivers got to make a couple of discoveries during the Clippers’ seven-game road trip and one of his favorites was veteran forward Hedo Turkoglu, who joined the team just in time to leave for the trip.
“He’s playing great,” Rivers said. “I was even surprised in the first game by his ballhandling. Usually when you’ve missed the amount of games he’s missed, that’s the last thing that comes around because of the speed of the game. His passing — we run that 4-5 pick-and-roll, which is unorthodox — and he’s making passes that it looked like he’d been playing all along.”
Entering Wednesday’s game, Turkolgu was averaging 2.7 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes. But his presence has been felt by the Clippers off the court as well.
“The first game that he dressed, DJ came out and lost his mind over some play and before I got to him, Hedo ran out on the floor and grabbed him, told him he was wrong and let’s move on,” Rivers said. “I looked at them, and that’s a stranger talking to him right now.
“They listen because they know he’s been around. It’s easy for players to listen to each other when they have the right thing at heart. I think that makes a good team.”