Clippers take two in Portland, winning on Wednesday and then tonight for the most
part in more impressive fashion. I would say the backups let up the twenty
six point lead late, they still won one twenty five to one seventeen over
the Blazers. Welcome back into Clippers stock. I'm out of Mosland. Eight
six six ninety seven two five seventy is the phone number if you want to
talk about I don't know the elementary school I went to Franklin or anything like
that, if you're like that color John. But right now we got a
guy from Montana on and big Chuck Mackler. I hope that wasn't TMI or
giving out too much info there. It's well known, right Chuck, Come
on Montana Forever. Yeah, not at all, Absolutely up with Montana.
Let's talk about this Clippers team and just what occurred tonight, because the big
takeaway for me was Paul George and Kawhi Leonard looked about as quick as I
had seen them in the two P one three era. Yeah, I mean
it was. It was great to see the process. You know, you
mentioned the lead getting blown, which your tweet was great too, because when
the starters played you know, think things were good in this game, but
you're right, Kawhi and Paul George are moving so well. Kawhi hit like
a little crossover between the legs moves that had so much force and agility with
it, right because he always has the force on those jab steps and stuff.
But he had the quickness after it too, which was really cool to
see. And yeah, Paul George, he was putting his head down early
in this one. Paul George had seven free throws. I would bet in
most games where Paul George has you know, over five free throws or six
free throws, the Clippers probably win most of those games because it means he's
getting into the paint. It meanings. If he's not getting free throws,
that just means the balls in the paint anyway for the Clippers. So a
lot of good stuff from you know, two and three tonight. Obviously you
want to see Harden hit a couple more shots here and there, but this
was, you know, a game that they were going to win, but
we wanted to see them build good process and I thought the most part we
saw that. Yeah, and two one three, they kind of led the
way when it came to building good habits. Paul George, by the way,
his last eleven games now is getting almost twenty five points on fifty three
percent from the field and forty four percent from three So, uh, maybe
he's feeling much better because that Dunky almost had on Moses Brown, and he's
had a lot of almost dumps. Yeah, like that was nasty. Just
the explosiveness tonight from those two just was very noticeable, uh to me,
and very encouraging to see. Of course, we love it, but I
do want to talk about Big Zoo. Can he get more than three shots?
Chuck. You know, I'm gonna be upset about that. You know,
I'm gonna be upset about that. I know we want to played eighteen
minutes. But still yeah, so that's you know, we talked about the
stars being really good light and the process was good for the most part.
But I do think and in the playoffs, yes, obviously Kawhi, Paul
George's and James Harden's field goal tens of minutes, they're all going to go
up zoos, might you know, stay the same, But I'm wondering if
they're kind of maybe getting Zoo used to a playoff diet of shops or something
like that, right, because I hope not I need more than three.
I hope it's more than three too. I don't want to make it seem
like that, but I yeah, we hopefully the pick and roll maybe has
some more emphasis against different competition. No disrespect to the Blazers, but that
roster they put out there tonight, just from the guys they had available because
of the injuries and everything, it's kind of a weird one, I think,
to take a lot away from when it comes to, you know,
stringent half court offense. So we'll see how it looks at twelve thirty on
Sunday, you know, against the Sixers who are also down obviously very you
know, a key piece. But I hope he gets more than three.
But he did look good otherwise, right, he did, he did.
I don't know. I guess I'm looking for something just to give the full
scope of what happened tonight and make sure, okay, you're chasing, but
it could still be more perfect than it was tonight. The one thing I'll
say, though, even though it was Portland, what I saw from Kawhi
and Paul George really has nothing to do with that. With their individual movement
and just looking very healthy and fresh out there. And also the Clippers were
attacking so quickly. They didn't play with their food at all. I mean,
being up forty two to twenty seven over the Portland Trailblazers, most people
would think, Okay, they're gonna slow roll into this one. They're gonna
slow drip into this one. Maybe lead by a couple points heading into the
second quarter. I mean I think they were down by one or two heading
into the second quarter on Wednesday night. No, no, no, they
hit the ground running tonight. There was purpose out there. Yeah, and
I was I don't know if I was underwhelmed by the first game against Portland
this week. I think I guess I was whelmed to quote ten things I
hate about you, but I was pleasant, you know. I liked the
process in this one, right, because you're right they were. It was
fut on the throat. They did what they were there to do. There
was kind of a hiccup there. PJ. Tucker only played eight minutes,
and I say that because he's played a lot of minutes lately. So TYLERU
had to deal with that and calf injury. It sounded like I was trying
to decipher post. Yeah, we hope it's just the calf. And then
you kind of have this weird thing too with with Bones. He you know,
the body language has been rough from Bone lately. Obviously his roles changed
a lot, but that's odd for him to deal with, it, seems,
so we hope that gets figured out. But yeah, just you know,
just I hope Bones is doing all right because he I think he does
have a future with the team. The last two games coming into this one,
uh yeah, some bad body language. You could see it out there.
He just looked a little bit unfocused, a little bit checked out,
And I'm not sure why, because you know, he started a couple of
games and I thought for the most part, especially that game of Chicago,
where he looked fantastic. But even in the Law of the Pelicans, I
didn't think he played bad. Uh. I thought it was up and down,
but you expect that from a young player. And then he didn't look
good against Atlanta. He definitely didn't look good, and he was pulled early
in that game Wednesday for Brandon Boston, as I think coach lu saw he
just the energy wasn't right there. And then tonight what he played for in
consequential minutes very late in the ballgame, Like, yeah, it was I
mean Moon was in there before he was, So that kind of says it
all. That is disappointing, especially for a skeleton keyholder like myself. But
how about Terren's man back back in the starting lineup with a bullet like Terror's
Man looked fin. I was a little bit worried because you know, he
gets hurt in practice after talking about having that ankle injury before that practice took
place and being one hundred percent finally and then he has a shoulder issue,
but he missed one game, came back, he looked fantastic tonight. Yeah,
Man is hitting the exact kind of you know, upswing that you need
a player like Terrence Man to hit for a playoff team. Right, he
is a starter, but he's very much the fifth option for the starting lineup
offensively. So he was wildly efficient tonight, which is great if the ball
is gonna somehow find his way to him on offense. I don't think any
of us are super worried about that. You want him to, you know,
make some quicker decisions when it comes to shooting, but you know,
in the playoffs. I think he's gonna be okay. But he's he handled
Scoot right like he's that's their point of attack guy, right, So he's
kind of got to handle him well enough to shuffle him off to two win
three in the playoffs. So his point of attack defense is looking solid and
his offense is looking decisive, which is the best possible version of Terrence Man
and the version of the Clippers are going to need depending who they play in
the first round. Speaking of that, they're currently a game and a half
up on the New Orleans Pelicans, Clippers in the four spot, New Orleans
in the five they earlier tonight, Dallas Mavericks. There are a couple games
behind the Pelicans. We saw the Brandon Ingram injury. Thankfully it's not as
bad as it looked last night. That's great news for Pelicans fans. For
the entire NBA, he's one of my favorite players to watch because he embraces
the mid range game. It's just fun. He looks he looks very similar,
you know, because the expectations were so high with him coming out of
Duke and they were talking about him being Kevin Durant, and at this point,
you know, he's like seventy percent at least of what Kevin Durant is,
and that's a pretty damn good player, and he's been an All Star
before. But what will it take for your faith to be rewarded in this
Clippers team with just thirteen games left to say, Okay, they're back.
They had that rut, they had that bump in the road, They're now
ten to ten post Grammy road trip last twenty games. What's it gonna take
for you to really start believing again that they can get back to that level
they were for two months. So I'm not so much worried about the record,
right because if good process, which is what I'm you know, it's
a pretty broad term, but that's just what I'm worried about because this Clippers
team, you know, you know, we had the nine game win stream,
but outside of that, it's been a little disjointed. So I want
to see good process. With good process comes wins for a roster like this
and a team that we have seen kind of hit close to its peak this
season. So I just want to see good process down the line. I
would love to see Paul George continue this up screing on offense and you know
on the other side of the wall too, and TYLERU. I hope we
see some not playoff rotations, you know what I mean, necessarily, but
maybe the playoff rotation a little more figured out because right now, you know,
we have Russell Westbrook coming back for the pacer the game on Monday,
which he's gonna get some playoffs minutes, so he's got to get back into
the rotation and things like that. So I'm going to be looking at Tyler's
rotations mostly this last little bit because that's also going to dictate, you know,
how good of process the Clippers aren't able to who's out there. I
like that. That's a good point. Do we have a YouTube coming up
tomorrow? We're gonna preview the back to back tomorrow. Chuck, Yeah,
I believe we are. Okay, that's pretty cool too. He is Chuck
Mockler of Clips and Dip. Look for that YouTube. Not sure if it'll
be alive or not, but it will be on the YouTube channel at Clippers
Podcast is where you can find that for Clips and Dip. Charles, thanks
for doing a little double dip tonight here on Clipper Sock. Hey always a
good time to come on when they win. It's usually not your thing.
Will so jealous right now, so jelly, thank you, Chuck. I'm
a good one.