What is going on, Clippers fans. We are doing a bit of a
live to talk Kawhi Leonard being ruled out against the Nuggets. The team tweeted
out weirdly a little early for the seven PM game that Kawhi Leonard has been
ruled out with knee soreness against Denver. Joshua Primo also out for those of
you wondering about such things. But yeah, Adam oz is going to join
in a second. I'm Chuck Wackler. This sucks pretty hard. I don't
know if we're gonna do this as a podcast episode, so maybe we're just
gonna be fucking around on the live. What's up, data man? He
says, WTF. Yeah? Not ideal? Ideal for sure. I feel
like an idiot. I went on Bleacher Report app this morning and was like,
I think he's just ruled out because they want an extra day of rest
before this five and seven starts. Not to pile on, but the Clippers
do have a five and seven starting today. They play the Nuggets, and
then they play the Jazz, and then they play the Calves I believe,
yep, and then the Suns and then the Suns. So this isn't ideal.
J bo's Eddie four saying, how worried should we be? I don't
know. I feel pretty not good right now. This is again pretty live.
I'm trying to find the Law Murray quotes from Tie about the knee.
Also support your local beat writers. Shout out to law Murray, fantastic beat
reporter. Someone's asking is there a chance he's out for the playoffs. I
don't think we need to go there yet. Let's not Douglas. Let's not
totally lose it at that level yet. I understand a feeling, but yeah,
I don't think we should be worried about that for the playoffs. Yeah,
So here is the timeline for this is yesterday. Tylu said that the
knee issue came up Sunday in Charlotte, so it's been a handful of days.
Totally agree Jabo's so it's been a handful of days. So it reared
up, came up in Charlotte, assuming that it happened in game. I
apologize Carlos. I wish I could do this whole thing in Spanish, but
I can't. I can do a very small part of it, and it
will not be very good. So I'm gonna stay to uh English right now?
Los CIENTO. Yeah, I came up in Sunday have to as see
what happened during the game, and he was ruled out and I think it
was you know, it's not crazy. He should have it was gonna be
on three days rest. But again they're on a five and seven, so
that doesn't really feel good. Level of concern right now, I don't know,
seven out of ten, maybe eight out of ten. Adam or Will's
gonna hop on at some point. Here's Wilbert Beltran, who I think has
been in the last couple of streams what's up lit where he said this seems
like maintenance and preventative. I think we should sit James and PG this game
also, especially games I don't maybe James. James should get some rest.
James looks exhausted. The shoulder doesn't seem like it's totally right. He just
doesn't look like himself. He's got the finger jam ish you. But there's
larger issues at play right now with James Harden. He looks very tired,
no disrespect, he's eaten, and it's for this Clippers team. I would
like this idea more if the Clippers had any semblance of playing well right,
Like, it's not It's not like the Clippers are in the midst of a
stretch where we know that they're showing good process from start to finish, and
if they lose this game poorly, you know, it's just kind of because
whatever the Nuggets are good, we have nothing to really be super encouraged about.
Like if they sit James Harden and PG, this game means absolutely nothing,
and the Clippers need it to mean something, right Like we need to
see some level of championship play. It would have been great to see it
fully squatted up against this Nuggets team. But we're al Kawai, So I
don't think the Clippers can afford to just completely punt this game. They have
other games they might punt before the end of this season. They play the
Calves. Sorry, I think the Rockets at twelve for thirty the last game
of the season. I don't think that game is going to be incredibly that's
like to be super competitive. They have two games against the Suns, that's
nice, that's real games. The game before the Nuggets or the game before
the Rockets is the Jazz. Like, the Clippers can't afford to just like
sit these guys, and I'm not attacking you personally, Wilbert. I understand
this is not a bad idea. James needs rest, but the Clippers just
don't have good enough process to afford to just kick this game right. Like
they need to look good against good teams, which they did for a little
bit against Orlando for sure, we had the Qui takeover, but they haven't
looked start to finish good against a good team in a while, which is
disappointing. I'm usually more positive than this, but it hasn't been very good
U. So yeah, it's just it's a lot. So this is the
weird part. No, I can't but whatever, that's where we are.
It's they took care of business earlier in the regular season and now I don't
know, we're feeling maybe the effects of well, it's nice getting so much
time from Kawhi MPG Kawhi specifically in this one. Again if you're just joining
the scream Kawhi Leonard ruled out for the Clippers game against the Nuggets tomorrow.
Yeah, I don't know. They were supposed to give away stress balls at
this game and they moved that to a different game. Bring them back.
Give away the stress balls tomorrow that we need it. We need the stress
balls. Will and Adam and I are also going to be at the game
tomorrow. If you're not sobbing because of how the Clippers look without Kawhi,
come say what's up? So I'm not putting the comment up, but someone
is saying that we should trade Kawhi for picks. Sure, yeah, I
don't know. I hope this is maintenance. I'll bring the wilbrit take back
up. I hope this is maintenance, uh or preventative, Like we just
don't We're not gonna get any answers. Is the other part. I want
to maybe set I want to maybe level set on what people are gonna ask
about at by people, I mean fans, because we're not reporters. We
just we kind of cover the team, Hey, Junction, Hi, Chuck.
We cover the team, but we're not, you know, beat reporters
or anything like that. So we don't want to step on any toes for
questions. But like people on Twitter, Clippers fans are gonna be asking how
long is Kui gonna be out, what's the extent of the injury? Who?
Again, we're not gonna get any answers. And just like that,
one of the other hosts of this fantastic Pug Animals on is here joining the
show. Adam, what's up? But did you just get back from the
gym? I don't know if Adam can hear me, which is very funny.
I got you check you got me? Yeah? Were you just at
the gym? I was okay, I don't get the news. I saw
you. I saw a whelp in the chat log and I heard about Norman
Palace starting and I was like, uh oh, Joey Lynn was the first
tweet I saw about it. How are you? What's your level of concern?
Huge idea. It's his right knee. That was the first thing I
texted when I heard he was going to be out last game. It's not
just the acl there, it's the meniscus and it's the tendonopathy that is where
he's had all his issues. So how can you not be fully concerned?
Their playoff hopes, championship hopes are hinged and hanging on to Kawhi Leonard and
his health and that right knee. I don't want this error to be defined
just by injuries with this Clippers team. That's what scares me. Uh Now,
we don't want to speculate. I heard if there was an MRI or
anything like that, right, No, So that's what I was kind of
saying. I was kind of level setting, like expectations, like the questions
are going to be how long is he going to be out? They're not
going to tell us. Well, I think we'll probably learn about MRI stuff.
My guess would be pregame tomorrow, get the extent of it from coach
lou then if it's anything more Lawrence Frank, but hopefully not. I don't
want the Lawrence Frank impromptu presser again. Was that this year or last year
that that happened where Lawrence Frank was just like he was just like, hey,
I'm talking I think it was last year. Yeah, I don't want
that. Yeah. I He's been moving so well. Just the last couple
of games. We were just talking about how much more Poppet looked like he
had in the high five. We were talking about the blowboy he had on
Miles Bridges. He had to come back in in that fourth quarter because the
Clippers let go of a nineteen point lead early on in the fourth against Charlotte.
Ah, it's just brutal right now, Clibernation. Feel your pain.
That's why we're here doing the live Yeah, it sucks. I was saying
they should. They need to bring the Stress Ball giveaway back tomorrow. They
moved that to a Sun's game. Wait, here's here's an idea. Here's
a tinfoil hat theory. You're not more stress during a PACTV game, Chuck,
Oh, well, look, let's you can't compare apples the warngers here.
That's a different kind of stress at that ball's like at Epcot Center.
Yeah, I'm bear I'm uh yeah, I'm hugging that thing. When did
they decide to move the giveaway? We gotta figure that out. I have
no idea. Nina Shake says, are you kidding me? No? Or
not? I wish we were kidding. I wish this tweet was two days
ago. And then they hit us within April fools. But alast it is
April third when I heard perhaps Fool's Day. For all us Clippers fans,
the hope is it's knee soreness in the sense that it was with Paul George
that eventually he worked through and he's on the other side of it now and
you can see the difference. But we're talking about the playoffs starting the first
round? What four twenty I think that's actually the date. I'm not making
it d Yeah, So is that just over two and a half weeks from
now? Yeah? Yeah, seventeen days. I kept talking about how you
know, the off time between the end of the regular season and the five
or six days before the first round starts could do wonders for this team.
Obviously, now they need that more than ever. You can't fall into the
plan because you need that time to rest these guys. But they need to
hold onto the forcepot still and they need to play well. I was saying,
someone was saying earlier, Mike Kyramiro is a saying should they sit PG?
Someone suggested sitting PG and Harden and just punting this game. But we
don't have good process to go off of. So I don't think the Clippers
can just chalk this game up as an automatic out, like, right,
can't this game? You can't. We're not playing well enough to be like
here's a piece from four games ago, Like here's this four game block in
the last twenty games where we loved how we looked. We don't have that
to like build off of it. We just let this one go. Well,
look, if there's a game you want to rest, guys, it's
Friday against Utah, and you should still be able to find a way to
win that. That would be the goal in my mind, because again,
you're not just trying to beat the Denver Nuggets to re capture some of that
magic they had during the twenty six and five stretch. Well, they did
beat Denver fully loaded. You need to beat Denver to send them down into
the two three spot in the West, so you don't, if you're lucky
enough to get past the first round, have to deal with them in the
second round. I know that's looking ahead a little bit, but it's a
big part of the equation. I think path of least resistance matters. And
they're hanging on to the number one seed. They're up a half game right
now because they have played one more game than OKC in Minnesota, they don't
have the tiebreaker against OKC. It's very possible that they could be in that
two three and you can help that happen with a win tomorrow if they don't
have Jamal Murray playing tomorrow, who's been out. I mean, they were
in a close one against the San Antonio Spurs last night, even with Nikola
Jokic having what forty and fifteen or something like that. Yeah, it's a
huge game still, and it's an opportunity to prove they're three and four right
now without Kawhi Leonard. And it's more so just the eye test of how
they have looked in those games without him, where their principles just fall by
the wayside, where they don't play well defensively at all. Because as bad
as they have been on the defensive end since the Grammy road trip, we've
been talking about it at nauseum, but that's really the line of demarcation where
things change for this Clippers team. February sixth is when they came back from
the road trip. They're twenty eighth defensively since then, and they're really twenty
eighth in their last thirty two games are in the numbers on that earlier today.
But if we just go off the Grammy road trip, where their last
twenty six games are thirteen and thirteen, their defensive rating is about one point
eighteen over that time. Now, if you check out the difference Kawhi Leonard
makes in the on off numbers to their defense and how much better they are
just when he has been on the court. On the court, they go
from being basically one twenty the last couple of months, so one eleven with
him on the court at least on the season. So they're much better with
Kawhi Leonard out there, but the personnel still be enough. It's not just
that Kawhi Leonard is this defensive savant, which he is. There's something more
going on. They forget how to play basketball when he's not out there.
They're just they don't. We heard the same thing from Tye yesterday postgame,
specifically about the offensive rebounds. He's like, guys, don't Guys weren't cracking
back when Zoo was challenging or going for a block, And like Kawhi does
those things and then those it's just so much worse when he's off. I
couldn't stand the fact that yesterday, yeah, I was saying it before I
heard that from Coach Lou postgame, and that was me in the opening segment
saying, like, guys, the least you can do when you let your
man go by you, so Zoo has to make up for it at the
rim and go to block that shot is to then help him out and box
his man out afterwards. That's the least you can do. And they weren't
even doing that and haven't been doing that. That's man, that's really disheartening
to see from this Clippers team right now. I'm trying to get an update
now on Jamal Murray and see where he's now. He's had a knee injury
too. I don't know if it's listed as knee soreness. Do we have
two players in this game that could be making missing it for the same reason,
And I don't know if it's his acl knee. You know, that's
just what concerns me more when I hear it's his right knee with Kawhi that's
so. Yeah, someone in the lot and the comments is saying, do
you think it's super seriously just playing it safe. I think the fact that
it's in the right knee is a very fair thing to be worried about because
it's the same knee. Yeah, I mean, we don't know, because
it could just be wearing tear, knee soreness. He hasn't played wear in
tear, He hasn't played this many games. It could just be a taxing
long regular season where he hasn't played this many games since twenty sixteen, twenty
seventeen with San Antonio Spurs and him just feeling a little bit worn down.
Jamal Murray is questionable, so not out, but I bet they keep him
out now if they know Kawhi Leonard's out, why would they press things?
Right? Yeah, they have a handful of games left too, they can.
I mean there also, there's no reason to exactly fear the Clippers without
Kawhi right now, there's not, and they need to change that. Well.
Obviously, if you don't have Kawhi Leonard in a playoff run, you're
not winning the championship anyways. Correct. They still need to show that your
identity can remain even when you're missing one player. That's typically how you get
by. That's how it was in past years where they didn't have Kawhi for
the entire season, where they had Paul George for thirty one games in the
twenty one to twenty two season, and they still ended up I think eighth
defensively, like that was their identity stepping up being a tough mind defensive team
and coming up with big comebacks and clutch moments. That's who they were regardless
of who was out there, the whole was greater than the sum of its
parts. Now it seems like the other way around. It's just fractured.
Or Yeah, there's they, for whatever reason, the more talented Clippers team,
but that talent isn't coalescing and coming together and at least the last two
months making up for you know, the fact that one guy's out. If
you have Paul George, do you have James Harden, if you have Russ
coming off the bench, you should be better than this. That Sacramento King's
team was missing two of their big maybe one of their big three, but
they were missing you know, two guys ancillary, huge role players in Kevin
Herder and Malik Monk. Yeah, and what they did or what they do
their makeup still remained. It was still there. You could see it last
night. The way they play was still evident that that was King's basketball.
That needs to happen for the Clippers. Yeah. I tweeted it out from
the show account, like are we going to get the how do we play
basketball? Clippers? Or the backs against our wall Clippers? And I hate
that I have to even ask the question this late in the season. Is
what's a little frustrating. Greg was a great point here, Jamal is playing
as a player list question, I ever missed the game against the Clippers A
very good point. Uh, Gregy, Yeah, it's weird. It doesn't
feel good right now at all. Well, this was the test of whether
or not it was just getting Kawhi Leonard a little bit more rest because there's
a five and seven coming up. It's late in the season. Things are
looking pretty good for you being the four seed. There are two games up,
but really three games up because they have a tiebreaker over Dallas. Yeah,
and maybe they were just getting him a little bit of rest against Sacramento,
but because of the importance of the Denver Nuggets game for multiple reasons,
this was the test of seeing, oh, was it something more than just
giving him a little bit of rest. That's where the concern I think comes
in because some people wrote this off as load management. Some people wrote this
off as just yeah, it's Kawhi's turn to get a break, just like
it was against the Golden State Warriors right before the All Star Break. Yeah.
Yeah, And people are clinging to the rest idea that they're just resting
Kawhi. But I mean they have a five and seven like they need.
They don't. Again, there's no precedent that they're gonna like they can build
on right now. It's very possible. It's still not some huge issue with
the knee, and they do just need to get him rest. Nuggets be
damned. I just look at that game as being significant because it's a team
the Clippers have had issues against, and it's a way to build confidence down
the stretch heading into the playoffs. If they could get a win against Denver,
it would completely make up for what happened against the Sacramento Kings the other
night. You beat the Denver Nuggets, you're more than happy. Yeah,
you would have won four or five. Yeah, absent regards, says Tucker,
will guard Yokis for stretches tomorrow. Adam's dream becoming a reality is never
said. It was my dream, son of a bitch. I don't.
Yeah. So that's the backup center rotation that we don't know what the lineups.
Yeah, we don't know what's gonna happen in the playoffs race Marlin.
So I don't like you guys mentioned it, but Windhorse hinted on his podcast,
and it was serious enough for him to have to fly back to LA
to get it examined. Well, that's just a fact that he flew back
to LA. We don't know if he got it examined, but we know
he got treatment. That's what they came out with. I believe the quote
from Ty's better treatment was what he said, if you really want But I'm
not getting into the minutial with that. It's a forty five minute flight.
I didn't put a ton into that. Yeah, it's not going I'm not
reading a lot into that. He's not gonna let he's not having Yeah,
there's no layovers on the flight that he's doing to get it right. And
you have a home stand coming up. There's one more game road, There's
one more game on the road in Phoenix. That's it. Yeah, last
seven. You would think that would be very encouraging, but of course they
lost their last five games at home. I still don't buy into the maybe
we're a better road team, we should start on the road, And coach
lou did say that one of his postgame pressers recently, maybe we should maybe
we should start on the road. But I think he was just in a
sour mood after a rough loss that was after what happened last week, and
I believe with the back to back losses at home. Yeah, he man,
he has been in a sour mood rightfully, so yeah, the past
couple weeks, which sucks. He definitely seemed more upbeat and encouraged by some
things last night postgame. I was a little bit surprised by he thought.
They did play some good defense here and there, and then the floodgates eventually
broke. But you look at the numbers in that game against the Sacramento Kings
without Kawhi Leonard Kawhi Leonard granted, and they're tied at twenty four at the
end of a tough shooting first quarter for everybody. But by the end of
it, the Kings were twelve for forty two. I think there was something
like eleven for thirty three from three heading into that fourth quarter. They weren't
shooting it great, it was just they were getting extra opportunities. They got
up sixteen more shots than the Clippers because of all the offensive rebounds when the
Clippers gave up twenty, So it wasn't like they weren't getting a stop initially
they were. They weren't closing out and ending the possession by getting a board.
Yeah, and I like what you said, it's not like they weren't
playing like for a part of it. I think it was the first half
you said, like, it's not that they're playing hard, they're not playing
smart, which when you look at the turnovers, is I think a nice
indicay it was. Yeah, some of those I want to attribute to mental
fatigue. Some of the ones James Harden having five turnovers to eight assists when
he just had a ten assist to zero turnover game. Some of the turnovers
with Russ having three of them in the third quarter were brutal where he's just
flying down the lane and throwing it away to the defense looking for Paul George.
Even Norm having a really bad one in the third quarter, some of
those could have been mental fatigue. One foot out the doors the final game
of the road trip. I don't want to explain it away like that and
make excuses for them, but it does happen here and there to everyone,
and the Clippers have been better overall. I think they just had eight turnovers.
That's it against the Charlotte Hornets in that contest. Before you can say
it's the Hornets but for the most part this season, especially at this point,
I don't care who it's against us late in the season, we need
to look good. Like the Celtics barely beat them the very next night when
they have the Hornets on a back to back. So do their fans do
the same thing and say, that's not a very good victory and we should
have won with more style points. When you look into the details of everybody
else, you know there are flawed wins or scheduled type of losses by every
team in the league when you get into the nitty gritty and look at their
schedule on a granular level, like you do the Clippers. But because we're
more focused on them, we tend to be much more critical. Of course,
Yeah, oh, I like this idea that Coffee. I don't know,
maybe I don't like to see a Coffee should start over norm tomorrow,
Norm tomorrow, if Jamal Murray is playing the defense, if I predict maybe
a double digit deficit in the first quarter. Coffee had a really rough game
against Sacramento. Also, by the way, as I thought, the last
three games before that, he'd been turning a corner a little bit, and
Aamir was bad on both ends. One of six from the field, one
of four from the outside. He led them in. The plus minus was
a minus eighteen out there had just one made shot, it was a three
pointer. But his defense wasn't very good. I thought Terrence Man had some
pretty good defense at times on deeron Fox and really took the challenge. He
got mad at himself when Fox got that little fall away in the paint where
he thought he had it defended every which way. And of course he's Darren
Fox, that's what he can do. But if Jamal Murray is playing,
yeah, I could definitely see that you lean into defense then, and a
mere Coffee has been starting games whenever, at least at times when Kawhi has
been out, and definitely when Paul George has been out this season. Yeah,
yeah, Amir is just I don't know. He's up and down.
He's got the size though, but the wingspan's not really there. It's a
wonky roster right now, which people are being upset about. Yeah. I'm
seeing people say, like I told you we should have got that athletic power
forward. Cool, how did they do it? What's who's the guy?
It's very easy to say that without any specifics or any bit of realistic possibility
in there of a team that's actually willing to give one up for what with
the Clippers, you want to give away their last first round pick until twenty
thirty till twenty thirty one, I guess because it would be the twenty thirty
pick. Man. People are also the arena opening next year with how this
year is ending, is tense. If I were the person opening the arena,
I would say things do not seem to be trending how I wanted them
to. Well, the year is still the season is still yet to be
defined. Yes, rights, what happens in the playoffs is ultimately how people
are going to look back on this season and remember it sure could still go
one of two ways, this rut that they've been in, and the contracts,
whatever happens with PG and Harden's contracts. Yeah, but I just mean
on the court, is anyone going to remember what has happened in the defensive
numbers the last two months? If they get to the Western Conference finals,
is anybody going to be talking about that? No? You can zero on
the record. Yeah you will be, and that's fair. But that's your
baby race, Marlin. Yeah, I love this take. If there actually
is a switch tomorrow against some uggles to be a tremendous time to flip it.
Just flip the switch early, what it will say. If the switch
is so easy to flip, let's flip the switch a little early. There's
not that much time left before the playoffs. I don't think pg's playing every
game from here on out. I bet guys sit that last game, the
twelve thirty game. But yeah, let's flip it. Everyone else flipped the
switch. Kawhi has shown you how to do it. Let's do it.
It's just hard to replicate postseason basketball in the regular season. It's just very
difficult. But no, you're right. If it's that easy, if it's
just about desire, if it's about effort, if it's about a mindset,
why not just get there now? Why wait? Things already are getting dire,
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Flip the switch, flip the switch,
and really, you know, on our last show, we were talking
about our biggest concerns, and I mentioned James Harden and his play and just
how he looks out there, and he goes one for seven against the Kings
and had those five turnovers to eight assists. I was gonna say, you
know, I'm more concerned about that, but obviously now I'm thinking about Kawhi
Leonard and the right knee. But in terms of things that could change tomorrow,
they need a great James Harden game. They need Paul George to take
more than twelve shots. I know he didn't play in the fourth quarter,
but twelve shots is still not enough. Come out firing. If you're gonna
lose without Kawhi Leonard, at least play the right way, please. That's
Clipper Nation is looking for. That's a great call. Yeah, good process.
We just want good process. We need good process right now. Like
they've built up twenty bad habits, can you undo them in time? With
seven games left, I think you can have a spirited victory in the fashion
the Clippers have in past seasons, and that can rally you and galvanize you
down the stretch and be meaningful. That's the opportunity that is in front of
them taking on the Denver Nuggets. You know, if Jamal Murray's not playing,
if you take them down without Kawhi Leonard, I'm putting a feather in
my cap. A great victory that's a great victory if you get your first
win at home in what three weeks? A month? How long has it
been since they last won a home game? Now since they won lost five
in a row. Yeah, give the fans something to hold onto and something
to cheer about. I've heard people critics as well. Some of it's on
the Clippers fans, but they haven't been playing good ball at home. Okay.
So the last two were obviously Indiana in Philadelphia. Before that, it
was the bad loss to Atlanta. Before that, they came up small against
Minnesota. Before that it was Milwaukee. So there's your last five losses.
So the last win at home, and that Milwaukee game was without Kawhi,
without Paul George. The last win at home came against Chicago. The day
before that was on March night. It has almost been a month since they
won a game at home. It's time. I'm excited to be in the
Yeah, please please dig deep. Don't come out and give up sixty points
in transition and twenty two extra field goal attempts to the Nuggets, because part
of me thinks that might happen more. It's been the same issues. James
Harden last night was talking about them giving up extra opportunities the defense. When
he was asked last night about what's the one thing I think this was a
question from OM that you'd like to see return from what they had during the
twenty six and five stretch in thirty one games, and he said defense.
I think it could come down to just their defense being what sparks their offense
and gets them easier shots. And it all starts there. And they're good
enough still without Kawhi Leonard to play much better defense than what we've seen over
the last two months. For the most part, it has been there at
times. Look against Orlando there was good defense played. I know Kawhi was
there for that. I told you, yeah, I agree. I brought
that up earlier. I was like, Orlando, was there some pieces of
the game where you really like take away from that game? Stuff to take
away from Philly. They're more than capable even without Kawhi Leonard. Ugh,
they are, we know they are. I yesterday, what was the quotes
yesterday that made me feel uneasy? Hold on? Uh? It was something
different from what Lou said and what PG said. So they were asked about
like how the you know, the road trip went, or whatever, and
Tyler said, I mean great trip three and one. Coming out on this
trip to go three and one, I thought it was a really good trip
for us. Paul George was asked the same thing, if they learned about
their identity and toughness as a team went three and one over his trip.
This is from Justin Russo's piece, and he said, I'm not sure.
It's a question you have to ask TYLERU of where he thinks we're at at
this point. I just still think those two quotes do not sound like two
people feeling some Potti Cob the team is there. Maybe he's a little bit
sore over Coach lou postgame saying, you know, ask PG now ask him
about that identity now, I don't know. Obviously didn't need to get on
the same page. They got to come together. It's a really difficult time
for this team after so long of having Kawhi Leonard being so reliable for them
all year long, and look this good and now it's the worst case scenario.
At the moment, we don't know the extent of it, but we
just know he's going to be out for this game and it is the right
knee. Come together be resilient right now, Joe, mental toughness. Now,
this is what they used to do all the time. So you know,
I've mentioned how they built up some bad habits over the years, but
and that's hard to do away with in one season. Well, this was
a good habit. This was something an area that you to thrive in when
the Chips were down. This Clippers team finding ways to win ball games when
they were counted out. I hope. All I have is hope. All
we have is hope right now. We have no real evidence. We just
have hope. Yeah. The hope is Kawhi Leonard is nothing too serious and
that the Clippers find themselves again with this. Did you do that or fake
some levity a little bit? You know, things works over. I guess
that's good. We're all concerned right now, Clipper Nation, of course.
All I just want time to get right for all Kawhi, which is unfortunate.
It's two and a half weeks about from now until the start of the
first round. I don't want to see them starting the first round on the
road in Dallas, though, and that is very possible if he misses extended
a period of time where now we're talking about you know, four or five
games here so far, it's been one. We know it's at least going
to be two. I would, you know, I don't know about what's
going to happen Friday night against the Utah Jazz, second night of a back
to back. Are they really gonna bring Kawhi Leonard back for that? But
look, we've gotten some scares with him this season with his wrist. Let's
think about this with his wrist, with his back injury, and he came
back the very next day and it didn't turn out to be that serious.
Paul George and the injury he had last year, well, yes, it
took him out for the season. He didn't have to have surgery, nothing
tour like. In that sense, they dodged a little bit of a bullet.
I'm not saying the basketball gods have completely been looking out for the Clippers
by any stretch of the imagination. But when that happened that night against what
Lou dorton the OKC Thunder, I thought that was the end of this era
because it looks so bad At the time, the hyper extension was PG.
Thirteen. In the last two months, he's looked like peak Paul George the
last month, I should say, in March, he's looked like peak Paul
George again after dealing with his own left knee soreness, after dealing with a
groin injury. So prayers up to the basketball gods that Kawhi is just dealing
with a little bit of I'm not going to say the phrase that I said
earlier, chuck, just a little bit of soreness because he's played so much
for the first time in almost a damn decade. In eight years, right,
that's different on your body. We were all kind of wondering this season
starting things off him playing power forward. What that would do? Is it
less taxing on your body, not having to guard as many guys around the
perimeter and being more stationary, but being more physical in the post in the
restricted area, having to rebound more, having a box out more. I
would have said before this that it looks like it was the right move.
I was an idiot. So I did the Bleacher Report stream this morning and
I literally the first note I did at nine am. So my first note
is, you know Kawhi missed the game last night, dude to write anee
sortness. I think this is just because of the five and seven and he's
going to be back against the Nuggets because I liked the move. I praised
the move, and now I'm just like shit, no one watches their app
anyway, So I guess that's fine. But it could very well just be
they're not valuing valuing this game against Denver to push things with Kawhi as much
as some of us are. And there's some truth to that. They're they're
basically three games up on the Dallas Mavericks in the four spot, not one
game, not two games three because of the tie breaker, So maybe they
think they do have a little bit more of a cushion here to get Kawhi
some much needed rest. And that's all it is. As the cat crossfade
happens, making sure you're there's probably some claws on that cat. There's there's
a connection with Kawhi, there is a de claude No then there, Yeah,
definitely not. It's a real ass cat race. Marlin with a great
take. Maybe the Clippers are just so big brain they're putting horrible tape out
just to shock the world in the playoffs. I like that idea, the
old special. Yeah, two months of bad tape that check themselves out of
having a with bad tape. Almost so half the season we've gotten a five
hundred team. The other half we have gotten a god to your team.
Who are they? What's their identity? Something that came up last night with
Will and I and I thought was interesting if I can recount exactly what he
said, but it was basically, you know, principles, identity, what
do you fall back on when times are hard? And I was even asked
on Rogan and Rodney earlier today, what's their identity? I think that was
the first question because they brought up Paul George questioning that and James Harden and
I said to me, it's the same as last season. They've been consistently
inconsistent. Not an identity you want to have, but it's the truth.
I think at their best, Yes, tough mind, defensive team, explosive
offense. We saw it, not for a week, not for two weeks,
not for a month, for two and a half month, yes,
really thirty one games, Okay, maybe a little over two months. It
was a significant portion of the season. That's not nothing. Yeah, And
what I said on a recent podcast here was well, it seemed like they
found the switch to turn things off because things changed drastically so quickly after the
Grammy road trip. Can it be that simple to turn to get back on?
Yeah, this is a tough one. This is a tough one for
Colpers fans. I just you know, I'm sure we'll get more clarity tomorrow
on Kawhi and what's going on if he had an MRIs clarity, Yes,
more than we have now for sure, because I was leaning the same way
you were that this is just eh season maintenance. That's what Paul George call
is left knee injury. It's maintenance. It's what happens during an a two
in game season. It could be that for Kawhi, it's just something he
hasn't experienced in a while because he hasn't played this many games since twenty sixteen,
twenty seventeen. It's not fair. It's I know what was us,
all those bad feelings, PTSD, Clippers, Gonna Clipper, I know all
these things. They're cursed. I don't want to believe any of it.
I don't not a curse guy. No, we've had the curse on the
pod. It was what did the Red Sox do to break the curse?
What did the Cubs do to break the curse. They didn't have a seance.
Well after the Cubs won the world kind of went to shit if you
kind of look at the timeline of after the Cubs won the World Series.
Okay, downhill, Do Cubs fans care about that? No? They got
their ring? Yeah, very true. All right, I think this probably.
I don't know how much more we can really dig into this, so
I think we just have to leave and have everyone walk away slowly. Everyone
just walk away slowly. Thanks for hanging out people and hopping in. Yeah,
we appreciate everybody here on the live. Chuck and I were just texting
randomly. I was coming back to the jam. I was like, I
can be home in five. You want to do a quick live here because
I think people I want to at least. I don't know if we've soothed
anyone or waged any fears. This bit was funny. People like this.
That probably makes people feel a little bit better off the screen. It's simple
enough. Wait now it's just you, so you look like a crazy person.
All right, we should get out of here. Uh. We hope
everyone has a good rest of your night. Here's to good or just not
bad. More news tomorrow. Knock on wood. If you're going to the
game, say what's up? If you see us, We'll be there.
Will, We'll be there. I'll be Section one eleven comes say Hi.
They had me in the nicer seats last game. Well, I think it's
because the Clippers aren't playing very well, so they had some extra media.
I refuse to believe that. Usually they have Will and I freezing in the
press box, which we do love. I expect to see you court side,
right next to the guys on the TNT broadcast. I don't know who
it's going to be. Is this a TNT only game. I haven't even
checked on that. Me and Goldstein. You might be next to uh,
Jim Jackson if he's doing the tn T game. It is the tn T
game. Oh, that means there's going to be a Chris Hay's update,
Chrissy Tigan Grim's face. Well, I hope it's a good update. It's
a positive update, all right. Yeah, the Steaks have been raised in
more ways than just winning a game against the Denver Nuggets. Snell, the
concern is about Kawhi Leonard, as it should be. This is everything,
this is everything. We hope everyone has somehow in productive day tomorrow while we
wait for this news. Sleep well, Sleep well, everybody, that's the
Do you have any sleep? Yeah, your melatonin, your promethzine, whatever
you use to fall asleep. We're doing a live stream after the game.
We were already planning on doing that anyway, so that worked out. Okay,
we're gonna be doing a live stream post game. We're all three gonna
be on it. It's gonna be from the press box. Adam is gonna
be at his spot in one eleven, and the vibes will be whatever the
Clippers dictate the vibes to be. Maybe we could just take a picture or
I don't know. We're all kind of holding each other embracing for the report.
We look desponded in the last one we took in the press room,
so maybe we'll take another one of those. I love that picture. All
right. We await the Chris Hanes update tomorrow. We hope everyone has a
good rest your day, and as always, let's go click