Clippers have lost six of nine. They lose one thirty three to one sixteen
on the second or the back end, I mean back to back at home,
this time to the Indiana Pacers who broke them early on in the fourth
quarter. Welcome back in. I'm out of Mosland. We got the music.
So I think that means it's basically turning into a complete episode of clips
and dip. We can only have one on no, I've ah, yeah,
all right, it's Chuck's night. Anyways, Chuck or as yours my
friends, if you want to complain about the Clippers, talk about what's going
on, the fact we couldn't get Will on too at the same time,
whatever you uh, steer this Clipper ship right now, Okay, I forget.
I'm I'm just tired, man, right like I think tonight, none
of it ever felt real, if that makes sense, when the Clippers were
kind of playing well, because when the Clippers are doing one thing well,
they're never doing all things well right now specifically or not even right now.
In the last you know, half of the games they've played this season,
it seems so I'm just tired. I kind of feel like we're floating in
the middle of the water, waiting for this to just be over, or
maybe that's what I'm getting from the players a little bit again, just defensively,
Like people talked about how last time we played the places we put up
one fifty, Well they put up like one forty five and didn't have most
of their team healthy. So to think that this Clippers team is going to
be able to get to championship level defense is really hard for me to believe
in right now. And yeah, I hope we see something different on Wednesday.
Right we have a chance to avenge that bad loss to the seventy six
ers, so that would be nice, But there's a really long way to
go to get if it's even possible, anywhere close to a team ability and
mindset wise that looks ready to challenge for a second round appearance in the playoffs.
I feel right now, yeah, it's well put. We're seeing a
mixed message from the players and the coaching staff. We're hearing no identity from
two players now. First it was Paul George, now it's James Harden.
Coach Lou disagrees with that. I don't know, are we looking at some
schism between the players and the head coach. I don't want to believe that,
but the message continually is not being received out there, and they're not
doing what he is asking. I don't understand it, and they can't even
agree on if they have an identity at the moment. It's just it's bizarre.
I think the skin them, I think is kind of what you just
said, right. He's asking them to do certain things and they're not doing
it. We don't know why they're not doing it. And the things he's
asking them are not seemingly out of the questions of things you would ask very
good basketball players who want to win a championship. Get back in transition,
defense, stop shot watching. You know know who the low man is.
Let's play with purpose and intent like he's not, you know, asking them
to set screens for Zoo so he can take a step back three like these
are normal things to ask for. These are intangible to ask for a team.
The only guy on Cole on the team who any of us probably believe
can actually flip a switch because he's the only one who's done it, is
Kawhi Leonard and maybe everyone else thinks they can flip a switch too, or
something like that. But the schism is the head coaches asking them to do
things and they're not doing them, and I don't understand why. That's what's
frustrating. I don't understand why, Like a lot of us are past the
point of being mad and more so just baffled or apathetically dumbfounded at why these
guys just can't try harder. I don't like to not A lot of things
are able to be reduced down to one side tried harder than the other side.
But if you watch the Slippers team, they are not trying. They're
not giving their full effort seam, and that is confusing. I've heard before
from people say in the regular season, you can have a winning record by
the end of the year just by playing harder each and every night, And
I feel like we saw that with teams in the past, with some of
the Doc Rivers teams, the twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen team, the twenty
eighteen twenty nineteen team, and the team without Kawhi the entire year from two
years ago Paul George was just thirty one games because those teams all played really
hard for the majority of the time, and you could say it's too old
You could say it's the March schedule. You could speculate whether or not they
care or not right now. You could say it's too many bad habits,
too many maybe agendas, personal agendas, all the above. There is so
much wrong with what's happening with this team. I don't know where to start
anymore. It's just brutal. But I could start with this. They're twenty
ninth defensively now since the Grammy road trip after tonight. They were twenty six
heading into tonight. Tonight was so bad when, especially when the dam broke
in the fourth quarter, they dropped multiple spots. That's over twenty five percent
of the season where you are twenty ninth defensively. Chuck came into this year
saying, we want to be a top five defense. The identity that they
said they were going to have was going to be a tough defensive team that
can spread the floor. I none of that is coming to fruition right now.
Are they only better than the Pistons? Is that who's thirtieth? Pulled
up right here? They're also thirteenth offensively during that time, which really isn't
good enough when you're twenty ninth defensively. It's Utah. It's Utah over their
last twenty one games, their thirtieth, but over the Clippers last twenty two
games, whether they're ten and twelve post Grammy road trip, they are twenty
ninth. Right above them is the Lakers. They're twenty eighth, but they're
actually finding ways to win games because their second offensively over that span, Like,
you can win still being that bad defensively if you're really playing great on
offense, and the Clippers are just out middle of the pack with this talent.
Yeah, it's a combination of I think Robert flam had a tweet of
something like that. Theopers I have a deadly combination of old slow, a
little small, and not enough shooting, which right now we're seeing the downsides.
We're seeing that play out right. This team was what twenty six and
ti I went twenty six and five, had an incredible run. I don't
know what that team. I don't know how that happened based on how things
have gone since the Gramy roach. If it makes no sense that that happened,
if you like had a time machine, I don't know, but they'd
have to find something. They tried to small ball lineup tonight and offensively it
was great. But you know, defensively, it it seeds rebounds, it
it seeds points. So, Charles, what was the line up to start
the fourth quarter? Often? I'm pretty it wasn't it. It was PJ
or hold On, it was. It was Russ Hardened, norm A Mere,
PJ, dj Zoo, three non shooters out there, Like, how
can we say they don't have enough shooting? I mean, I'm speculated.
Even back when they lost six games in a row, I remember bringing up
specifically, I don't know if you can win being slow and small, which
the Clippers were. It could be one, but I don't know if you
could be two. I said that way back then. But then in thirty
one games, I mean we're talking actually over fifty games where they were the
number one three point shooting team in the league. How can we say they
don't have the shooting. They may not have had to start the fourth quarter,
but they over half the season they were number one and three point shooting.
I don't. I mean, it's it's a personnel issue, right.
The shooting was great because our four shooters were five or whatever. It is.
It's just not deep. That's that's what I think Ales and the Clippers
right now too, right if you have to, if you have lineups,
to even have a lineup with three non shooters is hard to the modern NBA.
But that's you know, that's the way the trade had the Yeah,
there's so many issues. The open threes thing, I do believe is going
to turn around. That should turn around. That's been crazy, right,
Well, this is a nice tease for I don't know if we're doing a
live or YouTube or whatever tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure, Yeah, but we'll
have you guys covered at Clippers Podcast on YouTube. Myself, Chuck and Will
Updyke. Charles, thanks for doing this tonight, a little double dip on
Clipper stuff, my friend, Hey, thanks for having me. Let's go clip