What's going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to season two, episode sixty three
of Clips in Dip. I am Chuck Mockler still here, Adam Oslin still
here, William Updyke. We are still here covering the Clippers for you.
Can you believe it? I hope you're thank you for still being here if
you're listening or watching, uh podcast audience through us Thick and Thing YouTube,
Little Bandwagony. But that's okay, we're gonna talk. I don't even think
we have anything about the game against the seventy six ers in here, because
we're just gonna talk another state of the Clippers talk kind of thing. We
have some facts about Clippers ships to share with everyone later to kind of lighten
the mood. You guys here some footage? Yeah, oh yeah, uh
I actually well I uh I downloaded it, then I transferred it over to
Beta max, and then I lit that bitch on fire. Okay, so
yeah, I literally burned the footage from digital to analog to scorch. Earth
doesn't exist anymore. It's gone. The Clippers have killed the High five,
which which makes me genuinely upset. Really funny, It's funny they killed it.
But it's really sad the same. I thought about it earlier today,
and then I thought about what I watched last night and yesterday, and I
just didn't have it in me to go through and decide between so many bad
clips and possessions the fourth quarter. Yeah first first, Yeah, go from
being down eight to down sixteen in a minute forty six. I there's obviously
bigger issues than just breaking down individual tape. Sure, for those of you
who missed it, if you want to watch the old high Fives, they're
on our old or not very old episodes over on YouTube dot comlash that Clippers
podcast. I could show one, just one quick one here, real quick,
and it's really I don't know, it's not make sure the sound is
off. Okay, I'll make sure the sound is off this time off.
Yeah. So this this is a tab called x SO look out. But
uh no, here's here's some footage. You guys see what I say I'm
getting. I just went full screen. This is off somebody else's TV recording.
Here's Kawhi coming over to help out. What do you mean? It's
on? When I when I'm largely I'll look back on so. Uh oh,
that was nice brought out by Paul George. But here's a mire coffee,
U Lady's defender get by him to the point where Kawhi Leonard has to
come over and help, and then pointed to Eats the zoo Bots immediately afterwards
to let him know it should have been him blocking that shot. That is
like, I'm right here, Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure he
was. To be honest, I don't think he's he's getting to this one.
In fact, somebody get like, look at look at the hesitation there
and maybe maybe but something he's not anticipating. This could just be frustration boiling
over and it's just where the Clippers are at right now. So I it
was worth sharing the Uh what was it? The high one? The high
one is high calling it right? Yeah? The high one been Yeah,
some of us have been called the high one before. Uh? Will I
got to go on and do the double dip with Adam after the show last
night? It was supposed to or the game last night. It was supposed
to be a triple dip, but technical difficulties. Do you want to talk
about your feelings on the game last night? Will? You didn't get a
public forum to shout at like I got oh, I mean it sucks.
This team sucks. I left during the fourth how really? Uh? I
think there was probably seven or eight minutes left in the quarter, but you
knew that's so over. It was a over. How many times we have
to watch them do the exact same thing, like they were down they were
down twenty and still not playing defense, Like you can't trade buckets at that
point, fellas, you gotta get some stuff. Isn't this the real issue
going on? Though? Right now you're down five against Philly, you head
into the fourth quarter and within a couple of minutes you're down twenty, and
then last night you're down eight. It's manageable easily for what we've seen from
this team coming back with twelve minutes left down eight, and instead a minute
forty six later, they're down sixteen. They're calling a time out. Kawhi
Leonard's back in the ball game, and they're just not punching back. They're
not fighting back, they're not bat only a run with one of their own.
This one was more disappointing because in that sixers game, we did not
see Kawhi Leonard in the fourth. I think smartly TYLERU tried to adjust to
try to right the ship in the fourth and this one bringing Kawhi in earlier,
and it just that's what made it all the more pathetic. They couldn't
make it five minutes without the game getting so out of hand. To bring
Kawhi back in in that Sixers game, it's crazy. It doesn't that everyone
else forgets how to play basketball when kaw is off, But like Will said,
even with him last night, the lead extended when he got in there
at the night, it was not inspired play. It was not inspired play.
I don't blame Kawhi. I mean, obviously it's not on one guy,
but man, that was it's just not I don't know, it's it's
not just the intangibles for why that happened to start. I think both of
those fourth quarters, on a lot of these fourth quarters, going back to
what happened against the Lakers, when you're up by twenty one, there's been
some bad lineups guys to start that fourth quarter last night, having Russell Westbrook,
PJ. Tucker and a Beatza Zubats out there on the floor, there's
an actual reason you get down that much that quickly. We watched Russell Westbrook
turned down a three to give it up to PJ. Tucker, who doesn't
normally want to take them. He hoisted it, it ends up going over
the backboard, and that was their first possession of the fourth quarter. They
have three non shooters out there, and right didn't stops and Russ played well.
They wasted an efficient Russ game, which you gotta take advantage of.
You gotta take advantage of the efficient Russ offense games. Yeah, it's nice
too for your team to do that, especially with how many people said Russ
will change things for this team. He plays well last night. Obviously,
there are much bigger issues than just it being about one guy. Sure for
those people that thought it would be that simple, get Russ back when they
were three and five in his last eight games anyways, and he was there
for the twenty one point turn around by the Lakers. He was a big
part of how that happened. So I don't know where this narrative came that
they just need their heart and soul back and that's going to fix everything.
I'm glad he's back. He played great last night. Yeah, they just
have so many pressing issues right now. You can't put it on one guy
to have to fix all that and put all the pressure on Russ to figure
out what's going on with this Clippers team. PJ. Tucker was also getting
blown by by TJ McConnell some TJ on PJ crime, which has to be
the first time that's ever happened. But that what they were trying any any
team when PJ. Tucker's out there is of looks like a goddamn All Star
in this. He looked so good. I hated it. I was so
up. The defense was. Yes against McCall he's a nice player. He
would be a course as your bench guard, but he should not be lighting
you up for like ten plus at the room like like but points directly at
the rim, like just going straight at you. He's not a good shooter.
Like, why are you getting blown by like this? You know?
That was that's what he's trying to do. So Paul George doesn't think the
Clippers have an identity. James Harden doesn't think the Clippers have an identity.
Tyler said the team is soft. This said their identity that they Yes,
that's probably the best part of last night, honestly. So the pregame presser
was one of the more desponded. Despondent, but he was still just testy,
but not at the press kind of way, you know, vibe At
the end of his rope with the situation, it felt like talking to a
teacher who was like, you know, when you go and visit a teacher,
maybe you know, you graduate high school, You're like, oh,
I'm gonna go say what's up to so and so. I haven't seen them?
And you talked to him and you're like, oh, wow, you
are so tired of this, Like yeah, you get that on filtered kind
of you are exhausted from trying to make this work, is what it felt
like. Pregame and then postgame it was just like, I mean, we
got absurd quotes to get this late in the season for a team that's supposed
to win a championship. Did are correct quotes? Is the other part.
No one was talking super crazy. They the players don't think they haven't did
anything. Coach just says they're soft. That's kind of what's happening right now.
I thought he was gonna say that. I think he was on the
verge of saying that back when they had their most recent loss to the Minnesota
timber Wolves the last time around, because he started to get frustrated, saying
that's what bothers me the most. After they went on that run and the
Clippers did nothing about it in the second half, he just felt like they
were getting punked out there. They weren't mentally tough enough, therefore soft And
that is what we're seeing right now, a team whose will is easily broken
with one run in the fourth quarter where they don't respond. It's a lay
It's a layup line of them getting stepped over like ty Ala Tyleru, except
for instead of being stepped over by one of the greatest guards of their time,
it's by fucking TJ McConnell and literally every other team. So it's great.
I saw one of the most famous Clippers fans, uh, Paul Sheer
was on Twitter kind of asking like if this identity thing is a cop out,
and so it is. I saw it, but he thinks he's I
think he said, it's like, is it a cop out to get out
of like interview questions, And I was like, no, but it is
a cop out on their part, Like it's them being like, I guess
we just don't know what our identity is it's like, but you had a
piece of it before. It's then you played hard before. On defense,
they were a good defense, right, Adam. They had a very good
rating out. Well, they can't we think we're good enough and this is
below us. You can't say that because but that's how they're playing. They
were a top five defense this season, which was their goal coming into it.
For literally about two and a half weeks. Okay, then when their
offense really kicked in with James Harden, it slipped. It went to about
average. But you can live with that when you're in god mode on the
offensive end, right, You're okay with that. And some of it was
to be expected because when you know you can score every time down, which
is basically what they were doing when they had that one twenty two offensive rating
and they were the best team in the league for two months. Yeah,
there's probably going to be slippers on the defensive end. What has happened since
the Grammy road trip is more than alarming. Last twenty two games, they
are twenty ninth defensively. There is one team that they have been better than,
and that is the Utah Jazz, a team that is currently tanking that's
unacceptable for a team that even coach lou reiterated it last night. Here's our
identity, at least what they were trying to be. A tough mind defensive
team, an explosive offensive team, a tough minded defensive team. They may
have the personnel, but they don't have the mindset. You did you see
the stat Joey Linn put out today that the Clippers defensive rating with James Harden.
Yeah, that's crazy, James obviously well context of that, Yeah,
when you're twenty ninth defensively, everyone's Terrence Man is one twenty one. He's
right next to James hard Now Mere Coffee's right next to him. If he'sa
Zubats is right next to him. So I think it's a little bit I
don't know. I love Joey, but it seems to be pointing a little
bit too much at James Harden there when it's like, okay, but everybody
has a really bad defensive rating for the most part, at least some guys
that are known for giving effort on that end, specifically like Karen's Man.
If he has almost the same defensive rating as James Harden, how much can
we really put into that. Yeah, that's about the known defensiveness of those
guys, because like norm having a bad defensive rating, you're like, yeah,
okay, he's right there too. But but Ivisa zubats A, Mere
Coffee and Terrence Man are all right there. So what are we talking about?
I look, Harden's defense been worse, definitely, but everybody is completely
disconnected when you are twenty nine defensively for twenty two games, that is twenty
five percent of the season. Guys, Yeah, how do they get out
of this? Is it possible? Are we out of because it's it's really
just them walking in. I think it's my thing. My thing is like
if you can flip this, If you think you can flip the switch,
why hasn't it been flipped? Like, I just don't understand, Like,
if it's that simple, Yeah, I can understand looking black luster through three
quarters of the game, turning it on, pulling it out, That's just
not what I'm seeing. I just don't, like, I don't know how
there's any belief that suddenly they're gonna be good again. The switch right now
is in a compound about a mile away, like in Jurassic Park where Ellie
had to go past some raptors to get there to turn the power back on,
Like first they have to get to the switch, and that's gonna take
some time. There's a treacherous road to get there. There's raptors. You
got Mold Doon with you saying clever girl, but yeah, yeah, it's
it's not that simple. Right now. There are steps along the way and
they're running out of runway, which is a phrase we've said a lot over
the two one to three era. The runway is getting shorter. I believe
it's the usual phrase we use, and it's about as short as it can
get. They need a chopper, you need a Yeah. Yeah, it's
not very good before because we are going to talk about playoffs and play in
uh in a second, is there anything else? I don't think it's I
don't think it's crazy though to your question, your initial question there, can
they turn this round? Do they have enough time to turn around? I'm
gonna make this point. As fast as things turn for the worst, just
like when they were down losing their first five games with James Harden, things
turn quickly the other way. It's not impossible for that same thing to happen
again. We've already seen it for the worst, then for the best,
then for the worst again, do we have another upshot? Like? Well?
And the other thing is is like in terms of I mean, there
is still around ten percent of the season left to go, so there is
some runway, it's not completely gone. And then the other thing, like,
even as cynical and down as I've been on this team, we are
another Kawhi Leonard historic playoff performance away from this team being clawed to a potential
Western Conference final. Like, it's not you know, it's not insane.
I just think that that's the thing that's so infuriating is that this team has
this in their DNA, and I just think to approach the regular season this
way, I just feel like it's a little bit foolish to just assume on
that. And I think that you know, not having home court at any
point, that's gonna wear down on you. All this stuff is gonna wear
down on you. I just don't know. I mean, it's some it's
likewise like I've talked about, like with micro cosms of how the Clippers run
their offense or how they refuse to play defense, like they continuously put themselves
in harder and harder positions, and yes they're good. Yes, there are
four Hall of Famers on this team. Of course, like of course there
is always the potential for them to do something really crazy. I just don't
know why. It's already really hard to win an NBA championship and you're gonna
go ahead and like give yourself the absolute hardest way to go about to go
about it, Like, it just doesn't make sense. Are they looking at
it the same way we have? Kawhi, Just get us to the playoffs
healthy, get out of the play in and not be in that position and
will be fine because there's a faction of fans that believe that. Still,
I saw that. I saw some takes that people are overreacting and that ty
Lou is playing these bad lineups to like save his hand for the playoffs,
And like, I gotta tell you, man, I don't think it's that
deep. And if you look at ty Lou and some of his reactions to
this game, I don't think he's planning any of this. Man, I
actually want to be playing bad before the playoffs? The fuck are we doing?
Chest Master three thousand. Yeah, if the team is this concerned,
you might want to have a little bit of concern about them as well.
I'm just saying, if there's a question about identity, and there seems to
be friction between at least a mixed message between the head coach and the players
at this point, I think that's safe to say. If two players are
saying we don't have an identity, if the coach is saying we do,
but it's soft. I don't know how you can spin that into a positive
right now, Like this is right where we need to be. We're right
in the slot and now we're falling down the standings. You know what we're
gonna come out of that seven eight matchup. It's going to be what what
are we talking about here? Like you are dangerously close to falling into the
playoff playing. That is a realistic possibility right now, very realistic. Should
it be called the playoff instead of the play in? Because I think I
like play on better? I don't know. I think it's yes, all
right, We're gonna talk the playoffs and the play on after this break because
there is some interesting just strength of schedule stuff to look at. Wish we
didn't have to look at this to feel better about not being in the play
in, but here we are. So if you're listening to this, thank
you for listening. If you're watching, appreciate that too. On audio,
there might be some loud ads. We're talking the play on after these loud
ads in three two one, Hey, what's going on? Welcome back in
clips and dip. Look, we've lamented a little bit about where the Clippers
are at, but we're not quite done yet. We still have to talk
about the playoffs and seating and the potentiality for the Clippers to be in the
play in, which I still, again is someone who has been very cynical
on this team. I don't think they're going to fall that well. I
do not suspect they're going to fall to six. I do not suspect that
they have the capacity to fall even lower than that. But Charles, you
wrote up this outline talking about what's going on with this, so as I
agree, I don't think they're going to fall to the play in. As
of this recording, the Clippers are fifth, but the Pels are down eighteen
to the thunder right now, so we're going to be jostling between four and
five for the next ten games. Pretty much. The Pels of course have
the tiebreaker over the Clippers. The Clippers are two games up on the Kings
and MAVs who are six and seven, and they're two and a half games
up on the Sons who are eight. All of these teams, the Kings
and are sorry. Sons and Kings have the hardest remaining schedule based on opponent
win percentage, and the Pels have the third hardest schedule based on opponent.
So the Clippers do get a break in who these other teams play in that
regard, they're playing good teams down the stretch. The Clippers do have to
play the Suns twice to finish this one out. But I don't think we
actually get I don't think we fall into the plan. I don't think I
think that would be what about six six chance would you put on that?
Hmmm, we're two games up on the Kings, we play the Kings again.
I would put that at nine and a half percent. I think it's
honestly a lot higher. Really only because so the Clippers are one to nine
against teams with a winning record coming out of the All Star Break. We're
looking at schedules remaining and who has the tougher schedule right now, any team
that's above five hundred is being the Clippers. I can't see the same for
the Phoenix Suns or the Sacramento Kings or the Dallas Mavericks. I feel like
they're gonna go five hundred at least against those teams at worst. And the
Clippers. I mean, being in a game in Philly against a team that
just beats you and lits you up in the fourth quarter, and it's gonna
be very confident, and it's gonna have the crowd behind them, and it's
gonna be on top of James Harden and trying to wreck the Clippers season even
more. That is a really tough game to start off this road trip.
And then what Orlando on Friday. Yeah, Orlando on Friday. So one,
I think is what most people would sign up for there, they're not
I would love that. So you think it's six, you think it's more
likely to be six or five. I don't think it's more likely. I
think it's a lot higher than nine percent, though I think it really I
twelve twenty. I think it's like thirty. Okay, I really do,
because Okay, they have one more game against Sacramento. They're two and one
against the Kings so far, So they win that game, they'd have the
tiebreaker. They're two and oh against Phoenix so far with two games remating.
That's all in their favor. But just going off how they're playing, the
vibes of the team, and given that those teams are above five hundred and
the Clippers aren't beating them unfortunately, Yeah, I think there's probably like a
thirty percent chance, like if this free fall continues here, which it could,
with the next two opponents being on the road and being good opponents.
I don't know what's stopping it. That Clippers sounds as a back to back
away and then home, we play in Phoenix, and then the next day
all the teams travel, the teams travel together and then play in LA.
That's insanity anyway. Sorry, I agree they get reprieve again the Hornets on
Sunday, but hell, who knows how that's going to go. The Kings
do have the Dallas Mavericks their next two games at home, another team they're
fighting with to try to stay out of the play tournament. Those will be
highly competitive games, but the Clippers aren't competing. They're not pushing back.
It's just if it's more than just talent or tired legs, and there's something
going on in the locker room, which I think a lot of people are
speculating about right now, because how do you go from one twenty six or
thirty one games to now being ten and twelve and losers of what six of
their last nine five at home? Too. They have the worst record in
their last ten games outside the Golden State Warriors. Of the top ten teams
in the Western Conference, the Warriors are tied with them. They're both four
and six. Everybody is playing better than them. Well, the teams they're
competing against, you're not. You're right, Well, what do you think?
What's your playoff scenario? What's the Updike playoff scenario? I don't know,
I honestly, you know, I don't think either matchup is that great
for the Clippers. Again, I think that they can get through it.
But yeah, like I said, I think there's like a twenty five to
thirty three percent chance that they could end up at six. Yeah, I
don't know. I don't know. So what Tyler Louis said yesterday like makes
me think that maybe Paul George is a malcontent in the locker room. I
don't know, like what end that's affecting everybody else, but it doesn't It
doesn't bode well, and I don't know either one of these matchups from what
we've seen in the regular season, is not going to be great for the
Clippers. It's going to be really, really hard. Like I said,
the only thing that gives you hope is the talent that they have relative to
both of these other teams. Yeah, on paper, Hey love it?
Love it on paper? Right now? Do you on paper? You love
you love Pells Clippers on paper? No? I love what the Clippers at
on paper. I don't know if I love that match. I love the
Clippers at on paper, Clippers pelsh that if the Clippers don't have home court
evats even if they do, that's going to be a blood bath. If
they fall six, it's Timberwolves, right. I'll tell you what. If
they end up getting home court evaged, which means the four seed, right
now, I'd be feeling a lot more optimistic about this squad because that means
they're winning games and playing much better basketball all of a sudden, that's what
it's going to take to get the four spot. Yeah, that's a good
call. It could happen. It could turn very quickly back in their paper,
just like it turned against them. It cool and like they're they're I
mean, obviously they're much closer to four than they are six. Right,
Yeah, it takes. It just does feel like a free fall right now
because of how they're playing. I think there's been a lot of talk on
Clippers Twitter about Kawhi and pg's field goal attempts and things like that, and
I've you know, we said it on the show, like when the playoffs
happened, their field goal attempts go up. That's how it goes. I'd
be okay with starting that pre playoffs. I'm fine with them shooting more before
we have to do it in the playoffs. Right, let's get him into
a rhythm. Let's ride the best players on the team's offensive skill Who says
no, I'm all for that. I'd like James Harden to join them in
that excursion of let's do it taking more shots. That journey to attempt more
shots is he just attempted seven yesterday and for the first time since twenty twelve
in a game where he played at least thirty minutes. So the first time
since he hasn't been an Okse thunder. He only took one three pointer.
That's the first time in over a decade that he played that many minutes and
only attempted one to three point shot. James Harden and coach Leo was asked
postgame about his shoulder injury and if there's something going on there by La Murray
wondering if Okay does he not want to hoist from the outside. Is that
why he's not shooting as much? Is he just not healthy? And that
could be playing a big factor on all this As much as look I said
it a few weeks ago, but if we're going to credit James Harden and
we did for the big turnaround and the big run they went on, I
think it's also fair to look back his way now that the Clippers are reeling
and saying what's going on. I'm not saying it's all on him or anything
like that, but it may be a significant reason that if the system is
broken right now, the same one that had them running at a high power
to high level offense for so long for two months, for almost half the
season, forty percent of the season, they look that good. We're not
talking about a couple of weeks where the Clippers showed us a flash of greatness.
We're talking about thirty one games. I think it's worth looking into what's
going on with James Harden and saying, Okay, forget the defensive stuff.
It's been there when they were good. Those lapses in that video that Joey
posted, that stuff was still happening. The difference is when he uses up
your offense that much, where you're in god mode, it easily makes up
for those defensive mistakes. Also, when other guys are playing better defensively and
are more connected and are giving a better effort in communicating out there, that
also easily makes up for Harden's deficiencies. It's been like that most of his
career. So I don't know, is James Harden The first thing we should
be looking at right now with this Clippers late season swoon is that I don't
want to point all the fingers his way. I'm saying is that the biggest
slice of the pie of what has changed, he's not playing as well.
Therefore the Clippers aren't playing as well. We wondered if they were too dependent
on him in a recent episode. I think there's definitely something to it.
If you look at right, I mean, you can't. Yeah, you
can't be the driver of the team when they're good and then be in the
backseat when they're bad. With how we talk about him, he's averaging his
fewest field goal attempts since twenty eleven. He's averaging eleven and a half field
goal attempts per game, which I understand there's Kawhi and Paul George out there,
but that's way too low. That's that's too low. I think the
health thing is a great point. I think these guys part of what we
heard in the pre in the preseason, which they have adhered to, is
that they're going to take the regular season more seriously when it came to you
know, if the guys are healthy, they're going to play. Now,
it seems like we're kind of in the scenario where guys are kind of healthy
and so therefore they're kind of playing when they're on the court, right,
Like, I think there might be something to the he's not healthy thing.
Fully healthy, he's not healthy. They're an older team. There's tired legs
going on. He's not getting downhill enough, he's not getting two on the
ball. As much as he was before. I don't know what the numbers
say about that. I know there was somewhat of a decline I heard recently
when it came to drives per game from Harden over the last month. That
tracks. That matches the eye test certainly, and just the fact that coach
Loeuvin said it last night. You know, Harden's a guy who always wants
to play right. You gotta save guys like that from themselves, though you
can't win them wear down over the season when they're thirty four years of age.
When you know he's like this, I they gave him those two days
off or those two games off recently where Bones shined and won against the Chicago
Bulls. The other one was against the Pelicans. And by the way that
Pelicans game, I was thinking earlier, how many games recently have the Clippers
given a really good effort for the most part one of them, at least
the majority of it what you'd expect from a team that has championship expectations.
I mean, Jerry Rice took plays off. Everybody does at times. It
happens. But the Pelicans game on the road, for the most part,
they were locked in without James. The other game was the game without two
Pine three against the Milwaukee Bucks that they almost won against Giannis and Dame right,
they played way harder and together like a cohesive unit and had more energy.
And you know, people keep saying, you know, the depth,
the depth just isn't there, like like we thought. It's like, okay,
there's something to that. But also look at that game when they had
to rely on their depth, they played really well. It's just weird how
spottying up and down it's been. Some people want to point to the Lakers
game and saying it all stems from giving up that twenty one point leading the
fourth and they haven't been the same since. But then you go, okay,
a couple of games later, they came back on Minnesota down sixteen and
got their only win against them on the road, and then they gave up
a fifteen point lead to Milwaukee, and then they came back down twenty against
Houston. Hey, so if you're talking about identity and who are they,
yeah, that is a moving target of who are you? Because I don't
know which Clippers team is showing up every night. It's strange. Well,
how are you feeling? Not great? Am? I making it worse.
Yeah, I think I don't know. I don't know the stars thing.
I mean, the team goes as far as they take us, and if
they're tired right now, that's how far we're gonna get, right, Like,
but then why I just still I still don't understand. Why do why?
Right? Why do just take the games off? Man? Like I
I don't know what else to say? Show out swinging? Should we reset
our expectations to now saying forget getting the four seed it's likely not going to
happen anyways, don't go all out for that. Just be healthy and fresh
with the top six seed by the time the first round starts and hopefully they
find some magic and make a run. I mean we have to I don't
think we like we if. I think there's two options, right, Like,
we have to do that because that's what it feels like. It's going
to be, like we hope everyone's healthy and we're not in the plan.
Kawi said that, what like a month ago, he was like, we
want to be top six. Everyone was like, wait a minute, what,
Yeah, we said we definitely want to be top six. Obviously we
don't want to be in the plan. Basically, is what he was saying.
I felt like that was a little bit taken out of context, Like
his point was just like it's about playing well, not necessarily about well the
chips will fall with the man little bit about seeds, well, no,
but he just basically seating would take care of itself if we're playing well.
So I mean, I guess we have to so like, yeah, I
hope they're fully healthy and not in the plan. I feel horrible that that's
where we're at. I'm disappointed that we have to do that. Not because
everyone else is just playing on some ungodly level and the Clippers are playing well
but just can't keep up. We have to do that because they've just shit
the bed so many times that it's like, well, I guess, can
they be to fully healthy Minnesota in the first round? No? Right now,
as of March twenty six, six twelve pm, char I would not
No, no, no, We're not be a fully healthy Minnesota in the
first round. I think they can, but it's unfounded, right, I
guess basically just going off of Will saying, you know they have Kawhi,
and if you have Kawhi, and if you look at what happened in Game
one against Phoenix last season, where it did look like they flipped the switch
because they were damn sure inconsistent leading into that first round series. Now they
look even probably more inconsistent, or at least it almost feels more regular season
he was, but he's still been pretty insane for the most part. He
hasn't had huge dips in play. Paul George has been way better the last
three weeks. That's what also makes this so perplexing. Two on three had
what extreme efficiency, and both of them had twenty six points last night and
they can't beat a Pacers team that doesn't play against you still got to get
to the hops, Yeah, and they only ended up scoring with the Clippers
have one sixteen or one thirteen, one sixteen. That's not a lot in
today's league. I think average. I think average is like one twelve at
least. I mean, they scored eighty nine points to beat the Wolves,
Like that's not gonna happen again. I don't think in the playoffs. Oh
yeah, I said at the time that you can't replicate that type of victory.
But I still would take my chances if they're fresh, if they're healthy,
sure against pretty much anyone but Denver. I don't like the chances,
but yeah, I'll take them. Yeah, it's gonna be a war.
I mean, we'll see other option. Real it will take the chances.
As they were sending our entry into the playoffs, just saying, just move
the standings up, Adam, just Adam Silver, just remove row, move
up. I was looking at some of the numbers earlier today and just how
far the drop off has been for this Clippers team offensively, and specifically the
starting group. The starting lineup from December to January one hundred and eighty four
total minutes, the starting lineup at an offensive rating of one twenty eight,
a defensive rating of one to sixteen, which isn't great, but your offensive
rating is amazing, so they're plus twelve basically net rating. They were shooting
fifty four percent from the field and forty six percent from three, and we're
a plus forty one and one hundred and eighty four minutes. Since the Grammy
road trip, they're shooting just forty five percent from the field, so almost
a ten percent drop there in field goal percentage and just over a ten percent
drop in three point percentage from forty six point seven to thirty six point five
and they're just a plus one in their last one hundred and ninety two minutes
post Grammy road trip, the same starting lineup. How could it be that
drastic? What's going on there? I know you could say some regression to
the mean, but now you're looking at the team that for fifty games this
season led the league in three point shooting, and now over their last twenty
two games are about they're shooting thirty four percent on wide open three pointers.
That seems extreme fluky to go from number one for fifty games overall shooting from
three and now they can't even hit wide open three. So the point they're
the worst shooting team when a defender is six plus feet away in the league
over the last twenty two games. What will? We were talking about Russo
pregame yesterday and he was like, maybe they just start making their open threes
and everything turns around. Yeah, I mean that that is the flip side
of this, right, Like the team just looks entirely different if they're not
the twenty eight to three point shooting team, because it you know, it
has the ripple effect of like obviously making the baskets, but you know,
you're not, you can get more set on defense. You know, you
don't have to be rushing around as much. There's like a lot of things
that for an older kind if you're hard and Paul George, yeah, they're
for like an older kind of slower team. That makes sense that they're like,
you know, tangible effects outside of obviously just making more baskets. It's
only it were that simple. The getting set on defensing is huge because Ty
talked about it pregame, which was teams are just attacking the Clippers before they're
set and defense because they're older. And then we watch the Pacers do that
ten like an hour after he's rousing success, No, incredible success. So
I totally I love the point of making those threes. Lets them actually get
back on defense and set. Will you use this saying or phrase? Recently,
they chum the water with how much bad footage they put out there,
with how many weaknesses they've been showing off over the last three weeks. And
I think when you do that and teams so easily can key on key in
on you with their game plan every night, like to prove that that's no
longer a weakness, it takes so much more teams will keep spamming and attacking
that weakness until you know one win isn't gonna change it. Like even if
they had won last night, I mean, obviously, I think we'd all
feel a lot different. You know, beating the near beeding an Eastern Conference
near playing team, I mean, that'd be huge for the Clippers. But
yeah, I agree, Like I mean, the game plan has been set
for this team essentially all season long, and they've done They've been able,
they have not been able to rectify it in any meaningful way against an opponent.
And that's why I'm saying teams like the Timberwolves, teams like the Pelicans
that can play with pace and a lot of physicality, uh, and a
lot of the stuff that have been weaknesses for this team. Like look,
yes, on one side of the coin, like we are in insane Kawhi
Leonard playoffs or even getting one of Paul George or or Harden to pop a
little bit in in any given game from getting through a playoff series. But
at the same time, like you just you look at the weaknesses and what
those other teams present, and I gotta tell you, like the outlook doesn't
it doesn't logically look that great? Will you said something or actually it was
Chuck. You said this last night on Clips and Dip or Clips and double
Dip on Clipper's top posts. Don't confuse those intellectual properties. Please come on,
lawyers are crazy. My bad, my bad, little drown them in
paperwork, you said. And you put into word something I was feeling early
on in that game. You said, even when they were playing well,
it didn't feel real. It didn't feel sustainable. Basically like, even if
one thing's going well for this team right now, something else is it.
And I found that pretty interesting, like they can't get it all. Everybody
point in the right direction. It's crazy, it's and we hope over these
last eleven games that they can get it started pointed in the right direction,
because there were parts of the team that looked good last night, and then
the just the defense is just like it's so lost right now. I also,
the Pace played so physically against the Clippers on defense. I'm not sure
if they usually play like that. Their defensive rating is what like twenty they're
like bottom five almost on the season, sixth or something like. They're not
a very good defense. But they had no fear of being physical with the
Clippers, you know what I mean, Like, this was a team that
clearly read the report, Like, yeah, when they stopped the Clippers paint
attack, because the Clippers that nearly doubled the Pacers up in points of the
paint, which I mean partially was because the Pacers were shooting the lights out.
They shot as a team like sixty plus percent from three, which again
it's not anomaly if it constantly happens to the Clippers. But once they stopped
that paint attack, the Clippers, I mean, they were completely a neemic
on offense and didn't stop anything on the other end. Coach Lou said something
interesting post game that didn't make sense to me because the other weird thing about
that game last night you mentioned the hot shooting from the Indiana Pacers. But
to your point, if it keeps happening to the Clippers over and over again,
maybe it's something they're doing wrong on the perimeter defensively and making it too
easy. And they let Tyre's Halliburton, who had only been shooting twenty two
percent from three over his last games. Yeah, he basically was allowed to
walk into a three and then got hot. So it's like if the game
plan is, oh, this guy isn't shooting well from distance, we're going
to play off of him. Well, you give him a couple looks to
a guy who typically is a good three point shooter, then he feels confident.
Then they do start working. So it's almost like you gotta rip that
up. I don't. I don't think you know, you're just you're laying
the numbers. But it just totally depends on the context. Like I mean,
if it was Daniel Tice taking like if he was the opposing player for
the Pacers taking the threes, he hits three or four of them, Yeah,
okay, like that's an anomaly that sucks. But a guard like who
does score and is the you know, like the the engine of the offense,
maybe don't let them get into a rhythm scoring wise. I just don't
lie harder. Yeah, it just doesn't I don't know, subvert. It
just feels fairly basic, if I'm being totally honest. But the thing Coach
lou said postgame, because the Clippers only got up twenty threes, that was
the lowest amount they had taken in a game so far this season, and
they only hit six of them, so Haliburton hit his may threes, as
the Clippers did, but he said the reason they only attempted twenty was because
obviously they weren't getting into the paint enough to kick it out, spray it
out. But the Clippers had sixty four points in the paint, right,
it's as close to a season high. So I didn't I didn't make it
didn't make sense to me. And now when they stopped, like the paint
penetration stopped in that second, in that second half, well, it looked
markedly different. Maybe I thought they had thirty I thought it was dead even
I thought they had thirty two points in the paint in the first half and
thirty two points in the paint in the second half or something like that.
Oh, now, maybe some of it came late once the game got out
of hand, to your point, Will, But in speaking to the opponents
and how well they're shooting against the Clippers, and oh what a shock that
the team, the only team that is getting lit up more from three is
the only team that has been worse defensively than the Clippers over the last twenty
two games, the Utah Jazz. They're giving up almost forty three per two
opponents from three, the Clippers are second worst since the Garmy road trip teams
are shooting forty percent from three against them. So you can make that argument,
going back to what Justin Russo said, you stop threes and you start
making threes, things could flip quickly, Like if if things were to turn
fast, I'm guessing that's how it would happen. Yeah, the three start
falling and they and not and they stopped falling for the opposition. Yeah,
and the three start falling also because we get lineups that have more than two
shooters. Right again, to your point, pull a ball on that,
like the we need to see if we're going to see PJ. Tucker in
the playoffs. I'm I have made my piece with that. Honestly, where
are you guys out with that? Because that is still I'm getting all these
I'm getting in a day with tweets saying they're seven and thirteen when PJ.
Tucker plays this season? Guys, what are we doing? I mean,
yeah, I don't know, there's just other problems. He's not the biggest
problem. There's so yeah, and and I mean like it just depends on
how you can hide him, Like what what lineups you can put around in
and if we can get anything else out of Tyson Plumbley who. You know,
this wasn't the matchup for them. I think that. I think that
that makes sense. But they have been sort of abysmal of late, so
you know, if that's the option, I mean, it's not great.
But like I said, you know, this team isn't really predicated on death.
That's that's not really how they are gonna work out. If this team
is going to have a deep playoff runna be eight guys, Max put In
and maybe PJ. Tucker is one of them on some nights. But I'm
telling you, like, if the eighth guy is the guy tanking your playoff
run, like I think, there's probably some bigger issues. You gotta put
PJ in a position to succeed for what he does on this team. I'm
not saying make the marquee obviously, because he will refuse to do that,
but put at the five. Just playim at the five with four with at
least three other shooters on the grand on the floor. You go, Norm
James, Norm PG Tucker, you know some Kawhi Like that's what it is.
It's PJ at the five with like everyone with Kawhi because he genuinely plays
not full first and full third shift. And then yeah, anyone other than
Russ, you're gonna have Russ up there on the floor at some point,
and then ideally you wouldn't. But yeah, they did try him last night
at the small Ball five a couple times, and coach who talked about it
postgame ins said it wasn't that bad. Uh, And it wasn't. I
guess. Did you also hear the quote about how he had to wait to
do that until Russ came back. Yes, So it's like, so you're
gonna play PJ at the five with Russ out there together, that they're tied
to each other in this role, then it seems like, which I still
think can work again three other shooters. It's at least, yeah, it's
viable. But then it was like it would have to be like Norma and
Russ and PJ are playing the four five offensively effectively, or it's two fives
like three threes. Yeah, it was still a negative from the different lineups
I'm seeing here from last night with him and he has the small Ball five,
But it wasn't. It wasn't what happens to start the fourth quarter either,
like they were a minus two in about five minutes with him Russ why
pale in coffee on the floor. Yeah, but does it speak to the
lack of identity and the inconsistency with this team? The fact that I mean
PJ started right away for the Clippers. He was playing as soon as they
brought him in. He was playing, He was given an opportunity, then
he was out. Now he's back in after talking to the media again,
after being disciplined, and looks to be secure in a position moving forward with
this team. It's just I don't know the lineup in rotation and the adjustment
that's happening right now with eleven games left. We're not fine tuning, we're
searching for something. It's yeah, the numbers are hammering. They're not us.
They're not fine tuning. They're just bashing the broken thing that they're trying
to fix right now. And I don't blame Tied to some extent because he
hasn't gotten much consistency even from his stars at times. So you have to
try things. But it's not like PJ is a completely different player than you
know what we obviously said were some issues when you have him out there and
it seems like he's firmly in the rotation. Now he's good to go.
Yeah, it's not changing. I don't think No, Tys didn't play last
night, Tyson didn't play. Aren't they the same height? I think PJ
might be like two inches shorter. Pj's four inches shorter, so okay,
YEAHS six to eight six eight, so he's three inches shorter. Yeah,
so Tyson six eight. I don't know. The addoctation is going to be
maddening. I know that much. When it's good, we're going to be
like, this makes sense. And when it's bad, we're going to be
like, why we know this is bad? Yeah, you're dead. We
saw what was good, Like like, I want to go back and look
at the lineups during the really good stretches and see how many guys actually really
did play meaningful minutes, you know what I'm saying. Like Plumbley was playing
a lot better. You know, there were definitely some outlayers and everyone was
playing really good. A mirror was shooting crazy again. Plumbly missed though a
lot of the good stretch for the Clippers because you know, you got hurt
in Game one with James Harden. I, yeah, I I don't know
what's going to happen come the playoffs with these rotations right now, and I
don't know if the guys know, and I think that's a huge part of
it. I think I do wonder if that uncertainty because coach Leu was brought
up post game before it's not about One of the things he said it's not
about was minutes, how many minutes you get, And the end of that
line was saying, it's about winning, it's about sacrifice for the team,
and now he's changing sacrife to investing. And then he also talked about recently
how you getting all those individual workouts in and doing your work on the side
is different than what you bring to the team. And I'm not sure who
that's pointed towards who he's talking about. Is it multiple guys, PG,
is it Kawhi, is it Harden? I don't know. I'm guessing it's
a star, It's it's somebody playing a lot of minutes bones checking out on
me, the skeleton key, skeleton bro, the skeleton key. I don't
know if that one is that they might have changed the locks on that one.
Yeah, that's a bummer. That's a bummer for Locksmith for yeah,
the PLAYO, well, the planoff rotations, it's like we're gonna I can
already see it. We're gonna go so ball against a big team and just
get destroyed for that stretch. I mean, unless the three point shooting,
I guess returns. You're just not stopping anything. So I mean, like
you said, well, you can't trade buckets down. Yeah, I mean
the timber Wolves, I guess like their big flaw maybe is their offense overall.
I mean, but we've seen enough of ant cooking, as they certainly
have weapons, you know, offensively, it's not that, you know,
it's not as simple necessarily as just outscore them could be if our offense was
looking that good, but could be above. I still wonder how much of
it is tired legs and being an older team, and how much of it
is a lack of effort. Right now, I think I'd feel better if
I knew it was a lack of effort, because that's the switch. That's
the switch right there, the effort switch. No that like that, Yeah,
of course I would definitely feel feel way better about that, and said
they're just old. Do we know that? But it kind of goes back
to it kind of goes back to my thing about this. Uh, my
central thesis is like I still can't tell what's worse, is like if they
don't care about the regular season, or if they think they've done enough.
And I still think that the ladder is probably worse. I think the ladder
is probably worse if you're assuming right now after two months of good play,
Hey, we're good, I've seen enough. Like I think that that's I
just think that that's like criminally delusional. Let me just put on my pants
today. Yeah, we're good. No, we're good, We're good at
them. The next I knew it was kind of the nastyness to the play
and how quickly it changed almost feels like they did flip a switch just in
the wrong direction. Yeah, and if you can do that, you can
you can turn it back on baby even. All right, So to close
out the playoff segment before we do a brand new segment after this set of
ads, will give us a one sentence As of March twenty six, six
thirty three pm, give us a one your one sentence, maybe two sentence
outlook on the Clippers playoff on the Clippers seated We're good. We're good.
Clippers twenty twenty four. We're good. They have they have perhaps broken the
paint in the wrong way. Coming up, we're gonna we got a fun
news segment, just some fun facts what we're gonna do, and then we're
gonna close out the show with some adam positivity. If you're listening to the
show, thank you. If you're watching, thank you as well. We've
got some ads coming up. They might be allowed for those listening. If
that's been the case, you go ahead and turn it down. We got
ads and then some fun facts. In three two, Hey, it's Clips
and Dip Season two, episode sixty three, I've met a Maslim. We
got Chuck Mockler and Will Updyke. If you missed the Clips and Double Dip
last night postgame. We didn't have the technology to bring them both on,
but we did have Chuck Mockler on, who gave great analysis on a game
that, even if the Clippers had won, we wouldn't have said, Oh,
everything's Everything's fine. Now they're good to go. It's gonna take a
lot more to restore faith in this fan base for the most part, and
it just it's deserved with what we have seen since the Grammy road Trip.
But Charles, I know we're trying to bring some levity to everything that's happening
right now, So why don't you introduce this new segment here. Yeah,
this new segment is called clipper Ship Facts that we're just gonna educate people on
clipper ships. These are some facts. If any of you two want to
jump in with basic questions or to read the next facts, feel free.
First one, a lot of people don't really know how the clipper ship evolved.
It actually started from the small swift coastal packet known as the Baltimore Clipper.
The true clipper evolved first in America and then later on the British shipyards.
Of course. Uh. And the emphasis on speed came partly from the
desire to bring the first tea of the season back from China. We all
know how good that tea is, first tea of the season, very valuable.
Got to get it back while it's still in season, right, Gotta
get it back. So what we before this, they were just all,
let's build the biggest ship effort. I think they just they gave a really
long mechanical leg so they could touch the bottom of the ocean and they would
walk, And then they figured out first ship wouldn't the first ships have been
small? Yeah. I don't think anyone's gonna argue with you on that.
What's the distinct Like, what's the distinguishing line between like, say, a
sick kayak and a clipper. Is it just a mast poop deck? I
think there's a poop deck involved. Uh, any kayak another fact or bodyboard,
another ship fact. Oftentimes a clipper will be confused with a wind jammer.
And these people don't even hate when people do that. Don't even get
me fucking started. Uh, They're two completely different types of ship. Clippers
were optimized for speed only in carrying highly priced cargo and small quantities such as
tea spices or opium. He hey. A wind jammer, of course,
is a large sailing ship optimized for cargo capacity, ease of handling, and
carrying low priced bulk cargo such as your lumber and fertilizers. You can imagine
like being on a ship times and like you're having a huge ship full of
fertilizer. That's your life. You get used to it. I live next
to a horse corral thing over here. Have you ever heard of press gangs?
Yes, it was when they would round up people to unwillingly become sailors.
So they would like go to bars and find drunk people and then you
would wake it up on a ship and they were a sailor. Now you
signed this waiver just last night. Yeah you don't remember, man, You
were of sound mind. And then the final beat the ship. How do
you even say you sail now? And you were like and then the final
fact. We just have some records here. The fastest voyage from New York
to San Francisco was done in eighteen fifty one by the Flying Cloud in a
record eighty nine days, and the James Baines no one's to beat that,
never uh set the transatlantic sailing record for twelve days and six hours from Boston
to Liverpool. Unbelievable. I heard the Flying Cloud was so fast an old
man couldn't even yell at it and shake his fist. Hell yeah, hell
yeah, surprise, going going for that. Why aren't we pushing the limits
of ships anymore? I say, bring, yeah, bring this best.
After what just happened in Baltimore, let's let's let's think ships. I think
we could do better. I think over there. Yeah, let's bring we
really took our foot off the gas. As far as ships and concern Yeah,
I agree with that. Electric ships ships ships interesting. Let's bring back
oldie time planes too. Those are fun. Boeing's already doing that with loose
safety regulation. Yeah, they're doing the old kind of planes where they yeah,
where they're just not came from a kid I ordered in the mail.
It cost me. The kid cost me twelve bucks. Planes worth like ten
million. Lets it all right? Any more thoughts on Clippers ships before we
make Adam give us a positive vibe before heading up. Oh, that wasn't
it. It felt it felt more positive anything else than happened in this episode.
I loved it. Choke all right, there we go. All right,
I got something, I got I got something. I got something.
I got something that we make them up here. Uh No, I said
this last night, and I do kind of believe it. The Clippers are
embarking on a four game road trip. I actually think it's a good time
to get away band together, hunker down, getting that bunker, getting that
fox hole together on the road, like when they went six and one on
the Grammy road trip. Maybe it's coming full circle now. This is exactly
what they need to find themselves, a tough road trip. Yeah all right,
and they're taking the cloud Ship to get there. The Flying Cloud,
the Flying Cloud, the Flying Cloud, the Philadelphia Adam. Thank you for
the positive vibes. We hope everyone lists is having a good start to their
week despite what the Clippers are doing. We're gonna be back with a double
dip after the game. In affiliate We're doing a live hang on Saturday.
It's hopefully gonna be more fun than the last couple of lives we've had,
because those have been fun in a much different way. We need some reviews.
Well, where can people review this or watch this or listen to this
if they want to switch it up. You can review this show over on
Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can listen to this show wherever you get your
podcasts. Go on check this show out visually. You can do it over
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hope everyone has a good rest of your week. We'll talk to you soon.
Follow out of May over on x dot com and as always, let's go clips