And some fans are having a little crisis of faith going on. Tonight Clippers
fall one twenty three to one oh seven here at home to the Sacramento Kings.
You're back in on Clippers stock. I'm at a maslin. We will
get back to your phone calls. Don't worry about that. But first,
Chuck Mockler from Clips and Dip, he was in the house. We took
a picture, put it at Clippers pod on X Charles. What's most alarming
to you right now? With this Clippers team and their poor play. It's
tough to choose kind of between just I guess the looking older factor, you
know, against the Thunder, I think it's easy to look old. It's
a very young, good team. But even tonight there was just you saw
kind of Clippers age that and I guess the rotations. I'm not really sure
how much to buy into the consistency of what the rotations have been these last
two games going forward, right, you know, we had a weird whistle
against Parent's Man in that game against the Grizzlies where things got odd, and
then Paul George's out tonight. The decision to start norm was a little interesting,
especially because if you look at kind of what the bench scoring is without
Norm Powell. So I think it's between those two things, but I guess
I'll choose the kind of age one. They have two practices before the Lakers
game on Wednesday, and then March starts, so we're gonna learn a lot
about how old this team plays versus how old it really is. Honestly,
no matter where they're at games against the Lakers, they've always got enough for
in the two Pine three era even before that. So yeah, I do
think it's gonna be telling. It's gonna be a big contest to see.
I don't know if it's gonna be a measuring stick opportunity, but just to
see where they're at, maybe physically, if they can't get up for that
game, if they don't run around and look like they have a little bit
more punch out there or pop, as coach lou likes to call it.
Yeah, I wonder if this team is a little bit worn down. And
it just seems like it coincides with the Grammy trip. If you go six
and one there, that was the goal they pulled it off and ever since
then, and I just looked up the numbers last seven games. Now they're
three and four, and they're twenty third offensively and twenty fourth defensively. I
could buy twenty fourth defensively. Twenty third offensively is somewhat shocking to me.
And some of the offense tonight most have been especially in the first half.
It just looked really fucky out there. They were not creating great looks at
all. Yeah, I don't know if i'd use the word funky because I'm
trying to keep I like to use that word in a positive light, but
I do. I do agree with what you're saying. A lot of the
game. You know, our other host Will Updike and I were up in
the press box for this one, and you see it come kind of from
like a sideway bird's eye view, a little bit like an angled bird's eye
view of us. And what you saw, what we saw a lot of
tonight was guys clearing out Kawhi going to work and then plan B right like
and then it's kind of, you know, we hope n up rebounder or
something like that. So particularly tonight, there was a lot of standing around
and watching and you know, we didn't get a strong shooting performance from James
Harden from deep. He was two of ten from three, and a lot
of those you know, were off the dribble or you know, maybe assisted
and things like that. So the offense is, as we've said the last
couple of seasons at various points, kind of stuck in the mud. Right
now, Kawhi is making things happen in the mid rage, which is where
teams are moving the clippers because it hasn't been going well and other guys are
having trouble adjusting and moving off the ball. We saw some good off ball
movement from Terrence when he was sharing before with Russ a little bit tonight,
I believe. But when Kawi's out there, we need guys to play like
Kawai isn't out there when Kawhi is out Yeah, I think that's a really
good point. Kawhi still looks good. As much as we talk about an
old team, Kawhi does not looked like that. Since coming back and missing
that Golden State Warriors game, he has had punch. He has looked explosive
out there. He's had a lot of dunks, so he should have gotten
felt calls on Terrence Man has been a bright spot the last two games.
There was carry over from that Memphis game because Terrence was actually looking for his
shot at times. That and one he had in the fourth quarter in the
key that was big, and that is one of the encouraging size right now
for this team. Totally fourteen six and four from Terrence. I would be
hard pressed to, you know, think that the Clippers have a bad record
when Terrence has a stat line like this, right, this is what this
is maybe what we'll need from Terrence Man in the playoffs, but a consistent
basis and you know, a twenty point game every now and then. If
things go this way, I don't think it will continue too bad like this.
Paul George is gonna come back, get some health. But you're totally
right. It did carry over for Terrence Man. He's really you know,
it's been a bright spot. There has been a lot since the All Star
breaks, so we got to hope this keeps up. But he was doing
all he could to try and help the Clips today on both ends. What's
your level of concern with PG thirteen and the left knee soreness? Because we
talked about our eclips and dip days were running together. I think it was
yesterday we had the live going, Yeah, it was like, man,
I know, I know, and they're already stacking up and I'm getting forgetful.
And I did feel like he needed to rest, he needed to sit
down. He did. I'm hoping because he gets four days off then between
the last time he played in the Lakers game on Wednesday, that he'll be
back for that one because he's always been very good against the Los Angeles Lakers
too. But where are you at with his play? And if it's just
eye test that obviously he must be banged up right now because he's just not
the same guy he was even just a month ago. Yeah, I think
my level of concern is I guess to put on a scale from from one
to ten, and I go, I don't know, six point seven out
of ten. The fact that it's a knee now, we've got the groin
earlier and then now the knee is really just just why I guess I'm over
five there. But we need him to be the best number two or one
B or whatever however he wants to phrase it. We all know that he
has to be the second best player all the Clippers when it comes to scoring
the basketball, and some nights may be called on to be the first.
So I hope he's at one hundred percent. He's going to come back against
the team that's really physical to play. We assume that he'll be back for
that Wednesday game with the four days rest and everything like that, but I
mean, it's a tough matchup to come back to. But he does always
play the Lakers well in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, we just
got to see what you know, the playing schedule for Kawhi and PG is
for the back to backs to close the season, because that's going to be
a huge part of it too. Kawhi is having to do a lot of
work even when Paul George is out there, especially on the defensive end.
Pauldridge has been good, but you know, Kawhi is and does what he
has to do. But without Paul George, that's an even the harder task.
And I thought you saw it catch up with him a little bit tonight,
just again because it's so hard to do. So I hope I'm being
overly concerned. And it sounds a big a deal because the Clippers need Paul
George to be the second best player on this team when it comes to score
last one. For you, here, Chuck, you talked about lineups and
rotations, and guys, we've been seeing PJ. Tucker got five minutes in
the first half, who was a minus one out there, one really good
defensive possession against Aaron Fox where I was impressed. Fox still hit it because
he's that good. But just what have you seen from the big man rotation
that you like that you don't like? Where would you like to see them
go with this? Because tonight it was Mason Plumley out, it was Daniel
Tys gain the opportunity. Yeah, I guess the only thing I like from
the Clippers Big Man rotation is nieps zoobots and nothing else. Right now,
I don't know what has happened to Plumbly Entice tyst did you know four or
five if you just look at the the box score. But defensively, there
was just no containment from him or any real uh you know, actual stops
being put up. For the most part, Plubly getting the DNP was surprising.
I'm a little concerned that we haven't really totally got this rotation figured out
this far into the season, But we just needed to be better, right
like if that's if that's being in better positions defensively, you know, PJ.
Chucker did get those five minutes, and hey, he was out there,
so it seems like maybe those dnps start up again. But we we
just got to figure out which two guys are gonna be battling for the spot,
because that's that's really what I would like to see, and I hope
it's between Plubly and Times. What about the possibility of Bones Highlands somehow getting
into this rotation. What about the possibility of Bones? Why not? He
could have been used tonight right Like we needed scoring off the beds. He's
scoring off the beds. Like I understand the defensive liability of having him and
norm Powell out there at the same time, if you could somehow stagger them.
And I wasn't even sure Norma was going to play, so I thought
maybe this would open up an opportunity for Bones. But it just seems seems
like they're gonna need a shot in the arm. They're going to need someone
to get on a run and catch lightning in a bottle while other guys are
regressing. Arras Man has provided some of that, but they need more juice
out there in athleticism for an older team, all right, he is Chuck
Mockler. One of my favorite things about this day now is just the fact
that while I'm talking to Chuck, I tweet something out, and while he's
talking to me, he likes it in real time. Charles, thanks for
coming on Clipperstock tonight for a little double dip. Yeap. Excited to do
the pond tomorrow. Let's go Clips, Let's go Clips.