The LA Clippers continue their hunt for a larryob. They still want to get
that LARRYO be don't miss a moment all season longed. This is the LA
Clippers Audio Network. Last time that I chatch, it was five chains on
my neck. It was no smut on my brette up. Just tell me
if hey welcome back. In no Sit Your Clippers bot game show, I've
had a Moslin's acapella style live from Crypto dot CoV Arena after the Clippers win
one sixteen to one oh three over the Denver Nuggets in preseason game number three.
Last time, Oh, we just wanted to make it more highly anticipated.
Our next guest, who's about to come on? Enjoy that silence now
a little nipsey hustle as in our final segment. Here once again, it's
the return of Chuck Mockler from Clips and Dip, this time after a win.
I don't know if he wants to pat himself on back since he and
Will were in the building tonight. Chuck, where do you want to start?
Oh? Do you want to start with Kobe Brown? How good he
looked? Or do we want should we talk about something maybe a little more
meaningful? Were you not the one in control of at Clipper's pod Twitter account
that said, Kobe Brown just had a rough stretch and then I tried to
old takes expose you should I be doing a lot lately. I was in
control that his first couple of minutes did not look super solid, which I
don't think is a huge prize to anybody. But I love how he bounced
back. He was the only bench guy other than Kenyon Martin or Terrence Man
to not have a negative plus minus. You know, the three blocks are
nice, but he's still got some He's got to get use some movement at
NBA speed, I think. But I think the main thing we can all
be excited about tonight was Paul George looks completely ready for the season. I
think he is the guy who most looks just ready to hit the ground running.
And Zoom looked good too. But what do you think of PG tonight?
I it was everything we could have wanted. I think, well,
it was especially impressive because he goes one of nine a week ago. Obviously
he wanted to right that wrong, but I don't think he had his first
bucket the first six minutes of the first quarter. Then all of a sudden
he took over. So all of his damage with those twenty three points may
have come within about a ten minute stretch from the end of the first into
the second, where he was absolutely lethal. But also he only took one
three he hit it, but he was getting to the basket, he was
getting to his spots. He and Reggie Jackson were dueling, going back and
forth a little bit early on the ballgame. Reggie was going at him and
Kawhi like he was taking things personally. I think Bones Highland had a little
something extra for his former team in the Denver Nuggets. Reggie may have had
something for the Clippers. But then Paul George took control of the ballgame really
midway through that second quarter, when the Clippers starter started to open things up.
Yeah, him and Kawhi got started a little bit kind of at the
same time, which probably isn't a coincidence, but yeah, I love what
you said the one to three point attempt. It was three level scoring,
you know, for the most part for Paul George, no assists and no
turnovers. You know, I'm not really worried about that. In the preseason,
they were trying Nico with the four, so the assists are going to
come, and I mean hopefully the turnovers aren't too crazy this year since Russ
has had some more time to gel and kind of set things up. But
no, I mean, you know, two one, three, for a
brief period, we're both playing very well. Kawhi seemed like he was kind
of, you know, getting up to speed in this game a little bit,
not a bunch of shot, not a bunch of shot attempts or anything
like that. But you know, plus fourteen, it's hard to be upset
with Kawhi in the preseason kind of any time, as long as we're coming
off of a healthy training camp, especially because on the flip side, I
like when I see Kawhi Leonard taking more threes and knocking him down, because
last season he got off to such a slow start from the outside. You
could tell his legs weren't there. Oh, what's all there? Right now?
I know you only took five shots, but those two three pointers.
And I was watching him intently pregame just to see what his movement look like
when his pregame workout as opposed to what I saw last season, He's moving
faster. It's noticeable. He's noticeably leaner. Too. That plays a role
here. But when Kawhi says part of the reason he thinks there's better energy,
better vibes at training camp because the guys see him at one moving with
more agility out there, that's a huge deal. We're talking about Kawhi fully
loaded heading into a season knock on one. Yeah, and I mean think
about you know, who do you want your guys to practice against? And
that's the best and everyone else on the Clippers has to practice against Paul George
and Kawhi and they've been able to do that for an entire training camp so
far. And Tyler was talking about one of his quote unquote favorite drills that
he's making you guys run. They are running a hell of a lot during
this training camp. They did look a little time today to start this one.
It was kind of wonky given the fact that Denver sat everybody, so
you know, they were playing some some kind of you know, unknown quantities
and stuff like that. But this the vibes and training game were fantastic.
Right now, we don't know if anything's gonna happen to maybe shape this roster
up, but right now, not the most convincing performance from the team as
a whole tonight. But still, you know, you gotta be happy with
what you saw. We saw some great stuff on the break from Russ,
he found Nico for a corner three that was just I think, like picture
perfect. What what Clippers fans kind of expect from this new running offense and
stuff like that. And I thought Nico did okay as the starting for I
think it's hard to rotate, you know, a new starting for three games
in a row. But Nico did Nico things. He connected plays, he
hit multiple threes, he grabbed boards. It was a quiet night for the
most part. That's exactly what he'd have to do if he does end up
as the starting four. Yeah, he just fits in seamlessly, makes the
basketball players. I think one of those threes he knocked down was from pretty
far out. He also got off to a slow start from beyond the arc
and a three point shot was hit and miss. Last season still ended up
just below forty percent. I thought he looked good. He showed a little
bit of bounce on a player where he tried to get back on defense and
swat a shot. I don't know who the player was on offense. Yeah,
yeah, he showed that the hops are still there. I know he's
got a lot of wear and tear because he's playing every summer with France.
But Nicholas Batoum, I still think can be a very valuable player on this
Clippers team. But you mentioned Russell Westbrook there. He finished with seven assists
in just one turnover, and while he found Nicholas Patumb for that three pointer,
he wasn't ten on getting the ball to a Vita Zubots, as were
the rest of the Clippers early on. He had eight points in the first
quarter alone, but Big Zoo had three blocks. He had two of them
I think on one possession. Like he was very active for a guy who
was just dealing with Yeah, I think that plane ride from my from Hawaii
to Seattle had some of those backspatties. I wouldn't have been surprised if it
was some travel fatigue stuff. But no, Zoo, man. It was
great to see them getting Zoo touches early since he you know, didn't get
as many as he wanted in the Seattle game. You know, hands,
Zoo's hands at this point are what they're gonna be. We just gotta hope
he can catch the you know, eighty five percent of the passes getting thrown
to him. But he was aggressive and also feels like you talked about Reggie
and some of these guys playing hard against the other team. I don't know
what it is about a Viza Zubots, but DeAndre Jordan seems to play harder
against the Viza Zoobots than any other center in the league. So it was
nice to see him get a really you know, if you're playing Downrey Jordan
in twenty twenty three, it's going to be mostly just physical, so it's
nice for him to get you know that kind of banging around old school post
play. I think, yeah, get him up to speed quickly. DJ
did have eight to nine. I wonder if he feels like Zoo is his
replacement or something with the Clippers, and he took that personally. I don't
know. So one of the more underrated uh I guess aspects to this ballgame
and performances was Terrence Man. To me, it's not that he had some
huge thirty nine point game or anything. It was just eight points, seven
boards, but all four of his makes were fatal. Ways we're a little
step back, yeah, Like that is an element to his game that he
has shown here and there. But to see all four of his makes four
to six shooting be that part of his bag. That's a big deal to
me. Yeah, I mean year five, If you're adding new things and
they're working, I'm all for it. We already know how good he is
at getting to the basket, making defenders have to second guess, you know,
just one more thing he can do. He's not the most you know,
versatile scorer or anything like that. He's good at what he's good at.
He doesn't really branch out, but this is the kind of like nice
little mini branch he can add to just make the defenders have to think about
one more thing when he's on the floor. I'm not totally sold on him
being this for you. I would like that, but I don't know if
that's where the direction the tee, you know, Tyler wants to go.
But him on the bench, if he's playing like this and kind of you
know, a bit of the alpha dog on the bench that I would look
forward to a bench, you know, a Terrance excuse me, a Terrence
led bench. Yeah. I just like the fact that he was hunting out
that spot on the floor, like, get me there, I'll take care
of the rest. That could be exactly baby Kawhi, the old Spider Man
meme from I don't know if I was into the universe across the universe,
I forget the first one okay by our friend Phil lord H. What more
for you here? Both Island finished with twelve points but for assists, and
he got a three warn to go after starting off the preseason over eleven from
the outside. Then the juice in his legs just getting downhill, trying to
finish or setting up a vitza Zubots for an easy dunk like he creates have
it. And I was watching him closely on defense there was a play where
he was absolutely trying to fight through multiple screens to stick with his man.
That effort was there, and we saw it at times last year at a
Clippers uniform. Yeah, Bones, I mean, the effort is there.
You know. There was that quote from the Denver GM about you know how
Bones had to go because he was what doesn't defend a kind of a me
guy or something like that. Bones are the guy who plays with the motion,
just like Russell Westbrooks. There's some players where a chip on their shoulder
had a tiny bit of something and I think that Bones has that It's a
little chaotic when he gets to the basket, it feels like he jumps and
then tries to kind of make a decision. But everything else, I love
the effort on defense. He puts his chest in the guys. He's trying
to make a difference on that end, which when you're as skinny as Bones
is, is a big part of it. It was good stuff. You
know, the turnovers not what you want to see, but again it's preseason.
Wonky start him on the bench kind of going back to the Terrence Man
thing. I wouldn't be mad if Terrence is there to kind of help out
some of the defensive issues because the bench without you know, a super strong
defender out there is, you know, something that might have to get figured
out. But Bone just had a good preseason. Really excited to see what
he does in two days. He is the Kobe Brown super fan. Chuck
Mockler what self appointed? I mean, this is this is something you've been
on for a while now, and I'm here for it. We love Kobe
Brown. I love the fact that what's the up The thing is, I
think he could get more minutes than Mussa Diabatte did last year. I think
more total minutes, will see more for Kobe Brown. I think there's a
I think there's a narrow path to it. That's all I'm hoping for.
I feel like some goalposts are being rearranged at the moment. But that's fine,
that's fine, that's cool. We'll be on with Chuck Mockler tomorrow.
We'll have a new Cliffs and Dip podcast. Look forward on YouTube at Chuck
Mackler's where you can find him on X Chuck, thanks for doing this tonight
post game. Hey, thanks for having me. Adam