It's going on. Clippers fans, welcome to season two, episode thirty six
of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Mockler, usually joined by at least
one of Adam Austin or Will Updyke, but it's just me today. It's
Club Chuck. It's Chuck's only It's Chuck. Rissa explains it all. Thank
you to Joseph frass Ward for that one. So we're doing a quick episode
to talk just kind of how I'm feeling after Clippers versus Suns happened last night.
A fantastic game down in Phoenix. We got a Clippers versus Pelicans preview.
I'll let you know later the last time we won in New Orleans,
but it was a long time ago. These teams are kind of on a
fun collision course. This is gonna be a great regular season game. I'll
do my player of the Game pick and then we probably have to wait for
the full council to be here. But I'm gonna put my suggested winners for
the YouTube best comment contest. If you ever want to watch us, you
can go to YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast. This one's not gonna
be on there. Full disclosure I just don't want to be on YouTube by
myself. I gotta look at the notes. It's too much. I want
to welcome all the new listeners. If you're not on the Clips bandwagon yet,
it's wide open, feel free to join. We love having new fans
of the Clippers, and hey, get in, get in while the iron's
hot. Sometimes these things don't go very well. Will Updike wanted me to
add one note. The Clippers are sitting first in the Pacific Division. What
a time. One game ahead of the Kings, three and a half games
ahead of the Suns after the win last night, and five games ahead of
the Lakers and Warriors. A journalist who I respect very much after two games
after the Hard and Trade said the clip were the worst team in the Pacific
Division. Well as of Thursday, January fourth, at two thirteen pm,
that person is one hundred percent wrong. They are quite literally the best so
far. So that's great to see. Ty Lou was also named Western Conference
Coach of the Month. I can't imagine anyone listening to this pod doesn't think
that he deserved that. Per the Clippers press release, the Clippers finished the
month of December with an eleven and two record, which is absurd. Obviously,
the nine game win streak the longest for the Clippers since twenty fifteen.
Twenty sixteen, they had the best offensive rating in the month, which was
one hundred and twenty two point six, which is insane for an entire month,
and we were ranked tied for six in the NBA in points per game
at one hundred and twenty one point six. It's fantastic. Tylu has been
pulling all the right strings, He's been pressing all the right buttons. It's
just good stuff to see. We love to see Tyler get the recognition he
deserves. Let's get into this Clippers versus Suns. Just kind of next day
thoughts for those of you that missed it. I got to go on AM
five seventy with Adam Oslin do a little double dip, but that was it
was kind of almost a borderline. I guess. It was just a tense
game, right. It was kind of a tale of two halves for the
Clippers. They were able to hold on for the dub in the desert.
Some things that we liked from that game if you missed the whole thing,
Paul George probably had his best half of that complete basketball as a Clipper.
He finished the game with thirty three points, seven boards, and three assists.
A note that was brought up by our parent pod. I think parent
pod is right. Sister Pod doesn't seem right over on the lob the jam
of the pod. Paul George is taking a lot more catch and shoot threes
lately. TYLERU has done a great job and that was on display in this
Sun's game of taking. You know, kind of maybe some of the creativity
and responsibility of ball handling out of Paul George's kind of to do list.
If you've watched the Clippers recently over the seasons, you know that sometimes Paul
George makes bad decisions with the ball in his hand, but if he's just
catching it and shooting it, it usually works out well. So that's a
new fun wrinkle that Tyler is kind of getting added into the Clippers offense,
and it was on full display against the Sun. So it's really cool to
see. Felt like in the first half he didn't have to dribble really at
all for a lot of his three point attempts, so that was great to
see. Kawhi Leonard hasn't missed a beat since he's been back from injury.
Just more superstar stuff on both ends. Thirty points, eight boards, three
assists, two steals, two blocks, Just a feather in the cap of
a wonderfully absurd season from him so far. So far this year, Kawhi
Leonard's shooting eighty one percent at the rim and fifty four percent in the floater
range, which is just not human or normal. It's this this level of
play that Kawhi is on. We've talked about, you know, on this
pod a lot. This team goes as far as Kawhi Leonard will take them,
well, Kahi Leonard MPG. But even it was just Kawhi Leonard the
way we're going up into the right very exciting for the Clippers. Terrence Man
hit multiple three pointers in this game, which was I don't I guess surprising.
I hate to say surprising. He hasn't obviously, you know, he
hasn't been his usual self from three. This podcast has not lost faith in
Terrence Man. He's still part of one of the best, if not the
best, you know, starting lineups in the league when it comes to net
rating. But he was great in this Phoenix game. Two three pointers in
the first quarter, It's just awesome to see. This is another you know,
building block for Terrence Man a couple games ago. We pull up these
stats real quick. So versus the heat, he was one of two from
three. He had twelve points, three rebounds. It was kind of like
a okay. Obviously not not a bad game by any means, Clippers one.
Terrence did a lot of good things that he normally does, but that
was kind of like a okay, there there could be a corner being turned
here. Then against the Suns, two of four from three, so a
nice little bump twice as much again, three boards and assist and two steals,
one of which was on Devin Booker, which led to Devin Booker getting
a tech which I always like to see that. Also, this is a
bit of an aside, and you can come at me on Twitter at clippers
Pod if you want to, or at Chuck Mockler. I guess do we
actually like Devin Booker's shoes or were they just like the information behind them is
very cool? Hey, the back tab looks like book pages. Fun.
It's just a poofy air Force one. I don't know, I don't know.
It doesn't seem like it would be very good to play basketball in.
It just looks like a bad air force one. Anyway, back to Terrence
Man, I think this was kind of you can see this as like step
two or maybe step one and a half in the Terrence's outside shooting is back,
because if you've watched the Clippers all year, you know that everything else
that Terrence Man has been doing has been very good. His defense has been
great, His decision making for the most part has been very good. He
tried to catch that one insane pass from Paul George it didn't work out,
But everything other than the shooting has been good. So if the shooting gets
there, it's just gonna make the starting lineup even better. The Suns really
had to make decisions when Terrence had the ball in his hand. Teams are
gonna have to stop playing kind of this free safety ish defense against him like
we saw, especially with against Memphis and stuff like that. So shout out
to Terrence. He's going up into the right when it comes to outside shooting.
He's already at the total top right corner for everything else, So hats
off to Terrence. James Harden shockingly still very good at being a point guard
for the LA Clippers. He had a wonderful quote after the game about how
a lot of people had a lot of things to say, you know when
when he first got traded there and whatnot, and now you cannot find those
people the full quote. Excuse me, James Harden said on LA Clippers early
struggles in November gave people so much to talk about in a negative way.
And now those people that we're talking are nowhere to be found, like literally
nowhere to be found, which we knew that was going to happen. Yes,
James, Yes, you are totally right man. This is the good
part of Brooklyn. James Harden. This is pretty much close to what he
was last year when he loved the league in assists and helping Joel Embiid get
an MVP. He is I don't know if he is the system. He
might be the system. He's making everyone orbit at the same speed, which
is usually Kawhi's speed. Everyone's brought down to to knowing what they have,
knowing that they will get the ball if they put themselves in the right position
that they're supposed to be in. James Harden was great that that was a
good I know the Sons were down KD obviously, and it really did show.
But you still got to take care of business. The Suns team did
not go quietly into the night this game. I think both teams put up
seventy over two quarters at one point, so it got a little dicey,
especially in the fourth quarter. But Norm Powell in the fourth quarter two of
two from three in a frame where the Clippers really needed it, it was
looking a little bleak. If you follow us over on at Clippers Pod on
Twitter and you see the hashtag too stress to tweet, it was too stressful
to tweet. The Clips lost the second half by ten points, and there
were just times where it was a little shaky. You know. James Harden
was phenomenal in the second half. He was great, but it was just
I mean, the Suns just couldn't miss, which hey, the Clippers couldn't
miss for the whole game, so that's nice too. One other thing I
want to point in about this game, uh Nurkicch is very bad at defense.
The Clippers went right at Nirk pretty much on the third and it was,
you know, a bucket or a foul every time to start out this
one. I don't I know that Deander Ayton had his issues there, but
he's just a better basketball player than Nirk. Nirk also took a misguided three,
which I was happy to see, but like I mentioned, this one
almost got away from the Clips. The Shun's Suns excuse me, shot sixty
three percent and the second half to make the say very real game. It
looked like, you know, I was watching the game and just kind of
following the fantastic you know, power users of Clippers Twitter, you got La
Clippers film, you got Law Murray and your greif, all the Beat reporters,
Till mayor Justin Russo, Joey Lynn, our own adam osend of course,
and stuff like that. But a lot of people were pointing out the
Sun started to use book and deal in ball screens, which really kind of
mucked things up for the Clippers. And then you saw some kind of classic
Frank Vogel like random doubles like here's a double, and that caused some turnover
issues for the Clippers too, which is how you know, you can let
a shorthanded team feel a little more comfortable than they should. But the Clippers
overcame it, which was cool to see. Bull Bull went six of seven,
which from an offensive perspective, I don't think is sustainable. But the
crowd in Phoenix loves Bull Bull. He seems to be a crowd favorite.
The Clips didn't really take advantage of him on defense, which I I didn't
really understand. We had him isoed a couple of times and couldn't really do
anything to punish him defensively. I have to imagine that'll change the next time
they play, especially if the Suns are fully healthy. But I think maybe
some missed opportunities, you know, not maybe putting Bull Bull into as many
actions like we did NRK, but still got the win. Overcame the Bull
Bull game. You know. I think last year, if Bull Bull goes
six of seven, that's a game that mentally the Clipper have been able to
overcome. But we saw championship habits on display in this game. They didn't
get shook. This game got into the mud. This game was gross for
a while, and they got it done despite some kind of mental slippage.
There's some defensive stuff going on where guys just you know, weren't locked in
one hundred percent of the time, but they pulled out of it right.
There was a bit of a noseedi've going. They pulled up on the rudders.
I don't know how a plane works, but they got out of it
and they just they buckled down. They got the wind and they got clutch
buckets. The Clippers of now won thirteen of their last fifteen eleven straight with
Kawhile Leonard in the lineup. Paul George said this in the post game.
There's still a ton of stuff we can get better at. This is a
team that's not content about where we're at. We love to hear it.
That's exactly what Clippers fans want to hear. That's the message that we've been
fed all off season and all that stuff building up to this season of if
guys are not hurt, you know, if guys are healthy, they're going
to play it. That's been true working on this championship mindset, more practices
than usual. They were practicing in between games when they had the chance.
Just we're seeing these things actually come to fruition, which if you've been a
fan of the Clippers, has been something we've kind of wanted to see.
Right like, we're seeing it happen in real time now. I understand being
skeptical of this as a Clippers fan, I fully get that we've been burned
before by this team and just believing in this team. But I'm fully I'm
coming around to it. I now I think it's real. I think it's
really real. I know I'm saying that as of Thursday, January fourth,
two, twenty four pm. If you're new to the Pod, I time
stamp a lot of takes just in case. But I'm really starting to fully
believe. I know they can get better. They can still go up into
the right. There was a quote Harden and Kawhi or excuse me, sorry,
that Paul George quote. I think illustrates like this team's been great.
They have the same point differential as the Minnesota Timberwolves, which is a big
deal. I think that is. The Timberwlves are a team that for a
while had they still might I think the best defensive rating in the NBA,
and they've kind of been playing well for kind of the whole season. Sorry,
excuse me, not the best defensive rating in the NBA. Oh,
it is one hundred and eight point seven. We have the same point differential
as that team. Right now, with a six game losing streak on our
resume, I don't know why you would put that on your resume, maybe
in the humility section. But that's fantastic. This is good stuff. It's
hard, it's hard to want to get your hopes up again, but I'm
getting there. I'm very close, folks. We know Adam Os on his
hopes already as hig as they could possibly be. Will maybe somewhere lower than
me, not sure, but I think I'm fully in there, ready to
believe. Let's do this thing. Yeah, I'm ready to get kicked in
the throat again. I think I really am one thing. Kind of back
to this game real quick. Hard and Kwi both talked about the Clippers need
to improve their defense and transition. It's been nice, you know, as
recently as like a couple days ago from Andrew Greif there was saying it's been
a big talking point in team meetings and whatnot. But this still is an
area for improvement. I'm pulling up kind of the game chart, the game
charts right now from Phoenix, and it looks like if I can get this
pulled up quick enough, yeah, fast break points Clippers one ten to eight.
Right, So for defending in transition, we're still winning these fast breakpoints.
I'm not super worried about it, but it's still It's nice again,
there's still emphasis. This team is rolling. This team is absurd over its
last twenty five games, and they're still talking about things they can improve.
This does not feel like a team that is winning games by just showing up
and being better than the other team. They very much are doing that,
but they're drilled. They know what their jobs are supposed to be. They're
communicating with each other both in maybe fun and not as fun ways when those
conversations need to happen. But those conversations are happening. We're not seeing this
team that a lot of people maybe rightfully or wrongfully use the word entitled to
talk about this Clippers team. The Clippers team with James Harden is not an
entitled Clippers team. I don't think they were before James Harden in this season
specifically, but we're not seeing any of that. That Denver loss left a
horrible taste in all of the fans' mouths and the player's mouths. It was
awful. It took like five games of that winning streak for will Updike and
I had to come on this podcast and say I think that bad taste is
finally out of our mouth. That's how ugly that Nuggets loss was completely different
teams since then. This team took that moment where they basically just got beat
to death by a so institute Nuggets team and said, we're we're not gonna
do this this year. We're gonna maybe do it once. Well not,
maybe they did do it once against that Nuggets team. We haven't seen that
version of the Clippers in a very very long time. I hope we never
see it again. We might, but it's just good to see everyone clicking
and clicking up right now. If you go down this Clippers roster, there's
not a single guy who overall is not playing close to the best basketball he's
played as an LA Clipper. And I really think that coincides with James harden
Cone to this team. Amir Coffee was fantastic in this game against the Sense
Amir's defense in this game he was getting switched on too, and I wasn't
worried about it. You know, He's like, oh, there's a switch.
I wasn't worried about it. Amir is making the case he's going to
get minutes in the playoffs. I hope it's double digits minutes per game.
He was fantastic. Daniel Tice won the gold medal chip on his shoulder playing
great basketball. Norm Powell don't really know what else needs to be said there.
Russ, great glue guy. Maybe not his best night shooting wise against
Phoenix, but still a plus five. He's getting boards, he got assists,
he got two steals. And then you have the starting lineup, which
I mean Kawhi PG James Harden, some of their best basketball. James Harden
is orchestrating one of the better looking offenses in the league of Vitza Zubats getting
rewarded by his point guard for being a good big man, having his best
year ever as a Clipper or in the NBA. Terrence Man. Yes,
we know the shooting hasn't been there. Like I said earlier, everything else
is good. Everything else is good. Every guy is playing well right now,
and Tyler's coaching his ass off, so things are going pretty good.
We've opened twenty twenty four with a win streak, as some of us,
I believe it was me predicted, so it's good to see. It's it's
good to get this win in Phoenix because we have a game that I don't
know if it's a must win, but it's a I'll call it a must
win. This this is a marquee matchup early in the season. This is
the matchup we kind of all wanted Clippers Celtics to be, or even fully
healthy sons versus fully healthy Clippers. We're playing the Pels in New Orleans.
I'm gonna preview that game and just a few we have some ads coming up
for those of you. Maybe the ads have been too loud. That has
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go ahead and turn it down. We have ads and then the preview of
the Battle in the Bayou coming up ads in three two one. All right,
we are back at clips in Dip season two, episode thirty six.
Again. If this is your first listen, it's usually not just me.
I guess I am the Dip, the titular Dip. In this episode,
Adam Oslin of Am five to seventy Fame and Will Updyke of Just Fame Fame
are usually with me. But it's just just solo. Chuck today we're getting
into this Clippers versus Pels game. This is in New Orleans. The last
time the Clippers won in New Orleans was January eighteenth, twenty twenty. I
looked up things that happened on January eighteenth, twenty twenty, and for the
Royal Family fans who are also Clippers fans, I can't imagine that's a big
crossover. But on that day, January eighteen, twenty twenty, that's when
Harry and Meghan decided to stop being paid members of the Royal Family. That's
how long ago the Clippers won in New Orleans when people were talking about whatever
the Royal Family does. So I think all of us just want this one
so bad. The Pels always have our number. They always have They quite
literally seem to always have our number in New Orleans. We lost on them
back in late November. Really rough game from Kawhi and James harden Or two
of thirteen from three. Paul George was four for twelve from three in that
game. But this is a different Clippers team. We got killed on the
boards in that game, lost it by eleven. I I'm feeling optimistic about
this game. The Pels. I just talked about how good Minnesota was.
The Pells just beat them behind twenty seven points from Zion and twenty four points
from CJ McCollum. They're a top ten defensive rating team. They are seventh,
and they are an incredibly mid offensive rating team at fifteenth. I don't
mean mid disrespectfully. They are quite literally the middle of the pack when it
comes to offensive rating. I like I mentioned, this is a different Clippers
team from last time we had PJ. Tucker on Zion Williamson last game.
Someone on our Twitter asked us if we'll see that again. I hope not.
Zion is playing really good basketball. You wouldn't know it. If you'll
need go on Twitter. People just seem to kind of roast him, but
just specifically through the PJ. Tucker question. Let me pull up my bookmarked
PJ. Tucker game log page that I have on here. I'm just trying
to look at how many dnps he's had in a row and why man,
whoa wow, Okay, holy shit, he's had like sixteen d nps in
a row. I don't know if I want to trot out a quote unquote
well rested PJ. Tucker against Zion after sixteen dnps and then say, hey,
go guard Zion. I don't think that would work. Maybe if we
need to get some fouls in there, I'd be happy with that. But
I'm curious who will see on Zion. I gotta imagine it's gonna be I
guess Kawhi. He's the biggest between you know, him and PG. I
don't think Terrence is gonna guard him. I don't think James Harden's gonna guard
him. Who's got to deal with JV Valanchunis. So I'm thinking it's maybe
I gonna be Zion, Like I excuse, I think it's gonna be Kawhi.
Sorry, I'm yeah, this is gonna be a bit of a chess
match. Both these teams are playing really well. I'm really excited for this
game. Both these teams are fully healthy. This is gonna be some good
stuff. But yeah, the Zion thing. Pulling up the matchup data right
now, the matchup data on NBA dot com. Also, if you're ever
looking at it and you think this shit doesn't make any sense, it's very
wonky. I'm really just looking for the time that we had guys on him.
Yeah, PJ. Tucker was on him. For supposedly six minutes in
seven seconds. Kawhi on him for sixteen seconds, so per that data,
maybe I'm totally wrong, but his main defenders last time were PJ. Tucker,
James Harden, Terrence Man, and Paul George. Again a little wonky.
I don't know what we're gonna see this time. I think it might
be a crap shoot. He shot fifty percent against PJ. Tucker all in
in that wonky matchup data, so I'm interested there. Clipper killer Brandon Ingram
Kawhi was on him for the majority of the last time we played. Ingram
put up thirty in that game. He turns super saying when he plays the
Clippers, we all know that we don't really like it. So I'm hoping
we get, you know, the defensive version of Kuhi that we've been seeing
lately. I think we'll give Brandon Ingram a tough time. C J McCollum
is averaging twenty four and five and absolutely lighting it up from three. So
Terence Man, we'll see is gonna be on him. I'm assuming he didn't
play in that last matchup for when the Clippers played the Pels in November,
so kind of a new look for the Clippers to deal with. They had
Dyson Daniels out there, so yeah, I think, God imagine Harden will
be on him. You know, they'll probably try and get Zoo switched on
to him. Yeah, this is the The addition of CJ. McCollum is
a bit of an interesting one. Just when you try and you know,
contextualize this game versus what happened in November. Herb Jones is going to be
very annoying. He's very good at defense. Another guy who's going to be
annoying is Jose Alvarado. Uh, we got you know, basically Puerto Rico
pap bev. Jose Avado's having a good season. Love watching him play basketball.
But this is a really good Pels team. This is a it's a
Pels team that it's a little hot and cold. I'm pulling up their basketball
eriffors right now, but like mostly hot, it's mostly but hot. They
had the team I believe they had like a team meeting at one point.
They started off really rough. They started out they lost one, two,
three, five, six of their first ten. So they started four and
six was not going well. It's got a lot better since those opening ten
games are just kind of not killing teams, but they're they're handling their busines.
This basically is what we're seeing from the Pells. So it's funny you
look at these two teams, Pels and Clips are basically averaging the same amount
of points in transition. I mentioned that transition defense is being something that the
Clippers are talking about is a point of emphasis, so it should be interesting
to see. I'd love to score more points in transition than the Pells,
especially if for Tide more Paul George catch and shoot threes. The Pels defense
teams get to shoot forty threes per game against the Pels, which is dead
last in the NBA. They give up the highest number of threes. However,
they defend them very well. Teams only shoot thirty three percent from the
three point line on those thirty nine excuse me, attempts from three. But
the Clippers have been shooting pretty well. They're definitely going to shoot a lot
better, I hope than they did last time against this Pells team. They
shot twenty nine percent from three. It was not ideal. So yeah,
I want to see more catch and shoot three from PG. Hell, we're
gonna get a chance to hit, to shoot a bunch of threes anyway,
So if James Harden can get his feet in the paint, you know,
the drive quick swing mantra we've all heard, We've all thought about maybe getting
tattooed on our arms or something like that. That needs to be in full
effect against this Pells team. I want to see open looks. I don't
want to see people's hands in people's faces and then trying to defend without fouling.
The Pels average the seventh most two point attempts in the league and the
fifth most free throw attempts. We cannot let them live at the line.
They don't shoot very well from the line. They're like bottom five in the
league on that. But I don't want them there. I don't want them
to live at the line. That would not be ideal. I'm also a
little bit worried about Paul George has been getting their friendly wistle, which US
Clippers fans know that's how it should be. Of course, he's a superstar
in this league. But I'm worried that good will might run out. This
isn't any this has nothing to do with Paul George. Cannot control this.
But I hope he can he can keep this good whistle will up. I
hope the refs are kind to Paul George and give him the calls that he
deserves. Oh so I apologize. I need to talk about the refs and
Sons Clippers really quick, just just to touch back on that. If you
watch this game from both sides, from the Phoenix side from the LA side,
this was one of the sloppiest, worst organized, seemingly no control,
petty petty stuff from the ref crew. In that game, both teams got
multiple techs. Kawhi got his fifth tech in however many seasons. It was
kind of insane. They seem to take offense to anything that either of the
teams said to them. I get there's gonna be chippiness between the Clippers and
Suns, but give text for chippiness towards Clippers and Sons. Don't give texts
because you're making bad calls. They had bull Bull take a jump ball when
it shouldn't have been bull Bull, And again, that's not something that is
usual. That's just something that's maybe like a oh, they messed that up.
But in the context of everything else they were doing. Horribly organized game
by the reps. Both coaches were upset at the reps. Both the player,
both sets of players were upset at the reps. No real organization did
not feel like they were in control at times, but also just asserted so
much control at other times. Figured out. I hope the reffing Impels Verse
Clippers is a lot better in that one. This is gonna be an exciting
game for the quote unquote neutral fan. So happy for you. Happy.
I always love the neutral fan. I hope the neutral fan has a great
experience in this. But I hope the Clippers win this one. The Clippers
are a team. They're shooting so well. We're shooting thirty eight percent from
three. If we get forty threes in this game, and we shoot our
season average, I like where we're at. It's more threes than we take
per game by about six or seven, I think something like that. And
if we shoot thirty eight percent on that, I think we're winning this game.
I think it comes out to hitting the We know they're gonna be there,
hitting the three point shots we get, which I have a feeling Terrence
Man is gonna get sagged off of a little bit. One of mere Coffee's
out there I want him letting it fly. Paul George took twelve threes last
time that these two teams played. I'm not mad if if he's hitting shots,
I'm not mad at another twelve threes. I'd love maybe half of them
to be catch and shoot or something like that. But that new catch and
shoot wrinkle is something I'm really interested to see in this this Pelicans game,
I don't know, it's look, I'm not gonna say that. I'm feeling
uber confident because again, it is New Orleans Pelicans for whatever reason, it's
very difficult for the Clippers to beat them. But I'm feeling good with how
well the Clippers team has been playing. It is not even close to the
same team that played the Pells back in November. Hell, I mean even
with CJ. McCollum, and it's not the same Pells team. This is
a marquee matchup for anyone who just wants to watch high level basketball. The
injury report has not come out yet. Again, I'm recording this Thursday,
January fourth, at two forty two pm. No injury report, but the
Clippers injury report was clean for the Sun's game, which if this is how
twenty twenty four is going to be I guess I could get used to it
still feels like twenty nineteen was last year. But hey whatever, I'm excited.
I'm nervously excited for this game. I'm really I'm just looking for The
Clippers are playing so well, we have no reason to believe that they From
pure basketball perspective, there is no reason the Clippers cannot win this game.
I'm not saying they're gonna blow it out. It's very difficult to blow teams
out, especially good ones, in twenty twenty four. But I'm feeling okay
about this one. I'm feeling okay if we can hold onto the ball.
There's a little too many turnovers in that Suns game. I think we're gonna
be oh okay. The Pels turn the ball over pretty much the same amount
as the Clippers do, but the Pels also average a lot of steals.
So if they're kind of on their steals game and all that good stuff and
we're not as controlled with the ball, I think that's how this one gets
away from them. The Pells average, also, I think somewhere in like
the top three for passes per game in the NBA, So active hands everywhere,
active hands in the perimeter, a mere coffee. Really hoping he can
build on that defensive performance he had against the Suns. He was just picking
everybody up, making the right plays, helping on loose balls and stuff like
that. Terrence Man, I think, is going to be asked to do
a lot to open this game. So he needs to come out, you
know, on the aggressive foot from a defensive perspective, and again defend without
fouling. They get a lot of calls, they go to the line a
lot. Let's not make that any easier. They are going to get to
the line. Let's not make it any easier. Right, Let's let's do
our thing. I'm not even gonna mention a certain players three point shooting against
this Clippers team. I don't even want to think about that. But if
it happens, it happens. You don't game playing around that specific player making
those threes. It's very annoying, but it happens. It sometimes it happens.
It happened one time, very hard and it was not cool. I
want to see if eats Zoo Bots have a good game in this one.
Obviously, you know, going against JV it can be difficult and Zoo wasn't
you know, he didn't exactly you know, set the world on fire in
the game again, Phoenix. You know, it wasn't bad, but it
wasn't exactly elite. I guess I'm sorry. I'm just looking up the numbers
right here. Yeah, you know, two of four he was zero for
plus minus, so not that crazy, not not good, not bad,
but this is you know, they can they can make things happen. Zoos
should make things happen in this game. I really hope that he does.
I want to see him have a statement game against JV. It'd be fantastic.
That's all all I really have to preview for for this clips Peals game.
I just want him to play right now. I'm excited. I want
it to happen. Player of the Game picks. We've gotten every single one
of these right every game all year, which has been pretty incredible. I
believe Adam picked Kawai for the last game, and he was correct. I
think my player of the Game for this one, man, I'm to go.
I'm going James Harden. I'm loving the energy Harden is brought to the
Clippers team. I'm loving the settling he's brought to the Clippers team. I
don't think he'll get the rebounds for a triple double, but I think he's
gonna be close. I think we're gonna see maybe like twelve or thirteen assists
from James Harden in this game, and that's gonna be awesome if if Harden
gets over tennis sists. I have a very good feeling the Clippers are going
to win and that they got a lot of catching shoot threes from Paul George
show. James Harden is your player of the game, let's hope. So
for Pels versus Clips not about wraps it up. For me, I should
probably get back to my actual job. But I hope everyone is having a
wonderful start to their twenty twenty four. We might have to wait until the
full Clips in Dip Council is here, but we did have a contest going
over on YouTube at Clippers Podcast. The best comment was going will win the
Avitza Zubats you know Croatian night t shirt. Here's my three picks for the
top three comments, and then you know, I'll talk, We'll talk about
it amongst ourselves and we'll announce on the next episode, which should be out
on Saturday, by the way, might be doing a little live hang on
Saturday. Who knows, but here's my favorites. Nicholas Ramos three one eight
seven said willing to buy a new car next year in order to next New
Year's in order to get that zoo shirt. If you're unfamiliar, you can
get fantastic deals on new cars on New Year's Day. And Nicholas Ramos would
buy a car to get this shirt. Uh. Luca E two three said,
if you don't want to lose your only listener from iban Buren, you
better send that shirt my way. I'm not a huge fan of threats,
but we'll see what the other guys feel about that. Also shout out to
ibban Buren. I'm probably not pronouncing that correctly, but I hope your local
soccer club is doing great, and I hope that uh German Clippers fans are
doing well. How many fans of the Clippers are in Germany? I would
like to know that we can maybe we can do a live show out there.
And then Mike said ultrazord with an exclamation point. I think that's gonna
be Adam Oslin's pick for for comment on the stream. But we'll see we
know who knows things are fluid over here at clips and Dip our next competition,
we're gonna do another best comment competition. We get one up on YouTube.
I believe we have the Mexican heritage jersey. I think Adam snagged one
of those, which is awesome and I just, you know, selfishly,
I guess that's selfishly. I have to give a shout out to my co
hosts, Will Uptick and Adam Osland have been fantastic. It's been really fun
starting the new year with those guys. Shout out to Adam forgetting the shirt.
Shout out to Will for doing everything when it comes to the video production.
So give those guys some love for a happy twenty twenty four. Over
on Twitter at clippers Pod, we could use some reviews. You can review
us on iTunes, you can find us on YouTube. Again, I am
shy. So this episode of just Me Sitting in my closet will probably not
be up on YouTube, but we thank you everyone who subscribing, and the
next video will be out on Saturday. Probably gonna be a live hang where
we talk what happened against New Orleans, where we talk about the back to
back that starts on Sunday, where we go at the Lakers on Sunday and
then at the Sun's on Monday. It's gonna be a fun time. If
you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at Chuck Mockler, will is
at Will Updike, and Adam is at follow Adam a over on the bird
app. Again, thank you to everyone for listening. I hope you're having
as much fun watching the Clippers as we all are. Check us out for
the double dip over on AM five seventy post game with Adam Oslin. It'll
be myself or Will Updike. Hey, here's to a hell of a twenty
twenty four. Here's the getting a win in New Orleans for the first time
since people were talking about the royal family. Leave us reviews. We love
them, we appreciate all the listens, and as always, let's go clips.