What is going on? Clippers fans. Welcome to season two, episode twenty
seven of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam Auslin
and Will you Updyke. Welcome to all the new fans. If you're still
a fan after what happened last night, Hey, we're still here. We're
all still here. I'm bringing some positive energy because things are going to take
a nose dive because we're going to talk about what the Clippers did last night,
which was terrible. We're going to talk the tylu hot seat after what
might happen when we're up in the bay. We don't know if there's anything
happening there. There's some James Harden things to discuss. One game really derailed
the vibes for the Clippers, I guess is kind of the theme of the
show before we get into basketball stuff. Hello to my co hosts. How
are you doing? Adam and Will? Adam will start with you outside of
basketball? What's going on? Everything's fucked. I'm sorry I didn't be a
start like that, all right, I apologize, guys. I'm mostly kidding.
My life's great. I am living a charm life and I'm lucky to
be able to cover this team great and I'm happy to be like you guys.
All right, will how are you doing sunshine Rainbows? Yeah, yep,
that's that's right on. Yeah, I don't know, it's it's dark,
man. I feel like it's really really dark right now. I'm just
rocking the kernel. I pounded a chicken sandwich on on air before before we
started recording. So yeah, I'm clearly putting my body through the ringer the
same way the clippers have have put me through a ringer. If we had
a Patreon, we would have a tier where we would just send you the
video of will eating the sandwich before the podcast. This is this is not
even a diet, so I don't care. I don't care anymore. All
right, let's get into it. That's a perfect seguay, I don't care
anymore? Is a good way to kind of talk about this. Do we
want to revisit what happened or we just kind of want to dive into the
William Updyke question at hand now we've had some time to think it over.
I don't know if I feel we're right, And it's a jumping off point,
right if we go to the question we're still going to talk about what
happened last night. I think we have to, all right. So basically
I was talking to Chuck and I don't know these two games. It's a
tale of two Clippers. It's two very different teams, and I'm left wondering
what says more about who this team is and where they're actually at. Is
it the win over the Mavericks or this loss to the Denver not who can
I be honest, it wasn't even the Denver Nuggets. It was Denver ig
Night or whatever their G league affiliate is. Sorry for not knowing that off
top, but like, this is ridiculous. You're gonna tell me that a
team that started Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan in the Year of Our Lord and
Savior twenty twenty three beat the Clippers that were fully healthy. Yeah, two
separate double digit comebacks in that game by the aforementioned Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan
Nuggets. Yeah, I think because it's so fresh in my in our minds,
I think it's the Nuggets game. But Adam, go ahead, you
look like you want to go off, which is fair. No, it's
definitely the Nuggets game because this team is still recovering from losing six straight.
They're not out of the woods yet. They could have just gotten back to
five hundred had they won last night, and it was from the opening tip,
just a lethargic, laxa daisical, low effort type of game from the
Clippers. You could see it. It would have been shocking if it was
a twelve thirty start, which is more expected when it comes to these slow
ease into its sleepwalking Clippers performances. This was a game where they had a
day off. I just hang out every team, every team, all other
twenty nine teams in the league, have the script. You're down, guys,
you want to beat the Clippers. Play hard. They're gonna lose,
They're gonna crumble. It literally is that the only thing you have to do.
Play hard from the opening tip, and you will beat this team at
full strength, at whatever. You have a better than fifty percent shot of
beating this team. I couldn't be more disappointed with the level of, as
the kids say, unseerious basketball that we saw in that game, where there
was a defensive effort that borderlined on unprofessionally too well. The weird part,
sorry to cut you off with the defensively part that you're talking about. A
lot of it was Kawikau I played a horrific game defensively. He was losing
guys behind him, he was getting back cut. It was so uncharacteristic of
his entire him, and it was just baffling. Everybody checked out. Everybody
thought they had a free win. It was the exact opposite of the Dallas
game, which was so impressive considering it was the second nut of a back
to back, and they looked like the fresher team, and they had bounce
and juice out there, and they were connected defensively, especially in the second
half against Luka Doncic with the game plan and giving him different looks and blitzing
and firing, getting the ball out of his hands, and then rotating and
covering for one another, helping the helper. This was I don't even know.
I think it's the worst regular season loss in the two point three era,
I really do, And that could be recency biased, but considering where
this team is at they just added James Harden, they had an opportunity to
get to five hundred. It looked like a team that was so disinterested.
I think they would have had a better chance last night if the Nuggets were
just fully healthy. I honestly think they just went into the ballgame, oh
two hours beforehand. Now Jokich is out too, Okay, we can get
away with the just rolling the ball out there and figuring it out on the
fly, not running much offense, over compensating with trying to get Kawhi Leonard
Moore shots to a point where it became a detriment where it was just so
much isolation basketball and there was no flow out there whatsoever with anyone else.
James Harden continues not to take shots. It's not to be aggressive on the
offensive end, to turn down to catch and shoot three, which ends up
being I don't know if that was a misshot or a turn over. Take
your pick in the fourth quarter? Do you have to sell it was a
turnover to Zoo. I know exactly what possession you're talking about, because I
tweeted out from the eclips and Twitter. Sometimes when you catch it, you
have to shoot it, James. Sometimes you do, you just sometimes you
gotta shoot it right after you catch it. I think you might be right
that this is the worst loss in the two and three era regular season.
I think we can say because the status from Justin Russo. Prior to Monday
night, the Clippers had won one hundred and twenty eight consecutive games when entering
the fourth quarter leading by more than ten points, they'd won one hundred and
twenty eight. This is the first time in one hundred and twenty nine games
that they lost the game leading my double dits in the four court against as
Will said some of the Nuggets, great game for Mitgie Jackson, Jondre Jordan.
Revenge is a hell of a thing. We have to appreciate the spitefulness.
I guess that which they played because it worked, but it coincided with
an incredible lack of effort. They let them get that victory in that fashion
because of the way they played. There was a point where Reggie Jackson I
think hit thirteen straight shots. Sure, I mean he was cooking them in
the pick and roll to a degree. And they're gonna see deeron Fox and
Tomatos and bonus tomorrow. I'll talk more about that coming out, like you
can't stop this. They weren't even playing it hard. They weren't connected at
all. It was like they were seeing it for the first time. It
was like they didn't know who Reggie Jackson was, a guy who lives for
these moments, who of course was going to get up for this game and
knew he had the green light. Are you kidding me? He got up
for them in the preseason and was trying to go right at Kawhi and Paul
George and Paul George by the way, I don't want a huge overreaction.
It was awful. It was easily his worst game of the season, two
for thirteen. He also was very bad defensively when he was leading that charge
really against the Dallas Manvericks. With the focus that he had on that end,
I don't know what happened in that game. And the shots he was
taking the fourth quarter that he was missing extremely bad. It was shocking that
type of loss. It was lose your basketball powers space jam overly used cliche
type stuff by the Clippers. Well, and I think at least a lot
of the conversation that I've been seeing is like this is again, this is
being put on Russ, This is being put on James especially. You know,
given the trade and the players, the high effort, high motor players
that we gave up in that trade, and that's just not what I saw.
I thought this loss was so discouraging because of how poorly Kawhi and Paul
George played like that to me was what it was. And I mean,
Charles, you posted the record earlier there they played sixteen games together in the
young season, about as much as you get, hope there's seven and nine.
Yeah, it's it's quite literally as many games as you could possibly hope
for them to play together. At this point, we went from this area
where, hey, if the Clippers are healthy, they've always won in a
seven hundred winning percentage when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are both available, and
it's just been health concerns and setbacks and not having enough continuity because of that.
Now you get sixteen straight games with them and your two games under five
hundred. And by the way, this was I would say the third really
bad loss, because that loss to Memphis is also confounding. I don't care
that they were working in James Harden as they still are, and it was
even earlier then. I don't care in Brooklyn that loss they had where camp
Thomas goes out early in the third quarter and they're already missing half their guys
and Mikhale Bridges did nothing, just like Michael Porter Junior, who went three
of thirteen last night. Somehow I had a caller say, no, Denver
was down four guys because Michael Porter Junior is such a bad game. Of
course he hit that three point or late, as the Clippers didn't get back
in time to put a hand in his face. I've never seen anything like
it, not with a team with this much talent. That and that is
the issue. That is what has been making me want to bang my head
against the wall all day. We're not a plucky team. We have a
team of four Hall of famers. We have a team of guys who even
if they have to remember, we talked about the worst case scenario win.
I can't remember what game it was, but it was when the Clippers kind
of just needed to rely on being top heavy and it worked out and they
got the win. I'll look up what episode it was. But like that
is now somehow a stretch. Now for me, it's a stretch that we're
gonna be like, we can't be too top heavy for the Nuggets. Down
three guys, like where do you starters? Is insane and people are all
should be able to have a bad shooting game and you still have three other
Hall of famers that can pull you through exactly, and people are upset.
One we got to know from sports guy eight to eight. Uh just you
know, uh, he said, can we just talk about how all off
season they were saying how they were going to take the regular season more seriously
and they wanted to get younger and more athletic. Just now fast forwards sixteen
games in the season and suffer the same as you said earlier, unserious losses.
That's been the prevailing thing on Clippers Twitter, on anyone who has watched
the team as Clippers fans. You also sometimes get text from people who you
never really talk to, but they will hit you up when the Clippers lose.
Got a lot of those last night. It's just maddening. We're just
here again. We're in the same place we were last year. It's just
I know they didn't really have anything rolling, but it feels like it's all
unraveled, if that makes sense. When it came out so unfocused in that
first quarter, Kawhi had it going. I think he had nine in the
first but he had two unbelievably bad turnovers so uncharacteristically bad. Kawhi is not
a guy that has those just brain fart type of turnovers. I have trouble
rationalizing or reconciling what we saw yesterday. And just I know coach lew said
pregame that they have to focus on them and not worry about who's available for
the Denver Nuggets. I'm sure the team knew that. I don't know what
else he could have said. He was fired up on the sidelines. At
what point does it come down to the players? And I posted that Kawhi
quote after they took down the Houston Rockets post game where he said, at
some point, the light has to go on. The message has been there.
The coaches can only do so much. At some point either the light
goes on. There were some bathing decisions, which I think we're going to
talk about in the next segment, but there were also the I mean,
this is firmly on trying I agree with that, but there were some bathline
decisions made. I'm not saying coach lou is close to perfect in that game,
and we got to talk about some of those decisions too. I'm just
saying effort alone would have won this game. Instead, they thought they could
just out talent the Denver Nuggets, and they got out worked. If they
just had a bad shooting night but they still played hard, they would have
won the game. They thought they could out talent that they got outworked.
As an all timeline, that is that's a perfect, sadly encapsulation of a
lot of the Clippers' losses. Doesn't it feel like we've talked about this before,
But this team plays like they already have won a championship sometimes, like
they know they have this flip that they can switch, Like they're the early
two thousand Lakers with Kobe and shap that would consistently play down a competition and
then turn it around in the second half and get victories. But you'd give
them the benefit of the doubt because they had the hardware, they had the
trophies to prove it. This team plays sometimes like they're owed something just because
of the names out there, and it's just hard. It's hard to see
that. I don't understand it. I mean, look, they've had obviously
great runs. They got to the Western Conference Finals, They've had great focus
at times in the regular season, and maybe they come through and win the
next two games and they shut everybody up and it was just a little blip
and you can say, Okay, this is more who this team is.
But after this loss, and I mentioned the two other ones, I just
there's just no excuse, inexcusable loss last night for the Clippers, and maybe
they're worst of the two and three era. I just took. I just
was watched. It was pathetic. It was a pathetic effort. It was
a pathetic loss. I mean, we talked about this earlier in the season,
but like, how do you not get tired of this? I just
don't know how you. I don't know how you as a human being,
just like on a human being level, are not tired of getting of showing
up late and getting washed by like lesser talent on your whole floor. Like
I just don't. I don't get it. And I think that's the reason
that this loss says more to me. I certainly had more to say about
this than even the win over the Maps, because I think we see flashes,
and for five years now we've seen flashes, but that's not to me
who they are, and that's not who they've been the majority of the time.
Well, and last night they played defense down the stretch. Getting outscored
by twenty and a quarter is very hard to do, and they only put
up sixteen points. Denver had had thirty six. But they played defense at
times against Reggie Jackson the pick and roll, where it looked like they knew
they had some potent offense on the other end, and all they'd have to
do is get a few stops here and there defensively, and their offense is
so good, like it's some Mike d'An toni seven seconds or less for Mike
D'Antoni with James Harden offense, and all you got to do is be mediocre
defensively and that'll be good enough because you're just so damn good offensively. Well,
that offense is not there yet, it has not arrived. James Harden
isn't being aggressive enough. Still. Oh yeah, we're gonna talk to hard
and stuff. But your point about the defense is great because for a while,
and also, can I say I'm sorry to rough shot. How the
hell can you be aggressive if the ball isn't in your hands? How hell?
How like? How the hell can you control everything if one player is
taking every shot and not even good shots at that And I love Kawhi,
and I know that he can do some incredible things. Obviously, he's,
you know, the peak of what we can achieve in the offseason. But
some times, man, I'm just not like, I just it seems like
he's not elevating the team around him in the way that he grew up playing,
you know, like in his introduction of the league, like Firnley Spurs
team basketball, and I just I don't know what's going on there. I
don't know why. We've added more and more talent and there's more and more
of a disconnect and the team just continues to look worse. They're still shooting
about twenty five percent in clutch time minutes. They've had four of those games
since they went to this new starting lineup with Terrence Man, and before that
they were shooting twenty five percent as a team before this new starting lineup.
Now they're at twenty seven percent in the last five minutes of games. Story
averaging in that time is it not many? So that's the defense was good
enough that there's still two and two in those four games recently in clutch time
minutes, but it's unbelievably bad offense. So that's the thing the defense has
been carrying this team when when they win a lot of the times because the
defense is phenomenal and the Lakers game it wasn't very good and they lost,
and then in most of their wins, the defense has been what we've supposed
to see. That the late to talk about clutch time, La Murray had
a great tweet. Lot Murray was saying a lot of good things on Twitter
today. He said, reality is that the Clippers are very easy to defend
Layton games, especially if you can hit their stars legally. The ball doesn't
move, bodies don't move, and stars are surrounded by unwilling or able shooters.
Not so sure what the last part is about. I can see maybe
on some certain lineup changes, which we will talk about in the next segment,
but he's one hundred percent right. When this team, we wanted this
team to be kind of this drive kick swing team, and in the clutch
time we would see, you know, last season, some flashes of like,
oh they're really breaking it down in the real half court offense. Gone,
that's gone. Now it's just it's not totally pounding the ball and wait
for something to happen. But it's pretty close to it. It's pass the
ball and then see what happens. Here's what someone asked me on Twitter earlier
today about that the new clutch time stats. He said, no, he
said, I am the system best ever will be. I don't know who
this is, but they got a picture of Heisenberg breaking bad. He said,
we must ask what we can do to improve this. Replying to my
tweet about the clutch time offense, my response is this, get the bleeping
ball in James Harden's hands, run pick and roll and playoff of that,
just like they did when they went on that twelve to one run against the
Houston Rockets and actually looked like they had a real system offensively during crunch time.
So that is a perfect segue into the next segment. We need to
talk about James Harden's offensive things right now, one of which is the pick
and roll and him being passive. But before we go to that, Will,
do you have anything else you want to say before we give these folks
to an ad break about last night, specifically cook Will that looked like the
Samwich way right before we went on cut back the colonel buddy, All right,
we are moving on. I can't this anymore. We're moving on,
dude, I was looking at PJ. Tucker game logs. Today. We're
gonna get into how gross things got. We're gonna talk about James Harden's offensive
situation, because there is a situation happening. We're gonna be talking PJ.
Tucker's non scoring streak. We're gonna be talking some of the people who maybe
don't aren't sure about Tylu. We're gonna talk about that. Coming after this
break, we do have to pay some bills. The ads have been too
loud for you, go ahead and turn it down. But ads coming up,
and then we're talking all that stuff I just said in three two one.
All right, welcome back into clips and dip, where we continue to
sort of dissect what this loss against two fits of the of the Denver Nuggets
means. But specifically we want to dive into to some of the kinks,
what's going on where these problems are possibly even spit off some some solutions,
because there were there were hadsome things that could have worked last game. I
liked what I liked what we saw from Zoo offensively. Anyways, let's talk
about James Harden. Chuck you have here in the Kinks, the top King,
uh is offensive things? Yes, So, Adam, we were just
talking about pick and roll. Can I give some pick and roll stats before
you go into your argument, which I'm sure makes total sense, just for
some context for some people. What argument? Oh talking about getting the hands
of James Harden? Sure? Absolutely no. So the hill is on fire
with the names. If you guys aren't watching it on YouTube, you've missed
some legendary name tags over the last couple of weeks. I still in the
middle of the night before I go to bed, start thinking about he sucks
start them. Yeah, it's a it's a. The YouTube is a good
time where a Clippers podcast over on YouTube. So James Harden stats before Adam
starts making his points. These help Adams points. Twelve percent of James Harden
shots are coming at the rim, which is a career low. By nine
percent. That is not good. The Clippers are middle of nine percent,
meaning he normally would average like thirteen percent. Sorry, yeah, yeah,
yeah, nine percentage point nine percentage points. Okay, semantic, everyone understands
Now, guys, we don't have time for this. I say one,
thank you, uh, but you only have one overly critical A hole,
and that's me. The Clippers are middle of the pack. And pick and
roll frequency, which I think we all probably need agree, needs to be
higher. H James Harden is running as the pick and roll ball handler forty
percent of the time he has the ball, and that's producing point nine to
three points per possession. Not good, very much, not good, but
we need more of it. Adam go off, please, because I agree
with everything you say. It was like a point and a half per pick
and roll the first four or five games with James Hard with James Harden.
And this is what's really strange. Harden's taking less and less shots by the
game. Right now, he has taken in his last four games, he
has taken seven shots, eight shots, eight shots and seven shots last night,
where before that he had taken twelve, eleven, fifteen, twelve.
He was in double digits, and he was looking more spry out there when
you talk about him getting downhill and getting to the basket. He had multiple
plays where he turned the corner on guys. Even when he smoked a layup
on the fourth quarter in Denver, he looked like he had burst. And
now he's looking slower. I say he reconditioned or is he just not in
offensively. I think with his bursts specifically, he can do it when he
can do it, If that makes sense, I think he's obviously lost some
kind of step. He can do it when he wants to do it,
or can do it. Reggie Jackson held him to three field goal attempts based
on the matchup data. That is insane. Reggie Jackson should not be locking
up James Harden. And they were all threes. They were all three James
Hard locking up James Harden. James Harden's locking up James Harden. Well,
it's the indecision. I mean, it's the indecision around the boards. Like
I don't get. I just don't get how we're this many games deep and
there's still no plan of what to do when the ball is in your hands
or where it's going, you know, a hesitancy to take shots. We
had like one vintage James Harden moment in the fourth where you hit that step
back three and it felt like, Okay, maybe the Clippers can turn it
on just enough. They can they can get just enough to get over the
hump. It won't be a pretty win, but it's a long season,
and I did not have that way. You know, we've talked a lot
about intangibles and done some body language experts stuff and reading whether this team which
cares enough or put out a good enough effort last night. But there's a
play, a couple plays in particular, that I don't know how else to
think about them. When James Harden at the end of the third quarter rules
the ball out to try to get a two for one situation and has it
taken away from him as he's watching the ball roll up the court. That's
just an all time bad Who do you think you're going up against in this
game? Like these are professional basketball players, and I get you could do
it to a point, but at some point you had to pick up the
basketball wait until it got to the danger zone, like you're just tempting fate.
And that's exactly that's a microcosm of that game. That's one of the
what boneheaded turnovers we've seen from this clip team who has had a shocking amount
of bonehead of turnovers, like have to lead the league and bonehead of turnovers
when he's on the floor. Not the first turnover that you cided Chuck trying
to look for a Viza Zubots in the fourth, but the one later when
he falls to the floor with the basketball, it did look like he was
called for timeout and then give it to him. But yes, and then
the effort or urgency that I would have thought there would be from the players
around him to make themselves available to receive the pass in what the pass ended
up being from James Harden was brutal. They're all tired. It looks like
everyone's tired. We had this training cait where we ran the whole time,
and now two of those guys are gone, and now we have PJ.
Tucker playing five minutes in a game against the short Everyone's exhausted. The rotation
has been like seven guys for the or eight guys for the most part,
Like I know exactly what you're talking about. For some reason, every moment,
every horrible moment of this game is seared into my brain, like I
feel like it's just minority report and I'm just watching all of this stuff happen
again and again, like the they're tired, and the effort isn't there.
It's just but guys, they tire. The second half of a back to
back against Dallas That's why I feel like it's more about the effort and they
just have I agree, how are they tired? I don't know. I'm
strasping for any physical reason because I wanted to be physical. I guess that's
where I'm coming from, is that I want it to be a physical issue.
I don't want it to be more. I know it's this. I
know it's a mental thing with how this team choose it, I don't.
I know that they prepare well. I know that they prepare well when that
whistle well, but but when that ball goes up for some reason, when
it's actual game time, it just feels like it's just gone. So I'm
hoping that it's a physical thing and we're not deep in the depths of a
team that doesn't understand how to play with each other at all, despite having
a pretty good UH plus minus with the new starters. But you know what,
That's where I'm coming from with it, is like, but I think
I know the truth. The truth isn't it a want to thing? Which
begs the question of leadership and where it's coming from and if it's resonating And
I'm not putting it on Coach Lou I'm saying the players out there, they
have to get up for these games. They have to know the situation,
the circumstances they can get back to five hundred. The games that are coming
are going to be much tougher. You've got a gift against this Denver team
with all the guys that were out. It's typically you that have so many
guys that have been out over the seasons, and you guys play hard in
those situations. So you should know that the Denver Nuggets are going to do
the same. My god, they won the championship. They got angry ass
Mike Malone, who I love. He's going to know you guys motivated,
and you know Reggie and DJ. It's like, like it goes even deeper
than that. Like it's like, you know, like you were saying the
last segment of we know what Reggie does, he lives for these moments,
and this is I mean, like, this is a whole other can of
worms. But I feel like this team, which again comes down to leadership
in the construction of the roster, has systematically and seemingly pointedly gotten rid of
any player that you would expect to be that voice in the locker room.
Because I I want to say, I want to believe Chef too, that
it's a physical thing. But you look at the kind of guys that they've
had, because they have had guys who can be that guy that we've seen,
be that guy that we know can be that guy in the locker room,
and for some reason they seem to get shown the door. What chance
is it that all these guys happen to be tired and fatigued on the same
night from the opening tips in the first Reporter it was a rest night that
went horrible. Jews Man, I admitted it. Nightmare right now, you're
right what this is and the roster is like the roster is. I can't
sit here and say that it's a bad roster. None of us can say
it's a bad roster because objectively, I can, okay, look at the
Pistons and all that shit, it's a team that should be better. But
is that the level of comparison for the loss Detroit Pistons. I would say
that it's a poorly constructed roster. It's not a bad roster, it's poorly
constructed. I think there's two Like, the players aren't good. We have
good players on our roster, but we have what why have I being attacked?
I don't know that I like it, but this is the thing,
like we have this weird logjam at guard where Bones is a getting any minutes
and they're not coming anytime soon. We have Russell Westbrook played sixteen straight minutes
last night, went minus thirteen or minus three or something insane in those minutes.
F the box score and the plus minus last night. I mean,
if you look at it, in the twelve minutes, James Harden wasn't on
the floor. They were a minus fifteen apparently. Did it look like that
eye test wise, I was terrible. I do think in a one game
plus minus situation you got to also match it with the eye test. And
Russ, that's fair, to his credit, made some unbelievable hustle plays.
If anyone was playing hard, it was him and a Vitza Zubas. Sure,
but why does he have to play sixteen minutes straight? That's wild,
that's fucking crazy. Or why do they have to close with him and Harden
on the court. We already acknowledged that it doesn't work. We're trying to
separate them as much as possible. We're trying to have them have their own
units. Why to the end you just go small with them two out there,
two one three, Terrence Man and then Powell in for Terrence Man.
I don't understand it. We already figured out by the fact that they're not
starting them next to one another, well, we probably shouldn't be out there
on the court. Well, I mean we talked about this. We tease
it coming into the segment, you know, like, is this a roster
construction thing? Is this a rotations thing? Because the hot seat on Tyloo
right now, it's got to be pretty warm, So I don't know if
it's warm. I think from the fans it's warm, because that's a good
point from the fans. It's quite warm. It's tosty, it's very warm,
it's toasty. The issue there's a lot of weird lineup stuff, like
we just talked about, if it didn't work as starters, why would it
work as closers? Right. I tell you about one that led to a
big momentum shift in this ballgame. It occurred in the second quarter. It
was two guys who were only out there for one minute together, but during
that minute they were quickly a minus six and an eight point lead went to
a two point lead very quickly in the second quarter. And who would it
turn out to be? PJ Tucker next to Aviza Zoo botch which now as
they have played eleven games, this slander, I don't feel like he deserves
this strand, Well, this is PJ Tucker slander. Okay, it's mostly
about playing PJ Tucker at the four and just having no space to operate on
the offensive end with those two guys in there is they're both non shooters,
especially at this point PJ Tucker Chuck. You can speak to what he's been
doing offensive lad a little bit. But in their eleven games, now that
they have both been on the court together fifty one total minutes, Clippers have
an offensive rating of eighty nine point five and a defensive rating of one twenty
nine point two. That's a net rating of minus thirty nine point seven.
It's not working. It's not going to start working. The only time it
worked for a second was against the Pelicans, when I think Valence Chunis and
Williamson were out there and they might have been a plus one for a couple
of minutes, which is the one minutes I'm looking at here. And it
has been so bad and unsuccessful. And if you feel like you have to
play PJ. Tucker, get him run or get him reps, even in
a game where the matchup doesn't suit him. It worked obviously against Ion Williamson
at times that was a good matchup for him. I don't know what to
tell you, but you're seven to nine. You have to start making these
tough decisions guys. Guys are already not playing hard out there. Can can
it be much worse inside the locker room if you don't play PJ Tucker,
Like, what difference does that make if you're losing to the Denver Nuggets when
they just have Reggie Jackson. DeAndre Jordan is going to be hearing about this.
Yeah, so let's talk about PJ. Tucker being a non shooter and
everything like that. PJ. Tucker, it's been one hour and nineteen minutes
of playing time that he has been on the court since he has scored an
hour and nineteen minutes, longer than a Hallmark movie, not as long as
a feature film. He has two field goal attempts in that span, both
of them versus the Pels. This is not sustainable. The man cannot score
no points. The man cannot make it to two full NBA games worth of
playing time without scoring a point. He's very close, he's And yes,
I would say yes, there's no doubt in my mind that that happens with
how things are going so and this goes back to and Adam Ohslen argument,
just play a mirror. If PJ. Tucker is gonna get dnped in the
second half and play five minutes and fifty six seconds versus Nug's team that is
three quarters of the way full or whatever, play a miror those six minutes,
there'd be an offensive threat somewhat more than more than an hour in nineteen
minutes and no points like play a mere Does everyone not get cool sneakers if
PJ doesn't play like play a mirror? Yeah, I just feel like too.
I feel like too. If you're trying to change the mentality of this
team, nothing is given like I you know, I think at a certain
point, like you have you have to give guys the benefit of the doubt.
I see that. I understand that you know, you in a locker
room that might already be somewhat disgruntled. You know you you got to give
Vets their shot but at the same time, like nothing nothing should be with
how morely this team is playing, Nothing should be guaranteed in terms of playing
time. What works is what needs to stay out there, and it might,
you know, it might not be the popular decision or the favorite decision
in the locker room. But like wins solves everything. Like I truly like,
even if there are issues in the locker room right now, they start
winning. I just don't think that that matters. And if you're winning and
there are guys who are unhappy about the role, then you got to move
them. If that's the case, you got to start making some tough decisions.
I agree with Will. I'm going to use that as the teams for
this episode. What he just said it has to be earned. Now,
I'll say this for PJ. Tucker. He next to Daniel Tye guys that
has been working. That is a plus one. Next, I was wrong.
There are there are teams that he works against. There are lineups where
he can work, but we're figuring out which ones do and which ones don't.
And they keep playing him next to a Visa Zoo batch and that lineup
does that work? And I would also argue that the Daniel Tye. Slummers
with PJ Tucker are all because of Daniel Tye. I well, I don't
know what happened with like what what was the reasoning there with what? Sorry,
what happened with Tyson's minutes in the second half of that game? Like
what what was the reasoning there? Were you guys seeing anything that Nastian game
that was like, oh, it makes sense to move away from him because
I didn't at least nothing that I noticed. This goes into a great question
because, like I wanted two questions. I think we got to talk about
do we actually think it's like that TYLERU is like to blame for the majority
of this, but also will to what does Tyler want? After the game
on Friday, he said he doesn't care about how many threes they get up,
and then after the game against the Nuggets, he says, we need
to get up at least thirty six in every game. We're seeing five minute
shifts from PJ. Tucker. There's no and I know they're figuring stuff out
with James Harden, but the bench isn't even figured out, Like it's not
like like there's there's nothing. Again, this is a conversation we've all had
the last five years, what is this team's identity? Like Tyler, they're
still like I'm grasping at straws with it being a physical issue. They're grasping
at straws for some kind of identity and we get it once every three games
and then it kind of changes, like Tyler's I don't know, I don't
know. I don't think it's all his fault. I don't think we should
fire TYLERU or anything like that right now, but like it's frustrating, man,
the mixed messaging that has been seemingly going on for a little bit here
is it's a little bit baffling. You brought up those things. I go
back to we're trying to separate them. I forget the exact verbiage, but
we're trying to get Russ and Terrence Man away from each other. But they
were also in the starting lineup for what the first six games or first five
games with James Harden and they're also closing last night. After you separate them
from being together in the starting lineup, I could see out was situational.
Russ made one of the most unbelievable hustle plays when they trapped Reggie Jackson in
the corner and he got it to a wide open Watson underneath the basket,
and somehow Russ got back there and redirected that shot with an under two minutes
left, and it was outstanding. But he also miss him free throws late.
He took one jumper I didn't like, but the offense wasn't running that
well anyway, so I can't really blame him. Yeah, Russ showed up.
I do want to point that out of all the guys that we've talked
about that just did not play hard enough in this game, I didn't feel
like Russ was one of them. He had some bad moments too, but
nobody's gonna be perfect. So like the construction on the bench or like the
rotations is like I still like those closing rotations with Russ. I don't blame
Russ for that. That's just a small lineup that doesn't work that well together,
you know, Like it's not on him. I feel like people think
we're attacking him or something like he had some he has a great votor,
he had some great effort stuff. It's just like it doesn't fit. So
I feel like it a little bit comes out in the wash, which again
isn't his fall, but what are you did it? Like, what are
you going to do with it? You're gonna continue to close with him because
of the voter like and lose games like. It just doesn't really make sense
to me, and it takes away from James Harden being empowered as the number
one ball hand or Layden games. We saw how it can work against the
Houston Rockets they went on a twelve to one run that were playing Iso ball
before that with Kawhi, with Paul George and oh, we have this whole
other way to play now where we can have a real offense and not just
freaking back your turn, my turn because of James Harden. Just play through
him, play off of that. And yeah, he was bad last night
and maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but they need to do that
much more often every night from start to finish, when he's out there on
the floor. Otherwise, why did you bring him in? Couldn't agree more
so the big question because we're kind of talking about this in our group text
a little bit. If things go bad in this upcoming King's Warriors Warriors Series
A three and four A back to back starting the day you're probably listening to
this Wednesday. What are we thinking here with the hot seat and actuality?
Not Clippers, Twitter, which wants to fire TYLERU and bring someone who's gonna
play Kobe Brown of like forty minutes, which say, I love, but
it would not be good for the team. Where are we at on that?
Because at some point, if things continue to look, for lack of
a better term, like complete shit, someone's gonna have to get blamed.
No one's I don't think it's going to be any of the four Hall of
Famers. I'm not getting rid of those guys instantly. What do we think
the level of heat on Tyler is if they go one and two in ugly
fashion against this mini Bay plus Sacramento series. I know Sacramento is are part
of the Bay, which is why I said that I think unchanged. I
really like, I think that that would still be too much of a knee
jerk reaction. You know, I understand, like I just fans of frustration,
but totally it's still like, let's say that you had a larger game
stample size than even those two games. Like let's say we get to the
All Star break, we're still somehow or five hundred, it's basically over at
that point. Why bothered firing him? And if it's previous to that,
like, what's the what's the plan for the upside? Who? Like who
are you getting in there? Like are you going to promote Dan Craig?
I mean, you know, I don't have anything against Dan Craig, but
like, is that the move that's suddenly going to pull this group together?
Like I just don't I hate that teams do this too, Like I really,
I really dislike when a roster has been built, it's completely like it's
completely unfunctionable, Like it doesn't it just doesn't fit together, and the coach
is always the first one out the door, and it's just like okay,
yeah, I mean, like we see this. We see this all the
time with teams that underachieve. And there are situations where you have a coach
who is either unable to manage personalities in the locker room or unwilling to take
input you know, from coaching staff, from from other folks, and that
to me warrants obviously warrants a firing. But like, I just don't have
any empirical evidence that tylu is doing that. Does he favor certain guys?
Does he say favor a certain position, I mean certainly, but I you
know, I just don't know. I don't have a good answer for you
for who the alternative is. Yeah, totally. Well, we brought up
the mixed messaging and saying one thing but doing another, or doing one thing
and saying another thing. You know, he just recently came out and said
how much small ball hasn't worked the last couple of seasons and they're only using
it as a last resort. And then a Visa Zoo Bots gets taken out
with three eleven left last night while he was having one of the better games
of any of the Clippers. Yes, this was visas best game of the
season. In that above that it was waste even you know me, I'm
not even like the Zoo dand wagon driver like that. Some of it was
like all those offensive rebounds were off of his own missus special to put them
away. Yeah, a little bit inflated. Numbers are skewed there, but
for the most part he was playing hard. There were a couple of possessions
though, or even Zoo looked like he got lost or checked out, and
to coach lose credit. They're down six when he took him out. It's
not like Zoo was making a difference in that fourth quarter. He was on
the court when they were getting down. He also he and Reggie Jackson,
excuse me, he and James Harden on a Reggie Jackson one of the pick
and rolls that they abused the Clippers with. They both blitzed him. He
bounces it to DeAndre Jordan. Either of them are there. There was so
much miscommunication going on. It just looked like a team that had been thrown
together tonight or last night. But the expectations are high. I like coach
Lou a lot. I think, well, maybe some of the fires he
started himself. He's the only one that knows how to put out all these
fires too. I think he's the guy. I don't know how you get
better getting rid of coach Lou, Like, what are they going to do?
They're going to lean into defense more. He already he's he has said
he's not controlling the defense right now. The defense has been on Dan Craig.
So maybe given as it was at like, I mean, that's become
how he's moved up in the in the world of Miami right spotro I forget,
but uh De coach Lou hasn't been as involved with the defense. Now.
The offense is his responsibility though, and he said last night that he
takes responsibility for the offense. Then he corrected himself and the defense too,
but he knows the offense is his job to make this thing work with these
guys with this level of talent, and there's a ton of pressure there.
And in that article with Chris Haynes, he said, this is my toughest
coaching job, and it certainly has been so far. And they have to
figure it out offensively this week, really, because if you don't show up
against Sacramento, you're gonna get beat by thirty. You're gonna get beat by
forty. If this team isn't playing faster like he criticizes them for often and
criticize them for that last night, well they're taking on the Kings. If
they can't hang at all with their speed, and they will make you play
at their pace, the Clippers are going to get run up and down the
court. I don't know what that's going to look like. We tell Reggie
Jackson what he did. I think doctor Shapp said this earlier today on Lobbed
Jam. What's the Yaron Fox and the Bonus going to do in the pick
and roll if they can't correct these things now, So this is a real
gut check time for the entire ball club. But no, I don't want
to see coach lou Gon. Yeah, I mean, I just yeah.
Also Dan Craig heat, Yeah, we're cut that out of the podcast.
It doesn't matter. I don't think it's that big a deal. So that's
what we cut out of the podcast. Oh it's good to laugh, guys.
So now we need one positive thing. We're going into a hellish three
and four. It's terrible. We're not going to get predictions on it.
I think the player of the game is going to be I don't know,
I'm your comfort player of the season. Yeah, yeah, player of the
series. I don't know. PJ. Tuckery is going to score. He's
going to score one point over these three games. Improve me wrong, I
just am not. I don't think he's that much of a detriment in the
right matchups because of his limitations on offense. I think he's still good enough
defensively with the right lineups that he has serviceability that he has utility. Give
him the Scendarius stint guard it inbounds pass well. I don't know if you
remember. Scendarius stint is a term that Cole Hoops shout out Cole Hoops,
we talked about. Scendarius Thornwall used to get put in for like one point
two seconds every couple of games, just as like a defender. Did you
guys ever see me pull a receipt once on some Darius Thornwell, but I'm
not surprised. I did not keep I do not keep receipts on the receipts.
This one was notable though, on a former Clippers player who I really
like now playing in Europe. But he was on South Carolina game Cocks.
They beat Duke I remember, in the playoffs or in the tournament. And
I had been quoting him about something and this kind of applies to what we
saw last night. But he said when he was sent down to the G
League, like you don't want to go down there. Those guys are wolves.
Those guys are crazy. They're ravenous because they're all scratching and clawing over
one another to try to get called up. And I quote him about that,
and for whatever reason he said, I didn't say that, and so
that I pulled the video in his media day. But last night you had
a bunch of Denver Nuggets getting extra time out there and guys having green lights,
and all of a sudden, yeah, they're going full out effort.
You had to know they were going to give the best effort because they have
a shot to show off for Michael Loan and a well drafted team. A
lot of guys who they drafted not very high given the team success, were
contributors last night and very good at basketball. Take that with what you listeners.
Take that how you want to take it. I like that point though,
Adam. I mean, they're like, all those guys had something something
to play for. Absolutely, it might not have you know, meant a
whole lot in the like the the expanse of the season to the cliffs.
Yeah, yeah, clear, I'm not absolving coach lou There's just so much
blame to go around right now that it's not that simple or that's the solution
to saving this season. I don't think taking away one of the best schematic
strategics guys in the NBA, one of the best tacticians is wise for a
team that's going to have to figure out how to balance all of this,
and that's what the problem has been. They can't balance it right now.
If one guy's hot, another guy's cold. If one thing's going right,
something else is going wrong. And I express my concerns about this after the
first two games, I think after they lost to New York and Brooklyn,
and everybody was like, yeah, Adam, why are you so down about
the Clippers, Like what's going on? If they've lost at them, then
things must be really bad for this team. And it was only two games
into the James Harden experiment. But the one thing that popped up for me
late at night, I said, I had this terrifying thought Chuck and I
were doing the podcast, was that can you really keep all these guys in
rhythm? Is it as rudimentary as there's only one ball? And nobody's ever
had four guys that are this ball dominant and are at their best with the
ball in their hands be successful in the NBA at the highest level, and
they have, there's a reason to be really concerned. So far, it's
been like that, All right, Well, I was gonna kick it to
Adam for the final positive thing for this episode, will do you have a
positive thing we can leave these listeners with as we head into this hellish three
and four m Maybe we can lure Mike D'Antoni, not to replace replace,
but just as a consultant. We need somebody offensively, who's who's gonna move
some things around. You want them in a big cloak up in the rafters,
just looking. Okay, I will take this. I guess I am
choosing to believe, with my head firmly buried deep in the sand at seven
pm on Tuesday, November twenty eight, that the Clippers are going to go
two and one over this trip. Like they're maybe gonna get their asses kicked
by the Kings, but I think they'll beat the Warriors twice. I have
no option but to believe that, because we need it to happen, they
have to go too. And one, I didn't mention March once all this
episode. I'm just saying, I didn't even bring that rotation stuff. Oh,
I know, because I waited. I didn't want to. You know,
you gotta you gotta leave the good stuff for the end, which is
why I'm talking about it now. We got another twenty five minutes to get
into this. Can I necap your positivity real quick? No? Okayeh?
Do it? So everybody's always like Adam's home or Adam's always talking about the
positives and spinning. And I had a name tag last time out about being
a mouthpiece. My level of concern for Kawhi Leonard went from one point five
to three after this last game. It doubled out of ten. Level of
concern for Kawhi Leonard, How he's moving, how he's looking. I think
it's just fatigue like we see with Lebron or anybody who's playing heavy minutes.
But I I had some concern about him trying to get by guys late in
the fourth quarter against Denver. I'm not convinced of anything yet, but it's
just something I'm going to keep a close eye on. All Right, Well,
I hope everyone watches for that too. They are this hellish three and
four that we have watch it with that keen eye, maybe with some optimism.
But he's going to get it back. That could be a good way
to look at it. Let's hope that he gets it back, right.
Yeah. I think Look, if they beat Sacramento, the guys, I
don't know, they beat Sacramento the Marrow. Here's the problem. We went
back to this place. No, we went back to the place as fans
of the Clippers where you don't know which team is going to show up every
night. When we thought they had turned a corner and we thought there would
be more consistency, and we're right back in that pit. They've turned four
corners. That's where we're at Daytona. They've turned a four corner. Run
a fucking racetrack, taking four rights or what lefts or whatever they do.
All right, anyway, we're gonna have some double dips come in your way.
I don't know if the audience is should be happy or sad that neither
of us was able to get on the radio last night, because I know
that Will had some eaters. I wanted to catch Will in the eye of
the well, here's what's going to happen tomorrow. If what you two think
is going to happen, I'm choosing to have hope. I have hope.
I know I'm bugking with you. If what maybe could happen tomorrow happens,
it's all Wills. It's all Wills, and I will be very excited to
listen to that on Will's only coming on in losses? Now? Is that
what you? Horrific losses? This is the worst losses, not a normal
you know, not a six point Hey, we were right there. A
bad loss, That's what I mean. What does a competitive loss do for
you? Can I can? I can I sell you on a competitive losses
that do anything for you? No? Nothing, absolutely nothing? And then
next full pod sometime later this week, maybe Friday. I'm going to Las
Vegas to watch a wrestling tournament, which, hey, that'll be a good
time. Reviews help, Well, where can these people find this podcast?
Auditory wise or visually for the freaks who like to watch? So you can
listen to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on Google podcast,
where names on music fund Stitsue, We're on Deezer. We're on am I
Missing one Apple Music. That's a big one Apple podcast. You can also
watch this sometimes live, sometimes live where don't cut out things like me saying
where the miss letting that out correctly naming where Dan Craig was working. But
you can watch this over on YouTube. We'll also do live streams on Twitter.
That's at clippers Pod. On YouTube of course, it's at Clippers Podcast.
Uh so, you know, confusing nomenclature that are really hard to find
anyways, That about doesn't Adam you you wanna send us out? I love
you guys, I love all our listeners Clipper Nation, like we're in this
together still, and lord knows we've seen worse. Yeah, yeah, very
true. That was not the time sixteen games in to give up on this
team, even after how bad of a loss that was. I still can't
believe the way they bounce back against Dallas after the way they lost to the
Pelicans. So there is precedent, there is some recent history of this team
snapping back and having a really great performance. How about that, Chuck,
That's all I wanted. That's all I wanted. It's wonderful to hear.
We will talk to all of you very soon. We hope you're having a
good after Thanksgiving week and as always, let's go Clips.