Clippers win one thirty one to one to two over the Jazz. Here at
Crypto dot com arena, I'm out of Oslin. Welcome back into your postgame
show. This is Clippers Talk. Coming up, we'll hear from a Beatza
Zoobots postgame. But joined the show right now is Chuck Mockler from Clips in
Dip. It's a little double dip for your post game here, Charles.
Was tonight viewed as good process by you? Or do you think this Jazz
team was so inept that the Clippers didn't learn anything about themselves, Because I
would say the fact that they got up for this game after what happened yesterday
there could have been a letdown. Far from it. No, I think
this game was good process, I really do. I think this game is
maybe what people thought the game and I think it was against the Blazers was.
I think that's that's how I feel about this game. You're totally right.
This could have been a little slow. I think everyone kind of assumed
the Clippers were gonna win, but they came out and did exactly what I
wanted to see him do, which was sense of urgency. You know,
they lost guys in transition, a little bit, but it wasn't anything super
crazy. But the offense was clicking, you know, at one hundred percent.
They were focused. They wanted to make this game easy on themselves,
and they did that by playing hard to start it. They hit their first
eight shots, and at the half they were shooting sixty eight percent from the
field. It was their best field goal percentage and a half this season.
They also were eleven of nineteen from the outside. One of the things I
was thinking of just during the game was, you know, I was surprised
that James Harden was still out there late in the ball game. Then I
thought to myself, he must be feeling pretty good. He looked pretty good
the last two games. I would say overall, he has moved better,
he has been more aggressive. Not many things more important for this Clippers team
than James Harden looking more like himself again. Yeah, I'm gonna be honest,
I'm a little I was surprised too that he was out there, but
I think you must be right. I was. I'm a little shocked at
how much basketball he's been able to play for the Clippers. I don't mean
that like I thought, you know, he would be in and out of
the lineup or anything like that. But but he's been an absolute workhorse for
the Clips. And yeah, I mean, he wouldn't be out there if
he didn't want to be out there, so they must feel good about it.
And yeah, we'll see what happens on you know, the twelve thirty
game. Who knows this, Maybe we get some guys resting there because it's
an Eastern Conference team or something like that. I don't necessarily want to see
that, but I keep thinking that they're going to give him some rest.
But he's chugging along, and you're right, he built a little bit of
good process last game and really came through tonight just with the aggressiveness and what
you want to see. Dallas also won earlier, so they're putting pressure on
the Clippers to continue to win to hold on to that four spot. The
Phoenix Suns as well, thought Terrence Man, who started eight of eight.
His only miss was a three point or a wide open shot, maybe two
wide open and gave him too much time to think about it. But he
led them a score with nineteen and was just resilient or I should say relentless
in attack mode getting downhill and get into the basket, which is a part
of his game that I think a lot of people thought we'd see more of
this season. He's obviously been better from distance since January first. But I
don't know if it was just seeing the Utah Jazz at the opponent that he
likes to play well against. But I'd love to see more of Terrence's man
cutting to the basket also down the stretch here. Yeah, I wonder if
it was just seeing red which is you know, I'm not mad at that
if that's what Terrence's default is when we played the Jazz any time, but
now watching him get deep in the paint as the game went on, right
like this wasn't something that he did a little bit and that kind of stopped.
It was throughout the game. Harden seemed to enjoy it too, because
he was finding him kind of whatever possible. So Terren getting into the paint
something we all want to see. There's good process happening. I'm still you
know, we're gonna learn a lot again about this team with that back to
back against Poenix. But if they can take everything they did in this game
carried over against a much better opponent, although one that's still kind of slipping
in the Calves on Sunday, I'm gonna feel a lot better than I think
we were all feeling. I mean that I know we were all feeling,
say a week ago. You know what's interesting to me about them taking on
Phoenix twice down the stretch here. I know the Clippers are looking for wins,
but if they did slip up against the Suns all of a sudden,
they could be facing them in a first round series instead of the Dallas Mavericks.
We've been talking about Mavericks versus Pelicans, but right now it's the Mavericks
and Phoenix Suns who are the closest to being the Clipper's opponent in that four
or five matchup. How would you feel about another rematch against the Phoenix Suns,
Chuck, I don't know, man, I don't know if I can
even think about any of these more possibilities. I think you said on the
pod the other day, we can't control any of this, and it is
pretty stressful to run through all the machinations of what has happened against the MAVs
and the Sun so far in the playoffs. So I think I'm going to
try and just chill on that and let the chips fall where they may.
But I guess I feel okay about it would be my answer right now.
We talked a little bit about it on the Live yesterday, but PJ.
Tucker got the start again tonight, and maybe it's about I've heard conjecture that
he just doesn't want to move around too much of the second unit right now
and have a little bit more continuity out there. But what are your feelings
with PJ. Tucker and just how he played against Denver and then also he
played tonight knocked down a three pointer and just moving forward and how he can
be useful for the Slippers team. Yeah, I think it's going to be
the specialty case, you know, against Denver where you have him on Jokic,
you have hedging and all that good stuff that we saw. The Clippers
really committed pretty hard to ended as good a job as you're going to do.
I guess a player like Jokic, so I think you have some space
and some utility for sure. You know, when he plays, he seems
to be more engaged in things like that. I'm sure you know, practice
is a little easier when he's a little more into it. So it's going
to be a small use case. I think with Kawhi out, it's nice
for Tyler to find how some of these wrinkles are gonna work, you know,
in the postseason in smaller doses. Also, the last couple of games
we've got, you know, the Russ roller coaster is well known, but
the good version of Russell Westbrook that can really help this team. And I
think that is kind of a template of how he needs to play in the
playoffs for the Clippers to get the most out of him. But eight of
eleven in this one seventeen points going downhill, caught another lob from James Harden
at the basket that got the crowd up, also was able to knock down
a three pointer. Seems like Russ has turned a corner a little bit.
The last couple of games back from that left broken hand injury. Whos dealing
with, Yeah, as these guys, you know, maybe it's harder to
getting a little bit better, right as these guys, these older guys kind
of take these knocks that take the fewer games to maybe get back to where
we want to see him, you know, just comfortability wise. So credit
to res He's been solid and I liked that the Clippers, you know,
they're not losing the efficient rest games, because anytime you get the efficient res
game, you should hope the team wins. So he's been great. He's
been great getting the crowd up into it. The Clippers were in a little
bit of a skid. I think in the third quarter it was like an
eighteen to eight run or something like that, and he had a steal under
the dunk, which I think helped level it into that a little bit,
which was cool to see. That's a great point, a nice little momentum
play there by Russell Westbrook to keep things pointed in the right direction for the
Clippers, who would eventually win one thirty one to one two. Here at
Crypto over the Utah Jazz, he is Chuck Mockler of Clips and Dip Charles,
I believe what do we have a YouTube coming up tomorrow? Yes,
we should be doing well. Sounds good, my friend. Thanks for coming
on tonight for a little clips and double dip here on Clipperstock. Thanks for
having me. Let's go clips