Clippers respond in a big way, well, a big victory. They went
one forty to one fifteen over the Wizards here at Crypto dot Com Arena,
and it really wasn't even that close. The starters were out midway through the
fourth quarter. Welcome back in. This is Clippers Talk. I'm out of
Maslin. We got your radio voice of the Clippers in Carlo Jimenez here tonight.
It's a special addition at Clippers Talk. But it is not like one
of those Star Wars special editions. Didn't like those. You heard the music
there. I thought Rogue one, Rogue One's fantastic. Okay, I'm talking
about those special edition episode four, five, and six. Oh okay,
they're bad. I actually own what's called Okay, maybe I don't own it.
I've heard of something called the despecialized editions. I haven't heard of this.
Look it up on lote. It's pretty interesting. Okay, you might
have to go to the dark. All right. We got Chuck Mackler on
with us from clips in after tonight. With the news coming out that Russell
Westbrook fractured his left hand, Chuck, what was your initial reaction to the
unfortunate news with Russ. I think, you know, everyone's was probably pretty
similar as you just feel bad for Russ. Right, this is the best
team he's been on May I don't know, maybe maybe ever close to close
to ever, you know, probably his best shot at winning a RAG lately
for sure. So you just feel gutted for Uss, especially on you know,
such a special night for him, and and things like that. And
then my thought immediately went to, well, obviously this is no a chance
for Bones Highland, but now we have a this is a big rotational hole
to fill furthest the rest of the year, right, Like I think everyone's
seen the figure, like six weeks or something like that is the usual timeline
somewhere for people coming back from a hand fracture. So bum for Uss.
And you know, thankfully Bones is young, so his legs will be fresh
because we're gonna need him starting Sunday. We've got kind of a roundtable conversation
here. Carlo Jimenez, your radio voice of the Clippers, is with us.
We got Chuck Mockler on the phone. Nobody pressed the panic button or
anything like that, or just bring it together a little bit of the Clippers'
brain trust, if you will, to try to work through what they're gonna
have to figure out now without Russell Westbrook. But Carlo, we talked about
it a little bit earlier. Bones is somebody that can at nite and be
a spark for this team. We've seen it before and you're gonna need it,
because, as Chuck knows, it's March. We're here. We're here.
It's no more talking about it. We are in March. It is
March first, and there's gonna be tired legs. There's two three games in
four days coming up. Both include Milwaukee and Minnesota. So it begins now
for the Clippers. Who is gonna be that energizer who was going to fill
that role for Russell Westbrook. Bones Hyland with his offense, seems like a
perfect fit for this Clippers group. Charles, what did you think of the
performance from PG thirteen? It just felt like, Oh, he didn't miss
any time. He just hit the ground running. Yeah, he hit the
ground running, not as you know I from three. It was a little
rough. He did only get six attempts up, which which isn't what he's
usually gonna take. But no, he looked spry, he was moving really
well. He got six boards too, which I think is also kind of
a really encouraging thing for the Clippers. Rebounding has been kind of rough recently,
so PG being back feeling good enough about his body to you know,
go in there and get the boards was good to see. But we're gonna
need the scoring, you know, come Sunday and Monday. But encouraging signs
from Paul George and more encouraging signs from Terrence Man too, which was awesome
to see. Terrence Man is four straight game Carlow where he just looked like
a different player offensively. We know all the intangibles and everything he brings and
being that connector out there with starting unit. But I believe he's been in
double figures his last four games. Coming into this one. He was averaging
almost eighteen his last three games. Another efficient game for Man. Yeah,
six or seven from the field, twelve points. Clippers continue to improve now
at fifteen to two when he scores in double figures. You want to talk
about guys who when they have good nights, usually things work out for the
Clippers. Terrence Man is one of those guys, and I thought it was
interesting at him when I asked ty Lou pregame about you know, what has
he done to turn the corner? He said, he's rebounding and he's running.
He's great. He's being aggressive on the glass defensively, and he's getting
out in transition. And we saw him with the transition dunk today, I
mean climbing that imaginary ladder and rocking the rim. So I think, you
know, Terrence Man can continue to play like this. What a spark that
would be for the Clippers, considering for majority of the start of the season
he was for the most part struggling to find a rhythm offensively. If he
could be a ten plus point a night guy the rest of the year,
look out if you're a defending team trying to match up with the Clippers that
put back dunk he had off the Kawhi. This, I believe in the
third quarter was special. He just has more pop. And there's been some
murmurs that and Chuck, I think maybe you've heard this too, but he's
still that ankle injury was more severe than people realize. You know, he's
getting back to that athleticism that we've come to know from Terrence Mann. Yeah,
that was nagging on him a lot longer than I mean, I think
any of us kind of expected right when it happened in real time. I
remember everyone kind of being a little concerned that he was kind of right back
into it. But yeah, he's looking fully healthy. His cuts have been
great. He's been making the right read kind of on both sides of the
ball. James Harden also his I don't know if explosiveness is the right word
you would use for James Harden right now at the stage of his career,
but he is getting downhill a lot easier, you know, tonight, not
against the most you know, stalwart of defenses, but Harden being able to
get into the paint really helps the Clippers offense, even when the pick and
roll or with the pick and roll especially. Yeah, that second quarter was
special. He had twenty one points, but a little bit more burst from
him. I felt like this was one of the better games from Daniel Tyson,
Mason Plumbley with out of Iza Zubats, they were more physical out there.
I felt like Big Plump gave him some really good minutes in that third
quarter. What did you see from Big Plump tonight, Carlo, Yeah,
I mean I thought he was able to clean up the offensive glass really well.
I thought he played within himself for the most part. Ten rebounds to
night and he finishes with a double double. That's huge for the Clippers off
the bench, and I thought he did a great job in the paint.
It's something the Clippers give them credit, averaging sixty points in the paint their
last two games, and that was a huge piece a part of that twenty
six games and six five losses stretches, they were dominant in the Payton nine
in and nine out, So to do that with out of eatsa zubots big
positive for the Clippers. Charles, how do you feel about the backups?
The backup Big Tonight just filling in and doing what they could for Big Zoo.
They were awesome. Daniel Tye starting games. He's been really efficient and
he's kind of surprising you. Daniel Tye kind of surprises the opponent. I
feel like when he's efficient, and I don't mean that disrespectfully towards Daniel types,
but you look up and it's kind of like when Jamichael Green used to
come in for some random spot starts for the Clippers and he'd be like six
of seven or something like that, where you're like, Wow, like this.
This was a great way to kind of start things off, you know,
because that is the shakiest part, right when when Zoo's not in there.
Plumbly, I love what Carlos said about playing within himself. I think
he only tried to run the break once today, which is a big plus.
Sometimes he gets a little point plumb happy out there. But no hats
off to them. We talked about them need to be better on the pod
than they are. And hopefully Big Zoo can go on Sundays and battling not
fever this whole week. So hope he travels with the team and hope he's
hied field. Obviously against Minnesota, it would be huge to have a Vitza
Zobots back. Last time he was still in a minute restriction against the Timberwolves,
and there's twenty one point loss here at home. But plumbly, a
little baby hook in the fourth quarter, I thought, some good defensive possessions.
Daniel Tye had a huge dunk in the third, also had a three
pointer in this one, and he's been showing that ability. He hasn't taken
a lot, but he has been efficient so far from the outside. Carlo
and I think it's it's just the threat of that that opens things up for
the Clippers because now when Daniel Tye sets a screen, opposing defenders aka Rudy
Gobert can't be in a deep drop, right. You can't be five feet
into the paint because if you pick and pop with Daniel Tye, now Gobert
has to come out from the top of the arct something tight. Lu talked
about pregame about Anthony Davis SA the Clippers found a lot of success against ad
because Tys pulls him out of the paint, forces him to play away from
the rim, and the Clippers can get a lot more buckets underneath the iron
so uh in that ability, his ability to hit threes with consistency just gives
you so much more flexibility in the offensive end, and we've seen it the
last two games. Lastly, here Chuck looked like Kawhi Leonard just had a
little bit of a mean streak in him tonight with some of those dunks he
had. The way he yammed on Kyle Kuzma to end the first half after
Kuzma caught Daniel Tice at the rim, that was nasty. I believe he
had four dunks in this one, and there was just a little bit more
pop out there. I don't know if he was upset personally about what happened
against the Lakers on Wednesday night, but this was more of that a man
possessed Kawhi Leonard. Yeah, well, I can't imagine he felt good about
what happened on Wednesday night, so this is fair. Probably came in with
a bit of a chip on his shoulder and really wanting to get into the
road trip on the right foot, right, because it's not just the back
to back. They also played the rock for you know that three and four
in Houston. So Kawhi and Harden not having to play the fourth just because
of how well they were playing in the first three quarters is awesome. And
yeah, I hope Kawhi is a man possess because when that happens that he's
the Clippers pen multiple games in a row. I guess I was alluding to
some of that chatter that people were talking about, Oh Lebron James got the
best of him. It's like, guys, how many games straight did they
win against Lebron? And how many times did Kawhi Leonard get the vessel Lebron?
How quickly we forget. We'll never forget. Chuck Malkler, No,
the best Chuck. Are you sleeping okay? Because March is here? Are
you? I feel like you're talking about the nightmare and now it's it's a
arrive. It's not a nightmare if you don't sleep, Carlo, that's something
you'll learn smarking old macho man Randy Savage line, I'm living in a nightmarels.
Thanks for coming on post game tonight, my friend. We'll talk to
you on the YouTube tomorrow. Yep, thanks for having me. Let's go klips