What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to season two, episode sixty
five of Clips in the Hopefully your paper at Clippers podcast or one of them
top three would be great. I am Chuck Mockler, joined by Will Upsike.
Are we kissing the top three on someone's frock? I hope, I
hope? So uh? And Adam Osland is here. We're gonna be talking
the Clippers finished March ten and seven. We've got a pretty good playoff debate
kind of brewing right now as those loom closer. If you missed our recap
of yesterday's game, if you're only a YouTube person, which thank you for
watching the videos. We do little recaps when Adam's on the radio on AM
five to seventy that you can listen to anywhere you get podcasts. So that's
if you want kind of our instant reaction to the games. I've mentioned y'all
twice. I've I've been the only one speaking. How are you guys doing?
Will? How are you doing? On this sunny Los Angeles afternoon evening.
Excuse me, I'm doing all right, man, It's Monday. But
April fools on everyone, Damn, we didn't set up something elaborate for this
show. What the hell were we thinking? What was the April Fools just
there? I was just saying it in general. I was wishing. I
was wishing a happy April Fools to you and to Adam and to the listener
as well. Got it, appreciate that. So Will's doing good April Fools?
Maybe, Adam? How are you? Yeah? I just got back
from Doune two. It was awesome. April Fools. Got Okay, wait,
have you seen it yet? No, he's gonna He refuses to watch
it because he read some of the book and didn't think that the first movie
was close enough to the book. I read some of the portion of the
book. I read part one, and then part one disappointed me, even
though he's my favorite new director. Sounds like you're April fool yourself, buddy.
It's worth it. Movies should be long their escapism. We should be
in the theater for up to six hours at a time. That's for a
different podcast called movie Clips and Dip, where we eat chips audibly on the
pod and talk about our favorite movie clips. We are here to talk about
the Clippers. The Clippers beat the Hornets in a weird game I think they
gave up the third most threes they've ever given up and they won, which
is cool. Well, how did you feel about that win over the Hornets?
Were you whelmed? I felt like I was kind of well by,
other than Paul George being absolutely Oh yeah, I was gonna say, I
mean, it's great to see Paul George. I you know, it's against
the you know, a team that's really going through it right now, really
struggling, really not good. But you know, you still the stot,
the shots still have to go down, and you love to see him getting
into a rhythm and be able to build up that confidence. Overall, he's
been looking a lot better over this stretch of games, with what like two
outlier performance He's He's had like twenty plus point games over the stretch and has
overall been been as efficient as we expect him to be. So yeah,
that was the the standout of it other than that kind of an expected outcome.
But I will say, I mean, it's kind of damned if you
do. Damned if you don't with these games, right, Like, we're
not gonna give them a whole lot of credit for putting these games away.
It is nice that they're on a win streak. It is nice that it's
it's looking like they're they're trying to establish some sort of consistency and identity on
court. But like a win against the Hornets, clear obviously doesn't mean as
much as a loss against the Hornets. So it's you know, they got
they got the win, and I'm happy that this game doesn't have to mean
more than it should. So yeah, that's that's what I'm putting into it.
That's fair. You see tents about the team right now in what way?
I don't know. I feel like they've built a good process. Adam,
do you have a high five? Do we have a high five from
that game? Yeah? We got a high five from that game because I
did find some things impressive and also some things disappointing. We have to touch
upon both where we show off high five or high five highlights from the high
five when the Clippers were in Charlotte yesterday. You guys seeing what I'm seeing
here? Yes, all right, So we can start things off, and
this would be something that has gone under the radar a little bit. Our
friend Justin Russeau tweeted about it. We've talked about it at least once before.
But Aviza Zubots, if you didn't know, is a bucket carl Tart.
This highlights for you. So we got James Harden on the right wing
here, Zo's just set the pick for him, a little pick and roll.
There ran a lot of it, add did the Charlotte Hornets against the
Clippers A ton Avitza Zubats gets the basketball in the little pocket pass from James
Harden, gets into the paint and wearing the paint exactly oh from about five
to nine feet out, where Aviza Zubots is shooting sixty nine percent from the
field. He leaves the league in afficiency from five feet to nine feet out
by eight percent. The next closest guy is Nikola Jokish. Doesn't mean he's
better than Nikole, does mean likely not does mean that it beats the Zoobots,
though probably should get a few more touches and just went for his season
high of twenty four points. What I like about this, though, is
his defender and Richards actually does recover and it beats the Zubos doesn't have an
issue with that. He didn't need to get there for the dunk. He
just finds a little floater to go, Will float go from Big Zoo.
He looked confident too. Other than the Paul George scoring, Zoo's confidence was
really good to see in this game. I thought, Will nothing on the
Big Zoo being underrated and not getting the basketball enough. Again, it's expected
Will not getting it. Will want Will wants to go eight no, to
close this damn season out, and if they don't, what are they even
doing out there? All right? Well, on our last high high five,
we showcased Terence Mann, who knocked out a three pointer early in the
first quarter. It's about to happen again as they have Paul George trapped in
the near side corner. Brandon Miller, who looks up to him, was
guarding him at times. They threw a quick double. It was Big Zoo's
man and Richard, so they think they have him trapped. He creates a
little bit of separation here with his left elbow on Miller, who looks like
he just hit the life alert. But uh, Paul George is gonna throw
a cross court pass and it's going to t Man. What did we see
last time out? He was in on the left wing. I believe,
no, it was the right wing. On the other side last time against
Orlando, and he had Paul George next to him, and he looked him
off, got the defender going his way, and then attempted to knock down
the three pointer. Now it's Kawhi. Leonard two is right, does the
exact same thing. Looks at Kawhi, gets the defender off him, wide
open shot. Terrence Man sinks it. And I was just looking this up.
But t Man in first quarters because of the propensity he has shown to
take more shots early on in ball games. Nineteen of his fifty one made
threes since January first have come in the first quarter. The majority of his
made threes are coming in the opening quarter. Yeah, you should be taken
out of the starting lineup. I think that that's a I think that's a
pretty valid argument the defense where I was going with it, That's exactly what
the evidence is mounting and damning. Get him out of there. That's in
the first nice for the rest of the game. Has he thought about that?
Uh? Have you guys thought about Ivitza Zubots getting the basketball a little
bit more as much as I have, because I got more from Vitza Zoombots.
Here here's a Big Zoo. I'm guessing this was a pick and roll
a little bit earlier, but we don't get the full length of the play
here in the highlight package, here's James Harden with it. He's in the
mid post near side, backs up just to the left of the left elbow.
Vitza Zubots has the mismatches. His man went to James hard It's Brandon
Miller just hugging him. This should have been a foul, obviously, but
James Harden just lobs it over the defense is he have his arm curled underneath
aviza'sz who bots his shoulder here? What is happening? Big Zoo comes up
with the past eddieways there's two men on him, but Liquor where Big Zoo's
eyes goes, he sees a cutting Kawhi Leonard Here a Vista Zoo bots can
be a hub on offenses. Kawhi Leonard has the big throwdown on a nice
feed from Big Zoo. Big Zoo triple double watch playoffs. Can I bet
who who can bet on that Zoo will get busted for one person this bet?
Now we move a little bit ahead. We've been watching myself in dime
Dropper from a lockdown pod. Now we've been watching Kawhi Leonard and just have
you know, observing whether or not he still has the burst, whether or
not Kawhi Leonard coming off the ACL, coming off the meniscus still has that
explosiveness, so he can lead them in the fashion he did into the twenty
twenty one playoffs before he went down with that torn ACL. Well, here
he is against Miles Bridges. The double comes as Kawhi is moving right to
left here in transition, goes behind his back twice here and then watch the
blowby he gone. Gaw I still got it, boys, and there's eight
games left in the regular season and he's looking more spry. He and Paul
George have looked so much better. Paul George over the last month in March,
in his sixteen games played guys, he ended up shooting fifty three percent
from the field and forty seven percent from the outside. Kawhi slowly but surely
might be turning a corner himself with three pointers right now, which has kind
of flown under the radar. He's been down from three over the last couple
of months. The Kawhi turning the corner was so great to see. I
feel like it really popped out in this game because they are a very young
team, right, so they are quicker maybe than some other guys, but
Kawhi was able to get around them. And again another get to a spots
game, which is we just want to see more of these as we get
closer to the offs. Now some thing they talk about where like, if
you take a week off from training, you need like two to three weeks
just to get back to the level that you were at. Maybe that's just
what happened with the All Star break with our with the I mean, if
you look at the timeline from when they kind of started turning around, it
does line up. I'll just say that I've heard worst theories out there.
Here's the worst play. This is the last one. Are we ending on
a sour note? Yeah, we're going uh low? You did that last
time too, right? Oh yeah, No, last time was the Paul
George one. It was the bonus play that ended up screwing them, even
though it didn't end up hurting them with the Franz Wagner inbounds play five.
This is not the roddening. So there's some plays you can live with with
James Harden defensively. We know he's not a great defender. There's some stuff
that is expected. There's also some stuff that still expected of him in this
position. And here he is completely losing his man and kind of humiliating fashion
a little bit. Here. James Harden is better than this, but you
got to have an eye on the ball, an eye on your man,
and here he loses both of them as Bridges cuts behind him. At the
last second. James Harden saw him. Watch this. Oh, oh,
where do you go? Oh he's gone. It's too late, it's too
late. It's over easy bucket. There there were a couple it wasn't just
James Harden in that game that had defensive laps. There was a play where
Paul George and Norn Powell got crossed up. There was a play where it
beats a Zubas and Terrence Man got crossed up. They didn't know who's guarding
who. But that is one of those plays that just can't have. As
much as he has limitations on the defensive end, he's better than that you
mentioned. Thank you for the high five. We need some kind of theme
music for the high five. I feel like something kind of surf Rocky.
Everyone wants to send that in go for it. Yeah, volume on.
Yeah, we'll do volume on for the Surf Rock High five intro music.
No problem. You mentioned guys getting crossed up in that game. I think
this kind of takes us into you know, the Clippers finished March ten and
seven. We saw mostly good play towards the end of you know, the
very end of this month, considering how tightly pack the games where guys getting
crossed up, and Justin Russo brought this up on Twitter, tylu kind of
having to tell guys where to be was something that happened a little too much
this month, but I think tailed off towards the end. So I'm hoping
we don't see as much of that now that we're in April. I mean,
they only finished twenty six defensively in the month of March, so yeah,
he's an improvement over the last two months since the Grammy road trip.
They're twenty eighth defensively. Last twenty five games were they're thirteen and twelve.
Yes, concerning that is concerning how what's kind of your biggest concerns. I
guess as we head him to the final stretch, the last ten percent nine
point eight percent of the season. I think for me it's James Harden because
he hasn't looked good shot. I think about forty percent from the field in
March, thirty percent from the outside. Wasn't getting downhill as much. He
missed two games. They gave him a little bit of rest on that road
trip in Chicago and then in New Orleans, and there's been a little bit
more spark with him getting down hill. I'd say he still had ten assists
to zero turnovers against the Charlotte Hornets. But remember he had the splint on
his hand from earlier in the day and played through it jammed the finger,
but he's already had the left shoulder injury going on. I just want to
see him healthy and fresh come the playoffs. There's not much more important than
that. When he is the system, you need James Harden at his best.
I'm hoping they can give him more games off down the stretch here.
It's not easy because you've got to manage still winning and holding on to the
four spot. But it's pretty important for James Harden to be at his best
come that first round. Yeah, I wonder if some of what we're seeing
is sort of like in game rest, which which I hope him certainly not
having to take on as much in these weeks coming up to the playoffs.
Like, as long as he's fully healthy, I guess I'm a little bit
less worried about the slump, is what I'm trying to say. I think
if he yeah, if he can get a couple of games off, depending
on where the staring the standings are, I think that would be great.
But I'm not I'm not necessarily concerned with the numbers and stuff right now.
I'm just eager for him to be at you know, one hundred percent when
the playoffs start, so that, yeah, that would definitely be what I'd
be looking for with him. They can't win if he doesn't have that downhill
attack because everything flows out of that. Yeah, it's getting two on the
ball, it's getting into the pain. It's what coach lou has talked about
all the time. That's part of the reason. That's one of the main
reasons you get James Harden. It doesn't have to be him finishing all the
time there, but he has to be aggressive enough to keep the defense off
balance and to get the number advantage in their favor. Or they're going four
on three all the time because he's got two on the ball. What was
it two field goal with Temps after the finger thing last game? I think
three made one made a three? Yeah, yeah, I think Harden is
a fair thing to be monitoring as because it's what eight games? There's one
more back to back? Maybe two? I know Thursday Friday is a back
to back. Yeah, two more, I think yeah, then Phoenix Phoenix,
go in Phoenix and then Athell versus Phoenix. Uh will what are you
what's your biggest what are you monitoring these final light games? I talked about
it last episode, but just how these small ball lineups are gonna work,
what match like, what machinations they're gonna put together, and how to make
those units effective because it's been a really mixed bag overall, kind of trending
down, and obviously some of that is due to limitations for what I would
call regular season rotations versus playoff rotations. You know, like I don't think
in the playoffs we'll see a small ball lineup without Kawhi Leonard in it.
So you know, stuff like that is like is fair enough? You know,
I can take with a grain of salt, But we're gonna figure We're
gonna have to figure out how to get the most out of the rotation that
we have, which I know is every team's issue, but I would say
the Clippers are in a unique spot where I mean, like, honestly,
is this playoff rotation deeper than like eight men deep? Like it's it's not
particularly deep at the highest level. And I do think that tylu is the
perfect coach to try to find guys that are gonna work together and try to
get a little bit more out of guys that, you know, maybe we
didn't see as being that great during the regular season, but it's it's something
a monitor for sure, because so far everyone not named Viza Zubots in the
center rotation has been shaky at best. And you know, our benches,
our bench is fairly depleted. So that's what I'm looking at. The rotations
is a really good call. We've seen a very high uptick in small ball.
Excuse me to close out march with I would agree with kind of clicking
down for the small ball. It's just kind of trading buckets. The defense
is the biggest ish, and the boards obviously, Yeah, the rebounding has
to be better, and then I mean, like, look, the thing
that's killed them is like, yes, defensively, those those units are they're
not going to be very good, but they go through their own scoring droughts
that you know, it's just sort of insurmountable at that point. One of
the lineups I'm interested in they used it laid against Philly was two to one
three with James Harden, Norman Palla, and Amir Coffee, and they ended
up winning that ball game, and Coffee was a big part of it.
And he has come up clutch for the Clippers many times. And I think
part of the reason I mentioned Terrence Man and what he's doing in first quarters
shooting wise from three, he's taking less obviously everywhere else, and I think
that's part of the reason that Emir Coffee got the nod over him and has
gotten the nod over him at times with closing out games. He's a more
willing shooter from the outside. He's also a little bit bigger than Terrence Man
when you're going small like that, So that could be something to look at,
especially if they end up in a series with the Dallas members. Yeah,
which we are going to talk about in the sec Amir Coffee is gonna
be one of those guys who in the playoffs, he's gonna get like two
field goal attempts. Maybe he's gotta hopefully make one. But she has been
doing right. I think his stat line from the last game was what it
was too, one of two. He had two assists, a block,
like you add a couple more rebounds and maybe two more field goal at times.
That's exactly what they need from him in the playoffs. It's like an
efficient, chunky stat line, like just kind of the little things like and
he hit shots to keep them in games, which has been cool to see.
He hit shots maybe in the third when there's a run happening from the
other team or something like that. They're always kind of timely buckets from a
mirror, which is you need. And while the efficiency isn't at like the
superhuman levels that it was, PU, Yeah, he's still been He's still
been solid. He's still been good there, so I I yeah, he's
in no way afraid of the moment. And who knows, Like what if
we get another Terrence repeat performance like we saw in the Utah series and at
some point we get in a mere Coffee game like that's gonna be a normal
one too, Like they have some guys who can do it. Yeah,
if you and like, look, the rotation outside of the starters is somewhat
shaky in not including Norman Powell. But if you get if you get a
role player game, I you know, I think that's enough to put you
over the edge in less two of the Big three, like dramatically crap the
bed. I think I said recently that I craped the bed dramatically, so
like you got to put a tent over the house and FEMA game candle it.
They did it in candlelight. I think I said something about a mere
coffee and his shooting percentages falling off after that really hot start when he got
back into the rotation. But he has shot the last two months. It's
only on three attempts per game, but forty percent from three the last two
months. So while he's not at over fifty percent like he was in January,
he's been more than serviceable from the outside. Before we get into this
playoff debate that's happening, the Clippers have eight more games left for the playoffs.
They're playing the Kings tomorrow, who have no Milik Monk or no Kevin
or the Nuggets on Thursday, which all three of us are gonna be in
the building for, I believe, and then the Jazz on Friday, calves
at the Suns, and then home versus Suns the very next day, and
then versus the Jazz, and then they end their season with a brunch battle
versus the Rockets. So there's really one game in here, and it's coming
up pretty quickly. That is the biggest, like or one of the biggest
litmus tests, is that game against the Nuggets to see if they actually can
put together this good process, and then that back to back against Phoenix,
which could decide the Pacific Division title depending how things go. I know Adam's
got got his eye on those. How do you will what are you pegging
their record at over this eight this eight game stretch? What do you want
to see? What do you think it's gonna be? It's not easy,
it's not hard, it's it's a little it's tough me or will I want
five and three? Oh? I think five, and I think that'll hold
on to the four seed. If they go five and three, keep right
there top of the division. Yeah too, yeah, yeah, So where
do you see the losses? We split the Suns. I think that's happened.
No matter what, that's a travel back to back. I could live.
I could live with split in the Suns, lost to the Calves,
and then maybe uh an end of the season lost because we don't we don't
play everybody because the Rockets game is at twelve thirty. Yeah, so okay,
yeah I would love that. So yeah, so we lose that,
we lose one of the two to the Suns, we lose to the Calves,
uh, and then we kind of we throw a game if we're safe
enough at the fore seed at the end. So you like them on Thursday
versus the Dugs and tomorrow, Yeah, I like them tomorrow for sure.
Well yeah, that one would that would kind of undo this three game win
streak if they were to like lose to a short handed Kings. Kings are
desperate. I think that's a tough game. It's not like Bus Fox,
that's an easy game. But I like them, so I'm encouraged by having
undo the three game what extreak if they lost us a bonus and Fox and
Sacramento. Yeah, they've beat crap teams. It's like it's only in like,
it's only if they continue the good habits and the good work. Otherwise
it doesn't really mean that much. Orlando is one of the better wins of
the season. Orlando for sure. Yeah. I said a couple of crappy
teams. That doesn't mean all of them. I heard crap teams. All
right, all right, we're going semantics about crap. We're talking about dramatic
craps of the bad of the band. Uh. Five and three out of
what do you see for the record? Five and three? Call now?
Who they lose to? Yeah? Sorry, I think they probably split the
next two. I don't know which one they win or lose. I just
feel like they could look ahead to Denver also because they're coming up on Thursday,
and that makes the Sacramento game tougher. Uh, Cleveland, they should
be focused. Favorite game. They should. Yeah, they're thirteen to twelve,
so that'd be nice. I'm just going off of you know, how
they've been playing overall Cleveland right now. I'm wondering how much they have to
play for in the East and how much maneuvering that they can do. Obviously,
it's a team that they don't match up well against, but Cleveland's been
really beat up and up and down. They lost to them. That was
the one team they lost to on the Grammy road trip was the Cavaliers,
and coach lou just straight up said, yeah, we don't match up well
against them. They're in the three seed, but they're only up of the
four seed, held by the New York Knicks by a half game, so
things are tight right there. They need to win. They're unlikely to be
a top two seed, but they like the Clippers, they're trying to hold
onto the third and East Clippers trying to hold into the four spot. So
that's gonna be a really tough game. Uh man, those two in Phoenix.
As the Suns are just trying to the two against Phoenix, sorry,
as the Suns are just trying to get out of the plane. It's just
seeming less likely. But yeah, I don't know, I think five and
three. I'm going five and three. I'm going five and three. I
don't know where somebody are gonna land losses and wins, but I think it's
very likely. I'll think, right, I think we're all consensus five and
three unless they lose tomorrow, in which case Will wants to see seven and
one to redeem for whatever the hell happens. Well that likes, isn't it.
Yeah? It's six and one at that point though, isn't it.
Yeah? Sorry, yeah sorry? Eight seven one over the whole, the
whole eight. All right. Coming up, we're talking this emerging debate amongst
Clippers fans of who the team should prefer to play, between the MAVs or
the Pels, because that's very much a possibility. There's some ads coming up.
If you're listening to us, Thank you for listening, by the way,
to all of our podcasts. If your watch, we're still going to
be here. We got ads and then MAVs or Pels talk coming up in
three two one. All right, welcome back into clips and dip. So
now we're talking to the playoff debate as things are kind of tightening up here
during the last stretch of the season. It's looking like the two most likely
outcomes for the Clippers are either the Dallas Mavericks or the New Orleans Pelicans,
one team we have a pretty storied and long history against in the playoffs.
The other one we have a pretty storied and long history against in the regular
season, and they have bounced us from playoff contention before too. So yeah,
where where are you guys at on this? Where where do you want
to start? Well? I know that Adam has been uh doing the good
work of kind let me let me finish, okay, because this isn't right.
This isn't the same quote unquote MAVs team we've played two times before.
They've added Kyrie Irving. It is a different beast of a Maps team,
I will say, compared to the scene, and they're playing incredibly well right
now. I don't know between these two teams. I can't tell you which
one. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see Will's fantastic name
bits. I don't know who I want them to play. I guess I
guess I prefer the Pelicans because mentally it's new and I'm not gonna have a
horrific time, know reliving past series against this team, like we went against
the Maps or something like that, which is a completely selfish reason. I
understand there's no realige with that reason, but I think Adam might help back
me up with some statistical reasons why we should not maybe want to play this
Maps too well. After the Dallas Mavericks last night, beat the Rockets,
the first team to beat them since the Clippers did three weeks ago, and
then they won eleven straight ball games and got themselves into a position where they
can be in the play in It became official last night that currently they're matched
up against Dallas in the four to five. Dallas is leading their division now,
and so I did a little bit of a deep dive. First.
I put out the tweet with the screenshot of the standings and just using the
uh oh no face emoji face, the gritch er teeth something bad is coming
this way emoji face. I don't know what they call it. Yeah,
it's it's a one. And some people resonated with because Dallas and PTSD and
all that. Others said right away, we want the Mavericks, dude,
and I was like, lol, okay, dude, Like there was some
you know, consensus that everybody in Clipper Nation wants the Dallas Mavericks. And
how do you not know? You casual that the Mavericks are obviously the better
matchup for the Clippers and the New Orleans Pelicans would be. And I'm pretty
sure that position is completely hinging on the fact that on the season, Dallas's
bottom ten defensively, so they have this glaring flaw, unlike the Pelicans,
who are much more balanced and have had a top five net rating for most
of the year. So then I actually went into the numbers and said,
well, Dallas made a lot of changes at the trade deadline. I wonder
where they've been at recently defensively. So I went back to February, so
twenty four games ample size and Dallas is now top ten defensively. Over that
span, they are eighth while having these second best offense. So when we
talked about good moves of the trade deadline and said the New York Knicks made
some good moves and the Dallas Mavericks made some good move moves. Those moves
has worked with the athletic big men they have brought in as much as we
have mocked one of them and people saying he should be on the Clippers,
Daniel Radcliffe wait Terry Potter. Who am I thinking of the backup from uh
gaffer Daniel? I mean he should be on the Clips. I wouldn't mind
a wizard. That'd be Swiss Army Man, Swiss Army Knight for this team.
But then I thought, okay, what about clutch rating. I knew
where the Pelicans were at there because the Clippers just played them recently and they
beat the Clippers in the clutch, even though they only scored like seven points
in the final five minutes and the Clippers only had five. Well, the
Pelicans are twenty eighth in net rating in the clutch. The Mavericks are third,
which is what you would expect because they have Luka Doncic and they have
Kyrie Irving. But if your entire argument is attached to, well, Dallas
isn't a good defensive team and they can't stop the Clippers while the Clippers,
meanwhile, people are telling me that, you know they can play them straight
up. They have Kawhi, they have Paul George, put them on Luca,
put them on Kyrie Irving, and you can play those guys straight up,
right, because that's how the NBA works, even though we've seen multiple
series against Dallas over the last four seasons where you try to guard guys straight
up and this is what happens. I found an old sweet from twenty twenty
one from myself making this argument of how folly it is to believe you can
play straight up against the Dallas Mavericks with the best miss Mutt match hunter in
the game in Luka Doncic Because all the hopeless casuals on TV back then when
the Clippers were down two to ohero in that seven game series in twenty twenty
one, we're saying, why don't they just put Kawhi and Paul George on
Luca. Well, I don't know, guys, because they set screens left
and right, because it's the modern NBA and it's not nearly that simple.
Because while you're fighting through a screen, you're giving a guy an opportunity to
take a wide open three pointer. That's why you have to switch sometimes because
if you try to fight through it and you give up space to a shooter
like Luka Doncicic or Kyrie Irving, now they're going to drain a wide open
jumper on you. So that is also a fallacy and a false narrative going
on in this series. My only point would be this, I'm fine with
you wanting the Pelicans or warning the Dallas Mavericks. I just believe if you
think it's obvious or a no brainer that they should want Dallas over the Pelicans,
you haven't been paying attention recently to how the Dallas Mavericks have been playing
and the fact that I don't know, the Clippers still had to take them
to seven in twenty twenty one to beat them. It's a different Clippers team.
They can't probably play as well small as Will talked about earlier with some
of those lineups they don't have, but Tom, they don't have Marcus Morris
anymore. And it beats a Zubots has been food for Luka Doncic whenever he
matches up against him, which he's always hunting for that switch. I was
also told by the same person that you know, I'm sure it beats a
zoo Bus will play a lot in that series. I don't know, man,
Luka Doncics is gonna be trying to find him every time down. So
I think I see Dallases and the Pelicans as a coin flip. I think
it's really close. I see the being problematic with either team. There's just
this false confidence about the Dallas Mavericks and how the Clippers match up so well
against them, and who are they gonna guard Kawhi and Paul George with Well,
I don't know, but recently they've gotten wins over Denver. Okay,
See, they just beat Sacramento twice. They just beat a team that won
eleven straight games. They just beat Phoenix. That's nothing new. Luca always
beats Phoenix, but they've had a top ten defense for two months. So
why are we acting like the Dallas Mavericks are the same old Dallas Mavericks and
all you have to do is score with them, and like they aren't gonna
be able to slow you down at all. I agree your argument is very
valid. Will the other crazy thing is the Clippers, even if they play
well, might end up the still the five seed, right, Like there's
still his room for the Clippers to maybe slip. And then all of a
sudden we're on the road against Dallas. Yes, it was like a damn
nightmare. Which of these teams are you coin preferring? I guess the coin
flip the fall. I don't know. It's a credirect answer. Difficult decision,
that's the correct answer. It's like both just present really interesting things.
I mean, the maths are scary too, because the playoff experience, Like
both of these guys have have been deep in the playoffs. In Kyrie and
Luca, I generally like the way that we line up against against guard heavy
teams, right just because of in most years the size and everything that we
have. But as everybody gets a little bit older and with Harden out there,
I don't know that that we're gonna be able to stop them as well.
And I think it just depends if that's the matchup that you're hoping for.
Tell me which one you think is more real? Dallas who has been
an offensive like has been a historically good offense since their time together. But
what do you believe in more their improved defense for the last two weeks or
the Clippers bottom three defense for the past like for the past what month and
a half? Which one of those is more real? Because I think that
would say who will win the series? And obviously things are different than the
regular season. It's not you know, we don't just compare stats and that's
what happens. But I think that it's something that can like, if this
is real for this Dallas team, they somehow got rid of Grant Williams and
got there and got and made their defense better. That's a big issue,
man Like that that's huge, and it puts this is what the issue with
the flip the switch strategy kind of BS is right because like we're all we're
a bottom ten defense, and it's like so yeah, like they're gonna flip
a switch and be a top three defense right off the bat once this thing
starts, Like no, we got to see some real like we have to
see a top ten defense over these next eight games to really think that they
would have, as you know, a cup not comfortable as comfortable you be
shot at stopping the MAVs right like, because I love your point, where
like what do you believe in? More like, do you believe that the
Clippers can all of a sudden turn on this defensive switch, because you know
one guy can, but that's still asking for kind of a lot. I
believe in Daniel Radcliffe get them out there. They bring in PJ. Washington,
They have this rookie and Derek Lively, They have Gafford. Now,
they have a bunch of athletic none of them are huge, but they're all
athletes that you have to account for in the front court. Like it seems
like it would be hell you already take into account. They have Luka Doncic,
who I think is one of the greatest players of all time, already.
I have seen enough. I'm fine if you want to put him as
a top seventy five player. Now, Luka is that good? Kyrie Irving
was the top seventy five player ever. People are pointing said, well,
Kyrie Irving has had some down playoff years recently. It's like, you really
want to bet it on that? On that? Continuing with Kyrie Irving,
who's also been one of the most clutch players ever. Who just hit that
left handed push shot on Nikola Jokics from fifteen feet out. They have all
this right, he's catching lobs from Luca. Yeah, you really want to
test that. I get that they don't have much to guard Kawhi and Paul
George, but with all the work they're going to be doing guarding on the
other end, that is their best defense, really, the Dallas Mavericks.
That is what will slow them down on the offensive vent And again, you
can't you can't just say stick Kawhi on Luca and we're good. They'll cancel
him out. He'll take him out. It's been tried, guys. He'll
be calling out every single switch until he gets the matchup that he wants.
Uh. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to either of these scenarios. But
they get time off. That's good, right. They get time off starting
early because their last game is at twelve thirty, so they might get more
rest. And it's not to say that the Pelicans doesn't feel like hell too
with Zion Williamson and how do you stop him down? He's starting on court
work or something like that, so he should be back fairly soon. They
have Herb Jones, They have Jose Alvarado to guard guys is crazy. Yeah,
they're a deeper team than the Clippers, which again, you know playoff
rotations are shorter, but still I think having better guys is still always going
to be to your benefit. I like that theory. That's as good as
he sucks stardom, which is the greatest theory of this show. We got
a little bit, so I kind of want to go back to what we'll
talk about with rotations wise. In the first segment, you talk about that's
what he's looking for over these next eight games, which I totally am gonna
be looking for that too, the backup center. As we've gotten further into
these discussions about the Pels and the Mavericks, that might be my second biggest
area of concern for this Clippers in terms of we still kind of have question
marks at what we're throwing out there in the playoffs for non zoom minance wise.
In terms of effectiveness too, we just haven't like we don't really know
what we're getting from either of the actual backup centers kind of and the small
ball lineup still needs work. So we'll see it more of these these next
eight games. But that's I think what I'm the second most worried about.
I think they'll need a lot of what we saw last year with Russell Westbrook
and his defense in that series against the Phoenix Suns, where he was setting
a tone at times going up against his former teammate Kevin Durant. They need
him to do some of the little scrappy, dirty things that guys like Marcus
Morris used to do for this team in the playoffs. And Nick Batoum,
I'm not saying that's an easy ask. I'm not saying that he is in
the mold of those guys. I'm saying that is the situation they're in.
They need some of that from him. They need some of that from a
mere coffee norn palace, not going to give you that he's going to give
you better defense than he has in the regular season. He'll be better there.
But Russell Westbrook has the ability to guard a lot of different guys and
that's why they've tried him at times with the five. Hy about the five
with four shooters is what hopefully we see in the playoffs because that's playing that
cog role right that we saw earlier in the year. Yeah, well,
what are your thoughts. I think it's kind of a negative take to him
on how you filed out the backup center rotation. I mean, I think
there's ways to find to work around it. It's just the margins get slimmer
and slimmer, even with like the great top tier talent that we have,
So it just changes. It just changes like how you can execute things,
Like you just have to be so much more on point in everything. And
I think that's yeah, I think that's like why the MAVs thing I like
that Adam brought up, like Aviatza Zobots and how that matchup has has historically
worked out out, Like that's asking a lot like if one of your if
twenty percent of your starting of your starting rotation isn't going to be getting like
their normal minutes. That's asking a lot of whatever other rotations you can cobble
together with not a lot of room for error. Yeah, you either.
All Dallas is going to do is say you either have to fight through these
screens where we're trying to get aviatsa zubatch into a switch on to Luka Doncic
where he's going to get an open look, or Zoo's going to have to
defend him out on the perimeter, which then negates the point of having him
as one of your best defenders and your defensive anchor at the rim. It's
going to be a crazy chess match that I don't need to see for a
third time. Now. Do I think they can beat the Pelicans and the
Dallas Mavericks. Of course sure. I'm just saying, what's the least pull
your hair out opponent? Yeah? Who can we? And I think it's
really close. And everybody or a lot of people universally were initially saying,
are you kidding? We own Dallas. It's like, do they own this
Dallas Mavericks team? I don't. I don't think so. It's different.
I wish we saw one more time in the regular season that would be well.
The good news is they have the tiebreaker. Chuck is less of a
chance of Dallas catching the Clippers for four, that is true. The one
that's well, that's the one team we have the timewreaker. I thought about
wraps it up for clips and thank you for hanging out, thank you for
listening, thank you for watching. We're doing a double dip after the game
tomorrow, Adam, what is the double dip? That's for one of these
guys, and I think it's gonna be big. Will tomorrow come on with
me post game on the official Clippers post game show, Clippers Sock, where
we take your phone calls. Sometimes they're angry, sometimes they're happy and joyful,
like last night after Paul George had forty one. Uh. But we
have guests on too, and one of these guys always comes on with me
post game and then we snip that out, we put it and upload it
onto the Clips and Dip page as well. That segment we do on Clippers
Talk, so we call clips and doubles dip, double dip. Yeah,
it's very fun. We're gonna do an episode on Wednesday most likely, and
there's gonna be a YouTube live from the press box after the Nuggets game on
Thursday. We need the reviews. Well, where can people review this this
podcast? You can review this podcast over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I
think Spotify will even let you put in multiple reviews. So you know,
maybe sometimes we're a five star to you. Maybe sometimes we're four and a
half. Maybe then you're feeling back to a five. Who knows. Anyways,
you can listen to this show wherever you listen to your podcast, but
if you want the whole experience, you should check us out over on YouTube.
That's YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcasts, and you can you know,
you can comment there, you can like you can do whatever, do
whatever you want. But however you listen, we appreciate it. You and
Adam, do you have one quick positive thing before we get out of here.
Clippers can't really control who they play in the first round most likely,
so all this will be for not We just kind of take it. I
just it feels like a toss up right now, so they can't control it.
I guess this is us just hemming and hauling over over nothing that we
can actually affect. But I still think it's an interesting debate, but it
is a debate. It is a debate. It's not just we can't see
the Pelicans because they beat us so many times in the regular season. We've
beaten the Ballast Mavericks when they were a different configuration a couple of years ago.
It's different now, it is different. Yeah, go ahead, and
I'm scared of both, scared deeply of a nihilist to take to close out
the end of the pot. But we appreciate it and as always, we'll
see you next time. Let's go clips.