1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:07,559 Clippers lose with the Kings without their king and Kawhi Leonard sister King found out 2 00:00:07,559 --> 00:00:14,599 earlier today Kawhi Leonard would be out tonight due to right knee soreness that surgically 3 00:00:14,759 --> 00:00:20,280 repaired right knee hopefully nothing serious. Welcome back into Clippers talk. I'm out 4 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,920 of Maslin. This is the Patriot Am eleven fifty after the Clippers fall one 5 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,800 O nine to ninety five up in sack Town. Join the show right now? 6 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:34,520 Is big Will Updyke from Clips and dip Will. How are you feeling 7 00:00:34,799 --> 00:00:39,479 after this one? The type of loss the Clippers just suffered in a road 8 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,159 trip where they went three to one, but you wanted to get the sweep 9 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:48,119 and get greedy. Here I understand this one. This one still doesn't sit 10 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:52,560 right with me. Look, I said that a loss against the Kings would 11 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,719 undo any good will they they'd made up for with the last couple of games. 12 00:00:56,759 --> 00:01:00,759 Loo Kimore locked in the Queen change is a little bit mores KWHI. 13 00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:06,200 But I still gotta say, like some of what I'm seeing from the rest 14 00:01:06,519 --> 00:01:11,319 of the Big three that's not Kawhi Leonard. I just have serious questions about 15 00:01:11,439 --> 00:01:15,480 their lettle like their their competitive level and how much pride they're actually taking in 16 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:22,840 this because this was three quarters of a game and the garbage time squad ended 17 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,680 up getting this in, you know, making this a closer game than it 18 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,239 was when the starters were pulled in the four. Yeah, it was over 19 00:01:30,599 --> 00:01:34,480 by the end of the third, it was yeah cooked. They lost that 20 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:40,079 third quarter thirty five to nineteen. Thought they had some really bad turnovers and 21 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,200 then the guys turning it over not getting back on defense has been bugging me. 22 00:01:44,359 --> 00:01:48,159 Russ has been guilty of that. Norman Powell was on one of those. 23 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:53,200 James Harden had five turnovers. It's felt like when things unraveled, it 24 00:01:53,239 --> 00:01:56,480 looked like Russ was trying to play at a pace that the rest of the 25 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:00,280 team wasn't ready for that third quarter, you could say, so some of 26 00:02:00,359 --> 00:02:05,000 those things are like a little bit more forgivable to me. Like, obviously, 27 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:07,280 if you're out of piece's biggest Kawhi, you know, Russ is still 28 00:02:07,319 --> 00:02:12,759 returning into the lineup, and I look, I have my qualms about sort 29 00:02:12,759 --> 00:02:15,800 of how his tempo actually fits in with the rest of the roster, depending 30 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,800 on the lineup that he's in. Like some of that stuff is a little 31 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:24,759 bit understandable, but like the effort on the boards I thought was absolutely pathetic, 32 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:30,039 you know, like the it's just I would expect Paul George and James 33 00:02:30,039 --> 00:02:35,240 Harden to do a lot more knowing that Kawhi is going to be out, 34 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,000 Like, you can't just coast. You can't just coast as though Kawhi is 35 00:02:39,039 --> 00:02:43,879 still there winn he's not. And you know, maybe this isn't a must 36 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:46,879 win game in their eyes, even though I think with the way the standings 37 00:02:46,879 --> 00:02:51,400 are looking, they should try to win every game that they can to get 38 00:02:51,439 --> 00:02:53,879 one. That's all we're even talking about right now, to get one round 39 00:02:53,879 --> 00:02:58,879 of the playoffs with home court advantage. Let's at least try to lock up 40 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,000 four. Can we do that? Can we just do that? And from 41 00:03:02,039 --> 00:03:06,840 what I saw today from like Paul George, who started very very well this 42 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:08,759 game, I liked a lot of what I saw from Paul George in the 43 00:03:08,759 --> 00:03:13,000 first half and then kind of took the foot off the gas and James Harden 44 00:03:13,159 --> 00:03:19,960 just that was a stinker. Yeah, And had they won this game, 45 00:03:20,879 --> 00:03:23,400 they would have been up, not technically but because they have the tiebreaker four 46 00:03:23,479 --> 00:03:30,039 games on the Dallas Mavericks with seven remaining, that might have done it, 47 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:35,280 That might have secured at least home court in the first round, which I 48 00:03:35,319 --> 00:03:38,280 think, Yes, we just had a caller talk about this too. They 49 00:03:38,319 --> 00:03:42,719 lost their last five home games. I don't care. You don't not want 50 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:47,599 home court advantage in the playoffs because in March they lost some games badly at 51 00:03:47,639 --> 00:03:52,560 home, when before that they were a really good home team. Now they're 52 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,879 twenty five, and yeah, if it comes to seven games, I'm so 53 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,960 sorry like that, you just can't make an argument for me that it's not 54 00:04:00,159 --> 00:04:01,879 better to be on your home court. I don't care what your regular season 55 00:04:01,919 --> 00:04:05,800 record was. We know, I mean, we've talked enough about what this 56 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,719 team's issue was. Like they sent their foot off the gas coming out the 57 00:04:10,759 --> 00:04:13,800 All Star Break. They didn't take it seriously enough. I don't think that's 58 00:04:13,919 --> 00:04:19,839 necessarily a reflection or there's no cause is not like causation is not cause, 59 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:26,800 or correlation is not causation. Sorry, with the Clippers in the home game 60 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:30,000 stuff, if it comes to a seven game series, there's just I'm sorry. 61 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,439 I can't find I can't think of a fan that doesn't want that on 62 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,560 their home court. Yeah, if there's anything that I'm going to say throw 63 00:04:35,639 --> 00:04:40,399 out when you talk about what translates to the playoffs and what doesn't, I'm 64 00:04:40,399 --> 00:04:43,839 going to say, even if you had a better road record, I still 65 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:49,399 want home court advantage in a playoff series. That's just acidine. But I 66 00:04:49,439 --> 00:04:55,519 look back at that the Math series, that first round series, nobody won 67 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:00,319 a game at home until Game seven. But guess who who who on whose 68 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,879 home court Game seven was? It was the Clippers. Yeah, that's a 69 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:08,199 great point. You know, we talked about it yesterday on the pod with 70 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:13,920 Chuck Mockler, but he brought up your biggest concern, what's our biggest concern 71 00:05:13,959 --> 00:05:16,399 at this point of the season, And I think we both were in lockstep 72 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,560 that the play of James Harden over the last month is the biggest concern. 73 00:05:20,639 --> 00:05:25,920 Because I've said it before, but if we're giving him, I think the 74 00:05:25,959 --> 00:05:28,800 majority of the credit for that twenty six and five run, and just how 75 00:05:28,879 --> 00:05:31,920 unstoppable they looked when everything was clicking. When things are looking like this, 76 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,519 where they're thirteen and thirteen their last twenty six games since the Grammy road trip, 77 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,240 we got to look back his way and say, uh, is something 78 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,720 wrong with the system here, the machine is something going on. How do 79 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,120 you feel about that? Well, uh, I agree one hundred percent, 80 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:47,800 and like, look, I hope that this is just a little bit of 81 00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:53,120 coasting to stay fully healthy or get to where he needs to be in the 82 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:58,839 playoffs. But man, given his given his playoff record already, you gotta 83 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:03,160 have concerns. The guy getting up seven shots with no Kawhi Leonards, you 84 00:06:03,319 --> 00:06:08,639 gotta have some concerns. He made one, he made one, three no 85 00:06:08,759 --> 00:06:13,160 other shot from the floor. To five turnovers to eight assists not good. 86 00:06:13,519 --> 00:06:17,800 I just I don't get it because I feel like I feel like there's this 87 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:24,639 pervasive attitude where everybody has been there before, but really only one guy on 88 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,399 this roster. I mean, okay, one guy as a starter on this 89 00:06:28,519 --> 00:06:31,839 roster has really been there before, not to discredit, not to discredit anybody 90 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:38,639 else. And I just don't see it. I think like it made sense 91 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:42,439 to me at the beginning, the slow start. He hadn't played a game 92 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,800 with Philadelphia, he had not played an NBA game prior to coming here. 93 00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:47,959 Of course he was gonna have to get into shape. But the way he's 94 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,560 look coming out of the break, it's just a little incomprehensible, and it 95 00:06:51,639 --> 00:06:58,160 is definitely worrisome. You hope, I mean, I hate that I'm relying 96 00:06:58,199 --> 00:07:00,600 on this, but you hope that it's to flip the switch thing, right, 97 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:03,000 Like you hope that he's going to be able to gear it, to 98 00:07:03,079 --> 00:07:08,319 get it back into high gear and sort of lock those things in as we 99 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:13,199 get towards the end of the season. But I from right now, it 100 00:07:13,279 --> 00:07:16,759 doesn't look great. I'll say that it's almost like a false sense of security. 101 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:20,480 We'll just we'll flip that switch when we get there. You've mentioned it 102 00:07:20,519 --> 00:07:25,600 before, but at times it has looked like a team that felt like maybe 103 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:30,519 we had done enough, we proved who we can be when we're running on 104 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:35,160 all cylinders, and therefore, now just fast forward to the playoffs and we'll 105 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:39,439 be that team that was twenty six and five of our thirty one game stretch 106 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:43,079 for a couple of months. Yeah, I'm not seeing it right now. 107 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,079 And stuff like, I mean, like I can understand like some of the 108 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,399 poor shooting things. I can understand things, but like getting scored by sixteen 109 00:07:49,439 --> 00:07:54,279 points in the pain, getting outscored by sixteen points on second chance point, 110 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:59,480 getting out rebounded fifty six to thirty eight, Like these are things that they 111 00:07:59,519 --> 00:08:03,279 could slow down, Like it's not just it's not just any one thing. 112 00:08:03,399 --> 00:08:09,680 And we shot forty one percent from three as a team and like still couldn't 113 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,079 put this one away, Like it's just there's a lot of effort things that 114 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:18,360 feel like they're not coming together. And I think, look, I obviously 115 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,360 a lot of a lot of iyre, a lot of a lot of blame 116 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,639 has to go on the big stars. That's that's what they get paid for, 117 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,839 that's what they're there for. But I do think that it's as we 118 00:08:28,879 --> 00:08:33,879 get closer and closer to the postseason that it is concerning looking at some of 119 00:08:33,879 --> 00:08:39,960 these rotations that we have and how ineffective they've been. Tyce look like a 120 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,759 bonehead to night. I don't know what was going on there, but I 121 00:08:43,879 --> 00:08:48,799 like, I just I have some concerns about about the playable rotations in an 122 00:08:48,799 --> 00:08:52,519 actual playoff series. And I just feel like we're getting to the point where 123 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:58,080 it's like maybe seven to eight guys, and if the rotation is that short 124 00:08:58,279 --> 00:09:03,399 and you get a game out of Paul George and or Harden, that's gonna 125 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:05,960 be like that's just gonna be a tough road to ho I don't know how 126 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:09,879 else to put it. You mentioned Daniel Tice there, and I wonder how 127 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,240 much of that was rust. He played eighteen minutes, but it was the 128 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:18,519 first time he had played in I think ten days, which is interesting. 129 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:22,600 Some guys look like they were playing really hard out there. I felt like 130 00:09:22,639 --> 00:09:26,320 if Easa Zubats was trying to make up for everybody else's mistakes, but he's 131 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:31,159 going up against the Bonis and there's an individual battle going on there where you 132 00:09:31,159 --> 00:09:35,480 know, he's got a tough of an assignment where he can't do everything like 133 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,320 sorry, that's not gonna happen. He had eleven boards and four offensive rebounds, 134 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:41,960 and I felt like was playing really hard. He didn't shoot the ball 135 00:09:41,039 --> 00:09:45,039 that well. I at least like the fact they gave him fourteen shots, 136 00:09:45,519 --> 00:09:50,360 but there were other guys to get him going too. Yeah, they waited 137 00:09:50,399 --> 00:09:54,639 too long. Probably they waited too long, and then you're down. You 138 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:56,200 know, you go from being down four with eight minutes left in the third 139 00:09:56,279 --> 00:10:01,519 quarter to a couple minutes later being down fifty teen, as we have seen 140 00:10:01,519 --> 00:10:07,000 too many times because of all the turnovers and live ball turnovers and giving the 141 00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:09,200 other team, You know, too many opportunities. When you give a team 142 00:10:09,279 --> 00:10:13,759 sixteen more shots than you the likelihood that you're going to win that game on 143 00:10:13,799 --> 00:10:18,360 the road against a good team, a quality team still in the Sacramento Kings 144 00:10:18,399 --> 00:10:22,000 with their two main stars, it just makes things so much tougher. I 145 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,320 just did it looked like they were trying to play the Kings game, trying 146 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:28,320 to play too fast. That was one issue for me, Will But then 147 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,639 also I don't know if it was mental fatigue over the road trip, but 148 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:37,759 they just looked like they lost focus. They absolutely looked like they lost focus. 149 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:43,519 I mean those turnovers were those those turnovers were really ugly looking. And 150 00:10:45,919 --> 00:10:50,399 yeah, I don't know. I guess I do think that they have all 151 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:58,399 season long had an issue of maintaining their identity in game and not like not 152 00:10:58,639 --> 00:11:01,639 playing another team's game. I feel like it's kind of rare that we see 153 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:07,440 the Clippers sort of impose their sort of tempo and their sort of style of 154 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:11,960 play on another team. And I think that that was one thing that they 155 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:16,519 were more effective at doing during that win streak, you know, leading up 156 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:20,120 into the Grammy road trip before the break, and I just haven't seen that 157 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,679 same level like even in these wins and where process has looked a lot better, 158 00:11:26,039 --> 00:11:28,120 the defense has looked a lot better. The rebounding from Kawhi and Paul 159 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,679 George has looked so much better. I just don't feel like I've seen the 160 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:37,399 same level of being able to impose both like their tempo and style of play 161 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:43,679 on a game. And that is kind of troubling because you're not going to 162 00:11:43,759 --> 00:11:50,159 be another team playing their game. Seven games we're up against it here, 163 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:52,759 Will, I didn't mean to cut you off, but to me, oh 164 00:11:52,799 --> 00:11:56,840 go for that point kind of speaks to lacking that identity. What are you 165 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:01,799 trying to force teams to play? What is your style of play? Like 166 00:12:01,759 --> 00:12:05,840 you're forcing them to adjust to you, but what's your style of play? 167 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:11,919 I don't It's been a little bit of a moving target. Big Will update 168 00:12:15,399 --> 00:12:18,679 has been with us tough defensive team that is bottom three defensively over the last 169 00:12:20,039 --> 00:12:22,519 two months. Will, thanks for doing this tonight a little clips and doubled 170 00:12:22,519 --> 00:12:26,440 it absolutely. Thanks for having me. Let's go Clip