Last time, Chuck Chus Flippers Wine one twenty seven over the Portland Trailblazers at
Crypto dot com arena. I'm Adam Oslin, welcome back into Clippers Tuck eight
six six nine eight seven two five seventy is the phone number. We'll get
back to your calls the very next segment. We'll also here from Kawhi Leonard
postgame. But first for a little clips and double dip, let's bring in
Chuck Mackler from CND pod so Chuck two themes tonight. Clippers to me looked
like they were playing down to their competition again, and they also weren't choosing
the path of least resistance to win a ballgame, which was just Hey,
I don't know feet of eatsa Zubats who had fourteen points on seven of nine
shooting in the first quarter. Do you feel the same way? Or am
I being overly harsh and I should give more credits to Portland because I mean,
they did have good victories over the Cavaliers and Pacers on the road recently,
but they were missing three starters and if the Clippers lose this game,
to me, this would have been worse than what happened against Denver. Oh
yeah, this this the would have got away from us. It would have
been a total nightmare. On our on our pod the other day, Will
and I were just talking about how the taste, the bad taste of that
loss was kind of out of our mouths so happy that there wasn't a new
one to replace it tonight. But I think you're definitely right about the first
part. This was another instance of another team really playing harder and refusing to
let anything about the Clippers intimidate them. The Clippers were slow on the defensive
end to open this one, which gave the Blazers hope, which also coincided
with an absurd shooting night from them as well. I did see you kind
of go a little crazy about Zoo on Twitter, which was funny to see.
But Susan playing so well, Yeah, I think it makes sense to
feed him when the offense is getting slow, and that means we're hard to
initiate the pick and roll more when he's out there. We should. It
felt like the Clippers needed to kind of spam that a little bit more in
this game to get things going. All I'm asking for is you have this
clear advantage because Portland doesn't have DeAndre and they don't have Robert Williams. They
have Moses Brown. Clippers should be familiar with him. If that's their best
option to stopping of Vitza Zubots. You gotta give him the rock. You
got to make him feel comfortable like he's a star. Sometimes, when you
have a mismatch like that they did in the first quarter, the game plan
was there. That's what's perplexing to me. They just went away from it
after it worked. Yeah, I think part of that, I don't really
know. It was a little confusing it sometimes. The other part that I
mean at least helps was the fact that Kawhi Leonard was there tonight. He
did it really in all three levels, which maybe that played a part in
it, But I definitely got to help more than hurt. And if we
had to trade that for maybe more as you buckets, I think we'd all
take that situation right there. Kawhi was phenomenal again tonight, ends up with
thirty four points, an easy thirty four on just nineteen shots and a couple
of big ones in the fourth quarter, a layup, a jumper, knockdown,
clutch free throws. All that talk about Kawhi's he's still the same guy
he was for that three month stretch last season, which first of all,
holding him to that standard. I mean, that's some of the most absurd
shooting splits you'll ever see in the history of the NBA. You can't do
that. But ability wise, to me, it's all still there, and
that is the most important thing right now for this team that Kawhi Leonard is
still a number one option on a championship level team. Is that what you're
seeing? Yeah, the number one option on both ends. By far,
I was on I think this very show when we kind of talked about,
you know, these early rumblings of this concern quote unquote over Kawhi, and
we basically said, well, let's not be surprised when the Clippers turned a
corner and that also coincides with Kawhi Leonard, you know, getting out of
that funk or whatever people thought it was. We've seen him the last two
nights. We've seen it during this eleven game stretch, excuse me, this
twelve game stretch. Kawhi is still very much Kawhi. I thought James Harden
had a nice ballgame. Those threes he hit in the third quarter were necessary
since Portland wasn't missing. They started five to five from the outside and ended
up going I think ten of sixteen or something like that from distance in the
third. But Harden also has been closer to taking double digit shots, you
know, more consistently now over the last couple of weeks. And while people
have said, well, you know, the russ stands and God bless them
whatever, they're talking about Russell Westbrook sacrificing with his minutes. But I think
you can make the argument that James Harden has been sacrificing with shot attempts and
has never complained once when he has taken single digit shot attempts so far with
this Clippers team. And he was seven to fourteen, twenty points, seven
assists, three turnovers. A lot to light there. Yeah, it's good
to see him being more aggressive and feeling more uncomfortable in the moment that big
folk flint play he hit earlier in the season, you know, I think
really helps you know, games like tonight, you know where you want him
to be more aggressive and he can remember that he is still one of,
you know, the alphas on this team and we need him to be good
or at least aggressive throughout the game, but especially late, So yeah,
it was it was good to see he made three threes the whole game,
and two of them were in that third quarter, so yeah, very big
there from James. Didn't like the Norm technical late in a game that close,
but yeah, he did play some important minutes. At times Portland was
hunting him out on the defensive end, but it ended up six of nine
two or four from the outside sixteen points. He's shooting over around forty five
percent from three now on the season. I don't know if we could have
asked for much more from Norm, which has been him actually getting off to
a quick start so this year, which flies in the faith of what he's
done throughout most of his career. Yeah, the normcore lineup was great for
those of you unfamiliar with it, that is Norm Powell with James Harden,
Paul George Kylindar, and Avita Zubats. But yet his start to the season
has been much needed, especially when you look at the Clippers record and things
like that. But Norm did get a little singled out on defense in that
lineup. But I just kind of mentioned there, so that'll be something to
monitor the closer we get to the playoffs, some things that be slow down
more in the half court. But we've needed every single one of these main
threes that Norm this year. So I think he had twelve in that one
quarter or something like that. But he's been great off the bench. We've
talked about how you know, he talks about how he wants to be an
All Star and stuff. We would all settle for Norm being six Man of
the Year. I think we'd all be okay with that. So let's hope
this streak from him continues. Who do you think gets extended minutes or some
run off the bench unexpectedly, maybe tomorrow in this home back to back,
someone who didn't play much or somebody who just didn't play at all. Yeah,
looking at the minute, someone just tweeted the to US minister a little
rough on this one. Yep, now what we expected to see. I
think it's probably gonna be a mirror. And maybe Brandon Boston. He's coming
back. He had a great game of the league the other night. He
postrized someone, which is awesome to see come it off the injury he had.
So I think I'm probably one of those two. I'm not sure if
PJ. Tucker's minutes are in the cards yet, but I wouldn't be surprised
if it was Brandon Boston Junior to meer coffee. Okay, I like that.
There's his player pick CND listeners. He is Chuck Mockler a little clips
and double dip tonight here on Clippers Talk. So, Chuck, I guess
Will's coming on tomorrow unless the Clippers lose, because I thought it's in your
contract to come on when they lose, and in Will's when they win.
But he didn't come on tonight for whatever reason, even though they did win.
It's all convoluted mess, but we make it work either way. And
I think what a YouTube on Wednesday? Possibly, Yeah, something like that.
It's the holiday season, thinks a little chaotic, but people, we'll
have something for people out there. For sure. I'm getting healthy, baby.
The comeback is on. Let's go, let's go heavy minutes for me
this week? All right, thanks Chuck, Yeah, thank you, quick
time out here, our clipperstock. We'll come back. We'll get your phone
calls. Eight sixty six nine eight seven two five seventy eight six six ninety
eight seven two five seventy Clippers win one thirty two to one twenty seven over
the Blazers Clippers. We'll see Sacramento at Crypto tomorrow night. You're listening to
AM five to seventy LA Sports