Last time checks, it was five chains on my neck. It was no
smugle mind. Clippers hit just two field goals in the last six minutes.
And for those talking about Aviza zoobots, this comes from La Murray. At
La Murray, the nu covers the Clippers for the athletic for the first ten
forty eight of Zubots minutes off the floor. In the second half, the
Clippers outscored the Denver Nuggets by twelve. Then the Nuggets outscored the Clippers by
ten the last half of the fourth quarter. Something I've been talking about,
but don't tell me there's no logic whatsoever to playing without Aviza zobots. The
spacing was there, and they outscored the Nuggets by twelve in his first eleven
minutes off the floor in the second half. You hear the music, you
know what it means. It's a Clippers or Clips and double dip episode Here
on Clippers Talk with Chuck Mockler from CND. Chuck, thanks for doing this.
Are you encouraged or are still overly discouraged because the Clippers lost six in
a row now five straight with James Harden. I think I'm still on a
discourage trade. If I'm being honest, Adam, I think I'm still not
super excited about the team tonight. I guess you know, they lose to
the champs. It was how they were gonna lose right because of a size
issue, you know what I mean. We talked about how the Clippers looks
good offensively when they were small. The offense was there, but it's also
kind of a what's outscore them on the other end and not really stopped them
situation. The Nuggets had twenty points in the paint in the fourth quarter alone,
which is a little tough to deal with. But I don't know.
I you know, we play a team that they should be able to get
a win against on Friday, in the Rockets. But it's just tough to
be three and seven. Rockets have won sixth straight. Be careful what you
wish for. They're playing very good basketball right now, and the Clippers will
have gone seventeen days remove from their last win when Friday comes against the Rockets.
That feels like as close as you can get to a must win this
early in the season. I saw this from La Murray as well. Coach
Lou apparently did not believe the Clippers got the same calls as the Nuggets did.
When the Clippers were driving to the basket tonight, did you feel like
they were getting a tough whistle out there? Yeah, it was a little
goofy. The game started off, there was a couple of possessions that started
on defense. I thought they kind of let zoo, you know, go,
I guess, play physical defense against Jokich to kind of start this game
for the first like four minutes, and then they really clamped out on everything.
I thought the WHI was definitely, I don't know about definitely, the
free zone disparity is tough to see thirty two to twenty four in favor of
the Nuggets, and the Clippers have kind of been on this other end so
far this year. But I mean, I think it's a whole whistle.
I think you're playing against a team that does a good job of getting foul
calls, and I guess they did a good job of it tonight. I
wish this wasn't something we had to, you know, may point our fingers
at because of the lost, but it doesn't help things. Yeah, James
Harden did score twenty one. He had that surge near the middle towards the
end of the third quarter, and for the most part, if there's something
to be encouraged about is the fact that he looked more like James Harden,
right. I mean, ultimately, for this Clippers team to get on track
and to look like a dominant elite team and turn this around, they need
James Harden to be great. And I thought we saw enough flashes of that
to say, hey, they'll get this going eventually. Here it's still there.
They just still got to develop that chemistry totally. If you look at
James Harden's shot chart tonight for the Clippers, I think he made his first
bucket as a Clipper inside zero to three feet to night. I mean three
of them, the first three he made in his tenure here, so you
love to see the three level scoring. He had a mid range bucket.
He had like some threes too, Like that's what you want from James.
And he also so there's a pass he found Norm with for a three pointer
that is I think it was the second quarter or something like that. But
like we saw glimpses of what James Harden can and really really needs to bring
to this team. We just kind of need everyone to do everything right at
the same time, which I do think is a time issue, you know,
just a more time together issue and not necessarily something to be super worried
about. But again they are still three and seven, so the winds need
to come pretty quickly. The main subject tonight on Clippers Talk was of Vitza
Zubots not returning to the ballgame, at least playing significant minutes late in that
fourth quarter. Were you screaming at the television saying, bring a Vita Zubots
back in. We need more size because I thought overall, I know he
was two for eight, he missed some bunnies early, but I thought his
rebounding and he was just a force in the pain. I thought he was
great well, And even if you don't love Zoo, you still I think
one I'm out there. Your other option is like Paul George has no help,
or you know Norm Powell or even PJ. Tucker, Right like TYLERU
brought Tucker out for the last two minutes and then it looked like he was
going to close the game and then brought Norm back in, which I guess
I had more of an issue with, maybe because I kind of assumed he
wasn't going to bring you in. I don't know if that's a good thing
that I assumed that or not, but it is a It is something to
kind of scratch your head out when it comes to needing a stop versus getting
a bucket. But I think if you've watched his Clippers team under Tylero,
you kind of know in those situations he kind of leans towards get a bucket.
So I can see where Tyleru was doing it from his end of the
logic puzzle. But I think I agree with most people who maybe wanted to
see doing there for the last little bit Kawhi learn was five or fourteen,
just fifteen points, and he's been very up and down, mostly down since
the trade, since that game against the Lakers where he was out of this
world with those eighteen first quarter points, had thirty eight overall, scored all
their points in overtime. They lost, but Kawhi looked spectacular. Do you
have any concerns right now with Kawhi Leonard uh just struggling to this degree where
last couple of games five or fourteen, six of sixteen, he's got a
seven to sixteen game in there, that to me a lot of it just
you look at the attempts. It's not enough like he's a rhythm player too.
Yeah, he is a rhythm player. You're totally right about that.
I you know, I think he's one hundred percent. We came into the
season, you know, before this hard and trade guys were playing a little
bit faster. He's from the eye tests and things like that, and Kawhi
was getting up there. But it is a bit of an older team and
learning the new system. I think things when they don't look as good that
loss in you know, maybe losing that little quarter of a step, it
looks a little more pronounced, you know, when you're in the mix of
a six game losing streak. But I think he's going to bounce back.
I don't. Let's not pretend like we're going to be shocked when the Clippers
going around in a con times with Kawhi playing very well. That's a good
point. He is Chuck Mockler at Chuck Moffler on x He is one of
the three hosts of C and D Clips and Dip. We will have the
Triumphant trifecta tripod whatever you want to call it tomorrow on YouTube for you guys.
Chuck, thanks for staying up late tonight. Yep. Hey, here's
to getting a win soon please. Yeah. Clippers fall one eleven to oneh
eight in Denver. This is the last segment, right, No more?
Well, I'm worthless coming back after this. We'll finish off with some phone
calls. I'm at a Maslin and this is a seven ELA Sports