What is going on Russ list Lissman. I think that's kind of all what
we're thinking about right now. Welcome to episode fifty six fifty six point one
of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Mockler. We're doing the weekend hang
Will Updike Adam Osland at Clippers Pod on Twitter if you want to follow us
there. We're hanging out Adam. We talked about the Wizard's game last night.
We're going to talk about the Russ injury, the looming back to back,
what we think the Clippers are going to go in March. But will
you you didn't you weren't talking with Adam last night. How are you feeling
with the Russ news? How did it fail to see he's unfortunately broke fractured
his hand. Man. Uh, it's super hard, especially with the guy
that needed to fill so many men and had that crucial role of sort of
bringing energy to the team. So, you know, firstly wishing to you
know, a quick recovery and health for him, because he is definitely someone
that the Clippers will need, you know, moving forward. It does big
questions about, you know, what this means for the rest of the rotation,
how some other guys could kind of could get going or get opportunities,
and what that could look like for them and how that changes potential rotations moving
forward even into the playoffs. So yeah, we'll see. Yeah, twenty
two minutes a game that they got to find now with Russ out did not
mean the thumbs up losing twenty two minutes a game, right there, Adam
Bones Hiland got some run last night. For those of you who missed the
Clippers beat the Wizards, Yeah, smoked, thank you. How are we
feeling about Bones? Obviously, I think it's hard to judge last night because
it was a you know, get in there and go and incredibly on the
shortest of notice. But what are you looking for from Bones? Just in
general? It's kind of a different player than Rous. Yeah, I mean
those were the first somewhat meaningful minutes that he has played. I don't think
he's played in the first half of a game, and I know he didn't
either last night. But going back to game four or five of the season
before they brought in James Harden. But remember we've talked about it. In
the first four games he had seventeen or more three times. Bones Highland absolutely
looked the part of where he was in the preseason, what they were saying
about him during training camp. Everyone on the Clippers said the one guy that
impressed them most in Hawaiian training camp that they saw progress and develop was Bones
Highland. I mean Nicholas Batouma was saying it back when he was with the
Clippers. Obviously, now with Philadelphia, this is somebody and we hope for
speedy recovery from Russ because it's gonna be really difficult to replace somebody that's been
kind of an innings eater for them and missed a reliable He hadn't missed a
game all season long. He was the only Clipper who had not missed a
game. So it's big. You mentioned those twenty two minutes, But what
we saw last night in sixteen minutes there in the second half from Bones Highland,
I was encouraged with the passing. He had seven assists to one turnover,
and he had a couple of passes, the lobb to Kobe Brown,
the wraparound pass underneath the basket to Brandon Boston, who gave him some good
minutes as well. Granted it was in consequential garbage time, but these were
guys that looked better. And if we're going to criticize when they're bad during
garbage time, I guess we also have to say when they're good. Right,
fair, completely fair. But Bones was in control of the basketball,
taking care of it, bringing up the court with pace. That's something the
Clippers need, that something Russ has always brought. And look, I've been
talking about trying to get Bones Hihland back into the rotation for some time.
I did not want to see it happen like this, obviously, but I
do think with March sixteen games remaining now, they needed a spark. They
needed somebody to give them a shot in the arm. Terrence Man with his
play over the last four games, has been supplying some of that. But
just having some young legs and a guy who's what twenty three years of age,
who's legitimately young on this team should be able to go have plenty of
energy in back to backs with all of these three and fours coming up,
Balts Highland could be perfect for that. Now you mentioned where he's at and
missing those shots just one for seven from the field, that's somewhat expected.
You get your first run in a long time. I'm not that concerned about
it. I do think he's a guy that can catch fire quickly, that
can be one shot hot. And this is someone who doesn't shy away from
taking shots. We're talking about a guy who when he's on the floor next
to PG and Kawhi, he doesn't defer, he doesn't just try to give
up the basketball. He makes the right play, but he's looking for a
offense too, and that's something the defense is going to have to be concerned
with. He puts pressure on you because he's going to take shots. I
think some of the numbers were ran last summer about bones Hyland by the Lob
of the Jam and they were talking about how many attempts he gets up from
three per one hundred possessions and it was somewhere like twelve or thirteen. So
Paul George type of stuff from three, like, he puts them up,
and he does it at a high volume and a high efficiency, and he
can off a bounce. This is a really rare guy with a unique skill
set that has a ton of potential for this Clippers team. So overall it's
awful. It sucks for us. The word you use last night on clips
and double dip with myself and Carlo Jimenez, who was a Curtis Pock with
me. You said gutted, you said gutted for us, And I think
that's where we're all kind of at right now. Choe uh will do you
think you got me on the train of kind of being against the like six
minute shifts for Harden to open in the game. That's got to change now,
right, Like we got to imagine that Arden is gonna be in I
mean this at least on Sunday and Monday, and to start the game a
little longer. Well, yeah, both both with the shortage and the number
of games. I think it's kind of interesting to see what could a playoff
shift look like for for this starting unit if that's what they have to end
up going to, which you know, with how many games there are and
how look like there's no way around it. Sometimes they're gonna need to cut
out wins and sometimes they might drop a couple and it's gonna be like,
all right, we gotta we gotta play this like it is one of the
most important games of the season, just to not fall too far down in
the standing. So I think that's really interesting to see how they'll change that,
because I don't see Tie going away from UH from Harden halfway through the
first to put bones Hiland and just to keep with that regular rotation, unless,
of course, that is just sort of an unspoken thing where maybe they
don't want James to get, you know, nine minutes a run in his
first shift. I'm not sure, but I would assume that we'll see longer
sort of uninterrupted stretches all of that starting unit. And I would guess that
the that would change things to Russ being the defenct or not to Russ too
norm rather being the de facto sort of six man, first guy in for
so many because that shift does let hard and do things like you did last
night, which is basically play the entire second quarter and completely you know,
go off or something like that. And if Fianna has a question, did
they ever say how long Russ will be out for in this point? I
believe is the timeline, isn't it? Yeah? And like there was that
that twitter NBA doctor who everyone likes, who does do a very good job,
said like six weeks or something that sounds about time. So yeah,
that sucks. That would mean basically he's out the rest of the regular season.
Their final game of the regular season is April fourteenth, so a month
and a half. It's around then, uh Adam, how would you feel
is from Izzy shout out to everyone hanging out in the chat as well.
Throw some questions and we'll put them on. How would you feel if the
turnover issues and transition defense improved with Russ out? It might there are ways
to lean into offense now with spreading the floor better because you have another shooter
out there with Bones Highland. What they'll be missing though, is some of
that Russ defense, the rebounding obviously, and there's a little bit of an
issue. One of the reasons we talked about why Bones Highland hasn't gotten run
I think is because you can't have him in Norman Powell, or you would
not you would not lean into having him in Norman Powell on the court at
the same time because defensively, your point of attack defense is really going to
suffer, just because both those guys are very much undersized. Now, the
story coming into training camp, part of it was Bones put on eleven twelve
pounds of muscle and he has some wi Re strength to him. I was
impressed with his defense overall last season when they brought him in from Denver,
we heard a lot of things from Denver fans saying, oh, he just
checks out defensively. We didn't see that. He competed in that playoff series
against the Phoenix Suns, and for the most part, wasn't a huge liability
defensively on that end. As long as he's giving effort there, they can
live with it because of what he can bring offensively. But I do think
this throws in a few different wrinkles lineup wise. We mentioned him and the
fit next to Norman Powell being problematic, but what if all of a sudden
they brought Norman Powell in with the starters for Terrence Man because of that,
So you don't have Powell coming off the bench with Bones Highland. Or what
if Bones Hyland is struggling and it's not working, then do you bring Terrence
Man off the bench and maybe start a mere coffee so Man runs the second
unit as the backup point guard if Bones just isn't there yet. There's a
lot of things to think about here. I hope Bones, you know,
takes the bull by the horns here and takes advantage of this big opportunity,
and I think he's that guy. He's him. He can do this like
I think bones when the kids says built different, like he's one of those
guys. He's special. He has a lot of ability out there. We
talked about it when they first got him, having some of those Lou Williams
traits with the pick and roll, just his frame, but not afraid of
taking and making tough shots. He's got a lot in his bag. And
the other The other thing about him going back to last season was he was
actually shooting better I think from the outside than where he was within ten feet
of the basket or something like that. His problems were he wasn't finishing well
at the rim. Well, he worked on that. We saw it changed
in the preseason. We saw it changed in the first four games this season.
He was much more comfortable among the trees and getting it to go in
traffic, getting layups to go. So I felt like coming into this year
he was I used the unfortunate phrase, I'm not even gonna do it now.
It is a saying, it is a phrase. It's also something in
finances, not just in cards. I guess on the come and that's why
I watch MSNBC all the time, you guys know. Oh yeah, we
knew that it was n We knew that it was not just in the cards.
Yeah, we had some alternate routes, but it felt to me like
he was due for a breakout season and he has an opportunity now to show
everything he's been working on over the past year. Yeah, the first person
off the bench thing is going to be interesting. Rock Fous saying, rather
start coffee, put Man to the bench. But Man, as we are
going to see, especially against I think the Bucks is the point of attack
guy to start games. He's defending the point of attack to start games.
A mere coffee is good at defense. But there's the wingspan thing, and
Terrence are just comfortable with him being the point of attack guy. And that's
I mean, we shouldn't change a part of the starting lineup that doesn't need
to be changed, right, we don't. Yeah, my if aw somebody
who's taking up significant minutes, my first thought isn't let's make another change.
Personally very good. I mean that's just me, But I do think it's
real. If Bones struggled, you might have to bring Terrence Man off the
bench run second unit. I don't think that will be a huge drop off
having a mere coffee as the point of attack defender off games as opposed to
the Terrence Man. I think they're pretty similar with their overall defense. I
do like this point though, because he's been playing phenomenally, so I think
if you bench Terrence Man after this run, talk about someone's confidence being messed
with throughout the year, well, it's out of necessity. It's out of
this emergency situation because Russ is out. This isn't because of poor play.
It could actually give him more minutes because we need you even more now as
the second biggest ball handler on this team besides James Harden. I'm just saying
I don't think we should switch the starting lineup. The starting lineup is very
good, and then I don't want them to have to I'm saying, if
Bones Island struggles and he can't do it, who's the second best primary ball
handler. I mean, how many games are we giving Bones before we entertain
possibly getting Man, because I mean it's time crunch, right I hope.
Yeah. I'm like, I mean, he's, like we said, he's
gone from zero playing to now maybe the backup point guard. So like I
think five games because they're coming pretty quickly. Right. We got three and
four days coming up, so I hope he can pick it up quickly.
Some other things that happened in the Wizard's game. Paul George's back look great.
He looked the best he has in over a month now. Timing wise,
he got to the basket his first couple. The athleticism was there,
the pop. He was very decisive with getting to his spots, getting them
up quickly. He wasn't playing with his food, playing with the basketball,
dribbling over dribbling. That performance by PG thirteen was very encouraging. It's weird,
but every time he has come back from injury, that first game he
always looks fantastic. Going back to his first game as a Clipper when he
was coming off shoulder surgery, I think it was against the Pelicans and he
had thirty six or thirty eight or something like that. Yeah, it was
good to see the Will and I were hanging out and reading the kind of
pregame quotes about the injury, which I don't know if the full answer on
Tylu on PG, I believe this was pregame was you know, hopefully right
now he's in a good place. We did all the necessary things we had
to do to check the boxes. He's feeling pretty good. Hopefully not a
thing that lingers on for the rest of the season. But we don't really
know. It's basically a day to day situation. We're not one hundred percent
sure if he's going to play in both games on the back to back,
which I don't think should be super surprising, right, Like he's coming off
a week off because of knee soreness. It's day to day playing him two
games in a row. I hope he plays the Wolves game because that's a
conference game, but I don't think it's that crazy to think that he wouldn't
play both games. Like it wasn't. I don't know, will you and
I were kind of bummed, but I wouldn't say shocked. Yeah, yeah,
I with it being day to day, I would assume that means that
he's not playing in back to backs. But we'll see. He did look
a lot better, you know, the first time he's crossed the twenty point
barrier in what feels like a very long time. But no, it's good
to see him back out there. But I would assume how many games played
is even at right now? Well whatever, I mean, it seems pretty
clear that he wants to get to that sixty five number. So I think
they're going to do their best to get to that spot. But I would
expect to see him, you know, sort of in and out of the
lineup to manage that. Yeah, I mean, and I think that's what
we all want. And Matt, what matters is April, yeah, right,
not March. Not March. I am maddened by it. I want
to This is a good point by Steve Rodriguez about the Bones thing, bringing
in Norm earlier to play with the starters and then tea Men and Bones back
in together. I think that could be exactly what they do, because,
like the point is, you may not want to switch up the starting lineup.
What you really don't want, though, is normOn, Powell and Bones
to be playing heavy minutes together. Right, That's the priority here. Those
two. You'll be trying to out score teams and there's gonna be good run,
but defensively they're going to suffer on that end with both those guys at
the point of attack. So I think what Steve is saying here could be
spot on. Shout out Steve Rodriguez, thank you, William Blast some other
stuff from the Wizard's game before we move on in a bit. So the
offense great, the Big three absolutely killed it last night. The transition defense
for me personally, didn't exactly instill confidence going forward for this back to back.
The few times, look it was the Wizards, it was a blowout,
but the few times that the Wizards were able to get within I don't
know if striking might even be too big of a word just because the team
was so bad, but like it was a transition defense. Tyler talked about
it postgame and stuff like that, Is this just a time thing? Do
we just have to wait for them to get more locked in on this?
Adam, what did you think? Because I was like, yeah, we
got the win, but it was there were just some moments where it was
like, eugh, like this isn't they really have to lock you on it?
Because it's not just that they've been bad with it, but the book
is out on that and teams are zeroing in, so they're putting an emphasis
always on getting down the court. And actually Washington, I think is playing
at the fastest pace in the NBA this season. They at least were over
the last month, so it was a concerted effort by them to make sure
to get down the floor, and they have the young bodies to do so.
I think it was early in the third quarter where coach lou actually called
a time out after some poor transition defense, even with the Clippers up big.
He was upset understandably by seeing that still being an issue for them.
They talk about it. The message is there the guys at one point it
has to get through. Because Jordan Poole got a couple of really easy ones
against the Clippers last night. It got better after that time out in the
third quarter. But against the next two teams, they're gonna be trying the
same thing with the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves. At least here and there,
picking your spots win to beat up on the Clippers weakness. Really yeah.
That and the rebounding. Thankfully we didn't get out rebounded last night,
because the Wizards are and I mean this in no hyperbole, the worst rebounding
team in the league, the worst team in the league. They really are.
I still like, my brain can't comprehend seeing their record on the screen.
I'm like, how are you nine and fifty one. If you look
at their last fourteen games, though, the fourteenth straight that they have lost,
it is one of the worst schedules I've ever seen. I don't think
they play one team that's not like five games above five hundred. Yeah,
it's insane. Rockfel's talking about it. Well, how can we make the
rebounding better? Are we just? Are we sitting in the bad rebounding team
bed that we've made for the rest of this season and just hope that Zoo
being back makes us that much better. I think to the regular season to
a certain extent, I think that you expect that some of that to be
ironed out a little bit more once you get deeper into the season and certainly
in the postseason. Is why, And Paul George will put that as an
even bigger point of emphasis, you know, really like kind of putting it
all on the line for that. But yeah, rebounding is gonna be a
struggle, and it's you know, only gotten worse this season because of some
of the size and then losing probably your best rebounding guard isn't gonna help for
this upcoming stretch. So that's it's gonna be difficult. Chuck. We talked
about it a little bit post game, but I felt like this was one
of the better performances with no Big Zoo from their backup bigs and Mason Plumbley
and Daniel Tice. I think Big Plumb ended up with ten boards. I
really like some of the defense he showed actually in that third quarter, because
remember before the fourth quarter against the Lakers with those back to back turnovers,
he was actually having one of his best games of the season. So he's
had seven I would say quality quarters over the last couple of games. Now,
yeah, William Blast is asking how long will Russ be out? And
right now it's in definitely it's around six weeks probably. That's that's what everyone
kind of saying. There's like levels of fractures. So he's also broken this
hand one other or two other times, Like he's broken like yeah, like
it's that's not the first time. Yeah, he's got some fingers, it's
not, you know, thankfully r ip. Yeah. Well that was also
one of the reasons why people talked about his shot kind of going to he
had broken hands. And as someone who was an apologist for Aviatz the Zubat's
first year on the Clippers when he had a broken finger on each hand.
I can't imagine what it's like to break both of your hands and then try
and relearn how to play basketball. Yeah, he's basically out into the playoffs,
which is brutal. Adam, was there anything else from last night?
It was such a weird game to try and take stuff away from. I
tweeted this out right, but it's like they collapse on Wednesday against the Lakers.
Then you beat a team you're absolutely supposed to be in the Wizards.
It's hard to take anything super away from that game. I guess I'll say
this, they played with the right type of energy. Aside from a few
miscues as you would expect with transition defense, for the most part, they
played up to their ability against the team that's this down right now. Kyle
Kuzma had his moments, but the big three for the Clippers. You saw
Paul George with eleven points in the first quarter, and then you have James
Harden with twenty one points in that second quarter, and then Kawhi with fourteen
points in the third quarter. The big three were really good, and it
looked to me like they were upset with what happened against that Lakers game,
as they should be. Kawhi Leonard with three or four dunks, two of
them one over the top of Kyle Kuzma and the second quarter another one about
the three minute mark in the third quarter in traffic where he just turned the
corner and threw it down. There was a little bit something extra there from
a team that knew they let one get away up twenty one in the fourth
quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers, and Kawhi was moving fantastically. James Harden
showed a little bit more burst like we saw against the Lakers too, So
maybe they're coming out of this funk of just looking a little bit stagnant out
there offensively because they moved the ball really well. There was a possession and
I think you even retweeted it after I tweeted out Chuck on the Clippers pod.
But there was some beautiful passing from this team along the perimeter like we
haven't seen in a while. And they shot about forty one percent from the
outside. I think they were at fifty six percent from three in the first
half when the last eight games going into that game last night, the Clippers
were shooting just thirty three percent from three, which is alarming for a team
that has been first or second all season long when it came to three point
shooting. So some of that alone just going back in their favor, and
I'm sure some of it is just wonky shooting and shooting variants they were due,
but that can cure a lot of what has ailed them recently, just
getting back to knocking down threes, which they should. They have the personnel
and they've been one of the best teams all season along there. I didn't
realize they were at thirty three percent. They's shocking, right, that's crazy
for them. Yeah, Well, if the Clippers would have won by fifty,
would you have felt better or do you feel exactly the same about this
game no matter who it was because it was the Wizards. Yeah, I
mean, it's the way like it's the Wizards and it's you know, you
wouldn't be thrilled, like you would be kind of upset if it was a
close win just because it is the Wizards and it would have meant that the
defense was really really bad. But yeah, it's it's kind of where this
team is at right, especially if they want to stay in that top three
top four kind of thing, like these wins are expected, and so you
hope to see something good and certainly not expecting to lose a player. But
I was talking earlier about how Bones could be sort of a shot in the
arm for the Clippers, and I think just overall, the absence of Russ
is going to kind of put everyone on notice, because we've heard time and
time again how we feel like this team, you know, internally kind of
feels like they're not always locking in and they're sort of relying on talent,
and so when you have a big piece of rotation go down, it kind
of gets it in everybody else's head, and it kind of I think that
it makes you have to like buy necessity, approach the game with a different
level of attention to detail and sort of a different mindset. And that's been
like one of the trademarks of this team in this era, fighting through adversity
with guys being out. This is what they do. This is typically when
they are at their best. So I love that point. Will. I
do think it gets your attention more and they should be more focused out there.
And I think you saw some of that last night in the second half
where they made sure to pour it on and get the starters out midway through
the fourth quarter as much as you can say, oh it's the Wizards.
Look, they almost beat the Lakers night before, which ot they've been in
some of these games, so to blow them out to that extent, I
do think there was some encouraging signs. But obviously we're gonna find out a
lot about this team in the next two wonderful transition Adham, we're gonna talk
about the upcoming for a living folks. I don't know why it's given the
thumbs down at him. I did not mean to do that. It's obvious
day we're gonna talk about the hardest back to back of the season until the
next one. I assume if you're listening to this pod, because we're all
gonna put this out on audio, thanks for listening. If you're watching,
there's gonna be a very awkward pause really quickly because sometimes the ads are allowed,
so we tell people on the audio to turn it down. We're talking
the most difficult back to back coming up after these ads in three two one.
All right, welcome back in to clips and dip. That is,
if you're listening on audio. If you're viewing line as you should be over
on YouTube dot com Slash at Clippers podcast. We never left. Chuck's got
some great background stuff going on. Adams trying, He's not He's not getting
anywhere with that though. All right, So we talked about the Clippers take
getting the win over the Wizards. Now we look ahead to just an absolutely
brutal back to back. We take on the Timberwolves and then the Bucks.
Rough kind of Sunday Monday there. I guess let's start with the Timberwolves,
because the last time this team we thought was in a posi like, in
a position to really make a statement or have kind of a big win.
That is not the way things went down against the timber Wolves. That is
not the way things went down against the Timberwolves. I want to address something
in the chat real quick though. From Alfredo Rodriguez. My question is the
fear of Tucker PJ. Tucker joining an opponent the Clippers cannot defeat, the
reason why they won't buy him out to the point they're bowing out of the
buyout market. No, PJ. Tucker is refusing to waive his next year's
eleven million dollars, and so if the Clippers bought him out for the twenty
whatever million dollars, they would not be able to try that contract, don't
be able to do anything. It's not even about the money. It's it's
just the cap hit. Like you know, with second Apron stuff and everything,
having a cap hit of eleven million dollars. You know, the eleven
million dollars in and of itself doesn't really matter, but the cap hit certainly
does. I'll say this for PJ last night. You know, he doesn't
play at all in that ball game. After turning it down the shot against
the Lakers and getting a real opportunity, he was up cheering guys on.
He was calling for that review that coach Lu challenged at one point. He
was still engaged with the team. He wasn't making a stink. So I
think that's all you can ask right now. And by the way, who
knows these next two they're going up against two big teams. He knows about
Giannis Den and Kompo. They don't have Russ. And now that means if
you do have PJ out there next to Plumb, well, you do have
still three other shooters most likely next to them. We've talked about it but
it's not like he's been putting the best position yet in some of these lineups.
They need to surround him with shooters to really give him a fair shot.
But I understand they're trying to get other guys minutes right now too and
keep them all involved, so we'll see what happens. Yeah, last time
we played the Wolves, they forced the mid range on us. This is
what bigger teams do. We're probably gonna hear about this a ton the pre
game for Brian seeing all those people. We just gotta hope, like Kawhi's
built to beat that, right, But I mean, I hate to harp
on it because I feel like I'd bring it up like every other episode,
but Harden's got to hit these mid range shots if we're gonna have a chance
to beat the Wolves. I'll say this though, as much as they're giving
up the mid range, it's just like, well, they're not doubling.
They still have really good man to man defenders that aren't exactly just letting you
walk into those shots with guys guarding Kawhi Leonard still very closely. Yeah,
but I mean hard and still so far this year like the worst percentage of
ten years from completely fair, U will what are you looking for? Are
we gonna go small again? Like we've gone small against the wolves? But
I don't, you know with Russ is that cog and things like that,
so it's gonna be odd. I think, well, I mean I think
that, yeah. I do think that ty will probably play with some small
ball again as well, just depending on the performances that we're able to get
out of Tyson plumbly certainly and how that looks, I think you may go
small. And I actually think that that's kind of where PJ would be best,
is not even next to another center at all. But if we opt
to go small, had him at the five, I mean, he's at
the stage of his career right now where he's not he's not really a four
anymore. He's like kind of a he's like kind of a stretchy five.
I guess it, like that's that's just where his skill set is at.
So I think that that could be effective for him if ty Lu does opt
to go that way. I'm just curious, like I'm just curious how we
can slow this team down because to me, that was has been like the
biggest sort of that's what's made the Timberwolves look the most beatable to me,
right, Like, I don't feel like their offenses or at least shouldn't be
on the level of what this Clippers team can can put out. So can
the defense be better than what we've seen? Can can we build off off
of the win against the Wizards? That's what I'm gonna be looking to see.
That's gonna be the biggest one. Things have unraveled, especially in that
last game, which I think was a little bit more representative, just because
they had to beat to Zubox, who was still in a minister restriction.
We were hoping he's back for the game on Sunday. That's vital obviously,
But they unraveled midway through the third quarter. It was a one point game
after Russ hit a three pointer, but then he had a really tough stretch
to end that third quarter, and the Clippers were all of a sudden,
I think, down by seventeen heading into the fourth. Like they were right
there, they were up by four at the half. They were playing much
better. Ant got going, Karl Anthony Town's got going at especially in both
third quarters, has really burned the Clippers to start the second half. In
the paint too. Lat Murray tweeted out, the Clippers have been very good
at making his shot difficult from the outside. He was seven for seven in
the paint last game against the Clips, so when he gets into the paint,
it's kind of an issue for the Clippers. And we still don't know
if Paul George is going to play in this one. Yeah. Well,
that paint scoring was he was huge for the Wolves. I think they outscored
us by like twenty points in the pan, sixty four, sixty four to
forty two in favor of the Wolves, and we lost by it. Yeah,
twenty, so yeah, yeah, And there's no real update on Zoo
right. It's just kind of like he's been battling the fever for the last
week and he hopes to be there. Yeah, little baby Toms will be
fine. Baby. Carl Tart autam, I don't know if you were you
you missed this part on the live after the Lakers game, But Carl Tart
blamed Zoo for getting sick, uh for the for the Clippers losing. Uh.
I don't know why. I don't know why you would choose to do
that. Why would you choose to get sick? He doesn't have enough built
up antibodies. What's wrong with him washing his hands? You know, uh
peel like Howard Hughes. Yeah, how come dude, Zuo Hughes. That
would be crazy zeus zus Yeah, Howard Zoos. I'm home. But he's
okay, because I was a little bit surprised that he wasn't able to go
last night. So I think that speaks to the sickness going on right now.
Yeah, hopefully he's not too down with the sickness and he can travel
with the team for the game on Sunday and Monday. Yeah, what else
are we kind of looking for in this Timberwolves. It's so funny because we've
played him. I mean, we're gonna play him again in like a week
and a half right after this. So pick on Mike Conley please. It's
not that he is a bad defender. He's just undersize and he's the best
option to go at. It's that simple. Because they're that good defensively.
They are elite. They've been like this all season long. This this is
some Johnny come lately. All of a sudden they turned to corner defensively.
They have been consistently the best defensive team by a lot and the personnel's there.
This is a better team surrounding Rudy Gobert than what he had in Utah.
They have better defensive personnel around him. It's not just him. They
got guys all over the place that can slow you down. Yeah, this
is an interesting point from Wayne Jenkins, which is actually kind of nuts.
The Clippers are one and a half point favorites, which they're away, which
like really which really doesn't make any sense. Uh, don't take that bet.
I don't know. That seems kind of nuts. Right, Well,
how would how could you will if you had to argue that the Clippers are
one and a half point if you're this house, this betting manor how is
updyke betting manner pitching that the Clippers are one and a half point favorites?
Why? I mean, especially because the Wolves just lost in overtime at home
last night to the Sacramento Kings, They're gonna be more upset. It could
be more of an issue going into their That's true. I like where we'll
well, let me put it, let me place a bet with the updyke
betting manor all right, so who is our I mean, is it just
the Kawhi Leonard Player of the Game award now because we need k Like,
we can't not pick Kawhi, I feel like for this game because this game.
I talked about this on one of the episodes we did. It's like
kind of annoying sometimes, but at some point you need your number one guys
to just be your number one guys and go hit the shot against it.
Like, and I know we try and not reduce things that much on this
show, but in a game like this where it's so tight and we're down
a guy, you know we're working in a new point guard or whatever it's
going to be, we do just need the big three to be efficient and
go up. Like Kawhi has been solid the first two games against Minnesota,
Paul George James Harden have not been good enough so far against them period.
They have to be better, So hopefully Paul George is able to go.
But I think we talked about this before. You're looking for answers with the
Clippers team that now is four and five their last nine games. They improve
after last night, but a team struggling that much offensively going into last night,
they were bottom ten offense all of a sudden last eight games. We've
talked about it if James Harden isn't at his bed, And I said this
earlier in the season. I think it was after his first game against the
Lakers. But while we say, well, he's the third option on this
Clippers team and in a playoff series, that kind of mitigates some of the
lows he has had. You don't have to worry about it as much on
this Clippers team, but when you're running the offense, you know, saying
that guy that starts things off, that sets the table is third offensively isn't
quite true. Like he may be the third best scorer for the third most
important scorer on the team, but he has to get them into their offense.
He has to be a prototypical traditional point guard out there, and especially
in big games like this against Minnesota, where they can't be stagnant, where
they can't slowly walk into their offense, they have to be better with making
those quick decisions. And I think that was part of the problem during this
down portion of the season. They just haven't been getting into their offense quickly
enough. Coach lu said, we look slow out there. They're waiting too
long hasn't been as good either attacking right away or passing before the double comes
as well. He's got to be sharper there, will you agree? And
with Scott trand, if we get PG in thirteen we got last night,
we got a good chance of winning. Yeah, yeah, I'm hoping Pg's
a little more efficient. And again all of us want that he probably will
be if he plays in if we're fully healthy. Any I think the Clippers
can do it again. We just need the top guys to be the top
guys. And now we move on to the game right after the one against
the Wolves, we're playing the Bucks and Clippers. Old friend Doc Rivers has
the Bucks on a five game win streak. They've beat They've run a gamut
of teams they've beat. They beat the Wolves, they beat the seventy six
ers, they beat the Hornets twice, and then they beat the Bulls.
So they're showing that they can beat either end of the ability spectrum. Right
now. Giannis had forty six, sixteen and six in his last game.
He's been on kind of a terrorizing stretch. I'll open this up. Who's
like, what are we doing with Giannisa? Why on him to start Uh,
I think it'll be by committee, like you'll see Zoo. If Zoo's
available, he'll be on the honest sum. If Paul George is available,
he'll be on the honest mere Coffee Terrence Man, Uh, maybe even PJ.
Tucker in that game. He's obviously practiced against him plenty. He knows
him very well. Uh. The last five games you mentioned, the five
game winning streak, they have the best offense or the second best offense,
and the best defense in the league. The Milwaukee Bucks so as predicted.
Of course, by the time the Clippers get to them, they're gonna have
figured things out. But they haven't had a true test. You mentioned some
of the teams they've been beating, they haven't been the top level competition overall.
Overall overall, two of them are pretty close. Rock Thalk says,
let let them get a big lee to let Doc embrace the force with no
Zoo. That I mean, I'd be close to that. Yeah, And
I think we kind of talked Terrence being the point of attack guy. He's
gonna be on Dame to open up this one night. Have to imagine we
Clippers routine. They kind of put Damian Lillard in hell with multiple looks.
But I think they'll be asking Terrence to start that off. I mean,
there's still Middleton out there. There's there's a lot of He's He's back,
right, I believe, Yeah, let me check. I think he played
in their last game. Let me double check. Man. They held Chicago
at ninety seven points. They did, they did not. He was DNP
last game. Okay, that's the thing though they were a bottom ten defense.
Part of the reason people were wondering, why, well, they have
this great record, how can you fire the head coach. Defensively, they
weren't there at all. They weren't playing, and apparently the head coach wasn't
listening to the players and how they have always played defense and what has made
them one of the best defenses in the league, and how they won a
championship. So that didn't help Adrian Griffin. But they're even Dame. I
saw highlights last night. Somebody cut together how he's been playing defense during this
winning streak. He looks different on that end when you have less on your
plate offensively, because he had to do so much with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Oh, you're playing next to the honest Chris Middleton at times. Well,
now you don't have to give as much offensively, you can use some
of the energy on defense. So he I mean, he still looks good
out there when he wants to play defense. Yes, I'm hoping we can
make him so frustrated on offense that he doesn't want to play defense, because
that sometimes is a little bit what happens with Dame. Well, his efficiency
is already kind of struggling this season as he you know, kind of pivots
into this new role and tries to figure that out. So I think that
definitely does help the Clippers out. But yeah, Giannis is an issue that
we've never really figured out in the two and three era. I mean,
luckily, it's not like we played him that much, so it has never
been a huge issue. But I think one of the big things for the
is like just having a cohesive defensive scheme. Like I I've, like Adam
said, like wondered why they were firing their coach even despite doing so well.
But I guess there was just no communication really on the defensive end,
and it didn't seem like there was any cohesive plan or steps in place to
uh to try to remedy that so we know docs doc can do that?
Is Claimian still with them? Oh I don't know. Actually that's a great
call. Let me check why didn't we pick up a Why didn't we trade
for a Yana Stopper? Has anyone asked Lawrence Frank Konkome we didn't trade for
Yanna Stopper? Or Yo could stop? You know Daniel Daniel Ties has experience
against Yannis too, being in the East for so, like, I know
there is no Yanna Stopper. Obviously I get the joke. Check here's the
Yana stopper. He's still Rex Klaimian still sorry, sorry, I'm still of
Bucks assistant coach. Oh that makes sense. Yeah. The best thing that
Clippers can do in that game is hit shots, so they can set their
defense like Lebron James Giannis getting out and running in transition, that's when you
have a problem. That's when all of a sudden you have to resort to
trying to build a wall and then he finds open shooters. If Giannis is
going downhill, you're in trouble. So the Clippers offense just has to be
there the next two games. Hit shots sets your defense on the other end,
I thought one thing they did well against Ad was the ball denial early
in the game on a d anytime the ball was passed to Ad. He
did get fouled a couple times before it got there, but they let Anthony
Davis know that even just getting the ball is going to be difficult for you.
So when the ball's out of Yannis's hands, I hope we see the
active hands in the passing lanes and like, if we're gonna get PJ out
there, use a couple of fouls or something on Giannis to make it difficult
for him just even receive the ball before he really gets a chance to go
downhill. Because this is a Buck team that is very well constructed, they
take a bunch of free throws, which worries me. Uh, that's not
super ideal for the clips, But I don't know how confident, How confident
are we going to and o over this this back to back? Well,
I can see where I would love a split. Sign me up for a
split at this point, and I think my third split would be it would
be great to get one on the Timberwolves, like especially the way that we've
looked against teams above us or I mean, how even close to us recently
in the in the Western Conference stands. Getting getting a win over the Timberwolves,
to me, is more than makes up for, like for say,
a loss to the Bucks. Yeah, loss of the Bucks were just like
rested everybody, I would be a kind of hilarious. I think a win
over the Timberwolves would also boost morale just seeing the standings and knowing that they
still have a chance to get the top seed or a top two seed when
it's gonna be really difficult. Right now, I've already been I'm not conceding
that they can't get a top three seed because they still can. There's still
plenty of time left. Marching are very difficult. But the one thing I
already started thinking about is, you know, if Okase jumps Minnesota and they're
the one seed and the Clippers are the four, that means in the second
round they could get Okay see, which I think is preferable, not great,
but preferable to Denver or Minnesota in the second round, when then you'd
have to play the other one in the Western Conference finals, because if you're
four, if Okac is one, that means Denver and Minnesota would take on
each other and take one another out in the second round. So that's kind
of where I am with things right now. But I don't think you need
to give up on having a top three seed. Things are still close enough,
and you still have two more against Minnesota, so you win the next
one, that tiebreaker could still be in play with beating them that final time.
That's a good call. Yeah, I'm I'm hoping for the same split.
I think most people are optimistic that that happens. Who's your player of
the game in the Bucks game, Adam, I think I'm gonna go I've
talking myself into it. Is a wacky player of the game, Daniel Tye.
I can see him getting the backup minutes against Giannis if he could slow
him down. In all, you play one good quarter against Yannis and slow
him down just a little bit so he doesn't have forty or forty five in
the ball game like that can be enough. You get the game. You
get the game ball from that. Yeah, yeah, I've highlighted five good
seconds of defense. Before I get five good minutes a defense against Giannis by
Daniel Tye, I'll be happy. I gonna take like six charges. He's
just gonna get destroyed. I mean that is what he would do. He's
gonna get dunked on and take six. But it's all gonna it's all gonna
be good will. Who is your Kawhi Leonard Player of the game pick for
the Bucks? Ternis man. I like that we need a young guy.
I like to go with a young guy on the second night of the back
to back. They got the they got the legs, they got the legs.
Yeah, I am going way. I'm gonna go with Paul George.
Paul George needs to be a lot of people. Are you think so?
Do you think he plays the second game in the back to back? I
guess if he plays the whole take yeah, like you no, you stick
with that? Yeah, Paul George is gonna go for thirty and forty in
those two games, and then he's gonna rest. Against the Rockets, they
play a three and four. It's a lot. That's a lot of travel.
Uh. Friendly reminder for everyone, the game against the Timberwolves is at
twelve thirty tomorrow, not in our stadium, but it's still a brunch game,
which I honestly am more offended by scheduling wise, those brunch games are
ours. They're the Clippers. There no one else's no one else gets to
do this. We suffer. We see we suffer alone. Coming up,
we're gonna be talking the March Record predictions. There's a Twitter user who is
infinitely more optimistic than I am when it comes to March. We're gonna talk
about that. If you're listening to this, the ads have been loud for
some people, So if that's been the case, here you go ahead and
turn it down. I'm talking overall March Record after these potentially very loud ads
in three two one. Hey, it's Clips and Dip. I'm men A
Mazle and we got Chuck Mockler and Will Updyke in a live here. But
you may be listening to this in podcast form later on. This is episode
fifty six of season two. Coming up. In this very segment, I
believe we'll offer some positive thoughts about the Clippers. But also we have a
new giveaway that uh just popped up. But before that, Chuck and I
talked about it last time out. Is it time for those March predictions.
We're one game in now, sixteen left to go in the next thirty days.
Chuck, you are the proprietor of March Madness in the Clippers version.
Do you want to give us your prediction first? Sure, I will give
the Twitter user uh Tabiola Rossa eighty nine, who I think listened to Will
He listened to you and I on the lockedow on clips days. He said
fourteen and three for the Clippers in March. He's off to a good start.
Hey he's Yeah, I'll tell you what. He's off to a good
start. I don't know if I'm at fourteen and three. I don't know
if I'm that fifteen. Yeah, I'm thinking I set eleven and six on
Twitter, and I'm gonna amend that to twelve and five. I think twelve
and five. It's a very difficult schedule. There's four sets of back to
backs or something like that. I know, Will, I know, I
think, and I'd be happy with five. I wouldn't be pissed off at
twelve and five. That's a great record over seventeen games in March JJ the
Boys saying seventeen. I'm not saying seven. I mean there are one thousands
so far right then in March seventeen to oh you cowards. But twelve and
five I think is realistic, even maybe quasi a little bit optimistic, Adam,
which is gonna be like the December to remember from that team back in
what twenty fourteen or twenty thirteen. Oh yeah, where are you at at
him? I'm gonna take what you originally said and go eleven and six,
which I also think is a very good record considering how tough the month is
for this team. It's the three and four, the back to back,
and then the Houston Rockets after that. So just judging by the schedule and
now things being up ended with Russell Westbrook being out, I would take eleven
and six. I would this is one of the toughest months in the history
of Clippers basketball. I'm sure it has to be. Luckily they got a
team that we hope is built for it. But you know, they got
to get the split at least in the next two uh, and then win
in Houston. I think just to get off to a good start here.
What that would put them at three and one, yeah, three four,
three and run in the first four I would love that. That would be
great. And then they just have you know, Bucks, Bulls, Bucks,
Timberwolves, Portland, Twise Portland. So the best thing they got Portland
twice, they got Charlotte. Orlando's good now, so you can't overlook that.
Like the Hawks, Hawks without Tree Young. Yeah, so there's cargo
twice. They actually actually actually eighteen enough. Somehow they're squeezing out an extra
victory. No game, I'm gonna stick with eleven and six. Will What
are you going with? Adam is not optimistic? He picked worse than me.
That's not bad. It's what difference I picked twelve and five can make
all the difference you picked against you? Well, where are you going?
I'll be I'll be optimistic. Uh, thirteen and four, thirteen and four,
same time, Wow, serendipitous Loo get into existence, third hand up
his ass. Thirteen and four puts the The Clippers are two games away from
the three seed right now. They go thirteen and four. I'm liking how
their positioning may be. Take just when you pull up that schedule. When
you pulled up that schedule, the timing is super brutal. I can pull
it up again. Give me one sex so so yeah, let me reshare
so, go ahead and enhance on that. Go ahead and learn that up
things use the highlighter as well. Like it's a super rough start, and
then I mean you have some tough games in there, obviously the Pels,
but there's some teams where they should be able to stack up some wins.
This stretch right here, that stretch right there, I mean, it wasn't
that for having to play Milwaukee in Minnesota and back to back games twice wouldn't
be that bad. It wasn't for just one of the most brutal schedules ever
be a Hornets Kings Philly. Is mb going to be back by then?
Oh yeah, that's going to be around the time that he could be available.
Yeah, I'll tell you what, I don't want to face some bead
and his return to them its restriction probably, Yeah, asking that isn't be
playing for those till the games, no idea. I couldn't tell you.
Probably based on Clipper's luck, right, we can assume it will probably be
in one of those games. Clippers. Look, the real problem is it's
not just how difficult this schedule is, is that they have the most difficult
schedule left, likely because of March over the three teams that are above them
in the standings in the West. Right, That's what makes it so difficult
to get back in and why this little rut they've been in could be proved
to be very consequential. Alan Kneeing is saying Will's overly optimistic. That's the
first time someone said that on this pod. People say that about me all
the time. Do we need as just too much? He's too much array
of sunlight? Sometimes? Oh yeah, should we do? What's the what's
the updyke fun check one game into March. I think I'm having lot of
super amount of fun right now. Yeah, I'm not really having too much
fun. It is won by like twenty five guys. What's the problem.
Hey, there were some losses in that game. Junction says, I think
a lot of success this month depends on the Zubots getting back to form.
Could not agree more played gigantic teams this month. It's gonna be very important.
I'm gonna I'm hoping that he was out against the Wizards like I thought
Paul George would be, because they wanted to give him a little bit extra
rest they could afford to against Washington. Clearly it worked out that way because
they knew he is going to be maybe their second most third most important player,
that our second most important player for like the rest of the season.
Probably. Yeah, So that's the that's my hope, that's my Ris Sunshine,
silver lining optimism BS. I'm maybe I'm on team Carl. He needs
to keep washing his hands and needs to keep drinking as much emergency as he
possibly can in stage, not too much, that's a good call. It
don't take zinc on an empty stomach, zoo please. All right, let's
get into this giveaway. I believe we have a giveaway for people, but
it's very complicated. We're gonna have Adam explain it. It's not complicated.
It's like how every video giveaway is done. We have Is it a Russell
Westbrook bobblehead from last night? Yes, Clipper's luck. It's unfortunate he gets
hurt on Bobblehead night. We're hoping for the best with Russ and a speedy
recovery. So we're gonna drive a viewership and listenership up a little bit here.
This is how you win the bobblehead. We're gonna give away a keyword.
There's going to be three of them. They're gonna be scattered throughout maybe
three of our next five episodes. Today's keyword is heart. We'll say,
since I'm looking at Russell Westbrook here, today's keyword is hard. We're gonna
give away two more in upcoming episodes. Could be on a YouTube, could
be on a clips and double dip. You gotta be listen. When you
have all three, you put that into the comment section on YouTube. If
you're first, you win the bubblehead. Simple enough, it's that easy keyword
one heart keyword one is heart. Write that down heart heart h a RT
not h a RT. Correct, Yeah, just double check in. I
don't know you really we do, miss Isaiah Hartenstein. But somebody puts all
of these in the comment section and we just hit him with the drink more
oval tine, the Russ bobblehead, I do the Clippers and their bibbleheads.
So the James Harden bobblehead is gonna have seemingly like a real beard scenario on
it. And then the brust one. You can take his shirt off and
put a tank. Ta's so weird. I just oh, he's a fashion
east. He's a big fashion guy. So they want to stress them up.
No, I get that, but they made someone put abs on the
bottle ahead, which be accurate. It's so funny that could be the next
keyword. That's true. As we were talking about benching the other day,
Carl Tart also says he could, uh, he could bench more than chet,
which I think we believe. Oh yeah see oh whoa junction saying you
can take a shirt off heart is right exactly. So that's the first word.
There's gonna be two more. Maybe we'll do them on the double dip.
That might be too different. It's no, no, no, we'll
problem. There's a good chance that you never know. But it's within the
entire clips and dip ecosystem. So it could be through a double dip.
If you're listening, we'll give away a keyword. It could be back here
on a YouTube live. It could be on a YouTube podcast version. You
just gotta be watching, you gotta be listening. I'm gonna write these down
so I don't forget. It could be skyt We don't know. It could
be clips and dip were written in the wind like the lion king thing that
smells out sex like there we go exactly like that. We mentioned the double
dips. Will what are the double dips? What are we talking about?
We're gonna have them after these back to backs A Double Dip is when either
myself or Charles joins Adam over at a five seventy who Adam brings you Ukorean
post game every Clippers game If you didn't already know that, he does so
with heart. Hell, yes, we're gonna be with you guys after both
games. Nothing up here, all in here. There's nothing up here from
us. Smooth brains, big hearts. Bro smooth brains, big hearts can't
lose, is so and will? Where can people find if they maybe want
to, if say they're catching us for the first time, they want to
hear some of our audio episodes? Where could they do that? Yeah?
So you can check every episode of this podcast and the aforementioned Double Dips over
on our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts, Clips and Dip. We're
on you know, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you listen there, you
should leave a little rating or review for us. It helps us out.
But you can check it out on any audio podcast platform. You can also
uh check us out over on YouTube. That's at Clippers Podcast. We're actually
live on this one right now. So if you've been hearing where are all
these great comments coming from? From these smart clips and dip listeners. It's
happening over on YouTube. You could be one of those smart listeners interacting with
the show. So thank you so much to everybody who's been listening, who's
been watching. We really appreciate it. And yeah, let's let's let's get
at least one win out of this back to back on how about that,
fellas, Let's get at least one. I was gonna ask for the Adam
positivity, but I think Will just brought it. Will is what's called overly
positive this episode. Yeah, I'm out of a job, Adam's out of
a job. Needs to tune in next week to see if Adam uh gets
his job back. I guess for this one small part of the pond,
unless you have something you'd like to rebut with your positivity at him, I'll
fight positivity with more positivity here. Paul George, Guys, as much as
we were down on him and talking about how he should take maybe a game
off here and there, took two off and it looked like it worked.
What a difference taking a couple of games off makes. The way he shook
Lancery Shammitt, one of our favorites in that Paul game and went by him
for a layup, and just the confidence he had leaning into his shots and
shot making and tough shot making, but just getting there quickly, quick strike.
Paul George is one of my favorite versions of Paul George. I think
we found out very quickly that the injury isn't something that is going to take
away part of his abilities or part of his powers out there, and he
can still get back to his peak of his powers by the time the playoffs
start, because last night, if that's an indication and he can build off
of that. Even if he's getting more rest here and there, Paul George
is still Paul George. We found that out last night. We found it
out last night. Fantastic positivity from both of the two other co hosts.
I was negative this episode, not usually how it goes, but it's rained
in La, so weird things are happening. We thank everyone for hanging out
on the stream, thank you for listening, and yeah, we'll be back
with the Double Dips in a full episode Tuesday or something like that. As
always, let's go clips