It shows their character. You lose six in a row, you lose five
straight when they first bring in James Harden. This team did not fold.
They did not give in. They continued to do the work. They continue
to have confidence in themselves turning this thing around, and now they have.
And coach Lu's been saying all along he likes what he has with this team.
He can see that they can be special, and they have been.
They won sixteen of twenty one. Speaking of big time winners, we got
Chuck macklron from Clips and Dip, second or third straight show, Bope,
big will is Okay, we love them. We had a great pot on
the YouTube the other day. We all thought the Clippers can get the victory
tonight, Chuck. They did. What were you most impressed by with this
performance from the Clippers? Man? I think the most impressive thing kind of
goes to what you were just saying, was the not full big part right.
This game could have again gotten out of hand after the Clippers were up
by double digits, but they locked in when they really had to, which
was great to see. I think from an individual standpoint, you know,
the shooting wasn't there, It was there really early for him and then it
tapered off, but he played forty three minutes and had thirteen to six.
James Harden was great in this one. He surged when the Clippers needed them
to offensively. Obviously you wish the shooting was a little bit better, but
he ran everything. He was the engine, he was the system. It
was great to see Harden do his thing tonight. He just looked like he
was completely in control of the game, especially in the first half in that
third quarter as well, and things started to go sideways when he was out
of the ballgame in the fourth. They brought him back in and he was
kind of that calming force for them. I also feel like Paul George tonight
with an underrated special performance. When you start one for eleven, you could
pack it in and say it's just not my night. Don't give me the
basketball. Defer to others who may have it going. Nah. He hit
the biggest shot I thought out of that time out when it was just an
eight point game in the fourth and after starting one for eleven, he went
seven for his next ten. That was great to see from Paul George.
Yeah, I think we can call it a spectacular second half from Paul George.
Maybe not an entire game, but the second half from PG was phenomenal.
That third quarter was just absurd. He was five of eight and that
when he was hitting at every level. But yeah, and that's what hey,
Paul George wasn't the superstar we needed in the first half, but he
was a superstar we needed in the second half. He also got to the
free throw line to night. He had six free throw attempts tonight, which
is he had zero in the last two games. So it's really nice to
see him getting some love. That definitely helped out his scoring line too.
So him getting to the line and being aggressive paid off for the Clippers,
which is something we do kind of want to see more of. But hats
off from the second half for the second half from Paul George. A great
point by you. I failed to bring that up. He got to the
free throw line early on. It was well, it was late in the
first quarter, but it at least happened early on in the ballgame. After
he missed his first shot, made his second, then would miss ten straight
before going seven for his next ten. But yeah, getting to the free
throw line key for him, and he was just more intent on being aggressive
out there. You could see it when they're going up against a team that
was the best in the league when it came to stopping teams from getting into
the paint and scoring there. And the Clippers ended up with fifty four points
in the paint. I thought of eats. The Zubats obviously played a big
role there seven of eight, fifteen points, twenty boards, the second most
in a ballgame for him, six offensive rebounds. He just dominated the interior
of the Memphis Grizzlies, and that's saying something. Yeah, he himself had
twice as many offensive rebounds as the entire Grizzlies team did, which is credible,
and the Clippers really needed that. The Grizzlies are a pretty bad rebounding
team. It's really odd. We talked about on the podcast. They don't
get very many. So we wanted to see Zoobots assert himself and he did.
He had a really great block late too. I think it was on
jaw, but it was a floater or something like that, and he got
up and really, you know, made sure that that was not going to
alter the game in any way. So he was great. You know,
it was Croatian night at the at Crypto, So you thought Zoo might be
a little excited and hyped up to play for this one. But he's had
a pretty incredible run over these last ten games or so. If you go
look at the stats, it's close to a double double. I think he's
had a double double basically every other game in the last twenty games or so.
So he's playing some of the best basketball in his career. Probably should
have made him my player to watch on Croatian Heritage and night I did go
with Terrence Man instead. He did have eleven points. There was some progress,
There were some flashes there that third quarter transition bucket that made Memphis have
to call a time out. You saw some confidence there, but still of
six from distance. I was watching him closely in the pregame warm ups and
Terrence Man was knocking down three pointers all over the place. It's almost like
Charles Barkley. I don't know if people know this about him, but at
the driving range, he doesn't have that hitch in his swing. It's all
mental and he gets out there on the course and for some reason he gets
the yips there. Terrence Man right now is going through that some of that
stuff. But maybe a little bit of progress tonight, Chuck, what do
you think. Yeah, we saw some good from Terrence Man. Terrence Man
and a mere Coffee who I'm sure we'll probably talk about next. He was
phenomenal offensively, but they they showed up early tonight. Last game was kind
of underwhelming from those two, especially with Kawhi out. I don't think,
you know, we got as much as we wanted to really get, especially
offensively from those two guys. But Terrence ran the break well on this one.
He had the assist he had. You know, it was only two
of them that they were nice. Like, he got every stat you really
wanted him to get so well. He was plus ten Like. This was
some progress, obviously not from a shooting standpoint, but from a mentality standpoint.
This might make the game easier for him because right now it looks like
he's making a little harder on himself. I ain't going to a mir yet.
I'm going to Kobe Brown, your guy. He hit a three in
the first quarter off a nice speed from Russ. He had a nice defensive
player and then grabbed the board in the first Then he had to lay up
to end the first quarter. A big rebound to start the second played some
good defense on jaw, it didn't matter. He made the shot, but
then Russ found him for a dunk. Kobe Brown is slowly coming along here.
You can see just he's getting up to speed with the NBA game.
Yes, the size is there, the speed is what. You know.
Kind of was one of his bigger knocks and he was coming out of college.
So yeah, watching that first three fall, it was great. Really
thought the second one was going in. You know, he had the line,
which you'd love to see. But this is what he's going to have
to do if he wants to get more time, which is going to be
difficult. Right seven and four and fifteen minutes. It's kind of hard to
do if you're in Kobe Brown's position, So you'd love to see it.
I hope his next performers is as good as this one. Okay. A
mere Coffee had eight of his thirteen points in that third quarter, five of
six from the floor, three or four from the outside. He's not lacking
any confidence. Terrence Man assisted him on one of those threes, and he
assisted Terrence Man on a bucketing transition where I felt like a mere Coffee could
have taken it himself. I love the selflessness there or just knowing, hey,
we got to get Terrence Man going here. Maybe he gets a bucket
to go through. Who'll be feeling good about himself. Amir just plays the
right way, always has. Yeah, he's been a great Clipper. He's
a guy who if you know Clippers man, I mean we all remember that
one January and all that good stuff. But every ever since he's been on
the Clippers, he's up and down, you know, in the rotation,
out of the rotation, the story of his career as a clip. But
for the most part, he's been great in the pinch again, like I
said, a great bounce back game tonight. I think are probably going to
end up seeing him on Monday, you know, in the starting lineup again.
So he needs to continue to keep playing like this because this really often
helps his playoffs, you know, position well on this Clippers roster. But
wait, I predicted Kawhi Leonard would be the player of the game on Monday
back on Wednesday Thursday, whenever you did that last podcast, What is your
new level of concern regarding Kawhi and that hip injury, Chuck, I guess
my level of concern is now that we have the new information right that apparently
had you know, it was a reaggravation, is what happened in the MAVs
games from something that happened earlier, you know before. I think he dropped
that forty one or whatever it was. So that piece of information makes me
a little bit more concerned. You know. I understand how fans are frustrated
with the way that the information is being put out there, which can be
difficult sometimes, but you know, at this organization and this player, I
don't really know what a lot of us were expecting. I hope he goes
on the trip to Phoenix. That's really what I'm going to be looking for.
Clippers play the Heat on Monday and then travel to Phoenix in New Orleans,
So that's really what I'm aiming for. I just hope he goes on
that trip. And I understand the frustration too with just wanting full transparency,
but no team does that. I'm I'm thinking about the Lakers with ad Lebron.
They've been questionable for like two weeks, and they keep playing out there
or they miss a game. It's it's just what it is, competitive advantage,
whatever you want to say. Kawhi Leonard is guarded about his health and
I'm okay with that because I want this guy right and the way he was
playing. We got to get him back to being one hundred percent because he
looked like the best player in the world. For eleven games where he shot
sixty two percent from the floor, forty two or fifty two percent. I
want to shot him ten percent there from distance. He is Chuck Mockler at
Chuck Mockler on Twitter, CND podcast. You can find that at clippers pod
and at clippers pod cast on you Tube. Chuck, thanks for coming on
tonight here on clipper Stock for a little clips and doubledv. Hey, thanks
for having me in here. To the Clippers starting twenty twenty four the way
they ended twenty twenty three.