Last time that I chet, Chuck, it was fine shine on my neck.
It was no smile on my breath. Last time that I check was
sent a set and a quartermeal, no sweat. Clippers win one thirty one
till one twenty two in Phoenix over the Suns. A Madame Oslin, welcome
back into Clippers talk here on M five seventy LA Sports coming up back to
your phone calls eight six sixty nine eight seven two five seventy. We'll also
here from PG thirteen post game on Balley Sports coming on the show right now.
It was the man from the four h six that's a Montana area code
and another Clippers big victory to match the wide open state. I know that's
not what the nickname for it is, like we're the Golden State. But
whatever, Chuck, I don't feel good tonight. Would you just pick me
up here and talk about the Clippers greatness over the past month and a half?
Now, damn it? Uh, tonight was great. Also, one
quick note, it is the area code for Montana. There is not another
one, but no, tonight, this game was great. I kind of
I'm sure you've already talked about it. I want to talk about Paul George
in this game. We know he was fantastic. He was great on both
ends. I thought that first half he played was maybe his best first half
of the year. But he's also getting to the free throw line. We
haven't talked about this on the the pod, but the amount of free throw
attimes he's gotten the last three games is as many as the last fifteen or
sixteen combined for Paul George. That's it really helps out the Clippers offense.
When he gets the whistle that he deserves, things go well, and it's
just another thing that the other team has to contend against. With the space
and that the Clippers are functioning with right now and how James Harden is seeing
the floor. If Paul George is getting a whistle, this offense is really
really hard to stop. Yeah, that was just great to see tonight in
a game that the Clippers never trailed in. So yeah, all around,
pretty good vibes despite a rough second half from the Sun shooting lines. But
hey, onward we go. Yeah, it's a good point because Phoenix was
top five and free throws attempted they get up twenty six, a good number.
The Clippers were at thirty two and that's because PG thirteen got to the
line and went twelve of fourteen. When the guy who was leading the league
like he's damn Mark Price and free throw percentage at around ninety three percent is
getting that many attempts, good things will happen for your ball club. Good
things have been happening for a long time since they brought in James Harden.
Now, those five straight losses, it feels like an eternity. You go,
it feels like a season ago. This Clippers team, the system,
a system, whatever you want to say about James Harden. Everybody is just
kind of finding their spot in his orbit right now, Jack, Yeah,
I mean the game is kind of slowing down. I guess we have Kawhi
Leonard, who when he's playing really well, he's in Kawhi speed, and
James Harden is able to match that speed, and yet everyone else kind of
in tune with it as well. Just with the ball in his hand and
initiating the offense, we see Zoo looking a lot better in the pick and
roll. He hit Paul George with a pass out of the short role in
the corner at one point tonight. That was just a play that he doesn't
make that quickly. Earlier in the season when we had James Harden, you
know, we heard about them working out and whatnot after practice, and all
of it's paying off. Everyone, like you said, is orbiting perfectly around
James Harden and he's making good decisions with the ball. There was some slippage
tonight a little bit, but for the most part, the assistant turnover ratio
has been awesome to see. And yeah, I just think everyone being able
to play at Kawhi speed while James Harden dictates kind of the other things when
Kawhi isn't you know, dominating, you know, with the ball in his
hands, is just Again, they have two of the best top ten lineups
in that rating right now with the starters and then the starters with Norm instead
of Terrence, and James Harden is a huge part of that. So it's
going really really well, especially you know in this young twenty twenty four,
eighteen and five, since they made the shift in the starting lineup to bring
Russell Westbrook off the bench. He elected to do that, and now we
hear Mason Plumley is asking to you know, take a back seat, and
when they need him, they'll need him, but right now he sees how
well they're playing. He doesn't want to rock the boat, and he's sacrificing
too and making sure that Daniel Tice continues to get minutes out there because he's
been awesome. Quite frankly, he had six points in twenty minutes, but
three boards. He can test everything at the rim. He's a great hustle
guy, and I just love seeing another Clipper. As we talked about recently
on the podcast, Clippers culture has been underrated, the amount of guys sacrificing,
the guys that they had brought in that were either left for dead or
given up on that the Clippers have REJUVENI over the years. It doesn't get
talked about enough. But another guy sacrificing for this squad as well speaks well
of the locker room. Yeah, the Plumbly story was really cool to see.
I'm also cool. It's just great that he's that close to being able
to come back. That injury was super just kind of scary looking when Randall
rolled into him. So it's great that makes some Plumby's going to be back
healthy. But yeah, it really they do have a culture now, you
know, we talked earlier in the season, kind of wondering what it was,
not questioning if it was bad. I don't think that was over the
issue, just kind of wondering what it was. And the Clippers have this
new kind of more fun version of the two wins three basketball we're used to,
if that makes sense. It's not like they were ever, you know,
not super good at basketball, but now James Harden has added this a
little bit of an offensive identity to just you know, making things work smoother,
and that's settling everybody. Like it's just the culture gelling with the offense
specifically has been really cool to see. And yeah, shout out to Daniel
Tights. He's been a lot better than I thought he was going to be.
So we'll see how this plays out, and if they have to make
the switch, it's nice that it won't be you know, any any feathers
ruffled or anything like that. Yeah, he's exceeded I think everyone's expectations.
I sure wasn't you know, aware of where he was at exactly physically at
this stage of his career, but the way he plays out there, he's
fit in with this group. He's helped kind of crystallize their identity. With
the intensity that he brings out there. But he got that gold medal in
the summer, you know, like he was really proud of that, and
then he you know, he didn't get time in Indiana, which also makes
sense given the kind of air conjecturing what they had going. But so yeah,
he's got that chip on his shoulder as well too, which I think,
Yeah, like the only thing that I picked up on. I remember
I was watching his highlights from the summer while we were doing cliffs and Dip,
and I was like, God, he can test everything at the rim,
Like he is not afraid. He tries and he's been done on a
sea, but he tries. But that's what I like. Like whether or
not it always works is one thing, but you know he's gonna be there
at least, you know. I think that says something that speaks to where
he's at in his career. A lot of these guys they just want to
win. They're not about the individual anymore. They've moved on from that.
Kawhi Leonards spoke about this recently where they brought up the stretch he's been on
how good he's been, and he said, yeah, I guess numbers wise,
if you want to say that it's the best regular season stretch of his
career, but he said something to the effect of, I'm looking at something
much bigger than just a stretch. I'm working towards something much bigger. And
for him to miss four games and to come back and be just as efficient
as he was and not to have to kind of readjust to where he was
playing next to James Harden and Paul George in the starting lineup A right,
My goodness, he had all thirty of his points in the last three quarters
tonight. He took like two shots in the first quarter. Didn't throw him
out a rhythm. Everything's just working right now. But it probably starts with
James Harden to some degree because the balls in his hands a lot, but
also Kawhi Leonard and his mentality out there. When he goes hard, everybody
else raises their level of play. And by the way, he's always going
hard. Yeah, well, I like what you said about rhythm. It
doesn't feel like, you know, he looked a little you know, rusty
ish in that first you know quarter. I guess so when he came back
after that absence. But other than that, it doesn't look like he's missed
any time at all. You know, from an offensive perspective, he was
insane from behind the line tonight, behind the three point line, excuse me,
which, yeah, the Clippers offense are is giving other teams defense.
There's a lot of things to take into account right now, which is always
good for the Clippers offense and Kawhi. You know, you watched them the
other day against Bam and he just kind of took it to him a couple
of times. One of the best defenders in the league. Like unorthodox stuff
happening to Bam on a bio getting taken off the dribble like that and dumped
on. You just don't see stuff like that. Yeah, and that's trickling
down, you know, it's leading by example Kawhi. Obviously he's vocal with
teammates and stuff, but he also is a bit of a lead by example
guy. So he's leading by example. You have, you know, Russ
being a solid glue guy right now. Maybe not the best night from Rust
tonight, but overall he's been a key part, you know, vibe wise
for the Clippers and everyone's gelling everyone. You know, his kind of coalesced
and yeah, other than James harden Kawhi has been is the biggest reason for
this, especially on the defensive side of the ball, because we all saw
it half when he was gone for those four games. And his offense has
been great, but his defense, I think, in terms of importance to
the team is maybe bigger. And even though Russ was two of seven,
six points, a couple of turnovers and missed three or four layups at the
rim, I give him a ton of credit for the ViBe's part of this
component of this with him on the bench or standing at least near the bench,
because he's up and cheering guys on and he's just bringing this great positive
energy and aura to this team, whether he's on the quarter or not.
Now I think he is making an impact with the bench. And then bones
Hyland gets a technical for guys cheering and too hard. I guess I don't
know what the issue was. I'm sure there was some junk being talked out
there with the Phoenix Suns, as there were a lot of technicals, but
Russ still had a big dunk to start off the fourth quarter off a nice
feed for Norman Powell. But last one for you here, Chuck Terror's man
karns Man. In that first quarter he had all twelve of his points a
couple of three pointers. After missing thirteen straight threes over three games, he
hit his first three last game against the Miami Heat that he took and then
tonight comes out firing and was getting some easy ones a Duncan transition. But
the way he picked up Booker full court and was punking him and stealing the
ball and taking it away from him, that's exactly to me why he needs
to be in the starting lineup. That point of attack, defense and the
way he can disrupt things right then and there. That changes everything, and
I think help this Clippers team lock in on that end. Yeah. I
mean, Terrence Man was plus seventeen and twenty three minutes today. He had
the best plus minus on the team, which I know isn't always indicative of
an individual player's performance, but if you watch this game, and like you
just mentioned, with defensive side of the ball, that plus minus I think
is very well representative about Teren's man played. He was hot early. He
did kind of loss of it obviously, but that early stretch, you know,
forced the Suns to you know, spread their defense out a little bit,
which helped the Clippers out. He made good decisions for the most part.
This could have been maybe the turning point for Terrence Man. We've all
most Clippers fans don't imagine that the previous shooting situation was going to keep up
the whole season. So this whole this is another kind of step in Terrence
Man being fully back shooting wise to where he usually is. Because everything else
has been phenomenal from Terrence Man, which is keeping him in the starting lineup,
so that we do need to acknowledge that everything else for the most part
is a great from Terrence, but the shooting might be coming back, and
it's just another guy who's playing at a very high level for the Clippers.
If you go down this roster, it's really hard to find the guy who's
playing even just okay right now or average for their career or whatnot. Everyone's
playing at a plus level right now. Another step for terrris Man. One
small step for Man, one giant leap. There we go. It is
development this season. You know, last year I thought his best game was
in Phoenix right before the All Star breakf So maybe there's something about just going
up against the Suns and getting the competitive juices flowing in it, bringing out
the best and him Paul George alive the Clippers tonight they win one thirty one
to one twenty two over the Suns. Granted know Kevin Durant, Hopefully he's
available Monday night back at Crypto when these two teams run it back. Jack,
my friend, thanks for doing this. We got the YouTube coming up
tomorrow at Clippers Podcast with myself and Will Updike. We'll talk to you then,
yes we will. Let's go clip. Let's go clips. More phone
calls coming up, plus you'll hear from Paul George postgame. Clippers win by
nine in Phoenix, Mark Jose hold On, we'll get to you right here
on Clippers stock on a five seventy LA Sports