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Last time that I chet, Chuck, it was fine shine on my neck.

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It was no smile on my breath. Last time that I check was

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sent a set and a quartermeal,
no sweat. Clippers win one thirty one

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till one twenty two in Phoenix over
the Suns. A Madame Oslin, welcome

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back into Clippers talk here on M
five seventy LA Sports coming up back to

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your phone calls eight six sixty nine
eight seven two five seventy. We'll also

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here from PG thirteen post game on
Balley Sports coming on the show right now.

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It was the man from the four
h six that's a Montana area code

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and another Clippers big victory to match
the wide open state. I know that's

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not what the nickname for it is, like we're the Golden State. But

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whatever, Chuck, I don't feel
good tonight. Would you just pick me

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up here and talk about the Clippers
greatness over the past month and a half?

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Now, damn it? Uh,
tonight was great. Also, one

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quick note, it is the area
code for Montana. There is not another

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one, but no, tonight,
this game was great. I kind of

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I'm sure you've already talked about it. I want to talk about Paul George

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in this game. We know he
was fantastic. He was great on both

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ends. I thought that first half
he played was maybe his best first half

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of the year. But he's also
getting to the free throw line. We

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haven't talked about this on the the
pod, but the amount of free throw

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attimes he's gotten the last three games
is as many as the last fifteen or

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sixteen combined for Paul George. That's
it really helps out the Clippers offense.

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When he gets the whistle that he
deserves, things go well, and it's

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just another thing that the other team
has to contend against. With the space

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and that the Clippers are functioning with
right now and how James Harden is seeing

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the floor. If Paul George is
getting a whistle, this offense is really

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really hard to stop. Yeah,
that was just great to see tonight in

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a game that the Clippers never trailed
in. So yeah, all around,

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pretty good vibes despite a rough second
half from the Sun shooting lines. But

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hey, onward we go. Yeah, it's a good point because Phoenix was

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top five and free throws attempted they
get up twenty six, a good number.

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The Clippers were at thirty two and
that's because PG thirteen got to the

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line and went twelve of fourteen.
When the guy who was leading the league

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like he's damn Mark Price and free
throw percentage at around ninety three percent is

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getting that many attempts, good things
will happen for your ball club. Good

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things have been happening for a long
time since they brought in James Harden.

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Now, those five straight losses,
it feels like an eternity. You go,

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it feels like a season ago.
This Clippers team, the system,

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a system, whatever you want to
say about James Harden. Everybody is just

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kind of finding their spot in his
orbit right now, Jack, Yeah,

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I mean the game is kind of
slowing down. I guess we have Kawhi

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Leonard, who when he's playing really
well, he's in Kawhi speed, and

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James Harden is able to match that
speed, and yet everyone else kind of

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in tune with it as well.
Just with the ball in his hand and

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initiating the offense, we see Zoo
looking a lot better in the pick and

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roll. He hit Paul George with
a pass out of the short role in

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the corner at one point tonight.
That was just a play that he doesn't

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make that quickly. Earlier in the
season when we had James Harden, you

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know, we heard about them working
out and whatnot after practice, and all

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of it's paying off. Everyone,
like you said, is orbiting perfectly around

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James Harden and he's making good decisions
with the ball. There was some slippage

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tonight a little bit, but for
the most part, the assistant turnover ratio

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has been awesome to see. And
yeah, I just think everyone being able

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to play at Kawhi speed while James
Harden dictates kind of the other things when

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Kawhi isn't you know, dominating,
you know, with the ball in his

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hands, is just Again, they
have two of the best top ten lineups

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in that rating right now with the
starters and then the starters with Norm instead

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of Terrence, and James Harden is
a huge part of that. So it's

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going really really well, especially you
know in this young twenty twenty four,

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eighteen and five, since they made
the shift in the starting lineup to bring

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Russell Westbrook off the bench. He
elected to do that, and now we

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hear Mason Plumley is asking to you
know, take a back seat, and

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when they need him, they'll need
him, but right now he sees how

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well they're playing. He doesn't want
to rock the boat, and he's sacrificing

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too and making sure that Daniel Tice
continues to get minutes out there because he's

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been awesome. Quite frankly, he
had six points in twenty minutes, but

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three boards. He can test everything
at the rim. He's a great hustle

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guy, and I just love seeing
another Clipper. As we talked about recently

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on the podcast, Clippers culture has
been underrated, the amount of guys sacrificing,

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the guys that they had brought in
that were either left for dead or

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given up on that the Clippers have
REJUVENI over the years. It doesn't get

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talked about enough. But another guy
sacrificing for this squad as well speaks well

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of the locker room. Yeah,
the Plumbly story was really cool to see.

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I'm also cool. It's just great
that he's that close to being able

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to come back. That injury was
super just kind of scary looking when Randall

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rolled into him. So it's great
that makes some Plumby's going to be back

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healthy. But yeah, it really
they do have a culture now, you

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know, we talked earlier in the
season, kind of wondering what it was,

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not questioning if it was bad.
I don't think that was over the

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issue, just kind of wondering what
it was. And the Clippers have this

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new kind of more fun version of
the two wins three basketball we're used to,

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if that makes sense. It's not
like they were ever, you know,

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not super good at basketball, but
now James Harden has added this a

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little bit of an offensive identity to
just you know, making things work smoother,

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and that's settling everybody. Like it's
just the culture gelling with the offense

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specifically has been really cool to see. And yeah, shout out to Daniel

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Tights. He's been a lot better
than I thought he was going to be.

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So we'll see how this plays out, and if they have to make

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the switch, it's nice that it
won't be you know, any any feathers

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ruffled or anything like that. Yeah, he's exceeded I think everyone's expectations.

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I sure wasn't you know, aware
of where he was at exactly physically at

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this stage of his career, but
the way he plays out there, he's

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fit in with this group. He's
helped kind of crystallize their identity. With

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the intensity that he brings out there. But he got that gold medal in

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the summer, you know, like
he was really proud of that, and

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then he you know, he didn't
get time in Indiana, which also makes

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sense given the kind of air conjecturing
what they had going. But so yeah,

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he's got that chip on his shoulder
as well too, which I think,

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Yeah, like the only thing that
I picked up on. I remember

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I was watching his highlights from the
summer while we were doing cliffs and Dip,

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and I was like, God,
he can test everything at the rim,

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Like he is not afraid. He
tries and he's been done on a

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sea, but he tries. But
that's what I like. Like whether or

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not it always works is one thing, but you know he's gonna be there

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at least, you know. I
think that says something that speaks to where

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he's at in his career. A
lot of these guys they just want to

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win. They're not about the individual
anymore. They've moved on from that.

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Kawhi Leonards spoke about this recently where
they brought up the stretch he's been on

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how good he's been, and he
said, yeah, I guess numbers wise,

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if you want to say that it's
the best regular season stretch of his

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career, but he said something to
the effect of, I'm looking at something

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much bigger than just a stretch.
I'm working towards something much bigger. And

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for him to miss four games and
to come back and be just as efficient

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as he was and not to have
to kind of readjust to where he was

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playing next to James Harden and Paul
George in the starting lineup A right,

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My goodness, he had all thirty
of his points in the last three quarters

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tonight. He took like two shots
in the first quarter. Didn't throw him

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out a rhythm. Everything's just working
right now. But it probably starts with

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James Harden to some degree because the
balls in his hands a lot, but

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also Kawhi Leonard and his mentality out
there. When he goes hard, everybody

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else raises their level of play.
And by the way, he's always going

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hard. Yeah, well, I
like what you said about rhythm. It

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doesn't feel like, you know,
he looked a little you know, rusty

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ish in that first you know quarter. I guess so when he came back

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after that absence. But other than
that, it doesn't look like he's missed

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any time at all. You know, from an offensive perspective, he was

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insane from behind the line tonight,
behind the three point line, excuse me,

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which, yeah, the Clippers offense
are is giving other teams defense.

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There's a lot of things to take
into account right now, which is always

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good for the Clippers offense and Kawhi. You know, you watched them the

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other day against Bam and he just
kind of took it to him a couple

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of times. One of the best
defenders in the league. Like unorthodox stuff

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happening to Bam on a bio getting
taken off the dribble like that and dumped

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on. You just don't see stuff
like that. Yeah, and that's trickling

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down, you know, it's leading
by example Kawhi. Obviously he's vocal with

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teammates and stuff, but he also
is a bit of a lead by example

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00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:37,519
guy. So he's leading by example. You have, you know, Russ

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being a solid glue guy right now. Maybe not the best night from Rust

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tonight, but overall he's been a
key part, you know, vibe wise

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for the Clippers and everyone's gelling everyone. You know, his kind of coalesced

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and yeah, other than James harden
Kawhi has been is the biggest reason for

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this, especially on the defensive side
of the ball, because we all saw

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it half when he was gone for
those four games. And his offense has

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00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:05,679
been great, but his defense,
I think, in terms of importance to

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the team is maybe bigger. And
even though Russ was two of seven,

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six points, a couple of turnovers
and missed three or four layups at the

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rim, I give him a ton
of credit for the ViBe's part of this

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component of this with him on the
bench or standing at least near the bench,

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because he's up and cheering guys on
and he's just bringing this great positive

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00:10:31,919 --> 00:10:35,879
energy and aura to this team,
whether he's on the quarter or not.

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Now I think he is making an
impact with the bench. And then bones

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00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:45,159
Hyland gets a technical for guys cheering
and too hard. I guess I don't

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00:10:45,799 --> 00:10:48,600
know what the issue was. I'm
sure there was some junk being talked out

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there with the Phoenix Suns, as
there were a lot of technicals, but

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Russ still had a big dunk to
start off the fourth quarter off a nice

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00:10:54,279 --> 00:10:58,960
feed for Norman Powell. But last
one for you here, Chuck Terror's man

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00:11:00,039 --> 00:11:03,480
karns Man. In that first quarter
he had all twelve of his points a

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00:11:03,519 --> 00:11:09,000
couple of three pointers. After missing
thirteen straight threes over three games, he

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00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:13,919
hit his first three last game against
the Miami Heat that he took and then

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00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:18,720
tonight comes out firing and was getting
some easy ones a Duncan transition. But

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the way he picked up Booker full
court and was punking him and stealing the

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00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:28,399
ball and taking it away from him, that's exactly to me why he needs

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00:11:28,399 --> 00:11:31,279
to be in the starting lineup.
That point of attack, defense and the

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00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:35,360
way he can disrupt things right then
and there. That changes everything, and

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00:11:35,399 --> 00:11:39,320
I think help this Clippers team lock
in on that end. Yeah. I

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00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:43,519
mean, Terrence Man was plus seventeen
and twenty three minutes today. He had

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the best plus minus on the team, which I know isn't always indicative of

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00:11:46,799 --> 00:11:50,399
an individual player's performance, but if
you watch this game, and like you

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00:11:50,519 --> 00:11:54,360
just mentioned, with defensive side of
the ball, that plus minus I think

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00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,320
is very well representative about Teren's man
played. He was hot early. He

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00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:03,519
did kind of loss of it obviously, but that early stretch, you know,

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00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:07,519
forced the Suns to you know,
spread their defense out a little bit,

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which helped the Clippers out. He
made good decisions for the most part.

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00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:16,440
This could have been maybe the turning
point for Terrence Man. We've all

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00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:22,919
most Clippers fans don't imagine that the
previous shooting situation was going to keep up

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00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:28,200
the whole season. So this whole
this is another kind of step in Terrence

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00:12:28,279 --> 00:12:31,679
Man being fully back shooting wise to
where he usually is. Because everything else

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has been phenomenal from Terrence Man,
which is keeping him in the starting lineup,

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00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:39,440
so that we do need to acknowledge
that everything else for the most part

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00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,480
is a great from Terrence, but
the shooting might be coming back, and

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it's just another guy who's playing at
a very high level for the Clippers.

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If you go down this roster,
it's really hard to find the guy who's

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playing even just okay right now or
average for their career or whatnot. Everyone's

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playing at a plus level right now. Another step for terrris Man. One

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00:13:00,279 --> 00:13:03,840
small step for Man, one giant
leap. There we go. It is

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00:13:03,919 --> 00:13:07,879
development this season. You know,
last year I thought his best game was

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00:13:07,879 --> 00:13:11,080
in Phoenix right before the All Star
breakf So maybe there's something about just going

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00:13:11,159 --> 00:13:15,399
up against the Suns and getting the
competitive juices flowing in it, bringing out

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the best and him Paul George alive
the Clippers tonight they win one thirty one

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00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:22,559
to one twenty two over the Suns. Granted know Kevin Durant, Hopefully he's

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available Monday night back at Crypto when
these two teams run it back. Jack,

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00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,039
my friend, thanks for doing this. We got the YouTube coming up

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tomorrow at Clippers Podcast with myself and
Will Updike. We'll talk to you then,

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00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:39,159
yes we will. Let's go clip. Let's go clips. More phone

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00:13:39,159 --> 00:13:43,399
calls coming up, plus you'll hear
from Paul George postgame. Clippers win by

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00:13:43,519 --> 00:13:46,120
nine in Phoenix, Mark Jose hold
On, we'll get to you right here

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on Clippers stock on a five seventy
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