In the case of Kawhi Leonard, I stand alone probably on this, but
I don't care. I think the man should retire. Clippers right to left
on a nine er run looking for Mark Terrence Man all the way to the
ref left. You layup and I'll put back camp by Leonard, Clippers on
an eleven old run, Man, you better retire that sound drop up eleven
five? Did we have to play it three times? Because the Clippers within
fifty percent from the outside twenty to forty from distance? I see you,
Zach o'caldy. Clippers win in Chicago one forty six to one, eleven over
the Bulls. Welcome back into Flippers Dock. I'm in a Moslin. Let's
get out to our friend Jacque Mockler from Clips in Dip Fame. After a
ballgame where Paul George put up a stat line that only Nikola Jokic had before
in NBA history, there's two guys that have had twenty eight points, seven
assists, five boards, one steal, one block on eleven of twelve shooting
Nikola Jokic and PG thirteen Paul George. So we can start there, Chuck,
was that the most encouraging sign you saw tonight from this Clippers team,
just Paul George getting his offense on glued. Uh. Yeah, the efficiency
was great to see. I you know, hattops to Paul George for what
he did tonight after I think after a lot of us are going to be
disappointed about the game before this one. But I still don't love the field
goal attention if I'm being honest. Obviously James Harden isn't there, which makes
getting shots, you know, more difficult, but I still would to like
to see more than twelve attempts. I guess he didn't necessarily need them because
he was so efficient. He had twenty eight on twelve attamps. What do
you know? I'd want more attemp because what happens when the efficiency isn't there,
right, Because that's what we've been worried about. We need the efficiency
to be there. This is something he can build on, which is great.
So TVD on if he plays tomorrow, I think he probably will,
but I hope to see it again tomorrow because the efficiency was great and he
was more regressive to start this game, which I think everyone was excited about.
Yeah, he had fifteen points in the opening quarter and I guess coach
Lou We heard from him earlier, but he also said the Clippers are going
to emphasize getting the ball back in pg's hands more during the rest of the
season and have him run more pick and rolls. Something he mentioned that you
know, without James Harden, it's kind of a culture shock because you've had
him running high pick and roll for so long. Now this is the first
game he has missed as a Clipper tonight. Though it was Bones Highland running
it, it was PG, it was Kawhi, And I think that's a
good thing overall, to just have more looks and more of a varied attack
out there. Chuck, Yeah, I think the varied attack, I totally
agree with you there it's going to be ppd on us. Getting the ball
in Paul George's hand more will be an overall good thing, or you know,
depending on what the turnovers look like, there might be some adjustments there.
But Bone Tiland was phenomenal tonight, the skeleton key your guy making.
I think this is his best case so far obviously for minutes in the playoffs,
which is going to have to be a discussion if he hopefully keeps playing
this well, because he was phenomenal tonight. He threw in a couple passes
the zeros, he couldn't quite handle it. I thought you maybe should have
gotten a handle on so he would have had even a few more ass But
yeah, half off the bone's career highs and what's this am steal tonight?
The exact kind of thing the Quippers need on a back to back, you
know, with this March schedule. I complained often about him being out of
the rotation. I understood it to a degree because you have James Harden and
Russell Westbrook, but considering how different of a player he is than Russ and
being able to spread the floor like he can where I think now he's nine
for his last fifteen from three or something like that, when everybody was worried
about his shooting, Oh you'd missed fifteen straight. Is he the same guys?
The volume, Yeah, it's all still there. He just needed to
get some reps. Like as you said, I think he's making a pretty
damn strong case that you can't go in a playoff series and not get him
some run somewhere. Yeah, he's gonna be, you know, even if
it's just a small amount of minutes. The way that he plays is designed
kind of his play style is perfect for we need a couple buckets, we
need something like that. You know, there's there's one hundredth that's going to
be used for him. Got to watch the foules a little bit. That's
you know, obviously, I think that's one of the harder things to figure
out when you're already a guy who's not necessarily known for his defense and you
have time off. That's gonna be something that I think probably takes the longest
to come back, and that might be his biggest turtle to more playoff minutes.
But yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to the There's going to be a
Bone playoff game, I think, and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I think he can swing a series. Can you imagine Bones going up
against his former team and the Denver Nuggets and out those minutes. I don't
want to th the Nuggets to be fair, but say it's the Western Conference
finals. Uh okay, let's talk about Norman powl here, who I just
saw this. He had his fiftieth game of ten points or more off the
bench. He leads the NBA in that area. I don't even think they
have him top ten in six Man of the Year voting based off the betting
odds, which is crazy and wild and uninformed. Norm also hit big shots
in this game eighteen points, only had to get take ten shots to get
there. I don't know where they'd be this season without Norman Powell and how
good he's been. When we started the year, like, you know,
Norm could be trade bayed at some point, maybe he's a guy that's uh
uh what this say? They have a surplus of shooting and he's too small,
and now it's like, man, Norman Powell is unbelievable. What a
professional. Yeah, he's kind of a new lou right, Like he's known
for going out there and getting buckets and that's kind of it. Not mean
that in a bad way. Norman has been phenomenal. I don't think enough
of getting talked about about down elbow he took and how it's completely changed,
like it's crazy, But no, Norman has been fantastic. He came into
the season talking about wanting to be an All Star and we talked about this
on Clippers on Clips and did We were like that would be great too.
But if you're if you're also maybe six ten of the year. That really
helps the Clippers, and he's worked at that. He's put in the work.
He doesn't ever get too down, you know, shoot or shoot,
and he very much does that. So yeah, it's he's going to be
huge in the playoffs as well. The Clippers have a lot of scoring on
the bench. How surprised and relieved are you that Kawhi Leonard was back the
very next game. I think I was the only person out there that remembered
he had backspasms in twenty twenty one and came back the very next game,
and he looked great tonight against Chicago. Yeah, he was getting anything he
wanted. It didn't matter at all who was in front of him. We
say that every single time about when Kawhi Leonard plays well. His his full
game was on uh on display to night. Offensively, he just you know,
he got those mid range spots. He made this happen. He had
a chunky stat line. Yeah, five boards through or fifth stealing the block.
So other than the turnovers, it was a fantastic performance from Kawhi.
Do you think he goes tomorrow? Do you think he's gonna get the back
to back I'm gonna say Yes, I'm trying to be optimistic here, just
based upon how he looked tonight, and I just think backspasms can be something
different, like once they settle down. Just like last time, he was
fine, he was good to go. So we'll see it. I mean,
it depends how he feels coming out of this. Same with James Harden,
depends how he feels when he wakes up tomorrow. But I'm trying to
be optimistic with it and that maybe both of them can go considering the magnitude
of that game against the Pelicans. That's the biggest game of the season right
now, right, Chuck, yet again, I feel but this is the
real one again, Minnesota. Yeah, right, that's how it goes.
But when you you know, when a team that maybe should have won some
games that they didn't, this is now, you know we're in a very
important game season. Yeah, I want to see the Clippers have some good
process to build. I've said that I want to see them build good process
in this month, hopefully winning at least ten games, and they're so far
they're on that path right now. Tomorrow obviously the win is important, but
good process against the larger team will be very important. The long run too
well put. He is Chuck Mockler of Clips in Dip. You'll find us
on a YouTube later on this week. But the Clippers are in New Orleans
tomorrow taking on the Pelicans, who are three games behind them but lead the
head to head season record two games to one, so they beat them tomorrow.
If they can take down the Clippers and have that head to head tiebreaker,
who then we really start sweating. But the last time the Clippers were
there, they played one of their best games of the season. They completely
dismiss antled the New Orleans Pelicans, so hopefully they got everybody ready to go
on the second night of a back to back. Chuck, thanks for joining
me here with the little Clips and double Dip here on Clipper Stop. My
friend, Hey, thanks for having me. Let's go Clips