What's going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to season two, episode seventy two
of Clips and div I have Chuck Mockler not in a car this time.
We are joined as always, Adam's got to go off his chair. Adam
Osen is here, Will, Ifnike is here, We're all three back.
We're gonna preview whatever the heck is gonna happen, uh for Clippers MAVs Game
five. We're gonna relive some of the insanity from Game four thanks to a
high five from Adam Oslind himself. I'm gonna talk some bench stuff, some
Kawhi, Leonard X Factor, Player of the game options. But before we
get into that, thank you everyone who's joining audibly. Thank you everyone who's
watching us. We do it on both platforms. You can find us on
YouTube at YouTube dot com, slash at Clippers podcast and podcasts. I believe
right if you get your pods. Before we get into the nitty gritty,
it's hot in Los Angeles again. I think we hit eighty two, which
is great. Will. How are you doing. How have these these kind
of two days off been after that crazy game? For you? Oh man,
it's been so neat that that game for like, that was. That
was insane. That was that was almost too much for me to handle it.
Uh, it's been good though. I'm glad that it's summer. I'm
already like hot and sweaty as hell, so that is uh, you know
that's great, just real, real comfortable. But you know we can't get
comfortable as Clippers chance. We got a best of three ahead of us.
Adam, how are you doing, my man? I'm okay, I feel
all right. I'm at least happen. Do you just wake up from a
nap? No? I didn't. I was actually here on time. Time.
Lord, I'm good. I'm just glad they didn't come back down thirty
one after I effing played the thirty one point comeback in our Clippers rewind segment
in the pre game show where they came back as the Golden State Warriors.
I was sweating it, boys. I was thinking, people are gonna say
I'm responsible for this. I texted Brian Seaman. He got a good laugh
out of it. We could all laugh afterwards. But all's well as well.
I guess in this case, I'm just picturing people going, who's responsible
for this? And then there's an angry mob outside your door. Yeah,
that was close that. Uh. I'm just so as Will said, I'm
just so happy it didn't happen. That would have been these two days would
have been horrible, especially after Paul George in the first quarter already gave the
uh yeah, little shoulder thing that PJ. Washington did against them in Game
three, saying I'm standing on business. Yeah the uh Paul George has never
really put his foot in his mouth before. So thankfully that didn't happen.
I guess yeah, so I did like uh. PJ. Washington's response to
that. Today he was asked about it and he was like, it's the
playoffs, like you just he did it. I did it. Then he
played well and he did it. He was kind of like, I like
it. Like, do you remember that time that CP three did the shimmy
on Steph? I think it was when he was with the Rockets, and
Steph had to own it and be like, you know, shimmy on guys,
I get shimmyed on. I guess now too. It's only fair.
Sometimes it's not a bad response. Sometimes you give this shimmy, sometimes you
get shimmied on. I believe is the is the old saying, we're talking
game four, what should we do? Will should we jump into this Adam
Osland High five edition? Oh? Yeah, yeah, we knock it out
before we talk the like that you're asking me on Adam. Yeah, well
he's he's got to do the technical stuff. What do you think? Well,
are we about that high five life right now? I'm thinking it's time
for high five? All right? Five highlights from Game four, one of
the craziest, wildest playoff games that the Clippers have been involved in, and
that is saying something. Actually, we'll start things off with some defense here
from James Harden on Luka Doncic, who I do think it's worth pointing out
since we've talked about how Kawhi Leonard has looked banged up when he was playing
in this series, especially in Game three, Luka Doncic does not look right
coming out of Game three with whatever was going on with his knee. He
called it stiffness. More on that, but James Harden actually, on this
play, you think it's an easy iso here for Luka Doncicic. He has
the matchup he wants. He's showing off the handle, moves to his right.
James Harden stays with him, goes between the ladies again. James Harden's
right there, and that's a very well contested shot. In fact, it's
the only one he made on James Harden in the ball game. He was
one for six going off the matchup data against the Bearded Wonder and that's a
great defensive effort from James Harden. I love the Bearded Wonder. Yeah,
when are we gonna get a large essay from Twitter accounts about how good everyone
else's defense has been. Luca played good defense for one game and we got
like inundated with how good he was a defense and now he looks like a
traffic coneigan. To be fair, he's hurt, that's sure. He's definitely
here, But so is Kawhi when he was going at Luca in that game
too, and everybody says Luca locked him up. So we'll try to be
consistent with it. So an interesting play here pinned down screen from Avitza Zubots.
This is later in the first quarters. They're trying to get Paul George
going, and boy did they. He scored his many points in the first
quarter as the Dallas Mavericks, with sixteen of them. You catch a pin
down screen here from Vitza zubots Is. George gets the basket on a bounce
pass from James Harden Curls, doesn't settle for the jumper here, doesn't try
to fade away Daniel Gaffers waiting for him. PJ. Washington's all over em,
excuse me, Dereck Jones Jr. And just goes right around him.
Is Luca dont just got the hell out of the way on the right block.
And this is when he can use his size. He's huge, he's
six' nine. Get to the basket, get some easy wants to go
before you get those crazy threes that were well contested by PJ. Washington and
you stunt on him like that or whatever you want to call it. This
is what James, this is what Paul George is very much capable of.
He can play much bigger than he does, and I think he needed to
in that game, and coming off just scoring seven points in Game three,
it was a quick way to just get him in a rhythm. And I
just like what coach Lou was thinking there and Vistas Zubas helping him out with
that screen. Nothing. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the solid one
I'll finish. Should he have fed Aim here though in the corner going?
Should have fed him here? The best question was it the wrong read?
The best question after that half that Paul George had he took. Look,
he made a lot of shots. I thought he could have fed him.
Let's see here, let's review Will was Will right about that collapses the defense?
He could have kicked it out. I'm a little more concerned with Paul
George getting go that Namir coffee. I feel like, if he doesn't get
it going, they're probably not going to win the ballgame. But yeah,
I can understand that too. I Meir was willing to that's me. Here
is a bad shot here from Russell Westbrook in the mid range on the far
side. He just drops in. He's trying for the fade away here.
Russ is four for his last twenty four from the field. Going back the
last three games of this series. Now, it has been rough for us
on the offensive end. I've liked some of the defense, some of the
extended possessions due to rebounds, but he has taken some brutal, ill advised
shots. This would be one of them on two defenders. Let's see,
there's fifteen seconds left on the shot clock. I'm not sure what's going on
here. So Russell Westbrook misses this one doesn't get to go. And here's
some poor transition defense from your Los Angeles Clippers. Terence Man hits the floor.
He would have been a guy trying to slow down Luka Doncic. He's
been magnificent all series long. This is the best defensive series probably of his
career. And that's also saying something. Terrence Man has been really good,
but he's taking his defense to another level in this series. When people were
saying, you know, his point of attack defense on the season, it's
been pretty good, but not spectacular. Well, maybe this is playoff Terrence
Man. He also can ramp things up come playoff time because he hasn't been
playing defense this good this consistently all season long. But the Clippers here and
as I mentioned, James Harden with the nice defense early on on Luka Doncic
here, he needs to get back. PJ. Washington is coming and Luka
Doncis is gonna find him. Norman Palell calls it out. James Harden looks
it's way too late. Here, an easy lob from almost half court to
PJ. Washington. But you can at least see James Harden with the shameface
there, scratching his head knowing that that was in fact on him in that
situation. So Clippers, obviously, as they have improved greatly in that area
in the playoffs, there's still work to be done there. Yeah, And
I mean it was spurned by a really really bad Russ decision. And I
think that those have been some of the more difficult things. It's just the
IQ at times, like we just know that he's better and he's seen more
to not sort of be making these these types of mistakes. His plus minus
would be so much better. He's still like plus thirteen or something insane.
Oh yeah, Yeah, And I mean, you know, like, like
you said, Adam likes, he's had some He's like, we know about
the energy he has. He's had some solid things on the defensive end.
Offensively, still something they've got to figure out. And if he's not scoring,
which is fine, we don't really need him to. He just has
to be making good decisions with the ball in his hands. That's that's it.
Yeah, And a lot of these misshots aren't even of the layup variety,
which we know he's had an issue with he's taking bad shots. Three
pointers long. Two's a fade away there. It's just he's playing outside of
himself a little bit too much more on Rusk coming up here. But we
do have a nice set here that gets a little uh pick and roll action
between James Harden and it beats a zoobots. Here's hard on the far side
corner, gets an off ball screen from Terrence Man. Luka doncis just playing
way off of him, and now you get the dribble handoff from Big Zoo.
It beats the zoubots. Derek Lively has to get up here. He's
got to fully hedge this. He's at the level, but they're trying to
trap him. It's him and Kyrie Irving. He lets James Harden get around
him while beats a Zubos is gonna roll towards the basket. Here, dude,
easy bounce past inside. It's Luka Doncis. He's not gonna be able
to defend that. Yeah, and what's he gonna do fallum like, maybe
give give them the ad one I would say that's probably just let that would
go. But it's a nice set play by the Clippers. As they were
rolling at this point up fifty one to twenty four. It was we got
one more here in the high five. As the float goat showed up late
in this bar game. I actually used to say that all the time for
Isaiah Hartenstein, who had a sane floater. He was like seventy percent.
It was crazy. But it was James Harden first picking on Luka Doncic with
these floaters. He got two on him initially, and then he got two
on PJ. Washington and in between Maxi Kleiba had to suffer his wrath with
these floaters. I'll move to the second one on Luka Dncic here. The
first one was impressive. It was a little acrobatic move to get to it
by James Hardness. Coach Lee was imploring him, apparently, get to your
floater, Get to your floater. It's there. You don't need to pass
the basketball. It's your time. First we see Paul George run a little
ghost screen. He gets over to the right hand side and Derek Jones Junior
follows him the entire way. Good defense by him, but James Harden is
now isolated against Luka Doncic. One of the things that changed in this game
was in the last six minutes, Russell Westbrook was off the floor, so
you had a little bit more spacing at the end of this game, as
opposed to what we saw at the end of Game two where it was just
brutal and they were completely sagging off of Russ And that play in fact,
where Luka Doncic was able to hang with Kawhi Leonard, part of that was
because Kawhi was looking past him and Maxi Kleiba was just hanging out shadowing as
well because his man was Russell Westbrook and you just let him hang in the
corner. Now, the difference is you got Norman Powell there and even terrace
Man is seven to fourteen so far in this series. From three, Zuo's
hanging out in the dunker spot, Maxi Kleiba's in at the five. They're
going small, they have been. But watch James Harden here get to his
floater as he can easily get by Luka Doncic, who just I'm telling you
guys, he does not look right at all. He also was grimacing a
lot in this ball game. I think it's affecting both sides of the basketball.
But Maxi Kleiba is so far back in the drop. I understand it
to a degree of itta. Zubots could easily catch a lob here, but
PJ. Washington is trying to front him, and it's just barbecue chicken like.
You can't let a guy get that easy of a floater. And that's
what Dallas Mavericks fans were so upset with late in the fourth quarter, with
Jason Kidd not putting back in Lively or Gafford here as James Harden cought a
rhythm and just easily was able to detonate with the float game. Here's the
one with Maxi Kleeba for a little bit of a bonus here in the high
five. He's got to beat the Zubas if he wants them here. It's
too easy. It's far too easy here. So that ultimately was the difference
in the ballgame. Five floaters in the fourth quarter when he was shooting thirty
seven percent from five to nine feet during the regular season. Unbelievable. They
gave up the shot, they gave up I guess the thirty one point comeback.
They weren't able to complete it because of James Harden late. Yeah,
it was such a stark difference from those earlier matchups against the Timberwolves in the
season when the Timberwolves were giving James Harden the floater, that was how they
were. They're like, fine, if this is open, if you want
to, and he just wouldn't take it. It was kind of like when
he first was getting used to the catch and shoot thing for the Clippers.
So he just continues to get better at things that help the Clippers out,
which, like, again, that's off to James Harten. This has been
a fantastic tenure for him all around. Four like four I would say,
really pretty exceptional games from him that like when we needed him in a big
way, and he's really stepped up so far. He's been their best player,
right, best player in the series. Yeah, both teams. I
think you can make that. I think it's yeah, it's too it's either
him or Kyrie right now. And I would give the slight edge to James
hard And I'd say because he helped win two games without Kawhi Leonard. Yeah,
and he's a Clipper. I didn't believe these these things, these reactions
are are getting me. You saw the thought bubble. The jig is up.
You want to down that think a wonderful high five as always reliving that.
You can live out on YouTube if you want to watch it. And
Adam does a great job of calling it out audibly too. My barber listens
to it. God damn, my barber listens to our pose and he still
enjoys the high five. Shout out Silver Lake Barbershop, where Adam needs to
go. We got to get Adam over there. We got to get the
whole crew. Got to get the whole crew. It's a clippers barbershop.
What are you guys trying to say you need to go to the barber shop
when you get an aircut. I go to my own fades and blades and
Burbank. I don't know, never heard of it. Great name. You
should maybe start that business. So getting into game five tomorrow, Kawhi Leonard.
For those of you wondering he didn't practice, Uh, he's already been
ruled out the way the schedules set up. They play tomorrow, they play
Friday, they play Sunday. I don't think he's coming back the rest of
the series. It shouldn't be a huge It sucks, but it shouldn't be
a huge surprise. The word though, is still at least from we've heard
that. We've still heard that there's no structural damage right like they get.
So I guess that that is positive. I I really don't. I really,
I really don't know. But he can't be out there at sixty.
It's just it's not gonna work. From what we saw from game two to
game three and the steep decline he had with his movement, it was shocking.
Really, it was scary to have to see him out there in pain,
not wanting to drop down after that Alue dunk because he was afraid of
landing on his knee. My god, that to me is the moment where
Lawrence Franke said, Okay, enough he may want to play, but sorry,
we got to protect players from themselves. I just I don't know anything.
It's pure speculation. Of course, it's just inflammation for a month.
Now, what is what is going on? It's just it can't so implement
from my a doctor, but just from my brief googling, you're not a
doctor, shift doctor chap in the building, Well we should we should contact
doctor Shapp. He's talked about it. He's curious about it too. From
what we've heard, as he was describing it is basically, when you have
as many knee things as Kauai has had, there's not a lot of cartilage
left. It's bone on bone, and he kind of has the knee of
someone who is very old, right, Like if you think about how this
works, he's having inflammation, like this is what happens when you have old
knees. But the thing is it happened like that. It didn't progressively happen
Towards the last month of the season. It was everything was fine and then
it wasn't. And I think doctor Shapp talked about that too. That's what
makes this so perplexing. And for it to be inflammation typically information and swelling,
to my knowledge, is your body alerting you that there's some injury going
on, but they can't seem to get it under control and there's no structural
damage. You know, everybody's baffled by it right now, but we're hoping
for the best. What else can we do? I mean, yeah,
I think at the end of the day, what it comes down to is
he did not look ready in Game three. He did not look like he
should be on the floor. So we're just gonna have to operate him the
assumption that it is not ready to go and we have no idea when it
was basically exactly what I feared. Everybody talking about, oh, who'll be
back for this game? Well, him being back for game two, that
wasn't the hurdle to clear. The hurdle to clear was how he was going
to respond after playing his first game in over three weeks, and apparently,
according to Kawhi, Leonard himself didn't respond the way they wanted it to.
And obviously you could see it in game three it was just oh, man,
Yeah, that was a guy who had his powers taken away, and
that's that's hard to watch totally. Yeah, it was. It was brutal
For the other side, Tim Hardaway Junior had a setback in their scrimmage today,
so he's out for Game five. He's already been ruled out, which
is interesting. Their lineup gets shorter. We talked about this a little bit.
The schedule's getting a little hectic. Are how are we feeling about the
fatigue levels? I know, we just talked about Luca, who I was
perusing some MAVs fans areas. They're very worried about his health and stuff like
that does it feel kind of even though like between these two, I know
we're an older team right now, but like the Clippers haven't been run out
at any point. They haven't looked like they've been too slow. Well,
this is the second two days off in the middle of this series they have
gotten. Going to Dallas, they got two days off. Now back to
LA they've gotten two days off. But Luca he ended up playing forty six
minutes in that game too. Yeah, and coach Lou was kind of joking
about that at one point, with reporters calling him coach Tibbs Jason Kidd.
But you look at James Harden. He played thirty nine minutes in game one,
forty two, forty four, forty last game. I gotta say though
he has looked very good. I mean, one of the most encouraging signs
is what we just saw. He was able to attack and get downhill with
those floaters. Has he been playing extended minutes and he still had enough Jews
to get by guys. It wasn't just Luca who looks hampered out there.
He got by PJ. Washington. He got by Maxi Kleiba too. So
I'm not saying I'm not concerned because I am, because there's that cumulative effect.
They add up the accumulation of minutes over time. But it, Yeah,
I guess to your point, it's felt like both teams have had to
go deep into playing their stars a heavy dosage of minutes right now. I
mean the travel is a little bit rough. I like, I think that
that to me. I think that, to me is like a little bit
more concerning. If it was just a regular like day arrested between without travel,
I think that's not really that big of a deal. But yeah,
yeah, the you had to traveling there with older players, I mean,
I hope they're I hope they're bringing their compression socks, that's all. Hey,
that's that's a good call. Uh, Copper Tone, are you rocking
them right now? Is our sponsorship possibility? Is that okay? Copper Tone
sunscreen? What was the thing copper top? No, that's dura cel.
Whatever the hell it was like up there with the power balance stuff. When
it came to gold, wasn't gold to gold to sos are a thing?
Yeah, Brett and Jerry Rice used to wrap it in some commercial back in
the day. I don't know the healing powers of copper for any for any
copper I remember what you're talking about. Yeah, for any copper magnates watching
this. Uh, we will wear your pseudo science bullshit product if you pay
us to wear it. Yeah. Absolutely. The Paris of the West is
it was once uh capital of the world at one point it was, and
butte Montana had the most millionaires per capita at one point in the world.
All right, this is moving on from coming up after this quick ad break,
we're gonna talk what we need from PG and Harden. Maybe a mere
coffee, taking more shots, but we got some ads going for the audio
listeners. Those are coming up, and then we're right back in three two
one. All right, so we're back in on clips and dip. We
just re relived the craziness of game four. That was a wild one.
Now we're gonna look ahead some more to game five and you know, I
mean, I think what it comes down to, top performance wise, is
what can we expect from PG and Harden. I mean, hopefully Harden can
continue to be as consistent as he's been throughout this series. But Adam,
what the hell, what what do we expect from PG in this Like this
series, he's been so up and down, they're like there there have been
some highs. Certainly, you know the game, the first half of Game
four and the insane uh insane shot that he hit in the fourth quarter.
I thought Game one he was like pretty exceptional defensively, but otherwise, man,
he was kind of a quiet Game two and a stinker of a Game
three. Yeah, And there's definitely a connection to him being in foul trouble
in games two and three specifically, and I do think to be fair,
he wasn't getting a great whistle. Do you have to fight through it?
Yeah? Can you belabor that? No, you can't let that get into
your head. But if he's not out there on the floor, he can't
gain a rhythm and can't get his timing going. And sure enough, him
staying out of foul trouble in that first half did the trick. And then
he was guarding Kyrie and Luca Moore in the second half of Game four.
Once you know you got fouls to give at that point, since I think
he had zero fouls through the first twenty four minutes, that makes things a
little bit easier for you to play that aggressive brand of basketball. So more
Terrence Man and e Mer could help out Paul George, could get Paul George
gone if they're willing to take on some of those defensive that's been part of
the trick, right, I mean both of those guys. There's three guys
in the starting lineup right now with a mere Coffee in for Leonard that can
guard two guys in Kyrie and Luka Donasis. There's three different guys you can
throw at him. But Emir and Terrence Man are more than capable of taking
up that challenge to start off the ball game and letting Paul George just ease
his way in offensively then eventually maybe flip the switch a little bit in the
second half with his defense and big possessions and things like that. And I
thought he had some good ones in late in the fourth quarter, even with
the Dallas Mavericks going off the way they were in Game four. But I
wonder what it does for him confidence wise, hitting that shot, which might
have been the toughest shot of the playoffs so far. He talks about it
today on podcast Pez It was insane. Apparently Kyrie Irvings's dad was like,
oh, and he's seen a lot of amazing shots from his son, So
that's quite the compliment. But you hit that shot in that moment, that
was the biggest shot of the game. As good as James Harden was,
he was the best player in the fourth quarter. The biggest shot of the
game was right after Kyrie being gets that crazy layup to go over three Clippers
who were there with double clutching it and maneuvering the ball around and somehow not
getting blocked. They go up by the body control is insane, like it's
it's unreal. Yeah. Yeah, they go up by one after being down
thirty one, and you start to think that the Clippers may break and I
like feeling it again. I feel like I'm stressed over Yeah. Uh,
it was a nail bier type of game. But I don't know if any
team that has given up a lead that significant, anything around twenty five points,
twenty to thirty points, because we know there's only been two thirty one
point comebacks. The Clippers have done one of them against the Golden State Warriors.
They've had one happened to them, but then they ended up closing out
the game. Anyways, I just it's gotta be rare to actually not let
them complete the comeback after that top hole grind because I think, as your
shot so big, because I that mention is such a big thing, like
something like that. I mean, you can settle back in, you know,
you know, like it's okay, like we got this. And I
really liked Tylu going into that fourth quarter, like they went on a run,
they came back, We win this quarter, we win the game like
that. You know, it's that simple. You don't have to dwell on
you know, you don't have to dwell on the thirty one points or whatever
you were up. That's at this point it does not matter. All that
matters the next twelve minutes. And I thought that they were able to really
lock in and focus in on that and close out the game. And I
mean it was a nail binding fashion, but like hell, I mean like
hell of a game. So probably the best game of the first round.
Yeah, it was either that or the game too with the Murray shot,
or the Game five with the Murray No. But that's that's exactly my point.
That's why I was the biggest shot at the ball game because all the
momentums with the Dallas Mavericks and he hits a silencer shot that the degree of
difficulty. It's an all time shot. I'm hoping that has some carryover for
him, a performance like that coming up big like that, not that he
hasn't before in playoff games, especially as a clipper, but I just want
to see him start fast. Not necessarily you know, twenty six points in
the first half fast. I don't expect that, but just get around fifteen
points in the first half, maybe in game in game five back at home,
because he should get like a hero's welcome after hitting that shot and saving
the game. Yeah, be on pace for thirty. I like that.
We've talked about PG bumping it up to like twenty seventh, to be on
pace for thirty and that half, and that would be phenomenal. Are we
calling that one, uh Pg's backboard revenge? Yeah, I feel like there's
a famous clip. I love that him getting robbed by the backboard, and
then there's one where he got like where he goes at it. Yeah,
I think they want to count the bubble, so I think. I mean,
of course, I'm just saying, yeah, the shot has to have
a name. It's that good. I think I like that the backboard that
he shot over in Dallas. I think was that backboard from the bubbles cut
and so there was definitely some kind of uh, you know, renewed anger
there. I think that makes a lot of sense. We were talking about
the James Harden floaters. A lot of fans are upset that lively MAVs fans,
Clippers fans were loving whatever Jason Kidd was not doing at that time.
There's gotta be my guess. Here's what I hope happens is. I think
that Jason Kidd is gonna overreact to those floaters and maybe tell guys to pinch
up a little bit to take that space away, and we're gonna see I
hope again, this is what I'm hoping we're gonna see. Remember how Zoo
looked on those plays. He's gonna fill that space. Hopefully we get some
good rust to fill that space when they share the court, and Harden is
good enough that if they have a counter for his floater, which is gonna
be pressed up more in the paint, He's gonna be able to find guys
cutting. So I'm really hoping that we get an over adjustment from Jason Kidd
on that and Harden can continue to be the best player in the series and
maybe get a little more distribution versus scoring. Not that I don't like this,
but if the easier scoring is there, James Harden will find it.
I'm hoping if they adjust to it. All it means is Lively or Gafford
step up too far to where then it turns into an alley oop to of
eats a Zubos. That's a predicament that puts you in when you can't stay
in front of your man in that situation. With how good James Harden has
been historically in his career, I know what he shot with the floater this
season, but that's what always made him so devastating. Is it a floater?
Is it a lob? That's what he did all the time with the
Houston Rockets working with Clint Capella. Yeah, dude, I mean because other
than that, I mean, I don't know how else you counter. If
you're Jason Kiddy. Just let it happen again. I hope that the law
of average sort of evens out he's on the season, which it might,
but I don't know. The other thing is guys were playing so close up
on him because they didn't want to give up the three. That's why he
was able to get around them so easily. It's not that all of a
sudden he fe on the fountain of youth. The way they were playing him
just allowed him to get that step on defenders, even PJ. Washington twice.
Yeah, I do like that he might have found the fountain of youth
though, because he looks great. Oh, he definitely saved something for the
playoffs. I think that's confirmed at this point. He has shown way more
burst in this first round series than we saw in the month of March.
Like he's already had more blowbyes probably in this first round series in four games
that he had total in the month of March, where it looked like he
was really regressing and looked tired out there, which is crazy because his minutes
are still super high. His total minutes the end of the season is going
to be unreal for the Clippers. In game rest, in game rest,
the great ones do it. Oh Man. We talked a little bit about
a mirror too. Briefly, Will on a vegeta to find a mirror in
the corner there. We've talked about Terrence Man has shown he can hit shots.
He's what seven for fourteen this thumb's down. It's gonna be the death
of me. More shots, not high enough volume. Huh. He's seven
of fourteen from three so far. He said today that there's no way they
make me score in the paint, knowing he's going to continue to get open
threes rather than paint opportunities. I think we're all pretty okay with that,
with how he's been shooting the ball. But do we think the ball is
going to funnel more by design to a mere coffee. He's only made to
the most field goals attempts he's made in the game. This series is two,
so I feel like the MAVs are going to do their best to rotate
everything over and try and get a mirror to be the one to either make
a decision or try and make a shot. He wasn't the guy on the
court with that Powell Rangers lineup without Kawhi Leonard at the end of that game
four, it was Powell, it was Man, it was Norm it was
big Zoo. What else am I forgetting here? Powell? Norman Zoo wasn't
a mirror. Paul George, who could forget Yeah, that's that was the
last six minutes. The biggest adjustment at the end of that game. The
reason why it worked for the Dallas Mavericks in games two and in Game three
Russ stands ear muffs uh is because Russell Westbrook was out there on the floor
and they just completely decided not to guard him. That's how they were able
to pack the paint. The difference was they have to respect Terrence Man enough
and then also having Norm Powell out there, who's been much better the last
two games. Now he seems to be finding his groove and you can't leave
Norm wide open. It doesn't matter how there's there's no there's no way you're
leaving a wide open Norm Powell shot on the like he could be one for
eleven in the game. I just don't think there's any way that you're just
sagging off. No that they came into this series knowing his reputation, what
he had been doing all season, and keying in on him and taking him
away because they knew how important he's been to this Clippers team all year.
So yeah, I don't think guys are gonna be able to ditch that game
plan assignment, especially because he's bounced back now he looks like himself again.
So to me, that's what it comes down to. Coach Lewis talking about
spacing, getting our spacing right, It's like, well, if Russ is
on the floor, it's really hard to do that. Sometimes It's just is
what it is. Like. You certainly can't have him Anna Visa Zubots out
there Layton ball games and expect to have a lot of success. Zoo wasn't
clogging the paint because he was just outside enough on the baseline in the dunker
spot to give James Harden room and to be a threat to catch that law
at the same time. So I love what they found there laight in game
four, that to me does have some legs to it that will make as
you mentioned, Chuck Jason Kidd have to adjust. Yeah, the counters are
going to be interesting because I thought for I still, I mean, obviously,
Tyler's I think been the better coach this series given what he's had to
deal with absence wise and everything like that. Jason Kidd has had some pretty
okay counters right, Like it's we haven't Oh, I think Game one to
game two I thought was like I thought was impressive. That's bigger you guys,
I mean, yeah, if you listen to this pod. You know
how much it hurts me to have to say that the man wears clear glasses.
He did put his hat on. He put his hat on straight for
for game two, and you know what typically captain Wait, was it backwards
for game four? Oh? Good question. I can't remember. I didn't.
I didn't see thatss I heard it was sideways. Dude, if he
came out with the sideways, I'm like, oh no, well what about
this two hats, one forward, one backwards. That way you're covered any
occasion. Yeah, I hope. I think a mer's you know, they're
not going to make a mirror take like fifteen shots or something like that.
But if a mirror can keep him honest with the ones that they give,
it, shoot a respectable percentage from three like uh, I mean three or
seven would be great, or like two of five. I don't think he's
gonna have seven attempts. I hope not, but that percent you know what
I'm saying, Like that percentage area like around like the four you know when
you only like it would just and I hope that for a mirror, because
he's had you know, it's been up and down for a mirror in these
playoffs, he has twelve points total in the four games now. He only
played twelve minutes and eighteen minutes in games two and three, But in the
games where he's gotten the start without Kawhi Leonard twenty five minutes in game one,
he had six points, two three pointers in there. Twenty three minutes
in Game four only had four points of one from the outside. He had
a mid range jumper, which he's really good at when a mirror gets into
his back with that little turnaround from ten feet out, that's money for him.
It's been like that all season long. So I hope he's aggressive out
there. And that's another one where he really holds on it too. In
the air. I fucking love that, Like the stylistically, I love the
way that shot looks for him. Yeah, that's the NBA logo. Some
some are saying that, yeah on the year. Wow, I didn't realize
this. Yeah, you're totally right out of the years list. From ten
to sixteen feet he's shooting fifty, which is always going to be easy.
That's really great jumper, Like that's great. Yeah. So yeah, I
think is going to be a bit of a focal point for them to try
and funnel stuff too, And I have confidence that I just hope it happens
early, you know what I mean. I hope he can get feeling a
little comfortable early because because he does have room for the late game heroics.
We have seen him make important shots to quell runs from other teams. We've
seen him kind of stopping a little bit. Totally, guy who was like
undrafted first year in an NBA rotation. The guy is so unfaced by big
moments, like he just has whatever that mentality is. Gopher, that Gopher
blood, that Minnesota Gopher. Absolutely I liked his demeanor after Game three he
was at about being down two games to one. He was like, well,
we knew it was gonna be a tough series. This is what it
is. So he didn't seem rocked by any means. And as you mentioned,
he's been good in his career in late game situations. A friend of
mine would say, coffee is for closers. Yeah, him first, then
Brian Seman. Sure, I have faith in the mirror if he's in the
ballgame late, but I would like to see them go right back to the
lineup that worked in Game four and make the Mavericks have to make a decision
on whether or not they want to have one of their big men back in
the ball game, because I think there are still buckets to be made.
All they did was spread out the floor and let James Harden go to work,
and then that threat of Aviatsa Zubos there, that's it because they had
shooters out there that had to be respected. That's how you get your spacing
right. So I think they found something. Let's hope they did. Coming
up, we're gonna be talking some bench versus bench stuff and then wondering what
happens if the three point shooting isn't the best that it's been all season.
During Game five, we got some loud ads coming up for those on audio.
If that's your case, go ahead and turn it down. We got
ads and then bench on bench and normal shooting percentage talk in three two one,
welcome back in It's clips and dip. I'm got a Moslem. It's
episode seventy two of season two. We got Chuck Mackler, we got will
Updike, we got a two to two series in the four or five matchup,
which tracks everybody thought it could be a coin flip at least it's supposed
to be and the Clippers everybody to be fair, sure not ninety percent of
the media my bad. They had a double sided uh two face coin Yeah,
and making their own luck. But this Clippers team, as good as
they were in Game four, there were a couple of outliers. I would
say, you can't necessarily just punch in. Oh, James Harden and Paul
George are both going to get thirty three in Game five, So where else
do those points come from? We've talked about amere coffee a little bit,
and we've also talked about the three point shooting and how hot it has been
in their victories, which also is not sustainable. They basically the Dallas Mavericks
so far in this series teams well teams. The Clippers are shooting only fifty
percent in the restricted area. That's the lowest of any team in a playoff
series right now. The Mavericks are trying to their best to take away the
restricted area and it's worked for the most part. Now the Clippers, they've
been able to knock down some of those open threes because they're selling out to
stop drives. Coundn't stop James Harden, but because they're trying to take away
easy buckets at the basket that does give up more threes, and the Clippers
for the for two of the games and their wins, have been able to
knock them down. But the bench that could be very much needed. With
what Norman Palell has been doing. We talked about him the last couple of
games. That bench matchup is going to be critical, especially as guys tend
to get more tired as the series goes along. These starters that are playing
heavy minutes, it could be a bench player that swings a game five or
six or seven. Here, Yeah, who do we think? Who are
we feeling? You know? On the MAVs side, right, they're running
lively. Kliba in Green. Kliba looked good, Cleiba. I like,
I think if it's anybody, it's gonna be Clebla. He was good at
Game two and then just neutralized for the most part out of that. We've
really kind of figured out how to deal with him, which has been great.
But I think he might be right well if he can stretch that floor
for them and provide some big body defense. If he can, that's this
shift for the Clippers bench. I thought Dante Exum would have been a guy
in this series that really would have helped out Kyrie and Luca, because he
has all season long, he's been kind of a safety valve. He shot
fifty percent from three. It was on low volume, but it's because he
was knocking down a lot of open shots. He was getting a lot of
open sh with those two guys next to him. But he also hit some
critical shots. Against the Lakers. He had I want to say he had
seven threes or six threes in the ball game to beat them. He had
a game winning shot against the Houston Rockets. I thought, with how good
of a season he had had, especially because defensively he's played really good there,
he would be the guy, if any to burn the Clippers in this
series coming off the bench. But so far, he's been, for the
most part, ineffective out there. Just he's only taken a couple of shots
per game. He took four shots in Game one, one in game two,
only played six minutes twelve minutes in Game three. I think that was
really his opportunity and he went over four because he only got two minutes in
their last game in Game four. So I'm thrown for a loop A little
bit by not much Dante xam being used by Jason Kidding the series, but
it tracks he hasn't played well. Interestingly enough, Dante exem per Telmerizari was
the MAVs jersey today at Clippers practice. Have you been following this on social
media? First couple of days it was Luca obviously, and then it was
Cleveland. Today it was exhum which I was like, is this games been
ship? Like? What for? But yeah, I thought that was interesting.
Lively is very much trending up with MAVs fans. They want to see
Lively in there to try and combat some stuff. Will Are you thinking he's
maybe number two behind Cleveband right now? It just seems like it just seems
like he's gonna lean into offense a little bit more because that's what we've seen
throughout the series. So I think Cleveland makes a little bit more sense there
too. Yeah, I honestly think I don't know, it's close. I
think Lively's probably been better, but I mean he's a big it's just different
that what we think he's been better. That's not what I'm saying. I
think, like, if someone is going to like swing this game five to
me, I see it as means someone like Cleveland, I will take that
to the bank. But black of the week when Kliba didn't play big minutes
in game three after what he did in Game two with him playing small ball
late, I think that surprised the Clippers some. Now it was because Derek
Lively and Gafford had ten alley oops. I think they caught in game three,
but still that we were anticipating more of that small ball. We got
more of it in Game four, but the Clippers actually took advantage of it.
So it's almost like they learn from what happened the end of game two.
They're able to counter that strategy. Now with Maxi Kleiba as the five
for the Dallas Mavericks so well, Dallas have to go back to having one
of their true bigs out there late. I think that's the big question mark
whether or not they stay big late. Now. Yeah, they're in the
same You know think Clippers fans talk about all the time, which we don't
care who starts, who's finishing this game for them? I thought we talked
about this Elvan on the postgame pod, the drive time pod. Quite literally,
we haven't talked about it, but off to Mason Plumbley for that Game
four. He did a lot of good shit in that game. I mean,
he's been really spelling his minutes well. So I hope that continues,
because if he has to come in for any extended time, that's when things
are a little worried. But short dose plumb, micro dose plum has been
exactly what the Clippers needed these last couple games. Well. I mean I
heavily criticized him after games two and three. I thought he was pretty bad
in those games, even in limited minutes. He was still pretty bad.
In Game four. He had a great stint in that fourth quarter. He
had he caught that lu from James Harden, he had a tip in and
then he also had a pass to Russ for a layup. His defense was
solid. He had to guard Kyrie at one point on the perimeter. He
did lose that battle, sure, but yeah, I'd sign up for Mason
Plumbley continuing to play the way he did at the end of Game four,
or if they could get that out of them, and maybe that's why you
stick with them, and I was wrong. Instead of going back to Daniel
Tye or trying something else with PJ. Tucker. They just felt like Mason
Plummey at some point he's still their best option and he'll give them good enough
minutes in one of these games, and that could I mean, I don't
know if they win the game without him. Honestly, it's fair. We
can't go small. It's not very good like we need and Tyler's game plan
is very clearly size at the five when kind of available for the most part.
Yeah, with no Kauwai, I just don't really see how we can
go. I don't see how we can go super small. Yeah, for
extended period. It's just well, it's like we've talked about it, because
we can't use Russ at the five, Like the spacing is just it's too
wonky. They can't stop anybody and scoring is really hard. So it's like,
well, if you can't stop and the scoring isn't really smooth, probably
not the best lineup. And then it's still it's a bit of a gamble
on what we're getting for Russ's nineteen to twenty four minutes tomorrow. We don't
really know what's gonna happen. He's been good, as we said it,
pretty much everything other than shooting the ball, So we just have well and
some of the decision making, Like I wasn't expecting him to like light it
up offensively or anything like. He's just got to make the right decisions with
them all in his hands and that's oftentimes not a fadeaway with fifteen seconds left
on the shop. Yeah, I think that's fair. So happy they have
the break. The two day break is huge for this team. Tylu coached
really well. You know, they gave him a thirty one point lead.
Whatever, it's the playoffs, crazy shit happens. Did you guys feel like
it was so much a collapse or just Kyrie Irving got really hot. He
had forty points. All forty of his points came in the last three quarters.
I didn't feel like they were playing that bad when Dallas was coming back.
Yeah, I didn't feel like it was like a fall apart. I
mean, I know that's like the narrative and that's how everyone phrased it,
but it didn't look like it. Obviously every time it's a little bit of
a column an, a little bit of calm b but I think to just
say that the Clippers blew it as it's definitely underwriting how exceptional Kyrie Irving was
during that stretch, like he took the reins and rocked it. The rotations
weren't weird. It's not like we were playing like PJ. Tucker. It's
not like Ty was making insane decisions during this, Like it was just Kyrie's
do this three games now where he's just had a quarter or an extended time
where he's just not missing anything. He's that good, Like I just I
don't know what to say like that. There's times and it doesn't matter how
well you can test him, like he's gonna score. I know what to
say for those people who are like you know, Kyrie's had a couple of
really bad playoffs series is last two. He's not as good as you guys
think. Yes, yes he is, and he was more than due and
he was ready for the moment. And Kyrie has been You already brought it
up. But that that shot over three defenders, I mean like around,
not even over like around the three defenders, like threading the needle with Some
of the threes were unconscious too. Also, Paul old George had a rear
view block on one of his threes late in the fourth quarter, a huge
play because it was probably going in and we haven't. We'd be remiss not
to mention before we pick our Kawhi Leonard Player of the Game inaugural X Factor
m VP Picks of the night. If the threes aren't falling at a fifty
six to sixty one, right, let's feed Big Zoo. We haven't even
mentioned Big Zoo on this pod yet, but that's something I'm looking forward to.
Another thing the tyler can maybe prep them on. It's like, hey,
if we don't have these for not hitting these crazy contested shots, let's
hopefully get some touches to Big Zoo because again, easy buckets, not doing
everything the hardest possible. I was told work smart, not don't work.
Don't work hard, work smart as a young man's the Clippers with the greatest
of all time. Yes, make Zoo work. Yeah, there you go,
makes zero all the work with Zoo to work. He wants to,
he's there, he's there to Carlos said. Carlos said he caught him in
the elevator. Uh. I think it was before Game four and a visas
and he was like, they're gonna need you in this one. He's like,
I know there needs you to be aggressive. And you know he picked
his spots. Uh, they still did not feed him nearly as much when
the comeback was happening. To me, that's even more of a big spot
to get to the basketball. Slow down the game a little bit, punish
them with physicality, and make them work defensively so they're not getting in transition
or flying up the court as much because they're taking the ball out of the
basket every time or out of the on the sideline or baseline. A visa
Zoo bots has to be feature more in game five, go back somewhat to
eighty percent of maybe what we saw in game one. Yeah, I like
that all right, now's the time for the most important part of the pod.
Who we'll go with? Adam First, Adam, who is your pick
for the Kawhi Leonard Player of the Game, X Factor, MVP Pick of
the Night. I'm not going Daniel Tice again. You can't feel like he
probably should have played Game three over Plumley, but then fumbly redeemed himself in
game four, So who cares? I will go with. I'm gonna pick
Norman Powell, Norman Powell Storm and Norman back home because the first two games
where he played bet poorly. He wasn't home. I want to see role
players are supposed to play better at home. Yeah, that is usually.
No, I'm trying to figure out what his home and away shooting skills are.
He scored eleven points total in the first two games at home. He
had eleven points in Game four alone. He had twenty one in Game three.
Some of those came during inconsequential garbage time, but yeah, he was
four for sixteen from the field his first two games at Crypto dot Com Arena.
His home road splits are insane this year. Uh, three point percentage
home thirty nine point three very good. Not nothing to see that there.
You want to know what it is on the road? Forty eight on the
road from three for Norm Powell. That's it? Wait, sorry, I
wasn't paying attention one more time, Uh, Norm, For those of you
who missed it, Norm Powell at home this year shot thirty nine percent from
three loser and away. Uh, and away games he shot forty eight percent
from winner. I guess we had looked that up before the series. We
would have seen it coming. Uh. But no, he wasn't even shooting
thirty nine percent from three at home in the first two games, so he
can be better. I think you will be no more pal is my guy?
There you go? Well, who is your Kawhi Leonard Player of the
Game, X Factor m v P Big of the Night. Uh, we
just talked about it. I'm gonna stay you know what I mean, I'm
just gonna go with Big, you know, and I think that, Uh
it's an easy pick, but man, I would love nothing more than to
see this, Like it doesn't even have to be better than what we've seen
so far. Just this level of consistency from parted. Uh. He is
really like been keeping his hand on the wheel, holding this whole thing steady,
I mean, keeping things from really falling apart. He's nothing I mean,
I mean that's about giving him as flowers. I still almost feel like
it hasn't been enough, uh to anyone who died of this trade. This
is why you do it. And you know, like I didn't think coming
into this playoff series that there was like much you know, like I I
I doubted how far we can go, obviously without Kawhi Leonard, And big
part of that was I wasn't sure how consistent we could get James Harden right,
Like that's it's kind of a mark on it, and that we don't
know. You know, he's in a different place now, and he's in
a different place. He's in a different place now. It's a new look.
He seems happy to be doing it. I hope that, like you
know, with the shortening of the schedule and everything, it doesn't mess with
anything. But I'm gonna say James Harden because no matter what, we need
him to at least be consistent to get a win this one. Oh yeah,
you hate Russ huh okay? Oh wow, No, compared to what
compared to Harden? Sure? Right now? As of seven? All right,
so we got more, we got hardened. Those were going to be
my picks. So dig deep. It's not too deep. There's only eight
guys that cheeves from it, and that Paul George for like a cheat code,
is it? Though? I mean he did have seven he did have
a seven point game in game three. I'm gonna go. People are telling
me after game four, I'm not even gonna say it. Go ahead,
check, I'm gonna go. I'm going big zoo. I'm going big zoo.
We know we need Paul George to be great, but zoo with what
the legs look like after it's a day after traveling, you know what I
mean. Like also because of that effing no call. I was so pissed
when he went to the basket not hit by PJ. Washington about five different
times. What the refs were doing there saying we're gonna do all season slap
yeah, I Honda. The ref said, Okay, we're gonna let that
go, that physicality and just give you the basketball instead. We'll call it
out on the Dallas Mavericks. We'll call it like that for a makeup call.
The problem is officials in today's league now you have to review things like
that and when is that playing and that obvious you can't give the Clippers the
basketball after that review. I was furious about that no call. That was
insane. That was probably the worst call so far the series. I feel
like he's been getting clobbered at times all all time, like all season long.
It was just like blatant right in front of the referee, picture perfect.
Five fouls that happened all at once. Washington knew it, everybody knew
it. He looked back at some of those Timberwolves games, as great as
they were defensively, there's like, yeah, they were out of zoo,
it was crazy. Well, that about wraps it up. We have to
we have to close out every episode talking about how poor the refs have been
because they've been bad. They've been very bad, equally bad though to both
sides, almost just across the board, just they've been inconsistent, but consistent
enough with being inconsistent on both sides, I guess, yeah, there we
go perfect. Yeah. I haven't felt like it's been like stacked it.
You know, we're not We're not really raf wings on the show. We're
not only talk about that the whole time, But I don't feel that it's
been stacked against us. I mean, how many games have we seen across
this first round of the playoffs where both coaches use challenges in the in the
first like in the first quarter. Yeah, it's nice your ship out.
Yeah, the manic I'm tired of the manic Pixie refs. I would like
them to settle down and get their ship figured out. That about wraps up
this episode. This game Game five Eve episode. I believe we're doing a
live after the affair in downtown LA. We're all gonna be in the building
come say hey if you see us, be a good time. There's gonna
there's a bunch of games coming up. I don't know, it's gonna be
fun. We got a bunch of content coming out. Will If people wanted
to tell their coworkers or loved ones or not loved ones where to listen to
this pod or watch us, where could they do that? Yeah, tell
your friends so your coworkers, tell your enemies. Uh, you can check
out this podcast wherever you get your podcast. If you listen over on Apple
Podcasts or Spotify, you leave a little ring and review would really help us
out. Probably the best way to consume us though, over on YouTube.
That's YouTube dot com slashat Clippers podcast. But no matter how you view or
listen, thanks so much for tuning in. We appreciate you. We very
much do Adam one positive thing to send these Clippers fans out so they can
enjoy their evening before we're all stressed. Tomorrow Clippers win the rest of their
home games, they win the series. That's simple, best of three and
two games. Could be a crypto get it done, get it done,
love it love. We'll be back tomorrow with y'all the live Adam, have
you covered on clippers Talk. Thank you for hanging out and as always,
let's go Clips.