Anybody feeling what for the Clippers tonight we're talking about shots falling? Yeah,
yes, uh, They're gonna need some of that because there's a couple of
guys on this Clippers team that have really struggled in this series. And that's
being kind. I could point to sweet Lou Williams and Landry Shammitt. I
told you guys before the season, I felt like Landry Shammitt would be the
X factor for the for the Clippers because young player, fearless player, hit
the biggest shot, one of the biggest shots in franchise history. You could
say if for the Clippers last season in that game two thirty one point comeback,
he and Lou Williams have combined to go six for forty from three.
In this series. They're shooting fifteen percent from distance. They can't hit open
once. Right now, you would think the law of averages would be in
their favor. But in the second half of these games and these collapses and
why they've happened. Up sixteen Friday Night, up nineteen on Sunday, the
Clippers offense has really fallen apart. They shot thirty four percent in the second
half of Game five. They shot twenty six percent in the second half of
Game six. Offensively, they get into a rut quickly, and it starts
by not being able to defend without foulon the Denver Nuggets got back into that
game at the free throw line. They attempted twelve free throws in that third
quarter, and the pace slowed down. Remember these two teams play at completely
different paces. The Clippers are top ten and pace all season long, Denver
bottom ten, and they've been playing at their pace in the second half of
these games. And to their credit, they've been unbelievable seven of nine from
three in the fourth quarter of the last two games to come back. And
they're hitting ridiculous shots. Nicola yokisit a shot at the end of the second
quarter last game on Marcus Morris where it looked like he threw it up blind,
like he was already looking the other way. It goes in. Jamal
Murray is starting to hit shots. He's banking in three pointers. Michael Porter
Junior hit the biggest shot of Game five. He wanted the ball, he
got it, he sunk it. He's got some of that a rational confidence
where he hasn't done much in this league yet, but he already feels like
he's a champion out there when he's on the court. So the Clippers are
gonna have to deal with a Denver team that's riding high, and I think
the Clippers are gonna have to weather the storm early in the first quarter of
Game seven because of that. Denver's playing loose, they're playing with house money,
they're playing free out there. They're not supposed to be here, and
they have a chance to be the first team in NBA history to come back
down three one twice in the postseason. I told you guys beforehand, I'd
much rather see the Utah Jazz than the Denver Nuggets because of Nikola yokich In,
because this is a team that has shown that fight to come back down
three one. I believe they came became the thirteenth team in NBA history to
come back down three one. So this has obviously turned into, you know,
a must win for the Clippers. Their season is on the brink,
this is it. They have to perform tonight. But I'm still confident because
you've got Kawhi Leonard going in a Game seven. Yeah, if he has
to score fifty, that's the way I feel. If he has to score
seventy he will in to night's game. I mean, Kawi is one of
those guys who he'll do whatever it takes and put the team on his back
when he absolutely has to. I just wonder if it's going to be enough
for the things that you just mentioned with because they are going to need something
out of Lou Williams and Landry Shammon. And we'll probably see, like we
saw the other night, Reggie Jackson come in the game instead of Landry Late
Paul George. We're gonna have to get, you know, a lot out
of him. Adam. Do you do you think that the mentality that the
Clippers kind of had all season long. Fred always alluded to it, we
can just turn it on, turn it off when we get we're built for
the bubble, We'll built for postseason. We're gonna we're gonna rest our guys
and make sure we're ready to go and we can turn it on. It's
kind of catching up to them a little bit because we've seen them not,
you know, turn it on, go up, and then when they have
to turn it back on, they're not able to say, you know,
when they're up sixteen nineteen points, and then the team starts to coming back
after they've taken their foot off the gas, they can't get it back on
again. Yeah, they've lost their focus in the second half. Obviously,
the last two games they haven't brought the same intensity. And Marcus Morris said
something very telling after they lost in Game five. He said to the media,
sometimes we rely on our talent too much and we don't just keep playing
hard. I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but that says something that kind of
underscores what you're talking about a little bit there, Rodney. And when you're
a team that doesn't have a very defined identity yet, because think about this,
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. They've only played fifty games on the court
with one another this season, including the playoffs. They haven't had much on
court time. So this team was going through a transition where they're implementing last
year's team that was all about the grit and grind that would come back on
everyone else. They came back eight times when they were down fifteen or more
last season. You know what's happened this year. They've let teams come back
seven times on them when they've been up by as many as fifteen. And
I think the problem is, I've been thinking about this a lot. When
you don't have a defined identity, you don't have a foundation to fall back
on, you don't have that structure when things aren't going right, and you
start developing bad habits. And that's what we've seen from them with letting leads
slip in the second half, especially in the playoffs. I mean three of
the seven times where teams have come back on them have happened now in the
playoffs, Game four against Dallas up twenty three, that game goes into overtime,
Luca dontch hits the shot to win it. They lose that one,
and now they've lost Game five in game six the same way. What is
going on with k I mean, when he is on the court, he's
baby well, he's just basically doing whatever he wants at this point. How
in the WARLD No, I've heard of him, but I mean he really
robbed me. It's just kind of having his run of the place. What
are the Clippers doing anything defensively or is he just simply that good, just
like we saw Luca done to elevate his game in the playoffs. Nikola Yokis
has done the same thing. These two young players could be the faces of
the league. These two European players going forward could be two of the best
most important players to the NBA because of how good they are, not just
in the regular season, but in the playoffs. Now, Nikola Yokis is
shooting forty four percent from three in this series. He's getting twenty six,
twelve and six assists. I told you guys beforehand, he's a matchup problem.
He's a nightmare for anyone. But the Clippers really don't have anyone close
to perfect to guarding him. And when Iviza zubots is off the floor,
Denver has been destroying the Clippers and their defense, and Monsta trez has He's
been the one that's been tasked with guarding Yokich when Aviza Zubots is not out
there, and he's really struggled defensively. He's not right yet. This only
he's only played twelve games in the bubble so far, and you can tell
this is someone who's played twelve games in the last five months total. He's
not right. He's not playing like the six man of the Year. And
defensively, Denver has been taking advantage of that matchup over and over again.
All the analytics point to that being the biggest difference so far in this series.
Whenever Denver goes on a huge run, it's with Yokis out there and
Monste Trez on the other side trying to stop him. Basically, the numbers
say this, when a Visa Zubots is out there, Yokich is only shooting
fifty percent. That tells you how great he is. When a Visa Zubots
is not out there, defensively for the Clippers, he's shooting sixty percent.
That's how much he has met defensively for the Clippers against Yokis. But he's
going off and he's taking advantage, and they're playing loose. Like I said,
this is a team that had nothing to lose, and they probably feel
like a team of destiny right now. The Denver Nuggets, right they're not
exactly a Cinderella team. They were the three seed. But to come back
now again and force another game seven after you're down three games to one,
and Yo could set it after game six, the Clippers have all the pressure
on them. We don't have to worry about that. We're just going to
go play and that's what it's looked like the last couple of games. Yeah,
And speaking of that, because the Denver Nuggets don't have anything to lose,
they play loose and they go out and like I said, I mean,
Jamal Murray is starting to make some shots in the last game or two,
but he hasn't gone off like he did against in the Utah series,
and they've done a good job on him. But they've got guys that are
playing with so much confidence. As this game goes and it's close in the
fourth quarter, how do you think the mentality of the Clippers change? Because
Denver believes they can win no matter what, even if they're down fifteen nineteen
point, they believe they can win. If this game is closed with seven
minutes to go, then you start to really get on the edge your seat
if you're the Clippers. I mean, the truth is to win a championship,
at some point in the playoffs, you were going to have to go
through adversity like this. It's happening to the Clippers earlier than we expect it.
Maybe this would have happened in the Western Conference finals or in the NBA
Finals and you would have said, Okay, this is what it takes to
win a championship. So they're getting those lessons in that experience early on.
Hopefully they can apply it if they can win in Game seven. But to
do that down the stretch, to your point, Rodney, is they just
got to run the offense through Kawhi Leonard. Yeah, because he's been here
before. He's the two times finals MVP. He's the best player in the
game, and the mid range he's the master of and those are the shots
that you get in games like this. It may look sloppy at times,
it may look slowed down. All the games sevens, there's been three so
far in the playoffs, they've been played at a slower pace that favors the
Denver Nuggets. But they've been lower scoring games, so I'd expect that.
But the Clippers just have to find a way to execute. And I think
when you get away from going through Kawhi Leonard, look, I always say,
when in doubt, let Kawhi Leonard bail you out. When the offense
is in a rut, when the ball is sticking, I'd rather have it
stick to the claw's hands and let him go to work and play off of
him because he's such a good passer. Now, even if he gets doubled
or triple team, he'll find the open man. The key is some of
these other guys got to hit shots. There have been four consistent players in
this series for the Clippers shooting wise, Kauhi Paul George has been very good,
Aviza Zoo Bots has been good, mostly defensively, and Marcus Morris.
Outside of that, we were talking about all season long, what's the Clippers
biggest advantage? Red they're death best bench in NBA history, scoring forty eight
points per game. Two six men on this team. Now when Montrez Harold
the most recently crowned six men of the year, they have gone from scoring
forty eight points per game to in this series off the bench, the bench
mob, whatever you want to call him, just twenty eight. So they're
missing twenty points off the bench now, and it's not an efficient twenty eight
either. They're taking more shots to get there, they're missing a lot of
them. So I mean that being said, and I agree with you with
Kawhi Leonard. Just let him, let him go to work because he will
always bail you out. And that being sad. We talked about this earlier.
I don't think you know, if there is a loss tonight, it
doesn't affect Kawhi Leonard one way or another, but it will affect Paul George,
it will affect Doc Rivers. Who do you think it affects more if
they don't get at least to the Western Conference Finals. I think it hurts
Doc the most because he's been up three one twice before in series. And
I've been getting a lot of calls about this on Clippers stock. Believe me,
we couldn't even put a guy on the other night. He was swearing
before while Kevin was screening the phone call for me, but three one when
he was with the Orlando Magic, they were up three games to one in
two thousand and three, yell on the Detroit Pistons. And then of course
in twenty fifteen with the Clippers, they were up three one against the Houston
Rockets. So he has a track record, and I'm not saying he's gonna
lose his job, And I would never call for anyone's job, And I
love Doc Rivers as a coach and as a man, and guy's got to
execute. You look and watch these games again, and what's happened in the
second half, they stopped playing the same way they were in the first half.
Is that on Doc Rivers? I don't think so. The game plan
was right, but guys stopped attacking. They had twenty eight points in the
paint in Game six in the first half, ten in the second half.
They stopped being aggressive. Players got to play, Coaches got a coach.
There's a lot of fingers to point, and there's gonna be a lot of
fingers pointed at a few different people if they lose in this game. But
again, I'm still confident. When you've got Kawhi Leonard, who's coming off
a forty one point Game seven with the game winner against the Philadelphia seventy six
ers last season, I think you got the right guy in a situation like
this, when your backs are against the wall. Well, the thing is
this, Yeah, they could lose, but really, at the end of
this, they can't lose. I mean, this would be, and I've
said it, an epic disaster if they cannot get to the Western Conference Finals.
I mean, just for what it means for the franchise in the city
that has worked so hard to increase their foot print. If they lose here,
this is as devastating as anything that has ever happened to them. It
would be the most disappointing season in the history of the franchise because the expectations
have never been so high, the promise, the hope that was brought to
this franchise when you got Kawhi Leonard, when you traded for Paul George.
I was at that press conference. I talked to you guys that day,
we were doing the show, and we all felt like, and I do
feel like, when this team plays at their best, they're the best team
in the NBA. The problem has been consistency. Consistency happens through chemistry,
through continuity. They haven't had enough of that. But they have to come
together right now. And there's one other situation that parallels this, and it's
what happened with the Boston Celtics back in two thousand and eight, the team
that would go on to win the championship, that was coached by Doc Rivers.
They went seven games in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks. That
was the one eight matchup. They went seven games in the second round against
Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and eventually that experience of going through and
being forged by fire worked out as they would win the NBA Championship. That's
my hope. All right, Clipper Talk or Clipper Countdown, will that I'm
Auslin. That's first five. Yep, he's not at five on the Patriot
Am eleven fifty. We'll have to call this game at six, and then
Adam will be along with the postgame show to either celebrate or drown in tears.
Either way, we're having Ralph Laller on post game, either to preview
the Battle for Los Angeles or well to help reason through what happened this season
with the Clippers and Roy La Sport, La Sport, La Sport. Thanks
for hanging Adam, all right, love you guys. Okay, Petro,
some money are getting ready to go at the top of the hour.