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Last time that I checked. A
win's a win, maybe kind of sort

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of, Well, you'd rather get
the victory and figure out the rest later,

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right, Clipper Nation, welcome back
in this is Clippers Talk. I'm

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out a Mosland after they figure it
out an overcome being down. I want

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to say it was eight or nine
points in that second half they win one

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oh one to ninety five over the
Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis. Coming up,

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we'll get back to your phone calls
at eight six six ninety seven, two

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five seventy. But first join the
show is Will Updyke of clips and dip

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fame. Will Uh? How do
you view it? Is a win a

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win? Or is this alarming at
all to you that the Clippers had to

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just scratch and claw their way to
a victory down the stretch against the Memphis

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Grizzlies. It's definitely not alarming.
I certainly wouldn't go that far. It's

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not you know, it's it's also
not a feather in your cap win wise.

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Look, I it's the second night
of a back to back, it's

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a an older team, and yeah, they had to grit and claw this

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one out. While Jaron Jackson had
an overall pretty good game against for a

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very like beat up Memphis squad.
Like this game was just if you enjoy

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aesthetically the game of basketball, This
was probably not your favorite game to watch.

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It certainly wasn't mine. But you
know, it does say a lot

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that they were able to get the
win. They were kind of able to

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switch the tides and turn things around. And that's what you have to do

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at the end of the day,
right It's about holding down that three seed

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and and just taking care of the
teams in front of you. The process

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in this one was you know,
it was awful. I don't even know

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what to say. I mean,
Kawhi had six turnovers. You know,

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it's difficult to in a game now
that it's like it's when it's the same

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to me as when shooters are insane
slumps. It's like, well, that's

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got to go back to the law
of averages. I can't be too upset

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about an ugly game. That's the
game on a back to back after the

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All Star break, And I think
that's something that's weird about this team is

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they're older. Every time I feel
like they get a long break, like

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we're like, uh, Clippers,
have you know, three four days of

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rest on the schedule, they look
worse. Am I wrong? No,

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They're not wrong at all. They
haven't looked right since the Grammy road trip.

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I don't know if they're still feeling
it, if they rode the highs

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a little bit too high there,
I'm not sure. I think they just

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need to get back in a tempo, because I do still think there's the

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situation going on where because of the
relative age and recovery of everybody, they're

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not having a lot of practices in
this all time and obviously an all star

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not at all, no one is. But I just think that they I

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think that what we're seeing these last
two games is actually pretty understandable. And

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I definitely had been on the side
of, like, you know, this

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is time to tighten things up and
want them certainly to look a lot better

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coming out of this long of a
break. But I think it also makes

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sense why everything looks so discombobulated,
and maybe even though you know, we've

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had a couple of bad losses against
higher seeds, it's not the time to

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panic like these are just old guys
that need to warm back up. Is

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that is that crazy? No?
I mean it's not crazy. I hope

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you're right. I would have thought
by now they'd be warm and ready to

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go. But Paul George and James
Harden have looked miserable the last two games

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outside of a couple of big shots
tonight, and you'll take that. You

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know it's there. They showed it
late. James Harden was zero for seven

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and knocks down that three pointer to
get them the victory. But those two

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have to be much better. And
that's why I said Terrence Man saved this

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game for the Clippers because Kawhi Leonard
needed help and he was the guy to

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supply it. Absolutely no season high
for Terrance, I mean he was I

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said, a lot of positives take
away from this one now is a huge

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positive. How active he was,
double digit boards, led the team in

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boards. I mean, just an
incredible Terence performance. But again I do

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want to say, like you know, one of the younger, younger in

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air quotes is he's not that young
guys on the squad is a little ready

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to go on the second night of
back to back. That's what you hope,

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right, That's what if you truly
want to be in that contender status,

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you need those guys who can do
that, and it's nice to know

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that the Clippers. You know,
while we might not get on a consistent

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basis, we do have those that
young talent that can step up even when

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nothing can seem to go right for
the Clippers. And you know, the

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word wonky is overused in sports,
but this was a wonky game. And

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I think it was because of a
few different reasons. One man got into

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a foul trouble when he was their
hottest player early on the first quarter.

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He has to go out Zoo gets
in a foul trouble. There's a tough

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whistle where the Clippers benefited at times
they got to the free throw line.

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It evened out a little bit later
on, but they were getting there more

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often in the first half. The
problem was I felt like it was almost

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taking them out of a rhythm.
I think at one point they went there

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four straight times. Mason Plumley was
living there. Then James Harden got there

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and they never really got their offense
in gear. But then you also have

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two players in a funk in PG
and James Harden, and that leads to

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a game that looks as sloppy as
it does. Maybe I don't know,

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but then there's one last thing to
throw into the mix for the wonkiness experimenting

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with lineups in the first half and
a bunch of guys playing next to one

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another that maybe haven't or haven't in
a long time. Considering PJ. Tucker

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got minutes tonight for the first time
since November twenty seventh, what did you

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think of those Tucker minutes? What
did you think of the lineups overall?

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Because it looked to me like coach
Lou was searching for something that he can

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use in March when he knows he's
gonna have to dig deep into his bench.

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Yeah, I mean, so the
one thing you didn't mention also was

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no Norm and that is huge for
this team. That is huge for this

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team. I thought one of the
brightest takeaways even though that in that loss.

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And okay, see was the good
small ball lineup. When I'm calling

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the good small ball lineup with the
starters, but with Norm the Powell Rangers,

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if you will, looked incredible,
that'd be said. Yeah, I

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mean, rotation wise, it makes
sense, and I agree with you both.

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I agree that he is searching for
something. I think it's it's also

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just a thing that he's he's got
to figure out. It's a very strange

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problem. I'm still not sure like
if you're going to PJ Tucker for that,

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like why Tyson isn't in there,
Like Plumbley has had a couple of

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stinkers lately, so it makes sense
to give it try it. And I

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also do think that PJ over Tysons
is probably the better locker room move he's

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been. You know from we hear
not of malcontent on Core or around the

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team, but certainly very vocal with
the media. And I do think we've

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discussed this. Look, I mean, unless we're adding somebody on the buyout,

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and unless we're I don't like we
materialize a wing at us somewhere,

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it's likely that PJ. Tucker is
gonna have to play some playoff minutes,

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and I just don't know how you
can expect that to be a possibility,

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I mean a possibility. I feel
like it's putting it lightly an inevitability and

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not have him play some minutes in
the regular season. So it was bound

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to be clunky and that look great, But I think the rebounds were helpful.

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And my thing with PJ Tucker is
like offense is gonna his offense is

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going to clog things up. There's
no two ways about it. Hopefully he

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can just get confident enough to at
least take shots, to at least make

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a defense think about it, and
then he has to be great. He

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has to be great on the boards. There's no excuse like that. If

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he wants a way into playing time, if he wants to be an integral

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part of you know what could be
a championship contending team, he's gonna have

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to do the dirty work. Oh
yeah, I think he's here for that.

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But your point is appropriate regarding him
having to be a threat from the

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outside at some point, especially if
he's gonna be in lineups next to Russell

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Westbrook and Mason Plumbley, which I
was scratching my head. I was scratching.

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I was scratching down to the gray
matter on that one. But it

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didn't kill them. It just felt
like they couldn't find any rhythm with any

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lineup, even the starters. When
they came back in, they had nothing

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out there. They looked like they
hadn't played together. The team just looked

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disconnected. Really defensively, going back
to the second half last night, with

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all those back cuts and easy dunks
by the OKC thunder That certainly carried over

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into this game. But it's been
a theme now if you look back till

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December. First, the Clippers were
eighteenth defensively heading into this game. We're

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talking almost three months now. So
I mentioned an alarming earlier. Will you

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kind of pushed that aside, But
what about this? What about this?

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The defense eighteenth over a three month
stretch? How do you remedy that?

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Yeah, that's a tough that is
a tough pill to swallow. That is

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lower than I thought, And especially
when the offense, oh my gosh,

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especially with how bad the offense has
looked. So I think that you're hoping,

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I hate to say, I think
that you're hoping that they're going to

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be able to get into that different
gear in the playoffs. But also,

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you know Zoo. I feel like
Zoo has only looked like Zoo that we

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knew before he went down for like
probably the first half of that Oklahoma City

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game, And that was certainly a
back and forth game. That was that

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that was a game that looks different, not defensive forwards, but they were

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they you know, it's Oklahoma City. They have a great offense. There's

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only so much you can do.
So I think fully fully healthy Zoo is

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gonna make a huge difference. And
then I do think there is gonna have

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to be there is like something is
just gonna have to happen with those rotations.

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And like, while the game got
away from them in Oklahoma, part

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of it was they had you know, they went on that stretch where they

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were like one of nine, like
they could not they could not get a

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bucket. So I agree. I
think this defense though, is a little

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bit built more for playoff offenses,
if that makes sense, when things kind

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of slow down, when things grind
a little bit. I see this as

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being a much better team there.
You know, we talked about like what

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OAKLAO or sorry Paul George was asked
like sort of what the Thunder did defensively

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to throw them off their game,
and they just talked about how physical they

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can be, and yeah, I
just think it's tough for a team,

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for a bunch of guys in their
thirties to try and get on that level.

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I certainly think though that well,
I don't want to say flip the

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switch, because you know, we've
heard from Kawhi, who is the by

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example leader on the team that they
have to be getting better every night,

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So I don't I wouldn't call it
a flip the switch. I would say

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it just needs a little bit more
time and a fully healthy zoo. And

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I do think, I do think
that they can figure it out. I

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don't know. I mean, no, I agree, use like ten or

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twelve, Like I think they could
be ten or twelve in the league.

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They are on the season, they're
right around there. And maybe you know,

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I haven't looked at their half court
defense over that stretch. To your

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point, they may still be top
five in half court defense, which means

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it's all about transition. Defense's letting
them down, being eighteenth since December first.

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Yeah, I mean those thirty points. That's been a through line for

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this team. That's been a through
line for the two and three era.

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And just you know, it doesn't
rear. It's ugly, had as much

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in the playoffs. It's just not
how games work. Yeah, No,

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that's fair. Last one for you
here will because this was blowing up last

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night. I thought it was much
ado about nothing when you read the quote

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in context. But how did you
feel about Kawhi talking about you know,

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being one through six and the goal
is to stay out of the play in

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and a lot of people said,
what the goals stay out of the play

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00:12:37,039 --> 00:12:41,039
and we got higher aspirations than that. To me, it sounded like he

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was talking about, you know,
basically, if we handle our business and

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continue to improve, we'll end up
where we end up. But it's all

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about focusing in on just getting better
each and every day. How did you

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see it? I agree one hundred
percent. Look, man, this is

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not a team that I like.
I don't want these guys worried about about

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seeding, like in some way that
should be company. Yes, we know

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historically you gotta be a top four
team. I think the Clippers' best route

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for this still won't be easy is
if they can be a top three team.

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But like I think the a that's
just very on brand for who Kawhi

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is as a person, Like he's
he's focused internally, like they're focused on

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development. They know they have a
long ways to go, but there's still

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so much potential there. So I
don't put a whole lot of stock into

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it. I like the context of
the second part of the quote, like

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they have to focus on getting better
every night, and you know, if

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it takes a couple of claw out
victories, it's heck. Even if it

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takes a couple of more games where
maybe they get blown out by better competition,

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as long as they can get there, as long as internally they can

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figure that out, then it's fine. I do ultimately think they'll figure it

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out, even if they go as
far as the four or five matchup in

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the first round. Like I think, as long as they can get things

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together, then they can get their
heads right and get the optimal version of

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00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:05,960
whatever this this, whatever you want
to call this era of two on three

199
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,320
together, I still feel very confident, you know. Yeah, Well that's

200
00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:13,960
well put. I like it.
I'll take it. You know what else

201
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,919
I like I just ran the numbers
while you were laying that out. The

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00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,080
Clippers are forty five and fifteen in
the last sixty games that Terrence Man has

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00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:26,519
started, going back to last season. Seems good. I love it.

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I love it. Well, thanks
for doing this tonight. I'm assuming maybe

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we got a YouTube live coming up
tomorrow with Chef Monckler as well. Maybe

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maybe come on, let's do it. Sounds good to me, all right,

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my friend, thank you, absolutely, thank you so much. Let's

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go clips coming up next. Back
to your phone calls eight six six nine

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eight seven two five seventy eight six
six nine eight seven two five seventy The

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Clippers, somehow, some I they
get a victory. What else matters surviving

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in advance? Like I said earlier, they went by six in Memphis after

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they were down six to the half, and yeah, I was calling them

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out on X that effort was poor, but the talent overcame the mistakes.

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Eventually, the execution is going to
have to be the thing they focus in

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on over everything else, because there's
a lot more talented teams out there than

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this beat up Memphis Grizzlies team,
including the Sacramento Kings. So the Clippers

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will see Sunday Night