Last time that I checked. A win's a win, maybe kind of sort
of, Well, you'd rather get the victory and figure out the rest later,
right, Clipper Nation, welcome back in this is Clippers Talk. I'm
out a Mosland after they figure it out an overcome being down. I want
to say it was eight or nine points in that second half they win one
oh one to ninety five over the Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis. Coming up,
we'll get back to your phone calls at eight six six ninety seven, two
five seventy. But first join the show is Will Updyke of clips and dip
fame. Will Uh? How do you view it? Is a win a
win? Or is this alarming at all to you that the Clippers had to
just scratch and claw their way to a victory down the stretch against the Memphis
Grizzlies. It's definitely not alarming. I certainly wouldn't go that far. It's
not you know, it's it's also not a feather in your cap win wise.
Look, I it's the second night of a back to back, it's
a an older team, and yeah, they had to grit and claw this
one out. While Jaron Jackson had an overall pretty good game against for a
very like beat up Memphis squad. Like this game was just if you enjoy
aesthetically the game of basketball, This was probably not your favorite game to watch.
It certainly wasn't mine. But you know, it does say a lot
that they were able to get the win. They were kind of able to
switch the tides and turn things around. And that's what you have to do
at the end of the day, right It's about holding down that three seed
and and just taking care of the teams in front of you. The process
in this one was you know, it was awful. I don't even know
what to say. I mean, Kawhi had six turnovers. You know,
it's difficult to in a game now that it's like it's when it's the same
to me as when shooters are insane slumps. It's like, well, that's
got to go back to the law of averages. I can't be too upset
about an ugly game. That's the game on a back to back after the
All Star break, And I think that's something that's weird about this team is
they're older. Every time I feel like they get a long break, like
we're like, uh, Clippers, have you know, three four days of
rest on the schedule, they look worse. Am I wrong? No,
They're not wrong at all. They haven't looked right since the Grammy road trip.
I don't know if they're still feeling it, if they rode the highs
a little bit too high there, I'm not sure. I think they just
need to get back in a tempo, because I do still think there's the
situation going on where because of the relative age and recovery of everybody, they're
not having a lot of practices in this all time and obviously an all star
not at all, no one is. But I just think that they I
think that what we're seeing these last two games is actually pretty understandable. And
I definitely had been on the side of, like, you know, this
is time to tighten things up and want them certainly to look a lot better
coming out of this long of a break. But I think it also makes
sense why everything looks so discombobulated, and maybe even though you know, we've
had a couple of bad losses against higher seeds, it's not the time to
panic like these are just old guys that need to warm back up. Is
that is that crazy? No? I mean it's not crazy. I hope
you're right. I would have thought by now they'd be warm and ready to
go. But Paul George and James Harden have looked miserable the last two games
outside of a couple of big shots tonight, and you'll take that. You
know it's there. They showed it late. James Harden was zero for seven
and knocks down that three pointer to get them the victory. But those two
have to be much better. And that's why I said Terrence Man saved this
game for the Clippers because Kawhi Leonard needed help and he was the guy to
supply it. Absolutely no season high for Terrance, I mean he was I
said, a lot of positives take away from this one now is a huge
positive. How active he was, double digit boards, led the team in
boards. I mean, just an incredible Terence performance. But again I do
want to say, like you know, one of the younger, younger in
air quotes is he's not that young guys on the squad is a little ready
to go on the second night of back to back. That's what you hope,
right, That's what if you truly want to be in that contender status,
you need those guys who can do that, and it's nice to know
that the Clippers. You know, while we might not get on a consistent
basis, we do have those that young talent that can step up even when
nothing can seem to go right for the Clippers. And you know, the
word wonky is overused in sports, but this was a wonky game. And
I think it was because of a few different reasons. One man got into
a foul trouble when he was their hottest player early on the first quarter.
He has to go out Zoo gets in a foul trouble. There's a tough
whistle where the Clippers benefited at times they got to the free throw line.
It evened out a little bit later on, but they were getting there more
often in the first half. The problem was I felt like it was almost
taking them out of a rhythm. I think at one point they went there
four straight times. Mason Plumley was living there. Then James Harden got there
and they never really got their offense in gear. But then you also have
two players in a funk in PG and James Harden, and that leads to
a game that looks as sloppy as it does. Maybe I don't know,
but then there's one last thing to throw into the mix for the wonkiness experimenting
with lineups in the first half and a bunch of guys playing next to one
another that maybe haven't or haven't in a long time. Considering PJ. Tucker
got minutes tonight for the first time since November twenty seventh, what did you
think of those Tucker minutes? What did you think of the lineups overall?
Because it looked to me like coach Lou was searching for something that he can
use in March when he knows he's gonna have to dig deep into his bench.
Yeah, I mean, so the one thing you didn't mention also was
no Norm and that is huge for this team. That is huge for this
team. I thought one of the brightest takeaways even though that in that loss.
And okay, see was the good small ball lineup. When I'm calling
the good small ball lineup with the starters, but with Norm the Powell Rangers,
if you will, looked incredible, that'd be said. Yeah, I
mean, rotation wise, it makes sense, and I agree with you both.
I agree that he is searching for something. I think it's it's also
just a thing that he's he's got to figure out. It's a very strange
problem. I'm still not sure like if you're going to PJ Tucker for that,
like why Tyson isn't in there, Like Plumbley has had a couple of
stinkers lately, so it makes sense to give it try it. And I
also do think that PJ over Tysons is probably the better locker room move he's
been. You know from we hear not of malcontent on Core or around the
team, but certainly very vocal with the media. And I do think we've
discussed this. Look, I mean, unless we're adding somebody on the buyout,
and unless we're I don't like we materialize a wing at us somewhere,
it's likely that PJ. Tucker is gonna have to play some playoff minutes,
and I just don't know how you can expect that to be a possibility,
I mean a possibility. I feel like it's putting it lightly an inevitability and
not have him play some minutes in the regular season. So it was bound
to be clunky and that look great, But I think the rebounds were helpful.
And my thing with PJ Tucker is like offense is gonna his offense is
going to clog things up. There's no two ways about it. Hopefully he
can just get confident enough to at least take shots, to at least make
a defense think about it, and then he has to be great. He
has to be great on the boards. There's no excuse like that. If
he wants a way into playing time, if he wants to be an integral
part of you know what could be a championship contending team, he's gonna have
to do the dirty work. Oh yeah, I think he's here for that.
But your point is appropriate regarding him having to be a threat from the
outside at some point, especially if he's gonna be in lineups next to Russell
Westbrook and Mason Plumbley, which I was scratching my head. I was scratching.
I was scratching down to the gray matter on that one. But it
didn't kill them. It just felt like they couldn't find any rhythm with any
lineup, even the starters. When they came back in, they had nothing
out there. They looked like they hadn't played together. The team just looked
disconnected. Really defensively, going back to the second half last night, with
all those back cuts and easy dunks by the OKC thunder That certainly carried over
into this game. But it's been a theme now if you look back till
December. First, the Clippers were eighteenth defensively heading into this game. We're
talking almost three months now. So I mentioned an alarming earlier. Will you
kind of pushed that aside, But what about this? What about this?
The defense eighteenth over a three month stretch? How do you remedy that?
Yeah, that's a tough that is a tough pill to swallow. That is
lower than I thought, And especially when the offense, oh my gosh,
especially with how bad the offense has looked. So I think that you're hoping,
I hate to say, I think that you're hoping that they're going to
be able to get into that different gear in the playoffs. But also,
you know Zoo. I feel like Zoo has only looked like Zoo that we
knew before he went down for like probably the first half of that Oklahoma City
game, And that was certainly a back and forth game. That was that
that was a game that looks different, not defensive forwards, but they were
they you know, it's Oklahoma City. They have a great offense. There's
only so much you can do. So I think fully fully healthy Zoo is
gonna make a huge difference. And then I do think there is gonna have
to be there is like something is just gonna have to happen with those rotations.
And like, while the game got away from them in Oklahoma, part
of it was they had you know, they went on that stretch where they
were like one of nine, like they could not they could not get a
bucket. So I agree. I think this defense though, is a little
bit built more for playoff offenses, if that makes sense, when things kind
of slow down, when things grind a little bit. I see this as
being a much better team there. You know, we talked about like what
OAKLAO or sorry Paul George was asked like sort of what the Thunder did defensively
to throw them off their game, and they just talked about how physical they
can be, and yeah, I just think it's tough for a team,
for a bunch of guys in their thirties to try and get on that level.
I certainly think though that well, I don't want to say flip the
switch, because you know, we've heard from Kawhi, who is the by
example leader on the team that they have to be getting better every night,
So I don't I wouldn't call it a flip the switch. I would say
it just needs a little bit more time and a fully healthy zoo. And
I do think, I do think that they can figure it out. I
don't know. I mean, no, I agree, use like ten or
twelve, Like I think they could be ten or twelve in the league.
They are on the season, they're right around there. And maybe you know,
I haven't looked at their half court defense over that stretch. To your
point, they may still be top five in half court defense, which means
it's all about transition. Defense's letting them down, being eighteenth since December first.
Yeah, I mean those thirty points. That's been a through line for
this team. That's been a through line for the two and three era.
And just you know, it doesn't rear. It's ugly, had as much
in the playoffs. It's just not how games work. Yeah, No,
that's fair. Last one for you here will because this was blowing up last
night. I thought it was much ado about nothing when you read the quote
in context. But how did you feel about Kawhi talking about you know,
being one through six and the goal is to stay out of the play in
and a lot of people said, what the goals stay out of the play
and we got higher aspirations than that. To me, it sounded like he
was talking about, you know, basically, if we handle our business and
continue to improve, we'll end up where we end up. But it's all
about focusing in on just getting better each and every day. How did you
see it? I agree one hundred percent. Look, man, this is
not a team that I like. I don't want these guys worried about about
seeding, like in some way that should be company. Yes, we know
historically you gotta be a top four team. I think the Clippers' best route
for this still won't be easy is if they can be a top three team.
But like I think the a that's just very on brand for who Kawhi
is as a person, Like he's he's focused internally, like they're focused on
development. They know they have a long ways to go, but there's still
so much potential there. So I don't put a whole lot of stock into
it. I like the context of the second part of the quote, like
they have to focus on getting better every night, and you know, if
it takes a couple of claw out victories, it's heck. Even if it
takes a couple of more games where maybe they get blown out by better competition,
as long as they can get there, as long as internally they can
figure that out, then it's fine. I do ultimately think they'll figure it
out, even if they go as far as the four or five matchup in
the first round. Like I think, as long as they can get things
together, then they can get their heads right and get the optimal version of
whatever this this, whatever you want to call this era of two on three
together, I still feel very confident, you know. Yeah, Well that's
well put. I like it. I'll take it. You know what else
I like I just ran the numbers while you were laying that out. The
Clippers are forty five and fifteen in the last sixty games that Terrence Man has
started, going back to last season. Seems good. I love it.
I love it. Well, thanks for doing this tonight. I'm assuming maybe
we got a YouTube live coming up tomorrow with Chef Monckler as well. Maybe
maybe come on, let's do it. Sounds good to me, all right,
my friend, thank you, absolutely, thank you so much. Let's
go clips coming up next. Back to your phone calls eight six six nine
eight seven two five seventy eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy The
Clippers, somehow, some I they get a victory. What else matters surviving
in advance? Like I said earlier, they went by six in Memphis after
they were down six to the half, and yeah, I was calling them
out on X that effort was poor, but the talent overcame the mistakes.
Eventually, the execution is going to have to be the thing they focus in
on over everything else, because there's a lot more talented teams out there than
this beat up Memphis Grizzlies team, including the Sacramento Kings. So the Clippers
will see Sunday Night