Clippers went one eighteen to one oh two here at Crypto dot Com arena.
Happy Halloween. I hope you didn't get any whoppers or mounds bars. Maybe
blessed with Reese's. That's what you need. Some sour patch kids. I
might be looking at some've been in Jerry's ice cream. Lator don't I deserve
it? Carlojmenez said I did, and he called a hell of a game
tonight. Carlo made it a Halloween special for everyone here at the crypton listening
on the radio. We appreciate you, guys. All right, let's get
to him. Chuck Mockler is joining us from CND. We did a podcast
an emergency one earlier today. I mean early. It was like eight thirty
or nine am. I still haven't recovered from that. I need naps now,
okay, But Chuck, it was fun earlier today talking an hour about
James Harden and then seeing him in the arena tonight. He's already got a
jersey waiting for him. I know the trade is still yet to be a
Maybe there will be another earthquake and then it will be although I hope not.
But uh, let's talk about this Clippers victory winning by sixteen after one
of the worst opening quarters I have ever seen in my seven years here with
the ball club. How'd you view it? I mean you nailed at what
were they won for eleven or something like that. Oh for eleven is start
four in the first quarter? Yeah, it was bad basketball on both sides.
I can't believe they ended up scoring one hundred and eighteen points after what
we saw in that first quarter. But I mean, I said this on
Twitter, but if if you sat through that first quarter, you were rewarded
with the best third quarter we've seen in a long time, especially from Paul
George and Russell Westbrook combined. That was when the Clippers really put all that
offseason talk, I think in front of everybody who was watching the game,
and said, we did come here to you know, right some of the
wrongs from last year with how we play in these games and you know,
bounce back from certain performances. And it was great to see Paul George in
that third quarter had fourteen points after having ten in the second quarter and was
just so silky smooth with it. Tonight. Tonight's one of those nights where
I say he looks like a six eight steph Curry at times with the handle
the shooting ability, went six of nine from the outside and just make it.
He made it look stepfordless. You could say, I'm not gonna say
that. You can say that all you want, but yeah, PG was
great thirty two minutes too, which is nice to see. He played the
whole third, which if you watched the third, that made total sense with
what he was doing. So happy he got that extended rep in the fourth,
and you know, Tyler said, we were gonna, you know,
they were gonna see how you know, Kawhi and Paul George felt, and
then well, you know they'll judge from there. But I have a feeling
Paul George is gonna want to keep his hot streak going, and I have
a feeling Kawhi Leonard's gonna want to bounce back from his potentially worse in game
of this whole year, even you know, in this early part of the
season. Yeah, we'll see what happens their first back to back. I'm
intrigued. They both played just under thirty three minutes. Bones Highland the same,
Russell Westbrook the same, just under there. Speaking of Bones, he
hit their first shot like in a night where oh, I don't know the
Clippers are er for eleven to start, Bones was still just fearless, like
he was still putting them up and feeling like that next one is going to
go in. That's one of the things I love about him and Bones having
seventeen on Halloween also seems fitting. Yeah, I mean it's funny looking.
I'm looking at the first quarterbox square right now and Bones and makely Clippers to
make shots in that for a quarter. So hey, we needed that fifty
percent from him. But he's I mean, you know, he's what.
He's the skeleton key to this team, as we I think said out the
other day on Clips and Dip like this, this young energy is great to
see. He's gonna get more playing time at least right now. We think
there's still some in limbo with these lineups, but he's doing everything he can
to make a strong case for more minutes even when James Harden gets on this
team. I thought Russell Westbrook had a hustle play in that second quarter that
just kind of embodied who he is since he's put on this Clippers uniform and
really who he's been in his entire career outside of that stint with the Lakers,
but he jumped out of bounds and saved a ball that was about to
go out of bounds, laid out for it a little bit, and then
on the other end Paul George had that crazy circus shot where he couldn't draw
the foul but ended up getting it to go. And then a possession or
two later, Russ was setting up the offense and made sure to get it
to a Viza Zubats on the low left block who got a layup. I
just he was started one for seven and then went seven of nine for sixteen
points in that third quarter alone. But he was first looking to get other
guys involved and make those hustle plays. And I think his spirit is something
that Clippers haven't missing since Pat Bev. Yes, that's been great. He
had. There was one rough possession. You know, you don't like to
see the zero four from three, but at the same time there was only
four. Well not that big a deal, but you're right, I mean,
this is he's doing everything we've needed since Pat Bev has been done right,
Like this is actually you kind of got to buy into this now.
You didn't think that Russ's energy was going to change the team. It's absolutely
made a difference. Other guys are feeling it. Bones gets to learn from
Russell Westbrook and stuff like that. So and with who we're playing tomorrow,
it's going to be interesting how he follows up this performance tonight. Now,
I believe Russ had that huge block early on on Man Carro also a bit
of a tone setter. As bad as the Clippers were in the first quarter
or the magic, they weren't much better. They only scored eighteen points.
You mentioned Kawhi Leonard struggling and maybe he'll want to get things back tomorrow against
the Lakers. But this is a team that has beaten the Lakers eleven straight
times. It's been different guys doing it. It hasn't just been Kawhi and
Paul George out there for all of those games. It's kind of a remarkable
winning streak. Not going to be easy on the second night of a back
to back, But just what are some of the things you're keying in on
seeing from this Clippers team in their first back to back opportunity. Well,
going for the Battle of Los Angeles, Well, we obviously, you know,
we hope more of the same from Paul George and Kawhi Zoo played twenty
two minutes tonight. I think they're probably going to lean on him for more
tomorrow, so I'm hoping Zoo can kind of I think at seventeen and thirteen
last time we played the Lakers, So I'm not saying this should be a
bounce back game for Zuo. He didn't have a bad game by any means.
She just only took eight shot still grabbed nine boards and had a pretty
assertive block late in this one. But I think he's gonna be key early.
We hope that his physicality without Fallon can be there. Bones starting is
going to be interesting to see again, you know, the Lakers are a
bigger team. And then off the bench, I don't know what his mits
are going to look like in a game against the Lakers, but Kobe Brown
has the highest plus minus of anyone on the bench for the Slippers and I
played nineteen minutes. Winning basketball is what he does and maybe fouls too much,
but he might get some run, I don't We We definitely need to
start a little hotter. I will say that then we did against the Magic.
But Kawhi is going to be motivated. I think he's gonna set the
tone defensively early and we're gonna get those Russ hustle plays. I'm hoping that
the energy isn't you know, too big for for some of these guys where
they're playing a little too tight from just being so you know, focused on
getting the twelfth win or something over the Lakers. But it'd be great to
go to and on this back to back. But I wouldn't be happy or
excuse me, I wouldn't be super upset if we if we end up splitting
with good process against the Lakers tomorrow. Right now, it looks kind of
like a schedule law given the guys that are not with the team in transit
due to the trade with James Harden. Just anything else you want to say
about James Harden that we didn't cover earlier today, Something during this game that
made you think about, okay, he can help in this area with the
Clippers. Well, we watched Russell Westbrook have an absurd third quarter tonight and
Paul George in a game where Kawhi Leonard went three of eleven, and we
just the Clippers just added another guy who can do things like that when two
of the stars aren't having a good night or one guy's not having a good
night. We got a floor razer if you were upset about the off court
stuff. At this point, we just have to go with it. We
have to move forward and hope for the best. This is his last best
shot at a ring. This is you know, some people say two three
one of their last shots at a ring. So hey, it's it's all
or nothing, so let's let's go for it. He is Chuck Mockler.
Follow him at Chuck Mockler on X and you can watch him on YouTube.
You on the cn D live feed. We did today talking about James Harden.
We'll have another episode coming up, I believe on Thursday. Charles,
thanks for coming on Clips and Dip for some double dip tonight here on Clipperstock.
Thanks for having me