Last time that check, Chuck, it was fine, chains on my neck,
It was no smut on mouths. You heard this one before. Clippers
win this time in Memphis one twenty eight, so one nineteen over the Grizzlies.
Clippers twenty two and six in their last twenty eight games, They've won
seventeen of twenty going back to December first, and eight of their last nine.
Welcome back into Clipper stock. I'm at a Moslin eight six six nine
eight seven two five seventy is the phone number, or get to me at
follow Adam A. But right now coming on from clips in Dip is Chuck
Mockler joining the show. At Chuck Mockler on X is where you find him.
Well, it was a nine point victory, not three, and the
Clippers did lead by twenty plus, but things got a little bit hairy,
I guess in that fourth quarter and the Memphis Grizzlies weren't exactly going away Chuck.
But still a good one from the Clippers with that high efficiency basketball and
just think to a level offensively right now that is hard to match. Yeah,
this one started out a little slow. Paul George again started slow,
but after that slow start was absolutely elite when it came to scoring the basketball
obviously, But yeah, the Clippers figured this one out. We kind of
talked about a little bit on our pod how it may have been a little
difficult to prepare for this game. If you're the Clippers, you're facing a
bunch of guys who are young and hungry and want to make a name for
themselves, and you know, schol they can play hard, and just like
the Rafters, it was a different pace to start this game. But this
is now two teams than the Clippers have come up against, and I think
last year they maybe split these two games, just just kind of with how
everything was going. This year, we're seeing them maybe get a little rattled
or maybe not come out as aggressive as they should, but then settle into
their good process and use that with the talent that they have, you know,
versus these teams that maybe they should take care of business against. Yeah,
and they had five turnovers in the first quarter, kind of stunting them
getting a lead early. They were a bit of their own worst enemy.
But as you mentioned, after Paul George missed his first two shots, he
was twelve for the next sixteen and went seven of ten from three, a
season high of thirty seven points, and I just ran the numbers. But
over his last seven games now he's at fifty five fifty one to ninety shooting
splits while getting almost twenty eight points per game. He's back to where he
was to start off this year. Yeah, he's peaking at the right time
for the Clippers too. Right, we're going into a two game series,
I guess, if you want to call it that, against the two of
the best teams in the Western Conference. We're facing the Timberwolves, who have
the best defensive rating, So the Clippers are gonna need all of Paul George
for that game on Sunday, and then against the thunder who could obviously put
up a bunch of points and aren't clouches on defense themselves. So Paul George
is playing fantastic. He's dribbling lest which we all like to see. It's
saving some people in the front row if we're getting hit with the basketball every
now and then. So it was awesome to see, and we got to
see a glimpse of kind of the no dribble threes that Paul George is getting.
Tyler dribbled up out of a time out early in this one, and
it just goes Paul George looks so comfortable out there, thanks in part to
James Harden. Yeah, he's making life easier for everyone. We talked about
on the podcast and I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but his catch
and shoot three point percentages is up ten percent, the amount, the frequency
of them. That's all due to James Harden, and that is a big
number and a big difference. And you're seeing it across the board because the
Clippers, very quietly, I guess, are creeping up on the Okase Thunder
to be the top three point shooting team in the league. They're just fractions
of a point behind them now, after the Clippers have shot I think forty
six percent from three over their last six games. And you know that has
been the one consistent, I guess, this identity of this team offensively with
coach lou they've always been great from beyond the ark. They've had a historic
season in twenty twenty one where they had a top five shooting season. I
think they ended up at like forty one point from three. That was an
all time mark in NBA history. This team, though, Chuck, they
might get better from the outside, they might even shoot it better than that.
Yeah, it's really surprising, especially if you look at you know,
uh, terris Man starts this season from three obviously was bringing things down a
little bit. Now it's helping bring things up. Norm Powell has been absurd
too. He's he's like Lou Williams two point zero almost. He just goes
out there and scores. That's all he really needs to do, and he's
doing a great job of it right now. So it is pretty astonishing that
with this mix of guys who you wouldn't necessarily consider, you know, shooter
at the top of their you know, trait list or something like that,
but they're getting efficient shots. The offense doesn't take a lot of shots,
but they don't really need to with how they're set up and the pace that
they want to play at right now. So it is surprising. But we'll
take what week and get and let's hope they kind of peep this up and
can peek at the right time later of the season as well. I think
Kawhi Leonard is at forty eight percent on catch and shoot threes. Paul George
is now at forty four percent as opposed to pull up three he's just thirty
six percent. For people who are wondering why you talk about catch and shoot
versus pull ups, it's a lot easier when you don't have to do it
off the bounce, and that is what James Harden has provided this team.
I thought Russell Westbrook had a nice bounce back game with twelve points, five
of ten shooting. He knocked down a three pointer as well, a couple
of nice assists I think, both of them to Big Zoo in this one,
but just a little bit more in control out there and a nice spark
for them, I think near the end of the third quarter where we're seeing
him paired next to Kawhi with Paul George paired next to James Harden. The
analytics say that's the way to go, and coach Lou spoke about it last
post game and said, yeah, he likes it as well. So they're
starting to figure things out with the big four too. Yeah. Who the
felks that a coach who appreciates analytics and using them would do that to the
betterment of a basketball team. That's a pretty cool thing to see Tyler do
for this two one three era a Clippers team. But and we again,
we got to get credit Tyler. He's plulling the strings at the right time.
He's stuck with that amre coffee tyst lineup tonight then did absolute damage and
kind of started everything for the Clippers in terms of pulling away from the Grizzlies.
So he's done a great job and if the analytics are in favor,
Tyler's probably gonna use it. Yeah. I just saw Justin Russo post the
lineups and the number one lineup in this game that was out there for twelve
minutes and eighteen seconds and we're a plus fourteen was James hardenex to norn Poal
a mere coffee, Paul George and Daniel Tice. That's kind of how they
opened up the game. So it's exciting to see how many different combinations and
still stuff they have to work through while winning the figuring this stuff out now
when before it took losses for them to make those adjustments. But this is
a special squad. What do you expect against them with Minnesota on Sunday,
As you mentioned, the best defensive team in the league, and it's not
just Rudy Gobert. They have a lot of guys that are playing great defense
and of course has been on a heater that has almost been of the Kawhi
Leonard variety. Yeah, you look at the Timberwolves just that they're starting three
four and five, and that's with the way this season is going. It's
the toughest three four and five the Clippers are going to go again so far
this year. Right, you have mc daniels in there and go Bert,
like, it's a lot of really really huge guys. Also Minnesota Timbins who
were playing great collective defense. So we need Paul George to be as best
as he can be and what he has been doing, and we need Kawhi
Leonard to set the town defensively. He has been doing that. But this
is gonna this game might have a bit of a playoff feel to it.
Both of these teams are playing so well. Everyone for the most part should
be available for this game. So I'm expecting two and three to keep doing
what they're doing. And this is you know, maybe the highest you know,
profile game for James Harden to kind of show what he can do.
Right, he's playing the number one defense. The last league of defense they
played was the Pelicans and the Clippers kind of dismantled them with that pick and
roll they have going on. So the Timberwolves are better than the Pelicans defense.
They're a lot bigger. Clippers have struggled against size. So we're gonna
need PG and Kauhi to be their usual selves, and we need Norm to
be hot in the first half. He's had a couple up and down games
in the first half. Yeah, we need the bench to really separate themselves
from the Timberwls bench early too. And if anyone out there is wondering,
Minnesota tonight won handily, won sixteen to ninety three at home over the Portland
Trail Blazers, where none of their starters had to play more than twenty eight
minutes. I was under thirty minutes, Paul George did hit thirty five,
but outside that, everybody else was below thirty minutes. So it should be
a very good test. On Sunday, tip off is at four. We
got you pregame show starting at three. He is Chuck Mockler. Follow him
at Chuck Mockler, one of the hosts on Clips in Dip and I believe
we got another YouTube live maybe even coming tomorrow. Chuck. Yeah, something
like that, something close to it. If not exactly what you just said,
I don't know if we'll have another giveaway. Do I have to give
away the Dragon Dagger? That thing was pretty expensive? But if the hey
you know what, Yeah, not yet, Okay, Okay, I'll wait
for that one. That'll be something. Uh we'll really push and uh use
a nice marketing strategy on Okay, Chuck, thanks for doing this tonight here
on Clippers Talk, my friend and that little tease for the Power Rangers.
We always love that. Thanks for having me. Let's go clip Clippers winning
again. They make it three straight. Eat it the Last Night nine with
a one twenty eight to one nineteen victory in Memphis over the Grizzlies. We'll
get your phone calls or back to them next eight six six nine eight seven
two five seventy eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy is the phone
number. More clipperstock next year on the M five seventy LA Sports