Well, the coward Bob Schmidt is running from the grinds and will not be
joining me postgame after his Cavaliers blue ate twenty six point lead to our Los
Angeles Clippers. Welcome back in this is Clippers Talk. I'm Adam Mosland.
Paul George had thirty nine, twenty three and the fourth and the Clippers came
back down twenty six in the last twenty minutes of the ballgame. Join the
show right now is will Updyke from Clips and Dip for some double dip here
on Clippers Talk. Will you know what, I won't read any of these
text messages I was getting from you and Chuck Macklin when they were down big,
because I think everybody was feeling like, oh, it's another Matt Nation
show exactly. That's what it was. I think the PG elite. Okay,
I'm not gonna read that. Let's talk about this Clippers team at how
they were able to do it. I mean, should anyone be surprised at
this point? Hashtag comeback Cliffs. They've been doing this for years. I
know it can be frustrated sometimes, and even Paul George postgame said it's not
ideal, but to know they still have it in them. It is meaningful
in a game like this where you're down big and they just showed some heart
out there in front of their home fans. Yeah, I mean, I
agree, it was absolutely huge, And honestly, they just kind of had
to tighten up on the defensive end and get out of their own way,
you know. Like I think that that's the thing that gets more frustrating,
more so than just like the sheer number of points they'll be behind. Is
like, like you said, you know, we've seen them do this time
and time again, so it shouldn't be surprising that they can come back.
But we also see them time and time again not really come out with the
right defensive energy or mindset, and just some sloppy play like when the turnovers,
when you have what like eleven or twelve turnovers at the half, I
mean, that's you know, that's just a recipe for disaster. Even though
this one had some sort of the hallmarks that we know to be a Clippers
win statistically, right like Terrence Man scoring in double digits, James Harden with
twenty points even though he was on a minute's restriction, like Zoo with the
double double, Like there were all these little things that like generally speaking,
when we kind of hit these benchmarks, we win, but just due to
the turnovers, like I said, in that lack of defensive consistency, it
was just, I mean, it's a hard position to put yourself in.
But all the credit in the world for overcoming that adversity and actually getting over
the hump and getting through that one. It. I got a little tense,
a little nervous about the late game execution when Paul George had that foul
with under a minute left to go to tie up the game on the Jared
Allen free throw, But again they came over it in PG more than a
race to that mistake in the final second of the game. I mean,
twenty three points in the fourth quarter in the arrayas shots he was hitting,
but just kind of the will and the drive he had to keep competing like
that. That was a poor defensive play. But then he had the block
at the very end on Darius Garland also to make up for it, and
he just looks so much more explosive out there. There was that back door
cut from him, I think early in the fourth quarter on the Mason Plumbley
pass for the big throwdown. Paul George is healthy again. I think for
anyone thinking that, oh he's washed, what was happening over that two month
stretch in January and February and him looking just lethargic out there scoring I think
only eighteen a game that's gone. Now PG thirteen looks like he's back at
the peak of his powers here will Yeah, I mean I agree one hundred
percent. And he talks about his postgame, you know what, like about
the when he was asked about the minutes load in that second half and he
said that he didn't see the point in coming off and being on the bench.
His body was warm, like you know, he wanted to stay warm.
His body felt good. So that's really reassuring news for Clippers fans.
And I think, you know, I was, I was somewhat hard on
Paul George during that stretches play, not so much the lack of scoring,
but just like what we were seeing on defensive bendom of the floor is just
was far below what we know that he's capable of and what is necessary for
this team to succeed. But you know, it's easy to overlook that he
you know, coming back from the groin injury. You know, that's it's
the injury that's five lines a lot of guys, and it's not as smooth
of a even if there's no you know, full terror or anything. It's
just it's not an injury that that there's like a real clear timeline on when
you're going to be back and when your body is going to be good to
go. And I think, you know, seeing this late season spur from
Paul George, I mean, I think this is just exactly what we needed.
You know, we talked about peaking at the right time, and Paul
George is doing that and the team is starting to coalesce a little bit better
together. I think it's impressive that they've been able to stack up some wins
even with the big dog out of the lineup. You mentioned Terrence Man earlier.
His last two games, he is fourteen of fifteen from the field,
with a couple of threes in there, and then just a relentless pursuit of
getting to the basket. And that is the Terrence Man that I love most
when he's cutting to the basket, when he's using his athleticism and showing off
the pop he has as one of the younger players on this team. To
me, those are usually trademarks of when you have a big comeback like this,
Terrence Man is involved. It happened again in this one. Also that
big three point or late that certainly helped. Oh absolutely, I mean Terrence
has been great, Like we know what he can do. It's great to
see him have a confidence back battling out there on both ends of the floor.
I don't want to say as great as Paul George was, this I
feel like was also a remarkable game for some of those role players. Norm
obviously we know what he can do, but Man and Coffee both hitting huge,
timely threes to keep the Clippers in this one, and that lineup I
thought was super interesting at the end. Two obviously hardened with the injury and
no Kawhi, so it kind of MUCKs things up. But Paul Joy George
with with Terrence Man, a mere Coffee, Russell Westbrook and Powell, I
thought like that, it's so small going against Jared Allen, but they were
able to make it work. I really applaud the I really applaud the rotation
decision there by Tyler as well. The Clippers were down by twenty six,
they win one, twenty to one eighteen over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is
Will Updyke. I believe we have a YouTube live coming up a little bit
later tonight with myself thirty PM and Big Chuck and Big Will at five thirty
at Clippers Podcast is where you're gonna find it on YouTube. Will, thanks
for doing this. We'll talk to you then. Absolutely dog you. SAMs