What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to episode what is this?
One? Forty three of the Clips Why Not of the Eclipse and Dip Podcast.
We are part of the two and three Hoops Empire. Shout out the
two and three Hoop's been putting out fantastic Clippers content for a very long time.
I am Chuck Bockler, joined by William Updyke and Adam Osland. We're
gonna be talking Game five preview, what the Clippers need to do to avoid
a sweep, some of this Paul George practice footage. Some the Suns had
a you know, an injury update which doesn't really help the Clippers out as
well. But we're live on YouTube right now at Clippers Podcast. If you
ever want to check us out at Clippers Pod. We are on Twitter at
clippers Pod. Got all the handles covered. But first, before we get
into it, Adam and will we haven't spoken since this weekend. Um,
Adam, I'll go with you because you're more optimistic and the other two of
your hosts myself included, how are you feeling on the eve of Game five?
You know, shockingly down? Bad? Guys? Just saw the injury
report. Sure, no Kawhi Leonard, No, Paul George, They're still
out. It's just been so frustrating. I know you said they got to
avoid the sweep. I guess as a gentleman's sweep if they lose in five,
But it's the level of frustration is extreme right now, just because the
injuries going on, how they've fought out there, how they've been able to
battle regardless of who is available, and this Sun's team is just very beatable.
Yeah, this is a very winnable series. They got the right matchup.
This was the preferred matchup. Turns out over the Sacramento Kings if they
just had one of their two guys, I think it's flipped the other way
and the Clippers with the team up three one. You know, it is
hard to watch this team being so undermanned in short handed yet again play their
hearts out and not get rewarded for it. The free throw discrepancy has been
extremely, extremely frustrating the Clipper Nation Sons with seventeen more attempts in Game four,
Russell Westbrook he has the second highest points total in playoff history without attempting
a free throw. With his thirty seven points, he drove to the basket
seventeen times and doesn't get a free throw. Kevin Rant drove twice and took
more free throw than the entire Clippers bench or the entire Clippers roster in Game
four. It's just it's been an unbelievably frustrating series from the standpoint of the
Clippers have hung tough, They've been right there. They haven't been able to
get victories the last three games, but they were all very winnable, and
the last two without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. It's just it's hard to
watch this team not get rewarded right now. I just feel for him,
and I feel for Clipper Nation. Not to add some fuel to your fire
for the refs, but I'm gonna go ahead and pick up a gas can.
Here I was wading. I was in another group chat around twenty five
percent of the Sun's points have come from free throws in this series, which
is pretty crazy to think about. And we're not just talking about, you
know, the piece of paper with the box score on it and just a
bunch of numbers the eye test matches it. I mean, there are people
have created accounts that have gotten run and gotten followers and I'm one of them,
just because they're posting all the miss calls by the Clippers in this series
are going against the Clippers in this series, it's it's been hard to watch.
There have been some blatantly bad calls. Is not just the take foul
that Devin Booker mean you No, it wasn't me. I don't have any
burners. I'm not Carl Tarder. Adams burners are all Adam Oslin because he
just switched the first two letters of his first and last name and he's like,
oh shit, Will, how are you doing? Are you in a
similar vein as them? Are you full of more rage? Where? You
know how before you freeze to that they say you feel really warm? Yeah,
that's kind of where I'm out right now. Look, I I mean
I think it would be absolutely like gutsy and so appreciated for this Clippers team
again down all of two, one, three, uh, to go back
to Phoenix get another win. Be very Clippers seeing it happen. Four yea.
In you know what I think for fans another forty eight minutes. Yeah,
but I mean, like in what I think for fans is, you
know, one of the most fondly remembered playoff series to spite losing in six
to the Golden State Warriors. Um, I think it'd be absolutely great.
But I'm just at the point where, um, I'm liking the PG footage.
I'm just we'll talk about talking, but I mean nowhere that I'm seeing,
am I like really getting a strong in cleaner indication that it's like,
Okay, if it goes one more game, maybe then you know it's it's
not feeling like that for me right now. So I'm kind of like I'm
a little zend out on it to be perfect announced. And I'm not saying
that I think a win is impossible by any stretch of the mind. Um,
but I'm saying from what we've heard so far where these how these injuries
are progressing, it seems like it's just a matter of time until it's kind
of curtains. Uh. That's not to say that it wouldn't be enjoyable or
that like Clippers get this win, they you know, they force another game
back in LA that you know, maybe they you know, maybe they could
they could do something crazy at home and you know, the role players would
finally bounce back in the right direction and everything could click, you know,
like the the margins on these games, you know, with the exception of
that Game four, like you know, have really been quite close. So
it's not out of the quality. Yeah, there's just been too many close
games that in no absolutely no fault to the Clippers. I mean they're doing
that's all they can than some other than some you know, questionable rotations and
stuff in that in that Game four. But you know, I think they're
really they're giving it their best shot that they can shorthand it. And I
think that if the Cavalry isn't coming um, like I said, it feels
like it's just a matter of time. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It
started the podcast off on it. If they don't get Kauhir Paul George Back,
I said it after game two and we got the news about Kawhi and
we did the emergency podcast. If they don't have one of those guys,
they can't win the series against the Phoenix Suns. It would be a miraculous
come back, not just coming back down three to one, but to do
so without your two best players. Yeah, that's something we've never seen before.
Yeah, and so we did get the PG practice footage today. That
was the most he's been moving. Um Kawai did not practice today. They're
both listed out on the injury report, so barring some late injury port shenanigans
which have happened before, these two guys are out. But the practice footage,
you know, I think, hey, if we go to six games,
maybe he comes back. He's definitely I think he's up to us.
What his Wes Johnson portion of the recovery where he's like kind of playing one
on one against Clivers assistant coach Wessey Johnson. But he's definitely moving more than
he was. I would feel better about it if we weren't down three one.
But Adam, where are you? We know you love practice footage,
be at stationary or moving. He look I was hopeful after we saw Paul
George shooting around and then a few days later he was moving and getting his
cardio up. Today he looked amazing. It's still just practice footage, though,
I don't know how much that means he's close to actually playing in a
real game or what's the proto call on the ramp up process exactly all the
steps he has to go through. Is it beating all the assistant coaches.
Is it like Mike Tyson's King of the court with then he gets out and
played. He's got to play the announcer, he's got to play Donnie Mack.
He's gotta beat his guys on the podcast. Yeah, Well, when
we're going to talk about their podcast later. Because there was an insane interaction
on that, I thought, Um, I actually have a theory that the
only reason we got such good footage of Paul George at practice was because the
Clippers knew he was going to be held out, but they just wanted to
give some hope from the practice footage. That's my tinfoil hat theory. Well,
did you think he was coming back at all when he saw that footage?
Or do you think if they if this goes to six m do you
think we get a designation change? Not even is he gonna play? Do
you think the designation I mean dobtful. Look, I tried to find something
for people. I thought he was ready to come back when I saw the
heart rate monitor all right, when I saw him being around with the heart
ray monitor on, I was like, Okay, we're gonna go like the
soreness in swelling him all be control like must be well enough under control.
Rangelmotion seems good enough for him to be moving around out there. So yeah,
Like I don't think it's out of the possibility, but it's just how
long can you hold on? And then you know what level when he returns.
I think any level of Paul George, you know, obviously significantly still
can swing things in the Clippers direction, even if he's fifty one percent of
himself. But you know, it's the waiting game is not going to go
the Clippers way. Much like the free throw disparity, which Clipper Kyle pointed
out on Twitter. I think it's like fifty one. It's it's like plus
fifty one attempts. Let me bring up the comment it's seventy three to thirty
five the last two games alone, seventy three attempts thirty five for the Clippers,
So more than twice as many, Yeah, for a jump shooting team.
Like I don't want to be labor it. I don't want to extend
the conversation. But your other people, other people, we're talking about it,
and it seems to be a storyline in this series. They made the
rules. When do you see a team get forty six free throws. I
guess it's fair game than to bring it up because they talked about it first.
Yeah, absolutely, like this is not anything that, This isn't anything
crazy like. And again we're not getting blown out. It's not like these
arguments don't even have a place because I'm usually not on the blame refs.
I'm usually not a blame refs guy when these are close games and you're already
down to guys and the difference is so big and you get these stats like
that Westbrook when you said it's hard to not be frustrated by it. Well,
and so one thing I'm gonna say too, is because like, obviously
you know, the officiating completely, you know, for the most part out
of your control. Obviously you can try to do a better job defending without
fouling, which I do think the Clippers have. You know, in the
Sun's credit, the Clippers have had issues at doing at times. Do I
think it's to the level of how large the disparity is. Absolutely not.
But I think even even beyond the points which obviously hurts, like the times
some of these fouls are coming, like you know, they're total momentum killers,
and you can, I mean, everybody has been shipping in so hard
that you don't really see it, but you can feel a little bit of
air come out of the balloon, like it's gonna be time. There's like
a momentum shifting. Horrible. If you've ever been on a team, I've
been on bad sports teams before, and it's pretty fun. But when you're
on a bad sports team and you're playing a game and the refs are also
against you, shit becomes real frustrating. And imagine if your two best guys
are out and you are you know what I mean, Like it's it's a
nightmare, Like you're totally right, dude. It plays a part in just
the frustration of it. Part of the problem for me in Game three,
especially with the forty six free throw attempts for the Phoenix Suns, was some
of those calls. The bad calls early on in quarters led to them getting
in the bonus earlier to when there were legitimate calls that should have gone against
the Clippers. They also were compounding things because now they're in the penalty and
they're sending guys to the line, even though yes, that was the correct
call, had they not made the brutal calls against them earlier in the quarter,
they wouldn't have been in the penalty. And I saw this from Joey
Lynn on Twitter. Drives this series Russell Westbrook fifty three, Devin Booker forty
seven, Kevin Durand twenty five free throws this series, Kevin Durand with twenty
five drives is at thirty eight attempts Devin Booker with less drives on Russell Westbrook
by six. Is at twenty nine attempts Russell Westbrook with six more drives to
the basket so far in the series, has attempted twelve less free throws at
seventeen than Devin Booker. It's just the aggressor is not being rewarded on the
Clippers side. It almost feels like the umpseray to go home, you know,
when there's a call out that's way outside and they're just like, yeah,
it's six six one in the night. Yeah. I know. It's
improbable for the Clippers to win this series without Collide. Paul George, I
don't think it could happen either, the winning three more games without those two
against the Phoenix Suns, But that doesn't mean it needs to be more of
an uphill battle. For this Clippers team and the heart they showed and just
not even getting calls at home, not getting the beneficial whistle ever at home.
I thought my provision was, and that's the ref uniform, Like,
what do we got to do out here? I thought in Game four it
would be the makeup game for the Clippers after so much was getting made of
Game three. I've seen that so many times in a seven game series to
where somebody complains Rick Adaman goes after the Lakers, that Bill Jackson goes after
the Kings, and it goes back and forth like that. Mostly just goes
back to the Lakers game the calls, but still it happens, and it's
not for the Clippers. We also didn't get, you know, we also
didn't get those performances out of other role guys in that Game four, And
that was absolutely brutal, which is so hard like that, that's what's brutals.
The one. The thing about being great in the NBA is how consistently
you can be great. A lot of these guys. Random people have fifty
point games. It just happens. Random people have forty point games and stuff
like that. But yeah, there you go to do it consistently and in
the playoffs is what makes players like PG and Kawhi and KD and Book so
good. And when you don't have that, you can get these peaks of
the Clippers have gotten. We got forty from Norma, we got the We've
had the best version of Russell Westbrook in the last five ten years. And
it's still not enough without without those two kind of guys, which is is
there anything else we want to say before we get into them? And weirdly
and this is like not even meant to be a dig at Russ, but
post game one he has been the most reliable and kind of clute guy,
which yeah, again no shade to the man, but like you know that
that's not enough to get you through a series against these Phoenix Suns. The
last thing I'll say is that account I was talking about that was giving video
of all the bad calls. And this may trigger some at playoff Shay sh
but he put together a thread of them. You can you can just point
to the piece of paper and look at the disparity, but it's another thing
when the video matches it. And some of these fansom calls, like the
one on Bones in game three, I forget. It was a game I
think was last game that Russ hadn't they called a foul. Yeah, not
even close to a foul. There's too many of those happening. So yeah,
we can. We can table it. We're tabling it. We're coming
up. We're gonna talk the actual basketball game. We're not going to talk
about the refs at all. We got ads coming up. They've been a
little lone for some people. So if that's true for you, if you're
just listening, if you're not watching, go ahead and turn it down.
Ads coming up, and then series, hopefully not the end of the series.
Preview coming up in three two one Welcome back in Clips and Zimp episode.
Where are we at? One forty four? Three? We almost forty
three. We almost have a load of laundry ready for in terms of episodes,
I'm jumping ahead a little bit. My bad. Well, you don't
read the breakdown so that we had a little of laundry and I ate ate
the tide pot. Apparently now I'm looking at it right here. Okay,
coming up, we're gonna talk about podcast P as we teased earlier. I
listened to the new episode today, but here in this segment. We can
talk a little bit about what has to go right for the Clippers to win
Game five based off of what we've seen so far in this series, for
instance, and Chuck, we talked about it on the Clips and Double Dip
the other night most game on Clippers Talk, I asked you what rotations you
wanted to see, and one of the things we came to the conclusion of
it is just play Terrence Man thirty five plus minutes playing forty minutes empty the
clip with Terrence Man, let him go, let him run. We're gonna
see one of the biggest kind of what I like, what what's up?
We're what's happenings? If Terrence Man doesn't get over thirty five minutes tomorrow,
it's gonna make absolutely no sense. It's the potentially the final game of the
season. Terence has been lighting it up. He's been what we need him
to be. Um, there's just no reason to not play Terrence Like,
I don't know, Will Like, what do you what do you think his
minutes are gonna be? I'm pulling up um the stats right now and stuff,
But what are your thoughts on Terrence? I mean, beyond the beyond
the minutes. If he's not in the starting lineup, it's a failure.
Like just it's a failure. We know, we like, we know what's
working with this team. Uh like it even has worked with Russell Westbrook.
I don't see it being a large enough detriment to the bench. I understand
some of ties hesitancies to to keep Marcus with that starting lineup. We're due
to some of the issues that his defense and everything else creates on the bench.
Great, cut him out of the rotation, then how about that your
face element? Yeah, get him out. Terrence is at twenty six minutes
per game in these playoffs, which is well when he should be playing at
least thirty six. He's only playing three more minutes per game than he did
in the regular season, which is absolutely insane. You consider that we're out
Paul Georgian Kauhai, so rotations are already cut down by two guys, and
Margus Forrest didn't play the first two games. Like we need more Terrence Man.
I don't know what else really to say, Adam, would you like
to preach more from the book of Man? I would give my rib to
create another Terence Man like. I love Terrence Man. I think they're always
better when Terrence Man is on the floor. Everybody in Clipper Nation seems to
agree on that. Outsiders, there's a national narrative. If you listen to
Zach Low and appreciate his commentary, he's identified Terrence Man is just a winning
player, making winning plays, regardless of what the stats say. Those chunky
box scores, as you like to put it, chuck sometimes from him.
Regardless, he's just typically a plus out there. What was he a minus
two in a game they lost by twelve something like that? Last game?
He was good and he helped swing the game back in their favor after they
were down big early. They ended up winning that first quarter. Marcus goes
out, Terrence Man goes in, and he made winning plays. He helped
get the game point in the right direction for the Clippers, who have shockingly,
I think they've outscored. I think they're like a plus twenty four plus
twenty six in first quarters so far in this series through four games. You
want to talk about changing a narrative on something that was just abysmal for them
all season long, struggling to get off to good starts. They've gotten them.
They have and that makes it even more confounding that they've lost the last
three games. Start Terrence, why not The other note that I haven't here
is stopped playing Marcus Morris at all. Yeah, let's stop that. But
that's not gonna happened. Tylu said this today and the practice presser, and
I'm sorry, I'm laughing. I'm talking about it, but it feels like
an AI generator response. Um. He said, first of all, he's
played good against Phoenix in general, but he's fifth all time amongst guys who've
taken at least one hundred shots in the playoffs and three point field goal percentage.
That feels why is why does Tyler have this in his pocket? I
think it's going to be criticized for it. Well, just like, oh
yeah, yeah right, this statement because you know, bad like because after
game four he was asked about Terrence or excuse me, Marcus Morris, and
all he said was because I felt like it. Basically, I'm rephrasing a
little bit, so I think he wanted to come with something more substantive today.
I can't defend it feels the amount of field goal attempts was absurd too.
I just I understand giving him an opportunity like that in Game four,
but when it's obviously not working and he's looking the exact same way he has
the last three months. I said at the half on Twitter, he's a
minus fourteen and fourteen minutes out there. I don't always trust the plus minus,
but it matched the eyeball test. They made all their runs without them,
The Phoenix Suns made their runs win. He was on the court,
he was bad. He couldn't shoot the ball. There was a play in
Game three when he came in and played a little bit, and I was
watching him closely because we have speculated Marcus just doesn't look right. It may
not just be an age thing, because his numbers took a precipitous slide right
after that game against the Los Angeles Lakers where he had the rib injury,
because that month he was still shooting thirty six percent from three. He wasn't
awful. The month before that he was still at forty percent from three,
and then all of a sudden, since then, he's basically been at thirty
percent from the outside, which feels high. Yeah, if I'm being on
it, it does. But I watched him in a play in Game three,
not the game he started, but in Game three, there was a
loose ball in the back and he went to try to pick it up and
it looked like he was And I'm not being flipping, I'm not being sarcastic.
I'm not trying to be funny about it. Nice person on this spot.
So I'm just reporting on what I saw in the arena on that play
as I was watching Marcus closely, it looked like he was having trouble bending
over to pick up the basketball and somebody else from the Clippers came up and
got in the back horn instead. That's what I saw Garden Durrant that play
when he fell, when he was Gardened Durant, that wasn't it. I
just got, you know, completely shook out of my shoes fall that.
Oh man, he did get shook. But does that's very fair. It's
just like, if he's starting tomorrow, there's been a lot of I feel
like the if there were a word cloud for the Clippers twenty twenty two twenty
twenty three season, the word unserious would be one of the bigger words in
that word cloud. If Marcus Morris starts tomorrow in what could be the Clippers
final game, it's the most unserious move of the year, I think,
I mean, I don't know will I mean, look, he took more
three point attempts than any other player that you know. They it's I understand
riding with a player to a certain degree, right, maybe not Morris,
and then he got off the ride because we did, yeah, like get
like, given what we've given what we've seen this season, Like I understand
maybe not riding with Morris, but I understand in general the idea of,
hey, we know what this guy is capable of, we know what he's
done before. But in that game, he was given every single opportunity right
there was I feel like there was no stone left unturned if there was,
you know, like any lingering old Marcus to be to be discovered or uncovered
somewhere, and this is what we got. And I mean it pains me
to say it because I thought, you know, I thought, if he
was in a good shape for this season coming into this year, I mean,
that lifted this the Clippers ceiling considerably. Unfortunately, where he's at right
now, he lowers the floor considerably for this Clippers team. And I just
don't know, like I just don't know if it was if it was a
performance where he had started. We did it in a limited stretch. He
only had to say four or three, like, he took half the amount
of shot attempts. He took more threes once again than any other player on
the Clippers roster. He hit one of a twelve point five percent. I'm
just I'm not banking on the reverse of that, you know what I mean.
I'm not banking that if he does that again, he's suddenly going to
be six of eight or seven of eight or something other worldly. I think
right now, Marcus is what he is, and I don't know best negative,
Yeah, and I hope that's something that can change with a healthy offseason,
maybe dropping some more weight, maybe you know, working on conditioning and
stuff. I don't know. I can't think about that right now. All
I can think about is the Clippers facing elimination. There's no way that you
can feel comfortable rolling into battle if you ten, if you want to attend
to win this game like and playing Marcus Moore's those kind of minutes giving him
those short of opportunities. The thing is Game four was basically a must win
if you are going to win the series. I think you much hadn't having
tied up must wins. You had to. You had to at least split
at home to keep this seriality. And I again understand trying him because we
wanted to see, Okay, has something changed with the time off? Is
Marcus healthier now? But when he looks exactly like he has over a three
month sample size and Terrence Man comes in and gives you that lift and gives
you that spark, you gotta roll with him. I thought he might go
to Terence Man to start the second half after Marcus was a minus fourteen in
his fourteen minutes. And I'm not trying to be harsh on Marcus. Something
doesn't look right. It just does her. No, it doesn't. And
that's what I'm saying, Like, I don't you know, I'm not saying
this is like an indictment necessarily honest of his career. I think it's definitely,
you know, if the Clippers are eliminating Game five, certainly a very
big question and a tough question that the Clippers have to ask themselves. But
right now, where he's at, what he can provide is not enough.
It's just not good enough. And I think the thing that's been so confounding
and frustrating about this team all year long is that every time we think we're
starting to turn or a corner, like with the rotations, with effort,
with whatever you want, it's like one step forward, three steps back.
Man. We got Marcus out of the lineup. He didn't play in the
first two playoff games. I thought that we had figured something now that was
gonna work. And apparently not, Like, apparently the evidence isn't strong enough.
Apparently, But I don't know if it's I don't know if it's just
the coaching staff, or if it's the locker room or like, who is
all calculated in those decisions, But for some reason other people are not quite
convinced yet, And I'm not sure what else it could possibly take at this
point. I mean, all I know is if he rolls out there where
so I was here, I'll go ahead at him. Here's what I don't
get if we're still talking about Marcus here, Yeah, go for it.
The game that he was taking out of the rotation was against the Pelicans and
an almost must win situation. At the time, we thought to stay out
of the play and not the final game against the Pelicans, but the Saturday
before at home and Coach Lu, who I love, but I have said
all season long, you know, Coach Lu, in the playoffs, it's
going to be a different animal. You'll see those rotations tighten. And for
the most part, he's made some great moves. Everybody else said in Game
one, you can't keep playing Russell Westbrook. He's stuck with him. It
is paid dividends in a huge way and is the biggest reason really the Clippers
are still, you know, have a fighting chance because Russell Westbrook through and
that's a huge crisis. Highlu, Right, Like, that's what I'm saying
for his guys. He rides for his guys, and I think that that's
great until but there is a double edged sword to that, Like there there
is the flip side of that. Well, also what's so tough is that
it wasn't working form at all, Like but Tom offensively, offensively, it
wasn't working because he couldn't get into a rhythm. He said, you just
kind of stay in the corner of defensively has been phenomenal, which is why
it's like, then we need him out there for that side. Well,
that's we need the firepower though, like we can't have guys who who are
unable to contribute on both ends of the fast this team, they scored one
hundred and twenty five points in Game three with Nicholas but Tune playing minutes.
I don't think like the firepower isn't also having Marcus Voris out there going one
for eight from the outside. The firepower would be Robert Covington, who has
had the best three point percentage on the team since March. His last twelve
games, he has shot sixty one percent from three mark Robert Covington, So
it's not like you don't have options with The thing with Rocco that gets me,
which is funny, Well, we've talked about this. Rocco has been
bad on one on one defense lately. He's been bad at it. It's
been really bad. He gets blown by. But if Tyler's doing these five
you know, these things where it's like, hey, we're not going to
be able to beat him on defense, we might as well try and get
some offense out there. All things considered, and the current version, Roko
should be over Morris because at least Rocco has some track record well and he
is a better defender around the rim. I'll give him that too. Like,
if you want to run out those four guard line apps, makes a
whole hell of a lot more sense to do it with Roco than to do
it with Morris. At this point, He's a much better defender than Marcus
Morris. No, he's getting deflections. He may be slow foot, everyone
talks about his one on one defense. Okay, he's still competing against Rand's
out there. He's still much better right now. I don't know what's happening
with Marcus. What I can't understand is and I love coach Lou and I
hope he's here for another decade because I believe in him, and I believe
the way he goes in rotations and has that coaching advantage over the guy across
the way from him on the court. Because look, Monnie Williams. I
was listening to a Sun's podcaster earlier today talking about the shortcomings of Monnie Williams
and how it took him them losing Game one basically because of that stretch where
he had Devin Booker on the floor with four role players, something that he
had been doing all season though, and was getting killed. So every coach
has their blind spot. Every coach has their issue. But my problem is,
and this was the game that Marcus was pulled after this from being in
the rotation that game against the Pelicans, it was against Brandon Ingram and Marcus
Morris was out there, starting defender against Brandon Ingram. How can you keep
talking about having a defensive mentality to start ball games and Marcus Morris is on
Brandon Ingram and you know what happened. Look, it's just he can't guard
him right now. Not many can. Marcus Morris definitely can't in the condition
he's in. He gets cooked on him, and then they try to move
on to Trey Murphy the third he ends up getting hot from the outside.
He hits ten three pointers and the Clippers could never shut the faucet off after
that. They lost that game by twenty one points after a hot shooting first
quarter where they just went right at Marcus Morris. I'm not blaming him,
and I understand it to a degree with coach Lew he trust him, He's
loyal to his guys, but in this case, backs against the wall,
I just want to see Terence Man get thirty five forty minutes. So this
is what my next point to kind of talk about for how the Clippers can
force Game six is the starters can't leak as many points as they've been leaking.
I know it's gonna be hard for the starters to win their minutes,
obviously, but if you look at the team's plus minus data, the worst
offenders are the guys who've started Norm is it zero, So he's literally a
net neutral. But Marcus Morris, who started two games and for all we
know, is starting tomorrow, I don't know, there's nothing really to lead
us to believe that he won't. He's a team worst minus thirteen. Zoo
who's been rough minus nine and a half, Nico minus nine, Russ minus
six and a half, Gordon minus five. So like the Clippers starters,
I think Joseph Fry Award said this, if the Clippers starters can lose by
like just five, like five to seven, then this bench has a chance
to kind of make things happen. But well, it all depends on what
campaign, because it's possible. We haven't even talked about that. With campaign
coming back, I think if that changes things, but I would say prior
to that, you know, money Williams did adjustice bench, but I would
say, like if the starters could keep it in just sub ten, right,
like just a sub ten differential, I think your bench can you know,
over the course of you know, however many games that sends up going
can still win you those minutes, because I do think the talent is that
deep. Yeah, but yeah, that changes a little bit with campaign back.
I think that that's going to be a hard cover. You can't cover
anyone though, attack campaign go right at him. He can't guard anyone but
the campaign. Yeah, we we that's a fact. We just can't train
buckets though, and I feel like that that has been some of the emphasis
and some of the lineups. Two, it's sort of like bucket getters when
it's like, okay, guys, we're actually down like three possessions, just
trading buckets. Someone's getting the work from here on out, because that's what
they wanted. Towards the end of Game four, you could kind of tell,
right like if the Clippers weren't hitting three as the Suns were perfectly content
to let the Clippers get to the rim and get their layup and it would
be good, and then the Suns would come down and pretty much have an
exact answer for it. So yeah, campaign, he's probable. He's probably
coming back on that one. What's interesting, a lot of those negatives in
there from the starters. It's happening in the second half because they are winning
the first quarter one every first quarter, I believe so far in this series.
But as time goes on, and this is kind of the battle and
race against time against this Sun's team. As the game goes on, you
know, you get a larger sample size and the talent just overcomes the Clippers
eventually, the talent discrepancy and the same thing is going to happen in the
series that way, because they're building up a little bit more continuity, a
little bit more familiarity, chemistry, and meshing a little bit more out there
the Phoenix Suns are, even though yes they're playing heavy minutes, I'm not
sure in the first round, which is having two days off, that's going
to affect them that much. In Game five, could they be doa against
the Denver Nuggets should they move on to the second round. Maybe, I
think it catches up with them eventually, but I don't know if the Clippers
are going to be the team to benefit from it enough. Yeah, your
boy, Greg asked on the stream, do we think it's too late?
Even if you put Terence Man on the starting lineup, it depends not to
win a game a game, but I mean two Adam's point, Like,
you know, we talked about coming into this series, especially down Paul George,
and I mean before even Kawhi went down, it was in the Clippers
best interest to say, if they were going to win this one, to
get out of it as early as possible, before this Sun's team really had
a chance to get together. And now, I mean you're looking at optimistically
seven games if the Clippers are going to make a rally in this one,
and I mean that raises serious questions. Even if we get one of our
two stars back, right, Like, with that much more continuity, sure
it'll be a different Clippers team. And I'm not saying that it wouldn't wouldn't
obviously be a huge advantage. There's no way to say that it wouldn't.
But that much more time for this Sun's team that had all of eight games
prior to the playoffs, that's a huge difference. I mean, them playing
essentially double the amount of games now playoff tested is a different team than we
were looking at coming into this series and to get okay, So who's gonna
cool off all the SUPs? Tory Craig has a cool off at some point.
I think I don't know about that, but that's why I said,
I think, like how many points to the Clips got a score to get
this up, because I had the line of one fifteen. If the Clippers
can't get near one fifteen, it's tough. I think probably one twenty.
Yeah, minimum was just not easy to do, even against a Sun's team
that hasn't been amazing defense of Lee. They gave up one hundred and twenty
four points in Game three. The Clippers were able to score on them.
It was about slowing them down mostly in the second half, and they just
weren't able to during stretches in the fourth quarter and third quarter when they were
taking free throws a ton of them. It's hard. Well, I want
to go back to the starts with a little bit because we haven't talked a
ton about Zoo, and Zoo last game was getting part of it rightfully,
so a bunch of hate. He finished with four and nine twenty four minutes
twenty two minutes on four twenty the day before. But it's just he doesn't
look the same. I don't know if it's just playoff basketball, but he's
a starter anyway, so he's he's playing starters. Like is it fatigue?
What is up? Because he's not helping us. After we argued with Carl
Tart, he was he's a top ten regular season center, I think,
but right now it feels like the playoffs or maybe it's just his version of
the Clippers. Maybe he's tired of yet another you know, absence filled so
to speak, post he's run for the Clippers. I just think he's overthinking
things too much. There's too much on his plate, responsibility wise, on
both ends, and it's getting the best of him. I wish he had
more responsibility on offense. Well, but then they have eight turnovers trying to
get the basketball to him the other night, Like, yeah, you know,
it hasn't worked out. He's having a rough after Game one. He's
just had a rough last three games. I don't know, Will, how
do you see you getting back on track? Because he's got to have a
double double, right Like, if we're gonna win, if we're gonna take
it to Game six, he's got to be in double double. I mean,
I think it's been really hard on him, just like some of the
communication and maybe not getting the ball in the most advantageous spot a lot of
new guys, He's got to be better on that end, and I think
that that'll translate defensively. I do want to contradict one thing that Adda talked
about it about the Clippers need to score one twenty plus. I really loved
with Clippers did in Game three, where granted some of it the turnovers especially
were uh not part of the game. We're not part of game, but
like really mucking things up and slowing things down and it was like fifty one
all at the at the first half something like that. That is a that
is an approach that is going to be very effective for the Clippers, especially
like if they can make those shots super hard, you play out the math
on the on the mid range stuff, you you know, you're able to
keep the fouls lower than they have been. UM. And that's the approach
that we saw Taylou take with the Cavaliers and undermanned against the Warriors. UM.
But I you know, how sustainable is that, like with the level
of defenders that we have, I don't really know, but it wasn't even
sustainable for entire game because they ended up they gave up one, they gave
up one twenty nine. After fifty one and a half, they gave up
one twenty nine, so they gave up seventy and the second half. I
mean, I I but no, I You're right, that is the approach.
They played a great first half. I'm not saying they can't do it
defensively. I'm just saying, realistically, they're probably gonna have to outscore them,
and that means at least getting to one twenty. Yeah. I mean,
I'm that makes total sense. Like if we get a lockdown defensive performance,
I would love that, But I don't ty Luis, Yeah, I
don't think that's rotations we have in store, unfortunately. So what's our picks?
Boys, who's gonna be the player of the game for this one?
Who's gonna take us to Game six? I'm ready for Nico to have one
good game. I'm on offense. I'm gonna put it all on the line.
I'm gonna say Nico has one good offensive game in him. So he's
putting up twelve fifteen. Okay, he's gonna have to play more than six
minutes for that to happen. I'm just saying, like people are bagging on
Nico. It's like, Okay, he played six minutes, he took one
shot, he's missed. He's one for ten in the series. It's not
like he's taken a ton of shots. So I'm not that concerned about him.
Of course, he's got to get him up. But if Marcus is
gonna play more than Nico and Rocco combined, it's Marcus is one for eight.
Yeah, that's I'm giving the thumbs up one of the thumbs down for
one for your listeners listening to this later. So, Adam, your pick
is Marcus Morris. I did not say that. I'm going Terrence Man.
Okay, how many minutes I hope. I hope forty, but I'll settle
for thirty three. I'll settle for thirty three minutes from Terence Man. He
gets twenty points, he plays the first forty eighth straight. I'm down,
let's do it. Let's just run five. So you're going Terence Man,
I'm gonna go. Uh, who's by the way, shooting fifty four percent
from three in the series. Terrence Man. Well, so I would argue
that's actually bad to make war shots. Um, I would go hot take
Tylu. Tylu supports surprise performer of the night tomorrow. We're not gonna see
Marcus Morris. We're gonna see Robert Covington used a normal doses, it's not
gonna be weird, and we're gonna see you know, a tight Lee Sean
when things aren't happening for some certain guys. So I'm going Tylu performer.
And I also because he literally has to be. We need Russell Westbrook to
have a thirty point triple double. I can't believe I'm saying that as in
April as a Clippers fan. We need the Russ thirty point triple double.
We need the best game that Tyler has coached all season because we don't have
anybody and we need Marcus Morris to not play. I don't know how likely,
really, the last one seems like the hardest one. He said he's
got a few more wrinkles coach Lou, So it's now or never. I
guess here's the new wrinkle. Moosa plum Zoo Terrence Rocco who says no to
that lineup the last game of the season, who says I wouldn't mind seeing
Brandon Boston get a couple of minutes. I'm here coffee. Why not,
Well, if you need scoring, I just I don't know, it's irrational.
There's not much evidence on Brandon Boston this season. I just if things
get out of hand early, we may see some wonky lineups. I'll tell
you what I don't want to see is the early white flag. Yeah,
if things get out of hand early, I do not want to see the
early white flag. I'm not saying we'd see it. From the players,
Phoenix is favored by twelve. By the way, it's a big number.
It is a big number. They're expecting them to close things out because the
other side of it is they're trying to get rest before death. They know
there's a sense of urgency to get this series over with. Damn well.
I hope Bones and Brandon Boston Junior are playing together so we can have the
probably the wonkiest height to weight ratio and the history of NBA backcourts between Bones
and Brandon Boston Junior. I'd love to see Bones go off and get another
twenty. I love they need it. Yeah, we need we need like
three people score twenty tomorrow, So we think the Clips are gonna win though,
right, it's gonna come back. We're all going to be in there,
gonna be at Staples on Thursday. I'll see you guys. There's our
damn minds. All right, let's go coming up. We're gonna be talking
a fairly weird interaction on the Paul George podcast. We got ads coming up,
so if they've been lad for you, go ahead and turn it down,
ads. And then we got to talk podcast PE caught up in three
two one. All right, so we're back in on Clips and Dip.
We're live over on YouTube that's at Clippers Podcast and on Twitter that's at Clippers
Pod. We talked a little bit about what the Clippers need to do to
avoid elimination Game five versus the Suns. But we gotta talk a little bit
about an off color sort of interaction that happened on the podcast p podcast.
It ended up getting and tweeted out and then I believe subsequently got deleted if
I'm being correct there. But Charles, why don't you break this down for
what's going on in the podcast PE podcast Cinematic Universe. You know, if
I'm not listening, So they had a segment where they were talking about like
talent and like what talent means. It was specifically about Lonzo ball I do
you know this much? Yes, And one of Paul George's co hosts was
arguing that staying healthy was a talent to Paul George, which Paul George,
you can see He's like, it's not a talent. He kind of gives
him a smirk. He's like, it is a talent. And then Paul
George goes on to say that staying healthy is a work ethic thing, which
I'm also like, that doesn't make any sense, like because I don't think
Paul George and quite don't work hard. It was just an example I think
of kind of why I think that Paul George podcasts like kind of an insane
idea. You get stuff like this He's talking about, like injuries are a
work ethic thing. That's crazy. His own co host is like, no,
man, it's a talent thing. And Paul George's like, oh,
yeah, I'm not talented enough. That's why I've had all these injuries,
man, Like the majority of injuries are just like such a it's just such
a freak happenstance. Like all this stuff that ends up being like the most
impactful is it's just some kind of little thing that could happen at literally any
moment of any game, and you know, it just doesn't end up rolling
your way and the lonto things like that. That whole knee surgery saga.
I mean, that's that insane, Like that's that's such that's such bizarre happenstance.
There's no level of talent that that can prepare for that. There's no
work ethic that's going to get you around that. I mean, it's just
like, well, if you're saying, like talent physiological, what's the word,
I'm looking for physiologic body stuff, I'm gonna find it. I'm gonna
find it poogal human physiology. Thank you for the assist uh Oslin just is
what it is. You know, there there's limitations to the human body,
and I think that, uh, there's nothing that's subverting that. Do they
mean talent as in, there's some talent stuff you're just born with. It's
innate and some guys are less injury prone than others just by happenstance. Um,
they touched on that, Yes, but that was not his because that
I believe, and there are some guys who are just like you've you know,
you've seen guys just get destroyed and they just pop right back up,
like yeah, I'm totally fine. Um, there's any like styles of play
that that you know, probably lend themselves. Uh, you know, it's
the John Walls, it's the it's the Derrick Ross thing, right. Yeah,
everyone knew that the way he landed there was going to be some rough
knee stuff. And yeah, I mean there's like probably styles of play that
are a little bit more, but Russ has been like as reckless as you
could be, reckless, abandoned going to the hoop, and he's on the
other side of it. He had one knee injury with what had happened with
Patrick Beverley, and he's still so freaking explosive. Yeah, so it's just
a freak accident thing. It's just like oh no, uh, we gotta
comment from YouTube that said fifty one percent chance Tie is gone next year.
Um, I think fifty one is actually fair. We're not gonna do our
like Postmoward on the Clippers thing yet, but we still got gay. Yeah,
like as like a little sneak preview. I mean, it seems like
in a lot of situations when things aren't working with players, it's a whole
lot easier to you know, pat yourself on the back and hire a new
coach than it is to truly clean house. So that's all that I'm gonna
say on that for right now. Up. Yeah, damn, okay,
Okay, that tease. Um. There were a bunch of Clippers fans that
were upset that Houston hired Udoka. Um. I don't Yeah, I don't
know that. Yes, that one, but I don't know if that was
ever going to happen. I don't think the Clippers were ever in the hunt
for that. For email, Like, I'm just not everybody. It's not
the market where you can do something like that, like Houston. I'm not
saying it's like the smallest market, but it's not the same cultural climate as
Los Angeles is, and that something like that is. I just I just
doesn't want to deal with that. Yeah, I just don't think that that
sort of pr would would really um quiet down here. Yeah, I think
that's and again Balmer doesn't want to like and once again I don't know all
the details of the case. I'm not like making any statements on anything.
I'm just saying that that is the sort of thing that would and could sink
a Los Angeles fan base. Yeah, totally. I mean we talked to
me. Adam disagrees. I don't disagree. I believe in men. We're
done with the lives, all right. Do we have any closing thoughts as
Clippers fans, you know, tuck themselves in light their prayer candles, sage
their apartments or homes if they're you know, doing real well. Before we
get to potentially the final game of the Clipper season, they need a performance
like they had taken on Kadie and the Warriors in that Game five an Oracle
Arena where they were supposed to get run over, they were supposed to get
I bet the line was huge that game too. Everybody expected the Golden State
Warriors after letting the Clippers come back down thirty one in Game two, they
were just going to stomp on them, and they snuck out another win in
their building. They can do it. They can win one game with these
guys. Do I think they can win the series of choir? Paul George
doesn't come back win three in a row. No, but they can win
Game five. They can do it, especially if you put the pressure on
them. Get a lead again in the first quarter, get off to a
quick start, make the Phoenix Suns feel the pressure. Kevin Durant was clacking
stuff on the side of the backboard in Game three when they had no business
only being up a couple of points against the Clippers. In that game when
it was tight, Suns look tight out there. They didn't look great.
Well, can you add to that? Are you hyped? The Clippers gonna
get this thing doneps? All right, get it done? Will says he
is hyped, and they're gonna get it done. Well, we will have
a double dip for y'all. Oll run am five seventy. I believe Adam
will have the pre covered prem postgame UM tripod on Wednesday. Not sure if
we'll be able to, you know, get all of our thoughts, depending
whatever happens tomorrow, but we're doing a tripod on Wednesday for sure, hoping
that one's a Game six preview. If I'm being honest, that's just me.
Don't know about these guys, um, But yeah, we hope we
got everyone's doing well. Well, where can these wonderful people review us,
So you can review us over on the podcast app, also over on Spotify.
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everybody tomorroworrow and in full on Wednesday, and as always, let's go clips.