This is a Clippers first basketball The game is over if you're gonna get clippered
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Bomber doing. This is Clippers Talk with your host Adam Mosley on air after
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Adam osled the EuroLeague MVP, and Luca don Chet at the age of eighteen,
is now doing incredible things in the National Basketball Association. He would hit
the game winning three pointer against your Los Angeles Clippers in overtime and the Clippers
fall one thirty five to one thirty three to the Dallas Mavericks. Welcome into
Clippers Talk. I'm Adam oslind eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight
seven seven five zero eleven fifty ends. While we have a moment, let's
pause ten seconds for station identification. Here on the Patriot AMM fifty, this
is La Clippers Basketball AM eleven fifty KIV, Los Angeles, an iHeart radio
station. Coming up, you will hear from doc rivers postgame, Sweet Lou
Williams, and of course we'll get to your phone calls and jobon Buha of
the Athletic we'll be here now. First of all, I do want to
tip my cap to Luca don Chiche because that was one of the best performances
I've ever seen in the history of the NBA. It's a first round series
we've been talking about behind the scenes here me and Sam Zia. Is this
Isaiah Thomas playing on one leg against Los Angeles Lakers in the finals? Not
exactly, but Luka Doncic was playing through pain and put up forty three points,
seventeen rebounds, and thirteen assists on eighteen of thirty one shooting and hit
every big shot late in this game, including the buzzer beating three pointer from
twenty seven feet out with no time remaining in ot and the Clippers were up
by twenty one at one point in this game, and I think partly you
want to say that it was lost in the first half when they gave up
that lead right at the end of the second quarter and they were only up
by eight going into the half, and then the Clippers were miserable from the
floor coming out of the gates in that third quarter. They put up just
nineteen points in the third quarter. Fourteen of those points were scored by Kawhi
Leonard and Sweetleew Williams. They were great. Sweetiew Williams ties his playoff career
high of thirty six points, had twenty two of those in the second half.
But nobody else was stepping up. And yes, again Paul George,
who has been in the struggle, continues to struggle from the field. When
three of fourteen is ten of forty four in the last three games in this
series. Inexplicably, it's hard to understand. He only had nine points in
the game, had seven of those points in the first quarter. At one
point, he went thirty two minutes of on court time between scoring from the
start of the first quarter to a layup he had in ot It has to
be mental right now. If he's physically okay, then something else is going
on. And the narrative that you know, I thought was necessarily false was
I was pretty sure it was a false narrative going into the playoffs about playoff
p But sometimes when the media keeps talking about things, and Paul George did
engage on Instagram, so he had been hearing the same stuff. When the
media starts getting on you like this, it can start to build the pressure
on your shoulders. And I think that's what's happened to Paul George. That's
the only way to explain this. If he's healthy right now. Yes,
he had eight rebounds, but one of seven from three, three or fourteen
from the field. It can't just all be on Kawhi Leonard and sweet Low
Williams in this game. And Marcus Morse, who'd also stepped up big in
the fourth quarter and in ot with that three pointer to put the Clippers up
before Luca Donchez would hit that ridiculous three pointers to win the game. Something's
going on with PG thirteen, and it reminds me of what happened to Lebron
James a little bit in the twenty eleven NBA Finals. There had been this
running narrative that I didn't buy because he had hit game winners before. LBJ
throughout his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the playoffs, did it twice
against the Washington Wizards, but people said, well, he's deferring too much,
he's passing too much, he's not mj Well. At this point in
his career, he actually has more game winners in the playoffs than Michael Jordan.
But at that time, playing next to Dwayne Wade in the Miami Heat
that first year with the heatles, there was a lot of pressure on him,
and guys and media folks and the talking heads and the pundits out there,
we're going after him. And eventually in those twenty eleven finals, he
broke and he rebuilt his game, got better in the post after that,
and won the championship the very next year. But I think Paul George is
hearing not even whispers, not even murmurs. You're hearing it all over the
place. You're seeing it on social media, everybody's talking about it on every
talk show. I'm having to talk about it because I don't know any other
way to explain what's happened with Paul George the last three games. In Game
one, he had twenty seven points and the biggest shot of the game.
And now it looks like he's having issues mentally out there on the court,
playing next to Kawhi Leonard, who normally takes the pressure off guys, and
he has been He's been great he's averaged thirty three points per game so far
in this series. He has set records. He had thirty two points and
nine rebounds and four assists. When the Clippers were able to get stops at
times late in this game, it was Kawhi Leonard making it happen. But
they need PG thirteen to break out of this shooting slump. They need him
in the worst way right now, because now this series is tied up at
two games apiece, and you're in a dogfight with a team that's not even
supposed to be here in a game where Porzingis didn't even play. But Luca
don Chich is that special. We knew that he was a basketball prodigy,
but now in the playoffs, he's showing he's not afraid of the moment to
do this. When he was questionable coming into the game on that left ankle
that made him leave Game three with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter after
he tried to play through it, well, he played through it all right
tonight. He was the best player on the court forty three points and forty
six minutes and hits the dagger game winning three pointer. Reggie Jackson was out
there on him. There were three points seven seconds left, and I thought
the Los Angeles Clippers did the right thing in fouling beforehand to give the Mavericks
even less time, and they found quick enough for nobody to try to throw
their hands up and get to the line. But for Luca Dontchis to make
that shot in that moment, it's not a coming out party, but it's
establishing himself as one of the best playoff performers now as well. That's what
it's done for his career. He's been so good all series long. I
had my doubts about this Dallas Mavericks offense and whether or not it would translate
well in the playoffs. It has after Game one at least, and the
Clippers are in a position now where the Boston Celtics were in two thousand and
eight. This happened to the Boston three party with KG, with Ray Allen,
with Paul Pierce, and then Rondo to a degree, who was a
young player at that time, but he obviously played big for them. But
they've made those moves in the off season and all these expectations were heaped upon
them, and they ended up going seven games in that first round against the
Atlanta Hawks and Mike Bibby, and eventually that adversity turned out to be a
good thing. And I'm hoping the same thing here happens for the Clippers because
they're in a battle. We don't know yet if christat Porzingis is coming back
in Game five on Tuesday, but they have all the confidence in the world.
When you come back down twenty one and then win in ot on a
shot from your leader, you're brimming with confidence. It's oozing out of you.
And it's not even just that Luca don was hitting big shots. I
mean Tim Hardaway Junior had twenty one points, stray Burke had twenty five.
Seth Curry had seven points on the first couple of minutes of the fourth quarter.
He finishes with fifteen. He's been torching the Clippers when six of nine
from the floor, stray Burke was ten of fourteen. But eventually, can
this help forge that championship mentality for the Clippers? I think so. Sometimes
you have to go through stuff like this early on in the playoffs. And
that's why I referenced that two thousand and eight Boston Celtics team because they would
go on to win it all and I think they actually would have three pet
if KG didn't tear up his knee, But anyways, that's neither here nor
there. Kawhi Leonard was still great. Lou Williams, I mean, the
underground goat, going mainstream when they needed him most. He had thirteen points
on the fourth quarter. They don't even get into overtime without him picking it
up like that. And he's really good throughout this series, fifty percent from
the floor, forty percent from three, but not enough when Luca don Chi
and the Dallas Mavericks are able to grab momentum down twenty one in the first
half and then flip things so quickly in that third quarter. The Clippers were
up by eight to start the third, They're down by eight to finish that
quarter. And it says something that they were able to come back down twelve
multiple times in the fourth quarter, and that they had the lead after that
huge shot from Marcus Morris who was in foul trouble and hadn't hit anything until
the fourth started. But now they're in a battle. This is a fight.
This is going to be a longer series than I think most people expected.
Whether the Clippers come out the winner, winners, or not, and
there's work to be done. But to lose a game like that, I
think this locker room strong enough for not to be too demoralizing, because you
know, Kawhi Leonard is so even keel. But Paul George has to be
able to snap out of this. I have faith he will. I've brought
up this example before. Kyle Lowry has struggled in the playoffs mightily until Kawhi
Leonard was with him. I think Kawhi is going to give confidence to Paul
George, but it has to start in Game five. It's going to be
Yes, they can win the series, just like Kawhi Leonard said, without
PG thirteen shooting well, but it makes it that much tougher and puts you
in more of an uphill battle when your other superstar is not scoring the way
we've been accustomed to seeing him score, and he was playing some of his
best basketball as soon as the bubble started back up. All right, we'll
take a quick break here. Eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight
seven seven five two zero eleven fifty is the full number the Clippers lose on
a Luca don Chich game three pointer in overtime. With the final score one
thirty five to one thirty three. This series is tied up at two games
apiece. Coming up, he'll hear from Doc Rivers and Sweet Low Williams and
we'll get to your phone calls or get to me at follow Adam A on
Twitter. This is Clippers Talk here on the Patriot Aven. Finnie Smith's max,
I've always left hand looking for Curry now gets it to dot it forty
feet for the basket. Dotche's with a crossover step back, all left,
point three. This is for the win. He got it to go for
the second time in the Bubble. The Clippers lose on a step back buzzer
beater. First it was Devin Booker and the Suns. Second it's Luca Donchich
who finishes with forty three points, and the Clippers lose a devastating Game four
in the Bubble. Noah Ego on the call there. The Clippers lose in
ot one thirty five to one thirty three on that three pointer made by Luca
Dontchich, who finished with forty three points, seventeen rebounds, and thirteen assists
in this first round series is tied up at two. Coming up, you'll
hear from Doc Rivers in just a little bit, But I do want to
get to Carlos in Bellflower, Bellower, Carlos, Yeah, I talk.
It's a great game. Even though he didn't come by on the top.
We just still gotta believe in PG criticism aside, he's you know, he's
struggling. He stole our guy, He's gonna do it for us. Where
we can criticize is the coaching staff. They did a terrible job working with
the switches that Carlisle was putting out in front of it. Never adjusted to
the switches at the end of a regulation time, never really drew up a
play that would give him an advantage. It was just a nice elation,
nice solicition. Dribble, Uh stayed away near the three point nine Carlos,
Carlos, what about the play drawn up for Marcus Morris from that was already
We didn't need that if he draws it up in regulations, right, Okay,
So they're not going to give me any credit there down today, all
right, Carlos. I appreciate the phone call eight seven seven five two zero
eleven fifty. There were a lot of things that went wrong in this game.
I'm not just gonna put it on Doc Rivers and the coaching staff,
because as I mentioned, they did a lot of things right too. But
when you give up a twenty one point lead and you lose an ot in
this fashion in a critical game where the Clippers could have had a strangle hold
on this series and go up three games to one, there's gonna be criticism.
There's gonna be some frustration from the fans. I get it. I'm
there with you a little bit. It's hard to explain because the Clippers are
normally the team that comes back, but they were in control early on their
defense, their energy, their intensity to start the game was right where you
wanted it. Dallas only had eleven point points in the first six minutes of
the game. The Clippers were up double digits early on, and then in
the last eighteen minutes of the first half, Dallas scores forty seven points.
That was a huge swing because the Clippers go from being up twenty one to
being up just eight going into the half, and there's some doubt there and
some confidence coming from the Dallas Mavericks that they know they can battle back.
Eight points is nothing for the best offense in NPA history. All right,
let's hear from Doc Rivers post game. We'll get back to your phone calls
eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero eleven
fifty. But here was Doc Rivers post game after the Clippers lose game five
in ot one thirty five to one thirty three, just had the big lead.
Obviously they made the big run. How much did you think that shocked
him or shocked you guys? Are just took him out emotionally? I think
probably on the above. But honestly, I thought he got to lead and
stop playing and give them credit. They kept playing. You know, I
thought that at the end of the second the whole second quarter, they'll make
it a round. Getting back in the game, change the whole complexity of
the game. But honestly, I thought we were very emotionally weak tonight,
to be honest, And that's question is gonna come from Andrew. Why do
you think that is that they're mostly weak? I mean, this team has
been geared towards the playoffs obviously all year, and if I knew that,
I would be Sigmund Freud. But at the end of the day, you
know, we're up twenty and we're getting technical files, you know, things
like that. Just get the team juice. You know, we're just throughout.
I've been saying this for three games now. We're just we're so much
better than what we're playing. But honestly, give Dallas credit, like they
could threw it in, we'll get up twenty one. Their their mightus prezingis
but they didn't. They just stayed in the game. They just kept playing.
They eat together, they move the ball, and you can see the
difference in the spirits, like they make a run and everybody's excited. You
know, they make a run on us, and we don't. We came
in, So that's on all of us. Me too. I gotta get
our guys right. Next question's gonna come from Miriam. So obviously this is
this is a blow and you're you know, the emotions weren't where you wanted
them for this game. What does it do to you guys emotionally going forward?
Oh, it's we're fine that way. It's the serious is two two.
You know, you can make a case it should be three one either
way. You can make that case. But at the end of the day,
the series is two two. We gotta play better. Listen, defensively
without per zingis they scored one hundred and thirty five points. And we're supposed
to be in the league defensive team right now, We're not. They shout
fifty percent from the field tonight, so they make shots. They attacked us
off the dribble, he made plays. They remember anything complicated, They're just
standers in the face the beating off the drop. And next question is gonna
come from home? Doc? On the telecast, they showed Tres hugging Dontchage
before the game, and Mike Green said that you had spoken to Tres.
I was wondering what you thought about what Tres had said to Donage in Game
three. I don't know what he said, so I can't answer that.
And next question is gonna come from Jobann? Hey, Doc, I'm curious.
And over time it seemed like they were really targeting Reggie with switching and
stuff. Were you okay with him switching on to him or do you guys
wish you had done something differently there? Well, obviously Luca made the shot,
right Yobann, So clearly we wish we could have done something else.
But it's only three seconds. Laugh. I thought overall Reggie did pretty well,
but the last play we let him go laugh for a shot. Bottom
line is the last play didn't lose the gate for us. It was our
entire play from the second quarter on. It took a few more questions.
Next questions I'll come from Jim Alexander. Yeah, Doc, I mean you
mentioned emotionally weak today? Will this? Will this make it easier to get
their attention tomorrow at practice and remind them that you can't assume anything in this
part of listen. You know in life? You know on the problem with
life is usually you have to learn a lesson first, you know, before
you make an adjustment in life. I wish it was the other way,
like you saw it and did it first, and then you never have to
learn the lesson. Uh. But sometimes you don't learn lessons, and so
we'll find that out. You know. The thing is we're not an emotionally
we do, but today we were and so it is what it is.
And next questions don't come from inside the bubble from Cassidy just sorry on the
emotion of the steam. We have a lot of leaders on you on your
team, and I know you're gonna say it starts with you. But when
you look at the makeup of this team, you know, what are you
trying to hear from from your leaders? I think you know, just the
two guys that were doing the most positive talk, we we're lou in Kauai
and you know they were saying the right stuff like they were, But everybody's
got to follow that too, and sometimes, uh, you want to hear
it, and sometimes you get inside your head and you don't hear it.
I thought tonight was a night that a lot of messages were not delivered,
uh, and include mine. So that is something that as a coach,
I was sick on myself, like I have to make sure the way we're
supposed to play is delivered, how we're supposed to play is delivered, and
that we're doing and especially going to come from Tomer a bit of a two.
Did you just anticipate them switching on the inbounds there, because it looked
like Kawhi started out on Luca and then they switch and got ready. Did
you interest get that happening out there? Yeah? I mean you always switch
everything at the end of the clock, but you're supposed to switch to the
nile and we didn't. Like again, we just didn't. We we're switching
allowed their best player against the ball, you know, with three seconds left.
The last two questions, next one is don't come from a camera.
Hey, coach, tough loss. I asked you this before the game.
If you're not gonna do anything special to get Paul George off, what's the
conversation You have to kind of get him comfortable playing like he's supposed to be
able to play. Hey, listen, We're run the same stuff all year,
Paul and George's average twenty five points, so it's not like they're doing
something defensively. You know, We've just got to play with great confidence.
Paul again, I still believe this. He's gonna be fine. He just
has to be more aggressive, more aggressive in the right way, you know.
And and and I think it'll work out for it. We do run
blaze hoim, we do all the other stuff, but we have to get
him more involved. And that's really just running our stuff the way we should
run it. And last question is gonna come from Thomas. Hey, coach,
I've heard you speak here about, you know, having great individual defenders
on the team, but not feeling as though the guys are playing great defensively
as a unit. Do you feel like that's what you're seeing in the playoffs
so far? Yeah, I don't. First of all, as an individual,
I don't think we've been a great individual defensive team. I think we've
been very passive. I think they've been able to catch the ball wherever they
wanted to catch the ball. I think they're hitting us first on all the
pick and roads. Give them reded. They are so much more the more
physical team and the more aggressive team. It's not even closed. There was
Doc Rivers post game after the Clippers lose in overtime on a Luca don CH's
twenty seven foot step back three pointer, with the Mavericks winning by a final
score one thirty five to one thirty three. Coming up, you'll hear from
jovon Bouha, But first let's go to Jose and Southgate. Hi, Jose,
you're on Clipper stop without Am Auslin. How are you, hello,
Adam Happy Sunday. I've been a Clippers fan for twenty four years, rented,
I'm twenty four years old. But hearing the Clippers looting at twenty one
point lead, there's another thing in the office for that being staid. It
was a good game. That being said, it is Kobe's birthday. The
last people he was mentoring was Quiet Landard, Paul George, and of course
Luca. It's the Clippers. It's it's only right. It's on his birthday.
Luca hits that sharp man. Come on, Clip Bay Clippers fan,
let's go, baby. You know we got it. You know we got
it. We're gonna win the series. Thank you, Adam, thank you,
Noah, we love you. Let's go baby, all right, Jose,
thank you for the phone call and some positivity there at the end.
Yes, I believe Kobe Bryant e late Kobe Bryant would have been forty two.
Today. Clippers lose one thirty five to one thirty three to the Dallas
Mavericks in ot and this series is tied up at two games apiece. Coming
up, Jovon Buja of the Athletic we'll be here and we'll get to more
of your phone calls. Eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven
seven five two zero eleven fifty Doc Rivers. They're saying his team was emotionally
weak today. That's uncharacteristic for this Clippers team. We've seen them come up
huge so many times before, and this time they were on the other end
of a huge comeback up twenty one, and Doc Rivers said it as well.
The game was lost early in that second quarter. They let go of
the rope a little bit. They had a chance to put it away and
they weren't able to do so, and instead Luka Donschich pushed the game him
away with an unbelievable three pointer on the Clippers. All right, coming up
more Clipper Stalk here on the Patriot Am eleven fifty. The Clippers lose to
the Luca don Chich and the Dallas Mavericks innot on a step back three pointer
to win it for Luca, and the final score was one thirty five to
one thirty three in favor of the Dallas Mavericks. Coming up, we live
more postgame audio for you. We'll get to your phone calls here on Clipperstalk
eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero eleven
fifty. But first joining me on the super Secret Guest hotline is Jovan Buja
of The Athletic. He is my favorite writer and reporter on the Clippers.
Jovan, thanks for doing this before we get to the Clippers letting go and
blowing a twenty one point lead. This was one of the most special performances
I've ever seen in NBA history, considering Luca don at twenty one years of
age, had just rolled the ankle in Game three, couldn't even finish that
game off, and instead he finishes off the Clippers in Game four in one
of the most ridiculous stat lines I've ever seen. Put that in context or
put that h put some history to what Luka Dontech was able to do.
I mean, he's just special, right like you know, you just you
look at his performance overall, and what he's doing is special for anybody.
But then you factor in that he's twenty one years old. I mean,
you could really make the case he's the best twenty one year old in NBA
history. And that's including guys we've seen like Lebron James and cream up Old
Jabbar and Tim Duncan and different guys that have come in and been All Star
all NBA guys from day one. I mean, Luca is as good,
if not better than any of those guys. And to do what he did
today, you know, with that ankle injury, that he had been kind
of dealing with for a bit with no Christo Porzingis, which I thought was
huge. Like to be honest, I thought Chris Stops had been more of
the matchup problem for the Clippers than even Luca had, just because he's seven
foot three. The Clippers have been putting a lot of wings on him.
Who you know in six eight six nine guys versus seven foot three guy,
you know, that's the six seven inch difference, and Chris Stops Porzingis basically
if he makes the shot or not, you know, he's getting a shot
off, and he can launch up to thirty feet you know, you know,
several feet beyond the arc. So I thought Porzingis, especially with his
Game three performance, had been the bigger matchup issue for the Clippers. So
for him to be out and for Luca to just put this team on his
back, I mean, again, like you said forty three, seventeen and
thirteen, you know, I thought just made big play after big play.
I mean, the Mavericks have shown that they can kind of hold water without
him, and then you know, I've actually been better without him on the
floor in the series. But you know, obviously the last few minutes of
the fourth and all of overtime, Like it was just him running and picking
rolls and ISOs and attacking different guys and he's just really special. Like,
you know, the Clippers are going up against one of the best players in
the league, and I think that's what's made this series so tough so far.
How were they able to get that matchup at the end of the game
with three point seven seconds left, Well, the clip, I mean,
they set a screen for Luca and the Clippers switched it. Doc said after
the game that he had hoped the Clippers wouldn't have switched that, but if
they were going to switch that, that they had denied Luca. Maybe even
sent a trap at him to kind of force him to dribble back towards half
court and maybe he breaks free anyway and gets a shot up. But at
least you put him under some pressure so some of arrests and then gotten him
away from the three point line because he was pretty easily able to just catch
the ball, you know, dribble, take a step back and make that
shot. Credit to him for making that. I mean, that's a tough
shot. We saw him earlier in the game. Airball two or three of
those. You know, he is only a thirty two percent three point shooters,
so it's not like this guy's Steph Curry or Dame Lillard out there.
But at the same time, he made the shot and they won the game.
You know, the Mavericks were very strategic, and so the Clippers finally
put Kauai on Luca. He had been kind of the screener defenders switching onto
Luca for most of the past couple of games to put him on the ball,
and Dallas wisely targeted guys like Lou Williams Reggie Jackson who are just a
lot smaller than Luca, and anytime he was able to get those guys on
him, he was usually able to score, get a good look, force
a rotation, kick it to a shooter or something like that. So Luca
was very surgical today, you know, Dallas was very surgical and how they
attacked the Clippers defense and they ended up winning. And looking for answers to
what's happened to PG. Thirteen the last three games. If it's not physical,
it has to be mental right now, it has to be in his
head, right I don't know any other way to explain it. Yeah,
I mean, I don't like playing armchair psychologists, but do you think especially
more in in Game three. But I think it actually kind of you know,
translated into Game four a bit where you saw just you know, possessions
where he would just not get the ball or would simply just get the ball
and swing it to the next guy. And it was like, you know,
we had seen PG playing I felt his best basketball the season in the
bubble, and you looked at the shooting numbers, you looked at the scoring.
He talked about how much better he felt with the time offers, shoulders
and how you know he was finally done with his shoulder rehab. I think
he was shooting around like fifty two percent on threes heading into the postseason and
had a pretty solid Game one, and since then is ten for forty seven.
You know, I think it scored uh, you know, averaging around
eleven points or so during that stretch, like he has really struggled. And
I mean I think two things where the Clippers will will remedy all issues.
You know, there are some ex and those things we can get into if
you want to, But I think two macro things are they need Pat Beverley
back and they need Paul George back, you know, the real Paul George.
And if Paul's back to being his twenty five and night self, shooting
the ball doesn't have to be shooting the ball great, but shooting the ball
decently, getting more looks up, getting better looks up. I think,
you know that changes this game. And I think Pat Beverley, I mean,
I think the defensive drop off from Pat Beverley to a Lou Williams or
Reggie Jackson is significant, and that is a position, you know, you
kind of go down the line. The Clippers have different guys that could step
in defensively and replace other guys. The point guard spot has kind of been
that one spot that they don't have that And I think missing Pat, especially
in a game like today, I think he really could have swung things with
his defense to shooting, his energy, just his you know, ability to
make the intangible plays. So I think, obviously you can't control when Pat
comes back. It's just a matter of when he's healthy. And Paul,
as you said, like he's getting a lot of good looks, he's just
missing them. Some guys go through shooting stumps at the wrong time. But
I would like to see Paul get going to the basketball, and he said
that post game, he was like, I gotta get closer to the basket.
I gotta get going, get a few early buckets in the paint,
get more comfortable, and then start shooting from the perimeter. But you know,
he's been kind of doing the reverse of missing a bunch of perimeter shots
then trying to go to the basket when he's already cold. So I mean,
I gotta give PG credit. He's owning up to him not playing well.
He's not backing away from it, and I think you should see a
better version of him in Game five, and he made a layup with two
minutes left in the game in overtime and then unbelievably missed one the next possession
because I was thinking the same thing. The only way he can get out
of this, it starts by being more aggressive, by being more assertive out
there. And he went about thirty two minutes in this game between scores,
and he's in a struggle right now. But I'm with you. I think
he can get out of this, and it is about him and getting hopefully
Patrick Beverly back. But when you're up by twenty one, they had plenty
of opportunities to put that game away really in the second quarter. Because I'm
getting blown up by this on Twitter, and this is the obligatory question of
we get almost every show. But did the Visa Zoo boss play enough in
that game for you? No? And you know that that was a surprise
for me because I felt Doc to me might have coached his best game of
the season in Game three. I thought, you know, I wrote about
it for The Athletic. I thought the decision to start Landry Shammitt was huge
with just the way Landry played with the starters. I mean, he had
eighteen points, is high in the bubble, and I thought probably played his
best game of the season overall. The defensive adjustments they made of pre switching
screens that you know, screen and roll actions with the Mavericks are running and
getting Zoo out of the action because Dallas has really tried could do just because
he's a seven footer and not as quick as as a Luco or Trey Burke
or whoever. They've really gone at him in the pick and roll. And
then the Clippers made some really good adjustments and I thought over all the rotation
was just you know, Zoo played a lot, Marcus like it was just
to me felt like the right guys were playing based on how they were performing.
And today, to me, it was a little bit of a step
back, you know, And I felt Zoo played as well, you know,
as he did in game three. I mean he had he had fifteen
and four and just twenty two minutes. I don't remember his exact minutes in
game three, but I think it was around twenty eight thirty. And I
mean, look, the Clippers ended up going small, which I get.
I thought it actually worked pretty well. Marcus at the five has been a
dangerous lineup for them so far in the seeding games in the playoffs, But
I do think those earlier minutes, I think it's fine to go small.
That's how Doc wants to close the game. To me, it's the earlier
minute of Zoo has been the best center to me, and it's not been
close. And he's matched up well with Bomon, he's matched up well with
Maxi Kleban. Really the one guy he has not matched up that well with
is Christops Porzingis, and that's just because he's a unicorn and a really hard
matchup for anybody. So Aside from that, it's Cleban Bobon's at center.
I think Zoo has been the best matchup, so I would if Doc wants
to close with a smaller lineup to finish a game, I think Zoo should
be playing a majority of the minutes through the first three quarters. Get somewhere
in that twenty seven to thirty minute range, and then if Doc wants to
downsize, that's fine. But I think look, Doc adjusted very well in
Game three following the Game two loss. I think we should have some faith
in him to adjust in Game five. But I do think the second unit,
to me, has been the biggest issue of They've just been getting lit
up defensively, and I think they're going to figure that out somehow, of
I don't I don't know if you've changed the rotation. I don't know if
you insert a new starter. I'm not really sure what you do there.
But Dallas has really won those second unit minutes, and that to me,
has been a really important factor in this series, and he's been torching them.
Trey Burke was great in this game. Tim Hardaway Junior, I know
he's a starter, but some of the others four Dallas have really stepped up
in this series. He is Jovan Buha of the Athletic. Follow him on
Twitter at job a n b u h A Jovan, thanks so much for
doing this. I know we were supposed to U reconvene on Friday. Didn't
happen. We'll talk to you later in this series, my friend. Yeah,
sorry, thanks an Jon. Coming up next, we'll get back to
your phone calls eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five
two zero eleven fifty. This series is tied up at two games apiece.
The Clippers are in a first round battle in this two seven matchup with the
Dallas Mavericks. After Luca don Chiche makes a step back thirty foot three pointer
to win the ball. Game more coming up next right here on Clipper Stock
on the Patriot AMM fifty your La Clippers lose Game four in overtime on a
Luca don Chiche three point shot. He would have forty three points in forty
six minutes and the Dallas Mavericks would win in OT one thirty five to one
thirty three. The series is tied up at two games apiece. Game five,
the all important pivotal Game five, is coming up on Tuesday Night.
More on that, but first I want to get to John in San Diego.
Hi, John, You're on Clippers stock with Adam Maslin. How are
you hey, Adam? I guess could be could be better. All things
get there but for another day. But yeah, Jovan pretty much said everything
I wanted regarding lineups, but to add a little more nuanced in it.
Where I think we lost the lead was when when Bobon came in and Dock
for whatever reason, kept Tres and I think Bobon contribute to like a seven
oh run or something like that that cut the lead down. That's where we
lost the momentum, Like Tres just isn't a good match up on Bobon because
Bobon is too big and and Tres has traditionally done at against lank. And
my other point is in the third quarter, the Clippers settled for a lot
of contested jumpers when we're in the bonus. I think there was like five
last minutes lesson in the third quarter, and we should have just attacked the
rim and try to hunt for free thos Pg looked peasant and just overall like
he knows it, like for the second for being the second max player on
the team, like just this is this has been pretty much unacceptable, Like
he needs to step up and play like the max player that he is.
John appreciate the phone call. Great phone call. Yeah, Paul George apprehensive
out there and not making things happen or reacting instead of being that guy making
the decisions and dictating things offensively, because well, he's that good. He's
a superstar in this league. And he was third in MVP voting last year
and third and Defensive Player of the Year voting, and he even got beat
on the fourth quarter. It was Seth curR going to the basket, I
believe, and Seth Curry is playing with all sorts of confidence right now,
as are the Dallas Mavericks even without Chris stat Porzingis had little ewing theory going
on here. I don't know, because you can't say they're better without the
Unicorn. But they're role players, they're complimentary players. They've been better now.
Lou Williams was fantastic for the Clippers. He almost lou willed them to
victory, and Kawhi Leonard had a shot before overtime that I thought was going
in. Wasn't an easy shot. Tough shot, but it's one Kawhi Leonard
can obviously make, and that would have, you know, won the game
in everybody would have taken that side of relief and said, well, we
lost that twenty one point lead, but we were still able to finish things
off eventually against this Dallas Mavericks team that may have run out of gas in
Game five if they came all the way back just to lose on a game
winning buzzer beater by Kawhi Leonard. But that's not what happened. Now.
Dallas is encouraged. They know they can win this series. They believe they
can win this series. But the Clippers are still the much more talented team,
and Paul George has all the talent in the world. I think he's
gonna show us that in Game five coming up on Tuesday. Mitch in New
Jersey, Mitch, what's up? You're on Clipper stock without him? Awesome?
How's it going to him? Thanks Stigmacole, than what's yeah? And
what? Besides what's wrong with Paul George? I want to see him with
the bench. If they got the best bench, maybe these plays need to
be arrested. Even are the only playing every other day tal to the medal,
I mean to turn up town boys stayed smack and it's kind of like
the coach's gotta push it. Well besides Paul George, they would have been
no overtime. What is going on? I know he's he's been, you
know Lewis's grandmother. So I'm feeling and I'm sure miss your phone was cutting
out there. I'm sorry, brother. Callback On Tuesday, Rick in Los
Angeles, Rick, give me some positivity, please, No, I can't.
Man. Today I'm disgusted. You had a twenty one point lead against
the team that's limped without their second best player, and the Coopers just went
ice cold. And I guess they thought they were just they were just cruise
to a win today when with this team you can never assume anything because Maverick's
offense is so deadly and a twenty one year old who's just coming into his
zone in the first playoffs just just made you look like a jav team.
There's nothing good at of this besides Kawai and Lou Williams a little bit as
Zubak Whu. I feel should be getting some more minutes. I don't know
why Doc not playing him more. The rest of the team was horrendous.
It's just inexcusable. You're one of the best defensive teams in the league against
a team of role players you're beside Luca's gonna do with Lucas, Dude,
he's that great to me. Guys like Cardaway and Trey Burke and Steff Curry
off the bench shouldn't be doing what they're doing. And to give up the
game and you had the chance to put their foot on the neck is that.
There's no excuse for that. And the Clippers are the much superior team,
but I can't assume they're gonna win the series because they haven't shown that.
You've gotten every conceivable break with the with the Porzinga subjection, the Luca
injury, and then now we found out before the game that that Porzinga is
not gonna play, and you're still struggling against his team. So I don't
know what Clipper team is gonna show up, but they're fair to get a
rested and Paul George, you can't you wind your way out of Oklahoma City
win championships. You've got to show up. Man looking across the town with
the other guy, Anthony Davis, he asserted himself after the first game,
is doing it. That's what Paul George need to start doing. Attack the
rins. You're going to get them against a terrible defensive team. There's no
excuse why you should be settling when your SHOT's not falling. Drive to the
bucket, get to the line, get your confidence going. So I want
to see them come up from Game five because Clippers, if they lose this
series, this would be an absolute debacle, even worse than the Lakers,
because the Clippers thought would be in the finals. The Clippers were still a
project. We didn't know what it would get with them. So they better
come out like this game five or they're gonna lose this series. I'm just
discussed right now as a Clipper fan, man named there's nothing good to come
out of this. Rick, thank you for the phone call. I get
it. It's a devastating loss, but it's a best out of three series
now, and you still have Kawhi Leonard, who if anyone can refuse to
lose in this league, it's him. Same with Sweet Lou Williams and hopefully
we don't know that status of Patrick Beverly, but it would be more than
a shot in the arm for him to come back, it would be an
adrenaline shot to the chess. Like in pulp fiction. Pat Beverly is their
identity. Defensively. We've seen this over and over again. The Clippers have
been five hundred all season long when Patrick Beverly isn't there, and they have
not been good enough on that end. Outside the first six minutes of the
game, they were miserable defensively and couldn't get crunch time stops late when they
had to. I want to say Luca had eight points in the last five
minutes of the game, just even outside of that three pointer. He kept
getting to the basket and just wrecking things in the paint and the Clippers and
Doc Rivers said this after a Game one, he thought they lost their discipline
at times defensively. We saw that again here outside of a few possessions where
Kawhi Leonard was on Luca and Seth Curry. Believe it or not, you
gotta put somebody on Seth Curry right now. That's how good he's been in
this series. All these guys have egos, all these guys are professionals,
and with the Curry family in the virtual crowd Seth Curry put on a show
in the second half for them, look like Steph was that good and then
Steph was one of the virtual crowd members. Clippers end up losing on a
Luca don Hitch step back three pointer over Reggie Jackson one more point before we
hear from Kawhi Leonard postgame our color John in San Diego talking about more of
Vizza Zubots, especially when Bobon is in the game. And of course you
can understand that from a matchup standpoint, and Bobon had ten points in sixteen
minutes. It was like he played the other night or two games ago.
But in Game three, Monste Trez and Jamichael Green at times didn't okay job
against Boban Marianovitch. Now, maybe law of diminishing returns there. You can
only get so far doing that, And I thought I would have thought of
Vizza Zubots would be matched up against him a little bit more in that second
quarter. But I trust in Doc Rivers and this coaching staff. They're going
to make the right adjustments. We've seen that already in this series. They're
gonna do so again. There's a chess match going on between them and Rick
Carlisle, who did I warn you about Rick Carlisle before this series? One
of the best coaches in the NBA. All right, here's your leader,
Kawhi Leonard, who had thirty two points in the game. Came up with
some big shots, was not enough. But here he was postgame speaking with
the media, quiet, looking, what are you gonna be frustrated most about?
About? Where this game was lost? You know, obviously in that
third quarter, I think it was about twelve fourteen point swing, I'm not
sure I was internet second quarter, really really didn't have no energy. I'd
like we could attacked the basket a little bit better. And next question is
gonna come from home? Quite? Doc said, normally a mentally tough team,
but he said today he felt that you guys were emotionally weak. Do
you agree with what he's saying. Did you see any points emotionally where you
guys could have been tougher? Yeah, obviously closing out that second quarter,
in that big in the beginning of the third, you know, we,
like I said, we didn't have no energy. You know it was easy
players are making on the office of just getting easy to ask you the next
question is gonna come from Shane Young, Hey, quite, that last play,
there was the game plan to switch that action? Or was it something
you're trying to prevent? What what'd you kind of see there when Luca got
the ball? Yeah, you know we switched. That's a game plane.
You know. He great player, made a great shot. He got to
his spot and made it. And next question is gonna come from Miriam Hey
quite, how important is it for you guys that PG gets going? And
is there anything as a teammate that you tell a guy who's kind of going
through a scoring funk like this? I'm just telling him to keep going.
It's time is coming. Miss easy lives tonight everybody did, but it's not
as fall. We are up, you know, quarter and everybody has a
party you winning the basketball? Okay, So Mara Kawi doctors the game said
that he thinks you know, he said that multiple times. You guys are
are really far away from what you've shown you can be. Why do you
think it's taken so long for you guys to show who you guys really can
be. I mean we're a new team, you know what I mean?
You know new guys. You know, you know a new system. Man.
You know it takes time, but you know we're right there. We're
not giving up, and you know we got five think a few more questions.
Next one's gonna come from Julio Alonzo. Hey Kawhi, you play against
superstars live on James Kevin Durant. What is it like playing against Luka Donta
got twenty more years old? Do you see him in that level? How
great does Luca don tak is when you play against him defending him, you
can see it scored in the game and it's playing amazing basket. Next question
is gonna come from Thomas Hey Kawach. My question to you is, I
know you're personally known as kind of being a very cool player and even killed.
You get frustrated after games like this or do you instantly put it out
of your mind once the game is over and just spressure I mean the sea
where we may mistakes that you know, you know what I mean, but
it's something to learn from. You know. We still we still got two
games and possible left. That's three right now, so we got time.
But just get the film and see what we can do better. Okay,
last questions don't coming from Andrew y I mentioned that even without porzingis obviously they
shoot fifty percent today. Where do you feel like between now and Game five
the defense has to tighten up the most individually? On individual defense, I
think I think a lot of times we have a lot of miscommunication and you
know, give him am easy baskets out there. But they're doing a great
job right in their offense and getting looks, you know, starting with little
Good getting his guys open shots and him making their shots. You know,
you gotta give him credit. You know, they called back in his game
tonight. You know, our defense is pretty good, but for the first
twenty minutes and you know kind of went down here and it came back up
when the game I tell you, so, you just gotta play forty eight.
I see it. There was Kawhi Leonard post game. He had thirty
two points. No one you'd rather be in a foxhole with because of that
calming presence, because of that demeanor, no matter if it's a win,
no matter if it's a loss, and it's time for the best version of
this Clippers team to come together and step up. Game five, the pivotal
Game five series. You don't want to get down three games to two starts
Tuesday night at five pm with your pregame show. Before we get out of
here, I do want to thank the Clippers organization, Noah Eagle, Brian
Seaman, Ralph Lawler. In back here in Burbank, we had the fantastic
Sam Zea and Zach Attack helping out pull some of that post game sound until
five pm on Tuesday with your Clippers Countdown show for Game five between the Clippers
and Dallas Mavericks. I'm at a Moslin. We will talk to you then