What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season two, episode sixty
of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Buckler, joined by Adam Osden and
Will Updyke. We're hopefully your favorite Slippers podcast or one of your favorite Clippers
podcast favorite podcasts. Today, we're gonna be talking the Clippers loss and New
Orleans what that means for the seating, Gonna preview Clippers versus Hawks. You
know, we have a high five for you from Adam Oslen before we get
into that, Will, Adam, how are you guys doing today? Will?
How's it going on this kind of we're getting back to sunny Los Angeles
weather. I'm doing great. Man. The wind was a little crazy,
but yeah, I'm doing great, doing great. Thanks for asking. Feeling
good despite the loss? Adam, how are you feeling? I feel a
little bit better after last night. I do. Uh, I'm more optimistic.
I'm not gonna call it an encouraging loss, but I did see some
good things in that game. Still, there were some good things PG gett
kind of you know, getting back, getting a bunch of field goal attemps
up, things like that. But we got a great two one three game,
you know, like It's not like that those guys stepped up the bench
was a little rough. Do you have some do we have some plays?
We could look at them? Can we get into the high five? How
do you want to how do you want to present this one? Yeah?
After a loss, we can go straight to the high five. I mean
a lot of the clips I've been showing have been uh negative clips, just
stuff the Clippers need to work on. You could say, but that's where
we're at. I think there's anything wrong with that. Yeah, I think
it makes more sense. The first one, though, will be a positive
Clipper highlight though. You guys seeing what I'm staying, did I share it?
Yes? We got it. We're locked in with the high five here.
Okay, so the first Clipper is just this is Kawhi Leonard brilliant,
and then the Clippers actually making things easy on themselves in transition. Here Clippers
are down as they were down by as many as eleven, I believe in
that third quarter they're down by nine. They got blitzed early on, so
here they get to miss well contested shot by Viats zubats on CJ. McCollum.
Kawhi Leonard is battling for this board. Here he taps it up into
the air and watch this woop taps it up. So I think that was
herb Jones who was going for it to himself. And now the Clippers.
How was PJ not on that immediately? I feel like there was not enough
hustle there. You want to see the PJ play once again, you can
go back here walks out. PJ kind of yeah, he was more worried
about Jonas Valanciunis and kind of gave him a little bit of a right elbow
there. So he just didn't have the leverage. Plus obviously he can't leave
like Kawhi Leonard. But I just love Kawhi using the big hands, pop
it up in the air to yourself. CJ almost had a chance for it.
Now they got Kawhi Bones and Big Zoo running the other way. Bones.
Thiland didn't have a great game yesterday by any stretch of the imagination.
As good as he was against the Chicago Bulls, he struggled against the Pelicans.
But you're gonna get that from young guys and even older vets. James
Harden has struggled against good teams this year. Russell Westbrook has obviously been up
and down. I actually heard big Shot Boblom say on two on three Hoops
that he believed that game that Bones Thailand had against the Chicago Bulls was better
than any game that Russell Westbrook has had this season. Huh oh wow.
I kind of was wondering the same thing. I think you could make that
argument. He was really good in that ball game. But here's Bones.
Now they got the two on one with big Zoo. He brings in the
defender and makes Zion Williamson commit here. This isn't quite an easy play because
it is Zion. Still, you got to get the ball over. He's
got that leaping ability. Look at zi On go for this. Bones throws
a perfect lob here to a beatsa Zubos who gets the dunk. So as
much as the Clippers have botched some easy plays and transitions so far this season,
I thought it would be nice to highlight them making it easy on themselves.
And it was a young player in Bones Highland doing so. Plus that
play from Kawhi Leonard there and now we can move ahead. It was right
well, it was well defended in transition, and I mean especially with Bones,
you know, being at the point instead of pardon or someone a little
bit more experienced. I mean that well, not a great game. I
mean is an encouraging sign. It's a good read that would have been easily
picked off if you know, if he's if he doesn't commit to it,
or if it's a little low or a little slow. So I mean it
is nice that. I'm glad that we started off on a good foot.
I didn't feel like it was an is going all downhill from here. Yeah,
well, the Clippers did lose. Spoiler alert, we're going here to
coach. Coach Lou was calling a five role play that they were spamming against
the Clippers at the end of the third quarter, involving Zion Williamson, basically
them clearing out for Zion to get one on one opportunities. We saw that
at one point. I don't know if people realize this, but Zion Williamson
made eight straight shot attempts against the Clippers the second half. It was insane.
Yeah, at eight straight buckets at one point. So here we have
Jose Alvarado with a little dribble hand off to Zion. Zion now backs up
and watch you already. Have you got three guys here? On the weak
side. Now, Jose Alvarado Grand Theft Alverado is the best I think nicknamed
in sports right now, he clears out his man too. He's trying to
bring Terrence Man over here, so it's just a complete iso for Zion.
Man still hangs back. But Zion doesn't get enough of a hedge over here
from a mere coffee, and he still gets this really one on one opportunity
against Ma and Plumb league. Kawhi tries to attack it a little bit late,
but it's just too late. Once he gets that far into the teeth
of your defense, Mason plumbly backs up. He's not trying to foul if
you're going to double him at some point, it had to be a mere
coffee there shading over more or Kawhi Leonard stepping up. Nobody really does,
and they get another easy bucket to end that third quarter. That wasn't the
complete end of the third quarter though, as we all know, this is
one of the uh yeah, go ahead, Well I was gonna say without
that help from Coffee, I mean, Mason doesn't have much of a chance
there, Like if if Zion already has that much speed coming into it,
like there I mean, you know, he's an incredible athlete. There's just
not really much you can do with that. Just so I can't fault Mason
there too much when we're doing He's not only that deep in the paint,
you know, like when when he reaches Mason or Mason has to back up
enough to stay in front of him. But the amount of speed he's able
to accumulate to get to that point is the part that really problematic, right,
because there's not you can't, Yeah, you can't force him to change
directions at that point. You know, he's big enough that like he's gonna
you know, even if you risk the foul, uh, he's probably going
to finish through that contact for an N one opportunity. It just yeah,
like you said, just a little too late on that. Yeah, it's
the problem that Zion presents. If you've play too far up on him,
he's going to blow by you. You want to play off of him and
dare him to shoot, but then he gets ahead of steam. He still
gets by you and makes these crazy acrobatic layups. There's really nobody else like
him. I've always said he's some mix between Blake Griffin, Charles Barkley and
pre back injury Larry Johnson like it's just crazy to watch here. Blake today
also as well recording this on Blake's birthday. Okay, yeah, Clippers now
tie the ballgame at eighty at the end of the third quarter after a nice
corner three from a Mere Coffee who has been making some timely shots once again
as of late. So there's three and a half seconds left here in the
third. You would think not enough time to go coast to coast with a
big body like this is Zion Williamson. However, this is apparently I listened
to him postgame something he has worked on a lot, and he's aware that
defenders at the end of a quarter are not going to try to foul you.
They're gonna give you a little bit of a runway. But the Clippers
here you have Kawhi Leonard and a Mere Coffee. They're not connected enough.
They don't want to foul. Zion Williamson goes to his right veers away from
Kawhi Leonard. I think the real issue when you have just fractions of a
second mattering and a play like this is watch Norman Powell. He doesn't give
enough of a case to just have Zion Williamson just slow him down slightly,
just show and then get the hell out of the way. So he doesn't
have quite enough time here is he's gonna go past a mere coffee. But
you see Norm Powell, oh ola defense of the bull in the China.
Now he's got the runway right here. Paul George does a decent job actually
contesting this at the very end, as he was still trying to play off
Larry Nance Junior. But at this point, you know Zion's going for it.
There's one point two seconds left here. Oh my god, he jumped
from the free throw line to get that to go. I mean, it's
an incredible bucket. But still, if you could just slow him down a
little bit, that would have made it a tougher shot, and maybe it
would have been the difference there. And Norm Powell just kind of didn't get
in his way quite enough. A smaller player like that and just someone who's
not obviously a great defender, but the Clippers transition defense has been a buggaboo
all season long. I guess did he was this pre hurting the ankle?
Ooh, that is a good question, because he was ah that is a
good question. I can't remember it was obviously in the second half, but
he just sidesteps there. It doesn't provide much resistance, yeah, at all,
And maybe that would be an even better excuse. So yeah, let's
just say this was after Norman Powell suffered that injury. So we'll move along.
Here, we're now in the fourth quarter of this ball game where the
Clippers got down early in the fourth. I think there was a ten too
run. They really kind of let their foot off the gas as we had
that back and forth run to end the third quarter, and then they got
blitzed a little bit. Here we just had the bucket that was I think
the brandon Ingram shot over PJ. Tucker. It was well contested in the
far side, short corner, but doesn't matter. Now here's something interesting because
it's miscommunication between Kawhi and Paul George. Here. Here you have Kawhi Leonard,
he's on Brandon Ingram. You have Norman Powell, he's on Herb Jones.
You have Zion Williamson on Avitza Zubat. So here he is he was
playing them up close, tried to deny him getting the basketball. Now Zion
has it he's gonna sag off him and dare him to shoot. Here's the
issue here. CJ McCollum is gonna come over and set a little screen.
It's gonna be on Kawhi Leonard. So what are we doing? It looks
like Paul George is saying something to Kawhi. They got to communicate here are
we switching or not? Well, it looks like Kawhi thinks they are at
the last second, but Paul George still stays with CJ McCollum. Kawhi Leonard
then goes back to CJ as well, so he loses his man in brandon
Ingram and now you can't help at least one of these guys doesn't stay on
brandon Ingram, so PJ. Tucker thinks he has to tag him instead of
coming over to help Big Zoo against Zion, who gets this to go and
it's a little hook shot. He just gets it up really quick with the
left hand. But it's that miscommunication between two and three that probably shouldn't be
happening in a game of this magnitude this late in the season. Guys,
and a guy's wide open for three. If Zion decides to make that read
too. Pj's a no man's land right there. You know, I'm not
the biggest PJ. Tucker fan, but it's not his fault here. He
has to crash the guy that tagging. There's two of them play. What
I would say, though, is Zion is so committed on most of these,
Like, yeah, he's not a great passer. Yeah, that's not
happening there. He's going to he's been on a roll, he's taken that
shot, but yeah, I just two P three has to figure this out.
Who's switching? Are we staying or switching on that? Ah. It's
just a tough one right there. In the game was one hundred and ninety
six with six minutes left. One last highlight here or low light you could
say they really didn't go all downhill after the good one. Will you got
that one right? This was I believe we get a little bonus one here.
And this was Kawhi's only bucket here in the fourth quarter. He called
for it up against Brandon Ingram, gives him a little shoulder shake, gets
to his hook shot right before the play we're gonna get to. That was
nice to see, but I think he only attempted two shots in the fourth
quarter, so final play here. One of the issues in this ballgame,
a recurring theme late in this one was Herb Jones, who has been the
best three point shooter in the league since January first. I think he's at
fifty one percent. So now you're building that wall against Zion. Is PJ.
Tucker as his primary defender. He SAgs off of him. Kawhi hedges
over he's guarding herb Jones. Here's Zion does make the pass, he sees
the double com Kawhi almost gets to it. Here he almost deflects this.
It's a nice pass. It gets to herb Jones. But herb Jones,
what he was doing throughout the fourth quarter over and over again, was just
attacking the closeout man perfectly. So you think you gotta get back to this
guy because he's been the best three point shooter. He attacks Kawhi Leonard here
and now it's basically a two on one with Larry Nance Junior also killing them
in the second half in the dunker spot. It's Paul George who steps up
to try to stop herb Jones and actually recovers decently. The problem was Yarron
Nance Junior goes Larry Nance Senior. This is an old school move. He
puts that big caboose into Paul George. It could have been a foul.
Watch how far back he pushes PG. Thirteen, who's the low man?
The last line of defense now, because the Clippers ended up going small.
Finally, with PJ. Tucker, as I guess you could say, the
biggest guy out there, watch this boom. He bows him all the way
over with his butt and gets an easy one. Kawhi came over to help,
but it was too late. And that was just to play with Herb
Jones. I mean, I think he was only one of three from distance
or something like that. He didn't kill them from three, but he made
the right decision. Every time they try to run him off the line,
he would end up excuse me, that was ingram Herb Jones making the right
pass and that killed the Clippers in this game. You game plan right against
Herb Jones. You can't let him take three pointers. He attacks the space
and ended up playmaking really well down the stretch for the Pelicans. Pick your
poison boys. He had another frustrating high fi which is not but it's not,
you know, That's that's how the Clippers are playing. If you want
to watch the high five, Adam been a great job of breaking it down
if you're listening to this on the pod. But if you want to watch
this, you can check us out on YouTube, which is the full experience.
So we went through some of the low lights, which which we're not
ideal. Zion went for twenty three in the second half. The Clippers just
couldn't really stop him. Tyler kind of said as much. At the end
of the game, Norm left on crutches because of the ankle thing he ended
up playing after hurling his shoe. I don't know this. Norm is a
badass. Norman is very much about us. You already said he's playing on
Sunday. I mean, I hope he's okay too. Yeah, Like,
how did we feel after this? How do we feeling now? Kind of
do Adam? You mentioned you feel a bit better? Will are you feeling
a little bit better? Or where are we at? Because it feels like
we're heading towards a crash course of clips peals round one. I mean,
I think how I feel is going to depend on, you know, how
these next few games look. You know, we talked about how important this
matchup was for the Clippers. You know, for the most part, they
kept it close in this one. You would have liked to see a better
result, obviously, And you know, Adam pointed out some of the flaws,
which is things that we have seen throughout, you know, especially this
run post All Star break, which is a little troubling. But considering I
don't know, considering some of our rotation places, pieces like Norm and Terrence
not being at one hundred percent, it's a little tough. Like if this
one would have been more out of hands throughout the entirety of the game,
I think I would probably feel a little bit different. It's just not it's
just not as bad as some of these other games that we've talked about being
like, you know, and the implications and how important they are, not
just in within, you know, the context of a regular game season,
but what they could mean for seedings, what they could mean for tie breakers.
Right, We've seen the Clippers look much worse in some of these games
than this one. So well, I'm not thrilled. You know, while
I'm not thrilled by any stretch of the mind. It's also it's tough to
say, but I guess it could be worse. It could be worse with
these lay clippers, and just to clarify the high five. Unfortunately the Norm
injury happened in the fourth, so he was it was pre ankle sprain on
that Ola defense. But I like that point that Will made right out of
like we've seen them look worse than this stretch without James Harden, especially that
game hurts to lose. But again with the news of James Harden being out,
I think most people's hopes were like, oh, well, I hope
we can win this one, not maybe we should win this one. Yeah.
I thought there was still some encouraging overall, especially in the third quarter.
They were down by eleven multiple times and they didn't wilt, They did
not fold. There was a sense of urgency. They kicked in and I
think they had it to within two very quickly after Kawhi Leonard got a couple
of buckets of EACHA Zobots had one. Terrence Man hit a timely three pointer
that brought it to within two at sixty five sixty three. They had it
tied until that Zion Williamson bucket at the very end of the third quarter.
They were in this I mean they battled. This looked different than what we
saw in some of those third quarters at times against Minnesota, where Ant would
just take over. I think even the last time out against the Pelicans,
it was Zion. That was the game where he was just destroying Mason Plumley
and getting towards the basket. They didn't use PJ. Tucker. And by
the way, guys, I look, I've been saying all season, this
is a team that you can have some utility with PJ. Tucker against selective,
defensive specialist moments. Situationally, he played twenty four minutes. I get
some people could say that's too many, but he had his moments. He
knocked down two threes. That was the one who was wild against It's crazy
they wasted a PJ. Tucker game. There's also the context of I was
just gonna say, there's also the context of Terrence only playing seventeen minutes,
right, So, like if you're mad at the PJ minute, well,
like if you thought, if you're in the camp that thought that that was
too high, who is taking up those like who do you want to see
taking up those minutes? The difference is do you think Terrence Man would have
more of an effect on offense to counteract them being even smaller on defense and
having to go against Zion more with Kawhi Leonard and getting worn out. I
think I understood in this game some a lot of those rotations, and I
think in a playoff series against this team, which is what is looking like
in the first round, now PJ. Tucker is going to play, he
could be a vital piece at times, situationally ten fifteen minutes here and there
against Zion Williamson as good as he was in the second half, you know,
I I feel like when PJ was on him, he made life a
little bit tougher and Zoo didn't have a good game. Zoo overall just didn't
have a good game. He was off. He's been up and down since
he came back from not just the right calf but the illness. Zu could
play better than he did. So that those are some of the things I'm
like, Okay, that's encouraging. Paul George in this game was very good
for the most part. Yeah. Back to back one, Yeah, back
to back solid games for George, which I think is like something we've all
kind of been harping on. You know. While I was happy with his
well, I mean like, while I was happy with his performance against Chicago,
it was like, okay, well, like, let's see this against
an actual team that's a threat to the Clippers, Like, let's see this
against a competitor. So that was turined to see for a guy who you
know, we happened pretty hard on I feel like deservedly so to a certain
extent. So you look at his last six games, he's shooting fifty five
percent from the field and fifty six percent from three while getting twenty five points
per game. Not much is more meaningful heading into the playoff than getting Paul
George right, you know that's critical. Yeah, that's great to have him
playing at that high of a level and have him playing, as you mentioned,
not just against Chicago, and have him play well against a team like
the Pelicans. He made. Those back to back threes he had in the
third quarter were ridiculous. He gave up a three to Jose Alvarado. As
I was watching the tape earlier, that shouldn't have happened. In between that,
but then he also had a step back jumper on Zion around the three
or four minute mark where he actually used leverage and pushed off of Zion with
his elbow, not easy to do to create that space and had that nice
fall away. He's in a groove now, he is so the game.
The Clippers needed that game. They ultimately couldn't get it done. Two main
questions before we get into the Clippers versus Hawks preview that I had on here.
Do we think the Clippers can make up the three games between them and
the Timberwolves for the three seeds? Right? They have four games, four
games. Minnesota does have to play Denver three more times. I'm thinking it's
going to be difficult to make up those four games. This stretches. Sorry,
we'll go oh. I was just gonna say this stretch is going to
determine a lot right Like right now is you know, in terms of days
of rest, it's still not great. But in terms of the ease of
competition, you know, you're taking on the Hawks, the Trailblazers twice.
The Sixers, who are without Joel and b have been struggling to put together
wins, Pacers tough games. Sixers. Again, this is due or die,
right like, if they want to have any chance of moving up.
These next games, which you know suck because we don't know what's going on
with Harden. You know, norm little is a little hobbled up Terrence.
It's it sucks, but that's the hand they've been dealt and if they want
to have any chance, they need to have a dominant stretch throughout this this
little four for this little five game run, I think it's fair to say
there's a better chance they drop the five than grab three at this point,
which I think the odds would say it. I get the chance of them
getting three. It's four games. You have sixteen games left, and you
have to make up four games against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, if you
look at the Timberwls schedule, Okay, they have a back to back in
Utah, or they play two games there with a day of rest in between.
Utah's not really playing for anything at this point. Well it's a tough
place to play. You know, they're not going to be in the play
in even they're out of the running. Then they have Denver at home,
then Cleveland at home, then go in State at home, then Detroit at
home, but then at Denver, then they got Chicago, Houston, Toronto
all at home, at Phoenix at LA. They still have Denver one more
time after that. It's not impossible, but there's probably a ninety percent chance
that Minnesota holds on yeah and stays in front of the Clippers. The Clippers
I think, I mean, the Timberwolves went looking at the rest of their
schedule, they would have to essentially lose every Nuggets game, every Sun's game,
and maybe the Lakers one, just depending on, like I said,
how the Clippers do in this upcoming stretch, and the Clippers have to go
like, well, I'm saying that's why I'm saying more than the than four
games, because we're not gonna you know, we're I doubt we're gonna go
perfect from here on that. So it's looking like Pel's clips Round one.
Well, Sacramento could still jump the Pelicans. They the technically have the tougher
schedule overall remaining they're eighth, but the Pelicans aren't that far behind. They
have the fourteenth toughest schedule. The Clippers are at eighteenth right now. If
Sacramento jumped them, that to me is the team you want to play most
in a first round series. Out of all the bad options, this is
the best of bad options. Taking on the Kings because they just don't have
a They're not a great defensive team. The Pelicans, believe it or not,
guys, they have the fourth best net rating on the season. You
would actually think they'd be higher than being the five seed right now. Their
issue, and one of the concerns of losing to that team last night,
has been they haven't closed out games well enough. They haven't been good enough
in crunch time. And the Clippers what only scored four points in the last
four minutes and forty five seconds. The Pels only had seven over that time,
like it was there for the taking. Still, it was a defensive
battle down the stretch, I guess, or just teams not executing well enough.
But the Kings or Suns. But the Sons do have the second toughest
schedule remaining. It's possible they could jump the Pelicans. The Pelicans still have
Boston, Okay, see Milwaukee to play Sacramento, the Sons twice, Orlando
twice. Orlando is good. Now. I know it's hard to wrap our
head around that it's just weird or whatever. So if the Clippers, let
me ask you, guys, this, can they go five and one over
the next six games? Because I think If they do, they'll have four
at least, and I think the schedule it's possible for the Clippers they have
I don't know if you think should go. Yeah, Hot Blazers, Blazers,
seventy six Ers, Pacers. I feel like they should be able to
go. They should. I'm not saying they will. Five and one seems
pretty attainable to me. So they lose seventy six Ers or Pacers, Yeah,
they lose. I think they lose to the Pacers. I think that's
dorrible. Yeah, and that Pacers game that is on the second night of
a back to back. It's a Sunday Sunday against Philly Monday against Indiana.
At least the Philly games at twelve thirty, which I know it sucks to
some degree, but that Indiana game is then a night game, so's it's
more than twenty four hours of rest. Then they hop on a damn plane.
Yeah, we're going to talk about Clippers versus Hawks coming up. If
you're listening to the pod, thank you for listening. We really appreciate it.
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All right, welcome back in to Clips and Dip, your favorite Los Angeles
Clippers podcast. We talked a little bit about, obviously, the loss of
the Pelicans not thrilling, but it's where we're at. We're looking ahead.
We hinted at it. Clippers have a little bit of a reprieve in terms
of strength of opponents coming up here in the schedule. We'll rest certainly it
isn't going to be on their sign and travel. They're starting things off with
the Hawks in what could be their best opportunity to sort of gain a little
bit of ground in the standings. I mean this Hawks team, uh,
you know, they they have they have some pros. Overall, they've been
similar to the Clippers since the All Star break. You know, they're slightly
below five hundred and Clippers just slightly above. But yeah, Charles, what
are you looking for in this matchup? If the Clippers are gonna going to
be able to make up some ground in the standings. Uh So, I
was looking at the stats since the All Star break, and remember when we
were doing the Rockets pre game and there was a bunch of stats for the
Clippers were like close to the Rockets, very similar, very similar here with
the Hawks with some things which you don't No disrespect to the Hawks, but
we should probably have a better net rating than them since the All Star break
and things like that. Starters wise, I guess I'm looking to see if
Harden plays. I'm assuming because we're back home now for a little bit,
James Harden is gonna play. We have no scuttle butt on it. I
really hope James Harden plays. But if he does or does it, Bones
Highland has a chance to I don't know if makeup is the right word,
because he didn't have the best game against the Pels, but he has chance
to do some things against this Hawks team. Right. This isn't exactly you
know, vaunted Hawks defense. They are twelve a net rate or in defensive
ratings, which isn't super crazy. But I'm hoping Bones can have a nice
bounce back game. I know, Adam Skeleton keyholder, you're probably hoping for
the same thing. Yeah. Like I said, I don't think he was
bad or miserable or anything like that. It was just up and down,
like he had a couple turnovers and then had a steel and then had a
block, uh, and just didn't have it going from the outside. But
I agree with you. The floor you would think would be more wide open
against the Atlanta Hall and more spread for the Clippers and Bones to find guys.
They really need to find the three point shooting because you know, I'd
like taking it back till post Grammy trip, because that's when things really started
to change for this Clippers team, where they're eight to nine their last seventeen
games, and the last, you know, great offensive game was against Atlanta
on that second night of a back to back where they played in Miami and
then in Atlanta, and they got both of them, and they put up
one hundred and fifty points against the Hawks, So then you could say the
game against Chicago shooting fifty percent from three was also impressive. But overall last
seventeen games, the Clippers are just a thirty five point seven percent from distance.
They're still the second best three point shooting team in the league, even
with the last seventeen games shooting about thirty five percent from the outside, which
tells you how good they were for a sustained period of time from the outside.
They're they're due. Like that game to me against the Chicago Bulls is
not a fluke that is progressing to the mean. They should have more of
those games coming up where they're just lights out from distance. Atlanta should be
a team just like in the first meeting where they could get extremely hot from
the outside against and play hot potato. And if there's no James Harden,
and really they shouldn't need him in a game against Atlanta, they should be
good enough to win that game just with two pine three out there. So
I wouldn't be opposed to if if Harden needs more rest, he should be
able to get rest against this Atlanta Hawks team with the Clippers taking them on
at home. Yeah, and if I's gonna get the rest, either pull
them out or maybe rest in the form of not having to play in the
fourth quarter. We talked about this too kind of in the first segment.
Will another guy who could bounce back is Zoo. Zoo has a chance to
have a nice little bit hopefully the Zoo coasters up. I didn't think we'd
ever be on a Zoo roller coaster like this, but hopefully he's ready to
go tomorrow. Yeah, I mean it's an understanding understandable just given the injury,
right, yeah, the illness that ran through him. Yeah, well
both, yes, of course the injury. The injury and the diarrhea are
both key factors here for Zoo. Let's hope he's got Let's hope he's got
his big diaper on for this game. We we also need him because defensively,
his last showing against the Hawks was was garbage. We talked in that
Yeah, we talked in that game in our little like prediction segment before that
game that you know, the thing that concerned me is like the Hawks are
happy to get you into a shootout. They're happy to just you know,
continue to push the pace, uh and drive up the score. And you
know, while I mean, I guess that's that's great at times for your
offense, it's also just a tiring way to play, especially for a team
that does struggle to get up and down the floor at times, and a
team that really does struggle, in my opinion, to create easy looks.
So it's it's not only like the quantity of the scoring, but the quality
of how you have to get there is also pretty difficult. So Zoo is
going to be essential in being that anchor in slowing down this Hawks team,
because I think I think that that is the better route, right to exert
some more defensive pressure, to make it harder on that end of the floor
and just hope that your offense can hold up versus, you know, trying
to outgun them. Atlanta's been very average. I mean, they don't have
Trey Young right now, right you know they're they're down their best player.
They have been extremely average, but they've still been better than the Clippers defensively.
Guys, since the Grammy Road took the Clippers are twenty six defensively.
Your last seventeen games, they are twenty sixth defensively. I had a call
last night somebody saying, you know, their identity is defense, and I'm
like, I is it, because it shouldn't be. They haven't been good
defensively for over twenty percent of the season now, at least if you just
go back to February first, at twenty five percent of the season, it's
been it's been bad. It's been really spotty. So they need to play
a sound game against Atlanta and just say, Okay, we can't slip,
we can't get below four, we can't not have home court in a first
round series against what's likely to be the Pelicans. They've won there once in
their last seven tries. Right, it's not Idea New Orleans, it's really
that and that would I don't think that's sustainable over a seven game series.
No, I still would pick the Clippers to win, but I don't think
it's gonna be easy, especially if you don't have home court. Yeah,
and if you're staring down Denver in the second round, it's kind of like
that lot to do. I'm kind of hoping for a holistic bench bounce back
against the Hawks because what do we how many how many points do we have
against the bench? Points do we have against the Pels? It was bad
outside seventeen with seventeen bench points versus the which I know the bench is thin,
but norm wasn't really feeling it obviously, like you know, the bench
is already thin. Bones had to start, but we need we need more
than twenty bench points. Would be nice to see. This is a team
where that could happen. This is a team where a good process could be
built against. No disrespect to the Hawks, but if the Clippers want to
hopefully win ten games in March and have good process. This is a game
we're gonna win for the next five right, this game has to be a
good process game because the starters, I mean, two to three was great
last night. That was fantastic to see. Paul George has some stuff to
build on. I hope we see twenty field goal attempts from Paul Georgie again.
And so yeah, now it's it's about the other guys kind of kind
of stepping up or getting their feet in the right process steps. It just
doesn't feel I just I'm not sure what we're gonna see, which I guess
is what is also what's kind of frustrating. I would quibble on them being
great last night. I think they were good, but neither one of them
was the best player on the floor. It was Zion. Yeah, and
what did kaw I end up taking fifteen shots? He took two in the
fourth quarter. I that was an aggressive right, like that That's kind of
what I mean, Like, I'm it's hard to know what's gonna happen tomorrow,
right, Like the team hasn't. There's not a lot of consistency right
now. If you're playing. I saw someone tweet this about their favorite team,
and they said they're playing if you're a five hundred team. Sometimes you
play way above five hundred, and sometimes you play way below five hundred.
So it's it's very different right now. The Clippers are playing like a five
hundred team, So we don't really Adam just got assassinated by a name deeck
choice by Will. But you know what I mean. That's what's hard about
the Clippers team right now. It's so up and down, and this is
a team where even if we're down, we can still win. But I
want to see him crush this Hawks team. One of my concerns coming out
of that Pelicans game, and it's been there for years, I guess you
could say because of the way the team has been constructed. We talk about
late game execution being a problem for the Clippers at times, which is interesting
because they do have one of the best clutch ratings in the league, if
not the best, since December first, when they really hit the ground running
with James Harden. It's funny to say this team really struggles to create shots
Layton ball games. It's just when they do it stands out more because they
are a jump shooting team and those planks are magnified much more in losses.
Yeah, they have the second best net rating behind Denver since December one in
clutch time last five minutes of a game within five points, so overall they
have been really good there. But again New Orleans, their problem had been
that they're twenty sixth in net rating since December during clutch time, so that
was like, you know, a feather in their cap to win a game
like that against the Clippers last night. But the one thing we talked about
post game on the double dip myself and Chuck was one of my biggest concerns
is they don't generate enough easy looks because they are a jump shooting team and
it's just a personnel thing. They have two of the greatest to ever do
it, but Kawhi and Paul George don't attack enough, especially now that they're
older. Norman Powell is a small so when he attacks, he's at a
disadvantage and he's got to get tough shots over the top of big defenders.
Terrence Man, you know, he doesn't look for a shot enough. He's
good at cutting to the basket. Russell Westbrook isn't a good finisher at the
basket James Harden, Uh, he's undersize and doesn't have the same burst that
he has going downhill. Where do they get those easy baskets if they're not
gonna give it to Ifvisa Zubas Slaton ball games pretty much ever, it's just
now if they're running pick and roll, maybe it's different last night if James
Harden is a available and they're running pick and roll with he in Viatza Zoo
bots and getting some easier looks because at one point they took Jonas Valanciunas off
before the Pelicans and they could have exploited that more and Zoo had opportunities against
Larry nance junr So. And I know he wasn't having a great game,
and he's got to do his part too. It's not just about them looking
for Viatza Zoo bots. He has to finish when he's getting good looks.
Like we talked about bones Hiland could have had a few more assists against Chicago
Bulls of Zoo had finished a couple of them. So some of it's some
of it's on him, some of it's on the Clippers not looking for him.
But they just don't have those guys that can finish late at the basket.
It's it's tough, and especially we're going to see tomorrow Zoo against Capella,
who's a guy where it's been what most of the time, Zoo plays
okay against him, but sometimes we've seen Coppella have a bit of a day
against Zoo before. So hopefully that maybe Zoo gets some more for this game.
But yeah, the easy bucket thing and the rest are liking the Clippers
right now, it feels like either, which makes things difficult. Some of
those non call okay. The game was also officiated so crazy last night.
We haven't talked about that. The third quarter of that game was called like
you couldn't touch anybody in it was a foul, but every other quarter people
were getting smacked. It was very odd. The easy buckets thing is just
something that I guess we have to hope isn't a big issue, which is
kind of a crazy thing. It is an issue, though, No,
especially if we're talking about the playoffs like that's and it's a huge issue,
and so I'm just not sure how we get those easy buckets. I mean,
there aren't as many easy buckets in a playoff series, regardless of who
you are because teams know each other so well and you have to iso and
they do have two of the best guys to do that. That's why in
twenty twenty one, midway point of the season, there was this huge issue
in talking point narrative at the end of games with the Clippers. Midway through
the season, they couldn't execute I remember against Milwaukee, against the Brooklyn Nets,
and by the time the playoffs came around they were one of the best
at executing games. But they did have Reggie Jackson who was extraordinary at getting
downhill and making acrobatic layups. And while he's as small, he is kind
of burly. He can, you know, push guys around a little bit.
Well, yeah, for sure that norm is a different type of finisher
than that. He doesn't have that level of size. Yeah, and might
be hobbled, which hopefully is not. Hopefully don't buy the playoffs. Yeah,
So who is our Kawhi Leonard? Anything any other notes before we get
on the Hawks, Before we get into our Kawhi Leonard player of the game
picks beat him, beat the Hawks, beat the Hawks. They have to
win this game, they really do. You cannot with New Orleans being two
games back now and having the tiebreaker over them, there cannot be any slip
ups against teams you should beat the rest of the way. That means the
Hawks, that means Philly if they don't have Joel Embiid, that means both
those games against the Portland Trailblazers. I know it's sometimes hard to beat a
team in back to back games, regardless of who they are, doesn't matter.
They have to win those games. Final notes, must win. Adam
who is your quigh lightard Player of the Game choice for Clippers For socks,
I will go with a mere coffee in that game. Amir has kind of
been coming out of the rut that he had been in shooting wise. After
you know there was gonna be some regression. He was way too hot for
way too long. But he's been shooting it well from beyond the arc.
He had that timely three at the end of the third quarter against New Orleans.
He's confident in his shot again. When he had that start and had
sixteen against Milwaukee, that kind of got him pointed in the right direction with
his offense. It just seemed to get him back into a rhythm. Love
that pick well, and I don't want to see the starters or guys have
to play heavy minutes against it. I'm hoping a mere coffee gets a lot
of run. You want to have like sixteen attempts. Well, who you're
going with, I'm gonna go with Bones Highland, And while I hope that,
I hope that Harden is available. If not, this is this would
be another opportunity, a huge opportunity for Bones to step up see something similar
to what we saw in that Chicago game. You know, he will be
going against the more favorable defense for him versus the Pelicans, And you know
this is we just talked about how crucial this stretches, and it's also crucial
for some of these guys on the fringes of the rotation. If you want
confidence going into a playoff series, like you know, if if you want
any shot at minutes, it's it's kind of put up or shut up right
now, over these over this, over this next little stretch. So I'm
hoping that we get a good outing from Bones. And you know, I
guess even if Harden does end up with the start, I'm I'm still going
to stick to my guns and hope that Bones is a really good game because
he could be, even if not in the starting lineup, a big piece
in helping that bench get better production than what we saw last game out.
Hell yeah, put up a shut up time. Just win the Clippers.
Current run of play has made this podcast much more hardened than it was when
things are going well. I want them to start playing better. I'm going
Bones is a great pick. Obviously, we know the starters to be good.
I'm going, whoever the backup center is needs to be the player of
the game for me, you know, obviously, Like kind of in the
same line that Adam says, I hope we see a lot of backup center
playing this because we get to you know, because we don't have to see
zoo a bunch or something like that. If that's PJ. Tucker getting minutes,
if it's Tice or Plubly, we're kind of in this place right now
where that's getting switched around. We need to have some quality minutes from them.
I'm getting a little more. I'm paying closer attention to what's happening with
the center rotation the closer we get to the playoffs, because it would be
nice to have that maybe nailed down a little bit more. But I just
hope we see both these guys playing well because we need everyone to be playing
well if we want to have good process and win for these next five games.
And we're all picking the Clippers to win, right obviously, Yeah,
hell yeah, yeah, it's got a good process win. We've had about
wraps it up for the Saturday edition of Clips and Dip, But Adam,
do we have another giveaway? Another sticker, another part of the Clippers new
redesign rebranding logos, the LA one here. Last time out it was the
compass with the Clipper ship and now we have the LA portion. When are
we going with best comment? We're going with best comment. We still owe
it to Rock I believe. Who needs to find us on Twitter and add
us and we'll get your address. But yeah, leave the funniest best to
comment, could be the meanest comment, could be the saddest comment. Whatever
we think is the best, we will pick on Monday. Yeah, and
Adam, we're doing a double dip after tomorrow's game. If you guys are
for it, I'll be on. So I ain't going anywhere. If either
of you want to come on, let's do it. So yeah, Will
Will? I think Will's coming on for that game for some reason. I
hope, so, I really really hope, so it could be a win.
Who knows. We'll pencil it in. But Clippers have a two day
break. We're gonna do a podcast for you guys on Monday. It should
be a good time. Will Where can these people review and listen and maybe
watch us if they felt like switching up their medium. Yeah, you can
listen to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can review and rate
this over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. On Spotify you can actually, I
believe you can rate podcasts more than one time. So if you felt some
on cline, you can really help it out, help us out. If
you want this full experience, you know, we're complete, We're in.
We're into the audio visual world. Now we're dipping our toes in. You
can you can immerse the full five senses over on YouTube dot com slash at
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got I mean, every episode has the feels, you know. Anyways,
you can check us out there and on the daily. We're over at Clippers
pod over on Twitter or x as at follow Adam A always says, so
yeah, hit us up, Adam, one more positive thing before we send
these Clippers fans on their merry ways this this afternoon. So much has been
made, and I think rightfully so to an extent, But we can contextualize
it a little bit more. But the Clippers just one in seven post All
Star Break, I believe, or at least one in seven over the last
eight against teams above five hundred. They're definitely three in eight their last eleven
against teams above five hundred. But if you look at where some of those
games have landed, like last night it was game five of a five and
seven, some of these have been back to backs, the Clippers have been
at a disadvantage scheduling wise. And if you don't think that matters, just
go look at top teams, the best of the best, and what their
record is the second night of a back to back, or at least teams
above five hundred. It's meaningful, guys. It's very difficult, Chuck.
You brought it up last night. What are the Clippers eleven and one against
a team that's on the second night of a back to back. They take
advantage of it when they're taking on a team with tired legs as Chicago was
who they just played. It happens all the time in the NBA. I'm
not saying there isn't something to them losing to these teams above five hundred and
right around them in the standings, but I do think it's worth pointing out
that most of the time they have been at a scheduled disadvantage. Like even
when they came back off the six to one Grammy road trip to play the
Elegance that was their next game back. They had one day off after having
that road trip where they were amazing, and coach Lou said it like,
that's not right. We get one day off and they look good against the
Pels in that game. It's somewhat understandable. I don't want to make excuses,
but if every team in the league has a problem with the same issue,
it's not just isolated to the Clippers having that problem. I would agree
with that it's a scheduling issue. Part of it is a very real scheduling
issue. Everyone talked about it since the schedule has dropped, Like we said,
we're gonna be back on Monday, maybe with a live who knows,
that could be a fun time a little Midweek Live pre Week Live. Thank
you everyone for listening and watching it. As always, let's go clips