What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to the Clips and Yip Season
too, Episode forty one. We'll recording this with live over on YouTube at
dot com slash at Clippers Podcast. We're just kind of doing these weekend lives,
which has been fun. We're waiting for will up. Like Adam Osland
is here. If you're new to the show and you're just listening, thank
you for listening. If you're watching, subscribe it's a good time. Over
on YouTube. You can follow us at Clippers Pod. We're talking all things
Clips today. We're gonna talk the loss of Vitza Zubats, which seems like
it might go on maybe one more game, and how that affected the Clippers
against the Wolves, and then previewing the very big important whatever metaphor you want
to use in terms of a game that means a lot versus the thunder tomorrow
night. What Adam Osland is here? Adam? How the hell are you
after the Clippers put up a pretty good fight against the Timberwolves. How you
feeling? How are the callers? How was it the day after? I'm
all right? The callers were okay. The Clippers have built up a lot
of goodwill, a lot of equity on their side because of this run where
they have still won twenty two of their last twenty nine ball games and they're
seventeen and twenty one since December first. And as you mentioned, no big
Zoo, which is kind of a big deal when you're going up, especially
against a team like Minnesota. I said postgame last night, this isn't hyperbolic.
At worst, Zoo is the fourth most important player on this Clippers team.
At worst, Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, he's
a he's a starter. And we saw You're right, We saw what happened
with daniel Tyson there against a bigger team or something like that. Daniel Tyson
does a lot of things good. He hit that three to open the game,
but we also saw exactly why we need to beat to Zoobots. He
saved that ball from going out of bounds. He went into the stands Dennis
Rodmans style. He was the effort was there, and I thought big Plumb,
who I've been talking about for a while now, and thought he'd get
some minutes. I didn't know if Eatza Zubos would be out and he'd end
up playing like sixteen minutes. He ended up at eight and four and looked
to be in rhythm timing wise, was in the flow of the game.
So maybe this will give them more confidence just because they had to play him
out of necessity without a beatza zoobos to give him more minutes out there because
it looks like the timing, the touch is back. He went at Rudy
Gobert for a layup. He had caught a couple of lobs, typical big
plumb stuff. So he did have four fouls in his sixteen expected. Yeah,
it's like he's rusty. We're gonna talk about someone in the stream is
saying we have to start plumbly. We're gonna talk about that next segment,
maybe if Zoo doesn't play, if we start plumbling against that thunder team.
But I so you mentioned plumbly. There was some good early returns from the
plumbly hardened pick and roll that looked obviously, you know, they still need
to work on some stuff, but that was really encouraging to see that working
well with public coming back. And so he's a better finisher than Daniel Tice.
He's a better rim protector because of his size than Daniel Tye. He's
at least a better rebounder, rim protector, you can, you can.
I wish he was as good at his size as Daniel Tice was with his
mindset when it comes to protecting the paint. There because Mason Plumble, he
just got gets out of position sometimes, he gets pump faked out of position
too often, he falls for fakes far too often. The effort is there,
He's just never been an elite rim protector, but rebounder, and then
on the other end, he can catch lobs, he can be a vertical
threat. I really think there's a lot of untapped potential there now with James
Harden. Definitely, this Wolves game, obviously the Clippers didn't play well,
but I didn't see anything that particularly made me think, oh, this Wolves
team is maybe even scarier or better than I thought in this game. I
think if zusan this game, obviously things are a lot different. We did
have to go super small at one point. But I'm not Timberwolves are a
very good regular season team. But it's a lot of people are saying it's
reminding them of the Jazz and all that kind of stuff, and I don't
know if they're totally wrong. I don't think what we saw I don't think
they're totally wrong. I brought it up on the last podcast that there are
some similarities there. But I'll say this, I think the Timberwolves are the
better defensive team than Utah was. That Utah D team was better on offense.
They you know, they sacrifice defense for more shooting out there with boy
On Bogdanovich, with Jordan Clarkson, guys like that, next to Donovan Mitchell
and Rudy Gobert. This Minnesota team can struggle at times offensively, although they
shot a really high percentage yesterday against the Clippers. They ended up shooting fifty
seven percent from the field and fifty percent from the outside, but that was
when they got shots up because they ended up with nineteen turnovers in the game,
and that was an issue for them. They averaged almost fifteen per game,
and the Clippers are top five and steals, So it was kind of
a recipe for what played out to happen with those teams to a strength versus
a weakness there with the Clippers taking advantage of it, they ended up getting
sixty more shots up. Now, some of that's also because Minnesota got so
many free throws on the ball game and a lot of them. Yes,
they'd become late because they were going to hacker go bear. They ended up
attempting thirty one free throws, but still I think defensively, just like with
the Lakers, their length, and I thought this would be a test for
the Clippers because of what we saw against the Lakers, their length really bothered
the Clippers to some degree. Now, well, zers still miss a lot
a lot of good luck. That was rough. That was not ideal that
kawhipax to like it, just it was a little tough that. I mean,
him and Harden combined to go nine for thirty three, which to be
in that game with two of your big three being that bad from the field
does say something about the Clippers and no effort and no zoo great point talent
wise, you could be in a game like that where I think in past
seasons they would have just got run off the floor and they would have lost
by twenty five. Yeah, and maybe have given in earlier than they did,
because even when they went with the small ball lineup, that eventually worked
and I think ended up being a plus eight at first. That's how the
lead got up to seventeen. They brought them in. They were running small
ball and they got burnt. Coach Lou stuck with it and eventually it worked.
Rudy Gobert was missing free throws, Norm got hot as he always is
in fourth quarters. What else is new, and they they made a run
and had it to within three with a minute left. Well, we saw
them getting settled. I feel like we saw the Clippers really work through a
process where they did have to settle a bit in the beginning, and then
with the small ball they had to figure it out because they don't play that
very often. Like it's not like something that we've seen be Okay, we've
leaned into having a traditional big out there most of the time. So it
was kind of cool to see them work through that and figure out what worked
and show good results. Obviously, you know, the loss is bad,
but there was some nice stuff for maybe later down the road. Yeah,
and it was for those who were watching us on the youtubeer listening now on
podcast form. They had two to one three out there next to James Harden,
next to Russell Westbrook, next to Norman Powell, something I don't know
if we've seen so far, and they ran with it for I want to
say about eight minutes. Uh, and they ended up being a huge plus
and getting them back in the ball game and giving them a chance. I
still have some questions about some late game execution there when they did cut it
to three with a minute left. Do you really want to foul Rudy go
Berart and intentionally foul him like Russell Westbrook did? Just let that play out.
See if you can get a stop defensively, it's a minute a game
time left. And then at the very end, when they're down by four,
they bring it up the court slowly, get it to Russell Westbrook on
the left wing. After PG got doubled, he attacks, misses the layup.
There's the time just runs out. Even if he had made it,
I think there would have been about two seconds of the clock. It was
like the left But the Clippers, yeah, they the and Coach lu said
postgame, we didn't play smart enough basketball out there overall. But in speaking
to more of what we saw with the small ball, I was just listening
to some of the locker room postgame audio from Kawhi PG and James Harden,
Uh, no excuse me, Russell Westbrook and they all were kind of like,
at least Paul George and Russ were both saying, we just need more
reps because we've actually been so successful not going small this season. We haven't
run much of it, right, Yeah, it's new. It's like totally
it's what we've all It's funnily enough, it's what we've all wanted. It's
not really the version of it, but it's totally new. I hope they
don't lean I don't think they'll lean into it too crazy, like I don't
think we'll see it against okay see, but we might give them their big
size. But another thing that was cool to watch Terrence Man on Anthony Edwards.
There's something there. Terrence played some antie VIDs, is very good.
Obviously he had a good game, but Terrence Man bothers him. Terrence Man
has a thing where he bothers guys like Luca. He bothers the Edwards.
He was in Gobert's face. But I was encouraged by what we saw from
Terrence one on one against Anthony Edwards. He's not like a stopper or whatever
it is. Yeah, exactly. Terrence Man ended up only playing nineteen minutes.
I would have been interested to see him in place of Rust down the
stretch because of his defense and better three point shooting with that small ball unit.
But in that first quarter, two of the turnovers were generated by Terrence
Man and that defense, as you mentioned on it where they tried to lob
it to him on a play I think from Carl Anthony Towns where Terrence Man
was denying him the basketball and it ended up going out of bounds, and
then a shot clock violation on Minnesota that was due to the defense that Terrence
Man was playing. He was really good. Can we start acknowledging some of
these some of these comments, we're getting a lot of ye sorry about that,
some spicy stuff. Jonathan Ang said, Man was incredible defensively against a
We have this one which is interesting that people talked about when Terrence Man wasn't
shooting well. Finessem if you're not, if you're just listening, Finess commented
this on the YouTube stream. I want to see Norm in the starting lineup
since he's such a bucket. That is a thing where I if Terrence wasn't
shooting well still up to January fifteenth, I could maybe understand it. But
we know it works well and it works so good in the middle of the
game, right, Like, it's just another incredible wrinkle to add to this
Clippers pick and roll. So and I think Norm's kind of like lou Will,
right, remember how lou Will talked about how he didn't like starting games.
He kind of had to figure out the flow of the game and things
like that and kind of watch it. I think Norm, with the way
he plays and scores, kind of needs that a little bit. It's not
a crazy idea because it is a very good lineup, but the defenses,
I think we need the defense against starters exactly. You hear it all the
time from Kawhi and Paul George. Them not having to guard, for example,
Anthony Edwards's start off a ballgame saves their legs for later in fourth quarters.
It has a trickle down type of effect. And yeah, it would
make more sense if I don't know that five man starting unit with Terrence Man
wasn't shooting fifty three percent from the field together and forty four percent from the
outside. If it was actually affecting their offense, then it would be a
good call to put in Norman Pallence and a Terrence Man. It's not affecting
their offense. My friend who ever put that comment in there. He's still
a good connector, he's still a good cutter to the basket. Uh,
he doesn't get in the way. And when you have the stars in the
starting lineup already, how many shots is he going to get up? Maybe
a couple in the first quarter, which is what we basically have been seeing.
And yeah, he needs to knock down his three point shot, but
again they are shooting forty four percent from three with the starting unit out there,
with Terrence Man, even with these struggles that have been going on,
and you look at what Norm does. Norm's you cut out there chuck second,
don't they? Uh? What is the second gotch does after scoring the
basketball? It's the second thing. Yeah, like Terrence does a lot of
That's a trick question, right, Yeah, Norman's rags wearing the basketball.
Danny Perez, who is getting the hat? I'm sending that off tomorrow,
Uh said more interested in Norm finishing. I think when we're down, and
that makes a lot of sense. Norm finishing when we need a bucket or
something is gonna be really good. And I'm not gonna be surprised if Norm
wins with how he plays late in games. So I think Tyler's been good,
right, we haven't seen ty really make the wrong finishing. No,
it's amazing people want this to change when it's worked so well with the starting
unit and Norman Powell. Look at how those five play together. They are
dominant. They're putting up dominant numbers offensively and defensively. And I see stuff
like from I Am the System with the Heisenberg avatar saying there's actually a twenty
five percent chance plumb ceiling is higher than Zoo because his passing and b ball
IQ. It's like, do you even know who beats a Zoo box?
No? No, no, no, it's not. He's the third best
rim protector in the league. Mason plumb Lee is not close to that conversation.
He's probably one of the worst. If you look back at the numbers
in Charlotte last season. He struggles in that area. Zoo is the backbone
of their defense who currently is getting thirteen to ten on almost seventy percent shooting
over their last twenty eight games that he has played in before he missed the
game last night, So we do gotta talk about that because the Zoo thing
obviously was a huge loss. The timeline is what he kind of felt.
He felt some calf tightness or something on Friday, I believe tried to kind
of play through it and practice through it and then couldn't. He was questionable
to start the game and then like two minutes into the game he was ruled
as officially out. Tyson started this game, but no, Zoo is pretty
rough. I don't think he's gonna be back for okay see either, considering
the Clippers have four days off and we're gonna talk about the Okac game after
a break in a bit. But I can't. I don't they play him
against the Thunder And I don't know if I wanted to, I wouldn't care
if he said he was feeling good. I don't think I would play him
when you're dealing with that part of the body or you know, it's all
connected to the Achilles and it started with a calf. With Kevin Durant and
how vital of Itza Zubats is to this team. No, Mayson Plumble isn't
close to the center that he is still very good and what he does off
the bench, but they have to have Aviatza Zubats. He is imperative if
he needs to take two weeks off if he needs to take a month off
to get right, because this is the iron man for this team who has
hardly missed any games over the last five seasons. So more wear and tear
in his body because of that. Whatever it takes, you have to preserve
of Ittza Zubats. They are not winning anything without him, guys, that
is the truth. And they have, you know, after, like we've
mentioned, they have these four days off after the game against the Thunder,
then they're home against the Nets on Sunday, home against Lakers on Tuesday.
Then they have a back to back in Trono and Boston twenty six, twenty
seventh, and then Cleveland the twenty ninth. So they have a lot of
games coming up. They have a three and four. Uh they're away.
Uh oh. We got a special guest lurking in the wings. I think
he can hear me. I don't know if he can. Uh. Will
Updike is here, Will welcome, Welcome to the live. How are you
good? Good? How's it going? Fellas, He's back, It's going
good. Adam is trying is arguing with people in the comments about Mason Pumley
being a better center than Zoo. He's of course right, that is the
better. That's better. Yeah, here's a fun question, Alfred Rodriguez.
We're talking Zoo being out. Does zoobox absence give him enough of a case
to be an All Star? I'm assuming this is like when Peyton Manning was
out for the Colts and they lost all those games, and everyone's like,
well if you see if you take them out, look how bad the defense?
Look how bad they are? Are we going to see a drop off
like that for the Clippers against the thunder team. Well, the Clippers are
zero to four and it's only chances for this to happen because of Eviatza Zubots
is so damn available and reliable. They're zer and four without him with two
one three in those games. Oh, that's how important Aviatza Zubots has been
for them. Yeah, Kelly Johnson saying plumbly is still needed. Of course,
we love big plums. Yes, I've been a big proponent and advocate
of his. I'm just saying it's nonsense to say that he should be starting
or has more potential than a Viza Zoobots. My god, one guy is
twenty six, by the way, and is already much better. It's great,
but is Plumbly ready for the start though? If Zoo can't go.
So that's a great questions with the thunder because like they're not small, right,
But yeah, I mean for a few minutes the gortatt start, remember
that old thing. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I feel
like it's worth a look. He had a great I thought his last game.
He looked great. It very much might be needed to start Mason plumbly.
If Zubots isn't going plumbly and DT are gonna play minutes, they're probably
gonna combine for thirty minutes or something like that against the Okac Thunder. So
he better be ready for that challenge of Chet Holmgren, which is not easy
because uh, you know, you would think Daniel Tice, even though he's
undersized against Chet because of the foot speed, might be the guy they start
on him. I don't know, just because Chet takes out to the perimeter.
Yeah, well, if he takes Mason Plumbing out to the perimeter,
he's gonna fly right by him too. So that's true. There's they offer
a lot of problems the oka See Thunder. That is a great transition before
we do this quick ad break for those listening before we get into that Whales.
There anything you wanted to say about how you felt the Clips look that
you didn't say on the double dip against the Timberwolves. I touched on how
the Timberwolves don't look particularly scary. I feel like that game said a lot
more about the Timberwolves than it did the Clippers. And I still think that
it wasn't encourage loss for the Clippers, and I'll leave it at that.
Is that our second encouraging loss of the season? Uh? Sure, what
was the other one? I can't remember. I think it was early Maybe
it was one of the first hard Denver? Was it the was it low
key the Denver to Reggie and DeAndre loss? Because it that was the absolute
floor. Yeah, I think it was rock bottom. You know, you
have to hit rock bottom first before you can really crawl out. Exactly after
we went on a nine game win streak, I think we can we called
that an encouraging loss. We did. We we did an episode like six
wins into the win streak where Will and I were like, I think the
bad taste of that loss against the Nuggets is finally out of our mouth we
just had to win in a row. Yeah, it just took sixth straight.
I would like to point out that I don't think it's a complete coincidence
that the two teams with the most defensive length have given the Clippers problems over
the last two weeks, the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Shooting wise,
I don't think that is a coincidence. Clippers need to be better making their
open shots, but I don't think it's a great matchup to go up against
Minnesota in the playoffs, like just saying, oh, it's gonna happen,
just like it did with the Utah Jazz, They're gonna be able to beat
them. They were still down twenty five, by the way in that game
six the Utah Jazz, right, and we're about to have to go back
to Utah before Terrence Man went off like that. And they have better defenders
around Rudy Gobert on this Minnesota team. I think offensively that Utah team was
better, but defensively, this Minnesota team is definitely better. Here's something we've
had a couple of questions about this. Do we think the Clippers we'll go
with Kelly Johnson because we know her. Do you think the Clippers still need
another four who can slide into the five? Saw a lot of chatter about
that after the Minnesota lost. There have been people talking, you know,
now is the I think the fifteenth is when some contracts can be traded,
like there's there's something to kick in and things like that. Will do you
think the Clippers? We know they're gonna do their due diligence, but do
you think they're actively looking for an upgrade there? Oh, they've got feelers
out, for sure. I think somebody at the I think somebody at the
four with all the wings that you've shipped out makes a lot of sense.
It just comes down to what what you're really what you're really willing to give
up, you know, in terms of assets, which I don't think is
a whole lot with how things are going right now. I don't know how
big of a move you would really do. Yeah, I know, Keith
Smith had that tweet that the Clippers could add like a twenty million dollar guy.
I yet moving a bunch of stuff, But I was like, who
are we moving that? Yeah? Yeah, I just don't think I just
don't think anybody is taking that. No one is taking on the PJ Tucker
contract and giving you anything of value, like not even of value unless you're
attaching something else a player, And who do you want to give up?
I guess right, Like that's that's right. But like everyone on the team
is playing so good. Things are just clicking. Yeah, I mean,
you know, unless it's one of the guys, like unless you can figure
out a trade for someone who is willing to develop a younger player like a
Brandon Boston or something like that, and they're interested enough that they're going to
take on extra year PJ. Tucker at eleven or twelve, which that's it
hurts that's what hurts them. It's not like he's an expiring contract. He's
still got another year. That's why Philadelphia was trying to move him. And
it seems like he's on to get James Harden. Yeah, it seems like
he's unwilling to waive it or I think they would have gotten a deal done
for him, yeah, something like if he's a buyout guy. Yeah,
I mean, I think any contender would like sniff around. And a lot
of the guys are the prototypical UH player that people are looking for. Yeah,
like a four or five that can also shoot and stuff and stretch the
for a little bit and defend the ram. It's like, oh, guys
that make one hundred million dollars, Like they're kind of hard to find.
That's not easy to pull off. I'd like a Jokic stopper who's a twenty
point per game guy ideally for about twenty million doses. Johnnys have another brother,
Like that's better, Like what what about? Uh? What about Dorian
Finnie Smith? Do you think the Clippers can get Dorian Finny Smith? A
lot of people talk about him in the comments. Yeah, it just depends
on what the other bids are around the league. Yeah, I don't know.
That's I mean, that's a tasty one though. I think that's like,
that's a great pick hup. He's not getting he's not. He's not.
He's shooting, okay, shooting forty percent from deep, Like he'd be
a nice you know, it's pretty good. Another stretch guy, Like,
no, he'd be great. He he is the guy in the price range,
the other guy we've talked about before, PJ. Washington. Yeah,
Charlotte, Uh, those guys I think are a possibility. But like Will
said, it's not just the Clippers who are gonna be going after them so
they can drive up the price and pull in a few different assets. And
here's somebody talking about PJ. Washington. Yeah, we got to give a
shout out to trank Addict on YouTube. Thank you for this comment. If
you're watching, it sounds like what we acquired with k J. Martin.
But he's a fat which I kind of like that take like kJ Martin.
Also, fun fact, the only Clipper to appear in the schedule release video
no longer. Wow. Fun. I don't know if it's a fun fact.
All right, thank you Daryl for the comments. We're gonna get into
this OKAC Thunder game preview. Before that, we gotta let you know if
you're listening. Sometimes the ads have been loud. If you're watching us on
YouTube, there's no audio ads, but there might be some ads inserted soon
if we get a couple more subscribers. Oh, trance addict, that makes
a lot more sense. Sorry about that, Trance Addicts, not traink addict,
My mistake, mister addict addict like tranquilizers. Oh wouldn't that be with
a Q? I don't know, I tranquilizer addic, what do you mean,
I don't want to good judge. Coming up, we got Clippers versus
Thunder previous, but the ads have been loud, so go ahead and turn
it down if they've been too loud for your ads. Coming up in three
two? What what's going on? Welcome back into Clip and DIP. I
tuned in late, so I'm sure you heard all the great stuff in the
first segment, which was just mostly about a beat the Zoobots in his absence,
as well as some reactions to the to the loss of the Timberwolves.
Now we're looking ahead to the Thunder, Adam, what do you think we
need to do well in this one? Find a way to bottle up Sga.
Everything starts with him offensively. They lead the league in drives per game
for a reason, and he just wreeks havoc, creates chaos in a similar
way that Russ used to, but in a more controlled way because his mid
range game is so lethal. Uh, and he just has a bag and
a plethora of moves he can go to that don't even include kicking it out
to the open man. When that double comes after he already you know,
exploits your defense. It gets them in rotation, so they also lead the
league in three point shooting, Clippers behind them by what is it at now,
because I'm guessing the gap closed after the Clippers ended up shooting a pretty
high percentage. They ended up yesterday at what forty four percent from the outside
after that slow start. Let me pull up the Basketball Reference real quick.
The three's got a minute. They've been dangerously close to kissing the OKC thunders
three point percentage, just kissing right under it. About thirty nine point two
it was, but now I'm sorry at thirty nine to four and are officially
number one per Basketball Reference. Woo. So they overtook OKAC after last night
they did interesting corna Basketball Reference cording to Basketball Reference, uh the wonky if
you look at the weird matchup data on stats on NBA dot com, which
admittedly makes absolutely no sense sometimes, but I think the time might be right.
Russ and Terrence were the number one and number two defenders for Shay last
game, which I thought was interesting. I like Terrence Moore now I feel
like he played really well against Anthony Edwards. But that's interesting, Kauh.
I wasn't really on them very much. I wasn't playing in that game.
We think it's the same. I hope it's not Russ because I don't know
if Russ is in a good stretch right now. I actually I lot that
is one thing. Uh, you know, people have called a lot of
us Russ haters if we criticized him like we do anyone else when they have
bad shooting nights, like I don't know, Paul George last night. It's
just a whole different thing if you talk about Russ. But I think Russ
versus SGA is interesting to me. I think him on SGA for five to
ten minutes, could uh be successful in you know, in uh in the
way that he only goes like forty five percent from the field during that stretch
something like that, because he's gonna be wildly officient. That's the other part.
He wasn't. The last time he played the Clippers, though, he
was like forty from the floor. He put up thirty one, but it
was one five shots. I was looking go ahead, I mean, you
know, you that's a start. It's not you hope you'd hope to do
better than that in the in the second mean, but like that's that's the
thing, right is just trying to force him into less efficient shots and hope
that you don't get killed on three point shooting. Yes, And if you
look at the last game we played too, Shae was he was the worst
shooter of their starting lineup. Everyone else was over fifty percent and the starting
lineup against the Clippers last time, which is hopefully that doesn't happen again.
The other thing, I'll go ahead, No, you could live with I
guess Shay's stat line if everybody else is much colder and they don't end up
hitting what sixteen three pointers against Clippers? Yeah, sixteen to thirty four from
the outside. But that also was a game that got away from the Clippers.
And I don't know how much you can put into some of the box
score because you know, they lost by nineteen. They didn't have Kawhi Leonard.
They were downs, I guess it will down by four to half.
But that third quarter, okay, Soe put up a forty five spot on
him. Yeah, it was well I think it was that was pre Terrence
re emergence as well. Yeah, Terrence was bad in that game. That
was before the Terrassans. Yeah, okay, no, I buy that.
By the Terrannaissance, the terrannosuns of man. Yeah, okay, are you
listening to Jurassic World five? Ok. The thunder do another thing too,
which is frustrating for their opponent. They take care of the ball. While
they force turnovers, they don't really turn the ball over their first in blocks,
sixth and steals, and the opponents turn it over sixteen times a game
against them, which is the most in the league. So if the Clippers
are gonna be sloppy with it, I don't like our chances as much.
They had fifteen turnovers last time against Okac and in those two games that I
referenced with the Clippers who really struggled from the field. James Harden has also
struggled against the Lakers against Minnesota, not just with his shot, but he
had three turnovers last night. He's been unbelievable at times, and the Clippers
have been much better in that area with him. But long, lanky,
athletic defensive players and wings like okay See also has has given this Clippers team
some issues. So far, they've given everybody issues. Two of those three
teams are really good. The Lakers, I think, just are a bad
matchup for the Clippers because they possess some of that defensive mindset that those other
two teams do. But okay, see they don't exactly have a dearth of
talent. They have a surplus. They are unbelievably good and way ahead of
schedule than what anybody thought they would be. Even the most optimistic fans I
think coming into the season didn't have them as being a top two seed in
the West. Right now, Yeah, I'd love to meet though. Okay,
see thunder fan who was like, yeah, you know, thought they'd
be number two. I thought they were gonna take a huge step. Well,
they got Dort and Williams, who are two fantastic defenders. They were
on PG and Harden kind of switched between them the last game and it did
not go well despite PG having a pretty good game. Those two guys are
who I worry about this. The starters just have to be at their best
without Zoo. The no Zoo thing and hasn't been announced yet. We're doing
this. Maybe the injury report will come in actually as we're doing this pod,
but it's probably it's looking like Zoo's probably not gonna play. People talked
about it earlier and we kind of touched on it but Adam, do you
want Plumb to start off this game just for a little bit, I don't
know a lot. Well, I'm fine with it because he's gonna have to
play some minutes somewhere. The question is who they feel better about going up
against chet Holmgren, and if the Clippers get into rotation easily, who's more
switchable? It's Daniel Tice. Uh yeah, So I wouldn't be surprised if
Daniel Tice still got the start even with the size mismatch, as he did
against Rudy Gobert. Yeah, I think that makes sense. You know,
already down a starter the team does, just have a little bit more chemistry
and just run with tys and so I think that it doesn't make sense to
maybe do like a double change in the starting lineup, unless that's the area
where you're really getting killed. Like if yeah, if they're going, if
that's how the Thunder are doing damage on the Clippers, then yeah, I
mean obviously address that, make adjustments, is what you're saying. If things
are going poorly, it's an idea we have them to score with the Thunder.
I'm almost you know. Defense is going to be important too, But
if they don't have a beats of Zoo Bots. They just have to be
much better offensively to make up for that, because there's no one that's going
to make up for what Zoo does on the defensive end. You have to
find a way then to put up more points and be much better and execute
better than they did against Minnesota. And the Thunder give up a bunch of
threes, and they give up the third most threes two opponents attempts per league.
They're guarding them very well. But this would be a nice game for
Paul George's bounce back, right, Maybe Paul George has seven for ten day
or something like that, because, like you said, that's a really good
call. They're not gonna be able to defend the same without Zoo at all,
so they might as well try and lead into the offense and Paul George
just do as he was, I guess for a bad game. Now is
due for a bounce back game. He was so good before Minnesota got good
looks early on. Started one for ten, was I think four for nine
in the second half, was a little bit better and hit some shots when
they gained some momentum with a small ball team. But yeah, he he
and James Harden can't have games like that. We're against good teams. You
can't have two of the three, of the Big three be that poor and
inefficient, because if one of them was just okay yesterday, they win the
game. If they just weren't miserable shooting wise, that's how close it was.
Yeah, the heart is miserable, very bad. That's why it's an
encouraging loss. Though. To me, we're still right there, still right
there that we were a kidding, we were kissing them, we were a
kiss away. We're kissing the number one seed, start with two starters stinking
it's fine. The thing that I guess worries me in this Thunder game,
too, is the Thunder do not rebound well. They're fifteenth in defensive rebounds
per game and twenty ninth in defensive rebound percentage per game. They're thirtieth in
offensive rebounds per game and twenty eighth in offensive rening percentage. But we don't
have Zoo. So if we had Zoo, I would be like, Once
seeing that stat, I was like, oh, okay, I feel a
lot better about this game. Oh we got the injury report beats the out
right calf strain for the Clippers, So we did end up getting that.
If you're an injury if you're a big injury report fan, if we're live
anytime around five or five thirty, we will read it live on air.
Thank you, Kelly Johnson. An injuredport did just come in. Part of
the reason though they're not a good rebounding team is because they're such a good
three points and they can play around the perimeter like that, so they don't
have guys who alreday the basket to get shots that are likely going to be
made. I don't think it's like the personnel is that bad. It can
be a good rebounder, but he's often taken mid range shots in three pointers
too. So what's the Clippers avenue here other than I guess trying to put
up as many points? What specific We need another hot game from Terence Man
or sorry from Norm Powell. Yes, he's got to be basically kind of
just what he was. I guess Norm was awesome against Minnesota gay and we
need another. Like people were very excited about some of the things Russell Westbrook
did last game. He did a lot of good. He did some bad
as well, But I would love an all good rust game. Give me
a chunky stat line. Nothing crazy. I'm about asking for like a double
double, but like something, you know, like ten six five with you
know, like no no bad turnovers, less than ten field goal attempts unless
he's crazy hot, Like let's let's control as much as we can control down
zero against the Thunder. Yeah, that game against Minnesota was definitely the Russ
roller coaster type experience. Yeah, I think overall better than more good than
bad. You could say, the thirteen assists to what did he have a
couple turnovers? Yeah, he's got He got them involved with their big men.
I think he had two of the oops to Mason Plumbley, So there
was good stuff there. Just yeah, I'm not sure about fouling Rudy Gobert
three three point game, a minute left, Like, I don't know if
you need to keep intentionally fouling at that point. I don't know if he
was told to though, either, because they were in that hack of go
bear mode he was in, which if you watch that game, the free
throws were quite literally laughable to start that game. Yeah, I think Gobert
got the last laugh though, because he Clippers were clowning him early. Yeh,
yeah, he pretty much won the game for Minnesota with those free throws
in the end. So I don't know if that's a bad look. But
I did see this stat from our friend Joseph RYA Ward regarding Russell Westbrook.
Uh, And I don't know if this is telling or nothing. You guys
can say if it's meaningful or not. And I know some people are gonna
be like, oh, this is just hate. Like, guys, if
we can't critique Russ like we do everyone else, that's not fair either,
Like if we're gonna critique Paul George for bad shooting games and James Harden for
the way he played. I just talked about his turnovers and he hasn't been
good against two teams with Lakes so far. We have to do fair analysis,
like we have to be able to talk about these things and some of
the advanced stats for everyone and not just leave Russ out because we're afraid of
being bullied by Russ. Stands like that doesn't work. Like the stat all
right, it's a doozy boys, No, I am afraid this is from
Joseph ryle Ward, not for me. The Clippers with Russell Westbrook as a
member of the team going back to last season, are now twenty two and
twenty two when Russ plays more than twenty minutes in fourteen and two when he
plays less than twenty minutes, is that mean a thing or nothing? Something
or nothing somewhere between those two things, right like twenty minutes and thirty seconds.
He's like, yeah, it's like having two and a half fears.
You feel great. You should never go more and never go less. I
just, yeah, you gotta take the good and bad with Russ. I
think that's what it always is. But it also may be a situation where
the reason why coach lose often playing him just about seventeen minutes is because less
can be more with Russ because he bottles up all that energy for those minutes
and he just goes nuclear for a little bit. But there can be that
low of diminishing or turns at times where if you ride it a little bit
too long, you got to no one to hold him and fold him.
With Russell Westbrook, he can be an erratic, unpredictable player at times.
That doesn't mean he's not gonna win them games. That doesn't mean they're not
gonna need him. If James Harden god forbid ever got hurt and they're going
back and starting Russell Westbrook with two one three. It's just in this situation,
with the current construction of the team and where they are now and with
this new starting lineup, I think it makes sense where the minutes have been.
Yes, I agree, and it's gonna be now that tie, I
guess has more time to prepare for not having a beat to Zoobots. It
feels like they found out very late yesterday. I think we'll see some better
management of the minutes in this game against the Thunder because some people were kind
of knocking tize rotations. But I do think it's hard last minute to find
out that who's not gonna be there. So many of the comments was like
Minnesota was big and coach Lou of course went small, and it's like,
yeah, and they almost won playing like that, like that guy in the
game. Yeah, anything else you want to talk about with this. I
was more excited about this matchup when we thought Zoo was going to be playing,
but still a chance for the Clippers to gain pretty important game in the
standings. I believe they're two and a half back. Yeah, we're two
and a half back of the Thunder would like to get this win. And
I you know you mentioned it last episode, Adam, But we're playing the
Thunder second night of a back to back, which does help the Clippers a
little bit. Will anything to add? Oh? Go ahead? No?
I mean you never know. Maybe they only get two free throws to the
Lakers twenty three in the fourth quarter and they're upset and distracted from the night
before. Who knows, Yeah, lat the nightlighte for the win. Will
anything to add before we make our no doubt correct player of the game picks.
No, let's get into it all right. Who wants to go first?
Players of the game Clippers versus the first Norm. It's gonna be Norm.
Man. I think Norm is gonna light it up again. I know
what you're thinking, He's going to go back to back. Yes, the
answer is yes. Over under seventeen of the half points over all day your
hammer and the over your smash, your donkey Kong smashing the over on that.
I mean, I hope that, Like I hope it's a situation where
we don't even need him to be as good as he was against Minnesota.
But I think against that second unit he's going to be able to more than
tread water for this team against against Okay, see second unit. So I
think that I think that he'll have he'll have a he'll have some hardy points.
We got great efficiency as always, great efficiency over seventeen and a half
points, Adam, who is your player of the game. Just to prove
I'm not a Russ hater, I'm going with Russell Westbrook again like I did
against Memphis, and I thought he had a really good game. What Yeah,
it's like that Russ going against his former team this time at Crypto.
But also I have been thinking a lot about how do you slow down?
Okay, see, I want to see Russ on SGA at times I want
to see that matchup. Uh. That intrigues me because this could very likely
be a seven game series in the playoffs this year. They could be taking
on the Oka SA Thunder, just like they could be taken on Minnesota.
So these last two games you may get a glimpse into the future of what
we could be watching come the playoffs. Is your good Russ? Is that
twenty plus minute Russ or sub twenty minute Russ for your prediction? Let's see
here if they don't play the five out small ball. I don't think he
would have gotten to what thirty minutes are close to it against Minnesota. I
don't know if that's going to happen. I guess it kind of depends on
that. I'll go. I'll go with nineteen minute Russ and I'll say that
in that time he gets ride in the line. I love it. Ten
six five boards. A couple of them are offensive rebounds, but it's the
defense that he plays that really sets a tone and slows down the Oka Sea
Thunder at the point of attack. I mean, I hope you're right.
I hope nothing more than you are right about that pick. I am going
and then I don't think this is a this is a huge stretch. I'm
going to Paul George. We need Paul George to have a bounce back game
against the Okay See Thunder. Paul George doesn't have over twenty points. I
think it's very difficult for the Clippers to win this game. We need him
to be good. James Harden, if he has a bad game, he's
gonna be my next sympathetic pick to be player of the Game because we'll really
need it. But Paul George. I'd love to see a bounce back right
here forgot Chuck gets two players of the game. Now, I didn't pick
James Hard. I said, I'm not gonna pick James Hard. I pick
him from motivation. Paul George needs a bount and I think, Adam,
are you gonna We're all three gonna be at the game? I believe right.
Yeah, I was kicking at Club one eleven, coming out at one
to eleven inundate Adam with responses, with questions about stories about the games and
stuff like that. He's very he doesn't have a lot to do before the
games. At least take a picture. Yes, we will get on a
picture. And we also Siggy Small find us on Twitter. You want a
hat if you're listening or watching, I don't know what you want a hat?
You need to send us your address to get the hat. Nice hat
still hasn't it into it label on it, but we can take it off.
I'm fine with that. And Adam got the other prize set off,
which is fantastic. Look for that bad boy in Germany. In six weeks
we did the Yeah, and then Clippers have four days off after this game
against the thunder we'll have an episode out for y'all next week. In the
meantime, Adam, are we going to be doing a double dip after this
Thunder game? Oh? Hell yeah. I don't know who's coming on.
Is it dependent on the outcome? I think it might be my turn.
But if We'll really wants to go on after, they will, you can
go on after the Clippers. They need to win this game. Guys,
I'm not I'm not gonna say it's okay to lose this game without a Visa
zoom. It's just not on the second night of a back to back.
If we're talking about a team trying to win a championship that needs to get
a top three seed. You got to win this game. I like it.
You gotta beat what, you gotta beat the teams ahead of you.
You know, Hey, I'm a dog even I know exactly what you're talking
about. The record against teams over five hundred, immaculate. The Kimpers need
to get there. Well, where can these people review and maybe subscribe or
leave any kind of feedback they want to leave us? Yeah, if you
want to leave some feedback, you can do that over on Apple Podcasts or
Spotify. Yeah, if you left a rating and review over there. It
really help us out. You can listen to the audio of this show at
either one of those places or anywhere you get podcasts, Google Podcasts, Disher,
Deezer, Amazon Music. But if you want the full experience, you
got to check out the show on YouTube. That's YouTube dot com, slash
at Clippers podcast And yeah, you can comment. You can comment on every
single one of these podcasts, every single one. He heard. You can
be heard, Yes, you can be heard if they're free, which is
fun. So that's great, Adam. One positive thing to say before we
send these listeners out, happy IMLKDA to everybody. If you had the day
off, you had a chill day off, Adam, what do you what
are? You leave it on us with a positive note, Like well said,
you can definitely put last night's loss into the encouraging loss category because they
made it so close against a team where they were missing Big Zoo, where
they were missing key players playing well out there, and they're Big three and
I just expect James hard and Paul George to play much better in Kawhi,
Leonard to keep doing his thing and he didn't get his shot at okay,
see last time around, So you know he's gonna get his opportunities on SGA
as well. And Kawhi got upset yesterday. Remember when you guys used to
call me missed her five seconds when I was going off about Kawhi in the
preseason game against Traje Jackson. Okay, there was a play yesterday, I
guess a bit where he thought McDaniels fouled him. He was chirping with the
official and when he got back on defense, he went insane and knocked it
off McDaniels out of bounds. But he was just like everywhere, he was
so locked in. So why maybe upset going into this game and an upset
terminator is not something you want. If you remember the thunder. We hope
the Clippers can beat the Dirty Thundays. That's something we thought of this weekend.
We're pretty excited about it, Dirty Thundays. We'll be back with a
double dip that episode next week. Thank jan for listening and watching it.
As always, let's go clips