It was a forty point turnaround on your Los Angeles Clippers, who led by
twenty two and lose by eighteen. Here at home at Crypto dot Com Arena
to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Welcome back in This is Clippers Doc. I'm inta
Maslin coming up. We'll get back to a few phone calls, but before
that, on the Super Secret Guest Hotline, it's Will Updyke of Clips and
dip Fame. I'm glad we have Will on tonight because he normally doesn't come
on during losses, so I know he's already annoyed. He's already gonna be
hot. Will. We got what a certain show likes to call five good
minutes here with you give it to me. What's your biggest gripe coming out
of this? Just brutal, nightmarish type of loss by the Clippers, the
way this team continually chooses to take their foot off the gas. I realized
that we didn't have Kawhi Leonard after the first quarter, but there's just no
excuses for this. They just defensively did not have the effort there. They
did not have the speed, and I thought they were getting blocked around the
room because they just looked a step slow in the lane, like I don't
understand why they can't sustain this sort of effort. And Kawhi going down,
I feel like makes it less of an excuse because you know you have to
do more, you know you have to step up. Look at having a
near forty point performance is even acceptible to me. That's fine. What's less
acceptable is Mike Conley going off for twenty three points and to Keil Alexander Walker
coming off the bench for damn near thirty where, I mean, where was
Paul George late in this game? Nine second half points? It's ridiculous,
man, these guys, I just I don't know what to do. I
keep thinking every single time that we have one of these terrible like take our
foot off the gas losses, like oh, this is the wake up call,
it's really coming now. Now they're gonna get it. Now they're gonna
be on the same page. This, I mean, this surely has to
make them snap into gear. And it just doesn't. And if Kawhi Leonard
misses any of this back to back or part of this four and six or
whatever it is, I don't even know how much trust they have. And
these guys being able to pull it together. It feels like you mentioned the
wake up call there and this team just hit the trip to fam snoozel arm
or something. It's you're up fifty seven to thirty five with five thirteen left
in that second quarter, and somehow at the half it's only an eight point
lead. It's just like the Lakers game. You know, they gave it
up within a couple of minutes early in that fourth quarter. A twenty one
point lead was down to I think nine by the time Kawhi Leonard came back
in. I just it's confounding. It is. It is honestly as much
of a head scratcher as you can have for a team that has had too
many of these recently. And I feel the same way of regarding Paul George
and James Harden in this one. It's not even so much the points.
It's tied together, but they weren't even taking shots. They combined for six
shots in the second half. Well, how it makes no sense. Norm
Powell didn't even get in double digitch when he was super hot. Zoo,
who I thought looked really good early, didn't get opportunities. And this is
like a continual thing I feel like offensively for this team. I know,
look, Charles and I did a live stream. Ty Lou was catching a
lot of strays. I don't think it's Tyleru's fault that these guys can't execute
an offensive game plan. They continuously look for the hardest shot on the floor,
waste so much time on the clock, and then will for suboptimal shots.
And I think that that's one of those things that makes it really tiring
on yourself. Why not throw the ball, download a zoo, why not
get try to get him going? Why not get Norm Powell some shots?
Look, the three point shooting that we have in that first quarter was not
going to be sustainable for an entire forty eight minutes. It's not sustainable for
an entire game. I get that, But if you watch that first quarter,
the motion that they had, the ball movement, they were getting easier
looks, and I just did not see that happening in the second half.
Yeah, they had seven assists on their eleven makes in that first quarter,
and you let a team go on on twenty to two run, Like,
where is the run stopper? When are we going to see that? Someone
has to step up in those moments take the bull by the horns and say
no, this is not happening tonight. But instead, I don't know,
is this team now, you know, in that position because of all the
comebacks over the last couple of weeks where they are in that afraid to fail
mode where they feel like, oh, oh, here we go again.
The comeback is on and there's nothing we can do about it. The floodgates
have opened and we have nothing left in the tank. Because that's what it
looked like throughout the second half and really the end of the second quarter on.
I mean, that's the way they're playing. I mean, I said
take the foot off the gas, which I think is true. But they
just they've visit, are tensing up in these situations, and maybe you're right.
Maybe it's because it's become a repeated thing and like they you know,
they're overthinking it. They get too into their heads about it. But like,
look, man, this would be a very different story if you know
this turned into a possession battle and it was a back and forth game.
I could understand that down your best player. I mean, certainly the Wolves
are missing a major rotation player, but this is a good team, Like
it makes sense that they could overcome a twenty point deficit and this could be
a tight game. It's a forty point turnaround, though, I mean like
a quarter and a third essentially that you I mean that you got beat by
is completely unacceptable and unfathomable for a team that considers itself a contender. And
right now, I mean in this game, you know, like we're now
what three games back, I believe of the Timberwolves, it's looking more and
more inevitable that Denver is gonna take that top spot. And I mean,
how long does this postseason go? Is if we get out of the first
round and then you're staring just staring Denver in the face. Yeah, you
know, we've been planning out a roadmapping. Oh, how can the Clippers
get to the Western Conference finals? What's the path of least resistance? Right
now, they should be worried about getting out of the first round and who
that opponent could be and where they might end up in a situation where they're
the road team, they could end up the five seat again, just like
last season. They could be going to Phoenix. They could be going to
New Orleans. If they don't figure it out quickly. Here there has to
be a sense of urgency, and I think it just comes down to mental
toughness right now and this Clippers team, I don't know if it's scar tissue
from the comebacks we've seen over the last couple of weeks for why tonight happened
in the way in the manner it did, but there are some wounds on
this team where it just seems like psychologically they're not able to snap out of
some of these funks in time to rescue a ball game, and that is
just frustrating to watch. Yeah, and look, they have an extremely difficult
schedule coming up. We know how hard March is going to be. But
for me, the game I'm watching like the game I have circled on my
calendar to see if this is finally the wake up call? Is that Pelicans
game? Because you have a team that has come out of the All Star
Break as one of the hottest teams in the NBA, a team that has
had your number all year? How are you going to respond? How are
you gonna how are you going to take on that challenge and win or lose.
It's going to be about what this team looks like in that matchup and
that's what they should be focused on. I'm not saying, you know,
you can't fall asleep at the wheel in Chicago or anything, but like that
needs to be the statement game. It's time to make a statement again,
which they haven't done since the Grammy Trip. Yeah, it's been since that
Boston game. Really the Grammy Trip going six and one, it was great.
Everybody sell bring it. I try to tell people clear jets, pump
your brakes a little bit. It's still late January, early February, and
now a month later or so, looks like a completely different ball club with
all kinds of issues going on right now. Just whack them all problems where
you think you fix one, another arises. He is well Updyke from Clips
and Dip. We'll have a big YouTube for you, of course tomorrow previewing
the upcoming road trip. Will thanks for doing this tonight a little Clips and
Double Dip here and Clippers stop my friend absolutely thanks for having me. Let's
hope this is the wake up call people. I like it. I like
the positivity from Will. We'll come back, We'll close things out. Clippers
have a forty point turnaround happen against them up twenty two to down eighteen and
losing by eighteen one. Eighteen to one hundred was the final here at crypto
dot com Arena. They fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves.