What's up, Clippers fans, We're hanging out. The Clippers won their first
home game in five games. They beat the Nuggets. La Murray pointed this
out, just like in January of twenty twenty two, Clippers overcome a seventeen
point deficit and Yokic's missed a buzzer beater against the Nuggets. So that's just
how we beat the Nuggets. Now, thanks for hanging out, everybody.
I'm Chuck Mockler, Will Updike is here. Adam Allison's gonna hop on.
We're doing a little live up in the press box. After the Clippers beat
the Nuggs went out, Kawhi Will, how are you feeling? Immediate reactions,
I'm feeling really good. Like this one did not feel good early to
start, and you know, even late, it just felt like we were
on the precipice of possibly throwing this one away after what it looked like a
really good game. Defensively, I think we saw things dialed in a lot
more. Overall, great stuff from pg G stepping up uh In in the
absence of Kawhi. I thought Zoo also had an incredible game. Clutch clutch,
free throws down down the stretch too, like how many how many points
in the fourth quarter in like the in clutch were of eats the zoobots free
throws. So yeah, he battled all night. He was phenomenal tonight.
He ended with what fourteen and fifteen? Ye, your point about the defense
is great. I think we should we should we should talk about that because
that's what everyone's been worried about, Yeah for this whole year, rightfully,
so, yes, Dark Knight Vibes's great call. This was a playoff type
field. The refs were completely garbage in this game. But yeah, both
that went both ways though for sure like that that was definitely Yeah. But
so the defense on this one, I think specifically for Jokic, we can
talk about this because it's something that other teams do. It's something that Adam
Oslin has talked about on this pod before, where you have a big wing
Jokic and PJ is our biggest wing. Tonight, there was no Kawhi.
We're gonna talk about his injury updates that they got or whatever, and then
you had Zoo on Aaron Gordon just kind of roaming to make things more difficult
for Yoki. Yokic had twenty in the first half, which didn't feel good,
and then the fourth or in the third he had four points. The
third quarters were the Clippers really came alive in this one. Hardening the bench
was nice, but I love the the defensive focus, like they gave a
shit on defense tonight and it showed yeah, yeah they did. And also
it helped that the Nuggets bench was absolute zero, absolute nothing. They're bad.
They are. That bench is very weak. They had zero points in
the first half from their bad Yeah, what do you take? So Clippers
were without Kawhi, which there's no update on Kawhi. He's gonna miss a
couple of games, per Ty Lou. No word on if he got an
MRI. I don't know if what you were expecting if you were a Clippers
fan, you know what I'm saying for that, But there will be a
change in his injury status if he's not gonna play the next game due to
the NBA limiting soreness to two games. Great point when you if when the
injury report comes out tomorrow, if Kawhi is on it, it will say
inflammation or something like that. They have to put that, like Will said,
because of the soreness stuff. So Yeah, so there will be there
will be at least a change in status. As to how much to read
into it, I wouldn't say positive or negative. Obviously, missing this many
consecutive games raises concerns. Until we know more, we just can't really,
we can't really speculate beyond that. Yeah, how do you chalk this win
up with the Nuggets being without Murray and the Clippers being without Kawhi. I
feel pretty good about how the team looked except for the opening like four minutes
or whatever that was, or they were down a bunch, because they looked
like they care. They looked like they had their backs against the wall and
wanted to prove something against the team that they don't win a lot against.
And again, first home win in five games. So I love the intensity.
Tyler was communicating well with the guys. They were doing what he said.
It was some good stuff after a rough start defensively. Yeah. Look,
I mean, huge losses for both teams, so you can't, you
know, you can't take too much out there. Obviously, in a playoff
situation, you would hope that both teams are both these I mean, you
know, as much as it is scary and painful, like seeing both of
these teams go at it in a Western Conference final is like, I mean,
that is like the peak basketball. So I wouldn't take anything away from
that. From that aspect of it. Great to get a win at home
Russ is kind of I think people do sometimes overestimate the hustle stuff and then
maybe underestimate the crowd effect that he has at home games. He was great
tonight, Russ. He he gets the home card going in a way that
this team doesn't. But I was very disappointed in the last win loss sans
Kawhi, and this has been a thing for me, like all season.
I just feel like if Kawhi is not playing everyone, I don't know if
they they got a memo that they didn't have to show up to work that
day or it was a half day or something, but I've just been in
general pretty disappointed in what we've seen when Kawhi' is done on the floor.
Now, obviously hard to evaluate the team without Kawhi because you know that's not
the team. It's not really the team. But you know, with two
players of certainly Paul George and Harden's caliber, like you they need to step
it up in these types of games, and I thought they did just that
and this so I thought that was really reassuring because there are going to be
minutes in the playoffs when Kawhi is not on the floor. So yes,
maybe some people are pointing out in the chat, which I think is is
kind of a good call here. The defense was good from from the team
for the most part, especially with Kawhi being now the offense. Credit to
the Nuggets defense. There were multiple drafts of multiple minutes for the Clippers offense.
In this one, the start was rough and then Jimmy Williams of the
Great take hold. The refs were complete garbage for both times. Yeah,
but so Kawhi no excuse me not Kawhi PG and Harden in the fourth,
I'm assuming it's tired legs weren't getting into the paint as much. They were
a little jump shot heavy. They were settling for those jump shots, and
that I mean the Clippers they won by one possession, right, Like it's
like, so, I don't I'm not going to say that, like,
oh, that was the reason they almost lost because the defense also couldn't get
stop slate. But that wasn't ideal. I think offensive process wise, you
want to see it a little more tight down the stretch. But like you
look at the box score for this also, yeah, can we talk about
that, like, I mean, I like, I like PG. I
guess on the final possession, I thought that was a bad shot. PJ
in closing esque lineups is that's gonna the offense is gonna struggle. Oh yeah,
like Clayton Stevens is saying Coffee had an awesome game as well. Absolutely,
yea. Coffee was huge on the boards. Early in this game he
had six boards, which is great. Yeah it uh PJ late, Yeah,
this is a great point, uh Trance adding our last play, it
was just straight ISO. It was very odd PJ got subbed out late because
he got a really bad tech, which again the rest were weird, but
the tech I think was maybe warranted. Uh, But PJ for what he
was supposed to do defensively, Hey, he bothered Jokic. He did make
things a little more difficult. But it's it's like what Adam says, right,
it's small doses. Yeah, what we saw tonight was for the playoffs
for small doses. Because he doesn't there's no offense, and I understand people
say he's not there to play offense. He needs to have some kind of
threat if he's gonna play ex sentiments, which I don't think he will.
But in the short term it was good tonight. It just shrinks the floor.
I mean when he's out there and that, you know, like the
the offense is just gonna it's gonna continue to hit hiccups. Yeah with him
scenarios. Yeah, but no, he showed why in the playoffs. He
definitely has some utilization against Jokic. Adam is right about that. Adam also
should be joining soon. Yeah, this was I feel, you know,
this game doesn't change like you know, obviously, everyone's expectations are still the
same. This team needs to win a championship. But this game was part
of the good process we need to see, we need to see leading to
this, Michael Yun pointing out everyone beats team man off the dribble. Tonight
was kind of a rough Terrence game. This was not the best Terrance game
offensively and defensively. He was part of that run in the in the beginning
too, right, like he wasn't really getting back and stuff like that.
So yeah, you hope he can bounce. I hope he plays tomorrow.
People in the chatter saying to rest a lot of people tomorrow. I'm probably
fine with resting PG and James because James is tired, He's played a lot
of basketball. But Terrence, I'm excited to he needs to play tomorrow.
He needs to play a lot tomorrow because I just want to see him runing
into form two. Uh uh oh uh oh. Folks, we got out
of oson in the building calling for you. What's going down? Boys?
You got me got I just like to point out that a couple of shows
ago, I said the reason they've been running out PJ Tucker with the Vitza
Zobots is to have him as the primary defender on Yo Kitchen zu Bots as
the help defender. They did it in the third quarter, they did some
of the fourth. They got just enough stops Tonight, wait a while on
that final shot on the heat from half court. We know Jokis has already
made this season to win a ball game for the Denver Nuggets. Impressive,
best victory of the season for this Clippers team. I would agree with that.
We were singing your praises before you hopped on about the zoo and PJ
combo. This is I think this is probably the best win snaps the home
losing streak. There's no Kawhi, and they looked focused without Kauhi as what
we were talking about. That was good to see. They cared about defense
in this one after the first four minutes, down seventeen in this one,
the Clippers may have found themselves because this is the type of victory we talked
about this on the last show that they used to get all the time when
the ships were down, when superstars were out, they would rise above it,
play harder, give better effort, and we finally saw it after that
first quarter. As you mentioned there, Chuck, maybe they relocated their identity
tonight in a victory like this. Now it's just six games left, that's
pretty big time, big time. It's big time and tomorrow. What do
you think of tomorrow, Adam? Do you want to see everyone play who's
available or you want to see maybe some guys get some rest? Utah is
uh not playing to win right now, so to speak. There's another word
for that. I'm not going to disrespect him like that, but marketing is
out. They're playing a bunch of young guys. The Clippers have a chance
to wrest some guys tomorrow and still win if you bring this same level of
play an attitude out there. Yeah for sure, totally have you had any
all right? We going at him. Thank you. Jabo's asking if something
was born from this wind tonight? Jabo's you know, something was born from
this win? Always win and some losses weirdly, Yeah, those aren't fun
though. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm feeling solid after this game.
This is exactly what we wanted to see, you know, aside from some
of the offensive lapses and stuff. James Harden, who's been you know,
kind of a light rod not lately. He has been due to lately,
the percentage was not there tonight. He went six for twenty three. That
was not good. However, eight assists, just one turnover, but he
took twenty three shots. Yeah, like that has be encouraged, right,
Like, sure, what'd you think of Harden tonight? Yeah? I thought
overall he looked good. Was kind of I was worried he was losing steam
late, but he was, you know, he was putting in effort on
the defensive end, and I think I would like to see him not settle
for so many jump shots because all of those twenty three shots, thirteen of
them were from three, and I you know, obviously he's a great three
point shooter. I'm I'm not opposed to that, but I just think this
team is so much more dynamic offensively when he's when he's really getting to the
paint and aggressively going north south. Yes, the north south movement was I
wonder if I think it's maybe just tired legs, you know, kind of
going into maybe resting tomorrow. But we saw tonight I think he took I'll
have to look at the shot data when it comes out from NBA. He
took a couple of mid range shots, Like there's the shot where he comes
off a pin down or he snakes the pick and roll and it's right there
that like that like twelve to seventeen footers right there. Yeah, but he's
hesitant, he's not shooting well from there. But when he does, like,
that's what he's gonna get in the playoffs. And we saw him take
a few more of those tonight than we used to do, which was huge.
Yeah, And I mean he doesn't even have to make him He has
to take a couple to keep the defense honest, and then he just needs
to continue collapsing the paint like that, because then I trust him to make
the right, the right, the right play on the floor, whether that
is him looking to score for himself, which I think he has been doing
a better job of, thankfully with this misstretch without Kawhi, but he you
know, he's also gonna I trust him to make the right read. I
trust him to make the right read more so than anyone on this Clippers team,
right, Yeah, like that's what we got him for, right,
like make the right read. So the attempts were great. The Clippers also
did a really good job of taking care of the ball on this one.
Six turnovers yeah, three of which were from Paul George, which is right,
and that that one that was late, that one that was late that
I think was to norm or No, that was hard. Well the jump
the jump pass, Yeah, that would have been rough. But no,
this I mean again, other than the offense. Jay Mitchell saying, the
best win of the year, I'm assuming. Yeah, if we have Kawhi
and then everyone else plays like this, it's hard to you know, We've
we've seen the model, right, Like, we really do have to hope
that they flip the switch which isn't my favorite thing, but that's where we're
at. We've seen this Clippers team this season do things well at different times,
you know what I'm saying. Like tonight it was like, oh,
the defense was really good, Like this was a good defense, but the
offense is still a little shaky. I'm really excited for when Kawhi gets back
for it all to coalesce, because that's what we need. We need to
be either. I don't think we're gonna be an elite defense because the defense
has not been elite all year, but the offense can be top five.
And if the defense is average with who this personnel is, that's the shopper's
pass. They should be able to get to average defense. I mean,
like hasn't been great, they should absolutely Yeah, thank you O. Kawhi.
Is the problem confirmed? For sure? People aren't talking about it.
A lot of people are talking about yeah, uh Jimmy g asking what did
you think about that MPJ no call? So there was a couple no calls
on MPJ. He should have gotten a foul for kicking out, Yeah,
but also that foul on Zoo that they didn't call maybe should have been a
foul on Zoo on mpj mm hmm. But the refs again this goes back
to the rest, were kind of doctor yeah, which was not good.
Yeah, Michael Eun with the great point here. Uh the NBJ was neutralized.
I agree because that that was like, that was also super That was
super egregious. I liked seeing Paul George dive on the floor for the ball,
but I'm also happy if I never see that again. Yeah, perspective.
I thought he was talking about the one the basket where he got Paul
George gets like double hand hit. That was crazy. Yeah, Jake Burns
is on the stream. If you haven't purchased a Jake Burns shirt, I
have the OG, we have the o G Jake Burns shirt. Order a
Jake Burns shirt makes great shirts for a multitude of teams, but if you're
a Clippers fan, you can't go wrong with having the Jake Burns in the
closet. I did the math, and we'll need to win the next six
games to secure the four seed. Yeah. Great, really, I'm sure
that was quick math. Jeremy six and no sweat. Hard to not feel
great after this win. Everyone, I mean, Mace was okay in this
one. No Daniel Tye on his birthday, which probably bums him out a
little bit. But yeah, like this was this is a wind you build
good process on. Uh oh, Dike Coke. Indeed, if Will could
replace his blood with diet Koke would do that. Just for full disclosure,
just for fun, I'm looking through just some of these notes. So one
thing that was terrifying to start this game. The Nuggets average fourteen fast breakpoints
per one hundred possessions on the season, and they had thirteen in the first
quarter this game. It was brutal. I Like, I thought it was
going to be more of the same. So them actually like facing adversity a
couple of times in this game, right, like going down deep early,
which I guess is something we're just going to have to get used to and
be okay with. I mean we should be used to it, I guess
at this point I'm just still not. And then as things crept up and
got close, right like we've seen this team when when they're yeah, when
they're when they're eyeing down a comeback from an opponent, I feel like we
see them get really tight and we see things really start to crumble because of
that and the offense did get a little jammed up, but again I do
think some of that was due to rotations and then obviously being down Queah is
a huge thing. But yeah, the I don't know, like I think
the PJ thing is is gonna is a mixed bag and I don't really see
like I could see him in a spot in a possession battle right like he's
in he's in for a spot possession here or there, but him getting like
extended run as part of like the closing or pre closing lineup I think is
Yeah, I don't know about that. I agree with that. Uh lizo
l z O, excuse me, sorry if I you know, they said
what was our identity for this game? Weirdly, the identity for this game
was kind of hard nosed defense. We need, you know, Paul George
needed to take as many shots as he took with Kawai out, and he
took them, which I was hyped on twenty eight points on forty. It's
hard to be super upset with that, especially when they need it, but
it was nice to see a defensive identity. They're not a good defensive team
if you look at all of the stats, they're not good, but tonight
they were good, which is what we can kind of build off into the
playoffs. And one thing I will say that it has been encouraging even though
they've been a bottom three even though they've been a bottom three defense since the
All Star break, is like guys are still communicating out there, right.
It's not like someone's blowing in an assignment and everybody's just kind of throwing their
hands up, like they are still talking about this. They are still trying
to get this too. They are still trying to get this locked in,
which it's been one of those things. It's it's been one of those things
where I know it seems like they haven't they haven't been super caring and they've
they've been a little soft, which is true. Yeah, but they have
still been communicating, So I think that's good. Someone said, like,
drink regular coke instead of diet coke. It's too sweet for me, and
I'm on, yeah, it's it's too sweet for me on the diet coke
stream and you put the comment up. I love me. Yeah, Scott
Tran saying, uh, we got bench scoring from someone other than Norm.
Norm was he first of all, only made four of his twelve shots which
is not ideal. But the movement he had off the ball, and he's
made one point the entire second half, right, it was not ideal.
He did have The Nuggets had five seconds on their second to last inbounds and
Nuggets had five seconds for possession and Norm knocked the ball away. They got
the ball back, but it still cut their time down by one second.
I love that little thing by Yeah, he's been doing these little tiny things
on defense that that I think about. Obviously, that's not what the Clippers
need him for they do, I think Jamal Christopher said this on Twitter Clippers
Twitter power user. He mentioned that the Clippers kind of seemed to dependent on
Norm scoring sometimes, but he's he had one point in the second Yeah,
he had one of two free throws and he only took three shots though in
the entire second half. So but he's gonna have a player. He's gonna
win the clips of playoff game. I think it's gonna be he's moving.
Well, that's what we need to see. But yeah, I mean,
Russ was efficient. Russ was Russ efficient. He was four of nine,
twelve, six and five from Russ on over forty percent shooting. It's hard
to really expect more from that. Ye, and I mean that in a
nice way like that is exactly what the Clippers need. And they won this
game because they lost an efficient Russ game recently, which was annoying. You
can't really waste those, so I mean Sacramento game whatever it was, Yeah,
which we heard some scuttle but about, but we're not allowed to say.
Nuggets had to account for normal, so they That is another thing too.
I know I was kind of bagging on him his second half points,
but they they were covering norm pretty well. There were a lot of possessions
out there where he was just he was not getting He was not getting the
looks that he normally does. He was not getting the space that he normally
does. By the way, Harden got twenty points. First, I'm in
ten or eleven games, it's been a while. It's clothes. There's a
great dunk from Russ. You know what made me happy to see is the
James Harden lob to Russ as he's cutting from the corner. That is a
play where guys other teams will lose account of Russ on the perimeter, which
kind of does make sense. Yeah, of course they'll crash on Harden he
backed or cut here we go, thank you, Michael. You and with
the assist here he's opened me. That's what we need to see. That's
when you know that guys are kind of communicating in simpatico on offense. Yeah,
what's up? Yeah, I mean you you pointed out how like he's
already getting slept on on the perimeter. So it's one of those things where
you can kind of it's almost like a sleight of hand where if you if
you stack everything sort of strong side and then you just have him cut.
I mean, it's not gonna work all the time obviously, but uh,
it is like a good it is a good opportunity because a lot of times
he's gonna get a back turn to him essentially when he's out there on the
perimeter. Yeah, totally. Yeah, the decision making was nice for the
most part around it. And that's what you're worried about a lot with this
Clippers seemed too, is the unforced errors. Yeah, that they that they
put on themselves. And I think the turnovers, that's I mean, that's
a crazy low turnover game for this you know, that's half of what their
average is. Yeah, and I can't remember I was gonna say, well,
and also, so like the offensive droughts tonight right, which there there
was a couple of them. I think was more so, like you mentioned,
it was rotation issues. And again, the Nuggets defense was good tonight,
right like it was solid tonight. The Clippers scored one hundred and two
points. That's not very much in the modern NBA, but they played good
defense. And the Clippers didn't get rattled. They kept using their process and
doing the things that they do. But the actually, we're running plays in
the half court, so it was good to see. It's weird how that
works. Michael Yune pointed this out. Yeah, so Zoo missed this layup,
but this was a great ato from TYLERU. And I think we're seeing
some small wrinkles added here and there. Obviously nothing crazy new, but like
you mentioned, they were running plays in the half court, Like this was
the most organized that felt like the Clippers offense leop in a while. Yeah,
yeah, I mean doing that stretch, it looked it looked really damn
good pre All Star break. Yeah, but since then this is Yeah,
this is probably this is probably the most cohesive it looked, and yeah,
the assistant turnover age. It is like, what twenty two or twenty three
total assists and six turnovers? Really good? Oh oh yeah, twenty two.
Yeah, it's still really good. What was that point you made the
other day on the show about like the equation of like you take time off
and it takes x amount of time to get back into Oh yeah, I
mean like physical trainers and stuff will tell you that, like if you take
a week off from training, it takes you two weeks essentially just to get
back to the point that you were at. And so, like I was
talking about, like maybe with a with an older team, it's kind of
a it's it's kind of a similar thing, right where it's going to take
a couple of weeks just to get back to like the base level that you
were at and then and then go above and beyond that and really yeah,
really it's like I think that it's different for this team too, because that
you know, as old and their old team, they're old, and as
we know, like practices like can kind of come and go with how much
they're they're able to practice, especially due to the schedule, right, So
you're like trying to when you're trying to like play. I don't. I
hate to say back into shape because it's not like they're out of shape.
It's more that they're out in shape. It's more that they're out of rhythm.
I think there's more that they're out of sync. So to get back
into that, uh, it's hard to do under the scrutiny of a game
that you actually have to that you actually have to win. Yes, yeah,
they need it. Call thing. Yeah, I thought so much,
like as like, as much as we have praise, like the offense looking
better, I thought late and in the clutch it it really it was.
It was not good. But we talked a little bit about that, and
we talked about you know, some of the rotation stuff that that you know,
it was a little bit of an anomaly for this game. So yeah,
hopefully it'll look a lot better, look a lot better moving forward.
And Kawhi, I mean, for those of you who just joined, first
of all, thanks for hanging out. Uh here on clips and Dip.
We're gonna put this out his audio probably later, but yeah, if you
miss it, the Kawhi stuff. A lot of people are wondering. No
word on if you got an MRI or not. He's probably out tomorrow is
kind of the scuttle, but from like everyone we talked to tonight, I
feel like everyone's kind of assuming he's out tomorrow. Well, and isn't that.
I thought Tyler said something. He's like he's gonna miss a couple of
games, like it was something where it was like, okay, but I
like, like Phoenix, we wight not see him again until Phoenix. Yeah,
and I bet, and I bet it's the Phoenix. It's the game.
It's the home game against Phoenix, you know, because if he's not
gonna play, which is the second one right there? Yeah? Mix and
then yeah, yeah that would make sense. I liked law Murray's take where
he was like he was like, the players don't seem concerned, so I'm
not gonna be too worried about it. And I was like, Okay,
that's actually a pretty good I'm not mad at that. Yeah, no confirm
or deny on the MRI is kind of weird, but whatever. I don't
know. It's we're never gonna get any clarification either. If you're a new
man. That's how the shit goes. Like, look, man, you
know, with I certainly hope that it's not this, but like it could
be a tear And honestly, like, what would it matter if we knew
now or if we knew at the end of the season. Not really,
the outcome is kind of the same. Yeah, the team doesn't have Kawhi,
they're not getting very far. I don't know, yeah, Jay saying,
no way they try and push Kawhi back, Oh of course not Yeah,
yeah, no, They're not gonna make him rush anything. And he's
also the only one who we have seen actually flip a real switch and win
a championship. Oh and it's not even flipping a switch, man, I
mean, I think that this has been we've been seeing peakwa. We haven't
seen him like at this long of a sustained level since I don't know,
twenty twenty, like most one, like it's been a while that he because
he's he's looked dominant and been more available than like his entire Clippers tenure.
So yeah, Alfredo Rodriguez asking what's our current assessment of the Clippers internal improvement
since I didn't bring in any players after the hard and trade, it's been
really bad. If you look at the last twenty five games or so,
it's been really bad defensively, So we hope the defense keeps trending up like
it was. It's been poor, yeah, like twenty seventh or something in
defense since like February first or something like that. So I hope that gets
better. Malcolm says, it makes you wonder if the Clippers are just trying
to avoid the playing schedule or they're just tired or inconsistency. They don't want
to be in a play. I talked about that. What of course olost
to All Star Break. He was like, we want to We don't want
to be in the sixth. Yeah, you just want to be top top,
top six seeds. Look, I don't I don't think that they're doing
anything cheeky with these games. I really like they need to have good process.
Like they're not in any they're not in any sort of position where they
can like really throw games. I don't. Look they're I mean, they're
fairly cemented in that four or five matchup unless things go really poorly, And
I don't know why, Like there's no advantage to being five over being four.
Right, Yeah, we want the home court I can think of.
So, yeah, I think that a lot of it has just been inconsistencies
and I don't know, lack of focus. I'm not really sure, and
they're definitely yeah, this is fair, thank you. We are traumatized on
the plan and there still is like we're waiting for some postgame quotes to come
out and everything like that, but they've been you know, if you've been
reading them from say, you know, the quotes from Paul George and the
quotes from uh, you know, Tylu, there doesn't seem to be some
cohesiveness with the res with the quotes again before this game, with things like
that. So winning does cure everything. And I think winning like this helps
because it was like a defensive win, right, like defensive wins or wins,
you can really rally everyone around because defense is usually a team effort in
basketball. So I think it's it's something like that. That's nice. Logan
Rapp with a great take. There's no conspiracy. Sometimes they played amazing and
sometimes I play like Garb. Absolutely. That's the thing with a five hundred
team, which the Clippers have been over these last couple of months, is
when you're five hundred team, there's nights for you're this, and there's nights
for your this, and the Clippers were higher than that tonight, which is
great and you'll love to see the win. Shanina Shakes has upset at us
for some reason. We did win one of the best wins of the season,
best sans Kawhi win the season for sure easily. Oh and the Clippers
might have actually just put out their best meme of all time on Twitter.
We're going to screenshare this because we appreciate a good meme and we talked shit
on the Clippers marketing. But this is funny. This is a good bit.
Thank you Clippers for putting this up. This is a fun time.
Shout out Clippers social uh for putting this one up. Yeah, okay,
so ooh that's not the angle we need it at all. Hey, shout
out Peter at Drinking six. Can the Diet Coke daily? We got the
diet cokeive in the chat. I hope everyone's doing good. Marlene has asked,
do you think Kahi will be back before the playoffs as of right now?
Yes? Yes, yeah, I mean we, I mean we we
just we have no reason. We have no reason to believe otherwise, So
yes, logan with just two for two on the takes. This is the
exact when you're looking for gritty, gross against a very good team. Yeah,
these kind of gritty wins. And I know that people aren't exactly happy
with like grinding out wins against Charlotte or whatever, but like, I still
think that those wins are are important and and they are like I don't know,
I like, look, I guess I would love to see this team
just kind of running, uh just a well oiled machine. Yeah, running
teams out of the gym. It's just not realistic. And I do think
there's happening. Isn't built for that the way the Clippers seems scorers like and
just old just just old and like and and you know, transition play like
they don't they don't get a lot of I feel like I talk about this
pretty often, but they don't get a lot of easy buckets. Yeah.
For so it's I think I feel like it's kind of difficult to get those
runs going where you're just like, we're running teams out of the gym,
were not playing your starters in the fourth quarter. And we'll see we'll see
him get to the thirty point or kissing the thirty point per game mark in
the playoffs because he averages twenty eight, twenty nine or something like that,
Jay asking, well, Kobe Brown and Dioboti to be available postseason if we
need to. If these two guys are playing in the postseason, we are
fucked. Sorry, Jay, but I don't want to see Kobe Brown and
Diabote in the postseason unless things are going really well. They're not playoff caliber,
but yes they are playoff elev Yes, they very much are playoff eligible.
Hold on, there was another one in here, THEO asking what do
you think has been the biggest reason for our inconsistencies? Could it just be
old age and tired legs or do we just go on the greatest ons?
Do? I think it's old I think it's legs, And I think part
of it is like I just don't think there were when things are up and
down. It just seems, again back to the quote, stuff guys weren't
on the same page. I don't think with how Maybe if it's preparation,
it's what needs to happen every possession. We've heard that from Tylo and other
coaches and stuff like that, like it needs to be in every possession thing.
So I think that is kind of ties into the old age or something
like that, trying to capture some rest here and there. But there's also
I mean, I think Adam has talked about this before, like there's a
lot of agendas going on in that locker room, right, Like everybody kind
of has their own thing going on. And and I'm not saying that they
can't overcome that. We've obviously seen them do that, but I think that
leads to those things where people aren't on the same page, right Like PG
has his idea of what's best for this team, Russ has his, Harden
has his has his and so that's you know, the Clippers aren't any exception
in that way, you know, Like I think that that is a that's
sort of the double edged sword of like putting a bunch of superstars together,
a bunch of people with a ton of experience, I mean, hall of
famers of you know that they all have an idea of how things are gonna
run and how they should do things. And I think that at times those
were at odds with one another, but I think that they're I just it's
not anything that's like insurmountable. I don't think that it's as toxic as as
what we saw going into the bubble with that Clippers team and really just winning
solves everything. So they have been stacking up some more wins lately, so
I think that some of that stuff will be alleviated. Yeah, I mean
yeah. Alfred Rodriguez saying, is this like the Bucks when they called everyone
out, including the equipment manager. I don't think so, because the Clippers
haven't called out people who have nothing to do as happening on the court.
It's all been guys on the court, and that is who is to blame
for. Even in the Bucks scenario, it's not the fucking equipment guy's ball.
Yeah, I think it's that. Should we rest Harden tomorrow? I
think we should. Dude, I don't think his finger is doing right.
I think yeah, maybe a little. Yeah, let the man sit.
They have a twelve thirty game on Sunday against the Calves, not their last
twelve thirty game. Unfortunately. I don't think he hasn't resting because he's still
been playing thirty five plus minutes every night and continues to I see what you
mean though about like in I always wonder I always wonder about in game rest,
you know, and like what that looks like. But I do think
fatigue is a factor. I would love to see him get a couple of
nights off. Yeah yeah, against this jazz team. Yeah, all right,
Shanina said she pressed send too soon. She didn't watch, but we
were so solemn. You should have been here in the beginning. Yeah,
we're we're ride. We're still high will juiced up on diet coke. Yes,
Alfredo, thank you for clarifying. If you're new to the Clippers,
the canoes means no superstars are playing, So tomorrow might be a canoe game,
which would be fun, I guess, because that was cool to see.
The turning point in this game was hardened in the bench. Was it
was Harden, Emir Russ I think it was Mace, Yeah, and I
can't remember who else, but that defense and yeah, when they locked in,
they had hands in the passing lanes, they had transition. They had
good transition defense that led to transition offense. Like I think there was that
that lineup. In terms of film or whatever you want, that's something ty
Lu can point to after these last two months of not very good plays as
an encouraging sign for these guys. We saw Harden and all bench guys make
shit happen. Yeah, which we won't see in the playoffs. We will
not see that in the playoffs. But the essence of it is, what's
so nice. Let Russ start tomorrow and let Gems race. Sure, I
guess I'd like to win. Yeah, Amir was great in transition today.
Amir is gonna be so crucial for the Clippers of the playoffs. Yeah,
I mean he's like, you know, I've talked about how short ultimately this
rotation could be, right if you're playing a really good team, I mean
I could see it being as short as eight guys. Uh. Yeah,
A mirror is one of those guys who you really do trust to to soak
up some minutes and and like be a plus contributor in those minutes. Yeah.
His his development this season. I mean, I know he's not gonna
be in the mip conversation, but he's definitely I mean, he's definitely mip
clipper. He's your MIP go. Yeah. Yeah. And for his role
is what I mean obviously, like there's not gonna be in a mere like
forty point game, but there's gonna be in a mirror like oh, timely
bucket game, timely board game stuff, like that. I like this point
from Starman Hove. We beat them during the non yoke its minutes in the
second quarter, didn't settle to their level for once. Exactly. Our bench
is miles better than the Nuggets bench, especially in fully healthy. They also
gave us a lot of help. That bench didn't score any points in the
first because yeah, yeah, it was uhl attempt to float yes yes,
and then and then the practice one after he did not make it. Unfortunately.
PJ debuted I think three different pairs of shoes tonight. He had a
like a new book one p on and then he had like a new air
flight thing that he had, So that's good. Happy for him there.
Yeah, I'm feeling Booker shoes. Yeah he does whatever. Aaron Gordon's superstar
whistle. Aaron Gordon took like a shot to the head after that. Terrence
man foul and looked pretty dazed. I hope he's okay. Legitimately, Yeah,
he looked like he maybe needed a Braine A pretty friendly whistle. He
got a crazy friend list. He also shot like dog shit. Yeah he
made I mean just everything was at the ram all right, Sorry, I
got the James Harden shot. Yeah, he took one, two through four
five what you could classify as mid range jumpers. Made two of them tonight.
Oh isn't that like about what his average is at. It's a little
bit better than what his averages, which is nice to see. Today was
not a playoff whistle. It was bad reps. It was just bad refs.
Dude. Yeah, because like in the beginning, it was just like
people were getting smacked the hell around. And this happened in a playoff game.
I feel like people be pissed. I feel like there'd be a riot.
Yeah, riot, the other rioting in Denver. All the breweries are
boarded up. But yeah, like there was like no whistle in the first
three quarters and then the fourth. The refs just felt like pissed off this,
Okay, Paul George had Oh wait, no, this is a different
call, but I'm gonna I'm gonna bitch about something different. Paul George had
his best contest at the rim all year. Oh wow. Yeah, on
Jokic tonight it was he went straight up. It was Yoka. It should
have been a travel on Jokic because he just he didn't get the shot up.
He jumped in the and they called a jump ball. But I love
that PG challenge, that shot. I love that it went well. You
know it should have been, you know, a travel on Jokic but doing
some other grittier stuff tonight, right like he dove on the floor last two
minutes before going to be spicy or what it always is. The Clippers have
had a pretty kind last two minute report. Oh, fantastic point by Alfonso
Lopez. Here is it right to wrest bad oh man? Nah, real
beard on that thing, real beard on that thing. They probably shouldn't do
that, right is it human hair? Yeah? Wait, didn't do what
the beard part or the rest. James haven't played, haven't played five minutes,
haven't maybe hold a bobble head up then sit up. I think that's
fine. What's up, chunk? He's saying, good dub y'all? Yeah,
bearded monstrosity. It's a little off putting the Clippers. I will say,
I love the the Clippers having two of the weirdest bobbleheads in the NBA
this year is awesome. I don't know, I don't know what is happening
with the balloons. Still doesn't do that. I think you gotta do the
peace sign and then the balloons come out. No, mine, letn't do
any of them. Wow, my computer's awesome. Oh, is there an
update on the stress balls there? So the stress balls are being given away
against the Suns on that second night of the back to back I don't know
why they moved it, but that's when the stress balls are going to be
there. Rest Harden play Moon, I don't know about that. Can we
beat the mass and the play I'm assuming Joseph, you mean the MAVs.
I think we can, but it's their defense is playing really fucking good right
now? Get here? But yeah, so well we'll see what happens with
the MAVs. I think we got to shut this thing down, y'all.
I think we got about like five minutes after or so. I'm feeling pretty
good though. I think the thesis for tonight if you're a Clippers fan is
they played gritty defense, like Logan Rap said best when you could get without
Kawhi, gritty defense. Feeling pretty solid. Will, how do you want
to send these people out on their merry way on this Thursday evening? I
mean, let's just hope for the best. On the Kawhi situation, we
got kind of a we got a t ball game coming up, but hopefully
we can put it away and continue to stack some wins. So let's go
clips, let's let's let's have a good weekend. We got so many damn
games coming up, but thankfully this season is the season's almost over. We
can play games on a normal ish playoff schedule, meaningful basketball. We hope
everyone has a great night. Thank you for hanging out. There's the most
people you've had in the stream. Drink diet coke. As Michael Yun says,
will's ding a bunch of it. We'll be back with a double dip
with Adam tomorrow after the game against the Jazz. We're gonna do it a
full EP on Saturday again. Thanks for hanging Thank you Logan for your great
takes. Liso, thank you, well, thank you, Malcolm, thank
you. Let's get HiPE, going to work and be hypes.