What's going on YouTube? If you're hanging out with us, we are clipping
your I think probably second or third favorite Clippers podcast. I am number one,
We're number one, all right, we'll take number one. I am
Chuck Walckler watched us over on YouTube dot com Slash at Clippers Podcast, joined
by Adam Austin, William luck Dyke. We're gonna talk to the last five
games, the good stuff from the starters and everything. Hellas, how are
we doing? Let's just thanksgivings over. The Clippers are playing well? Uh?
Adam, how's the vibe in the building been. You've been in downtown
LA the last couple of nights. It was pretty hyped last night the Clippers
defense showing up like that and holding Dallas to eighty eight points, and also
Russell Westbrook, who is a fan favorite, playing that well coming off the
bench. It was a good time last night at Crypto dot com arena.
Myself, Carlo Jimenez on the call. It was a fun game. It's
good time. Will and I. We were there for the Friday night game,
which was a raucous time. Despite the loss, I've loved the support.
It's been nice to see the support bounce back after the six game losing
streak. Not that it's easy to support your team as rocus as it has
been Downtown, LA, but just good to see it feels like the Clippers
are kind of feeding off it. You mentioned Russ that was his best game
of the year by quite a bit, right, just in terms of what
he needs to do well, certainly coming off the bench, his best game
since they put James Harden in Terrence Man in the backcourt, because Russ really
let the game come to him. He just he didn't force anything. He
wasn't hunting shots. Early on Friday night, he was one for eight,
so to bounce back like that, and I think he only took one shot
outside the restricted area, which was the far side corner three, and he
nearly had two shots heading into the fourth quarter, yet had made such a
big impact. It was almost like he was playing that Terrence Man type of
game where he's doing all the little things to help you win and impact the
game while not worrying so much about his shot. Now, Terrence actually did
have his best game of the season by far, but Russ I like that
from him. I think that's exactly the template for how he needs to play
coming off the bench. Don't worry about getting your shot. Get the others
involved. Make the game easier for Paul George. You're paired with him a
lot on the court. He got Norm Powell's first three pointer, who was
perfect from the field and had an unbelievable game. But I love the way
the defense that Russ played, how hard he played late and then the points
came. Twelve of his fourteen points came in that fourth quarter where he kind
of helped pour it on late keep Dallas at bay when they made a little
bit of a run. And then he was yelling at Luka Donchez or saying
let's go right at him, Let's go at him. That was great,
which is smart. Same thing has to be done tomorrow against Nikole Jokich.
That's the game plan. We'll talk more about it later, but go at
these guys, these unstoppable forces on offense. The best way to wear them
down is to make them have to defend on the other end. Well,
what if you liked from the starters in these last we'll get back to Russ,
but as he is a bench player, no disrespect to any of his
stands. That just literally is what he is right now, Well, what
if you like from the new starting five these last five games. Defensively,
Paul George and Cool I look a lot more locked in. So I think
setting that tone is absolutely huge. We're seeing Paul George like the field goal
attempt numbers are up where we want them to be, which so I love
the aggressiveness there. And then I like the look with Terrence Mann obviously,
and then I like, I think this is what we all advocated for coming
into the season, is you know, regardless of who starts in that spot,
you have a lot of versatility. I think if Terrence is in that
five man starting lineup, Yes, Terrence has been It's funny because right now,
so was it a zoo on the bounce back? Sorry, Oh that's
a good adam, you look. No, completely, he's been much better
going back to the second half of the fourth quarter of that game against the
Houston Rockets. Sometimes you know, you think it's a one off, just
him playing really well in one quarter after starting the season off slow, but
it's had a carryover effect. If eats a Zoobots has kind of found his
stride over the last five games with this new starting lineup, He's looked more
explosive out there, but particularly Dallas without their true big man out there.
He dominated fourteen boards in twenty minutes or whatever it was from Visa Zoobots and
four or five offensive rebounds. He was a force and that's how we needed
to play. He looks like he's playing to his strengths now and playing much
bigger out there. Remember a couple of seasons ago when Paul George said we
need Zoo to play like he's the biggest guy out there. He's starting to
do that again this season after a slow start. Well, and I praised
Kawhi and Paul George for like for then kickstarting the defense, but really Zoo
is the anchor there and kind of I mean it's his biggest asset in that
starting lineup. And I feel like a lot of a lot of this team
defensively, how they end up in the standings is for better or where it's
going to be tied to those performances from movies and Zoobots. Yeah, I
think was it Russo, Justin Russo who was tweeting out the uh, you
know, the percentage at the rim by defender so far the season, Zoo's
like top three, top five or something like that. So and it's not
three or three, potentially four. But you another thing about the defense,
the defensive rating in the last five games. These stats mostly stats from Justin
Russo eighty nine and a half for the Clippers starting five the last five games
in eighty nine and a half defense of rating, they're plus fifty and seventy
six minutes over the last five games, which includes going minus twelve against the
Pels on Friday. And they've been twelve and a half points better per one
hundred possessions with Terrence Man on the floor as opposed to off. And so
we have all these good things happening. But the other funny part is Terrence
Man is shooting thirteen percent from three, and Kawhi Leonard some people are worried
about him, and things are still looking this good. Adam, I know
you were in the trenches about the people kind of saying that Kawhi Leonard is
Maybe I am citing Russell constantly. Justin Russo puts out great stats and lineup
data. Look, look, I love Russo, but I'm seeing a different
offensive rating and defensive rating right now on NBA dot Com for the starting five
for the starting five over the last five games different, Yes, over Well,
you know what, maybe that's the difference. I'm going off of the
last six games. That's the difference. Okay, So in that case,
because some of these guys have played together, because James Harden is going back
ten games now, but he's just going basically since the new starting five has
been okay, that's very five. Yeah. Uh so, you know I
never questioned Justin Russo, like I always say, so we can throw this,
we can throw this for seat away at him or are we are we
saving this fun Well, you never know when it could come in here there,
This is funny. My godfather is like an old school like grinding musician
guy, and my entire childhood. Anytime I go to his house, he
just had boxes of receipts. That's Adam with Twitter beefs. When they say
lifetime free fund. You got to hold him to that, right. Well,
yeah, let's talk to Kawhi. I think because it was obviously no
one's gonna pretend like last game was especially good offensively, but the four games
before that he's been great. Well, I think sometimes look, it's worth
monitoring because the numbers are slightly down, and it looks like he's not trying
to force anything with this new starting lineup, or just go out there and
put up twenty five shots like we saw Paul George put up thirty against the
Pelicans Friday night. Kawhi hasn't been doing that. The most shots he has
taken so far next to James Harden in this starting lineup is seventeen, so
he's kind of letting the game come to him. But then I think it
comes down to eye test, and the problem is when plays it at Kawhi
pace, as you guys always like to put it, he plays at a
slower, more methodical pace, picks and chooses when he wants to take over.
When he's missing shots, it looks worse because of that pace. Now
it's the same pace when he's making shots like that, and you don't worry
about it when he's sticking them. But when he goes two for twelve,
there's some alarm bells. And it was the second game he has done that.
He did it against Orlando earlier in the season. I would be more
concerned if you didn't have the game against the Los Angeles Lakers where he had
thirty eight all of their points and overtime. Was magnificent that eighteen point opening
quarter in the first quarter and look like an absolute superstar since then. You
can say it's an adjustment period, transitional phase. He's trying to figure out
where he fits in and how he can help this team. And I do
believe the reason they're sixth defensively with this on the season now, but especially
with Terrence Man in the starting lineup, they have been the best defense so
far. I think a lot of it is Kawhi putting more effort in on
that end and making sure to come through for coach lou on them being a
top five defense this season. I think that has been his focus. So
you could say he's being unset fish to a fault, I guess a little
bit. You want it to be more aggressive, But Kawhi he's gonna be
a team player. He's gonna do whatever is needed out there, and I
don't mind that right now. If there was a playoff series, I think
the only way to judge whether Kawhi Leonard has lost a step is in a
playoff series, because so many times in the regular season we see him go
through these roles or we see him not look as engaged. But then the
playoffs come around and Kawhi raises his play until then, and if he can't
raise his play, which you know that's never happened before, I'm always gonna
give him the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, I think benefit of the
doubt is very Qui is the only one who's earned it as well. He's
the only guy who I'm fully comfortable being like, Okay, sure, whatever,
he's gonna figure out. This out attempts is just not enough to judge
a Kawhi performance. It's sorry, it's just not it. It's just not
enough. Do we think the other part of this too, that it's like
it's coinciding with is Paul George is playing some of his best basketball that he's
played as a Clipper. He's averaging twenty five six and four with two steals,
sixty one percent true shooting percentage. So when you have a guy plays
like he's getting back to like those twenty twenty one numbers, Yeah, La
Clippers Film brought this up on Twitter. He's shooting seventy eight percent at the
rim this season while taking the highest percentage of his shots at the rim since
twenty twenty twenty twenty one. So that's great him getting to the rim.
We always want him to shoot more threes. When he's shooting that well in
the rim, it it really helps just the team as a whole. So
I think Paul George being on this heater, not saying that it's like bad
for Kawhi's game, but when a guy's doing that, he can focus more
on defense and stuff like that. And I don't even know if i'd call
it a heater. This is ever right. This is a guy that's just
relentless with attacking the basket at a level that I know he did it back
in the twenty twenty one season for the Clippers, but it has been shocking
how much he's attacking the basket right now. Paul George, he looks incredible.
Still not getting many calls, but the way he's weaving around defenders,
he looks as athletic as ever, and he is, without a doubt,
their best players so far to start off this season. And I do want
to add this, Kawhi is shooting the exact same two point percentage right now
at fifty point six percent from two that he's shot during the entire nineteen twenty
season, his first season as a Clipper, Like, so, maybe people
got a little bit He's getting into the line as well, Kawhi. Yeah,
I maybe people got a little bit spoiled by the three months and then
the two games in the playoffs against Phoenix last season, and we're in those
three months he was putting up fifty three forty seven, ninety splits, shooting
splits, that stuff. Maybe he'll do it again when the year turns around.
But he started off solow last sears. He's had a pattern of doing
this throughout his career where he's kind of on his own time, knows his
body. Lebron does it to a lot of different guys that have been in
this league that have been superstars for a long time. They know when it's
time to ratchet things up, and I think that's what Kawhi is doing.
But back to what you were saying about Paul George spectacular start to this season,
not just playing like a top ten player, considering his defense too,
he's been playing like a damn near top five player in the league. Yeah,
he's leading the league in steels. I'm pretty sure are pretty damn close
to it. He was a couple of games ago defensively, Paul George talked
about kind of the fact that the Clippers just switch everything. They switched every
single thing. It forces teams to play more isolation, and not every team
can do that, is what he said. He said this after they beat
the Mavericks, a team I think we can all agree definitely has two guys
who can create an isolation. So it's great to see the defense stepping up
like that. And as you mentioned, in terms of small sample sized theater
Clippers have the best defense November seventeenth, which is when Terrence joined the starting
lineup. So everything's kind of clicking while we're still seeing kind of a passive
James Harden and Kawhi Leonard because we talked about kind of the shot attempts a
little bit, and James Harden said too, he's still getting used to it.
But for the most part, I mean he's fourteen five and six.
The defense, if you've actually watched, it's consistently there's effort there and stuff
like that. So with Kawhi and Harden being the two most passive guys right
now, it feels like, I don't know, we're we're ramping up in
a really nice way. I wouldn't expect it. I would have expected those
two guys to be the most passive in this whole thing. But it's good
to see it's still producing results, especially with these last five games. I
still feel like, look, if Paul George, you know, if he's
not in attack mode as much, if he's not being this aggressive, then
it can go right back to Kawhi getting closer taking twenty shots per game,
where James Harden gets to fifteen. He has been intent on just trying to
fit in right now, and there's gonna be a time, maybe tomorrow,
maybe very soon. They need more from both of those guys, where James
Harden I do think needs to put a little bit more of the onus on
him offensively to take more shots, because that's what keeps the defense off balance,
and that's what makes him so much more dangerous because you don't know if
he's taking the shot or if he's going to make the pass. Now,
could we start responding to some of these people here on live we are Live
YouTube dot Com Slash at Clippers Podcast, Adam, which one do you want
to talk about before we get into more James Harden and where the hell the
Clippers can find some wins on the schedule. I think B West is just
trolling, but uh, I could still respond to it if you want kids
kids seems well, it just popped up here. I don't know, kids
like Adam don't know what real scoring is. Gone are the days when centers
get on the block for fifty young It's like him. Never saw Will putting
defenders in the basket. Oh yeah, there wasn't a video for some of
that stuff. But they also had about thirty five more possessions per game to
stat pad and come up with these crazy stat lines where Will could average fifty
first season. It's kind of a dirty little secret of sixties basketball. They
were playing at such a breakneck pace. There were so many more stats to
accumulate, which is why you'll never see someone average fifty a game. Again,
he was playing all forty eight minutes and there were thirty to thirty five
more possessions per ball game. They just rolled the ball out there. Also,
there was no three point line. The idea of getting to the basket
meant you were getting a better look, which also led to a lot more
blocks back then. It's just it's night and day different than today's game.
So if you want to live in the past with those memorarius for Wil Chamberlain
enjoyed, it's a chump. According to Adam Oslin, I want to go
that far. Adam's like, all I've seen is a photo of him hold
a piece of paper of one hundred points. I don't believe he really did
it. He was great. He probably gets like twenty five and twelve in
today's game. Five. That's an insult. No, I'm just laughing.
It's just funny to hear someone about thirty five more possessions per game. You
don't think that makes a difference in the box score. I'm not disagreeing with
you at all, but you just don't hear Wilt would average twenty five and
twelve. This is a hard pivot. Have you guys watched the clips I
think it's called like the Wilt Chamberlain archive on YouTube, just the footage they
have, like of him doing random other athletics stuff and things like that.
I've seen some of it. Yeah, it's just impressive. The man is
an absolutely freak. He was, and there were eight teams in the league
back then, and it was a completely different game and the pool in the
NBA is quite larger now, just over the last twenty five years, Guys
like Jokic, Embiid, Giannis uh Luca, they might not have even grown
up playing basketball if it wasn't for Michael Jordan and how international the game became
because of the marketing system with the NBA in the nineties, with mj and
everything like that was inspirational. It changed everything. Now we have all these
guys, like what four of the top five players you can argue in the
league are international players. Yeah, I think so. Well, Paul George
playing like a top five player at the moment. If Adam had a time
machine, he would go back in time and just well, actually the one
hundred point Will game. He would just be standing outside with charts and say,
I'm from b West now, says Adam wants to talk defense. Kid
was in second grade when I was watching Bill Lamber in the finals. You
mean when they called ass foul on him on Kareem abdul Jabbar in Game six
after Isaiah had twenty four a fourth quarter and gave the Lakers a ring.
You mean the finals like that? How old are you, Adam? Old
enough to remember? Okay, f both of you guys, not the glasses.
I'm the only one here. Yeah, cheap shot. I was born
this way. I was born this way. All right. Let's uh,
the last the last five games from the Clippers have been great. They're still
seven and eight. We're still kind of hanging out in the eleventh spot.
We're not gonna be in the eleventh spot. Before we talk about this Denver
game, you already know how I feel about certain stretches of this schedule,
how it's going to be difficult to find some wins. Where's some easier places
the Clippers can find some wins. It's not in the next week and a
half, I don't think. But where how are we feeling loading up against
lesser teams and getting some cream puffs and inflating your record that way isn't gonna
do. It isn't gonna be enough for this Clippers team. They actually have
to win these games against the highest end talent, against the best teams in
the league. So these next four against Denver Sacramento Warriors in a home and
home situation, I was hoping they would win four of these six games.
It's asking a lot to go four and two during this stretch. But that
was my hope, and that's really the only way they're going to be able
to overcome that six game losing streak, because that was unexpected to have,
especially during that time in the schedule when they lost games to a bad Memphis
team and a bad Brooklyn Nets team. Not a bad team, but they
both teams were missing half their squad. Those were really bad losses by the
Clippers that they have to make up for somewhere by beating much higher end competition
to go ahead. I get on this every year or too when the Clippers,
when we're Charles and I are toiling away at the strength of schedule and
are just baffled by how the Clippers still sometimes somehow have like a top three
scheduled difficulty with you know, two weeks of the season and left. I
do think if this team is taking things seriously, I do think these wins
over teams that I'm not going as far as they're called cream puffs, but
I do see them as tune up wins. I see them as sort of
lower stake situations where you can build the right habits and then taking on a
slate of hard games. It's you know, it's like the old saying iron
sharpens iron, man, Like it's you know, it's not ideal with the
rest and everything in between on these games, but they're gonna have to play
these teams if they're in the playoffs, they're gonna have to play them multiple
times in short rotation. It just kind of is what it is. And
I don't think for me personally, like I would love if the record was
better. I would love if we didn't have a I would love if if
we hadn't stacked up so many losses. But I think I think it's more
understandable and given what we thought the Clippers were at the start of the season
to even what they are right now, which I think is trending in the
right direction, but it's still not even the apex of what it could probably
be. Yes, that's a good call. We do get thankfully. Yeah,
man, this is the post. I'm just looking at the schedule right
now. I forgot how brutal this post Thanksgiving schedule is. And that's before
we get to March, folks. That's that's just in this year. Yeah,
list it off, all right. We have Nuggets tomorrow at the Kings
at the Warriors. That is a back to back and then we play the
Warriors again in LA, then the Blazers, which is great, then the
Kings, then the Warriors. What is with this schedule with the Kings?
What's with it? It's your pack div Chuck, Isn't this what you want?
Oh? It's so great, awesome. We're in the toughest division in
the NBA. No, I just mean it's crazy. They're all sandwiched together
like this, like Warriors, Kings and like a I don't know, it's
like four times in like a week and a half. Then we got Nicks
at Pacers, at MAVs at Thunder, so like nothing, I guess,
completely tortuous. But these next five games like they're not fun at all.
Who cares? Though? What about marsh Hey, we can get into March.
Let's talk about it. I kid you not. Can I tell you
about Thanksgiving with these guys for a second? We gotta lie. We gotta
start reading more of these messages too. There's some good stuff here. But
I walk in, I'm hanging out with Chuck. There's a charcuterie plate that
I'm doing damage on. Just salami? Uh? What else was out there?
Pepperoni? Pshootou de Niro, Uh, Pacino. It was a lot
of different Italian meats out there, and uh, Chuck is like sitting there
in deep thought contemplating March. He's just like, man, they gotta go
ten and seven in March. They gotta go in March. And I'm like,
what, who's worried about Arch? Right now? Look at the next
five games, Chuck, what are you talking about? Yeah? I think
Adam went they really got to go two and three, and I was like,
yeah, yeah, yeah, they really got to go two and one.
I said, yeah, great, they need to go ten and seven
in March. It's real, it's real. We do. So here's the
nice thing about March. We do play the Blazers twice in a row in
March, which is great, but we play all Eastern Conference teams for the
most part in March. It's really weird. But we play some bad teams
March. First against the Wizards. That could be fun, but they're seventeen
games. There's there's really it doesn't matter who you're playing. If you're playing
seventeen games in March, it's not ideal. It's rough. Forget take it
one game at a time. Let's go all the way to March, guys,
let's get back right into the teeth of the schedule. It's a good
and it's like towards the end of the it's brutal. But hey, ten
and seven and we're looking pretty clean. David Hellman, don't even put that
energy out there. What's up, David Helman? But yeah, ten and
seven in March, I'm feeling pretty good and a healthy month. I'm feeling
pretty good. Okay, what about these next four games before there's somewhat of
a reprieve against the Portland Trailblazers. What about these next four games? They're
one on one right now in this six game gauntlet. They got Denver coming
up. We can talk about more in depth on the matchups and stuff going
on in that game a little bit, But just how do you guys feel
where the Clippers were at coming off? That was their best victory of the
season by far. Holding the Dallas Mavericks to eighty eight points was insane.
Guys. Did you watch the game against Los Angeles Lakers with them or even
though they tried to give it away late. I mean that team Luca Doncis
was enough of a problem having Kyrie Irving as well, and the Clippers.
What I like most about it was they looked motivated by the fact that they
let that game go. They got down by twenty one early against the Pelicans
the night before, and they were upset about it and they wanted to get
that victory back. That said something about the mindset of this team. Yes,
some would even say something was born. Well, if they take down
the Nuggets tomorrow night, I may go there. They seven straight to them,
Nuggets tomorrow night, we're getting them second night of a back to back.
I don't know how I feel about it. I do think, man,
I think we can go so over this. I just want I want
to see a split. This is a really tough schedule. I'd love to
go three and one, but I'd love to see a split. I think
it's there's still kind of some kinks being figured out, but I'd be happy
with two and two over these four. Not saying that's what we need,
but I'd be happy with it. Will Would you be furious? No,
No, not furious at all. I think that that makes sense. I
think if you split, if you split Nuggets Kings, man, I'd like
to if you split Nuggets Kings. However, whichever way it goes. I'd
love to see a couple of back to back wins over the Warriors because I
feel like we're in similar places right now and our size matches up really well
with them, and then it give me win against the Trailblazers, get a
little bit of momentum going, even if it's just a three game streak,
and you can't keep up with the Kings when you play them mid month next
month. But yeah, I think that a split is totally doable. I
think that a split is totally doable. I'm not I can't I can't go
I don't think I can go to and I don't have the confidence right now
to go too and zero versus Nuggets at Kings, and I think right now
that at Kings to me is just seeming like one. I'm not sure if
we have if we have the tempo, if we're put together enough to get
that win first side of a back to back, which helps for the Clippers.
Yeah, be like legs wise. Oh wait, will will you put
this Jbo's question up on here? This is a good one. How long
do you think Kawai can keep up playing back to backs? He looked slow
last night. Adam, your eyebrows are suggesting you have some thoughts on this
story of this question, I would just for anyone that thinks he looks slow,
watch him defensively. Just watch him defensively. If he looks slow on
that end, I would be much more concerned. But he hasn't. He's
looked very good. I think it's taking something out of his legs. He's
playing power forward much more often, Juck, do you have any of those
power forward numbers or position numbers percentage wise how often Kawhi is playing power forward
versus last season, because obviously he's taking that on his plate much more now
than he has been in the past. And when people say it's a position
inless league, what they really mean is it's more positionless than it ever was
before. That's the accurate statement. It's still not a positionless league. It's
not that simple. There are some positions that are more interchangeable. But going
from the three to the four, still, even though you're not going up
against those traditional bigger power forwards and Tim Duncan and see Webb and Dirk and
Jermaine O'Neill from the early two thousands or anything like that, it's still going
to take something out of you going for boards more having to just blow up
in the post and hold back some of these guys. I think physically it's
taking his toll a little bit on Kawhi Leonard. Yeah, okay. So
according to Basketball Reference, so far in the twenty three to twenty four season,
Quiet has played about twenty two percent of his minutes at power forward,
which is, according once again a Basketball Reference, the highest of his career.
He's still like a lot. It is about double yeah, just shy
of double how much. According to Basketball Reference, this isn't a perfect stat
how much he's played power forward because again not completely positionless. But you know,
some of this stuff is a little it's a little up for interpretation.
I would say still playing sixty one the majority of his minutes at the at
the small forward position, and then seventeen percent of his minutes actually clocked in
at shooting guard. There, so a somewhat even split between shooting guard and
power forward, but definitely leaning more power forward than any other point in his
career. And crazy too, compared to the last three years he was over
forty six he was over forty five percent at shooting guard. The last three
seasons and this year he's at seventeen, so it's pretty Uh, it'll be
interesting to monitor, you know, in a month where you have a bunch
of games like March or something like that, it'll be interesting to see what
percentages he's at. I think it's sustainable X one Go Project. Thank you
for asking that. I think it's sustainable. I think it's saw thing that
the team needs, that the the Clippers need it. They're playing really well
with him at the four, and I love that sat that we'll just put
out. He's still playing sixty at small forward. It's not like he's dominating,
you know, taking the lion's share of minutes at the four. What
chance do you guys put on him and Paul George playing the next four games
of this tough stretch here with another back to back coming up Wednesday Thursday up
in NorCal. Do you do you expect? Because Coach Bleu was asked last
night by Andrew Grafford the La Times regarding Kawhi Leonard and if he looked tired
to him, and he says, look, he hasn't said anything. Medical
checks in with him once a week if he needs rest. It sounds something
to the degree. I will give him that, but he hasn't said that.
He says he feels good, which is encouraging, But I just he's
not gonna play eighty two games, while George is not gonna play eighty two
games. At some point, these guys are going to sit. Maybe I
wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them doesn't sit in that well,
the back to back, the back to back in December, the one the
eleventh and the twelfth is at home, but it's also it's also like a
three, it's also a three and five. I bet maybe one of them
sits out the December second game, Yeah, the one when we come back,
because we play the Warriors in the Bay on the thirtieth, then we
come back and play the Warriors on the second. I wouldn't be I'd put
I don't know sixty percent chance they play all four games. I don't know
if I don't know if both of them will sit at one any point.
But I also, and I know this sounds crazy, wouldn't be the worst
thing. I would be kind of happy for them to maybe get a little
bit of rest. But we will say all that back to back is a
home So I do think that that helps. I think, uh yeah,
I do see at least one of the two sitting during a travel back to
back especially, I just think that makes sense. Even I don't even think
it's a thing of like whatever their motivation is to play like I think we
have the data points now, and unless you're desperate for a win, which
this team kind of is, I just don't I don't know why you would
have him playing back to backs. I would every back to back. Yeah,
I would not be shocked if one of them sat during the Wednesday Thursday
back to back up in Sacramento and then against Golden State and then they take
on Golden State at home on Saturday. The one thing I thought of,
you know, some of these lower percentages where Kawhi is only shooting forty five
percent from the field and thirty seven percent from the outside, and he's pretty
much right on par with where he was his entire full season his first year
as a Clipper in nineteen twenty. But the one thing I thought of was,
Okay, maybe him playing fifteen straight games. That hasn't happened in a
long time. He and Paul George is their longest streak of them both being
this available. Was Kyrie irving in Brooklyn when he couldn't play games in Brooklyn
because he wasn't vaccinated. He was playing like two games a week, so
he was averaging about three days off between games, and he was going off
and he was having forty point games every night, and then you get three
days off to rest. So it does wear on you, the wear and
tear the back to backs. Having a five and seven now that could be
eating into his percentages some it does make sense. Yeah, I like this
talk about man. I it's just so weird. Like the rest thing,
it's just frustrating. They need less games. I just I still I'm seeing
Lyft on his three point shooting. Yeah, and last night the only two
shots he hit. He didn't make his first shot till I think midway through
the third quarter, and it was a little baseline fade away. When he
came back in in the fourth quarter, he knocked it down again over two
players falling away. He looked great with it. The elevation was there,
but it's something at least worth monitoring. I just I don't have a major
concern regarding Kawhi Leonard because he's moving so well defensively, if he just wasn't
moving well or there was a hitch in his get up and you could really
tell it looked like him in the twenty nineteen playoffs with the Toronto Raptors,
where he was playing through something. I'm not seeing that right now. Yeah,
that's fair. Ex Wongo Project asked do you think Bones will make his
way back into the rotation. You know, we're getting a bunch of bones
Bones questions. I don't know, not as long as Norm is on this
heater. Guys. Yeah, like it's going really well. It kind of
sucks for Bones. I mean, doesn't kind of suck for Bones. It
sucks for Bones professionally. But the team was winning and Norm, like you
said, Adam is playing really really, really good basketball. And I don't
think Russ is getting benched. Guys, Norm last night, well you know
what I mean for bothes. Yeah, yeah, Norm last night was unreal.
He took four shots and ended up with fifteen points in twenty five minutes.
He went four or four from the field, three or three from three,
four or four from the free throw line. I think he's made something
like twenty of his last thirty attempts from the outside. He I thought he
got off to sol starts. What happened. Wasn't he the first player either
for the Clippers or not in the It was like he had over fifteen points
off like fewer like off fewer than five field goal attempts. He was like
one of the first or like fastest to do it, or some crazy thing
like that. I will say that Norm is one of those I feel like
one of those weird things to unlocking some actual pace for the Clippers. He
just has like no hesitation in the shot. He can play down hell a
little bit. Although he's not passing anybody. He is one of those guys
that can that can help the Clippers play at a different tempo, which I
do think is one one thing that you need. I think especially with second
units, though you need to be able to run guys off the floor.
You need to be able to get easy buckets and hopefully not give up too
much on the other end, which we already know the defensive deficiencies that his
second unit has. Yes, and that is also not something that really helps
bones case for more playing time. Is defensive issues. All right, we
should talk about the Nuggets game. Thank you for that stat Scott BOSSI what
a great last name to have. He's at over forty eight from three on
the season, and he's probably taking real attempts too, because sometimes there's guys
at the top of the list who are, you know, number one and
three point percentage, but they take like two point two a game, you
know, like Norm's taking a very real amount of three pointers. You can
see the confidence too, his quick release. He's not hesitating at all.
As soon as he touches the basketball. He is putting it up or turning
the corner and getting to the basket. It's either a three or two layup,
like he's playing the analytics game. I love the way Norm Palace looked
so far. Yes, all right, we got to talk about the Nuggets
game. If you're listening to this and not hanging out with us on the
live, hey still thanks for support. We appreciate it. If you're listening,
we got ads coming up. They've been a little loud that we're gonna
talk the very important game against the Nuggets coming up in three two one.
All right, you're back in with Clips and Dan. It's me William up
Teck, joined as always by Charles Mockler and Adam Oslin In case you In
case you're just joining us, we are live. That's over on YouTube.
That's at Clippers Podcast. Also on Twitter, that's at Clippers Pod. If
you're listening to this, sorry, sometimes we're gonna people are gonna jump in.
You missed the hand, be sure to be there next time. Anyways,
we talked a little bit about the Clipper starters, what they're doing.
Right, We're gonna talk about the Clippers now taking on the Nuggets. Famously,
the Nuggets really seemed to struggle with the Houston Rockets. Maybe we can
watch a little game film from that to see, uh, to see what
we need to do to win this one. Adam will kick it to you.
What do you want to see in this one? For the Clippers,
he gotta win against the against this tough Nuggets team. I'm interested to see
Daniel Tye match up with Nikola jokicch They didn't have him in the last matchup
against them in a game where they led by seven, was six minutes left
and decided to go small. They kept Beata Zubats off the floor late in
that one and I think definitely paid for it. But now they have Daniel
Tye and PJ. Tucker gave him really good minutes against Jokichen gave him really
good minutes also, and I think the twenty plus he played on Friday night
against Ion Williamson. By the way, I do want to shout out PJ.
Tucker there, like that's the perfect opponent for him. He had some
success. And that's saying something because the Clippers really struggle against guys like that,
and nobody's really like that. But I just want to see the Clippers
seem like they have to get a victory over Denver. They've lost seventh straight.
I don't know if it's ten of the last eleven. It's been the
late domination. Coach Lewis said they have owned us. They don't have Jamal
Murray right now. If the Clippers are going to look like the team that
is turning that corner, I think they need to get this victory and just
put the the Denver Nuggets having their number storyline behind them. They have to
slay this dragon tomorrow night. And I'm interested to see what the rest situation
is for the Nuggets because they're playing right now against the Spurs. They're injury
report for the game tonight. There was a bunch of probables on it.
KCP, Reggie Jackson, and Jokic all played. They were probable, but
Aaron Gordon was probable. He's out, so who knows what's gonna happen with
their rest schedule. I'm kind of hoping we get the diet Nuggets just maybe
taking day off fellas. I don't know. It could be nice for you
kick your feet up, but that'll be something to monitor. So if they're
missing Eron Aaron Gordon, I'm feeling better obviously, but I think he's the
best defender in the league. On Kawhi Leonard, to be honest in that
is not great for the Clippers side when you talk about the possibility of them
matching up in the playoffs. It's not that Kawhi doesn't get buckets on him.
He has, but I just feel like he raised him as well as
anyone. Yes, and the Nuggets are there. The Clippers have been great
in the last five. The Nuggets have been very bad the last five.
They're one and four. Hope we see more of the same from what we
got from rest versus the MAVs. Adam you mentioned he took one shot outside
the Paint missed it, which is fine because it was only one hit.
All his shots at the rib the ties point is really awesome. I'm really
the lineups are gonna be interesting to watch. I think ty We're gonna see
Tucker and Tice together, which was not as bad as it has been the
other night. It's been, yes, compared to what it was, it's
been great, So I think we'll see that and then yeah, just excited
to see the new starting lineup against this completely dominant Nuggets team right now.
Hope we get aggressive hard. I think Daniel Tye has been better than advertised,
better than anyone could have thought he'd be at this point. I just
wasn't sure where he was at physically. We haven't seen him must in the
past two seasons going off of FEBA basketball, just to try to get a
beat on where he's at. But his effort level has been outstanding, and
he's also just a really smart player. Obviously does not care about getting a
lot of the praise. He just makes the little hustle plays. But activity
wise, athleticism wise, he's looked good so far. He's been awesome as
a play connector everything that he you know, everyone was excited for for the
most part, except for the outside shooting has been great, so I the
Tyes pickup is an a plus so far. Will have you gotten the Daniel
Tys jersey yet? Carl Tart mentioned he wanted to get a tist jersey because
he doesn't want Daniel Tys on the team, but I think his opinion may
have changed. Uh No, I think Tys was. It depends on I
don't. I can't really think ahead to how that's going to look in in
the postseason. How Plumbly getting back, Yeah, exactly, how line's change
if Plumbley, you know, if Plumbley does return, which hopefully he does.
But look, the Clippers had to do something. This was the best
available move, and I think not only has it been a stop gap,
but it has been effective and he has worked in the position, save for
like that first game where I thought he didn't look great. H he has
come up to speed really really quickly. So I think that there is something
there for sure. Yeah, there's something they're for sure, and I hope,
like defensively, the Clippers can kind of continue to make a name for
themselves and do what we know they're to do. I feel like, that's
to me what I want to see the most out of this Denver game.
I think that we've gotten enough spits and spurts of the offense that I'm start
of. I'm seeing where that's kind of starting to go. But I would
like to, especially with this Denver team not scoring as much as they normally
as we're used to them in this season, just kind of running away with
things offensively. I love to see how they're able to respond to the pressure,
if the Clips can really turn that up, especially if they set the
tone really early with just some really physical defense. So that's what I'm looking
for to get a win in this one. I think one of the encouraging
things right now for the Clippers is the defense is ahead of the offense,
and you expect the offense to come along given the names that are out there,
given how much talent they have, and the way guys are talking.
Like James Harden last night, I couldn't believe his postgame pres Sorry, I
listened to him in the locker room talking with the reporters, and it was
this is gonna sound like you know, a company line mouthpiece stuff. But
he was abnormally unselfish with the way he was talking about what he wants to
see out there, and he was very analytical about, Look, my job
is to generate the best shots out there on the floor for this team,
because if we get those shots, if we're more efficient on the offensive end,
then we consider our defense on the other end. It was really a
high level, almost coach speak from James Harden post game. System speak is
what it was. It was system. It was system speak, a system,
not these system guys. Let's not mis quote him. Hey you didn't
you didn't say you said it right. But I have been encouraged by his
attitude, the way he's come in here. And then Russell Westbrook last night.
Yeah, he talked about you know, we can we can be special.
We're figuring things out. I'm figuring things out, but we can be
special. It wasn't like I don't know if this is gonna work. I
don't know if be coming off the bench is the right move. It seemed
like he was buying in. Uh so Russ stands. Look, what you
should probably do is support the guy that wanted to come off the bench in
his new role, off the bench, like throw your support behind him.
So because obviously Russ is somebody that is an emotional player that thrives when he's
embraced. He wanted to come off the bench, So why are you arguing
that he should be starting. Just just get behind him and praise him for
his play and try to start up the sixth Man of the Year campaign.
There we go. Yeah, what's up with that? Let's push for that
Russian wed. That's what I mean with Lord playing. Now he's playing.
We'll see. But uh I oh are you hearing them? Well? I
can hear? I can't. No, Chuck's audio just cut out. Yeah,
that happened a few different times earlier. I got this text from our
friend Joseph Ryah Ward though, regarding some of the lineup changes going on,
and I thought it was a bear mentioning Kawhi PG man that three man lineup.
There are plus twenty nine per one hundred possessions, a one twenty offensive
rating, a ninety one defensive rating in about ninety minutes of play so far
since these lineup changes five games ago, Kawhi PG Russ a minus forty eight
per one hundred possessions, just a one oh seven offensive rating, a one
to fifty five defensive rating in just thirteen minutes, so a very small sample
size. But uh, look, I don't know how you can argue with
the results right now, even with James Harden not putting up Monster box Score
numbers, even with Kawhi Leonard putting up Monster box Score numbers or not.
So far, the Hole has been greater than the some of its parts.
With this new five man starting lineup with Terrence Man in there for Russell Westbrook,
it has been very effective. Guys are getting good looks. They're shooting
fifty three percent from the floor, those five guys together, and I think
there's more untapped potential offensively there, but easily, and it's nice we're going
to see that against a reeling Nuggets team. This would be the last one,
was the best win of the Clipper season. Tomorrow could be too,
Like tomorrow can very much take Damny Chuck lost him again. You're right,
though, any of these wins coming up will be the best victory of the
season. As good as the Mavericks have been and they were third in the
West and currently are, and how potent they are offensively scoring one twenty a
game, to hold them to eighty eight is a feat but you take down
Denver finally, and we'll see what the circumstances are with who's available. And
I do not care, but you really don't. You just want to see
him a get a victory finally over the Denver Nuggets because they've been so close
the past two times. I mentioned the one game this season you're up by
seven was six minutes left. They probably should have figured that out. But
then going back to last season in that overtime loss in Denver where Marcus Moreris
played I think the last ten minutes and just had a really rough stint and
a lot of people at the time we're not sure why he was in the
ballgame. Clippers had a great opportunity then, so it is past due for
them to take down the Denver Nuggets. Who are we picking for Players of
the game. Things have been going pretty good since we've started picking players of
the game. Will, who is your pick for player of the game?
It's true? Out of am I wrong? Oh yeah, we deserve all
the credit. I didn't say anything about credit. Will, who's your pick
for player of the game. I'm going to go Harden. I think I
like what we've seen so far. I'm ready for him. To keep up
this facilitator role with some with some with a twenty plus game as well.
Okay, yeah, last time we played twenty one, just four assists for
hard the last time we played the Nuggets, Adam who is your pick?
It's not often that would go with him because it's too easy, it's too
obvious. But Kawhi Leonard's coming off a game where he went two of twelve.
People are talking about him. Is he still elite? Can he still
be the number one player on a championship level team? I fully believe man
overreaction. I think Kawhi is giving him twenty eight to thirty points tomorrow against
Denver. And I'm looking back at that first game, Uh, he was
just five or fourteen. He really struggled. If he didn't have the off
night earlier this season against Denver with just fifteen points on five to fourteen shooting,
they win. That game was there for the taking. I mean they
had fourteen offensive rebounds. Jokics was just eight of twenty three from the field.
They really let one get away. I think Kawhi is gonna have something
to prove tomorrow night. Even though he's not on social media, he has
no idea the conversation surrounding him. He knows he went two for twelve last
game. He's aware of that, and that's enough to light a fire.
I am going with the who did just have a good game. I'm going
Terrence Man, and I think Terrence Man's gonna be player of the game because
I think Terrence Man is going to make three threes. That's why I think
he's gonna be player of the game. He's shooting thirteen percent. If he
makes three, he's probably taken four to five. Be a nice little boost.
He missed four last game. He's missed a lot of threes, so
I would love for him and think it will happen. He is coming back
from an injury though, yes, that is very true. I think I
think he's gonna be able to do it. I'm thinking three threes from Terrence
Man. I think what we saw yesterday against Dallas is a glimpse of this
next level Terrence Man can get to where he's more reliable for around thirteen to
fifteen points per night side from all the little hustle plays, aside from picking
up his man ninety four feet, I think Terrence Man also he has another
leg up he can go offensively, he can raise his own ceiling a little
bit this season and just sow all the stuff he's been working on, because,
like Will said, he still was just coming back from an injury.
I think that was his eighth or ninth game last night. Yes, I
think that. Yeah, I think you're right. So we settled we're gonna
win by twenty and we're gonna break the streak against the Nuggets, right,
I don't know. I was thoroughly impressed. I was a little bit concerned
going into that game yesterday, considering they sold out to get the victory,
yes to try to get the victory against the Pelicans, and I thought,
oh, they're gonna have really tired legs. Now. They went all in
to get that victory against the Pelicans, they didn't get it, and now
Dallas is a team off two days rest. No, they were the team
that looked like they were tired out there. The Clippers had the sets of
urgency and all the energy. We love it. We love it. We're
gonna get a win against the Nuggets. It's gonna be fantastic. I think
we're gonna be doing a double dip probably after that game. If we're allowed
on the radio, of course. Uh, you guys watch the game cool?
Yeah, we watched it last night. We went to the Magic Castle,
a new episode on Tuesday around there. Reviews always help us, of
course, Adam, have you been to the Magic Castle? No, I
told you this off air. I haven't been checked. I just want to
And you guys didn't invite me. And we didn't have a ticket. We
didn't have an open ticket. You know hard it is to get into the
Magic Castle. It's absurd. Anyway, we went. It was a fun
time. Uh, it was cool. Magic is fine. Guess will your
thoughts on the Magic Castle dece is fair? All right? Not about wraps
it up? Thank you everyone hanging all the live Uh we're YouTube dot com,
slash at clippers podcast on Twitter where at clippers pod you can catch Adam
arguing with people on there, which is always good time out of his arm.
You mean casuals like b West. Hey giving you a little previews.
Just giving you a little preview led the Pistons to back to back titles.
Not Isaiah Thomas. It was a great podcast from Chucking. Will today shout
out be West. I think I don't know Adam before we send these people
off into a work week after a holiday. Let's get a let's get a
positive thing about the Clippers. Like I said earlier, I think their offense
is just scratching the surface with James Harden, with Kawhi Leonard and a little
shooting mini funk he's been in and they are primed and ready to take down
the Denver Nuggets. I'm with you, Chuck. I think it's going to
happen, and therefore they would have won two of the first three games of
this tough six game stretch and they're in a position to have a successful week
and a half here. I think this would be big for the Clippers.
There we go, you heard it. We will be back with a new
episode on two. They doubled him tomorrow night. Thank you for hanging out
and as always, let's go Clips.