What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome back to Clips. That zip
is the season two episode fifty three point one. We're back after the All
Star break. Slippers play basketball tomorrow night. We're all very excited about it.
I am Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam Oslin and Will Updyke. We're
gonna get to how we're feeling. But today we're talking Clippers were sunder.
It's a very big game for the standings. We're talking the back to back,
the Clippers to come, the Clippers come back to There was some wonderful
ex Clipper fights happening over the All Star break. We're all very excited.
Basketball's back, so that can stop. But before we get into it,
Adam will, how are you guys doing on Clippers come back to basketball?
Eve, Adam will start with you. How is your All Star break?
It was better than the actual All Star game, I'll tell you that much.
I played our defense against myself, I guess during the All Star break,
and I had a buddy hangout. We had a good time. Uh,
you know, recharge, regroup and get ready for marsh as as you
know all too well. Jeff Well or Will were you rationing supplies for this
upcoming March schedule. Not yet, not yet. No looking forward to this
hillacious stretch of games for the Clippers, which is still somehow the quiet before
the storm, which I'm sure we're going to talk about. So yeah,
I'm be good man. Nice. Yeah. I had a good break.
We got some free comics which was cool from Ryan Peril. I read,
Yeah, I read Power Rangers comics now apparently. Yeah. Thanks everyone who's
listening, Thanks everyone who's watching over on YouTube. Let's get into this Clippers
Thunder game preview. There's no injuries for the Clippers, which is fantastic.
The official dude the Moose might be loose. Someone asked about him in the
comments on Twitter if Moosa is gonna play and I I don't think it's in
the cards. We gotta feel good about the health. Gordon Hayward set to
make his debut for the Thunder. I don't know, Adam were in another,
like most important game of the year standing wise, it kind of sucks.
It's the game after the All Star break, right, I don't know.
They got healthy. It's probably better than having it before the All Star
break because the Clippers weren't playing that well. If you just look too and
two their last four they were kind of alternating wins and losses, even while
they had three of those games at home. And I looked over the last
fifteen games, they're seventeenth defensively, and that's post the beat down of what
happened in okase see, and then what happened at home against Boston, which
could skew the numbers, but that's after that. So yeah, defensively,
they got to tighten things up. They have to play much better. And
there's gonna be a lot of these games coming up, but this one in
particular, considering this is the final game against OKC. It's the rubber game,
the head to head tiebreaker will be decided tomorrow night. It's big time.
It's not gonna be easy. And okay, see, we know how
good they are, and they were playing much better basketball than the Clippers over
the last ten games heading into this one, heading into the All Star break.
But you just like the fact that the Clippers are healthy. And there
were some comments from James Harden that I saw on Lam Murray's Twitter talking about
how it's about attention to detail. Now you know, we can't beat ourselves
any longer, we have to make the other team beat us and basically just
tighten everything up with just twenty nine games remaining heading into the playoffs. Yeah,
it's kind of been wonky facing the Thunder this year. We haven't been
able to give them like our best. We didn't have Kawhi, we didn't
have Zoo. Obviously, PG was great in that game without Zoo. That's
how we get the win. But like this is, I mean, it's
kind of nice. I guess for a neutral fan that this is gonna be
of one hundred percent to a hund percent matchup. Will what are you looking
forward to most or I guess maybe least from this This Thunder team, I
mean, a team that could already readily drop one thirty on you is adding
another offensive piece, which you know, we'll see how the integration works and
how quickly they're able to do that. But yeah, I mean it's it's
a good addition for them, another wing, which will tax a smaller Clippers
team when they have to worry about more than just guards kind of going off.
And then I mean they already have side like they already have size I
guess across the board. So yeah, it's it's a tough one. It's
a tough one. I'm going to be interested in what I like. I
don't know what my expectations are for the offense the first game back from the
All Star Break. I want it to be very good. I know that
it's not going to be at its best, but Zoo's going to be healthy,
which obviously helps the defense a lot. But like maybe the I'm hoping
the pick and roll looks a little bit better. And we've talked about this
a little bit. I hope James Harden, if he gets forced into the
mid range, looks a little bit better. He shot like his worst percentage
in almost ten years from three to ten feet right now. Everything else is
great, but that's just the one thing where I think defenses are going to
push him towards. Yeah. So I'm excited to see what the offense looks
like on some full rest, especially from Zoo. I also want to see
them get off Obviously, it's asking a lot because the Clippers have struggled recently.
They were much better in this area overall this season, but recently they've
been really bad in first quarters. Again. They are twenty third in net
rating their last five games, in first quarters, and it's looked the part
they've been getting off to very slow starts. We've kind of wondered whether or
not, you know, that road trip took something out of them, that
seven game Grammy road trip, and there were still residual effects from that those
last four games before the All Star break. But they have to speaking of
tightening things up, they have to start much faster, especially against Okasee,
a team that pretty much is the new analytics team out there outside of the
Houston Rockets with James Harden and Mike D'Antoni, because it's drives and it's threes,
it's a lot of that stuff. They leave the league in drives per
game by a pretty wide margin. And then you know, they don't take
quite as many three pointers as the Houston Rockets did back in the day or
anything like that. They're actually i think middle in the middle of the pack
like the Clippers are, but they shoot a really high percentage from the outside.
They're right behind the Clippers. They're number one at thirty nine point five
percent from three. Okayse is thirty nine point three percent from the outside.
So they can beat you from the outside. They can beat you. Then
driving by you and getting to the basket. That's a lot of SGA,
of course, but they have a ton of slashers. They have a ton
of youth and young guys and fresh legs. That probably would have been fine
without an All Star break out of all the teams little so getting that and
their opportunity to recharge at home waiting for the Clippers, that's a big advantage.
But you take some of that away if you could just get off to
a quick start in the ballgame and start to impose your will right off the
bat and get back to having that defensive mentality, something they've also been lacking,
as I mentioned the last fifteen games, just seventeenth overall defensively. Yeah,
I was just looking at their shot distribution there. You're right, as
you said, they're right in the middle of the pack with three pointers.
They're also right in the middle of the pack with two pointers. They take
the fourteenth most two pointers and the sixteenth most threes, So like they're kind
of hitting from everywhere. They're not leaning one heavy one side. I like
what you said about the analytics. It's like the analytics distribution kind of like
everything went crazy with d Antonio now they're kind of figuring it out more with
the Thunder. Yeah, defensively, it's gonna be weird, I think,
right like will we saw Jalen Williams kill us, and then he was on
the bench for the other game, so like we know what they're big guys
can do. I'm worried about one of these, not random because that feels
more disrespectful than I mean it, but one of these bench Thunder guys can
do right, Like they kind of have sneaky scoring depth on their team,
especially now adding Gordon Hayward. That's somebody who offers more depth of veteran presence
out there. I know he doesn't have a ton of playoff experience, but
this is somebody who was an All Star, has a lot of pride,
and it's somebody they can lean on a little bit at times and just know
what he's capable of. He's been in the league for so long now he
had the injury. He's not the same player that he used to be,
but he's still more than serviceable. And I always worry about guys that have
a change of scenery like that, where they were playing meaningless ball games and
now they have an opportunity to be one of the best teams in their conference
and what that can do and bring out of them. I think that's going
to be a big pickup for this OKAC Thunder team. But last time out,
I believe it was Yeah, Isaiah Joe had fifteen points off the bench
against them. He was really good in that Clippers one twenty eight to one
to seventeen victory at Crypto or PG thirteen had nineteen, was thirty eight in
the fourth quarter. But they definitely have guys coming at you in waves off
the bench. You have to account for, Yeah, and the bench defense.
Now that we've had some rest from you know, Russ and Norms probably
fully recovered. I I don't think he was one hundred percent heading into the
All Star break after getting hit in the head. That'll be big. Yeah,
Will Adam mentioned the defense, What do we do we or do we
just needs you to be back and well, like will we be happy with
the defense? I mean that's obviously a major piece, and I'm hoping that
he looks a lot better given the long break, But it's it's also going
to be difficult to cover this team. You guys mentioned the bench, like
our bench defensive, like isn't really known as a defense a unit, so
that that's gonna be that's gonna be difficult for for those guys that are gonna
have to you know, keep up the keep up the pace, which they
are you know, willing to do and and well equipped on that second unit
to at least kind of keep things even if a couple of these bench guys
for the Thunder end up popping. But you know, it's gonna come down
to matchups and and how they're able to curb Shay. You know, we
saw a lot of different looks at him. I think, if I'm not
mistaken, I was just look at Paul, George Kawhi and James and James
Harden all played the played the most on him. It's like one of those
things where you look at he you know, he that he got his fewest
field goal attempts off like while those guys were on him, but you look
at how much the team was still scoring over those stretches. There's like a
two minute stretch where Thunder still had like twenty team points, so uh and
and and it wasn't all Shay assisted. But it's one of those things where
it's it's just one head at the Snake, But you know that's that's obviously
the matchup, that's kind of the marquee match of it, and how they're
able to distribute those minutes and then likewise, I mean, if they aren't
able to slow down some of these guys, like who is going to get
things going quickly? I think you know the way that we kind of went
into the All Star break. You know, it was good to get the
comeback victory, and I think we were all feeling a lot better, especially
I feel like the upset of the Timber Bows games. But the way that
we have looked as of late hasn't been particularly inspiring. And I'm curious to
see, like what what the malaise of a long break does really for both
teams and how that affects them and the guy that I'm going to be really
watching in this one, especially if the Clippers have trouble stopping this thunder teams,
what is Paul George gonna look like? Offensively? So I know you
asked me about the defense, but there you go, No, that's fair
because Paul, I mean, Paul George, he's the growing thing was so
it was brutal, he was so up and down so streaky. Sometimes he'd
have it, sometimes he wouldn't. He was good on the defensive end,
ish, yeah, like came and went. I think that was some of
the things that was like more troubling about that Paul stretch post growing injury,
was like, you know, he's gonna go through stretches where he doesn't have
it, you know, where he's not he's not having the offensive production that
he did to start the season. But I think something like some of the
more troubling stuff was him just looking out of place and a little lost out
there. I always think that that stuff is a little bit more like these
are the things you can still control, you know, that are still within
your control. You can't really it's not up to you if the shots fall
down or not, Like that's not really your determination. But like what you're
doing, especially for Paul on the defensive end of the floor, says a
lot about like what you can still contribute and not to get down on the
guy. But like it just wasn't you know, he was one of many
Clippers who I wasn't giving flying marks. You're trying to light a fire,
You're not trying to get down. If you're trying to light a fire for
the right fans out there. Okay, sorry, Adam, go ahead,
No, I think it's going to tell a lot about where Paul George is
at in this game physically and how he's feeling out there, because it just
seemed like he was trying to bide his time, just get to the All
Star break, get some days off. He still played in the All Star
Game, I think, knocked down a couple of three pointers, but that
fourth quarter against Golden State before he filed out, and those last two fouls
were bad fouls. He was being overly aggressive. When you want to talk
about not playing well enough defensively, that last foul against Draymond Green just shouldn't
happen. But I like what we saw offensively from him in that fourth quarter,
who was forcing the issue a little bit more. And while he was
one for seven from three in that game, he was seven of ten from
two and eventually he kind of just went away from the three ball in that
fourth I want to see that level of aggressiveness from PG thirteen get some easy
ones too, if they're not falling from the outside, because I don't want
to see this Clippers, and it may hand up this way because they're two
of the best offenses in the league, but have to win a shootout in
OKC like they won back at home in that game where they knocked down twenty
three pointers, OKAC had sixteen. They basically just outshot them and PG thirteen
was unbelievable down the stretch. And then you had the Kawhi block on Sga.
I don't know how repeatable that is on the road in OKC against that
team with that home court advantage, in that crowd behind him. You want
to see them get back to playing much better defense. And to what Chuck
was saying earlier, is it as simple as just having a Viatza Zubas be
healthy? Another big test for him. Let's see how big Zoo's moving out
there. He also looked really good late in the fourth quarter before he went
out ended up playing almost thirty minutes in that game against Golden State. That's
really the best he had looked so some days off for him and Paul George
and Kawhi Leonard. Hopefully it does wonders for this Clippers team just healthwise.
Yeah, you mentioned the Paul George thing and being aggressive in those last two
games. He took fifteen free throws combined in the last two games. He
averages four a game this year. It's one of his lowest averages of his
career. And then we went on the win streak, the big win streak.
I believe I'm ninety percent sure it coincided with him getting not much higher
because it's not like he's going to the line double digits or anything like that,
but like if he's getting Paul George is getting even six free throws a
game, it kind of drastically changes what he can do offensively. So I
like what you said about, like he made the conscious decision to be more
aggressive and go to the basket because teams are pushing the Clippers into the midrange.
But Kawhi is the only guy who's really built to really succeed there as
a first option of that kind of thing. Well, they need to test
Chet Homegron like they did against Rigobert. You're gonna lose some of those battles,
but you still have to go after that guy who I think had eight
or nine blocks in a game against what Denver at one point this season.
So it's not easy. But it's not like he's the thickest and most well
built guy. At this point of his career, he's kind of got a
bird chest to him. You can as big as Paul George is, you
can go at him some. So against a team that's going to take a
lot of twos at the rim with those drives in the Okase thunder, you
got to try to match it a little bit. And the one area the
Clippers had been much better in overall the last fifteen games was points in the
paint. We saw that being a point of emphasis going into that road trip.
It really changed for them. It just seemed like they were unveiling a
different part of their offense where they knew, okay, we have to get
back to what was the old saying from a coach, Lou fifty cent,
get to the paint or die trying. It seemed like they were much more
intent on doing that. So I want to see that continue. Will Do
you think you could bench more than chet Holgren? No? I don't think
so. Well wait, wait what does he bench? I don't know.
I just I've been I'm going purely off the bird chest. I can't bench
one, I can bench one thirty. I don't know. I don't know
if it's a Kevin Durant like thing. Speaking of Biggs though, like Daniel
Tys played twenty minutes in that win, a guy who is no longer in
the rotation. I'm just curious what do you guys think about how those minutes
get distributed, and like, what what does it look like for plumb I
mean, plumb had a solid game fifteen to five and two last time out,
but Tyson played like twenty minutes. Like I said, also, solid
game is plus nine in the block score. Yeah, so I guess it
is he not going to play. I want to see better Plumbly. I
know the question was maybe about Tyes, but Plumbly did not go into the
All Star break on the Upswing Warriors game. He was better. Yeah,
that's true. That's a really good call. He was although no, yeah,
he was fired up, which is great. So maybe that is maybe
that that's something he can kind of bottle up for the last week or whatever
and get into it. But Tye, if Plumbley isn't playing well, I
think Tysi play because we've seen Lou kind of switch that. But man,
I really hope Plumby is looking good. Real quick, I found some data
on the chet Holmgren thing. Apparently during the draft, uh you know,
combined thing, he couldn't lift the one eighty five bench. Uh that they
do, so it is like KD. He couldn't do it either at the
come. So it's like KD. I think you could bets what they drafted
him. They're like, we got to take all the guys that are skinny
as em and can't lift one eighty five and they're going to turn out to
be superstars. I think you could do it with hoops man. You've always
said that absolutely nothing. You know, PJ. Tucker can bench four fifty.
I have it on the forty. I mean I bet, yeah,
yeah, definitely working out for Yeah, h Adam go out on the backup
back. He should bench the whole bench. He spent so much time over
there bench. Uh. Zubots wasn't in that game last time out, so
I expect him to soak up twenty five plus minutes and it's probably gonna be
Mason Plumley getting the first opportunity. That's just the pecking order. I think
it makes sense overall. Mason Plumbley is a true seven footer coming off the
bench for you against someone like Chet Holmgren. You need a guy like that,
And to Will's point, he played pretty well in that game against OKAC
in the victory back at Crypto. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting how they
play the pick and roll with Chet because he could be the handler or the
screener. So if he's the screener, I'm a shooming there, going under,
but maybe not, I don't know. Yeah, this game. I'm
nervous for this game, but I'm mostly excited because everyone's healthy on both sides,
so we get to see a full on Western Conference Finals type preview thing,
which is again always happy for neutral fan. That's who I'm most concerned
about these scenarios. Go sports, Go sports. We love sports. Okay,
now we get to the most important part. We haven't done this for
like a week, had plenty of time to think about it. Who is
our your Also, if you're listening or watching, you can vote on this
if you want to give us an apt on the YouTube YouTube dot comp slash
at Clippers podcast. Let us know you're Kawhi Leonard player of the game.
It cannot be Kawhi Leonard, but that's what it's named after. Will.
Who is your Kawhi Leonard player of the game pick. Oh, we talked
about it a little bit, but I'm going Paul George. I'm ready for
a big bounce back game. You talked about how Grady was that fourth quarter
in the Warriors. Let's let's see it for four quarters or three blow them
now at the fourth. Uh, that would be great. Adam, you're
Coahi Leonard player of the Game. I'm gonna go with James Harden, who
struggled a little bit the first two games against OKAC mentioned the quote from him
or earlier. They need to be more detail oriented right now. They need
to be more focused, more laser focused. And I want to see it
from him because even in that victory they had over Okay, see, he
was just five of fourteen. I did have eight assists to just one turnover
with those sixteen points on five to fourteen shooting. But I think they're probably
going to need more from him, just because it's likely going to be a
game played in the one fifteens, one twenties at least, so an efficient
night from James Harden. Plus he's got to take care of the basketball.
What did he do over the All Star break? Do we know I'm assuming
he was not in Indiana chilling. I guess, hey, there we go.
Good enough for me resting. He's been playing heavy minutes. By the
way, if there's a guy who needed rest, it was definitely James hard
And you look at the game either. He was averaging thirty eight minutes over
the last seven games. Pippers almost it's a lot may borderline maybe too many.
You guys went with two starters, which is totally fair. So I'm
gonna go bench. We haven't even talked about him yet this preview. We
need Russell Westbrook to be good at the rim in this game. The Clipper
is going to need some bench help. We know what norm Pal is there
to do, which is make threes. He's done that very well all season,
especially in the fourth. We need Russ to maybe be efficient. Russ,
don't take threes, just make your shots at the rim. That would
go a long way to the Clippers winning this game. Is having not a
frantic Russ performance, but a focused Russ performance. I think that's uh,
that's what we all want. And he was obviously good in that game down
the stretch against the Golden State Wars. That was one of the blueprints of
how Russ can affect winning and affect the game, and he kind of talked
about it postgame after the fifteen point comeback, saying, there's a lot more
you can do out there. There's a lot more I can do, I
think, is what he said. It's not just about points that affect winning
and those hustle plays. I think he had four offensive rebounds and most of
them came in the fourth had another one where he tipped it off. And
a warrior. That's what we need from him, scrappy Russ. I'm here
for that. And may and as we talked about before the break, if
we're gonna play him in a small ball lineup four other shooters around him,
let's have Russ out there with four other shooters. He can be the cog.
He can do all the good chaos center stuff, and the Clippers will
be fine. I believe the Clippers are two point underdogs right now, which
is pretty good for an a white spread. We're gonna have a double dip,
I believe right now after this game tomorrow. Who's coming with me?
Boys? Oh, it's dependent on winter loss, I believe. So that's
fair. We can do that. Hey, sure your call. We can
definitely do that. Sounds great. Coming up, we're gonna be talking the
Clippers game on Friday, because of course, it wouldn't be a Clippers season
without coming back from the All Star Break on a back to back, and
then as well as the Kings game on Sunday. We got an update on
the bobblehead giveaway. All that's coming up. If you're listening to the podcast,
which we thank you for. The ads have been a little loud for
some people. If that's been the case for you, go ahead and turn
it down. We got ads coming up in three two one. All right,
welcome back into Clips and Dip. We just looked ahead to the Clippers
first game coming out of the All Star Break taking on the Thunder. Big
matchup, but it's not the end of the road. They got FLNA.
They gotta take on the Memphis Grizzlies the next day. So good news for
people who like quantity basketball over quality basketball. How do you guys feel about
this morning? Is like, out of teams you could play, I guess
on the second night of back to back, I mean, I'm glad it's
not the Celtics again or something, but yeah, I mean, it's the
lowest scoring team in the league. They're the bottom of the league in a
lot of categories. Well, so many injuries. I mean right, no,
this isn't Yeah, their season was over before it started. It almost
feels like they had the Ja Moran thing hanging over their head with the suspension,
and then everybody got hurt, and then he came back and he got
hurt. It's just unbelievable. Yeah, horrible luck. You know. That
wasn't a dig at the quality of their players right now. It's just they
don't have anyone who's supposed to be there really in major roles, which is
difficult to win. But if there's any team that's gonna wanna make some kind
of statement after a bunch of rest, it's a team like this. So
this is second night of a back to back against a team that's not very
good. This is a Clipper. This is the textbook Clippers track game right
here. Talk about slow starts. This is a team that's just gonna soume
sprint up and down the court. To open this game against the Clippers,
the Memphis Grizzlies had lost nine in a row before winning their last two games
before the All Star Break, including that victory over the Bucks that had Doc
Rivers say he felt like half the team was in Cancun or whatever. Orcabo.
I we'll talk more about that in a little bit, Yeah, we
will. They did go out on a high note heading into that All Star
break, getting their probably their best victory of the season winning that game over
Milwaukee. Yeah. I mean it's they're on a borderline streak. They beat
the they beat the Rockets, and then they beat the Bucks and now they
got us. So I don't know, I'm running down the just kind of
the Memphis. I'm looking at the box score. I don't watch a bunch
of Memphis games. No disrespect to the Bucks. I just have a team
in the Western Conference. Focus on, Well, what's your scouting report on
Vince Williams Junior. Give us all you got on Vince Williams Junior, any
prospects. Scrappy guy? This is he goes down there and he does the
work, all right. That's the thing. He gets boards, man,
Yeah, he gets a lot of boards for for a smaller guy at six
' four. He's got some uh pat bev hustle in him. He will
go up there and that's you know. They still be more than him.
No, I don't think I can bench more than in the NBA. Who
has an army might be could No, I think I have no doubt that
Adam or Will could out bench chet Hulgrin. Oh yeah, I think that
might be the list though the bar. Yeah, but I think that's the
list I've put up to sixty five earlier. Today, I put probably out
of bench a few guys thin KD can do No, No, he can't
do that. He's bulked up. He's gained probably fifteen to twenty pounds since
he first came in. But yeah, I don't think that's something he focuses
on at all. What if What if late stage KD just started just started
to doing just all chess, he gets on the Mike Bibi workout plan.
Yeah, maybe not that. I don't know if he'd be in the league
that long after he started that plan. Does he get busted for Sterroid's eventually
or what? Just look at the man. I just been looking at him
now, there's no way. Do you think that's a that's fair? This
is a fact. Yes, it is a fact based podcast. You are
that is fair? So who can bench the most on Memphis? That the
Clippers have to worry about. Basically, I like, this is a new
metric for who can bench the most. That's really funny. Yeah, I'm
looking at the last five games before the uh the All Star Breaking, even
with those wins. So here's the thing. The Clippers and Grizzlies have basically
the exact same place minus over the last five games heading into the All Star
Breaker. Doesn't feel super good. They're both minus three, so I don't
know, just look at the schedules. I mean, they played totally Yeah,
it's a problem game coming off of playing OKAC in particular, that's really
yeah. And if you lose that game to OKAC, it kind of feels
like a must win agree. You know, with this less than thirty games
left, all of a sudden, you can't afford to drop a game to
the Memphis Grizzlies. So it could tell us a lot about this team and
their focus and their mindset regardless of what happens against against OKC, but just
not either having a letdown or being able to get up for what could be
what feels like a must win game considering how tough their schedule is. Because
if you look at the top four teams in the West. The Clippers have
the seventh toughest schedule remaining. The three teams around them are all by them
ten in schedule, Minnesota twentieth schedule, Denver twenty third, OKAC twenty fourth,
And none of this even takes into account how condensed the Clipper schedule is
in March, where I hear they have seventeen games. That's my issue with
the strength of schedule ratings. They're like, this is the percentage of opponent's
plan, Like that doesn't matter. Also, as Will's brought up, that
doesn't matter in the West. The teams don't play to their percentages in the
West with their win percentages. You know, you're not playing an eighth seed
Warriors, see you know? Like so yeah, I like what you said
about it's a must win if they lose to the Grizzlies or sorry if they
lose to the thunder because it is, and that might be regarding championship teams.
Do championship teams win this game? Contender, I think one game of
every back to back from here on out for the Clippers is essentially one game
is a must win. Yeah, I would agree with that. How many
back Tobacks. They haven't left if they want a top three seed, Tomorrow's
obviously a battle for a tiebreaker between Okay, see, they've already lost the
first two games against Minnesota, Yes they have too. They would be two
if they'd beat if they beat the Thunder, they would be the two seeds.
But then they're down two to one to the Denver Nuggets with one more
game remaining. They are in the least favorable position by far of the top
four teams in the Western Conference. So I think, regardless, you have
to win that game against Memphis. And the standings are getting a little closer
now between that top the two, three four and or the two. Yeah,
two three four and then five six seven, it's getting a little not
super close, but it's tighter than it was. Yeah, like there was
a firm kind of block, but it's three games between four and or between
four and five. But like we're only a game up on the Nuggets.
They're they're right there. I would expect them to round in the form more
after this break in, you know, with the with the third left of
the season and we play the Kings on Sunday, So this three and four
is one team that's elite, one team that we should probably most likely beat,
and then one team that is in a weird place kind of but has
the capability and some of the personnel that cause issues for the Clippers in that
King's roster. They still have two more games against the Phoenix Suns coming up
too, So if you're talking about a team making the leap from five or
six and getting into the top four, it's still on the table. Phoenix
does have the toughest remaining schedule according to Tankaton, which I don't know how
many of those games are spread out and all that chat. So, yeah,
what's come on? Get at us here? Can we get like an
enhanced Can we get like a global rating for schedules? Remember that stupid global
rating stat we talked about? Can we get a schedule rating international Q rating?
Yeah? So it feels like the Clippers already kind of have to be
in playoff mode with these games. Where do we realistically expect them to start
looking like they're actually in playoff mode? I think it's like ten games after
the All Star break is when teams just meet. No problem, dude,
I don't think they have ten games, to be honest, because of everything
because everybody else has an easier schedule remaining. Everybody else has the advantage outside
of Okay c with tie breakers right now over the Clippers. Because they're down
two games to one against Denver, they're down two games to zero against Minnesota.
They cannot afford to trip up here. And I know it's probably gonna
happen. They're gonna have a two or three game slide somewhere the rest of
the way. But you have to. It is become imperative to handle your
business against lesser competition, and that means the Memphis game. So I don't
think they have ten games. They got to hit the ground running, probably
tomorrow. Yeah, I'll tell you what I do love. I love this
little Blazer's break. We get game sixty eight sixty nine, which is nice.
But yeah, man, I mean looking at this schedule, Will what
are you thinking like this is they really do not too late? Oh no,
yeah, no, no no. I just felt like they kind of
just have they have to start tomorrow. It's kind of gotta be tomorrow.
Yeah. Agree. They got Minnesota within two of their first almost ten games
here. I mean, what are we talking about? They can't they lose
one of those They've already lost the tiebreaker. They have no shot twice.
This is so brutal. There is no time. We're talking about ten games.
I mean, that's that's really only it's like two weeks, two weeks
away. Yeah, true, man, that's really worrisome. Will you may
find out within the first two weeks post All Star Break, we may find
out how realistic and how viable it's going to be down a top three seed.
I like that. How what do we Okay? So Sunday games at
six thirty which is great, nine to thirty PM Sunday. Have the Clippers
gone two and one in this in this three and four? Yes, I
think so, because they have to. I like that reason. Yeah,
yeah, I think I think the two and anyone got three and oh,
actually, you know what, I'm gonna take three and oh. I think
coming off this much rest, this is the perfect time to get a three
game win streak for the Clippers in the back part of the schedule, with
a whole bunch of rest, A game against the Grizzlies in the middle of
it, you know, and then you get some rest. I guess before
you come back home, I'm gonna say three and oh, Fortune favors the
Bold. Yeah, yeah, there we go. I'm not investing. I'm
not investing any funds into it, but I hope what happens. Yeah.
The only person that commercial who who came out ahead was Larry David, because
I think Larry David and that commercial was like, I don't want to invest
in this as like a bit was Sam bankman in it? I felt like
he came out ahead. Yeah, all right, we take one more quick
break and then we have to talk the doc Rivers, Patrick Beverly, Austin
Rivers, JJ Reddick fiasco mess that happened. We got ads coming up out
of looks like he has a lot to say on this subject, which I'm
excited for. We got ads coming up. They've been too loud for you,
go ahead and turn it down. We're doing Clips and Dip and gossip
after these ads and three two what welcome back in It's season two episode fifty
three of Clips and Dip. I'm out a Moslim. We got Chuck Mockler
and Will Updyke. We made sure to have everybody available as we rejoin you
guys post All Star Break. Couldn't just have one or two of us.
We had to have the Big Three. Now coming up, we have a
big bobblehead giveaway that we'll give the deta on, and you know, we'll
have some new prize to give away eventually here on this podcast, as we
always do. But not sure anyone's winning. When it comes to this inner
strife in turmoil between ex Clippers and their former head coach in Doc Rivers,
it started with JJ Reddick going off on Espen saying, no, it didn't
start with him, Chuck. I think it started with Doc saying insane things.
Well, did he say something? What was the most recent thing that
was the jumping off point You're saying, Doc talking about how it's harder than
I thought it would be coming in mid season. I think it started with
the comments were like I wouldn't you know, coming into midway into a season
is so hard, Like I wouldn't want to know. I wouldn't wish this
on anyone worst enemy, Like like, I think that's kind of where it
started, and that's kind of what I think. That's what JJ was speaking
to when he went on the rant, like what you know that Doc never
really takes responsibility for anything, which I think is a pretty fair criticism if
we're being totally in certain ways, I totally agree great like great human being,
solid coach. I mean he's not a bad coach. No, he's
a good he's a good coach, but he's he politics really well, Yes,
I think that. I think that's what it is, is that,
like I find that kind of stuff to be really rating and like annoying.
What I've noticed with JJ Reddick is he will take things from NBA Twitter and
then put them out there on the big platform on ESPEN like plumbers. Now,
like Doc doesn't take accountability, So is he in a position of authority
or does he have any credibility because he played for Doc and people are putting
more into that. Well, there's other guys that played for Doc that are
then reacting to JJ reacting to Doc because it was Patrick Beverley who then responded
to JJ Reddick, and then Gore Todt signed off on what JJ Reddick said,
retweeting it and putting a check mark. So it seems like it's split
on whether or not Doc Rivers takes accountability. And his own son in Austin
Rivers kind of stood up for him to a point, or at least gave
his opinion on it, saying, well, he's the one who gets fired,
so he's the one who's ultimately responsible. But there is a difference between
him being fired and him coming out and saying this is on me, because
I think the main source of this energy coming towards Doc is not just what
happened recently with the Milwaukee Bucks. It reminded everyone of when he defended all
the three to one instances in his career, first talking about Orlando and saying
that they lost to the eventual champions in the Detroit Pistons, which I think
was actually the Pistons team for the next year, but they were up three
to one with t MAC and that was legitimately a bad team and a bad
roster in Orlando with Pat Garrity and those guys. However, I would say
him throwing that roster under the bus doesn't look great. Those were his players
for him to say to the reporters, go look at that roster. That's
not great. Then he defended the three to one twenty fifteen second round series
against the Houston Rockets, saying that Chris Paul didn't play the first two games,
they were beat up, and you know what happened with Josh Smith and
Corey Brewer is crazy in that game six. It feels like a bit of
an outlier. And then he did take responsibility for what happened in the bubble,
but was there something that came out recently about him. Did he say
something about how guys didn't want to be there or Kawhi didn't want to be
there or guys well, Austin Rivers said guys didn't want to be there.
He said guys left the bubble, which isn't accurate. They were asked to
leave the bubble, but I think it was that. And then Doc had
the quote of like he's there's been the Shay thing, there's been the like
there's been like the hardened quotes. It's just like, I don't know.
He came out and said he was trying to sell Kawhi on keeping SGA.
Yeah, looking like he was on the right side of history with that that
hard and fit better on the clippers then on the seventies. It's just all
this thing with Doc where it's like hindsight's always twenty twenty with everybody, but
it and I think it speaks to just frustrating. It's definitely frustrating. I
think it speaks to like a bigger thing in sports media and just in general
kind of discourse right now, is that like it's okay to be wrong,
Like there's true, there's truly nothing wrong with being wrong. Everybody is going
to be wrong, and it's just like I just I don't like this revisionist
history where it's like this and that, and like the Shay thing is like,
not only is it blatantly untrue, we were there, we were all
there, We were in the locker room for that season, like we we
all know what was really going down, and the only reason Shaye actually even
got playing time. And then the other thing that I don't like about that
is that also like it's once again it's like throwing Kawhi under the bus.
So now this was somehow Kawhi's fault that the Clippers I don't want to say
squandered, but like gave up an all star level talent, Like that's so
silly. He had not like he wanted to play with somebody for sure,
but like he didn't have final say on that, and like what does Doc
even have to gain by this? Like Doc wasn't GM at the time.
It wasn't his call. No one's pointing the finger at him, you know,
Like I just I don't. I don't understand shit like that, and
I it hurt. It hurts me because like it was hard for me to
even like be on hearing with a straight face. I think Doc is a
good coach because I think some of this stuff is like really taming all of
his achief. Well, I think that. I think he believes it's taining
his legacy and his achievements, and that's why he's defending his record because there's
this perception about Doc Rivers now that oh, he won with the Big Three
in Boston, but since then, what has he done? He's no,
he keeps getting higher like that. That clearly isn't the perception because the guy
keeps getting jobs front offices versus media perception and fan perception, I guess are
two different things in his mind. And to be fair, he was just
in the media recently till taking this job with the Milwaukee Bucks. I'm a
little bit compromised on Doc because you know, he was nice to me and
I appreciate him and the way he was able to navigate the situation in twenty
fourteen with Donald Sterling in the first round against ol Owen State Warriors twenty during
the bubble, during the death of Kobe Bryant. I love Doc Rivers as
a man. His teams have come up short at times on the playoffs,
and there's something to be said to that too. You just got to take
everything into account and not just paint someone as being one dimensional or only being
this or that. Yeah, he's a bad coach and he's a baton.
I'm just kidding the thing. And then last thing about JJ Reddick before we
get some good news. The thing, I had one of those moments where
like, the worst person you know makes a good point. Nick Wright,
who is not in my favorite sports casters or broadcasters, he had a thing
where he was like, why does someone come into this space who doesn't need
to come into this space? And just kind of like shit on the whole
thing. Because JJ Reddick had a thing where he was like, yeah,
you know, I can put out I put out a YouTube video about Zion
and how good his possessions are with the Pals and it gets fifty six thousand
views. But I go as a coach and it gets millions of views,
So like, what does the viewer want and you're like, first of all,
it's not groundbreaking that people like and gravitate towards negative things like this isn't
like you're in media, you know how this works. And second of all,
you can still make the content for the fifty six thousand people that want
to know more about Zion and his and how he's affecting the Pelican Like it's
just this weird thing, and Adam, you brought this up. He brings
on NBA twitterisms into the largest sports outlet, so it's like you can't say
you hate NBA Twitter and all this stuff and then also use their arguments on
the show. I guess he's just messy. He says he doesn't like NBA
Twitter. Yeah, Oh that's interesting because he's definitely taken advantage and benefited from
it. He's not on Twitter much other than when I see him put out
the Old Man three podcast, which is good, which I do appreciate it.
Just like Doc Rivers with what I just said about him, there's a
lot of gray. We're not all one thing or the other. Same thing
goes with JJ Reddick. I love the granular level he'll get into with the
NBA and plays and he'll get into the minute show and he'll get out into
the weeds a little bit and really give you a different perspective and not oversimplify
things like most of the talking heads out there do. Actually I like Paul
George, but uh, they're both great. I think he was going for
low hanging fruit with this doc stuff, knowing that it would get attention,
and knowing that he has to play the game to some extent if he wants
to be on ESPEN next to Steven A. Smith and next two Shinn and
Sharp. That's just what it is. Game. Yeah, Like play the
game. Don't complain about the game that you're actively playing and benefiting from,
like well basketball starts. What's interesting is you have guys in the media and
NBA analysts on TNT constantly crucifying the modern game and being wrong with their lack
of memory about how the old game was often and misremembering how things were.
The Nostalgia's a hell of a drug for those guys, and they love their
brand is sing on today's game and saying how much tougher it was back then.
I don't like that either. I think JJ sometimes takes it too far
with calling those guys plumbers. I think it's somewhere in the middle, like
most things are total, but all these guys to some degree have an agenda.
It's unfortunate, and they have to if they're going to get on that
platform. That's the real issue. It's I heard Dan Levitzard go after Steven
A. Smith the other day saying, you birth this hot take culture basically,
and it's true. It's undeniable because that is what gets ratings and that's
what gets viewership and then therefore advertising. So unfortunately, that's what this media
has become, or sports media. I'm hoping there's a hot take bubble going
on where people are starting to tune that out more and more because you know,
it's just a show, it's just hot air, and these guys really
don't stand behind what they say. And that's why I like holding people accountable
for take sometimes because while they get all the love on the front end of
saying something outrageous or at least attention maybe not love, love and hate,
I want to make sure if that doesn't come true, that they look like
fools afterwards. So I will often post stuff from Kendrick Perkins because if there's
no accountability, there's a greater chance they're going to continue to do this over
and over again because nobody's checking them on it. This is the dog peeing
in the house, so you put its face in the pe strategy. You
know, I didn't think of it like that. I always think of that
Dallas announcer who was so mad at James Harden for absolutely no reason. The
guy or whatever he was saying like I can't grow up, but he ultimately
wins, right, because we never even knew about that guy before did that.
And I don't know his name now? Normal is his name? Normal?
I don't think that was the cat and Garfield or it's a great one,
all right, I know you're Garfield with us here yea worst comic of
all time? Baby, all right, we're gonna we have a wholesome update
on the Zoo bobblehead. Win here. Starman Hoe, who wrote a touching
poem that referenced every fun little thing we do, seeded the bobblehead to Alfonso
Lopez. He gets the bobblehead. A young Clips fan gets to to their
collection. They're kind of excited about Zoo. Not the most we respect the
real there's you know, we love that Adam, where are you gonna get
what are you gonna pull the seats on this kid? I hope it doesn't
get lost in the mail somehow. Okay, No, we're not doing that.
It is a California address. So Adam gets to save a couple couple
bucks, which is great. Yeah, we'll get that shipped out this week
and it should be to your door soon. I think that about wraps up
this episode. Well are we doing double taps? Where where can these people
find us in these next couple of days. Yeah, So with two games
coming up on the Backpacking catches on AM five seventy after the games. If
it's a win, I'll probably be on. If it's a loss, I
mean that's Chuck's domain. But you can listen to this podcast wherever you get
your podcast. If you happen to listen or check us out over on Apple
Podcasts or spotfy. He could leave a little rate and review and help out.
We'd love it if you. If you want to get the whole extumes
to the show, the full how many senses are there? Six? Five?
Whatever? The full sensual experience with dead People. Yeah, we're over
on YouTube. That's at Clippers Podcast and we're online at Twitter dot com,
at Clippers Pod any time we're we're surfing the net. Don't stay tasty waves.
Yeah, we do this every episode. Some people's favorite thing. I
hope no one's least favorite thing. Adam, let's get one positive thing after
this All Star break about the Clips. After six episodes, the new season
A True Detective is finally over and my god, it was a mess.
Uh No, the Clippers are back, and James harden I talked about that
quote he gave Talat Murray earlier. It sounds like this team is in the
right headspace, in the right mindset for what they're about to embark on,
which is one of the most brutal stretches maybe in the history of the regular
season. Seventeen games in March coming up, so it's going to take an
intense amount of focus for them to get through this. And it all starts
against OKAC. So I just like the fact that they seem to know that
they have to ratchet things up now stop with the bad turnovers, and they've
been pretty good in that area all season long, but there was a little
bit of slippage at times heading into the break, where you just saw some
unforced, untimely or impromptu times, turnovers in fourth quarters. The Clippers have
to be more sure with the basketball. The best thing he said was,
we can't beat ourselves if someone else is going to beat us. You know,
as coach Lee would say, as Lebron would say, you can live
with those results if you play your best and you just got beat better,
better opponent. But the Clippers cannot beat themselves. They cannot take themselves out
of the ball game because while their margin for error is very wide right now,
with the talent they have against OKAC, against Minesota twice coming up,
against the Molukee Bucks twice coming up, they can't rely on that. Listen
to what Kawhi Leonard has been saying, they've been getting by on talent.
They need to get by on execution. Talent comes afterwards. That could be
the difference maker eventually, if both teams are executing at a very high level.
So I think the Clippers are ready for this, and Mike Chuck said
they might go three to o these next three games. Let's hope they do.
PJ. Tucker and Bones are back with the team, so there's some
reinforcements. Everyone can be excited about We will have the Double Dip for y'all
after the next two games, maybe an episode on Saturday. We're getting it
figured out. Thank you everyone for listening, thank you to everyone for watching
over on YouTube, and as always, let's Go clips