Last time, James. I mean, do you believe me now about James
Harden to being the guy that should be starting and Russell Westbrook coming up the
bench. Is it working well enough for you? Clipper Nations, the doubters
on James hard They make it six straight. They've won eleven of fourteen since
Terrence Man was put in the starting backcourt next to James, and they're playing
some of the best basketball of the two to one three era. James Harden
steps up with twenty eight points and forty one minutes, fifteen assists, seven
boards. Historic night from him, but when they needed it most for him
to show that yeah, he can still shoot the rock well too. No,
Paul George, no problem. James will drop twenty eight on twelve shots.
James would go to the free throw line twice for three free throws after
being fouled on three pointers. Clippers win one twenty one to one thirteen over
the Golden State Warriors. Welcome back in the Clippers Talk. I'm Adam Oslin.
Well, we have a moment. Let's pause ten seconds for station identification
here in Los Angeles Clippers Audio Network at a five seventy LAS Sports. This
is La Clippers Basketball AM five to seventy KLAC Los Angeles, ninety eight seven
KYSR HD two Los Angeles and iHeartRadio Station. And now joining the show is
Chuck Mockler from Clips and Dip. After the Clippers make it six straight victories,
Charles, did I tell any lies on our recent episode on YouTube?
When I had to call out some people for the way that they tria James
Harden when they started zero to five with him, and now they've won six
straight. Seems like things are working out, Hey, Chuck, Yes,
things things are working out right now. It's been fantastic to see James Harden
step maybe flower than some people thought he was going to step into, you
know, a prominent offensive role for this team. He should be taking when
you know two and three is healthy, James should be at the second or
third most field goal attempts, and you look at it tonight and he was
so efficient he didn't need the extra one, so that's good. But you
can just see him building more confidence as this starting lineup continues to get more
time to jail. Terrence didn't have the best game, which is a bit
of a shame, but James was able to kind of still have a good
game, still be the engine of the team and stuff like that. So
he's been phenomenal, hitting twenty five thousand points as the Clippers pretty cool too,
So let's help this keeps up. But this game was the perfect example
of why the Clippers traded for James Harden and how he can lift you in
the regular season. We'll get to the playoffs when we get to them.
Right now, this is exactly what he's supposed to be doing. Look,
if he can lift you in the regular season, then he can lift you
in the playoffs by you having a higher seed entering the tournament. He can
raise your floor and your ceiling with the way he plays. And I'm just
not worried about him in the playoffs as a third option next to Kawhi and
Paul George. But speaking of Kawhi, Leonard mentioned it yesterday. I think
this is the best he has looked since tearing the ACL. I know,
the shooting splits. It hasn't been three months yet, We'll see how that
ends up. It's gonna be hard to match shooting forty seven from three for
three straight months. But just the movement, the ability out there, the
bounce, how light he's been on his feet, and I'm wondering if part
of it is because he's encouraged and revitalized because he knows one he doesn't have
to do everything. It gives him more energy to expend on the defensive end,
but also because he can see that this team has the talent and the
right pieces to make a run and the two one three era is far from
over. Well, I think it's it's the talent. The right pieces have
been there, you know, kind of on paper for a lot of this
two to one three era. Every year it felt like we'd be like,
oh, this is the best clip roster we've maybe ever seen. But now
guys are more so locking into Kauwhi's example of getting things done almost just curased
because I forgot run the radio. But I think you know what I was
gonna say, like, he's here to get things done this year, and
everyone else is feeling that. There were clips of him, you know,
being frustrated during the losing streaks, like kicked a chair or something like that,
which is good to see because you want to see that from the heart
and soul of this team. So now we're seeing the good side of that,
and everyone is locking in and on the same wavelength as Kawhi Leonard in
terms of the grittiness and understanding how urgent things are. Some of these these
boards that the Clippers got late in this game. A Mere Coffee had one
that ended up in a James Harden assist to Kawhi for a dunk. But
if you go back and watch that rebound, that rebound, it pops because
I feel like you don't see stuff like that a lot from this this era
of the Clippers, but we saw a mirror get one, Kawhi had a
great one, and many got fouled. Like we're seeing that snapshot of those
gritty rebounds late in this game is what this Clipper seem is about, and
we're seeing that identity come from Kwi. I had to pull some receipts on
myself from a show that we did probably six weeks shot. Now it was
a positive receipt, but me saying we'd just forgotten about a Mere Coffee.
There's still a wing on this team that can help them, and he got
some run when they were in San Antonio for that Texas Stationary two step,
but since then hasn't played meaningful minutes and I couldn't be more impressed with his
level of professionalism with coming into a game, getting the start and making the
most of it to this degree tonight, he looked incredible and it's such a
difficult position to be and yet he thrived. Yeah, he came through.
He was not afraid to shoot at all. Eleven three and you know he
canned an above average amount of them. So you do really love to see
the confidence not gone at all from a mirror. He had a tough offseason
obviously, but he he he stepped up really when the Clippers needed it.
On a night when Terrence didn't quite have it all the way there, a
mirror really picked up slack. But yeah, he's ready to go. You
mentioned his attitude. I couldn't agree more. Him and Bones have just been
as professional as you could possibly be during a time when the Clippers are playing,
like you said, some of their best basketball with two of three ERA.
So big shout out to him, mirror, big shout out to Bones
just for the attitude during all of this and so sign of a good locker
room and good leadership from Kawhi, Paul George James Now but also of course
coach Lou with making sure guys still feel like they are involved in the process
of what's happening with this Clippers team right now, and knowing that they need
to stay ready because it could be their opportunity, It could be their night
now. Norman Powell has had a lot of these nights to start off this
season, but this was one of his best. In the fourth quarter in
a close game. He scored eight straight for them, had ten of his
twenty one points in the fourth and the Powell Rangers it was morph in time
and he morphed into the closer. I guess you could say he was awesome.
Well, Norm. The great thing about one, I mean, one
of the great things about Norm's game to night is he only took four threes.
If Norm can find a way to get a bucket, he's gonna do
it over and over and over until you stop him. And he was getting
to the rim at will against this Warriors seven did not matter who was on
him. And that's great. We said, hey, go for it,
man, you're gonna shoot seventy percent. Yeah, get as close to the
hoop as possible if they're gonna let you. He had a steal. He
had five boards, which I think is very helpful against a rebounding you know,
as good of a rebounding team as the Warriors are. But Norm start
this is Orm's best stretch as a Clipper. I don't think that's too you
know, something too crazy to say right now, but the Clippers has needed
it. But talk about someone who stays ready. He's been a revelation to
open this one, a Vitza Zubos didn't have an eye popping box score ten
and eight, did his job, but a couple of blocks and had a
possession where he got CP three to travel because of his defense, and then
a nice finger roll to start off things in the third quarter. But overall,
just speak to a viza Zoobots and maybe the moment he's having over the
past couple of weeks with this new starting lineup where you're seeing the growth in
different areas from him and make maybe making that leap at the age of twenty
six to just becoming a more consistent, a more dominant player who plays with
more confidence on offense. I think one of the things that speaking to his
confidence is it was in the fourth quarter. I think Norm had kind of
a breakaway and he he hit zoo with you know, not a hectic pass,
but a quick pass. It was like five to nine feet away and
he hit just a one handed floater, you know what I mean. It
wasn't anything. It wasn't an authoritative dunk or anything like that, but it
was late in a close game. He had no hesitation going up with it,
kind of away from the rim, and it was It was perfect.
So I think that little piece of his game tonight is kind of emblematic of
how good he's been all year. He's made the right decision for the most
part all year. You know, we say, oh, ten and eight
an okay game from Zoo a year ago. We would be hyped if he
averaged that, but he's out pacing that. He's been fantastic and closing lineups,
which is a little surprising to see from Tylo. But when it's working,
it's working really well. What was that stat going around He's saved the
most points at the rim per seventy five minutes or something like that in the
league. Like he's he's having his best year as a Clipper. It's really
I feel like we've said that about a handful of guys so far. But
I mean, Zoom playing good defense, is great to see. Yeah,
and we thought he might be a little tired, you know, he we
liked his zero basket in the off season last year and stuff like that.
But I hope that the fitness is still there. I think it will because
he's just playing so well right now. And a great point by you.
That bucket he made. It was a four point game, one oh six
to one oh two, was seven minutes left and he finessed that layup in
off a nice feed from Norman Powell. And he's just showing much better touch,
more consistently, at least around the basket. And I'm glad they're trusting
him late in games because I've always felt like when he gets the opportunity,
he's proven to me that he can close, that he can do it on
both ends and not be a liability somewhere just because he doesn't have the jumper
or can't play five out when Big Zoo is out there in a closing lineup.
Let's see one more for you here, Chuck. Just defensively, what
we're seeing from this team. They've been so dominant on that end. But
it's not just because of personnel or the roster or finding the right rotations.
There's a level of urgency and effort that we've noticed that has been just throughout
the forty eight minutes at a much higher level than we have seen, especially
last season, you know, when they couldn't really they were about ten defense
for the majority of the year after that great start by Beats Zubats holding it
down, but they never really figured it out, and coach Luke kept saying
defensive intensity, defensive intensity, but the message never came through. It's happening.
Now you're seeing it out there eyeball test and the advanced numbers tell you
this team can be great defensively, and they're buying in right now. Yeah,
it's really impressive to see. I I think back to all the talk
they had about how much more they were able to practice in the offseason.
They practice after that back to back or I think it was either a back
to back or like a three and four or something, and they practiced on
a day that it was kind of surprising if you were a Clipper fan,
you were reading about them practicing. After all, we heard, you know,
kind of historically about the lack of time they got together. So I
think maybe setting that tone and really following through with it from ty lu on
We're going to practice, We're gonna run like this is That's what helps you
on defense, is not stopping and things like that. You mentioned the consistency
of the defense, and I think the new emphasis specifically on practice and the
intensity and the frequency of it is really helping the Clippers. And to go
back to the point we were just talking about, it helps hun Kahi Leonard
is playing as well too, because when someone on your team is playing as
good a defense, you know, as Cowhi Leanders, it makes you want
to play good defense too, So I think that's a big boost as well.
Great point, Clippers win one, twenty one to one over the Golden
State Warriors. He is Chuck Mockler of Clips and Dip. We'll have a
new YouTube episode coming for you later this week. Chuck, thanks for doing
this tonight a little Clips and double Dip here on Clippers Talk. My friend,
Hey, thanks for having me. Let's go clip. We'll close things
out next with a few phone calls, maybe brother Jake Warner of course in
the building. What are you looking for on X there? Jake? What
are you looking for? Clippers win tonight's twenty one to one thirteen. Congrats
to James Harden gets to twenty five thousand career points. He was holding the
ball in the locker room. His left hand is heavily wrapped in ice,
but you say he just jammed a finger. Indiana Pacers aren't taking this ball.
More Clippers stock next year on M five seventy LA Sports