What is going on? Welcome and said clips in dim season two episode seventy
Big seven to oh for the second season. Do you have no idea how
many episodes the season is, but we've done seventy in the second season so
far. Welcome to hopefully your favorite Clippers podcast. I am Chuck Flockler,
joined by Adam Oslin and William Updyke. We have the full trio here bringing
you today's episode. We're gonna talk Key's the game too, what the Mas
might do differently. We got a high five, which is gonna be very
fun. But before we get into all of that, we want to thank
everyone for listening and for watching. If you're subscribing to the YouTube, come
hang out. We're doing a live after the game tomorrow. We did one
after the game yesterday or two days ago. It was very fun. Will
was on a racetrack, Adam was in the stadium. Before we get into
it, fellas, how you're doing, Will, You were experiencing the Clippers
game in the bay. I'm sure they were going crazy for the Clippers win
over the MAVs. How you doing. I'm doing really good man? That
was It was a great game one. It kind of got a little got
a little close for comfort in the second half, But overall, I thought
the Clippers looked really really good, really really dominant. We'll see how they
counter like especially of eatsa zoobots, and we'll see how that's gonna gonna go
moving forward. But yeah, there wasn't a lot of excitement in the Old
Bay area for the Clippers. Most of the conversation really revolved around how Kawhi
Leonard never plays. I'm gonna my voice got a little shrill, saying he
played more than sixty five games this year, shouting at old man at the
race track. Yeah, that's fine, fine. Why don't they worry about
them playing in a seven game series and making it out of the play en
up there in Oaktown, up there in San Francisco instead of with the Golden
State Warriors. Why are they so concerned about Kawhi? Let us be concerned
about Kawahi because we are, Adam, how are you doing? You were
taking I'm assuming some happy callers over on Clippers Talk. Yeah, people were
in a good mood, celebratory mood post game, but it wasn't out of
control. They had things in perspective, knowing it was just Game one.
But it was a great victory by the Clippers in the manner they want.
I thought it was. It was wonderful all around. We mentioned Kawhi.
The injury update did come out from the Clippers today. On the report he's
questionable. Not a big shocker there. Tylu also mentioned that Kawi will go
through practice today, but the Clippers aren't doing any contact. It's more of
a walkthrough. Well, I don't know how you feel about this, but
I feel like it's a pretty low chance he's playing tomorrow night, would be
my guess. Yeah, I would say pretty low. I mean even in
the worst case scenario. Snagging Game one bought them an extra week of rest
for Kawhi, So we'll see how he progresses and how that goes. Look,
I mean, if he's still not doing any contact, I have failed
to see how he would be available for Game two, So yeah, I
would the MAVs this time can get their plan right and go ahead and probably
assume that he's not going to be there. They were soused, very very
tough for Jason Kidd God ridiculous, A lot to wrap your head around.
I'm not hearing that excuse from the Dallas Mavericks post game and Luka doncicch or
Kyrie Irving when I was in the presser and so was Chuck with Jason Kids
saying pregame how well prepared they were for the Clippers not having Kawhi Leonard.
They made it sound like this is no issue. They've almost had two weeks
to game plan for this, so using that is kind of an excuse.
The way Luca and the way Kyrie Irving were talking about a postgame, I
found that surprising, to say the least, especially from loser behavior. Let's
call it what it is. That's loser behavior, bad coaching. Bad coaching
is what it is. I've heard that from MAVs fans. MAVs fans,
the ones who still comment on our videos, they didn't comment as much after
the game won. We're voicing some some distrust of perhaps some decision making from
Jason Kidd, which I just thumbs up and liked every comment because I couldn't
agree more. Tyler's a much better coach. I don't know if what happened
in that first half was so much bad coaching by Jason Kidd, but just
a lot of mishots by the Dallas Mavericks and a lot of made shots by
the Clippers. To be fair, it's not sustainable that Dallas is ever going
to have another half in this series where they shoot twenty two percent from the
field, where they go two of eighteen from three. That's very unlikely to
happen again. But that's the game you have to win. And the Clippers
were playing great defense. They played a role in that. Dallas also played
a role. They just had an off night. Yeah, totally. We're
going to talk about some of the other shooting things from the Clippers side when
we talk about kind of what maybe concerns we have for Game two. But
right now, I believe we have yet another playoff edition, the first in
playoff edition of Adam Oslin's High five. What are you going to show us
today? Adam five highlights from game one. A couple of low lights in
there, but it's the high five, so we're calling them highlights here.
You guys got the screen up to me. Nothing in the high five?
Yeah, well, I obviously sometimes there's gonna be some bad plazer in here.
School of coaching, there's no low lights. It's all highlights. Everyone
win forever. Uh, let's start things off with the first possession of the
ballgame for the Clippers. Here in the high five, this is Paul George
missing a near side corner three. Somebody Chuck said was bad in the ballgame.
I disagreed with that. He had eleven other twenty two points in the
fourth quarter. But that's neither here nor there. Paul George missing this shot
to start things off. Look at Terrence Man and the way he's able to
get in between two guys there. They have three guys in the basket,
Doncic, Gafford and Kyrie Irving, and not one of them is available to
box out Terrence Man on this board. On this offensive rebound, he ended
up with four of them. That's when you hear Jason kids say postgame,
we lacked physicality, something coach Lutof's about all the time. They just looked
asleep out there. They looked like the team that eased their way into this
ball game what coach lou was concerned about. They looked like the team that
had trouble with Matt and Ay early starts. I just it was really wild
to see, and it led to their first bucket here from a mere coffee
as he looked to his right looked off to the defender as Washington looked towards
James Harden and then it was a mere coffee knocked down the first very but
tom esque play. I thought, Yeah, I was surprised that the Clippers
only want had like a ten percent rebound advantage. Uh, because watching this
game, it just certainly seemed like they were dominant on the glass. They
were the sharpest I feel like they've looked in a while. Yeah, that
is a good call. Terrence Man was great, and that was part of
the game plan from coach lou and he was masterful with everything, pushing all
the right buttons, taking the right timeouts, the right atos coming out of
timeouts yesterday. But I'm sure part of the game plan was, Okay,
Luca's gonna be on you, Terrence Man. You gotta crash, You gotta
do the little things and make him have to try to keep up with you,
and for the most part he could. Now, let's talk about Big
Zoo, my X factor. I think a ceiling razer for this team if
they go deep and make a long run. I beatsa Zubats can be someone
who really carries them at times. I don't know why he's not featured more.
I've been talking about this for years, but especially this season, they
just seem to forget about it. Beatsa zubots sometimes not in this game.
More game plan brilliance from coach lou He's got Gafford on him. We talked
about it leading into this game. Gafford smaller, Derek Lively smaller too.
How are they gonna match up against Aviata zubats and I think three of the
first four plates they went to big Zoo. He gets it on the block,
and I don't think people understand just how skilled he is. He backs
him down, but then he makes it look like he's going to the right
handed hook and comes back with the left. Here, that's not an easy
shot he's I guess in San Francisco they would call that amphibian amidexrous he is.
He can work it with both hands. There they said that amphibian picture
that one time he threw with both hands. They meant, there's a picture
so Abiza's hard pivot. Sorry, in Mississippi State, there's a picture has
an ambidextrious glove and he's throwing with both hands right now, super crazy.
Sorry, Well, Avitza's Zoo Boss could probably do some of that too,
because the post work he was doing in this game against guys he's just bullying
him and bodying him. Gafford could do nothing here. It was honestly as
impressive of a start a little bonus one here, backs them down again,
keeps the pivot foot with the left foot, just puts it up again.
By the way, with the left hand. This guy's far too skilled.
I've jokingly said for a long time he's the long lost Gasol brother, but
in this series he kind of needs to be because it seems like there's a
real mismatch the Clippers can continue to exploit. Hopefully. Here here's some playoff
basketball. This is something you just don't see in the regular season, and
it's a mere coffee setting a screen at half court on PJ. Washington because
they're picking up James Harden full court, which is something the Clippers were doing
on the other side. That's the Toom esque, by the way, trying
to wear out a guy's legs their point guard at each and every time up.
That has a cumulative effect, but it ends up getting the switch for
James Harden. On this play against Luka Doncic's They were going right at him
from the very beginning. He gets the little shoulder shove in there and knocks
down the three pointer, just boom hits them with the left shoulder. Wasn't
ready for that. He's moving a guy who's like, what to sixty?
I don't know how big is Luka Doncics out there? Three ten? I'd
put it. I tell I tell people he's three hundred and thirty pounds.
Yeah, on a good day. I just James Harden was in his bag
early. But they were as we had hoped, spamming going right at Luka
Doncis, trying to make him play defense, trying to make Kyrie Irving play
defense. Sometimes you just get away from it, you know, there isn't
that game plan discipline. But the Clippers were completely focused and dialed in this
game. Guys. It just felt like throughout the entire game they were executing
about as well as they could. What coach that was asking for. We
heard it in the pregame. It was we're ready, and that's what Tyler
kept reiterating, was we're ready. This team's ready to go. There's no
fuel out game here. We're not doing that. We can't do that,
and it was Yeah, it was great in the first half. No time
to go down zero to two to the Dallas Mavericks again. Here's some bad
defense though. As I say that, Coach Lou earlier today talked about them
having twenty six points given up on game plan mistakes, and this is something
I think one of the plays he was talking about here. I'm not sure
why Amir Coffee is sagging so far. I know he's trying to shade over
and help out with Terrence Man on Luka Doncic, but with the position he's
in, it's not going to be a three pointer. And Coach Lou was
talking about in the second half they dropped some of their game plan assignments because
they just didn't want to give up threes to let Dallas back into the ballgame.
Terrence Man shades over so much, and it's just something you can't do
anymore against Dallas when there's someone else like Kyrie Irving here. And look,
Ifviatza zubots is already over for help and Terrence Mann is in good position,
Emir's got to stay a little bit, a little bit more home on his
man in Kyrie Irving, who ends up syncing that three pointer and got going
in the third quarter where he had twenty points on eight of eight shooting,
and I think that was his first bucket. Yeah, that sec that quarter.
It was like I talked about we talked about the stream a little bit,
right, Well, like it's like Kyrie can do that. It's like
still it's an anomaly, but also something that can happen, if that makes
sense, Like the perfect quarter from Kyriek. Obviously it was incredible, but
is that an anomaly? I feel like a perfect quarter for twenty points is
pretty Yeah. Yeah, maybe, but it's like in that but like,
I mean, he's a he's a huge he's a big time shot maker.
He's a huge momentum player, like changing player. You know, he could
pull up from all over, all over the floor. So yeah, it's
one of those things. They as as good as they were and as tight
as they were, they weren't perfect. And as we said coming into this
one, you know, it depends on Kui Leonard's availability. But if they're
gonna win this one without him, they're gonna have to be damn near perfect.
Yeah, you could say he was due also after that first half and
they scored thirty points as a team. Unbelievable. Just last clip here in
the high five, another defensive error by the Clippers here after Paul George tries
to go to work. I hope I have the timing right on this twenty
four here, let's see he was very good, obviously, Paul George going
at him. But there was a double drag I'm looking for here where Luka
Doncich gets open. I don't think it's this play either, son of a
bitch. I thought I had my time stamps right, guys. I guess
I didn't hear my mistake, gameplan mistake by myself. Here there was a
double drag where they let Luka Doncic get off, and it made no sense
because Russell Westbrook was playing so far off of him that in the double drag
where you set two screens. And I think I found it right here,
Russ wasn't even guarding his guy Maxi Klee. But here it is right here.
So Tarni's man is on Luka Doncic, Russ is on that's my mistake.
Here, Russ is on Kyrie Irving, Zoo is on Maxi cle Irving
comes over to set the screen here on the double drag, he gets the
first one. Kleiba's waiting for the second guy to have to screen, and
Russell Westbrook's not even there. Terrence's man was calling out to russ I think
to switch, but it's already too late, and Luka Doncis just gets to
walk into a three pointer here, and then you see Coach Lou and Terrence
Man's talking afterwards. Obvious miscommunication, but you're gonna see this play a lot.
It's pretty common, and especially with Luka Doncics and the Clippers just have
to be better there. Coach Lou was showing his hands like this. I'm
wondering if he was saying, no switch, I want you to fight through
that. I don't know, but there was some sort of miscommunication for Luka
Doncis to just get to walk into a three pointer when they were specifically trying
to force them inside the three point line in the second half. But overall,
that's nitpicking a little bit or maybe foreshadowing to what the Clippers could see
in game two. Is my point of showing those last couple of clips when
they talk about how it can be even better, how they still have stuff
to clean up it's defensive miscuse like that. Yeah, I totally agree.
A note about the Zoo thing, the Clippers are thirteen and four when Zoo
plays more than thirty minutes so far the season, which is pretty crazy.
Yeah, I think the screen thing is something we definitely like, dying on
screens as something that's how we get you know, Luka on Zoom minutes and
he missed some of those shots that usually go in for Luca. But yeah,
I know, Will, what are you kind of looking for from game
two? Maybe more from the Clippers. It's kind of tough because it's like
more of the same physicality just for forty eight minutes. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, like, how do you really neutralize him? I mean I've
heard some people maybe talk about Kliba, who did not have a great game
one. Still like size wise, I think he's going to struggle with the
Viza Zoo bots. So I think keeping him involved, especially early, is
going to be big again for the Clippers, assuming that they still have that
size mismatch, because you know that that is physically probably their greatest advantage that
I can think of. You know, without a base of subts on the
floor, we didn't see any Tice in game one. We saw Mason plumbly
minutes. But there's just not there's just not a lot of size out there.
And we talk about all the time, like the necessity for getting some
easy buckets. And I thought the ball movement looked a lot better. There
was some stuff, especially late where the Clippers were kind of falling into some
old bad habits offensively, you know, sort of settling for stuff. Uh
just you know, getting getting really late into the shot clock before getting the
offense going. Almost had a really bad Paul George turnover where you i know,
all over himself. Oh my god. So just like I said,
like the execution here is you know, it's a great game one. It's
a huge win. Like I'm ecstatic, Like I'm I was ecstatic when it
happened, I'm ecstatic now. I this thing is just beginning. You know,
it's a it's a long road ahead and they're gonna have to stay locked
in. So I'm curious how that was counters. Like I said, like
personnel wise, I'm struggling to see like a whole lot of like rotational stuff
that's going to be able to like really turn the tide here. They played
what ten guys. Kid played ten guys, I think, and Tyler played
he shows some of the right Yeah, I played eight yeah, because he
said it's gonna be nine man win quiz back. So yeah, like Jason
Kidd was, this was his feel out game. But I am concerned the
Clippers won, which is a disadvantage in game one, we're being told,
so did the Clippers really win? And so win? I kind of understand
what it was a different coach, Like if TYLERU is not your head coach,
I think it's I think it's a little bit more difficult to to to
take away. Still some key lessons from from a win, especially a win
that I mean like for the most part was pretty dominant. They You know
that the Clippers looked I thought, a head and shoulders better than the Mavericks,
obviously only shooting thirty percent from three huge you know the huge fact as
well, but you know how how good they looked. I still think that
tylu It isn't done in proving this yet. I was listening actually to the
Low Post before we got on here, and Kevin Arnovitz brought up a really
interesting thing talking about when they ended up when they beat the MAVs in seven,
uh and and then went on to beat Utah in six. Tyleru ran
out a longer rotation and a lot of different sort of like machinations because there
was a lot of wing depth there and you know some you know, some
of it was redundant whatever, but there's just less options, you know.
I said that as sort of a drawback for the Mavericks, but I think
in some ways it can be a strength as well, because you don't have
to overthink things. Uh, you know, you have your guy, Yeah,
like you have your guys that they're gonna work, and you know,
you know, it's assuming that you can stick to a game plan, like
you know you're in this, you can stay in this. Yeah, And
they stuck to it well for the most part, pretty elleitely. And back
then, I feel so many guys played early on in both those series also
because they were down oh two. They were down oh two to start off,
Lucas cooking, Patrick Beverly their best defender, but he's undersize. Rondo
eventually pretty much got phased out of the playoffs, so they were really trying
to find some pieces that could work. I don't know, are they more
equipped against Luka Doncic in some ways, at least in the guard department,
with guys who can be thrown at him. When you look at Russell Westbrook,
when you look at Terrence Man, who I guess has looked as more
of a small forward by coach Lee or whatever. But he plays guard.
He guards guards like he can guard a lot of different guys for you.
And we said it. We thought it would be a mere coffee getting the
start, and we were right about that. It made sense because then you
have three guys that can all switch on Luca and Kyrie. Some people were
saying they should go with Powell and lean into offense, and I get what
they're saying there, because you're trying to score with Dallas. But to me,
you don't want those guys to start in rhythm. If you can throw
them off at the beginning of a game, that could put them in that
uphill battle. That's what happened in a very drastic way. Of course,
Again, Dallas is not shooting twenty two percent and a half. Again,
the Clippers may not have another game in this series where they shoot fifty percent
from the outside unless they pull Dallas mavericks from twenty twenty one, where they
started the first three game shooting fifty percent from three. I doubt it.
I don't think it's gonna be a full reversal. We did wonder what if
the Clippers go up to oh this time, Well I would I'm fine with
that as long as it doesn't turn it into Dallas winning this time in Game
seven. I don't want to see the exact opposite of what happened back in
twenty twenty one. But if I'm a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, I'd
be pretty concerned coming out of Game one, not just because of fluky shooting
that's not sustainable, but if you can't play the way you did, which
got you winning sixteen of eighteen games at the end of the season and got
your defense souped up, and if you can't have Gafford on the floor to
be the team they were, you got big problems. Like I don't see
how they can win this series if they don't play, if they can't replicate
some of what they were doing in the regular season, and that means a
lot of Daniel Gafford and a lot of Derek Lively, and we already saw
in Game one them trying out Maxi Kleiba, because those guys, for the
most part, especially Gafford, were very much ineffective out. Yeah, well,
I was gonna say, and and both of their guys, the leaders
of the offense. I mean, they still got their shots, they still
put up numbers. I mean they combined for over sixty Like is there what
could there? Could there? Will there be a game where they combined for
eighty Yeah, I mean yeah, I wouldn't bet against it, But like
the degree of variance, you know, I thought, I thought the Clippers
game plan, you know, wearing the essentially wearing those guys out, you
know, trying to let them run some circles around themselves. As long as
you're limiting some of those threes and the and the shots at the rim,
you know, it paid often. If they're able to continue to do that,
I mean, that's gonna wear down. That's gonna be tigresome. The
inexperience from the Dallas Mavericks showed in Game one. Outside of Luke and Kyrie
and the great second halves they had, the others they didn't get a great
performance. I thought PJ. Washington was actually really good defensively, especially against
Paul George at times, we're also pressent. It was like the only Maverick
who cared for the whole game to play defense like and he was on his
ass multiple times. James Harden put him on the ground using his off arm
and he went over. He gave him nothing on the other end. So
the one way that the Clippers have been constructed for years that has given teams
problems is they have more two way guys that can give you something on both
ends. And then you look around the rest of the NBA and whether are
holes, there are flaws. It's there's too many guys that are one dimensional
for teams, and the Clippers haven't had as many issues with that over the
last well in the two and three years. There was a great quote from
ty Lou about Coffee, kind of about being able to do offense and defense.
He just on starting Coffee said he'd like to be able to throw somebody
at Kyrie. So PG, with Kawhi being out, doesn't have to worry
about both of them, you know, chasing both Kyrie and Luca around.
He said postgame, you know he's one of our better defenders. He thought
you didake a job. Thought he turned down a couple of shots he normally
takes, which is fair. Ternsaid that a couple of times too. They
were still very effective in game one, but you know he said other than
that, he was pretty good. So coffee's probably going to start again.
I have all the every Clippers fan should feel confident about this. In place
of Kawhi. It sucks, obviously the Kauhi is not there, but the
Clippers are doing that thing where everyone's playing plus fifteen percent better. Everyone was
locked in at that level in game one, including a mirror, and it's
been phenomenal. All right, coming up, just like Game one against Phoenix,
Maybe coming up, we're gonna talk about what the maps canna maybe throw
at us with maybe some concerns. We got some ads that might be lowed.
If that's been your case on the audio, go ahead and turn it
down. But ads coming up, and then some concerns and our Kawhi Leonard
Honorable X Factor Player of the Game decision maker picks coming up right after this.
All right, welcome back into Clips and Dip. We're talking a little
bit more about Game two of MAVs Clippers Man another pivotal one. I guess
I'll kick it to you, Adam, Uh looking ahead, like, what
is there something that sticks out to you as maybe the most concerning for how
the MAVs could could could bounce back from that game one. Well, I
think it starts with just Luca and Kyrie getting off to quicker starts. If
both of those guys are going early. I want to say Kyrie started one
for five. Uh, Luca got an easy lay up early. He got
that tough jumper over Terrence Man and then patted him on the back afterwards because
it was so well defended. It was cool to see the nice little exchange
between those two. Terrence Man was smiling a little bit. They go back
aways with their history, going back to Vancouver in that preseason game where they
got into it. But if they just they have to get off to a
faster start. For the Dallas Mavericks, they are the straw that stirs the
drink, the catalysts for this team. They're superstars, and I think that's
maybe part of the reason why Dallas only had eight points in that second quarter
and we're breaking wide open threes. When you get down by the amount they
were down that quickly, and your superstars don't look like themselves. That has
a trickle down effect, I think, confidence wise, so the rest of
the role players, because they missed a lot of good looks in that second
quarter. An eight point quarter is not happening again by the Dallas Mavericks in
this series. It's just not. Clippers only had I think twenty two in
that second quarter, but still that's when the game really got away from them.
And it wasn't just us the Clippers playing great defense. Dallas was missing
everything and looked a little bit rattled and shook out there they did. The
crowd was on top of them. Clipper Nation showed up in a big way.
It was really loud in there. It was great to see. But
Luca and Kyrie, I expect both of them to start much faster in Game
one, especially well and likewise for the Clippers. I mean, if if
shots aren't falling down, if the offense is a lot harder, are they
going to be able to commit to the same level defensively that we saw in
Game one? Are they going to be able to stick to the game plan?
Because one of the issues I think we've all had with this team is
like sometimes when things get tight, they kind of crumble. They fall apart
a little bit in a way that yeah, it's just it's not it's not
very becoming. So it I mean looks and and the switches flipped and and
and it's you know, it looks like things are at a different level of
intensity. But like you know, it's it's easy to have a plan,
I guess until the ship hits the fan. So if they do have you
know, if they if they do have sort of a cold start to this
one of a Clipper start that we've you know, certainly become much more accustomed
to, are they going to be able to still defend at the same level
and execute at a high level. The shooting was crazy in Game one from
the Clippers. Lucas Hahn put out these tweets our boss. He said,
the Clippers made eighteen threes on fifty percent shooting in Game one. For this
season, they made with Paul George shooting thirty three percent. Yes, yeah,
over this during the season, they made just over twelve and a half
threes per game on thirty eight percent shooting. So, like he said,
they're a good three point shooting team. No one's ever sustained eighteen makes from
fifty percent on deep twelve to fifteen threes on thirty five to forty two percent
shooting is normal for the Clips. Eighteen on fifty percent is one of the
best shooting games all year. Obviously, I don't think anyone expects the Clippers
to shoot fifty percent and make eighteen threes again because part of that is just
rolling and feeling good. So this goes back to kind of the Zeus discuss
too, right, like if things are looking ugly from the outside, will
they commit again to help getting Zoo going right? Like that's as we've been
mentioning, that's the easy bucket. Easy bucket, you know when the threes
cheat code, cheat code, get it to big Zoo, Let him go
to work, believe in him. We said before the series, it's so
important for him to score. So they keep that confidence in him, to
keep him on the court, because before, as good as he was defensively,
if he's not giving you enough on the offensive end, you can think
of other options to throw out there. But if if he's a Zubots is
looking that dominant in the post, you have to keep him on the floor.
So I think it's imperative for him to continue to score. And will
you brought up Paul George a second ago, like I took a cheap shot
at at Chuck postgame what he was saying about George. Nothing new there.
I just I saw someone in the comments section going off about Paul George and
how why are you guys talking about George like he was so great and this
and that. It was all about James Harden and Russell Westbrook in Game one,
and I think to myself, well, Paul George was missing when everybody
else was making, and then he was making when everyone else was missing.
In that fourth quarter, they only scored twenty two points. On the fourth
he had half of those points. When they took that time out. He
came back with a seven to zero run. He was hitting tough shots,
like, to me, that's a gritty type of playoff line, but also
performance. I know the box scorer he was eight for twenty, but the
timely shots were there when they had to have them against really good defense.
So and also I thought defensively he was incredible for most of the game.
He had a couple he had a couple of stops on the back line where
he was so engaged he was calling out, communicating to guys I thought he
was their defensive anchor. Win Ofvitza Zoo Bots was being pulled out to the
perimeter. Paul George was holding it down like he was Kawhi Leonard out there,
because we know how good he's been on the back line defense all year.
What are the MAVs gonna do about gafferd I was listening to Lockdown MAVs.
Their suggestion was to start lively over Gafford. Gafford looked bad against it,
like there's no other way. He was not ready for the physicality.
They were suggesting, start lively over Gafford and cut the rotation, take Xum
out and give Green his minutes. They know more about the MAVs than we
do. I'm just relaying the information. But I wouldn't be surprised if Jason
Kidd doesn't give this a thought because it was rough. But the Clippers flip
the switch and the Mavericks are pushing the panic button. I was gonna say,
like, I feel like you know that that might be a little too
soon if you give up on Gafford in game two, and I could see
pulling him after the first stint of Vita Zoos. Does the exact same thing,
and the Clippers are to me though, the change like the change a
starting line up change. Part of this big turnaround by them in the second
half of the season and being one of the hottest teams in the league is
because greatly because of the acquisition of Daniel Gafford. I think to some degree,
you have to live and die with him, like he either performs well
for them because he's such an integral part of their team, or they're not
winning the series. I like, he just has to turn it around.
And it was fourteen minutes. Part of that was because he was getting bullied,
but he also rolled his ankle. He went out because of that.
I don't know. I wouldn't give up on a key piece like that that
early in the series, even if I think Derek Lively can be better,
because he's obviously bigger, he can play too. But I'm still I'm I
don't want to look like I'm in panic mode right off the bat and starting
to be abe else. Even Dante, I don't like the XEM call either.
The guy shot fifty percent from three this season. He came through with
clutch threes against them. Against the Lakers, he had that game winning three
against Houston when they were one, like, I don't think you can give
up on a guy that quick into the series because you might not be able
to get him back if you need the mental thing. And like the locker
room things very real too. They mentioned that on the show. They're like,
we have no idea what it would be like to just tell a guy
who's been starting the whole season, you're playing good defensively, you think,
hey, you're out, you're getting your ass kicks, so we have to
switch somebody else out, and I know Zoo look a little more so.
I was looking at their lineups. They only had two positive lineups that played
more than three minutes for plus minus. For the Maps, they played Kyrie
XEM, Luca, PJ and Kliba for six minutes they were plus seven.
And then they played Kyrie X and Luca, PJ and Green for six minutes
and that was also plus seven. So there's something. They went small before
the Clippers, which I love that Ty stuck to size because again Zo was
playing so well. He was like, I don't give a shit, go
small. Would you guys think a big play? I thought he was maybe
the best he's been, not maybe not He was so good he I was
he can maintain that in some focused stints. Is another one of those like
sort of momentum momentum things. Hundred. I was wrong. I thought he'd
go Daniel. But I think part of the reason they went big Plumb was
Gaffer picked up those two fouls in the first quarter, was out of the
game seven to one. Lively is in, and I think maybe they thought,
well, big Plum was a better matchup against Lively. Daniel Tice made
more sense to me against Gafford, but against Lively, maybe it's a big
Plumb. Yeah, I think that's what he was. Yeah, he played
normal basketball, which is what you want from plumbly, if that makes sense.
Sometimes he gets a little showtimy and you're just like, what what are
we doing here? On both sides? Hey, yeah, we'll take that
showtime can then I expect, well, this is like another concern. Do
we expect this sort of like free throw disparry to continue, because obviously two
superstars gonna get superstar calls. But you look at the Clippers game plan even
you know, like leaning trees, looming direct drives the baskets, sort of
funneling things into zoo. I don't know about it, man, I don't
know. I don't know about it. I thought the Clippers got a really
bad one, was getting destroyed by the Mavericks. Sometimes did he get in
the half? You can hear from the press box. I couldn't believe if
East the Zubos got a flagreant and a tech and Maxi Kleiba got nothing.
I thought he'd still get a technical he initiated it. What was that?
I thought, honestly, how many times we talked about the refs all year
for new mask fans? Uh? Maybe two or three times, less than
a handful of times we talked about, yeah, it's nice. You guys
got twenty more free throws and the Clippers took more two pointers. They were
in a tech mode more. I that was weird. Weird. It was
a weird whistle. I don't want to focus on it too much, but
you know, it is another one of those things like if that's going to
maintain, I expect them to get more free throw attempts. I'm not saying
that, and I'm not saying that's like a rig or a ref thing or
anything like that, but just that level of disparity money, I guess I
was kind of surprised at Yeah, I think it was the second largest disparity
next to the Lakers Nuggets series, of all the game ones. I believe
could be wrong on that. I'm going to choose to believe that you're right
because it felt insane. So some people were saying and speculating that, well,
Dallas has the media on their side, and maybe the refs have been
influenced or something. It's one game. I'm not gonna put that. Yeah,
I don't. I don't necessarily, Yeah, I don't. I don't
know. I buy that. I do like the point though, of like
the shooting is gonna cool off for the Clippers, so we need the free
throw disparity even that a little bit. Yeah, regress in some areas,
Paul George is more efficient, Norman Powell has a better game, and you
can make up for not having the hot shooting from the outside in Game two
and other guys. LA Clippers film was pointing out that in the second half
they played with Luca out of kind of like the high post a little bit
more and had people kind of revolving around him. Tyler did mention that their
defense kind of just like they just switched it up a little bit and kind
of like played the NBA version of prevent defense, I guess. So I
wonder how much of what we saw in the second half from Luca and the
high post is real versus how much of it is you know, because I'm
assuming they're gonna go back to it earlier because it was only a few things
that worked. So I'm keeping an eye on that. And Luca, he
criticized himself for not being aggressive enough out of the gates. I think he
was. He was taking in shots, he was a business. But there
was also a play in the third fing quarter where Big Zoo as good of
a game as he had on the offensive end, I think him walking can
help Luka Doncic for a possession. It was my favorite player of the ball
game. Did you guys see that Luca had to I forget if he had
to bail out of it, he had to pass out of it because he
couldn't shake of Viza Zubats. To me, I was like progress that never
happened in twenty twenty one. Vita Zubats footwork was phenomenal, even against Luca,
who I think when the matchup data said he went I think four to
seven still but that one play locked down in Alcatraz. Luka Doncic have not
given Zoo enough credit for his growth. Some Clippers fans too, But like
it's not the same Zoo. We mentioned this, but like we talked about
this, but like it's a different like it's a different Zoo. Oh,
I mean one hundred percent, and I mean this team when shots are falling
and this is across the board, looks like a different defensive team. And
I and that applies to as solid as you know, Vita Zubots has been
defensively throughout his tenure. When he's actually getting getting fan a little bit on
the other end of the floor, I feel like it ratchets up to that
next It ratchets up to that next level. Did you see the the the
Eric Boy drawing for Zoo, the last one that the newest one that came
out I did not. We're about to thanks to the power of technology.
This is a great one. The corn Dog Harden, I mean, one
of the incredible, one of the greatest drawings pieces of art I've ever seen.
Here's the Zoo one, which is which is phenomenal. That's what we
need. We need fat jolly happy zoo is what we need. Some more
of that, get him the damn ball. I'm gonna I'm gonna photo shot
that Keishawn Johnson book from Back of the Day lor if anybody want to shit
me up and fall out of May with it. I'm not that talented.
And then one we talked about Derek Jones Junior a little bit. He could
be someone who could maybe annoy Harden again. He's the one mav who looked
like he's actually interested in playoff defense for more than like five minutes at a
time. And then they put PJ. Washington on PG. I don't know
what the Clippers leg situation was. Late in the game, it looked like
they were I mean, the offense they were playing was like waist the clock,
barely get it over half cord a couple of times. So again,
the second half was so odd because of how the second quarter went that it's
like, what what are we really going to see defensively from the maps?
It's so different after playing ten guys physicality. Again, I thought Washington was
better than the Dereck Jones. He got thrown to the ground at the start
of the third by James Harden on that step back three point. It was
like, are the Maps going to turn things around and then first play the
second half? James Harden does that? I guess not. I was man.
They looked like the lights were too bright a little bit. I expect
them to shoot better. I expect them to defend better. I expect Game
two to be more much closer, of course, and the Clippers is going
to be really hard to win that game. They are going to make some
adjustments out there. They are going to hit more shots. I know MAVs
fans don't like him anymore, but is Tim Hardaway Junior gonna have to play
more just because he is a guy who can get really hot from the outside.
If his defense can keep on the floor, that's what seems to be
all their issues with him. Yeah, Paul George went after him as soon
as he came in, but he did knock down one three point shot.
I don't know, they look thinner. I could have been very wrong about
the Dallas and given them too much credit coming into this series for how well
they have been playing. Or it's just a bad matchup against Big Zoo for
their front line. If their front line can't do the things that got them
here in a series against the Clippers, they don't have a lot of paths
to victory. Then it's just Luca and Kyrie getting scorching hot, which can
happen. Yeah, but they might score eighty and still lose to the Clippers
if the role players and the ancillary care are good enough. I hope that
that would be. Nomble I said they were on pace for radio one point,
and that was before they had eight points in the second quarter the Clippers,
though James Harden was unbelievable twenty points in the first half. He hit
that step back I think at the end of the first quarter on Maxi Kleeba
from like thirty feet out. Some of the shots he was hitting were well
aware. He wasn't in a good three point groove from February through most of
March, but he started to turn things around right at the end of the
season, and it showed up for him. Six of eleven from the outside
like. He also hit two shots in the mid range, where he'd been
shooting thirty seven percent all season from five to nine feet. He got a
floater to go, He got a step back on Tim Hardaway Junior, who
fouled him and he got the and one, so some of that. I
don't expect him to be that good again. But he is still James Harden.
And people are pointing out, you know, the game one he had
against Philly and how his legs can get worn out in the course of the
seven game series, and that's valid. And we talked about, you know,
the biggest advantage, like the biggest difference for Harden was was gonna be
less heavy lifting for him to have to do, and it has turned out
that that is not the case. Welcome to a team with Paul George and
Kuile Inard. Right, Yeah, so, I mean historically doesn't necessarily bode
well, but who knows. We could we can get the we could get
the big guy back and and and maybe he won't have to be relied on
it as heavily if if the legs aren't there, because I like that special
k the big that's serial all week he returns. What about Russell Westbrook he
can duplicate. Okay, maybe not the two of four from the outside.
They did dare him to take those. He made them. There was a
big three made by him in the quarter. But the lob dunk that he
got from James harden the when he turned the corner I think it was in
the first or early second quarter and got that big throw down. You got
thirteen points. A lot of what he did it is repeatable, that's not
crazy. I thought his defense was good. It was my X factor pick,
which is a perfect segue into Will. We said that your Kawhi Leonard
PJ X factor or your COI Leonard X factor pick was going to be PJ
Tucker. He d n P. I thought that's where you're going to go
with. That's my bad. Well, that was actually my strategy. That
was mine. That was the X factor. It worked, Tyler. Great
call by me, Great call by Tyler. Great great minds think alike.
When I picked Bones, I actually thought, you, okay, Will,
who is your Kawhi Leonard X factor pick for Game two Clippers. I think
it's gonna be Norm Powell pouring it on. Uh. I gamed out a
little bit in game one. Yeah. Yeah, And I just they I
mean, they have personnel to slow him down, obviously. I think it
just depends on on on where he like, where where he sits in the
rotation, how they up doing that. But I do not expect him to
be this quiet game too, and I think that that could go a long
way. You know, like I said, if if we are in that
unfortunate scenario where nobody can seem to get shots going down, norm is generally
the guy who, when all else fails, like yeah, generally kind of
becomes automatic. So, uh, he's gonna be my X factor in this
one. You know, you wonder obviously defensively, like how long he can
stay on the floor, but uh, you know, if he's if he's
lighting it up, especially in like non Luca minutes, I think that that
could be huge. Adam, you're Kawhi Leonard X factor pick of the Game
two Clippers Babs Series, Part three, first Round NBA Playoffs twenty twenty four.
Okay, well, my Visa Zoobots X factor for the series remains,
but I won't go with him again in two. It's too easy. With
the way Big Zoo's eating out there, I don't want to be that predictable
with it. I will go with a mere coffee knock down two threes the
first shot of the game, but then another one that was kind of big
in the second half. They got guys, they hit so many timely threes.
It wasn't just they shot fifty percent from three, but every one would
stop a run by the Dallas Mavericks, plenty of them coming out of atos.
Yeah, momentum killing three pointers by the Clippers, that's what also made
them special. But I think a Mere Coffee his defense was awesome, but
I want to see him get a couple opportunities maybe in transition where the Clippers
offensively by the way, with their transition defense, I think Dallas ended up
with eighteen fast break points or something like that. Most of them came in
the second half. But even when I was looking over for the high five,
how fast the Clippers were actually running to get back totally different, Like
I saw Bason Plumbley flying down the floor. They got beat. Sometimes Kyrie's
too fast. They were doing some cherry picking, but at least the effort
was there. But a Mere Coffee's really good in transition. Would like to
see him, though, so get to he's got that little turnaround mid range
game. That's a bucket for a mer. He's been really good there since
he got back into the rotation. Uh college hockey actual till the end of
the little bucket there, I'm going and this is an easy pick. I'm
going Paul George. We need uh, We're probably gonna need a half like
Harden had from one of those two guys, and I think Paul George is
due. He got a lot of momentum from that fourth quarter from taking control
offensively and demanding the ball. He's still got a lot of shots up,
which I loved. So I'm going Paul George thirty plus points. Won't have
to defend Kyrie as much because the mer's out there. Thirty ball from PG.
That's probably the best pick because I don't see how they win Game two
if if he doesn't go for thirty plus. So we're obviously picking the Clippers
to go to Dallas up two games. They're gonna give us an extra one.
We'll spot you one, fellas spot. This was a great performance that
wraps up the game talk. We do have final give no Quarter results from
our official accountant, whose name I can't remember because I just xed out of
the tweet, But for those of y'all wondering, it was eighty two games,
three hundred and twenty eight total, eighty two something somewhere around there,
right around interesting. The extended the season three hundred and twenty eight total quarters
possible one OT game. We won one hundred and seventy one quarters. That's
great. We lost one hundred and thirty nine, so we each oh thirty
four to seventy five to whatever charity we decide on. I know. Please
watch the YouTube, Please subscribe. We need this, we need our day.
We're addicted to charity. Do people know about the give No Quarter model?
I know Libernie does. But Dallas Mavericks fans got a great call.
If you're new to this pod, might be fewer Dallas MAVs watching after some
of the things they said before Game one and how Game one transpired. But
give No Quarters the worst slogan in the history of the Clippers, and it
has now been used. It's pretty close. Span Can you remember another bad
one as bad as give No Quarter? I can't remember anything exactly. That's
why it's so bad. I don't really like the all hands either. Yeah,
we're also reusing that for like the third year in a row for the
playoffs. I mean, I think it'd like it better if it was on
deck. Yeah, all hands on deck. I think like makes a little
bit more sense. I get what you're going for with the all hands,
but tighten it up. I don't know. But give no quarter is the
slogan that every Clippers fan dislikes because it is childish, and they ran it
back. They ran it back. And as you can see, it's very
easy to tell how many quarters you give. The Clippers gave thirty four dollars
and seventy five cents worth of actual quarters this year. The team should you
this is an opportunity to donate to somewhere. I think they should be like,
oh, we gave this many quarters this year. They still do trees
for trees, Yeah, they do. If it's someone's birthday. Threes for
trees. Yeah, for trees. Do they send bags a weed to other
countries? Yea, to help with the trade. That's what you have.
No quarter is And then what they had forty more quarter wins than losses this
year right around something like that. Yeah, the numbers you do. It's
on the breakdown will. As I said, I don't have a will.
Where can these fantastic people listen and maybe watch us talk about these old clips.
Yeah. So if you're new to the show, Uh, the best
way to check us out is over on YouTube. That's YouTube dot Com slash
at Clippers podcast. Uh. You can also you can also listen to us
wherever you get your podcasts. UH. If you're listening over on Spotify or
Apple podcast, leave just a little rating review. It helps out. But
thank you so much for tuning in looking forward to game two. A lot
of series left. Yeah, I appreciate everybody who's tuning in, though,
And Adam, one quick positive thing before we send these Clippers fans on their
way. I think you said it best earlier. While they're gonna regress with
the three point shooting, most likely they can still get their free throw temps
up. They can have Norm Pale get going and your player to watch,
and Paul George can be much more efficient out there. So I think there's
ways that you can make an argument that the Clippers can still easily win Game
two and not just settle for the split at home without Kawhi Leonard if they
don't have them tomorrow night, there we go. We're excited to be that.
We're all going to be in the building. If you're there, come
say what's up. We're also doing a live stream after from the press box,
where we hopefully have as good a vibes as we did on Sunday,
so there you have it. Thanks for hanging out, and as always,
let's go Clips