Clippers goes six and one on the Grammy Road Trip. Welcome back to the
Clippers Talk. I'm at a Maslin. We'll get back to your phone calls
next segment eight six, six nine, eight seven two five seventy. You
can also reach me at follow out of May on X We're gonna hear from
the head coach post game after he put a number on it. He said
six and one was the goal and the Clippers achieved it. While we have
a moment, let's pause ten seconds for station identification. Here on M five
seventy LA Sports, This is LA Clippers Basketball. AM five seventy KLAC Los
Angeles, ninety eight seven KYSR HD two Los Angeles, and iHeartRadio station.
Let's get to our friend Big Chuck Mockler from Clips and Dip for a little
double dip here on Clippers Talk. And I guess I have to start out
with the Miakopa Chuck. I was wrong. I thought the Clippers would go
four and three. I thought they were too banged up, the competition was
too good. Oh, I feel so stupid right now. Look at me.
I'm a wreck. Hey, I said five and two, So I
was wrong as well. You idiot, that's wrong with you. You've seen
this team. They don't lose games. I mean, this is what if
at this point, I guess you weren't fully convinced the Clippers are taking this
thing seriously this season. This road trip is what people can point to.
It's the end all be all of a team that's trying to put itself in
position with the mentality for you know, championship expectations, right like, these
are the games that you should win if you really want to be, you
know, considered a contender. And the Clippers have been so good over the
last forty games, capping off the final Grammy trip by going six and one,
it was just it's just amazing. Did you have any concerns when they
went to the four Hall of Famers with a mere coffee late in the ballgame,
because obviously there were many times this season and we'll see how it plays
out moving forward, but the Big four just has been able to make things
work. They were good enough down the stretch, they were very good at
times. They go on to win by five, But that closing lineup,
what were your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, if there's any there's any
team that's gonna make one of your lesser you know, one of your maybe
not plus lineups look good. It's going to be this Atlanta Hawks team and
there's absolutely no defense played on that side of the ball, which the Clippers
didn't do a whole lot of time either. But no, I thought Russ
was really good. Kind of is the center of that small ball lineup.
He's kind of a pain for defenses when he's in the role when he's the
screen. If you know, his big ist lagging off him, that gives
a room to cut and things like that. So it was all clipping pretty
well. But I think it was probably seventy thirty the Clippers being locked in
on the small ball lineup and then the thirty percent being the competition. They
were playing defensive level, and I don't know what you can do against some
of the hot shooting that was out there tonight. It's just indefensible. I
mean, Clippers hit twenty one threes, the Hawks hit twenty A lot of
them. I mean, guys knocked them down with a hand in their face.
They were just hot. They were kind of doue. The Clippers three
point shooting had been somewhat down over the last week and a half overall,
and then they go sixty percent from the outside. But it just shows off
the firepower this team has. Yeah, it really does, especially Kawhi Kawhi,
you know. I mean, he took eight threes in this game.
He was fantastic in this game. He finished with thirty six. He hit
five of those threes, which is just insane too. Him and James Harden.
People keep fouling James Harden on these three pointers. I'm not sure why
they're doing it. He built a career off of it, though, Chuck.
They keep falling for it. Yeah, but no, this the ball
movement was great tonight. You saw a mirror make the extra pass a couple
of times. You saw Paul George make the extra pass. I thought Mason
Plumbley made some really good decisions in the short roll to get things moving for
the Clippers on the perimeter. And there was one moment tonight where Harden brought
it up. He swung it too Paul George, and Paul George kind of
hit the little skip past the Kawhi in the corner who was wide open.
Again for some reason, We'll take it, but and he cashed it.
So everyone's playing on the same string right now and it's really showing. Plumbly
had a couple of makes off Kawhi Leonard passes where they were very much in
sync and just beautiful bounce passes from the claw. He ended up with five
assists of just one turnover, and that was one of the bright spots in
this game, aside from the hot shooting. After turn the ball over depending
on the box score, fifteen or sixteen times yesterday in Miami, they turned
it over just eight times tonight. They took great care of the basketball,
and without that they don't win the game because it's not like they were slowing
down the Atlanta Hawks. So the possession game was huge. Yeah, the
defense in this one, you know, I know they were missing Zoo,
but they still you know, they took six less shots, So I thought,
actually, doesn't make a difference in a game like this against the team
that run like the Hawk. But you know it was. I tweeted this
out on our show account. But this game could have also kind of been
considered a house money game, right, No, Zoo, It's the second
nut of a back to back on the seventh game of a road trip.
The Clippers would have lost this game. We all would have gone, okay,
a little frustrated by the defense. Well you also get it. Thankfully,
we get to kind of wonder, you know. I am interested to
see what it looks like more so on Wednesday. I guess a lot better
team, maybe with the full squad. No real word on Zoo's availability yet,
but playing in Atlanta is weird. Playing the Hawks isn't the nominly I
think, and maybe shouldn't count towards team's overall stats if you're a Western Conference
team, because it's just pick up the ball and run up and down the
court in this in these games. So I'm more interested to see what it
looks like back at home against you know, a team like the Pels that'll
be Wednesday night. You mentioned them playing with some house money, and if
they had lost this game, they still would have gone five and two on
the road trip. But I think it speaks to the mentality of this team
right now and just how focused they are in Listen into this audio, Chuck.
This was coach Lou speaking with Carlo Jimenez before the Lakers game, so
their last home game before they went out on the road trip, and he
put a number on what he wanted to see out of the Clippers in the
seven games. I want to be able to go six and one, but
the worst case go five and two, you know, so that's gotta be
on. Yeah, he wanted them to go six and one, like they
look like they were in tune and not a team that had a foot out
the door or senioritis and we're just ready to go home. They still looked
hungry out there tonight. Yeah, and this and every single guy does right.
You know, Paul George had kind of had he only had eighteen tonight.
But Paul George was really really good on both fence for the Clippers tonight.
He stuffed the boxer. We had eighteen three five two steals, Maybe
a few too many fouls, but he was great, kind of silently.
Russell Rust came off the bench and was really good after kind of a shaky
start. Him and Norm defensively were kind of wonky to start this one,
but they figured it out. Like it's trickled down that's actually working right,
like everyone's really feeling it. A mere coffee played fantastic defense in this game,
and playing great defense on this whole road trip. So you're just getting
these elevated performances from guys because they're kind of feeding off each other and they've
seen each other put in the work, right, they're practicing more than ever.
They they're actually, you know, like you said, kind of locked
in throughout the whole time. I don't know how many times we're going to
say they would have lost this game last year, but we might be out
of that now. But this wasn't quite one of those games. But it's
one of those performances where you feel better about it than if it would have
happened last year, even with the same result. You know, Jason Fields,
like we got out of there with a win. You know, we
took the win. You know, James Harden Friday night only scored four points,
and then in the next two games he has three four point plays and
it was probably the biggest shot of the game tonight on Trey Young. You're
right, it's crazy that it keeps happening. I think he's at twenty four
of those on the season, and the next closest guy is Steph Curry with
sixteen to four point plays. But it's because the dribble drive is still there
too, Like he has so many ways to beat you tenn assists, two
turnovers, and this team has disorganized as they looked offensively in the first five
games with him. Now it's just like, oh, yeah, they're getting
at least one twenty tonight, Like it is to assumed that they're gonna score
one hundred and twenty points, and if the defense shows up to their capabilities,
I don't know how many teams can hang with them. And I just
mean hang because you see what happened in Boston with them blowing them out,
Like this Clippers team is as dominant of a team as we have seen maybe
in the NBA in some time. Yeah, you bring up Hard Harden.
Another great thing that's gotten good with him is the catch and cheet three.
Those were kind of an adventure any first guy here, and now he's able
to get a consistently higher number of threes up, which is great. He
took nine tonight, which is fantastic. But Kawhi Leonard is also playing his
best basketball of his career. Maybe the team is a half game out of
first right now, and he just continues to do it on both eds.
For the Clippers, the MVP odds are going to get worse and worse,
So I hope everyone is paying attention now because what he's doing is very special
and will be remembered. It's funny because I looked earlier today to see if
they had already changed on Bovada. They did change on Basketball Reference with their
NBA tracker. He now has a one percent chance of winning the MVP,
when he wasn't even top ten before that. But I know you looked up
on NBA dot Com like a week or so ago on their NBA ladder,
and he wasn't in the top ten earlier today he was eighth, but he
was a plus ten thousand on a betting side earlier today. You're right,
it's going to change, Zach low to earlier today. I don't know if
he saw my tweet because I'm tweeting at all these guys now, the guys
that I love the most, the guys that would appreciate what Kawhi Leonard is
doing the most. I'm adding them after every game, putting up the latest
Kawhi Leonard stats. They just keep getting better and better. A month ago,
we were talking about an all time run. Now he's at twenty nine
games. If you go back to the last eighty two games, as our
friend Justin Rousseau did on Fly by Night, He's at something like fifty three
forty six ninety splits his last eighty two games going back to January first of
last season till now, he's played about now eighty three games, and his
shooting splits are incredible. We're seeing something that we may never see again,
this level of efficiency from a player that is doing it with jump shots.
We're not talking about Shaquille O'Neal taking shots within four feet of the rim.
We're talking about Kawhi Leonard taking most of his shots in the mid range and
shooting fifty eight percent from the field over the last twenty nine games now,
and not only doing that, as you mentioned, being incredibly efficient on the
offensive side wall, he's getting more double teams, which is something he's learning
to play through more. There's still some growing paints there, but the Clippers
are going to figure that out. And the other side of the balls,
he's playing elite defense. He's playing great defense when it matters. He's I
mean, you know, you looked at the onoflimmers form the Clippers and it's
a little drastic something we should maybe keep in mind as we move forward and
you know, getting Zoos settled in here, but no, he's he's phenomenal
on both ends. We have to hope this, you know, continues,
because the Clippers are going to go as far as Kawhi and PG takes them.
Right now, that feels really, really, really far. We got
to hope this continues and uh yeah again, excited to see what they look
like on Wednesday against the Palse. He is Chuck Mockler of Clips and Dip.
We got a YouTube coming for you guys tomorrow with Will Updyke as well.
Charles. Thanks for doing this tonight here on Clippers Stop once again,
Hey, thanks for having me. Let's go clips coming up next. Back
to your phone calls at eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy and
we'll hear from coach Luda close things out. Plus Katie's casual corner right here
on Clipperstock on a Have five seventy LA Sports