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Clippers goes six and one on the
Grammy Road Trip. Welcome back to the

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Clippers Talk. I'm at a Maslin. We'll get back to your phone calls

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next segment eight six, six nine, eight seven two five seventy. You

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can also reach me at follow out
of May on X We're gonna hear from

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the head coach post game after he
put a number on it. He said

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six and one was the goal and
the Clippers achieved it. While we have

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a moment, let's pause ten seconds
for station identification. Here on M five

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seventy LA Sports, This is LA
Clippers Basketball. AM five seventy KLAC Los

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Angeles, ninety eight seven KYSR HD
two Los Angeles, and iHeartRadio station.

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Let's get to our friend Big Chuck
Mockler from Clips and Dip for a little

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double dip here on Clippers Talk.
And I guess I have to start out

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with the Miakopa Chuck. I was
wrong. I thought the Clippers would go

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four and three. I thought they
were too banged up, the competition was

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too good. Oh, I feel
so stupid right now. Look at me.

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I'm a wreck. Hey, I
said five and two, So I

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was wrong as well. You idiot, that's wrong with you. You've seen

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this team. They don't lose games. I mean, this is what if

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at this point, I guess you
weren't fully convinced the Clippers are taking this

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thing seriously this season. This road
trip is what people can point to.

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It's the end all be all of
a team that's trying to put itself in

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position with the mentality for you know, championship expectations, right like, these

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are the games that you should win
if you really want to be, you

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know, considered a contender. And
the Clippers have been so good over the

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last forty games, capping off the
final Grammy trip by going six and one,

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it was just it's just amazing.
Did you have any concerns when they

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went to the four Hall of Famers
with a mere coffee late in the ballgame,

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because obviously there were many times this
season and we'll see how it plays

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out moving forward, but the Big
four just has been able to make things

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work. They were good enough down
the stretch, they were very good at

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times. They go on to win
by five, But that closing lineup,

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what were your thoughts? Yeah,
I mean, if there's any there's any

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team that's gonna make one of your
lesser you know, one of your maybe

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not plus lineups look good. It's
going to be this Atlanta Hawks team and

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there's absolutely no defense played on that
side of the ball, which the Clippers

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didn't do a whole lot of time
either. But no, I thought Russ

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was really good. Kind of is
the center of that small ball lineup.

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He's kind of a pain for defenses
when he's in the role when he's the

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screen. If you know, his
big ist lagging off him, that gives

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a room to cut and things like
that. So it was all clipping pretty

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well. But I think it was
probably seventy thirty the Clippers being locked in

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on the small ball lineup and then
the thirty percent being the competition. They

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were playing defensive level, and I
don't know what you can do against some

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of the hot shooting that was out
there tonight. It's just indefensible. I

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mean, Clippers hit twenty one threes, the Hawks hit twenty A lot of

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them. I mean, guys knocked
them down with a hand in their face.

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They were just hot. They were
kind of doue. The Clippers three

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point shooting had been somewhat down over
the last week and a half overall,

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and then they go sixty percent from
the outside. But it just shows off

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the firepower this team has. Yeah, it really does, especially Kawhi Kawhi,

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you know. I mean, he
took eight threes in this game.

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He was fantastic in this game.
He finished with thirty six. He hit

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five of those threes, which is
just insane too. Him and James Harden.

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People keep fouling James Harden on these
three pointers. I'm not sure why

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they're doing it. He built a
career off of it, though, Chuck.

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They keep falling for it. Yeah, but no, this the ball

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movement was great tonight. You saw
a mirror make the extra pass a couple

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of times. You saw Paul George
make the extra pass. I thought Mason

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Plumbley made some really good decisions in
the short roll to get things moving for

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the Clippers on the perimeter. And
there was one moment tonight where Harden brought

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it up. He swung it too
Paul George, and Paul George kind of

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hit the little skip past the Kawhi
in the corner who was wide open.

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Again for some reason, We'll take
it, but and he cashed it.

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So everyone's playing on the same string
right now and it's really showing. Plumbly

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had a couple of makes off Kawhi
Leonard passes where they were very much in

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sync and just beautiful bounce passes from
the claw. He ended up with five

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assists of just one turnover, and
that was one of the bright spots in

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this game, aside from the hot
shooting. After turn the ball over depending

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on the box score, fifteen or
sixteen times yesterday in Miami, they turned

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it over just eight times tonight.
They took great care of the basketball,

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and without that they don't win the
game because it's not like they were slowing

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down the Atlanta Hawks. So the
possession game was huge. Yeah, the

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defense in this one, you know, I know they were missing Zoo,

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but they still you know, they
took six less shots, So I thought,

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actually, doesn't make a difference in
a game like this against the team

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that run like the Hawk. But
you know it was. I tweeted this

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out on our show account. But
this game could have also kind of been

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considered a house money game, right, No, Zoo, It's the second

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nut of a back to back on
the seventh game of a road trip.

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The Clippers would have lost this game. We all would have gone, okay,

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a little frustrated by the defense.
Well you also get it. Thankfully,

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we get to kind of wonder,
you know. I am interested to

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see what it looks like more so
on Wednesday. I guess a lot better

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team, maybe with the full squad. No real word on Zoo's availability yet,

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but playing in Atlanta is weird.
Playing the Hawks isn't the nominly I

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think, and maybe shouldn't count towards
team's overall stats if you're a Western Conference

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team, because it's just pick up
the ball and run up and down the

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court in this in these games.
So I'm more interested to see what it

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looks like back at home against you
know, a team like the Pels that'll

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be Wednesday night. You mentioned them
playing with some house money, and if

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they had lost this game, they
still would have gone five and two on

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the road trip. But I think
it speaks to the mentality of this team

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right now and just how focused they
are in Listen into this audio, Chuck.

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This was coach Lou speaking with Carlo
Jimenez before the Lakers game, so

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their last home game before they went
out on the road trip, and he

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put a number on what he wanted
to see out of the Clippers in the

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seven games. I want to be
able to go six and one, but

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the worst case go five and two, you know, so that's gotta be

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on. Yeah, he wanted them
to go six and one, like they

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look like they were in tune and
not a team that had a foot out

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the door or senioritis and we're just
ready to go home. They still looked

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hungry out there tonight. Yeah,
and this and every single guy does right.

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You know, Paul George had kind
of had he only had eighteen tonight.

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But Paul George was really really good
on both fence for the Clippers tonight.

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He stuffed the boxer. We had
eighteen three five two steals, Maybe

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a few too many fouls, but
he was great, kind of silently.

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Russell Rust came off the bench and
was really good after kind of a shaky

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start. Him and Norm defensively were
kind of wonky to start this one,

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but they figured it out. Like
it's trickled down that's actually working right,

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like everyone's really feeling it. A
mere coffee played fantastic defense in this game,

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and playing great defense on this whole
road trip. So you're just getting

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these elevated performances from guys because they're
kind of feeding off each other and they've

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seen each other put in the work, right, they're practicing more than ever.

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They they're actually, you know,
like you said, kind of locked

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in throughout the whole time. I
don't know how many times we're going to

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say they would have lost this game
last year, but we might be out

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of that now. But this wasn't
quite one of those games. But it's

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one of those performances where you feel
better about it than if it would have

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happened last year, even with the
same result. You know, Jason Fields,

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like we got out of there with
a win. You know, we

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took the win. You know,
James Harden Friday night only scored four points,

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and then in the next two games
he has three four point plays and

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it was probably the biggest shot of
the game tonight on Trey Young. You're

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right, it's crazy that it keeps
happening. I think he's at twenty four

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of those on the season, and
the next closest guy is Steph Curry with

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sixteen to four point plays. But
it's because the dribble drive is still there

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too, Like he has so many
ways to beat you tenn assists, two

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turnovers, and this team has disorganized
as they looked offensively in the first five

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games with him. Now it's just
like, oh, yeah, they're getting

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at least one twenty tonight, Like
it is to assumed that they're gonna score

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one hundred and twenty points, and
if the defense shows up to their capabilities,

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I don't know how many teams can
hang with them. And I just

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mean hang because you see what happened
in Boston with them blowing them out,

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Like this Clippers team is as dominant
of a team as we have seen maybe

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in the NBA in some time.
Yeah, you bring up Hard Harden.

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Another great thing that's gotten good with
him is the catch and cheet three.

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Those were kind of an adventure any
first guy here, and now he's able

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to get a consistently higher number of
threes up, which is great. He

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took nine tonight, which is fantastic. But Kawhi Leonard is also playing his

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best basketball of his career. Maybe
the team is a half game out of

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first right now, and he just
continues to do it on both eds.

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For the Clippers, the MVP odds
are going to get worse and worse,

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So I hope everyone is paying attention
now because what he's doing is very special

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and will be remembered. It's funny
because I looked earlier today to see if

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they had already changed on Bovada.
They did change on Basketball Reference with their

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NBA tracker. He now has a
one percent chance of winning the MVP,

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when he wasn't even top ten before
that. But I know you looked up

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on NBA dot Com like a week
or so ago on their NBA ladder,

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and he wasn't in the top ten
earlier today he was eighth, but he

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was a plus ten thousand on a
betting side earlier today. You're right,

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it's going to change, Zach low
to earlier today. I don't know if

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he saw my tweet because I'm tweeting
at all these guys now, the guys

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that I love the most, the
guys that would appreciate what Kawhi Leonard is

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doing the most. I'm adding them
after every game, putting up the latest

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Kawhi Leonard stats. They just keep
getting better and better. A month ago,

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we were talking about an all time
run. Now he's at twenty nine

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games. If you go back to
the last eighty two games, as our

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friend Justin Rousseau did on Fly by
Night, He's at something like fifty three

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forty six ninety splits his last eighty
two games going back to January first of

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last season till now, he's played
about now eighty three games, and his

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shooting splits are incredible. We're seeing
something that we may never see again,

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this level of efficiency from a player
that is doing it with jump shots.

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We're not talking about Shaquille O'Neal taking
shots within four feet of the rim.

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We're talking about Kawhi Leonard taking most
of his shots in the mid range and

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shooting fifty eight percent from the field
over the last twenty nine games now,

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and not only doing that, as
you mentioned, being incredibly efficient on the

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offensive side wall, he's getting more
double teams, which is something he's learning

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to play through more. There's still
some growing paints there, but the Clippers

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are going to figure that out.
And the other side of the balls,

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he's playing elite defense. He's playing
great defense when it matters. He's I

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mean, you know, you looked
at the onoflimmers form the Clippers and it's

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a little drastic something we should maybe
keep in mind as we move forward and

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you know, getting Zoos settled in
here, but no, he's he's phenomenal

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on both ends. We have to
hope this, you know, continues,

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because the Clippers are going to go
as far as Kawhi and PG takes them.

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Right now, that feels really,
really, really far. We got

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to hope this continues and uh yeah
again, excited to see what they look

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like on Wednesday against the Palse.
He is Chuck Mockler of Clips and Dip.

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We got a YouTube coming for you
guys tomorrow with Will Updyke as well.

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Charles. Thanks for doing this tonight
here on Clippers Stop once again,

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Hey, thanks for having me.
Let's go clips coming up next. Back

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to your phone calls at eight six
six nine eight seven two five seventy and

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we'll hear from coach Luda close things
out. Plus Katie's casual corner right here

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on Clipperstock on a Have five seventy
LA Sports