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Clippers win one thirteen to one oh
four over the Hornets. Here at Crypto

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dot com, Marena, i'm ata
Moslind, Welcome back into Clippers Talk.

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We got a little clips in double
dip for you. Chuck Mockler is joining

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the show from CND at. Chuck
Mockler on Twitter is where you find him.

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I'm not sure where he could be
during the holidays, if he's in

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Montana or if he's within a half
hour of me, and he could have

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been here at the game tonight.
Maybe he was here at the game tonight

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and just didn't want to say hi. I mean, Justin Russo's ghosting me.

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Chuck comes to games. We don't
even take pictures anymore. What the

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hell's going on? Our pets heads
are falling off. Chuck, Thanks for

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joining me here tonight on clipperstock Hey, thanks for having me. Can we

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be a little excited at least as
a Clippers snap the two games nap as

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Lot Murray called it on Twitter,
which I thought was a good reference for

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a two good losing streak. That
was appropriate. Look, I'm I'm I'm

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excited about that. I'm a little
unhinged when it comes to you right now,

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but I guess we'll move fast.
It so the Clippers come through late

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after things got dicey. It was
a stretch where the Charlotte Hornets were on

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an eleven to two run to start
things off in the fourth quarter. Would

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this have been the worst loss of
the season? Chuck Uh? Yeah,

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I think this probably would have been
considered the worst loss of the season if

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they would have dropped this one.
I mean, no LaMelo ball. You

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know, I know we were missing
Khi Leonard. But it's a seven win

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Charlotte team. Not every game is
gonna be pretty. It's, you know,

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the day after Christmas, So I
guess some of this is excusable,

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But no, this would have been
a horrific loss. But thankfully the top

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end talent for the Clippers kind of
tipped the Hornets over. Yeah, they

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had a foot in the chimney still, but you're right they came through late.

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What does it tell you about this
team though, the way they were

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able to take over late. Would
they had to We've seen this before.

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We've talked about a flip the switch
mentality and how it could come back to

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bite them sometimes. But tonight it
worked and they obviously were able to flex

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their muscles late. Yeah, there
was some great stuff late from a lot

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of Clippers. Actually, if you
look at Zeus minutes in the fourth quarter,

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played six minutes, he was plus
seventeen, which is pretty incredible.

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So you like to see ty Loopull
and the rest rings there with who's going

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to be out there and who's not. I you know, Russ played the

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whole fourth quarter. There was some
inspiring play from Russ Russ late in this

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one, so you like to see
him dig deep in kind of sloppy games

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like this. Right, we were
all wondering how they were going to respond

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after what happened in that last loss. So there was some adversity here,

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you know, just give them the
schedule and whatnot. But it's nice to

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see the win. And yeah,
it's just good to see him win ugly.

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I guess if that makes sense.
We need the wins and they found

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it anyway they could. Yeah,
reveals character. I thought Russ was especially

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good in this game, and one
of the guys that was as you would

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expect, going one hundred miles per
hour the entire time. When I thought

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there were moments where this Clippers team
just let their foot off the gas or

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just didn't look like they were fully
focused. But Russ was fantastic and down

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the stretch a big board late when
they were having trouble getting one, a

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block, a three pointer, gotta
beat the zoo bots involved. This was

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one of his best games to me
as a Clipper, because I don't know

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if they went it without them.
Yeah, this was you know, James

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Harden was fantastic in this one.
That was kind of another you know,

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this is why you trained for James
Harden thing, but this is also why

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you know, you manage Russ's minutes
well and things like that, and and

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you know trust him when he is
playing well and making good decisions and whatnot.

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So it was awesome to see from
Russ. I think you're right.

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The energy really trickled down from him
tonight without Kawhi Leonard and in a game

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where Paul George you know, was
pretty rough for most of it on both

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ends of the ball. So it
was great to see Harden step up and

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it was awesome to see Russ,
like you said, I have one of

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the better games in the season.
Yeah, full disclosure, it is humility

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season. And I did pick Terrence
Man as my player to watch and he

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struggled with his shot once again.
I thought he had some really good defensive

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possessions with rear view contests on Terry
Rozier and guarding him Man Miles Bridges.

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But we're all of the assumption that
it's just between the ears. There's nothing

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physically wrong with Terrence Man. He's
just hesitant to take shots. And I

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think the first shot he took he
hesitated on and then missed a short,

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little turnaround eight footer in the first
quarter. But that's what it is right

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now. I mean, I'm not
overly concerned because physically he's okay, but

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it is a deep shooting funk that
Terrence Man is in, right Chuck.

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I mean, we're thirty games in, you know, we haven't had that

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many games of you know, Terrence
starting with the with the guys yet,

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so we're gonna, you know,
I guess take that kind of with a

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grain of salt too, considering a
mere coffees out there kind of in and

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out giving Paul George and cowhis availability. But it's it's tough right now.

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We talk about on the podcast how
you can kind of see Terrence Man thinking

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about every division kind of every outcome
that could happen when he has the ball

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in his hand and that usually lower
on that outcome option for him is shoot,

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which is what they need right now. You know, him and a

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mirror combined for only seven field goal
attempts, which you can't do on a

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night when Kawi is out. Yes, James Harden was hot, but there's

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got to be some threat, you
know, from some other guys. So

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hopefully in between now and Friday,
they can you know, kind of get

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them, you know a little more
right each and every game as we go

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forward. I don't think it's going
to be, you know, a hard

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line when we see it really get
better. I think we should just look

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for progress at this point. But
we know we can get there. So

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we just got to continue to have
faith and you know, things will look

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better when Kawhi is back. Yeah, it feels right now like intead of

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shooting, he's throwing it. Just
it doesn't look the same. He's not

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in rhythm. The confidence isn't there. Coach Bleu said pregame he talked to

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Terrence earlier today and he wanted to
stress the importance of his defense and everything

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else he does to help this team
and how the shooting and the scoring is

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great, but that's not necessarily what
they need from Terrence Man. And it

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sounded like he was trying to encourage
Terrence Man to not let the shooting affect

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the other parts of his game,
because it seemed like the last couple against

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OKC and the Boston Celtics. I
think at times it did affect his defense.

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Maybe a little bit out there that
obviously can't happen. I had a

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call earlier from Lenny and Inglewood is
a longtime caller here on Clippers Talks.

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All shout him ount. He's one
of my favorites. Good voice, good

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phone. He went after Paul George
a little bit. I pushed back because

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he took twenty five shots, and
I'm good with that. It wasn't his

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most efficient game out there, but
without Kawhi, instead of taking seventeen like

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last game, he got up twenty
five in this one was much more aggressive.

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But do you think there's anything wrong
with PG thirteen right now other than

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maybe him playing a stretch of a
month straight where he was at about thirty

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eight minutes took its toll. I
don't know, Yeah, I mean thirty

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eight minutes and sick right, like
he was sick over the holidays schedule,

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has him been too kind of the
Clippers. I wasn't super thrilled with his

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defensive effort to start this game.
It was just a little you know,

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Kawhi lifts the floor so much for
this Clippers defense, but PG I think

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needs to try and step into that
role a little bit more when Kawhi is

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out. There was just some lapses
mentally that you don't want to see.

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But you know, forty on eleven
threes, you're you're probably never going to

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be mad at that. Right,
he hit the most important one when it

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mattered, which you want to see
him, you know, step up in

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the end of those moments when you
need kind of a superstar moment after James

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Harden has done so much too in
this game. So I don't know if

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there's anything wrong physically other than we
know he was sick. It's you know,

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the day after Christmas, We're going
to see how he looks on Friday.

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I think he'll look a lot better. I think there could be something

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to maybe an underrated part of Kawhi
Leonard's leadership. We see it on the

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court. He's much more vocal there
and he had. I remember it was

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the game against Sacramento. They were
up by thirty, and he was calling

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guys out for miss ces defensively,
and he was being tough on guys,

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and I love seeing that, and
I think it's missed and I think to

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expect this team to be as focused
without their number one guy, their best

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player, but also their best on
court leader, Like I think it's Kawhi,

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and I think that's part of the
reason the Clippers had been so much

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better. It was the Kawhi Leonard
leadership out there. Yeah, he's leading

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by example, and I think you
I agree. He has been a little

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more vocal this season, and his
level of play has been, you know,

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some of the best regular season basketball
that he's ever played as a Clipper,

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which is also helping things as well
too. But you do hope that

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the team is just a little more
focused. You know, they got it

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together towards the end, like we
said, when things were a little bit

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too close for comfort. So at
least they got it together then. But

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it's a bump in the road a
little bit, you know, in terms

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of having one hundred percent solid focus
for the whole game. But they did

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get the win and they focused when
they needed to. So let you know,

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we should all be happy. And
we also we have to give a

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small shout out to Daniel Tys who
was five and seven. He didn't look

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the strongest on the defensive end,
but needed that efficiency in this one.

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Yeah, I got that technical which
I think got him that seven point lead

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in the fourth quarter. He wasn't
happy with some of the calls out there.

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He was playing very hard and was
not being rewarded for it. But

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five of seven, ten points,
four boards like that, I thought,

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Actually, your guy, Kobe Brown
had some really good minutes, maybe his

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best stretch in the first half,
and Coach Luke kept him out there because

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defensively he was being a menace.
Yeah, his size was really on display

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against kind of a skinnier I guess
Hornet's team. Kobe Brown is going to

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be a matchup nightmare for guys who
you know his foot speeds even I guess

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not as fast because that really is
kind of one of the things needs to

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work on on the perimeter. But
no, his anticipation's great. He had

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his hand in the passing, laid
a couple of times, which was great

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to see, and some solid point
of attack defense, which is something the

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Clippers do kind of lack, you
know, a little bit, you know,

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deeper as you go down the roster. So it was a hardy seventeen

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minutes. He wasn't exactly lighting it
up offensively, but he's doing little things

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to help him get more minutes,
which is what the Slippers team needs,

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especially with Kawhi Leonard out. But
yeah, it was it was good to

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see the rookie doing the little things, Chuck. They got two more games

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at home with two days in between, both here at Crypto Memphis on Friday

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and then the Miami Heat on January
first of twenty twenty four. I mean,

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it's that till next year, but
it's actually much closer than that.

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What do you got the Clippers going
in the next two? Next two?

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Man? The New Year's Day game
is weird again, you know, it's

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kind of like this one we had
tonight New Year's Day, Big night.

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Yeah, exactly. I think they're
gonna get I don't know if the Grizzlies

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can go what are they maybe five
and zero with with John coming back.

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I think they get to win against
the Grizzlies, and I'm gonna say win

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against the heat too. Why not, It's gonna be harder for them to

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travel over to the West coast.
So yeah, I'm gonna say two or

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not. Well, that's good.
You said they're gonna beat the Grizzlies because

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I mean Will did say they suck
the Memphis Grizzy. Yes, that's true.

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They have one four straight now with
Jaw and a couple of game winners

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from him, including tonight. Clippers
win tonight one thirteen to one oh four

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over these Charlotte Hornets. Chuck Mockler
from C and D has been our guest

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here on Clippers Sock Chuck. Interested
to find out when the next YouTube is

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look forward to it my friends talk
to you then it'll be soon. Thanks

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for having me at of