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Clippers are victorious in Miami and they're
five and one on this Grammy road trip

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making some sweet music. This team
working in unison. Kawhi Leonard led them

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with twenty five, led them on
defense to Big Zoo was back. Just

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played eighteen minutes, but you'll take
it. Didn't even think he'd be back

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till maybe March. That's what a
lot of people were guessing after they said

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he'd be reevaluated in four to six
weeks. Surprise, and it was a

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good one for this Clippers team.
Coming up, we're looking for postgame audio,

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but first joining the show is Will
Updyke from Clips and Dip. Will

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thanks for doing this here postgame,
uh, I do want to ask you

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about Kawhi Leonard and the update on
the MVP conversation. Have you heard from

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anybody talking about him as anyone mentioned
it? I know this game was on

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ESPEN. Were any of the announcers
you know on the ball and in tune

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with what Kawhi Leonard's been doing.
You don't know what's been hitting. No

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one's been reaching out to me.
I'm checking my mail. I'm ready for

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apologies. I'm ready for people to
send me a photo copy of their ballot

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with with Kawhi at the top of
their MVP voting, still not happen.

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Man, maybe it must be the
rain. You know what the rain I

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think is what is what's holding people
back? Yeah, that takes out those

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carrier pigeons. With the message of
Kawhi Leonard being this dominant for this long

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last twenty eight games, shooting fifty
eight percent from the field, fifty one

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percent from three while getting twenty six
points per game, and oh yeah,

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playing that other side of the court
that everyone seems to neglect, nobody seems

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to care about when it comes to
HEAVP voting. Kind of wild. But

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let's talk about were you shocked,
surprised, or just encouraged by the fact

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that a Visa Zuboss was able to
go today? Shocked? Absolutely odd jaw

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on the floor. I mean,
honestly, I wasn't even sure, if

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you know, because we knew about
the re evaluation, if he had been

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traveling with the team the whole time, or you know, like what his

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situation was. So I was absolutely
shocked. I mean, I mean,

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it's great to see Big Zoo back
there. But he talked a little bit

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about what his return would look like
you were a pro. You were a

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proponent of having him just return immediately
to the starting lineup minutes restriction, you

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know, kind of just have that
in place and work rotations around that,

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which is uh, which is great, which is what we saw. So

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you nailed that one, And yeah, I'm curious to see how long it's

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gonna take him to get back into
our rhythm because you know, he's just

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been looking so good for so long, even before we were on that winning

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streak. I brought up multiple times
that like we were, I kind of

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felt like we were blowing good Zoo
games when when we were when we were

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in that sort of slump. That's
how good he's been since the James Harden

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edition. So I'm hoping that he
comes back up to speed. I'm assuming

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that it's going to be more difficult
on the defensive side of the ball for

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him, But you know, hey, having him early, I did not

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think he would be playing in games
before the All Star break. Yeah,

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look a little hesitant. The timing
wasn't quite there. He did have a

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nice knockaway on a lob pass that
ended up being a turnover from the heat

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and a throwdown in the second and
then a layup where Kawhi found him beautifully

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in the third quarter over Jimmy Butler
looking for the mismatch with Big Zoo.

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But we'll see, it'll take time. It's it's all still just huge for

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this team right now, so to
speak, because they have needed him.

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They've been getting by without him,
but eventually, especially come March in the

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seventeen games, they need him fully
up to speed. And with him coming

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back this soon, it seems like
that is a very much in play and

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a possibility, and he could be
trending towards that. Oh, it's like

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it's like good news on top of
good news for the Clippers. I mean,

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we just talked yesterday about Kawhi and
how he's not happy with the teams

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approach, how he wants everybody to
step things up on the defensive end of

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the ball. And then the next
day we get our defensive anchor back in

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the rotation. Man, I tell
you what, the Clippers are are ready

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for March in February. It's your
heart out, Chuck. Now, he

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wants to come back on tonight.
He couldn't do it, though, because

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the Clippers got another victory. So
that means it's Will Updyke Will. We've

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talked about James Harden and him having
that down game, and we got some

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comments doing the live like what's wrong
with James Harden. Well, it seems

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like he's okay. Played forty two
minutes, went seven of thirteen five to

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three pointers, made two of them
turned into four point plays, big clutch

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shots, and he ended up with
twenty one points and eleven assists. He

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was right next to Kawhi Leonard for
being the best player on the floor tonight.

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Yeah. Absolutely. I mean when
he can be aggressive, obviously,

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it just adds an entire another scoring
dimension to this team. The thing with

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James' scoring is, I'm just wondering
how he can continue to stay in rhythm

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when he's you know, he's not
used to being off ball. He's not

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He's not used to taking a whole
lot of offball threes. He does a

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great job obviously facilitating everyone around him. I'm just wondering if there's more ways

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that we can kind of unlock him
on nights where you know, tonight was

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great forty one minutes. He could
he could really you know, score and

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be the offensive player himself. But
I'm wondering if there are ways we can

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sort of maximize his skill set without
him having to like be on ball the

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whole time. I know, obviously
the team is better with the ball in

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his hands, but yeah, it's
it's I guess, I guess basically,

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what I'm saying is if we can
get him more involved when he is off

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ball, Yeah, more catch and
shoot threes. And hey, he has

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adapted his game. He's been pretty
damn good in that area as a clipper.

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But we know at his best,
when you give him the controls or

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the controller, he can take this
team to new heights. Mike got Norman

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Powell my pick for this three game
road trip, stepping up once again in

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the fourth quarter. Had seven of
his sixteen a clutch three pointers, six

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of twelve from the field. But
the guy continues to be the king of

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the fourth God bless him. Will
this is. I don't think anyone came

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into the season thinking that Norman Powell
was going to play at this high of

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a level for this long of a
sustained period. Well no, I mean

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I think that we've seen flashes of
that, and certainly when Norm was healthy,

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like you could see the potential.
But I think the reason that he

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was so involved in you know,
basically every trade machine someone sent to you

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over the summer before the start of
the season was he was just a little

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bit of an unquantifiable entity, right, It's a little bit unknown, Like

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we just we hadn't seen prolonged stretches
of him healthy with the team, and

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we certainly hadn't seen prolonged stretches of
him healthy with with two, one,

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three, So I'm so happy for
him. He gets to play his game

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while contributing to wins, you know
what I mean. Sometimes sometimes these guys

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who were like were a great spark
plug off the bench scorers, you know,

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it doesn't always translate to wins and
norm with even given some of his

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physical limitations, the effort that he
expounds on the defensive end of the floor

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and just how he how he just
creates so much gravity in space for everyone

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around him is just so so immeasurably
valuable. And I like too that he

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you know, he's adapted to this
role, seems to love it, really

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thrives in it. But you will
also see him in closing lineups, like

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I have no doubt that at some
point we will see more in closing lineups

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in the playoffs, and to have
a guy who's that versatile, it's just

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great. Like outside of your top
five guys when you're you know, whatever,

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you want to consider normal, the
sixth or seventh guy up is that

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darn good. I'm telling you,
you're sitting pretty. He's a scoring machine,

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he's a microwave. And of course
he helped form the Power Rangers,

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as you dubbed the already line up
with Norm in place of Terrence Man that

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we haven't got to see much of
recently in fourth quarters because nol viach a

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Zubots. But it's coming, It's
coming soon. It may happen tomorrow in

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Atlanta. Last one for you here
will quickly. Paul George is three of

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thirteen, but knocked down a big
three pointer after a nice block or a

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steal on Haimi hawk Is in the
fourth quarter, knockdown his free throws late.

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Any concern overall with Paul George or
do we just have to tip our

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cap and say he's playing injured right
now and he's still helping this team.

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He had the second best, third
best plus minus in the ball game,

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Okay, fourth, fifth, I
think I think it's definitely the ladder like

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ultimately, look, Paul George is
only four games removed from another twenty point

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twenty point plus performance. He just
had an insane stretch. He's dealing with

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an injury. I think it's I
think you just got to ride the ups

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and downs. I like that it
doesn't appear to be getting into his head.

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And you know, while he certainly
doesn't look one hundred percent physically like

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himself, I'm not super super concerned
about it, and I trust, at

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least I hope that he's not playing
through a high level of pain or anything

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like that, because it's it's just
an injury that you know, you don't

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want to take too many chances with. You don't want to reaggravate because it's

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an issue. I mean, we
we know we've had players with it before.

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Yeah, don't want to linger like
the Crimbers. He is. Will

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Updike from Clips and Dip Will thanks
for doing this tonight, a little double

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dip here on Clippers Talk. We'll
talk to you soon on the YouTube.

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My friend sounds good. Thanks for
having me. Let's go quick quick time

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out after the Clippers win one three
to ninety five in Miami over the heat.

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We'll come back, we'll close things
out. We'll preview tomorrow's game in

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Atlanta, Clippers. On that back
to back final game of the road trip,

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we'll be taking on Trey Young in
the atl Plus we'll get to Kay

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Newton in her casual corner next right
here on Clippers Stock on a five to

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seven LA Sports