Clippers are victorious in Miami and they're five and one on this Grammy road trip
making some sweet music. This team working in unison. Kawhi Leonard led them
with twenty five, led them on defense to Big Zoo was back. Just
played eighteen minutes, but you'll take it. Didn't even think he'd be back
till maybe March. That's what a lot of people were guessing after they said
he'd be reevaluated in four to six weeks. Surprise, and it was a
good one for this Clippers team. Coming up, we're looking for postgame audio,
but first joining the show is Will Updyke from Clips and Dip. Will
thanks for doing this here postgame, uh, I do want to ask you
about Kawhi Leonard and the update on the MVP conversation. Have you heard from
anybody talking about him as anyone mentioned it? I know this game was on
ESPEN. Were any of the announcers you know on the ball and in tune
with what Kawhi Leonard's been doing. You don't know what's been hitting. No
one's been reaching out to me. I'm checking my mail. I'm ready for
apologies. I'm ready for people to send me a photo copy of their ballot
with with Kawhi at the top of their MVP voting, still not happen.
Man, maybe it must be the rain. You know what the rain I
think is what is what's holding people back? Yeah, that takes out those
carrier pigeons. With the message of Kawhi Leonard being this dominant for this long
last twenty eight games, shooting fifty eight percent from the field, fifty one
percent from three while getting twenty six points per game, and oh yeah,
playing that other side of the court that everyone seems to neglect, nobody seems
to care about when it comes to HEAVP voting. Kind of wild. But
let's talk about were you shocked, surprised, or just encouraged by the fact
that a Visa Zuboss was able to go today? Shocked? Absolutely odd jaw
on the floor. I mean, honestly, I wasn't even sure, if
you know, because we knew about the re evaluation, if he had been
traveling with the team the whole time, or you know, like what his
situation was. So I was absolutely shocked. I mean, I mean,
it's great to see Big Zoo back there. But he talked a little bit
about what his return would look like you were a pro. You were a
proponent of having him just return immediately to the starting lineup minutes restriction, you
know, kind of just have that in place and work rotations around that,
which is uh, which is great, which is what we saw. So
you nailed that one, And yeah, I'm curious to see how long it's
gonna take him to get back into our rhythm because you know, he's just
been looking so good for so long, even before we were on that winning
streak. I brought up multiple times that like we were, I kind of
felt like we were blowing good Zoo games when when we were when we were
in that sort of slump. That's how good he's been since the James Harden
edition. So I'm hoping that he comes back up to speed. I'm assuming
that it's going to be more difficult on the defensive side of the ball for
him, But you know, hey, having him early, I did not
think he would be playing in games before the All Star break. Yeah,
look a little hesitant. The timing wasn't quite there. He did have a
nice knockaway on a lob pass that ended up being a turnover from the heat
and a throwdown in the second and then a layup where Kawhi found him beautifully
in the third quarter over Jimmy Butler looking for the mismatch with Big Zoo.
But we'll see, it'll take time. It's it's all still just huge for
this team right now, so to speak, because they have needed him.
They've been getting by without him, but eventually, especially come March in the
seventeen games, they need him fully up to speed. And with him coming
back this soon, it seems like that is a very much in play and
a possibility, and he could be trending towards that. Oh, it's like
it's like good news on top of good news for the Clippers. I mean,
we just talked yesterday about Kawhi and how he's not happy with the teams
approach, how he wants everybody to step things up on the defensive end of
the ball. And then the next day we get our defensive anchor back in
the rotation. Man, I tell you what, the Clippers are are ready
for March in February. It's your heart out, Chuck. Now, he
wants to come back on tonight. He couldn't do it, though, because
the Clippers got another victory. So that means it's Will Updyke Will. We've
talked about James Harden and him having that down game, and we got some
comments doing the live like what's wrong with James Harden. Well, it seems
like he's okay. Played forty two minutes, went seven of thirteen five to
three pointers, made two of them turned into four point plays, big clutch
shots, and he ended up with twenty one points and eleven assists. He
was right next to Kawhi Leonard for being the best player on the floor tonight.
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean when he can be aggressive, obviously,
it just adds an entire another scoring dimension to this team. The thing with
James' scoring is, I'm just wondering how he can continue to stay in rhythm
when he's you know, he's not used to being off ball. He's not
He's not used to taking a whole lot of offball threes. He does a
great job obviously facilitating everyone around him. I'm just wondering if there's more ways
that we can kind of unlock him on nights where you know, tonight was
great forty one minutes. He could he could really you know, score and
be the offensive player himself. But I'm wondering if there are ways we can
sort of maximize his skill set without him having to like be on ball the
whole time. I know, obviously the team is better with the ball in
his hands, but yeah, it's it's I guess, I guess basically,
what I'm saying is if we can get him more involved when he is off
ball, Yeah, more catch and shoot threes. And hey, he has
adapted his game. He's been pretty damn good in that area as a clipper.
But we know at his best, when you give him the controls or
the controller, he can take this team to new heights. Mike got Norman
Powell my pick for this three game road trip, stepping up once again in
the fourth quarter. Had seven of his sixteen a clutch three pointers, six
of twelve from the field. But the guy continues to be the king of
the fourth God bless him. Will this is. I don't think anyone came
into the season thinking that Norman Powell was going to play at this high of
a level for this long of a sustained period. Well no, I mean
I think that we've seen flashes of that, and certainly when Norm was healthy,
like you could see the potential. But I think the reason that he
was so involved in you know, basically every trade machine someone sent to you
over the summer before the start of the season was he was just a little
bit of an unquantifiable entity, right, It's a little bit unknown, Like
we just we hadn't seen prolonged stretches of him healthy with the team, and
we certainly hadn't seen prolonged stretches of him healthy with with two, one,
three, So I'm so happy for him. He gets to play his game
while contributing to wins, you know what I mean. Sometimes sometimes these guys
who were like were a great spark plug off the bench scorers, you know,
it doesn't always translate to wins and norm with even given some of his
physical limitations, the effort that he expounds on the defensive end of the floor
and just how he how he just creates so much gravity in space for everyone
around him is just so so immeasurably valuable. And I like too that he
you know, he's adapted to this role, seems to love it, really
thrives in it. But you will also see him in closing lineups, like
I have no doubt that at some point we will see more in closing lineups
in the playoffs, and to have a guy who's that versatile, it's just
great. Like outside of your top five guys when you're you know, whatever,
you want to consider normal, the sixth or seventh guy up is that
darn good. I'm telling you, you're sitting pretty. He's a scoring machine,
he's a microwave. And of course he helped form the Power Rangers,
as you dubbed the already line up with Norm in place of Terrence Man that
we haven't got to see much of recently in fourth quarters because nol viach a
Zubots. But it's coming, It's coming soon. It may happen tomorrow in
Atlanta. Last one for you here will quickly. Paul George is three of
thirteen, but knocked down a big three pointer after a nice block or a
steal on Haimi hawk Is in the fourth quarter, knockdown his free throws late.
Any concern overall with Paul George or do we just have to tip our
cap and say he's playing injured right now and he's still helping this team.
He had the second best, third best plus minus in the ball game,
Okay, fourth, fifth, I think I think it's definitely the ladder like
ultimately, look, Paul George is only four games removed from another twenty point
twenty point plus performance. He just had an insane stretch. He's dealing with
an injury. I think it's I think you just got to ride the ups
and downs. I like that it doesn't appear to be getting into his head.
And you know, while he certainly doesn't look one hundred percent physically like
himself, I'm not super super concerned about it, and I trust, at
least I hope that he's not playing through a high level of pain or anything
like that, because it's it's just an injury that you know, you don't
want to take too many chances with. You don't want to reaggravate because it's
an issue. I mean, we we know we've had players with it before.
Yeah, don't want to linger like the Crimbers. He is. Will
Updike from Clips and Dip Will thanks for doing this tonight, a little double
dip here on Clippers Talk. We'll talk to you soon on the YouTube.
My friend sounds good. Thanks for having me. Let's go quick quick time
out after the Clippers win one three to ninety five in Miami over the heat.
We'll come back, we'll close things out. We'll preview tomorrow's game in
Atlanta, Clippers. On that back to back final game of the road trip,
we'll be taking on Trey Young in the atl Plus we'll get to Kay
Newton in her casual corner next right here on Clippers Stock on a five to
seven LA Sports