Are we on? Are we connected? All? Right? Now we're going
what's going on? Clips fans? We are clips and dip. I'm William
Updyke joining me as Charles Mackler from a moving vehicle. We're shut to talk
about the clippers insane win in Dallas to tie up the series against the Mavericks.
No Kawhi Leonard in this one, which is maybe better than getting a
forty percent of a Kawhi Leonard, but we were able to have PG and
Kawhi step up in it, or sorry, PG and Harden step up in
a huge way. I love what you said before we get into the craziness.
That was almost maybe the most disappointing playoff game for a second for the
Blipperson. You're totally right, it's way better to have It's unfortunate, but
having Kawhi rest is better than having Kawhi not be functional on the court.
Well, and look, we'll get into that actual game and our reactions here
just a sec. But on the Kawhi thing, I mean, I thought
the nicest thing and obviously I'm not saying that the team was better off without
Kawhi, but I thought one of the nicest things about them taking game one,
is they really bought themselves some time for Kawhi Leonard, who continue to
arrest. I wasn't expecting to see him game two, I thought, optimistically,
you know, they had bought him an extra week of rest time,
which you know, we still don't know what the full timeline is for gonna
be for him to return, if he is able to return. We're still
told there's no structural damage on me swelling, but it feels like this is
now a setback that maybe wasn't necessary, especially when you're getting the types of
games that we were able to get from Paul, George and Harden in this
one. So Clippers went up big early in this one. A lot went
right Dallas went I want to say, oh for ten for their first for
their first ten three point attempts, which is super super Brewe Again, this
is one of those situations where as much as I'd like to, I can't
obviously credit all of that to the Clippers defense, especially given how the MAVs
were eventually able to regain a lead in this one. In you know what
was just in classic Clippers fashion, a high type of stress and anxiety game.
We adam joining in right now I'm gonna I'm gonna bring him in,
Adam. What's going on the birthday boy, Jeffy. Guys stand, I
thought I was gonna be responsible for this. I thought I was gonna have
to apologize because on our pregame show when Clippers rewind in a segment where we
go back in time for a big Clippers victory, guess where we went back
to a thirty one point come back in twenty nineteen against the Golden State Orders
that I thought, Oh my god, it's about to happen to them.
The Dallas Mavericks were about to tie the biggest playoff comeback at NBA history.
I couldn't have it, and apparently neither could Paul George or James Harden.
That shot by Paul George, that three is the biggest shot of the season,
one of the biggest shots of his life. He had twenty six in
the first half, had just two points in the second half at that time,
and took the toughest shot possible and got it to go. This was
a legacy game for him, it was, and he stepped up. James
Harden fifteen of his thirty three in the fourth. He was shooting thirty seven
percent from five to nine feet all season long, and he couldn't miss a
floater when it matter person. He was a personal six to zero floater run.
I'm pretty sure here there in the fourth Kyrie Irving couldn't miss a damn
shot. He had a perfect twenty point quarter in the second quarter that has
never happened before. He kept it going in the second half. The Clippers
withstood it. They played just well enough. The block that Paul George also
had on Kyrie on the rearview team test. That was one of the most
insane games we'll ever see, and it has proved the Slippers team still has
grit, still has hard They can still do what they've always done when they're
down players, they just find a way. Couldn't be more proud of this
victory by this team. Oh no, I'm not in the fireworks. The
fireworks was for your birthday and for the Clippers. Yeah. I mean this.
The Paul George first half, him talking shit to the MAVs crowd was
fantastic to see the top of the Clippers all game. He didn't back down
at all. We'll talk about Russ maybe in a few That wasn't necessarily the
best performance from Russ. But yeah, I mean Harden and Paul George for
two guys who we talk about the narrative of contracts coming up and all that
good stuff this whole series. James Harden has showed he needs a multi year
contract. Paul George is doing a little bit better after the first half of
today. But yeah, like Adam said, I need to see at least
two of these games. I need to see at least two thirty balls from
Paul George. We had tal talked about after the second game. I believe
in the series of like, okay, so like, when's it finally gonna
happen. Who's going to be the Clipper to break the thirty point barrier?
And we got them both in this one with Paul, with Paul George and
James Harden. So it's nice to see the offense coming together. It's getting
it's starting to resemble again what we saw this team when they were at their
apex there right before the All Star break, which is great to see.
We just hadn't maybe Game one, which I still feel like was maybe a
little bit of an outlier just because of how heavily used you in that game.
We have we have not seen what this Clippers offense, which I believe
was the fourth ranked offense in the regular season, we have not seen that
prior to this game. Yeah, and I think you know, we talked
about how concerned we are with the fouls, right like there was some first
of all the refing in this game. Yet again absolutely two challenges used in
the first Again, wasn't there? Yeah, there was absurd Yeah, because
the rest can't get shit right. But despite the foul trouble for pretty much
the most important Clippers right like zoo, Man and Harden all had four fouls
at one point, They're still able to battle back with the stuff. They're
not letting the poor refing get into their heads, which I really respect.
And like Zoo last game, two fouls early none for the rest of the
game. That was good to see. That being said, we hope that
that stops in game five because we don't need to keep pressing this, you
know, early foul luck that we've been having a little bit. Yeah,
yeah, I agree. Daron Edgcomb just came back to life. That was
that was incredibly stressful. Come on, Oh, the cat is making moves.
Cat'ser having me fucking crazy. Right now. Yeah, that'll happen.
Other than Paul George and Harden, who are you looking at for maybe your
favorite player from this game? I mean probably Big either Big Zoo or Norm
Powell. He didn't have the scoring explosion that he did uh there in game
three, but uh the points that the points that he scored were all sort
of momentum things. The only drawback is that, uh, defensively he was
he was especially bad in this one. Some of the fouls. Oh and
we didn't talk about this yet either. Uh that Russ fowl on the inbounds
before the ball was even tossed in, I thought was like sort of inexcusable.
Another another down down game from from Russell Westbrook. In my opinion,
I mean, yeah, you're you're totally I'm gonna go ahead and share that
opinion with you. It was super just uncomposed and obviously the crowd's been crazy
for him, but it's like, come on, man, like this,
since we couldn't need this little ticky tacking shit teammate is getting a lot of
love in here, so we should talk about that. Because even the broadcast
was pointing out like how well he's done on Luca, which obviously you're not
going to stop everything. It's it's just about getting the effort out there,
staying like playing him close and not giving any easy giving up any easy buckets.
And Terrence Man incredible today, Incredible today. Uh. The only my
only real criticism is we just saw some of that indecisiveness offensively kind of rited
again, passed up I think two open threes into possessions that ended up turning
into pretty ugly possessions when there was like a real clear cut way to score.
So that's one of those things that I'm surprised that we're still kind of
working through. Maybe that just has to do with fatigue and and pressure.
I'm not really sure, but uh yeah, oh ex Mongol projects with a
hot one, still unbeaten love Amir back in the starting lineup. I think
that's the better way to go than going a little bit smaller with norm.
So I'm glad that TYLERU got back to that. Yeah, and Tyler went
small late, which was a little terrifying for me personally. It was kind
of like, oh, we're kind of going back to the comfort stuff.
But it ended up working out, thankfully. The big thing is just the
rebounding. I feel like with those lineups like if well, and obviously the
scoring like where it went so poorly in that game too, was that that
that small ball lineup could not score and they were you know, they were
not getting rebounds, and obviously you're going to take a step back in rebounding,
but it becomes much more about effort and just getting like getting jerseys in
the restricted area, being really aggressive on getting those rebounds, and you know
this time, this time a lot more shots were falling down. We did
have Well, what did the MAVs have in the fourth there? I think
they had like a fourteen to two run where things got a little dicey.
I liked what Tylu said in the huddle going into the fourth, like they
went on a run. You know, it doesn't matter how much we were
up by. We win this quarter, we win the game. And they
were able to do just that. We're getting some love for Mason Plumley in
the chat Mason Plumbley did, dude, hats off to big plum because I
have been not hyped on his play, but I mean six four and three
from Mason Plumley in fourteen minutes in a playoff game. Is as good as
you're gonna get from Mason Plumley. It was fantastic to see. So,
yeah, shout out Mason Plumley. I'm giving him his flowers. Yeah yeah,
Well, I mean you were kind of advocating for Tye. I mean
at this point of the series, like, is that does anybody else even
see the floor? Like I think we have our eight man rotation dialed in.
We've seen this team enough times. It's just gonna be about execution.
And look, there's gonna be a there's gonna be nights where like where Kyrie
and Luca go off and I mean you probably just end up losing those games.
I don't think that there's like some curveball that we can throw out from
a rotational perspective that's like, oh wow, this you know, is gonna
swing the series. At least I've not seen that right now. Yeah.
Someone mentioned in the chat they're a little worried about the legs with the eight
man rotation, which I think is a little fair. I think was I
think that was sort of what we saw happen in the in the third quarter
in this one, was that I just it felt like the team an older
team, Uh, was kind of on their last leg and they were,
you know, it was unclear if they were gonna be able to stay ahead
or get back over the hump once the Maps were able to uh carve out
a lead for themselves. Yeah, yeah, h h hold on one second,
you're cutting out, You're cutting in and out. So I'm gonna I'm
gonna kick you out and bring you back, bring you back in. Uh,
sorry about the little freeze up there. I'm gonna try and bring Charles
back in. Let's see if it works. Now, Yes, we got
you now, no, we don't have you any more anyways. Circling back
to this one, Uh so, looking ahead to Game four back in La
I really I'm really hoping that we can carve out like the sort of home
crowd advantage that Dallas had. I thought that was one of the most impressive
things watching this game, even from the broadcast, Like the Dallas fans are
they get it going? That building is insane. Hopefully the Clippers can do
the same thing with the series returning to Los Angeles. Getting some notes on
the officiating, I gotta agree, this one has been so up and down.
It's really uh, it's uh, it's really been a little bit of
a of a mystery. Let's see if Charles is back here eight Floater System.
I love that people are saying Kyrie isn't that good. Kyrie was insane
today. He went on such a tear. Chuck's out in Egypt. That's
really funny. Pretty close. Plus I was in a what is it ocean
beach, which is basically ocean beach. Yeah, beautiful ocean beach right in
you'ar San Diego. Wow. People were saying that Kyrie wasn't good. Were
they watching the game? He had forty points? Yeah, I've just seen
that. Yeah. And I think that Kyrie, I mean, Luca did
not have a great game last game. I mean not that Kyrie's was like
necessarily exceptional. But Kyrie has been huge for them in this series. And
I mean when he gets on a when he gets on a tear like that,
it was just impossible to stop him. I mean, he's just it's
like everyone else is playing in slow motion around him, and he can pull
up from anywhere. Just a terrifying, terrifying player. Is this the second
time he's on perfect in the second quarter? Are perfect in a quarter of
this series? I'm not he had twenty and I think it was game one.
Yeah, do we credit the defense more for kind of locking up?
I put this in quotes because Lucas still had a twenty nine point triple double,
but Lucas still having to work for this ship. Lucas, it's not
Yeah, I mean that looks that's all you that's all you can do.
There's not a stopper. There's just an irritant I think with both of for
both of these players, you're not like shutting either one of them down.
It's just about making them work as hard as you possibly can. And then
I thought they did a little bit better job to like attacking them on the
defensive end in this one, which I think we've seen go up and down,
and it's one of those things that's like easier said than done, right,
Like that's you know, I talked about it coming into this series.
That's sort of like the obvious obvious week point. But two things have been
happening. A Obviously, the maps defensively are schemed to keep Luca and Kyrie
out of those heavy actions with with a star player on the Clippers. And
the other thing that I was not expecting is literally has been pretty damn good
defensively at Jack's in this one, so that like, so that plan kind
of all goes to shit in terms of like wearing them out and then letting
them do their thing on the offensive end. Rough game for the rule,
like a rough game for the role players in this one. Their bench combined
for just thirteen points and where whereas we had I don't know twenty two I
believe off the bench, So that was a big one. And then the
turnovers really like the inverse of the Clippers, turnovers happened this game for the
Mavericks, and yeah, that'll take you out on one quick. Seven turnovers
from Kyrie's absolutely brutal. I know we just mentioned the forty points, but
seven turnovers is a I mean, that's a heavy number to have over your
head for that MAXI Kleiba not being effective in this one. Salute to Tylo
for being able to counter that, because Kleiba was starting to look like that
was going to be the role player that makes it really annoying for the Clippers
in the long term. Agreed. Agreed, Speaking of the role players,
Logan Rapsys, we still have not gotten a norm game. Need that to
happen. Yeah, I agree, there hasn't been one where he's looked super
great. I don't know. This just might not be his series, though.
I think you're right. I think they've done ability. Yeah. Yeah,
and they've done a really good job covering him. He's had to work
for a lot of looks and then they've punished us for having him on the
floor, like on the defensive end. Uh yeah, he had what for
those three fouls in such quick succession. Yeah, that the you know,
the mass were in the bonus early on in that third quarter. Yeah.
I don't think it's this series either. They've obviously game plan for him super
well. Hats off to Jason Kidd for figuring that out. But yes,
I will. I can't wait. Logan's right, I can't wait to watch
him walk into twenty because he can't do that. He can't have the twenty
point half at of nowhere. Yes, yeah, people are saying he had
a let He had eleven field goal attends in this one. I actually thought
it was pretty well balanced. Yeah, he was getting a bad whistle too.
He was kind of defending in an odd way, but also the perfect
storm of weird defense and a bad whistle, which is how you get a
shitty fouls usually. Yeah, yeah, I agree, man, I am.
I don't know if I've stressed for that game, but that is one
of the more tense, incredible Clippers playoff games to have listened to. A
Watts too. I can't believe they got the learn so happy trying out.
Yeah, we're getting I think this is a mass fan some sub Jason kidd
Hey in the chat, which you know, I'm always gonna highlight that kid
is such a bad coach. I mean, I've been impressed actually the way
that he did counter from game one to Game two, and then he has
really executed their game plan really well. And like I said, he does
have these guys at least putting in maximum effort defensively out for the mass like
that. You know, we talked about who's like which of these teams sample
sizes was more real. You have the Clippers leading into the All Star break,
you have the Mass everything post All Star Break where they were an elite
defense and an elite offense. And I would say, obviously the truth lies
somewhere in the middle. But like they have, they defensively are very impressive
to me and have impressed me in this series. Yeah, they have the
pieces you mentioned right, like they made the right moves at the trade deadline,
they got Washington in, they got Gafford in. Gafford only eighteen minutes
today, I think is pretty telling of how well the Clippers were able to
play too after how aggressive you mentioned kids been able to get him like bought
in on defense, He had him bought in for game free to start too.
That looked like and then today it looked a little more not normal,
but like what I guess we expect a game one after who was playing well
against him? Man, there's somebody in there. There's somebody in the comments
right now doing all quote stuff. Hey, uh Samon's chilling or you're going
in time out? Uh ex Mango Project wants to know Scott Foster game next
game? Most likely it was Tony Brothers today. Yeah. I bet we
get Scott Foster on Wednesday, which is gonna be a Divermary AJ wants to
know can we spam hardened floaters all the way to the finals if he has
the legs for it, I would love to see it again. James Harden
has been the most consistent throughout this series offensively for the Clippers. He's been
really, really good and we have needed every ounce of it, every bit
of it from him. So yeah, it was he's been incredible. He's
been He's been incredible. There was the Robert flab tweet yesterday that was like,
in an incredible turn of events, James Harden is totally showing up for
the playoff series while the Clippers out and for that game obviously that was before
today. That was incredibly to James Harden again has proven that he needs a
multi year contract. What that price is, we don't really know. But
yeah, Harden in the first round. He's great in the first round.
He's never not gotten out of the first round in his career. So we're
getting normal, which is very very good James Harden. Yeah, yeah,
keep him fresh, keep him going. So you think we're just running it
back, My assumption is for Game five, we're gonna see the exact same
starters from the Clippers and hopefully to do the same sort of similar do the
same sort of similar size mismatch, and it's just going to be a matter
of like who's going to have the hot hand. Yeah, I'm wondering if
if Reuss doesn't figure anything out, I wonder if we see a couple bones
minutes or something random. But Plumbley's played well, I think we stick with
the eight. I don't know if TYLERU wants to. I think you mentioned
this when Kawai came back, but I think it's true now too. Expanding
the rotation feels even harder now because you're adding a guy who hasn't played at
all really into a playoff scenario, you know what I'm saying. So like
adding Tyson or something like that, that feels really difficult for a team that
is playing so well without Kawhi Leonard. And I don't mean it like that,
you know what I mean, but like they're fighting right now, and
when a group is fighting like this, I don't know if you want to
expand their tation. I just don't see any I just don't see any utility
to it. If I'm being honest with you, Like what, like,
who do you want on the floor? Uh, there's already some guys that
I want to see less of on the floor if I'm being perfectly honest,
So and and there's not And it's not a situation where I'm like, Okay,
so Harden has not been good or sorry, Westbrook has not been good,
Like who's the clear next man up on the bench because the answer is
kind of nobody. Yeah, but the answer is just more minutes from Harden
and PG really like it's that's the only anecdote or the only antidote rather and
I don't, yeah, I don't. I don't see it working. You
know, Adam was kind of bully on p on a potential PJ. Tucker
sighting in this. I do not think. I do not think that we're
gonna see that. That wouldn't help that that would help nobody. I totally
agree. I hope we don't see that. He's like, he makes more
sense if they had like if they had somebody in there like playing bullyball,
like if they had you know, if if they were if they had Kawhi
or if you know, or if the MAVs had a center like aviatsa Zubats
and they like heavily featured him sort of down low and you need that sort
of big body, the guy that you're not really scared of him picking up
six fowls, but in this matchup, just dude to like the versatility that
the MAVs have and some of the and like the speed and the attack from
from Luca and Kyrie. Like, I just don't really see where he could
sit on the floor because I think if you get the switch on PJ,
which you're spamming every time, I would think if you're the MAVs, like
that is, unless you're going into like some sort of slow post up where
you're just trying to back him down. I mean, he's getting blown by
every single time. I don't really see him being Yeah, I don't really
see him having utility in this in this series. Yeah, And I think
in that sense kind of what you're saying, because him and Tys are kind
of the same size, So Tys theoretically has more utility because he will let
it fly. But again, like you mentioned, it's a weird thing to
add right now with how well the team's play. Yeah, yeah, agreed.
Uh So, who do you want to see have a huge Who do
you want to see have a big game five? Big game five? Let's
go back to Zoo. The guys are going to be tired. Let's feed
Zoo. Let's get some easy buckets, just easy buckets to start, like
get Zoo on the sixteen and thirteen path. And I really like how the
Clippers look, because that also means hard. It is probably touching the pain.
Yeah, definitely, what about you love that? I want to see
Paul George have two consecutive thirty games in a playoff series. Let's how about
that right there? With how about that? Yeah? All right, so
well before we get out of here, let's let's talk about the Westbrook thing.
Obviously we're getting some comments in here. Terrible foul for him to have
committed with seventeen seconds left on the clock. Just not very composed. We
all know what happened in Game three. That's gonna be one of those tough
things to shake. It looks even like that would look even worse if we
hadn't got the win today, you know what I mean? But that that
ejection and the way that he got the entire Dallas crowd and the Mavericks riled
up, would look a lot worse if we lose today. I mean,
hell, if we lost today and like on that after that foul at seventeen
seconds, I would be absolutely livid. I would be losing my mind.
I was about ready to crash the car into the ocean if we were going
to lose after that foul from Russell Westbrook. Maybe he just needs some time
to get out of Dallas. Maybe it's just get back to La call chill
out for three days, get some normal practice. Run. Now that we
also know for sure that Kawa is not coming back, like, maybe that
helps. Just I think that's good a little bit, Like there's less uncertainty.
Yeah, so I'm hoping. But yeah, the defense has been good,
but the offense was just so bad. So yeah, let's let's hope
it's tightened up. Yeah, let's hope it's tightened up. All right,
do you have any closing thoughts before we got to get Before we get out
of here, I gotta go do some actual non Clippers related uh work,
So don't worry to help this one short Happy birthday to Adam is not here.
Thank you guys for taking care of that live stream the other day.
What a stressful game. Here's to another stressful game on Wednesday. Let's hope
the clips come out on top again. Yeah, let's go clips. Thank
you everybody for tuning in. Uh. If you didn't know, you can
subscribe to this YouTube channel right YouTube dot com Slash that Clippers podcast. You
can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts, and hey, uh,
thanks for tuning in, We appreciate it, and let's go clips