What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome Season two, episode eighteen of
Clips and dip your triweekly full pod, and then we do a double dip
thing on AM five seventy with Adam Ousley, who was here as always.
Will Updike couldn't join us today. Big weekend for the Clippers. We wanted
them to go three and oh they're at two and one. We're gonna get
into what was good against the Spurs, what was bad against the Jazz,
and then dive into what feels like the first legitimate test of the season for
the Clippers, which is a back to back against a plucky Magic team and
the team across the hall. If you're new to the show, welcome.
We were on Spotify, Deezer on YouTube, over at YouTube dot com slash
at Clippers podcast. But I've been doing a whole hell of a lot of
talking. Adam. We have these spooky names. It's the night before Halloween.
I'm in Montana, a very scary place. You're in Burbank, which
is in its own way. How are you doing today? I thought our
crime was pretty low here, but maybe maybe you're right. Things I don't
know about the uh underbelly of Burbank. It's good to be here, Chuck.
I'm okay. Clippers. Yeah, didn't end up being three and oh,
like we all predicted on this podcast. Of course, my eighty two
and ZL prediction is now could put SOT tough tough weekend for me. I
look like a damn pool. Yeah, that's right. At least we got
the themed out name tags in this one. We'll be missing Will, but
we can still do our little name tag game here on the YouTube side if
you're watching us there, and we appreciate all the new listeners and viewers of
Clips and DIP. As we know, there is more of a ground swallow
support during the season than during the off season. It's slightly more exciting to
be talking about actual, real games, not even just preseason anymore. As
the Clippers open up the season two and one, Yes, so they got
tripped up against the Jazz. The Spurs game went as well as it possibly
could have. No one played over twenty eight minutes, which is huge going
into this back to back Through three games, Paul George is at twenty seven
to four and four, Kawhi twenty three, six and five. Russ is
doing efficient RUSS things at eleven, seven and seven. He's also shooting sixty
percent on eight field goal attempts a game, which is great, you know,
all things considered. I mean two and one is almost as good as
you could be. But what went wrong against the Jazz? Do we think
and do we think things? Maybe just the mentality got corrected against the Spurs,
all right, some of it was just fluky shooting and no disrespect to
the Jazz, but those shots by Kelly Olenok won in the face of Kawhi
Leonard in the far side corner. That's tough to overcome. And then in
a game where you're only down one, of course, Jordan Clarksond goes for
a three pointer and hits it. I said he hated us. I said
he hated us. He's been a Clipper killer every time he put up a
shot. In the twenty to twenty one playoff series. I thought it was
going in. But to get that shot on the switch with two to one
three guarding him, and I think it was marketing there who was setting the
screen. It was an unbelievable shot. It was a big victory for them,
and then they turned around and lost and didn't shoot very well against the
depleted Phoenix Suns team right afterwards. So some of that classic Clippers luck,
catching the wrong team at the wrong time on the wrong night where they seemed
to hit everything. But I still put it on the Clippers by not coming
out with that defensive intensity to start the game. If you don't want a
team to gain confidence after they had lost by twenty five or thirty, whatever
it was against Sacramento, you don't let him get off to a good start.
I want to say they had four or five three pointers in that first
quarter and then all of a sudden, thht Is knocking one down in the
face of Kawhi. Leonard and Marketing had hit one from thirty five feet out
against Powell, having his career three total. Now, I think it was
the first time he's ever made multiple threes in a game. So that was
tough. Are those nights It was partially on the Clippers, partially on inordinate
fluky shooting by the Utah Jazz. But the Clippers are the team that's trying
to fight for a championship this season, right the onus is on them to
come out and play the right way and build the right habits. And Kawhi
said a postgame, they came out flat and he looked very frustrated. In
that game, he looked a little his shot was speaking of flat, his
shot was getting a little flat, which is how I think, you know,
Kawhi isn't maybe where he wants to be, like in that specific game
at strength or game speed, because late in the game he was hitting the
little front rim stuff and for me, he doesn't have a lot of tels.
But for me, that's like, uh oh, Kawhi's maybe a little
bit tired or something like that. Not that that's bad. Yeah, he
got hot, I think it was. He had nine of his twenty five
in the fourth quarter. But obviously we could talk about the very end of
that ballgame. Kawhi on the left wing matchup against Jordan Clarkson, they didn't
call the time out. I didn't hate that move they had. If you
tell me Kawhi Leonard's gonna have Jordan Clarkson on him at the end of the
game with the Clippers being down by two, I would typically feel pretty good
about that. Yeah, And he was working with Nicholas Withtom in the two
man game to regain his dribble against Jordan Clarkson. Took the three pointer ended
up being a really tough shot tip at the cap to Jordan Clarkson. It
was well defended. I guess he's the Kawhi stopper or something. It's weird
to say. No, it rimmed out. Russell Westbrook gathered it with about
three seconds left. I think it was two. I think it was even
less than that. I watched that clip twelve times, so I think it
was three point three when it was in his hands. But then he gets
to the floor, so maybe it's about two to two and a half to
two point possession after the yeah, sure, and he tries the fade away
over Olenick comes up short. I don't know if it was tipped or not,
but Nicholas Batoum was open on the right wing. But I'll say this
after watching the clip like you Supruder film style, just going over it over
and over again, because in real time, and I tweeted it out right
away, I said Batoum was open on the right wing, and my mind
went right back to that game against the Knicks last season where he knocked down
that three pointer to tie it to go into ot and Madison Square Garden.
They eventually would win you trust Nicolas Patum in those situations. And to me,
if he is calling for the ball, a guy that unselfish get on
the ball, and that's where it has to be. Well, even from
a technique perspective, if you get it, if Batoum catches it right here
in zero point three seconds, yeah he can beat Derek Fisher with getting rid
of that thing. But on second and third viewing of that play, John
Collins had a b line towards Nicholas Patum. If he had caught it,
I think there's a good chance he may have had to put it on the
floor or relocate pump, fake or somethings off him. Therefore he might not
have got up a shot. Actually, tough spot to be in. And
that's that's the spot you find yourselves in when Walker Kessler makes two threes,
right like, that's you take one of those Walker Kessler which have never happened
before. But you are right. They came out flat five offensive rebounds on
one possession with under a minute left for Lori Marknen to eventually tip that in.
Yeah, and I put a lot of that game on the bigs of
the Clippers. Now, Utah is a wacky team. To play because everybody
can shoot out there, including Kelly Olenick apparently really well, so it draws
them away from the basket at times. But still the rebounding effort just wasn't
good enough. Seventeen offensive rebounds I think it was thirty three or thirty four
second chance points killed jazz Es battle. And that's what we heard all off
season was we can't lose this possession battle. That was the textbook way to
lose it. When you're seeding, you know, almost an extra quarter of
field goal attempts to your opponent. That's a really tough hole to dig yourself
out of. Nineteen more field goal attempts Utah got up for the Clippers to
be leading by four late in that game was almost remarkable. Even Kawhi last
night postgame mentioned and I think he was still frustrated about losing that one.
This team seemed really locked in, like they wanted to start make sure they
started off four to oh. They saw the schedule as well, so it
was a little bit disheartening and deflating. But even Kawhi was like, giving
up twenty more shots to the Utah Jazz, that stuff can't happen. It
did you want to clean it up now. And the good news is last
night it seemed like they corrected a lot of those mistakes, especially with coming
out with a sense of urgency last night was I mean forty points. I
know the modern NBA people score a lot of points, but to win by
forty I mean app They came out exactly like we wanted them to write,
Like it was, Oh, this is a team that we can take care
of business of. Let's not only take care of business, let's do it
in a way that like, I don't know, I was surprised it didn't
get more pressed, I guess, but I do like everyone played well in
that game for the most part, right, Like there's no one I think
everyone wasn't a positive plus minus like Bones, Right, yeah, no,
shit, Bones was great. Kobe Brown hit a three. Everyone was talking
about that, everybody, the first bucket of his young career, a three
pointer. We love it a little intel. By the way, Carlo Amenez
did a season ticket holder one on one with Kobe Brown event postgame and apparently
the reason why, all of a sudden he got that huge twenty percent jump
from the outside in college his senior year at Massoo, the new coach that
they brought in said hey, you have to shoot three pointers now on this
team. So it sounds like it just wasn't something he worked on before.
So if you're wondering, is it an outlier, is it just some one
off season where he shot really well from the outside. Seems like no,
he was actually zoning in on trying to improve in that very area because it
was demanded by that team to do so, So maybe it's it's there more
than people realized. It was like, it's not just three bad seasons,
one good season, so therefore that one good season you have to throw out
or something like that. And it doesn't necessarily translate to the pros. No,
it sounds like it was just something he never really worked on before.
And it turns out he's a pretty dark good three point shooter since he has.
Yeah, his attempts didn't exactly skyrocket from junior to senior year, but
they did. Man, that pension practice did. Yeah exactly, that's what
I mean, thankfully. But yeah, so and I think even after so,
you know, they lose to the Jazz, they come out absolutely destroy
the Spurs, Zoo bounces back Bones, has a great game. The Clippers
are also practicing today, which is the day off in the middle of a
three and four streak. That to me, and what happened how they responded
after the Jazz game against the Spurs. I'm believing what we were told in
the off season so far, you know what I mean the fact that I
don't. I would be shocked if they practiced once in the last three years
on the off day on a three and four. Yeah, and then they
practice Saturday after losing to Utah, and then you would think, oh,
you give them the prize of having a day off after beating a team by
forty forty because you got a back to back coming up. You give him
a little bit of relief. But instead coach lou was talking about, we
need to get better. It doesn't matter. There were still mistakes in that
game. There's no perfect game. There's always things to work on, and
you can better prepare yourself for this back to back. And he said it
wouldn't be a hard practice, but oh, of course would be great preparation
for them. So this is something you mentioned the talking points this offseason.
He said, even if we're not necessarily running up and down or doing line
drills and stuff, like high school basketball doing what was that terrifying drill he
talked about in the press conference. I think it's called blowout or something like
that, where it's like fourteen seconds on the clock and you just run.
You're just turn it over. You gotta run more. Yeah, well,
he did emphasize that the one thing he said he could do better is even
if guys are out, or guys are banged up, or guys are tired,
you can still do walkthroughs, you can still watch film, you can
still care yourself better that way. And it sounds like today was one of
those days, a lighter sort of practice, but you know, challenging to
the mind and the basketball IQ's. I guess this is what they're going for.
It's a quiz day. They're doing a quiz day at Clippers practice right
now, which is good. Another note from Clippers practice, Terrence Man out
of the walking boot, which is great. No timeline from the team if
you were expecting one, you're a new fan to the team, because we
don't really ever get those. But under the or out of the boot is
clutch. I was happy to hear that from practice today, Yeah, because
I saw him last night. He walked right by me in the tunnel and
he was still wearing the boot, and I was like, oh man,
this is probably worse than people realize. You know, day to day may
be optimistic, but yeah, today's seeing that him dancing around. There was
some video of him while lifting weights. I think somebody put out I don't
know if it was Joey Lynn or who. But that's a good sign.
We love it. And so are there any potentially leading to be a major
concern thing through three games? The turnovers? You know, again, it's
three games there, twentieth in the league in turnovers. I think that'll get
cleaned up. I would like them to just not be bottom ten. Do
you know how many more passes they're making compared to last season. That's what
I'd be interested in seeing because it may be a symptom of just passing more,
sharing the basketball more. Because in that first game where they had thirty
six assists, yeah, they had seventeen turnovers. But when you have thirty
six assists out there, you know that's not necessarily a typical seventeen turnover night.
It's a little bit different. It's just you're moving the basketball so much.
Because you go back to the Golden State Warriors a few years ago in
twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen two, they were high in turnovers
per game because they're making more passes and they have more possessions per game.
So that's going to happen. I wonder if the Clippers are somewhat guilty of
that or that's part of the reason turnovers are up. Yeah, that's a
good call. And again early in the season, right like this is there's
nothing super concerning right now, I will say, and this isn't a concern.
It seems like Tye is leaning into not splitting up Kawhi and PG and
just kind of letting them. I think the term on Twitter I saw was
bludgeon opponents together, because the advanced stats all pretty much say like, oh,
when these two guys are on the court, shit is really difficult for
the other team, like all the way around. So I'm liking that he
said he's going to keep I think what Russ and Norm together or bones and
Norm together anytime that Kawhi and PG you're both off. It sounds like he
really wants to use Russ and norm uh together on the court more and pair
of bones the key with Paul George and Kawhi more Uh, that's an emphasis,
that's some a little bit of a wrinkle that came out of last night's
game or after what he saw against Utah. That was an adjustment that they
made because he likes Norm is obviously instant offense. He's get it and go
type. He's not going to get the same amount of shots playing next to
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George at all. And same with Russell Westbrook who only
took four shots in that game against the Utah Jazz on Friday night. And
Russ was really good last night that euro step in the lane, knocked down
three three pointers. Kawhi looked for him as he drew the defense as it
collapsed on him and the key, and then kicked it out on a bounce
pass to Russ on the far side. Corn the first half knocking down a
three. Leebo was the first half like his confidence seems to be high with
his shooting stroke right now, and he was asked how he's feeling athletically and
he was kind of like, you know, I feel really good. So
you could tell that contest on Wemby in transition where he was called for a
foul and it got looked like one. They challenged it. That to me,
that tells you all you need to know about Russ. I used to
say, he's like, uh, Raphael the Ninja Turtle. Sure see of
the show will know. Adam Love's a ninja Turtles. I used to say
KD was like Leo. He was more like Raphael h Leonardo Leeds. Rafael
is crude, but rude whatever the thing is. But Raphael is more impulsive.
He could be a little bit erratic. He can go out on his
own at times and go after the entire team in a one on five situation.
Russ has certainly been much more controlled since he's put on a Clippers uniform.
That's been great. The confidence you mentioned is high, the attempts are
low, which is the perfect Russ combination right now, high confidence, well,
efficient attempts from outside the paint. Obviously he's shooting something crazy in the
paint. I think he's shooting like, yeah, I don't know. He's
shooting fifty percent on just under three three point attempts per game and not the
RIM's shooting like sixty or seventy five percent. So like we're getting exactly the
kind of rust the Clippers need right now. Yeah, for a guy who
was criticized for only shooting fifty percent the rim, what happened to Russ?
He's blowing layups all the time. He's been better in that area when he's
a blur and gets down the court very quickly instead of it turning into a,
you know, a glamorized turnover. I guess you could say if he
misses it at the rim and the team starts getting numbers the other way.
He's sinking those shots more often now, the euro step last night in Game
one. He also had a play I think in the third quarter against Portland
where he looked like the fastest player on the floor, but then had the
finesse and the touch at the basket to get it to go. I just
thought he was a badass by the fact that he challenged Wenby. He had
a one on one on Russell Knew in transition and Russ made a great play
on the basketball. And his defense has been very good so far. Same
with norm I think we brought that up recently, but Norms defense this season
has been different compared to last year. And he said that at Media Day
that he wasn't gonna wait for the playoffs to come around for him to lock
in on that end. The team told him, hey, we need your
defense now, and this is somebody who we need. He really shouldn't be
a below average defender. I think his defense has been surprisingly in a negative
way, I guess disappointing to me so far as a Clipper. He has
been in there with some interesting lineups at times, which doesn't help. But
yeah, so far, the effort has been stellar. He was locked up
on Wemby a few different times, and I joked on Twitter, but you
got him to miss. I was like, Norm locked up Wemby, Like
here we go. And the other nice thing about Norm He's having a good
start to the season. We're not getting early slump Norm. Everyone was worried
about that, which is fair because if norms slumping, the bench is gonna
you know, bones is the key, but Norm is also there too.
Skeleton Skeleton key, that's my new nickname for makes everything that's fair. That's
great, But yeah, everything for the most part is going well. After
this break, we're gonna talk to the Clippers back to back preview. They
got the magic tomorrow night and then the Lakers the night after that. If
the ads have been too loud for you, go ahead and turn it down
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coming up in three one. Welcome back in Clips and Dips season two actions
still to come. In this with myself and Chuck Mockler, we'll talk about
the NBA in season tournament court designs that were just revealed earlier today, with
i'd say some pretty polarizing mixed reviews from people looking at them. We'll give
you our impressions of what the Clippers court looks like. But it's time to
preview the first back to back of the season. The first three and four
is here, first of twenty five of those. So the Clippers were able
to get a win last night by forty and most importantly getting their starters out
by the end of I took the Clippers. Tell you what I took the
Clippers at minus thirty eight and a half. Great bet. Great bet.
If you missed out on that one, hope, I hope you got good
odds on that nice check? Do you think so ty Luis had the plans
for Kawhi and PG to play versus the Magic and then evaluate how they feel
versus the Lakers. Lebron and I think a couple other key contributors for the
team across the hall popped up on the most recent Lakers injury report as well.
What are the chances Orlando's not gonna be an easy game? They're a
very good team. They have two young great you know, kind of mini
two one three ish or at least the same positions. They have a ninety
six defensive rating through two games, but they've played Houston in the Blazers,
so you know, I wish, hey, that'd be nice, Yeah right,
but ninety six is still absurd. They also have a very weird opening
slate for an Eastern Conference team Houston Blazers Lakers Clippers. Is that that has
to be the first time an Eastern Conference team has started all Western Conference Opponi
Stope in the season that many games. Do you think we see Kawhi and
PG both against the Lakers. I'm a little skeptical. I don't say that
with any stank on my breath. I just think The Magic is gonna be
a really hard game, and stink on my Breast should be the nickname now
track from steak on over here. Yeah, I think it's going to depend
on what happens tomorrow night. If they handle business the same way they did
against San Antonio, where the starters end up playing less than thirty minutes,
then there's a great chance they're able to go. But it is still dependent
on how they are feeling, of course, and the Magic have to take
on the Lakers tonight, so they're getting them on the second night of a
back to back, which is good for them, but the problem is then
the Lakers get a day off and we'll be waiting for the Clippers. However,
Sacramento took them to overtime last night. We talked about a postgame on
a little Clippers double dip on Clippers talk that that was big because great Lebron's
last two games. After coach Darbham came out and talked about this minutes restriction
they're trying to keep them around thirty side half of basketball, it lasted like
one Why would you the minutes restriction on Bron thing? Have you seen the
on off numbers for the Lakers with broad off the court. It's what they
are on all his teams throughout his entire career. That's basically how it looks.
When Lebron's on the court, you win those minutes, when he's not,
you lose. That has been kind of his cross to bear. But
he played thirty five minutes in Game two against the Phoenix Suns. They got
the victory. He was great late and that ballgame had ten points in the
fourth quarter. He played thirty nine minutes with that overtime game in Sacramento.
So they're chasing wins obviously early on because I do think, look, it's
smart, impactive. It is smart what they're doing, or at least what
they were saying they were going to do with Lebron, because if you look
at all those games against the Denver Nuggets, and granted he was dealing with
that foot injury and he definitely looks way better after this offseason coming back from
that, but they ran out of gas in all those fourth quarters. Those
were all those games against Denver, and the Lakers let them all slip and
Lebron look gas. Their only chance is if they manage his minutes well enough.
He's about to turn fing thirty nine in year twenty one. I know
it's overstated and people are tired of hearing that, but you're never gonna see
it again, so I think it's okay to appreciate it, even though he's
wearing a Lakers jersey, because last night was the twenty year anniversary of his
debut up in Sacramento where he lost with Cleveland back in two thousand and three,
and to celebrate they lost again, Lebron did now with the Lakers in
Sacramento, not at Arco, but at the Gold One Center. So looking
at the magic, Franz Wagner's having a great start to this season. He's
shooting thirty seven percent on eight threes a game, and you can also score
inside. His buddy Paolo is also very, very good at basketball. They
have two huge wings to go. It's almost like looking on the mirror a
little bit when it comes to like roster construction. At least, I'm really
excited to see what they do with I'm wondering if they just funnel him to
Zoo and try and make him force the pass and make a decision like that,
because I gotta assume we're going to see a bunch of different looks.
They have Cole Anthony, who always kills us, had a crazy duel with
Reggie a couple of seasons ago which was fun. Oh yeah, the one
two like it's this is a huge test for the defense. This is I
mean offensively obviously, where it's not like we're going in a sneezy team either.
But they have size, they got continuity, you know, they want
to make a mark on the season. I'm looking at Kawhi and PG.
Yes, I'm looking at Kawhi and PG to start this game. We really
need him to start defensively with what we didn't have against the Jazz, because
if we come out like that, it's it's not going to be very fun
to ope in this game. And how about Paul George with five steals in
the first quarter, a career high as steals for a quarter, and he
was just picking guys pockets one on one. He's averaging like three a game.
Which is anybody who derided or moped Paul George saying he was gonna be
on his bullys, well, through three games he's been on it, and
then some I mocked him. I need to see it at more than three.
But we'll see. He's been fantastic. So far, so good,
but yes, he needs to set the tone. They need to set the
tone defensively, and just let the opposition know. I'm gonna say this a
lot this season. It's not gonna be an easy night. Everything's gonna be
contested. Make them uncomfortable early on. Let them know that they're coming off
a game tonight against Los Angeles Lakers. We'll see how that goes, but
just let him know, not tonight, not tonight in Los Angeles. This
Clippers team is coming out with playing with force, and they're looking to build
on this early season defensive mindset, energy that they've put out there throughout training
camp. And that's all you can ask for right now, like keep doing
the basics that you've been preaching and keep building off of it. And we've
talked about how we've wanted to see what this team's offense looks like in the
half court against you know, maybe a better defense than what they've seen so
far. This is gonna be a very good test of what the halfbart offense
looks like, even if we can't get the normal transition game we've been seeing
when things are going well for the Clippers. We're still gonna have to probably
if this is a close game, win it in the half court, and
they have size, they have guys who try on the defensive end. You
know, like this is gonna be a chess match for tylu. I'm excited
to see the lineups. I'm yeah, for some reason, I have an
inkling that kJ Martin might be able to have a clutch bucket or two.
I'm not saying a crazy good game, but we're gonna need speed and legs
in this one if we want to play everybody versus the Lakers. So I
hope if any minutes kJ gets he can use his youthfulness to dust everybody on
the court. There was something in that game last night that I felt like
was a wrinkle for how they're gonna use kJ Martin moving forward. In the
first half, when he got minutes when the game wasn't quite fully out of
reach yet and he was playing more consequential minutes, they basically used him as
a runout cherry picker. Guy, beat your man down the court, We'll
look for you that way. That's how you exploit his ability to get up.
He's a great athlete. Just throw the ball down the court to him,
and then he ended up catching a couple of lobs in the second half.
But I like that. I think that's smart. That's where he can
be useful, beat his man down the court. The Clippers want to push
the face a few baseball passes to him, whatever, it takes, four
points, whatever, something to just throw off the rhythm. If if the
Magic are kind of running away or having a really good game in this one,
what's your pick for this game? I don't know, there's you know,
we obviously were never going to talk about betting lines on this on this
podcast. You do you think the Clippers take care of business night? Wanted
this back to back, like you said, you mentioned is the second night
for the Magic, which does help the Clippers a lot. Yeah, I
do. Uh. I think, Well, they're undefeated at home so far.
But I think they're gonna come out and play the right way. There's
a reason they did a pregame closed practice before yesterday's game, Like there is
just a different level of focus and an intent on playing a certain way and
we're not messing around, and we're gonna give us every opportunity to be great
this season. You can't control injuries, none of that stuff. All you
can do is build on those philosophies that they've been talking about. So I
think they're gonna get off to a quick start. I don't expect them to
win by forty or anything like that. Orlando will be a good test.
Jonathan Jonathan not believe in Huh, you don't think they have two forty point
wins back to back? Is the line thirty eight this time to Chuck or
I got him at minus twenty six and a half. I got really good
odds on that. Jonathan Isaac is backing healthy. Finally, they have a
little guy rebounding well like. They're doing the things that can beat the Clippers
right their third and rebounds per game, they're hitting, They're getting a lot
of free throw attempts. This is a be tight around the margins game for
the Clips. This is one of the teams that got the Clippers attention enough
to do all this conditioning coming into the season. They're one of those good
young teams that you know early in the year before it looks like, oh
we're gonna miss the play in we're gonna miss the playoffs again, and maybe
they will be in the play and mix in the East. But everybody has
hope early on. So some of these teams, like we saw with Okac
to start off last season when the Clippers took those two losses in Oka,
see early on, everybody's feeling good about themselves. Obviously, the Thunder now
look to be a playoff team for sure, as long as they're healthy.
But I've just been young. Teams like this can be very dangerous early on
in the season. Speaking a dangerous. They have a Joe Ingles now,
I believe, so watch out. Don't like that? Forgot about that?
Hey that partoo hard Tomorrow? Yes he is, and on Halloween, so
it's only fitting a right Moving on to the Lakers game. Yeah, So
here's a stat I saw on Twitter, and this is before they play the
Magic. It's very early, but through the three games they've played, the
Lakers are twenty ninth and pull up shooting effective field goal percentage twenty ninth and
spot up shooting effective field goal percentage twenty fifth and catch and shoot three point
percentage and twenty third in wide open three point percentage. It feels like they
start every year like this. The shooting is out there. Gabe Vincent has
been horrendous for that team. I it's always crazy when you play the Lakers,
right, it's like a it's you know, it's like a real divisional
game. It's like the division actually matters when you play the Lakers. I
I think you might have some feelings on this. Do you think the Clippers
are gonna make Ad shoot a lot? I hope so, because outside the
bubble, Anthony Davis has never been a great shooter. I don't know why
they're chasing that now and talking about, hey, we should get himutting up
more three pointers this season. At least that was the mess. Darvin Ham
said he wanted him to take six a game, right, And I'm trying
to pull up his stats now he is at fifty percent. He might be
like one for two on the year. Let me check he's he's only he's
shooting. He's attempting two to three pointers per game, so forty eight percent
is obviously very low. I wonder how many mid ranges he's taking. There
was a shot against the Phoenix Suns the other night in their Game two,
where Yusuf Nurkic dared him to take a fifteen footer on the left elbow.
He literally thought about going up to guard ad and then said no, no,
no, take that shot back the way ad Brick did. So.
From ten field goal percentage by distance ten to sixteen feet, he's at thirty
three percent. Three to ten feet, he's at thirty three percent. Right
at the rim, he's at eighty three percent. Where does the three to
ten percentage stack up against the rest of his career, because that seems abnormally
low. Three to ten well, so for them for his career he averages
forty four. Okay, so it's down significantly that it's two games that'll come
around, and then ten to sixteen for his career he averages forty two.
So not exactly lighting it up, we're not talking about still not good,
no, right, So people think I'm I'm hoping we're gonna go ahead.
People think I'm a hater, and maybe i am, but well, I
mean so true teller Anthony Davis in the Bubble. Anthony Davis in those twenty
one games in the playoffs in the Bubble shot fifty five percent on long two's
and thirty eight percent on threes. If anyone can find me a twenty one
game stretch in his entire career, where he had twenty one consecutive games and
then that stretch shot that well on long twos and threes. Good luck.
That was one of the abnormalities or abnormal shooting outputs like TJ. Warren,
like a few other guys that we saw in the bubble, and nobody wants
to talk about it because that would discredit the Clippers championship. But I'm sorry,
it's the truth. Anthony Davis was on a heater like he was Kevin
Durant, and he's never shot that well before. So for them to be
like, oh, we want you to take more of those shots. Get
back to that, So get back to what it's never happened outside the bubble
doesn't make any sense. Get back to what he's back all right, he's
doing what he normally does, just about But look, he's a great player.
I'm just saying, he's never been a great shooter, right to your
point. Try to make him into a jump shooter, right, and Zoo
plays fairly well against the Lakers. I'm interested to see if he can.
He had seventeen and thirteen the last time we played the Lakers. So did
you have a game with five blocks early on last season? Against Anthony Davis.
Was it the first game against him? Yeah? It was, It
might have been, so. Yeah, Lebron is still the best player on
the Lakers, which is insane. He's shooting eighty five percent at the rim.
He's not taking a ton of shots from three to ten or ten to
sixteen feet. I've gotta imagine we're gonna see Kawhi and PG multiple looks on
Lebron trying to force him into these shots he doesn't take at all so far
this year. And if he beats us on mid range jumpers or whatever goofy
thing might happen, you just kind of got to live with it because his
stat like it's you don't want him at the rim, you want him anywhere
else other than the rim. We might see some comical defense from the Clippers
in this game against the Remember how sometimes the teams would just pack the paint
against the Lakers if they don't play well against the magic the Lakers from outside.
I think we might see some mimeable defense from the Clippers in this game,
as they should. The main reason that the Clippers have won eleven straight
against the Lakers is because Lebron has had some of the worst games over his
last five years against the Clippers. It's not a coincidence that it's happened in
the two to one three era U The first game against him, he shot
thirty six percent. The next game, that December game with a Pat bev
rip at the end, he shot thirty seven percent, then forty one percent,
thirty one percent, forty percent, thirty nine percent, thirty three percent,
forty four percent, forty one percent. But the last three games last
season against the Clippers fifty four percent, fifty five sixty five where he had
what the forty point game. Uh, he had a forty six point game
against the Clippers. Clippers still won. But overall in these eleven games where
they have dominated the Lakers, it's been locking up Lebron and getting the best
of him. Yes, like that, I mean that's he's the best guy
on their team. Like force Anthony Davis to be the guy because Anthonyvis has
shown you can do it sometimes. But if this Clippers team, if we
come out foot on the gas, legitimately foot on the gas, Russ comes
out, he'll probably have a little bit of extra motivation as always against you
know, his former team, especially how things ended over there. If you
know, I'm assuming Roco is going to start again if we get locked in
Roco, who did a good job on Wemby, very physical on Limby,
He's gonna have to be physical with everyone he guards for the Lakers. Like
I also like, let's give let's put the ball in Delo's hands. Let's
make Delo make decisions. The group of Dangelo Russell, Reeves, Vincent and
Cam Reddish are a combined seventeen percent from three to start the season. They're
eight of forty five as a trio. I'm most worried about Reeves getting hot.
He is He's more than Dow. He's a good basketball player. He's
better than Dangelo Russell. Like, that's who I'm most worried about maybe getting
hot in this one. That's a great call because he has had a miserable
start to the season and he's good, Like this is no shade on him.
He's so good player. People right now are saying, oh, he
had his insanity moment. It's over now because he's gotten off to a start
where from the field he's shooting thirty percent from three, He's shooting twenty five
percent scoring. He played summer basketball too, like I think he's just tired.
I also, I have a feeling this is just a stupid theory of
mine, but preaking like the hype when you're a Laker and do anything.
Sometimes France and Ruie it's like this, and Tory Prince's been very good so
far. But I wonder how many players in the league, because you saw
that moment with Kevin Durant in the preseason saying, don't put him on me
next week. I wonder how many guys feel like, all right, Austin,
it's time the payback is here. We're tired of you having a bigger
name in this league than guys who are legitimate All Stars and who have been
doing this for a long time, just because you're a member of the Los
Angeles Lakers. Theory. I remember this. I felt like teams against the
Clippers during Lob City took umbrage with Blake Griffin and all his dunks, and
they were annoyed by him because he hadn't done anything at the highest level in
the league, and the Clippers were more style than substance. Sure, and
I'm not saying that's the case with Austin Reeves. I actually think he's really
good and he can be a great championship a role player on a championship team,
just like Terrence Man. But I also think guys are gunning for him
now, like he has a target on his back because you saw what last
year he crossed over Giannis. It became this big clip. He's gotten a
couple of guys, and I just think the rest of the league is like,
no, it's it's over, Like we're we're actually going to go at
you, because there was some of someone of a blueprint at times in the
playoffs where if you made him work defensively, his legs were taken out of
the ball game. On the other end for jump shots, Yeah, we're
gonna we gotta put everyone. Let's put Lebron in motion on offense. I
want to see Lebron having to move around and navigate soft screens. Anything to
make him work harder on the defensive end is gonna be huge, which is
where Russ is gonna come into play, setting things up bones on the second
unit again, force him to run. Let's make everyone run. When Kawhi
and PG aren't in this game, it's gonna be a great game. Obviously,
we're on the second end of a back to back. We don't know
if Kahian PG are gonna play, but it's it's winnable. It's it's possible
to go to a zero over this back to back. It's gonna be very
difficult. I think they're gonna split. I hate to be the downer.
I hate to be the Debbie downer. I think they're gonna split. I
think they're gonna end up three or what is it? Yeah, I don't
want them to split. You haven't met then, Yeah, here's what's encouraging
to sound good. I don't like that. But it's a tough like,
it's a tough split to get. No, I want them to start nine
to four at worst in their first thirteen games. To me, that Utah
game, you have to get that back somewhere. But I'll say this regarding
rest and if they're both gonna play Kawhi and Paul George's back to back,
we don't know how they're going to be used and dispersed in those games.
They got four days off afterwards. Now they may be practicing all those days,
but they actually have After the Lakers game, they don't play again.
I think until Monday. This is like the only little lull in their schedule
before the Gauntlet creeps up on them. But maybe that plays a factor here
where they can play extra minutes in both games with the back to back and
not have to worry about it as much and go for these wins because you
know you're getting four days off afterwards. Right. I like that mentality.
That's a good time. We're feeling confident. Oh, one other guy I'm
worried about, maybe Christian Wood. I'm happy he's not on the Clippers.
He seems like a nightmare in the locker room, but the shooting ability is
there. If he has a wonky hot night, I would be upset,
Yeah, but not totally surprised. Someone's gonna have a goofy night and someone
with an outlier performance is usually how you lose a game like this, or
somebody sneaks up on you. Yeah, Gabe Benson, make it off the
snide. There are guys who are primed for figuring it out and having a
hot shooting night. But maybe then Torren Prince doesn't have as good of a
night. So we'll see if it evens out and they got the extra practice
and they're feeling good. Last thing, we're gonna close on. The new
court designed for the D Season tournament was released for every team, these Clippers.
One is blue as hell. It's very blue, says Clips in the
city audition logo with the little basketball over it at the center. I don't
hate it. I feel kind of crazy saying that. I think the blue
if you saw it on Twitter, I think that it's not gonna be that
bright. I think that's a weird rip. But I guess I'm just interested
to see it in person. Well, I like the fact that there's more
structure and tradition they're trying to build with the N Season tournament where you do
change the courts. Oh, they'll they'll be wearing their city edition uniforms.
It's not just oh and tonight. Oh yeah, this game also counted as
one of the tournament games. You're going to know it's going to be visible.
And why not blue, blue court, blue ocean for the Clippers,
Like, that's not the worst thing in the world. I saw a few
other ones out there because some people are saying this doesn't look like the Clippers.
I looked at the Celtics court. It should be for the Milwaukee Bucks,
the Boxers court, well, the Celtics one looks like it should be
for Milwaukee. The Sixers one looks like it should be for the Pelicans.
So some of it, it seems. The Pistons one makes like no sense.
They're related to their city edition jerseys though, right, that's what the
courts are connected to it, I would assume. So yeah, well it's
it's gonna be. Some people were more excited seeing that. Knowing that,
Okay, like if you kind of uniform everything into this and wrap it into
this playing tournament vibe here, and you really make it a different type of
environment, a different type of look those nights for the playing game, that's
kind of fun. Yeah, it's I mean, you're right, your your
your point is great. Of like they're trying to make it a separate thing.
They're trying to make it a little more fun. Yeah, they're gonna
stand out more. Again, waiting on that full backstory for the Clippers City
Edition before I pass even more judgment on it, But hopefully we'll get that
soon. I don't know that about wraps it up. We're gonna be back
with a double dip for allowed on the radio. Still uh after against the
Magic and the Lakers, most likely We're on Spotify, YouTube, all the
places with podcasts. This one will be up there, but without a fantastic
thumbnail because Will Updyke is usually here with us and he does anything related to
graphic design that we need done. Yeah, he's like our n season tournament
guy, Like he makes things pop exactly Will Will makes things pop. I
am Chuck Macharm on Twitter at Chuck Mockler, Adam is that at follow adam
a anything positive? We want to send these folks out on the Clippers responded
after it looked like they resorted back to what we saw last season and things
didn't go off the rail the very next game they were covered and that slippage
didn't continue on the defensive end in first quarters, big bouncebacks, performances from
Russ, from Plumbley, from Zoobots of course, so things are still trend
the right way overall. Let's hope that Utah performance was anaboration. Let's have
rission because that's a ghost is Halloween. Yeah, it is very spooky right
now, Thank you everyone for listening. Review us over on iTunes or apple
pops whatever it's called. Now we'll be back with I Believe a full crew
on Thursday because we got this dang all back to back coming on. Full
crew should be together Thursday, if not, just Adam and again, hey
that's not a bad time. We'll talk to you guys soon. As always,
let's go clips