Speaker 1: Dave Roberts, the manager made worked. Yes, the Dodgers have
an A Norman's payroll. Yes they outbid people for stars,
but half of them, especially the starting staff, seemed injured
all year. This organization, this team proved a resilience beyond
the money.
Speaker 2: Collin Cowhers weekday mornings.
Speaker 3: At nine am after Dan Patrick.
Speaker 2: Right here on your home of the world champion Dodgers Sports,
the Lague Clippers. You're listening to LA Clippers Basketball.
Speaker 3: Take us with you.
Speaker 2: Wherever you are on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4: Zach Golcaldy called for he delivered all those on me Clippers,
all eyes on the clips. For those who are doubting
this squad, or at least thought they were going to
be one of the worst teams in the Western Conference,
a bottom four team, they are six and four one
of their first ten games. Wake up, national media, where
you at Big Park? How'd you guys not know that
this team had a defensive identity They were building this
off season right after they lost Paul George. They made
the move. They brought in Derrick Jones Junior. They brought
back Nico Batoom, they brought in Chris Dunn, and right
now Clippers, I would say is successful six and four
in their first ten ball games. But I want to
ask Big Chuck Mockler about this record right now as
he joins the show a little clips and double dip
here on Clippers Talk. Chuck, how we feeling after the
Clippers start off their first ten games two games above
five hundred.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling great, Adam six and four and not just
a six and four in the first ten games. Three
back to backs in the first ten games as absurd.
We all thought the schedule would get easier with a
new stadium, but you know, here we are no. Six
and four. With the wins that they have and the
way they've gotten them, it's been kind of a variety,
right Like we've seen the cardiac Clippers, as we saw
night they handedly beat the seventy six ers the other day.
So the identity is there, which I think is the
important thing which makes it easier to get wins in
different ways, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Zach Ocaldy is is that a snographer that's in the
courtroom that writes out everything. Somebody says he's doing that
right now on the YouTube side back Clippers Talk. That's
what Chuck is saying, quote Chuck Macler says, I'm feeling great,
Adam six and four or three back to backs. All right,
let's talk about terrace Man late in this ballgame here, Charles,
because he made two stellar defensive plays. They don't win
without him, and Coach lou went back to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, a huge shoutout to Terrence. He's obviously,
you know, he's caught the most flack of any Clipper
during the start, really just because he's in the starting lineup,
But he hit shots in the late in the in
this game, and he had a little kind of mini
Terrence run. I think it was to open that third there,
and that the block and the contest right at the
end of this game is hard enough as it is,
but when you're kind of gone through the start of
the season that Terrence has, I think it's even more
difficult to kind of get up for those moments, you
know what I mean, Not that I didn't think he could,
but to see it happen on the second man of
the back to back in a lineup where they haven't
been closing with the starters, you know, and it's just
great to see. I hope this gets them going. I
think offensively with this team, it looks like this might
be his ceiling, which is a little unfortunate. But we
remember what Ty said a couple maybe last week. He said,
I need Terrence to bring me things defensively and rebounding,
and we saw him do the most important stuff defensively
late tonight.
Speaker 4: I'm kind of happy in some ways. I'm not happy
about them missing free throws. I'm not happy about the turnovers,
but to have this happen in two straight games where
they still win, I think it tells you about their
margin of error, and it has grown because Norman Powell,
because of what Pal's been able to do, averaging twenty
five points per game. With the level of efficiency we're
seeing right now, nobody expected this, like if they were
going to make these mistakes and you just said, okay,
this team coming into this one is averaging seventeen turnovers
per game, and you ask somebody what their record would
be if you knew that information, they would say definitely
under five hundred. But they're getting by anyways while not
playing perfect basketball.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Clippers have needed every single one of
the nine straight game that Norm has scored over twenty points,
right They're six and four, right, and it's the best
start to Norm Powell's career that he'll ever have probably,
so Norm has been the player of the season. We
know that James Harden is kind of the engine. He's
the conductor, he's the system. Norm Powell's been the best
player so far in this season specifically. It's awesome to see,
you know, for your UCLA guy, but he was just
he's just doing Norm stuff, Like I don't really know
what we can compare it to because he just keeps
figguring out ways to get buckets. He ends up what
fifty tonight Like, the efficiency is off the charts, and
we need it to keep as fun as it has been.
Thirty eight minutes from Zoo tonight, thirty five from Norm,
thirty four from James the day after they played, you know,
a very heavy minute pload two. We need as much
of this from Norm Powell as possible, and I think
given the schedule, they've been able to take advantage of
it as much as they could have for the most part.
Speaker 4: Like he started this game off. I joked pregame. I
was like, let's see if Norm's still on the heater,
give him a heat check and he had a four
point play and then three, and you know he had
seven points early on just by knocking him down from
distance and then being fouled on one of those. But
the ability to get to is right. And you can
see the difference in teams loading up on him a
little bit more and guys shading over. The word is
getting out. It doesn't take long in the NBA, with
how many scouts, with how many coaches you have out there,
and they're playing him different. Tonight was different, and he's
still twenty four points, as you mentioned on just fourteen shots. Now,
the two miss free throws were brutal late and if
Yaka Pearl ends up getting that to go, which I
think was one of the best executed miss free throws
I've ever seen, it went right back to him. It
was ly like twenty one tip it right, chuck, where
you get it in the air and you try to
put it back up. I mean, there was more time
he could have gone down with it, but it was
a great look. It just rimmed in it out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Big Zoo was right there too. He made
a little more difficult for him. He ends up getting
the ball and he was off ballot to make the
past the hardened after, which was great too, very weird
for Pearl to have the ball in his hands that late.
But I'm not here to question decisions by opposing coaches
that make it easier for the Clippers to win. At
this point.
Speaker 4: I would not question Darko or give him some bad calls.
I would not do of those things who I do love,
And that was one of my favorite rants in NBA
history because it happened against the Lakers and his stuff.
I wanted to say for so long. So James Hard
is still in this shooting funk, and people have told
us that no, no, no, guys, this is just early season.
Gotta get his sea legs underneath him. It's not happening
so far. Now. It's the second ninde of him back
to back, and he looked noticeably gassed at times. But
he's still because he got to the charity stripe so
much and he still was doing hard work getting downhill.
I mean thirteen free throws attempted, so he still gets
twenty four points on seventeen shots. Like the overall true
shooting efficiency I guess was good enough, even though he's
having trouble just knocking down threes and getting some of
the easy stuff to go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was good to see him go back to
the old, reliable right, get to the drive plane, get
to the line, hopefully hit the free throws. I don't
really know what can be fixed, if that makes sense.
I think this is just something.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: What have people been telling you, he's got to get
his game legs back. Well, we're ten games in, they
have a free game road trip coming up. We're gonna
we're really gonna see how much this rest is gonna
help him and stuff like that. But when if slash when,
because who knows, maybe Norm does cool off at some point.
We just got to hope that Harden's efficiency, you know,
goes the other goes up when norms, if Norms goes down, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Mean Norm still went fifty percent from three. He was
at forty nine percent. He was just touching, almost kissing
fifty percent from three. You could say kissing that what's
what's the phrase kissing the bottom of what is the Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah he was, he was kissing fifty percent. He was close.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's right there, so he's not gonna lose any
ground there. He was shooting fifty one percent from the floor.
He goes only fifty percent from the floor. Uh yeah,
this is insane the stuff Norm Powell is doing. What
do you I guess, are you expecting anything now that
we're ten games in Charles because coach Flue always looks
for that ten game sample size. Could we see some
moves coming now? I mean KPJ probably just had his
best game at least scoring. Why for the Slippers? If anything,
what are you expecting?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think the big change we've already
seen at this point in the season, which is kind
of not playing Kai Jones right, We've gone down to
a nine man rotation, which if you look at this
roster that is putting some stress on an older batomb
and stuff like that. Postgame, Tyleru said this is kind
of where he thinks the rotation is. So it might
just be based on availability, you know what I mean,
as much as you know going to stand after practice
doing all these things, I you might. I mean KPJ
did have his best game. We needed his outside shooting.
He's a lot better when he's shooting threes and when
he was driving and taking weird mid range ones tonight.
But I think the big change with the margin of
error for this team is just taking Kai out of
the rotation. The margin of error is so thin you
can't really make big changes, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a good point, and maybe they're
just you know, Kai got minutes again in the first half,
but none in the second half, and they were a
plus seven with those minutes to end the third quarter.
It worked and apparently, according to Tomarrazari, uh Mobama has
been participating in Stay Ready game day practice, five on
fives and everything. He hasn't been limited, says to coach
Lou but his status for the trip is still tbd.
Kawhi is not going on the trip, but maybe they're
getting Mobama back sooner than later, and you know that's
the move, that's the change, just getting him back. Yeah,
in his first minutes as a Clipper.
Speaker 3: And he's a different center than Kai Jones, right, He's
a lot, he brings different things. He's more of a
pick and pop guy, that kind of thing. I think
you're right. I think it's trying to you know, they
take Kai out and then they just see what we
kind of have with Obama because we still don't really
I mean, we have no idea in game, but you know, hey,
the team six and four, So it's like we just
kind of got to the Clippers are a ride ride.
What's going well? Team?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: If things are going well, we just have to keep
doing it until it doesn't and then we have, thankfully
Tilood a pivot thing. So right now things are going well.
Who knows how much Obama's going to play when he's back,
But I mean the nine guy rotation, they're what two
and oh since they or maybe three and oh since
the nine man rotation started. It A lot depends on
Norm Powell, a lot depends on James Harden, But for
now we should all be very excited.
Speaker 4: So we're looking at this team. I guess I don't
know a little bit more back to the big picture
here as we close things out, Chuck. But they're six
and four. They've made mistakes, they're still above five hundred,
they've had three back to backs already. As you mentioned earlier,
they're going into OKAC on Monday, but OKAC will actually
be on a back to back, So that's nice to see.
This is a team that is dangerous, and you think
about if they can get Kawhi Leonard back, and I
know that's asking a lot right now, But all of
a sudden, I've been mentioning this the last couple of days,
but the power forward issue may have been an exaggeration.
They've been a very good rebounding team. The zach Levine
talk and bringing in another score. When you have zach
Lavine at home, it's called normOn Powell, and that's no disrespect.
He has been that good so far. Like, I wouldn't
give him up for zach Lavine right now, when you
compare contracts and everything it would take. I would not
do that move. I would not be close to making
a drastic move like that. Look at normOn Powell and
his efficiency, it's just it's otherworldly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you're not. You can't move off norm
right now. They need as many wins as they can get. Yeah,
it is early in the season, but you know, we
were all worried about the rebounding rightfully, So I don't
think anyone was wrong to be worried about the rebound there.
I'm I'm excited for now. I do think there might
be a wall coming up, no pun intended. At around
fifteen twenty games. We're gonna see how their legs feel
because it's been a lot of mind.
Speaker 4: It's gonna break through, so you can start shooting well again.
Speaker 3: That will I hope so, but there just might be
a fatigue wall. I hope it doesn't hit too hard.
But this is where the identity comes into play. This
is where guys like Van Gundy teaming up with ty
lu to really instilling these guys a defensive identity that
they can fall back on them things you're rough offensively,
which is what they've done for the most part.
Speaker 4: He is Chuck Mockler of Cliffs and Dip fame, joining
me here on Clippers talk for a little Clips and
Double Dip. After the Clippers win one five to one
to three over the Raptors. Here at into it Dome, Charles,
great stuff as always. We'll talk to you as soon,
my friend.
Speaker 3: Let's go clips coming up next.
Speaker 4: That's our final time out. Yeah, this is it. Add
to check my test message. Zach o'caldy was like in
the chat transcribing everything Chuck was saying, which is hilarious
and very much needed. You could hear the guests when
the Clippers are on the road and I'm back in Burbank.
You can't hear the guests when I'm into it dome.
But uh, no matter. We pushed through just like the Clippers. Yeah,
a couple of turn overs late, Yeah, some missfree throws
get the dub. Anyways, Clippers have won four straight. There's
six and four in their first ten games. We'll unpack
some of the quotes coming out from coach lou next
to our final segment here on Clippers stock from into
a Dull live on your Los Angeles Clippers Alredo Network
in a five seventy LA Sports