Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season three,
episode twenty four of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Walker,
joined by Adam Ausland. William Updyke is unavoidably detained. He
has family in town. I'm a way to see family.
It's a very busy week here at Clips and Dip,
but we're making things happen. If you're new to the show,
thank you for watching us. We're on YouTube dot com
last at Clippers Podcast. You can find us anywhere you
listen to podcast. Today, Adam and I are going to
discuss the back to back that occurred this week that
the Clippers participated for the most part in, and then
we're going to talk about what might happen against the
Thunder on Saturday. Before we get into that, Adam, how
are you doing?
Speaker 2: Perfectly? Calm, dude, calmer than you are?
Speaker 1: You might be calmer than I am. I don't know
if you caught me on the the Henny Ween live
stream yesterday.
Speaker 2: But.
Speaker 1: A little bit postgame postgame was a little rough last night.
That was uh for those that missed it. The Clippers
lost to the Blazers and then they lost to the
Suns in two very different but equally frustrating fashions with
some similarities too. I mean, that's a great point to
start with, because, like, what are the things that this
team talked about in the off season that they wanted
to work out. It's like taking care of the ball,
limiting offense, you know, limiting extra possessions for the other team,
and they seem to do that. In the first half
of things. Things seemed to start well.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the best half of basketball they played
so far this season, the one against Phoenix. Yeah, that
first half was great. I mean Kevin Porter Junior was
great in that first half. He was four or four
and had good five minutes, like they were cooking. And
and I know we'll get into it, but you know
a lot has been said of hey, and I heard
you bring it up too, and it's a valid point.
Visa Zubas only gets ten shots last night and he's
nine to ten, How does he not get more? Well,
I mean they were up by eighteen and he only
had five shots in the first half. It was working.
Everything they were doing was working. And then just an
extraordinary fluky shooting variants took place in the third quarter
against them. Of course, with Phoenix going fifteen for fifteen,
but turnovers down the stretch again a bad inbounce pass.
Although I rewatched it again, Well, why you don't have
to do that. Well, I got to know what happened.
And Grayson Allen played remarkably good defense on that, Like
he was able to Niko Batoum the entire time while
staying with Norman Powell, which is not easy. That was
incredible free safety work by him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you missed that Phoenix game, you know, And
what's funny is you talk like you know they made
the fifteen shots in a row in the third quarter,
which incredibly fluky. I think it's totally fair for Clippers
fans to acknowledge the absurdity of that. You look at
the shooting percentages at the end of the game. Phoenix
shot fifty one percent as a team. The Clippers shot
forty eight percent. Clippers had eleven more field goal attempts,
they made six few or threes. They advice as many
offensive rebounds. This was, like I said this on the
live stream, but the Clippers can just kind of get
leaned on, and that's what we saw the Suns do.
So a seventy point first half is something that like
not insurmountable. I don't mean that at all, but the
Clippers can just cut. Like we saw the fatigue down
the stretch from James Harden with some of those turnovers
and stuff like that, it just again it was kind
of yeah again, which we can get into that too.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Everybody in the comment section was like,
don't you guys understand he's got to get his seasoned
legs underneath him. What are you talking about your casuals?
Speaker 1: So my thing with the turnovers, and I brought this
up and I will continue to bring this up. Law Murray.
This stat is very important to me as each game
goes by about James Harden. Last year, the most turnovers
he had in the game was five. We're already at
every single game being higher than that. So last year
I think was more of an anomaly than what we're
seeing this year.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's also a role. Though you have Kawhi,
you have Paul George out there. Last year, Russell Westbrook's
coming off the bench, the usage rating is completely different.
I think he still has after last night the third
highest usage only behind Sga Luca. I don't think they're
thirty five years of age. I think they're twenty six
and twenty five. Too much is being asked of James Harden,
which is something we were afraid of coming into this season.
And who's going to be the other shot creator, slash
playmaker guy out there for them and can make the
trains run on time? As Doctor Schapp likes to say,
with this offense, who else can do it? It's not
happening right now. It's all on James and so therefore
he's falling flat late ball games as his legs are
no longer underneath him anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at his usage rates currently through five games,
he's at thirty three point six percent usage, which is
his one two three four fifth highest ever. His usage
rate with the Clippers last year twenty percent, his third
lowest ever. Yeah, so we're really seeing some men maxing.
We're in the max section of Harden's usage, and like
you said, and everyone who's watched it, even two of
the five games, we're seeing it be an issue down
the stretch and what can be done to help this?
And I mean that Worm's gotten off to a hot start,
but that's not The scoring is great, and we need
the scoring and again Norm took an, yet again a
brutal knock, which seems to be his moo for this
Clippers team. He shed more blood on a basketball court
in the last two seasons than anyone in the NBA,
and I think that is a fact.
Speaker 2: Poor guy was out there like carry on Halloween, dude.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, but he could score. But we we
don't have anyone. We're throwing inbounds out of bounds. We
don't have anyone to initiate the offense. And I'm laughing
because it's partly gulls humor, because like, who is going
to help this easier?
Speaker 2: And this is why when there isn't an answer like
this and people are just like raw, just frustrate, but
there's no clear answer. I get it on one, but
you got to understand there is some rationale going on
with trying to chase Kevin Porter Junior and hope that
it comes around because they just don't have any options. Now,
would I try Bones, Would I try Jordan Miller at
this point? Yeah, because I think you got to win
games early in the season and have a sense of urgency.
And I'm not saying they don't, I just I see
it's not an easy decision because if you do go
to Bones and then he's up and down, which he
totally could be, what's next. Now he goes to Jordan
Miller and he's never played real NBA minutes before, and
what if he is up and down or just a
lot of down, and then you have to go back
to the guys that you were benching for them. That's
really awkward and that creates a very difficult situation in
the locker room where you can lose it. So to
coach lose credit. This is why he let things fail,
to make it obvious to everyone, including the guys that
he has to tell, Hey, I'm pulling you. This is
why we have this amount of evidence, and so it
lessens the blow a little bit. So I totally get
what they're doing right now. I also think if they
get blitzed dely against okay See tomorrow, I think there's
a good chance we will see Bones or Jordan Miller.
Speaker 1: Gonna push face up. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the
looming okay S game, but okay See we can intertwine it.
Okay See has an incredibly good defense to start this season,
and the loss of the Blazers, which pains me to say,
last two minutes of that game of a game the
Clippers lost by one point, right, they didn't make a bucket.
Speaker 2: No, they had two made baskets. I think the last
five and a half minutes. Any turnovers, No, four turnovers
in the fourth quarter of that one six in the
fourth quarter last night, and the miss free throws.
Speaker 1: It's all clearly, it's not clearly. I don't mean to
say it like that, like it's a simple problem. These
are fatigue problems, right, Like all of these things together
are a clear fatigue.
Speaker 2: Issue, symptom of the disease of fatigue going on with
this team. By having someone who is thirty five have
a usage rating of thirty three percent out there, it's
just it's too much. You're asking too much. But then again,
where else do you go? Because I'm pretty sure when
people were screaming last night tried James Hard and saying
all these crazy things, It's like, guys, I don't know
if they'd score eighty points in a game if they
didn't have James Hard, honestly.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, so yeah, let's imagine this team and we're
not saying, you know that this would be a Yeah,
let's imagine training James for like some picks and some filler.
What what does this Clippers team look like after that that? Yeah,
I guess like before we kind of get into the Okay,
see stuff did back to back? You know, level setting wise,
did it really change your perception of like kind of
long term what you think this Clippers team could do
this regular season?
Speaker 2: No, because on the last show we did, they were
coming off winning too straight in a back to back
scenario on the road against good teams, and like, the
first thing I brought up on the show was I
am worried about James Harden and him running out of gas.
So I mean I expected this to happen. It is
something we've talked about all off season. How do you
have enough shot creation with this team? How do you
figure it out and not make it all the James
Shardon Show, because that has a recipe for disaster late
in games, And I just don't know. Look, they had
a great first half. Things were clicking. There's some progress
there with getting other guys involved and not just having
it be high pick and roll with James Harden and
to each Zubots because Zoo only got up five shots
in the first half, and they still led by eighteen.
They made a concerted effort then early in the third
quarter to feature Zubats. I want to say. He took
like three out of the first four shots and had
the end one on the dunk to start the third quarter,
and that was great. Yeah, that was great game plan
right there. It was like, Okay, we haven't got him. Yeah,
we haven't gotten him involved enough. We're going back to
big zoo. Now. He only got one shot in the
fourth quarter, which I hated seeing, But I think part
of that was because if you slow down Harden and
he's fatigued, you slow down the Clippers.
Speaker 1: And that's the big defender thing we saw Portland do.
They put a bigger guy on Harden, so he just
has to work harder. And if you do that from the.
Speaker 2: Jump, yeah, it's you can cut off the head of
the snake. Is very apparent to every team that the
Clippers are going up against. Everybody comes in knowing how
they can stop them. Now, the Clippers got going early
on anyways against Phoenix, even when they had Ryan Dunn,
who looks incredible to start off this season, who had
four three pointers and hit seven his last season in
college and hit four against the Clippers in one game
and missed two wide open ones late still that could
have been knocked down. But his defense on James Harden
I thought was really good early on. That really could
be the difference for the Phoenix Suns this season. That
and Tias Jones and a new coaching staff. But like
their a ceiling looks a lot higher than I think
most people thought heading into this year. Anyways, back to
the Clippers in that third quarter, you can't control. I
went back and watched every clip, every shot during the
fifteen made, and I would say seven or eight of
them were somewhere between decently contested to really well contested
by the Clippers, and it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a lot. It wasn't like a lot of
because I know there were also there were some people
upset in the in the live stream afterwards about how
many guys were left open late with the doubling that
the Clippers were doing. But in the third quarter, you're right,
they played like it wasn't wide open shots, so cultial
getting credit to the Sunster making the shots, not saying
anything like that, but like these were not this was
not a sloppy defensive quarter that the Clippers, yeah got
this done to them.
Speaker 2: And credit coach Lou for calling a time out when
they were still up seventeen. They dropped one point. They're
up eighty at the half, and coach Lou saw a
minute and a half in, uh oh, Phoenix is starting
to go. I gotta cut off their momentum right now.
We got to regroup and they had only cut into
it by one. Yeah, I love seeing that sense of urgency.
He called another one after Phoenix kept it going like
they tried everything. I'm not saying their defense was perfect,
but seven or eight of those shots were pretty damn
well defended. Use off Nurkics came into this one one
of nine from three. He gets a wide open one
because you got to make a decision there. You live
with that, and he knocks it down, like man, it
was just terrible, miserable fluck in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: And you look at another thing in the third that
that I think really frustrated Tie because he mentioned it
was the boards. Clippers got beat by eight on the
board in the third quarter, which is that would anger
any coach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the hustle plays definitely started to go the other
way in the second half and Phoenix. I think I
said this last night, what is happening partially with the
Clippers losing these games late where everyone's saying that, Hey,
from the Clippers fans perspective, they could be five and
oher right now. They also could very easily be zero
and five right.
Speaker 1: It goes close. Games go the other way too, y'all.
Speaker 2: Code Coach Lou brought that up. But my point is
what happens late in games is you see more of
the separation and talent because while the Clippers can outwork
teams and play with better effort through the first couple
of quarters three quarters, when a team gets desperate that
is more talented than you and has that sense of urgency,
like the Phoenix suns, all of a sudden, they're giving
a maximum effort now, so none of your shots are
as easy. And they were absolutely operating with pristine precision
around the perimeter. With some of the passes they were
making in the fourth quarter, everybody's talking about as you mentioned,
those wide open looks, it's like that was created through
perfect passes. If it was the other way around, If
it was the other way around, and the Clippers were
the ones always finding the open man when the opposition
is scrambling. Everyone would say, look at this ball moving
from the Clippers. Look at this hot potato. This is great. Well,
the Suns are.
Speaker 1: Just executing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Sons were executing perfectly. I get there's frustration,
but some of that is tip your cap. That was
some unbelievable basketball Phoenix.
Speaker 1: I like that point too. It's not like the Clippers
were sloppy for the most part, you know, Like it's
not like I mean, they were in some aspects, but
the whole game itself. Like you know, it's a six
point loss to the Suns, which probably looks a lot
better than some other teams, better roster constructed, you know
what I mean, teams who are gonna lose with the
Suns this year. Just sucks to see it happen back
to bad because they should have won the Portland game.
That the Phoenix game. You know, I'm pissed we lost. Whatever.
The Portland game is one that we punted directly to them.
The Phoenix game. That's a coin toss anyway, which I
feel good about. It's nice that it's a coin toss
with the Slippers team that Portland game. That is the
one to be for me that I'm more upset about
because of that last few minutes, no scoring, turnovers, a
team that they no disrespect to any Portland fans watching,
that the Clippers should be even with this roster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of what compounds things. You win the
game against Portland and if you had lost last night,
you're still feeling ours about yourself. Yeah, you know. And
the way they lost the game against Portland with missing
eight free throws I think it was in five of
them in the fourth quarter and James Harden missing multiple times.
Down he goes one for two and then big Zoo
goes over to it just can't happen. He tried to
make up for it with a great defensive play. He
had the block on Simon's and the recovery the Bill
Russell play. You get the block and the rebound, but
too little, too late, and then a bad I don't
even know I've watched that inbounds past a ton and
there's a frame where it's like, how is this nucket
in a zoo? Like is to get to this?
Speaker 1: Are you going frame by frame on these oh Zruiter
bro Adam Zapruter here. All right, we so from the
frustrating back to back losses that the Clippers go through
on a back to back, they now get to play
the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday. We're going to talk
about that. If you're listening, we're gonna do a quick
ad break. If you're watching, or you would like to watch,
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Thunder coming up in three two one.
Speaker 2: Welcome back in It's Clips and Dip. I'm out of
Moslem with Chuck Mockler.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: It's episode twenty four of season three of the show.
And the Clippers are entering game six of this twenty
twenty four to twenty twenty five regular season and they're
what would this be fourth game at into a Dome
where so far they are zero and three. This is
game three of a five game homestand and dunt, dunt, dum.
They're taking on the best team in the Western Conference
that I picked to have seventy wins this season and
so far, what, I don't think they've lost a game
the Okac Thunder.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest, so that that prediction is holding
up right now? Yeah? Four and oh.
Speaker 2: It is obviously as painful as it gets because you
have to watch your old girlfriend who's looking better than
ever an sgau just dunk on your ass. Well.
Speaker 1: Look, if there's a couple old girlfriends of mine who
if they dunked on me, they'd be like, well done, Okay,
deserve I deserve that. That's fair. It's I'm looking at
their stats, right I haven't watched a lot of Thunder
games this year. I know they're very good. You look
at their stats. I'm going to pick something that jumps
out to me. You pick something that jumps out to
you in relation to how it could maybe harm the Clippers.
Number one rated defense has me worried tomorrow night for
this game. How are you feeling about that?
Speaker 2: I think okay? See uh, I mean start off trying
to punish them with the vitza zubats. I think you
have to. I always say three are the first four
five possessions, get him touches, get him going. Because one
of the things I hate about the Blazers game. I
thought they were even worse with not getting a Vitza
Zubos involved because things weren't working that well. I think
they were up by two after the first quarter and
then you're down by four and a half and you're
not getting him involved. And I know he was on
a minute restriction or whatever because they were on a
back to back, so he only ended up playing thirty
one minutes, so he's being taken out of the ball game.
Earlier rotations are off.
Speaker 1: There's that cardio, the cardio. No, I'm not that wasn't
That wasn't.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, your side. I mean it's a back to
back and you got Phoenix the next night, and they're
trying to save the legs. I'm guessing they were trying
to keep him and James Harden under thirty minutes, but
that didn't happen because they weren't in control of the
ball game whatsoever against Portland. But I couldn't understand in
the first six and a half minutes of that game
against Portland, Zubas didn't get a shot up. He did
not take a shot in his first stint, Like, what
what are we doing if our foundation is not high
pick and roll with those two and looking for Big Zoo,
it is not an option to get him involved anymore.
It is necessary or else you're probably going to lose.
Like I'm not saying you're going to win if you
feed a beat Zooba, but you're probably gonna lose if
you don't get him involved at all. He's too important
to the team now. And I think it affected his
defense some in that game too, where you see it
with big men, the screens are even. Yeah, if you
want the dog to protect the house, you got to
feed him the old Shack line. So I say, feed
Big Zoo early and off and against okay, see, and
try to establish your identity on offense. At least.
Speaker 1: I like that it takes some of the scoring burden
if Zoo's got it going, because I mean, you look
at this starting five for the Thunder. Zoo has the size,
he has the mass at least to move their big
guys down low.
Speaker 2: Hartenstein is still not back, right.
Speaker 1: No, he's not. He's out for I think a not
insignificant amount of time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a broken hand.
Speaker 1: Right, suffered a small, non displaced fracture. He's gonna be around.
He was gonna be reevaluated in like four weeks.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, they aren't even just the number one defense.
I just checked the rating.
Speaker 1: I you're like destroying it.
Speaker 2: By their seven points better per one hundred possessions than
the team in second.
Speaker 1: And here's who they've played, so they're going to play.
They played Portland tonight.
Speaker 2: They played that's the Clippers' best advantage. They're on a
back to back.
Speaker 1: Literally, they played the Spurs, who they held in ninety
three points. But it's the Spurs. Fine. They held Atlanta
to one hundred and four points. Not exactly an offense.
It's not a depth of scoring. They held Chicago to
ninety five, you know, okay, and they held the Nuggets
in the first game of the season to eighty seven.
They're really good, and balances been a you know what
I mean, Like it's been a mix of good and
bad offenses that they've held to no points. Yeah, so
the theme seems to be that they the defense seems
good to start the season.
Speaker 2: And I want to say last season they were like
fourth defensively, I'll check on this. Yeah, they were, they
were fourth. This though their team's better. They have Alex Caruso,
even without Isaiah Hartenstein, and they have a bunch of
young guys getting better, and even though offensively they haven't
clicked in so far, it kind of makes me feel like,
is this on purpose? Are they trying to set a
foundation on the defensive end and take a step back
offensively until they're elite elite there and way better than
everyone on defense, and then the offense takes off and
then nobody's catching this team.
Speaker 1: Well, here's what here's what I'm this is the biggest
test of the Clippers new defensive identity so far. They
didn't have to play against Bradley Bual last night, which
is another thing that pisses me off. Bradley Buial was
not playing. This is a this is and with how
Denver has looked, you know what I mean, this is
the biggest test for this.
Speaker 2: The Denver win doesn't look as great right now.
Speaker 1: We'll take it, but you're right, it doesn't look as
great two miles down the road. But this is You
mentioned they haven't clicked yet. Their top ten in pace,
which freaks me out. They're twenty fourth on offensive rating,
they're twenty seventh and three point percentage, they're seventeenth in
field goal percentage. This is a team that is so
far on the whole, been bad offensively, and I don't
mean that disrespectfully. You look at these numbers, they're not
good numbers.
Speaker 2: Would you say SGA is at right now shooting wise.
Speaker 1: Forty two percent from the field forty three if you
round up? Excuse me, he's shooting twenty seven percent from three.
Speaker 2: So they're not shooting well from three. But opponents are
only shooting twenty seven point eight percent against them from three,
which is crazy. And meanwhile, the Clippers have been lit
up from three so far, which is one of the
issues going on. As good as they have been defensively,
teams are shooting almost exactly forty percent from three against them.
They're at thirty nine point nine percent, So that's a
little bit scary.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm worried about the buzz saw that the Clippers
might run into on Saturday, especially if the Thunder lose
the night that we're recording this November first. So I
agree on the Zoo point on the offense. Defensively, Chris
Down's gonna I think Chris Downin's gonna play thirty plus
minutes in this game. I think Terrence is gonna play
around the same too. I think they're gonna share the floor,
and I think we're gonna see We're gonna need to
see that point of attack defense, hopefully involving those two
guys at a different level than it's been the season.
It's been good this season. I'm not trying to say that,
but there's gonna need to be a wacky combination in
the back court that makes kind of things click for
the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's a good point because a Mere
Coffee only played ten minutes last night, and for the
man haters out there, Terrence Man probably had his best
game of the season last night, right the need.
Speaker 1: I wish Will was here to photoshop a man hater's
thumb nail for this for this episode.
Speaker 2: Would you agree that was Terrence Man's best game so
far last night? Yeah? Last night, I thought because Coach
lou gave him the extended run. He played over thirty
minutes and A Mere Coffee didn't get the run in
the fourth quarter they went back to the starters. His
defense on Booker is really good. Yeah, when he got loose,
A lot of that wasn't on Terrence Man.
Speaker 1: He's a bit of a Yeah, I think I think
you're right.
Speaker 2: I think he still can't hit a three, like it's
it's he.
Speaker 1: Can't shoot at all. He can somehow hit turn around,
one legged fadeaways on Kevin Durant, but will not take
a three, which which frustrates me. I love Terrence Man,
but this is getting to Luke Canard levels of passing
up shots. I mean level we didn't know was possible.
Speaker 2: He did pass up one last night to Nico Batoum.
I think in the fourth quarter where he bounced it
right back to him. Nico was more wide open, but
it's not like Terrence wasn't wide open and Nico was
in the corner and terres can hit a shot. So maybe,
I mean it is the smart basketball playday.
Speaker 1: He's thinking like he's thinking about he is also thinking
about everything that you just said. I think as it's happening,
which is where we're seeing the gears turn, which you
don't want to see the gears turn.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I'll give him credit. He at least
took two in each of the last two games from three. Yes,
he can get him up and did recover that one
that turned into that jumper that he knocked out, as
you mentioned the one legged jumper, so like it was
his best game, he still has to be better. He
has to be better offensively. He has to figure it
out from three. The only way is to have a
breakthrough game. It feels like with him it takes one game, yeah,
and then he's fine. It is so much about his
confidence and not over processing everything.
Speaker 1: And before we get into our Kawhi Leonard Vize Zibotch
James Harden Player of the Game picks which I have,
I will texted me his earlier. I'll say it on
the I'm worried about the bench universe, okse Kai Jones
played nine minutes yesterday. If your backup center is only
really good for nine minutes and situational things, things are
gonna get a little dicey. I'm worried about the bet.
Speaker 2: I didn't think he was terrible. I thought, actually the
game against Portland he was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Kai No, like, I agree, it's just flashes. There's nothing
that can be relied on right now, which is what
worries me a little bit. Not that a backup center
is someone you rely on, but at least yeah, I
don't know it's just a little too up and down
for me right now to make me not worried about it.
If Zoo gets two fouls early, which might happen against
Chet on some switch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess the good news is if he has
to match up against Chet, he shouldn't be bullied as much,
you know, because totally and Kai's pretty slight of frame too.
Speaker 1: But it also like, yeah, I'm worried about not great.
Speaker 2: It's not great.
Speaker 1: So this is gonna be a big test for the
Clippers on both sides of the ball. Lord do I hope?
So give us before again, last thing before the players
of the game. One thing the Clippers are going to
do to get the win at them? What's the one
thing you're thinking.
Speaker 2: Take care of the basketball? It's the turnovers, the turnovers
and the type of turnovers they have had. Lot Murray
put up a great post on Twitter with some of
the miscues the Clippers have had and just the lacks
of lack of daisical turnovers that are easily correctable and fixable,
and some of it may be mental fatigue from James Harden,
but some of these definitely need to be cleaned up. Regardless,
they can be and need to be against a team
like Okay see, because didn't the Clippers win the possession
battle again last night? They got up more shots against Phoenix,
eleven more shots with those six more three corners made
by the Suns. Again, the three point shooting has been
going against the Clippers. I wonder some of that can
be wonky Varius too. Sometimes where you're just on the
wrong side of it for a stretch of games and
it's not really indicative of how bad your defense has been.
So maybe the numbers will go back in their favor there.
But I think they just have to take care of
the basketball, especially visit a tight game late. It's gonna
come down to that, like those possessions are too crucial
for them to be given anything away.
Speaker 1: Could not agree more on the turnovers. I think for me,
I'm looking at the offensive boards and use the second
chance points. I know we won second chance points against
the Suns and we crush points in the paint, but
it just blows my mind that you can double up
a team in offensive boards and still, you know what
I mean, like that that should be I hope that happens.
Adam your pick for the Kawhi Leonard James Harden to
vitz Zubats inaugural player of the game for Clippers first
thunder and add into it.
Speaker 2: Can I take two guys? I know this.
Speaker 1: We need Hey, we need all of them, so.
Speaker 2: Go for I'm only saying this because neither of these
guys have played yet, and I think this could be
the game they get run. Oh no, at least one
of them. I pick both. Can I hit with one?
Speaker 1: You're good?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, for this to happen, it could mean the
Clippers are down significantly early on. I just could see
Coach Leuce saying, all right, it's time to switch up
the energy. We're down fifteen in the first half. We're
bleeding points, we're turning the basketball over. We're making things
too hard on ourselves and too easy for Okay, see
and he looks to his bench and he sees the
skeleton key, and he sees all the work he's been
putting in pre practice, post practice.
Speaker 1: Not being toxic to the press, not at all.
Speaker 2: And then there's another guy named Jordan Miller who also
hasn't played yet. And I'm just thinking one of those
guys could be the guy. If the Clippers are down
early on in this game and things aren't going their way.
I know it's only game six, but uh, they haven't
won yet. It into its home and they had just
had two very miserable losses there. I don't know, he
might have to shake up the energy.
Speaker 1: I respect it, I absolutely respect.
Speaker 2: I can he still strike out with both of them.
I'm gonna pick two, and not one of them is
going in.
Speaker 1: I'm going Derek Jones Jr. He hasn't had that game
for the Clippers yet. He's had some good performances. He's
been okay, well.
Speaker 2: He hasn't what what type of game were looking for.
Speaker 1: Twenty points?
Speaker 2: He can do it as suppose you can. If things
are going well.
Speaker 1: He runs out and I'm trying to find something James Hardener.
If eats a Zuba, it's a good pick.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be guarding SGA. So yeah, a lot, I think.
Speaker 1: All right, So he's not gonna score twenty points D eighteen.
He's taking two guys. I'm taking two guys. I'm taking
two guys.
Speaker 2: Hey, Will ain't here? We get to now that's true.
Speaker 1: Well, Will told me he thought p. J. Tucker was
gonna come up. Willis Reed's style.
Speaker 2: He's Derek.
Speaker 1: Well physically, not physically. It's a new NBA dude. I'm
going Derek Jones junior man. I don't know. I I
guess Chris Dunn, Chris Donna, I don't just surprise him.
Maybe Nico hits three threes.
Speaker 2: Chris Dunn's offense has been kind of better than expected
so far.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Oh, it's gonna be weird, Adam, You're gonna be
in the building. You're gonna be in the building right.
Speaker 2: I will be there. I am hoping for Upper's victory
into it Dome there first, let's go.
Speaker 1: I will not be there. I am in Montana. Gonna
possibly do a live stream after the game. We're gonna
do a full episode with all of us on Tuesday.
I'm thinking next week. Reviews. Help listen to us anywhere
you listen to pods. We always appreciate it. As Will
would say, you can find us on YouTube a YouTube
dot complish at Clippers Podcast. Welcome to all the new listeners,
everyone who's been hanging out on the live streams. The
Henny Ween stream is not indicative of how I usually
am on live streams, but it was a fun time, Adam.
Before we get out of here my favorite part of
the show. We need one positive thing for these Clippers
fans heading into this weekend.
Speaker 2: I mean, they had such a bad loss against Portland,
and they did come out with the right focus to start,
and I'm not gonna even say they just completely lost
their focus. A team hit fifteen straight effing shots against them.
I don't think any tank there's not gonna be a team,
forget Phoenix not doing that again this season. There's not
gonna be a team in the NBA that does that
this season. That stuff is so incredibly, incredibly rare. Somebody
told me that, you know, the Boston Celtics in eighty
five made twenty five straight shots. Yeah, how many of
them were layups by Robert and Kevin McHale. This was
a lot of jump shots, Like, there's not a lot
you can do against it. So I did like the
spirit they played with for the most part. They got
to put it together for forty eight minutes if you're
gonna beat OKAC, and I think they're still capable. The
fatigue issue is certainly when we have cided and been
concerned about. But maybe the sea legs are coming from
James Harden. He has mentioned it season, legs will kick in.
I just don't know if it's going to make that
much of a difference when you're thirty five and have
a usage rating almost that high. But positive stuff here. Okay,
see's on a back to back two So what I
want to see is Portland to push them tonight, not
win to piss off Okac. We'll just make it close,
make them have to work, make them have to play
their starters late in the fourth quarter, and then OKAC
comes away with the victory. They get overly confident before
they take on the Clippers the very next night.
Speaker 1: I love that we need the positivity. Thank you to
everyone for watching, Thank you to everyone for listening. Keep
the faith with the Clippers. They're going to be in
every game for the most part because of the athleticism
on defense. We will be back for y'all, maybe a
double dip after the game. Full episode on Tuesday, and
as always, you know what we say.