Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to a post
game live hangover at YouTube dot com Slash at Clippers Podcast.
I am Chuck Mockler. William Uptick might join Adam Oslin.
He's working. Who knows? The Clippers get yet another win
versus the Golden State Warriors. This time it's one O
two to ninety nine. This game ended in an incredibly
stressful fashion. What exactly? Thank you, Brian. What a weird game.
But I'll take a dub absolutely insane finish. I don't
know who knows, Sorry, just putting this on Twitter. That
was an incredibly weird game. The deck was kind of
stacked against the Clippers. Curry was questionable, but then he
ended up playing in this one Nokevon Looney, which was
a big issue or I thought would have been a
bigger issue for the Warriors. But again they only lost
by three. The Clippers showed heart in this one. They
had yet another ten point lead. They blew that because
it is the modern NBA in this team is designed
to blow leads, especially first quarter leads. But there was
a lot of good stuff tonight. We saw the return
of efficient Norm. He goes sixty. Norm late was absolutely
incredible in this game. He hit at least two threes
in the final six and a half minutes or so
that were, I mean, incredibly important for the Clippers. Thankfully,
Harden was on his assist game tonight, sixteen dimes, three turnovers,
but you'll excuse those because he was able to find
Norm who The Warriors just kept losing on the perimeter,
which I don't know that's a very interesting strategy, but
they were losing Norm on the perimeter, and that's where
we're at. People in the chat, if you're listening to
this on the audio afterwards, you could have hung out
on video. People in chat are excited, Alan Ning saying, Wow,
Clippers never ceased to amaze me. The Clippers are going
to need some rest after this game. This was the
second night of a back to back in James Harden
played forty one minutes, which credit to James Harden for
putting in the minutes that he did. Chris g says,
cardiac clips, baby, Yes, what else was it going to
be tonight if not an incredibly stressful win that We'll
take this win. I mean, absolutely what happened? They played
the worst team in the Western Conference yesterday tonight they
played the best team. They have an incredibly inefficient shooting
game from James Harden, but the bench was pretty solid
in this one. You love to see what Terrence Man
did late. He wasn't throughout the whole game, you know,
it was kind of usual Terrence. But late Terrence Man
was good in this one. There's still was some some
hesitation he's not fully back yet or whatever, but late
Terrence Man was fantastic, and I think that is It's
good to see that happen from Terrence Man. The ending
was disgusting. A mere coffee turned the ball over. The
Warriors had a couple of chances to tie this game up,
but they couldn't do it. Uh so we will move
on and take this win. It was It's just good
to see the Clippers not roll over again. Yeah, they
were losing the Warriors, so it was interesting. Late in
this game, the Clippers were blitzing Steph Curry on defense
in the pick and roll, and then they were just collapsing.
Anthony Lutis in the comments, He's correct, they were just
collapsing on hardened incredibly intently. It was a lot and
he found Norm and Norm was just open and he
hit his threes because, as Caleb Simpkins is saying in
the chat, Powell fourth quarter king is always. He had
an incredible I can't remember what it was last year,
but it was way above average fourth quarter three point
shooting from Norm Powell, and you love to see it.
These are this is the if you're surprised by how
this game went, I don't know what to tell you.
This is who the twenty four to twenty five Clippers
are and that's where we're at. Right. There was a lot.
There was some interesting stuff in this game. A Mere
Coffee closing over Chris Dunn was odd, but it it
almost didn't work out. It almost didn't work out in
such a bad way. A Mere played some had some
good defensive stuff late, he had timely buckets. He did
not have an efficient night, and he was almost he
turned the ball over in this one. But yeah, I
think it shows this is a good call. Mikey Mike
Ramirez saying we need another ball handler because they utilize
Harden towards the closing minutes. We yes, like this is
what happens, right, Like a guy who doesn't usually initiate
the offense brings the ball up on the last possession
of a three point game and he loses it. That
is that is by the other team's design, is what
that is. But it's it's not easy on hard. So yeah,
this is this is a good point that Lance Johnson
is bringing up. Tylo was visibly upset with James Harden
on a home run pass to Terrence Man. I believe
it was he's just he's kind of all I think
someone on Twitter said, he's just kind of always going
for like this kill shot. Apparently James Harden has been
sick since the Houston Rockets game. Uh, Tyler said James
Harden was sick tonight and he toughed it out. So
I don't know if that explains the turnovers, but but
it has something to think about. But Lance Johnson, you're
not wrong. The there was some there was some anger
from TYLERU on some really and we've seen it before,
right against the Kings in a game that they won.
Harden had some late game turnovers that cost the Clippers
some in game rest and stuff like that. It's incredibly fair.
He was not efficient tonight and he had some late
game turnovers that made things harder. But we have to
live with it. We got it, we got We do
have to fix them, I'm not saying that, but we
have to just live with it. It's incredibly impressive to
be at the Warriors twice. I could not agree more
with that. Chris gu Well, it's the best wins on
the Clippers on the Clippers resume right now. Joe depf saying,
flew game, James, he didn't have a very good game
of efficiency wise, though. Yes, it's were great. Oh that's hilarious. Yeah,
this uh, this game started out, you know, the first half.
The Clippers won turnovers by four. They were shooting fifty
six percent from three. They finished this game shooting forty
seven from three, so again above average. They held the
Warriors to thirty six percent shooting. We lost the field
goal in ten battle and that was entirely because of
the late game turnovers and stuff like that. But a
win is a win. They grinded the hell out of
this one. Aviza Zubats, if it weren't for a poor
shooting Night would have had one of his better games
of the year. Seventeen boards in a game where you
lose boards by six is very important. But he could
not find the bottom of the rim tonight, which was difficult.
Doesn't matter. The Clippers got the win. But those are
things that you hope get fixed, right A Mire Coffee
was huge lay and Terrence Man. Terrence Man was a
plus ten. He was a second best plus minus. I
know that's not a big stat. You know, you shouldn't
use it as individual performances, but when you have ten
five and six with two steals, you got to. You
gotta give your hats off for Terrence Man in this game,
you absolutely do. Yeah, z, you only took two shots
in the half. It was insane. It was a wonky night.
The Clippers were stuck in mud at one point in
this game. For sure. This game almost got away from
them if it wasn't for some timely buckets from from
some bench guys. Niko Batoum had a couple of really
clutch buckets in this one. Not during clutch time. The
Clippers needed all three of his his threes. Excuse me,
long weekend, Arrear. Evil Bot has changed their photo Carlo. Yeah,
the next two games are gonna be exhausting. If you're
new to the chat, we're gonna have an episode with
Adam Will and myself tomorrow. Talk to these next two
games and some of what we saw tonight. If you
look at the points in the paint in this game,
the Clippers were really bad to open this game shooting
from the paint wise, I think they were like nine
for twenty two in the first half in the paint,
which is not good. We lost points in the paint
by ten, excuse me, by eight points in the second
half this game. I don't want to say we stole
this game. I don't want to say we stole this game,
but it's close. It's close. We lost rebounds, we were
plus two in turnovers. We shot forty seven percent from three,
which is why the Clippers won this game. And the
other thing, one of the most fundamental things of why
the Clippers won this game, and I will take this
ten out of ten times, but Warriors couldn't hit free throws.
They refused to make free throws. They went nine for
nineteen in a three point game. Thank you Warriors for that.
We appreciate it. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna retend
like we didn't. It was a three point game. You
only make forty seven percent of your free throws, that's bad. Yeah,
a lot of people in the chat talking about the
late fourth quarter turnovers. It's rough. Someone was asking who
is the second wall handler. I don't know. It's in
terms of the depth chart is quite literally KPJ. But
here's why I mentioned this earlier. Here's why it was
interesting to see a mirror close over Chris Dunn. Chris
Dunn is someone who brings in the help with these
late game initiations, right Like, theoretically he is the guy
who should do that. I don't disagree that we need
to have another one, depending on what you think the
expectations of this team are. But if Chris Dunn was
in late I think we see a better handling of
the fourth quarter in terms of initiating the all would
be my point to that couple people in the chat.
Oh yeah, Manny Lopez is asking if for going to
Blue Sky Guys, I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I
don't have the energy in me to join another social
media thing that's based like Twitter. So we'll see. We'll
end up on there at some point, but it's not
gonna be today, it's not gonna be this week. Let
us begrudgingly do it. Social media is not good, um, people,
in the chat are asking about Kevin Porter Junior. Uh
and when is that going to stop happening? First of all,
hope his head is okay. He took an incredible fall
and backed the hell out of his head. Uh. Oh, folks,
we got the one, the only William Updyke here to
talk about what he thinks Kwi Leonard is doing when
it comes to shooting and other stuff. No, I'm just kidding.
We're talking that game. Well, how's it going, Bud good?
Speaker 2: Good? What's going on?
Speaker 1: Uh? Basking in this win that it feels like we
maybe stole this one, But I'm okay with it.
Speaker 2: I think we like we kind of stole it. I
would say we won seventy five percent of it fairly handedly,
sure and kind of and kind of stole that last
the last little bit, which you'll take. You know, Tyler
said we need the ugly wins, will take any wins
and could not be more the truth. And you know,
maybe maybe we can have a stretch of the season
where you know, we just play the Warriors. That'd be
pretty good. Uh. No. I I do like the way
that we match up with this team. They're a little
bit smaller, a little bit older. Uh, certainly, certainly a
better matchup than what we saw in Houston. Yes, with
just their their age and size, defense, everything whole whole thing.
A lot more difficult than the Warriors, but still very quality.
Went against a great upon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's two or two of their three
losses other than the undefeated Calves, it is the defeated
seven times Clippers who have been their losses. Yeah, this
was I mean a great Terrence Man game. Tylusaid in
the post game, has got a lot of confidence in Terrence.
It's nice to see. Like we talked about how this team,
like you've said it, like we need guys to kind
of like pick up where some guys leave off, And
that happened tonight, right like we saw late Terrence Man
be good. Norm picked up where he left off. Harden
apparently is sick and has been since Houston. Gotcha, which
whatever what.
Speaker 2: Was he like twenty from the field tonight?
Speaker 1: It was it was bad, Yeah, twenty six. It was
everything other than the passing or everything. Yeah, everything in
the passing was really bad to but we saw a
good Nico game like this is this is the thing.
This is the type of one that the Clippers are
going to hang their hat on, which is be annoying
as hell. On defense, I mean holding this team, which
is what the Worris are a top ten offensive rated
team and put up less than one hundred, Like that's incredible.
We love to see the Jeff Van Gundy influence permeating
through this team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is like like I was saying, though, it
is kind of matchup driven, right, because as good as
this defense is, we do still have some physical limitations
with this roster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and everyone was really excited. It was nice
to see Mobamba back, but he ended up only playing
seven minutes in this one, so you don't know what's
up with the knee thing there because he supposedly maybe
has like a minute restriction too.
Speaker 2: Like that blockiead.
Speaker 1: Though, yes, he was productive, right, he played what it
was less than ten, played seven minutes and he was
minus thirteen, So you love to see that from Mobaba.
Norm I likes this point from x Mango Project. Norm
was questionable at one point to return with a hamstring thing. Yeah,
and I hope I think we can all agree we
hope that that doesn't linger, because that would be terrible
for the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know how they're gonna win many games.
Speaker 1: But I don't think it should be serious. Tyleru hasn't
mentioned it in the postgame press or anything that we've seen.
Kevin Porter Junior is expected to be fine. A lot
of people in the chat asking about if Kevin Porter Junior,
like what's up? You know, like when is this experiment
going to end? I don't know if it's going to
He's the backup point guard right now. I'm not pro
it continuing. I want to make that clear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's been enough film and game time
certainly that if they were gonna go towards someone else,
as I mean, the thing that we're talking about here
that's kind of wild is like this is essentially the
sixth man role. You know, we're not talking about like
we're not talking about a guy who's like eight deep
in the rotation even like the you know, it's the
sixth man. Uh And certainly with this amount of tape,
if they haven't tried somebody else, I'm not inclined to
think that they're going to. I don't wear you at
Chuck like I just we you know, we have a
pretty large sample size at this point. It ups and
downs for sure. I mean, Kevin Porter Junr is just
coming off of his last game I thought was his
most complete game as a Clipper, one of his better games.
But yeah, not like there's not I like Bones, don't
get me wrong, but it's still like it's not like
there's a lot of tantalizing other like options out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, and they are here. Tyler already made one
giant change, which was the starting lineup right, which we
all have agreed with. It was a good call having
done out there, he was solid tonight too, And I'm like,
what so the move putting Bones in for KPJ is
another giant change because that's the guy who's getting DNPS.
You know, it's not like you're switching like, oh now
Terrence is gonna do this whatever, like he can't because
it's it's just different. But I don't know, man, I
think he's here to stay. Like he's a guy that
brings and Bones brings the same thing. But Bones again
kind of had to dig himself out of a hole
locker room wise, all that stuff. KPJ is better on
defense than Bones. I'm pretty sure we can all agree
on that. Not that that's a high bar to clear.
But he's better at Yeah, he's better at defensive bones.
He crashes the boards, he makes good cuts. It's like,
I don't know, it's it's not gonna change, I don't
think because there's nothing staring Tyler in the face. And
this is the Tyler's credit. There's nothing staring him in
the face. That's the easy fix. Yeah, the backup point guard.
Like I do think tonight specifically, they if Chris Dunn
is in late instead of a mirror, maybe that late
game turnover doesn't happen and we have someone else who
can initiate the offense better and stuff like that. But
like KPJ is not doing that right now. So it's like,
I don't know. We just have to deal with this.
Speaker 2: I think we do. There's just not another clear answer
on this roster. It just begs the question of, no,
how do the Clippers really want to maneuver? And I
think a lot of that is going to depend on
what their record is going into the you know, going
into the All Star break and then the trade deadline
in February, Because if they're you know, below five hundred
maybe even right at it, is that good enough to
want to trade an asset to try to bring somebody in.
You know, could you.
Speaker 1: Get what asset?
Speaker 2: Could you package enough assets like around Terrence Pj's money
to get maybe like a Malcolm Brockton or something like.
I don't know. I don't know if that's appealing enough
for Washington to get a young a younger prospect and
you know, twelve million a year off their books. I
don't know if that's worth it to that.
Speaker 1: Or the Clippers, because like, what are the assets, you
know what I mean, Like, it's not like we're Terrence.
Speaker 2: You're getting Terrence and PJ to take on a bunch
of Washington's money for an older, oft injured player.
Speaker 1: Law had a great tweet today that said everyone's trade
machine ideas are bad. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, like if you don't have picks and
you know, there's there's not a lot that's you can
do that's super exciting. And that's the thing too, right
that we already know from the messaging the Clippers. The
Clippers aren't on board with me. They don't know that
it's this Year's not have to smack them in the
face for them to get it. Yeah, but I so
I don't think that their head is really in an
acquisition mode all you know. Although if this team you know,
was looking pretty good, like at the All Star break,
let's say four or five games above five hundred.
Speaker 1: I think the scene with.
Speaker 2: Kawhi looming in the like you know, with Kawhi looming
in the in the side wings, he.
Speaker 1: Is doing some shitting.
Speaker 2: It's certainly possible. But yeah, I don't see them being
a buyer at the at the trade.
Speaker 1: No, they have a they have nothing to buy with. Really,
Lance with a great point older often in your players
sounds like Clipper to me, nail that man. Someone's asking,
someone's saying, please discuss thoughts on Harder being minus thirty
uh and him having the second worst field goal percentage
of the entirely what he I don't know. It is
what it is, man. He's an old he's in his
mid thirties, he has a high usage rate. He hasn't
really found his shooting stroke yet. This is is what
it is. It's not ideas, so it goes. We would
all love it to be better, but like what's there's
there's no alternative than what is happening now, Partly because
the Clippers don't have a secondary initiator. It helps take
some of the pressure off of James Harden, partly because
it's very clear the offense runs because of James Harden. Yes,
I know he's minus thirty, but that's just what it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't really know. Yeah, I don't know. You can't.
I feel like it's difficult to get too hung up
on an individual players.
Speaker 1: Plus mind forty minutes tonight. Yeah, this is a night
of a back to back. That's yeah, that is like malpractice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when he's playing eighty percent of.
Speaker 1: A game, it's kind of like that's the day after
a game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gonna jerk those kind of plus minus numbers
around the efficiency. I mean, it is troubling, don't get
me wrong. Yes, apparently he has been sick since Houston.
He don't know, man, Like, I'm just not seeing a
break for him coming, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Don't who slots into film.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean like even in game, Like, I don't
know that we can really even buy him a lot
of in game rest, especially with sort of like the
roller coaster KPJ kind of thing right now, because that
would be a hope, right that he could take over
some of the offensive stuff. But yeah, I just don't
really see it. I mean, you know, wait for Kwi
to get back, that's an answer. I hope he settles
into it more. I do think it would be nice
to see him getting into the room a little bit more,
even though he's not finishing super like, he's not finishing
great right now. It took I'm still think getting some
of those shots falling would just get him a little looser,
Like we just get him in rhythm.
Speaker 1: He if you're in the chat, do not send us
any trade ideas. We're not going to talk about them.
I'm just gonna squash that right here. It took him
until twenty four seconds left in the first half of
either yesterday or the game before to get his first
shot at the rim. It took him an entire half basically,
which is that's that's the stuff that you worry about
because if he's not and the Warriors did it tonight, right,
they were perfectly acceptable switching and having hard and just
dribble the ball a bunch, yeah, and then eventually hit
some kind of step back, which is like, it's great
when it goes in, but like teams have, clearly hard
was gas. That's why a mir had to bring the
ball up late. That's why we almost went the overtime
with this game. But it is what it is. We
just got to hope the shots start falling and the
KPg gets more efficient and decides to pass more. It's
a lot of hopes. I'm not gonna sit here pretend
like it's easy. Well.
Speaker 2: I also thought there was some encouraging stuff with the
ball movement, especially when the starters started trickling in during
their second shift so towards towards the end of the
first half there where we saw the ball moving around
in a lot more of a cohesive way than I
feel like I've seen a lot of from this Clippers team.
There was one possession where I feel like four guys
touched it before it ended up in a corner. I
think it was a corner three for Nico. There was
that short roll pass from these zoobots to Nico in
the corner. But like, it's just stuff like that, like
getting the ball moving a little bit more cohesively, and
I think offensively the team, I mean, it hasn't looked
great and I think like a lot of what's booing
it is some you know, outlier efficiency from some guys
and just like in some individual great performances kind of
you know, hoisting everything up versus it being you know,
more of a unit, which it doesn't really it doesn't
really feel like or look like that much right now on.
Speaker 1: The court, I know what you mean. The lineup that
I really like that I think had that corner three
you're talking about was Harden, Terrence, emir Nico and Zoo.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was absolutely and that makes sense though they
have like they've you know, they've been through it together
for the most part. Hardens the newest guy in the group,
and you know, everybody's gonna take their cues from him,
so it kind of makes sense. Yeah, I would like
to see more of that lineup.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we would because it pops tonight and it's
against the best team in the conference.
Speaker 2: They need to be just watching old Spurs tape and just.
Speaker 1: Like, I mean, we should all be doing that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just just just moving the ball more and
not having James like even though that is kind of
his style right to absolutely to manage a game clock
and run down possessions and he's great at it, but
I think maybe for his longevity, for for what we're
asking him to do this season, because it's not just
facilitating that's what he like, you know, that's what his
role became a lot more of in Philadelphia and what
we thought it was going to be here certainly with two, one, three,
But it's not just that. Now he also has to
be the scorers. So they I think they just need
to find ways to be able to you know, facilitate
ball movement and and have some sort of cohesive offense
without him having to initiate everything. Yeah, and they're trying,
you know, they have different guys bring the ball up,
We'll do they'll you know, they'll they'll do like a
side pick and roll. Though you know that they can
do some little things to to alleviate it a little bit.
But I think it could be done to a higher
level with just just more just more touches on the
ball overall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one thing before we kind of wrap up
and get out of here, there was Uh. One of
the things people talk about with James Harden and responsibility
is that it will get easier when Kawhi Leonard returns.
Speaker 2: I don't know that.
Speaker 1: A I agree with you. I don't know that because
it's not like Kawhi is initiating a ship ton of
the offense or anything like that.
Speaker 2: Like, gravity is very much a thing, and I think
that in that regard, things will definitely get easier.
Speaker 1: But he's not bringing the ball up.
Speaker 2: I mean he can on like the odd possession.
Speaker 1: But yes, but right he's feeling it, Like I agree
with what you're saying.
Speaker 2: I agree with what you're saying. I mean that was
the issue, right, that was the either issue even when
we had Kawhi Leonard and Paul George is like, you
still need somebody to initiate hit the offense.
Speaker 1: Right, and we got I don't know if this is news. Uh,
Kawhi Leonard is out all week, says TYLERU. Leonard has
been shooting comma a little bit, per Ty. Do we
know that it's a basketball. No, he's going to kimbo.
He's just letting he's just letting it fly on the range. Yeah.
So Xbogo project, I'm going to give you an exact
date of when Kawhi Leonard is coming back and you
can take it to the bank. No, he's going back
for the Christmas game. They're not playing. No, this is
not an update. He's not playing with them this week.
We don't the update if you were.
Speaker 2: If you he's still not practicing, there's no way he's
playing this month.
Speaker 1: So that's my thing. If you are choosing to hang
on the Kawhi Leonard updates, which you do not have
to do as a Clippers fan, you don't. If you're
a new Clippers fan, I understand this might be frustrating.
You're only gonna be more frustrated if you expect the
team to give you updates.
Speaker 2: If you're a no fan though as of this year,
you're a real one.
Speaker 1: Shout oh if you joined. Yeah, if you just joined,
because you're like, I love that they have the new stadium. Welcome. Uh,
wait for the practice updates, Wait for the updates that
Kawhi Leonard is actually doing a full practice, because we're.
Speaker 2: Even we haven't even gotten word of explosive box jumps.
Speaker 1: None we're getting we've gotten shooting a little bit, we
haven't gotten walked through. We haven't gotten practice, we haven't
gotten the stay ready game anything like that. There's so
many steps between now and when it would even make
sense to be optimistic about him playing this year that
we have not gone through yet. Yeah, and that sucks.
Speaker 2: We haven't even heard from Haines.
Speaker 1: We haven't wait for the Chris Haynes update x Bongo project.
I kind of like, where your heads out on this one.
In my mind, we don't have frustrated. Look, I get it,
you gotta compartmentalize. If you've never had traumatic events and
you don't know how to compartmentalize, this is a good
way to figure out how.
Speaker 2: To do it for better, for better and or worse.
And I agree with I would agree with the majority
of you who think that it's worse what you saw tonight,
Like what you know, what you're seeing. That's the roster
that we kind of have to work with. Yeah, at
least until December fifteenth at the very earliest.
Speaker 1: Okay. I like this point from Lance and I could
not agree more. And we've discussed this on the pod.
No more updates. I just want to be surprised when
Kai gets called the opening lineup like ww intro put
him in the sting duster, put a sting mast up,
Oh my god, and lower him.
Speaker 2: Later into it has the technology.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, just the day that he's playing, just when
they play the Wizards or whatever in February, and it's
like boom, he's back. All right, we gotta get out
of here. Are you doing a full pod tomorrow? It
could be could be the move. Adam's not here. Do
you want to give a positive note? Manny asked for
a positive note.
Speaker 2: We beat the Warriors again again. No, I mean, like, look,
it's this team we've talked about, the rage of the
razor thin margins. The good thing is they do match
up fairly well against some of the higher touted talents
in the West. Just do to size and age and
some other things. So don't get down on the Clippers
because they dropped a few in a row. Don't get
down on the Clippers because they lost the Rockets. News flash.
The Rockets are good now, so it's all good. Clippers
are firmly in the driver's seat, but Paul George is
no longer for the driver. So pretty good spot.
Speaker 1: Pretty good spot. We'll take it. Shout out to everybody
hung out on the stream. I have a full episode
for y'all tomorrow, most likely. Shout out to Mere Coffee.
Shout out late game, Terrence Man. Shout out Normal Power
for getting back on track. Thanks for hanging out, and
it's all