Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, welcome in to Clips and Dip. As you'll
probably notice, no Charles Mockley today, just me and Adam
bringing you the good Clippers news. And we got some
good news today. Clippers off their best win of the
season over the Cavs one point one nineteen. We're going
to talk about that. We talk about the Clippers taking
on the Grizzlies as they have a slate of difficult
games coming up, and uh yeah, whatever else we get into.
So yeah, kicking things off, Adam, how you doing today,
my man? How's it going. How are you feeling? Basking
in this victory?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the afterglow is nice right now. It's it's feeling
pretty good. It feels like the type of victory we
were looking for for a while. It's not every game
you played the Cleveland Cavaliers and you can say it's
the best victory so far this season. It's the best
game played at into a dome. It felt like there
were some high stakes going on the way the teams
were matching up and the mismatch hunt that was going on.
It seemed like everything was a little bit elevated in
that ball game. For the Clippers to come out on
top and prove that, Okay, they do have some potential
to play with the big boys when they're fully healthy.
Speaker 3: That was big.
Speaker 1: Well, you talked about the Clippers on top, you talked
about some possible future implications. Was something perhaps conceived out
of out of this game?
Speaker 2: Well, it was a visa Zubats's birthday, so I would
say so you could say Chris Dudds as well.
Speaker 3: I would not be shocked.
Speaker 2: I hope something happened a few weeks ago, because they
won seven of eight. Now, you know that's true. We've
been turning a corner. But that was the best Kawhi
Leonard has looked all season long. And I don't think
it's some coincidence that he played that well and had
that much pop and burst out there.
Speaker 1: It was also a lot of guys at once, you
know what I mean, Like I feel, I feel like
we you know, we've gotten a few isolated, really good
Kawhi games. One thing that this team has struggled with
all year is like everybody kind of hitting on all cylinders.
You know, we've had the same things where we've had
some like exceptional individual James Harden games. We've certainly dropped
some individually exceptional and Viza Zubots games, but this one
just kind of really felt like it it fully coalesced
and came and sort of all came together.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, for them to put up one point thirty
on a pretty good defense, they had to be connected.
And I really felt like they met the challenge in
the first half because we were just mentioning it off air,
but it felt like at one point in the first
quarter they could lose this game and the Cavs could
be running away with this thing. They were up by
double dishits in the first quarter and they weren't missing,
so the Clippers couldn't get stops, and it looked like
they said, well, the pressure is on for us to
have to knock down shots because our defense isn't good
enough right now.
Speaker 3: And they hit twelve threes in the first half, and.
Speaker 1: They're what better than fifty percent from three? At one point?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they were.
Speaker 2: They hit five straight to start the second quarter. I
believe Kawhi hit two of them. He had a step
back three going like I just think that was a
really big moment for them offensively to know that we
can't just hang our hat on our defense. Actually right now,
we're not getting stuffed. The only way we're hanging in
this ball game is if we actually execute very well
on the offensive end.
Speaker 3: And they did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was great to see them win.
I like, I'm glad that you bring up the one
thirty two because I feel like they won in an
unexpected way too, like having to execute at a higher
level offensively, and even in a game where you know,
Norm Powell looked certainly pretty mortal in this one, which
was definitely combated by Bogie, who's on such a hot
streak right now. What do you think he brings to
this team? I mean it, you know, certainly started a
little up and down. It's now very much in the up.
I mean this has been a continued things. He's upped
his overall season percentage in his time with the Clippers.
But what do you think having like an other ball handler,
a guy who can take some pressure off because in
the stretch, like down the stretch of this game, he
was kind of handling a lot of the ball handling
duties with Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, even being off
ball to Bogey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a really special performance from him, and
credit b Shaw for having that conversation with H. Norman
Powell and letting him know that you know, next time
it'll be your night. But right now it's Bogey ball time.
Speaker 3: He's too hot.
Speaker 2: He goes eight of eight in the ballgame, and the
way he distributed in that fourth quarter. He had a
great play where he entered the teeth of the defense
and was waiting for a Viatza Zubas to flash to
the basket and then found him on a little pick
and roll to get him going. As Zoo had six
of his twenty eight in the fourth and they were
all big shots.
Speaker 3: But Bogey he.
Speaker 2: Was hitting really tough shots. It wasn't like he was
getting a bunch of layups or anything like that. Man,
I'm not surprised. I've been high on him and I
think he's a big game player. I think this is
what he can do for you. I think he can
swing a playoff series. I think he's that good, especially
because you see what he can do with the basketball
in his hands too. He's not just some spot up
shooter out there or a sniper that you know, if
he's hot, great, but if he's not, what else does
he offer?
Speaker 3: He's not Luke Canard.
Speaker 2: That's not who he is he as a player, So
and that's no disrespect to Luke. I mean, he was
a three point percentage champion one season. I think he
shot forty six percent. But Bogan just has a more
well rounded game than I think people realize. And that's
a lot of people are starting to call him the
X factor. When he plays well, how do you beat
this team? I don't know if he's gonna play that
well that often, but uh, I was encouraged that it
happened last night against Cleveland. It seemed like, I don't know,
he just raised his level of play like everybody else.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I mean you mentioned the shot making. It
was difficult in particular. I'm thinking of like the step back,
fadeaway three that he hit in front of the Clippers
bench when everybody went sort of insane. But I think
that I had been you know, I knew him coming
to this team he was going to offer another ball handler,
something that we have kind of been lacking. I think
I undervalued just how good he can be in that role.
And certainly, you know, like you said, it's not going
to be like this every night. This was, you know,
a perfect Boga game. But him being able to bring
that sort of versatility to the lineup is an interesting
look that I hadn't thought about, and it certainly starts
to make things more interesting. And I'm not saying that
he'll be in the starting lineup barring and injuries, but like,
it certainly makes things more like interesting when you consider
like the Chris Dunn and djj if at all, and
like how how how we're still kind of figuring out
where and what they fit into this starting lineup, and
then you have this extra wrinkle, which again I'm not
advocating for him being in the starting lineup, but it
certainly makes more machinations around him, James Hard and Kawhi
Leonard Viatza zubats an even more interesting sort of discussion.
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, that's a really good point. Their depth,
well it is. It is a good thing. It can't
present some interesting discussions. I think, you know, it just
could be what do they need? Do you need offense
or do you need defense? Last night that he had
offense because their defense wasn't stopping him anyways, and so
they leaned on Boge and he was hot. But yeah,
I don't know how they're gonna you know, there's so
many mouths to feed on this team. How to keep
everybody in rhythm, how to keep everybody involved. But you
did get sacrificed from Norman Powells I mentioned last night,
and if guys are willing to do that, we know
DJ and Derek Jones Junior are.
Speaker 1: I mean you got sacrifice from Chris Dunn in that
one too. He played just seventeen minutes in that win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he got in a foul trouble.
Speaker 2: He has some tough calls go against him. But the
optionality of this team when by quite a lot. I
think post trade deadline with Bogie and Ben Simmons, they
both give you something completely different, different dimension the Clippers
did not have before. So it's just figuring out when
to push that button or when to pull that lever
to bring in that guy at the right time. But
last night Bishaw has been doing a really good job
with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm glad that you bring up Shaw as well,
because yet another game missing tylu lower back things still,
but no Van Gundy in this one either. Do you
think that contributed at all to the Clippers? Sort of
a little bit of I don't I don't know if
you can call it just like a lack of cohesion
on the defensive end, or I mean the CAFs were
just knocking down shots. They were also shooting above fifty
from three at one point. I think they ended the
night around thirty thirty five thirty four percent. But they
were also having some insane shot making go in this one.
Speaker 2: I thought they were so poling in a well oiled
machine their offense in the first half. The Cleveland Cavaliers,
I thought it was really impressive watching them work because
you talk about weaknesses and matchups and what you should
pick at, and teams don't stick to that often enough.
Speaker 3: There isn't that game plan.
Speaker 2: Discipline, whereas the Calves last night said we're going at
James Harden like every time down. We're putting him in
the action every day time. And so the defense kind
of broke down from there. They get past James, then
a Visa Zubats has to step up and help, and
now they're in rotation and they kept making the right
pass and finding the right guy, and Max Struz I
think had a season high with those twenty four points,
and it was a DeAndre Hunter. He goes he started
like six of six, and even though they're Big four,
they had off nights overall, and I think the Clippers
defense does deserve to get credit there, especially late. They
were really good, holding them to seventeen points in the
fourth quarter when they were trying to turn it all
and Donovan Mitchell, you know, was going downhill.
Speaker 3: They got some luck too with some shooting vary instance
from shots that were missed.
Speaker 2: But that first half man the Cavaliers, I couldn't say
enough about just the way they were attacking. But then
by the end of the first half, the Clippers started
doing it to them, and they started going after Garland
of Ton.
Speaker 1: Do you think that this was like do you think
because watching this game, I thought that this might have
been the most effectively this team has hunted sort of
the matchups that they wanted offensively, because I know that's
been a big issue for the team all year long,
especially a criticism from the fans. You know, there's too
much io ball, you know, there's not enough ball movement.
But I thought in this game that even when it
was an isolation possession, they did a really good job
of getting the matchup that they wanted first. And I
thought that they were hunting in this one against Like
you said, not a terrible defense, I mean a good
a good defense in the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 2: I think they were like defensive rating coming into that
game yesterday and had been trending in the right direction there.
So no, I think the Clippers did a very good job.
Like they took that initial punch and then countered. It
seemed like they were dealing with some culture shock right away.
Oh this is what a great elite team looks like.
But I'm happy about that because honestly, the Calves didn't
come in and play their D minus game or something
like that, and the Clippers were just hot and they weren't.
Speaker 3: They played a team.
Speaker 2: They got their best shot against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and
they met them and then exceeded them with the way
they played down the stretch, but only being down by
five at the half, with how well the Calves had started,
I thought the Clippers really stepped up to meet the challenge,
and just when the pressure was on for them to
make shots, because otherwise you're going to be down fifteen
in a hurry, they did. I think that was telling.
I thought it showed something last night from this team,
and yeah, they definitely did some match up hunting themselves
and they looked pretty well organized out there. You put
up one hundred and thirty plus points, it's not easy
to do, so I'm with you on that.
Speaker 1: So we gave Bogan his flowers. We haven't yet talked
about the birthday boy. Enough of eatsa zobots in this
one eighteen field goal attests, Adam, what's the line for
field goal attempts when you can about pencil.
Speaker 4: In a Clippers victory? Do you think at this point
with the pizzazu bots?
Speaker 1: Is it twelve fifteen?
Speaker 3: Like the floor of what he needs to be at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So somebody asked me this recently and they said,
win win healthy, win fully healthy. How many shot attempts
are you going to get?
Speaker 3: And I felt like.
Speaker 2: He should average at least fourteen now fully healthy. That's
not easy, as we mentioned, especially with Bogey as sending
the way he is. But there's just a level of
physicality that Avista Zubos brings that I think has a
real cumulative effect out there, with the way he showed
himself last night being able to take down the best
front line in the NBA. His twenty eight and twenty
was better than the combined stats from Evan Mobley and
Jared Allen. That was just exceptional. And he made it
look he made them look small at times, and I
don't expect that, like they look downright small, and he
looked like Shaq Zoo or zoo Shack or whatever people
want to call him at times. He looked that dominant
out there. So I think he does need to be
a staple of the offense always, and that means quarter
to Quorter, not forgetting about him. I don't care if
he's not playing well early. I don't care if it
looks like he's moping out there upset about a call
at times. You have to continue to feature him throughout
the ballgame because it's like a you know, a running
back that's only getting two yards per carry in the
first half or three yards, but it wears down the
defense and then by the fourth quarter he's ripping off
some long runs. It just seems like if Visas Zubas
can lean on a defense a little bit and then
punish them late, and the floodgates kind of opened where
he had those six points that were really crucial in
the fourth quarter, Like they haven't had I mentioned this
last night, but how many times will we talked about
they do it the hard way?
Speaker 1: Like, oh yeah, absolutely, I mean that that's the flip side,
right of hunting matchups. Some of ISO ball is like
you're you're putting up the hardest shot on the floor
pretty consistently, and especially sometimes when it's not even the three,
it is really difficult. So I do see and I
think that his teammates are starting to see him as
like this release valve as well in that obviously they
can they can plug the ball to him down low,
but if the matchup that he wants isn't there or
he can't get the shot, He's evolved enough in his
game now to where he can be a little bit
more patient, he can look for another teammate to pass to,
he can use a little bit of his footwork to
try to make a little bit of space. I just
feel like there's a lot more tools in his arsenal
and we kind of saw that more on full display.
But we have to talk about the other end of
the floor too, because twenty rebounds is insane. The entire
Cleveland Cavaliers team only had twenty nine rebounds as a team,
and that's been an issue for them all year long,
which I don't fully understand given sort of the front
court rotation and some of the size that they have.
What were you seeing out there? How was Zoo able
to pull down these monster boards?
Speaker 2: I think at times I heard this from I think
of Cleveland. I think I was listening to Lockdown Calvs
or something earlier. Somebody was talking about the Cavaliers not
having their smalls rebound well enough because the big guys
are having to account for the other big guys. In
this case, if he's a Zubos and you know, if
he's not getting them, he's at least taking those guys
away from getting those Borges at times, and then it
comes down to the smalls getting rebounds out there. But
I don't know he was he was so aggressive out there.
Some of it's because there were so many made shots
in the game there's less rebounds to be had, I guess,
But yeah, I didn't realize that they had an issue
in the rebounding department, even with those two guys.
Speaker 3: That's kind of strange.
Speaker 2: But Zubas was just the biggest player on the floor
in many ways, like he just he played up to
his size. It wasn't just that technically, specs wise, he's
the biggest guy out there, but he played huge And
I thought that in one he had where he flexed
late in the ballgame that might have been off of
Kawhi Leonard miss. I know he missed a jumper late
and Zubas put it back in, but it was good
to see him, you know, play with that level of passion.
I never really worry about Zubots getting up for big
games too, Like this is another twenty twenty game against
the premiere front court. He's done it against AD, He's
done it against Triple J, He's done it against Wemby.
Speaker 3: That's not nothing.
Speaker 1: He's circling these matchups. Like I firmly believe that zoo
is I think really like sense that the disrespectful trade
from the Lakers. He is a guy who takes these
sort of matchups against other you know, elite centers very seriously. Yeah,
on a personal level, and I and he took that personally.
Speaker 2: I can't say enough like he's he is one of
the easiest guys to root for as a clipper. Ever,
I just love a visa Zoobots and his work ethic
and everything. Postgame, he was asked about someone says something
to the effect of like, how do you feel about scoring.
Speaker 3: So much now? And he's like, it's great.
Speaker 2: Like everybody on yeah, coming into the league, this is
kind of what everybody wants to do.
Speaker 3: You end up having to do other things because.
Speaker 2: You're not in the pecking order high enough up in it.
But now that's completely changed for the better for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: And he got was getting a lot of love on
the internet last night, notably from Terrence Man who sung
his praises. Patrick Beverley as well, who has long been
a champion of Avitza Zoo bots by the way, and
I really liked Kawhi was kind of asked about it postgame,
and he talked about Zoo's growth and enabling He said,
you know, how much more efficient he's gotten in mismatches
against smaller guys, and how much better the hook has gotten,
and just how much more patient he is with the
ball in his hands. He said, Like the way Kawhi
talked about it is that it's kind of like there's
it's not a selfish mentality necessarily, but like when you
don't get a lot of touches, you get the ball
in your hands, and you feel this immense sort of
pressure to score, and I think zoo like, while he
is capable of doing that, understands the game now at
a different level, or sees things a little bit slowly,
where like if the media opportunity to score isn't there,
he can do all of these other things on the floor.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I thought that was a really cool comment too,
and kind of spoke to oh, this is why young
guys tend to be good individual players sometimes and put
up stats, but maybe it doesn't translate to their team
winning because they're reading the game through a very small
lens instead of being able to see everything out there. Like,
just because you have the ball in your hands doesn't
mean the best play for your team is to score
right now, but because if you're getting the ball less,
you may feel like I need to get my numbers,
I need to get my shots up.
Speaker 3: Now's my time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that patience from a Viza Zubos pretty cool. Well,
I still feel like he could have been doing this
last year. He could have been doing this year before.
He just needed to get the actual reps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. More but I want to say too,
like I don't think that. I'm not saying that. I
think of Vitza Zubas was like selfish. I just think
it's a thing of like you feel the pressure of,
like you know, when you get the ball offensively, like
in your head, like that's what you're expected to do,
like you know, when really there's so many more aspects
to your game and helping your team, which I think
he's he's hit a great stride in. But let's he
back to the defensive end of the floor. What were
you seeing from Kawhi Leonard arguably his best game of
the season. What did you think about him on the
defensive side of the floor, Because we talked about how
that's you know, that's one of the meter sticks to
gauge where Kawhi Leonard is at from a health and
confidence in his body perspective is on that end of
the floor.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, he's looked good to me since the Atlanta game,
So really the last three games it seems like he's
finding his footing defensively. The Atlanta game stood out to me,
and then yesterday he was on Donovan Mitchell I think
to start, and he got plenty of time on him.
Speaker 3: He had a bad game.
Speaker 2: He's getting more steals, and he's getting more of those
you know, crafty basketball plays where he ends up in
the right place at the right time, even though he
could have easily been out of position, but he knows
where the flow of the ball is heading to and
he ends up taking away a pass that way. Like
those natural instincts are really kicking in for.
Speaker 3: Kawhi right now.
Speaker 2: I thought, I thought he looked good on that end
for the third straight game. And the bounce, the pop overall,
that's that's even though he didn't have a dunk, even
though he didn't really get to the rim much, he
had like a spinning floater and like a push shot
early in the game. But to me, that's probably why
it was his best game to me, because he got
back to his bread and butter in the mid range
and he's hitting shots that are just unguardable.
Speaker 3: There's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 2: The spin move to the fallaway on Evan Mobley at
the end of the game on the far side baseline,
just what do you gotta do?
Speaker 1: Mobley was the like he was the unfortunate receiver of
a couple of highlight plays over him, and I say, unfortunately,
because it's only notable because he is a good defender.
Is is like why these are so notable? Him and
James Harden had one as well, five of six from
three for Kawhia, Like, where do you see the dispersal
of his shots? I mean, we've talked about this a
little bit, but his mid range was weirdly the thing
that wasn't.
Speaker 4: Working there for kind of a while.
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think that he's at a
stage of his game where he should be maybe considering
like a different sort of dispersion of his shot profile
or just continue to or this was just the way
the game came to him in this one.
Speaker 2: So and listen to what he said Sunday night after
the Horness game. He kind of confirmed something I was
thinking that the reason he hasn't looked as sharp as
he typically does around this time during the ramp up
process when he comes back from an injury is because
he can't train the same way. He can't do that
hard work that he used to that he is known
for being one of the hardest works workers.
Speaker 3: So he just has to get the in game.
Speaker 2: Reps, which is totally different obviously, to get his timing
he's figuring it out on the fly in games instead
of getting some of that timing just by doing really
hard training sessions. But because of the right knee and
the mercurial nature of the swelling, you can't push things
too far, I think, And he said something to the
degree of, you know, I'd rather be available more than
be more efficient or whatever, like just being out there.
So I kind of rationalized it as, Okay, maybe he's
not at a nine or ten, but he's available more,
and he's still at a seven or eight, and he
looks really good now. Last night I'd say he was
at a ten. So I do think at some point
he'll get enough of the in game reps to make
up for the lack of training. And maybe we're starting
to get there now because last night I think it
was game twenty six for him, and he just looked spectacular.
But also it was just it was a big game
and you could tell there was a different level of focus.
And Kauhi always downsplays the fact that when people have
asked him, you know, about getting up or raising your
game in the playoffs, and he always like, I play
the same way all the time, Like, no, he doesn't, No, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's fair. This you know, I this win,
big win got the Clippers. I feel like some more
media attention than they've they've had, certainly like in a
few weeks. I don't know if you if you caught
Steven A. Smith's comments about Kawhi, but you know, he
basically said that he's checking his watch and waiting for
another injury and isn't really willing to to to read
too much into this one.
Speaker 3: That that part. I understand the citicism that part of it.
Speaker 2: But he also went into like I didn't see him
get injured in the playoff series against the Phoenix Suns.
You know he walks off the floor after game too
and just doesn't come back. He was insinuating that he
seemed to be with his language at LEAs maybe he
didn't meet it like this, but he kind of doubled
down on it multiple times. What offended me was it
seemed like he was insinuating that like Kawhi just didn't
want to play sometimes, like he would just leave a
playoff series. It's like, dude, what do you think he
had surgery on if he didn't get hurt that summer?
Speaker 3: Like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: It? Seemed really lazy, and I don't know part of
the course of Steven A. Smith analysis.
Speaker 1: They've had issues though since Kawhi was in San Antonio.
But you know, he hasn't exactly been a glowing reviewer
of him. But if you've ever watched Kawhi Leonard played basketball,
I feel like the notion that he would willingly, that
he would willingly quit or walk off just because of
how he felt. I think it's pretty silly, especially if
you you know, saw the terrifying grim hole last season
when clearly his body could no longer play despite him
wanting to. But let's move on to some better news,
happier stuff. James hard I should say.
Speaker 2: Though, Yeah, I worry after a game like last night
because he's going to another level. They're like, okay, so
now how's the knee react to that? Right, because it's
almost like clearing a different hurdle because you're raising your
level of game. There's more explosive plays from him out there. God,
his handle was so crazy last night. He was just
so locked in. But yeah, he was making some that
fall away he had in the fourth quarter near the
right elbow on the fade away over d Wade.
Speaker 3: Like his elevation. I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 2: So I'll go back to like twenty nineteen and look
where he was then movement wise with the rafts and
compared it to now. It's like, it looks pretty damn
similar to me.
Speaker 3: But so I have.
Speaker 1: Way too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just like, I totally understand the notion of
feeling like, well, he's not going to be able to
make it through an entire playoff run, or he's not
gonna be able to stay healthy, enjoy it while you can.
Speaker 2: But Steven a presented in such a negative way and
then seem to, you know, attack his competitiveness or something
and act like he was faking an injury at one point.
That's the part that to me is just crossing the
line beyond anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, I agree one hundred percent. But the discount of
course around Kawhi is one of the most toxic of
any player, and it seems like the most vocal of
his detractors are people that don't don't watch a lot.
Speaker 4: Of Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: You know, we certainly see him for as many games
as he's available a year, so I think we have
a pretty different picture. But another guy with a lot
of detractors. James Harden had, I mean nearly a perfect
game as well. Nine assists, zero turnovers, looked to be
firmly in his bag scoring. The efficiency was not there
from three just eighteen percent, so not completely perfect game,
but finished with twenty two to nine and like I said,
zero turnovers. What are you seeing from him? Like what
I know? Well, the efficiency, I don't know how else
to describe it other than ups and downs. It's kind
of a roller coaster thing, and this one it didn't
end up biting the clippers. But are you seeing anything
at any spots where he could be making improvements? Was
there anything that you thought was problematic with the shot
selection or was this just a case of stuff not
going down? I thought he was really struggling around the rim,
which are shots that I would not tell him to
not take obviously, like you know, that's a great shot,
that's a great shot. Profile.
Speaker 4: They just weren't really falling down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe he was seeing ghosts a little bit just
because the reputation of Mobley and Jared Allen lurking. You know,
I did feel like, because this was a playoff type
of atmosphere that he wasn't getting some of the calls
he usually gets, and he got a little bit frustrated
over that. I think there were two times where he
felt like he was fouled on a three pointer, he
didn't get the call, and you're less prone to get
those calls in the playoffs. They're going to let more
of that stuff go. And that's always been part of
the problem at times with James Harden, where you're getting
stuff in the regular season that doesn't translate to the
playoffs with the way he's being officiated out there. So
I think that got in his head a little bit,
and I would say I think this is a good
example this game of why Kawhi has to be the
number one option for you to be at your best,
because Kawhi's game translates so well to the playoffs because
whether he's going up against Miles Bridges on Sunday as
his defender or Evan Mobley on.
Speaker 3: Tuesday, they both kind of look the same.
Speaker 2: I think to Kawhi often with the type of shots
that he takes, like he's seeing through the defense anyways,
like it doesn't matter. His shot is less affected by
more physical play or by the reputation of the defender.
And how good they are because he gets to his spots,
he pulls up their unguardable shots, whereas James Harden it
is a little bit more dependent on who you're going
against how good the defense is. So I hope that
this is a reminder that when the going gets tough,
you know, Kawhi is still gonna have to be the guy.
Because he made some comments Sunday night about basically it
sounded like he was saying, I'll fit it around you guys,
whether rather than you fitting around me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Did you hear any of those comments that he made,
because I found it pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I don't know. I guess I just kind
of read it as like sort of generic team speech
because I don't really think that Kawhi is the guy.
You know, he's not the guy to get on the
podium and say that he's the system, even though he
is the system. Uh, he's more of he's more of
the os. I guess, you know, it doesn't really it
doesn't really need to announce its president. You know, it's there,
it's running the whole thing.
Speaker 3: That's fair.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I agree, I do think that he can
he can be a little bit more aggressive and hopefully
this one was a step in the right direction. Before
we move on anything troubling Catcher back from this game,
anything you didn't like, any player or performance you thought
was a little lacking.
Speaker 2: I just the way they hunted James Harden made me go, yeah,
everybody's going to do that in the playoffs, not to
that degree.
Speaker 1: Maybe was that a surprise? Was that Was that a surprise?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I just they were so relentless for a regular season game,
and it was just kind of a reminder like, yeah,
this is a real flaw because the defense kept breaking
down because he kept get getting beat off the dribble.
They did it to Bogey a little bit too. I
think it was better in the second half.
Speaker 3: He just has to be a little bit better that
he was. It doesn't have to be great.
Speaker 2: And the Clippers, you know, maybe the soft switching, they
can do away with some of that at times because
they make it too easy. That was the one thing
that just was like, guess that's not great. That doesn't
that doesn't bode well later on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially I don't know, especially with the I don't know,
like the Chris done of it all, Like if he's
out there to like help James Harden on the defensive
end and sort of like the void that he can
present on the offensive end. It just kind of goes
back to, like, I don't know why I'm still thinking
about what we're gonna do with this starting lineup and
and why we we don't have a solid of five
to five yet.
Speaker 3: Chris Doug got the start.
Speaker 1: They were three guards, called it, you called it. They
did end up going into the three guard route, which
I did like Your reasoning coming into this one too,
is that it makes the most sense to slow down
Garland and Mitchell, give them a rough night early, and
you know, some of the sizemths, like you know, some
of the size mismatches kind of fall where they met.
Speaker 3: Where are you at though?
Speaker 2: Overalls, just so we're just gonna keep going matchup to matchup,
and you know, have a revolving door for that fifth
guy in the starting lineup all the time.
Speaker 3: Do you think that's sustainable or the right move?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: But I also don't like the Also, I think what
the if they were to say this is officially the
starting lineup, what the move would be is not the
one that I would want. Uh As much as as
great as Kris Don has been, I do believe that
that is the direction they would probably shine the light
in in that. And I you know, he has been great,
no no knock against against his game at all. And
DJJ has been you know, he's proven that he has
the mentality to come on the bench. He's looked really
great doing it. I'm not sure his his three, like
his three point shooting looks better. I mean, obviously he's
been recovering and he's been coming back from an injury,
but it's looked better since he's been on the bench.
So yeah, I don't know. And again the Chris Done
of it all. The thing that just concerns me is,
you know, you're in a playoff game and you down
ten to fifteen early, it's just a lot more difficult
to make up that ground. I feel like in that
type of a slow grinding scenario than it is in
a regular season game.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I sometimes I think, and you brought this up recently,
you know, it's more important about who you close with.
And maybe we're doing some over analysis. Always talks about
starting lineups, you know, of course, and you could start somebody,
you could start, You could have a starting lineup and
then adjust from there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well I get so, I guess that's more
of what I mean is like I the actual starting
five is maybe like a little bit irrelevant. It just
seems like I guess there could just be maybe some
more more clarity around the rotations. But at the same time,
it does help you maintain a little bit of malleability
or flexibility to change stuff up within matchups.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel like with Kawhi saying the playoffs have
already started last night, and I know coach lou wasn't
sitting there on the bench, but I wonder if his
mindset is it's just night to night basis, it's just
game by game, figure out a way to win that
one game. And that means nobody should be comfortable in
their spot too much because I'm going to play the matchups.
And I guess I'm okay with that to agree, Like,
I don't think it's the end of the world because
these guys like each other. I don't think anybody's going
to be disgruntled. Now if all of a sudden, normOn
Powell was out of the starting lineup, then I'd be like, oh,
we're taking this a little bit too far. But if
it's one position that keeps changing between DJ Done or Nico,
I don't think it's the end of the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're still limiting your varitiables enough there, and I
do think like the mentality of everyone on the roster
is certainly robust enough to sort of deal with with
with whatever that is, whether it does get solidified as
something or whether it continues to change. But that's gonna
do it for this great win over the Calves. We'll
be back at you here in just a couple of seconds.
We gotta take a break for some ads, but we're
gonna look ahead to the Clippers taking on the Grizzlies.
So ads coming up on if you're if you're listening
on audio in three two one.
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: In Clips and Dip Season three, episode fifty five, I'm
out of miles and we got will Updyke.
Speaker 1: No, thank you for thank you for doing the episode
number I forgot to do it at the top. Chuck's
gonna be pissed.
Speaker 3: Oh well, I just pulled up like the rundown a
second ago. You didn't hear that?
Speaker 1: Check?
Speaker 3: No, I knew where we were going next.
Speaker 2: The Clippers have another big ball game on Friday into
a Dome against the Memphis Grizzlies, their final game against them.
They're actually two to zero against them so far this season,
which kind of bucks a trend of past years where
it felt like they were typically on the wrong end
in that matchup. But incomes Chris Dunn DJ a couple
more guys on the perimeter to help out with John Moran,
who they definitely saw in the first matchup but not
the second, and they're two to zero against him. Grizzly
since the All Star Break just seven and eight, fifteenth
in net rating, thirteenth, in offensive rating, fourteenth, and defensive rating,
so they've kind of been slow out of the gates
post All Star Break, but they have won five of
their last seven. But they did lose to the Cleveland
Cavaliers at home. Wouldn't happen to the Clippers? Would never
happen to the Clippers.
Speaker 1: US.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling about Friday's matchup? Is this going
to confirm what we saw on Tuesday? Or could this
turn into? Oh the Clippers are still inconsistent and I
don't know what to expect from this team game to game,
even though they just got their best victory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know that this one would be enough
to do a complete one eighty for me on where
this team is at. That being said, though, I mean
this to me would be a very significant win, certainly
rattling off five straight. I mean, I don't think we've
done that since November maybe five, because five five is
the longest I looked at I was living this up
a couple weeks ago. Five straight is the longest streak
I believe of the season, and that would have been
pretty early on there. So yeah, I don't know. Again, Yeah,
it would be more I guess it would be more
more evidence to the idea that the team is super inconsistent,
but it doesn't undo what they've done so far. But
a win would swing me, you know, like even further
sort of in this positive direction. So I guess what
I'm saying is there's less to lose than there is
to gain, is how I'm viewing this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, the Grizzlies aren't playing well, but they
are one of those teams in the Western Conference still
in front of the Clippers. And I know they lost
last night to the Sacramento Kings, who had been in
a tailspin after the Kawhi shot. He basically broke the
Kings and they lost I think four or five in
a row after that. But they will be what are
they on a back to back heading into that game? Also,
they have no they have the Blazers tonight Memphis, and
we don't know the status of John Morant, who was
out for the last game with a hamstring injury. What
do we want to see from this Clippers team specifically
to build off of what we saw I guess against
Cleveland against a Memphis team, now that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them again on the offensive end,
just with the same sort of like precision to pick
apart some of those lineups. Whether that goes back to having,
you know, Bogie handled the ball more at time and
maybe feature Harden and Kawhi and a little bit more
off ball of a roll to give them a little
bit of break from the ball handling duties and sort
of enable them to sort of zero in on whatever
matchup it is they want and really go at it,
because we need to get some sort of offensive swing,
some sort of offensive juice figured out. And I think
that was like one of the brighter takeaways from the
last game, because like all season long, it's been you know,
what are we going to do with this? And I
think what I like the most was that it was
like it was a glimpse back to that twenty twenty
one team where in the half court they were the
best team in the NBA, and you know, it wasn't
always even like the insane ball movement or anything. A
lot of times it was just really meticulous plotting, efficient offense.
So to see that again, to see them be able
to put up you know, a buck fifteen, buck twenty
on this grizzly team and pull out a win, to
me would be very very impressive. I'm not saying that
that's what's going to happen, but that would be very
impressive for me. Obviously, Harden to have a little bit
more efficient of a night's norm to get his legs
back under him, but more so than anything, just a
sort of I just want to see a step in
the right direction that they at least know where they're
heading offensively, that we're not just relying on, you know,
past efficiency and hopeful numbers from individual players, but we
have sort of a cohesive idea even if maybe It
isn't exactly what you want the offense to be, but
they know what, they know who they're hunting, and they're
making it a point to get certain players involved in
the action in having to defend them on a possession
of possession basis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as much as it feels like they have a
pretty defined aggressive defensive mentality and identity there the offensive side,
high pick and roll, big Zoo, James Harden. But now
Cowhi's back, so how does he fit in and how's
the shot distribution going game game?
Speaker 3: I will say this though I was kind.
Speaker 2: Of shot by this earlier. In the last ten games,
they're third in offensive rating. Now they have played some
bad teams over that stretch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's a couple of pretty nice scores booing
in that.
Speaker 2: But sure, yeah, Cleveland's game last night, obviously the best
wins of the season is included. But I still don't
know exactly how they're going to show up on that
end each and every night. And some of it can
just be massed from hot shooting. So they go, oh,
this is what we do. We make shots, that's our identity.
When we're good, we make more shots. And now Bogey
is shooting like forty eight percent from three the last
ten games too, so that kind of goes into it.
The three point shooting has been a little bit better.
Kawhi is back, and I think the last four games
he's at like twenty eight points per game, not just
last night on high efficiency. He's turned his three point
shooting around a big way. So, no, there is such
great individual talent there that obviously you can get by.
Speaker 1: And it's an pull low average defense, like it's a
just outside of bottom ten sort of sort of defense.
Speaker 2: Oh the Clippers Memphis, Memphis, Okay, yeah, yeah, like yeah,
they're not as good as the Clifland Cavaliers, so depending
off John Moran is there either way, I just want
to see like a real plan of attack out there.
And Kawhi had been talking about better ball movement and
that has been happening.
Speaker 3: I think overall it has.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll say this, here's something that that's the stake
that has stood out to me. So they have been
turning over the ball way less like the last fifteen games,
but the last ten specifically, it's eleven point six times
per game. It's like top five in the league.
Speaker 1: So and as long as by I mean what like
thirty percent almost, I'll like since the two to one
to three era, like normally they're around i'd say like fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And even though James had the low efficiency game last night,
he took care of the basketball. I think he had
nine assistant zero turnovers exactly.
Speaker 1: That's why he said he had a perfect game.
Speaker 2: So they are doing some things right, Like if you
want to talk about being on the same page and
having a plan, it's hard to have low turnovers if
you aren't connected offensively.
Speaker 3: So they are doing some things.
Speaker 2: It's just I don't know. Maybe it's a good thing
and we're overthinking a little bit because they do have
a more diverse attack right now and we're trying to
see where it's coming from all the time. But it's like, no,
that's the point, dummies, That's true. The defense doesn't know
who's going to be attacking them every time down the floor,
and that's why they've been better on that end.
Speaker 3: Maybe we're asking too much.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but don't you feel I just feel
like they haven't always like used some of the mismatches
to their advantage. And that even goes to like getting
big zoo touches I feel like, sometimes you know what,
he has a mismatch down loan, It's like, why why
is he not immediately fed the ball. He's shown time
in and time that he can obviously score on the
other player or make something else happen. But what about you,
What's what's one thing you're looking at? What are you
looking for to get this win over the Grizzlies.
Speaker 2: Well, big Zoo body triple j earlier this season, and
I wonder if he remembers how badly he had to
wear it in that game. And I want to see
Aviza Zoobots like strike fear into opponents. I know he's
not shack, He'll never be shack. No one moving forward
will probably be shack. But can there be a level
of fear factor when you're going up against the Clippers
with the Viza Zubos because you know that night, if
you have to guard this guy, you're probably gonna get
embarrassed a couple of times. Yes, I would love to
see that, like a reputation from Aviza Zubos from being
nastier he has been. I don't think he's ever been soft,
but that title had been given to him from some
the people who aren't the zoos truthers like us praising
him for years, But now some of the stuff he's
doing out there is so dominant. I'm not calling him
the MD the most dominant ever like Shaq, but just
can he coming into the game have a reputation of, Oh,
you're facing a guy who's in the conversation for top
five best center in the league tonight.
Speaker 1: I mean, if that isn't already in the scouting report,
then I think maybe some of these scouts need to
know more ball.
Speaker 3: This is true.
Speaker 2: You would you would assume some of the players have
known how good he is. But there's good, and then
there's I may get dunked on, or I may have
him do a spinning reverse layup, or use the left
hand on me, fake me out of my shoes, like
that stuff. I think that can have players a little
bit more skittish going into a ball game against the Clippers.
And now I would love it if Jared Jackson Junior
was feeling a little bit of that because Zuo has
dominated him.
Speaker 1: All right, So what do you It's kind of questionable.
You know, like this team, they are fourth in overall
plus minus despite being like I said, below average defense
above average offense, maybe not exceptional, but they're about thirteenth
in offensive ratings sense the All Star break, you know,
they're one game below five hundred. What worries you about
this one?
Speaker 2: The Clippers, aside from the first half against the Cleveland Cavaliers,
have had the shooting actually going their way recently from
opponents after for like a month and a half, it
felt like everybody was lighting them up from three a
lot of averages. It always seems to work that way,
where I think teams are shooting like thirty two percent
from three against the Clippers their last ten games, which
is one of the best or lowest percentages in the
league against anybody. I'm just worried that that's not going
to be able to hold. But I'm also encouraged because
the first half last game, it looked like the Cavs
were on one of those heaters and the Clippers stepped up.
But yeah, I could see the Memphis Grizzlies, you know,
with Desmond Baine, I don't know what Jalen Wells is
shooting on the season, and but what am I thinking of?
Obviously Zach Edie's not shooting any but Jaron Jackson Junior
is known for being a stretch big, Like is this
going to be the game.
Speaker 3: Or a tea?
Speaker 1: The name you're forgetting is Luke Canard.
Speaker 3: I think Luke Canard is definitely.
Speaker 2: I think he started the last time out against the
Clippers when they didn't have Sean Moran.
Speaker 3: A Luke Canard revenge game.
Speaker 2: Yes, that should be the worry Luky Dookie going off
from distance.
Speaker 1: And Dan's been bain. I mean he just put up
a forty piece. I mean it was in a loss
of bad loss of the Kings, but uh, he just
put up forty four. So he I like that. You
bring him him up. He could definitely get some get
something done against the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Adm Bona was the guy who was thinking of another
stretch big.
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 3: Wait, that's not what I'm thinking of. God damn it.
Who am I thinking of from the Grizzlies?
Speaker 1: Are you googling? Who am I thinking of? From the Grizzlies?
Speaker 2: I hear the keyboard Al dama al dama a, Dan Bona,
al dama santy al dama Yes, he's their stretch big. Okay,
I'm sorry I got a sidetracked here, man Chase.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I so, yeah, I guess I'm worried. I'm worried
if the shooting doesn't go the Clippers way early that
we see sort of we see a fall off defensively.
I liked last game you sort of like you mentioned
the pivot that they were able to take when they
weren't getting stops, which was aided by them actually being
able to make to knock shots down. But I think
sometimes when we've seen them come out to a slow
start offensively, they can kind of fall behind on the
other end of the floor. And that's still you know,
as much as I've brought up you know, wanting to
see more of an offensive identity, more more of wanting
to see a step forward in that direction, it can't
come at a step backwards to to where they've been
defensively really all seasons. So I don't anticipate I don't
anticipate that happening. But you know, you brought up hard
In in some of the call things. I think that
some of the times that you know, his his low
light reel has definitely been times after you know, arguing
with a call that he didn't get, which is you know,
common for a lot of foul prome guards to not
really get back. But yeah, I just want to see
the same sort of defensive intensity if the you know,
if the shooting efficiency isn't going their way the.
Speaker 4: Way that it did against the Cavaliers, because I.
Speaker 1: Don't think that in general, they're going to be able
to say, okay, well, like defensively, it's just not really working,
so let's let's try to let's try to shoot our
way out of this one, which is what I was
really worried about in that Cavs game. But they were
able to shoot themselves out of it.
Speaker 2: There was a great quote postgame from Vshaw saying nobody
tried to hijack the offense when somebody had it rolling.
They kept feeding that guy. They kept going to him
when they had the mismatch. So that was encouraging to hear.
Speaker 3: He used some strong language.
Speaker 2: He's very blunt and frank, but yeah, I'm with you.
I think this is a team that at some point
they have to get out of that transitional phase of
we have everybody back or the majority of our team back,
and we're still figuring it out. Because there's what thirteen
games left, It's like, you can't still be in that,
you know, figuring out how to play next to one another.
Speaker 3: Stage.
Speaker 2: You got to make it happen right now, and hopefully
when we saw last night was the step in the
right direction where this Clippers team is kind of crystallizing
how they want to play every possession.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, absolutely not a whole lot of We always
talk about on this show how a little runway is
left and uh yeah, it's it's creeping right up on them.
It's in it's like in uh, it's like in that movie, Uh,
what's the uh, what's the ben Affleck World War two
movie Pearl Harbor. They're like they're practicing because they have
to conserve fuel, so they're practicing and taking the jet
that like the jet fighters off with a shorter and
shorter distance, so they're like marking it with the chalk. Anyways,
that's where the Clippers are at right now. Sorry to
get onto a onto a nowhere analogy, but uh yeah,
the Clippers are gonna come back from war. Someone else
has been with their old lady and now they got
to figure the whole thing out.
Speaker 2: You were going dumb and dumber or Jim Carrey runs
out of the shoot and like falls off to the
tarmac or whatever, like they're running out of.
Speaker 1: Run with It's looked like that sometimes too, it has
looked like that sometimes. Let's get into our Do you
have any other thoughts on this one before we get
into our players.
Speaker 4: Of the game.
Speaker 3: No, let's do it. Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: All right. So this is the of course highly coveted
a Visas Zubats, Kawhi, Leonard, Norm Powell, James Harden Player
of the Game. If the name of a player was
mentioned in the award, it means that you cannot pick
them for the award. Always presents an interesting curve ball
for these discussions. Adam, I'll kick it over to you.
Who is your player of the game per the rules
of this segment.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with a mere coffee.
Speaker 1: Ooh okay. I like that you brought him up because
I thought he kind of stunk last game.
Speaker 2: Well, so this is about the guy who's due to
vounce back. Okay, he did have well, one of four
from the field and just three points in seventeen minutes
he had. They only credited him with one because I
think Visas Zubas got credit for tipping it out. But
he had a key offensive rebound to get them an
extra possession.
Speaker 1: Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: We're building off of this, baby, amer Coffee's gonna turn
that into a fifteen point game. He also want a
terrible turnover, right, I'm not here to talk about that.
Speaker 1: Okay, who do you got? I'm gonna oh man, this
one feels like cheating, and I'm gonna say it because
it might be one of the last few times that
we get to say him before his name gets added
to the list of folks. Bogue, going, Bogden, Bogdanovic. Baby,
I think that he I mean, he's just continuing to
build on this and like I said, I really do
like when they are. I do think that he is
one of those pieces to getting this team rolling offensively.
Him paired with Harden does present its own sort of
issues on the defensive end, and we have seen Bogue
he picked on very heavily at times, especially in that
Lakers game. So yeah, but either way, he's on the
up and up. I really like what he brings. I
love his shooting. I like I said earlier, his Baul
handling is even better I feel like than advertise. So
I'm looking for I'm looking for a strong performance from
him and him to help sort of sort of raise
the water to be the water that raises the tide.
If there's any sort of slow offensive points in this game,
because we've all gotten too used to watching, you know,
three minute long stretches of NBA basketball without a madefield goal,
I don't know if he's going on, which takes years
off your life, dude, it takes years off my life.
I'm seventeen years old. I look like this because I
watch Clippers basketball.
Speaker 2: All right, You got the Ringer and voguee. I got
a mirror coffee?
Speaker 3: Fair enough?
Speaker 2: Where can everybody find this wonderful podcast?
Speaker 3: Here will David listening to?
Speaker 1: You can find this podcast which if you thought it
was good today normally there's three of us, it's that's
at least fifty better. But you can check that out
wherever you get your podcasts. If you listen and listen
over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, go ahead and leave the
little rating or review. It helps us out. But the
best way to check out his podcast is over on YouTube.
That's YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast. But hey,
however you tune in, you know we appreciate.
Speaker 2: You before you get out of here. I think I
have to do something.
Speaker 1: You have an obligation, you have a legal obligation.
Speaker 3: I've said so many positive things already. What if I
missed it this point?
Speaker 1: Big deep man?
Speaker 2: Oh, Okay, the Clippers have a real shot. I thought
they were stuck in the seven to eight plan. They
do have a real shot still to get into the
sixth spot. Oh, it's there, It's possible, it can happen.
I was looking at all the upcoming schedules for the
Golden State Warriors, for the Minnesota Timberwolves, for the Memphis Grizzlies,
like this is all all still in front of them
with thirteen games left, and maybe I don't know, they're
peaking at the right time for once. How many times
have they gone into the playoffs where you felt like, yeah,
they got the right type of momentum going on. Kawhi
looks perfectly poised for a long playoff run, like this
might actually work out because they went through a little
bit of a downspin or downturn after the All Star
break and they have pulled out of that tail spin
beautifully here. So now this Clippers team, they got a
chance to really build a little bit of momentum because
also the level of competition. If you're looking for positives
by playing really good teams, when you beat them, you
feel really good about yourself. So we'll see if they
get another victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, they'll be flying high.
Speaker 1: All right, flying high. Let's hope that's where we're at.
That's gonna do it for today's episode of Clips and
did thank you so much? And as our co host
Charles Mickler always says, well, let's go Clips.