Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season three,
episode sixty one of Clips in Dip. I am Chuck Mockler,
joined by Adam Osen and William Updyke. We are very
excited to bring you this episode. We're talking the Zubats
triple double, the sixth win in the row against the Rockets,
as well as the upcoming incredibly important weekend matchups against
the Kings and Warriors. If you're listening to us, thank
you so much. If you're watching us at YouTube dot
com Slash at Clippers Podcast, We're gonna have some more
content coming at you, so hit that little bell and
you can get notified before we get into all of
the incredibly stressful matchups and things to think about coming up.
How the hell are you guys doing the day after
it eats the Zubats records his first, hopefully not last,
career triple double. We were all in the building. Will
how are you feeling on this sunny of Vitzi sebat
triple double after?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm feeling great. That was incredible. I like
was in the media section, so I probably shouldn't have,
but I gave a little cheer when that when that
Bogey three bounced in because it looked it looked like
for a second it wasn't gonna happen. He wasn't gonna
get that triple double. But proud of Bogey, he knocked
it down. They got a lucky they got a good bounce,
and uh yeah, I reacted immediately.
Speaker 1: That was probably the most stressful shot of the whole
night last night was Bogie's.
Speaker 2: And I love that he got tooken out and then
they're like, no.
Speaker 1: Go back there, Adam, how are you doing?
Speaker 3: Big shot Bogie? What he does? It was a big one.
I'm feeling good. This team is rolling right now, but
a little concerned about the game coming up on Friday.
Speaker 1: Are you concerned about the injuries or just in general.
We'll get to it, but.
Speaker 3: I'm concerned about the Kings. They are They have some
firepower that when they actually play the right way out
there and are decent defensively, they can beat you.
Speaker 1: Volatile, They're a volatile matchup.
Speaker 2: They almost came back against Denver.
Speaker 1: God that would have been so sweet. The Clippers beat
some of the Rockets yesterday to win. They're six in
a row. Rockets shot fifty percent from three, which we
had just talked about last time we're all together, how
all the teams that we had played recently were shooting
their worst from three rockets shot pretty damn well. Thankfully,
the Clippers I think shot fifty or something like that,
but I don't know. I came away from that game. Reed,
Shepherd can shoot the hell out of the ball. I
kind of knew that before, but watching it in person,
you're like, damn, that's he can get it done.
Speaker 3: Aaron Holiday too.
Speaker 1: Apparently everybody no norm for that one, and he's questionable
for this next game. And we'll talk about that later.
What was your guys' biggest takeaway? There was a couple
of things that stuck out in this game other than
the Avitza Zubatch triple double, which before we get into this,
do we think Zeo gets another triple double at some
point in his career?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no question. I The only thing that's been
holding him back is not enough touches. If he touches
the basketball more like, no, it's hard to become a
good passer if you don't have the ball in your
hands first, Like, he's become better because he's actually getting
reps this season. They're getting into the basketball. He's played
over thirty minutes a night, Like, I think he's definitely
gonna He had five assists the game before, like, and he.
Speaker 1: Was one or two away. And another game this year, yeah,
he took him out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been closed. So I'm confident on his career
trajectory he will have more triple doubles.
Speaker 1: Look out, Russell Westbrook, look out on that that. But
will what was your biggest takeaway from this Rockets game?
It was a little weird to start, but the Clippers
figured it out after a while.
Speaker 2: Kawhi looking spry, Kawhi looking spry. He was he was
going at it physically for a regular season game against
not a fully healthy Houston Rockets in a way that uh,
I mean, I just the way he was ratcheted up
for this game.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, we've been talking about this. He's been looking
better and better, but the physicality last night it stood
out to me. Maybe it was because I was there
in person, so it just it popped a little bit
more than it does through the television. But he is
looking damn good right now, like close to like he's
approaching peak of his powers, Kawhi, which I didn't know
that we were going to get there. I didn't know
that we would get there a couple of weeks ago,
you know. And I think we all, I think we
all said, if we get seventy five percent of this guy,
we get eighty. You know, if we get optimistically eight,
you know, I mean, we could be looking at ninety
of like twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: Kawhi.
Speaker 1: He had more dunks yesterday in a game than maybe
twenty nineteen, and he missed a couple of dunks, like
he was adamant that he wanted to dunk the ball,
and it was pretty rad.
Speaker 3: I think that's probably the best part of last night's game.
I mean, he was did he make three dunks and
missed two, and the two that he missed were super
athletic dunks that if they win.
Speaker 2: It was a lot of contact.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he got fouled on one of them. The
other he put it a little bit too far and
hit the back of the iron and bounced out on
that back at the very end of the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: The hops are still there. I've always said his injuries
have come to his right leg. He's a left legged leaper,
Like he can still jump. I don't know how he
got to this point where Kawhi is sneaky hops. Last season, Uh,
he had the most dunks he had had in the
year ye his NBA career. So and he's looking like
last season's Kawhi again. It's all there, it is.
Speaker 1: I think at one point he tried to dunk on
three Rockets. It was like it was one of his
missed ones where he I was like, oh shit, he's
really going for it.
Speaker 3: That was the drive left and yeah, there were three
guys waiting for him. They fouled him or otherwise he's
putting him on a poster left hand too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Kauhi physical peak keeps getting higher and higher.
And last night, again it wasn't against the full Rocket squad,
but it's a young Rockets team that still had guys
who were trying to defend. It's not like they were
rolling over in that game defensively by any means.
Speaker 2: And it's both ends of the floor too, like he
you know, he has looked good defensively all season. You know,
we talked about that kind of early on. It seemed
like he was kind of like had the governor on
maybe on the offensive end of the floor to kind
of to kind of see how his body reacted. But yeah,
he was going at it tenaciously, and his like, his
rebounding is much more like he's he's the board man again,
like he's really fighting for it in there tenacious.
Speaker 1: K Yeah, the boards is a really good call because
that's been always I mean, that's been the thing right
that he brings to the team when he's not rebounding.
We were all kind of like, well, who's gonna grab
boards aside from Zoo if Kawhi is not getting there
to clean it up.
Speaker 3: No, no, guys, I don't think he can play power forward.
It just doesn't work. Like they have to get a
power forward right now?
Speaker 1: Do we still have time? Is it it's April tenth?
Trade deadlines? What the eleventh Nico had? Nico, I don't
want to say he didn't save this game, but the
first half Nick Watum was very much needed. He had
fifteen points I think in the first half. Three Then
of course I hurt his growing and he is out
for the game tomorrow with growing strain. I think it's
more of an age we're gonna give you the day
off or something. But he was incredibly clutch and showed
again not that there's people who've been, you know, wondering
what he does for this team, especially if you listen
to Clippers podcast. Just really showed what he can bring
to a team when they need one. Other guys are
getting more attention from the defense.
Speaker 3: Nico has been shooting from the outside some ridiculous numbers
for quite some time now. He's at fifty six percent
from three to his last nineteen games. Like there was
some talk earlier in the season, is he sliw a doll?
The shots dot there? Nico looks incredible now. He said
postgame to Lot Murray that he's fine, he's good. Maybe
he woke up today a little bit of soreness. He's
thirty six. Keep him out of this game. I think
they can get by without him, but it's it's not
going to be an easy one. But it was I
agree with you. I think he scored all those fifteen
points in like the span of seven minutes. Yeah, and
the Rockets were obviously hot from distance. Nico kind of
countered that for the Clippers just to stay up. I
think it was really importantly did in the first half.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and with the groin thing, like I you know what,
I believe him that it's not super serious. I'm also
with that injury, kind of a fan of just just
being cautious. It's something you can reaggravate all the time.
It's like something Lebron has now a couple times a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good call. And it's like
I would rather if we were to choose the games
for him to play, I would rather him play against
Golden State, Oh for sure. Damn than the Kicks. Yeah, hard.
Speaker 2: Implications for that one are just so much heavier.
Speaker 1: God. Yeah, Harden had another I believe the official team
account which did this out but they didn't give the
official number, But he had a thirty five point and
ten assist game. He's up to the second most of
those in history for a season, the official team account said.
So he's continuing to absolutely crush his last three games.
He's got a thirty six to seven assist a turnover ratio,
which is fantastic to see, was compared to some of
the stuff we saw early in the season. He gave
shoes to everybody, uh to Mayor bizarrely had a great
fit on yesterday, and then he had to wear the
hardened hell Cats, which are a great shoe. But I
feel like to Mayor was maybe like the fit looked good,
it was not a fit tailored for a surprise pair
of hardened hell cats. Let's just say, I.
Speaker 3: Feel like if the shoes are fire enough, like you
can get away with clashing as long as the shoes
look cool. Disagree then, because he ain't matching his shoes
all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying matching, but it's not. We can test
that theory. I disagree. I politely disagree with your take
at them, Oh Dudel.
Speaker 2: So while we're on the subject, what the hell is
going on with the Lexus Looks Dude? It is so
bad for the Clippers. It's like it's Nico Patoom in
jeans and a T shirt, which there's nothing wrong with
wearing that to a game. Be comfortable. I'm one hundred
percent for that. Maybe just don't do the segment. Change
it to something else.
Speaker 1: The Lexus Looks segment is so funny.
Speaker 2: And it's like Norman sweatpants, Like literally every outfit with
someone in a T shirt and jeans or sweatpants on
the on the Lexus Looks segment last night, Like like,
just don't do it.
Speaker 1: At that point and then Annah Cormier, it'll just show
a picture of Norm pal and she goes Norm Pale,
and then it shows a picture of Nick.
Speaker 3: The two like, yes, it doesn't say good looks. It
just says looks, like wear whatever you want. It's your
look tonight.
Speaker 1: They just need Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know they either behold her. Come on, you guys seen
a run away with all those crazy they were like, who.
Speaker 1: Knows, that's different too anyway.
Speaker 2: But if they don't want to dress up, like just
use the high speed camera or something, and they make
a phase like you know that always looks.
Speaker 1: Good, you're more you're more mad about the segment taking
up space of what could be a better segment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just doesn't make any sense. Okay, that's making
goddamn sense.
Speaker 1: It should be bomber looks every game.
Speaker 3: It should just be different shots of a car the
entire time, Like why is it even on them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, photo shot them in front of a car, in
front of a car.
Speaker 1: All that to say, it's fantastic to see Harden continuing
to have a phenomenal season, and I don't know if
he's I don't even know if he's peaking at the
right time, because he's just been on incredibly high plateau
since the fifty point game.
Speaker 3: It's been i'd say, efficiency wise, he has been since
that fifty point game, last nineteen games forty six percent
from the field, thirty nine percent from the outside. Just
like it's the Kauhi effect. Kawhi Bogey has helped to
Chris Dunn, anybody else that can handle the ball a
little bit is helping out James Harden. Like it all
adds up.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think I agree with your statement
that Kawhi Leonard being back is good for the Clippers.
There were some people. Someone admitted to Adam. Someone admitted
to Adam that they were wrong about thinking that the
Clippers were better off without Kawhi.
Speaker 3: Guys called himself a dumbass.
Speaker 1: You didn't even have to do it. Whi's just such
an insane take.
Speaker 3: To think that was there, And so was the take
about b Shaws would be the head coach now. I
was like two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I mean, look how far we've come then. I think
maybe the biggest takeaway from this game the Kobe Brown
third quarter takeover, just real, five points from the.
Speaker 2: I've a bit of a shaky start off.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's coming Brown Island. Back up, Chuck, are we good?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's a little firefest vibes over at
the Kobe Brown Island right now at.
Speaker 3: The girled Cheese sandwich is just one slice of craft cheese.
Speaker 1: Dry, one size of craft cheese dry, and the sandwich
is one piece of bread. We had to cut in
half the top the bottom. But we do have styrofoam plates.
We have a thousand of them. We only have fifty sandwiches,
so we're waiting on the ingredients. But now it's just
nice to see him be a possitive. Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 3: I thought what you end up playing ten? I think
he played ten straight minutes from the end of the
third into the forest. And that was a consequence of
not having Niko Batoomb. Somebody else had to step up.
And that's probably if you consider the timing and what
they needed out out of him, that's probably his best
Mormans in the pros.
Speaker 1: Right, grabbed three boards like it was Yeah, I mean,
especially not knowing if he was gonna play at all, right,
because yeah, Nico went out a half stay ready, man,
I wonder if Carl Tart got the Kobe Brown jersey
after last night. Any other takeaways before we talk about
some stadium effects that I think they're getting ready for
the playoffs. I'm good shout out the Rockets too. I
was happy that the Rockets played hard with their short squad.
I know winning is important right now, but I like
that the Clippers kind of had like not a difficult time,
but they had to actually work for this game, and
Tylu caught some timeouts when the defense was very bad
because at one point I think it was to open
the fourth, the lead went down to like six very
quickly because the Clippers just didn't have the energy.
Speaker 3: I like the coach loupost game was still like our
last two games, we weren't good enough defensively. Yeah, there
are things to improve on, and players acknowledged it. James
Harden acknowledged it. Kawhi post game, but they also were
putting it in perspective and we're like, okay, it was
it was just two games. They have been really, really good.
It was just two games. But there's two games left now,
so can't afford to have any slippish.
Speaker 1: No, Okay, some cool things that it seemed like the
Dome was trying for the playoffs. The wave was done
for the first time at the end of it Dome
last night.
Speaker 3: We all left Carlo Jimenez hanging. He was like, oh,
the wave, and he did it. We just sat there
and looked at him because.
Speaker 1: You're a professional. No. Yeah, they got the blue lights going.
That's gonna be not the biggest fan of the wave,
but it will be cool with the lighting effects. So
shout out whoever coordinated that. And then I noticed something pregame.
They have a new display for the wall that will
show it says like stopped by the wall and it
has players and how many times they've missed free throws
facing the wall.
Speaker 3: You want to know who came up with that. Our
producer here in Burbank, Daniel West. Daniel our ear and
was like, you guys should have something there like that.
Carlo told somebody else higher up and they're like, that's
a great idea.
Speaker 1: That rules. Shout out Daniel West. Yeah, getting genius.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they'll do it during the playoffs
or something, but like, dude, imagine being someone who's on
that list standing in front, like, shit, I missed three
against the wall.
Speaker 3: It's like a strikeout. Count in baseball. Yeah, ay, count, that's.
Speaker 1: Awesome, It'll be sweet and Yeah, just a genual shout
out to the Wall for an incredible inaugural regular season. Yeah.
Support has been amazing from the Wall Leader, the swell Leaders,
whatever they're called. Like I was really I was getting
really hyped for the playoff Wall vibes that we're gonna
see in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Thirty and seven after starting going for there and their
first win a twenty six point comeback, so appropriate.
Speaker 2: It's their best home record since when it's like, it's
been a long time.
Speaker 3: That's a good question. And check.
Speaker 2: I think it might be their best home record since
the first year Bomber bought the team.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I definitely know. It's their best home record
for a season into it.
Speaker 3: Big true.
Speaker 1: You can chuck that up on the fact Wall. Okay.
So after all of that, the Clippers win their sixth
game in a row. The end the game is the
five seed. A big thank you to Harrison Barnes who
hit a game winner against the Warriors.
Speaker 3: That's the jersey we should get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get a Harrison Barnes, Yeah jersey before I
get a Kobe Brown Jersey.
Speaker 3: If the Clippers go on some magical playoff run and
end up winning it all because it is our year,
I say, raise the Harrison Bars.
Speaker 1: So funny, it's the fuck. Well, yeah, so the record
same record as the Nuggets. The Nuggets are ahead of
us because of conference records, something that we've all been
annoyed about throughout this season.
Speaker 3: But also because of two things that are ridiculous. They
were two and one against Denver. The nd season tournament happens,
they don't have another game against them. They got a
rescheduled game against Denver. I don't think that was I
guess it was that game. Guess what game they lost
and what was happening in Southern California during that night.
It was the fires in Southern California. They played that
game in Denver where the guys game back here. They
thought the game was going to be canceled. That's how
you end up losing the tiebreakers of the Denver Nuggets.
Is unbelievable. Like everybody said afterwards, like yeah, nobody should
have played that game, and then they ended up canceling
other games or rescheduling It was just, oh man, it's
a bummer.
Speaker 1: It is a damn shame um hot take, I hate
the Fires. So the Nuggets play the Grizzlies tomorrow, then
the Rockets on Sunday. The Clippers are a half game
up on the Grizzlies, who are playing the Wolves tonight,
and then the Nuggets tomorrow and the Mavericks on Sunday.
We are one plus the tiebreaker up on the Warriors,
who play the Blazers tomorrow, which is unfortunate for the Clippers.
Speaker 3: Where's that game at Let me check the Blazers.
Speaker 1: Low key, it is in beautiful Portland, Oregon. The Modus
Center is gonna be rockin'.
Speaker 3: Hey, the Blazers last couple of months have played some
good basketball. They've got some good big wins.
Speaker 1: Are they what's there like? What's there like? Tank standing?
They don't have a real shot at the number one pick, No,
they don't. They've won thirty five games.
Speaker 3: They've been too good.
Speaker 1: God the Jazz of one seventeen games Jesus Christ. Okay,
so that's not bad. And then we're one and a
half games up without the tiebreaker on the Wolves. Who
has mentioned they played the Grizzlies today. They play the
Nets tomorrow and then the Jazz on Sunday, so they
have a pretty easy remaining schedule. Yeah. Absolutely, And obviously
all of this is going to change after tonight, after Friday,
after Saturday, and then finally after whatever the hell happens
on Sunday. Any standings thoughts before we get into this
weekend preview. I was trying to look at it, and
I was like, it doesn't matter that I'm looking at it, like,
there's so many the Clippers. I'm pretty sure at worst,
if they split tomorrow and Sunday, at worst, I think
there's still the sixties.
Speaker 3: If they still need a loss. I think they need
a loss from UH Minnesota. They need a Minnesota loss.
And if they get a lost from Minnesota tonight and
they win tomorrow, the Clippers will be at worst the
top six seed. Okay, got it, but yeah, go Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: Go Grizzlies. Will Any thoughts on the seating that's gonna
change in two and a half hours.
Speaker 2: No, it's all it's just too jumbled right now.
Speaker 1: Like I know I've been I've been getting like spreadsheets
said to me about what results.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and don't get me wrong, I like I I
love the folks who go through Uh, every possibility. Uh,
I'm a big fan. It's just I have a smooth brain.
It kind of makes it hurt.
Speaker 3: So I just.
Speaker 2: Why don't you just just talk to me in a
couple of days. Talking a couple of days.
Speaker 3: I got a lot of possibilities.
Speaker 1: Still, Yeah, I just got so much on thinking about
you know, that's the issue. It's not that there's nothing
going on. There's so much going on all right. Let
us know what you think about the game against the Rockets.
Let us know if you like the new stuff the
wall is doing it into it dumb over at Clippers
pot on Twitter or at Clippers podcast on YouTube. Also,
let us know if you've got the hardened nines and
you what you think of playing basketball in them? Because
I need a new pair of basketball shoes and I
kind of want to get the hearts.
Speaker 3: I have a question for you, guys.
Speaker 1: Go for it. You have a mischievous look on your face.
Speaker 3: If you could freeze the standings right now, would you
do it? And the Clippers end up in the five
and are taking on Denver as the four?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3: Even though it takes away a chance of getting the
four seed, you're good with that.
Speaker 1: I am good with that because I think Denver, with
everything going on with with behind the scenes conflict pieces
coming out to four days before the season is over,
and the fact that their bench is bad and they
have no one to check James Harden or Kawhi Leonard,
I feel as confident as you can feel in a
playoff series where you're playing against nikolay Okich. It's not
gonna be like a shellacking or anything like that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. With how bad their their
defense has been this season, and you know, we heard
that that was a big thing. Malone had trouble getting
guys to commit on that end, regardless of what the
game plan was. I I don't really see that changing,
you know, in the playoffs. Maybe maybe they can pull together,
but I don't know of the of the options. From
where we're sitting right now, I feel like, yeah that
unless the Grizzlies somehow move up.
Speaker 3: There's no good options. It's definitely be careful what you
wish for, and asking to play the best player in
the league in a seven game series seems crazy, but
what else you go? Do You want the Lakers in
the first round? You want Houston? After what I saw
last night. Damn they got.
Speaker 2: Death and somehow we could end up four in the
Grizzlies five. I guess that would be my favorite.
Speaker 3: That'd be nice, but I think a lot has to happen.
Speaker 1: Let me look at my spreadsheets and get back to you.
Speaker 3: I don't think the Grizzlies can do it. I think
it would be most likely like they get the t
Wolves or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also Lakers first round. We're gonna Lakers first
round cosmically feels like it might happen because the basketball
gods could not let the Clippers have their first playoff
series in the new stadium not be against the Lakers
a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but wouldn't the league prefer Warriors Lakers first round?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Probably?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's the script, say, Adam.
Speaker 2: It's not it's not finished yet, but I've heard there's
a draft.
Speaker 1: Well we know the end. Well, you know the end.
Speaker 3: There were a few revisions after they got Jimmy Butler,
and it does seem like they would like that Lakers
Golden State matchup for the first round if they could
get it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, huh would you want to play? Would you freeze
the standings at him? M?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Because I worry about the Grizzlies aren't going to
beat Minnesota tonight. I don't know. I worry they're not
going to be able to get up to four. I
think both these games in NorCal are gonna be tough.
Like you're at home for five straight now you're going
out on the road. That's a little bit jarring, you know.
Speaker 1: Thankfully it is just one trip.
Speaker 3: The Kings. The Kings have enough to beat you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They're one of those teams where it's like you're
right here, so sometimes you're up here and sometimes you're
down here. Speaking of the Kings, we are going to
talk about that matchup after a quick audio break. If
you're watching us, you won't see this at YouTube dot
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three two what all right?
Speaker 2: Welcome back into clips and did it's it's everyone's favorite
time of the year when the Pacific Division is has
maybe the most impactful, important games on the rest of
the season. The Clippers take on the Kings, then the Warriors.
Of course, both games with how how tight everything in
the standing is hugely important. Adam, you've you've said you
were you're a little scared of this one. Why don't you?
Why don't you lead us in?
Speaker 3: I don't like it. The Kings, they came back against Denver.
They're playing. I know Malik Monk is out, they have
some injuries, thank Kika Murray, but Demantas Sabonis, Zach Levine,
DeMar DeRozan. They're probably gonna want to get up and
get one back against the Clippers after the Kauhi game
winner and into it home. There's a little revenge aspect there.
I think they're still playing to make sure they're at
least ninth, then get a home game in the playoffs tournament.
Speaker 1: It's the nine to ten spot is what they're playing for,
and they're only a game up on the MAVs.
Speaker 3: So they have to win or they don't have to.
But they need to win to have a better chance
to hold onto that nice spot and get a home
game at Golden One Center. They're gonna be playing for that.
They have been extremely up and down since they fired
Mike Brown, but they have had big victories. I think
they beat the Caps twice. Oh yeah, Zach Lavigne has
had a couple forty point games.
Speaker 1: He's killing it. He's shooting fifty four and scoring thirty
over his last five.
Speaker 2: He was a big part of that comeback.
Speaker 3: If the Clippers play the way they do last night defensively,
there's a real good chance they could lose that game
to Sacramento.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: The Slippers are shooting fifty one percent from three they have.
Speaker 1: And there's the injury report. Zoo's questionable. We all pretty
much think he's gonna play normous questionable. Nico's out, obviously,
Zoo being out that's not good, but we all are
pretty confident plays. But I like what you're saying about
the defense, Like so Bonas two cannot guard Zoo, but
he's averaging twenty twelve and six over the last five.
Like they have been clicking offensively.
Speaker 3: They're good on offense. There's no reason they shouldn't be.
They got the two Chicago guys, and they pair that
with Demonta Sabonis, who's still having an incredible season statistically
for them. So it's on the defensive end where they
just they don't give a great effort each and every night,
and they don't have great personnel on that end, but yeah,
they can get hot real quick, especially at home.
Speaker 1: Given the personnel and what we've seen lately. Will this
feels like a let's play through Zoo a little bit
because no one on the Kings can check him. Like
it's not even and I know we love Zoo on
this podcast, but like there's just no one on that
team that is going to be effective I think in
throwing him off his game in any significant way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. I mean they'll try to probably pack the
paint and like force him to pass. But he's been
really good. They're obviously coming off his first career triple double,
so yeah, I like matchup wise, it seems good for him,
but it does depend. I like what Adam said about defensively,
you don't want to let a team like that get
ahead and.
Speaker 1: They're they're streaky. Lavigne can just go off. Some people
really want him on the Clippers. It's a discussion for
a different day, but he is a He is a
guy who is very scary offensively when he gets it going.
I was looking at some of their lineup numbers over
the last five games. Their top two most played lineups
in terms of total minutes are a combined minus seven.
There's dead even with the starters and minus seven with
the bench. Their third best lineup had the Lake Monk
in it. Oh wow, So I'm hoping. And again they're
very good offensively. We're gonna see heavy minutes from all
of their starters in this game. This is a These
two games are playoff games. I know it's a cliche,
but like, we're gonna see playoff minutes from the King
starters and probably the Clipper starters, and those things go
really well. So we're gonna see some bench Clippers lineups
versus King starters lineups, I think, and Kawhi plus four
bench guys has been really good because Kawhi has been
really good, so I'm interested.
Speaker 3: There those issue that line up with Kawhi leading Pa
toom Bogee, Ben and DJ.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Kobe Brown back in back in the Nico
spot as he was. I don't know about that, not
feeling great about it.
Speaker 1: Let me check the report. I didn't see if Ben
was on it. He's not. So Ben Simmons is good
to go, which helps, yeah, defense, but not the shooting.
Speaker 3: Obviously, that could be a big game for him. They
need him Bogy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Bogey started slow yesterday and then really figured
it out. I think he started over three or over
four or something. He made the most important shot, of course,
to see all the Zoo triple double, so he's got
to feel good about that. But yeah, the bench, that's
gonna be interesting to watch. And then Norm feeling comfortable
within Adam as you've been talking about when Kawhi is there,
Like getting Norm to feel get into a groove is gonna.
Speaker 3: Be huge assuming he plays. But I know he's questionable.
I just feel like there's no way Norman's missing this game.
But the way coach Lou talked about it Pregamuck.
Speaker 1: He was like he basically like he's gonna be fine
after today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was kind of surprised to even see him
questionable on there. It almost feels like, I don't know,
they're playing some A lot of teams seem like at
this time of the season they're playing questionable chicken on
the injury report, Like we're gonna put some guys questionable.
You guys put some guys questionable. We'll end up seeing
who actually plays in this ball game, or you think
we're not playing this guy uh, and therefore we surprise
you or we get you to not play a guy
because you don't think we're gonna be as talented tonight.
I don't know. I don't think it's.
Speaker 2: There's another one where like maybe there's an element of
games when shipped to it, But I just I can't
imagine any team playing the Clippers didn't scout Norm Powell,
like even if he's questionable, Like, I don't think they'll
be like, oh what, we didn't see any tape on this?
What do we do with this guy?
Speaker 1: That reminds me? Tyler roasted Justin Russo yesterday in the pregame.
Justin asked him basically something all the lines of like,
you know, what's it like? You know, if you have
to match up against the Rockets in a playoff series,
is it hard to play them tonight when they're missing
a lot of their key guys? I think Tyler said,
we've gathered some film on their starters something like that.
Speaker 3: I just mean, if you say Norm is a question
questionable player going into this game, do they hold somebody
back then because they think, oh, they're not playing normal,
they're not playing this good player, and we can we
can not push somebody on our side to play tonight.
Speaker 1: What's their injury? Do they have any other than Maliite
the Monk.
Speaker 3: I think he can Murray, which will be a big
loss for them. Yeah, Pump's definitely out and that's bad
for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Murray was out for their last game, so yeah, okay,
but again, heavy starters minutes in this one. Yeah, I'm
I don't know if nervous is the right word, but
these it just feels like we're heading into playoff atmospheres too.
Speaker 3: Golden One Center's got a pretty good home court advantish
those Kings fans show up. It's gonna be you know,
Clippers have been home for a week and a half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's one of those games. It's probably gonna be a
tight game that has us on edge.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah. And then after that, we're gonna play an
even more important game against the Warriors on Sunday at
twelve thirty, which every season for the rest of our
lives will end in the Bay Area at twelve thirty
against the Warriors. The Warriors are playing for kind of
this just what depends on what the Grizzlies do, right, Like.
Speaker 3: No one can doctor strange cannot see that far ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like they might be playing, they might be play
off bat it's just a must Both of these are
must win games for both teams, all three teams involved.
Speaker 3: The good news is because the Warriors lost that game
to San Antonio, if the Clippers do win tomorrow night
against Sacramento, even if they lose to Golden State on Sunday,
Golden State can't jump in the standings because the tiebreaker. Yeah,
we've got that going for.
Speaker 1: Us, which is nice.
Speaker 3: There's a real good chance Golden State's in the playing now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, depending what the script says, this is fair. Well,
what are you worried about in this Warriors game so much?
I mean, that's fair.
Speaker 2: It's just like it feels, it just feels like a
very important, like one of the most important games of
the season. You know, we haven't seen we haven't seen
the Butler led Warriors. They're they're completely revitalized. Uh and
and that and that with Steph is not something that
I want to necessarily face ever in a high pressure game.
So it's it's gonna be a good test. And I know, yeah,
we keep saying the cliche playoff game, playoff game, whatever,
But like this one does have pretty serious playoff implications,
So we'll see if the if everything translates. I mean,
it would be so wild. It would be so wild
to end the season on an eight game winning streak
or what would it be? Nine game winning streak?
Speaker 1: Also can't get very questionable for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Officially, Yeah, we end the game on an eight game streak,
it'd be nine. Be nine.
Speaker 3: No, No, you're right, it'll be eight. We are at six, right,
six plus two?
Speaker 1: Get it together, guys, I'm a history major. Look at
me doing advanced aramatics.
Speaker 2: Like that would be too hot on this team.
Speaker 1: Steph worries me for a lot of reasons, mostly because
the last five games he's shooting thirty five percent from three,
which is not good. We just allow a team to
shoot fifty talk about talk about playing the same defense
we played yesterday. That is not That's an even worse
recipe against this Warriors team. Pods is making a leap.
Butler and Draymond haven't killed each other yet. The one
the one thing that jumps out And maybe I'm being
too much of a nerd, and you.
Speaker 2: Gotta worry about the physicality of Draymond in a pre
playoff game. That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: What they've been Sorry, No, they've been offensive. They've been
number one in offensive rebound percentage of the last five games.
So they are coming in on a heater in terms
of offensive boards, not total, just the percentage, which we've
seen that eye test wise burn the Clippers against teams
that are able to space the floor and.
Speaker 2: The way Kawhi is looking now, yeah, that's that's a
huge help.
Speaker 3: So they got quintin post. They found a seven footer
that has really helped plug a hole or an issue
for them for a while, like just having another big
man out there. I guess he's had an illness recently
and I don't think he's playing tonight, But somebody else
is throwing a Beatza Zubats that's a problem. They're a
more complete team. It looks like much more complete than
the last time Clippers saw him. Like it's not just
Jimmy Butler. So many things would come together for them
because they've had one of the best records over the
last twenty five games in the league.
Speaker 1: And do you think so in terms of how they're
gonna set their defense up. Who's undone basically for the
work because he's going to be on everybody else, So
Steph is going to be roving around trying to grab
those steals.
Speaker 3: I mean they could put Draymond on him so he
can sat off.
Speaker 1: Just double everybody with Draymond as he's guarding Chris done, so.
Speaker 3: He can just roam. Yeah, but that depends.
Speaker 1: I that's not a bad idea that like that. It
makes sense have your best defender begin to ling as
shit for the other team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm trying to see what they've been going with
as of late. They had that game. Steph Curry scored
like three points in a game recently against Houston, right
he literally Yeah, he was one for ten with three points.
Speaker 1: Fuck like that.
Speaker 3: But their starting lineup in that game was POD's moody
step f Butler Tremond. I mean, if Draymond's their only
big starting, they have to put him on a Visa
Zoo boss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that physical I like that point with about
physicality because with Zoo getting doubled in the post by
Draymond being incredibly physical in whoever comes there, that he's
not gonna get calls because he doesn't get calls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that won't will be a harder test. I
mean not only of the passing, but yeah calls like
there's there's gonna be a lot more. Yeah, there's just
gonna be a lot more physicality. But I guess that
is a good perhaps for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I mean it is right because it's gonna be free
safetying off of Chris Dunn, doubling Zoo to make have
him make the right pass which is probably going to
beat a Chris dun and then Chris Dunn either taking
the shot or like Tyler is confident in going to
a different action.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I think this is true that
Steve Kerr has gone with some different starting lineups even
since they got Jimmy Butler, even when they're healthy, based
upon the opposition, I don't know if they would start
like Trace Jackson Davis or Quinton Host and have Draymond
at the four so then he can sag off as
done while having one of those bigs I mentioned against zoos.
Speaker 1: Well, because kind of like you were talking about with
you know, gamesmanship with injury reports, gamesmanship starting a random
ass seven footer to be on Zoo.
Speaker 2: And then see that, to me is way more surprising. That,
to me, is way more surprising than putting somebody on
the questionable report, rolling out a starting lineup that you
haven't used or have used super minimally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's about the level of respect Zoo guests, Now
you care for anything. Teams are gonna try anything to
stop pig Zoo.
Speaker 1: On the defensive side of the ball. For the Clippers,
they take the Warriors take a shit ton of threes.
Not a surprise there. This is gonna be a fun
game for the dun head for the defensive done people.
This will be a game where he will need to
be and probably will be his true lunatic self in
terms of blowing up plays on the perimeter. For the Clippers.
Speaker 3: I remember their first preseason game in Hawaii. They're playing
Golden State and that Waters guy hit the game winner
on the Clippers, a new splash brother, last name Waters. Yeah,
and Coach Lu talked about wanting I think Chris Dunn
started that game and the reason was he wanted to
see him. I think on Steph like he said it
straight up, like that was something they wanted to get
a look at. Immediately because the Warriors were playing some
guys because they're in Hawaii. They want to put on
a little bit of a show.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris Dunn, by the way, guys, he's nineteen for
his last forty one from three.
Speaker 1: I mean this respectfully. I'm not looking at any good
Chris done three point shooting numbers because I don't want
to be the person who jinxes it by looking at
that and saying, oh, maybe.
Speaker 3: I've been looking at him for about a week and
a half, keeps hitting him.
Speaker 1: See that.
Speaker 2: We should keep it like this.
Speaker 1: It's a perfect system right now, spoke dude.
Speaker 2: It's like a no hitter. Just don't talk about it.
Speaker 1: So we got we got done on Steph.
Speaker 3: We have.
Speaker 1: Who's Norm garden Potts?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would see that Norm or James. They've been
starting Moody so James could be on him, and you
can have Kawhi and Jimmy Butler. CLI has done a
number on him in their history and the playoffs, Like,
there's really no reason the Raptors should have won that
series against that Philadelphia team.
Speaker 1: If you look at that Philadelphia team, Yeah, it sucks
to suck Philly well, and this will be another not
to sound like a broken record, incredibly huge bench game.
This is a game like it feels like a bogie
game to me. Last game of the season seems like
clutch shot time. Hopefully Nico's ready. I will freak out
a little bit if Nico's not playing in this game.
Speaker 3: I'm with you there, Yeah, yeah that It's not worry
because that Nico is a great look when when Draymond
is at center, Like, that's a great option to have Nico. Yeah, Simmons,
he'll have a day off in between. I assume he
will be able to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be a I'm happy for the neutral fan,
but I will be stressed out as all hell all
of Sunday.
Speaker 3: Basically it could be the biggest game of the season.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, which is what the script writers wanted.
We're also going to be doing a postgame live, so
come hang out for that. I'm so stressed as we get.
As the weeks started, I was like, these are gonna
be some good basketball. Yeah, good bump to end the season.
I'm just getting progressively more and more stressed out.
Speaker 3: I wish one of them was at home, and it's
starting to feel like I'm starting to look like the
Lakers are pretty settled in that three spot. Whoever is
sick is getting the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this could decide basically yep, all right, Well, everyone
do whatever luck ritual you've been doing or you haven't
been doing to keep it going. Shout out to the
wall who They have a drum that they play that
should probably be replaced, but they've mentioned that every time
they've tried to replace it. The Clippers have played poorly,
so they're keeping the well worn drum so far. So
I appreciate them not switching that out, even though these
are away games.
Speaker 3: But that's good beating a dead drum exactly.
Speaker 1: All right. Any other thoughts before we pick quite possibly
the most important player of the weekend picks all season.
Anything else about this matchup? Great coaching matchup.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be fun to WTE team USA ties. They
know each other so well going back to the finals
three straight years, it was three or four.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That was all a blur Clippers fan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited, but I'm nervous. It's on.
Speaker 2: I have to guess. I guess my thing. My only
thing would be maybe lose both.
Speaker 1: The fuck here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we start doing could we get to seven seven
at home? No problem, no problem.
Speaker 1: Look we're in the player. We start Jordan Miller. Kobe
Brown had that great quarter, Maybe we hold him out.
Speaker 3: I keep looking at say the Timberwolves went out, No,
just say, just for argument sake, and they're forty nine
and thirty three. The Clippers would need to win both
to stay ahead of them. Yeah, that's that's like the
real issue, that effing tiebreaker against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Not like they have they have one game, one hard
game left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like they don't lose tonight. We're winning the last two. Oh?
Speaker 1: Is everyone available for all the teams? All right? Before
we get too into it, will will I am up
dyke your player of the final regular season week picks.
And for those of you new to the pod, we've
had some new people watching. Thank you for hanging out.
We are not allowed to pick. You're probably thinking, Wow,
these guys are getting so granular with it. That's because
we have to. We are not allowed to pick Norm Powell,
Avitza Zu Box, James Harden or Kawhi Leonard because those
are too easy. We're not playing.
Speaker 2: Those are the names on the trophy.
Speaker 1: Players.
Speaker 2: Yes, we're already there.
Speaker 1: We're not doing Pingalore rules. We're not just picking one
of the main guys. With all that being said, well,
who's your pick?
Speaker 3: Got to be?
Speaker 1: Bogie pick.
Speaker 2: He's been looking great with with Nico out, we'll definitely
need him offensively.
Speaker 1: We're not probably gonna get him defensively anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can make that up in there. Yeah, this
is he's been looking great. He's on a I think that.
I think that if he has two good games, we
finished the season on a game win street.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 1: We obviously also just we all know that the other
people we can't pick have to be good too. To
be clear, Adam, your pick for player of the most
important weekend of the regular season.
Speaker 3: Big games. Gotta go with Kawhi No, uh, I'll go
DJ Jones Junior, who has had We.
Speaker 2: Didn't give him enough love. He looked great last night too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he has been He's had a great year. He's
had his career year, his first year with the Clippers.
This is the best regular season he's ever had by far.
It's pretty awesome. They people thought, oh, they buy high
on him coming off that playoff run.
Speaker 1: Ten million dollars a year for it's like, no, they
didn't buy but low.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just about average from three. His slashing ability
the game he had against San Antonio was really impressive.
He has had some of the most That reverse Alu
dunk he had was Vince Carter esque.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody on the team has vertical like the verticality
that he has.
Speaker 1: They did a little pregame dunk line last night and
zoo through Derek Jones Junior kind of a bad lob.
He bounced it and Derek Jones just like was as
high as that, just armed all the way back through
it down.
Speaker 3: I saw him roll throw himself a lob off the
floor too, and then went between the legs for a dunk.
It's too easy for him. Uh yeah, effortless bounce. Yeah,
I'm going with DJ in both games. I feel like
he's one of those guys there's just so many matchups
you can use him against.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and another I mean, like no Nico guy, big
sort of a big factor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going, Uh, not a lot of guys left
to pick. I am going what no excuses. I've got
christin the defensive responsibility that he's gonna have these next
two games to start the game tone wise, are going
to be huge, especially that game on Sunday against the
team that likes to move it around on the perimeter.
We're gonna need him to be at his most hair
on fire in terms of what he's doing, and he's
gotten progressively crazier this last like week and a half
or so. If you go back, he's starting to do
some things that are just incredible in terms of perimeter defense.
Speaker 3: So I think may have burned off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just ghost rider now, man. That's yeah. I'm
going I'm going Christine for that one.
Speaker 3: I hope they get a good whistle, Like I hope
he doesn't get up some ticki tac fouls against Steph
because that has happened over the last couple of years.
He's gotten some bad fouls where I felt like that's
that's a little weak, Like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I dun gets like two early fouls in that
Golden State Warriors game. That's gonna be it's gonna.
Speaker 3: Be let him play. It's the playoffs basically, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, yeah, Like, you can't have a bullshit regular season
whistle in these games.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Any other notes before we get stressed out for the
next five hours.
Speaker 3: We have it any other way? Yes, do we want
to be the one seed? Guys?
Speaker 1: Really do you want to win sixty five game? All right?
That about.
Speaker 2: Look I'm settle, settle for having the four locked up?
Speaker 1: Simple man, give me the four seed. Of course. We
will be doing a live hang after the final regular
seasons game, maybe on Friday, depending how things go. But
I am going out on Friday because I have playoffs
stress that I need to to let out. So U
we will be doing a live hang after the regular
seat and game on Sunday, So subscribe to get alerted
about that. Will Where can people now the things are
ramping up and they're gonna be saying, well, why is
your face paid with Clippers paint? Why are you dressed
like Chuck the Condor? Giving a World War Two veteran
a wet willie, they can say, I'm a Clippers fan.
Where can people tell people to find this podcast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, give your favorite vet a wet Willie with this podcast,
which you can check out wherever you get your podcasts.
If you have to listen over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify,
please leave a little rady and to review it helps
us out. But the best way to consume. The show
is over on YouTube dot Coment's at Clippers podcast. Need subscribe?
There hit the little uh a little notification so you
know when we come out with new videos. You also
see when we're going live, which we do, and you
can hop in on the comments. It's a good time.
It's a good time. It's about to be some playoff basketball.
So however you watch the show, we appreciate you.
Speaker 1: We very much do out of Osland. Now, please give
these Clippers fans just one I know there's a lot
of good things going on right now, just one positive
thing to hold on to as we get to the
precipice of the end of this season.
Speaker 3: I got one thing. The Clippers are number one in
net rating in the league their last nineteen games. That
is incredible. I'm sorry. You want to know the teams
that are around them? Okay, see Houston, Austin, Minnesota, Golden State.
Like this is not some flawed stat This will tell
you if you're for real, but so old. The next two.
Speaker 1: Games, well said, all right, that is it? Hell of
a regular season kind of We're gonna do a debrief
in between the playoffs because this regular season has been
amazing from the Clippers, from the fans, from everyone watching this. Yeah,
here's to a good weekend. Let's go Grizzlies tonight. Uh
and as always, let's go Clips. Let's pa