Speaker 1: What's going on in Clippers fans? Welcome to season three,
episode sixty five of Clips and Dim. I am Chuck
Mockler Joy by Adam Osden. William Updyke is unavoidably detained.
As you can tell from the thumbnail. We are one
of your favorite Clippers pods. Hopefully, if you're new to
us in the playoffs, thank you. It's always good to
have new people. Listen to the show. If you want
to subscribe so you can get to learn it and
we do some happy hour hangs and stuff. Check us
out at YouTube dot com slash Pack Clippers Podcast, or
just listen to us anywhere you listen to pods. Feeling weird. Today,
we're gonna talk about what the Clippers need to do
in Game five in Denver. We're gonna talk about I mean,
I don't know, Adam, how how are you feeling the
day after that particular ending?
Speaker 2: You gotta be honest. I was feeling even worse this
morning till the Lakers lose. Now I feel better. It
could be worse. You could be down three to one,
really they could be. Yeah, it wasn't for Kawhid game two.
They could easily be down through one. They could also
easily be up through one, so it is. I don't know.
The one thought that kept ruminating for me was do
we have enough of a sense of urgency in this series,
for like the requisite amount of urgency for a playoff series,
because I think about Game one and we got three
minutes in that game where neither Kahir or James Harden
were on the floor. It's a playoff game. And then
the end of Game four not having rebounders out there.
I look at that is as much of an obvious
move as if somebody is at the free throw line
and you need to get a board or they're intentionally
going to miss a free throw, you sub in the rebounders,
because it could have been I think even worse than.
Speaker 1: What happened just the game in general, the final.
Speaker 2: Play, because you can look at that and say, well,
it's worse because it's so fluky and such a rare
thing and it's never happened before. I understand that. But
what if they just ran a set play. What if
they just isoed against Bogey or against Norm or against
James Harden, and it wasn't Nikola Jokic settling for that shot,
and they actually ran something, and you just had the
guys out there that had no business defending in a
situation like that, and they they went on like a
fade away from Jamal Murray over Boge or something like,
you'd feel miserable, Like we obviously didn't have the right personnel.
I think it's the same thing. They didn't have the
right personnel. It's just the way it happened was so
lucky and fortunate for them. Shadow think about the fact
that what if they just ran offense instead of Jokics
throwing up that wild shot and your guys are getting
taken off the dribble because you don't have the right
defenders out there to match up. What if they get
they go at you know, Kawhison, Uh, Jamal Murray late
in the game and he gets the switch on to
Bogie or Harden or Norman Powell goes by him and
gets a bucket, Like what if that had happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the the randomness of the oop, I don't it's
not an oop, it's not a putback airball. Dunk is
overshadowing kind of who was on the floor right like
in the ground, Like, I know it's hard to not
we should we got to move on, which is difficult,
but it was such an absurd ending and there was
it's tough knowing that there's a switch that could have
been made that would have made that a lot more
difficult of an outcome, an already difficult outcome to be
had even more difficult with just one's one switch.
Speaker 2: And after the timeout, obviously you're down twenty two.
Speaker 1: There were some other issues that I don't even.
Speaker 2: Think that's when they lost the game. But okay, now
you have it in this situation, how do you optimize
it to come out of this getting into overtime?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Are you prepared for everything that they could run against
you if you have Bogie, Norm and James Harden out there.
I just don't think that's the case.
Speaker 1: I would tend to agree with you, and I think
most Clippers fans would agree with you. There was no
question about it postgame, which again I think the I
think there would have been a question about it had
they just run a regular play, because then you say, oh,
wait a minute, why was you know what I mean?
Then it's oh, why was why did they make it
so Norm could get switched on to? As opposed to
how crazy was that last second, you missed.
Speaker 2: And you have to be prepared for them to run
a regular play, and they weren't. It turned out to
be something totally what they want.
Speaker 1: The Clippers got with that light up on the floor,
that's what they wanted. The airballed. There's a half second
after that.
Speaker 2: Of course they guessed. I guess that Jokis was just
going to go straight hero ball and dribble the clock
out instead of running something. But there's no downside to
having other guys in in that situation. Yeah, but again,
they've lost the game in the third quarter or in
the first half. We can move on. I don't know
what do you want to do, Chuck.
Speaker 1: I tried to move on today. I went and played
some bass that I went to a tie New Year Fest,
which was a good time, and then I realized that
we had to sit down and talk about this. I'm
choosing to focus on wondering if MPJ is going to
play in Game five because of the bench thing. And
I'm not saying this in a I'm advocating for him
to not play, but I am curious if they're going
to make that ruling because he left the bench. There's
footage of it. They asked him about it in the postgame,
like it's like almost a tongue in cheek thing. Now,
I'm wondering how strict they are with the rules on
that right because he might not play, and I don't like,
I don't even think that's a homersh thing to say.
Just the rules people have been kind of crazy this year.
Speaker 2: The past history regarding this is a mixed bag. It's arbitrary.
Sometimes they go with it, sometimes they don't. I don't
know if things are different in the Adam Silver Commissioner
era with this rule versus David Stern being hardlined with
it and obviously affecting a huge series in two thousand
and seven between the Spurs and the Suns with bors
Dl and Amari Sodomar are just getting up out of
their seat and walking ten feet. Michael Porter Junior's much
further than that. He is in the paint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's on the court. Like it's not an arbitrary
like one, you know, one foot on the court, one
foot still on the bench paint like.
Speaker 2: No Marco Polo thing, Like if you're going off the rule,
he should be suspended, But they haven't always done that,
so they put themselves in this position where they're gonna
be criticized either way. Absolutely, he gets suspended. People are
gonna say, why would you do this in a playoff series?
Even if they look at the rule other than no
point to other instances where they didn't suspend people. Right,
he doesn't get suspended. They're gonna sayh, I have the
rule that in the first place. If you're not gonna
uphold it, like enforce it or don't have it, they
need to amend it or get rid of it or something.
Because it's been a problem for a while. I wonder
if this is finally the time that there is a change,
because there are a lot of eyeballs watching to see
what happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm assuming we'll hear about I mean, it's
five fifteen, will come out at seven pm. I'm assuming
we'll hear about it tomorrow. I don't think we'll hear
about a day of the game. That would seem a
little crazy.
Speaker 2: What's going to change on the tape?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What, how difficult is this review?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're going frame by frame, So looking ahead to
game five For those of you that missed it, the
series is now tied to too. What can be fixed
from Game four to Game five to make life easier
for the Clippers offensively, other than like locking in more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously, urgency and intensity are kind of intangible things,
but take away the random basketball. I think they got
impatient with their offense at times. They wouldn't wait for
things to develop and open up for them when they're
going to against Denver's defense if you stick with high
pick and roll, which is pretty much all they were
running at the end of this game and creating all
these advantages. And by the way, the amount of juice
and pop that James Harden and Kawhi Leonard had in
the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's just where was it?
Speaker 2: Did did they wake up? Because that's the normal time
for a game around there.
Speaker 1: I told you three pms the weirdest time for a game.
Speaker 2: Used to it. Well, what dimension were the Denver Nuggets
playing the game in? What time zone? Did they transport
to back to Mountain time? Because they look comfortable, they
looked fine. Both teams dealt with it. I'm tired of
the excuse about it. I just don't understand why it
took for them to get down that much to say, hey,
uh oh, we can't lose this game. It's gonna be
two to two, and that's kind of a big deal
versus three to one. I don't know, I'm still frustrated
about that, but I would say run more high, pick
and roll, get Zubats involved. His passing has been exquisite
all series long. You could really make the argument that
as good as Vitas Zubas was during the regular season,
he's been even better in this series.
Speaker 1: He stepped up to a playoff level of good. Right,
because there's regular season good, playoffs good. It's hard right now, Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's harder now, and he's still they're not stopping him
or slowing him down. And even with Jokic having the
big game yesterday, I felt like Zoo was pretty good.
Jokic was making some of those spinning shots in the
paint where he's just kind of trying to bully his
way and get his clothes. He cans to the basket
and then put up a hook shot. Not much you
could do there, Beata Zubos those he's been awesome, So
use him as much as possible. He played forty one minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's making great passes. He's been He's I mean,
the hockey assists. I feel like we're off the chart
for Zoo. He's making great reads out of the short roll,
which goes back to your point of uncomplicating or unrandomizing
the offense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, zoos, Yes, keep it simple, stupid.
Speaker 1: Yes, Zoo's done everything well on the pick and roll,
just as Harden is done right like now, good decision making.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some of those good passes from Zoo and he
had six assists yesterday. How many more does he have
if batom and done or knocking down shots. I don't
know how many of those passes were from him, but yeah,
some of that is make or miss stuff. But at
what point do you just go away from it? Because
it's not like if they don't get that shot that way,
they have no other course of action. Because sometimes you
say you have to take that first open shot, you
have to because you're likely unlikely to get a better
shot later in the possession. But the truth is, I
do think the Clippers have options against Denver because they're
not great defensively, because you can wear them out in
the pick and roll and you could go a different
direction with it if your role players aren't hitting those
open threes.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I put this in the breakdown, like,
I want there to be a different action for Chris
Dunn to lock into when he gets the ball because
TYLERU talking was asked about this about when you know
Chris Dunn gets the ball on the perimeter and he's open,
Tyler trusts him to take a shot or find another action.
To your point, with the fact that Denver doesn't have
as many defensive wrinkles to throw the Clippers a way,
I'm hoping he gets a couple more action options and
he doesn't take nine shots again in Game five, because
that is by the defense's design, is that Chris Dunn
takes six threes. Obviously, Nico, he's not going to one
for six again. Niko's right, like that was an anomaly
if anything from Nick Patum from beyond the Arc, but Done,
I just want I think I totally agree with you
in the sense that maybe there's a little bit there's
two more passes they could make in the possession if
Done gets the ball on the perimeter, maybe yeah. I
mean I packed the paint though, so it's like.
Speaker 2: There's definitely more options. There's definitely more of their offense
they can get into, especially if they're starting the possession quickly,
like they have been pretty decent with that the last
two games. But also they could go away from Chris
Dunn earlier and he only played twenty one minutes yesterday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he wasn't away.
Speaker 2: And I think coach Slu deserves credit for that. Most
people have said, you can't play Bogee Norman James Harden
out there for ten straight minutes in a fourth quarter
and expect to have a chance to win that game. Well,
that's the very reason they had a chance to right and.
Speaker 1: Shout out Bogie. Shout out Bogie for a hell of
a shift and that stretch.
Speaker 2: You wonder is he going to lean back into offense.
That's that's coach Low's thing. If they're not scoring, is
he just gonna go Okay, we're putting Bogie out there
for spacing. They have to respect him more. They can't
do what they do with DJ and done against Bogey.
Speaker 1: When did Boge first sub in in game four, because
in Game three he didn't play the whole first quarter.
Norton played all twelve minutes.
Speaker 2: I think I think it was. I think it was
late first quarter. Let me see, he hit that three
pointer as soon as he came in. I got it
right here, I got it, I got it, I got it,
I got it. Okay, so he comes in, uh or
multiple line chips. So the three pointer hit was at
the one twenty mark of the first.
Speaker 1: Quarter, Okay, okay, So he came in in the first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was definitely there in the first I'm trying
to see how early he was.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty quick into a shift. I
wonder if, yeah, if, just if the offense gets into
a little bit of mud. Given the fact that Bogie's
coming off a better game, I wouldn't be surprised if
Tyler brings him in earlier. If Chris Don's also not
able to be converting.
Speaker 2: I was encouraged by him having the confidence. They ran
a play immediately for him to get that shot off,
and he nailed it. So I like coach lou Is
gonna go out swinging with offense.
Speaker 1: I think, yes, I think you are right.
Speaker 2: And it's it's not irrational when you only score what
ninety nine points last night and.
Speaker 1: At the bench, the fact that we lost to a
team that had four bench points hurts.
Speaker 2: It does if you sacrifice a little bit of defense.
They only gave up one on one, he sacrifice a
little bit of defense and maybe you give up one
ten now, but you score one fifteen because your offense
is more juiced up. Isn't it worth it? I it's
a dangerous game because their defense has been so good,
and Jamal Murray specifically yesterday was down bad and you
want to keep him there because if he and Jokic
both have a big game, now we're really in trouble. Now.
You you better get the same from Kawhi James Harden
then to match.
Speaker 1: Him plus Norm probably and Norm was good yesterday, Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 2: So he's had two straight good games. That's good. I
still think played but two more. He only played nineteen minutes.
And I know he's one of six from the outside.
Speaker 1: But but like I said, that's an anomaly. That's something
that you you move on because you know what he
was the game before, four for six, before that, two
of five before that, three for six. He's shooting, like.
Speaker 2: Carlos said, the last twenty two games, he's at fifty
five percent from.
Speaker 1: Right, and it makes and you're not it's obviously yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I go out swinging. Also with Nico. If I'm going down, yeah,
I am playing Nico thirty minutes in Game five, probably
what I'm.
Speaker 1: Doing, because they also we'll get into the sports in
the next segment. There's also like the Clippers need to
win this in six. I think I don't think that's
too hot to a take. But defensively, this is something
I noticed from reading nikaias Duncan's tweets. This was a
great thing. He pointed out. The Nuggets put Harden into
action in Game four as the off ball screeners defender,
a season high. So they ran sixteen screens with Aaron
Gordon when Harden was his defender. They ran that sixteen times,
which is the most that James Harden has been put
into action in that position all season for him, which
is that there's a clear like it seems like we're
going to see more of that in game five.
Speaker 2: My thing is it's smart on their part. And he
looked fatigued, But he looked fatigued the first quarter.
Speaker 1: He looks as soon as they oh the ten.
Speaker 2: And he was at his highest level of energy in
the fourth quarter. I don't know, I the lack of aggressiveness.
How much did Bogie being out there open up the
spacing in the fourth quarter? For those driving lanes with
Kawhi and James Harden. How much did that help? I'm
sure that's that's the reasoning behind it. And if coach
lucyes that on tape and it helps their stars get
going easier, he's going to go back to it quick.
Speaker 1: I think. So. Do you think the Clippers speaking of
going back to something before we get into the more
existential must dues for the Clippers after this break, do
you think we see the zone earlier?
Speaker 2: I'm upset that they played that card in a loss.
Speaker 1: Ah, yeah, I like it because I don't like it,
but I like, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2: Why didn't you play it a little bit earlier? We're talking?
They play it midway through the third quarter, and maybe
it's a different outcome because it was so effective against Denver,
But now.
Speaker 1: They also don't know how effective it's going to be.
I guess right, like you don't.
Speaker 2: It's true, it's a desperation type of move yunk up
the game, switch it up. But the problem is it
was so effective that it's gonna be on Denver's radar
and they should be able to crack his zone easily.
With Nikola Jokic, I would think you put a guy
like that that can shoot in the high post and
pass out of it, that should be the perfect zone
buster right there. I'm just worried that they unfortunately it
didn't get them a win, right that switch up that
move and now it gives Denver a chance to learn
in victory. And that's what's scary.
Speaker 1: I do like that. It gives them an extra thing
to think about.
Speaker 2: Maybe yeah, it's it's not They're gonna do it. I
just don't know if it's gonna be as effective now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who, let us know what you think the Clippers
need to do to win Game five over at Clippers
Pod on Twitter or at Clippers podcast on YouTube. Coming
up for the audio listeners, there's gonna be a quick
break and then we're talking just kind of some existential
stuff for the Clippers here, and then we're doing our
player of the game picks. So there's some quick audio
breaks and then our final picks for Game five coming
up in three two.
Speaker 2: What welcome back In Clips and Dips Season three, episode
sixty five, I'm at a maasm got big Chuck Mockler
here as we are trying to sort through what happened
in game four, a historic playoff game that is going
to live on past this series, but it's especially going
to live on past the series for Clippers fans if
they end up losing the series. So obviously two games apiece,
best of three, with the Nuggets having home court. I
like what you said earlier, Chuck about how if the
Clipper are gonna win the series, they probably got to
do it in six, So they have to win Game five.
Let's talk about it. Game five. This Denver Nuggets team
is hurting. They could have Michael Porter Junior out. If
he is out, is Russ going to be back? I
would think he tries to play because he's Russ and
you're crossing your figures and most of Russ will be playing.
I guess, I don't know. He looked pretty good the
first two games. It hurts more when Russ HiT's a
three pointer on you than just about any player in
the league.
Speaker 1: Then maybe Chris Dunne. Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: Keys to this Game five and starting fast, because that's
the antithesis of what we saw in Game four. How
do they get off to a better start in that
environment at ball Arena, And they're going to be absolutely
hyped pregame they will have replayed the Aaron Gordon dunk
oh a thousand times in the arena.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that environment, And this also goes to my
point about why I think the Clippers need to win
it in six. With all the emotion of what happened,
the dunk was so crazy, we forgot there was a
fight before halftime. It's like a little bit like and
the Nuggets were really able to use the emotional momentum
from that conflict. They came out the third a lot
better than the Clippers did. So this team that's been
talking voluntarily a lot about how tired they are now
has two days off. Like I like what you said
they learned in victory about that zone, but also just
maybe about what they're team's made of. Right, that's the
biggest adversity that Adamman has gone through. And the guys
all rallied and now have this moment for them, The
crowd has that moment not looking too far ahead. But
a Game seven at ball is terrifying to me.
Speaker 2: The Nuggets have grit, championship grit, and they still have it.
Even though it's a worse team. They don't have the depth,
they still have their core guys that got them that
championship in twenty twenty three, and they've gotten the reminder
of who they are and how they can step up
in big moments multiple times in this series, Game one
and Game four. So as much as we say hey,
awesome that the Clippers, some people say this, and the
Clippers did say a postgame. From a fan perspective, I
can see how it hurts even more because you were
so close and they still ended up losing the game,
And maybe if they lost by twenty it wouldn't have
been as brutal of a gut punch. But the players,
I get why they're saying, hey, we didn't quit, and
that's you know, says something about us. Well can spin
it kind of like, man, even when it looks like
you know they're about to steal a victory, we still
find a way to hold on in a magical way
with that put back dunk, like we're destined to win
this series and move on. I don't know. They they're
feeling great right now, so the Slippers have to They
have to make them feel not so great, and it's so.
Speaker 1: Frustra It's frustrated too because the Clippers are the healthier team,
like that's not even again not a homer take. Like,
if they're the healthier team, they need focused basketball from
a healthy team. It's so effect against a team that
doesn't have as good of a rotation, a team that
is seemingly lumbering around the court. I think Michael Reporter
Junior is probably more than twenty to thirty percent. But
you know what I mean, right, Like, this is one
of the few times the Clippers are the healthier team
and they're not able to take advantage of it for
some reason. And I don't mean, you know, it's obviously
not gonna like run circles around these guys. But that's
where the keeping it simple in the half court is
because it's the high pick and roll. You're the healthier team,
wear them down and don't bounce the ball off your foot.
Speaker 2: I think if the Clippers lose this series, there's gonna
be some real questions about the way it was managed,
because while they are the healthier team, it leads to
thinking that we can tap into our depth more and
we don't have to play our starters as much as
Denver does. But if Denver who and I looked this
up earlier, they've gotten about fifty teen more minutes total
in this series from Jamal and Jokic. Then the Clippers
have gotten from James, from Zoo, from Kawhi, They're two
top guys have played about fifteen more minutes total, So
that's over what three minutes more per game. It's significant.
It's a margins thing in games this close because they
don't have as many options because they don't have many
places to go. I wonder if that simplifies things for
them in some ways, and I don't want to think
it's an advantage, but right now, at to two, it
feels like the Clippers, you know, we talked about the
optionality with the offense and if this is not working,
you have other places to go. Denver just like, this
is what we have to work with. This is it.
We're losing the series and we just have to dig
this out and find a way. I don't know if
they've rallied around that that they have five and a
half six guys that can play right now, and it's
somehow they're rallying cry in the locker room, because it
just seems like sometimes there's paralysis by analysis when you
have too many options out there.
Speaker 1: I think I think the comfortability is obvious is very
much helping the Nuggets too, because you look at the
Clippers bench rotation, it's newer guys. We you know they
redid the bench. This isn't an excuse. I think Robert
Flabby pointing this out on Twitter, like it's an inexperienced
bench for the Clippers in terms of very meaningful minutes. Right, So,
like Simmons has been good, but we're still you know,
DJ didn't have the best game. I mean, obviously when
the bench scores, well, the bench scored seven points for
the Clippers five I think most of them from Toom.
Like one thing I guess is like everyone went cold, right,
Like the process wasn't bad for the Clippers. I mean
it was at points, but overall, like the shots they
missed were open shots playoff quote unquote open. Looks like
they all kind of hit bottom at the same time.
Speaker 2: But we said throughout the regular season, what happens with
a guy like Chris Dunn in a playoff series if
they're just leading, leaving him wide open and he's missing,
and therefore they can pack the paint more and they
can take away driving lanes and Kawhi and James Harden especially,
how do you overcome that? And can you just completely
go away from him? They didn't do that in Game four,
completely go away from him. They did in the fourth
when they made their comeback. Yeah, it's just we we
saw this coming. We knew what was gonna happen at
some point in this series. Chris Dunn is the type
of shooter that's gonna have a game like he did
in Game four. Of course he will. So what do
you do? How do you find another way to beat them?
I don't know. Maybe it's just a shorter leash from
here on out. If there's any signs he misses his
first two, that's it.
Speaker 1: Also, I think he doesn't get nine shots if Harden's
more decisive, you know, like, I don't think he gets
nine attempts at the basket. If Harden takes some a
little bit more responsibility. Early in the game, Kawhi took
his shots. We talked about this post game, which was
a nice therapeutic session. Kawhi took his shots, whereas Harden
didn't assert himself as much. Kawhi was looking for the
whistle a little bit too, But they.
Speaker 2: Got a bad whistle. They did at home absolute Kawhi,
especially with those two fouls on Aaron Gordon in the
second quarter.
Speaker 1: Zoo had some no calls as always for him.
Speaker 2: There's just there's no whistle. There's no officiating or defense
to me that can justify James Harden taking four shots
and a half in a playoff game.
Speaker 1: Agreed, it's Paul George numbers.
Speaker 2: That first half. No, they're they're doubling him harder like
they've been doubling him.
Speaker 1: Right, You.
Speaker 2: Step back threes can still work against a double. Uh,
he could still go around both of them when he
has the type of pop that he had in the
fourth quarter. I just don't buy that as an excuse.
He wasn't assertive enough. He didn't speak with the media
post game last night. Sure he wasn't happy with the game.
I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: He's a competitor, I see, That's what that All year
he's owned up to stuff and stepped up for things.
So we have a season of evidence of James Harden
bouncing back from games like that, which makes me feel
I'm not saying good about Game five because it is
the playoff. Some we're all one. We're a DeAndre Jordan
dunk away from being tied in that game. Let's also
win the DeAndre Jordan minutes by more in game five?
Can we do that? If he's on the floor, there's
no reason that we should be winning. Do we win
those minutes like by like plus two?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the non jokicch minutes, they win plus two.
Speaker 1: They gotta do that. They gotta go and the Kawhi
was on the floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think they went at least plus six the
first two games. Yeah, not sure what it was game
three because that game got out of hand quick.
Speaker 1: And it's not a lot of minutes obviously that you
get with off the floor, but you gotta have some
urgency in those minutes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to be better. I don't know if
James Harden plays well. I know this goes against what
happened in game one, but when he plays really well,
I feel great about their chances because if he's rolling,
it unlocks everything on the offensive end. Yeah, even though
they did lose game one when he was rolling. Yeah,
Kawhi the seven turnovers anomaly.
Speaker 1: He took three.
Speaker 2: I expect both of them.
Speaker 1: To be good. In game five he took or he
took two threes yesterday.
Speaker 2: That's wild.
Speaker 1: He put one of two from three. That's not all
double teams. That's all all the double teams. When's the
last time he took two threes in a game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't have a defense that should be able
to hold him down to that degree. Ever, that's more
about hard and that's more about the Clippers. But if
a lot of those shots are being funneled elsewhere, going
to Chris Dunn, going to Nico, going to DJ and
they're not hitting, it's like, well, that's why superstars have
to put it into their own hands. They have to
take the game into their own hands. When Joki is
gone for sixteen points in the third quarter and Harden
and Kawhi combined for seven, that's a recipe for disaster.
One of them has to get it going, has to
force the issue sometimes.
Speaker 1: In one hundred and seventy playoff games, he has taken
two three pointers six times, including yesterday.
Speaker 2: How many of those were worth the thunder?
Speaker 1: So the funny thing is, I think they've won every
single game except for the one yesterday Philly.
Speaker 2: Harden was on his light years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Philly in twenty twenty three and then Thunder twenty twelve,
Thunder twenty twelve, under twenty twelve, under twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: So so it's really two games since he became James Harden. Yeah,
and he's won on one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one hundred and seventy playoff.
Speaker 2: The other thing is the Clippers. They don't take a
lot of threes already. He's a huge part, right, yeah,
three point shooting.
Speaker 1: He takes like a third of our three Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like a third of their attempts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he should shoot more threes. Hot take James
Harden shoot more than two threes. I'm worried before you
get to play the game, picks. The whistle is going
to be interesting this one because the refs have to
make some kind of ref statement of control after what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hope they don't try to clean it up
to the point where it's such a tight whistle now
for both teams.
Speaker 1: And I think this goes for just the whole game
as well, like because it could really get weird.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you just don't want. First of all, the
playoffs in general have been very physical, just like they
were last year. I remember the first two games against Dallas.
Speaker 1: I was like, holy shit, Sue was getting the ship
slept out.
Speaker 2: Of its playoff basketball. So you know, I sympathize with
Detroit fans today because it's like, dude, just call it consistently,
Just keep it consistent. That's obviously a foul in the
first quarter. It would have been a foul in that
three pointer by Tim Martaway Junior early in the fourth quarter.
But they want to swallow the whistle because they think, oh,
we don't want to affect the game. If you don't
call obvious fouls, you are affecting the game. If you
don't call the same way as you did in the
first quarter, you're already affecting the game. Let them play
like they have. If you have to give out technicals,
if you have to call naughty boys or whatever for
misbehaving out there a little bit because it gets too physical,
that's fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2: The likelihood that anything severe happens in a playoff game,
when there's guys that don't want to fight in the
first place, it's all good. Don't overreact to one little
incident at the end of game two, which was much
to do about nothing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Now for the most important part of the episode,
our player of the game picks if you're new to
the show. The rules which we have instilled upon ourselves
for really no reason other than pride, I think, is
that we are not allowed to pick Kawhi, Leonard James Harden,
Norm pall or Avitza Zubats as the player of the game,
because obviously, if one or two of them have a
good game, the Pippers are probably going to win the game,
and that is too easy. Will is not here. Who
do we think Will's picking?
Speaker 2: KPJ?
Speaker 1: Yeh has tried and true KPJ.
Speaker 2: We used to do that to him.
Speaker 1: I think he took bogey last time, right.
Speaker 2: I took Bogue. I think call we got him the
time before.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll give him bogey this time. Then, unless you
want bogey, I.
Speaker 2: Gotta go back to back bogey.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'm going with a specific thing I want to see
from this player too. Niko Batoom. Thirty minutes is my call.
Hell yeah, he gets thirty minutes, balls out, he will
take it to heart going one of six.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: He's too good of a player. He won his minutes
last night. I believe Nico was a plus out there
is he almost always is. It's literally it's always good
to go with more minutes from Batoom. It's rarely ever
hurts you even a game. He was one of six.
I think he was a plus. If that's the case,
then he was.
Speaker 1: Fuck me. Bogie was plus twenty two though, So you
got that one.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, yeah, he was. He was out there
in the fourth and they made their big problems. He
was a part of it. I'm still going Niko Batoum
thirty minutes, thirty minute minimum, twenty nine and a half
at least.
Speaker 1: I'm going Derrick Jones Junior. He had a really and
not incredibly good game four, and I would like for
him to be put in a position to get transition
buckets because the Clippers need some easier buckets right now
because the offense is not The offense is oscillating between
what we saw earlier in the season, not like what
we saw at the end of the season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's missed a couple of gimmes in this series
like that. He did have a bad series against Dallas
in the finals. That was his last run in the playoffs.
It was a good run overall, but his last series
against Boston. Yeah, he wasn't great with his shooting, but
I'd say he's been solid so far. He hasn't been bad, No.
Speaker 1: But just a little more. Only played fifteen minutes, but
we'll see. And then I think, yeah, let's give a
Willow go Christa.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't, he would go Krista. That so Will, that's
so Will. All right, we're gonna be doing a postgame
you know what, Adam will be live over at Clippers Talk.
We're gon be doing a postgame live after Game five,
probably just a quick stream hang before Game six, because
now there's no more two days off in between games.
Reviews and subscribes really help us out. If you're new again,
thank you for hanging out. We try and make it
so you can talk about the Clippers at a party
when someone corners you and asks you how the season
is going. So we hope you're all doing good. Hope
everyone had a good day and decompressed a little bit.
I did. It was nice forgot about it for a
couple hours, and now I'm right back to thinking it,
replaying it in my head over and over. Adam, one
positive thing to send these Clippers folks before what will,
no doubt be a very stressful Game five. And it's
always Let's go Clips.
Speaker 2: We said it last night, but they lost game one,
they won the next two, they lose Game four, respond
win the next two, because yeah, they probably need to
win this one in six. I don't want to see
a Game seven in Denver. If you're gonna win this series,
six is the best path in my opinion, Come on,
big victory in game five, big bounce back, Harden Kawhi.
I believe, I do, I do. I believe they're gonna
show up. Last time Kauhi was in Denver. Did you
see what he did?
Speaker 1: We have the plan, we have the blueprints. Okay, we
hope everyone has a great week. We'll be back with
y'all after the game on Tuesday, and as always, let's
go Clips.