Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season three,
episode twenty nine of Clips and Dip. The Clippers are
eight and seven, back above five hundred, where they belong
for the most part. I am Chuck Buckley. We got
the full crew. Will Updike is here, Adam Osland is here.
Thank you for hanging on the There was some Clippers
talk last night. Will and I didn't.
Speaker 2: Snakes post snaked me on the postgame radio.
Speaker 1: I needed a win. We did a little hang if
you want to watch it. Will and I talked about
the game as well over at YouTube dot com slash
at Clippers podcast, where you can listen to it because
it was an audio pod. Two, we're gonna be talking
the best worst back to back that the Clippers just
had the upcoming game against the Magic with out Norm Powell,
which means big things for Jordan Miller. And then we
have to kind of blow off some steam on this
Kawhi Leonard shooting update and a fun good thing that
Steve Balmer did. But before we get into that, fellas,
it's basically soup season. Adam, Will, how are you doing
on this chili Tuesday evening in Los Angeles?
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm right.
Speaker 2: Just get to the Clippers, man, that's what the people want.
They don't want to know how to help we're doing.
They don't care, they don't care what we're going through.
Speaker 1: They're eight and seven, they are on top of the world.
As Justin w pointed out on clip or on Twitter,
only three and a half games out of that first spot. Baby,
I can taste it kissing, kissing the one seed. For
the most part, we beat the Jazz, they beat the
Warriors in possibly the most chaotic ending of the season
so far. Maybe shout out a mere coffee for making
that interesting. What were we encouraged by? What do we
like from this polarizing back to back? As I mentioned,
they played the worst team in the conference and then
then yesterday played the best team in the conference, beating
them once again.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it shows that you know, we've talked
about how slim the margins are, but even more so,
matchups are everything for this team with how those things
kind of go. I mean, it was very apparent in
those back to back Houston Knights that's just not a
great matchup for this Clippers team, whereas like the Warriors,
we've matched up really well with all season, so something
and keep in mind if you're on the this is
our year train is like sort of how that bracket
breaks is going to determine everything. Not that it isn't
important in other years, but like this Clippers team just
doesn't have the versatility of other years. We can't throw
a lot of different looks at you. And now with
Norm Powell out of the lineup, Like again, these slim
margins are getting even even slimmer. They're doing a dance
on a razor blade right now and couldn't do good.
Blitz could fall off or do this lip at any
given moment. So it's one of those things to monitor.
And it's one of those things the monitor with your
expectations too, because there might be some teams that are
lower down in the standings that you're like, oh, this
should be a breeze, but matchup wise, it's just not.
You know, the Clippers just don't have the utility to
sort of pull that out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Adam, what were you encouraged from from this back
to back? And we're going to talk to the other
side to you at some point.
Speaker 3: I don't know if people have talked enough about the
passing the last two games. They had thirty assists against
Utah and twenty nine last night against the Golden State Warriors.
For a team that just plays a bunch of ISO
ball all the time, it's crazy how many assists they've had.
James Harden playing through you know, illness yesterday and the
day before, he was sick for both of those games.
It sounded like when they got back from Houston that
was the deal. Yeah, he played over forty minutes. That
was pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: You could see it. He was like getting to the
real more often in the right. He was getting to
the rim more often in that Warriors game than it
felt like despite being sick. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean he air ball of three that looked like
his legs were gone late and missed a layup. But
it's still Yeah. I mean, sixteen assists of three turnovers.
They have no chance without him in that game, and
I think that's good leadership. You see a guy like
that playing through illness, not wanting to come out. They
don't win without him. They don't win without what Norman
Palell did last night off some of the passes from
James Harden late in the game. Gurlind for those threes
that was a really really good win, if not their
best winning into a dome so far. It's right there
with the San Antonio I guess twenty six point comeback,
but you might see it as a better victory because
Golden State Warriors were ten to two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did it in front of the guy who
picked the popcorn flavor, so that always feels good.
Speaker 2: That was the most cohesive I think the Charles and
I touched on this a little bit last night, but
that was the most cohesive The offense has kind of
looked to me just the way the way I mean,
Harden was great, but the way that everybody was passing,
I felt like the ball was moving a lot more
and in a productive way.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the lineup that I really liked from
last night was the hardened Man, emir Nico and Zoo lineup. Unsurprisingly,
it played well because those I think, will you brought
it up like Harden's the new guy in that lineup.
All four of those other guys definitely know what they're doing.
But that lineup was super fun and the defense just
like all the way around the matchups. We talked about it,
right like Derek Jones, Junior Chris Dunn, Terrence Emir and
Nico's that's an issue for the Warriors specifically, and it's
nice to see the clips take advantage of that and
Terrence man making things happen off the bench. Yet again,
he seems comfortable there and it's nice when he gets
the kind of stagger's time with the starters and stuff too,
because it's a nice boost.
Speaker 3: You could say, three out of the last four or
five games now, he's looked much better. The last game
at into a Dome before they returned against the Toronto
Raptors with those defensive plays late, and then the first
game coming off the bench where they would still lose
that Wednesday night in Houston, but he had fourteen points.
He had the meaty, chunky stat line that we like
to see. And then last night he's getting comfortable again.
Coach Lou said, I'm glad I got my guy back
after he started coming off the bench. So hopefully, I
think the big shots that he hit the dunk to
start the fourth quarter, that three pointer after he had
just missed one in the near side corner, knocking that down,
if anything, can help his confidence and really turn his
season around. Right now as we are twenty percent of
the way through the season now, so some of these
trends and patterns they might be here to stay if
they don't go the other way soon. So I'm happy
for Terrence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nice to see Terrence bounce back. Mobamba had a
good debut, which I think you could really tell the
difference between what not saying it was light years ahead,
but what a nod as much of a project and
someone who's played more functional NBA minutes can look like
when you compare kind of what Bomba looked like versus
what Kai Jones was bringing the team. I think Bomba's
first possession they called a dunk for him. He set
the screen, he cut, they threw over a new It's
a nice way to make him feel welcome, and then
he's just a big target for James Harden to hit
like it's he has a knee issue, of course, because
the Clippers can't have a backup center without that backup
center having a knee issue. But I was encouraged by
what we saw from the backup five spot when he
was there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought he looked really good that first game
where he played what around fifteen minutes against Utah. I
think he had nine and eight and ten minutes in
the first half. It looked like he was trying to
buck the narrative on him that he doesn't have a
great motor and that's kind of been what has held
him back over the years, the inconsistency. But then postgame
he's talking about how that injury that kept him out
the first couple of weeks with the Clippers, he was
just playing through it last year with the Philadelphia seventy
six ers, So I wonder how much that affected his
performance and if they can get more out of him
this season because of that, and because I don't know,
Jeff Van Gundy lighting a fire under everybody. So I
just hope, I feel like Mo Bamba, if he just
brings that right level of energy, he's going to be
a big upgrade over what Mason Plumb he brought last season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he won't handle the ball and try and
do showtime passes, which I think is another thing that
he will do better than Mason Plumbing.
Speaker 3: Did he do that? Why would he do that?
Speaker 1: Why would he do that? Though? And then A Mirror
continues to just make things out.
Speaker 3: Mirror was awesome last night.
Speaker 1: It's the best value contract in the NBA. It's making
so little money, it's absolutely insane. Anything else encouraging kind
of over these two games before we get into the
discouraging things that we may have seen despite the.
Speaker 3: Wins, discouraging eight and seven. I mean, come on, it's
are you will?
Speaker 1: What else were you encouraged by?
Speaker 2: We got one efficient Harden game out of the back
to back, so it's pretty good. Take it, pretty get
stuff there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that is a nice segue into kind of
the discouraging things. Harden played seventy five minutes in two days,
which is maybe more impressive than what Darren Fox did
scoring wise the other night. If you think about James
Harden's age and things like that, we saw it almost
come back to bite us in the Warriors game, like
those late a mirror bringing the ball up, that last possession,
norm bringing it just people are clamoring for this help,
but like will, we kind of talked about it. Who
is helping this? I don't mean that disrespectfully.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, it's it's really really difficult, and I mean
Adam Charles and I were talking a bunch about this,
but like the Clippers record is gonna determine whether they're
a low I would still say, like low interest buyer
or just a huge seller. After December fifteenth, and you know,
it's just looking more and more, especially like as injuries
and stuff kind of pile up up certainly minutes on
these big guys, Like are they really a mid tier
piece away? You know, like is that really the difference maker?
And I just think it depends. I think it depends
what does Kawi look like? And again what is their
record as of December fifteenth.
Speaker 3: I was listening to you guys from last night's pot
on the treadmill earlier. I do think we disagree in
one respect. I think Kawhi cures a lot of what
ails them with James Harden. I do like guys who
had the highest usage rating last season, it wasn't James.
Is Kawhi like he's going to knock down that usage
rating on James Harden, which is up ten percent from
last season right away. I think that will bring back
the legs the efficiency shooting wise. I do love the
way Kawhi could blend in to this Clippers team.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know that's.
Speaker 3: Crazy to say for a superstar, you think it's just
gonna be this big piece how do you work it in?
But the way they're constructed defensively, the way they play
out there, that's Kawhi's style. And it's not like he's
taking away touches from guys that need the basketball so much.
Even Norman Powell isn't the guy that creates much for himself.
It's mostly get it and go catch and shoot stuff.
So what they need is another guy who can create,
who can play a ton of one on one basketball
at a high efficiency rate. That's Kawhi. It's the perfect
guy that would fit this roster. Now who knows when he's.
Speaker 1: The show?
Speaker 3: But I stop asking, I get stop asking Diick Saban
in the chat, I'm not answering, So stop asking. I guess.
Long story short, I'm higher on this team than I
was coming into this season because of the way they
played so far without Kauhi and just seeing how he
could elevate this team. It seems like the perfect handing love,
big love fit with Kawhi Leonard. If he can get back, yeah,
he's a.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you nailed it. Like with the defense
like this, Kawhi Leonard on this team defensively is a
damn nightmare for anybody else with like if the Warriors
thought they had specifically, if the Warriors thought they had
matchup problems before, imagine having Kawhi Leonard in the starting lineup,
you know, moving whoever out. One thing that did come
up that I thought was discouraging over this two game
stretch is an Adam. This is something you've kind of
called out, I mean, disrespect, and you were right about this.
The Zoo motor Tylu said, now he's given Zoo three
stints instead of two stints per half. Another good thing
that Mobam was showing serviceableness so far. But that's something
that kind of monitor to just as we go on
with this thing, because that has been kind of a
knock on him before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, multiple times now so far this season he has
commented on believing that it eats Zubas looked a little
bit lethargic out there, looked a little bit tired out there.
I hope what are his minutes at now, because at
what point they were almost like thirty five minutes a game?
Just stay above thirty consumerable or can he hold up
just playing thirty? Just around there, like that's that's enough
for me, just to thirty or above but I'm not
expecting him to play thirty six minutes every night. I
don't know if he has that conditioning in him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was at thirty six last night, thirty three
the night before Lowest, He's played twenty seven versus the
Rockets on the thirteenth.
Speaker 3: When he misses some of the chippies, it looks like
he's tired out there.
Speaker 1: You know, he's alost guy to the rim.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's terrible, and that's where the Zubats haters come from. Esthetically,
it is not pleasing when he misses those bunnies like that,
and when you're you know, so much dependent on that
touch around the basket because he's not always dunking it.
Like just any bit taken out of your legs, I
think can affect that to some degree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good call. And then the other thing
that was discouraging is the Norm thing. Norm's hamstring strained.
We're not sure how long he's going to be out.
He was he was questionable to return, then he came
back in. Someone was tweeting at us, They're like, I
was surprised he returned, And I was like, but were
you also not surprised at all? That he returned like
they're chasing wins right, like Tyler said as much will
did you think it was weird he returned like the
Clippers needed him to get that win.
Speaker 2: It was unexpected for me, but I mean absolutely necessary.
I don't think they have enough to get over especially
the way that Golden State turned it on and how
Curry has performed in third quarters really all season this year.
They definitely needed They definitely needed the extra firepower, and
I was glad that Norm was good enough to go.
I don't think that they would have rushed him out
there if there was like if they thought there was
a serious chance of re injury or worsening something. But
it's definitely something a monitor, I mean, who even moves
up into his spot like well, I was talking about
the rotation and stuff later, but it's it's kind of
a nightmare. It's kind of a nightmare for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, such a such a pleasant way to convey the
nightmare scenario, but I share it. I feel like, not
quite that this is fine dog with the flaming house.
But I'm staring at the abyss a little bit. I'm
glancing at it out of the corner of my eye.
Speaker 3: I hope. Like you said, the fact that he came
back and played in that game is some indication about
the severity of it. Hopefully it wasn't just adrenaline carrying
him through. And it is a more troublesome hamstring injury
because those are always tough to manage and are tricky.
Doctor shapp I was reading some of his tweets earlier,
Real doctor, real doctor. They need they need Norman Pole desperately.
And I mean, like, how many games as they won
where he didn't play well. I think he hasn't played
well in maybe three games Game one, the two in Houston,
and that's it out of fifteen so far, and they
won any of those, and they weren't close in the
Phoenix one they could have won. That was game one
they should have won.
Speaker 1: Yea. The two Houston games eight for twenty nine combined,
no great shoot it ideal Other than those things hardened
playing a bunch of minutes norm being out with the
hamstring injury, possibly zoos motor, not much else.
Speaker 3: Discouraging twenty turnovers again last night.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, but I might be numb to those at
this point.
Speaker 2: That's another one of those matchup things where like like
luckily for us. The Warriors are also kind of a high,
high turnover team. Yeah, I don't know. I think we've
talked about it here, but like, if this team could
just get back to say the four team of fifteen range,
I'd be really happy. There's no way it's realistically going
to be much lower than that, but if they could
just get it to there, hell, I'd take sixteen. I
think it's gonna look a lot better.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Outside of that, you know, check it along eighty seven,
maybe eighteen seven.
Speaker 1: With a very interesting couple of games coming up, we're
gonna talk the Magic and Kings game to close out
this week. Obviously, the biggest issue is what's going to
go on with Norman Powell spot. If you're watching this
on YouTube, thank you for watching us and consuming us visually.
If you're listening to us on audio, it's gonna be
a quick break and then we're talking the pretty difficult
two games of Clippers have to close this week out
coming up in three two?
Speaker 2: What all right? We're back in and clips and dip
Clippers are above five hundred. It's great. We're all feeling
like it's our year. But they got a tough couple
of games coming on, and again not the greatest of matchups,
taking on the Magic and then the Kings to end
this week, Charles, why why don't you lead us in?
Because we kind of teased this in the last segment,
but with Norm Powell likely missing at least one of
these games, who's up?
Speaker 1: Oh it's Jordan Miller time. This is the opportunity that
people have wanted. Maybe it's not how we wanted him
to get the opportunity.
Speaker 2: How did you think it was going to happen? I'm
just I'm very curious if you thought he was going
to get some significant run this season, how did you
think it was going to happen?
Speaker 1: Well, snip snap from Tyler. You don't have to worry
about locker room politics. You just make the change. Baby. No,
so what it seems like, and feel free to yell
at me if you think that I'm wrong about this.
Emir is probably slotting into Norms starting role, would be
my guest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's probably.
Speaker 2: I think it makes a lot more sense than kpj Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because who's handling the ball in the second well,
is it Terrence? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Since Chris Dunn is already a starter now, and you
have somebody else to alleviate some of the on ball stuff.
With James Harden, it makes sense that it'd be a.
Speaker 1: Mirror Yeah, and then who slides into a mirror spot
Jordan Miller from those benchmen. It seems like that should happen,
right eas he does it done, which is nice, but
that seems like the most logical thing, right Like Miller
will probably I mean, how many minutes is a mirror averaging?
I know it can change every now and then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if he plays well, he closes. If it doesn't,
somebody else will.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty three minutes a game. I don't think
Jordan Miller's getting twenty three minutes maybe unless things are
going really well against the Magic tomorrow. But I think
we'll see like the most minutes that Jordan Miller has
played against not only an NBA defense, the second best
NBA defense in the league. Right now.
Speaker 3: I wonder if Patum gets any extra run. I mean,
he hit twenty minutes yesterday. It was the first game
where he made multiple three pointers in a game so
far this season, so he's looking better with his shot
now after struggling. I don't know if he'll soak up
some minutes. But yeah, Jordan Miller fifteen minutes is likely.
That's what feels like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the most points anyone's ever scored in fifteen minutes?
Speaker 3: Fifteen? Well, Klay Thompson once had a thirty seven point
quarter in twelve, So I don't know what he did
with the other three, but I.
Speaker 1: Think Jordan Miller's gonna be on that pace. No, but
they're gonna need easy buckets, right will Like you lose
norm you lose a guy who can get to the
foul line, and Jordan Miller can very much do that,
and we will need to muck the game up against
the magic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully he's ready to do so on an a
an NBA level. That's gonna be really interesting. I think
like the off ball send, like the off ball stuff
is a lot, in my head, at least a lot
easier over role for him to fill, you know, just
just shooting in motion, spotting up that kind of stuff.
I think he could pretty easily slot into. You know,
if you're expecting Norms sort of production, you're gonna be
willfully disappointed. But it is, uh, I mean, it just
is a great opportunity, you know, we talked about. Unfortunately
it was a loss, but that game against Houston where
we got some some some C team minutes or some
third up minutes or some some guys, some guys who
are like not even really on the fringe of the rotation. Uh,
and you know, look pretty good for the most part.
So it's it's an exciting opportunity where I don't know,
I don't know how it's gonna pay on the hardest thing, Like,
the hardest thing for these guys is just especially when
you don't get regular minutes, is establishing any sort of
floor of consistency. And I think that that is going
to be an issue for Miller. I like the floor
of consistency line. I'm gonna steal that and use that
moving forward.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll say this, Tarry East is one of
the better young defenders in the league, and he couldn't
handle Jordan Miller without fouling.
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 3: Was saw the same thing with Keegan Murray that last
preseason game. I was just looking up with the Orlando
Magic give up free throw wise to their opponents every game.
I guess it's twenty two free throws a game. They're
a physical team that's about seventeenth in the league, so
they don't foil, you know, in the middle of the
pack when it comes to how much they foul. So
I'm trying to see it. Can Jordan Miller really take
advantage of a team that's just hacking all over the place?
But he had he had ten points in what ten
minutes the last game in Houston, and almost all of
them were at the free throw line. That was crazy.
He also bodied Fred van Vlid on a play, who
is a good defender while undersize, like he just went
right through him. I don't know. I I'm excited for
this because oh yeah, I just he's yet to play
poorly when you give him an opportunity, Like, how are
we ever going to find out where his ceiling is
if you don't really challenge him. He's earned this, So
I hope he gets at least fifteen minutes, and I
hope they're not you know, just late third quarter, fourth quarter,
if somebody's up big that yeah, first half minutes in
this game.
Speaker 1: I was, yeah, I like that. The first half minutes
is going to be huge. And again we're running into
a team the Magic have won six in a row.
They played some bad teams, including the seventy six ers.
Who wow, what a what a train wreck?
Speaker 3: That is what happened there.
Speaker 1: They won, They've won six in a row. The most
points they've allowed in that six game stretch is ninety nine,
and they've held three teams below ninety. Granted those teams
are bad, the Pels, the Hornets in the seventy six ers,
but that's fairly impressive for a NBA team in trying
to twenty four.
Speaker 3: All those games without Ben Carrol, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's out for a very long time.
Speaker 3: He played like their four to five. Yeah, that's crazy.
I mean, defensively they're elite and we kind of knew
that about them. Offensively, they're worse than the Clippers, right.
Speaker 1: Right, it's very odd. We need to score off the turnovers. Yeah,
they're what twenty fifth their thirtieth and three point percentage,
So they are not good shooters. Someone posted the list
of players who've attempted over one hundred and threes with
the worst three point percentage. Jalen Suggs is number two
on that list. James Harden is number four. That's neither
here nor there, but really, like if anyone not name
uh Franz Wagner is taking a three. I think the
Clippers will be happy with that. Yeah, he's kind of
killing it. He's at like twenty twenty three to five.
Speaker 3: I will say Houston was very low and three point
percentage till they played the Clippers in those two games.
But uh so sometimes you get worried about those things.
But they have had I mean, they brought in KCP
for a reason. They were looking for a little more
juice on offense and a guy that could shoot from
the outside. And apparently they were flirting with bringing in
Paul George for a reason too, but uh things worked out.
He went to Philly dodge.
Speaker 1: The bullet there. God happy for my magic ge Yeah,
other than the the Norm Powell loss, who are looking
at on the bench to begetting this one, because the
bench was also a huge part of why we beat
the Warriors.
Speaker 2: Last time.
Speaker 3: KPJ had an awful first half, awful first half after
having his best game of the season against Utah, And
maybe that answers everything. It's because it was against Utah.
I don't know, but I've really felt like his playmaking
was on point, like he was really making sure to
be a past first guy, and he went back and
reverted back to some of the old bad habits. But
right before he went out he had that big block.
Who is that on the podds? Yeah, and then he
had the and one play where unfortunately he got hurt,
banged his head, couldn't finish the one, Coffee had to
take the free throw. So if he's available and he's
not on the injury report, so I'm guessing he is,
Coach Lou will probably turn to him for maybe even
more minutes because Norm piles out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta be better. Well, who you got coming
off the bench to to stop the dark arts of
the magic?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that this would be a great
time for for Terrence's sort of improved aggression and like
and his offense shining through a little bit more. I think,
you know, when he has the keys, he's just a
little bit more in rhythm, a little bit more in flow.
We've seen him certainly be a lot more confident out there,
and I think, you know, his minutes, his minutes will
likely see a bump up too. I'm I mean, still
maybe not in closing lineups, depending on what's going on
there and how Amer looks. But yeah, I think Terrence
has a has a real opportunity here, especially with coming
off the momentum that he's had in these last few games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, done too. That closing lineup is going to be
interesting because dun didn't close versus the Warriors. So yeah,
that's it's gonna be an interesting matchup. Norman fortunately will
not be playing on his bibblehead night, which bums me
out if I'm.
Speaker 3: Ah, is there some bibblehead curse thing with this? Haven't
we seen this before?
Speaker 1: I think so, I guess right before. Yeah, the funniest
depending on your definition of funny. Uh Kawhi's bibblehead date
is still TVD fans were telling us, which.
Speaker 3: See, I'm not believing anything until we get a bibblehead
date with him when he's returning.
Speaker 1: So after they battle the second best team in the
NBA at defense again very bad in offense. They're taking
a ton of threes, they're almost top ten and three
point attempts, but they're are literally dead last three.
Speaker 3: Point I like the fact. In fact, Carlo texted me
this earlier today and I think he's right. Carl he said, yeah,
he said, I'm liking this matchup. Two slow teams like
they do play at the Clippers pace like it's gonna
be I don't know, first to eighty wins.
Speaker 1: Oh God, for all those people who wanted old school
basketball back, we've got it into it on Wednesday night. Yeah,
I'm looking up the half court offensive ratings.
Speaker 3: They're gonna build another wall with all the bricks, with
all the great defense.
Speaker 1: Yes, the great wall, the great Wall of defense. All right,
so they don't really all right anyway. Then they play
the Kings, who we have annoyed. We held them in
ninety eight last time, but that was with the previous
That was with the previous starting lineup. Daron Fox is
on a heater. I don't know, we only had a
nine guy rotation. Uh, how are we feeling about the
new Clips against the Kings? Will you hyped?
Speaker 2: With no? Norm That's a pretty tall order TV, But
I think.
Speaker 3: Right on that one in our year, he could be back.
Speaker 2: He could be back because just even with as good
as the Clippers defense has been and can be, that's
that's a tall order. You're not stopping everything, So I
think keeping face with that. At the same time, though,
I do kind of like that matchup. I do like
that matchup. Stylistically for the Clippers. Yes, you have the
athleticism and you know some of the speed. Uh, but
at the same time an equally kind of smaller a
smaller kind of lineup. We've seen Zoom be really effective
down low in that.
Speaker 1: I like.
Speaker 2: I like that line I like that matchup a little
bit more than the Magic matchup, just because of some
of the things that we've seen so far in I
think I'm just still reeling from like the double Rockets loss,
but uh, I do like that matchup. No norm somebody
is gonna have to, Like, somebody's gonna have to have
a breakout, and it's maybe the KPJ.
Speaker 1: But he scored.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's scored somebody. Yeah, somebody's gonna have to
do it.
Speaker 1: Him and a Mirror combined for twenty five points were
of the only people that scored off the bench the
last time we played him. So this could also be
another Terrence Man right, Like, it's interesting we only played
again No Kai Jones last time. We wonder if Bob's
gonna get some look or something.
Speaker 3: But it almost gave the way gave away the game
late with like fournovers in the last four minutes or something.
Speaker 1: Evergreen statement that you just said, Adam, that could be said.
I think we could just run that clip for every episode. Yeah,
Ty was pissed, Like after the game, Ty was pretty upset,
I mean as upset as coaches get about that kind
of thing in public, about the lay game turnovers. So
I'm equally stressed about both these games.
Speaker 3: I agree with Will, though I do like the matchup
a little bit more against Sacramento. Maybe it's just because
we're familiar with them pactive game and they beat them
earlier this season, and it's somewhat some recency bias going
on here, But I feel better going up against smaller,
quicker teams, like especially when the head of the Snake
is that guy Steph Curry last night dearon Fox with Sacramento,
then the brewed athletic teams like we saw in Houston.
I just like that matchup. I don't hate Zubots going
up against the Bonus. The Bonus isn't a great rimp
protector or anything like that. Sacramento I think is like
fourteenth defensively right now. They've been getting better there and
they're six on offense, but I don't know. They shut
the water off in a lot of different ways last time,
and that game was up in Sacramento when they beat them.
So I don't hate it. I mean, be careful what
you wish for. If they don't have NORM, it's scary.
But if you slow down Deer and Fox, it just
feels like it takes them so far away from their
offensive game plan, like you really can get a stranglehold
on it.
Speaker 1: And I hope we see more. You know, no NORM
means the hardened man. A mere Nico Zoo lineup can
be out there. We can see maybe Derek John Junior
getting switched in there for Zoo to get the not
you know, get the small ball five going. I just
want to point out you mentioned this is a Pacific
Division matchup. I'm looking at the divisional standings as I
do every day. Pacific Division only team where or only
division where every team has a winning record.
Speaker 2: Lovely, it's routinely I feel like the hardest division in well,
the best division in basketball.
Speaker 1: My documentary will prove that later this year. It's called
it really matters.
Speaker 2: I swear you screw the cup. Let's make divisional playing.
Let's make that a thing. How about that, mister.
Speaker 3: Silver, that's a Friday.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say it's a it's a Cup game too, right,
because it's Friday.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Well, really, I hope the I hope the
supporters of the division and the supporters of the Cup
don't clash or anything like that. Let's keep it peaceful
out there, guys, we should unite.
Speaker 2: Is there any way we can win the game but
somehow forfeit the Cup win? Is that is that possible?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: If a team just opts out of the Cup, they're
just like, this is just regular season. We're not counting
this for the Cup.
Speaker 3: Gulays, dumb, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: I really I do though, I don't want to lose
another group game in the Cup. Didn't really win one
last year?
Speaker 2: Did we win one?
Speaker 1: I think we won one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was one.
Speaker 1: All right, we talked this matchup. Now for the most
important part, second most important part of the episode. The
most important part is coming up quickly. Player of the
Game picks for both games. One of the hardest things
to do is to pick a guy who's gonna be
good for both games. Adam, I think you went last
last time, so you can go first, and then will
and then.
Speaker 3: I will decide last shall be first. I'm coming off
the bench just like Jordan Miller. He's my player that
I'm picking here, Jordan Miller for both games.
Speaker 1: Baby, what are we envisioning here?
Speaker 3: Ten to twelve points? Ten to twelve points total annihilation
of the competition?
Speaker 1: Uh, the most immoralizing twelve points ever scored against the team.
Speaker 3: Just a handful A tough guy to UH wrangle because
he wants to get downhill and gets to the rim.
I hope he just causes chaos with rotations, with the
opposition's defense trying to figure out a way to slow
him down, and that opens up things for others. I
know it's crazy to say that about a guy who
hasn't played any meaningful NBA basketball yet, but that's always
done with whatever minutes he's ever gotten. So I'm gonna
I'm gonna say it's real, and I think he can
do it, So I'm hoping there's not too much pressure.
I posted a transformer like Gift earlier, talk about him
going from hot rod to BOTTOMUS.
Speaker 1: You don't want there to be too much pressure. You're
comparing the greatest.
Speaker 3: I know a rise Jordan Miller at your time.
Speaker 1: He's also left handed, which gives him an extra boost.
Everyone knows that will your pick the KWI Leonard James
harden A Vitza zubats Norm Powell inaugural player of the
Game for the cut, he can pick Norm. Go for yeah,
go for.
Speaker 2: It for both games. I'm gonna stick with my guy, Terrence.
I think that I think that he has a real
opportunity to step to step things up right now and then,
I don't want to say no pressure situation, but a
better situation than it seems like. Maybe he was in
with the starting lineup for for whatever reason. I just
don't It wasn't the greatest wasn't the greatest fit for it,
and it wasn't the best Terrence that we saw out there.
But if we could get if he could get into
double digits in one of these two games, I feel
like I'd be pretty happy. Like if he could go
like twelve and nine or or flip it over uh
over the two games, I think that that would go
a long way. I think the chunky Stytlin, Yeah, the
chunky stylin. That's fair.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we got Jordan Miller, we got Terrence Man. Damn.
I kind of have a a why to rate a pick.
Speaker 3: Actually, you know what, what if Bones gets menus with.
Speaker 1: Normal, I'm not picking Bones. I'll just.
Speaker 3: Contract as a skeleton key guy. I just had to
bring it up just in case.
Speaker 1: The skeleton tree contract you had to sign in blood. Yeah,
I think so we're gonna need someone to score against Orlando. Obviously,
might turn into some kind of weird track meet against
the King if the defense isn't exactly there for the Clippers,
which it has been all year. I've picked him a
lot and he hasn't really let me down, but he
hasn't proved me entirely right yet. Dereck Jones Junior, he
can run against the Kings. He's gonna be asked to
probably do more than he usually does on defense against
the Magic just because of the size issues. Another guy, though,
like to Will's point with Terrence, if he can get
plus ten points efficiently, run the break, help him win
you know, points off turnovers, stuff like that, that will
be very much needed these next two games. He's had
a very underrated year I think so far for the Clippers.
Not that he should be in some kind of consideration
for rewards, but he's definitely overplaying his contract.
Speaker 2: I think good guy award?
Speaker 1: Oh how could I fuck? How could I forget the
good guy Ward? Derek Jones, if you're listening, I think
I think you should get the good guy Award.
Speaker 3: What do you guys guess he's shooting from three so far?
Speaker 1: Forty one point six?
Speaker 3: You don't respect him?
Speaker 1: Do wait? Will you guess?
Speaker 2: H forty three?
Speaker 3: Forty four? Stamn, it's early. It's that it's gonna go down.
But there's a real good chance, pretty.
Speaker 1: Big example, a pretty large percentage.
Speaker 3: Of yeah, you're right, you're right, or twenty percent of
the year in there's a real good chance he's gonna
finish above league average from three this season with this
hot start. Oh yeah, that's phenomenal. I think I think
he's a grinder, like like Norm, Like this is another
guy who's just waiting for his opportunity, waiting for his opportunity.
I love having him as a Clipper.
Speaker 1: Now, Oh yeah, it rules all right? That wraps it up.
Let us know your picks over at Clippers pod or
at YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast, where some
people have voiced their very loud opinions about what this
team should do. Coming up, We're talking the one Kawhi
thing that came out, and then and some good Steve
Bamber news I mean audio break and then right back
to you in three two one.
Speaker 3: Oh, come back in. It's clips and dip. I'm out
a Maslin. We got Chuck Mockler and Will Updyke here
the Big Three are with you once again. It's season three,
episode twenty nine, and yesterday we got some something we got.
We got. Kawhi was mentioned by head coach straw Lou
after promoter Shelborne asked him a question the pregame press
or yesterday of what he has been doing. And what
he has been doing is uh, some shooting, some shooting.
Speaker 1: I ran through a wall when I heard shooting?
Speaker 2: What though.
Speaker 1: Magpie Crosby again, Yeah, no, this was like I felt
nothing when I heard this.
Speaker 3: I felt angry when I saw that aggregators like I
don't ever do this. But when I saw people really
try to turn this into something, It's like, guys, it
is I was in the room coach who was basically
laughing after saying it some shooting, Like what are we
talking about here? When you hear it it, it doesn't
make you more hopeful. Even just reading it. What does
some shooting mean he doesn't have an arm injury or
anything like that. How how is he not able to
shoot set shots without movie like he's obviously sitting on
the bench, he can walk. It's it's not something where
he would be able to do stationary shooting with. So
why is anybody taking this and making something out of it?
Speaker 2: He's doing lethal shooter stuff. He's throwing the gummy bear
in the water bottle. We don't need he understands it
now playing.
Speaker 1: We don't need Kawai and near any spinning blades or
flames given the injury thing. Yeah, this gives us no
insight in his return at all. Fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm actually surprised because I thought the
bigger one was from the press conference where he says
we're waiting, just waiting on two to.
Speaker 3: Get back the post game what he said, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I thought more people would have jumped on
that because that does give I don't know, doesn't that
give like a string of an imminent return there. I
feel like that was kind of like I was kind
of surprised.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 2: The reason I'm even bringing up is because I was
surprised that even said that normally we don't talk about
Kawi Leonard's absence or his return or what's going on there.
Speaker 3: Uh, the kind of unto Once a week they're required
to give an update, and Ramona was like, it's Monday,
so what's the latest with Kawhi? And that was the update.
I damn, I don't know. I you know.
Speaker 2: Everybody's just like saying, what book he's reading?
Speaker 1: Dude, that would be, dude, the Kawhi book club where
we all pick a book to read. Yeah, that'd be
a good time. What book is Kawhi reading? It's the
Art of War, right.
Speaker 3: It's just there seems to be a pattern here where
everybody gets excited about a report that is pretty meaningless
because Kawhi can't know when he's back yet, and everybody
goes los Aint he's gonna play in Game one against
Dallas and then lost saying he's gonna be back by
the second week week in November. Well it's November nineteenth.
Like this is no slide or anything against lat Murray.
It's everyone freaking out about reports of information no one
can have because Kawhi can't even have it. So what
are we doing here? Like it's still as knee responds
the right way. We're fifteen games into the season and
he's not practicing with the team yet, and then when
he practices, well, that's gonna put more stress on the knee.
Is it gonna work spawn well? From that, I just
I don't know. I'm not trying to be a down
or about it, but come on, what are we talking
about right now?
Speaker 1: I think the thing people should take away from this.
As of six fifty six PM on November nineteenth, they're
above five hundred without Kawhi. They've played a pretty brutal
schedule all things considered. There's not like that's great, let's
not let's not cloud it with anything else.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are just operating like this is
the team we have. If Kauhi comes back, it's it's
a bonus. But this is the team we have.
Speaker 2: I think that's where you have to be at to
be honest, until until there's indications otherwise.
Speaker 1: Until we get some kind of metaphor before some kind
of normal exercise explosive boss jumps, you know what I mean,
something like that.
Speaker 3: He could he could They could say, you know, he's
playing this upcoming game, and I'll be like cool, he
can play the game, and I'll be like, cool, let
me know how he responds afterwards. That's what I'm looking for.
Can he play ten straight games? Can he play seven
of ten games? I don't know. We've been through this.
Speaker 1: I do want to test that theory, though, because I
do want to see your reaction. When there is news
that Kawi is going to play.
Speaker 3: I was, well, you're right, that could change in the
judgeaposition with what I just said. Now, and I'm like,
it's on, boys, it's on. Here we go, here, we
go to the top of the West. No. I I
was somewhat measured when he played game two, but I
was like, hey, let's see how he responded the next day.
I kept asking about and they didn't respond well. So
at this point, when you're talking about swelling and if
the surgery happened in May, it's November nineteenth and he's
not back. When when when was it the lawrence Frank
said the swelling was almost gone? Was that two months
ago at least?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I just but when is the time hard? When is
the timeline? I kind of got lost on this. When
is the timeline on the procedure? Did we even get
do we know a month for that.
Speaker 3: They didn't say when in May. They just said in May.
Speaker 2: So so you would think he's getting close.
Speaker 3: I would have thought he tried to play in tbusa
like then there was a setback. But don't worry. There
hasn't been a setback since then. It's like, well, we
didn't even know there was a setback then. I don't know.
It's all he's not like, like doctor Schapp said, he's
not playing. You can consider this a setback. The season
has started and he's not out there yet. How is
it not a setback?
Speaker 2: He didn't have it, don't call it a setback.
Speaker 1: I've been out for a year.
Speaker 3: What are all these cleanup procedures that take six months
to recover from? I'm pretty sure a clean up isn't
it supposed to be talked about as hey, they'll be
back in six months after this cleanup.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, cleanup is like.
Speaker 3: A guy is back in like three weeks or a month.
Speaker 2: Well that's how that doesn't It depend now on the
like invasiveness of the procedure.
Speaker 3: But I think then it wouldn't be categorized as a cleanup,
like it would be called something else clean up by
you know, a little scroll articles here, some bone marrow
flying around like just a little cleanup. I don't know,
it's it's obviously not responding the way they would like
it to, or is it already back by now?
Speaker 1: Period?
Speaker 3: How can that not be the case?
Speaker 1: Period?
Speaker 2: But I do still want to throw out there, like
on the hopeful side, I think we all said, you know,
if this team can hang around five hundred, a little
above five hundred, if we can eventually get thirty five
to forty games out of Kawhi Leonard, I'm not hating
that output. If it's twenty you know, if it's if
it's thirty five healthy games, I'm you know, I'm I'm
kind of liking the odds. But so we're still on
track for that that this hypothetical that we just made up.
Speaker 3: We also were saying like fifty five games like a
month ago, and now it's.
Speaker 2: All I think we all lowered our expectation.
Speaker 1: All right, I said I'd like fifty five, and then
I think I went, you know what he's not because
then you were like, he's not playing back to backs.
Speaker 3: Before the season started, everybody was like, Okay, let's say
he plays fifty games. Now, we're saying, let's say he
plays thirty five games like it has drastically gone down already.
I said I'd sign up for forty one to somebody
a week ago if you could play forty one games, if.
Speaker 2: It happens in every sport all the time, especially with
a knee injury.
Speaker 1: To end on some good news, uh, Steve Balmer recently
donated one point nine million dollars to comp In College
that will assist with the college's efforts to improve academic
pathways and ensure students have what they need to complete
their coursework and transferred to university as quickly as possible.
Good move by Steve Ballmer. Maybe it could have been
a little more given his wealth, but who am I
to judge. I'm not pocket watching, but it's difficult when
the pockets are the largest pockets in the entire world.
But good guy Steve Boma for doing that. And the
Clippers partnered with twenty four Hour Fitness. I believe to
be like the official gym partner of the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't it be La Fitness.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Adam, you got to be hyped on that.
What gym do you go do?
Speaker 3: I'm back. I'm been to twenty four for a while,
but I'm back. You walk in, Everyone's like, yeah, lifting
at two in the morning was different.
Speaker 1: I bet it is college days. Man. One time in
college we're at a party and there was like some
workout gear. Nothing better than a house party. Just have
a couple of drinks, wearing jeans, hoodie, getting your lift
on a little bit, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're just doing polar opposite things like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in offsets, it's a neutral night.
Speaker 3: From that perspective, I worked out, I can get blasted.
Speaker 1: Yeah I could work out. Wow, like out what a day?
College is an important time for you to learn new skills.
All right, we need to get out of here. We
got some double dips coming up after these games. I
will not snake Will next time because the Clippers are
probably gonna win both, so it probably will be Will
doing a postgame live hang versus the Magic maybe the
Friday game. Two clips travel to Philly on Sunday, which
we'll see how that goes. I know how we all
want it to go. Will. Where can these people reference
in the meeting with their boss about their you know,
potential upcoming pay raise? Can where can they tell their
boss to listen to us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, in any negotiation, you want to be
sure and cite this podcast, which you can listen to
on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or anywhere you can get podcasts.
The best way though to check it out is still
over on YouTube dot com. That's at Clippers Podcast. Yeah,
you want to make sure to tune into every episode,
as we'll definitely have the answers on what's going on
with Kawhi Leonard. But however you ingest this podcast, just
know that we appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We absolutely do. Adam, send these Clippers fans out with
one positive thing before we get out of here.
Speaker 3: Hey, we've beat the Warriors twice. Only one other team
had beaten the Golden State Warriors and that team had
only lost. Well, they've lost one game now in the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah, I don't know that. Have they made
up for I kind of think they made up for
that loss already to Portland by getting two wins against
Golden State this early. I said they have to make
up for that somewhere. Yeah, I think it might have
happened last night.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I'm also going game by game, man,
I can't see shit behind the in this rear view window.
Speaker 3: Moving forward, Yeah to Orlando.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right, that about wraps. Thank y'all for listening,
and as always, let's go Clips