Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans Welcome season three, episode
thirty four of Clips in Dip. I am Chuck Blckler,
joined by Adam Osland. William Updyke is unavoidably detained. Is
he working? Is he out on the town. We never know,
but we are here to bring you the Clippers news
and Clippers talk today as well. We're gonna be talking
Kawhi Leonard. We're turning to practice in a limited fashion,
two days in a row, which was always better than one.
In these instances, We're gonna talk what Derek Jones Junior
his injury means to the team, especially with the upcoming
game against the Nuggets on Friday. I'm gonna preview that
game and then also kind of I don't know if
debate is the right word, but figure out where we
think the Clippers are gonna be at this trade deadline
before we get into that. Thank you for watching us,
Thank you for listening to us. If you want to
watch us and you've only experienced the audio, check us
out on YouTube at YouTube dot complish at Clippers Podcast.
And if you want to just listen to us you're
tired of seeing our ugly mugs, listen to us anywhere
you get podcasts, Adam, you're not in your car. I
don't believe unless you gotta pip my ride set up going.
Speaker 2: I haven't met Exhibited at a Clippers game once before, so.
Speaker 1: Uh, incredibly nice person, so nice, so friendly.
Speaker 2: Might have been blasted, but either way, he was super
nice and I told him how good he was on
the Compton album, which I think is severely underrated. His
verse was awesome. So love that guy.
Speaker 1: If you meet us celebrity and they're wasted and they're nice,
infinitely better than if they're wasted in their meat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, never meet your heroes sober. It's the same.
Speaker 1: I know a guy who was doing a stand up
show in Miami and Dan Marino was.
Speaker 2: There a hole A hole?
Speaker 1: I heard the opposite. I heard he was incredibly friendly.
He loved this guy's set, and then invited him to
brunch the next what. And then the guy followed up
with his assistant and the assistant was like, you're not
fucking coming to brunch, dude.
Speaker 2: I met him once that I did not. I know
you're a Dolphin fan. I'm not trying to ruin anything
for you. All I've heard was worse and worse stuff
about Dan, you know, but a great player, maybe a
little bit salty because he never got that ring and
everybody always reminds him of it, like I do.
Speaker 1: He had to play on concrete. Man, give him a break.
You're not in your car. What are you drinking today?
I'm drinking tea. I'm so battling this this cold or whatever.
Speaker 2: I got a Coca Cola zero sugar Christmas themed and
I gotta say, while diet coke is like a totally
different type of cola, you can tell the distinct difference
between that and a regular coke. This does taste pretty
damn similar to a regular Coca cola. Some say it
is the best diet version of a coke, and I'm
kind of signing on with that. Plus they were free upstairs.
Speaker 1: Well I'm glad we'll up Like is not here because
he he might have a diet coke tattoo. The man
loves diet coke. I'll let you guys debate that on
the next episode. Let's get into what everyone's been in
uh titter twitter about Kawhi is practicing limitedly, I think
is the important thing. Where we're all about putting caveats
and tempering expectations here on clips and dip.
Speaker 2: Limited was predicted limited practices. The start was predicted expectedly
per tylu.
Speaker 1: He said he did offensive script, defensive work, just no contact,
but he did pretty much everything else. He looked good.
He's not playing this week, but he's getting better. Basically
the same news that was from Tuesday, basically the same
news today as well. At practice, they're just kind of
taking their time.
Speaker 2: I was encouraged the fact that he did practice again.
Speaker 1: Well in consecutive days. I love that because I think
I was actually more encouraged today because I was like, oh,
he's in the limited practice. God, I hope he can
practice again tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I honestly was a little bit surprised that he did
a back to back right away non contact as you mentioned,
limited out there, but he said full speed. They went
five on zero offensive script stuff. So five guys against
air out there running down the floor and full speed
is meaningful to me. That's one way to really test
out that knee. Even if it's non contact, it's still
a lot of exertion there, and like, we're gonna find
out real soon. I'm sure within the next couple of
days or not. Maybe if he does get back to
some contact drills, like at some point, I would guess
by let's say next Monday, we find that out. Coach
lu said he's not sure. He's not sure when he's
doing it, set it over and over again. But I
just wanted, Okay, so he's done this two days in
a row, At what point do you give it a
shot with a little bit of contact out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you kind of look at the Clippers schedule,
I would imagine they have the game on Friday against
the Nuggets. They're not going to be doing an incredibly
intense practice. Tomorrow would be my.
Speaker 2: I think it's a travel day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're traveling. They're gonna get there and do walk through,
then they come back. I'm assuming Friday night. So they
got Saturday and Sunday the Jazz on Monday at home,
they'll practice Sunday probably.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe maybe we why's not going with them to Denver?
Speaker 1: So no, no, no, no, not going with them to Denver. Yeah,
I would probably guess, and then they have a couple
more days off, right, So they played the sixteenth and
they're playing in the nineteenth away, so kind of with
the travel, there's some weird, like there's some spots to pick.
If you're the Clippers for for that full contact practice,
I would not be I would be incredibly encouraged. I
would not be incredibly surprised if he got if we
got another kind of ooh, a piece of candy update
when it comes to Kauai being ready, maybe it's a
little more contact or something like that. I think, Yeah,
I think next week is when we can expect.
Speaker 2: That they're hitting him with the foam fingers as he's
going for layups something.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they got the big the Yeah, the best
basketball drill tool in the world, just giant foammans. Yeah.
But yeah, and it's coming at a time when I
think a lot of people you mentioned it right, like
it's it's December, it's maybe early January or something like that.
I'm still just strictly for the spie aspect. I want
him to come back on the twenty seventh, just so
it's not before Christmas. I'm purely being spiteful for that.
Speaker 2: I think that's a good date. A lot of people
have circled that one. It makes sense, it's a home game.
I just feel like if he's one hundred percent, I
don't care if it's a road game or not. Bankers
cannot be Cheeringwhi Leonard?
Speaker 1: You know, do we care if it's a homer and
away game? Well, I mean, in my heart, I would
love for Clippers fans to get to see Kawhi return
at home. But if he's ready to play in what
is it Memphis? If he's ready to play in Memphis
on the twenty.
Speaker 2: Third, sure if this second game in Dallas, like, they
are going to need him very soon here with how
tough the schedule has been. You've outlined it, and I
just feel like if he's one hundred percent, he should
be playing. If he's one hundred percent, you'll getting ready
to go, and he's gone through everything. Why wait for
a home game just to give the fans the first
taste of Kawhi Leonard being back. Why not just do
it where you have a chance to win a monumental
game or at least a big early season December game,
Like one of those games against Dallas could be big
game against Memphis Grizzlies. You've been playing really good basketball,
could be big for standings upcoming.
Speaker 1: We're three games, so the Grizzlies all are three games
ahead of us. The Mavericks are two games ahead of us,
so the standings are tight. We talked about the last
episode with all three of us, but that's how close
we are. You know, the top of the mountain. The
bottom of the mountain is not that far away. The
Clippers are two games away from the twelfth spot. Yeah,
things can change quickly, obviously with how tight these standings are.
But as it gets shook in out a little more,
you would rather be at the top, closer to that
top than that twelve seed. So it's a tough schedule.
I wish I wish he was able to come back
against the Jazz, because what better team to come back
to after a long term injury than this version of
the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: Might have to play that long yest, I only have
to play ten or fifteen minutes. There's your contact drills.
The Jazz like that. You never know. The Clippers lost
to Portland earlier this season. It's see that the Jazz,
though had been brutal so far in the West. I'm
kind of a surprised by they got more talent than that.
Speaker 1: Purposely brutal though, I think is.
Speaker 2: Capture the flag. Yeah, marketing has just been abysmal so
far this season. I would say relative to his standard play,
he has looked like the same player, and I would
be concerned after they just gave him two hundred million dollars.
I do not understand why he hasn't quite looked the same,
has been dealing with an injury. What is it? Because
I was kind of surprised the first time they've played
him just how poorly he looked.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Man, he's averaging his lowest since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Was he in Cleveland still then?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, competing with other guys. He's supposed to be the
man now, the lead guy for the Utah Jazz, and
at times has looked like damn near a top fifteen,
top twenty player in the league when he's been at
his best with everything he can do out there on
the court. It's surprising to me, But maybe it's institutional
taking for Cooper Flag. I just don't think the players, however, Yeah,
the players don't care about that stuff though. That's something
you can do with lineups and rotations and who you
put out there, But the players don't care about that.
I know there was a time out conveniently taken against
the Lakers that costed them a basketball game. But right
at the very end we call him Sexton. But I
still feel like the players should be given a maximum effort.
Why does marketing look like this right now? I don't
get it. He's in the prime of his career.
Speaker 1: Must be a horrible place to live. Do we think
minutes restriction for Kawhi when he comes back? Do you
think with all that they've talked about with we want
to make sure he's good to go, we don't want
him come back. Is it crazy to think there wouldn't
be a minutes restriction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely gonna be a minutes restriction. There is
for normal when he comes back. Everybody like, why would
it not be for the guy with chronicles?
Speaker 1: And he feels still fluid though, because they're like, oh,
it was a ministriction but the game was close.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The reasoning behind what they did in early twenty two,
twenty two, when he first came back and was on
twenty one minutes, I think it was the maximum he
could play the first couple of games and then he
was coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's definitely that is that would be crazy. I'm
not going to suggest that because that went so poorly.
Speaker 2: I can't remember. Some people are saying that was Kawhi's idea,
some people were saying it wasn't because that would help
him play in the fourth quarter. If he didn't come
off the bench till later earlier in the game, that
would give him extended minutes later in the game. And
he did, to his credit, hit a big jump shot
I think over Lebron against the Lakers late in that
ballgame that helped them win. But I don't think Kawhi
even said I remember like a couple of days into that,
he was like, Nah, we killed it.
Speaker 1: We killed Yeah. He's like I think he said, like,
we're not doing this again, something like that. Yeah, ministerstraction
makes sense. We were going to talk about it in
the second segment. We can kind of lead into it. Now.
The Clippers are down guys right now that could play
the wing. Derek Junior going to be reevaluated in a
couple of weeks, which sucks. Terrence reevaluated I think at
the end of this month or something like that. So
I kind of talked about this. I think the last
episode where it would be it would be bad luck
for if you believe in it. Or not, or just
bad circumstances for Kawhi to come back. And now it's
like we obviously always needed Kauhi on this team, but
to have that extra, hey man, we got guys out
that just makes it a little tougher.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you got these patchwork rotations around Kawhi's he's
trying to figure things out. That's just a lot of
moving parts have to work through. Maybe the good news
is okay, So a reevaluation on Derek Jones Junior about
two weeks from now, Terrence Man, I think is about
two weeks away because his reevaluation was three weeks and
that was last Wednesday, a week ago, so he's got
I think two more weeks on this. It's possible that
Kawhi comes back at the very you know, the very
beginning of those guys were turning to the game as well.
If everything goes according to plan. But when you're talking
about a hamstring and then a fractured left middle finger,
who knows I worry about I think you brought this
up when you first heard that it was a hamstring
injury to Derek Jones Junior. For an explosive athlete like that,
there's a little bit more concern out there because he
needs his balance. That's how he helps this team. He
needs that explosiveness. So if they have to be overly
cautious with him, fine, because they're going to need him
for the long run. He's been so good so far
this season, shooting forty two percent from the outside, still
like almost ten percent higher than his career averages. And yeah,
and you want to see everybody together when Kawhi comes back.
We don't need the one in, one out situation, which
is kind of what we got the other night. We
found out who was going to be back, but then
who was going to be out with James Harden not
playing that game with Obama being out, and then a
mere coffee then DJ. So, yeah, it's not ideal. I
don't know if that would affect Kawhi Leonard's return, if
they would actually weigh that in and say, well, we
don't have DJ and Terrence back. Do we want to
put so much on the scoring load of Kawhi to
have to feel like he needs to do more out
there immediately or not.
Speaker 1: And defensive, because it's not like Derek Jones Junior and
Terrence playing bad defense.
Speaker 2: Oh, especially DJ was phenomenal, and that is the guy
that they brought in. That's the first guy you bring
in to say, hey, there's less on the plate of
Kawhi Leonard to have to do as much defensively. Now,
this is how we protect him and insulate him from
having to do as much, and maybe that prevents him
from re injuring himself, even though I still feel like
I don't know if Kawhi can help his defensive instincts.
When you look at the data and it's him, Yeah,
whether he's playing the three or the four, he's running
the most miles out there according to the stat VU cameras.
How does he adjust his game this far into his
NBA career where he's at the age of thirty three.
He kind of brought it up when they were in Honolulu.
We'll see if something needs to change there, something to
that effect. But I just I don't know Kawi is
gonna be Kawhi now. If there's just less guys getting
beat off the dribble, maybe that means he doesn't have
to rotate as much, he doesn't have to be the
low man as much. He's not moving as much because
guys are staying in front of their man.
Speaker 1: So this is where and we'll talk about this a
little bit because it is you know, we don't know
when Kawi is coming back, when Kauai comes back, if
it's without Derek Jones Jr. If Derek Jones Junior is
still out when Kawhi comes back, are they going to
bring Batuman to play the four? Are they going to
bring a mirror to play the four? Or are they
gonna have Harden Because you in my mind, you have
to have Chris dun and Kauhi together in that starting lineup.
That is a damn nightmare.
Speaker 2: You're saying if DJ is still out, Yeah, hmm, So
because I don't know, putting Normal on the bench then.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's what's so difficult. It is like
because you know Norm's in the starting lineup to help
with the scoring. Yeah, because Kawhi wasn't able to play
in the starting lineup. It's kind of it's not a problem,
but it's definitely something that's interesting to look at when
you look at the roster in terms of who's available.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's worth thinking about do you want Kawhi
to have to do less on the offensive end when
he first comes back therefore you have Norman the starting lineup. Still,
do you want to have to do less on the
defensive end with DJ is still out and therefore you
have Chris Dunn in the starting lineup Still, Yeah, that's
kind of how I weigh it. No, I see that
as something they're going to have to look at. If
it's James Harden, Norman Powell, Chris Dunn, Why yeah, zu Bots,
that's that's not great.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of defensive pressure for done Zoe
and Kawhi especially.
Speaker 2: I guess that's the way I'm thinking of it. Even
if you do have Chris Dunn out there, you're still
into small right, so it's not like you're bigger if
you have Christnast and Ormfowl. I don't know, right, I
do think. But Tom is going to play on Friday
against Denver. As coach Lou brought up how they're going
to do it, it's gonna be matchup to dependent whoever
plays between him and a mere Coffee. So the hope is,
you know, maybe Terrence is back by then, or maybe
Derek Jones Junior is back. Right as Kawhi is hitting
the ground, and we don't have to worry too much
about this. Yeah, if you do have to worry about it,
I might lean into having more defenders out there just
so it's it's still different, you know, having to react
to what your man is doing in front of you
rather than creating off the dribble for yourself. That might
be you know, there's more explosive movements maybe if you're
having to chase somebody around than having to just get
to your spots on the floor and get to your
mid range.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm sure Tyler will figure something out. Uh,
let us know what you think. It's been a lively
debate on Clippers Twitter. People want Derek Jones Junior to
play the four. I think he's maybe too small to
play the four, but he's been doing well. It's weird.
It's a weird traffic jam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been oday against Jo Kitchen the two games too,
when he's gotten cross matchups against him, So that's true.
Speaker 1: It's a weird traffic jam to have. It's like a
traffic jam where everyone's just telling everyone to go. It's
like a polite traffic jam for the Clippers rotation. It's
your turn, No, it's dude, exactly coming up. We're gonna
be talking about the matchup against the Nuggets and just
a little bit more. I'm kind of about the lineup stuff.
But first there's gonna be some ads if you're listening
on audio. If you don't want to deal with the
audio ads, check us out on YouTube YouTube dot comlash
at Clippers podcast. We got audio ads and then Clippers
versus Nuggets talk in three two.
Speaker 2: What Welcome Back in its clips and dip episode thirty
four of season three to Masam, we got Chuf Mockler.
We are missing will Updike tonight, but we're powering through
Eddieways Clippers having a power through a tough schedule here,
including a couple of makeup games, one obviously on the
easier side, a lesser opponent against the Utah Jazz Monday
night at home. But these are the two makeup games
that happened because they didn't make the knopout Round and
it starts Friday night in Denver against the Nuggets. And
the only reason, as much as I wouldn't want to
have to play the Nuggets again, I really don't want
to have to play them again because now they're going
to play him four times, and it looked like the
Clippers had already won the season series against them because
they had one two of what we thought was only
gonna be three Denver.
Speaker 1: Damn it. Oh my god, I even put that together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so now the tiebreaker is still in play. Now
Denver could win the next two, and then it kicks
down to if somebody wins the their division, I think,
and then it kicks down to conference record record against
your conference for the other tiebreaker, and.
Speaker 1: The Clippers conference record, as La Murray has pointed, out
of all the teams with a win record, I believe
in the West, the Clippers are the only one with
a losing record against the conference. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Were they nine to ten?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a little bit of a The Nuggets
are seven and seven. So if the Clippers win, I
don't know, but it makes it tense.
Speaker 2: What do you mean if because Will isn't here doesn't
mean we cannot say it's sorry.
Speaker 1: This is WI. Someone did say we're gonna go five
to ohero in our next five games, which is Nuggets, Jazz,
two against the Mavericks.
Speaker 2: And Clipper Darryl Who.
Speaker 1: The Derek Jones junior injury makes the Terrence injury a
little more difficult to deal with Lot Murray saying the
available players for Friday, Harden norm done. But you Zoo
wouldn't be surprised if that's the starting lineup, given it
is going to be a rotation between you and Amir.
Speaker 2: Against is a good matchup, like he can help against
he's always been good.
Speaker 1: There and Zoo can do the free safety thing like
it's not it's not the best situation, but it's definitely
not a huge downfall. Then we have on the bench
kbj AMR, Jordan Miller, Mobamba Bones, Christy Flowers and Kai Jones.
Speaker 2: I got worried about. I've been told Trenton Flowers should
be playing center instead of Kai Jones coming off the
bench least that last game because they didn't have Mobamba.
Speaker 1: Why not. It's big asks for a mirror and Jordan
Miller coming up just kind of scoring wise, you see,
I kind of see. I was reading a thread from
the lob the jam of the Pod. I think Patum's
gonna get the start on Friday. He's good, like you said,
it's good against Jok. You can't necessarily leave him alone.
He hasn't had the best shooting year, but you can't
leave him.
Speaker 2: Alone I lost you, Chuck. I don't know how to
hear you.
Speaker 1: I think it's you.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not able to hear.
Speaker 1: Oh no, Adam can't hear Wich means I can.
Speaker 2: Troubleshoot this still not here in Chuck, out of nowhere.
All of a sudden, I'm gonna jump out and come
back in. Hold it down, Chuck.
Speaker 1: Sounds good, all vamp So Adam can't hear me. He's
leaving and he's coming back. Oh now, it's just my
face on the screen. Don't like this. Um but yeah,
like I said, I think it's gonna be Nico starting
this one. He's good against Jokic. I'm worried about the
whistle with uh with Nick Patum Hello, damn it still
can't hear me.
Speaker 2: I still don't hear you. Oh no, I'm just gonna
plug this. Maybe I'll.
Speaker 1: All right. Welcome, Welcome to the real world of podcasting, folks.
Speaker 2: All right, I can hear you.
Speaker 1: You' sound great. We're back, I was saying as I
was holding it down. Totally fine. Uh. The one thing
that concerns me about Batoom starting is the whistle he's
gotten this year, and I'm not blaming Nico for this,
but the whistle has been francophobic this season for Nick Patum,
and I'm worried about that.
Speaker 2: In this game, you're blaming the FOEBA rules right because
it made Niko Batoum feel like you could get away
with a lot more than he can at the NBA level.
Speaker 1: Maybe, but it's been weird, right It just it feels odd.
Are you're You're in the Nico Batuma starting camp though?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought so last night, and then today only
further my suspicions with him saying that he's going to
either play Nico or a mir based upon the matchup,
and I feel like that is the way you should
do it, because it's not replacing Norman Powell. You're replacing
Derrick Jones. I understand why you go to a mere
coffee replacing Norman Powell, but if you got somebody playing
the four, you need somebody a little bit bigger. And
Nico can't get up like Derrek Jones Junior. But he
doesn't incredibly long arms. He still does block shots forever.
Once in a while he knocks it off the backboard
on a rear view contest on and he has been
good against Nicole the Jokic in the past, or at
least he's you know, a serviceable vet out there that
can help help them defensively, stay organized and just make
smart high Q basketball decisions out there. Regardless if he
is being switched on to Nico or not, it just
gives you more options. I think having Nico against Denver.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And it's a guy who like he
could start, maybe not play heavy minutes in the middle,
and then also close too, because that's going to be
incredibly important against this Nuggets team. The Nuggets and pardon
my French just beat the absolute shit out of the Hawks.
Speaker 2: Is that French?
Speaker 1: Was it mirrored? Would that be shit in French?
Speaker 2: I think yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: I only know that's the one French word. I know.
We need the Norman hardened heater. The Nuggets are giving
up the sixth most points per game and the second
most field goal attempts per game, which is maybe the
most encouraging thing for me for James Harden and Norm
Powell to just go off and kind of just have
a yeah, like Power Twins moment.
Speaker 2: I lost you again. I'm gonna kick out and come
back here.
Speaker 1: New computer man. What we heard you say of the
F word, Adam. If you could send Adam a new computer,
that would be great. We don't know what's going on.
Like I was saying, their defense is not necessarily lighting
it up for the Denver Nuggets, Adam, can you hear
me that breathing would would signal?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Their defense isn't necessarily that good. And the field goal
attempt thing again, I'm more excited, uh for that for
the Clippers, particularly Adam. If you can't hear me, I'm
gonna drop and you go ahead. Nope, we can very
much hear Adam touching the mic. I don't know what. Yay, nay,
we can hear you. All right, I'm gonna leave and
then come back. All right now, I'm back. Yeah. I
don't know what the hell is gonna happen on this one.
Jokic is averaging a triple double. I think it's a
thirty point triple double while shooting fifty. He's gonna get
his points. Is is kind of what I have. I
think we've all seen this happen against the Clippers. He
gets his points, but if you can limit those assists,
maybe he doesn't get into double digit assists. That very
much helps the Clippers chances of winning this game. Something
Another thing I'm a little worried about is Adam in
his car this time we got it mirrored. Yeah, there
we go. So what I was talking about as we
could hear you touching your mic, Yelkicch is averaging at
triple double thirty point triple double, shooting fifty percent from
the floor. Let's just limit the assists. Are we going
to let him score all the points camp and just
not get everyone else involved.
Speaker 2: I'm always there, and Yokicch is right for this because
he's been looking to score even more. I am worried
that he's starting to figure this out. Like, Okay, they're
letting me. They're giving up a little bit more than
they typically would because they don't want me to be
the playmaker out there. So I'm going to take advantage
of that. And that's why the numbers have been so huge,
because the word has been out for some time. If
Nikola Jokicch is well balanced out there with his numbers,
you probably have no chance. If he's getting three, five
and fifteen, yeah, like you're cooked. But there was a
game already so far this season with the Clippers won
and he had forty one points. He just didn't have
a ton of assists.
Speaker 1: That I think is what we need to do. They
take the most free throws in the league, which I
don't like, especially at a home game in Denver.
Speaker 2: I don't like that either. It'd be one thing if
that happened it into it Thome, but they might have
missed ten of.
Speaker 1: Them, right Yeah, And they are the third best shooting
team in the league, which is all the more impressive
when you consider how many minutes Russell Westbrook is getting.
He had a very bad game against the Clippers last time.
I'm worried he's going to be fueled by the fans
in Denver. He's gonna have some He's gonna hit like
three threes or something like that, where you're just like,
we have to live with those. This is an incredible
and it's always a tough test against the Nuggets. But
with this roster, I mean, Hardin and Norm have to
I don't know if I don't know if we got
another bones Highland heater in US, so Harden and Normal're
gonna have to combine for maybe sixty.
Speaker 2: What did they end up having the last game against Denver,
which I felt like was maybe their best win of
the season into a dome. That was what a week
week ago or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was that the uh one? No, that was in
April October twenty six, one four?
Speaker 2: What did those two have combined?
Speaker 1: Welling it up right?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Wow? The ESPN site sucks for looking at stats.
Speaker 2: You think That's what ft me, by the way, with
my microphone because I was trying to go to a
game log and both times it happened. As soon as
it happened, it cut me off.
Speaker 1: They combined for sixty hard and had twenty three norm
ad thirty seven.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: I gotterally did not know that, uh when I said that? So, yeah,
I think there's the luprint. Right, those two guys score sixty,
I think will be okay.
Speaker 2: I also worried because that was Aaron Gordon's first game back.
He didn't look right. In fact, they were testing him defensively.
They went at him, which is not something you normally do. Hey,
let's see where Aaron Gordon is at in his recovery.
That's not a guy you typically want to challenge. And
they got the best of them. That was the game
where Jordan Miller went at him twice I think in
the second quarter for buckets and Aaron Gordon was like,
who the f is this guy? What is happening to
me here? And he also missed a big three I
remember late in that ball game as the Clippers pulled
that one out. So he's probably a little more further
along and up to speed. Is that their last game
they played against the Atlanta Hawks. Do they have also
four days off here?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure? And he was bad against the Hawks.
He went one for six.
Speaker 2: That probably means he's even more due.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they have they don't play until until Friday.
Speaker 2: I don't like what you said about Russell Westbrook because
I find that highly accurate that he is so all
due against Yeah, his first two games against the Clippers,
he might have shot something like four for twenty, maybe
maybe worse. I'm not kidding. It was it was unbelievab
because I think he went like oh of eight the
first game against them. It was really really bad. It's
not gonna last. And he's been good with finding I'll
give him credit for this. He's helped, as Doc Rivers
used to say, feed the pig. If it ain't broke,
don't fix it if something is working, spam it. Basically, Yeah,
he has helped keep Jokic engaged throughout the entire game.
I know that's crazy to say for a three time MVP,
but part of the reason he is putting up such
stellar numbers is because Russ is assisting him a lot
out there. He's just looking for him over and over again.
Speaker 1: That's an incredibly good point. Yeah, I'm just the I'm
a little worried about the bench. Not a little, I'm
incredibly worried about the bench.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels thin right now because we talked about it,
I said, and this wasn't a disrespect to Terrence. He
just hasn't played that well so far this season. So
when they lost him, I said, well, you're really going
to feel it if somebody else gets hurt. Yeah, because
the US losing Terrence right now, I think, but without DJ,
who's so incredibly important, was playing so well to start
off this year where they are not fourteen eleven without
him whatsoever. Now you're really going to feel the impact
of losing Terrence. And I feel kind of gutted for
him because this would be a big opportunity to kind
of write the ship and get more minutes out there
if he was still available and Derek Jones Junior was
just out, It's obviously not going to help right now
in Terrence Man's out too, So more Jordan Miller, right.
Speaker 1: I would think, So, I add on the breakdown, we're
gonna need a scoring like we're gonna need Jordan Miller
to have. You know, he's going to have to get
to the free throw line to mitigate some of the
free throws that Denver's gonna get because it's probably gonna
be a ton. Rebounding is going to be a bit
of an issue. We're losing some rebounding, not a whole bunch.
It's not like Derek Jones Jr. Was vacuuming them up,
but just the bodies there. And Matomb doesn't get a
bunch of rebounds either. Like that's not really Nico's game
right now, So a lot's gonna be asked a zoo.
It's SIT's a thin margin game for more so than
usual for the Clippers.
Speaker 2: I want to say, one of my biggest X factors
for the Denver Nuggets hate into this season was Julian
Strother and he hasn't been great so far, and their
bench hasn't been great, by the way, even with us there,
because he got off to such a rough start. But
he had a good game last time against the Clippers.
I think Strawther did.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I want to say he has some elite efficiency out
there and made some big shots and the Clippers had
to overcome that too. So that bench battle is going
to be crucial to this one. What did he end
up end up with, Chuck?
Speaker 1: He had fifteen points on six of seven shooting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty good game.
Speaker 1: Not bad, Julian. Yeah, I'm a little I'm a little
worried about this one, just because we're in Denver. Anything
else that you think could maybe not go right, They're.
Speaker 2: Gonna be charged up. They've had so many bulletin board
material type of losses where Mike Malone can say, guys,
what are we doing here? This is not us and
he will.
Speaker 1: He's not flushing the tapes. He will make them watch
every possession that they blew in a forty.
Speaker 2: I love Mike Malone because of stuff like that. But
that response against Atlanta happened on the second night of
a back to back, right after they had just lost
the day before against Washington. Against Washington against Washington.
Speaker 1: And Yokic had fifty something in that game against the.
Speaker 2: Wizards and they lost.
Speaker 1: Jovich had fifty six, sixteen and eight.
Speaker 2: What was the final score, one thirteen. So the very
next day, I believe, is that Atlanta game. So they
immediately and made up for their worst loss of the season. Yeah,
and one thirty in Atlanta after the Hawks had just
won sixth straight, including uh just being the Lakers. They
beat the Cleveland Cavaliers multiple times during that six game
winning streak. The Hawks were playing the best ball they
played in years, really, and the Nuggets made them look
miserable out there on their home court.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. We'll see what happens. Who
we're getting to the player of the game picks now,
we I mean, we can't pick norm, we can't pick Zoo,
we can't pick Harden. Maybe maybe with this thin of
a roster we could maybe open up a spot for
one of them. Will is not here. I think you
picked his player of the game last time. I'm gonna
go ahead and say Will is going to pick a
mere coffee. I think Will would have been on a
coffee kick, probably would have been drinking a coffee watch
while we recorded this, I as going coffee. Who were
you picking for player of the game.
Speaker 2: I will go with because he's not been shooting the
ball well and I outline the numbers the other day.
He's fourteen for his last fifty two from three. That's
twenty six percent. That would be Chris Dunn. Now does
he bring a lot more else to make up for that?
Of course, he's still a net positive out there. I'm
not too concerned about it, but I also think he's
somewhat due. He's not a twenty six three point shooter.
He wasn't a five percent three point shooter. He's not
a twenty six percent three point shooter and somewhere in
the middle. So can he knock down a couple of
big threes? Because some of this looks like confidence right now,
or as I heard on the lob of the Jam
what doctor schaff and Robert Flom say, maybe part of
it is because he expends so much energy defensively flying around,
and therefore it takes something out of his legs with
Chris Dunn, and that could be hurting his jump shot
right now. So four days off, I'm hoping Chris Dunn
has a big game. Obviously, what he brings offensively is
is critical to anything or anybody on this Clippers team
because to me, he's the reminder of who they have
to be, Like, this is our identity, guys, the way
I play, this is how we're supposed to do things.
Speaker 1: Write that down. A reminder of who they're supposed to be.
Is the perfect encapsulation.
Speaker 2: Of Chris Done his nickname Memento.
Speaker 1: He's constantly, oh, man, but you're going Chris Dunn. I think, man, Like,
it's gotta be someone on the bench, But everyone on
the bench is such a wild card for how they're
going to perform, you know what I mean, Like we
didn't expect the Bones Highland blow up there. Is it
too much of a homery pick to pick this game
for a true Jordan Miller breakout game?
Speaker 2: No, because I think he's overdue by one game. It
should have been against Houston, but they stopped going to him.
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go Jordan Miller.
And here's why. Obviously we need his offense. We're gonna
need some easy buckets, We're gonna need some rest. Him
getting the line is gonna be huge. He's gonna be
tested on defense. This is another game where if you're
a Jordan Miller fan, which you there's a lot of
people who are, and rightfully so, I love Jordan Miller.
Watch the defensive possessions. Watch the defensive possessions, you know
what I mean, Let's see if he's getting he's gonna
get targeted when he's out there the bench lineups. We're
gonna see some horrific betch lineups tomorrow just because we
have to. Sorry, my absolute fucking lunatic of a handyman
is here. So if you see here's some noise, that's him.
I just just watched the defense because if he takes
a step defensively in this game, I will be a
static for his development. And I think they're gonna target him.
He's probably gonna be out there with a lineup with
like KP j AMR Like it's just I don't know.
Speaker 2: This is where those games where I feel like will
Updyke would make sure to say that somebody else is
going to have to, you know, hit above their average,
way above it. In this ball game. They're gonna have
to play above their heads have one of their best
games of the season. Because I don't know if just
having James Harden and Norman Powell.
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, maybe I.
Speaker 2: Think Denver is going to be better on the offensive
vent in this game. You mentioned Russ, you know, having
probably a couple of three pointers, some of those kill
shot type of looks from Russell Westbrook if it looks good,
kill type of looks as well. Somebody else is a
lesser player on the Clippers is going to have to
punch above their weight class a little bit.
Speaker 1: Maybe we see Kevin Porter Junior be efficient. Maybe he
hits more than two threes. That would be fantastic. Someone
on our YouTube called him a microwave scorer. He's not
a microwave scorer. He's not four top five bro if
that four of his top five scoring games have coming
losses for the Clippers. So miss me with the KPJ
microwave scoring. He does some on any things. Well, he's
just inconsistent.
Speaker 2: Someone told me today that he's gonna start in place
of Derek Jones Jooter. I'm like, he's not a four,
why would he start there? And he's like, I don't
want him to. I just think they're going to do it.
Speaker 1: What man? I love that take. I don't want them
to do this bad idea. I just think they will.
We're gonna have a live hang after this game on Friday,
hopefully it's a win. Well, we'll see what happens with that.
Coming up, we're gonna be talking if the Clippers are
going to be buyer or sellers at this trade deadline.
If you're listening, there's gonna be some audio ads coming
up in three two one. Okay, welcome back to season three,
episode thirty four of Clips and Dip. I kind of
went a little NPR voice there for a second. We're
going close to trade season. It's four days until a
fair amount of guys can be traded. I would encourage
everyone to look at the list of players who could
be traded after December fifteenth, because it's not very sexy.
It's not a very good looking list of guys who
can be traded. Who would really help the Slippers team.
I personally think that Adam, I don't know if you've
looked at them, but I got a link in the breakdown.
There's just I just don't see it.
Speaker 2: Well. They don't need, though, a superstar. No. All they
need right now, honestly, is the free up a roster
spot so they can convert Jordan Miller's two way to
a standard deal. That's what I'd love to see, which
means a two for one trade with bones and people.
Speaker 1: I like how everyone everyone's like, well, I have one
trade idea, and it's like, doesn't involve bones and peaching.
It's like, well, yes, actually I see John's.
Speaker 2: Is available in the fifteenth.
Speaker 1: God people, Yeah, there were some I don't pull receipts.
But the people who are upset that we you know,
left Keon I don't know, but.
Speaker 2: You heard a lot of that when they initially traded
him for Norman Powell and everybody was up in arms
like how can we get rid of k?
Speaker 1: Yeah? But yeah, I where so at the start of
the season has made people I shouldn't stay say start,
we're almost you know, corterway through the thing has some
people wanting the Clippers to be buyers, right to like
make a make a move for Zach Levine is the
most underappreciated star or stuff like that. I don't think
it's happening. I don't think they're gonna be buyers or sellers.
I think they're gonna make some calls for some depth,
but they're not gonna be. It's not gonna be you know,
the trade deadline from last year or anything like that.
Like it's just their standing Pat this the start has
been phenomenal, but I don't think it changes their long
term plans for really opening up the books after next season.
Speaker 2: Did you just say they're bringing in Pat Beverley for Mirael?
Speaker 1: Is that what she's He's hurt, So I hope not.
Speaker 2: I'm at the point you can call me a homer.
I've seen enough to say I'd rather have Norm Powell
than Zach Lavine. And when you were.
Speaker 1: Constructed money wise, come on, yeah, when.
Speaker 2: You account for the money. But also his efficiency is unbelievable,
and I just he gives you more defensively than Zach
Lavine does. Uh, and he's much less injury prone. And
then you take the contracts into the play and there's
no way I'm doing that at this point. And whenever
whenever anybody talked about trading for Zack Lavine, typically he
was involved in that trade machine trade.
Speaker 1: So he's gotta be because he's the only guy. Like,
if you look at this Clippers team, who has the
highest trade value right now by a couple of Miles.
It's Norm Powell like by if there was a graph
of it. He's way up here. He's above everybody.
Speaker 2: I still lean on my argument of saying, why don't
we see before we're buyers about anything, if Kawhi can
stay on the court, not just get on the court.
Staying on the court. Getting on the court is only
half the battle. Staying on the court and not having
his knees swell back up and not having a reoccurrence
of the same issue. That's what I want to see
before anybody can sell me on oh we should go
get this guy now. If you could somehow trade Bones
Highland and PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker, that's freeing up. That's getting guys who can actually
play well.
Speaker 2: If you can get Larry nas junior somehow for them cool,
you're not losing anything really, and you're gaining Larry Naz Junior.
You know, I love Bones, but I just don't think
he's gonna be playing much, so you're not losing much
of anything there. And there was this Atlanta Hawks fan
that actually point out how they could use PJ. Tucker.
I don't know what he was thinking, but what he said.
Speaker 1: We would administrator.
Speaker 2: He was looking at his quarter three numbers from his
last season. I guess in Philly or something. I don't know.
He still thinks it's there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll tell you what. He wasn't looking at stats
from this year.
Speaker 2: Sure, But if there's a way to get Larry Dais
junior and not give up much, or if there's any
trade out there where the Clippers don't have to give
up much at all, I'm for it, even without seeing
where Kawhi Leonard is yet. But when you're talking about
big swings where you're likely going to have to give
up good players or a pick, no way am I
doing that right now until I see where Kawhi Leonard's
health is at.
Speaker 1: And not only his health, his health is the biggest thing.
How does he look with the new guys? We brought
in new guys to compliment Kawhi Leonard's playing style and
what he can bring to this team, right, Like, it's
not like we like that that to me? The fit
I know, I have no doubt that the fit is
going to be good. But you have to see what
it looks like before you're like, what do we traded
everyone for Zach Lavine? We got to see what it
looks like and there's yeah, there's there's no way that
like really, so it's norm second most trade value zoo.
I'm not saying they should trade these guys, but.
Speaker 2: He's not I don't think he's eligible to this summer though.
He shouldn't be on that one because.
Speaker 1: He signed right yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, so it's it's
pretty much like Norm is Henge. Like they're not training James,
I don't think, but no one else The Clippers have
squeezed a lot of juice out of some of these players,
but no one is like, we don't have a lot
of guys that teams want. This isn't a disrespectful thing
to who's on the team right now. They've been playing
phenomenal and they've obviously shown they can buy into a system.
But like, this isn't a team that guy the guys
are gonna get poached from.
Speaker 2: And when you talk about let's see Kawhi with the team,
I kind of look at that as, yeah, let's see
if we can actually find where their flaws are or
with Kawhi Leonard out there before we make a move, right,
let's see what the needs could be before the trade
deadline in February not making a reactionary trade on December fifteenth. Well,
so far the team has looked very solid and a
lot of us feel like all they really need is
a healthy Kawhi Leonard at this point. So what holes
are you able to fill or what voids are there
on this squad that you're looking to mend up? I
just don't see any at the moment. I know that's
crazy to see. Yes, they could use obviously guys are hurt. Yeah,
but like realistically, I don't know if there's a guy
out there that changes the equation for this team so
significantly in the short term and then also in the
long term.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, there's a list of guys who can
be traded on January fifteenth as well that I can't
seem to find right now.
Speaker 2: Those are those New Year's Day sales buy a car.
Everyone knows there's month.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I will say I do appreciate that people
haven't sent us any trade machine ideas. Thank you for
not doing that, because, to be perfectly honest with you,
I'm not looking at him. I'm not looking at him.
I don't mean that disrespectfully. I have no interest in
trade machine. None of them have ever come true. That's
that's my thing. None of them have ever come true.
I've never seen someone hear that. No, I don't take
shots at Joseph, but you know, like, no one's ever
been like I called it, like, here's a five teamer.
Speaker 2: No, where's the receipt on that trade that you had
last summer that came to fruition? Where is it?
Speaker 1: You gotta get JRW on the show.
Speaker 2: He should come on, get on.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of be interesting. Again. Let us know
at Clippers pod on Twitter, at Clippers podcast on YouTube
if you think the Clippers are going to be buyers
or sellers. And again, let's remember the expectations. I don't
think the front office expectations have changed. I'm sure they're
pleasantly surprised without things have gone for sure. I don't
think they're going all in for a superstar. I was
gonna helpe them win a championship this season because we
already got that guy coming back, and that is Coahi Leonard.
Speaker 2: Maybe in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Maybe in the next couple weeks, just on the twenty seventh,
so Bill Simmons can feel some spite. I think that
about wraps it up anything else on your on your
mind about the clips you want to you wanna let
it go before we let these people go.
Speaker 2: No, I'm just intrigued about Friday night, in a little
bit concerned.
Speaker 1: That's fair, man.
Speaker 2: I'm worried about this game against That's fair dude. How
do you beat Denver? See I said this the other night,
how do you beat Denver three times to row? Well,
they have tectically beat them four times in a row
now going back to last season, but within the same year,
they're gonna beat them three times in a row with
all this time off, with them waiting at home and
them being hung still because they had that bad loss
the Washington Wizards. Just one win afterwards is not gonna
be enough for them. And Mike below that went over
Atlanta may not make up for everything that went wrong
against the Washington Wizards. They're still gonna be pissed off.
So they're playing a team that has beat them twice
and has beat them already in Denver early in the season.
I don't know, there's somebody's gonna have to have an extraordinary,
out of body type of performance. I think that's not
norm or not James Harden. Maybe Zoo. Maybe Zoo goes
for twenty five thirty.
Speaker 1: Another battle I mean against Jokich like that, we can
see it. We're gonna be doing a postgame live after
the Nuggets game full episode on Sunday to preview the
Jazz game. If there's any significant quiet news, we'll have
something for you. If you'd like to leave a review
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who doesn't love that. We always appreciate you no matter what.
And now, Adam one positive thing. Despite what we just
talked about with the tucket scale on Friday, send Clippers
fans off in this frigid la weather. It's gonna be
fifty nine tomorrow, by the way, so please dress more.
Speaker 2: Uh. Over the next two weeks they only have five games,
so it's possible Derek Jones Junior only misses five games
and Terrence Man only misses five more since he's two
weeks away from his three week evaluation. That would be big.
They don't have a back to back within that stretch.
Even after Friday, they got two days off, then they
play on Monday and they got two days off. Then
it's two games in Dallas with the day off in between.
This schedule is not that brutal right now. It's not
if you were going to be injured. Okay, the level
of competition stuff, but it's not as compacted as it
has been in the party most very recent past. So
I don't know. I think things could be worse. Even
though the injury front is a little bit worrisome, they
could be getting these guys back and only miss five
games without them.
Speaker 1: We'll take it. We absolutely it. We love the positivity.
Thank you for hanging out, and we'll talk to you Friday,
and as always, let's go clips.