Speaker 1: How's it going, Clippers fans. Welcome to a pretty late,
just postgame decompression session. After the Clippers, I would say
a little bit surprisingly beat the Nuggets by thirty four points.
I just got back from into it where first and foremost,
we're gonna talk a little bit about what happened on
the court. Hats off to the fans, Hats off to
the wall and the Wall leader. Everyone who was in
that building tonight absolutely brought it. From the players to
the crowd. It was phenomenal all the way around. I
did not know what I totally expected. I knew it
was going to be loud. I knew the energy was
going to be in the building, but god damn was
it fantastic to see in person for the first time.
The Clippers absolutely again just crushed the Nuggets. After a
pretty back and forth start to this game, this game
started like a rock fight. The Nuggets were in a
zone to start, which was really weird. They were packing
the paint, their Clippers are kind of just trading buckets,
and then they just pulled away. There was a flurry.
There's god, I just can't even let's look at the basics.
I guess the basics that we talked about before this
series were if the Clippers can control the turnovers and
if they can be competent on the boards, things would
be okay. Well tonight they did both of those things.
They won turnovers by six, they won boards by ten.
I would bet that every game that they have won
boards by ten and turnovers by six day of one.
But I don't think every game they've played against the
fourth best offense in the league. Clippers shot forty eight
percent from the field in this one, forty six percent
from three. There was a stretch in this game, I
want to say, halfway through the second where the Nuggets
couldn't buy a three. Niko Batum I think hit two
or three in the second and it felt good. I
like what that Mexican Nara is saying here up twenty
and spil at the edge of my seat, as all
Clippers fans were. This game didn't really feel like I
was in the building, and even in the building, it
was a little what's gonna happen here? So yeah, shout
out that Mexican Nara. I'm celebrating a little bit. I
do have to work tomorrow, but whatever in the third quarter,
I don't know. I don't even know what I believe
they were actually gonna win this game at one, but
they went on a seventeen point run. I just can't
and again, this game started. This game started as if
the Nuggets were trying to prove something, which makes sense,
it's the playoffs. They came out really crisp. They came
out focused, trying to match the energy of the wall,
and the Clippers came out a little frantic. The start
of this game was not necessarily pretty. The Nuggets got
some easy buckets to open this one. You'll getch I
think had seven assists in the first quarter, which has
lots overcome. He finished with thirteen. But the Clippers locked
in everywhere they needed to. They held onto the ball.
The defense by Chris, we're gonna talk about Kawhi, We're
going to talk about hard and all that stuff. Chris
Dunn and Niko Batoum were unbelievable in this game for
the Clippers. They had a couple shifts together where it
was it was going to be impossible for the Nuggets
to do whatever they wanted to do when these two
guys were on the floor. Tonight, everyone was playing cohesively
on the defensive end. Uh, there was no I don't
think there was a bad decision made for three quarters
for sure. On defense, Done drew a quick foul which
was a little scary. I thought TYLERU made a really
good sub. There was like a minute and forty left
in the second quarter in Dune and Zoo both had
two fouls, and it just felt like, well, shit, if
you're the Nuggets, why would you not go straight at them?
Tyler subbed them out. Nothing really affected that, you know,
the lead wasn't changed. It was I just I liked
that move by Tyler. Tyler gave credit to the fans
post game. He said, our fans were unbelievable tonight. They
came out, They showed up and showed out. Credit to
James Harden one turnover, m incredible call, one turnover, finished
with twenty nine assists in one dime. Tyler postgame said
it was just a masterclass in taking what the defense
gives you. And it was because the Nuggets changed up
a lot of stuff. Again. The Nuggets started this game
in zone, which if you've watched the Clippers for long enough,
you get kind of scared when the other team's going
to zone because the Clippers look bad and to start
this game it worked. They had MPJ in the middle
of the paint for the zone. The length was there.
Things were being disrupted and it looked like it was like,
oh shit this, I'm not feeling super good about this.
The Clippers had three turnovers of their ten excuse me,
of their six not wait, I'm tripping out, I'm gonna
turn How that happen the first They had two turnovers
in the first of their ten. Okay, so maybe not
as bad as I thought, but they happened early. Kawhi
didn't shoot that efficiently tonight, but that did not matter.
He took seventeen shots, most on the team by three.
Harden didn't shoot that well either. Harden was very good
from outside Silver's quiet. That's where they made up for it.
Zoo's double double Street came to an end, which sucks.
Thank you, Nick Ramos. You know it's a good game
when you're happy about you Banks and millsman, it's the
Australian duo. For dedicated half the hour live listeners. Patty
Mills did a three, which the vibes were phenomenal. Then no,
I don't know, I feel almost at a loss of
words from this game. At halftime. This is what's crazy.
At halftime, both teams had four turnovers. Both teams had
nine offensive rebounds, ten field goals inside the paint each,
but the Clippers were twelve for twenty two and half
from three. It was unbelievable. You knew who came in
and really helped the Clippers. Russell Westbrook one of five
from three before exiting the game due to an ankle
spring that he suffered in warm ups. But shout out
Russ for being minus sixteen and eight minutes. That's when
the game changed. You just saw there was bad decision
making on the Nuggets part. I'm not gonna say they
were rattling anything like that, but guys just they don't
The depth isn't there for them. It's just not there.
We go now are referencing what Em talked about the
back to back threes that hardened him the Clippers and
five crew, which I was not a part of. No
disrespect to our Clippers, obviously, but they're thriving right now.
I still think there's a we're gonna get a crazy
Yokic game. I think this has been a really bad
series for the most part. In Jokic. Terms for Jokic,
he had twenty three, thirteen and thirteen tonight, and you
look at it and you say he didn't play very well.
He didn't. He looked gassed. Everyone for the Nuggets looked exhausted.
I think a big win for the Clippers in this
game was the fact that Aaron Gordon took more field
goal attempts in Jamal Murray, which we'll live with every time.
I'm pretty sure Michael Porter Junior hurt went back to
the locker room at the end of this game. He
got he had, he got fell on by Chris Dunn,
and he was questionably it was a game time decision.
He played did not look right. If they can't have
Michael Porter Junior play on Saturday, I think the Clippers
will probably win. I don't know if it'll be a
thirty four point blowout, but tonight was what a lot
of us talked about before the series started, right, It's
the depth. I got some heat before the series started
by saying, maybe the gap between Kawhi and Jokic was
as big as we thought, but the gas between everyone
else below Kawhi and Jokic favors the Clippers We're not
gonna get another night where they only make seven threes.
I'm I'm aware of that. But there's more. They don't
have anyone to guard our guys, right Like, It's just
that this is when you see the real adjustments break.
I guess we're gonna wait for some stats on the
double teams and showing versus not showing in the pick
or switching versus showing in the pick and roll. We'll
talk about that on another Happy Hour stream tomorrow. Just
everyone played well tonight. Bogie, it was fine. He will,
Bogie will get his groove back. But it's also fine
that he didn't, because everyone played exactly to their role
and maybe a little bit above their role. I just so,
is it is it time to sit Bogey and give
Coffee some time? We have to give Bogey more time.
I'm here. Coffee didn't play. He's the only he's the
only guy who didn't play for the Clippers. So I
do not think a mirror is anywhere close to sniffing
this rotation. Right now, the Clippers are up to one.
I think we do need to remember that part. And
so when you're up to one, you can afford to
do things like have Boge try and figure it out.
I would have liked Bogey to play in garbage time
of this one, if I'm being totally honest, because that's
when you can see the shots fall. Scott Tran talking
about Norm Powell. Haven't even talked about him yet. He
hit his first three and it kind of felt like, Okay,
it's gonna be fine. When Norm hit the first three,
I was kind of like, yeah, okay, I'm feeling I'm
feeling great about I'm good about Norm. Hold On, I
gotta put my damn headphones in. We got some backup
coming in. Well, I'm up, Dyke. How the hell are
you doing?
Speaker 2: Buddy man Good? Just got back from Englewood. What a
trick that is.
Speaker 1: We're here to talk about the traffic and nothing else.
Speaker 2: Did anything else happen to?
Speaker 1: No? I was just talking about Norm and how that
first three. When that went in, it kind of felt like, Okay,
this is gonna be pretty okay. I think Yeah.
Speaker 2: Honestly, the thing for me was that challenge when Tyler
When when TYLERU threw down the first challenge early, I
was really nervous right away that we have already lost
that and if that was another game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: I mean it was a great call. It was a
great call, It was well done. But it was one
of those things where like to we if it hadn't
gone our way, you know, and we would have lost
the challenge that early, I had nothing to say that
we would lose the game, but it just felt like
the series had been so close thus far. It felt
like a dangerous territory to be in. But yeah, Norm,
I mean Norm getting it going was you know, one
of the hugest things here. Like we had one of
the best non Kawhi uh plus minus lineups of the
entire series, because like Norman Harden were absolutely cooking and
Nico was as well. That twelve minute, that twelve minute
Nico stretch where they were able to not have Kawhi
on the floor and that unit went plus eleven with
what was it?
Speaker 1: It was hardened.
Speaker 2: It was hardened, Norm, Nico DJ Simmons was the lineup,
and it was. Yeah, it was incredible. I mean, it
was a huge It was a huge turning point for
a huge turning point for the game. And obviously, like
I said, you know, Norman Harden did a lot of
heavy lifting in that lineup.
Speaker 1: But it was.
Speaker 2: It was incredible, it was huge.
Speaker 1: I thought another nice rotation thing in this was I
don't think Bogie played at all in the first. He
let Norm go in the first. Norm played the whole
first he had eight point and I loved that from
Tylo because it was like, let him feel what it
feels like to have the shot going. Let him keep
that momentum. From the fourth Jeffrey An asking Yo, Chuck
Reen section M two could have sworn, I saw you
at the end of the game. We were up in
the terrace. They put the media, who is not worth
sitting in the rows up in the terrace. So if
you're up in the terrace on Saturday, come say what's up.
That's where we're at with our no outlets. What was
your favorite what I was just saying before you got on, like,
I don't know what to talk about because everything went well.
I don't think it's gonna go this well on Saturday
unless MPJ is out because he'd go back to the
locker room at the end of this game. What was
your favorite thing? I guess for other than the crowd
and the moment and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Defensively, they were like they were on a string like
it was. Yeah, just that like the switching and any
sort of recoveries were really really good. They were able
to overcome some of the rebounding issues that they had
from from the first two games. So that to me,
like it looked you could just tell that Denver was
really really flummoxed, like they just they did not have
a lot of answers. And then to get like offensive
explosions from Powell and Harden, I mean, really cap the thing.
And then I mean Kawhi had like a great complete
game all around, not his highest scoring outing of of
the series thus far, and I do expect him to
kind of go off a little bit more, maybe get
leaned on a little bit more in that game. For
which is I mean, I don't want to say it's
a must win, but it's like it's it's pretty damn close.
I would say, you get the win on Saturday, and
like you you sealed the series. Even though I know
that we have a history being up three to one
on the Nuggets, we have a history being up three
and one, but this is a different Denver team. This
is a different Clippers team. They've been rolling at a
different level, and it just looks like it looks like
they found enough ways to sort of mitigate the I
mean to the best that you can the Murray Jokic
pick and roll, and so there's just not there's just
not a lot of other answers that Denver has And
we were talking about that in the media room. Justin
Russ brought up a fantastic point like what buttons can
you even press if you're at onman? Like what like
what what is the sub like what do you have
to kind of give a different look? And honestly, they
just don't have a lot of answers when this team,
especially the role players are like hitting the way that
they are. Because this team, the Clippers team, was to
me a you know a clearly a clearly deeper team.
You know, in the in the rotation obviously, you know,
you could say the ceiling is higher on the Nuggets
because because of Jokic and how effective you know that
they were he and Murray were through two games. But like,
this is the deeper team. And I think that that
was like a real shining moment of this game. It's
like we finally got those kind of performances out of
the role players. Bogey being the exception.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bo, he'll figure it out. He got ten minutes.
We won by thirty four. It's fine. I like, I'm
gonna get to this question by Jonathan Gonzalez, which is awesome, dude.
There is a point in this game where it literally
was just Jokic and Murray and then the three other
Nuggets were just standing there. Yeah, like it was only
Jokic once they got down by twenty whatever. You saw
the you just saw the deer in the headlights, vibes
hitting them. Jonathan Gonzalez asking well, what are the three
reasons why the Clips won? I talked about this a
little bit off top, and I'll give two. Well, if
you want to give one, or turnover and rebounds. We've
talked about it before this series. If the Whippers hold
onto the ball, they can do their best on the
glass and try and break even they'll probably win. You
can set your defense when you're not turning the ball over.
You just get more possessions when you get boards like
those are Those were my two? What's what's your one
reason or three? I guess I don't know where it's for.
Happy Hour stream gives a ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yeah, the rebounding and holding onto the
ball was huge, Like you said, to me, it just
comes back to like getting more elevated play down down
the bench. And I mean obviously shooting forty six percent
from three as a team is always is always going
to be a good thing. But yeah, to me, it
was that, Like I thought the level of play was
elevated just throughout the entire rotation and we got a
lot of everybody, I mean, you know, done shot the
ball well, DJ. DJ was great, you know, on both
ends of the floor. I thought that I thought this
was one of his better games of this series so far.
And I mean, like, you know, Simmons wasn't making like,
wasn't making mistakes. I know, his box score didn't jump out,
but he.
Speaker 1: Was great though, man picking up full court.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I really like that, and I really like
that role for him moving forward is like sort of
just like at the bare minimum, if he can like
be an ir tint On, you know, an offensive big man,
uh and just make life more difficult.
Speaker 1: I think that that.
Speaker 2: I think that there's a place in the rotation for
him just to do that.
Speaker 1: Ten minutes and effective ten minutes tonight. Yeah, Mike, Dang
bringing up a great point which goes to kind of
Ben Simmons activity, all these active minutes for Jokic taking
its toll.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did look tired at times in this game.
And I mean, I you know, we we talked about
it at the game. We talked about doctor Chap, but
it just like he was not really looking to work
in the post in the way that we normally see
Jokic go to work. Like he was kind of happy
to settle for some you know, longer mid range shots,
which you know, that's that's a shot you'll concede. Yeah,
and you know he's he still was able to get
his teammates going. I can't remember how many assists he
finished with, but it wasn't quite the same to me.
It just didn't feel the same as the way he
kind of you know, uses a little bit of bully
and finesse around in the post. It just didn't look
the same to me. And I was wondering if he
was sort of if he was sort of.
Speaker 1: Gassed well, and you could tell, like I don't want
to call it a fake comeback thing, but when he
came in late, he started really like bringing the ball
up quick, playing with force, but they were down twenty
five at that point or something like that, where it
was like, okay, I guess this is the one last
big energy push from Jokic because they're getting nothing from
anybody else. And that's I don't even think that's that hyperbably.
They're supporting cast. How many benchmoins did They have? Four?
And I think two of them came in garbage time.
They had four bench points, No, they might have had less.
They had five because Russ hit a three and Peyton Watson,
who supposedly was going to make Kawhi's life difficult kind
of did quite didn't shoot that well, had too. They
had five bench points tonight, six if you count Zeke Nagy,
but that was when they were down thirty five. Yeah, man,
I this uh, this feels good. People in the chat
are talking about facilitator Kawhi, which we've seen be not
very good. We've seen Kawhi kind of turn the ball over.
But six to two assist a turnover for Kawhi with
the eleven boards. Like again, not the most efficient shooting
night outside from three and the free throw line, but yeah,
Kawhi had a really good.
Speaker 2: Were those all corner threes at least two of them were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was feeling it in the corner. Yeah, I
just like, yeah, the Nuggets don't have defenders to defend
the Clippers, especially if Norm is hitting shots. Yeah. Yeah,
Like I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think that's why, Like I think that's why I
was so confident coming into this series. I mean, not
as confident as justin over so who called? Who called?
Clippers in five and it's looking I mean it's still
it's still very much alive. But I felt really really confident,
and you know, through through Game one and two until
like the fourth quarter, we didn't really get what I
expected at a Norm.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's a good call. I like this point from
Joe deff Kawhi and Zoo. Starting the second was a
great adjustment. The second quarter. They came out and blew
the doors up like that is when the end of
the first was huge with those hard and threes. The
start of the second it was just like, oh shit, okay,
like we have achieved. I mean you could say, given
the stakes and everything in all with it, that was
maybe the best game the Clippers played all year.
Speaker 2: I mean, it certainly looked like its considered. It certainly
looked like it. Yeah, yeah, just a very complete win.
Speaker 1: Shout out Sam Franks. Love how there was a lot
of Clipper legends in the building. DeAndre Jordan got to
witness this game up close and personal. CP three was there,
Pat bev was there. It was awesome. It was fucking awesome.
Is it weird? Because nothing really went poorly for the Clippers, right, Like,
there's nothing in this game specifically that you're like, oh,
I wish this would have been better. You obviously wish
Bogie would have made shots. Yeah, but that's a fixable.
That's not that far out of the realm of fixes, right,
Like we're not talking about like twenty turnovers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. And I mean at the end of the day,
like you, it was only ten minutes. He only took
three shots. So it's you know, it's kind of like
it's not the end of the world. Like it's not terrible.
You know. I had kind of picked him as my
player of the game. I thought that this would be
one for him to get going. But I think the
I think the rotation adjustment of him not coming into
the second quarter was great. Obviously it helped that Norm
was good, right, Like that's why we've been seeing more
Bogey minutes because if Norm isn't hitting, what do you do?
You need another shooter out there, You need some additional
offense because you can't you have you know, you have
Chris Dunn and Zoo out there the majority of the time,
so you already have two non shooters, so you've got
to have you got to have another sort of offensive
ace in your pocket. And like, really those are the
two options. So that is another reason, Like Bogie is
definitely I don't want to say a victim because that's
not the right word, but his minutes and touches are
obviously going to see a decline when Norm was playing
that well. And that's a good thing. Like that's a
great exactly. Yea, it's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: So people were talking about like should a mirror come
in for Bogey and it's like, well a Mier didn't
play at all in garbage time, so I don't even
think that's a remote possibility.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do we know, like what the stats with his
injury anyways, it doesn't matter, Yeah, it doesn't matter. He
wasn't going to be in the playoffrotation, and that is Yeah,
that is what it is. I again, his shooting definitely
looks better. He's just not he you know, he doesn't
have like the same north south ability or the the
ball handling skills of either Norm or Bogee.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like and his defense has been
bad this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he's been.
Speaker 1: Fouling a lot. Gregarious with a good point free throws
down the stretch, the clip stretch. The Clippers were up
like twenty or something like that, but they were missing
free throws, and I think we were all kind of like,
it would be nice to make those free throws. Obviously,
I was going to be bummed. The Clippers almost went
into the fourth up less than twenty. A modern NBA
against an offense like the Nuggets, you're like, well shit,
I don't. Thankfully, Nico hit a three at the end
of the third and they were up twenty, so it
was fine. Yeah, people in the chat talking about the
free throws. I like this too. Let's not play with
our food. Yeah, we need to come out. We need
to almost not forget, you know how when there's a
bad game, tylu is like, this is a burn the
tape game. This is the good version of that if like,
cause I don't think like Tyleru and the Clippers are
not resting on their laurels from this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's still a lot to be learned.
Like the rotation thing is great. Again, so much went
well that, you know, like is it indicative of something
that you can you know, you can continue to return to.
But defensively, I think there's a lot to take away
from this and how they and how they approach that game,
how they were able to communicate, and like I said,
like some of the recoveries and stuff were really really impressive.
When they got you know, beat on a screen or something.
The way that they were able to recover I thought
was impressive. And they still managed to they still managed
to contain that pick and roll and at times send
doubles and it didn't and it wasn't at the expense
of rebounding, which which it was. Like that thing, I
think that is partly Yeah, I think that is partially
an effort thing, and I mean that obviously gets more
difficult as the series goes on. I guess the other
thing to think about two is you want to keep
taking these cracks at the rotation because obviously the end
line goal is not just this series so yeah, I
guess like I'm excited to see more more sort of
pairings and how how they can continue to both keep
these rotation guys in rhythm and sort of find find
other additional avenues if things aren't working.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like this point by Gloves. The only way
there the Nuggets defense can compete is by deliberately leaving
a man open, and they left what a dune shoot tonight.
Dune took four threes. I'm fine with that. Yeah, he
made two of them, which is great. Donn also had
eight boards. Yeah, it's like it just feels like it's
lining up after these first two because the first two games.
Adam said this, and I think I agreed with it too.
The first two games were weird in which the team
that lost Game one and the team that lost Game
two both shots they thould have won those games. Right
As a Clippers fan, you think, wow, we could be
up three to zero right now because we didn't, you know,
we probably should have won game one, and Nuggets fans like, wow,
we stole stole Game one, probably should have won game
two when you look at the rebounding numbers and stuff
like that. Yeah, but tonight there was absolutely no question.
Hopefully on Saturday it's the same scenario. I'm I tweeted this,
but there's a chance that with the way the playoff
ASKEWAC goes, maybe Saturday it's like eighty six to eighty four,
Like maybe we get like some weird ass anomaly. But
I don't know. How are any final thoughts, I'm sorry,
I'm tired, I forgot work. Yeah, any final thoughts about
how are feeling. We're gonna do another stream tomorrow's we
get we get closer to the Saturday game.
Speaker 2: But I mean it feels great, like it it feels great.
I definitely feel way more confident in the series. Like
I I didn't lose confidence that we would win the series.
I just thought it might. You know, my prediction of
six might be wrong, and if it got drug out
to seven, that makes you worry even more about that
second round. But I'm feeling like they they're on course
right now. But you know, the job isn't done, so.
Speaker 1: Jobs I'll finished. Yeah, I'm feeling a static. I'm gonna
I don't know any Nuggets fans, but I'm gonna be
friend one tomorrow and just ask them how they're doing.
So I can be a dick. All right. That wraps
up the happy hours. Thank you for hanging out. We're
gonna put this out on audio later. We're gonna do
a stream tomorrow at some point. Gonna hang out. Bring
your favorite drink. Subscribe to YouTube dot complish at Clippers
podcast if you want to hang out, go watch Adam.
He might be streaming for the next seven hours. He
has you covered, he has he absolutely has you covered.
Shout out to the crowded into it. Shout out to
the wall. Incredibly effective, made their presence known.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out first game into it. That was I mean,
it was impressive.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was loud as hell.
Speaker 1: Dude, it was insane. All right, we're ending on these.
Jonathan Gonzalez also shout out Jonathan Gonzalez. I think this
is the first stream you've been in. You have to
good question, you have good final thoughts, final thoughts. It's
not over yet. Clips need to say locked in and
finish strong. You nailed it. Here's to winning rebounds and
turnovers again on Saturday. Thanks for hanging out everybody, and
as always, let's go clip