Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to season three
episodes thirty three maybe thirty four of Clips in Dim.
I am Duck Blackler, joined by Adam Oslin and the
Void will Updike in his apartment. We're gonna talk kind
of the ramifications of what happened in that Rockets game,
the Chahi article that came out from Lot Murray today,
as well as just to look at the tent standings
in the Western Conference. If you're watching us, thank you
so much. If you'd like to subscribe and watch us,
you can do that at YouTube dot com slash at
Clippers podcast, and you can listen to us anywhere you
find pods. Before we get into all that, if you're
watching this, you're definitely wondering, Adam, how are you doing
in wherever you are, which could be anywhere? And why
are you there?
Speaker 2: Totally fine, everything's good, guys.
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: So I'm not a lie out of talk as loud
as I typically do for a podcast or a podcast,
And uh so I went across the street and I'm
in my parked car near a park in an undisclosed
location in Burbank. Try to get through this right now,
as the neighbors have complained about me a few different times.
Speaker 1: I think it's more on the neighbors. If I'm being honest,
I don't think it's your fault at all. Would be
how I feel about it.
Speaker 2: Well, there's multiple of them and only one Amon will.
Speaker 1: How are you doing today? I'm doing I'm doing pretty good.
All right. We got pretty collaboration and potting from the car.
We have a wide spectrum. I hope everyone's okay. I'm
feeling little into the weather. There's a bug going around.
We'll get into all the health stuff later. We know
you come here for our for our health tips, but
we wanted to talk about the game against the Rockets
last night, which I did feel was winnable despite the injuries.
As that game went on, it felt like there was
chances for the Clippers to make something happen. But this
game started with no James Harden, no Terence Man who
is out long term, Amir hurt his shoulder and warm ups,
and then the Clippers lost Derek Jones Junior after twelve
minutes due to some hamstring tightness. So I have a
what went well? What wrong? Section? But if you guys
don't lie, I think we could just jump right into
the what went wrong? Will what's your level of concern
for these injuries that are popping up right now?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I I anytime I hear hamstring, I'm
I'm immediately sort of on edge. I guess tightness is
certainly just one thing that's not a full blown injury yet.
Speaker 1: But he.
Speaker 3: Something like this was bound to happen, you know, with
the with with how thin not only the margins are,
but the rotation is, you're gonna miss some guys. I guess,
I you know, in what went right? While talking about
what went wrong, at least this one was still like
within an arm's reach, because if you were to look
at this injury report coming into this, you'd be like,
all right, well there's no shot, Like I don't need
to turn the TV on for this one.
Speaker 1: Turn his TV off? Is what you're saying. Yes, And
with their schedule, they played so many games, they had
the most you know, one day rests of like any
team up until this point, Adam, where are you at?
Is this just maybe maybe they just held Derk Jones
Junior out because we have so much rest. Let's just
kind of let this one go. Let him get fully good.
They don't play again until Friday. What's your level of
concern with these injuries popping up?
Speaker 2: Well, we just didn't really get anything specific post game
from coach Lou about Amir Coffee, you or Derek Jones Junior. Yeah,
I'm guessing they're not significant injuries. I'm hoping that's the case.
And it was just one of those games where Coach
lu called it they got some knick knacks, they got
some some little thing is going on right now, and
that's how he kind of described what was going on
with James Harden. At least he said that's a Carlo
on the pregame show. And so I think this is
more the same where if you're dinged up at all,
just stay out so you don't exacerbate the injury make
it any worse. Because you got four days off after
this and we have a chance to get healthy and
get right and hopefully ge Kwi Leonard back a little
bit more on that in a little bit here. But
I think it was just them being overly cautious, that's
my guess. And yeah, I felt like they competed and
their identity stayed intact even with all the guys missing
in that game totally.
Speaker 1: The emir one was the weirdest because it was just
like he hurt his shoulder and warm ups and you're
kind of like, okay, I don't know how that came
done too hard man, right, Like I'm like, were they
doing the pregame dunk contest and it went a right,
I don't know, but they lost. You know, for a
team lacking size on three point shooting, they lost two
guys who brought both those things. But this team still fought.
Chris Dunn was insane, five steals, Like, we still force turnovers,
and they only turned the ball over seven times against
the Rockets, which is like gotta be one of the
lower times that that's happened for a team playing the
Rockets this season.
Speaker 2: I was told post game by a guy that why
won't you talk about a visa zoobas you're such an apologist,
talk about all the turnovers he had? So I go
to the box score. He had zero.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, those numbers, those numbers lie, dude.
Speaker 3: Everyone knows how many spiritual turnovers though, you know, it's
kind of like a screen assist, but it's it's more
of a vibe based turnover.
Speaker 1: The bottom of There was.
Speaker 2: Just one stretch that kind of lost in that game,
and it was the end of the second quarter with
that twelve to two run by the Houston Rockets, where
they just had a couple minutes where they wasn't they
weren't as focused, they weren't as tight out there, they
weren't as connected, and that really was the game.
Speaker 1: It felt kind of like because they were down FFV
and Eason he was, they weren't in there. So it
almost felt like that was kind of when because Udoka
has been furious at the Rockets, is what the broadcast
was telling us, right like, he called the team out
for being soft, like all this stuff. I wonder if
part of that was then being like, all right, we'll
decide to play better than the Clippers are now, because Adam,
you've talked about that, sometimes it feels like teams that
are maybe a little better on paper it can kind
of sometimes decide to like lean. But we had that
random Bones Highland heater that almost like won this game
for us, which opened up Bones had twenty two points
five to ten from three. Don't think it's a stretch
to say it's by far the best he's looked all
season for the Clippers.
Speaker 2: It got into the connection between him getting real minutes
and not just garbage time, and Bones seemingly caring more
when he's not just getting throwaway minutes out there.
Speaker 1: That's crazy, Adam. It got the debate going on Clippers Twitter.
And I don't know if this is I don't. I
have my own thoughts on if it should happen, but
will you got to imagine that the chances of Bones
Highland taking KPJ's spot in the rotation are pretty damn low.
And that's not a knock on Bones. It was a
great performance, but like.
Speaker 3: Near Neil Man, it's near nil, like I and we're not.
Speaker 1: I'm not crazy pro KPJ. This is just in the
hierarchy of how I.
Speaker 3: Mean, this is just for anyone who has eyes and
has been watching the season. Like KPJ is cemented in
this rotation, Bones is not. I mean, Bones gonna have
a forty point game, and I still don't think he's
I don't even know if he's a step closer to
being in the rotation.
Speaker 1: It's it's just that.
Speaker 3: The A A I mean, I'm not saying that he's
necessarily just getting a bad role you know, we know
that there have been issues internally, we know that he
is not quite developed in the way that they were
hoping hoping him to as like a personality and on
court fit, he hasn't developed any level of consistency, which
when you're talking about KPJ's consistency being miles ahead of yours,
you have an issue, like you have an issue trying
to get into this trying to get into this rotation.
So I love what Bones is doing, would love for
the skeleton key to you know, open a few walks,
get the clippers out of a few jams. I just
I don't see it happening in any sort of regular
way with any sort of or any sort of rotation
minutes being rewarded.
Speaker 2: Because of this performance, Bones is in a darker place
with this coaching staff that I am currently. There's a
better chance I could actually do a podcast from my
place than Bones Highland starts getting consistent minutes out there.
I think the writing's on the wall. I wouldn't be
shocked if by December fifteenth they're around there when more
contracts open up. As we have talked about, the Bones
Island and PJ. Tucker get moved and I mean KPJ
played the most minutes of anybody out there. Last night
he played thirty seven. He got the start without James Harden,
something I thought would happen. But it's still because of
the size with KPJ and just him having the advantage
there physically and being a better rebounder.
Speaker 1: And like that's what gets me is I'm like, guys, like,
let's not pretend that Bones is doing anything other than
putting the ball in the hoop. Great scoring, but like he.
Speaker 2: Only does get touchdowns.
Speaker 3: And and like I mean that, you know that has
been like a kind of our biggest complaint really on KPJ. Right,
Like he's kind of a ball stopper. He's he's really
out there looking for his own shot. But on the
plus side, you know, still he was still a passable defender,
even like even in his in his remarkably inconsistent games.
I don't get how you don't know that being with
his team for a couple of years. But if you
can't provide, if you can't provide that floor, it's a
very difficult sort of road to hoe to get you
rotation minutes.
Speaker 2: And I think coach Lou maybe looking at KPJ as
kind of a project where he can get more out
of him than anybody else has before. There's I don't know,
maybe some pride there of being able to coach this
guy up and get more out of his game than
anybody else has. And there's a lot of potential there.
His ceiling is higher than Bones Highlands. Bones is a
What's funny is last night Bones was actually playing off
the ball a little bit more. A lot of those
threes were catch and shoot threes from him, which is
a nice role for him. But how do you do
that in today's NBA with a guy that small if
he's not going to be the point guard, if he's
just gonna be a catch and shoot.
Speaker 1: Guy or defend. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, KPJ. I mean, yeah,
he played the most minutes, but I mean it was
And this kind of is like the epitome of Bones's
Clippers tenure, right. It's that thing where every once in
a while there's this spike where you're like, WHOA awesome,
and then when he gets the consistent minutes as will
you talked about, it's you look at the box scores
and it's like one for eight, seven for twelve, two
for twelve, Like it's just all over the place consistency wise,
I just.
Speaker 2: Don't know when has he ever gotten consistent minutes with
the Clippers?
Speaker 1: No, I mean, what literally is it? This? That's very true? Started,
that's very true.
Speaker 3: I think that that has to be indicative two of
of what's happening, like behind the scenes, what's happening at
practice with you know what I mean? Like, because for
him to not even get consistent like backup minutes, I
think is you know, it's puzzling. I feel like there's
got to be more to the factor there than what
we've seen on the court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely the attitude issues from the Denver Nuggets.
That baggage maybe has carried over because I don't know
what else it could be. Now, they did give him
the backup job before they brought in James Harden last season. Yeah,
that four games where he was really good off the bench,
and then it was over. He was out of the rotation.
Speaker 1: It's weird, it's gonna be. There's also there's the December
fifteenth trade deadline, and then there's guys who are alder
to be traded on January fifteenth as well. Too. So
I think we looked at the December fifteenth list of
people a couple episodes ago. Not a very sexy list,
not even from like a depth, like you know, like
maybe you get this guy to fill in the back
end of the bench. Not the most scintillating of possible ads.
But tonight's goal.
Speaker 2: Is just get rid of two for one. That's the goal.
To open up a roster spot so you can add
Jordan Miller for the whole season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, because yeah, he's still not even on the
full time contract. What do we think of Jordan Miller
last night?
Speaker 2: I think you should have gotten the ball more. Honestly,
he had ten points in the first half. He looked
really good in that second quarter, and when he came
back in the second half, I don't think he touched
the basketball for three or four minutes. I don't think
they even got him the ball once. And then they did.
They made a concerted effort to He scored one more bucket,
but kind of felt like they could have used more
from him. They could have tried to feature him more
with all the guys being out in that game. When
I heard Derek Jones Junior was out, I thought, here
we go, Jordan Miller's going to get up twenty shots
tonight got up twelve nothing. But I think they could
have used more from Jordan Miller, and they probably should
have gotten the ball to Vita Zuba's even more.
Speaker 3: Well, you look at that, like twelve points in thirty
two minutes and you're kind of like, oh man, you know,
but then you look at his actual field goal attempts
and he was remarkably efficient when he was actually getting
the damn ball.
Speaker 1: So I agree with that.
Speaker 3: I mean, he definitely could have used some more attempts,
but I do like that he kicked that he kicked
in six rebounds on a night where we got our
asses kicked on the boards despite the other team being
more effective from both the field and from three.
Speaker 1: One of those things that you know is going to
be a Clippers loss.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I agree he needs more opportunities, especially like
I'm always up for testing the like, what are the.
Speaker 1: Boundaries of this efficiency?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: How greedy can we get with it shot wise?
Speaker 4: So we starting to see a deviation because I'm ready
to get a little greedy.
Speaker 1: With it with with Jordan Miller in his attempts, you
gotta see where it goes right, like you're not that's
a great call, man, Like, let's see what happens. A
note because I think later in the game, I wouldn't
be surprised if there was just some fatigue. This stats
from to Mayer. He said, Jordan Miller played fourteen minutes
and thirty four seconds straight between the first and second quarters,
which just for a guy who NBA level basketball, that's
a lot of basketball to play straight. So I'm wondering
if there was just maybe you know, not not excuse
me it, because I do agree that there should have
been maybe some more shots given to him, but that's
a lot of straight minutes, you know, that's almost a
treas shift for a guy who's getting his first year
of NBA minutes.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll say this, when they took him out there
is when the run happened by the Houston Rockets at
the end of the second quarter. That's when they took
Jordan Miller out. KPJ gave up a three and then
from Jalen Green who also got an easy one in transition,
and they kind of got ambushed in three minutes. That
was the game because the Clippers were right there battling
you look at the final score. They lose by eleven,
and there's that twelve zero run that ended up being
a twelve to two run. As a visa Zubats had
that tip into end the first half, but it was
just them being a little bit unfocused for a couple
of minutes there that was enough to lose the game.
Speaker 1: That's the thin margins. That's what we talked about on
this podcast. One last thing before we get into the
lot of Murray stuff. On Kawhi, Norm had a rough outing.
We didn't need a rough outing from Norm last night,
giving everyone who was out. But it's his first bad game.
In a minute, he's still probably getting his legs underneath
them a little bit from the hamstring injury. No pun intended,
But I don't know what you're not concerned. That's kind
of where I'm at about this. What's that song? The
theme song from Scrubs?
Speaker 2: Oh man, damn, I should know this.
Speaker 1: But you know the song? You know how it goes.
If you're singing, I will yeah, I'm like I.
Speaker 3: Thought you guys would fill in the blanks. It's the
one where it's like I can't do this all.
Speaker 4: On my own, right, Okay, got it? That's Powell right now.
I'm not worried. You can't do it all on his own.
He's no superman. Yeah, I agree, he's gonna be fine.
He's normal.
Speaker 2: I would say in the way that the janitor was
JD's Foyle and Kryptonite. Oh no, that's who the Houston
Rockets have been for Norman Powell. In all three games,
he has gotten clamped by them. And that's not you know,
out of the ordinary. Houston has the second best defense,
they're number one rebounding team, and they killed the Clippers
in both those areas. But Norm Pale has had three
of his worst games of the season, maybe his three
worst games against the Houston Rockets. I think it was
one of eight from three last night, and they've just
done a great job of shutting him down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of eight from three. Another guy who only
made one three, which bummed me out. Chris Dunn hit
his first three and I was like, yes, it's gonna
be one of those nights. Missed the other four I
believe that he took. But credit to Chris down he
was playing through some kind of illness recovery, had a
career high and Steels was a beast in that first
quarter and then took a chance to talk to some
G league guys who like came up to him after
his locker I saw a tweet from one of them.
They was talking about basketball and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Like an hour like after playing in a game while
being sick. The man like took a full hour out
of his schedule. Like just I just think it goes
to show, like I do think this locker room is
in the best place that it's been in it probably
what five years, Like it's been a long time since
we've had what appears to be like a functional locker
room like this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a real good vibe in the locker room.
Speaker 2: I thought Done was really good to start the third
quarter two when the Clippers kept turning over Houston. He
had I want to say, at least two of his
five steals early in that third quarter. It's unfortunate that
his shot has fallen off a cliff recently. I want
to say he's somewhere around thirteen for his last fifty
from three. When he started off shooting forty five percent.
I think the first ten games or so of the season,
we knew there'd be some regression. It has come fast
and Swift.
Speaker 1: He's career low third. He's got like thirty three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the last like two years, it's only eighty
eight games. I think with the Utah Jazz he shot
somewhere around forty percent. But you're talking a little over
one hundred attempts, so yeah, he's at thirty two percent
right now. Yeah, man one for five last night, over three,
one for two, over two, over two, over.
Speaker 1: One over two. Yeah, not a box score. Merchant is
Chris down, but he's a wonderful glue guy and a
great defender, and him and Nico were great last night,
just on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: So I got all these people upset last night that
the Clippers played too small, and it's like, yeah, they
lost all their wings except Niko.
Speaker 1: Guys, everyone was hurt.
Speaker 2: Curtisized Loom for playing four guards.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm not sure what Tyler was supposed to do
there other than ask a tall guy from the yeah
we need size and shooting ty Loo player coach. All right,
coming up, let us know what you thought about, uh,
the Rocket the loss to the Rockets, and the comments
at YouTube dot complish at Clippers podcast or a run
Twitter at Clippers Pod. We're gonna be talking the Law
Murray Kawhi article for The Athletic coming up after some
ads in three two.
Speaker 3: One, all right, welcome back into Clips and Dip. We
talked about yet another bummer loss to the Rockets, which
is gonna be getting over that one. Still looking our wounds,
but we're gonna we gotta talk about every his favorite subject.
People ask us all the time. They want to know
what's going on with Kawhi Leonard. We very rarely have
any answers. But someone much closer to the situation than us,
your favorite athletic beat writer, Law Murray had a piece
about Kawhi Leonard and the update.
Speaker 1: Charles, can you, in one sentence describe us the update?
No update status got it?
Speaker 4: Got it?
Speaker 1: Status remains relatively the same. There was one key update.
If you're into these things like I am. This taken
from the article, which you should pay to read. Said,
though Leonard is still not at practice, which is one
of the checks the boxes needs to be checked, the
smoke towards his imminent return continues to thicken. It's to
the point where Leonard has his hair and the tight,
straight back corn rows that he always plays with instead
of the box plates that he has had for months. Okay,
that does seem like that. That actually does seem like
a pretty key update. I think it's more key than
the bibblehead date or Bill Simmons Clippers guy, who I'm
assuming was a man he just met on the street
somewhere wearing Clippers hat, like I would, that's my guy.
That to me is probably the most damning of an update. Yeah,
I think that's fair. Another thing from this piece, the
Clippers are not committing to a return date for Leonard,
which is in line with never releasing any kind of
timeline for Leonard's or turn to play protocol.
Speaker 3: But that's nothing new, Like I don't even I don't
blame the org for that. Like, you know, there are
things I blame this organization for. That's not one of them.
Any anything around Kawhi's like return timelines or health or
anything like that. Like that's something it's best to just
just mind your own business, you know, from an organization perspective.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why would you give even a target date? Because
if he goes through one exercise, finally does five on
five and the knee swells up and now he can't go,
how why would you let that happen just to disappoint everyone.
Oh now he's not ready. Why on earth would that
be a wise decision.
Speaker 1: You think you're mad with a no return date, Now
think how mad you would be if we got a
return date and then they moved it.
Speaker 2: Like that's where I have also something they can't foresee.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm not knowing.
Speaker 3: Not knowing is not is in no way worse than
missing a proposed deadline, you know what I mean? Like
an indefinite is is maybe not the greatest outcome, but
it's certainly a far better outcome than a missed deadline.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've been beaten across the head with the Kawhi
return timelines for so long, and you have been if
you've been a Clippers fan that At this point, I
just can't get upset about it. I'm just like, he's
gonna be back when he gets back. The ORG doesn't
really say anything another piece in the article because there's
so much time. One off law Murray says this week
could be a critical step, a critical one to get
Leonard up to speed. A return to practice is the
crucial first step for Leonard to lose the week two
week designation. That's also when Kawhi would address the public next,
I don't really know what we would get expect from
Kawhi's first addressed to the public after practicing, but that's
the marker. Maybe who we getting honest he starts grabbing
the mic. He's grabbing mics doing the interviews. But that's
the key. The first practice is the step. That's what
everyone should be looking for. Did Kawi practice. He did
some shoot around in practice the other day. They were
not allowed to film. But but it is.
Speaker 3: New right having it even even as that occur around
the media.
Speaker 1: So I mean, that's got to be another.
Speaker 3: I mean, unless it's like the Golden State workout, I
have no idea, but it's it seems like there's there's teasers.
You know, there's Easter eggs out there for those searching. Yeah,
there is return coming.
Speaker 2: At some point, we're gonna hear that he participated in
limited time at practice. That's gonna be the first thing
we hear for sure, and then you can start to
get excited when you hear that. The next day, his
knee responded well to it, Because just getting through a
practice or playing one game really doesn't mean anything. It's
about how his knee feels afterwards.
Speaker 3: We like you said five on five Like, well, how
about we how about we get the update the day
after he plays his first five.
Speaker 1: On five to practice and then we'll then we'll go
from there and he'll do the stay ready game. I'm
assuming they'll have him do one of those. After he practices.
He'll probably do a stay ready game, which is the
classic Clippers Tylu practice thing for a guy coming back.
When Kawai comes back. This article did mention also like
kind of how easy theoretically, you know, Tylo thinks bringing
Kawhi into this team is, which I think I don't
think any of us would disagree with that, with how
this team is playing, kind of what they're built on. Yeah,
what is this team's ceiling with Kawhi Leonard? Let's say,
for all intents and purposes, he comes back not before Christmas,
but either the first week of January or something like that.
The standings are tight, Clippers are six right now, will
what do you put in the Clippers ceiling at all
things considered with Kawhi Leonard? We do know it is
our year, of course, but just give the fans something,
you know, what is the ceiling other than that, what's
option B. Were they to somehow not win the championship
this year?
Speaker 3: Man that that's a tough one because everything is just
so tight right now. I mean I would say, I
would say, say, okay, with Kawhi, Leonard, I think you
could have I think at their absolute ceiling, you could
stay out of the four or five matchup, which.
Speaker 1: I think would be a great would be a great outcome.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And that's the absolute peak. Like some things gotta roll there,
some things gotta roll their way. But to get to
to get to three, I think I think realistically, with Kawhi,
assuming like full health, obviously not playing back to back
that sort of stuff, I think that you're still hovering in.
Speaker 1: That four or five matchup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you know, assuming no other injuries and everything else.
Speaker 1: You know goes what goes well there. And again, these
are a lot of assumptions.
Speaker 3: These are these are my extreme optimist assumptions.
Speaker 1: Joseph i Award texted me. He said, I have a
confession to make. I like this Clippers team. So Adam,
you're shaking, Adam shaking. I'm way off base. No, Joseph,
we love you, Joseph. How to wear you out? On
this team Ceiling with with Kwilny Well.
Speaker 2: I listened to the entire interview with Coach Lou ALM
with Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I'm gonna say this, I actually do
put stock into Kawhi must be around the corner for
him to come on with steven A. Smith right now
during the season. He could have came off during the
off season. He could have came on after Kawhi left
Team USA and tried to explain the side. I think
with the stuff and all the joke that Steven A.
Smith has been talking and he and Coach Leure Boys,
I think Coach Lou wanted to come on when he
could actually back it up and be like, hey, he's
coming Kawhi Leonard is playing. He's going to be playing.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 2: He gave a Charles Barkley I gut tee that Kawhi
Leonard is coming back. So that's out of everything the
Bobblehead with Bill Simmons, I put the most stock into
that on Honestly that I don't think Coach Lou would
show up with steven A right now, with the guy
who's been hating on Kawhi the most unless he felt
like Kawhi's coming back soon, So I'm not gonna have
to hear from Steven A if you know he's out
for another two months or something like that. After I
just in an interview where I said Kawi is coming back.
Speaker 1: I like that he defended ka too, like he was
like I wants to play. Like for some reason, there's
still this group of people who think that Kawhi is
like hanging out, loving life not being able to play
basketball for his team. So I thought that was nice.
But sorry to the ceiling question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned has been on the verge of tears,
feeling like he's let the team down. There were some
heavy stuff in there, but Coach Lou answered a question
about what basically the Clippers ceiling is with Kawhi, and
he said, at least Western Conference finals appearance. That's what
Coach Lou said. So I'm gonna go with that least. Well,
there's only one thing you can do more than that,
just go to the finals.
Speaker 1: So Tyler Tyler wise man, Tyler's on that William Updyke
train that this is our year.
Speaker 2: Train, the ceiling is it's our year.
Speaker 1: The floor our year. Horrible square footage in this house. Yeah, yeah,
So I had them as a high playing team with
Kawhi out for how long he was going to be out.
If he's coming back, and the team does look better
than I would have thought they were going to look.
We've talked about the rebounding, We've talked about actually still
being committed to defense, all that good stuff. We're getting
great shooting from Derek Jones Junior. I'm here, Coffee is
playing great. Like all this good stuff is happening. Norm
is on the best stretch of his career. But it
just does I think four or five is probably where
they end up. I still I'm wondering. I want say
that I'm still waiting for like the Mavericks or the
Rockets to convince me that they're top four. But like,
I mean, we've watched the Rockets beat us three times,
so I guess they've already convinced me. But I just think,
and with the no back to back thing, and with
the other injuries, right, it's it's not my doubting Kawhi's
ability to come into this team and elevate an already
very good defense and elevate an incredibly what's the word
for the offense, labor heavy labor intensive offense. I think
Kawha is gonna come in and do that, but you
know I do. I am a little worried about how's
Harden going to hold up, what's Derek Jones Junior gonna
look like? Because they you know, they have this time off,
but they have some difficult games coming up that we're
gonna talk about. So I think that four or five
spot is probably where they settle. I would love to
have home court advantage into it. Don't for the playoffs
because I can't imagine what that is going to be
like for opposing teams this season. That's gonna be really exciting.
But then after that, it's like, hey, as long as
we get in there and if Kawhi is kind of
peeking at the right time, let's make a bunch of
noise in the playoffs. Right Like then it's that I
really believe in the chaos that would be the Clippers
at that point.
Speaker 2: Yeah. A lot of this confidence we have, I think
is just the state of the West where even a
team like the Houston Rockets, you're kind of like, are
they really this good? They're young, they don't have an
they don't even have a guy averaging twenty points per game.
I don't hear them in a seven game series with
Kawhi because.
Speaker 1: You can give by the ball and say, please go
score us sixteen points this half or whatever. I will say.
Speaker 3: I don't know that I'm like emotionally or mentally ready
for a four or five Clippers MAVs face off.
Speaker 1: MAVs win just one?
Speaker 3: Are there one seventh straight? They're looking scary as shit
right now. I'm kind of tired of seeing this movie.
Speaker 1: I think everyone would agree with you on that. Man,
I don't want to say.
Speaker 3: And even though the Rockets have gotten the better of
us with with the healthy Kawhi Leonard, I guess I'd
rather that in a seven game series.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't the Clippers have the two top guys in that
series with Kawhi and James Harden?
Speaker 1: I think they would Luca and Kyrie.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, Over.
Speaker 3: Houston, I thought you said over the Maps, I was like.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think over the rock the gap is way
further away versus the Rockets, and it is for the
Maps for the best to have the two best players.
Speaker 2: For sure, who loses a series when you have the
two top guys in the series.
Speaker 1: How can that happen, bro, What are you talking about?
Very simple answer, the series.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like, I think they have a lot
of advantages against Houston in a seven game series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would, I agree. I agree, especially I don't
Dallas either. No, I don't want Dallas. Uh. But yeah,
it's gonna be interesting. And I mean I love that
point about Tyler talking with stephen A Smith because it
is out of character a for TYLERU to do any
kind of interview like that during the season.
Speaker 2: Well, people would naturally say, what do you mean they're friends? Okay,
he could have done the interview still at some point
in October.
Speaker 1: Or any other season.
Speaker 2: He could have done it all these different times since
Team USA, and he didn't. And stephen A has been
talking with a lot of wind in his jaws about
Kawhi Leonard for a couple of years, saying that he
should retire. So coach lu coming on now. I think
it's because he knows he's coming back soon.
Speaker 1: I do hope it is. I don't know if it's
going to be the twenty seventh, but just so Bill
Simmons can be wrong by the slightest of margins, I
would love it if he came back to twenty seventh,
be great.
Speaker 3: I don't know about the guys I really decembered to me. No,
so optimistic.
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's a lot of stiff. I want
to believe. I'm you know, I'm spooky molder over here.
You know. I want to believe. But I'm just not
seeing it. I'm just not seeing it. He's got a
lot of boxes to check between now and Yeah.
Speaker 2: I would not predict that he's going to be back
for the babble Head Night Game No.
Speaker 1: In nine seven in a week.
Speaker 2: Like, how does he ramp up that fast from where
he's at currently?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Steve step it's very great. Well, it's graduated, it's smooth. Yeah,
the ram has been happening since day one of the seasons,
so it's actually a really really really chill ramp. We'll
see what happens. Let us know. There are there were
a lot of comments underneath laws Twitter posts about how
Kawhi would be back by the next game, which I
don't think those people are right because that games happens
on Friday. Coming up, we're gonna be talking about the
upcoming schedule getting a little rough and just kind of
more in depth look at the West standings because it's
the I've seen people say the West is good, and
I've seen people say the West is unimpressive. I'm not
really sure what to think. We got all that coming
up after some light audio ads in three two.
Speaker 2: One Welcome back in It's clips and Dip episode thirty
three of season three. I'm out of masliand we got
Chuck Mackler and Will Updike here and the Clippers do
not play until Friday, where there was a rescheduled game
after they didn't make the knockout round in the n
Season Tournament in Denver against the Nuggets. You can say
the NBA screwing them again, but they also gave him
the Utah Jazz Monday at home, So I feel like
it's evened out. But it's not gonna be easy. And
I am really concerned about this game, just because it's
so hard to beat a team three times that's this good,
and the Clippers have actually, maybe it goes against what
I just said. They have beaten them four straight times
going back to last season, but three times in the
same year. With Jokic playing this well, and the game
is in Denver, it's going to be a difficult one
on Friday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got that one on Friday, which is the thirteenth.
I'm just not realizing. Then they have the Jazz. Then
they have the MAVs on the nineteenth and the twenty first,
so we do get a bit of a playoff schedule
against the MAVs coming up, then the Grizzlies on the
twenty third, and then a big standings battle with the
Warriors on the twenty seven. So all of these games
are pretty important standings wise. And if you look at
the West, the Clippers as of this recording, and thank
you to Google, Hey, there are only three spots out
of the two seed. Awesome. We love that they are
also only two games out of the twelve seed. I
don't think they're getting down to thirteen where the Blazers are,
but they are two games out of the twelve seed.
Is the West really good or is the West mediocre?
Or are they good and just kind of winning the
games where they can because this this team already has
thin margins and the standings are not helping that scenario
at all.
Speaker 2: I think the West is good to very good. It's
just not a leade at the very top it's not
as top heavy maybe as the Eastern Conference is, but
there's a lot of teams that are close to each
other that are good to very good in the Western Conference,
which makes it, I don't know, in some ways tougher
because there are less nights where you run into a
team that is just so bad you can't help but
fall into a victory against.
Speaker 1: You know, the Utah.
Speaker 2: Jazz are bad, the Blazers aren't that bad. They've had
the San Antonio is improved. So yeah, I don't I
don't overlook the West, but I also know that at
the very top they're missing, I don't know, really flawless team.
Even the OKC thunder have a flaw and that's inexperience
and they don't have Chet Holmgren right now for another
ten weeks or something like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess it depends on how you're looking
at it, because to me, I would say the West
is more difficult because of that, there's all these sort
of teams that are that are good, that are kind
of right at each other's throats, and like, there are
good teams in the East, don't get me wrong, but
there's only there's like, you know, it's it's a far
different hierarchy where there's like two teams that you're like,
oh yeah, I could see them, you know, I could
see them making noise in the playoffs, and then there's
kind of everybody else who's like pretty good and in
the West, I feel like, you know, I given injuries
and stuff, it's it's more of a it's not a
complete coin flip, but it's like, you know, what would honestly,
what would surprise you at this point in the West, Like, so.
Speaker 1: We look at it. The Spurs twelve and twelve. They
have a better record than the Kings. They're ahead of
the Kings, so there's gonna be some movement there. I
would assume between one of those is going up, what
was going down? Both of them going up really hurts
the Clippers. The Lakers are thirteen and eleven, which he
could argue as an overplay. They can maybe have overplayed
their record based on how things are going with that team.
And then you have, yeah, this block of Rocket sixteen
and eight Maps sixteen and eight Grizzlies like that that
top is also there's gonna be a bunch of movement,
Like it's just taking the longer it takes, I think
to like shake out is worse for the Clippers for
this standing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You could make the argument though the other way, if
they stay in this place where they go on a
winning streak and they shoot up the standings because things
are so tight, it's just the other side of that
is they go on losing.
Speaker 1: To the other side of that, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And you fall down the standings immediately and the floor
disappe years underneath you. And if they lose to the
Denver Nuggets, that's three straight losses and now they're fourteen
and twelve. Now worst, I would think they're going to
end up at fifteen and twelve by that Monday against.
Speaker 1: The Utah Yes, make Yeah.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the two games in Dallas, the Warriors coming up,
the Memphis Grizzlies, So a really tough schedule in December.
I just the more we see the days off in
December and the more we see the schedule tough enough,
the more confident I am in that they were always
looking at the target date for Kawhi Leonards return somewhere
in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that January, that January area.
Speaker 2: Or even before before the end of this month. I
think the target date is you know, it's it's not
one day, it's this window of time where if we
could get Kawhi back here against some of these really
tough teams in the West, specifically, you know, we weathered
the storm without him, and then we get him back
and there's that extra jet fuel we need to get
through the end of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I agree with that. I think they definitely
had some kind of idea or wish the thing that
you were talking about kind of if the if the
floor falls out and they lose ground in the standings.
It's not a team that's exactly built to make up
ground quickly games wise, right, they have a five game
win streak, they have a four game win streak, but
it's hard as the season goes on. We have seventeen
games in March, which I've only brought up once every
two episodes. It's hard for this It would be hard
for this team I think as of six point thirty
one PM on December ninth, to like make have some
streak at the end of the year where they go
from like, oh we went from the sixth seed, now
we're up to the four seed or something like that.
I don't know, and I also just have to see
what the team looks like with Kwai. I think they
will be good, but I just I don't know. I
don't have any red flags about injuries raised yet, but
I'm cautious.
Speaker 2: I guess I'm looking at it from the standpoint of
if Kawhi comes back and looks relatively close to where
he was last season with them, that means against some
of those upper echelon teams on those nights, they have
a better chance to beat them. And there's even less
of a chance that against some of the bottom teams
that they jump up and beat him like we saw
the Portland Trail Blazers do, because that margin for Eric grows.
And I'm not overly concerned that Kawhi is going to
I know some people have been talking about, oh what
if he hurts us and you know, he messes up
our rhythm? It's like crazy twenty fourth Offensively, how is
he going to hurt them on the offensive end? And
he's a two time Defensive Player of the Year winner,
how is he going to hurt him on the defensive end.
I don't see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't see that I don't see Kawhi hurting
the team when he comes back.
Speaker 2: To this team, even if he's at eighty percent, I
don't see how he can hurt the team. That is
a guy you need. They need exactly what he provides
for them.
Speaker 1: Any final thoughts on the standing, say anything like that
before we let these people go for the rest of
their week, four whole days off until the next Clippers game. No,
enjoy the rest. Hey, let's everybody enjoy the rest. James
Harden enjoy the rest. It's the holiday, so everyone else
should enjoy the rest too. Any Kawhi updates that happened
between now and the next game. We will have some
content for you. Perhaps it's a live while I'm at work.
We're gonna have a post game live hang after the
Nuggets game, as well as probably an episode before that
Nuggets game to talk. Maybe we'll have some Hopefully we'll
have some clarity on the the injuries to a mirror
and Derek Jones Junior will if people wanted to say
during their end of year review, score some points with
their boss and suggest some really great Clippers podcasts listen to.
Who should they suggest and where could they tell their
boss to listen to that podcast.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, look intelligent influence friends and people by telling
them about Lockdown by telling them about Clips.
Speaker 1: And Dip.
Speaker 3: Which you can check us out over on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify and the best way though, is over on YouTube
dot com slash I had Clippers podcast.
Speaker 1: So yeah, however, you can see this thing. You know,
we appreciate you, We absolutely do. And before we send
you out, Adam from your car. One positive thing for
these Clippers fans before our episode on Thursday.
Speaker 2: I think it's that these injuries, if you have to
have them, they're probably coming at the right time because
they got four more days off. James Harden now will played.
By the time they get to the Denver game, he'll
have had eight days off. Yeah, this was another All
Star break and I didn't see it coming when I
looked at the schedule heading into this season. But this
could be a real blessing for a team that's getting
to the thirty percent of the way through the season mark,
that they can have this much time off to get rejuvenated,
to get right, especially with James Harden and all he's
been asked to do so that you don't hit the
wall later in the year when you have seventeen games
going for you in March, since you have to get
through somehow, and maybe there's you know, some real pieces
of the puzzle finally coming together with Kawhi because they
actually have a chance to practice right now. He has
to practice as part of the ramp up. So it
makes sense that everybody is, you know, seeing the smoke
from Kawhi Leonard and why he could be coming back
at this point, there's a lot of rationale telling you that, yes,
it makes a lot of sense that Kawhi could be
in the next two weeks here.
Speaker 1: And the thing that makes smoke sense, as we know,
is the change in hairstyle. All right, we will be
back with y'all on Thursday, if not before pending some news.
Thank you for hanging out, Pam. As always, let's go clips,