Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to a very
impromptu postgame hang here at Clips and Dip. The Clippers
come back from down twenty points in the worst place
in the world, Utah to get the win. Ben Simmons
has such a good debut. I don't know if Will
Updike is gonna join this pod, but I know he's
hyped about Ben simmons debut. I know Adam Oslin also
hyped about Ben simmons debut, but he is quite literally
working right now. So if you're hanging out over on
the Clips and Dip postgame stream, thank you for hanging out.
I am going to be out for the next episode,
just taking a little All Star break myself. But damn,
did this weird ass wind feel good? Yes? What a game?
Trance addict, I remember you, what What a crazy game?
The Clippers played between like okay and not very well.
The Jazz made so many threes it didn't make any
sense how many threes the Jazz were making. Kind of
throughout this whole game. The Clippers were down twenty at
one point, like they could have thrown in the towel.
I don't know. We're gonna talk about how good Ben
Simmons was. This was I mean, there couldn't have been
a better debut. I guess, uh for Ben Simmons, it's
so great, he said, he did a lot of little stuff. Yeah,
I said, I mean it's it's been one game. I
think we can we can take that into account. But
there was a lot of good that we can't. It's
not just about Ben Simmons. Nor Awl had forty one points.
I don't think we need to say Ben Simmons carryers.
Oh we have a Clippers reporting goat coming on screen.
His name is josephry Award. Welcome him with open arms.
He's good. People say any weird shit, you'll get banned.
Joseph fry Award. Hell are you, buddy? How you feeling?
After that?
Speaker 2: Clippers went They called me a madman, They said, Ben Simmons,
what are you talking about? I've been talking about Ben
Simmons for three years now. Everybody laughed at me. They
laughed at me. And you know what he helped us
win against? Said what thirteen and forty seven? Utah team.
I feel vindicated.
Speaker 1: Okay, look, any team that's playing the Clippers on the
Clippers second night of a back to back is a
top three seed, Yes, agreed, there you're playing a top
three seed at that Yeah, City Thunder. A lot of
you know, people in the chat saying Ben Simmons carried us.
How do you think Ben Simmons that line? How did
you feel about his debut? I mean, obviously we love it.
We're gonna I mean, normal had forty one, ye Hard
had thirty two.
Speaker 2: James was incredible. Yeah, there were a lot of things
going for us.
Speaker 1: But Ben Simmons did all the stuff that the Clippers need. Right.
He handled the ball like he played defense on multiple positions.
It acts like this is what optimum Ben Simmons in
this rotation looks like. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, once Ty figured out who to play
him with, it really started like we were cooking with
gas because he did everything I hoped he would do
and things I thought he would never in a million
years do tonight. Now, I don't know if those things
are gonna continue. You know, he's in game one, he's
feeling really energized, you know what I mean. But if
if he can look like like seventy percent of what
he looked like tonight for the rest of the season,
he's exactly what I wanted the Clippers to acquire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean seventy percent of what you said, because
stat wise there's a lot of people. I think someone
had a really funny comment. I think it was Clipper
Vlad said on Twitter that one of the things he
loves about Simmons that he won't shoot us out of
a game. Yeah, that's that's never gonna happen. But he
had like there were times so he shared the floor
with uh done and Zoo at points tonight and the
lineup when it was small ball with Chris Dunn, good
things were happening. The zoom minutes with Ben it's it's
really a lot of pressure on the other guys to
hit from outside and stuff like that. But once Tyleru
gets the tinkering out of his system, which I think
is kind of what you were alluding to, Like, you know,
it's I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to
jump the gum on what like this means. But it
could be a really good siding for the Clippers, especially
when it comes to playoff time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he just he gives them the opportunity
to be competent for forty eight minutes, like that's really
all he does, and like it.
Speaker 1: Throw the ball off your shoe or you.
Speaker 2: Know, dribble, dribble, dribble, playing a mid range off the
back room, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so who did that?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't talk about that person, but
I think I think you could see the vision tonight
of what it could look like. And obviously you want
to see how it looks against good teams and against
you know, all that other stuff. But Ben surrounded by shooters,
can push the pace, can grab a rebound, you know,
get out and transition, set guys up. He threw several
really nice passes like.
Speaker 1: It's so good. He hit James in the corner with
a three that James passed up. I think it was
literally like Simmons, like third possession, right, but he hit
James with the pass that was like the pull the
catch and shooter is right there, James pasted up. He
obviously as Hawaiian Horizon, great name is saying, played forty
nine big minutes. But he brings kind of a surprise
element because I don't think other guys are going to
be used to seeing that that level of pass right
from someone so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean the Clippers really only had one
you know plus creator on you know, the offense or
on the roster before the deadline, and now they have
someone where you know, he can set guys up. You know,
he did the between the legs bounce pass back to Norm,
a couple left hand pocket passes. You know, he's whipping
into the corner. And just having another plus passer is
such a huge addition, especially to that second unit, that
especially if it has guys like Bogie and a Mirror
and Nico and you know, more stationary shooter types. I mean,
Bogie can create a little bit, but I think it's
gonna unlock, you know, something for this Clipper offense so
that there's way less stagnation on the second unit when
the starting lineup kind of shuffles out.
Speaker 1: The stagnation is a great point because we I think
the fan part of me has gotten used to watching
one of the main guys go out and then the
offense just kind of you're watching and you're like, okay,
like what are we working with here? Whereas you get
a little bit of juice from Bogged and Ben Simmons
band hit Norm with kind of a little just like
quick bounce pass when Norm was coming up right after
half court, and it led to just Norm getting the quick,
super fast look at three, and it's like, yeah, the
way that Norm was playing, you're confident in that shot
every time. It's like when Reggie Jacks was on the
heater and you were like, yeah, no, shoot it from
half court, dude, I don't care. Yeah, give me as
many peanut butter and jelly bites as you can. I
don't give a shit. But the competency I think is
such a good point. I like the point from Andy though.
If Lou's going to play Zoo and Ben together, Zoo
should have the green light from three.
Speaker 2: I can't. I can't go down this lane again. I
got laughed out of the zoom when I asked Tay
about this a couple of years ago. He's never gonna
shoot three guys, three guys, I asked. It was quickly
shot down.
Speaker 1: If he did, though, if he did hook shot.
Speaker 2: That's it. Yeah. I think he would make at least
thirty three percent of his hook threes.
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, we have you here. I want to talk.
So the starting lineup shuffle we've seen with even with
Kawhi healthy. Yesterday we saw Doun start Derrick Jones Jr.
To some people myself included, has excelled in the role
as being a starter. How are we feeling about this shuffle?
And as Ryan says, how do you feel about two
over Dereck Jones Jr. I Thinkoom's too old. No disrespect
to batoomb, but how are you feel the shuffling starting lineup?
Because I'm a little nervous about it, and I hope
it gets nailed down with at least fifteen games before
the playoffs starts.
Speaker 2: This is a throwback for Clippers, for you and for
Clippers fans. Do you remember the sliding lineup we were
promised in twenty nineteen?
Speaker 1: But yes, what a nightmare that was. Dude. You know
why we never got it because no team has ever
had a rotating starting lineup that his work. But we
might what if we had a player coach, like where
are we going to go next?
Speaker 2: I want to jumping at the bit to be our
point guard for it.
Speaker 1: We might have needed them at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think I might actually go because I
think he've used Derek Jones Junior and Chris Dunn is
like similar archetypes, just different sizes that he might say, hey,
you know what we have, you know, against Memphis, we
might have a couple of quick guards. It's going to
make more sense for Chris Dunn to start than Derek
Jones Junior. Maybe he plays with it, I think tonight.
So that obviously that plays in the fact a little
bit too. Yeah, but I also think that, you know,
come playoff time, this is something where he's going to
look at both lineups and be able to go, like,
I know, against certain matchups, I can go to this
and it's going to work. And we've had enough reps
to where everybody's gonna feel comfortable and it's not like
I'm just throwing something against the wall, you know, to
start a series. So I do think that he's going
to continue to kind of shuffle through lineups, especially over
these next couple of weeks with guys being in and
out and you know, back to backs and all that.
I mean, March is going to be We're not going
to say the same lineup twice. I don't think.
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone who listens to this podcast, thanks to me,
knows exactly how many games we have in March, which
is at least seventeen. Yeah. Yeah, the road. And you
know AMR was out to night too, so that's another
spot right right. Kobe Brown got four minutes tonight was bad,
which hurt my soul a little bit. People are saying
Ben looking good, hard to believe for some people not
hard to believe. We are with one of those people
right now.
Speaker 2: I did. I will confess. Every time he took contact,
I winced and was just waiting for him to grab
his back. I was just like I was panicked every
time he took a charge or like went into the
paint that he was going.
Speaker 1: We did the same thing with Kawhi, like we're conditioned.
You know. It's like yeah, sure, yeah. Speaking of Kawhi,
before tonight, Kawhi looked a little rough up until pretty
much last night. I'll have to pull back. That's up.
How are you feeling? I saw a good tweek from
lot Marie saying that Kawhi, for the most part, is
trending up. And I think that's true. And I think
rest is the best medicine, especially for Kuhi and James Harden,
who we will talk about. Forty nine minutes to insanity.
Speaker 2: I would say that there was I again, I'd have
to pull up basketball friends to know exactly how many games,
But there was a little slump in there where Kawhi
just looked like he had nothing, Like he just couldn't
make a bad.
Speaker 1: Which is something that doesn't ever do.
Speaker 2: He was slow on defense, like dudes were blowing by
am he had like he had nothing, and it really
he looked frustrated. I think we actually were talking one
of those games where the Clippers were, you know, making
a comeback and pulling away in the fourth and Kawhi
wanted the ball, but James was playing well and Norman
was playing well, and they were, you know, scoring a
bunch of points, and he just looked frustrated on the wing.
And it's like, dude, you you're three of twelve, and
you to just give it a second, you know what
I mean? Yeah, And I have had this feeling that
ever since that five and seven the Clippers didn't look right.
Speaker 1: It takes a lot. Yeah, this team historically at this
time of year, and I'm not meeting just like the
two days before the All Star break. This team has
been an old team for like four or five seasons.
So every especially for and I don't mean this disrespectfully,
a lot of newer Clipper fans who maybe have become
fans like at the two one three acquisition or something.
It's been an old team, so we've seen this regression, yeah,
every year, kind of going into the All Star break.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and around the trade deadline because Larry Fingers loves
to make a move. So I do think that there's
still that like trade deadline anxiety, go.
Speaker 1: All about the Larry Fingers man.
Speaker 2: Man for a while, man, But yeah, I just think
obviously seeing him yesterday bounce back, get his legs under him,
look good, you know, at least offensive side of the ball.
He needed a couple of days off, And I think
it's it's hard to remember, like keeping context, because he
had a couple of games where he looked rusty and
then it looked like, oh, yeah, he's just quiet, and
then to have that step back, you're forgetting like, oh,
this is like game twelve, and he's still he's.
Speaker 1: Ramping as a yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And like from a long layoff, and he's still ramping
his minutes up, so like he's still getting used to
each step as he goes along. Obviously at twenty four minutes,
it's way easier to like give Max effort for twenty
four minutes than like do it. But now he's sometimes
touching thirty minutes a game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now let's put twelve more on.
Speaker 2: Top of that exactly. So that's that's a whole other
quarter of basketball that he's playing. And so I think
he's he's still getting his conditioning back and for as
many times as you want to run on the treadmill
or play five on five off of you know, like
in practice, it's not an NBA game. And I'm hopeful
that the long layoff and he'll get back into his
rhythm and they'll look more like Kuhi again.
Speaker 1: And I think he will, Like it's kind of like
watching We've All. You know, you you you're trying to
watch a video and you see the bar, like back
in the day when he had to download something to
play on quick Time and that download would go forty
eight six sixty four fifty two. That's where Gauhay's at
right now. Right he to lead into the machine metaphor,
he's buffering between like n and seventy seven percent, I
feel like is where we're at, which if you look
at the trajectory of a rampant which has been slow
and calculated for a good reason. All on one second,
I'm seeing a combat that's making my brain hurt. Jonathan
Gonzalez is asking, did Bend play? Buddy? I hope you
have a way to rewatch this game, because if you
care enough about wondering if Ben Simmons playing, but you
didn't watch, there's a big surprise for you in store.
Ben Simmons was great today. Yes, am I foolish to
be incredibly bully on small ball five lineups that include
Kawhi and Ben Simmons, with Ben Simmons specifically playing kind
of the five position.
Speaker 2: If he plays like seventy to eighty percent of tonight
that I mean, yes, that's fine, that's great. I think
I think it can work. I think if you have
the issue for me, is is it three guards in
those two guys or so here's two guards in another wing.
Speaker 1: Ideally, and this is one thing Tyleron knows more about
basketball than all of us watching interacting six degrees of
separation from this podcast combined, there's some lineups that make
you wonder what's going on? Sometimes mean, I mean respect,
but if you put so okay, So here's to you
got Ben Simmons there's the five you got Kawhi, let's
call it the three. Let's put the two, but the
four and then Norman James.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good to me.
Speaker 1: Is incredibly that's a good time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. What we're gonna get though, is Done James, Norm
Why and Ben and Done can guard up a little bit.
But I am wary of of three guard lineups, you know,
with with those two just.
Speaker 1: Three guard lineups with two on shooters. You're getting into
this like how could this possibly be successful in a playoffs?
Because I thought we're kind of talking playoff situation type stuff.
Speaker 2: And I do I do think that the ban act
was obviously was to get like a good ball handle
off the bench, but also as someone who can juice
small ball lineups that have been struggling.
Speaker 1: For His first time was as a center.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I do think that they envisioned I know
that the first thing they said was that he was
their point guard, but I do think the Clippers envisioned
him as their backup five, and that's that's what he's
going to play on.
Speaker 1: Drew eu Banks is there to soak up minutes, right,
that's it. I'm not like no, but Mike for Zoo
and for Ben because Nico was playing the backup five
and he's too old to do that for a sustained
period of time. But no, like Ben Simmons is going
to play the backup five, Like he's going to be
a backup five who gets the inbounds, pushes the pace
and then from there can make good enough decisions either
pass to Harden, which he did a lot tonight. Most
of what he did to start tonight was dribble the
ball up really fast to half court and then kind
of just assess, like go to the paint, give it
to Harden. Most of the decisions were good. But yeah,
like I think Tyler mentioned pregame two, you're talking about
Chris Dunn and Ben Simmons kind of tuned on shooters
out there, right. He talked about not feeling worried about
Zoo and Ben Simmons out there, And we saw a
little bit of that, didn't we We saw it for
fourteen seconds. I think we saw Kobe Brown, Ben Simmons,
and I think it was Zoo.
Speaker 2: I was, yeah, I had a stroke, and I saw
Ben and Sue on the floor and I forgot who
else was on the court.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm some of it is dependent on Tie
because he has to tink her. Like there's gonna be
times like if you're worried about like how Tyler's gonna
play band, you should be worried, which is fair, but
also you should have kind of an open bank of
like there's gonna be some bullshit minutes and I mean
met again politely, like, yeah, he just wants to see
what works. It's a new guy bringing something new to
the team, even a position that they haven't had all.
Speaker 2: Year, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, thy Love's throwing against the ball.
That's like his favorite thing to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's funny because Doc would never do that,
but when he had to, it worked, Like when Doc
was in a pitch and it was like all right,
our rotations like eleven and a half guys, like things
would kind of work out. I think Joseph, I have
wrest froze. Joseph, if you're able to watch, you are frozen,
good sir. I'm gonna pretend that he agreed with my take.
I think it makes total sense that he agreed with
my take. We're gonna go ahead and hide back. Wait
you're back back? Did you hear my take?
Speaker 2: I heard, I heard about Doc uh doing it and
it working, and yeah, he.
Speaker 1: Never wanted to, but when he did have to, it
was like, oh, oh this is cool. Where is this?
All the time?
Speaker 2: Doc Rivers would be such a great coach if he
ever actually coached, And in the scenarios where he was
asked to step in and coach, he did a good job.
But otherwise he was just so concerned about his tea
time that he didn't care about he was you guys,
go figure.
Speaker 1: It out those Okay, Jeffrey Herrera, I am going to
give you a doc flashback. I have a couple doc flashbacks.
One of my Okay, one thing that I know is
to your point about coaching, there was like two seasons
where Will and I would be we worked in Torrents
and we would leave work at three point thirty because
we were working for like a we were working for
a vape company in the marketing department, so like we
were recording lockdown clips at work during our lunch break,
so we'd leave at three thirty, go to the pressers whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 1: The amount of times I heard Doc Rivers say, well,
we haven't even practiced this week was off the charts,
and we were like, we know the schedule is crazy,
but like you didn't get together one time. Like looking back,
I'm like, you guys did it one Like now that
I see him time, I'm like what, Like because I've
never been that close to it, but like you guys
really like he wasn't lying when he said they weren't practicing,
but that's because they weren't practice, right, Yeah, Doc, Man,
what a time? The other doc fight. I have one
more and then we'll talk a little bit more about
the game. One time, Uh Doc was talking about like
drinking wine, like he was making like a joke about
drinking wine because he's fantastic with the press. And Will
I don't know if there's footage of this, but Will.
Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite moments of all time.
Speaker 1: It's one of my Will asked Doc Rivers like he
was like, oh, like you mentioned you were drinking a
pinot war Like, what's your favorite variet riotal of that.
Doc Rivers, who does claim to know a lot about wine,
was like what is varietl And and Will was like,
you know, like what tipe of? Why? Like a ridol?
And then uh Ramota Shellburn grabs the bike from Will
that goes you know, Doc, a varietyl like it's a
timee of why, like you know what it's like. And
then Doc was just like, oh, I don't know, like
whatever we have. It was a surreal, lunatic moment.
Speaker 2: I will never forget the variety. I'll never forget every
time I like when I hear them the name will Updyke,
I think, what's your favorite? It was so good, oh, so.
Speaker 1: Good man, some good ship. Back in the Lockdown clips.
Speaker 2: Days all right, when Doc was in Philly, sorry go ahead,
when we talked about Philly and it was COVID. There
was a was a zoom presser that recorded and Jackson
Frank who writes for I don't know who anymore, but
he cut Yeah.
Speaker 1: He's it's for a different site though, because he was like,
I like Palestine, which is fair.
Speaker 2: He's in bed okay, and asked the question Doc was Jackson,
are you in bed right now? And it was like yeah,
he goes shath of christ Man.
Speaker 1: That's some good times, that's good ship. Doc was great
with the media, like Doc was okay, Anna fam Hello Anna.
She was on the last couple of streams. Hey guys,
I'm back is it just me or sometimes I see
Simmons just standing there looking scared to shoot. It was
his first game. I watched zero NETS games before this
because I have thousands of better things to do than
watching NETS game. But I don't think he and I
mean this politely, it's fine that he's scared. He's not
here to shoot, He's here to pass. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that famously Ben Simmons scared to shoot ruined
his career. Actually, he was into the basket in a
playoff game, had a layup, passed it out. They lost.
Everybody blamed him. Doc threw him under the bus. Doc
quite literally he dragged him to the bus and then
drove the bus over him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Doc was Doc had one fit all the gas
pedal out the window.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, but uh yeah, I mean I think at
the beginning of the game I noticed that on a
few possessions and was like, that's Ben Simmons. But then
as the game went on, he started to do things
like attack the basket and he drove. He got free throws.
Ben Simmons famously does anything to avoid shooting free throws.
Hit both of his free throws. Like there were things
that were really positive that happened as he kind of
settled into the game, but there are going to be
times where just isn't going to look at the basket
at all.
Speaker 1: There was a great joke someone said, we did an
episode after they signed him, or they said, when we're
playing at home, can we get the reverse Chick fil
A deal where if someone misses two cross for our
side of them forth we get chicken. Yeah. So I
like this take from Jonathan ang which is he made
the right decisions. Yeah, which he is, and follow me here.
I did not plan on having three glasses of whiskey,
but the Clippers came back down from twenty. He is
an infinitely better decision maker than Shooter, so we should
want him to make decisions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed, agreed, so he'd look so.
Speaker 1: I think the other part of it, Lizo was saying,
the only thing I would say is a flaw was
when Ben had a one on one, he would pass
it backwards. It's his first game. I think he's trying
to show. He talked about feeling wanted in that presence,
and I know we're getting real. You know, no numbers tonight, y'all,
but like he wants guys to know that he's here
to help. So I think for Game one, I'm not
digging too deep into like overpassing, because if you got
bought out for a lot of money and then went
to a team where he's a lot of restricted free
agent after this year, if he plays well, he could
get a chance, you know, to help a contending team
or something and get a little stuffing after this. Like
I'm fine with the passivity in game one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, it's who he is. And like we didn't
bring Ben Simmons into lead the bench in scoring.
Speaker 1: We were not logged in to do that.
Speaker 2: That's what is so like that's not his role, right, Like,
that's not who he's gonna be. He's a facilitator, he's
a backup five that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he needs time to gym. The bench has
been very bad. What's your concern? I mean, you got
we gotta feel better because Bogden's here on the bench
and he becomes the best total basketball player the Clippers
bench had, Yeah, with an emphasis on scoring. But like
I feel post All Star Break, I'm gonna feel a
lot better about the bench because.
Speaker 2: It's Yeah, I agree, and I think that the reconfiguration
of kind of who they're putting around. The staggered star
makes a lot more sense now, like the bench makes sense.
It's enough players who can shoot while also having another
guy who can kind of handle the ball and play
a serviceable backup. Five. No disrespect to Mobamba, but fucking.
Speaker 1: Yah, we're not sponsored by Bobi.
Speaker 2: I can't stand playing Nikoba to more than fifteen minutes
a game, and was like, I guess I gotta play.
Speaker 1: But Nico's also old, Like we need to save Nico.
Speaker 2: Yes, we always say that, but I think ty Ty
looks at Nico like he looked at Roco, and it's
like he just doesn't do anything on offense but stand
there and tie. For some reason doesn't like players like that.
So I do think that if if they're gonna stagger
guys correctly, our bench woes and like blowing leads immediately
when they go to the bench unit, I think those
days are hopefully mostly over. Like obviously there's gonna be
games where Ben Simmons turns the ball over a bunch
and Bogie can't hit a shot and.
Speaker 1: He's a bad shooting year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I do think that there's a real
potential for for Bogie's progression to the means to happen
and fit around guys like Norm and James and Kawhi
and you know, Ameir continues to shoot well, Nico shoots well.
Used the team makes more sense and is way less
lopsided in terms like players can do a little bit
of both, and we can kind of juice the offense
a little bit more while not totally sacrificing all of
the stuff we're doing with defense.
Speaker 1: I like what you said, like guys kind of like
because we've seen the Clippers have an issue with guys
kind of doing the same thing like we had like
the Roco saga and all that stuff, and now it's like, okay,
we have guys who like there's guys who can do
a little more there, right, Like Bogie can do a
little more offensive setting. Ben Simmons obviously with the offensive
setting category this point that Andy eight one, two, nine three,
I mean to be the eighty first thousandth person named
Andy to get that user name. That's a pretty I mean,
that's not bad. There's a lot of Andy's a mer
is gonna because we didn't see a mirror tonight, right,
And AMR has a rotation spot with the Clippers team,
like rightfully, so he lights out from three. I'm not
sure if they're gonna be able to a ford a
mere next year. We'll see what happens. He's unrestricted and
they want to stay to the luxury tax anyway. Yeah,
it's a time to be pretty hyped, like we're gonna like,
I like what you said though, Like there's gonna be
nights where Bogden's still trying to come back from literally
his worst shooting season that he's ever been in the NBA.
He's like eight percent, he's like eight percent below his
career average for three so far. Yeah, but we saw
both those guys on the court tonight in crucial time.
It was like it was nice to see. And yes,
as Clipper fans were used to seeing things working really
good right at the beginning and maybe not working so
well after the beginning, but Ben and Bogden being on
the court together during like a key part of the
momentum comeback was nice to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree, And and it's good to
see that they already have I mean, granted, not everybody
was available to tie, but they at least have ties trust.
Speaker 1: And which is so weird and hard to get all
those clippers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's a little mercurial, as they say in
the business.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you're like, okay, yeah, you're like this guy.
That's cool. We haven't even really, we haven't talked really
at all about uh Norm Powell, who did also play forty.
People were talking about how many minutes hard and played,
which was a lot. It was forty nine minutes. He
had thirty nine ten and seven. Yeah, Norm had forty
one points, I believe a career high. Yes, tonight, just
to fire up to chat were there were people who
were saying they should trade Norm. And I think it's
funny because there was a funny graphic posted by law
Murray which was comparing Norm to Zach Lavine, like it's
just the same, Like Norm's just better, Like how are
we feeling?
Speaker 2: Are we?
Speaker 1: And I don't want to I don't mean this in
a pessimistic way. I mean this at a I've had
too many unfortunate things happen. Way, is Norm gonna keep
this up because he's playing his the best basketball Norm
has ever played.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I'm a part of me is on the edge of
my seat a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that the the regression for Norm isn't
gonna be like, oh my god, Norm can't play basketball anymore.
Speaker 1: Right, of course, he's not on like a he's not
on the precipice. He's on a plateau. Maybe he's not
hang over the edge.
Speaker 2: Of the I do think that norms plus like his
superpower is catch and shoot three point shooting. He's been
a literally like forty five pc catch and shoot three
point shooter for years, like for several seasons in a
row now. So I think that as Kawhi comes online
and that makes things easier for James, that'll also make
things easier for Norm, and he won't be asked to
be better than Paul George, which he has been, which
oh well, I mean this was this version of Norm
Powell offensively might be better than almost any season Paul
George has had as a Clipper other than twenty one,
the year they were.
Speaker 1: Clicking the playoffs before they got before Kawhi got hurt,
when we were they had that game against some maps
where it was like it was crazy. No, I guess
we'll talk about Paul Georgian a few because man, he sucks. Yeah,
but normal, and again I'm not meeting this and like
a like, I love Norm, I could I think it
can't continue, but there is like or maybe I'm being
too cynical, right, Like I I think I think you're right,
though I think the drop is like he won't score
twenty eight points a night, He'll score twenty three or
twenty twenty one. Well we have Kawhi bringing that gravity
and that other defense, and now who knows what's unlocked
with the combinations for small ball stuff with Ben Simmons.
Speaker 2: Right exactly, Yeah, I think as the team gels, and
I think having a guy like Bogdan if he does
progress back towards the mean, that relieves pressure from Norm
as well. Right, Norm doesn't have to play many minutes.
Norm isn't expected to do because they have. It's not
a like for like, but I like having more options
or follow if you will. Yeah, I like having more options, right,
Like if James is having an off night, you can
lean more on Norm, you can lean more on Bogie,
you can lean more maybe on Ben Simmons, depending on
how he looks.
Speaker 1: But like the Clippers and more specific roles because like, yeah,
those other guys can shoot, no disrespect it.
Speaker 2: But right I'm just saying like, we have more options
now than we did before.
Speaker 1: I think one of the big things is more options,
less guys, which makes things a lot easier because when
you have more options, more guys, you're like, well, shit, like, yeah,
that's kind of murky right here. Shout out Terrence Man,
who had a great second game with the Hawks. I
think a poor third one though, I'm not here to
talk about. I'm not here to throw slander on Terrence Man.
I don't know what you came on the pod for.
I'm doing that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do that tomorrow. I'm gonna handle that tomorrow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Clippers head of the All Star break, I believe
are we we're firmly six now, I believe right? Let
me yeah, this is like looking Yeah, the Clippers are
two games behind the Lakers and one game above the Timberwolves,
and they're in the sixth spot. So we're seeing so
first of all, the thunder are the first spot. They're
not losing it. They're eight games ahead of the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies and Lakers from two, three, four, five that separate.
That's three games. That's its own block right there. I
think six to eight, right, now, the Clippers are up
on the eighth place Mavericks by two games, and the
Kings are a game and a half out of where
the Mavericks are, So we're the Clippers are on the
threshold of battling for that fitth seat. The Lakers call
me crazy, I think are going to move up in
the standards.
Speaker 2: They could the team we need to keep the Rockets.
The Rockets are the ones that we could leap frog potentially. However,
we do have two games coming up against the Lakers
after the All Star Break, back to back games that
are going to be huge. So if if we can
win those two games, I think we're right. We're right
in that sweet spot of being able to catch you
that the Rockets or the Lakers and kind of get
out of the six. However, however, I don't know if
I'd hate being in the the two, seven, three, six
side of the bracket.
Speaker 1: I like this take from Septa that the MAVs will
fade the everyone for the Maps. Yeah, yeah, because they
did what they did. Yeah, you wouldn't sorry, you wouldn't
hate what spot in the bracket staying at six. I mean,
as long as we're not in the plan. If we're
on the play and I'm fright.
Speaker 2: Respondent, Yeah, no, for sure, I respondent. Yeah. I just
think I think the two seven three six side of
the bracket is like you almost kind of want to
be like, all right, this is where we're gonna sit,
because we're gonna put the thunder out, you know, as
far as we can, and hope that they run into
say the Lakers or something. Oh sorry, they don't have
a d anymore, but somebody who has a big that's
gonna you know, beat them up.
Speaker 1: So but even still, I mean I like that idea,
like just avoiding the thunder as long as long as
they can. I I you know, I just I hope
Into It gets gets a home home playoff game, because
Into It for a home playoff game is gonna be
if anyone's watching, who's in the wall, shout out for
all you've done the wall was clutch tonight or some
some key periods. Yeah. Playoff wise, I'm like, it's all
just thrown into the mix now, like we don't we
don't know what's gonna happen. Like the King, I could
also see the Kings making like a stut, like a
dumb run, like like oh, the Kings are like the
eighth seed now for no reason, because they're obviously not
gonna win. All right, Yeah, I'm happy we're sticking in
the six going into the All Star Break because we
need there was a world they were down twenty to that,
like they could have easily lost this game, and it
has been.
Speaker 2: A lot different, right exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, do you have anything else you want to
say about the Clippers. I'm I'm about to head out.
I'm sleepy, I'm doing all the I'm taking All Star
Break on myself, got a little trip. Please please do it.
I just say James was incredible.
Speaker 2: James.
Speaker 1: Yes, we didn't talk about a lot of guys tonight,
which we apologize for. I guess he wasn't very good offensively.
Speaker 2: We will see that.
Speaker 1: Ben was great. Yeah, we we talked. I don't know,
it was a good time. All right. Sorry, you're you're
referendum on the Clippers. We don't know what. We'll have
you back next time. Joseph and I recorded a great
podcast once when we thought that Marcus Morris got traded
for Malcolm Brogden. Oh yeah, that was lost to the archives.
I was so excited everyone we traded fucking margains worms
for Malcabogin, we are going to the chip and then
they were like, psych, Malcolm Martin's too hurt.
Speaker 2: And then we kept for us anyway.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, hold on, I think your referendum should be
to the guy who was very late. Tell Clippers fans
how bad looked tonight and how they can feel about
Ben Simmons the rest of the season.
Speaker 2: Ben looked exactly how I said he was going to look,
and I was right and you were wrong. Okay, that's no.
He looked awesome. He really, He really did a great job.
Pushed the pace, made great passes, good rebounds, played solid defense,
even intact the basket a little bit, got to the
free throw line and was playing confident and you know,
game ty Streuss was playing down the stretch and played
big minutes. He that Tye literally shived one of the
sports science guys who came to tell him about his
minutes restriction. He was like, he's going back in the
game and there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 1: You said sports Science, And I was like, did they
do a segment about Ben Simmons on Sports Science? At
one point? Like Ben Simmons can throw a pass, as
fast as yeah, someone telling but to apologize to Ben
for what I wanted the Clippers to side him. All right,
I have to get out of here. Joseph I Award,
Thank you so much. For those of you who don't know,
Spain is an OG with Clippers coverage and Clippers podcasts,
you better get used to it. Maybe you'll be on more.
Let's hope. So We're not coming this one out on
audio because I'm too tired. I hope everyone has a
good all Star break. Here's to the Clippers coming back,
Straw getting the rest they need, and as always, let's
go clips