Speaker 1: What's going on Clipper fans coming at you live here
from the Clips and Dip one of the Clips and
Dips studios. I am Chuck Mockler. The Clippers just beat
the Hawks behind a great game from Kawhi one of
his most encouraging games. I mean in their return for sure,
especially on the defensive side of the ball. Excuse me,
that's been something we've been looking for from him, which
is fantastic of each a Zubots. They could not really
deal with him at all down low they get He
got the ball late to help kind of ice this one.
But it is a good game. I mean the third
quarter of the Clippers won thirty five to eight, which
I don't know how often that will happen later on
in the season, but I don't know. It's a good game.
It's nice that the Clippers can come back to LA
with a win. They got the Hornets on Sunday and
then a very difficult stretch, but being able to beat
the Hawks and then getting this matchup against the Hornets
is great. But I mean, again, Kawhi Leonard fantastic on
both ends of the ball today tonight. This was his
best defensive game in his You know since his return.
I think hard team to play defense against since the
All Star Break. The Hawks were putting up like one
hundred and twenty one points per game since the All
Star Break and play at a pace it's a lot
faster than the Clippers. So being able to keep up
with them and make life difficult was really really encouraging.
Not ready to make any giant, you know, takes or
assumptions about the Clippers after this game, but they won
a game that they should have won, which is always
a bonus. Zoo had a really efficient game, only got
nine shots, but he still put up eighteen points. James
Harden had some turnovers early. I think he had four
in the first quarter or something, at least three, and
then he handed it with six, so he cooled it down,
which is good. What's up, Brian Rojas? What do you got?
Tyler does a great job of adjusting for the second
half of the game. Yes, yes, part of that. The
the jumping energy the Clippers had in the third quarter
to start was fantastic. It was really cool to see. Obviously,
their the Hawks couldn't hit water if they fell out
of the boat in that quarter, so that helped. But
the the energy before the Hawks started missing. Everything was
really awesome. You had Nico making good defensive plays. Chris
Dunn made really good defensive plays to open up the
second half. It was good. Got Simmons bogie director, Junior
Coffee have potential. Uh yeah, this was a good game
to understand why Ben Simmons is valuable to the Clippers.
I don't think anyone was really questioning that. But this
was a game where you see how good and helpful
Ben Simmons is in terms of bringing the ball up.
He played good defense, He was solid tonight. He didn't
obviously light it up from scoring, but he did everything
else that he was brought here to do, which is
more important than the scoring. So he did everything. It
was more important than the scoring tonight. Which is a
fantastic game from Ben Simmons. And he looked good out there.
He didn't look like he was worried about, you know,
the knee or anything like that, which is great. A
meror another efficient game. Seven guys in double digits for
the Clippers, which is great. This is a good This
is a nice like building block, maybe something starting to
happen when being able to get this win and then
if things go as they should against the Hornets. The
Clippers go into a really tough stretch with a lot
a moment but after the thunder, yeah, Kashgar's under then
away to the Knicks and then the Nuts and then
the Calves again. So a pretty tough stretch coming up
for the Clippers. Fantastic that they get this win ahead
of a game that they should be able to take
care of uh Sunday against the Hornets. But the Hawks tonight,
no one scored twenty points, which is awesome. I gotta
give a hats off to oh Konglu. He had an
absurd block on Dirk Jones Junior when the Hawks were
kind of making a weird little something happen and Tyler
had to call the time out. He had a really
good block on Dirk Jones Junior. Yeah, I think the
biggest takeaway from his gating drop years in the chat,
Kawhi looked great on both sides of the ball. Outside
shooting wasn't there, but I'm not super worried about that.
There was a good stat from Justin Russo about why
that I wanted to read out. Kawhi had at least
ten points in the paint tonight. Which is the fifth
time in his last six games. He'd only done it
twice all season before this current stretch of Kawhi scoring
in the paint. So that's encouraging, right. We got Kawhi using,
you know, slowing things down, being able to score in
the paint, which is huge that hadn't been happening. And
he looked really good defensively as well. So a very
encouraging Kawhi leaner game got to be hyped. On that,
Ryan Rojas asking do you see Norm playing Sunday or
should he hold off for the tougher games. Law Murray
was on pregame with Adam Mouzon, who I'm assuming most
of the other people are watching over on Clippers Talk,
and he said that Norm wasn't out, but he wasn't back,
so there's kind of some I got uncertainty, but in
a good way. So it seems like there's a decent
chance that he comes back for the tougher games. I
don't think he'll play Sunday, uh, but I think he
if they need him for those tougher games. I would
not be surprised if he's back. That's what lat Murray said.
I'm going with that when they need him back. Jeremy
Mormon with the great call here, Zoo's going to make
those double teams pay when Norman is in the opposite quarner.
So that's the other funny thing. Zoo's hitting this great
stride while he's seeing a lot more doubles with Norm out.
I don't know how much they're gonna double Zoo when
Norm is back, because, as you're pointing out, that would
be insane. So there's gonna Zoo's gonna have more opportunities
to be one on one, uh when Norm is back,
which is gonna be awesome because he is absolutely crushing it.
Alan's saying great second half. Yeah, thirty five to eight
quarter again, probably won't happen in game, but will absolutely
take it. Yeah, Sam Frank's pointing this out. Zoo had
a couple uh different spin moves to buckets tonight. The
low post footwork was really awesome to see from Zoo.
He was absolutely killing it and again making good reads. Yeah, Zoo,
I think things are again. I think things are only
gonna get better for Zoo. He closed tonight. He played
thirty minutes, went two of three from the line, which
has been kind of bad. This year, which is weird,
but Zoo's got I think Zoo's even has more good
games coming because when Norm comes back, they're not gonna
be doubled off Norm, assuming Derrek Jones Junior is gonna
be in the starting lineup or Nico with toomb Nico
had a great game tonight too. Nico has played some
really good basketball over the last like two weeks or so.
He spent He was phenomenal. I know, seven boards. I
didn't realize it was that many. He had one of everything,
including a turnover. But who cares, goofy. It wasn't awesome win.
Ben Simmons looked solid. Guy Hilaire is not impressed with
Zoo's defense tonight. Yeah, I guess that's fair. I will
say I don't watch a lot of the Hawks, but
Okongo had a really good game. He seems good and
annoying to play against. The Hawks did a lot of
damage against the Clippers. I mean, obviously early in this
one of the Clippers came out kind of slow. They
had nine turnovers in the first quarter. I want to say, yeah,
it was a lot of turnovers, but the Hawks had
had eight, so I mean that wasn't that big a deal,
but this was a game. I think also that a
better team would have made, a better defensive team would
have made this game a lot harder for the Clippers.
Because a game you have a quarter where you turn
the ball over nine times but you only lose a
turnover battle by one, that that's pretty good. And the
Hawks are bad at defense. So coming into this game,
the Hawks were twenty fifth in defensive running and they
were top ten, but they were top ten to three
point shooting, So the early three point shooting from the
Hawks made sense. That carried over, but the bad defense
also carried over to they had eight turnovers in the
third quarter when they only scored eight points, also disastrous
for that. Dunn was unreal on defense but unplayable on offense.
From Miles Johnson, it's part I mean, we're gonna see
what it looks like in the playoffs, because in the
regular season it's fine when everyone else is playing well. Again,
seven guys in double digits tonight, did Dunn even score? No,
Dune didn't even score and he was still plus three.
I'm chuckling because it's the regular season. I think in
the playoffs it's gonna be interesting to see what Dun's
usage is and what lineup season. I think Dun's gonna
be used more when the Clippers go five out with Well,
but then if Simmons is out there, then you don't
have as much shooting. But if you could go really
weird five out where you go like Norm Harden, dumb
Kawhi batoom, but I don't know that's weird, It's gonna
be interesting to see when it turns out the playoffs
because we need his defense. His defense is phenomenal. He
is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA.
But he's Yeah, it's not good, goofy aback saying. Speaking
of DJ Nico, all the credit to them. They're probably
the most consistent to slate stretch. Good call. They've had
some good game Derek Jones juner since his return to
You see what difference he makes for this team. The
athleticism was crazy. We had a really good put back
dunk in the first I think that was the first,
but it was good. Shit. I want to know how
many free throws the Clippers ended up with. The Clippers
ended up with twenty free throws, which is crazy because
at half they only had four, so the Clippers got
six teen free throws in the second half, which was
a very big help. I'll have to check once they
update it, but I assume a fair amount of those
happened in the third as well. Would be my guess.
Done played great against t Young. That is more important
than his offense, to be honest. The issue with that, though,
is better defense is than the Hawks are going to
funnel the ball towards Chris Dunn. I will said, Ryan Done,
because your name is Ryan. So that's the issue. Like,
the Hawks are bad at defense statistically, but teams like
the Thunder and stuff will figure out ways for Chris
Dunn to get the ball in his hands on the perimeter.
We saw it tonight. There was a couple of times
where it was Done and Nico, who were all the perimeter,
and the Hawks left both of them, and then Nico
ended up getting the ball. So I it's gonna be
I know, he's a very, He's an elite defender. I'm
not crediting that part at all. Yes, Miles Harden at
twenty seven points per game post All Star is super impressive. Yeah,
I think someone else said in the chat that this
is like a very. It's very encouraging that he has
this much in the tank. Still fair amount of games left,
but yeah, I mean, the dude just keeps going. I
don't he was fantastic tonight. The turnovers look bad, and
they were bad to start this game, for sure, but
then he chilled out on the turnovers, which was great.
It wasn't a consistent thing. The hands were really active.
I mentioned Nico and Dunn and the third being really
good at defense, but harden was had had active hands
too in the passing lanes. So it was a really
nice collective effort defensively. In the third I heard the
Clippers called the Bulls for Ao Jsunmu funny story. That
was my pick in the Lockdown h NBA mock draft
one year, I said that the Clipper should draft Day.
I'm just gonna that would be cool. I don't know
what they would do about that because it's past the
trade deadline. Good to see Tyler back. I haven't even
mentioned that he's been out with back stuff. So happy
that Tyler was back. Gotta win. That was cool, just
a kind of It was a it was a little
uneasy to start, but yeah, Ryan's saying their defense, their
defense did look good to start that third quarter the
way the Clippers came out though. We got to see
the Clippers use defense in the offense and it was awesome. Yeah,
the Hawks and the Hawks' defense went back to the mead,
which is bad post All Star break. So that's kind
of where we're at. Sam Franks, I just want to
see this team healthy. Ben Simmons looking good too, Yeah,
I yeah, I agree. I would like to see this
team healthy as well. We're getting there. Norm Powell probably,
he's is seemingly in the mix for the games after
the Hornets game for what Law Murray said over on
Clippers Talk before the game tonight, So that's encouraging. So
they're pretty close to healthy. They're like probably five days
away from having a full rotation for the first time
in a long time. Just pretty rad. So I don't
think we'll have to wait too long. We might have
to give Norm some Grace's got to get back into
these missaffair amount of games. He's got to get back
to the groove. But the team is gonna have the
full roster pretty soon. Goofyah saying random, but are you
faithful in us beating the Wolves in the plane to
get the preferred prison playoffs. I hope the Wolves lose tonight.
I think so it's not I'll have to go back
and look at the matchups more. But if the Clippers
kind of keep trending in this way, if Kawhi keeps trending,
I mean, it's a good point too. If Kawhi keeps
trending the way he started hopefully to tonight. Defensively, I
like it a lot. I like it the chances. I'm
not overwhelmingly excited, but I like the chances, and tends
to have some good games against the Clippers, which is
nervous making. But if Kawhi can put together these more
performances like the saw like the one we saw tonight. Defensively,
I mean and offensively, he was great, obviously, but we've
seen that a lot more since he's been back, as
opposed to the defense. So if he can get the
defense going more like it was tonight, if Harden can
continue to be insane, if norm can bring back the
efficient scoring, as as Sam said, if this team could
just get healthy, stop me if you've heard that one before,
I mean, yeah, the playing game, I feel pretty good
about bog Good. Vogdanovic also tonight two for two from three.
His ability to hit open three or any three is
really and be able to put the ball before it's
going to be huge. Uh, someone's saying that, Yeah, they're
they're figuring it out like the Warriors. The Clippers are.
There's there's seeds planted of the Clippers starting to figure
it out themselves. Once Norm gets back, that's let's talk
about the field. Once Norm gets back, that's a big
help too. But without Norm, who isn't like a plug
and play guy, but he's still a guy who can
get back into the offense pretty easily. If they go
with the lineup that I think they'll go with, which
is Norm. Harden Kawhi Derek Jones Junior Adam said maybe
so maybe Beatum two who knows in Zoo. I think
they can start figuring things out too, which is good.
And again this is conditional on the Clippers playing well.
On Sunday, the Hornets scored one hundred and forty six
points to day versus the Spurs. God damn, that's a
lot of points. Did they win? Okay? Yeah, they also
gave I don't know, I don't yeah, I mean get
it out of their system now, I guess that's fine
with me. Score one hundred and forty six points against
who's even healthy for this person? Damn not anyone that good.
I'm happy they scored one hundred and forty six points today, right,
shouldn't we want that to happen today? Right? If Norm
is back, who gets moved out? I think we don't
really know. There's no real indication to know, because we've
seen a couple different starting lineups, and we've had Derick
Jones Junior out too, So maybe Ty saw something that
he liked. I think they should go with what it
had been consistently for a while when everyone was healthy,
which was harden More Kawhi, Derek Jones Jr. Bots In
my head, it's simple, but I maybe I have it
just a simple brain, So I'm gonna go with that.
I could also see. I don't know, if you put
Nico in Derek Jones junior spot, you don't go three guards,
you know, I don't think you go. I don't think
Ty goes hardened Norm done Kauhisu. That feels crazy because
they've played with traditional size positionally throughout the year, So
I think I think they go back to what the
usual I'm not gonna say regular. Whatever. The version of
regular is, this version of the Clippers, that's what it is.
They like DJ scoring up a bench they I'm sure
they do, but I mean, Nico, he did play twenty
two minutes tonight. Maybe they're ramping them up because I
mean a bench of Bogden, Derek Jones, Junior, Ben Simmons,
Emir Chris Down that's not bad. It's not a bad bench. Um, yeah,
you absolutely nailed it, nailed it. I also think, yeah,
you can't do three guards. He's not gonna do three guards.
But we've we've been traumatized with that before. And I
don't necessarily like this. But Adam and Will said on
the last pot too, that it's gonna be a little,
uh matchup dependent for the playoffs. Whatever the Clippers play
in the regular season, they probably won't have the same
line up for the playoffs. It just feels like there's
been having to be too much experimentation. Again, we've said
this before. You could probably go back three hundred and
sixty five days and hear one of us say this
take again. You know what I mean. But like that's
where we're at. What's up center? J ruh, Ryan Rowhouse.
Would it be weird for Simmons to start and move
down to the bench once Norm is back? Yeah, I
think so, mostly because we've seen what the bench looks
like when Dunn has to initiate the offense or something
like that. I don't. I don't think they moved. I
think it would be weird. Uh, Dun's moved to the bench.
Either way, once Norm is back, the offense needs it.
It's not like the offense really needs to have Norm
Harden an offensive Norm Harden and Kawhi with Derreck Jones
Junior at the four or let's say Nick patuone at
the four and it beats the Zoo Bots. Sure you
lose some defensively, but the offense is so much better.
And that's what the Clippers have had issues with and
if they can get it figured out, especially for the
slower playoff stuff, I think that that's great, but you
can't as many shooters out there as you can have.
I think it's what the Clippers go with. And Ben
Simmons is also he plays he plays a role of
do everything except for shoot, so he really has to
initiate the offense for the second unit because no one
else can't. He's the second best guy doing it on
the team. Done is not good at bringing ball as
the ball up the court though, which is the issue.
It's kind of I don't know if it's a problem
that the Clippers have with the rotation, but it's definitely
like we're all kind of wondering what's going on. Right.
It doesn't feel like there's a lot of bad options,
but I feel like everyone's kind of like, what's going on. Well,
it's not bad to overthink it because the Clippers again
have so many guys where it's like, sure I could
see him starting, but you know what I mean. But
Harden rm kwaibatum zoo not mad at that. It seems
like I'm gonna have to check it's Niko's. I'm gonna
have to I'm looking at Nico's minutes so far thirty
three four, okay, so not incredible. They're not like ramping
him up really or anything like that, I guess, or
maybe they are because Nico's starting is not bad. He
does a lot of good things. He was so crucial
in the third tonight. Him and Done who I know,
but him and Donners really we're really good in the
third quarter of tonight again, I scored eight. I know,
but Tyler's also said a lot of other things. Uh
Done is not very good at bring the ball up
to the court. I just don't think they're starting Ben Simmons,
and I think it just no. And I don't think
like you can't like you're gonna have Norm on the bench,
like you can't start Harden Norman done. I don't know
if play through Zoo exactly, but maybe give him some
more options. It's gonna look when Norm comes back, the
Zoo shot diet is gonna be very interesting because even
tonight he had nine shots. So when Norm comes back,
because he's gonna have to get going and stuff like that,
Zoo's gonna have better matchups. Is he going to get
I mean, I'm assuming gonna be the same amount of shots,
but this is the Zoo shot diet he's gonna have.
He's been fantastically efficient, but his shot diet is going
to be very interesting once Norm gets back. I don't
think they're gonna be playing through Zoo. I don't think.
I mean, if the Kawhi looks like he looks tonight
and Harden keeps doing these things, Zoo is needed for sure,
when things get sticky and whatnot, I think they should
play through Zoo a little bit more. But when Norm
comes back, what does that look like for Zoo. So
there's some questions that need to be figured out by TYLERU.
But again it's that scenario of like it's all, it's
all like it doesn't seem bad. Yeah, yeah, you played
with the fifty million player. But yeah, uh so Tyler
has some stuff to figure out. But the Clippers will
probably be I mean, they'll have the full rotation in
a week for sure, But I think the big I'm
about to head out in a few But I think
the biggest takeaway again from this game for me uh
Kawhi Leonards defense looking really good at his best defensive
game in a minute. He looked good when he came
back against the Hawks two. But this is a good
point Ryan. He has been getting doubled more. That will
happen less with Norm coming back. So I think the
shot diet will probably stay. Actually exactly the same is
what it is. I don't think he'll have any twenty
field goal with ten games, maybe on the back to back.
We don't know what norms. You know, minutes looks like
or something like that, So I think, actually, this is
a good point. I think it'll probably stay the same.
But yeah, here's to the Clippers winning against the Hornets
on Sunday. The Hornets put up a shit tonn of
points against the Spurs, so let's hope it's out of
their system. That would be pretty cool. Biggest takeaways Kawhi
Leonards defense looking good, Zoo being efficient was fantastic. Harden
children on the turn of everyone was pretty efficient. Everyone
shot above fifty percent except for Chris Dunn, who shot
zero percent and Ben Simmons who shot twenty five percent.
Everyone else was above fifty percent tonight. So a lot
went right for the Clippers shooting wise, which is awesome.
They were able to make a Hawks team that had
scored like a buck twenty since the All Star Break
every game feel uncomfortable and whatnot. It wasn't pretty the
whole game, you know, but they held a team. They
held the Hawks to twenty points below what they had
been scoring since the All Star Break. Part of that
is a huge third quarter that involved really good energy
to open the frame, really good defensive play to lead
the offense, and the Hawks just losing their minds. Thirty
five to eight is one of the craziest quarters you'll
see all season. Ryan ROAs bad energy out there saying,
diavante revenge game on Sunday. Probably at this point, Sure,
what did he put up tonight? Hold on, how many
did he put up? They also, they put up one
hundred and forty five. They won by eleven musahds zero points.
That's very funny, that's hilarious. I'm Diabat's part. I'm glad
he's getting right. He didn't get that much run. But again,
they put up one hundred and forty five, they won
by eleven. The Clippers have a chance, I know, I'm
kind of talking to it right now, which I know
usually do. The Clippers have a chance to have the
start two thirds of a wind streak going heading into
a really tough week if they can get by the
Hornets on Sunday. I really hope they keep playing the
same defense and whatnot. Yeah, let's hope this Kawhi defense
keeps going. He's gonna have a chance to really show
it up off after this game against the Hornets because
they have great I love it. That's awesome. And when
Norm comes back, it should be better. Yeah, this this
team again, it's not like there we go. It's not
like you know, I don't there's the building blocks have
been started, you know, to be carved out. I guess
it's how I feel about this Clippers team right now.
They have a lot to show us in terms of consistency,
especially against good teams. They have a brutal schedule coming up. Calves, Grizzlies,
thunder All at home thankfully, and then the Knicks in
New York. This starts after the game against the Hornets,
so they're going really low to really high with who
they're who they're playing. Hey, thanks, goofy. I have a
good one with who they're playing. So like, if they
can go and we're gonna do a full episode on
Monday for y'all, myself, Will and Adam Calves, Grizzlies, thunder Knicks,
if they split that, I'm pretty happy with a two
and two over that stretch, because any of any of
the two wins are good. Even if you say in
your head, if you go, oh, well, okay, so the
Knicks is the easiest one easiest they beat the Knicks,
that means they're beating one of the Grizzlies, Calves or Thunder.
I would like them to beat the Western Conference team
one of them. That would be great, but any of
these wins would be good to get one hund This
is where we found out what we're made of. They should,
I don't. They're gonna get norm back at some point
in this stretch. Unclear when it's gonna be LOAMRII did
allude to it on clipperstock, which is sick. But this
is where we find out, kind of with the good momentum,
if they can get to win on Sunday, which they should,
I mean like they should be able to do that,
there's gonna be some seeds planted. Yes, Norma is going
to get back in the rotation. He's probably gonna be
back with it a week, is what it seems like.
So it's gonna be a good time. We are gonna
learn a lot about this team. I'm not ready to
change my prediction of probably a first round exit New Real.
No more complaining when we win by twenty plus fair
the Clippers need wins by twenty one. That's very funny.
That's a good bit. Uh, norm Is I keep saying
I'm gonna leave, but I'm not Norm is getting reevaluated.
We don't know when. I don't know that information has
not been public yet, but from what we heard from
Lot Murray on Clippers Talk, it seems like Norm is
seemingly available for this tough stretch of games. Not sure
if it happens on Sunday, but they have a really
tough stretch of games, and like people have been saying,
this is where we find out what the team is
made of. And there's not that much time left, so
we got to see where it goes. There's I'm not
ready to be excited yet because we've all been hurt
before a million times the same way by the Clippers team.
But I'm leaning into it a little bit. We'll see
where I'm at after the game on Sunday. If you
want to watch our episode before this, Adam I previewed
this game. You can find all the on the channel.
Subscribe to Clips and dip. It's at Clippers Podcast on YouTube.
Thanks for hanging out. We'll have a full episode with myself,
Will Updike and Adam Osme. He's on Clippers Talk. Go
listen to him and let's go clips. Let's there's something
maybe starting to kind of be figured out, is how
I feel about the Clippers. And that's without Norm coming back.
So when Norm gets back, we will be in full
on something definitely maybe is possibly happening for the Clippers.
See you next time. Here's to beating the hornets. Please
don't put us into purgatory before we go into this
very brutal stretch. All right, we'll see all it