What Lies Ahead To End The Year For The LA Clippers

What Lies Ahead To End The Year For The LA Clippers

The LA Clippers are on a niname winning streak and are currently on a two-game losing streak and with Kawhi Leonard questionable for Monday’s game and another week of strictly home games what does this week mean for the Clippers what are the challenges that are facing

Them and how big of a week is it going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down Clippers Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Applause] Day yes sir you are locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on joh Clippers the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Daren vizeri born and raised in LA and in my 19th season as a Clipper fan you can

Also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at dim dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where I want

You to let me know what our record is going to be this week in the two games we have against the Charlotte Hornets and the Memphis Grizzlies both of those games coming at the Staple Center the crypto.com arena whatever you call it and this episode where we’re going to

Talk about those games is brought to you by game time game time is the best place to get great deals on last minute tickets game time has deals on tickets right up to the start of the event all you got to do is create an account and

Redeem code locked on NBA for $20 off Clipper Nation how we doing I hope you guys had a good Christmas if you celebrate with your families or doing whatever you do and now we’re ready for the home stretch of 2023 it’s been a great year for n

It’s been a good year for me I’d say I’d hope it’s been a great year for you it hasn’t necessarily been a great year for the clippers but all that matters is that we take the positive momentum into the new year 2024 and it’s all about closing strong this week and the last

Time I did one of these week previews we went 4 and0 and I said we got four home games and we took care of business well similar kind of thing right here but it’s only two games so my first takeaway when I saw the schedule for this week is that the Clippers

Actually have some rest we played against Boston on Saturday but on Sunday nobody played and on Monday for Christmas the Clippers didn’t play so he got two days off before this game on Tuesday now the big question is Kawhi Leonard going to play the beat writers listed him as

Questionable or the team listed him as questionable and the beat writers reported that and told us on Monday night that he is questionable for the game against Charlotte now look if it’s a situation where they’re really really scared he might get hurt again or might get bumped and aggravated or

Re-aggravated then you know what fine I’m not totally opposed to him taking one more game off missing three of the first 30 games we play the Charlotte Hornets who have lost seven games in a row without him get the job done and they can come back on Friday against

Memphis because that’ll now be over a week off for him which is Big Time right now and for it not to hurt us entirely too much if we that’s assuming we beat Charlotte not a big deal one and two without Kawai I can live with that especially given the competition that we

Played against with Boston and then at OKC but the rest in between Tuesday to Friday is good as well you get two days off and then we don’t have a game on Saturday we don’t have a game on Sunday our next game is actually on Monday and that one’s going to be

Against the Miami Heat that’s on New Year’s so the Clippers have two days off going into this game have been off for two days and then they’ll have two days off going into the Friday game against Memphis then they don’t play on Saturday and Sunday and then we play against

Miami so this is a great time for the players to get a little bit of rest more than they normally would and hopefully the main thing get kawh Leonard back to 100% and get him ready to play cuz Memphis and Miami those aren’t going to be easy games by any stretch but the

Fact that the Clippers are at home right now home for the holidays as well have that time off it should give them a little recharge cuz let’s let’s just do a little bit of ref reflecting right we won nine straight games we were the hottest team in the league kawi Leonard

Playing the best basketball that we’ve seen him playing the regular season since 2020 in my opinion even better than last season let’s take a look at his season stats right now at this point he’s averaging 24.4 points per game which is our leading score he is getting

Six rebounds a game 5.9 for the exact number and then three and a half assists per game but granted he’s still doing a good job playmaking and when we bring in a Russell Westbrook and a James Harden that’s going to take the ball out of his hands for those kind of situations and

Put the ball in his hands for more scoring situations whether it be catching and shooting from three which he’s been doing more of this season or catching the ball at the elbow catching the ball coming off screens which we’ve seen a lot more since we got Russ and

Then of course now even with James Harden being able to still have those looks where he’s catching the ball mid-range area mid post and just getting to isolate because you don’t want to just make kawhai a spot up off ball player you want want to give him the

Ball and let him work and a lot of times Kawai gets hockey assist too you know the pass to the assist because he gets so much attention but along with the 24 six and three and a half he’s averaging a steel and a half per game and if you

Round up he’s averaging a block a game as well and only one and a half turnovers per game for how much he has the ball in his hands that is a huge luxury to have your star player be low turnover which we were used to with Chris Paul but kawh

Obviously has given you a lot more scoring wise than CP3 ever did minutes wise he’s averaging 34 a half minutes a game now you compare that to last season he was averaging 33.6 minutes a game granted last season he was on a minutes restriction for a minute this season no

Pun intended there by the way this season not as much 2021 34.1 so point4 less and then 2020 32.4 he’s actually playing the most minutes that that he’s played in his entire career this season and honestly I didn’t even know that until I just said it to you that’s a little bit concerning

A little bit I love the way he’s playing he’s averaging more points than last season that’s great and I only think the numbers are going to go up he’s only averaging 04 points less than 2021 regular season but I think he’s going to average 25 plus points per game this

Season the way he’s playing and the way he’s trending I love it but I would like to see him average 33 minutes per game at the most last season he was at 33.6 2021 34 2020 32 2019 34 201733 2016 33 I’m listing out all those numbers just because there’s a common

Theme there and that’s that 33 minutes seems to always have been his sweet spot I know he’s missed games a lot more recently as a Clipper with the torn meniscus and and torn ACL technically the tornament iscus he didn’t actually miss any games just the playoffs he missed those three

Games and then he was out for the summer but he was back for opening night so that wasn’t actually I can’t say that wasn’t detrimental because we lost the playoff series in the first round in which we probably would have won in my opinion and I know Clipper Nation feels

The same way about that but Kawai 33 minutes seems to be like that sweet spot is and when we have a team of this stature this magnitude a super team kind of deal with three star players and then a guy that can be a star on a given night in Westbrook and

Norman poell who’s a Sixth Man of the Year kind of candidate you know we shouldn’t have Kawhi Leonard playing 34 minutes per game so hopefully that number will drop to 33 you don’t want him getting too burnt out as the season goes on but again I love that kawhai has really

Taken this challenge of playing all these games and playing the back to backs and it’s unfortunate what happen to him but if he’s back against Charlotte there’s nothing to worry about and we’re good to go if he misses Charlotte I’ll be a little more concerned than I already am which is a

Tad on a scale of 1 to 10 i’ say like a three if he misses the game I’ll be up to to maybe a four or five but if we get him back by Memphis that’s what I’m really hoping for and coming up I’m going to be talking about

The games a little bit specifically let’s talk about the Charlotte Hornets game let’s talk about the Memphis game what do these games mean for the clips I’m hoping that I’m seeing two and 0 this week gonna be talking about Charlotte coming up I got to tell you a little something

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Charlotte Hornets on boxing day as they say Tuesday December 26th I will be in the building I was at the game last year against Charlotte it was the game where it was actually the first game of the season and it was kind of around this time as

Well where we had everyone healthy I’m hoping well we won’t have Mason plumbley in this game but I’m hoping we get Kawhi Leonard back so have some similarities to that game and cruise to a victory over and banged up Charlotte Hornets team of course no lamelo ball in this

Game so the Clippers should absolutely win the Hornets have lost seven straight games the Clippers are better than them with or without Kawai they should take care of business get back to winning ways and then that game against Boston is a distant memory cuz in my opinion

You’re only as good as your last game in the NBA and H I wouldn’t say that fully but in terms of momentum and like what you feel going into the next game and right now we don’t have Kawhi Leonard in our last game so we’re not that great

But I think we can beat Charlotte and without Kawai we should not have too many problems their defense isn’t very good it’s it should be James Harden having a big game Russell West for get into the basket and Paul George dominating and you know what it has to

Start with Paul George and James Harden defensively uh uh mainly Paul George James Harden just needs to be better than against Boston and I think it’ll be easier to be good defensively against Charlotte than against Boston especially with the two-day rest because Clippers you know they did go go to Indiana then

To OKC and then you immediately have to play Boston you know it wasn’t we played another team as well it was I’m blanking right now Indiana Dallas yeah Dallas and then played OKC so that was a lot of travel we got a couple of days off I’m thinking we should get a blowout

We should blow them out seriously I mean we’ve had a lot of blowouts this season for us and it’s time to add another one to the list we’re 11 and4 at home let’s make a 12- four at home let’s see Norman pal have a bounce back game I think he’s

Going to because he had a bunch of great games and he didn’t play well against the Celtics but I think Charlotte’s a team where he’s going to be able to get to the rim turn the corner you know have those little dribble handoffs going to

His right uh or curls going to his right and he’s going to get Buckets and then James Harden you know didn’t have a very good game against the Celtics I think he’ll be able to cook the Hornets and hopefully Russell Westbrook has a good game as well um looking at the stats for

The Clippers I was talking about Kawhi Leonard in his minutes I also want to talk about the way he’s shooting this season 52% from the field and 43% from three and 88% from the line I mean that’s just spectacular all the way around but James Harden is also shooting really well this

Season as well and that’s something you can expect from James Harden over the years he’s pretty efficient uh in the regular season especially this season he’s averaging 17.3 points per game to go along with five rebounds and eight assists so 175 and eight as a third

Option on a team to go along with a steel and a half a game just like Kawai and he’s actually averaging Believe It or Not 0.1 more blocks than Kawai 8 so James Harden he’s had Super Active hands he’s averaging 33 and a half minutes per game which is actually for him lower

Than last season and it’s actually the lowest minutes he’s averaged since his OKC days he’s actually been one of the higher minutes guys in the league for the better part of 11 years and every single season since OKC he’s averaged 36 minutes a game bare minimum so it’s good

Because you know Russell Westbrook is with the Clippers as well so he’s going to have his minutes running running lineups and stuff like that and of course James Harden actually hasn’t been the third option much since those OKC days it was just the Brooklyn days and remember that first season KD Kyrie and

Harden barely shared the court together it was actually James Harden playing a lot of those games so he was more like a first or second option than a third and when I say third option I mean he was a third scoring option I think he was still a better player than Kyrie Irving

In 2021 and then in 2022 Kyrie Irving had the whole vaccine thing so James Harden and K Uh Kevin Durant were the duo and then of course with mbi’s the second guy so James Harden but he’s still shooting really well and I like those stats I mean five rebounds a game

It’s 4.8 is the exact number and assists eight eight a game 7.7 is the exact number you’ll take that a little bit of everything and then shooting 47% from the field and 43% from three and 87 from the line the 43% from three is absolutely awesome and here are the

Players right now shooting well from the Clippers or well from three for the Clippers here’s the shocking one the Daniel Ty he’s shooting 53% from three now granted he only averages 1 three-point shot attempt a game if he I didn’t think he was shooting that well

From three he needs to keep shooting we need to run more pick and pop for Daniel TI not just pick and roll and when I say pop I don’t mean just pop to the foul line let’s let him pop to the three-point line and let it fly if his

Percentage is that good I don’t think that’s sustainable but if he’s even in the 40s we should do that because it’s going to add an element to our offense that we haven’t had besides having surg for a little bit and that didn’t last very long a couple years ago let Daniel

T Let it Fly he’s shooting 52% from three that’s wild 53 that’s wild to me and here’s what’s not wild to me Norman pal shooting 50% from the field 45% from three and now he’s got his free throw percentage up to 872 and people were talking about trading him on Twitter

Before the season and early on you kidding me Norman pal is the perfect player to have alongside our Stars he can attack Closeouts he shoots an incredibly high percentage 50% from the field and 45 from three even if that’s not sustainable and he ends the season

At around 40 that’s what he’s been the last couple of years that’s who he is he’s a bucket he’s a bucket in this season he’s averaging 17 I’m sorry 13 points a game which is obviously down from last year but with the Personnel that we have you

Knew he was going to be down from last year last year 17 it would actually be his lowest scoring season since 20189 when they wion the championship but hey anything that’s similar to when they wion the championship sounds good to me so and he’s a better player than he was

Then there’s no doubt about that I love the efficiency and Norman pal has actually played every single game for the Clippers this year as has Russell Westbrook and iFit zubats those are the guys that have played 29 games all 29 for the clips as far as the other three-point

Shooters James Harden I already mentioned Kawhi Leonard I already mentioned they’re actually shooting the exact same percentage from three 42.9 Paul George 4% you got to love that he’s shooting 46% from the field 40% from three and 90 3% from the line he is our best free throw shooter besides Brandon

Boston and PJ Tucker have not missed a free throw this season but they don’t get real minute so Paul George is our best free throw shooter so those are great shooting splits for him too as far as the other guys in our rotation Kobe Brown he’s kind of broken

His way into the rotation he’s shooting 33% from three isn’t great Amir coffee 29 that’s not very good cuz he’s starting to get consistent minutes Russ 25 and then Terren 21 those three guys are in our ninan rotation right now and if it’s a zubot doesn’t shoot threes so that’s four guys

That are not necessarily three-point Shooters which is kind of a lot for today’s game let me know what you think of that coming up though so I’m taking the Clippers over the Hornets big time we swept them last year we should absolutely beat them again let’s get the job done beat the

Hornets next going to be be talking about the game against Memphis on Friday that’s going to be a big one and because of certain Nemesis ah he’s even our Nemesis but he is a menice on and off the court okay I got to stop John morand is back for the Grizzlies he’s not

Actually a menace seems like a good guy but we got to beat him and I’m G to talk about how we’re gonna beat him coming up I got to tell you a little something about game time game time is the best place to get great deals on last minute

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Friday they’re going to have a two-day rest Wednesday and Thursday they’re off after the Charlotte game after hopefully a win against Charlotte Memphis so they’re kind of back in the mix a bit and that’s because johnar is back and ever since he’s back they’ve won all three games and they

Haven’t been against slouch opposition either at New Orleans gamewinner by jaw against the Pacers beat him by 13 at Atlanta John Morant is back and he’s ready to Make Some Noise they’re 9-9 right now they’re not in the playing spots but we know the Memphis Grizzlies they’ve been

The second seed two consecutive Seasons they’re a great regular season team they’re a good team in general they’ve had some injuries this year major ones I mean jaw’s been out with obviously the suspension Xavier tilman’s been out here and there Step Adams is out for the year

Brandon Clark is still out our good old friend Luke Canard has been out and now Marcus Smart is out so Desmond Bane they jiren Jackson these guys have really been holding down the fort but they haven’t been playing well and now jaw’s back and they’ve won three straight

Games they’ve got the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday which is going to be a good game probably they already beat them and this one’s again at New Orleans and then they’re playing at Denver the night before they play us so that’s huge absolutely huge and that’s a nationally

Televised game on actually no it’s not but they’re playing Denver on the road on Thursday so hopefully they’ll be a little tired they’re going to have to travel from the altitude to La we got to get the job done and we’re on two days rest we got

To get the job done it’s going to be fun you know what’s interesting though johnar hasn’t played the Clippers at Staple Center since opening night and I know that because I went to the other game that season against them and he was out I think he might have been load

Managing that game or they might have been load managing him and then last year when we came back and beat them he didn’t play and I don’t remember us having another game against them at home but yeah it’s going to be a big one I think we’re going to get the win I

Think we’re going to go 2 and0 this week and I think we’re going to go get right back on track we’re going to be 20 and 12 which is a pretty solid record through 32 games and we’re going to be feeling good and hopefully I have no

Prediction on this but hopefully we get Kawhi Leonard back this week because look Miami that’s going to be a tough one absolutely that is not going to be easy next week and the schedule will get a little bit on the tougher side because after Miami we’ve got at Phoenix at New

Orleans at the Lakers and then against Phoenix and then it calms down for two games not really though I mean Toronto Clippers against Toronto at home should be okay and when I say at home I mean our home and but then at Memphis at Minnesota and then OKC after that so

January is going to be a really tough month month there are some tough games in there for us but you know what all we got to do is take it one game at a time and keep playing Clipper basketball Daniel Ty how about some more threes love the efficiency from kawhai Paul

George and James Harden overall this season can we get Kawhi Leonard back it shouldn’t matter on Tuesday night the Clippers just take care of business let’s get it done Terrence man hopefully this is a game he can get back on track I’m really praying for it maybe we can

Get some kind of chance going for him at the game on Tuesday I’m going to see what I can do to make it happen Let’s Do It Go Clippers let me know what you think you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod subscribe to my own

YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast let me know what you think our record is going to be this week the ageel proverb continues go Clippers

The LA Clippers are currently on a two game losing skid after their nine game winning streak was snapped on Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They have just two games this week, both at home. The status of Kawhi Leonard is questionable for Tuesday.

In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri talks about the beneficial rest that the team has this week. Then he looks ahead and makes predictions for the games this week against the Charlotte Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies.

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