How The LA Clippers Kept On Cooking In The South

How The LA Clippers Kept On Cooking In The South

The LA Clippers won their third straight game and made it 22 of their last 28 and 17 out of their last 20 with the win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night it was a very short-handed Memphis team but it ended up being the season

High for Paul George what was the key to unlocking the Clippers offense how did they run away with this game and is there anyone playing better right now than the Clippers going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down we’re rolling on all cylinders clip yeah

Yes sir you are locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on 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 where I was directly live after Friday night’s game to break it down and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube or I want you to let me know who you

Thought was the player of the game in this one if there was and if there was anything that concerned you and I don’t want it to be the Bench Warmers I get it second game in a row where the Bench Warmers or the third stringers kind of

Allowed the other team to make a run but I don’t take that seriously at all the game was already in the refrigerator I’m not going to say anything about the fourth quarter in this episode Clippers did get outscored in that quarter 40 to 28 but they were fine the rest of the

Way and they led by as many as 23 in this game and won it one 28 to 119 to move on to 25 and 13 on the season we’re back to 500 away from home and 9 and N we are 22 and six since we made the change of putting Russell Westbrook on

The bench and bringing terce man to the starting lineup we’re 17 and three in our last 20 we’ve won three in a row we’ve won eight out of Nine the Clippers are absolutely rolling right now the only loss in the last nine was that Laker game and of of course the three

Losses were the Lakers and then the two without kawhai against Boston and Oklahoma City there are not many teams playing better than the Clippers right now but before we do that let’s just talk about the game and the game we’re playing against the Memphis Grizzlies team that was severely short-handed no

John Morant who’s out for the year no Brandon Clark who’s out until at least like February no Stephen Adams who’s out for the year no San Alama who’s been one of their leading scorers no Marcus Smart so you had to come in and expect the Clippers to take this one by the Scruff

Of the neck and and it actually took a while it was a very slow start sloppy offense you know Grizzlies were switching a lot yet had Xavier Tilman guarding Kawai Desmond Bane guarding Paul George Vince Williams guarding James Harden jiren Jackson and Tilman would split time on Kawai but it’s just

A lot of switching from Memphis so you know it’s going to force a lot of one-on-one play and in the beginning the Clippers didn’t fully get going with that and on the Clippers side we’re going to switch one through four obviously and I thought we did a pretty

Good job defensively the whole game now one thing I noticed that we were doing was we were blitzing Desmond Bane Mike ftell called that out in commentary and part of the reason we do that is because he’s such a good pull-up shooter and The Grizzlies are not shooting well from

Three this season so you Blitz him make him get rid of the ball make somebody else beat you and you know the funniest part is that Memphis actually shot really well from three they shot 40% 41% from three in the game but from the field they only shot 43% and from the

Free throw line 70% whereas the Clippers shot 55% from the field 48% from three they actually didn’t shoot that well from the line this game for a change they’ve been shooting really well from the line lately just 15 for 20 in this one but the three-point percentage by

The Clippers 48% we’re second in the league right now behind Oklahoma City in three-point percentage and it’s by like4 percentage points we could be the best three-point shooting team in the league this year by season’s end and that’s never a bad stat to have never cuz we already play defense I’m excited about

The possibility because what I love is that the Clippers don’t take too many and there’s a lot of people including in Clippers brass that wants the Clippers to take more threes I think this is why we’re always top in percentage because we don’t overdo it we have Harden now so

We’re going to take more but we don’t overdo it I always believe in taking the right threes and taking more if you have rhythm then we got to take this many number of Threes going into the game because the math I just I’m not a fan of

That approach I think you got to I think basketball is a game where you have to read and react and see how things are going and yeah of course in today’s NBA you basically have to shoot 33s a night but I think the way you run your offense

Generates that naturally I don’t think you need to force stuff if that makes sense but blitzing Desmond Bane forcing other guys to beat us and they started out actually winning 26 to 23 after the first we were just really cold just weren’t making shots Paul George funny

Enough in the first quarter he was actually one for five the rest of the game 11 for 13 the guy caught fire and it started in the second half of the second quarter uh where he just started going off he hit four threes four threes in the I’m sorry three threes in

The second quarter four in the first half he had 13 points in the second and it was just coming easy to him he played the whole quarter he and uh James Harden and it was funny I think they kind of split it James Harden in the first half

Of the second quarter was dominating everything he was Finding guys on pick and rolles whether it be Ty for a lob he found air coffee for a double drag Corner three then he had a floater he had a four-point play he kind of took over the game you know and and James

Harden I like the way he’s been selective about the time that he’s taken over the game and really put you know gone into his ball dominance and sometimes the Clippers allow that and it pays off with good stretches of offensive basketball Paul George though in the second half of the quarter as I

Said he just got really hot hitting contested shots step backs in the right corner I just love the way Paul George has been shooting the ball lately it’s been a nice mix it feels like the mix that he’s always wanted of catch and shoot looks shots coming off screens and

Then some isolation in there and I think he’s kept in Rhythm and what’s amazing is he hasn’t really been getting to the foul line like that let me see how many free throws he got in this game he got six free throws in this game

And he made all six so I love to see that but his jumpers just been falling lately and I know one of my problems with Paul George is he falls too in love with that threebond contested jumpers but let me tell you something when it’s

Going in by all means take them if if it’s going in and you’re feeling it keep taking them and Paul George has been scorching hot from Deep lately just scorching hot but yeah he really took over Clippers were up by 12 at halftime the second quarter we shot 16 for 20

From the field and 7 for 10 from three and it was a mix of everything Amir coffee had a great quarter he actually had seven points in the second so you had James Harden with eight in the second Paul George with 13 and Amir coffee with seven so just off those

Alone those three players you have 28 points in the quarter Russell Westbrook he actually didn’t play the quarter at all I’ll talk about him a little bit later um um but yeah what an electric second quarter for the clips and that’s where we really created separation we LED 4227 or outscored them

4227 in the second quarter and we had a 65- 53 lead at the half both teams were shooting well from three it’s crazy cuz at one point in the first quarter Memphis actually had a seven-point lead and so it wasn’t like it was always easy but also didn’t mention this but

Some Norm curls in the second quarter NM um NM Norm curling from left to right getting a couple of buckets and I thought Daniel Ty was really good as well throughout the game but also just in that first half I thought he you know he hit that open three he took from the

Top of the key finishing around the basket feeding off of James Harden or Russell Westbrook good defense switching a lot active at The Rim got a couple of blocks and had an amazing Outlet pass to Paul George in that second quarter that was amazing I haven’t really seen that from

Um what’s his name from Daniel Ty so really cool to see that and then in the third quarter I mean it’s really not much to say it was 35 to 26 in favor of the clippers but the fourth quarter right before the Grizzlies made their little run their fake run Paul George he

Had 13 points to put the Clippers up 124 to 104 and there was a couple times they were just switching sorry 15 points in the fourth on five for six shooting there were a couple times they were just switching that Jake laravia guy onto him and I was like what are they thinking

Here like you want this guy to Guard Paul George and Paul just rose up over the top and was just draining in his face mid-range turnarounds actually I don’t know if he hit a turnaround but mid-ranges 18f Footers he was in his bag and when PG is in his bag he’s one of

The most aesthetically pleasing players to watch in the NBA I thought defensively he was pretty good as well and the team defense was it was okay it could be better but again 40 points in the fourth quarter that that doesn’t really move me I thought the defense was

Pretty solid Paul George season high for him love to see it and it felt so effortless too 37 points three rebounds one assist two steals he did turn the ball over four times though that’s one thing you’d like to see that him keep down we turned the

Ball over in this game 12 times so he got a third of them that’s not good but two of them were ridiculous double dribbles that he fumbled the ball they weren’t actually double dribbles in my opinion so bad calls he shot 66% from the field 70 from three and 100 from the

Line 12 for 18 from the field 7even for 10 from Three 6 for six from the line in 35 minutes podcast P continues to play an extremely high level he is playing at a very high level right now he absolutely unequivocally deserves to be deserves to be an All-Star he’s

Increased his average in the last couple of games from 23 points a game now he’s averaging 24 points a game he’s averaging the exact same amount of points that he did last year 23.8 and he’s shooting 47% from the field which is His Highest of his career wow if it was to

End if if the season was to end today he’d be shooting the highest field goal percentage of his career and he’d be shooting the highest three-point percentage of his career with 42 and the highest free throw percentage with 92 let’s see if that stays but Paul George

Has only missed two games this season we’re 25 and 133 and that’s not coincidence put some respect on Mr podcast and coming up going to be talking about the Clippers and why they are just so hard to beat right now I got to tell you a little something

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And final matchup of the season this year beating them by a score of 128 to 19 we win the season series against them three games to one we should have been fored know that first game at home with James Harden was insanely disappointing it looked like a completely discombobulated team entirely

But I’ll tell you this the Clippers continue to improve with each passing game and that is what you want to see actually we haven’t played the gries a second time in Memphis yet I don’t know why I said that we playing them on February 23rd so never mind the season

Series is not over it’s two to one Clippers we’ve won the last two games but we should win that last one because they have so many injuries doesn’t even matter why is it so hard to beat the Clippers right now we just have twoo much talent on most nights that’s the

Simple fact we have too much talent on most kns I haven’t even mentioned Kawhi Leonard who I thought was very good yet again right now kawh Leonard is playing better than any Clipper we have ever seen and that’s not surprising but it’s amazing to say that it’s amazing to be

In the moment and acknow it and not be insanely worried I mean I am still worried in the back of my mind about you know the I word but right now it’s not happening and I’m going to keep knocking on wood I’m G to keep mentioning it

Knocking it on I’m going to keep mentioning it and knocking on wood because you guys have seen it seems like the formula I’m obviously joking guys don’t take me seriously here but it seems like the formula is me mentioning the fact that they haven’t been injured every single game because it just right

Now I I it’s so I can’t even believe what I’m seeing I can’t believe it 38 games into the season we’re 25 and 13 and kawai’s only missed four games I’m going to look like such a clown if he stays healthy for the whole season in

Playoffs and I want to be a clown I’ll put a red nose on on this show I thought this era was cooked because of health and right now they’re showing don’t give up so soon we still got something and I’ll tell you this you might be thinking

Don’t say this now it’s the playoffs haven’t started it doesn’t matter you need good health in the regular season to be a good playoff team 90% of the time 99% of the time cuz you build good habits that’s what it is that’s what’s all that’s what it’s all about in the

Regular season and that’s why this Clipper team this year it genuinely feels different because it is different it’s not just that we have James Harden it’s not that just that we have Westbrook from the beginning of the season it’s the top- down approach to attack every game with the feeling of

Let’s win every game we can and let’s see where we’re seated at the end let’s see let’s try to get as high a seed we can as we can not let’s just wait till the playoff seat we’re healthy and then wherever we are we’ll let the chips fall

Where they may that’s not how you win championships that’s not how you build good habits you you have to respect the regular season and the Clippers have emphasized that before the season even tipped off and they have backed up every last word so far and it starts with the

Approach of playing every single game from our players and our medical staff whoever was in charge of those decisions kawh in this game defensively sharp backline protection as we’ve seen throughout the season jiren Jackson Jr uh was the guy that he was guarding a lot Paul George same thing and he was

Held to 6 for 20 from the field Desmond Bane three for 11 from the field and jiren by the way jiren Jackson he shot one for eight from three so the Clippers are going to live with those kind of shots the leading score for Memphis was jiren Jackson with 21 points but kawh

Leonard mid he had eight points in the first quarter his contested mid-ranges beautiful he had that turn he had a turnaround into a double team in the first quarter turnar around over his left shoulder in the right corner into jiren Jackson coming and doubling you and he still made it his shot making

Ability is just amazing the fact that he legit just does not have bad defensive games is also an incredible luxury for your best player and in this game he had 22 points seven rebounds four assists two steals two blocks just one turnover on another incredibly efficient night of

10 for 16 from the field two for five from three sadly he did not get any free throw attempts but man as efficient as it gets for Kawai I am really starting to get used to seeing him play on a nightly basis and it is what I felt in

2020 before the bubble and I haven’t felt that feeling since uh 2021 I was was still so mad about the bubble I just like didn’t buy into it all until the playoffs when I say buy into it I just mean I didn’t believe I still watched

Every single game and did a breakdown of it but I just didn’t really believe until the playoffs that we could go to the Conference Finals I just felt like something bad was going to happen because that that was my like after the bubble how could you not feel that way

However and then last year like right when I was starting to get used to seeing kawhai play as a Clipper injuries I’m really starting to get used to it right now seeing him live and I think I have I have gotten used to it which is crazy because it’s been 5 years but

Better late than never right and it was on the verge of being I just never really got used to seeing kawhai play as a Clipper live now I’m getting used to it and I love it it’s exactly what I envisioned it’s exactly why I said July

5th 2019 was one of the best days of my life because that was a huge moment for this organization huge Monumental Russell Westbrook I thought he brought some great intensity off the bench in the sense I thought in the first half he had some

Good and some bad he had a made three he got to the paint a couple of times and fed it off to zoo there was one possession where he did a really good job of navigating when they kept going under the screen he kept getting a

Rescreen and then he you know when the guys go under the screen there’s a little bit of Separation if you can hit a burst there and try to get by them on that separation even though they’re back even though they’ve stepped had a couple uh taken a couple steps back that’s one

Way to try to beat it sometimes you just don’t create enough separation because the guy is already a couple steps behind you waiting but Russ he has such a great uh First Step he burst by Drew a second second Defender and dropped it off to zoo outside the restricted area for one

Of those little push shots I thought Russ had some good moments of just getting to the paint and making things happen and he just consistently gets in the paint and that’s one thing you love to see in this game though he didn’t play that much 16 minutes 12 points it

Was great to see him in double figures though 12 points two assists two rebounds just one turnover five for 11 from the field so again you like to see Russ keeping it efficient one for three from the line though you like to see at least one of those one more of those go

In and then one for three from Deep what do I always say when Russ shoots two threes if he’s 0 for two don’t shoot anymore if he’s one for two you can take that third if you miss that third don’t shoot the fourth he listen in this one one for three from d

I thought Russ getting double figures Off the Bench getting Russell westbr his intensity Off the Bench it always helps um I thought James Harden as I said very good 11 points nine assists defense was a little bit lazy but I’m not going to complain too much three for seven from

The field two for four from three and three for three from the line so not that many shots for James Harden he did have the ball though a lot he played 28 minutes and he was the highest in the plus minus of any Clipper with a plus 20

And that showed with that second quarter run that he sparked us to be on Amir coffee he was excellent on both ends of the floor he continues to play really well had some followay going to his left I love the brew master I love that this trade has given him the opportunity to

Play consistent minutes and be part of this rotation because he’s one of our homegrown guys and he really deserves it he’s a solid player we’ve known this for a while kawhai said it after the game that in 2022 you know that’s when he got a lot

Of rest and he just hasn’t had a chance Amir in this game 13 points on six for six shooting didn’t miss one shot one for one from three very solid game from him in 26 minutes of play and yeah coming up going to keep talking about other Clipper players IIT zubot teren

Man Daniel Ty Norman Powell and then GNA be talking about a real thing a real question is anyone better in the Clippers right now let’s talk about it coming up I got to tell you a little something about prize picks prize picks is the best daily fantasy sports platform in

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Daily fantasy sports Made Easy all right so to finish things off with the Clippers 128 119 win over the Grizzlies their third win in a row eight in nine games 17th in the last 20 and 22nd in the last 28 Daniel TI mentioned him just everywhere seven points five

Rebounds four assists getting better in those short roll situations two Steals and three blocks no turnovers plus 14 in 22 minutes on two for four shooting one for one from three excuse me two Steals and three blocks for Ty Ty tce baby this guy has been a revelation with

A capital La since he’s joined us I cannot believe the level that he’s played that sorry Mason I love you I love the way you’re sacrificing but right now it’s the Ty show and then we got Norman pal who continues to just be extremely efficient in his role if there hasn’t

Been a six-man of the Year ladder and he’s not on it they’ve got a serious problem because he should be on it I know I don’t watch every single team like I do my Clips but he should absolutely be on it over Austin Reeves over Chris

Paul like I can’t even think of i’ have to really think about it he should be on there no doubt in my mind 11 points five rebounds for him on five for eight shooting he didn’t actually make his two three three-point attempts but he was five for six from two overall you’ll

Take that all day only one free throw attempt and he made it on an n one 24 minutes for Norm to match his number he was very good and then Terren Mann didn’t hit the three ball like he has been in the last couple of games but always contributing defensively getting

Big rebounds Mike forell called it out in commentary he always makes the big little plays that you don’t notice seven points five rebounds continues to play good defense no only I’m sorry only one turnover he was three for eight from the field and one for four from three Terren

Just continues to excel in that role that he’s been given as our starter which we’ve been asking for for a millennium now love that hopefully he’ll continue let’s see what his three-point percentage is now as of Saturday January 13th he is shooting 28% on the season so

We’re almost at 30 ladies and gentlemen we’re almost there we’re going to break through and we’re never going to look back in the last T he’s shooting 37% so encouraging signs and then zubats this was actually a quieter game for him but let me tell you something if it’s a

Zubats when guys get blown by he will bail them out completely like the way he has anchored our defense this season you cannot say enough about it like he has been one of the top 10 to 15 centers in the League this year and in this game his stat line doesn’t really

Fully show that Six Points 11 boards but four of those offensive rebounds two blocks he only shot five times and he made two of them made both of his free throws only played 22 minutes but I can’t emphasize enough just how well zubot has played this year and he

Deserves more credit Clippers with a big win right now is edone better I think only Boston can be in that conversation I think KC is very good I think Minnesota is very good I’m excited for the Minnesota game on Sunday I think it’s going to be really an

Intriguing one to see how the length of Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards nikil Alexander Walker Kyle Anderson bother the Clippers especially with Rudy Gober sitting down there even though you know he’s Terren man’s son but right now there’s no one playing better than us we have kawh Leonard

Which he’s a top three to five player in the NBA when healthy Steph Curry is not playing better than him right now LeBron James and Anthony Davis are not playing better than him right now although Anthony Davis is having a great season Kevin Durant is not playing better than

Him right now Devin Booker is not playing better than him right now Jimmy Butler is not playing better than him right now Jason Tatum is not playing better than him right now kawh Leonard is as good as anyone and we have him on our team healthy the only problem with

Kawhi Leonard is Health nothing else and right now he’s healthy and then we have Paul George who’s never gotten to be a clear-cut second score on a on a on a playoff team never he’s always played as the number one scorer whether with Westbrook or in

Indiana he’s never gotten a chance to be a second score besides the bubble on a playoff team if he can stay healthy he’ll get that chance to do it again 2021 he did and we were about to go all the way it seemed and then you know the rest and we

Have a third star and we’ve never had a third star and he’s balling right now James Harden and Russell Westbrook Off the Bench are you insane and Norman pal we have two guys that could be a six Man of the Year candidate on the bench I don’t think Westbrook because the lack

Of min’s gone but I mean like his impact if you were to get more he would be I think in the conversation but yeah there’s no one playing better right now really I’m not just saying that cuz I’m your host there really isn’t it’s amazing and I’m just not going to I’m

Going to continue to not make any bold statements no bold takes no we’re doing this this season no doing this is this the best Clipper team of all time I see that’s a question that’s being asked a lot on the eye test on the talent as far as ceiling

Absolutely but I can’t call them the best until they produce with results or else it’s just going to be they were the best but they got hurt no or this happened no you got to prove it with results we’ve been 25 and 13 before

We’ve been we were 28 and N at one point we were 28 and 10 in 2013 and don’t say oh the West is better now maybe top to bottom maybe from 1 to 15 but that the West in the 2010s was ridiculous and 2000s it was Elite more Elite teams like

San Antonio and OKC they were powerhouses besides the Nuggets we don’t really have a Powerhouse right now actually we do and you’re looking at the host of that podcast of that team you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at di dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for

Even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content and NBA content and lock on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast let me know what you think in the comment section about PG’s performance and just give me your thoughts on the team right now and your predictions for

The Minnesota game what are your keys for that one it’s going to be a big one Sunday 4 o’clock Pacific time let’s see how it goes it’s NFL playoffs this weekend which a very hectic weekend in sports internationally you have the uh Asian Cup and the African Cup in soccer

It’s a big time weekend in sports so enjoy it and relish that your team is arguably the best in the league the Joel proverb continues go Clippers we coming for those top three seeds Denver OKC and Minnesota and we’re going to start on Sunday taking names

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