How PG’s Return Propelled The LA Clippers Back To Winning Ways

How PG’s Return Propelled The LA Clippers Back To Winning Ways

The LA Clippers are back to winning ways against the Washington Wizards and the good news Paul George returned and he looked good and how about a tale of three quarters for our three stars in the starting lineup but sadly the fourth Hall of Famer goes down with an injury

Going to be talking about all things that went down on Friday night at stap Center as the Clippers beat the Washington Wizards on today’s lock down 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 lock on Clippers is the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Daran vieri 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 you thought of Paul George’s return and how you think the Russell Westbrook injury is going to affect us we’re going to be talking about all that in this episode so this episode before we get into it is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one

Sports book all you got to do is visit fanduel.com lockon and shoot your shot at any bet but okay cber Nation thankfully back to winning ways we had lost three out of the first four game since the allstar break obviously that game against the Lakers was as brutal as it gets

But yeah this was a routine game um and we needed to win it right but the good good news was before the game that Paul George uh returned from a two- game absence with that knee injury and that was huge because we I there was a report the day before that

The injury was changed to miniscus irritation and anytime I hear miniscus and stuff like that that scares me by the way for anybody that’s watching on YouTube and wondering why don’t you have your green screen on uh the lighting was just messing up so I’m just going to run

It like this I’m really low time right now I have to go coach two games today so I am really low on time so this is just the audio people doesn’t matter but just want to say it was really great to see Paul George back and the way he

Played was so encouraging this was the Paul George that we seen um from him in a while since I can’t remember the last time I think probably since the Golden State game right before the All-Star break but he looked even better in this one and started from the

First quarter you know the initial matchups tus Jones was on Terren kosma was on kawhai Denny AIA was on Harden shamit was on Paul George and Marvin Bagley was on Daniel Ty and baggley was in drop plumbley and Ty were also in drop and the Clippers were switching one

Through four as usual and the start of the game was all PG super aggressive getting to the rim getting into his bag going low on his dribble tween cross he was looking sharp stopping on a dime he even had an elbow touch you guys know

How much I love elbow P gets the ball on that right elbow he just turns without even dribbling in scores and he had 11 points in the first quarter absolutely love the way he played for the game he had he was our second leading scorer I believe with actually know he was our

Third lead score Kawai ended up having 27 wow didn’t even feel like that because he got off to a slower start but 22 points six rebounds three assists no turnovers how about that on eight for 15 shooting in two for six from three for Paul George in 30 minutes of play I was

Really happy and and you know everyone’s going to say it’s just the Wizards it’s just the Wizards it proves nothing but here’s the thing about Paul George I don’t think that when he’s at his best anybody can really guard him I think it’s all in his head it’s all

About the mindset he goes out with maybe he sees the Wizards and he’s like okay they suck they don’t play good defense they can’t guard me but he needs to have that mindset regularly you know the guys in the broadcast Jim Jackson and Brian they’re talk about it all the time an

Aggressive Paul George is a good Paul George and it’s only the times where we don’t like when he’s super aggressive is when kawhai will be having a better game than him and he’ll still shoot more shots but that wasn’t really the case in this one because he shot 15 shots which

Is totally solid all three of our big three in the starting lineup had 22 plus points Paul George at 22 Kawhi Leonard 27 James Harden 28 and here’s what I’ll say our defense it wasn’t great in my opinion still too too much weak switching uh not good

Enough staying in front of the ball it felt like we were put in rotation way too much they scored 115 points but our offense was lights out and it was great to see a game where you know our offense return to what we saw when we were playing our best basketball and again

That definitely is partially because it’s the wizards but you got to take anything you can get you got to take care of business we needed this win to get back to winning ways and we’re now we are 38 and 20 on the season this was our 29th home gam so we only

Have 12 left I wasn’t able to attend this one cuz I was coaching my teenage team so I’ve been to 20 games and I’ve missed nine this season so hopefully I can my career high of going to games was in the 2022 season with 20 I think it was 22 regular season

Games and then one that playing game against the pels but it may have been 23 and 24 I’m pretty close to passing that so I hopefully will but uh in the first quarter Clippers outscored the Wizards 33-3 Kyle kosma was going ballistic I believe he had 11

Points in the first but he had 26 at the half and kawhai was a little cold to start the game Russ came in and had two really good takes to the rim and you know who else I thought was really solid Ty Ty baby hey Ty he start the

Game with some conviction finishing on the roll knocking down that pick and pop three and again it really does help our spacing how about that uh pocket pass from Paul George in the second half and Daniel Ty throwing it down with authority that was beautiful Daniel Tai

Started in place of Zo who was out with his second straight game with an illness hopefully he will be fine for the next one and it was you know just get well soon zoo we need you nine points eight rebounds and no turnovers for Daniel on

Four for five shooting and one for one from Deep how about that in 20 minutes Mason I thought he was okay his plus minus was good he rebounded well defensively still bleeds a lot of points to me but he was a plus 12 and I think every single Clipper that played was in

The Plus in the plus minus they were Mason Plumley had four points and 10 rebounds off the bench on two for five shooting in 20 minutes of play but yeah my takeaway number one Paul George super aggressive looked great yes he had half his points in the first quarter but we

Didn’t even really need to play him much more we did give him some extended burn in the fourth quarter cuz this was one of those games that was over by the start of the fourth quarter we outscored the whz 4634 in the second you heard that correctly we scored 46 points in

One quarter and coming up I’m going to talk about who was leading that charge I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel America’s number one sports book get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel America’s number one on Sportsbook because right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with

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All right Clippers winning this one by a score of 140 to 115 solid atmosphere it sounded like on a Friday night Friday nights are always good atmospheres Clippers attendance just continues to be really really strong this season another sellout I can’t even count I’ve lost track of how

Many straight sellouts we’ve had it’s been a great year for attendance as it should be with the team that we have in the star power that we have so I think it was just so funny you know seeing those Laker fans talking all that trash after they beat us in the regular season

Season game and won the season series for the first time since 2012 by the way last time since 2012 the last time these guys won the the season series against us Mike Brown was their head coach you remember how long ago that was we still we didn’t even have Jamal

Crawford yet so for them to say oh you know we’re evicting you and you know you’re about to leave you’re acting like we’re sad to leave the stable Center like I love stable center it’s a little emotional for me because that was the first Stadium I grew up with but we’re

Getting an upgrade so their jokes are like falling very flat flat as their team’s record compared to us right now but credit to them they they beat us in those games and and they outplaced in the season series but I just think it’s funny when they talk trash about our

Attendance because the Lakers have fans everywhere and of course when you have a Laker Clipper game in La you will probably end up getting more Laker fans but in the other games you know the rest of the season when we don’t play the Celtics and the Warriors every game is a

True home game for us and that is something that’s very underestimated by fans who do not go to games so let’s talk about the guy um who took over that second quarter and really just kind of took the game by the Scruff of the neck and that was James Harden and

I’ve labeled this segment second quarter JH because it’s funny he started out 0 for two with a turnover in the first quarter but then in the second he caught fire five straight threes for James Harden he was killing that high drop just walking into threes getting into the paint for floaters it actually

Started out with an and one and he just took off from there he was threading the needle really well what a game from James and it’s good to see him have that kind of game 21 points in the second quarter for James Harden in the game he had 28

Points four rebounds eight assists three blocks how about that and a lot of those were those classic Harden strips 9 for 13 from the field 6 for9 from three and four for four from the line sorry guys usually I’m mute but I got no time to micro edit this one but James

Harden really good performance Terren man they talked about it at the top of the show at the top of the broadcast how he’s been playing really well since the All-Star break and boy did he continue really solid offensive output I think defensively he still needs to be a

Little bit better staying attached at the point of attack but offensively doing a great job cutting he actually didn’t even shoot one three but his finishing around the rim he had a nice step back pullup to begin the game and then he had one post touch I

Think he was against shamut low turned right over him and scored he had 12 points three boards on six for seven shooting no turnovers so Clippers only had eight turnovers in this game which I Love Actually nine but that’s awesome you know keeping the keeping the turnovers under 10 will always spell

Good things Clippers shot 57% from the field in the game 41% from three the only area where I think we could have been a little bit better was free throw shooting with 76% but granted we had Musa diabate missed two of those in garbage time or in you know the game was

Overtime and Brandon Boston was one for two but yeah overall shot really really well moved the ball well was I mean when they have Marvin Bagley as the five you know guarding the paint that’s not really going to be very intimidating for us in drop you know he’s not a great rim

Protector or anything he had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds but that’s open season for James Harden coming off a game where he played Anthony Davis I mean it’s not the same at all so Terrence Mann continues his hot shooting let’s see what he’s

Shooting from the field right now 49% on the field uh for the season from the field 32% from three so remember we were at 177% from three at one point we were slowly getting it up now he’s at 32% can he get it to 35% by the end of the year

So that we don’t even remember that early stretch and Clipper fans will remember but other fans that would be nice but 49% from the field that’s efficient all right and yeah I love the way Terren is playing and then someone who else in the last two games who

Stepped it up Amir coffee you know he had a little rough couple of games coming off the All-Star break but I think that he was really solid in this game coming off the bench getting into that mid-range attacking Closeouts 10 points four for four from the field and

22 minutes for air and also no turnovers and three assists thing about Amir is that mid-range when he’s attacking Closeouts has been pretty foolproof this season so you like to keep seeing him take that and then uh James Harden by the way I don’t know I did metion mention his efficiency N9 for

13 and six for nine from three W beautiful and I thought he had some good defensive moments where I think everybody had some bad defensive moments too but he had some good ones you know with the classic Harden strip and he does a great job as I’ve seen his whole

Career I talked about this even before we got him but his hands are great and he does a great job of getting all ball when he slaps down because Jim Jackson even said this in the in the commentary and I tell my kids that I coach all the

Time when you slap down like that the refs are looking to call a foul the fact that James does such a good job of getting all ball on those so frequently is pretty impressive so James Harden second quarter James got the job done but coming up gonna be talking about the

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$100 all right Clippers winning this one 140 to 115 it was a route um PG had 17 points in the first half by the way and also how about the third quarter where it was kawai’s turn to kind of get going 11 straight points for Kawai um 14 in the quarter he kind

Of grew into the game and you know how kawhai is the most consistent player on this team doing it on both ends of the floor pretty efficient as well shot 45% so not actually too efficient for him but not a big deal at all 27 points nine rebounds four assists one steel one

Block just one turnover for him on nine for 20 shooting two for eight from three so not the best shooting night from three for him but seven for seven from the line and you like to see him get seven free throw attempts Kawai get he’s been our best

Player all year just got to keep it going keep it going how about those two straight putb dunks by the way one from teren Mann with one hand and the other with kaai we had three dunks in that third quarter one from Tyson the other from those two but and Kawaii and James

Didn’t even get to didn’t have to play the fourth which was awesome but let’s talk about the bad news in the first half Russell Westbrook it looked like he jammed his finger his reaction was so subtle it looked like he had just jammed his finger but this guy legitimately fractured his

Hand and I forget which hand it was but that’s terrible fractured hand is gonna be a couple of weeks I think as much of an Iron Man as Russ is and he had played every game this season and my wood the wood that I kept knocking on I’m still

Knocking just hoping it’s not too bad because we still have kawhai Paul George that’s the thing about Paul George they said after the game he’s had this knee uh discomfort All Season apparently all season so it’s like what LeBron said you know you’re never going to be 100%

Healthy at this age with all the wear and tear Paul George has been through too much but is it is he good enough to play and look at his best that’s all that matters and it looks like he is so the fact that he’s not out too long he

Was only out for two games he’s only missed what five games this season let me check we’ve played 58 games and Paul has played in 53 so yeah five games this season Kawhi Leonard has only missed four games this season so I mean you’ll absolutely take that all day

Long and James Harden still hasn’t missed one I’m going to keep knocking so far since he’s been a member of the clip so the Russell Westbrook injury what does this mean man so unfortunate you know the energy that he gives us off the bench the rim pressure the rebounding the

Toughness it’s a tough it’s a tough blow man it really is but here’s the thing for all those that have been wanting Russ not to play as much and and want bones Highland in well here’s the chance bones Highland came in by the way and he looked so Rusty he was overshooting

Everything by a mile but that’s okay it’s the first time he’s back and he hasn’t played real minutes and months so now we’re going to have to have him as that backup rule that we envisioned him in before the James Harden trade and he’s going to have to be solid what

Worries me is a Mason plumbley bones Highland Norman Powell second unit that worries me a little bit on the defensive side but offensively hopefully bones Highland can show off his playmaking because I’ve been saying for a long time he is a very underrated passer and then his scoring

Is we know about his scoring so this is the chance for bones to show good thing we didn’t trade him for someone else because you know a lot of people were saying we need to go get a big Wing which we do lack to a degree and we

Should have trade a bone Talent he’s not going to play but now he is going to play so we’re just waiting to hear the you know the timetable on Russ but it’s super unfortunate super I still think we can manage in the regular season but I

Hope we can get him back before the playoffs cuz I really think Russ you know people are going to say oh he’ll lose playoff games for you he might have some crucial mistakes in playoff games but I think you can say the same about Paul and uh Harden thing about Russ is

He can also win you a playoff game like he did help us win last year in game one when he shot three for 19 and still made the big free throws had the huge block and knocked it off Booker and had huge offensive rebounds so we miss we hope

You’re back soon Russ it’s not going to be the same without you and hopefully the team can maintain a level of you know compe competitiveness in the sense that when things lack energy who’s going to bring it who’s going to bring that toughness to the table that guaranteed

Spark in the arena I don’t know now I will say this about bones he is a crowd pleaser people love him people absolutely love him when he would go off he get the oo and ha he gets everybody excited and jumping so hopefully he’ll have that same effect uh in this stretch

That he’s going to be playing so as far as Russ he played 10 minutes he had six points and he was two for three from the field bones was one for seven when he came in but he did have seven assists he was getting really fancy too uh Norman

Pal a little solid night uh return for him in terms of back to an efficient game but he didn’t shoot well from three again he had nine points and four assists and three rebounds on four for eight shooting and one for three from Deep so 50% from the field 33% from

Downtown in 22 minutes hopefully Norm can get back to shooting at his best all right so that’s basically all for that game as far as the next game at Minnesota uh on Sunday at 12:30 I am not feeling good about that one because it’s 12:30 and it’s against Minnesota but

I’ll say this I did talk about this in the last episode I’m not a huge fan of Russell Westbrook in the Minnesota matchup because they have great point of attack defense and when goar is sitting down there I don’t and they put their big men on Rust so when Russ gets to the

Basket and he gets to the basket he still has goar or a big man in his rear view and I think Russ struggles to finish contested layups now so I think that that match up is not one for him and hopefully bones’ shooting can get us to spread the Timberwolves out and maybe

Make goar have to cover a little bit more ground because goar has really owned Us in the two games in terms of his defensive presence he really has so that’s a this is a massive game and also Minnesota just lost to Sacramento who’s playing some pretty good basketball

Recently so as far as that updated standings watch the Thunder and the wolves are at 18 losses the nuggets are at 19 losses and we’re at 20 so despite the rough stretch losing three out of the first four games since the All-Star break we are only two games back in the

Lost column against Minnesota so if we beat them on Sunday only one game back in the Lost column from the first seed this is huge this is massive so let’s see how it goes but if we lose them a third straight time I mean I don’t even know what to say cuz

This match up is not good what we need to see is two of the three of Harden Paul or kawhai play well in both games they have not we need to see it and how are we going to handle Carl Anthony towns what we need to do is

We’re going to need to double him when he gets the ball against teren man or Kawhi or whoever ah we should just put kawii Leonard on cat when we switch one through four and have Terren or James guarding him we got to double that we got to double it and

Make him a passer and I would say leave McDaniel open McDaniels had a really really good game against us scoring the first time but I don’t know if that’s the norm but anyway and hopefully we get a good game from Norm you can follow me on Twitter and

Instagram at dim dropper pod you can subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content that Vlog I did against the Lakers was a crazy video you guys should go check that out and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever

You get your podcast including YouTube hope you appreciate this little bonus weekend episode The Next Episode will be on Monday after the Wolves game that will be a big one Clippers are 38 and 20 two more wins away from 40 we did not get our 40th win before 20 losses the

Phil Jackson 40 before 20 rule so I don’t know do you guys think how much do you guys believe in that do you think that that makes us a non-championship team because of that I don’t know you let me know in the comments get well soon Russ we’re gonna miss you bro I

Know there’s gonna be a lot of people in the comments they’re gonna say oh this is great it’s a blessing in disguise I don’t believe that at all um Ras get well soon Buddy the ageel PRT continues go Clippers

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