Why The LA Clippers Have Been Rolling

Why The LA Clippers Have Been Rolling

The LA Clippers are on a roll right now having won 20 of their last 26 games and just what has allowed the LA Clippers to become one of the hottest teams in the league since the James Harden trade going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down we’re rolling

Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day 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 for even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content and lock on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where I want you to let me know what you think of these three categories that I have

Made are the biggest reason that the Clippers are playing as well as they are is it sacrifice is it the talent or is it the process obviously all three of them and I’ll describe and go into depth about each one all three of them are a factor but which one is the biggest

Factor in your opinion let me know and this episode is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one sports book NFL playoffs are coming up this weekend so all you got to do is visit fanduel.com lockon and make your first bet or your second bet if you I’ve already been on

FanDuel but it’s going to be exciting the NFL playoffs are around but also the NBA a is in full effect and we’re almost at the halfway point of the season and right now the Clippers are rolling having won 20 of their last 26 games it’s been very enjoyable the way

They’ve been hooping 23 and 13 right now through 36 games and they currently sit at fourth in the west now if you recall we started out 3 and seven we were on a six game losing streak at one point of the season season and now we’ve won five out of our last six

Games Kawhi Leonard for a second had a 12 game winning streak going and then it was blown against the Lakers bounced back against Phoenix and got the Raptors on Wednesday night a raptor team who was pushed to the very final seconds against the Lakers in what was a very

Competitive and controversial game on Tuesday night again second straight game Lakers getting the benefit of the officiating what’s new but anyway let’s talk talk about the first category and what I believe is always necessary when you have a super team or a team of multiple stars or bigger egos sacrifice

You hear this all the time when you listen to NBA champions talk about what has made their team successful and it’s all about stars sacrificing let’s talk about what kind of sacrifices those mean by going through our four guys four future Hall of Famers one at a time let’s start from

The top with our best player Kawhi Leonard now kawhai is not really sacrificing the one thing he is sacrificing is touches and playmaking opportunities like in the pick and Rule but that’s what he wants to do he and Paul George have always wanted a point guard we brought in Rondo and obviously

That was good for the regular season good until about game four of the Dallas series and then he showed he was kind of cooked and after that you know Reggie Jackson just kind of had the mantle but he wasn’t necessarily the playmaking point guard that was a very good passer

That made life easy easy for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and then we tried with John Wall that didn’t really work out and then Westbrook was definitely better than anyone we’ had but they took it a step further getting James Harden and kawh Leonard right now

As far as a CIS go he’s averaging 3.4 last season he averaged 3.9 in 2021 he averaged 5.2 in 2020 he averaged 4.9 so this is his lowest assist to uh points assist per game since 2019 when Kyle Lowry was on his team and he was at playing at an All-Star level so

Kawhi Leonard wants to sacrifice the assist to playmaking that’s what he wants to do so in that sense he’s sacrificed but that’s not that big a deal he was unnecessarily deferring and sacrificing too much when we first had the lineup of Kawai Paul James Harden Russell Westbrook and nit zubot playing

Together and of all the lineups fivan lineups I looked up before this episode that I’ve played 70 or more minutes the Clippers have only had three fiveman lineups qualify for that the starting lineup that we currently have the Powell Rangers starting lineup shout out to clips and dip guys our former host of

Lockon um James Harden Paul George Kawhi Leonard Norman pal and Zoo so basically our starting lineup where you take out Terren and replace him with norm and then the other lineup is the big four plus Zoo now one of them is statistically an outlier and not in a

Good way and that is the big four plus Zoo lineup they’ve played 71 minutes and they have a minus 26.7 net rating now we’ve gone away from this lineup over the last month a little bit a very small stretches that we’ve Revisited it the last couple of games and I think it’s

Just maybe to get more data and small sample sizes but clearly not working what we’ve seen though is that Russell westbr and James Harden can play together which we’ve obviously they’ve played together in the past but not with Paul George and kawhai on the court and

Why is that you think well it’s very simple too many cooks in the kitchen Russell Westbrook you know he is a playmaker and even if he’s deferring to harden as a spacer you know Russell Westbrook he’s not a very good three-point shooter but he’s still effective in other ways you know

Attacking Closeouts attacking open space setting screens cutting and all that but you want Russell Westbrook running the show to a degree when he’s in the game and having the ball in his hands that’s where he’s the most valuable but with James Harden on the court James Harden

Becomes our best player maker so Russell Westbrook spends more time off the ball that’s not ideal spacing wise and then Russell Westbrook at times will want to do his own thing I don’t mean his own thing but I mean he’ll want to create because it’s just in his nature and then

That takes away from Paul George and Kawhi Leonard so it’s just very clunky and look I’ve always said and this is part of the reason I was very resistant about the trade is I don’t like big fours unless it’s a very seamless fit big threes are fine we’ve seen tons of

Them work out in NBA history and as I’ve said right now this feels like a big three not from a marketing and hype perspective because when you go to a game you can’t miss Russell Westbrook and the aura that he has but in terms of minutes and the way they’re being used

It’s like a big three James Harden Kawai and Paul George so kawhai Leonard hasn’t really sacrificed there’s no real difference in shot attempts which we want we don’t want kawhai to sacrifice shot attempts it’s just the the assist which is what he wants to do now one thing I want to mention he’s

Averaging 24 points a game right now I would like to see kawhai get that number up that’s what he averaged last year and it’s funny he’s averaging the exact same amount of points as he did last year 23.8 but remember kawhai started out very slow working his way back he was on

A minutes restriction last year working his way back from that a tear I guarantee you that number will be improved upon as this season progresses I would like to see him average 25 plus points a game he’s only had three seasons averaging 25 plus and it was

Very you know it’s not uh a mystery which one of those were 2020 2019 and 2017 now in 2021 he averaged 25 points a game 24.8 so a full point per game better than these last two seasons and I think he can easily get up to that

Number but even a little bit more with the easiness that he’s getting shots with James Harden and of course Paul George and Russell Westbrook in the month of December he averaged 29 Points a game this month in the five games that he’s played in January he’s only

Averaging 21 but mind you he’s also coming off a little injury and the best thing of all we’re actually blowing teams out so he plays less and that’s causing him to have less points and that’s totally fine and you’ll never see that in the stat sheet so I believe that

Ka will get his numbers up but I I like that he’s sacrificing the least let’s talk about Paul George you really have no difference in shot attempts with Paul George as 2021 that’s exactly what you want to see so Paul George isn’t really sacrificing as much he’s sacrificing the

Assists as well and the playmaking as well but again he’s even more vocal about that he doesn’t want to be on the ball that’s why he publicly campaigned for Russ his assist numbers are lower than last year lower than 2022 lower than 2021 and even lower than 2020 2019

Lowest assist per game for Paul George since 2018 when he first got to the Oklahoma City Thunder so you see the sacrifice there points per game wise though right where he kind of was last year last year he averaged 23.8 so he and uh Kawai had the exact same PPG this

Year 23.2 which is you know 6 less that’s fine especially given who we have and the weapons that we have so I like that Paul George isn’t really sacrificing but here’s the main sacrificed guys James Harden and Russ and obviously Russ more than anyone that’s not even a question but James

Harden you know I think he’s still getting to do what he wants to do which is have the ball in his hands the most and run the show and kind of be the engine of our offense or the what he’s the table setter of our offense but here

Are some the biggest sacrifice in my opinion is statistical you know guys in the past they want to get their numbers they want to make sure they show what they can do James Harden when he went to OKC he wanted to show what he could do

And after that it felt like he was just racking up stats and at times you know Westbrook and Harden have both been accused in the past of patting stats and whatnot and this is great to see them both sacrificed their stats massively James Harden lowest minutes per game since 2012

Lowest field goals made since 2012 lowest field goal attempts lowest three-point field goal attempts lowest free throw attempts all since 2012 lowest rebounds per game since 20134 lowest assists per game since 201920 when he played with Russ again I’m surprised he didn’t have more assists

Then with how much he had the ball but I I looked at his stats and and I watched more uh Rockets games that year than any year with James Harden because of because of Russ but he was just shooting a lot more in 2019 and 201 2020

Statistically it’s just a fact and also his lowest points per game since 2012 but best field goal percentage since 2021 Brooklyn and the best three-point percentage as of now of his entire career with 43 that’s huge all of those the lowest since 2012 if I just read

That to you you would think he’s not having a good season but he’s having a great season James Harden has been exceptionally great in his role and he’s sacrificing his stats and shot attempts and then Russell Westbrook the ultimate sacrifice career lows in minutes field goals made field goal attempted free

Throws made free throws attempted assists per game turnovers that’s a good one but that goes in hand inand with the fact that he’s getting less minutes lowest PPG of his career lowest three-point attempts since 2011 I actually like that but career lows in so many categories across the board the

Ultimate sacrifice was made when Russell Westbrook went to the bench because that’s what started the 20 out of 26 game Run and the Clippers have looked like one of the best teams in the league since then he’s allowed James Harden to now do his thing and he still brings

Energy Off the Bench but it’s an a far limited role a role in which to be honest he’s too good for but I’m not the one complaining that we have a player of this stature and caliber coming off the bench and giving us that kind of energy playmaking and ability it’s been amazing

And you hear it from every NBA champion sacrifice the biggest win is to statistical because in 10 years 15 years let’s say Clippers win the championship you’re going to say oh Russell Westbrook wasn’t that big of a part of it no cuz had he had he said no I’m not going to

The bench either you get rid of me or you’re starting me and we’ll figure it out things would have never been this great in my opinion you know some Russ fans believe that they didn’t let it play out enough listen I’ve seen enough of the big four together I like the

Lineup we have now the starting lineup has a plus 16.7 net rating the new starting lineup in 21 games then the Harden Paul kawhai pal OTS lineup has a plus 31.6 net rating so some really good lineups and it’s all because of the sacrifice of all of our guys and coming

Up going to be talking about the talent what the actual talent is producing on the floor that has made it so hard for other teams going to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel America’s number one sports book the NFL playoffs are here

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Lockon and make your first bet a layup FanDuel official partner of the NFL all right so the Clippers have won 20 of their last 26 games they have more Talent than we’ve ever had let’s talk about that Talent we’ve never had a third star with all due respect to go DJ

That’s my DJ Mr DeAndre Jordan he was not a third star he made the All-Star team once in 2016 you want to know why he made it see real Clipper fans know this you want to know why he made it because Blake griin and Chris Paul

Actually you know Chris Paul made it he may have been injured in the beginning of this season but I remember no he was injured during the All-Star game that’s what it was and then Blake Griffin injured him he got injured on Christmas with that quad injury and then

He punched the trainer that caused him to be out but yeah Chris no Chris Paul wasn’t Allstar in 2016 I forget if he could play in the game or not in that All-Star game but yeah DeAndre Jordan made it but I don’t really consider him like a true

Allar oh you know what it was let me let me let me double check this DeAndre Jordan may have been an All-Star in 2017 because of the injuries that we had I remember saying we we’re the for seed and yeah it was 2017 that’s right so

Chris and Blake were both hurt and he made the All-Star team because we needed a representative and we were the fourth seed and he played like every game so he made it that year but he was not a true third star and we saw that in the

Playoffs over and over with all due respect James Harden is a very clear third star and we have Russell westbr coming off the bench and he was ready to make a big impact this year as a starter if that’s what it came down to and I

Think he would have had a great year so the talent is just a lot right let’s look at why it’s so hard to guard us so Kawhi Leonard I mean he’s just a demon one-on-one right if you double now you have a new shooter in there a guy that

Can attack close outs and make plays in James Harden that we didn’t have before because Russell Westbrook as great as he is he’s a better cutter than James he’s a better screener than James probably better off the ball overall in terms of movement but catch and shoot spacing

James Harden helps the offense more in that sense and then you talk about James Harden running pick and roll now we have an element that we haven’t had really in the two and3 era a pick and roll God a pick and roll Maestro the best one since

PA that we’ve had and not only has that helped iich zubats get a bunch of easy baskets because teams have to go over the screen if you want to take away IIT Zubat on the role because you’re already taking away James Harden well you’ve got kawh Leonard Paul George and Terrence

Man waiting on the wings teren man of course has been the guy that teams have funneled the ball to and he has struggled massively from three this year but in the new year he is shooting very well from three and I promised I would let you guys know what his updated

Three-point percentages after the game against Phoenix so let’s take a look at it Terren man is now shooting 26% from three on the year needs to keep shooting it I think that percentage will go up as he continues to make shots and shoot with confidence and I think now we’re

Going to start seeing that second half of the Season Terren which is a very solid shooter from three but it’s hard to guard that think about when you have Norman Powell in the game now you have three Shooters so take your pick you’re seeing kawhai and Paul

George get more open shots than ever then you have Norman Powell who was on track to be one of the six Man of the Year candidates last year before he hurt his shoulder towards the end of the year you have him playing a lot of minutes and he’s a perfect fit around kawhai

Paul and Harden because he’ll just catch and shoot and attack Closeouts he doesn’t need too many dribbles to do things and I love how Norman pal hasn’t really been shot hunting when he’s out there with him and then you have Russell Westbrook coming off the bench and giving you that kind of

Talent against second units I mean his rebound in is unbelievable his athleticism is just he’s 35 years old and he’s still the most athletic guy on the court a lot of nights it’s truly remarkable and the energy that he brings to home games is something else and he’s

Really probably the most vocal leader on the team now of course I’m not in the locker room but this is what everyone sees this is what everyone says this is what I witness when I’m at the games he is the life of the party he’s always talking he’s always chirping and I love

That that’s why he has so many teammates that speak up for how great he is as a teammate even some of the guys in Laker land Austin Reeves spoke up about him I think that may the only one I can think of but the Lakers was an outlier

Experience in my opinion every other place that Russell Westbrook has gone his teammates have only given him glowing reviews and I can see why I mean I could always see why before he got here but it’s even more obvious seeing it on a nightly basis and his ability to

Get to the rim is very needed you know we have a team that’s on the older side kawi and Paul George don’t always get to the paint James Harden gets to it more than them but he doesn’t get to it the way used to as I said career low and

Free throw attempts it’s nice that Russell Westbrook is able to G some downhill Rim pressure and also a transition threat and of course the rebounding he does the defense that he’s been playing this season you know I love that he’s been coming in with a defensive attitude been Super Active off

The ball in terms of anticipation and rotation and you know Russ has that highlight Block in him that he’s been doing several times this season throughout it so Russ has just been awesome the talent level of the Clippers is massive we have a team that fits together it’s like James Harden and

Brooklyn but with better defensive Personnel literally what it is it might not be as good of a James Harden that’s an MVP candidate I mean he still could be putting up better stats than this and another team in a smaller role I mean I’m sorry in a bigger role same with

Russell Westbrook but again they’ve done it all and Harden said it best you know I’ve done all the scoring now it’s time for me to win and of course he wants to get paid that’s why he didn’t stay in Philly but of course they breached his

Trust as well and I love it he’s been pretty awesome so far I love the career low and free throw attempt stat because one of the things about Harden that I just didn’t like and a lot of people didn’t was the foul baiting and I think

It still comes out at times I’ve never seen a player get some of the calls that he gets it’s unbelievable but I like that it’s on my side now but he hasn’t really relied on it he hasn’t abused it and it’s because he’s not always looking

To score and I’ve said several times on my show and this show James Harden has done a really good job so far of knowing when it’s time to get his and knowing when it’s time to feed the other guys and that’s the most important thing for

Me of a point guard is and any great player is knowing when to go to certain things and I think hopefully in this role he will find that balance better than he’s ever had and that will result in maybe his first Finals appearance since 2012 first or his only finals appearance

Besides 2012 or maybe his first Conference Finals appearance since 2018 I hope Russell Westberg hasn’t been in the conference final since 2016 so it’ be nice to get these guys back there with the team that the Conference Finals used to like be forbidden territory but the talent level is just something else

And when Kawhi Leonard was playing at such a high level and as I said in the first segment sacrificing is being done by Harden and Russ but not even really Paul and kawhai that’s what you want so it’s also the talent level of the Clippers we just have more Talent than a

Lot of teams and I’ve never felt the way that I do watching this team play as a Clipper fan ever that I’m just like they just don’t have the talent to keep up with us like James Harden is being guarded by team’s third best defenders a lot of nights that’s very very very

Relevant compared to last year in Philly where he’s getting the second best or the best perimeter guy so that’s what I have to say about that but coming up the process the approach the attitude how is that different from previous years and why is that such a big part of the

Clipper success so far going to be talking about that coming up this show is sponsored by better help if you need someone to talk to someone that can be there to help you navigate some tough situations and just help you dig deep and find the truest version of

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NBA all right so to close out the show the main thing I’ve noticed from the Clippers this season is the difference in Attitude the process from training camp The Vibes were different they really were you had tyou in the summer league you had Lawrence Frank in his

Exit interview saying we need to respect the regular season you know what that translation means we didn’t respect it like we should have this past season regard regardless of the injuries and the bad luck the load management was excessive the pulling players out mid game with their minutes restriction when

They had already exceeded it was excessive the Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris persistence was excessive the no Center was was naive and silly the process was unserious completely and a lot of times the team just didn’t come out with the right attitude take that game against Denver

We played last year in January for example almost a year ago at this time and we had him on national television and we got embarrassed we couldn’t make shots and we just quit and tyo pulled the plug and didn’t play Kawaii and Paul the entire second half then we had a

Back toback the next night in Minnesota and that was our 41st game of the season and we didn’t play either of them that was nuts to me like that that was okay like as if our whole approach last season I remember kawhai even said the regular I don’t care about the regular

Season like we get what you mean but it’s not good to hear the leader of the team say that just cuz he’s a demon in the postseason and he always plays hard doesn’t mean it’s good to hear that also Nicholas Batum saying you know don’t expect anything till Christmas that was

Also ridiculous like just things that are like why should we even okay then let’s not care till the playoffs as fans so this season they’ve talked about going out and trying to win every game and letting the chips far where they may in the playoffs instead of the as long

As we get to the playoffs healthy we’re good and you see it you saw it from day one you saw it from Terren man being a starter before the season began you saw it with Robert Covington being used and Marcus morrris not being used to start

The year and now you’ve seen it with within five games putting Westbrook on the bench I know the story was he volunteered but from everything I heard that was not the case I also don’t believe that Russell Westbrook when he’s playing so well and all the net rating

And all the stats favored him at the time that he would just volunteer to go to the bench to appease his boy I think he’s okay with it cuz he’s boys with James Harden and that’s what I really underestimated and his his attitude in the beginning he looked a little bit

Disappointed and his body language wasn’t great those first couple of games but then he really found his role there I know he did this with the Lakers but his body language wasn’t the same wasn’t the same in games where he got minimum minutes this is different because he’s

Playing with his boys and he’s playing with an organization that loves and respects him and has been transparent with him and a fan base that loves him as well and you can sense that when he comes into the game Clipper Nation loves Russ And Russ loves Clipper nation and

That’s the truth so the process though is amazing to get guys to buy in in like this like look what tylo’s done Reggie Jackson Revival Nicholas Batum Revival Daniel Ty Revival James Harden bought in completely Russell Westbrook sacrificing Buy in completely and he was the one that people were like oh you

Know his biggest haters were like he might be out of the league he’s never going to play even non-h haters were saying he’s not going to play a role for a winning team I honestly was one of those people I thought his he was just

Going to go to a team like the wizard situation and just get him to the playoffs put up great numbers but he wasn’t going to ever be able to play a big role in a championship team and then he really proved me wrong with the way

He looked for us last season in the second half of the season I I really enjoyed what I saw and I know we started out 0 and five but we bounced back and we’re trending in the right direction right before Paul George got hurt and something that people don’t want to talk

About is that we had zubats missing some of those games and we played against Denver on the road Sacramento twice Golden State on the road so it wasn’t all the easiest games in the world but anyway the process has just been so different the defensive intensity on a

Night toight basis from everyone from Zoo to harden has been great and the playing of backto backs like I know they’re healthier but Kawai is playing backto backs and we’re kicking team’s asses on the second out of back-to-backs like this is we’re not even questioning if they’re playing or

Not Kawhi Leonard said before the season we’re not doing a load management this year he was right he wasn’t joking and I love it so that matters kawai’s only missed four games Paul George has only missed two Russ and Harden haven’t missed any knock on wood that’s what we

Needed we need luck as well that’s the biggest thing is we need luck but our process needs to be we got to win every game we can we need that top three seed and I know we’re going to get it I know we are barring injury 23 and 13 right

Now we’ve been a top three seed in our history in 2014 and in 2015 and in 20120 that’s it just those three years 2020 we didn’t even reap the benefits of it because it was a double so 2014 and 15 and we got brutal seven game series in the first

Round with San Antonio and Golden State I mean it’s going to be brutal regardless it’s the west but man let’s go as high as we can we need top three if we don’t get top three we’re not winning the ring I stand by that again but the reason why I haven’t mentioned

It much I think we can get it and I think we’re going to get it and that’s that’s the main reason you’re bringing in James Harden too is regular season floor Razer he’s an all-timer so and he’s fairly available even though last season he had his injury problems

Especially in the beginning but yeah those are my three reasons why the Clippers are doing so well the sacrifice the talent and the process and the seriousness from the top down is just different they know this is Last Chance Saloon to a degree they know that this

Is a contract year for Kawhi and Paul they have a chance to opt into the final year next year but if they want an extension they got to prove they can be available for a year and get us into the playoffs healthy and kawh Leonard I’m

Still relishing that day to see him play in front of a soldout Clipper Crow it’s been 5 years and we still haven’t gotten it hopefully this fifth year is the one 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 locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube let me know which one of those three categories you think is the biggest difference to why the Clippers or the biggest reason to why the Clippers are rolling on all

Cylinders thank you the ageel proverb continues go Clippers I’ll be in the building on Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors that should be a win we should make it 21 out of 27 if you see me at the game holler at me section 207 and outside the game if you want to

Share your thoughts I will be across from the Kareem statue next to Tom’s the bar to the left of it okay so check me out I hopefully see several of you at the game the age-old proverb continues go Clippers

The LA Clippers are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now. Having won 5 of their last 6 and 20 of their last 26, what has been the main factor behind their success?

In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri gives three main reasons as to why the Clippers look so good. He starts by talking about sacrifice and breaks down the sacrifices of the big four. He then looks at the talent and what challenges they present for other teams. Finally, he finishes with the teams’ process and approach from day one and what we have seen on a game by game basis.

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