May 4, 2025 • 36 mins
Chuck and Adam give their thoughts on what went wrong in game 7 and how the Clippers lost this 1st round series with a live show on CnD.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How's it going, Clippers fans? Welcome to the Day After
Red Saturday, or whatever we want to call the game
seven that the Clippers theoretically played in. I'm Chuck Wickler
joined by Adam Os. When we're doing a little live
hang decompression, when we're going to do a full episode
with the crew early next week. You're listening to the
(00:35):
pod and you'd like to hang out for some of these,
check us out at YouTube dot com slush at Clippers Podcast. Yeah, Adam,
I woke up feeling pretty much the same level of anchor,
frustration and sadness that I felt yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
This is a good test for those who think like
a win is a win or a loss is a loss.
They aren't. It matters how you play, and the Clippers
not showing up after the first quarter is really disappointing.
I think we both were talking about how, oh no,
they lost the non jokish minutes to start the second
quarter by seven. That was to me the beginning of
(01:23):
the end and the big warning sign of this could
get really out of hand. Even though Yoki to Jamal
Murray weren't exactly great yesterday and you still get blown out.
How do you get blown out when those two had
fifteen in the first half. That's what's just baffling.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, there was just no If you wanted to know
what a team with like what does fight look like
or what does showing up kind of look like? It
was the opposite of that from the Clippers. We got
another no media performance from James Harden, which the wrong
(02:06):
way a great look. It's not a great look for
a guy who did. And that's one of the things
that Max is frustrating is he had a wonderful regular
season in terms of the leadership stuff. He had a
fantastic regular season with leadership, but the postseason hurts a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, Like, I totally understand, you're really frustrated. You're a
competitor and you just don't want to talk to anybody
after a game like that, or after the game they
lost before that, or the game they lost before that.
The last three games, I don't think he showed up
for the postgame presser. But he did what they won,
(02:46):
he did when they won losses he did not, Yeah,
and that's just not a great look. You gotta be there,
be accountable, and it's part of the deal. But I
don't know I that was as miserable of a way
as you could end the season. I think for a
season that was such an overall success, it's just leaving
(03:09):
a sour taste in everyone's mouth. And this is what
they're going to be remembering for a while, how it
ended and not how it started. And the great game
in Game eighty two to beat the Golden States lers down.
There are just so many highs, but it ended on
a deep, deep, low nater.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It was a valley. Yeah, last last night was a
valley Kawhi frustrating. We get the healthy run, we don't
we get one elite game. And and again also absolute
(03:51):
all the credit in the world to the Denver Nuggets.
Hats off to them for an incredible series. Took three
minutes to mention this, but fantastic. Aaron Gordon probably the
third best player in the series.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Maybe higher. He might be the second. A Jokic is
hard because so much more is demanded of Jokic and
he's Yeah, Aaron Gordon doesn't get going if there isn't
so much attention on Jokic. But Aaron Gordon was the
most consistently impactful player in the series.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
YEAHL Murray said something that I thought was interesting after
the the dunk, which I guess that's what we're calling it.
I don't know what people are calling it, but we
all know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The perfect air ball, the.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Perfect air ball made all the other made, the non Jokic,
non Murray Nuggets players all kind of that was kind
of a moment for them, and they were able to
really rally around that. And we saw it in other
games too, right when extra things were happening, the Nuggets
were able to fashion some momentum or something to hold
on to from those moments. The Bug Russ Techs obviously
(05:02):
the donk, the kerfluffle before half before we lost that
game in heartbreaking fashion, like they were very clearly a
team that has played in the playoffs together and all
the credit to them because they looked Clippers were the
healthier roster.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Do you feel like the Clippers lost this series more
than Denver won it? How do you feel It's hard
to say that afterward happened in game seven, Game seven.
If you told me they lost a close Game seven,
I'd be like, Ah, Clippers blew this more than Denver,
you know, really took it from him.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But they did a lot to lose. It like the
Clippers didn't did not help themselves. I think to say
that they lost the series, I think they would have
had to have done more to help themselves win, if
that makes sense. But it felt like maybe not chasing
as hard as they should have for game one. Some
(06:01):
just you know, we got the classic and I love Tyleru,
but when it doesn't work, it doesn't look very pretty,
which is the matchup hunting, you know, and they went
away from the pick and roll. It just there were
just things where.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I don't know, man, I don't think Game seven was
on coach Lou, like really.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
The effort from everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Kawai called it out at post game, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Which is frustrating because you're like great.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I think it objectively was a bad series for coach Lou.
I think that's fair to say because when he has
made mistakes before, ultimately it's still well, he didn't have
his best players, so how much can you really put
on him? But this time he had his best guys.
(06:59):
I think he had more room for error then was
actually out there in reality. I think he thought they
had more of a margin for air against this Denver
team than they did. I don't know if that's true.
And I can't hear you, Nut Chuck, can you hear me?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Sorry I was muting.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm only going off of the minutes from game one,
not starting be toomb till second half of game six,
Like I'm going off of things where to me if
you had more of a sense of urgency. It's the
word I've been using throughout this entire series. It doesn't
guarantee anything, but I think it gives you a better chance.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, I like that. I like that idea that I mean,
we did have more room for error theoretically, but see.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But my point was coming into the series close games
with Denver, if you give them belief because of their
championship DNA, they're going to take those close games like
they're going to find a way to beat you or
just you know, if you give them life and they
did like they they were better with all the intangibles.
(08:21):
That's I think the Clippers they let them up off
the mat in some ways.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, and I like letting them have belief or light
is a I love that metaphor because you look at
things like obviously the perfect misshot but then law Murray
had some interesting stats both teams made exactly two hundred
and eighty eight field goals in this seven game series.
But to your point of the letting them have belief
in light, Nuggets had seven more offensive rebounds. That's kind
(08:51):
of that's those are belief and light providers and they had.
They outscored the Clippers on hunt underd and ten eighty
seven on second chance points in the seven game series.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Oh, the second chance points were the difference. And that's
a lot of Aaron Gordon. Yeah, And that's a lot
of will and want to and heart and toughness, and
they had more of it.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Russ had himself a hell of a series. He earned
every right to do what he did in Game seven.
He did. I've never seen the rust the Russ roller coaster.
It was straight up for this for the for There
was one little dip uh for the rest roller coaster,
but it was straight up and the Clippers had no consistency.
(09:40):
We didn't know. One of the frustrating things about the
playoffs and what makes the playoffs the playoffs is we
didn't know what version of the Clippers was going to
show up, which was not something we really had to
do with in the regular season. They were a good
team at showing up in the regular season, and then
in the play it kind of started to get a
little shake, and then we just didn't know who was
(10:03):
going to be there. We didn't know if James was
going to show up. We knew that in the regular season, Yeah,
James was going to show up.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
We knew it could be inconsistent in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Absolutely, yes, An I don't think. Yeah, no one was
fooled that we were going to get seven elite games
from James Harden.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But now they were verted back to some old bad habits. Yeah,
first quarters, slow starts, they had a made that a
big point of emphasis, and then they were better in
Game six, and they're better in Game seven with faster starts.
To be fair, why did it take so long? I
(10:43):
keep thinking this is like an overarching theme of this era,
where there is something to their biggest strength with all
the comebacks leading to a weakness where you always think
and you always wait to get down to really engage.
And I think it's a really bad habit. And I've
always felt like that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, I mean it is a common thing. It's uh
and I don't know what you do to fix it.
If that makes sense. I know there's people saying let's
blow it up, which I don't know how that even
works with a team that doesn't have a bunch of
valuable pieces. No, just right, like you can't. I don't
(11:27):
know if blowing it up to me? Yeah, anyway, I
think it would go a lot worse than people think
it would go.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, I mean we get into that conversation at some point,
like what to do. I don't know if we're going
that far down.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
No, we'll talk about it next week. But I don't
think they're blowing it up. People are pissed off at
TYLERU kind of rightfully. So it was really frustrating series.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I didn't love hearing afterwards him say, you know, I
was thinking about OKAYC like they expected to win. Yeah,
that did you interpret it as like they overlook them?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I was trying because I really said that. That one
stuck out to me too, and I was really trying
to sit with it because when I first saw it,
as Twitter is designed to make you do, I was
a little upset by it.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I think he just meant like we we didn't expect
to lose this series. I don't think Yeah, it affected
their game plan like they were holding something back for
okayc or they they look past Denver. How could you
once you get to a game seven?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Right? Yeah, And I don't think that. I think I
think it's also just maybe more of a compliment to
OKAC in some weird way. Also, hello Robert Flabb. He said,
sometimes it's better when coaches don't have options. Hey, sometimes,
Hey Adam, I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Think David Adaman had to had to choose many different
ways to go. Its just play your guys.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yet seven guys not now balloons. Yeah, I took it
as like, I don't know, it was a weird thing
to say. There was a lot of weird What did
he say after Game five? Were good or something? He
had a we're fine a doc esque quote.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I mean you can take that both ways. It's like
you're supposed to be confident. What do you expect him
to say? Or like, why is he more upset? And
to his credit after game seven yet somebody kept pressing him.
He's like, you wanna know what I really feel? I'm pissed. Yeah,
Like I think he's more fiery than people realize. He
just doesn't air guys out.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Ever, at the end, to the media, which is a
good coach move. No one, I don't think anyone. No
one likes when a coach directly calls out a player
after a game seven. We saw Doc do that to
a guy who's on the Clippers now, and I can't
imagine what that. I can't imagine. I mean, I'm sure
that plane ride was dead quiet except for Van Gundy
(14:00):
at the beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Coming back Zoombat's postgame, did you hear him? He just
kept saying, like three different times he said, another first
round loss, third year in a row. He was down.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
He's been there for all of it, man, he has,
and he's grown. He also didn't touch the ball enough,
I thought yesterday in all offense again another frustrating thing
where it's like we were built on this great pick
and roll, in this great defense, and then against a shorthanded,
(14:34):
banged up Denver team which all credit in the world,
they played great basketball. The Clippers went away from the
things that got them there. They didn't run what they brung.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I do think to an extent. Their zone negated the
pick and roll some and also the Clippers got a
lot of good shots out of it that they planked. Yeah,
I think Denver end up shooting by three percent better
from three in this series. It felt more significant than that,
but three percent is not nothing in the series is close.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And I bet the blowout really alters that for the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, so the Clippers shot thirty six percent. They shot
thirty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And what did the Clippers shooting Game four or whatever
game they blew them out?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Oh? The game game three?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Oh, I guess what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, that they
shot forty six percent in that one game. So yeah,
take that away. They're shooting like thirty in six games
from three.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah. Robert Flabb, who was just in this chat, had
a tweet earlier that was interesting. Funny is not the
right word. He said, Chris Don only made four fewer
threes in the Nugget series the Norm Palell, five fewer
than Kawhi and six fewer than hard the Norm. The
Norm stats were rough. Uh, but this was not what
(16:01):
we needed from Norm Powell.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No, Norm had a bad series. He had a good
Game six. He had a couple of good, really good
games Norm games. But this wasn't enough. And we can
do all the over analysis stuff, or you can just
say they were much better from three in this series,
and they got more offensive rebounds and that's it, Like
(16:27):
it's that simple and the three point stuff. I don't
think that's coaching. I don't think coach Lou deserves criticism
for that. I've criticized him for a lot of things.
I don't think that's the problem. Them laying down like
they did in the third quarter. I don't think that's
coach Lou's problem. From Game seven, like that's not on him.
(16:47):
But yeah, Norm wasn't wasn't good enough? Unfortunately, should he
have gone away from him? I originally was like, put
in patomb for Norm to start, I said, going into
game five, I thought, batoom, that's when I'm at that
point to start withom.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
How did we feel about we didn't even talk about
this yet, how'd we feel that it was Derek Jones?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I think that was actually a pretty good move.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I was like, oh no, I didn't think of that, Like.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, the analytics that said for a while that Derek
Jones should probably be starting, and it gave them, Like
so batoomba is still that you still have one more
move to make if that doesn't work with Batum coming
off the bench, I do I did like that. Yeah,
but if it was up to me, I would have
started with Toom earlier in the series. If if you're
(17:32):
worried about oh Batum's older and I don't know if
that's gonna work, now's the time to find out if
it could work.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Yeah, because we found out a little late. We
tried uh forgotten long account said, where's Norman Powell standing
all this? Because we've only got him under contract for
next year. I don't know when they have to get
in if they would, he's unrestricted after next year, so
I don't know when they have to get it. They
don't have to get the deal done. They're not really
(18:01):
under any pressure to get it done super quickly. I
don't think I don't think he made himself any more
money after this playoff series. I think his.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Stops still higher going into this offseason. The last offseason though.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Oh definitely. I mean he showed he was great this year.
He was What does he make actually, because he doesn't
make a crazy amount of money. It's like nineteen nineteen.
He's at nineteen this year, he's right at twenty next year.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
We'll be talking about it all summer. Norm once again
is the most likely trade piece.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, the summer of that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
We did the same thing last year, but this year,
coming off the year he had, if you can get
a first round pick, I would entertain that. I love
norm Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, same here Harden has the player option. We'll get
into all that later this week. Yeah. I thought it
was cool that the fans got to be out there.
I wish they would have seen a better performance from
the clips. Shout out Priam saying he flat with the swell.
Awesome move by Ballmer.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Incredible move by Balmer. That was so cool to see.
That was that happy, fired up. I was having foma.
I was like, damn, Hoshaw's there now.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It's just left after the third which the camera panda.
That was pretty funny. I do have to tip my hat.
So whoever was in the booth for that to say
show the wall and they were gone.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's just so hard to work through a successful, legitimately
successful regular season, legitimately successful season that just happened to
end in miserable fashion.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
A whimpering fashion. It was.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Terrible, just being uncompetitive like that in the game seven
for all the world to see. It's just very painful.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, it did not represent Clippers basketball.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, it didn't represent who this team was throughout the
majority of the season.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Exactly. If you didn't watch this Clippers team at all,
you would have watched that Game seven, which I'm assuming
most NBA fans maybe you know, maybe you only watch
the playoffs. Whatever. You were probably so confused why I
was in a game seven? Once the third quarter was over,
you probably want how did this get to seven games?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, Casule's were big confused.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, man, I just that the dunk? Was it? Man?
That was just and I know that's that's not like
where the season, that's not where the series was lost,
But it was just like, oh, they have a moment now,
they have a huge thing to rally around during such
(21:00):
during a weird time. They have an interest. Coach, like,
you can't give the chaotic team, like you said, these
moments of belief.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I think coming out flat in Game four, importing yourself
in a position where you gotta come back like that
for that moment to happen, To not have the right
personnel out there to stop that, it's all bad, but
I just sense of urgency. How does Kawhi play six
(21:31):
less minutes in Game one of a playoff game that
he did in Game eighty two against Golden State in overtime.
They both went to overtime. One game he played six
less minutes. Maybe it was tired. It looks like it
at times. I'm still probably pushing things to make sure
(21:51):
I win that game one and set the tone.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I don't know, Yeah, I agree, You and I talked
about it. Was it after game three? I think when
we were like, why are they why are they saying
these quotes now of like getting locked in, or like
why are they saying these quotes now of settling in?
Like why are you even you shouldn't you should? Are
(22:15):
you should maybe already be settled into the intensity you
need for this playoff series. Again, we were the lower seat.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
When they came in, having to win a bunch of games.
Shouldn't that intensity transfer, an urgency transfer into a playoff series?
They already were for all intensive purposes, going through kind
of a playoff gauntlet just to stay out of the
play in.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, maybe that gassed them. I forget I did. I
didn't forget that the Clippers' main guys were old, but
I forgot maybe how much it would show after the
crazy stretch to end the season.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I just kind of thought, Okay, they just got six
days off. I thought that was gonna be enough. But
the truth is, this series does tell you the chances
of them being able to survive, even if Kawhi stays healthy,
but just being able to survive the attrition of going
(23:20):
through the playoffs and being this old of a team
is pretty unlikely. Like making a deep run with the
team this old is is pretty unlikely. Yeah, even if
you stay healthy, you're still tired.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, even if you stay healthy, you're still tired. That
I mean. Yeah, I're gonna take a quick audio break
for the podcast people because we're gonna put this out
on audio, but we will be back to talk more
about how we feel the day after Red Saturday ads
coming up in three two one, All right, back in.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Live, Sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Slippers, old habits. Interesting point from Robert Flaum. The Game
four comeback was probably the worst thing that could have happened,
got Tyleru to lean into offensive first lineups. I think
(24:23):
I think the blowout was the worst thing to happen,
if I'm being not to the Clippers blowout win not.
I mean, obviously Game seven was was a horrible thing
to happen.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Butt may have confirmed to some that, oh, we are
this much better in this team when we play the
right way. Cool, how often are you going to play
the right way? I? Yeah, and Denver was just they
were missing and Clippers were hitting.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It was a throwaway game, I said, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I said afterwards, guys, as exciting as this is. When
everybody was talking about, hey, how do we match up
against OKC after they went up to one, I kept saying,
as exciting as this is. You know, they did just
shoot forty six percent from three on high volume in
this game, and maybe that's we're putting too much into that.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, it was a throw It was just a game
where it was like, Okay, everything went right. Let's hope
that happens again. Let's hope that.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I see you, Mark Jag I know you were thinking
about okay, see already. Unfortunately, the Clippers played Game four
like they thought they were up three to one. Yeah,
that's what it looked like to me, with the way
they came out in game four, and.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We said, I think most all of us kind of
agreed that winning in six seemed more plausible than winning
in seven.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
That's why I picked him at six, because it's a seven.
They're probably not winning on the road.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, I didn't think they were gonna win the game,
but I will tell you what, I didn't think they
were gonna get taken to the woodshed.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I did mention our last show, it's gonna go one
of three ways. Clippers win close, Denver wins close, Denver
wins blowout. There's no Clippers win blowout option in game seven. Now,
what I didn't know is Denver wins blowout. Well, Jamal
Murray and Jokic don't even do that much that I
did not see coming.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
No, I thought it was gonna be a playoff Murray,
a playoff Yokic experience right, and said we got playoff Gordon,
who was better than any Clipper this series.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Elite, elite role player. He was a star in this series.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Do you think that Game seven will get more people
talking about Kobe Brown? He had thirteen points in eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Was that someone in the chat saying that shock? Are
you asking me?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
No, Drew Eubanks got some time Cam Christy with his
first playoff buckets. That's good to see a mere coffee DNP.
I'm sure there were people furious by that.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It is interesting that he didn't even play in garbage
time in this series.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
That is odd. I will I will admit that I didn't.
I understood maybe why he wasn't getting time, but none
with the blowouts is interesting because what's the point, Like,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Think he's gonna be on the Clippers next year. I'd
be honest.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, I think someone would. He should get whatever big
deal he can get, and I don't think the Clippers.
I mean the Clippers can, but I don't think they
will offer him. I think they'll be outbid.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I don't think. I think this series kind of cements
to it. He's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, one of the longest tenured Clippers, but in a
very weird way because he had so many two ways,
like not contractually, but all the two ways. Yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
This was there's so much blame to go around, Like
I think it's fair to go after coach Lu for
this series. I think it's fair to go after a
lot of different players in this series. I think Kawhi
was their best player and he still wasn't. He still
wasn't good enough totally, and you look at the numbers
and he averaged twenty five points per game, you might
(28:32):
have averaged the most points in the series, or at
least close to it by any player. He shot fifty
three percent from the field, thirty eight thirty nine percent
from three seven boards for assists. The numbers are good,
but I said this earlier. It just didn't feel like
he had enough moments of taking control of the game
outside of two outside a game too.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And it didn't pass the eye test. It didn't look
you know what I mean, It didn't have that outside
of the outside of game two. Obviously, he just looked
his age. He looked like an older version of Kawhi Leonard,
who was still very good, you know, but he's not
able to consistently be that playoff claw guy.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
And that totally could be the case. It also could
be he only got thirty seven games and he was
kind of wavering about what his role was on this
team at times, and if he made it pretty clear
that it was his job to fit in around everybody
else and not them fitting around him. Yeah, and like
(29:40):
he had to take a back seat, and he was
okay with that, and he talked about how good they
were the first half of the season. Was it also
mental or is it physical?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You know? I wonder there were some fit issues when
he came back to Like Norm had to get had
to figure it out. When Kawai came back like that
fit was a little wonky to start. Yeah, it fell.
I don't know. They went, they went about the recovery
(30:12):
so well. He came back, he looked, the trajectory was there,
It was where we wanted it to be. And yeah,
just didn't show up in game seven.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I thought Kauai was decent, Like I saw enough plays
to see that Kawhi was locked in game seven and
playing hard here. He wasn't great. Yeah, he cared, like
when they were down twenty, Kauai was still playing hard.
Like the Kawai hit a three pointer to start the
third quarter. They go to him right away. He hits
a three pointer. You're down by eight.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Right, it's right there.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You're fine. You're down by eight, yo, Kichen Murray aren't
hot by any means, You're okay. And then they give
it was seventeen. Oh run and it's over.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That run man, and it was over, Like it was
fucking it was over. Yeah. I mean him and Zoo
had some issues defensively last game, but I mean Kawhi
was carrying. I think Zoo cared. I think he was frustrated.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
I thought Zoo played hard, frustrating. He didn't have a
great game, but I think he played hard.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, Norman was bad.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Norman was bad. Harden was bad.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The Bogey Fowls were crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Not. I mean the refs were part of that is
the other thing too.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
It was the free throw like sixteen to four or
five at the half.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, let me look, it was bad.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Not why they lost, but.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sixteen to seven Clippers actually made all seven. What was
with the free throws too? That frustrated me. They missed
seven in Game seven two. That frustrated me all season.
Just a weird thing to happen, a bad sign.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Also, what missing free throws?
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Clippers missing free throws in the playoffs. Yeah, it was weird.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
It goes back Game one against Phoenix. They've missed some
free throws at the end of that game that went
into overtime and then they lost.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah, Man bad, Omen bad, Omen bad.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
But a good year.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But a good year. Yeah, I mean on the whole,
the regular season was fantastic. It was one of the
more fun regular seasons you can have as a Clippers fan.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
We all said it, I kind of look at it
like I think Robert Floms mentioned this recently too. You
could just weigh how many good games, memorable moments you
got during this season versus the bad moments that ruin
your day like they were by far, way more good days,
(33:10):
way more good days. If you're somebody that just yeah,
you know, measures happiness by a lot of people with
their sports team. That's how it is.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
This is not the right team for that. I would
like to were too straight winning seasons, yes, and another
first round exit. Yeah. My Dolphins and my Clippers not
not looking too hot? All right, do we have anything
else we want to talk about about that game? Should
(33:43):
we mercivelly end this shout out? The fans into a
Dome showed the hell out for their first playoff series.
It did.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
This was the year of the Into a Dome. I
don't know if there's anything else say about that game.
It's just complete, not complete, no show because they did
win the first quarter. But you expect better, more fight.
You gotta be tougher than that.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, you gotta be hats off for the Nuggets. They
were tougher. They had all like you said, they had
all the intangibles more, they were able to create momentum
for moments and the Clippers couldn't shoot.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, they drowned them in intangibles in this series.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah. Uh, that's a great way to put it, all right, Well,
oh you know what this means for the new listeners.
If you're near to the show during the off season,
we do dip recipes, so it's a silver lining.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I'm trying to diet.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Hey, you can make healthy divs. All right. That about
wraps things up. We're going to be back next week
with the full crew to talk how the regular season
went as a whole. It was a good year. Despite
it feeling like you want to cut your own head
off right now, it was a good year. Adam, Do
(35:19):
we have one positive thing to send these Clippers fans
out on. I understand if it's hard to find one,
but I believe that you can do it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Steve Bomer is him.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
What he did to fly fans out like that has
never happened before. I've never seen anything like that in
sports history. That was an incredibly awesome gesture. And just
that's what you want from ownership. That's it, That's that's
what you got. To hold on to and believe in.
That's what matters most.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, that in your own personal well being, not being
connected to how the Clippers do in the playoffs. Regular season,
you'll probably be great playoffs, maybe not. All right, we'll
be back next week with y'all. Have a great week,
take some time to do some stuff for yourself. Just
love yourself a little bit more this week because of
(36:17):
what happened. All right, We'll see y'all later, and as always,
let's go clips.
How's it going, Clippers fans? Welcome to the Day After
Red Saturday, or whatever we want to call the game
seven that the Clippers theoretically played in. I'm Chuck Wickler
joined by Adam Os. When we're doing a little live
hang decompression, when we're going to do a full episode
with the crew early next week. You're listening to the
(00:35):
pod and you'd like to hang out for some of these,
check us out at YouTube dot com slush at Clippers Podcast. Yeah, Adam,
I woke up feeling pretty much the same level of anchor,
frustration and sadness that I felt yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
This is a good test for those who think like
a win is a win or a loss is a loss.
They aren't. It matters how you play, and the Clippers
not showing up after the first quarter is really disappointing.
I think we both were talking about how, oh no,
they lost the non jokish minutes to start the second
quarter by seven. That was to me the beginning of
(01:23):
the end and the big warning sign of this could
get really out of hand. Even though Yoki to Jamal
Murray weren't exactly great yesterday and you still get blown out.
How do you get blown out when those two had
fifteen in the first half. That's what's just baffling.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, there was just no If you wanted to know
what a team with like what does fight look like
or what does showing up kind of look like? It
was the opposite of that from the Clippers. We got
another no media performance from James Harden, which the wrong
(02:06):
way a great look. It's not a great look for
a guy who did. And that's one of the things
that Max is frustrating is he had a wonderful regular
season in terms of the leadership stuff. He had a
fantastic regular season with leadership, but the postseason hurts a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, Like, I totally understand, you're really frustrated. You're a
competitor and you just don't want to talk to anybody
after a game like that, or after the game they
lost before that, or the game they lost before that.
The last three games, I don't think he showed up
for the postgame presser. But he did what they won,
(02:46):
he did when they won losses he did not, Yeah,
and that's just not a great look. You gotta be there,
be accountable, and it's part of the deal. But I
don't know I that was as miserable of a way
as you could end the season. I think for a
season that was such an overall success, it's just leaving
(03:09):
a sour taste in everyone's mouth. And this is what
they're going to be remembering for a while, how it
ended and not how it started. And the great game
in Game eighty two to beat the Golden States lers down.
There are just so many highs, but it ended on
a deep, deep, low nater.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It was a valley. Yeah, last last night was a
valley Kawhi frustrating. We get the healthy run, we don't
we get one elite game. And and again also absolute
(03:51):
all the credit in the world to the Denver Nuggets.
Hats off to them for an incredible series. Took three
minutes to mention this, but fantastic. Aaron Gordon probably the
third best player in the series.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Maybe higher. He might be the second. A Jokic is
hard because so much more is demanded of Jokic and
he's Yeah, Aaron Gordon doesn't get going if there isn't
so much attention on Jokic. But Aaron Gordon was the
most consistently impactful player in the series.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
YEAHL Murray said something that I thought was interesting after
the the dunk, which I guess that's what we're calling it.
I don't know what people are calling it, but we
all know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
The perfect air ball, the.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Perfect air ball made all the other made, the non Jokic,
non Murray Nuggets players all kind of that was kind
of a moment for them, and they were able to
really rally around that. And we saw it in other
games too, right when extra things were happening, the Nuggets
were able to fashion some momentum or something to hold
on to from those moments. The Bug Russ Techs obviously
(05:02):
the donk, the kerfluffle before half before we lost that
game in heartbreaking fashion, like they were very clearly a
team that has played in the playoffs together and all
the credit to them because they looked Clippers were the
healthier roster.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Do you feel like the Clippers lost this series more
than Denver won it? How do you feel It's hard
to say that afterward happened in game seven, Game seven.
If you told me they lost a close Game seven,
I'd be like, Ah, Clippers blew this more than Denver,
you know, really took it from him.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But they did a lot to lose. It like the
Clippers didn't did not help themselves. I think to say
that they lost the series, I think they would have
had to have done more to help themselves win, if
that makes sense. But it felt like maybe not chasing
as hard as they should have for game one. Some
(06:01):
just you know, we got the classic and I love Tyleru,
but when it doesn't work, it doesn't look very pretty,
which is the matchup hunting, you know, and they went
away from the pick and roll. It just there were
just things where.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I don't know, man, I don't think Game seven was
on coach Lou, like really.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
The effort from everybody.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Kawai called it out at post game, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Which is frustrating because you're like great.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I think it objectively was a bad series for coach Lou.
I think that's fair to say because when he has
made mistakes before, ultimately it's still well, he didn't have
his best players, so how much can you really put
on him? But this time he had his best guys.
(06:59):
I think he had more room for error then was
actually out there in reality. I think he thought they
had more of a margin for air against this Denver
team than they did. I don't know if that's true.
And I can't hear you, Nut Chuck, can you hear me?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Sorry I was muting.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I'm only going off of the minutes from game one,
not starting be toomb till second half of game six,
Like I'm going off of things where to me if
you had more of a sense of urgency. It's the
word I've been using throughout this entire series. It doesn't
guarantee anything, but I think it gives you a better chance.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, I like that. I like that idea that I mean,
we did have more room for error theoretically, but see.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But my point was coming into the series close games
with Denver, if you give them belief because of their
championship DNA, they're going to take those close games like
they're going to find a way to beat you or
just you know, if you give them life and they
did like they they were better with all the intangibles.
(08:21):
That's I think the Clippers they let them up off
the mat in some ways.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, and I like letting them have belief or light
is a I love that metaphor because you look at
things like obviously the perfect misshot but then law Murray
had some interesting stats both teams made exactly two hundred
and eighty eight field goals in this seven game series.
But to your point of the letting them have belief
in light, Nuggets had seven more offensive rebounds. That's kind
(08:51):
of that's those are belief and light providers and they had.
They outscored the Clippers on hunt underd and ten eighty
seven on second chance points in the seven game series.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Oh, the second chance points were the difference. And that's
a lot of Aaron Gordon. Yeah, And that's a lot
of will and want to and heart and toughness, and
they had more of it.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Russ had himself a hell of a series. He earned
every right to do what he did in Game seven.
He did. I've never seen the rust the Russ roller coaster.
It was straight up for this for the for There
was one little dip uh for the rest roller coaster,
but it was straight up and the Clippers had no consistency.
(09:40):
We didn't know. One of the frustrating things about the
playoffs and what makes the playoffs the playoffs is we
didn't know what version of the Clippers was going to
show up, which was not something we really had to
do with in the regular season. They were a good
team at showing up in the regular season, and then
in the play it kind of started to get a
little shake, and then we just didn't know who was
(10:03):
going to be there. We didn't know if James was
going to show up. We knew that in the regular season, Yeah,
James was going to show up.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
We knew it could be inconsistent in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Absolutely, yes, An I don't think. Yeah, no one was
fooled that we were going to get seven elite games
from James Harden.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But now they were verted back to some old bad habits. Yeah,
first quarters, slow starts, they had a made that a
big point of emphasis, and then they were better in
Game six, and they're better in Game seven with faster starts.
To be fair, why did it take so long? I
(10:43):
keep thinking this is like an overarching theme of this era,
where there is something to their biggest strength with all
the comebacks leading to a weakness where you always think
and you always wait to get down to really engage.
And I think it's a really bad habit. And I've
always felt like that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, I mean it is a common thing. It's uh
and I don't know what you do to fix it.
If that makes sense. I know there's people saying let's
blow it up, which I don't know how that even
works with a team that doesn't have a bunch of
valuable pieces. No, just right, like you can't. I don't
(11:27):
know if blowing it up to me? Yeah, anyway, I
think it would go a lot worse than people think
it would go.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, I mean we get into that conversation at some point,
like what to do. I don't know if we're going
that far down.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
No, we'll talk about it next week. But I don't
think they're blowing it up. People are pissed off at
TYLERU kind of rightfully. So it was really frustrating series.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I didn't love hearing afterwards him say, you know, I
was thinking about OKAYC like they expected to win. Yeah,
that did you interpret it as like they overlook them?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I was trying because I really said that. That one
stuck out to me too, and I was really trying
to sit with it because when I first saw it,
as Twitter is designed to make you do, I was
a little upset by it.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I think he just meant like we we didn't expect
to lose this series. I don't think Yeah, it affected
their game plan like they were holding something back for
okayc or they they look past Denver. How could you
once you get to a game seven?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Right? Yeah, And I don't think that. I think I
think it's also just maybe more of a compliment to
OKAC in some weird way. Also, hello Robert Flabb. He said,
sometimes it's better when coaches don't have options. Hey, sometimes,
Hey Adam, I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Think David Adaman had to had to choose many different
ways to go. Its just play your guys.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yet seven guys not now balloons. Yeah, I took it
as like, I don't know, it was a weird thing
to say. There was a lot of weird What did
he say after Game five? Were good or something? He
had a we're fine a doc esque quote.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I mean you can take that both ways. It's like
you're supposed to be confident. What do you expect him
to say? Or like, why is he more upset? And
to his credit after game seven yet somebody kept pressing him.
He's like, you wanna know what I really feel? I'm pissed. Yeah,
Like I think he's more fiery than people realize. He
just doesn't air guys out.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Ever, at the end, to the media, which is a
good coach move. No one, I don't think anyone. No
one likes when a coach directly calls out a player
after a game seven. We saw Doc do that to
a guy who's on the Clippers now, and I can't
imagine what that. I can't imagine. I mean, I'm sure
that plane ride was dead quiet except for Van Gundy
(14:00):
at the beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Coming back Zoombat's postgame, did you hear him? He just
kept saying, like three different times he said, another first
round loss, third year in a row. He was down.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
He's been there for all of it, man, he has,
and he's grown. He also didn't touch the ball enough,
I thought yesterday in all offense again another frustrating thing
where it's like we were built on this great pick
and roll, in this great defense, and then against a shorthanded,
(14:34):
banged up Denver team which all credit in the world,
they played great basketball. The Clippers went away from the
things that got them there. They didn't run what they brung.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I do think to an extent. Their zone negated the
pick and roll some and also the Clippers got a
lot of good shots out of it that they planked. Yeah,
I think Denver end up shooting by three percent better
from three in this series. It felt more significant than that,
but three percent is not nothing in the series is close.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And I bet the blowout really alters that for the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, so the Clippers shot thirty six percent. They shot
thirty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And what did the Clippers shooting Game four or whatever
game they blew them out?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Oh? The game game three?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Oh, I guess what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, that they
shot forty six percent in that one game. So yeah,
take that away. They're shooting like thirty in six games
from three.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah. Robert Flabb, who was just in this chat, had
a tweet earlier that was interesting. Funny is not the
right word. He said, Chris Don only made four fewer
threes in the Nugget series the Norm Palell, five fewer
than Kawhi and six fewer than hard the Norm. The
Norm stats were rough. Uh, but this was not what
(16:01):
we needed from Norm Powell.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No, Norm had a bad series. He had a good
Game six. He had a couple of good, really good
games Norm games. But this wasn't enough. And we can
do all the over analysis stuff, or you can just
say they were much better from three in this series,
and they got more offensive rebounds and that's it, Like
(16:27):
it's that simple and the three point stuff. I don't
think that's coaching. I don't think coach Lou deserves criticism
for that. I've criticized him for a lot of things.
I don't think that's the problem. Them laying down like
they did in the third quarter. I don't think that's
coach Lou's problem. From Game seven, like that's not on him.
(16:47):
But yeah, Norm wasn't wasn't good enough? Unfortunately, should he
have gone away from him? I originally was like, put
in patomb for Norm to start, I said, going into
game five, I thought, batoom, that's when I'm at that
point to start withom.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
How did we feel about we didn't even talk about
this yet, how'd we feel that it was Derek Jones?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I think that was actually a pretty good move.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I was like, oh no, I didn't think of that, Like.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, the analytics that said for a while that Derek
Jones should probably be starting, and it gave them, Like
so batoomba is still that you still have one more
move to make if that doesn't work with Batum coming
off the bench, I do I did like that. Yeah,
but if it was up to me, I would have
started with Toom earlier in the series. If if you're
(17:32):
worried about oh Batum's older and I don't know if
that's gonna work, now's the time to find out if
it could work.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Yeah, because we found out a little late. We
tried uh forgotten long account said, where's Norman Powell standing
all this? Because we've only got him under contract for
next year. I don't know when they have to get
in if they would, he's unrestricted after next year, so
I don't know when they have to get it. They
don't have to get the deal done. They're not really
(18:01):
under any pressure to get it done super quickly. I
don't think I don't think he made himself any more
money after this playoff series. I think his.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Stops still higher going into this offseason. The last offseason though.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Oh definitely. I mean he showed he was great this year.
He was What does he make actually, because he doesn't
make a crazy amount of money. It's like nineteen nineteen.
He's at nineteen this year, he's right at twenty next year.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
We'll be talking about it all summer. Norm once again
is the most likely trade piece.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, the summer of that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
We did the same thing last year, but this year,
coming off the year he had, if you can get
a first round pick, I would entertain that. I love
norm Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, same here Harden has the player option. We'll get
into all that later this week. Yeah. I thought it
was cool that the fans got to be out there.
I wish they would have seen a better performance from
the clips. Shout out Priam saying he flat with the swell.
Awesome move by Ballmer.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Incredible move by Balmer. That was so cool to see.
That was that happy, fired up. I was having foma.
I was like, damn, Hoshaw's there now.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
It's just left after the third which the camera panda.
That was pretty funny. I do have to tip my hat.
So whoever was in the booth for that to say
show the wall and they were gone.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's just so hard to work through a successful, legitimately
successful regular season, legitimately successful season that just happened to
end in miserable fashion.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
A whimpering fashion. It was.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Terrible, just being uncompetitive like that in the game seven
for all the world to see. It's just very painful.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, it did not represent Clippers basketball.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, it didn't represent who this team was throughout the
majority of the season.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Exactly. If you didn't watch this Clippers team at all,
you would have watched that Game seven, which I'm assuming
most NBA fans maybe you know, maybe you only watch
the playoffs. Whatever. You were probably so confused why I
was in a game seven? Once the third quarter was over,
you probably want how did this get to seven games?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, Casule's were big confused.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, man, I just that the dunk? Was it? Man?
That was just and I know that's that's not like
where the season, that's not where the series was lost,
But it was just like, oh, they have a moment now,
they have a huge thing to rally around during such
(21:00):
during a weird time. They have an interest. Coach, like,
you can't give the chaotic team, like you said, these
moments of belief.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I think coming out flat in Game four, importing yourself
in a position where you gotta come back like that
for that moment to happen, To not have the right
personnel out there to stop that, it's all bad, but
I just sense of urgency. How does Kawhi play six
(21:31):
less minutes in Game one of a playoff game that
he did in Game eighty two against Golden State in overtime.
They both went to overtime. One game he played six
less minutes. Maybe it was tired. It looks like it
at times. I'm still probably pushing things to make sure
(21:51):
I win that game one and set the tone.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I don't know, Yeah, I agree, You and I talked
about it. Was it after game three? I think when
we were like, why are they why are they saying
these quotes now of like getting locked in, or like
why are they saying these quotes now of settling in?
Like why are you even you shouldn't you should? Are
(22:15):
you should maybe already be settled into the intensity you
need for this playoff series. Again, we were the lower seat.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
When they came in, having to win a bunch of games.
Shouldn't that intensity transfer, an urgency transfer into a playoff series?
They already were for all intensive purposes, going through kind
of a playoff gauntlet just to stay out of the
play in.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, maybe that gassed them. I forget I did. I
didn't forget that the Clippers' main guys were old, but
I forgot maybe how much it would show after the
crazy stretch to end the season.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I just kind of thought, Okay, they just got six
days off. I thought that was gonna be enough. But
the truth is, this series does tell you the chances
of them being able to survive, even if Kawhi stays healthy,
but just being able to survive the attrition of going
(23:20):
through the playoffs and being this old of a team
is pretty unlikely. Like making a deep run with the
team this old is is pretty unlikely. Yeah, even if
you stay healthy, you're still tired.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, even if you stay healthy, you're still tired. That
I mean. Yeah, I're gonna take a quick audio break
for the podcast people because we're gonna put this out
on audio, but we will be back to talk more
about how we feel the day after Red Saturday ads
coming up in three two one, All right, back in.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Live, Sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Slippers, old habits. Interesting point from Robert Flaum. The Game
four comeback was probably the worst thing that could have happened,
got Tyleru to lean into offensive first lineups. I think
(24:23):
I think the blowout was the worst thing to happen,
if I'm being not to the Clippers blowout win not.
I mean, obviously Game seven was was a horrible thing
to happen.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Butt may have confirmed to some that, oh, we are
this much better in this team when we play the
right way. Cool, how often are you going to play
the right way? I? Yeah, and Denver was just they
were missing and Clippers were hitting.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It was a throwaway game, I said, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I said afterwards, guys, as exciting as this is. When
everybody was talking about, hey, how do we match up
against OKC after they went up to one, I kept saying,
as exciting as this is. You know, they did just
shoot forty six percent from three on high volume in
this game, and maybe that's we're putting too much into that.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, it was a throw It was just a game
where it was like, Okay, everything went right. Let's hope
that happens again. Let's hope that.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I see you, Mark Jag I know you were thinking
about okay, see already. Unfortunately, the Clippers played Game four
like they thought they were up three to one. Yeah,
that's what it looked like to me, with the way
they came out in game four, and.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We said, I think most all of us kind of
agreed that winning in six seemed more plausible than winning
in seven.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
That's why I picked him at six, because it's a seven.
They're probably not winning on the road.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, I didn't think they were gonna win the game,
but I will tell you what, I didn't think they
were gonna get taken to the woodshed.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I did mention our last show, it's gonna go one
of three ways. Clippers win close, Denver wins close, Denver
wins blowout. There's no Clippers win blowout option in game seven. Now,
what I didn't know is Denver wins blowout. Well, Jamal
Murray and Jokic don't even do that much that I
did not see coming.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
No, I thought it was gonna be a playoff Murray,
a playoff Yokic experience right, and said we got playoff Gordon,
who was better than any Clipper this series.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Elite, elite role player. He was a star in this series.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Do you think that Game seven will get more people
talking about Kobe Brown? He had thirteen points in eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Was that someone in the chat saying that shock? Are
you asking me?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
No, Drew Eubanks got some time Cam Christy with his
first playoff buckets. That's good to see a mere coffee DNP.
I'm sure there were people furious by that.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It is interesting that he didn't even play in garbage
time in this series.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
That is odd. I will I will admit that I didn't.
I understood maybe why he wasn't getting time, but none
with the blowouts is interesting because what's the point, Like,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Think he's gonna be on the Clippers next year. I'd
be honest.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, I think someone would. He should get whatever big
deal he can get, and I don't think the Clippers.
I mean the Clippers can, but I don't think they
will offer him. I think they'll be outbid.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I don't think. I think this series kind of cements
to it. He's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, one of the longest tenured Clippers, but in a
very weird way because he had so many two ways,
like not contractually, but all the two ways. Yeah, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
This was there's so much blame to go around, Like
I think it's fair to go after coach Lu for
this series. I think it's fair to go after a
lot of different players in this series. I think Kawhi
was their best player and he still wasn't. He still
wasn't good enough totally, and you look at the numbers
and he averaged twenty five points per game, you might
(28:32):
have averaged the most points in the series, or at
least close to it by any player. He shot fifty
three percent from the field, thirty eight thirty nine percent
from three seven boards for assists. The numbers are good,
but I said this earlier. It just didn't feel like
he had enough moments of taking control of the game
outside of two outside a game too.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And it didn't pass the eye test. It didn't look
you know what I mean, It didn't have that outside
of the outside of game two. Obviously, he just looked
his age. He looked like an older version of Kawhi Leonard,
who was still very good, you know, but he's not
able to consistently be that playoff claw guy.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
And that totally could be the case. It also could
be he only got thirty seven games and he was
kind of wavering about what his role was on this
team at times, and if he made it pretty clear
that it was his job to fit in around everybody
else and not them fitting around him. Yeah, and like
(29:40):
he had to take a back seat, and he was
okay with that, and he talked about how good they
were the first half of the season. Was it also
mental or is it physical?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You know? I wonder there were some fit issues when
he came back to Like Norm had to get had
to figure it out. When Kawai came back like that
fit was a little wonky to start. Yeah, it fell.
I don't know. They went, they went about the recovery
(30:12):
so well. He came back, he looked, the trajectory was there,
It was where we wanted it to be. And yeah,
just didn't show up in game seven.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I thought Kauai was decent, Like I saw enough plays
to see that Kawhi was locked in game seven and
playing hard here. He wasn't great. Yeah, he cared, like
when they were down twenty, Kauai was still playing hard.
Like the Kawai hit a three pointer to start the
third quarter. They go to him right away. He hits
a three pointer. You're down by eight.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Right, it's right there.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You're fine. You're down by eight, yo, Kichen Murray aren't
hot by any means, You're okay. And then they give
it was seventeen. Oh run and it's over.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That run man, and it was over, Like it was
fucking it was over. Yeah. I mean him and Zoo
had some issues defensively last game, but I mean Kawhi
was carrying. I think Zoo cared. I think he was frustrated.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
I thought Zoo played hard, frustrating. He didn't have a
great game, but I think he played hard.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, Norman was bad.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Norman was bad. Harden was bad.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The Bogey Fowls were crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Not. I mean the refs were part of that is
the other thing too.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
It was the free throw like sixteen to four or
five at the half.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, let me look, it was bad.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Not why they lost, but.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sixteen to seven Clippers actually made all seven. What was
with the free throws too? That frustrated me. They missed
seven in Game seven two. That frustrated me all season.
Just a weird thing to happen, a bad sign.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Also, what missing free throws?
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Clippers missing free throws in the playoffs. Yeah, it was weird.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
It goes back Game one against Phoenix. They've missed some
free throws at the end of that game that went
into overtime and then they lost.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah, Man bad, Omen bad, Omen bad.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
But a good year.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But a good year. Yeah, I mean on the whole,
the regular season was fantastic. It was one of the
more fun regular seasons you can have as a Clippers fan.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
We all said it, I kind of look at it
like I think Robert Floms mentioned this recently too. You
could just weigh how many good games, memorable moments you
got during this season versus the bad moments that ruin
your day like they were by far, way more good days,
(33:10):
way more good days. If you're somebody that just yeah,
you know, measures happiness by a lot of people with
their sports team. That's how it is.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
This is not the right team for that. I would
like to were too straight winning seasons, yes, and another
first round exit. Yeah. My Dolphins and my Clippers not
not looking too hot? All right, do we have anything
else we want to talk about about that game? Should
(33:43):
we mercivelly end this shout out? The fans into a
Dome showed the hell out for their first playoff series.
It did.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
This was the year of the Into a Dome. I
don't know if there's anything else say about that game.
It's just complete, not complete, no show because they did
win the first quarter. But you expect better, more fight.
You gotta be tougher than that.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, you gotta be hats off for the Nuggets. They
were tougher. They had all like you said, they had
all the intangibles more, they were able to create momentum
for moments and the Clippers couldn't shoot.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, they drowned them in intangibles in this series.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah. Uh, that's a great way to put it, all right, Well,
oh you know what this means for the new listeners.
If you're near to the show during the off season,
we do dip recipes, so it's a silver lining.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I'm trying to diet.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Hey, you can make healthy divs. All right. That about
wraps things up. We're going to be back next week
with the full crew to talk how the regular season
went as a whole. It was a good year. Despite
it feeling like you want to cut your own head
off right now, it was a good year. Adam, Do
(35:19):
we have one positive thing to send these Clippers fans
out on. I understand if it's hard to find one,
but I believe that you can do it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Steve Bomer is him.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
What he did to fly fans out like that has
never happened before. I've never seen anything like that in
sports history. That was an incredibly awesome gesture. And just
that's what you want from ownership. That's it, That's that's
what you got. To hold on to and believe in.
That's what matters most.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, that in your own personal well being, not being
connected to how the Clippers do in the playoffs. Regular season,
you'll probably be great playoffs, maybe not. All right, we'll
be back next week with y'all. Have a great week,
take some time to do some stuff for yourself. Just
love yourself a little bit more this week because of
(36:17):
what happened. All right, We'll see y'all later, and as always,
let's go clips.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com