Adam Auslund on Clippers Winning Game 5 with Fred Roggin and Rob Parker

Adam Auslund joins R&R with Rob Parker in for Rodney and talks about this Clippers playoff run.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Rob Parker in today for Rodney fiveseventy LA Sports joined now by the Saltier.
Adam Auslin brought you by Honey theMoney's Savings. Fred, you're on
top of things today. I appreciateit. There you go, all right,
Rob Poka, what's up? What'sup? What's again? What's up?
How you hey? I'm your clippersinside or whatever you need? You

(00:21):
know, hey, you know it. He look, I've never faltered the
whole time through and Rob, you'vebeen with the Clippers since they came back
down twenty eight two years ago againstthe Boston Celtics on the road right after
that. Do you remember that asHarris? I don't forget anything. Absolutely,
I remember that. That's when Iwas like Chris and I had a

(00:41):
bad argument on the radio, Brassardand I because he said, oh,
the Clippers don't want to make theplayoffs, you know what I mean,
it's gonna hurt them with their draftpick. And I was like, you
don't come back on the road rightafter you trade Tobias Harris, uh for
no reason, like you know,like you're trying to lose. You would
just lose that game. And youknow what, Adam, I think they're

(01:04):
going to the finals. I thinkthey would have win the last two games
without Kauai. I love to hearthat they're hungry. They're eating like you
are right now, Rob, Ican hear it over there. I was
eating. I'm good now, wassneaking a little something. I'm sorry about
that. It's all good. Maybeare the Clippers making Phoenix look worse than

(01:26):
they truly are, or are theClippers far superior even without Kauai and last
night Zubos, Well, that's yetto be determined. They played one game
without Kauai's serge Anna Vitza zu Botsand they're still down. They gotta win
two games. They gotta win thesenext two. At that point, you
could say Phoenix just wasn't ready forthis, and as good as they have

(01:49):
been all season long, they gotall the breaks in the playoffs with the
Lakers, with Jamal Murray and theDenver Nuggets and now not having to play
Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers. Imean, Rob, if you ask me,
would this Clippers team lose to thePhoenix Suns if they had Kawhi Leonard,
if they were fully healthy, I'dhave to say no, way,

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no, how no how this Clippersteam is the best team left if healthy,
and they might still be the bestteam even if they're not, with
the way Paul George just played lastnight, which was we thought his best
game. The best game of hiscareer was Game five in Utah with thirty

(02:31):
seven in a pseudo must win situation. Last night was the real thing,
and he had forty one, hisplayoff career high. But it's not even
the total. It's going fifteen oftwenty from the field. That's seventy five
percent. Fred said that swread saidit was the quietest forty one, I
said, Fred. He only tooktwenty shots. Fred, he had twenty

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in the third quarter alone. That'sa franchise that ties, a playoff franchise.
High sitting there watching it, right, We're just been watching it.
You're not. I mean, he'sdoing his business. All of a sudden,
the points are creeping up. Butit was he was so methodical and
what he did, it's like youlook up to, oh my god,

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how many points does he have?Well, things escalated quickly in that second
half. He had thirty in thesecond half, just eleven in the first
half, and went ten of twelvefrom the field in the second half,
he was spectacular. And something elsethat's been flying under the radar is the
fact that he has been great reboundingthroughout the playoffs since Kawhi Leonard has gone

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down. Here's what PG thirteen's averagingthirty one points, eleven boards, and
six assists. He has outrebounded DeAndreeighton in two of the last three games
now. And to do that whileyou're going small, you normally do that
collectively as a team. But forthe most part he has been their best
rebounder at times. So when hehas these off nights shooting wise, it's

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hard to have the legs and doeverything, be the playmaker out there,
play defense, rebound and be yournumber one option offensively. And for the
most part, Paul George has doneit. Here's the other thing too,
And I'm not dissing what the Sonshave done, but they're a young team
other than Chris Paul who's never beento the finals. And I just wonder,
as we if Fred was there lastnight and he got the sense of

(04:24):
the city and the people they knowlike they were bummed out even though they
got two chances to win one gameand one game seven being in their building.
The Clippers, they're they're frightening becausethey just keep winning when their backs
against the wall. And they haveveteran players, not guys who have won
all these championships or anything like that, but veteran players against younger guys on

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the Suns who haven't been there.This is their first time being in this.
And you notice, Adam, it'shard to close people out. That's
the toughest game. But to loseit at home last night with the crowd
and how well they thought it wasover. There's video out there of guys
talking junk to Patrick Beverly pregame fanssaying get ready to go fishing. Well,

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that didn't happen. Pat Bevis hasbeen huge, by the way,
but I said this after the Clipperswere down two oh in this series.
So you know what, they winGame three, and that doubt is going
to start to creep in with thePhoenix Suns because they're gonna go, oh
no, it's gonna happen to us. Now. It happened to the Dallas
Mavericks, it happened to the UtahJazz, and now it's gonna happen to
us. And even though they pulledoff that slugfest in Game four, winning

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by four, to lose that gamelast night by fourteen and get punched in
the mouth to start things off wherethe Clippers were up twenty to five.
That could be devastating for their mentalitymoving forward. Coming back to Staples Center
in Game six tomorrow night, Iexpect the crowd to be nuts, just
like they were against the Utah Jazzin that Game six. And the Clippers

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and some of the young guys haveplayed really good at home, like Terrence
Mann for his career high thirty ninepoints last series to close out the Utah
Jazz. So not the same scenario. Not a close out game for the
Clippers, just a must win.But Phoenix is going to be in the
Lions dead tomorrow night, and ifthey lose that game, I mean all
the pressures on them. Anyways,they're the favorites at this point. They

(06:17):
were the favorites going into the serieswithout Kawhi Leonard and now you're down or
you're up two oho, and itlooks like the Clippers have that same momentum
they had the last couple of series. I don't think they have an answer
for Pat Beverley. I think hehas once Tyler put him in and put
him on Devin Booker the Wolverine.Yeah, I'll tell you what. I

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think he has disrupted them to apoint where they don't know what they're doing
out there. He's because he literallyis everywhere. Well, he's an irritant
and I say that affectionately. He'sa pest. That's his job. But
he's not just a guy running arounddoing nothing. Whatever that quote was from
Russell Westbrook, a couple of seasagost saying Patrick Beverley trick y'all. He

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is fighting through screens and flying throughscreens in a manner I've never really seen
before. And he's at his peakright now, even with all the injuries
that have gone on for him thisseason. He missed half the year,
and he's had major injuries the lasttwo years. And he's in peak form
at just the right time. Andremember he didn't play much against the Dallas

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Mavericks because he was so undersized againstLuca don Chich. So he holds Donovan
Mitchell to under thirty percent shooting.And now he's doing the same thing to
Devin Booker, who just hasn't faceda guy like him before. Because he's
old school, he's Tony Allen.You know, he's smaller, he's undersized,
he's diminutive, but he plays big. He plays with heart and as

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Brian Seman would say, I'll takeheart over height any day. Do you
remember Lonzo's first game where he checkedLonzo on the inbounds? Remember that that's
where he got the nickname Mister ninetyfour. I loved every minute of it.
And you mentioned Tylu, Adam,talk about because I know people whenever
Lebron is your player and you wina championship, you know, all the

(08:07):
credit goals to Lebron and you're juststanding there and you roll the balls out.
But ty Lou has impressed me withthe coaching, not being afraid to
bench guys and not use guys andsetting up other guys in the best.
Just talk about some of the thingsthat he's done moves wise, Adam,

(08:28):
that has impressed you. Well,there's two things that stick out right away
that are in stark contrast to whatwe've seen the last seven years. And
it's not a shot at doc Verse. He's a different type of coach.
But the accountability and the adjustments fromcoach Lou are just different his in game
adjustments. We've heard this from coachesaround the league that he is the best

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with in game adjustments in the league, and he's proven it now in these
playoffs, being down O two twicecoming back. Nobody's done that before in
a playoff run. But then alsowith all the injuries and all the adversities
he's had to deal with. Thinkabout this. They start off the series
staying small against DeAndre Aton and thePhoenix Suns. That's not working. He
puts a Viza zubots back in.It works for three games. The last

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four games now, the Clippers haveheld the Suns to an average of ninety
five points per game in the lastfour That's unheard of in twenty twenty one.
Let me say something that means youshould have won all four of those
games. Basically, I'm serious.That offshooting night in Game four was unbelievable.
That was tough to swallow, andthere was a bad call and a

(09:35):
play that wasn't reviewed late on anout of bounce call which I couldn't understand,
and a couple of free throws thatneed to be made. Paul George
has to be accountable for that.There's no doubt about it. But he
sunk all eight last night, andhe has responded every time he's had a
bad game or a bad moment,but last night, they don't have a
vizza Zubots. So everything in thisseries in terms of the game plan was

(09:58):
centered around him being the anchor againstDeAndre Ayton. And they find a way
by going back to going small withMarcus Morris and Batumb out there and Terrence
Man and Reggie Jackson and Paul Georgeand they just out hustle and outwork you.
And that's what they did from theopening tip. They they can't out
talent them necessarily right now, withoutKawhi Lennard, without of each Zoobots,

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but they can play harder and that'swhat they did last night. They've shown
that heart and that toughness we sawa season. The name of the game
with them is they're just resilient.I've never seen a group this resilient before,
and nobody's ever come back down Otwo in a playoff run before.
So there are almost some stats thatline up with that. What do we
know about Zubos, I mean,as a sprain right knee. There was

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a report that came out a littlebit earlier and was on CBS and no
one was taking credit for it,but it said Zubots and Kauai were both
game time decisions. Really, butI haven't even seen a reporter's name on
it. It was just on theCBS Sports website with no name on it.
There's a reason why you know whatname on it? Yes, put

(11:09):
your name is right. So I'mnot putting a lot into that, but
people are talking about it on Twitter. So I wanted to bring it up
because the Clippers the injury report fortoday hasn't come up yet, and I
don't know if coach lew is goingto speak today, and we may find
out if Kawhi Leonard is questionable orif he's going to be out again.
My guests would be it's the sameat this point. If if you're not

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coming back when you're down three gamesto wards that must win game, I
would say it's unlikely. And they'reairing on the side of caution because it's
a knee injury and it looks scary. Let's let's let me ask you about
Reggie Jackson and where he's blossomed intosuch a good player and a force in
these playoffs. And that's how andI'm not saying he's replacing Kauai, but

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that's how you lose a guy likethat, and you get something from Reggie
Jackson that you weren't expecting. Correct, he's getting eighteen a game in the
playoffs, but he's doing it efficiently, fifty percent from the field, forty
two percent from three. But hehas some of that irrational confidence, and
that's no disrespect. You have tohave that as an athlete sometimes. But

(12:11):
he thinks he's the best player outthere. It's that type of thing I
see as a sportscaster. But that'sanother story exactly, and it's very irrational,
thank you. But Sam Casselle hadsome of that. He always wanted
to take the last shot. Hethought, even when he was playing with
the Houston Rockets, whatever team hewas on, he wanted to take the

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last shot. And Reggie Jackson isfifth in points scored in the fourth quarter
in the playoffs, Paul George's first. But Reggie has been so efficient in
big moments and the degree of difficultywith some of these shots he is hitting.
It fuels the rest of the team. When there's a guy out there
playing that loose, that free thatconfident, everybody else loosens up a little

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bit and it takes some of theedge off, some of the pressure off,
and you can see it. Andit's also in the locker room.
TLU was talking about this after thegame last night, that before the game,
Reggie was talking trash, just gettingeverybody going. After the game,
he's doing the exact same thing.When they were down OZ two, a
reporter asked him, like, whydoes this keep happening? Is this insurmountable

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at this point? And Reggie lookedat him like he was going to give
him the KD line. Do youknow who I am? Right, Like,
We've already done it, We've comeback down O two before, and
you're still questioning us. He wasirked, he was annoyed because come on,
haven't we proven this? And hejust has that level of passion and
confidence out there and you have tohave that in a run like this,

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especially without Kawhi Leonard. He hasbeen as important as anyone. But remember
it was coach Lu who put himback into the starting lineup in game three
when they were down OZ two againstDallas. Yep, hey, fred,
I remember the height of your whenyou were irrational about your sportscasting career in
Los Angeles and you thought you werebetter than Ted Dawson on chadew seven.
Do you remember that? Come onfor it. You give me some credit.

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I'm not from LA for me tothrow that out to you, right,
come on? That was big?That that really was big? Okay?
Yeah, ted Dawson, ted Dawson, who was on before Ted Dawson,
who was on before Ted Dawson?A Channel seven fast Eddie Alexander.
See, I didn't know that guy, that fast Eddie. I mean,
how long was it? How longwas that career you gonna have? Would

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a name fast Eddie? Was heon a long time? Well? I
think he ran into some uh oh, some legal trouble. Okay, A
fast career, a quick career.There you Freddy's come back to earth though,
since I think that's what's happened,Adam. Okay, I talked about
this yesterday and I want to getyour take on it. You know,
when when you talk about the Clippers, and inevitably when you have a team

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succeed, more people are interested inthe team. Right, And I said,
you know, Clipper fans can makethe comment, well, I don't
need these bandwagon fans. I've beenaround twenty years and at that point,
you know, I don't need youjumping on here late. That's not the
case. People take notice when somethingbecomes interesting, when something becomes relevant.
Have you noticed that? And it'snot going to overtake the Lakers? Never,

(15:15):
right, But have you noticed moreinterest in the club? I mean,
you always want to grow your brand, and I have because I've been
getting new callers on Clippers Talk eachand every night. Now people will say,
yeah, I've been listening for awhile, but first time caller.
And that just wasn't happening when theywere losing, and it wasn't even happening
so much early in the playoffs whenthey were down oh two, people were

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still hesitant to jump on board.People believe people are like, oh,
here we go down two. AllI heard was they got to blow this
up Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.It was a flop. It was a
bus. Should have kept doc rivers, yep. I wasn't Dock's fault.
I mean I never heard that.And second, if they had not got

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to the conference finals, it didn'twork. Rob. No, I'm just
saying, but but they were countingthem out before the series was over.
Fred, That's that's my point.There's a reason it's a seven game series.
And I've said this over and overwhen people the nets were up to
ah, they got hurt, theylost, right, they were up to
wall. It's not in the NBA, being up to oh doesn't mean you're

(16:21):
doing just there's a long series.It can change quickly, and it's been
survival of the fittest to the fullestin these now. Yeah, it's been
a war of attrition. I've neverseen anything like it. But to your
point, Fred, Clippers want togrow the fan base and this is that
time. This is how it happens. Once the old line that Tom Looney

(16:42):
used to always say, winners havea thousand fathers. Losers are an orphan.
Yeah. Right, It's not abad thing because generationally this can make
a big difference because kids that arewatching the Clippers right now in the playoffs
without the Lakers, they become indoctrinated. They become fans right off the bat,
and that can be long lasting.So this could, you know,

(17:02):
get them a little more of afootprint in the city than they had.
I understand they're never going to overtakethe Lakers. They don't have to,
the city's big enough to have both. All right, So let's say we
don't know who'll win the West.Let's say Milwaukee wins the East, all
right, and I think that's gonnahappen. Well, I mean, Trey
Young's heard, you know what Imean. I mean he's got a bone
bruise, but I still think heplays tonight. There's no way. Okay,

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let's just say Milwaukee wins, becauseif Atlanta wins, it doesn't matter
who comes out of the West,they'll beat Atlanta. Let's say Milwaukee wins.
Whoever comes out of the West,will they beat Milwaukee. Are the
Clippers gonna have Kawhi Leonard back?Let's say, no, that's a tough
Kawhi is the honest stopper. Itold you that story. Don't forget.

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They were up two oh Yannis onToronto, right. They went into double
overtime in Game three of that seriestwo. They could have been down three
oh. But the adjustment made wasKawhi Leonard spoke up in the locker room
and said, here's what we're doing. I'm guarding honest, and then on
he shot the little forty percent,and they won four straight. At some
point, I gotta think you needKawhi Leonard. But there's some magic,

(18:12):
fairytale stuff going on with this Clippersteam like I haven't seen before, not
just with the Clippers, with anybody. Nobody's coming back down O two twice.
They've won seven games now when they'vebeen down in a series. Nobody's
done that before. If any teamcan overcome this much adversity, this many
hurdles, it's the Clippers. ButMilwaukee's good man, But this Adam might

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be just you know, how thisfranchise finally shakes the snake bitten kind of
thing by what they're doing, youknow what I mean, like this,
like like they're they're shadowing all theserecords and it's never happened before. But
the Clippers have been terrible and they'vekept losing, you know, three one
leads and all that, and maybethis is just where the worm has turned.

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Because I still believe that that gamewe in Dallas is where this franchisees
few fortunes turned around. Down nineteenin Dallas. Yeah, things look bleak
sometimes it does take that. TheBoston Red Sox had to be down three
zero to the I don't believe inthe curses, but sometimes it does seem

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like for a team to get overthe hump, you have to go through
something like this. The Chicago Cubsthat back and forth Game seven, and
I think they were down three twoin that series. If you remember to
give up the home run, rightwe had the rain delay. It was
epic, and sometimes when you pushthrough something like that, it can forever
change your fortunes. And maybe that'swhat the Clippers are going through right now.

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It feels like that I've never seenthis much belief from a Clippers team,
but also Clipper Nation, where beforeit was thinking anything that can go
wrong will go wrong. Not anymorepeople were I got hurt. I'm sure
people were like up there we go, yeah, like like this is unbelievable,
all right. Like even when PaulGeorge struggled and went five for twenty

(20:03):
in Game four, I saw peoplesaying he's due, this is his time,
and he came through last night withhis best playoff game, the best
game of his career. So there'ssomething special going on with these Clippers,
whether or not they can sustain it, because at some point you can just
run out of talent. You canrun out of healthy bodies. They're hemorrhaging
right now. If they don't geta visa zoobots or Kawhi Leonard back,

(20:23):
they're already down. Serge Ibaka,Marcus Morris is hurt. It's tough to
push through all of that. Butthey got the game at home tomorrow in
Game six, and I got afeeling we're gonna see another Terrence Man type
of performance. There's a love affairgoing on with Clipper Nation and Terrence Man
in Staples Center. That just fuelsthe entire team, all right. The

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pregame sharer Martain at five right hereon a five seventy LA Sports The Saualty
a Adam Auslin brought to you byHoney. Why it's got to be so
salty? He just well today hewasn't, but he normally is the money
saving browser extension. I was aboutto get salty. If you missed that,
I've reads it up it in there. Love you guys, goodness top
with you, Rob Broken and Rodneya M five seventy