Adam Auslund on R&R on the Clippers and PG, Coach Lue, Doc Rivers, the Mavericks and more

Adam Auslund joins Roggin and Rodney to talk Paul George's game 5 performance, if the Clippers can win the series, Coach Lue, Doc Rivers, Mavericks, KD and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now let's welcome on Adam Austin thesalty a brought to you by Honey,
the money saving browser extension. He'slearning the adapting what happen? You got
it? Freddy? Well done?Okay? Of course, host of Flipper
Countdown the halftime show in the postgameshow, and we made this comment that,

(00:22):
by far was the biggest game ofPaul George's career. Would you agree
yes, given the circumstances, givenall the heat that has been on him
over the past year and a half, now after what happened in the bubble,
and by the way, can Ijust say this for a second,
with mental health being something that everyonehas been more sensitive to the past couple

(00:43):
of years, and with him sayinghe struggled with that in the bubble and
people still piling on him, Ijust find that ridiculous. The playoff piece
stuff. At some point, it'sjust got to stop. And I know
part of it is self inflicted.He said it, part of it,
He said it, part of itfour years ago one time. It's not

(01:07):
like he said. I mean,how much flat does Lebron get for saying
well, now to enter play hegets a lot of flat? Are you
talking about sure, but don't youthink it was at the most polarizing athlete.
I think ever, you know,maybe Kobe. I don't even think
Kobe was more polarizing than Lebron.Also means talking about hate that he gets

(01:32):
for saying that, Oh yeah,i'mna turn it into a playoff mode.
I'm gonna turn it up. Whatare you living in, Adam. Polarizing
also means you get a ton oflove. Paul George hasn't got any of
that no matter what he does.Paul George from Palmdale Brother related Jacob.
I'm just really happy for him tohave that love performance in that situation when

(01:57):
everybody was just waiting for him tofail. And he's been really good,
solid at worst during this entire playoffrun for twelve games. He's had one
bad game against the Utah Jazz wherehe went four of seventeen and everybody said,
oh, pandemic pe, Paul George, playoff pe, all this stuff.
Just stop the guy. Adam Adam, Adam Adam. Look, let's

(02:20):
separate the mental health part from fromthe actual part of what's going on.
Because mental health is a serious issueand many people have it, and many
people still there's a stigma and peopleare scared to talk about it's scared to
be open about it. And hewas. I got criticized for it.
That's my point, and that that'swrong, that's wrong. But the playoff
peace stuff he brought on himself.The trolling, Adam, he brought on

(02:43):
himself, rolling up Dame Lillard andthose guys when when they were he was
part of that. Pat Beverley,don't go, don't forget about that,
and they squashed the beef. They'regood. Oh it doesn't matter, Adam.
You're acting like he's this perfect kid. Oh he didn't do anything but
said something four years ago. No, I'm not saying he's perfect. I
am saying what does he have todo to put this behind him? He

(03:05):
has to win. He has Yeah, now he has to get to the
Western Conference finals. I'll give himthat. To listen. As great as
he I agree with you. Listen, Kawai has been fantastic, out out
of this world in the playoffs,and they got overshadowed because they got down
to Dallas and he came back.But you look at his numbers. What
he did against Dallas in that seriesis incredible, and so and and but

(03:30):
along the way, Paul George hasbeen right there with him. Paul George
has played steady, like you said, other than maybe one game, he
has been incredible. And I'm givingit up to him because with everything,
all of that we just talked abouton the line, people wanting him to
fail so they could have the nextday talk about what happened to playoff Pete,

(03:51):
this is a I mean they put, we did, I did put.
This is Paul George's defining moment.You go from Stephen eight to every
sports show out this is Paul George'smoment. So he heard it from everywhere
and he delivered. Yeah, andhe delivered. So you gotta give it
up to that guy. My pointis, Okay, they still got to
close out the series. They gotto close this out. And it looks

(04:13):
like, I don't you know,we don't know the full status of Kauai,
but more than likely he's not playingthe rest of this series. So
it's gonna be upon Paul George toget this thing and close this thing out.
If he does that, Adam andgets them to the finals without Kauai,
I think a lot of that goesaway. Okay, And that's fair,
and it's not gonna be easy.People keep acting like whoever won the
last game is going to win theseries with this Clippers team. When they're

(04:38):
down two, oh, they're gonnalose the series. When they win two
in a row, they're gonna keepwinning forever. But we've seen things turn
around quickly, and this Utah Jazzteam is still loaded. And if they
stay hot for an entire game fromdistance like they were in the first half
last night, going seventeen of thirty, there's not a lot you can do.
They were making some unreal shots.Bob Donovitch started six of six.

(05:00):
But I was so impressed with thefact that the Clippers had to withstand that
barrage of three pointers in the firsthalf, and somehow they were still only
down five. They still played throughit, all those three pointers made,
and eventually the law of averages wentback in their favor and went against the
Utah Jazz, and they handled theirbusiness in the second half, with Paul

(05:20):
George making that huge and one overRoyce O'Neill, with Reggie Jackson stepping up,
who has been so unbelievably clutched forthis team. He had twelve in
the fourth quarter. And how aboutTerrence Marcus Morris was huge playoff high twenty
five for him on ten of sixteenshooting. Did you guys talk about when
in Game five last round Terrence Manhad a shot at the rim, had

(05:44):
a layup opportunity and turned it downand didn't take it. And what happened
last night against Rudy Gobert, hewent loved it? Was it not reminiscent
of kJ on on Ali Juan Batan? It wasn't wasn't as perfect as that.
Yeah, it was radic as that, but it was pretty cool to
see him have that redemption dunk afterwhat happened last round, no doubt,

(06:09):
no doubt. And Tyler did agreat job last night, then a great
job all playoffs. Tylu has beenthe driving force behind them turning the series
around. He just he takes inall the information and he just continues to
pull levers and makes adjustments and pushesall the right buttons. And I love
Doc Rivers. You guys know that. But it's hard not to compare the

(06:30):
two with how different this team haslooked all season long, but specifically in
the playoffs and the way they haveused lineups and going small with Nicholas Batoon
at the five and playing Terrence Manand having him start without Kawhi Leonard out
there. I just can't see DocRivers doing that for the life of me.
I just could never see that,or having John Rondoll be a DNP

(06:54):
for three straight games because he struggledtypically, I mean, Doc Rivers is
gonna ride with the ones brought himthere, come hell or high water,
and he's gonna live and die withthose players. But tylu, he's looking
at who's hot, who's in rhythm, and he's plugging in the right guy
at the right time. He's beenunbelievable. Yeah, and going small like
he did, and and forcing likeFred mentioned this earlier mentioned making Rudy Gobert

(07:18):
be a three point defender as opposedto a rim defender was was amazing,
which is you know, partly whyDan's man got that dunk. I mean,
there's the court is so spread.He's like, okay, I'm taking
this, but yeah, no,you're right, he is. He is.
He is been able to adjust it. And do you think that because

(07:39):
he has been there before? Right, he's down three one in the finals
before Tyler meaning and and and ontop of that, the Clippers were in
a situation. Remember Game three ofDallas. That game started off similar because
they were down nineteen at one pointin the first half. It again that
third game against Dallas, which wasa must win, and they were weathered.
They weathered the storm and ended upwinning that game. It's like they

(08:01):
got some recent memory to reflect on. Yeah, they've had some learning experiences
and some good experiences because they basicallyalready won four must win games in these
playoffs. Down O two to Dallas, down three two, then a Game
seven, and then down O twoto the Utah Jazz where they had to
win in Game three once again,and last night also felt like a must

(08:22):
win situation where they weren't going tobe able to win two in a row
if they had lost last night.With how well Utah was playing, especially
in the first half, they justpersevere. This team is unbelievably resilient.
But I think to your point,Rodney, part of it is due to
the fact that they have a coachwho's been there before, down three one
in the NBA Finals, has facedall that adversity. And even though Kawhi

(08:45):
Leonard didn't play last night, I'msure he had some type of rod Rods
speech for his guys, and he'sbeen there down two OHO in the Eastern
Conference Finals. And I just sawthis clip on the All the Smoke podcast
and it wasn't from Kwami Brown,believe it or not, but it was
somebody on the tree. Yet notyet, they haven't squashed that beef that

(09:07):
that may never have in Kwamee isabout that life. You heard him,
he said, they want some ofthe smoke, they don't want all the
smoke or else. They want meon there. But it was an assistant
coach I think with the Toronto Raptorsback in twenty nineteen, the Raptors are
down two OHO in the Eastern ConferenceFinals. So Jannis then and coopo in
Milwaukee Bucks and Nick Nurse comes intothe locker room post game after Game two

(09:31):
and says, we're gonna have tostart making some adjustments here, and Kawai
speaks up and says, here's theadjustment. I'm guarden Jannis the rest of
the way. That's it. Canwe talk about that, I mean,
you brought it up that, Imean what I had to, but I'm
gonna do what the coach wants meto do. And you're Yannis out of

(09:52):
the Coupo was two time MVP andDefensive Player of the Year the year before.
You're not gonna say I got Durantis going on conscious. You're gonna
say, I'm gonna wait for thecoach to tell me I can guard him.
Booden Holzer is just not equipped forthe playoffs. It just feels like
he can't make the right adjustments.Now they have holes on that roster,

(10:13):
and there's holes in the game withJannest and Ada and Kompo because he still
can't shoot. You build that wall, he can't shoot over it. He
can't figure it out. He hasto get in transition. He has to
get driving lanes to the RAM andwhen the game slows down the playoffs,
it becomes a problem. And it'sbetter like that. Middleton's got to be
their go to guy. And andhe struggles two attempts. But it can't

(10:35):
be honest because they can like theycan eliminate him because of his game.
Yeah, and then and on topof that, you know, put him
on the free line as good ashe is in the regular season. A
two time MVP Defensive Player of theYear award winner. His game doesn't translate
well to the playoffs. Why whywhen he said, I got Durant,
you know Kawhi, Okay, I'mgonna take Luca. I'm gonna get him.

(10:56):
I got it. Yeah, youknow Lebron, And it's probably I
got whoever is who's the hot man. I got him. Let me,
let me handle him for a while. He didn't see that from you,
honest. It seems like he justdefers to whatever the head coach says.
And I don't know if that's sohe doesn't have to take the heat or
the blame. Well, that's whatcoach Bud wanted. But at some point,
I know he's still only I thinktwenty six years of age. He

(11:18):
has to take it upon himself tosay, I'm the franchise guy. The
only way we're going to get tothe Promised Land is going through me here
yea and me taking that responsibility ofguarding the other team's best player when he's
going off like that and having thathistoric performance that Kad did. Do we
have an update on Kawai all.I don't know anything more than you guys

(11:39):
do at this point. Outside ofthis, it was interesting that and maybe
this is encouraging for Clippers fans,But I don't want to put out false
hope because who knows what it couldbe. With all the reports out there.
They're saying it's a sprain right knee. Other people are saying, well,
it could be the ACL there's furthertesting being done. They're waiting for
the swelling to go down. Butcoach Low did say pregame, and this

(12:00):
was big. I thought. Heflew with them to Utah for Game five
initially, so he felt good enoughto do that, and then it sounded
like the swelling persisted, and thenhe had to go back to LA for
more testing. Post game, hesaid, I'm good to go. I'm
fine, but I was watching him. Noah Eagle and I were talking about

(12:20):
this, uh off the broadcast offair, because that play initially looked like
it was knee to knee against JoelIngalls, but it wasn't. It was
ann Yeah, it was his rightknee which didn't touch him right. So
that's the concern. When you seethe way cool was it to see on

(12:41):
the broadcast they showed Noah and hisdad and the split screen. I mean,
it would have been cool if youcould have seen me right behind Noah
but I knew that was your arm. My fat face somehow didn't make itself
in there. Thus fire arm thatfreckle right there, that had a little
oh, you know it. PlusI was probably stressed out during that game
four. You talked about what tyLou did. Let's talk about Doc in

(13:07):
Philadelphia because we touched on this earlier. We're gonna have a dialogue, you
know, before we get to that, though, Adam, something just struck
me. We did it yesterday hereon the show. I think you and
Kevin did it on the podcast.Laker fans reaction to the clip already,
I'm about to walk right out ofthis room. Laker fans reaction to the

(13:28):
Clippers and how they root against them. You know, we made the comment
yesterday if you're a Laker fan,your season is over. If you're an
NBA fan, you'll continue to watch. But oftentimes when your team is eliminated,
you're done. Okay, we'll seeyou next year, Get ready to
go. But Laker fans, manyof them are not indifferent. They are
rooting against the Clippers. Why doyou think that is? Because fans are

(13:52):
hypocritical and they can say all theywant that the Clippers are irrelevant. They
don't have a championship their little brotherthey're JV. But when push comes to
shove and they're still in the playoffswith with a chance to win their first
ring, Lakers fans don't like it, and it shows their true colors.
It shows how they really feel aboutthe Clippers. They feel threatened by them,
apparently, because otherwise they wouldn't speakout like this. Well, I

(14:15):
don't know if they I don't knowif they feel threatened there. Well,
they're Adam. I think they feellike, you know, why are they
rooting against that little that little puppies, you know, urinating on their lawn
or something like that. I thinkthat's more of how they feel rather than
threaten threatened by it. But goingback to them, what do you think
the Clippers have to do to changethat narrative? Adam? We talked about

(14:35):
they have to get to West atleast the Western Conference final. Do you
think they have to get to thefinals before people give them the respect in
LA that they deserve that they getyou know, around the country outside of
LA. I mean, for me, it depends on the context. If
they get to the next round andthey can't win because they don't have Kawhi
Leonard and CP three comes back forthe Phoenix Suns. You know, I

(14:56):
wouldn't hold that against them. Iwould still say in some ways they overachieved
getting that far without their base.They can't do that, Adam, because
there's always been the Clippers. There'san excuse for the Clippers. Oh here's
so when does that run out?I mean, I wouldn't say there's many
excuses for what happened last season.They collapsed in that three one series loss.
Yeah, but people say it wasthe bubble and you know it's a

(15:18):
different kind of year. Yeah,that's true. But they have to be
accountable for that. They owned upto it afterwards. They said we have
to be mentally tougher and all that. I agree with you. Ultimately,
they have to win a ring forthem to change the tide or turn the
tide in this city. To getthat started. You're still not just going

(15:39):
up against a team with a successfulhistory. But it's an all time legendary
franchise in the Los Angeles Lakers.It's not just that, well, they're
growing up against a team that's wona couple times. No, they've won
what sixteen, seventeen, times.Now you can't keep track because they've won
so many times. That's the pointthat has all this history, and most

(16:03):
of it coming in Los Angeles.Five titles in Minneapolis. But yeah,
it's gonna be difficult. It startswith winning that first ring and that's what
they have their eyes on. I'vejust never seen a team this mentally tough
as this Clippers team has been sofar this season. And it started in
the regular season, and the regularseason does matter, it can matter because

(16:25):
they came back on teams. Thenthey beat teams plenty of times when they
were down Kawhi or Paul George,they were down there starting five in a
game against the Memphis Grizzlies, theystill found a way to win. It
carried over into the playoffs. Thesestay ready, resilient Clippers. That identity
has remained here. But we'll seehow far they can take this again.
The Utah Jazz winning last night washuge, but the only way that becomes

(16:52):
one of the biggest wins and Clippersfranchise history is if they finish them off,
if they get out of this round. If they do happened last night
was an all timer for this Clippersteam. Okay, quickly. Rick Carlisle
has resigned as coach of the Mavericks. He just stepped down anchor Jim Carrey.
That just happened. Yeah, yeah, and Jim Carrey. Rick Carlisle's

(17:14):
out after thirteen seasons, had twoyears to run on his deal, but
decided to step down. Uh,you know. Donnie Nelson was the GM.
Yeah, and there was some problemswith someone Mark Cuban brought in.
Well I heard that was all BSthough, that's what Mark Cubans said on
Twitter. At least, No,it's all BS. Everything's fine, okay.
Well, Donnie Nelson gone, RickCarlisle gone. Wow. So the

(17:36):
Mavericks are rebuilding their front office.And by the way, Rick Carlisle is
not retiring. He released a statementand says I'm going to my next coaching
venture right and there are jobs open. Any team would be lucky to have
him. He's one of the bestout there. He's already being linked to
Boston because he played there. Ohyeah, that should be a done deal.
So so as we're saying this aboutZion, are we saying this about
Luca Luca's claw And it wasn't Luca, how do you know? No,

(18:00):
it was what it was was MarkCuban brought somebody into head up their analytics
department, and apparently that guy wasusurping Donnie Nelson. Correct, he was
undercutting him. Yeah, and butLuca's guy apparently was Donnie Nelson I thought
he was, so he's out.Was Rick Carlisle his guy as well?
That's what I'm asking. If RickCarlisle Lucas got it should be, Yeah,

(18:25):
it should be. He would havecan't takers guy. He got into
it with ra Gene Rondo. Youknow, two strong headed guys butting heads
there. But he's too good ofa head coach. He's way too good.
He's going to have a job inthe next hour if he wants that
job in Boston. Yeah, andmaybe that's why he did it. Yeah,
I could see that. But that'sinteresting because now they're Boston is right

(18:48):
back in the mix. Yeah,even though Brad Stevens is still involved,
which is kind of weird he's doingthe hiring. He's so young. I
would have thought, you know,maybe he would have moved off, they
moved a way, there would havebeen some mutual parting of ways between him
and he'd get another head coaching job. Somewhere else. But there have been
a lot of unexpected moves recently.I have to confess I really like the

(19:10):
hiring of stan Van Gundi initially withNew Orleans. But all that great analysis
he had on T and T orit sound like he was very progressive with
the modern game and he knew theanalytics now and he was growing and evolving
as a head coach. Well,it all went the other way once he
actually got in the building in NewOrleans. But when you have stars like

(19:33):
that, when you have Zion,when you have Luca don Chich. First
of all, Luca is a numberone guy on a championship team. It's
so rare to have a guy whocan be your number one option on a
championship team. I don't think Porzingis, though, can be the number two.
He has fallen off athletically, he'shad too many injuries. And now
is he playing the four? Ishe playing the five? He's kind of

(19:56):
in that ad land, but withoutthe athleticism Murky where he should be playing
out their position wise, and hejust doesn't have that rim protection that he
used to have when he was inNew York, because he was a good
defender that and the Clippers ate himalive when he was out there. Do
you think Rick Carlisle wanted to goto boy on Bogdanovich like by game three,

(20:18):
to starting that big who's more ofjust a specialist junk up the game.
Let's see what happens. I mean, they were trying everything to stop
the Clippers of the rim because christapsportsingis was was pretty inapt Son come on
seven three, yeah, yeah,and quickly about Doc and what happened last
night. I mean that was embarrassingand maybe you know, if he's got

(20:40):
a point guard that can shoot foulshots, it's a different story. Well,
how about don't leave him out there. He finally took Ben Simmons off
the floor, but last round hewas reluctant to do it. He said,
I'm gonna leave Ben Simmons out there. I don't know if he was
trying to give him a vote ofconfidence or what. It's not working.
Ben Simmons does not have a jumper. He's got nothing at the free throw

(21:00):
line. Yeah, he can't helpablycan't have you can't lack both can't be
at a ball handler. They can'tshoot and then also can't shoot free throws.
You have to be so multiple inthis league. Now, Yeah,
the best players can do a littlebit of everything. Think of what we
just saw from Nikola Yok's winning theMVP, a seven footer with eight and
a half assists per game on theseason. And meanwhile, Ben Simmons is

(21:22):
so unbelievably one dimensional. And likeJannie, it's not to that level because
Jannis is still much more valuable tohave in the playoffs. But he has
holes in his game. He hasflaws that get absolutely exposed come playoff time.
And and that's not on Doc completely. I thought they should have traded
him for James Harden. They shouldhave made that move for one, talked

(21:45):
about that earlier. Yeah, andthen you can't have you can't have and
Bead and Curry be the only peoplethat scoring the second half. We're happening
at Tobias Harris. How do theyget that performance from from Seth Curry and
they still lose? What did hehave? Thirty six? He looked like
step out, He looked amazing.Yeah, Tobias had a horrible game.
Although he's been really good overall inthe playoffs, and I commend for that.

(22:06):
He's gotten the best out of him, and he's dealing with Joel Embiide
with the meniscus tear. But he'sstill been great at times. But they
have some guy pulling your trigger.Camp go and again to your point,
at some point you gotta go,Okay, he's hurting us rather than helping
us. Yeah, that they haveto try something else. And now they
got to win a game in Atlantato continue their season, and it must

(22:27):
win game six. It's gonna betough Atlanta. You know, they're playing
with house money, they have nothingto lose, and they have a guy
in Trey Young who has all thebelief in the world in himself. It's
a scary team right now, youknow. And one of the things you
said, Fred had to cut youoff. But this is to your point
when you talked about the worst thingthat happened for the Clippers last year getting

(22:48):
bounced like they did, was theLakers actually winning. The worst thing for
Doc last night was the Clippers winningduring that time where where they lost the
night the game before like they lost. Yeah, Clipper Nation, many were
celebrating in the demise of the Philadelphiaseventy six ers last night, going you
know what I've seen this story beforea twenty six point lead blown haw by

(23:10):
Doc reverse team. Wow. Andwhether it's you know Doc or not,
and it's not all on him,it's certainly is. It's a bad look
in his first year. And theybrought in Darryl Morey for a reason.
I think, to add more checksand balances with a guy who hates analytics
and doc rivers, to bring inthe guy who's the face of analytics,
who is the Saber metrics guy forthe NBA, and Daryl Morey. But

(23:33):
you're kind of hamstrung now. Idon't know what they do with Ben Simmons.
They could still package him with somebodyelse, but they had a chance
to get James Harden. And it'snot just that they would have had James
Harden to make plays and to scorefor them instead of Ben Simmons, but
that means they would have taken awaythat option from the Brooklyn Nets. That
means the Brooklyn Nets wouldn't have thisthree headed monster. Granted they're banged up

(23:55):
right now, but that was themove. It was on the table and
they didn't pull the trigger. Adam, thanks for hanging as always, Adam.
Awesome. The Salta brought to youby right, honey, the money
saving browser extension. Fred, youtook your you took your limitless pills or
whatever today. Well done, FredAdam, Thanks for hanging Love you guys.

(24:18):
Coffee with Bradley, Cooper, Roganand Riley on the AM five seventy LA Sports