How The LA Clippers Ended 2023 With A Win

How The LA Clippers Ended 2023 With A Win

The LA Clippers closed out their month of December and their 2023 with a win their second straight win this one coming against the Memphis Grizzlies with John Morant and without kawhai Leonard and they still got it done big performances from aitu zubot James Harden Paul George in the second half

And Russell Westbrook continuing to play at a high level Off the Bench going to be talking about the way the Clippers close the month and the year on today’s locked on Clippers you are locked on Clippers ERS your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team [Applause] Everyday yes sir you are locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on Clippers the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Daran vieri born and raised in LA and in my 19th season as a Clipper fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram

At dim dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper where a video of the experience at Friday night’s game will be out on Saturday night and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where I want you to let me

Know how you felt about the Clippers year of 2020 3 as a whole give it a grade you know like a through F the whole year so that’s kind of encompassing two seasons so I know that’s kind of an annoying question but you can also comment anything else as

Well clippers Memphis Grizzlies their second game of the season the first one obviously being in James Harden’s home debut and that was a complete disaster of a game and now we are a totally different team 16 out of the last 21 games have wins for us 11 and two in the

Month 19 and 12 on the season and after this 117 to 106 win over the grizzley’s at Staple Center the Clippers are 13 and four at home this season that’s great you know Staple Center crypto.com Arena really becoming a fortress right now for the Clippers taking care of home court

Shout out to the Clipper fans and all the fans in the arena on Friday night it was our fifth straight sellout so we had two in a row with that werren uh sellouts but now five straight so keep up the momentum people let’s keep getting into the games atmosphere has been good and

The Clippers got the win let’s talk about how they got it starting with zoo and crew and what I mean by that is our bigs now I talked about the game plan going into the game against Memphis on the Friday episode and I said I would be

Tempted because of the Grizzlies lack of three-point shooting to just Blitz johnar and make bism ma biombo when he screens make decisions in the short role and then let him kick it out to open Shooters not Desmond ban preferably that haven’t been shooting well and concede jiren Jackson Jr picking pops no problem

Well you know what the Clippers did they conceded jiren Jackson Jr picking pops no problem but they still stayed with their drop scheme with Tyson zoo and I thought they both did a really solid job if it’s a zubot has been so great protecting the rim this season and

Mainly in these last I want to say 15 to 20 games really he’s been at such a high level doing that grabbing basically every Rebound in sight and finishing around the basket finishing lobs which James Harden has really given him more of since his addition to the team and

Daniel Ty I thought he came in and did a pretty good job and again one thing we’ve seen consistently with Ty is that the Clippers are honestly not afraid to use him as a switch everything kind of kind of big switch one through five and there was a couple of possessions where

He was guarding johnar on the perimeter and jaw settled for three there was one time johnar had he had Ty switched on him and Harden switched onto him and he settled for a three both times so you’re absolutely giving the Clippers defense what we want and we did actually still

Funnel the ball to their open Shooters but it was through drop coverage so zo would just have no problem coming forward and taking away jaw’s ability to line drive to the basket or his airspace to get a running start to jump and whoever was guarding one of the shooters

Would rotate and tag the roller or the big which was bomo for not that much time by the way they played bomo for only eight minutes of the whole game and they went with small ball jiren Jackson Jr at the five and if you were paying attention to Team USA this summer you

Would know that jiren Jackson Jr had a serious problem rebounding the basketball for Team USA and if you look look at the rebound battle in this game 33- 54 in favor of the Clippers 54 you are not going to win a basketball game losing the especially on the road

Losing the rebound battle by over 21 I mean that’s just not going to cut it at all at all IIT zubats had 20 rebounds on his own 15 and 20 for Big Zoo six offensive rebounds a block and he was seven for eight from the field one for one from the line 15

And 120 one of his best games of the Season I’m tempted to say he was the player of the game but I’m actually going to go with somebody else but I thought zoo was fantastic most fans I talked to after the game said that zubot was their player of the game he was

Doing a good job finishing good job screening rebounding giving us second possessions I mean the Grizzlies they were too small and I know why they took bomo out they wanted to get more spacing on the court have kind of a five out scheme but none of these guys are really

Convincing anybody from three the Clippers were totally okay conceding these shots and it was funny because Memphis actually started up 8 to2 because jiren Jackson Jr made two threes to begin the game but other than that the law of averages ended up paying off for us and the Grizzlies cooled down and

They ended up finishing the game shooting 13 for 40 from three just 32 and a half% % Clippers didn’t shoot particularly well from three either 11 for 39 which was 28% so we actually shot worse than Memphis but we shot better from the field 49% for the clips and 44% for

Memphis and we shot the same amount of shots 87 Clippers just made five more of those and ended up winning by 11 so that checks out and then free throws we shot five more than Memphis they were 17 for 20 so solid percentage there Clippers were 20 for 25 so continuing to shoot

Pretty well from the line no player besides James Harden weirdly missed more than one free throw for the clips he was 6 for eight from the line but yeah overall 117 to 106 win for the clips Daniel Ty I thought he was doing a pretty good job finishing he only played

13 minutes though had five points two rebounds and two blocks but I like his activity you know just he always plays hard he’s always fighting for loose balls and his ability to switch gives us a little bit of flex ability there he’s shown that he can hold his own to a

Degree on the perimeter he shot two for three in the game his only miss being a three he was one for two from the line in his 13 minutes of the nine rotation players for the Clippers he played the least uh Kobe Brown the second least and

I really liked the way he played I thought it was one of his better games especially in the first half he knocked down an open right-wing three from a rust postup and then he got a pickpocket went all the way and scored and had a buzzer beater at the end of the first

And what I thought was really interesting interesting about this game is that the Clippers had a buzzer beater every quarter we had Kobe Brown at the end of the first we had Russ passing to Terence man on a baseline cut at the end of the second and then we had an amazing

Double clutch three ball in the corner from Paul George to end the third so really good stuff at the end of quarters from the Clippers and I think overall as a performance it was a pretty good win now granted I want to say this johnar

Was sick in the Dallas I’m sorry in the Denver game the night before the Grizzlies were on a backtack and they complet looked it they did not have as much energy as the Clippers they did not scare me at any point John morand had minimal explosion relative to what he

Normally has usually John morand is Relentless going to the basket and I have to say you got to give Terrence man air coffee and zubot credit you know for taking that stuff away the Clippers as a as a team credit for having multiple bodies around jaw which made it so that

You’re leaving Guys open for three so of course jaw being the good passer that he is is going to find those guys but they weren’t really making shots I mean let’s read some of them you had Marcus Smart 4 for 11 John Moran 0 for seven from three

I don’t understand why he shoots so many threes we’re going to go under the screen on him all the time which is obviously part of it but sometimes he’s in isolation and he’s settling for threes that tells me that he’s not 100% And he was going to the tunnel multiple

Times during the game looked like he was just breathing heavy so he clearly wasn’t 100% And then when you play a backtack after Denver that’s a real thing especially if you think about it you’re playing arguably the two best teams in the west right now with the

Denver Nuggets and the Clippers I know the timber rules in the Thunder are playing fantastic Ball but I think come playoff time Clippers and the Nuggets will be the two most feared teams alongside maybe the Lakers and and maybe Phoenix is they can get their act together but they shouldn’t be Minnesota

And and OKC should be right there in the mix as far as when you compare them to teams like that but the Clippers I don’t think Minnesota and OKC down the line with a healthy Ka why that’s really what it all comes down to and James Harden as

Your third scoring option I don’t think they match up quite frankly with the super team like the clips and coming up going to be talking more about James Harden and why me saying it’s a super team seems more reasonable by the day gonna be talking about that coming

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Daily fantasy sports Made Easy all right Clippers winning this one 117 to 106 at the Staple Center two straight wins after two consecutive losses those losses against OKC and the Celtics being the only losses of the month and I have to say now we’re two and two with without Kawai 4-2 overall

Without Paul George and kawhai and that’s why you bring in a James Harden that’s where I always said that I understand that logic when it comes to getting him is during the regular season when we don’t have one of those two guys he’s as good as it comes for raising the

Floor in a regular season game and you saw all of that in this game in my opinion James Harden was the player of the game people were saying Zoo to me but I’m being honest and again people say what they have to say about my

Opinion of but I see what’s going on in the basketball court 16 points four rebounds 13 assists three blocks I didn’t even feel like three blocks felt like two but I thought he had a shaky defensive start he was involved in some miscommunications and got scored on a

Couple of times but overall he was solid as the game went on but the offense was really what stood out for me 16 points four rebounds 13 assists he did have five turnovers though and the Clippers as a team had 17 of them so he did make

Some bad passes actually 18 of them but overall I thought his playmaking and the pick and Rule was Sublime like the double drags are all all getting good shots and when if you don’t know what that means that’s when you have two screens one set by a guy that’s going to

Pop and then zubot immediately after or a big man immediately after will set a screen and then you roll it’s in one fluid motion and so you have basically two options and then when guys sink on those you have those Corner Shooters and and Harden he’s seen that stuff his

Whole career he’s so expert in making the right reads and the amount of open lob zoo and TI have gotten because Harden is a threat with that floater and you have to go over the screen because you have to respect his jump shot that’s been absolutely lights out since to

Become a Clipper but he really has been a great shooter his entire career so I’m not going to slight him and say it’s just a Clipper thing but because he gets that kind of respect you now have so much more Effectiveness in those kind of actions and he makes all the right reads

I mean sometimes I’m at the games and I’m like man that pass isn’t going through but it does and that’s when you know you have a great passer on your hands when you think a pass isn’t going to go through and it does and I’ve had those moments both with Westbrook and

Harden but probably a little bit more with Harden as I’ve said best passer we’ve had best pick and role player we’ve had since CP3 and so James he was cooking he hit a couple shots early I know his his three ball was cooling down as the game went on but he also just

Continues to look quicker than he did last season and maybe maybe that’s just me talking about the playoffs if you’re a Harden Fanboy Stan which I know there are plenty of they seem to say though that he’s moving a little bit quicker than last season 2 but let me know in

The comments it’s obviously not preh hamstring injury 2021 MVP candidate can’t can’t be guarded by anybody type of deal but besides Marcus Smart on Friday night Desmond Bane Xavier Tilman these guys weren’t able to switch on to him and as the game went on you know at

First you saw the Grizzlies in a hedge and recover scheme on Harden where they were sending their big out and then rotating but we were getting solid looks in terms of of open Shooters and I think teren man and Russell Westbrook do a really good job of cutting so it’s not

Just Shooters around the perimeter and we’re getting some easy baskets especially when you put our bigs in that fouron three situation having a guy that’s running to the rim makes it a little bit easier as opposed to kicking it out to the corner when these big men

A lot of them aren’t used to putting the ball on the floor and kicking it out behind them essentially as opposed to a forward pass to a baseline cutter so I think that makes their life easier having Terren and Russ be those kind of players but in the beginning they

Started with a hedge on Harden and high drop on Paul George um Paul George in the first half was disappointing he got a couple of wideopen looks from James Harden in Double Dragon and pick and roll sets and he was missing so then I figured may

Maybe it’s a rhythm thing maybe he needs a little ISO he gets the ball in an ISO and they’re sagging off our non-shooters and that you know that means Terren that means Russ Zoo like double triple teaming him and he was eager to score because he knows you know without kawhai

He needs to get going and he shot a contested turnaround that got blocked and this was in the first half he started one for 11 but I love to see it very similar to the Hornets game he started to get going and he ended up

Eight for 21 so from 1 for 11 he went seven for 10 the rest of the way so he turned up and I thought his defense while non-existent in the I wouldn’t say non-existent but very quiet in the first half was much better in the second half bodying up and sliding with guys

One-on-one and forcing some misses and just being more active towards loose balls so Paul George the third quarter he really turned up he had 12 points including the rare Paul George back cut back cut absolutely huge so and he had a dunk off of it just like

He did when he had that 360 remember Paul George said I don’t do back Cuts I don’t back cut and he doesn’t he really doesn’t but there was so much open space on that left side and a dime by Harden nice bounce pass leading him right in

Stride for that dunk so great to see that great third quarter for Paul George pulling up in transition it’s just it’s very interesting with Paul George he needs such a specific diet of shots he can play with anybody because his shot diet is so diverse but it’s almost like

He needs a perfect mix of on ball shots where he’s creating them for himself and catch and shoot it can’t be so far in One Direction because he either is just not efficient enough as a number one getting the ball so much or as a spot up

Shooter he goes cold so you need a nice mix which is not he’s not the only player that you have that with but he’s just so inconsistent shooting the ball and a lot of times it’s because he gets the polar opposite whistle of a James Harden or Norman poell he gets

Absolutely nothing not to mention he’s not as quick as he once was so he doesn’t get easy baskets he’s discouraged to go to the basket because of injuries and fouls so he settles for jumpers cuz he’s so good at them then he shoots himself out of a Rhythm by and

It’s always long jump ERS too it’s almost like he has no go-to moves it’s like he’s too broad in his in his Arsenal whereas kawh Leonard he’s he knows his bread and butter he catches the ball 15 feet and in he takes a couple of dribbles and he shoots he’s a

Mid-range guy he prefers the mid-range off the dribble threes for kawhai usually come in Rhythm or when he’s feeling it but he gets a lot of catch and shoot when he’s looking for his ISO it’s more inside the arc trying to get to spots within 15 ft that’s his

Bread and butter what is Paul George bread and butter he doesn’t have anything he has so much diversity I always say he has more of a diverse shot profile than kawhai but honestly it makes it seem like he he doesn’t even know what to do sometimes like oh we

Should get him more mid post touches oh he doesn’t shoot enough threes it’s like he’s so diverse I wish he had some go-to stuff that he can really get to but he’s I mean he still did his thing he finished this game with 23 points seven rebounds three assists and a steal he

Did have four turnovers which was too much eight for 21 from the field only two for eight from Three As I said those two came in the third quarter five for six from the line in 36 minutes the thing is Clippers outscored the Grizzlies 33-25 uh in the first quarter Harden was

Uber aggressive in the first he had 11 points so he really set the tone I thought Terren did a solid job on jaw and he was a little bit more aggressive too he had four points uh both inside the arc uh in that first quarter and in

The second qu qu the Grizzlies actually outscored US 29 to 26 we had a 15-point lead at one point and they brought it back uh uh and then we only entered halftime up 5954 so they were able to close in on it we got some solid minutes from R uh Norm throughout

The game he finished with 13 points and six rebounds only one turnover five for 12 from the field one for four from three so as you can see besides Amir coffee who was three for four from Deep and Russell Westbrook who was two for four from Deep nobody else really had a

Good game from three and let’s talk about Russell Westbrook another electric game from an efficiency perspective an energy perspective solid defense amazing rebounding the second effort I mean Terren Mann got an offensive rebound Paul George got an offensive rebound zubats got multiple offensive rebounds Amir got an offensive rebound Russ got

One so like we just dominated the glass and our rebounding from the guard position between Harden Terren and Russ is really really good Russ 14 points six rebounds and six assists in this game on 6 for9 shooting and two for four from three so despite not getting to the foul

Line this man had 14 six and six in 20 minutes on 66% shooting and 50 from three yeah Russell Westbrook only critique I have fourth quarter three of his four turnovers came in that one we had seven turnovers in the fourth and what looked like a dead and buried game

When we outscored the Grizzlies in the third third 31 35 to 21 was put back in question and we had to put James Harden back in the game and I wanted him to rest for the rest of the game because in the end James Harden played 44

Minutes that’s a lot that’s a lot and part of that is because the lineup of Norm Paul Russ Tyson Kobe Brown to start the fourth were turned the ball over too much Russ had that fake shot pass that zubot turned his head and he expected

Him to shoot and it went off his head so we were up 19 going into the fourth and by the time Harden came back in we were only up by 11 so they went on a let’s see it was 75 94 they went on a 11-2 run with Harden out of the game

And then they continued their run they cut it down to 998 but funny enough I was very confident and one thing they tried to do UNH Harden throughout the game was they ended up trying to switch one through five and Harden was exposing that and making the right play so then

In the fourth quarter they started blitzing him a lot just making sure the ball was out of his hands and now we have four on three situations and guys like Russ Zoo were taking advantage of these things so that’s the gravity of James Harden what he can bring to the

Table coming up though going to be talking more about the game overall and Terren man and air coffee specifically the Homegrown guys talking about them coming up I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel americ am’s number one sports book right now new customers get

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NFL all right Clippers winning this one 117 to 106 definitely their most impressive non kawhai Leonard win and I think despite the Grizzlies offense not being very good I thought our defense was pretty solid as a team and that starts a lot of times with teren man and

Amir coffee teren man was guarding jaw a lot Amir Coffey was guarding Desmond Bane a lot obviously the cliar are going to switch one through four and Paul George was guarding jiren Jackson and he was doing a solid job but how about Amir coffey’s ball Denial on Desmond Bane I

Mean Bane I know was a back toback and he shot Seven for 11 from the field 18 points seven rebounds five assists but he was quiet he was pretty quiet I didn’t notice him much at all I thought Amir CI did some pretty solid stuff off

Uh denying the ball um but it’s funny seven for 11 that’s me reading that for the first time I didn’t think he was 7even for 11 so I still think Amir did a good job and then Terren on jaw it wasn’t the whole game but jaw had 19

Points six rebounds and 10 assists but how about three turnovers seven for 19 from the field and 0 for seven from three for Mr 12 you got to love that and Terren Mann and Amir coffee were both in double figures in this game Clippers had seven guys in double figures James

Harden shot four for 13 and was two for9 from Three 6 for from the line but as I said 16 points four rebounds 13 assists and three blocks and then you had Terren man with 11 points three rebounds two assists and a steal the three ball still eludes him 0 for six

From deep but three for 10 from the field that’s still not very good but he was able to get to the line five for six get out and transition a little more and his body language just looked better shooting without hesitation besides one time trying to get to the rim trying to

Get downhill attacking closeouts so you liked what you saw there from T but he’s only shooting 19.5% from three right now which is terrible you want to see him get that up or Amir coffee may have to take his spot in the starting lineup because I mean he played really well 13

Points including a nice dunk in the third eight points in the third for the brew master uh and yeah 13 points two rebounds two assists and a steal on five for six shooting and three for four from three for the brew master he’ll take that all day he’s continuing to play

Pretty well doing it on both ends of the floor and knocking down those three balls is really huge especially in those double drag sets and just playing off of James Harden he’s and Russell Westbrook he’s going to get a bunch of open shots so there you go by the way Russell

Westbrook and James Harden they’ve been playing pretty well together lately pretty well and they’re showing that they can still play together but I just guessed all four of the big four playing together is problematic besides Maybe closing some games but um that lob that Harden had to Russ was beautiful and

Then Russ hit two Corner thre so a lot of it’s dependent on if Russ can make his threes then it becomes a lot easier for him and Harden to play together because Harden wants the ball in his hands he’s goingon to have the ball in

His hands a lot and he did you know he has the ball in his hands a ton um maybe less than on other teams but still a lot Russ is shooting 29% from three right now but he’s shooting 47% from the field which if he was to

End the season now way it would be the most since 2020 so you’ll take that that’s it for me by the way and this is the last locked on Clippers episode of the year I want to thank you guys so much for you know subscribing and listening to a whole Year’s worth of

Me talking about the Clippers I do love my team and I’m passionate about it been to 14 games this season I’m set to break my record my record is 23 for a season playoffs included we’ll be definitely breaking that and it’s just an honor to be doing this happy New Year stay safe

Everybody let me know what you think in the comments section your grade on the Clippers year and of course how you feel about that game you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod please subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper where I’m almost at

10K and I’m going to post a video of fan reactions and game footage of the game I got two of the buzzer beaters on tape I think I may have gotone all three on video um but yeah check it out and then of course lock on Clippers Please Subscribe please hit the notification

Bell so you know every single time we post a video the age-old proverb continues go Clippers back at it again against the Miami Heat on New Year’s we’ll see you there they’re playing good ball

The LA Clippers closed out 2023 without Kawhi Leonard against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Star power was rampant inside of a sold out Staples Center with Ja Morant, Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden all in action.

The Los Angeles Clippers would win their 2nd straight game and made it 16 wins of their last 21 and an 11-2 month of December.

In this episode, die hard LA Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri breaks down the game, Ivica Zubac and Daniel Theis’ paint defense, and the play of the stars and team overall.

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