How The LA Clippers Turned A 20 Point Deficit Around Vs Houston

How The LA Clippers Turned A 20 Point Deficit Around Vs Houston

It was a classic tale of two halves on Wednesday night for the Clippers in Houston coming off a game against the Milwaukee Bucks where they blew a a big lead the Clippers came back from a 20-point deficit in Houston to get a win going to be talking about it all on

Today’s lock on Clippers are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Yes sir you are locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on Clippers the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Darian 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 for even more La basketball and NBA basketball content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast and here’s my question for all of you today what is it about the Clippers that you think makes

Them just be so lethargic one half and then in the next just turn it on what do you think think about that kind of stuff that flip the switch kind of strategy are you nervous about that why do they do that is it a result of age is it a

Result of laziness lack of focus you let me know or is it not a thing at all and I’m just overreacting but they’ve we’ve had plenty of games like this this season where we’ve had these tailor two halfs we look like a completely different team because we’re not really

Taking things serious so we’re going to be talking about that also Paul George I think is a huge reason uh for both of those things when the Clippers are great when the Clippers aren’t great he’s usually a main culprit and then if it’s a zubot some weird

Things going on with his minutes and his rotations in uh this game so going to be getting into all that and this episode is brought to you by game time take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time all you got to do is download

The app create an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase okay cber Nation played the Milwaukee Bucks the other night after a huge win against the Timberwolves no Giannis no Chris Middleton and we’re like all right we got to get this done it ended up being

Or looked like it was going to be the hardest back toback of the entire season with Milwaukee and uh Minnesota on the road but without Giannis and Middleton it was like there’s the opportunity to get both and we blew a lead a big one and then in this game against

Houston got to bounce back right the Rockets much improved team still not not a very good team at least relative to us and it was a complete tale of two halves a complete disregard for the game it SE seemed like in the first I mean our defense was very lethargic offense the

Ball was sticking a lot of ball pounding a lot of iso our transition defense wasn’t good we just weren’t getting back Paul George was taking really bad shots and having really bad misses and when I say really bad shots I mean you know he has a smaller defender on him and he’s not

Going close enough to the basket to draw a second Defender and he’s just launching things and they were just bad misses James Harden though started out pretty well with eight points in nine minutes in the first quarter uh and shenon was in drop coverage so that he’s a pretty undersiz Center even though

He’s grown a little bit James Harden can still get some pretty good looks on that as far as matchups they had Fred Van vet guarding James Harden Dylan Brooks on Paul George Jabari Smith Jr on kawhai Al shingun on zoo and then Jaylen green on

Terren and then for us we had Terren on Fred Van vet Paul George on Jaylen Brown zubot on shenon kawhai on Jabari and Harden on Brooks and obviously both sides switching one through four now the Clippers were down 20 points at one point of the first half 20 points I

Was like here we go again this team is not trying they’re not being serious 44- 57 was a score at halftime they closed the Run well on an 11-2 run but man that first half cam Whitmore was like beating us down the Open Court knocking down threes had this crazy

Windmill dunk on a fast break we were eight for 20 from the field after one and I think it partially just comes down to they made their shots early we didn’t but the process I don’t think was great in the first half just as I said the

Ball sticking and I got to give a shout out to Don mlan on our local broadcast at halftime he was so confident and he was spot on with everything he was saying per usual but by the way I always say hi to Dom mlan he never even says hi

Back he just acknowledges like with like a little hand signal and that’s it never says a word but um he was saying that the way the Clippers ended that first half showed him they were going to win the game and he said it with confidence and usually

He does not make predictions like that with that kind of confidence at half time but Elite basketball mind didn’t take a rocket scientist obviously but that was a good call cuz we’re still down by 13 points and you never know what this Clippers team we’ve been very

Great this season one of the best teams in the league 40 and 21 after this one 19 and 13 away but we’ve had some shaky moments lately there’s no doubt about it as soon as the last game or as recently as the last game but the Rockets as I

Said you know just start out making their shots first moving the ball with more zip getting down the floor remember they’re a very young team we tend to struggle with that at times so it was rough and the Clippers just did not come out with the right intensity and effort

Defensively especially now Daniel Ty came in for Zub Bots kind of early I’m going to talk more about zoo and his weird minutes in this one and how he looked but Daniel Tyson Mason plumbley in the second half gave us really good minutes and the major change was Paul George

Stepping it up me in the first half he was like I think he started one for six and as I said he was taking bad shots just messing around settling majorly and then he starts being way more aggressive looking to get downhill now he’s got Defenders on his heels he’s snatching

Back and creating a ton of Separation there was one time he touched the ball in the fourth quarter I think it was like against Jabari Smith I believe but I could be wrong gets it on the right wing quick move and exploded I mean I hadn’t seen him move with that kind of

Burst in a couple of weeks so that tells me that a lot of it is just him like the excuses we got to stop with the excuses I understand he’s been banged up this season he has that knee injury and the groin but when you go from playing so

Badly in one half to all of a sudden in the second half after a full half of NBA basketball you’re going to the basket with conviction getting really low on your handle I’ve seen it in his body language we’ve had it we had we’ve had

Him for 5 years now we know when PG’s on his bully is and when he’s on nonsense stuff and this game was a perfect example so when he started getting going it changed a lot and then Kawai I thought he did a great job of getting

Into the paint finding open guys he had two really nice passes in the third quarter and made great plays throughout the game in terms of playmaking and then in the fourth quarter he was big time as well absolutely big time especially that and one and I’ve been pretty critical of

Kawai lately closing games for us really I’ve been critical of kawhai closing games for us since the bubble but in this one he was big time and let’s be honest this season has been better than the others besides 2020 that’s why I mentioned since the bubble because in

2020 he actually was closing a lot of games for us but it felt like in 2021 especially that stretch for Paul George was out felt like he would get Gass the end of games of course we do have the 20 and against Utah those first two games

We lost he and Paul George came up short with their shot making in isolation but Kawai obviously was super clutch in game six and seven against Dallas then a year off and then last year we had some rough games closing so this year we’ve had the

Good and the bad with Kawai and his closing and I mentioned Kawai because he’s our number one guy he is the guy we’re putting all the eggs into in terms of taking us to the promised land because you know as good as James Harden and Paul George are this team wouldn’t

Be taken seriously as a championship Contender without Kawhi Leonard he’s what makes this go and in the fourth quarter he had 10 points on four for four shooting so after a pretty miserable fourth quarter he was 0 for four against Milwaukee and he didn’t even close that great against

Minnesota and the Lakers how about 10 points against Houston I mean it is Houston but I don’t care close the game out it’s NBA basketball and Kawhi Leonard that and one at the end on that jumper that got me so hyped so let’s go Kawai hopefully this starts a a stretch

Heading into the playoffs where he’s shutting teams down kind of like he was doing a little earlier in the season but I think part of that is Paul George and James Harden just need to be a little more consistent mainly Paul George James Harden he played the whole fourth Norman

Pal also played the whole fourth and Mason Plumley damn near played the whole fourth 11 minutes and 4 seconds uh James had 11 how about this kawhai had 10 points in the fourth Paul George had nine points in the fourth and James Harden at 11 so they had 30 points

Between the three of them in the fourth quarter and that’s the type of stuff you need to win championships your Stars playing big when it matters most and that’s a great example so I’m happy to see that James Harden had 11 points in the fourth seven of them coming from the

Foul line 0 for two from three and two for five from the field that’s remember just in the fourth quarter and then Norman Powell had six points on two for three shooting with some big shots in that fourth quarter one of them was a three Mason plumbley had four points and

Five rebounds in the fourth quarter but I actually got to give Mason plumbley credit for his second half and I’m going to talk about it more in the third segment where I talk about zoo in the centers but Mason plumbley only played the second half and he had eight points

And 11 rebounds and three blocks on four for five shooting like probably his best half of the entire season that was very impressive and credit to Ty for going to it it came out of nowhere but it’s the stars for me you know that made the difference and then

How about Terence Mann in this game he didn’t even play in the fourth quarter like that let’s see how many minutes he got on the fourth 56 seconds I I don’t understand what what we need I don’t know about going away from Terren so much in fourth quarters he’s a clutch

Guy but in this game Terren played 27 minutes he was five for five three for three from three 15 points two rebounds and he was uh plus seven I don’t get it he was five for five and you didn’t play him at all in the fourth but we won so

I’m not going to complain but Clippers win this one 122 to 116 kawh lonard for me is the player of the game with 28 points seven rebounds I’m sorry 28 points six rebounds seven assists so there you go the playmaking I was talking about showed up in the stat

Sheet two steals no turnovers how about that on 11 for 18 shooting extremely efficient one for four from three so his three balls been a little shaky lately but I know it’s going to come back five for five from the line in 39 minutes coming up though going to be talking

About the duality of Paul George I got to tell you a little something about game time game time is the best place to find great deals on tickets last minute when you don’t know you can go to the event and you find out maybe about an hour or with game time

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L o c k e d o n for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed oh all right Clippers winning this one 122 to 116 in Houston James Harden returning to his adopted home of Houston you know they showed at graphic

He’s one of three rockets to win MVP for them uh Moses Malone and AEM so you know you’re in company with them that’s fantastic James Harden by most accounts that I know considered the second greatest rocket of all time behind the dream who was in attendance with the

Great Elvin hay that was pretty cool to see I love how much hem is involved with the Rockets um one day I hope we get someone like that I hope you know it’s a Dream It’s a dream to think Kawai but I mean like even if we win a championship

Everybody knows and everyone says I hope it’s not the case but everyone’s like when Kawai retires we’re never going to hear from him but you know if Paul George wins a championship with the Clippers maybe he’ll be you know Mr Clippers that always will come back and

Support I don’t know that’s a dream of mine to have a player like that but let’s talk about Paul George oh so James sorry sorry sorry James 21 points five rebounds seven assists for him one steel one block two turnovers on six for 13 shooting his three ball wasn’t really

Falling in this one one for five but he was 5 48 from Two and eight for eight from the line in 39 minutes so all three of our stars played 39 minutes in this game Heavy got the job done though back in Los Angeles for some games this weekend

That I will be attending now very solid game from James Harden did a little bit of everything and in that fourth quarter he was making a lot of plays in pick and roll finding our guys for good shots by the way I forgot to mention the

Clippers went on a 70 run to start the third quarter and that you know made me think all right we’re GNA get this done Terren man and PG were a large reason so this is where I got to talk about PG it’s very simple in the playoffs

There’s no room for this kind of stuff like I’m being serious he needs to be and he’s going to have an inevitable inevitable bad game or two James Harden will as well Kawai we’ll see he’s a different breed in the playoffs outside of the bubble we don’t like to talk about that

But Paul George he has no room for error in terms of not giving it his all not being smart shots might not fall if he’s not making open threes okay it is what it is but at least when he’s getting to the line he’s being more aggressive

Catching the ball closer to the basket he has a higher percent percentage of making his shots which then gets him in Rhythm and and gets him more confident for those threes because here’s the thing about Paul George regardless of how old he is he’s like 33 right let’s see he’s 33 I believe

Yeah he still has this wavering confidence and aggression like he’s a young player and it’s very frustrating because when you look at Paul George you know let’s say the way his the Brandon Millers and the Kenne anony look at him you know as like their goat you see that

Great stuff that he does when he’s looks like an absolute demigod like in the second half of this game being aggressive getting downhill attacking dudes off the bounds catching the ball close to the basket where he can just turn over the top without expending too much energy not settling for too many

Threes not making not tur the ball over ridiculously so you saw both sides of it we need him to be that side we need him to be that side we can’t have him turning the ball over recklessly we can’t have him just settling for jumpers and shooting himself out of the game

So that’s what we need we need so much better in the playoffs let’s read his stats from each half first half one for six two points and two turnovers second half 19 points three rebounds two assists a huge offensive rebound late in the game and he was six for n from the

Field four for six from three funny that the majority of his shots in the second half were threes but there were solid looks but there were times where he tried to get downhill and I just think the the aggression just changes everything you know it’s not about the

Threes all the time it’s just the aggression to try to get downhill things will open up so Paul George I mean the formula is there we’ve seen it he knows it it’s all about the confidence at the end of the day so Paul we’re going to

Need that side in the playoffs coming up though going to be talking about the center rotation and what was going on with Zoo the fact that Mason plumbley came in out of nowhere Jesus lost my voice coaching yesterday but but going to be talking about that coming up Jesus

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Game at all like he had some decent possessions defending shenon but by the way shenon is such a great player I really like him 23 points 19 rebounds and 14 assists he truly is the baby joic with that kind of statline 10 for 19 from the field but he was three for

Eight from the foul line Jabari Smith Jr had 19 points he had a good game 6 for 11 from the field four for six from three but as far as the centers right for the Clippers Zoo played 15 minutes and he looked so lethargic was like getting blocked on dunks I mean that

Happens when he’s healthy but like there was one time where just he wasn’t going up for rebounds the same way just he didn’t look like zoo and he hasn’t really looked like zoo in a little bit should we be worried cuz pre-injury zoo was playing great basketball and his

Picking Ro chemistry with James Harden was really starting to come together they pulled him out for the entire second half and credit to Tai he made the right call but what was interesting was in the first half they were already playing a slightly different rotation with Zoo

They took him out somewhat early in that first half and put in Daniel Ty so that usually isn’t the case to put into V or take out of to zubats 635 left in the first quarter but Ty came in thought he did a pretty good job especially in the third quarter nice

Roll to the basket and spin dunk on one possession and just giv us solid stuff in that pick and roll but Mason Plumley he started the second half and it was a pleasant surprise the way he played he was rolling really well was a lot more active than Zoo rebounding making some

Decent passes and he had three blocks I mean Mason ly rarely gets blocks but for him to have three blocks and 11 rebounds in just 20 minutes that’s big time so shout out to Mason he played 20 minutes in the game Daniel Ty played nine minutes he had six points and one

Rebound on three for four shooting but the important thing is the Clippers got the win as far as bones Highland and air bones Highland I thought he did a decent job offensively getting the basket he had six points and they were all around the basket three

For six 0 for two from three his defense was a little shaky in this game he was kind of getting bullied a little bit often times he needed a Defender to help and it would lead to an open shot for Houston but I know he can be sharper as

We’ve seen him through uh throughout the season in his limited opportunities defensively believe it or not for those that don’t watch the Clippers consistently Amir coffee two points on 0 for one shooting pretty quiet and he has been pretty quiet lately just 13 minutes

Of play 0 for one and the only shot was a three and then Norman pal 12 points on four for9 shooting and three for five from three in 29 minutes Mr consistent starting to round back into form but yeah very interesting call by tyo to go with Mason but should we be concerned

About Zoo because I don’t know we need the best version of zubot to win a championship and by the way every single uh big man was playing drop coverage in this game basically except towards the end Plumley started hedging on Fred Van vet he didn’t walk into Pull-Ups but for the

Most part everybody was playing drop PG hit a huge three by the way to give us that first lead since 7 to5 at 111 109 and also they tried hacka plumbley the Houston Rockets hacka plumbley and he missed but in the fourth quarter by the way the Clippers actually

In the second half the Clippers outscored the Rockets 78- 59 78 points in a half our offense just turned up but it starts with playing better defensively and then creating stuff in transition and off misses because then you know you get cross matches and stuff like that sometimes

Defense can be your best offense that’s one of my biggest philosophies when I coach 3629 Clippers won the third 4230 in the fourth both as I said both quarters in favor of us 42 to 30 that’s big time after the terrible fourth quarter we had against Milwaukee but we

Can’t just flip the switch like that I don’t like it we need to get back to playing great basketball for four quarters which we were doing during the winning I mean the funny part is crazy how much of things can change because when we were in the winning streak I was

Like it feels like it’s going to take so much for us to lose like we’re that good I never felt that way before I was like man a lot of things got to go wrong we have so much talent and now we just look like a very good team but not a

Championship Contender on recent form but there’s still plenty of time left in this season to round back into the best shape that we can be and especially with kawhai Paul and James Harden healthy that’s extremely important more important than anything obviously we want Russell Westbrook back

As soon as possible this is a type of game where we missed Russ big time like with lack of energy in the first half like that’s what we need from him we need to kick up the ass but as far the most important thing is Kawai Leonard being healthy number one number

One he’s played 56 games out of 61 Paul George has also played 6 uh 56 games out of 61 all they need is 10 more G or nine more games and they’ll both be eligible for awards and Kawhi Leonard be on an all NBA team there’s no doubt James

Harden Paul George not probably not but Kawhi Leonard should definitely be on an all NBA team sad that Russell Westbrook he had that streak he he had missed no games this season James Harden though technically he hasn’t missed any games this season but he missed the first five

Just because you know the trade hadn’t gone through yet but he’s played 56 games so all three of our stars have played 56 you got to love that let’s see if teren men’s field goal percentage is updated I like checking in on that he’s shooting 49% from the field now and 33

From three so we’re almost getting to that 35% almost but we’ll take the win now the next game the next game for the Clippers is back home on Saturday I believe against the Bulls yeah it is all right I’ll be in the building one o’clock show up because a lot of bulls

Fans like to come if you can get a cheaper ticket come to the game the Bulls have played pretty good basketball this year relative to their expectations you know no Zack LaVine and Kobe White’s had this breakout season so we got to be ready for him that early start really

Scares me but I’ll tell you what we beat them we got three wins out of the last four then we got the Bucks the next G the next day two mad games in a row are you kidding me but I bet you Yannis is going to play and that’s going

To be my first time seeing the Milwaukee Bucks play ever it’s the only team I haven’t haven’t seen play live in the NBA I’ve seen every other team I’ve seen the Super Sonics I’ve seen the Bobcats I’ve seen the New Orleans Hornets never the Vancouver Grizzlies though I’m not

That I’m not old enough for that but I’ve seen everyone except for the bucks so I’m super excited for these two games it’s a backtack at stable Center I will be there at both so if you see me at the game holler let’s get it let’s get a

Little winning streak going why not let me know what you think of the episode you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper LA Sports content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your

Podcast let me know in the comment section what’s with the tale of two haves thing why do we flip a switch why do we go so lethargic for stretches of games or mainly you know first halves let me know by the way sorry I didn’t release this episode in the morning uh I

Had a really busy day on uh Wednesday really busy day so I wanted to make sure I was well rested enough to give you some something good because we don’t play for a couple of days so better to give you a quality pod uh instead of

Just really in it as fast as I can so apologies for that will be better appreciate you all the age-old proverb continues go Clippers

The LA Clippers started off poorly against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, trailing by as many as 20 in the first half. Paul George had a rough first half, only shooting 1/6 in the first half. He bounced back in the second half and so did the Clippers. They came back to win the game and win it 122-116.

In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri talks about what caused the team to fall behind and then turn it around. He also talks about the duality of Paul George and the strange situation involving Ivica Zubac’s mins.

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