How The Pelicans Had The Clippers’ Number Again

How The Pelicans Had The Clippers’ Number Again

The LA Clippers played in the second night of a back-to-back in a massive game against the New Orleans Pelicans with the pels right on our tails for the four seed and it continued to be the same story where besides that one game we won against the Pelicans on the road

This season we have not been able to beat them they just have our number why is that going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Applause] Day yes sir you were 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 Daren 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 Dime dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more NBA LA Clipper LA Sports content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube and my question for you is what do you think a series in a 45

Match up would be between us and the pels with the Clippers having home court so we have home court what would that Series be now we’re going to talk about this game and then look at the Atlanta Hawks game on Sunday in this episode and I want to

First off before we do anything apologize for how late this episode is coming out obviously we’re supposed to do Monday through Friday but when we do have a weekend game I tend to take one of the days in the week off and then do an extra episode on the weekend and this

Is that extra episode that’s supposed to be the fifth one of the week but the problem is on Sat it was supposed to come out on Saturday because the game was on Friday night and and I had a very hectic day Saturday it was the first

Time that the park I coach at was hosting Allstars and my Allstar team was playing and I we had a terrible first game so like I was so Allin and trying to figure out a way to compete in that second game and we did almost had him

But a little short-handed so fell a bit short uh but the point is I’m apologizing for releasing the episode so late I just got had to make sure I did it before I drive to stable Center on Sunday for the Hawks game so let’s get right into it like the Dome the cers

Have a problem and that problem is Zion Williamson I don’t know how else there is to what what other way there is to put it no James Harden in this game obviously no Russell Westbrook who’s still missing with that hand injury but we know that the problem is Zion he was

A problem before we made the Harden trade and he’s even more of a problem now that we traded away some big front Court depth now in this game we saw PJ Tucker played 24 minutes which was the second most of any bench player after Norman Powell because of Zion

Specifically and you know what I think PJ Tucker had his best defensive game as a Clipper I counted four strips in the first half on Zion from PJ Tucker alone he took a charge he was playing good active on ball defense he actually hit two threes in the game but there were

Still times where they were letting him shoot or just letting him catch the ball doubling somebody and leaving him open and we wouldn’t really take advantage of it so offensively still not very good but defensively he definitely was helpful in this game with Zion and taking blows to the chest and just being

An irritant he had six points two rebounds and three blocks one turnover which was a horrendous pass I think that was towards the end of the second quarter on two for three shooting and all those shots were threes but the thing about Zion is to start the game we

Had Kawai guarding him and then he was guarding Kawai valent Chun and zo are obviously matched up with each other yet had Terren man guarding CJ McCullum Paul George on Brandon Ingram and then bones Highland who’s starting in place of James Arden on herb Jones and on the

Other side you had herb Jones guarding Paul George Brandon Ingram guarding bones Highland and C.J McCullum guarding teren Mana start and of course a lot of those Wing Towing pick and roles are going to be switched from both teams but the interesting thing was about this game and it’s not necessarily

Interesting or breaking news but typically the Clippers will switch one through four with Zion being more of a traditional Bruiser power forward we won’t switch one through four we actually switch the five4 pick and roll which means if Zion has the ball and he’s playing power forward and valent

Chunis to five comes and sets a screen we switch Zoo onto Zion and Kawai on to Valen chunis because we believe that Kawai can hold his own in the post and on the boards against yonas and because Zion the advantage that he takes or the advantage that he has on mostly

Everybody is his strength now what makes him such a nightmare matchup is against guys like Zoo he’s got the speed advantage and the explosion to his Advantage so there truly is when Zion’s at his best not a true good match up for the guy that’s

Why he was so hyped up coming out of Duke now this season he’s been pretty healthy and the one thing I have to really give him credit for is he’s improved his defense massively not saying he was locking anybody up but he had some possessions guarding Paul

George and kawhai or he held his own and before he used to be absolutely atrocious now does that say something a little bit about kawaiian Paul not getting the step on Zion maybe a little maybe a little but for the most part I I tend to give Zion

More credit because I still believe they were getting good shots off of him creating space but he just wasn’t like a cone or a liability like he was in the past as far as the Clippers defensive strategies we were in drop actually no in the beginning of the game we were

Showing zoo on the Ingram pick and roll because because we didn’t want Brandon Ingram walking into mid-ranges like he usually does against us and getting a rhythm so we had zoo show and recover and we were also showing and recovering with bones so he wouldn’t switch onto

Ingram or CJ now Norm that wasn’t the case we were letting Norm switch onto Ingram and CJ and it wasn’t too problematic but it made me nervous as far as the Zion being guarded by Zoo thing just frequently it wasn’t even the first quarter our defense was

Actually EX ition in the first quarter we were up 2220 after one it was a very solid defensive performance by the Clippers through the first half second half it kind of fell off but we were down 44 to 50 at halftime and I thought mainly just we had blown a couple of

Opportunities to make some open threes to get you know tied or right there in the game we were only down by six and we weren’t down by too much in that first half but just to prove my point about Zion in the first quarter he was one for

Four and only had two points and PJ Tucker had stripped him twice towards the end of that first quarter so really good defense and then kawhai had nine points in the first PG had six and part of it was PG turning the corner when Larry Nance was in he was in drop covers

To start the the game and PG turned the corner and got a mid-range off a screen and a layup and then when they blitzed he found zoo in those short roll situations and at times jonis valent chunis did come out to the level of the screen with bones and with PG and there

Was one time with bones he created a turnover with that early in the game where bones threw it out of bounds but besides the several Miss threes I thought we were playing pretty well PJ Tucker Daniel Ty Amir coffee and Norm came in towards the end of the first

Quarter to end that quarter with kawhai and as I was mentioning about Paul George he was really torching their drop coverage he really was and when they saw that they adjusted to a blitz with Naji Marshall or Jos Alvarado on the ball against Paul George and to try to get

The ball out of his hands and I think we shot decently from three in the game 36% it’s a little bit low our season average the Pelicans shot 37% and only made one more so very similar ballpark there and then shooting only separated by 0 2% we shot 48% they shot

48% the Clippers on the other hand or should I say the Clippers in particular we shot 10 less shots than the pels and one less free throw what does that come down to well we had five offensive rebounds they had nine we had 15 turnovers and they had nine so

Taking care of the ball and rebounding that is the difference in the game besides the Zion thing you know you need to win The Possession battle that’s something that tyo was preaching at the beginning of the season and I feel like we’ve gotten away from it to an extent

There was a possession in the fourth quarter where we allowed them to get two offensive rebounds on one play and I was very disappoint pointed just a little bit of a lack of effort there and I’m not saying the game was a lack of effort but I just thought in spurts we’d just

Get outw worked and I think partially it’s because the Pelicans and this is the problem with this matchup it’s not just Zion they have a lot of athleticism in Youth and we are old and slow and even if you add James Harden it doesn’t change that he only adds to the old and

Slow Westbrook different he’s old but he ain’t slow so yeah we could have definitely used Russ and the last time we played these guys and beat them in New Orleans Russ was a catalyst as Brian Seaman was saying in the broadcast but their athleticism bothers us we did a

Good job on Brandon Ingram and C.J McCullum in this game Brandon Ingram shot four for2 he had 13 points but I will say his passing has improved tremendously there were times we were doubling him and he did a great job moving the ball five rebounds seven

Assists for him but four for 12 you’ll absolutely take that and then CJ McCullum only 11 points six rebounds four assists though so he did a little bit of everything but five for 13 from the field and 1 for seven from three you hold CJ and Ingram to a combined 24

Points theoretically you should be in a good spot to win the game but we weren’t and partially in that second quarter we only scored 22 points and we only scored 22 points in the first quarter as well so our offense in that first half wasn’t exactly great but that being said you

Don’t have James Harden you don’t have Russell Westbrook especially James Harden makes a huge difference he is our engine on offense so that hurt to a degree but we got some really good looks Terrence Mann gave me a scare when he headed to the locker room with a

Sprained ankle on a really nice finish that he had but thankfully he was able to come back in the game as far as the Pelicans defensive strategies when we went for Kawai trying to go at smaller Defenders CJ was not switching on N kaai he was just showing

And recovering and you know the 213 Duos saw a lot of bodies in this game you know you had Ingram guarding Paul George and we did the same the other way I mean Amir was guarding Ingram when Terren was out of the game and PG was guarding CJ

But the moral of story is I think the Pelicans have more wings like Naji Marshall Trey Murphy herb Jones Brandon Ingram to throw at 213 than we have to throw anyone at Zion I mean yeah we put PJ Tucker in and he did a decent job but at the end of the

Day it’s just one guy and to guard guys in the NBA today with all these pick and rolles you need multiple bodies and we don’t really have multiple bodies we may not even have one body to guard Zion so it was tough and despite Paul George

Having 17 points in the first half and he had 26 points in the game on 10 for 21 shooting kawhai had 23 points on eight for 15 shooting so you get basically 50 points from your Duo 29 overall I’m sorry 49 overall but Zion has 34 on 14 for 21 shooting and every

Field goal attempt was in the paint so he dominated us on the inside and he was the best play on the floor and that’s mainly the reason they won they had the best play on the floor their Supporting Cast was a little bit better because they were whole we weren’t so I don’t

Even think it was that bad of a loss I really don’t the Pelicans are a good team as simple as that they’re a good team and a tough match up for us now if you want me to talk about how do I feel about them in the playoffs maybe we’ll

Save that for another episode but coming up going to be talking about one of the positives and that’s Paul George playing really well in these back-to-backs going to be talking about that coming up so the Clippers losing this one to the Pelicans 112 to 104 we actually won

The third quarter 3632 so a fairly high scoring one shots started to fall in that second half for both teams mainly the pels though to me they scored 62 points in the half we scored 60 so both teams scored a lot in the second half I guess just feels always feels like the

Other team is doing better than they are because I’m watching it from our team’s perspective but yeah we got outscored 30 to 24 in the fourth and ultimately that kind of put the pulled the pels away as far as some strategy things PJ Tucker came in for Paul George with

About 2 minutes and 25 seconds left in the second quarter and then we immediately put Paul George back in So PJ could guard Zion then Paul George could guard Ingram and kawhai could guard CJ and it was funny because we put PJ Tucker in and he immediately got scored

On by Zion and then turned the ball over and I was like God if you’re going to be in you better do something good if you’re in to guard Zion you better show some resistance but for the most part he did and I’m really happy with the way PJ

Played in this game and he actually started in place of teren Mann in that third quarter because again Terence man had that ankle injury and he only played 18 minutes but when he came back in the game he ended up making a three which was his only three-point attempt of the

Game so Terence man’s he still is playing pretty well since the All-Star break I mean he really is nine points for him in the game four rebounds on three for five shooting and one for one from three and two for two from the line so he had a 60 100

Game I’ll take the nine points he was a plus three but he only played 18 minutes and I honestly think we did miss his athleticism towards the end of the game but I understand what Tai’s process was you have to have 213 in and then you

Wanted to have zoo and PJ in for the size against Zion and Norman pal is your guy that you close games with he just wasn’t really hitting from three in this game but yeah obviously I’m always Pro more Terren but maybe this just wasn’t his game but 18 minutes is still not

Great I I didn’t check Twitter anything to see if he’s injured or if he’s not going to play on Sunday but I hope he’s suiting up he is a very durable player so as far as the third quarter Zion was attacking that 4 five pick and roll endlessly the entire second half which

Was try to get zubats on the switch and we’ve seen in the past him abuse zubats take turning the corner on him and throwing up these amazing finishes I mean he has such an such a great layup package finishing package at The Rim his touch is fantastic and he’s really explosive he

Can go right into your chest and get to the line because it’s so hard to guard him without fouling in this game he led the game obviously in free throw attempts with 10 and he made six of them but yeah 34 points seven boards four assists and here we go on the defensive

End three Steals and a block so Zion was very active and he shot 66% from the field 14 for 21 and all his shots came in the paint so tough to guard that what can we do about it I don’t really know I I truly I don’t really know double him

Hard the thing is if you double him hard with two bigs who’s on the dunker spot we’re making a deep rotation we’re leaving someone wide open for three it’s a real problem the best we can do is try our best to get physical and contest

Which is what they were trying to do but didn’t really work that well Brandon Ingram was guarding kawhai in that third quarter herb Jones started guarding Paul George cuz he was playing better than kawhai was not to say kawhai wasn’t playing well but Paul was playing great

As I said 17 points in the first half and a lot of it came from starting again with a more aggressive mindset of course it’s reading the defense but you see there in drop coverage don’t settle go right to the rim he did that they’re blitzing got to make some passes over

The top he did turn the ball over twice that’s not too much for him considering he is the main ball handler him and kawhai without Russ and Harden of course bones is there as well and he he was one of the people that just could not make

His threes really one for six from three bones Highland he did not shoot well in this game I actually think his defense was pretty good he didn’t get abused much he was holding his own he got into the passing Lanes he had two steals in a

Block but he only had five points on two for n shooting and one for six from three to go along with two turnovers in 24 minutes so great game against Chicago not so great against the Pelicans and again he’s a backup point guard to me bones he’s not a starting point guard

And against a team like that so you know he’s just playing a role that’s a little too big and that’s why we need him to do right now and it was unfortunate he couldn’t make some of those open threes but the Pelicans made a run in that

Third quarter it started really it was capped off by and by the way they were doubling kawhai in the post and they were leaving PJ Tucker open and starting in the third but herb Jones had this block on Paul George I my jaw literally dropped I mean it looked like Paul had a

Wide open three herb Jones had a running start to close out and he swatted it so hard went down the other way and he got a dunk and that put them up 11 and it’s funny cuz we actually the storm Terren came back in did okay we actually went

With Mason plumbley instead of Daniel Ty I think that was partially to just go with a little bit more size even though again I don’t think Mason plumbley defends the rim any better than Ty Ty played seven minutes and had a donut one rebound that was the only category he

Registered in that in fouls with one foul he was 0 for two from the field and 0 for one from three and seven minutes plumbley did a little bit better he got Nan one three points and two rebounds on one for one shooting and he made the

Free throw in six minutes he did have a turnover though making the wrong read on a four on three CU again they were throwing two out there at pole he was getting the ball to the big man there was one time where he hit the r he hit

The Baseline cutter instead of the wide open Wing so just a bad read by Mason but I don’t think that having Mason in for six minutes instead of T made any difference in the game really air by the way Norman Powell finally got going a

Bit in that third came in and hit two threes and that really helped the Clippers get back in it Amir coffee at the end of the third quarter makes a three to tie it at 80 and then very poor transition defense and I have to say transition defense in the second

Half was bad the whole way that’s been a thing for both La teams because they’re old on the older side they’re not good at this season I I say both La teams because those are the teams I watch the most neither of them get back in

Transition and as far as what we care about the Clippers so a lot of times it’s just lack of communication and then just keeping with I’ll say this Harden and Russ as great of a Defender as Russ can be sometimes he doesn’t get back a lot especially when he misses layups

Harden is just lazy getting back in transition period for the most part we need to be a little bit better about that but a lot of it’s talking and just hustling and I did not like where we were at to to have Zion in two seconds or 4 seconds beat three Defenders down

The court and score I know he was going full speed and it was a tough finish but like you can’t allow that you just can’t it’s it’s momentum going into the fourth Zion’s getting turned the building’s getting rocking like just can’t have that so we were down 82 to 80 going into

The fourth and they went up by nine and again it was quick attacks and transition Zoo having his hands full with Zion were throwing extra bodies at him their Shooters are starting to hit particularly Trey Murphy who had let me see how many buckets he had in the second

Half Trey Murphy only he was two for six from three actually so eight points in the second half Larry Nance really killed us in that second half he came in in that fourth quarter and it offered like a good player in that dunker spot so we were doubling Zion or showing help

And he was kicking it out to a shooter we were running them off the line that was a clear game plan that tyo told them because it was very evident they were running guys off the line but they did a great job of feeding Larry n to the

Dunker and scoring like again you if there’s a guy that’s being double teamed this applies to any era of basketball you watch if there’s a guy being double teamed hard doubled like that someone’s going to be open your rotation got to be crisp but if the offense executes you are at their Mercy

That’s what happens you have a matchup problem so that’s what what that’s what we’re at and we needed our offense to be a little bit better in the fourth quarter Paul Jordan you know he still hit two tough threes in a row I mean this guy he was hooping he was

Absolutely hooping but he didn’t shoot that well in the fourth and he and Norm played the entire quarter Paul had eight points on three for eight shooting two for four from three in the fourth so those were the two threes I was referring to but only shot 375% in that

Quarter and then Kawai he played the last seven minutes in four 14 seconds of the game and he only went one for three in the fourth so again you wish he could have gotten a little better from Kawai I did not like that three he took in

Transition when it was 100 to 105 contested I don’t know why he took that so early in the shot clock we could have gotten such a better shot very rare low IQ decision by kawhai because he’s usually the smartest player on the court but by the way Nance was blitzing Paul

George it caused some problems and then the last thing we did was we had the clips go big when Zion was at the five so we had PJ and zoo in and it kind of left zoo in an awkward position guarding herb Jones and Zion kept trying to get the switch but

PJ was starting to go under the screens so they weren’t getting too much of an advantage there that’s when we started getting back in it and almost came back when it was like 100 to 105 Jones was on zoo in the other end but we never looked

At him like that we went really strictly towards PG and kawhai and by the way Norm had a scare as well herb Jones fell on his ankle and I thought he was gone but but he came back and I don’t know anything about if he’s going to play on Sunday or not but

Two guys having their ankle sprained in the same game is tough and then as I said the game kind of ended we were running guys off the line due to Zion getting doubled and finding Shooters and they would feed Larry Nan for bucket so it was tough Zion had seven in the

Fourth Brandon Ingram had five in the fourth Trey Murphy had eight in the fourth so there you go Nance had four they were a good team in the fourth what can I say it’s not the end of the world but again Paul George 26 points five

Rebounds six assists a steal and a block he did turn the ball over twice but he shot 10 for 21 from the field three for n from three and you know what I have I don’t have too much of a problem with it in 41 minutes of play PG played really

Well in this back toback and I think this could give him some good confidence going forward because as I said he was in a real slump but I said keep the faith in him keep the faith he’ll come good so it’s good to see that coming up

Going to be talking more about the other guy stat lines in the other guys individual performances then looking towards the game against Atlanta but moral of the story tough game tough matchup we were short-handed and the Pelicans are a rough match up for us we can talk about the potential of playing

Him in the playoffs down the line but we got other games to play and we also didn’t have Harden and Westbrook and I want everyone to not lose sight of that it was not even a terrible performance they were just a bit better and Zion is

A problem coming up going to be talking about the stat lines and the Hawks game all right so the Pelicans beating the Clippers 112 to 104 they win the season series three games to one which means they own the tiebreaker and now they’re only two games below us in the standings

Of the five seed so they’re really on our Tails so we need to really pick it up Clippers are 20 and 14 away from home it’s crazy how that Grammy trip helped our road record so much and we are 42 and 24 on the season so again 16 games remaining

To have the best recorded franchise history to to get it the sole possession of it we need to go 16-0 that’s not happening if we go 15- one we tie the best record in franchise history with the 2014 Clips if we go 13 and three no I’m sorry if we go 14 and

Two we tie the second best record with the 2013 and 2015 clips and then if we win 12 of these last couple or 13 or 12 of them then we’ll have the third best record in franchise so that should be the goal let’s get the third best record in franchise

History Kai Leonard I thought he played pretty well I know they started doubling double teaming him in the second half more but again sometimes I wish he had a slightly higher appetite for scoring and I think in the playoffs that’s going to come but Paul George was the guy he had

It going in this game I don’t mind that he shot more than kawhai but without Harden for kawhai to only shoot 15 times and especially when he’s shooting efficiently eight for 15 I wanted to shoot a little more one for three from three six for six on the foul line 23

Points seven rebounds two assists two blocks and a turnover my thing with Kawai is he only shot three times in the fourth and a large reason is because with that strategy of playing Kawai the whole third and then Paul George the whole fourth what ends up happening is Paul

George will get a rhythm and then when Kawai comes back in he’s not trying to disturb that so then he doesn’t really find a rhythm and I still think Kawai is our best closer but I want Paul George taking the final shot if that makes sense like in

The last five minutes I want the ball in kawai’s hands but the last shot I want Paul George because Paul George has the easiest time on our team getting shots off like he rarely gets blocked and that’s why that herb Jones thing was so impressive but by the way Kawai had 10

Points in the third six of them came from the line so all his free throw attempts were in the third quarter but he only shot six shots in the second half so you want more zubot I thought he was okay and let me say why I say that I

Thought he did a good job in the short roll offensively finishing well so like offensively I really had no issue with him nine points 11 rebounds two assists one steal one block defensively though he can’t guard Zion I don’t think that’s really his fault but he just can’t and

He didn’t offer much resistance at The Rim compared to normal so he was solid bones Highland as I already mentioned was two for n he had a rough one Terren Mann nine points on three for five shooting already talked about PJ Tucker Tyson plumbley air coffee and Norman pal

Amir coffee was fine I thought he was pretty good eight points three rebounds three dimes he had two turnovers though and was a team worse minus 14 but I would ignore that three for five from the field two for four from three so he had an efficient game 60% from the field

And 50 from three and then Norman pal just didn’t make his three ball we really needed a little bit more without James Harden without Russ but he was okay 15 points four for nine from the field so that’s efficient but two for six from three and he shoots better than

That normally five for five from the line so Norm he’s consistent though he’ll give he’ll get you 13 to 17 every single night 13 to 18 even 13 plus so we’ll be back I don’t think there’s too much to worry about I think if you want to worry about the Pelicans in the

Playoffs it’s a different discussion but for all we know we might not see them again for the rest of the season so I’m not going to waste my breath don’t be too mad about that lost CLI Nation all I’m saying now Atlanta very short-handed team we’re playing Sunday I’ll be in

Attendance it’ll be my 23rd game I believe of the Season might be 22 I think it’s 23rd which is tying my alltime record for regular season but we got to win and I think we should win handedly and you could potentially rest James Harden again but it’s been two

Games in a row let’s get him back on the court cuz apparently he’s still not fully injured I know he’s dealing with a little shoulder thing but it’s not something that he can’t play through I don’t believe so we should just play him let’s make statement get back to winning

Ways and then we’re 43 and 24 15 games left let’s do it you know what the most important thing is kawh L and Paul George are healthy right now at this stage of the season and we’re in a position in top four seed like all this knocking has worked kawh Leonard is

Healthy right now and so is Paul George and they had had little scares you know Nicks and bruises but that’s what we expected before the season they’re not going to play every game but as long as they don’t have any serious injuries and again I’m still knocking because who

Knows it’s all about the playoffs we’ll be okay we’ll be a contender it’s just a matter of sharpening the knife now sharpening the tools Atlanta should not be a problem they have dejonte Murray we need teren man to do a good job hopefully Terren is playing and

Let’s get them out of there their defense is non-existent that’s all I got you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more Clipper and uh NBA content and by the way obviously there’ll be a lock on

Clippers out on Monday after the Hawks game but there will also be a vlog on my YouTube channel of my experience at the Hawks game on Sunday night so please check that out let me know in the comments what do you think a series between the Pelicans and the Clippers

Would go because it doesn’t look very good right now the ageel proverb continues go Clippers

The LA Clippers took another loss to the New Orleans pelicans on Friday night. They would be without James Harden for a second consecutive game and put up a valiant effort, but they could not quite slow down Zion Williamson. In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and host Darian Vaziri discusses what makes Zion so hard for the Clippers to guard. He also talks about one of the positives of this back to back on the road, Paul George getting back to playing at a high-level. In the end, he looks ahead at the game against the Hawks on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

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