When Did It Go So Wrong For The LA Clippers?

When Did It Go So Wrong For The LA Clippers?

What has been going on with the LA Clippers since the Grammy trip let’s talk about it in this one is there any hope what can we do to end the season strong and how important is it to end the season strong going to be talking about it all on today locked on

Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every 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 darn vizeri 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 where I posted a video of my experience at the last game it was a catastrophe but go check it out win or lose still supporting the boys it was actually my 23rd game of the season

Which is my alltime high for a regular season and ties my all-time high for any season playoffs and regular seasons combined so with one one more game I will set my season record with 24 games so excited about that blessed to be doing what I do but it was a tough game

And before we talk about this episode this one is brought to you by LinkedIn post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NBA that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA all right so let’s just talk about what happened right because in January and February and December mostly January and December

We were playing like the best team in basketball number one in the power rankings our offensive rating was top of the league in that stretch James Harden was cooking kawi Leonard was cooking and Paul George was doing really well a lot of catch and shoot sniping and really

Great shooting from him but as we know with Paul George he’s going to have his ups and downs it just felt like the pieces were fitting right Westbrook Off the Bench in that Energizer bunny roll zubot and Harden’s chemistry was starting to hit New Heights and zubot

Was playing the best basketball of his entire career Amir coffee was starting to play really well and it was a ninan rotation ninan strong mainly when before Mason plumbley came back and I thought you know I started to have hope maybe this is the year even though I was a

Little skeptical when we traded for James Harden and going into the year maybe this is the one and we started to talk about is this the best Clipper team ever and when we beat Boston on the road I’d never felt more confident saying that that this is the best Clipper team

Ever and the real thing that made me confident was that kawh Leonard and Paul George have had such a great run with held so far and I’m still knocking don’t worry that it’s like is this really happening because right now kawh L and Paul George after game number 67 have

Each played 61 games James Harden has played 60 and remember he’s only missed two as a member of the Clippers those first five he wasn’t available for Norman Powell has only missed two games this entire season so we have been pretty healthy the fact that Paul George

And kawh Leonard have played in 61 games which is tied for the second most on the team with Terence man after Norman Powell number one if you had told me that going into the season I would have said pre- Harden trade or post Harden trade we’re a top three seed no doubt

Because they’re going to get to that 65 Plus game threshold to be in all NBA discussions now the only one that actually has a chance is Kawhi Leonard but the fact that they’re there and we’re in the fourth seed right now is a testament to two things one the Western

Conference being so much better than last year and here’s why I say that Denver okay you can say that they’re about the same Sacramento about the same maybe even declined a little bit but and even the Lakers say they’re about the same Warriors declined a little bit but after that Timberwolves massive upgrades

Oklahoma City Thunder massive Improvement New Orleans Pelicans finally staying healthy Dallas Mavericks Improvement full year of Kyrie Irving Phoenix Suns pretty lateral but I think when they’re healthy they should be an improvement and then you have I think I named it just about everyone right there

So a lot of improvement in the west and then you still have Denver who’s the Juggernaut so and the Clippers have improved of course with their health but the funny part is last season we were super dysfunctional we had so many weird things going on tyo was completely just

Favoring certain guys that didn’t deserve to be playing Major minutes Kawai and Paul were in and out of the lineup and we still were fourth this season we had the best stretch in Clipper history arguably playing an amazing basketball three stars for the first time ever in franchise history and

We were 37 and 18 37 and 18 actually I might be wrong on that 34 and 15 sorry we were 34 and 15 and since then we’ve gone 8 and 10 34- 15 I was starting to compare us to the some of the best Clipper teams in

History and right now the only thing that can make this team the best Clipper team in history is if they get to the Conference Finals because that they’re not going to hit 57 wins like the 2014 team they would have to win out for the

Rest of the season 15-0 then 14-1 to tie the 2013 and 2015 teams so the question is what happened right what happened we came back from that Grammy trip and we were so good on that trip six and one played against the Pelicans and we kind of face that

Classic oh struggle with New Orleans you know Zion Brandon Ingram a real problem now in that game Paul George was absolutely horrendous he was three for5 and Kawhi Leonard was 4 for10 so we come off our road trip 213 is not playing well in that game and the Pelicans do

What the Pelicans do to us but everyone thought and I even gave the team a pass I said you know what we’re just coming off that long road trip they were a little bit tired they were a little exhausted and they were talking about how they got home late from the flight

So from Atlanta because there was some kind of delay I remember that so I gave them a little pass for that they beat Detroit the next game in what’s not an extremely convincing performance but they got the job done and then there was the loss to Minnesota and that loss

Really opened my eyes when we lost 121 to 100 on February 12th that’s when I felt for the first time in the season that we were helpless that there was a team that was maybe better than us or that had our number and that was with Minnesota just locking us up like that

And us not having the size and athleticism to compete with them and with Denver I felt like we just didn’t have the skill not that we didn’t have the athleticism or size but with the Timberwolves I felt for the first time like our weakness of being old and slow

Really shows itself against them and Anthony Edwards even said we’re old and slow he was taking shots at us so that tells you a lot when other players feel that kind of confidence that they can run us off the floor and again going to the topic of 213 not playing well

In that Minnesota game Paul George was 5 for 16 and James Harden was five for 13 kawi Leonard 8 for 17 he had 18 points we had no big three guy to even hit 20 you’ll see where I’m going with this then we had that win at Golden

State before the All-Star break where we kind of bounced back Paul George looked pretty good and this is around the time where Paul George is starting to deal with an injury remember he did miss a game against Washington on the road trip that was his first Miss game in a minute

So we were starting to see that and people were saying he doesn’t look 100% because of games like the one against Minnesota and against New Orleans but he did have a good game in the fourth quarter especially against Golden State so coming off everybody was saying Clippers look a little tired recently

After the All-Star break we need the break give us a little rest well we have eight days off and we come back and are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City for the tiebreaker and we get run off the floor and it was the

Second game where I said we look old we look slow they’re running us off the court SGA looked like the best player on the floor kawh Leonard actually had a decent game in that one but it was again a game where kawhai only had 20 points

Cuz he only shot 12 times Paul George 6 for 16 so Paul George with another rough game and kawh Leonard not shooting enough not scoring enough for what we need against a great team then we played Memphis on the road the next night that was a game where

Remember all these episodes after these games are on this channel but that Memphis game was one of our worst performances of the season and we were so lucky that Memphis was so banged up I mean I was ashamed watching that game it was just a joke we should have lost it

And that’s when I was really starting to get a little worried Paul George five for2 in the game 14 points kawhai had a pretty good one that one James Harden was one for eight so again Paul George two of the three are not playing very well in the same game frequently since

We came back from that Grammy trip in these losses or these bad performances then was that Sunday game against Sacramento I went to and again they ran us off the floor and sabonis really dominated I mean they had 14 offensive rebounds in the game they just looked

Faster than than us we couldn’t stop Fox who had 33 points kawhai was 7even for 18 James Harden was 4 for 13 and Paul George missed the game with the injury so again neither of them playing well enough and we look slow and tired then we played the Lakers and we

Collapsed that had nothing to do with slow and Tire to me we just blew it that was a horrible loss at that point we had lost three out of the last four games since coming off of the All-Star break then we look like we made things right

When we beat Washington by 25 and then finally beat Minnesota and again we take it’s like we take two steps forward to take three steps back maybe four steps back loss at Milwaukee without Giannis and Chris Middleton with the game in our hands collapsing in the fourth quarter and

Funny because Paul George actually played pretty well in that one and so did Harden it was kawhai who was 6 for 19 and it wasn’t enough but we allowed 40 points in the fourth that was a bad loss again if you’ve noticed Kawhi Leonard is also involved

In this he is not above blame he has not been playing as well and I when I did that episode a couple of I want to say it was a week ago I showed you that Kawai like in the last 20 or so games was only averaging 22 points he needs to

Average close to 30 at this point then we beat Houston in Houston that was an okay performance beat Chicago in the game I went to that was also an okay performance we waited till the second half to start playing same with the Houston game both games we

Waited till the second half to start playing against Milwaukee we load managed 2 on3 and we lost and then against Minnesota we got obliterated when kawhai went out of the game and again it was Paul George and James Harden messing around and not playing to the best of their abilities or even

Close to it and then we had that 213 bounce back at Chicago and now two straight losses one at New Orleans and this one against Atlanta we look old and slow like the season has taken its toll on us that’s the main thing I can tell you either that or the effort’s not

Strong enough either way it’s not acceptable we have 15 games left and we have fully taken ourselves out of that top three seed range which led me to say that statement on the last episode that I do not believe we’re going to win the championship this year but there’s

Always a chance unless you’re fully out and we could still make history I’m not betting on it but we still could and that’s why we watch the games and let them play out but coming up going to be talking about a very interesting quote said by Paul George after the game on

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Quote from Paul George that he said after the game against the Hawks the question was asked by toari our Clipper beat writer for clutch points he said do you feel like this team feels like it can kind of just turn it on whenever it needs whenever it

Needs to right now and Paul said I mean that’s what we’re appearing to look like which is not good not good we want to be a team that’s consistent and we want to establish an identity I’ve always spoken about having an identity and I think it’s extremely important when you’re a

Team that has an identity teams know what they’re going up against right now I don’t think we have an identity it’s game 67 we don’t have an identity that’s the stuff you say with within the first 30 games games that’s insane how is that supposed to make us feel confident as fans no

Identity no you know you do have an identity you’re slow and old and you don’t get to the rim enough that’s the identity teams will kill us in transition that’s what the identity is right now the identity is a bunch of players that feel like oh let’s get the

Playoffs started already that’s what it looks like to me and that’s not going to be good enough this is a marathon a war of attrition a battle of endurance at the same time and you know what maybe we miscalculated going with our three best players being 33 plus years old maybe we

Miscalculated I don’t know the fact that he’s saying we don’t have an identity are you crazy but here’s the thing right when we got James Harden our identity was we got a lot of offensive Firepower and we have three guys that are ISO guys that can really you know it’s tough to

Stay in front of them with one Defender and those guys quite frankly have not been creating those offensive advantages as much as they have in the past and you know what else is hurting if it’s zubats that injury cuz he has not played like the old avit zubas that’s protecting the

Rim grabbing 10 rebounds with ease finishing around the basket but I still think there is a level of we need to throw the ball down a zoo on the Block a couple times a game because let’s be honest he is not the best roller in the world he’s not he isn’t the most

Athletic big he doesn’t have great hands he h honestly doesn’t have great like reaction time when it comes to short roll situations it’s not super fast and he gets fouled a lot I will say which is not really a fault of his but he has a a tendency to go up very soft

He doesn’t really get off the ground he’s not really a lob threat I’m not saying don’t run him in pick and rolls you have to run your big in pick and rolls nowadays but I’m saying that’s not where he’s best it’s not like DeAndre Jordan who was an elite role threat but

What he does have that someone like DJ didn’t have is he actually has skill in the post he actually has skill with the ball in his hands and we need to throw him that ball on the left block three to four times a game at least all we do is

We throw it to him in the like the first two minutes of the game and that’s it because in the NBA today you’re just discouraged to throw the ball to post throw the ball in the post to guys who aren’t Stars it’s terrible I think you you know

With big guys you need to get them engaged you need to make them feel involved get them confident then they’ll do that other stuff for you really well that’s how they are and I don’t think zoo is that different but I don’t think we’ve even focused on trying to do that

For years and now he’s got a left-handed jump hook and we still go away from it we still don’t go to it we don’t look to empower him and here’s the funniest part if you get the ball to zoo in the post even if you miss you’re at least putting

Some pressure on the defense getting the ball to him 8 feet or closer and maybe he’s backing into the other big and at least putting a physical toll on him I just think we don’t get him involved besides pick and roll and then as far as like the pick and roll stuff James

Harden the system and everybody was going crazy about the way he was creating good shots for us early in the season even saying you know every time we get the ball to James Harden the pick and roll we get a good shot what’s happened he doesn’t he’s not turning the

Corner the same way one and we’re playing when we play the good teams and they have a good drop big what they do is they play the pick and roll two on two which exposes the fact when drop it exposes the fact that James Harden’s not comfortable in the in between game

Anymore he doesn’t have the burst to get all the way to the rim like he used to so when he’s not taking that mid-range step back he’s got to hit the floater or else we’re screwed that’s when you find him just dribbling it out and the pace

That of everything he’s done is slowed down by the way everything you know bringing it up up the court getting into our actions often times he’s rejecting the first screen once another and we’re 13 seconds in you know a lot of those possessions where I’m not saying a lot of those but it’s

Been frequent throughout the second half of the Season more so than the first half where he’s not getting anything and he’ll throw it to someone at the end of the shot clock and I think that’s one of the most selfish things you can do you’re saving your percentage and you

Wasted the clock and now you’re throwing it to a teammate hoping that oh the defense saged just a little bit I can throw it to them I just don’t think that’s good basketball it’s one of the things I’ve always despised about him and a lot of about his game and a lot of

Other players of that ilk then there’s Paul George who I think everything that we’ve seen this season has exposed one thing majorly if we don’t get a top three seas we were never going to get it before Harden and that shows me that Paul George is too inconsistent because

Kawh Leonard I think he’s been consistent enough to get a top three seed as a best player this year I really do but the fact that we have three star caliber players and Paul George had not created any separation between him and Harden and the fact that

His defense fell off when he was in a slump if there’s anything I’ve learned if we don’t get a top four seed a top three seed it’s that Paul dra and just inconsistencies held us back from getting a top three seed more than anything God honest truth but coming up

Is there still hope is there still hope for the Clipper team I’ve been very negative right now the last 48 hours is there still hope GNA be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find

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Lockon MBA that’s linkedin.com loock on MBA post your job for free terms and conditions apply all right gber Nation so I woke up this morning on Monday feeling no differently than I did in that angry episode on Sunday to be honest I have no faith in this team to

Win at all I have some faith that we can go to the second round maybe even the Conference Finals if it all works out well and you know what if we do get to the second round I’m obviously gonna have belief we can win at all that’s

Just the fan in me but I’m telling you right now with no emotions second round I mean Conference Finals is our ceiling to me this year I just think we’re too banged up or too old I think if even if we somehow make it out of the first and second round

With some ruing series I don’t know if we’ll be able to beat a Denver or Minnesota or an OKC there now let’s say we play the Lakers or something if they even God I’m giving them way too much credit there’s if they get to the K finals again from the playin gez but

They’re older on the older side so that would be ideal that’ be crazy La Conference Finals in the last year at stable Center to choose who goes to the finals I don’t think that’s gonna happen but if there is there still hope yes because in a hypothetical world all

Right look we got a easier schedule now for the rest of the month and in April our next two games are at Portland and they’re tanking let’s go get those wins all of a sudden it doesn’t matter who it’s against two wins you start getting some fback some momentum back we got a

Banged up Philly next Sunday at home now we start getting a little streak going that and hopefully in those games you have kawh Leonard get back to his best and that means like for me with Kawai I need to see him put up some 30

Balls like you know what I’m going to go do it right now let’s see how many 30o games kawh Leonard has had this season because the guy to me when healthy is still one of the best scorers in the NBA but I don’t know how many 30o games this

Guy has had this year let’s see he had a 38o game in the loss of the Lakers right before we got Harden he had a 31-point game in the loss against the Nuggets against Reggie Jackson and DJ he had a 34-point game against Sacramento at Sacramento which I

Said at the time that was November 20th sorry November 29th I said that was the best game of his season thus far he had a 41-point game at Utah which I said was his newest best game of the season thus far 34-point game against Portland I was

At that game we had a vlog on my Channel about it that was good then back toback the next night he had 31 as well this when he was just red hot against New York 36 I was at that game as well at Dallas when he had 30 so he had eight

30o games at this point before the new year nine with the win at Phoenix that was a good one 10 at Cleveland in which we lost 11 at Washington on that trip 12 at Detroit on that trip in which we won 13 at Atlanta with the w and then

14 and the win against Minnesota so the last couple of times he’s dropped 30 we’ve gotten wins so we need that again honestly but that’s not that much to me for how many games he’s played he doesn’t even have 20 30 point games and I know we have Harden and Paul George

But we need a little bit more his shot appetite needs to go up and you know what if they start doubling we got to do a better job converting on those doubles and a lot of that starts with James Harden letting it fly but is there a you

Know something I want to talk about in The Next Episode before the game on Wednesday is like did we go too hard with these nine guys all season and you know have too many guys that just can’t contribute at all for what we want because maybe it’s like we put too much

An onus on these guys James Harden got I kept saying that we’re going to burn him out I said it weeks ago and it happened I just hopefully he find some second win here at the end of the season and these easier games help us get back into form

Because we need all three of them to be great and and we would really help we get Westbrook back and Norman poell his injury didn’t sound that good so we’ll talk about that more on on the Wednesday episode as well before the game but yes there is still hope because there’s 15

Games left if we go into the playoffs good momentum even if we’re the four seed depending on the bracket we still can make a run at this and you never know you win one Ser you know when when the Playoff starts at Z zero and the

Optimism comes out and the fan bases get rabid and you DN sure you know what no matter what I say about what I think about the team’s chances when we’re at game one of the playoffs it’s z z and anyone has a chance if you’re there you

Got a shot and I’m gonna be all up at the Staple Center going crazy for our last postseason run in that Arena and I’m going to be behind the team 100% and you’re going to be hearing about it right here on locked on Clippers and on my YouTube channel dime droppers so make

Sure you go subscribe to there to locked on Clippers hit the notification Bell and you can follow me on Twitter Instagram at Dime dropper pod so let me know is there still hope because I saw a lot of people agreeing with me in the last episode that man this is cooked let

Me know if there’s still hope the ageel proverb continues go Clippers back with another another episode on Wednesday

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