Sulty A. Adam Auslin, host of Clipper Countdown, the pregame, the halftime, the postgame show, joins us in the studio. That was a hell of game last night. It was. What's good guy, It's good to be here. Yeah. Just uh, you know, Fred, you're getting called out on Twitter for Rex Well, I mean just and again, I don't want to correct you because obviously your a legend, first baut Hall
of Famer and all that, but thanks. Uh the Twitter account eat s and Die writes in and says I always want eat S and Die writes in, I take it very seriously, guys. It's listen. This is credibility at full tilt. He writes in. You're right to call out. It says this to me. You right to call out Fred Rogan about saying hard and waddled in. He does not waddle. He metastasizes because he's a bleeping cancer. Oh okay, well, i'll talk to you guys later in shape.
Yeah, Adam, thanks for yeah wow, So I didn't get that and Die Okay, well it was said that you were added on that tweet or that x whatever they're call it these days. So a little bit of a correction according to his account there assuming it to him, Oh thanks for pointing that out, yeah forty second doo. Yeah okay, So Adam, what did you think last night? What did I think? What are the
headlines? Freddy? Uh? I think it was an exciting game and good for basketball, and the Lakers ended up pulling it out when they were down by nineteen in that first quarter. But to me, what changed things was two back to back three pointers to end the first cutting a nineteen point lead down to thirteen. Then it seems a lot more manageable. But give it up for the Clippers to come back down nine with two minutes left in the
fourth quarter, just to send it into ot. Paul George was unreal, twenty of his thirty five in that fourth quarter alone, And the problem was the Clippers couldn't say out of foul trouble. They couldn't defend without fouling enough. Obviously undermanned on a back to back, but you don't want to make any excuses, but the Lakers had seventeen free throws in the last seventeen minutes of the ballgame, and that was really the difference. George fouling out as
soon as they started overtime after he was on an unbelievable heater. Kind of a game changer. Kawhi was the only guy for them who scored in ot to me, they needed one more role player to step up last night. Norman Powell was off, Bones Highland was off. Obviously no Terrence Man still either for the Clippers. So it was, well, I guess twelve times the charm for the Lakers. After losing eleven straight to the Clippers, they
finally figured it out. Do you find that kind of interesting, Adam, that now the rivalry in the matchup matters, and these regular season games matter now that the Lakers have finally whined one one, because before it was, well, you don't have any banners hanging up. The Lakers are thinking about bigger things. But now that they won one of these, now all of a sudden, it seems to matter a little bit more. It's weird how that works. Yeah, Lakers fans hang the banner after that victory last night.
I guess, am I doing it right, because that's what they always say when the Clippers beat them. Oh, this is your guys' championship. We don't care, Fred, It's the truth. I get this stuff. In coming out follow out of May on X all the time just from ed ses and die, yes and die, So it goes back the other way. Look, the Lakers were obviously due. It was the right time to get the Clippers second night of a back to back, no James Harden,
no Terrence Man. Lakers were down some guys too. But this Clippers team now has seventy seven more games to figure things out with James Harden and four days off, by the way, to get him up to speed till they play on Monday. Now, do you believe that what we saw last night from Paul George, from Kawhi Leonard is that sustainable? Like, is this
something to where those guys playing at that level? Because if they're playing at that level, I know last night there was the foul trouble and it was kind of a weird game to where Lebron and Anthony Davis were super seemed super motivated to try and win that game. That was a statement game for them, it felt like more than it was for the Clippers. If you get that sort of production though from Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, that's a really
tough out the Western Conference. I don't care what their age is if you can get that throughout the course of the season, and the addition to PJ. Tucker, Westbrook played well, and then you see James Harden slowly get mixed in. When Fred's done fat shaming him, it feels like the Clippers have got a legitimate shot here and are a real threat in the Western Conference.
We'll get back to the fat shaming in a little bit, but yeah, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George being healthy and playing at this level the efficiency I think PG. Thirteen, Paul George had the thirty five points on just seventeen shots, maybe it was sixteen. That's absurd. But Kawhi Leonard comes out in the first quarter and had the best first quarter of his career, starting seven of eight with eighteen points in the first and that's why the Clippers
got up by nineteen. Now, is it sustainable for them to combine for seventy three points every night? No, But as I mentioned, some other guys had down nights. Once they pick things up, once they get back in their groove, I think the Clippers will be fine. And there's gonna be a lot of adjustments with James Harden coming in now they're gonna have to figure this out. Post game, it was Russell Westbrook talking about it. It's gonna take some time. There's gonna be a process, some ups,
some downs, a learning curve. With James Harden in there, all of that is understandable. But the point is these guys I think are willing to sacrifice to try to win a championship, and James Harden is really backed into a corner. Now this could be his last opportunity to really have a chance, not just to win a championship, but to get that last big payday. He's in a contract year. He's gonna be an unrestricted free agent. That's all part of this. The Clippers have his bird rights, so they
can go over the cap to re sign him. But we'll see how things play out. But I think the fit works on a couple different levels because James Harden has become much more of a playmaker the last couple of seasons. If you saw him in those games when Kyrie and KD were actually healthy in Brooklyn, he was setting the table a lot and it worked, and they looked unreal and unbeatable. The Clippers had to play him a couple of those
eighteen times they were actually fully healthy, so I saw it firsthand. But also when he's not doing that, when he's not just facilitating, and Kawhi Leonard or Paul George are both are out, we know there's gonna be nights where that happens. He's insurance. You can then make him the focal point of the offense. He can run the show. He's that regular season floor.
Razer, I believe where you have to navigate this tough schedule of the Clippers having twenty five three games and four nights, so seventy five of their eighty two games are coming within those parameters. They have by far the toughest schedule in the NBA because they have third billing at Crypto dot Com. Hence the into It Dome coming next season can't come soon enough. But you got to survive the regular season. You gotta be a top three seed outside the
ninety five Houston Rockets. I say it all the time. Nobody else in the modern NBA has won that was not a top three seed. So they're stacking talent, they're bringing insurance in so in case Kawhir Paul George are out for an extended period of time, and neither of them have played seventy games so far as a Clipper in a regular season, so it's big for them in a multitude of ways. But it's on coach lu to figure this out. And I actually think he's the perfect guy to make guys sacrifice and also
put them in the right spots to succeed having all this talent. And by the way, it's not like James Harden and Russell Westbrook haven't played together before. They did it in Okay. See, they did it in Houston, so it's not all new and unfamiliar for this team. I just thought last night was great. Everybody was going all out. Everybody was going one hundred miles an hour, fifty to fifty balls. It was a battle, great hustle place. It was just a really fun basketball game to watch. Well.
And as Jonas mentioned, with the Lakers needing, it more wanting to make a statement. I think the statement the Clippers made is, oh, Kawhi Leonard just played forty one minutes on the second night of a back to back. When's the last time that happened. Paul George, I think played thirty seven. Paul George was this good. He was a plus twenty two in a ballgame they lost by five. What does that tell you? In the sixteen minutes he was on the bench, they got outscored by twenty seven.
That's how good he was last night. They looked unbeatable when he was out there. It was exciting. Kawhi had the big throw down. Late Austin Reeves started to find himself. If you're a Lakers fan, he had some big plays. Did some say there was some foul baiting going on, but some big plays. Nonetheless, I don't be tracking. It was hillbilly Kobe out there, a little bit more than we had seen so far this season, but an exciting brand of basketball nationally televised. That's exactly what the
NBA wanted. They're superstars out there playing. But now the Clippers have four days off to get things right with James Harden for Monday when they're on an East Coast trip starting in New York against the Knicks, and we will have that game on the radio STA pregame at three thirty on Monday. I'm sure everyone's gonna remember that by the time it comes. What was the crowd split like last night? Look, if you had to guess uh, well,
full disclosure. I was back in Burbank because damn technically a Lakers home game, and if you just go off the three clutch free throws Paul George had to make late in that fourth quarter to tie. It was seventeen left. It was obviously a heavy Laker crowd. They were into it. They tasted blood. They wanted a victory over the Clippers, finally to get that monkey off their back. I know they'll downplay it and say it's not that big of a deal, but I saw plenty of people in my mentions, which
you know, the old line methinks the woman doth protest too much. Like if you're saying we don't care all the time, you probably do. And that's where that's where it comes into play with Lakers fans, and they're actually being a rivalry in Los Angeles, even though they'll say there isn't. Yes, the Clippers haven't won at the highest level yet, but guys, going into last night's game, they had won thirty six of the last forty three
meetings against the Lakers. That is unbelievable domination in the regular season. Granted, they haven't matched up in the playoffs yet, but still there's an edge to these games. They are emotionally charged, you could say, and I love what we saw from PJ. Tucker last night. It's not just James Harden. I've always been a big fan of him, and he had all
five of his boards were off defensive rebounds. So another hustle guy reminds me a little bit of Patrick Beverley. Plays with that competitive spirit out there. It's gonna be interesting to see how this Clippers team comes together, this super team type of roster now they have. You know what last night reminded me of, And I don't know if you guys remember this. Do you remember the game between the Lakers and Clippers before the COVID shutdown where the Lakers were
playing. It was like in the same weekend, they played Milwaukee on a Friday night and then they played the Clippers on a Sunday and it was a back and forth and the Lakers ended up winning that game late, but it felt like it was a really important game to the Lakers, and the atmosphere was electric. It reminded me of that game before the COVID shutdown, So it was it was, to Fred's point, really entertaining and really fun to
watch. Whoever, whoever came out on top of that one. Both teams put on a show that was truly a battle for Los Angeles last night, and for the first time in three years, the Lakers got a victory over the Clippers. Last time they beat them, that was the last game outside of the Bubble. Then they won in the opening night of the Bubble where they kind of did this hard reset get a few games in before the playoffs start, and the Clippers took on the Lakers. Clippers lost that one late
as they didn't call foul and Lebron James holding on Kawhi Leonard. But that's neither here nor there three years ago. Guys, gotta let it go right Well, why are you opening that door? Jonas O mean, I'm just saying, like, if we're gonna call this down the middle, let's call down the middle. You want everything slanted towards the Lakers. I would like to give a little bit of love to the Clippers who are making noise in
this town. How did I slant anything towards the Lakers? It just feels like, you know, that was the greatest game ever, but the previous eleven times the Lakers lost to the Clippers. You want to just dismiss those altogether. I just thought it was a very entertaining game, I said to Kevin before we started at them, which is completely impossible. I wish every
NBA game was like that. Do you think it was? Adam Solber, buddy, do you think it was necessary, fred though to show up in a CeDell three jersey, Like, I mean, that felt a bit much. Oh did I carry it a little farre? It was a bit much. I thought. I saw Eldon Campbell on his back was well, helicopter defense. Elton Campbell. Those big arms just swung around in the middle of the key like this, kept swagging around. Hey, Freddy, pace yourself.
It was just game five of the regular season, all right. The Clippers and Lakers are still playing three more times. That's what I said. We got a long way to go, all right, Adam, thank you, all right, appreciate you guys, and the pregame show Monday three thirty. But Adam Austlin, Yeah, that's it. Get ready for it, Clippers countdown as we are just about one hundred and twenty eight hours away from tip off, all right, so you know it's going to be big all right, thanks Adam,