Clippers fall in San Antonio 122-86

this is not it. The Clippers are nineteen and fourteen, They're doing just fine without Kawhi. Yes, their issues, every team flaws, Yes they can do better. Yes, this was disappointing, frustrating, and a little bit demoralizing. It was also very predictable from those who are paying attention to at follow out of May because yesterday I made this tweet. I knew that almost lost to the Pelicans, where the Clippers had to battle back down fourteen, could come back to haunt them.

The Pelicans are the worst team in the league. The Clippers probably shouldn't have been down fourteen in that game, and at one point I tweeted out, regardless of the outcome, is what I was saying. Regardless, the Clippers are going to be gassed for tomorrow's game. Narrator says they were. This is what happens when you don't step on a team's throat that is a lesser team than you. Now, the Pelicans were hot yesterday from three. CJ. McCollum is a good player. They have talent. Did I think the

Clippers play great? No, Pelicans were super hot. They hit seven threes in the first quarter. But this is why I always say a win is a win. Forget that sports cliche. And but I forget that. I mean, no, I'm not gonna say that. Uh, it's never a win is a win. How you win matters, how you lose matters. You can develop bad habits and wins and good habits that lead to wins later in losses and tonight in this one, I think there were some tired legs out.

There were there some bad effort plays too. Yeah, how much you put on well, they were just out of gas, and how much you say that really was just that not caring or trying. I'll give this team the benefit of the doubt because there have been very few low effort performances this season. There have been very few performances like this where the Clippers just get waxed, just get annihilated.

I can think of a couple in Boston where they lost one twenty six to ninety four, lost that game by thirty two, and the home game against Minnesota where they lost one oh eight to eighty, lost that game by twenty eight. This was their worst loss. It was worse than those two games. Maybe it contends with the Minnesota one. The Boston won whatever, how many threes did they hitch twenty five? They're the defending champs. They get hot, there's nothing you can do. Clippers played hard, now, I

don't think they played that bad. Boston is that good? Minnesota they played bad in that game at home. That was also the second night of a back to back guys. They just beatn Portland the day before. If you look at even good teams records, teams that go on to win fifty five sixty plus games, if you look at them on the second night of a back to back, they're often like five hundred. Back to backs are difficult. Scheduled losses are a real thing. Is losing by thirty

six is a back to back? Enough of an explanation for how bad the Clippers were in this game. No, they were just extremely out of sink and offensively. I think it hurt their defense because when you have bad turnovers like that, when you have those bad live turnovers like the Clippers did, well, their fourteen turnovers turned into twenty one points for the San Antonio Spurs. That's a big number. Typically, if you're getting one point per turnover,

that's solid. They got twenty one off the Clippers fourteen turnovers, a lot of LiveBall turnovers. And you look at some of the other numbers in this game, like fast break points. The Spurs had thirty two to the Clippers twelve. That's what I'm talking about. They had sixty two points in the paint to the Clippers thirty eight. That's how you get crushed. The Clippers also went eleven of forty one

from three. San Antonio went nine of forty percentage wise, they were actually worse from the outside, but they were much better from two. The Clippers got out worked, and Wemby can out talent you at times. He the Clippers team in the first quarter. The Clippers as a team

scored seventeen points in the first quarter. James Harden had thirteen of those points, Wemby had seventeen by himself, and the Clippers were down thirty one to seventeen heading into the second down fourteen already, just like they were down fourteen against the Pels yesterday. Uphill battle, Oh grand theft auto meme, Here we go again. In the second quarter, the Spurs got up by as many as twenty five.

The only bright spot was Norman Pall had twelve points in the second that was it, and the third quarter it was more the same. Two buckets right away from Wemby. It got out of hand. The Spurs led by as many as twenty nine and the third led by as many as forty one. In the game, they go on to win big one, twenty two to eighty six. Clippers shopped in nineteen fourteen on the season. If you want to panic about this team, I mean, fan how you

want a fan? I'm just telling you this isn't indicative of how this Clippers team has played throughout the majority of the season or going to define their season. People freak out over losses like this, a lopside loss. A lot of this can be explained by the second half of a back to back. This stuff happens, it does, it does. I saw a Clippers team lose by fifty one in the twenty twenty one season that went on

to go to the Western Conference Finals. They lost a game earlier in the year by fifty one to the Dallas Mavericks. Did it mean anything. No, they had their best year in franchise history. Now, if you want to talk about issues going on with this Clippers team aside from this loss, that are more big picture issues, I'm here for that. I just people are saying, oh, they're a bad three point shooting team, they're a bad bench. It's like, well, they don't have Kawhi, they don't have

Terrence Man. You get those back, those guys back. Kawhi is in the starting lineup. Man's coming off the bench. That bumps Chris done off the bench with Batom a mere KPJ. Bamba. That's not bad now Bamba has struggled. It was bad again tonight. Gotta be frank about that. I think the Clippers are gonna play small a lot. I don't think it's the end of the world having a below average backup big. You know how many teams have a below average backup big, the majority of them.

There are a handful of teams in this league that are really strong at the backup five spot, a handful. Bamba's been disappointing. The lack of motor is what gets to me. He's got the size, he's got skill. Even though he's missing three pointers and having like his worst season from three, right now, you would assume it's going to turn around. I think his first three shots were all threes and he missed all three. Then he did get a nice bucket on Wemby in the post. We

should do that a little bit more. I just want to see more activity from him. I want to see more fight from him. I eats and Zubots had a bad game. Zoo haters are trying to dunk on Zoo tonight, like he didn't dunk on Wemby the last game in their twenty six point comeback, Wenby out played him. They also I understand Zoo's frustration on the defensive end on some of the rotations, like he had had it with

some of his teammates. There were some really bad plays where guys were or just not giving the effort defensively. Maybe it was tired legs. I don't know. We're looking for Coach Lou postgame audio coming up here. I'm interested to hear from from him after a game like this. Is it a burden the tape game? Is it like hot ass? Did you use? You drop it wherever Frodo put the ring Mount Doom or something?

I think you are reaching. The reason Coach Lou doesn't is because we have thirty three games now, a thirty three game sample size, we're forty percent of the way through the season, guys, believe it or not. So we're gonna look at how this team plays the majority of the time, ninety five percent of the time, not the couple times where they've had games like this. But everybody starts going to trade talk. What are we doing? Are

we gonna be a contender or not? It'say, guys, how many times I just say this, Until you see how Kawhi Leonard looks, you shouldn't be making any big moves because if Kawhi can't stay healthy, it doesn't matter if you go out and get Jimmy Butler or Zach Levine or anybody you're pining over. If Kawhi is not there, you're not a contender. So see how Kawhi looks if he can stay healthy, and then reevaluate things and then

reassess the roster. Now, if you can go out and fleece somebody like they did Portland to get Norm Powell, cool, do it regardless, because that's a good move independent of Kawhi's health. If you can get Calling Sexton and not give up much right, because he's a young player and you can have him for years to come. It's not all hinging on whether or not Kawhi Leonard is healthy. We hope he can be, but I really think you

gotta be judicious about this. You gotta be careful. You gotta pick your spots because you don't want to go out there and go all in or try to upgrade and make a big swing when Kawhi's health is still up in the air and uncertain and it is hopefully he's back on Saturday. That's the target date that La Murray gave. He was all to me pregame, talk to him about Kevin Porter Junior. We'll get to that audio later in the show. We'll take a quick time out,

we'll come back. We'll get to your phone calls. Eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy h six six nine eighty seven two five seventy is the phone number. Happy New Year, Indeed, leave this loss in twenty twenty four. I'm just about done talking about what happened tonight in San Antonio. I'm at a Maslin and you're listening to Clippers talk. You're only in five seventy Ela Sports.

again after tonight, because that's probably what's gonna happen. Still looking for postgame audio from coach lou We'll hear from Lot Murray, but first Mike in Los Angeles. Mike, what's up here on Clippers stock with that of Austin him Mike, Hey.

You know, nineteen and fourteen is you know great, you know, after thirty three games with no Kauai and you know all the other injuries we've had, and you know, hoping for good things in the new year and a happy new year to you.

give him up? Philly's not punting on the season. Why is Philly giving up big thirst Andre Drummond, who I think is a little bit overrated. I mean, i'd take him. He will be an upgrade. But again, I can never seem to find any realistic trades. When you guys want to do this stuff, or any details on what they should do that are at all based in reality. Like, I have fun with the trade talk too. I've been

talking about Colin Sexton. I think he is attainable. Oh and Dan West, our producer, said, you're right here, man, just grab the mic and jump in or just just just go over to it and be like, hey, Adam, I got something.

If you're saying, well, Clarkson could be cheaper than Sexton. Okay, but from a skill standpoint, calling sections better in every way. I don't know what people are talking about. Maybe because Jordan Clarkson typically has big games against the Clippers, so that skewed your perspective. Well, we have a moment. Let's pause ten seconds for station identification. Here on AM five to seventy LA Sports.

He doesn't give effort on that end, like anybody who thinks Clarkson is better than Sexton today, I your eyes and to get checked my man him Athy, you're better in this. Uh, let's see. We got some more phone calls coming up. Eight six six ninety eight seven two five seventy eight six six ninety seven two five seventy.

I want you to hear some audio. This was pregame with myself and law Murray of the Athletic because this ties into the conversation a little bit about another backup ball handler, and I think the question is in there so you guys will get the full context here. This was pre game with La Murray of the Athletic. Have you seen incremental progress with him so far this season? It feels like some of the same issues remain, which is not making always the smart bet basketball play out there.

Is he going to be the guy who's out of the rotation when Kawhi Leonart comes back.

a guy who can create for others. And if he believes that he can do that with a bench of say Chris Dunn, Terrence Man, the miror Coffee Nikovertoom and Obama, than okay, I'm not sure you're going to see that five man lineup out there. And you also have to consider guy like Kawhi whenever he gets back, is probably not playing every single game when he gets back, and you got to keep guys engaged somehow. So it's going

to be very tricky to see what happens. But just the center and on Kevin, there are things that he does well. You can always tell when he's out rhythm. He didn't play Friday night and it showed he had some misses around the rim to go with, you know, the difficult shot selection and shot making at times. And at the same time, he's going to help them because he's a body out there who they don't have to worry about. Defensively, he'll make some plays and he'll play hard,

and so it's good on a long process. I think it's a lot easier to say he'll be out the rotation when the team is fully healthy. But it's not just Kawhi the way you know, and it's Terrence Man as well. And we got to just see trust how much TVU trust someone like Chris Dunn, who Chris is dying a lot of all handling himself. And I think Chris, other than he had one bad pass that led to a trade Murphy three, I believe I was Chris's live

ball turnover. But I think Chris Dunn is the guy who needs to beat a backup point guard if they're gonna start Kawhi and they're gonna keep playing Terrence.

said offensively, he's not better offensively than Colin Sexton. Here is what Jordan Clarkson is doing this season, and look, could he help the Clippers. Maybe you'd have to surround with a bunch of defenders, like he is really bad on that end. Colin Sexton is just undersize but gives effort. Clarkson doesn't give great effort defensively. He's getting sixteen points per game while shooting forty one percent from the field

Clarkson and thirty four percent from three. Sexton is getting seventeen points per game while shooting forty eight percent from the field, seven percent better there and uh, forty two percent from three, like eight percent better from three. There is no argument that Jordan Clarkson is better on offense in twenty twenty four, soon to be twenty twenty five, and then Colin Sexton, and we already know he's worse defensively. So again it's a it's a bad argument. There a

guy Himothy. You want to die in that hill like Rock has with KPJ. Go for it, but it's nonsensical. It's completely nonsensical. Again, Calin Sexton is shooting seven percent better from the field and eight percent better from three and scoring an extra point per game. Here's all you need to know. Clarkson takes more shots and still scores less per game than Colin Sexton. Do you know why?

Because efficiency matters? And it turns out Callin Sexton is a career forty seven percent field goal shooter and thirty nine percent three point shooter. Jordan Clarkson is a career thirty four percent three point shooter and forty four percent from the floor for his career. The stats are lining up with where he is for his career, both for both these guys.

Like I, oh, now Himothy is moving the goalposts. Clarkson is more easier to get. It's like no, no, no, you said he's the better offensive player than Sexton, So now you want to move along and be like, well he's easier to get, Okay, Like we don't have to do this, we don't have to focus on this anymore. I'm open to realistic trades. I would love some here is not getting many.

the bench. That makes you a much better bench. And as I've been telling the chat people in here are like, well, you can't play all those guys. There's still not enough scores. Guys. They're going to have four players that they could stag or two width of the starting unit that all can score the basketball win whole. They will have James Harden, Norman Powell, Kawhi and Viata Zubas. If you play it right, you can have two of those guys on the floor

at all times. So I'm not that concerned. They're not gonna run these all bench lineups. So when you're like, well, where are the scorer is coming off the bench, that's not what they're going to do. We'll take a quick time out. We'll come back back to your phone calls. Still looking for post. Gave audio from coach lou Clippers lose badly in San Antonio, which is why we're talking about anything but that one twenty two to eighty six with the finals score. I'm out a mouslin and this

is Clippers dockey. Already have five seventy LA sports.

Kawhi Leonard back. Somebody asked the question, who's guarding Tray Young? Hopefully not Kawhi in his first game back. No, it'll be Dj Done. The reason you leave Derek Jones Junior in the starting lineup guys and bring Done off the benches because DJ can guard up more and he can still guard Ones and twos. He can guard Trey Young. It's not a problem. He's really good against smaller guys. Derek Jones Jr. Is the more versatile defender. Chris Dunn

might be more of the elite perimeter specialist. But with Chris Dunn, with Derek Jones Jr. Excuse me, you have more options of who to put him on, Unlike Chris Dunn. Not that he's terrible about guarding up, just Derek Jones Jr. Is better at it. He's taller, he's lank here, so Clippers lose by thirty six. But I'm not here for that, Harold and North Hollywood, Harold, you're on Clippers sat without Amazon.

playing with Nico. He's always about team first. And when we acquired him, like I said, he really changed our change, our team, changed our season and what we were looking to do. And so we had a chance to get him back this summer. Like that was that was the number one thing on our list to try to get Nico back, and I'm glad he was able to come back.

We couldn't get back in transition. And you know, we have to be better, you know, can't give into the fatigue of a back to back or whatever. Like mentally, we got to be tougher and we gotta be better than what we show tonight.

out there. They gave in to the fatigue. They gave in to the narrative that, Okay, we're on a back to back, we had a tough one last night, had to come back down fourteen, and now we're down fourteen in the first quarter to Wemby and the Spurs, and it's gonna be tough, and maybe it broke them a little bit. Maybe it broke their spirit a little bit.

I don't want to go that far and say it's definitive or conclusive or anything like that, but coach LUs saying you can't give into the fatigue, that was a meaningful quote to me. That's what you have to learn from a game like this. So maybe while you can burn the tape, there are still some principles and a philosophy you can follow. Coming out of this ball game where the Clippers lose by thirty six and San Antonio's to the Spurs, We'll take a time out, we'll come back,

we'll close things out here. In twenty twenty four, as the Clippers dropped to nineteen fourteen nineteen fourteen, though thirty three games in without Kawhi Leonard, are you kidding me. I said five hundred would be incredible. Just being at five hundred treading water without Kawhi would be a win. They're five games over five hundred. They got OKC OKC on Thursday, January second. More on that coming up right here on Clippers sow on a five to seventy LA Sports.

not so much about the individual games. It's just like, did you go was it a really tough six game road trip and you were able to go three and three or four and two? In this case, three game Roady. Can you go two and one and if you beat OKAC, the best team they'll face on the road trip, that's huge. I would say that's probably their best victory of the season if they win Thursday in Oka see right before

hopefully getting KWHI leonarn back. I mean, they just had their best victory in Memphis, but Okay see, they lost big there earlier in the season. It's not gonna be easy. They're the best team in the Western Conference. They have Hartenstein back, they still don't have Chet, but early in the season they lost. They've already played them twice. Excuse me, they lost the game I was thinking of in Oklahoma City.

You know, they gave up one hundred and thirty four points in that game, but they were in that game. They lost one thirty four to one twenty eight. They had chances. So they've lost them twice so far, once at the end to a Dome one five to ninety two, and then a week and a half later in Okay See one thirty four to one twenty eight. I remember that was a game where the Clippers were clicking offensively, they played really well, but Hartenstein still wasn't back yet.

Norm Palette Prey one in that one. Here's what was Derek Jones Junior had twenty huge game. Harden actually didn't play well. James only had seventeen on five to fifteen shooting. And that's partially because the low Dort effect and the guys that they can throw at you. Aaron Wiggins, I say it, Joe, Yeah, it's it's tough out there. Alex Crusoe is coming off the bench for them. Pan the Lakers fumble that one. Uh, the Clippers have to put

forth a much better showing. Like I always say, a win is not a win, a loss is not a loss. It matters how you play out there. I want to see them compete regardless of a winner or loss. I want to see them compete. Now, won't see it be a win, but I want to see them execute and not be so lasadaisical with some of these turn So somebody brought up in here that guy Spencer said, I hope we improve the IQ of passing regardless of who has the ball others have been talking about and that

guy Spencer said this too. How James Harden has had a turnover issue this season. And I talked about that with Law earlier I feel like there's been a little bit of an uptick since he's had all that time off. He's back to turn the ball over more frequently, just like he was early in the season, and then he started to settle down with it. But after he had those eight days off and missed that one game against Houston,

it's been worse since then. That guy Spencer says Harden is fine for two and a half quarters handling the ball, then he's exhausted. I get he wants to create, but he's got to give up the ball to the posts. There's a lot of times Zoo is open. I mean they have been doubling Zoo a lot more. Here's the thing with James Harden in fourth quarters. This is an alarming number. And I haven't wanted to talk about this. I wanted to see if the numbers would level out

the further we got into the season. But he's played thirty two games now and speaking of that number, thirty two so in the fourth quarter, Harden has thirty two assists this season to twenty eight turnovers. It's almost a one to one ratio in fourth quarters. Two to one isn't good enough for someone like him. Three to one would be what you want. It is almost one to one, thirty two assists to twenty eight turnovers in the fourth. And I don't think it's because, oh, he just is

being so careless out there. I think it a lot of it is fatigue. It's the usage rating. It's him having the same usage rating as guys that are doing what he did at twenty five. You know Sga, Luka Dancic. He's thirty five now and he's trying to do the same thing. It is a guy who's gassed at the end of games.

he'll be on the ball a lot more. It will help James Harden's legs immensely, I think in every way, not just the turnovers, shooting percentages, everything, even though he has been shooting it better, it's really just I think from he's missing still a lot at the rim. But it's a concern That's why I have been saying the priority to me is not a backup big. I'm not

saying they couldn't use a better one. I'm saying, in order of strongest need to weakest need, or biggest need two smaller needs, I'm saying it's a ball handler because KPJ is not cutting enough for me. He's too erratic. He reminds me of Russ at times, like he can't create for himself, or he can just lose the basketball out of bounce. We've seen that, like literally, like a guy just playing off of him and him going between the legs and just goes out of bounce. I want

someone more sure handed. But can you find that guy that can also be an efficient scorer and not be hunted defensively. That's that's the problem. You're asking to check all those boxes, which usually means you're gonna have to give up a lot to get that player. And I don't think they should be giving up a lot right now until they see how Kawhi Leonard looks, until they can see if he can stay healthy. I'm just not giving up any more future draft capital or young assets.

They've done that, and there is a toll to pay or a tax to pay on that. Sometimes literally with the CPA, you go over the first and second apron. They're under the first apron, which is good. They do have flexibility. But I just don't think until you see how Kawhi Leonard looks, you shouldn't make a big swing. Now, if you could get somebody, it doesn't cost you much by all means, if you can pull off an Urn Norman Pale type of trade when they got him, the

swindling of the Portland trail Blazers. Oh, I'm good with that. I'm fine with that, all right. Before we get out of here, I'm fine with this man. Daniel West, our producer here, how the West was won. We're getting the Western Conference standing's update, as we always do on Clippers Talk. To end the show from producer Dan West.

the callers, the listeners, the chatters in here. Love y'all. Happy New Year, Be safe out there.