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At follow Adam a adam Ousley. Clippers win Game one of this season's edition in the Battle of Los Angeles here and into it Dome for the first time, they beat the Lakers one sixteen to one two in their new setting, in their new home and really their first home. I'm Oudam Oslin. Welcome into a special edition of Clippers Talk,
taking you up until the bottom of next hour. Coming up, we'll get to your phone calls eight sixty six nine eight seven two, five seventy And if you're watching on the YouTube side at Clippers Talk, we got you in the chat. And if you're watching, well, spoiler alert was already made because Carlo As is with us for the next forty five minutes. Here, your radio voice of the Clippers. We didn't get you enough tonight. I needed more.
I know. I'm sorry.
Give me some more.
This is my makeup.
Oh, I'm not here to talk about that. Who was your player to watch? By the way, I had to Beata Zubash You did. Big Bro knows it too. He's bad. Big Bro wanted Big Zoo. But I did I not call him out first? I did?
Man?
Boy? Was he? That?
Are we still going back and forth after the last game too? Between Norman Terrence man Beazzazoobas is one of the main storylines coming out of this ball game with how effective he was against Anthony Davis. You you've watched the show. You know what people say. Sometimes people come in here. There's this guy named Quintin. I think he said, Viza Zubas just dumps the basketball. That's all he can do. When he's one of the more skilled players big men in the modern.
NBA, the guy who leads the NBA and made hook shots. Just junks the basketball. That's what and told me Quinton, he's a watching more basketball.
Man.
Feel like you just called him a casual.
I mean, I mean, look at this, that's my guy.
Look at this. Well, he's also said he doesn't show up against elite defenders, against other good bigs. I feel like Anthony Davis qualifies.
Oh no, Adam, you're right, because there's no other good bigs in the NBA. That's the only way that statement makes sense. Yeah, no, I mean Anthony Davis qualifies. Let's think about this everyone and eats the zoo. Butts has two twenty point nineteen rebound games against Jaron Jackson Junior and Anthony Davis. Okay, those are top five NBA bigs.
Thank you.
He rests his case. Carlo's on the case, and now he arrests it. Clippers win tonight big over the Lakers.
You know, in that second half, things did get a little bit dicey for a second, just because the circumstances when the other team knows Kawhi Leonard's not coming back into this ball game and we have a chance to make en roads before the third quarter is over, where the Clippers led by many as twenty six, but that thirteen to two run by the Lakers and the confidence they could probably draw from after the game last season when they came back down twenty one to the fourth quarter,
it felt like it wasn't over till it was over. And maybe that right wing three from James Harden finally in the fourth quarter edit things.
Yeah, this Clipper team, I mean they allowed it to get a little close down the stretch. But what's impressive is, Adam, they never broke in this game. They were they bent, they bent. It was eleven points multiple times in the fourth quarter. Clippers never allowed it to get any closer, and they played their brand of basketball. I think the most impressive part about this, Adam, is the Clippers just enforced their will. I mean every single aspect of the game.
They dominated the rebounding board, they dominated the termover battle. They were able to not allow the Lakers to have this drastic difference at the free throw line. You talked about it on your preview, but the Clippers. The Lakers average about plus five from the free throw line every night. I mean only plus five tonight. You'll take that if you're this Clipper team. They checked every box in this game. Now, Tomorrow night against Chicago, when James Harden plays forty, nor
one plays thirty sevens who plays thirty five? Is that gonna be a tough game, especially when you have the Celtics and the Wizards one day after that. After TYLERU Tyler, there's been conversation around this lock about this coaching staff at him, and we might have to do some digging. I thought, and half this coaching staff believes they banned four games and five nights. I thought that wasn't a thing anymore.
I mean I tried to ban it. I didn't know they were trying to as well. I tried to ban five and sevens too. But that's happening now.
Also, there's a heated debate in the coach among the coaching staff about the ability to play five five.
Wow, well this is intel. This is a scoop from Carlo Jimenez.
I guess so.
I mean, I'm just trying to figure out too, to be honest with you, I'm just trying. I did not know you could play. I knew you could play five and seven, right, because you play two games day off, game day off, two games.
That makes sense four and five though.
And we have had situations once this season, once last season where the Clippers had played two games and started the second one less than twenty four hours after the first one. We thought that was illegal.
Yeah, it turns out twenty two hours is the minimum amount of time in between games. Yeah, so if they played that game at twelve forty five.
He couldn't do it.
I felt like Brian Seman gave us the misinformation there, though I'm not trying to hate. Oh is Brian still here? Oh no, he's not.
He's not shoot.
All right. Clippers win over the Lakers, big. Hear it into a dome one sixteen to one oh two. You talk about Kawhi Leonard being out of that game down the stretch. We knew it coming into the ballgame. He'd be at about twenty four minutes and the Clippers having to make big shots late in the ball game some of them, and a lot of them did come with the Beatza Zubats back out there on the floor. But that little hook shot that he got over Jackson Hayes when the double came late on the left block out
of the time out, that was a big moment. And then he had the big defense on Anthony Davis on that fallaway guess the rebound. I mean he was doing it all. He wasn't just getting the stop. Then he's closing out the possession, gaining the board.
The comfortability that he shows when he has it in the block. You mentioned that in one he was patient. He knew the double team was coming. He was able to use that double team to create contact and finish. But at the same time, Adam the ball and we've talked about this. Three assists to night for Big Zoo Clippers are eleven and one this season when he is four or more. I mean, he's also moving the basketball
for this team. It was a very impressive showing from a Vita Zoo bots and his ability to be able to take over a game in which you didn't realize he was taken over until he looked at the box score, right.
I mean, if you.
Watch this game, you're thinking, wow, Zu's having a good game, but nobody it's like any twenty one to nineteen.
You know, he just dominated.
I felt like a lot of those rebounds too late in the game offensive rebounds the Clippers do have. And Mobamba was reading Twitter bit Mobamba when Zoo is getting every by. Lauren Rosen postgame said, top five center, top five center. I think that's a real conversation. This is somebody who's six in the league and field goal percentage, He's top five in offensive and defensive rebounding. He's averaging
fifteen points and twelve rebounds. This is a player who checks every box when you think about his ability to be a top five player. He's top five in the in the categories that would make you a great center at him, and there needs to be real I know we're pushing Norman bal for All Star and it's a lot tougher at a big man spot to be an All Star because the league is so guard heavy and guards often put up these ridiculous numbers. But it beats
the zoo bots. If he's not on an All NBA team, I think there's there's a real conversation if he continues to play like this. There needs to be a real conversation because this is a guy top five in every major category.
He needs to be top five.
I mean, his defense has been criminally underrated for years. All you have to do is look at rim protection or defense within six feet of the what guys shoot there. He's top five every season and I believe last year did he end up number one in a rim protection.
On guys who guarded over two hundred shots. There was no better protector from the rim to five feet than it eats a Zubos.
And it's something where that's what today's that's how you can have a good defense. In today's NBA, you have to have that anchor. You have to have that guy who's good to being the backbone goo to being the rim protector and protecting the mode, as we often say. And the Clippers have an elite one. So he's already been great in this area. He has been an established
elite rint protector going back five plus years. Now with this Clippers team, you can check the data on that and you can check just how important it is to have one of those guys. But now he's being featured more. Yeah, he's a bigger part of the offense. People are starting to see the skill set, the well rounded game he has in the offensive end. It is far from just
dunks out there of eats the zoobots. Maybe tonight in a game against Anthony Davis where he apps aslutely crushed his competition at that position, maybe this will give him a little bit more recognition.
Can you imagine?
Can you believe, Adam that when they signed Zoo to that three year, fifty six million dollars deal, some people said it was an overpay.
You can that even I mean, I mean, I can't even.
Comprehend with the way he's playing that that could be a legitimate thing.
People could say.
He's already outperforming the extension that hasn't kicked in.
The guy's unbelievable. He's unbelievable.
And I think you brought up a great point talking about having that back line of defense, because how many times, I mean, even when I was researching the Lakers, something Dorian Phinty Smith said about getting excited to join the Lakers is you have a guy like Anthony Davis where you can gamble more on the outside. We've we've heard that from from people who play with Wemby and San Antonio that I could I could reach, I could.
Play up all the time.
And it allows guys like Derek Jones Junior, and Chris Dunn and Kawhi Leonard to excel at such an elite level on the defensive end because they know we have help. And if you want to just think about, well, what does it look like when you don't have help. Norman Pale got three lamps when Jackson Hayes was in the game, I mean, he got to the rim with no resistance. When you do not have that rim protector out there, it completely changes.
The way you have to play defense.
And the Clippers have that room protector in a Viatz zubots four blocks today for the big man.
It's one of the reasons the Lakers struggles so much on that end. Now you can say, well, Anthony Davis is their rim protector, and he can be at times, but teams try to pull him away from the basket because he's so athletic and has that switchability. Sometimes he's on guards. He's pulled out to the perimeter multiple times in this game. Basically anytime they weren't doubling Kawhi Leonard the Lakers, that meant Anthony Davis was on him instead. So Kawhi is pulling him out to the mid range,
pulling him out to the perimeter. He can't protect the rim when he's out there. That is the strategy teams have been using against the Lakers since they lost to Veil McGee, since they lost Dwhite Howard, since they lost Marcassohl. They haven't been able to replace those guys. And you see the value in somebody like that. With the Vitza zoobots out there today for the Clippers and Jackson Hayes just not being that guy that's not one of his
strengths protecting the rim. You mentioned it Norm Pale going right at him, but somebody else said in here, god, if Zoo could just shoot well. First of all, we don't know he can't. We know this though. Last season from five to nine feet out he led the league in field goal percentage. He was better there than Nikola Jokic. So the float game, the push shot game, the little runners from a vitza zubots, I mean, those are very skilled shots where you have to have touch.
It is I mean his ability at him. We interviewed him in Charlotte. I never forget ask him about So you get to that right hand and he cut me off and he goes, yeah, that's money he got me.
They're not going to me right hand hook shot. That's the first shot he learned.
And he has been absolutely effective and automatic for this Clipper team when he gets to the right hand hook shot. His ability to be a threat in the entire paint, I think is where you see that be effective. I mean he's shooting right handed float from the dotted hash and that is money every single time he gets to that area. You talked about him being a great defender, but I also want to bring up how it's kind
of a symbiotic relationship because the Clippers. You mentioned how eight is always switching on to the double team, and the Clippers don't really have to double with Zoo because they have such good on ball defenders, right, Chris Dunn and Derek Jones Junior fight over screens, So you don't see Zubots in that same precarious situation where he's out on the guard. I mean, how often have we seen that this season? Not much, if at all, have we seen of Eats Zubots isolated on a guard. And when
we have, we saw it today. I thought he's done. He's done a pretty good job one on one on the outside. For this Clipper team, it just continues to shine. You have to give all the credit in the world to one Lawrence Frank for find saying, hey, that other team in LA has a big man.
They're just gonna give to us. Yeah, we'll take them.
We'll think so how much credits and magic?
Well, give a little credit to magic thinking magic. And then also the Clippers staff are just developing of Eats Zoubots into the absolute monster that he is right now for the Clippers.
Just so so so good.
You get twenty one to nineteen from your big man, I adam it. It makes you think, like when you compare I know DeAndre Jordan had this long, illustrious career, but when you compare those guys, two amazing bigs for the Clippers in the last twenty years to center their defense, and it eats to Zubots is slowly inching towards the level of legendary status that DeAndre had with the Clippers.
Oh wait a moment, let's pause ten seconds for station identification. Here on AM five seventy l A Sports, this.
Is LA Clippers Basketball. AM five to seventy KLAC Los Angeles, ninety eight seven KYSR HD two Los Angeles and iHeartRadio station.
Clippers take down the Lakers and their first matchup add into it one sixteen to one OHO two. Patch yourself on the back, Clipper Nation, You showed up. You were loud tonight. We all felt like it was seventy thirty Clippers fans to Lakers fans in a Lakers city with their history. That was impressive. The movement is working. The Into It Dome is working. Yeah, everything that Steve Balmer
has had the vision for is happening right now. I was a little bit shocked that there weren't more Lakers fans in the building tonight, but I was pleasantly surprised as well.
I mean, shout out the Clippers for building a twenty six point lead. You really never heard them if they weren't the building till late in that came. It was fun at them, It was really really fun. Adam, I do have to leave you for ten minutes, but I will be back before the end.
Of the show.
Okay, there's the tease.
I promise I will be back.
We'll take a quick time out. We'll get to your phone calls eight sixty six ninety eight seven two five seventy eight six six ninety seven two five seventy with you till the bottom of the hour. As the Clippers win one's sixteen one o two over the Lakers. Hey, does anybody have what the biggest point disparity? What the biggest point differential is over three games?
Now?
Because the Clippers just went plus one oh two over their last three ball games, what's the record for that. I'm out of Boslin and you're listening to AF five seventy LA Sports.
The l Lague Clippers. You're listening to LA Clippers Basketball. Take us with you wherever you are on the iHeartRadio app.
Clippers win Round one against the Lakers. In the twenty twenty four twenty twenty five season, they reached the midway point in style. They're seven games above five hundred after they take down the Lake Show one sixteen to one oh two. Here it into a dome in their first game ever played here in the Clippers new arena, and really their first. Clippers are twenty four and seventeen. Lakers dropped to twenty two and eighteen. We'll update you on
the standings coming up here. But I know Clipper Nation is excited after this one, and there's excitement growing because of how good Kawhi Leonard has looked so far, and he has. I didn't expect him to look this good this quickly. I did preface his return coming back from this injury versus the acl in telling everyone it's just swelling, there's no structural damage. So they get the swelling down. He should be able to move the same way he did last season. So Kawhi starts off the game on Lebron,
who he guarded multiple possessions. I don't know what the matchup data said, but he was isoled on Lebron good six, seven, eight times, and he created a steal right away as the Lakers are going for a pocket pass, but he missed the three on the right wing. Then Kawhi did lose Lebron at the six to forty mark, who hit a three pointer. He hit some tough ones too. The Lakers started off fast from three. I want to say they were four to eight. Then Kawhi is a fade
away over a d at the five minute mark. At the first second quarter, Kawhi drops Austin Reeves and hit a fade away on the far side. Then at the four to thirty mark, had a one handed scoop layup with the right hand off an inbounds pass from James Harden and then a spinning layup that was tough on the left block, went around his defender. I think it was Gabe Benson on him too small, and Kawhi definitely
made him look small on that play. So those were his eleven points in the first half, but he has eight more than the third and they really used up all the Kawhi powers in the minutes that he was given tonight. Before he was leaving the game, you knew who was gonna be out around twenty four minutes. Coach Lou told his pregame that his minutes haven't been extended yet.
But the layup he caught between the pass he caught from James Harden for the layup between multiple defenders right underneath the basket, and that pass caught the Lakers by surprise that James Harden was able to make that. But that was a really beautiful exchange between Uno Doves and James Harden. Of course he can do that all day.
Then Kawhi hit a mid range over Reeves, then a floater over a double team to put him up eighty one to sixty two, and then a fade away his final bucket over Dorian Finney Smith, who, if you remember, was with the Dallas Mavericks in that first round series against the Clippers back in twenty twenty one, and Kawhi
torched him in the game. He had forty five in the must win situation in Dallas in Game six, So Kawhi hits that fade away over DFS, it's eighty three to sixty two by the time he goes out of the ballgame and hits his minute limit. It's eighty eight to sixty four. The Clippers are up by twenty four. Kawhi's out of the ballgame. I took a deep breath, but I also said to myself, I've seen this Lakers team come back down twenty one against the Clippers. Just
last season. That happened, and it was nasty, and it was the worst loss to me of the two to one three era in the regular season, because a twenty one point turnaround in a fourth quarter is an old timer. And I knew they'd have some confidence still, the Lakers in this game that they could come back because it's known to both teams Kawhi's out for the rest of the game. We got the memo too. The Clippers were transparent about this. They weren't gonna try to fool anybody.
They said pregame, he's at the same minutes restriction, which against Brooklyn it was twenty four. We expected twenty four. And the Lakers started to make a run near the end of that third quarter after the Clippers got up by as many as twenty six. After in a mere coffee jumper that was at the three forty mark. It was ninety to sixty four Clippers. They go on a
thirteen to two run on them. Lebron floater got to twenty Dalton to Hayes for a dunk Dalton three pointer, and it's ninety two to seventy seven heading into the fourth quarter, and I really felt like this was too close for comfort, especially as the Lakers kept coming. They got it down to eleven multiple times in the fourth, but the Clippers were resilient and poised because some of the big shots they were able to hit, and a lot of that was with the Visa Zubats back in.
As soon as he re entered the game. I think it was a thirteen point Clippers lead. At ninety six to eighty three, Norm missed a three porter that was a little bit forced off a pass from KPJ. Lebron misses a layup and put back, and a Visa Zubats comes in and Lebron misses a fade away and Zu gets the rebound. Zubots immediately made an impact when he came back in. Now ninety six to eighty five, eleven
point lead. Multiple times had happened. There's a time out called, and this is one of the biggest plays of the game and was telling to me in a big picture sense of how the Clippers feel about Avista Zubas because you know me, I get frustrated nowadays. Everybody want to talk about they got something to say, but it comes out when they move the lips, just a bunch of gibberish and they forget about Zoo. I can't take it.
And in a game like this where Kawhi is off the floor and it beats Zubos is playing that, well, you have to get him the basketball. And out of that time out, Big Zoo got nan one on Jackson Hayes who could not handle him, so that eleven point lead goes back up to fourteen. At ninety nine to eighty five, huge play for the Clippers. Then Zoo gets the stop and the board on Anthony Davis, who couldn't hit the tough fallaway over him. Zu gets a jump ball with dfs that he lost somehow, but Davis misses
another fall away over it beats a Zoobots. Then Zoo gets no respect from the officials when he got hit in the head underneath, and I thought this was going to be troublesome for the Clippers. He can't get the foul call, but the Lakers are coming the other way with numbers, and Norman Powell gets the steal and finds James Harden for a right wing three to put him up one, two to eighty five. They're up seventeen, and
I I think that was the eventual kill shot. When you look back at this game, that was at the six ' ten mark, still six minutes left, but you're up seventeen. That should give you enough room for error, enough cushion out there. I think it did. But if eats the Zubas tonight, one of the stories and for all the people that have been telling me for years and beats the Zubas, isn't that good? Some of you all said Kay Jones was gonna start over him this season.
He just dominated Anthony Davis, he dominated Triple J and Zach Edy recently. I don't know what more you need to see to know that I eats a Zubas. Yes is in the discussion top five center Mobamba was cheerleading form in the locker room afterwards. I mean, I've been telling you how important A eatsa Zubas was. No, I never said he is as important as Kawhi but his defense. They aren't nearly this good a top two defense in
the league without him. And I've known that he's been this good on the offensive end and just hasn't gotten the opportunity. I told you back in twenty twenty one. He's a long lost Causall brother. He is skilled on offense. He can do a lot of that Marcus al stuff. He can finish with both hands. I'm proud of Big Zoo tonight. I'm proud of this Clippers team, not just holding on but running through and finishing through the tape. Late. Yes, Carl Tart did get na beatsu zubash Jersey. To my knowledge,
that's how good Big Zoo has been this season. Clippers win one sixteen to one oh two over the Lakers. Quick time out will come back. I'm looking for postgame quotes from coach Lou and the players after the Clippers improved his seven games above five hundred. Get a win against a team in the Western Conference, get a win against a t team right behind them, and oh yeah, that team happened to be the Los Angeles Lakers. Cherry on top, and oh yeah, it was the first Battle
of Los Angeles. Here it into a dome. You knew what would have happened if the Lakers one tonight in the first game, here it into a dome between these two teams. Lakers fans Tyler would have called in, we owed you at into a dome. We own the dome, That's what they would have said. Clippers weren't having it. I'm out a Mosland and you're listening to a five seven E LA Sports the.
Clippers. You're listening to LA Clippers Basketball. Take us with you wherever you are on the iHeartRadio app.
Clippers beat the Lakers. Hear it into a dome. I was about to say, they beat the Lakers again, but different setting, different venue, a much more beautiful atmosphere for a win over the Lakers. I would say, here at into it home final score one sixteen to one two. They have won thirty eight of the last forty eight games against the Los Angeles Lakers, going back to the twenty twelve twenty thirteen season. No, I didn't make that up. Check it for yourself. That's real. So's this post game.
As Carlo Amenez rejoins the show, Anthony Davis had this to say about of East Zoobots quote, He's worked on his post game, that jump hook. He's always been a good screener, good roller, lob thread, offensive rebounder, good rim protector. He's developed his post game where they're throwing it to him and he's finishing with his right hook. He's added that to his arsenal game. Recognize his game here, Carlo yep, come on now, Lebron James showing James Harden some love
postgame quote. Simply just a great player who loves to play the game, plays at his own pace, has won every stop that he's been at. Okay, see, I played against him and he was super young. Went off to Houston. We know what he did there, went to Philly and played some great ball, and here playing great ball. He's just a guy who's a selfless guy. Go out there and just plays the game. He's been able to reinvent himself. At what point he was giving guys fifty point triple doubles,
sixty point triple doubles. He just plays the game the right way. Lebron James post game there talking about James Harden. Really cool to see. My only concern. Oh and I
talked about this yesterday with Joban. A loss like this for the Lakers to their crosstown rival could create a little bit more sense of urgency in the Lakers organization to go out and make a move now, because they realize they just don't stack up, not just against the Clippers, but they're not an elite team in the Western Conference. They know kawhai'son a man restriction. They know this Clippers team has only had him for five games so far, and they're still ahead of them in the state. They're
just a cut above where the Lakers are at. I expect them to make a move sometime in the next couple of weeks.
I don't think I'd be surprised. We know the Lakers organization at him. If there's anybody that's active around the trade deadline, it's always them. I'm really interested in those Daniel Gafford sweech stakes if those rumors are true that Dallas is shopping Gafford.
For a wing defender.
Definitely see somebody like Finny Smith maybe getting offered up. But the backup big spot, and we've talked about this a thousand times, is probably one of the most coveted positions in the NBA. There are not a lot of teams who have two good big men. Would not be surprised if we see the Lakers make a run at Gafford.
Yeah, I would hope Mark Cuban would not make a trade like that with the Los Angeles. Lakers could say their history, but they give it the right player. Kawhi Leonard post game on reaching fourteen thousand points in his career, one of the more interesting careers. Fifty years from now, people are gonna look back and be like, it's are to assess just where he stacks up in NBA history because of the injuries derailing so many great moments and
season four seasons for Kawhi. But I always say, I don't know if there's ten players better in NBA history that I take over him in a seven game series when the stakes are at their highest than Kawhi.
Yeah there are.
I don't think Adam more than two other players who've won finals MVP with two different teams. Do you want to talk about? And one of them we just watched, So you want to talk about somebody who is just at another level? And I think what I hope people remember and I hope we get to see this season is playoff Kawhi, Because there are levels to Kawhi Leonard and when he made that run in Toronto, I mean his backpack was so big, putting that team on his back late it was impressive.
Like climate everst I mean.
Seriously, the way he carried them down the stretch, it felt like and it feels like when he gets that mid range, Kawhi Leverard, similar to Thanos, is just inevitable.
I mean, he's happening and you're gonna watch it happen, and that's it.
So I hope and I keep my fingers crossed and I say my prayers and I light my candles that we see Kawhi Leonard in a one more playoff run this season with the Clippers and an opportunity to really show and remind the world. Similar to after that twenty nineteen finals where people were saying, is he the best player in the NBA? I mean that was the conversation that he can still be.
At that level.
Kawhi Leonard had this to say postgame on reaching fourteen thousand points in his career, quote, I'm not looking at that as a milestone. I'm more of a team guy and get the win, be the last team standing. But thank God for being able to get that opportunity. Most people don't. I take every opportunity and blessing and don't take it for granted. Pretty cool comment there from Kawhi. This is somebody that's been through so much. Here he is on how he feels. Quote, I'm happy with the progress.
I'm coming out the games feeling great. Still got work to do, and we're gonna keep taking each step.
How when you think about the Clippers right now, I mean, how much of it is a luxury atom that we can There's just no need to rush this like at all. They're winning games with playing twenty four minutes to night right, I mean, we're not looking I think if maybe things go the other way tonight. You're wondering, man, maybe if you structure Kawhi's minutes a little different, they come out with the win.
But they've won four in a row. They're four and one of the games he's played. There's just no reason.
I think it's just such an added luxury for this team that you know, when they're going back and the medical staff is talking about it, no one on the coaching side is saying, look, we need this guy back now, because they're winning games now and I think having those two things in tandem really creates a scenario where Kawhi Leonard, as he's talked about, is on his own timeline when it's coming to this, and the Clippers have done a
fantastic job. Credit for prioritizing his minutes, for burning timeouts when it's time to pull him out of the game. I mean, they have made this such a Kawhi centered experience. And they're winning games, which I mean those two things. One player's playing preseason minutes, the other guys are playing minutes at.
The forty game mark, and they're winning games.
Yeah, it hasn't disrupted the flow what they've had going at all. He only adds to their strengths. He strength strengthens strengths and weaknesses. He's a very special and unique type of superstar. Quick time out. We'll come back, close things out with Carla Jimenez here and into a dome. After the Clippers take down the Lakers for the first time this season, for the first time in a game here add into a dome. There was a showdown in a battle for Los Angeles and your La Clippers win
by fourteen, led by as many as twenty six. You're listening to the Los Angeles Clippers Audio Network and AMBI seventy LA Sports. I love this team. I never miss a game.
You're listening to LA Clippers Basketball free ball, Yes, sir, right here on the LA Clippers Audio Network.
Clippers win. Ope, the Lakers won sixteen to one oh two. Hear at into a dome. Some will say best victory of the season considering the opponent. Kawhi Leonard in Game five goes for a season high of four assists but nineteen points and help the Clippers get up by twenty six.
And in the same way that the Clippers have this luxury right now of not trying to force things with Kawhi, you know, they can end up winning a ballgame where he doesn't play for what the last eighteen minutes against a team like the Los Angeles Lakers that they're still twenty two and eighteen, they are four games above five hundred. This is not some you know, twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen Lakers team when they were winning twenty five games per season.
This is a team that at times has looked like one of the better teams in the West, and the Clippers dismantled them playing a Clippers brand of basketball.
The Clippers just their ability to play to their strengths tonight to be able to make sure that they could dominate every single aspect of this game. And then also, Adam, just never give up the lead. I mean at all tonight. The Lakers led by two early in that first quarter on Lebron three. I believe they made it five to two, and that.
Was literally it.
I mean, the Clippers dominated today and it just shows that like this is a team, Adam, it does not need to score one hundred and twenty points to win. And I don't even know they are top six in the NBA when it comes to scoring one hundred points and their record. They are twenty two now and nine on the season, six in the NBA in winning percentage when they score one hundred and more.
I know I'm gonna say it. We might have to bring back Lawler's law. We might have to.
I mean some people in the chat have been asking for.
I mean, at this point, guys, if you're twenty three and nine and you score if it gets the first, I think we should bring it back. I think if you're the best even the NBA, when you score hundred points, think the Cavaliers will ever give that up.
But but I'm just saying homage to the great Ralph Lawler. Yes, Sir Lawler's Law still in effect here in twenty twenty five, of course. So the Clippers are at the midway point the season, Carlos, And if I had told you that even with an offensive rating of twenty second, they would be twenty four and seventeen, maybe your follow up question would be what are they on the defensive line? And their second only to the OKC thunder second in defense, and they've had Kawhi Leonard for five games.
I mean, Adam pulled the tape.
But I said on one of these preseason Clipper Talk episodes that I won in Hawaii, maybe I felt like the Clippers mimicked Minnesota the way they built this team. And when you think about the Tim Bowls last year, they were seventeenth offensively first, defensively Clippers second, I mean a little bit of a difference. But I look, Kawhi Leonard has not played yet, so we have not seen
this team at their complete powers. And I think, as we saw in that second and third quarter at him, when Kawhi Leonard's on the floor, the offense is humming because sometimes it's just Kawhi Leonard and that's enough. They don't need anybody else. So I think for this Clipper team, that offensive rating is going to hike. But back to their original question about them being twenty second offensively, there's a Clipper team that they would probably tell you, look,
our standards are a little higher than twenty second. But with the focus they have brought defensively throughout the season, I mean, is it is fun to watch this group because defense travels for them and their ability to just shut another team down. The old adage rings true defense wins championships. It does, it does in today's NBA, and the Clippers have a top five defense.
And when's the Battle of Los Angeles where the Clippers create a little bit more distance between them and the Lakers. They're now a game and a half up on them. Clippers still in the five spot, and they are a game and a half back of the Denver Nuggets who are in the four spot. But currently because of conference record, the Denver Nuggets will have the tiebreaker against the Clippers. They're sixteen and eleven against the West. The Clippers sixteen
and sixteen, but they've won four in a row. They have a real shot to be a top four seed at the midway point of the season, right there within striking distance. Well like if you had told me they'd be five with only five games from Kawhi Leonard, I would have said, get out of here. The Elaine vennice push.
What were you talking about? We're saying, well, six seed I think is a.
Reasonable I thought that was I thought that was like top end. Yeah, that's a goal for the best case scenario. They have a real possibility to four seed. They were real possibility and they could. I mean they were only adam the difference from this point last year's three games. They're twenty seven and fourteen at the midway point last year. Wow, it is And you think about those first four games they lost, yeared into it them all probably winnable contest now if Kawhi and it's a big if, but it
looks good right now. If Kawhi Leonard can be the Kawhi Leonard of last year for the sixty six games that he was Kawhi Leonard. No one wants to see this Clipper team in a first round series.
Quick absolutely, no one, quickly before we get out of here, Jose and Southgate. If he's still there, Jose, you know what to do. Let's choll Cliffers. Let's go Clippers. They win one sixteen to one oh two in their first ever matchup against the Lakers, hearing their new home ad into it before we get out of here. I do want to think here Los Angeles Clippers organization, Steve Balmer
for creating this atmosphere and this home court advantage. Of course, the great Ralph Lawler, Brian's Seamen, Noah Ego, Carlo Jimenez on the call, big brother Jake Warner, our head engineer here and into it dumb. We have our guy, Daniel West back in Burbank, our producer. Thanks to the chatters, Thanks to the listeners. Until tomorrow. Right back here at six point thirty with the pregame show Clippers singing on the Chicago Bulls. I'm out of Maas and we'll talk to you. Then.
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