Lawrence Murray Joins The Heat Check!

All right.

Moving on, speaking of the Clippers, we got a special guest, law Murray from The Athletic joined my other show bet MGM The Night to talk all things Clippers. I was joined by my co host Ryan Horbaugh and Nick Ashu. So let's jump right into it, all right.

Lawrence Murray covers the Clippers in the NBA for The Athletic. He jumps on with us, Now, what you were supposed to see Draymond Green in the Warriors tomorrow night against the Clippers, and now we're not gonna see that for who knows how long? Your thoughts on the suspension and where we are now, Yeah.

I knew that wasn't happening. At halftime, my guy shows me his phone.

It's like, Draymond ain't gonna be here Thursday night.

I'm like, I didn't see it, Like I knew that it was some people were talking about, but I hadn't seen the clip.

And then I seen the clip and I'm like, my guys got more finishing moves and you'll see in a royal rumble these days, man like he's.

Got the closed line, you got the herd stop in the playoffs. What's the bonus they show Cole haul it off and punch you pull. That was not you know, not even what fourteen months ago, and it's it's a you know, it's not good that that's what we're talking about with Draymond, Like he's he's a he's a future Hall of Famer. But now you know, in twenty twenty three, going into possibly twenty twenty four, we're going to be

Yeah, that Ja Morant. It feels like the first suspension for Ja Morant where they wanted to get it sorted out when he ended up going to his own counseling sessions. Never mind the fact that we've been I don't know since June since he stomped on Sabonus's chest and then like less than a month since he's choked out Rudy Gobert. So the Draymond incidents have piled up more than just

Well, you know, my reporting was different from everybody else's.

So my line was not that this was Russ's decision. I termed it as a team decision, one that Russ had to go with because what leverage did anyone have in a situation where they were losing? You know, they had a six game losing streak. They were three and seven alone in twelfth place in the Western Conference. But Russell has played his role, which is as this team second point guard, and the key is having James Harden as the main point guard.

It has allowed for.

Everybody, especially James, to understand what their roles are, to understand what they have to do in certain lineups. And the Clippers aren't really throwing out a whole lot of crazy lineups, like they're actually a pretty streamlined team right now in terms of what everyone is being asked to do, and everyone's had a moment like James that first win to start this stretch of ten wins at their last thirteen was a four point play.

Against a team that we thought he was going to.

Sign with in the Houston Rockets, And you saw Paul George play some of like he's. I feel like Paul's always gotten off to great starts over these last few seasons.

It's just a matter of his body holding up.

And ironically, his body is going through some things right now. He may or may not play tomorrow against the Words. However, Paul's lably been the best player over the course of this entire season, even when they were losing six in a row, Like Paul was suggressively good on both ends of the floor, but especially offensively. But now what you're seeing this month of December is Kawhi Leonards turning up. Kawhi is not only playing in all of these games,

But now that you're playing with.

James so much, you are allowing those guys to get catches in spots where they can be efficient with their offense.

And you're seeing all of that come to the right now.

And Lawrence, for the third consecutive season, I did buy into the Clippers.

I'm a believer, and they made it.

A whole twenty two games this season without an injury to Kawi or Paul George, like you said, he missed the second half. He's got some groin soreness they're calling it. And I just look at this week, this stretch, they got four games I believe in six nights, Blazers, Kings, Warriors, Knicks, and then after that like Pacers, MAVs, Thunder and like you said, they're figuring some things out right now with Kawhi, you know, with Russ coming off the bench and with

I hope he honestly, I hope that the Clippers are smart and does not have him play through soft tissue stuff like something that might cost you a game or two. You don't want it to wind up costing a week or two because you're trying to prove something. I saw that last season. That's the thing that trip me up. I'm with this team all the damn time, and guys are talking about how dudes is just sitting out because they want to know. I saw dudes play when they

They go there, it's today. I always remember because.

It was my birthday and it stopped being my birthdays soon as that game started. Paul had a bad hamstring and decided and the team let him play like he was allowed to play it, I knew he wasn't right immediately, like a guy who is pretty good in the paint.

Everything was outside of the paint, jump shots, short, not.

Getting, not playing the type of game that you would play if he was healthy, And they were down thirty five at halftime, and of course we didn't see Paul again for two weeks, and he didn't play the second night of it back again until after the all start break. That's the kind of thing where it's like, Okay, you gotta be smart, But then we're seeing a team that is pushing each other, pushing themselves to play all these

It could be normal. They could be someone like a mere Coffee who.

Right now out of the playing rotation, but someone who, if you look back at previous seasons, has been able to start and fill in, especially for Paul George. So I feel like because everyone else is playing so well, and these guys are talented players. These guys are guys who've been practicing and been on this team for years. It's not going to be that big of an adjustment. Obviously,

I wanted to follow up on that point about guys playing through or deciding they wanted to push do tweaks and being banged up, Like, who's responsible for that change happening this season.

I'm not going to put it on the NBA's player participace policy, that's for sure. I think that guys were I think last year was a year he probably could have taken for granted. I think when the season began last year, it was like, oh, Kawhi Leonards back from an ACL and Paul you know, after missing three months with and torn linkman and his elbow. You were thinking add that to a team that finished with a winning record and you could see how everyone thought they'd be

But the other thing.

Is, look at the contracts. Contracts speak for themselves. No one's guaranteed to be on this team again next year.

You don't want to lead this season.

Would regrets the whole Service had a great line in one of those songs. You know, I'd rather regret something that didn't regret something that didn't do. And what this team is doing is saying, you know what, we need to take the regular season seriously. But it's not a matter of, you know, guys having an attitude going into games that they weren't trying hard. It's a matter of you have a medical stat that's trying to protect injury

Talking to Lawrence mury Bet MGM tonight, I'm looking at the Western Conference standings now, and I know, like it's a long season. We're twenty two to twenty three games in for most of these teams. We got the Timberwolves at seventeen and five, the th Under at fifteen and seven, and then the MAVs at fifteen and eight. With the Denver Nuggets sitting there in the four spot, I know,

Not really, Wow, that's that's that's no disrespect to these teams. Look, man, at this time last year, December of twenty twenty two, we were looking at teams like Phoenix and the New Orleans Pelicans at the.

Top of the West.

Okay, tim, what happened to Phoenix? Yeah, like Utah had Mike Conley. You know who has Mike Conley now? The number one team in the conference, Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that I would not consider to be a young, up and coming team.

Them dudes is pretty damn old.

Not old as in you know Clippers old, but like those guys are established NBA players and talents outside of maybe Anthony Edwards, Like Anthony is the base of that team now, but Carl Anthony Towns is the guy who he's been around long enough to be the face and to kind of pass that along the end. Rudy Gobert is a guy who he's on the other side of thirty now. Mike Conley is in the twilight of his career, but he's still playing at a high level and has a lot to do with why.

That team is so organized, like you saw it with the Utah.

Jaz when they stopped being competitive once they made that trade with Minnesota. This is the Minnesota team that could have been. We could have seen this team last year, except Rudy didn't have his stuff together in his first year there. It took mid season to get the right point guard to be there in Mike Conley. He's a much better fit for those guys than d Low and was great, but Carl Anthony Towns.

Was hurt pretty much the whole year.

You're seeing a team that went through a lot of struggles and now they're coming together. I love what they're doing, but it's also like you take one or two of those guys out and you know they have some their ability issues. They're not deep at all, and that's the result of the Rudy gobertrade. We saw that last year. Hopefully that we don't have to see that this year. But that's what you have to guard for you O KC.

Thunder.

They're just young and they're doing great, but we got to see it over the course of a full season. So we'll give them credit for what they're doing now, and we know it's a long season.

It's hard, So shout out to the Shout out to those dudes. And for Dallas, it's the same thing.

Luca was playing great this time last year. He was coming up with fifty point games, sixty point games, and then in celebrations after some of the stuff that he was doing, like when he beat the Knicks off of that free throw, misterthrow, they go as far as Luca goes and relying on Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie's already hurt, so we got to see it.

Lauren's about thirty seconds. How sustainable is this performance that we're seeing lately from Harden.

I think there's pretty damn sustainable. He's not doing anything too complicated. He's just kind of playing basketball. Set the screen, We're gonna make some decisions.

That's it.

You know what if they got if they can keep this going, Star, I will listen. I want to see the Clippers make a run again. They made the Western Conference finals and they actually kept that roster healthy a couple of years ago. I mean, it would be it would be fun to watch them over the Lakers for a change. Lawrence Murray the athletic, great talking you man, Thanks for coming on again.

Appreciate y'all.

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