Why The LA Clippers Have Been Disappointing To Start The Season

Why The LA Clippers Have Been Disappointing To Start The Season

On today’s show, going to be talking about what we learned about the Clippers in their backtoback. Going to be talking about it all on today’s 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 are 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 Darian Vizeri. Born and raised in LA. Been a Clipper fan for 21 years. Been covering the team on my own YouTube channel Dimeropper for six and four right here on the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell on YouTube to get us up to 8,000 subscribers before the end of the month of November, we’ll say. And of course, you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel, America’s number one sportsbook. Head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel. All right, Clipper Nation. We are seven games into the season and our record is three and four. We have already failed the goal that I set out for the team in these first 10 games to go at least seven and three. We had an easier start to the season than we’d expected. The schedule gods were pretty generous to us and we have failed. So, we’re going to be talking about if the team is in trouble, what we’ve noticed so far. Going to be looking at some team stats, where we are in certain categories around the league, talking about how this team looks age-wise, and then what we need to do to win this game in Phoenix on Thursday night. So, first off, I’m just going to make it very blatant. we’re in trouble. And it depends on what you think of this team’s what your expectations were for this team going into the season. If your goal is, let’s just get to the playoffs, top six seed, we’re not in trouble. It’s very early. It’s very early. We are definitely We still got 75 games left to play. So much of the season is ahead of us. It’s early. You saw last year we went on a late surge. The difference, however, was that we didn’t have Kawhi Leonard from day one. So that matters. But we when it comes to just being a top six seed and making the playoffs outright, we have plenty of time. When it comes to getting a top four seed, or better yet that that famous top three seed that you need to become a championship team, unless you’re the 95 Rocket or the 69 Celtics, we are in major trouble. Cuz in my opinion, every game of the NBA season matters. Some say we have too many games. Some say that the regular season’s meaningless. I’ve never subscribed to that notion if you want to be a title team. And there’s no secret that when the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets last year in a game seven and then the Nuggets proceeded to lose in a game seven to the Thunder, we figured, man, what if we had beaten Denver? How far would we have been from a title? What could we have done to OKC? Well, you know what? Let’s go out and improve on some of the things that we lacked. Let’s go get a power forward so that Aaron Gordon doesn’t abuse us. Let’s go get a backup center so that Zubots has protection. Let’s go get a backup point guard that’s reliable so that James Harden doesn’t have to do so much. And it looked like we checked off all of those boxes. But some of those boxes have not performed up to their expectations. And to be three and four through these first seven games, in my opinion, is a colossal disappointment. We should be five and two right now. I already penciled in the Warriors game and the Thunder game, if you go back and check those pods before the season, I penciled those two games in as losses. But the ones that I thought should have been automatic wins, the Utah game and the Miami game, those were the two disappointing losses of the season. we’ve taken care of business otherwise, but I think it was a huge red flag when we came out and started the season against Utah and laid an egg like that because if you’re not motivated to start a season and you don’t see a team with the worst odds in the Western Conference to win it as a golden opportunity to start your season in a winning fashion, then you are not locked in straight up. And we were not locked in in that first game. did not even look like we cared. And then the Miami game, it was kind of the same story where it it wasn’t like we didn’t care, but we turned the ball over way too much, especially in that third quarter. And we let one get away, losing to a Miami Heat team by one point without Tyler Herro. So, we got to take a little bit more pride in those home games. You know, we started out the season 3 and 0 at home, beating Phoenix, Portland, and New Orleans, and then we’ve lost these two games on a backto-back. So, what we’ve learned on this backtoback is that we are in trouble. We have some room to be nervous. Now, Kawi Leonard is out for the Suns game with a sprained ankle. So, it’s not load management. He missed two games in a row. Now, will he miss a third in a row? Can we afford to have Kawhi Leonard miss games the way that we’re playing basketball right now? That is very concerning. So, when it comes to being a top three seed, it’s not over with, obviously, but it’s not ideal these first seven games at all. And it could go from bad to worse if we lose tonight against the Suns. It really could. So, we’re in trouble right now, Clipper Nation. There’s no denying that. Is it the end of the world? Are we done? No. But in my opinion, if we don’t get a top three seed, you can kiss championship goodbye. I’ve been said though, and everybody wants to hate on me for it and call me a fake fan and why are you hosting this show and all that, even though a bunch of locked on hosts aren’t even a fan of their own team, I live and die with this team. That’s why I’m the way I am because I’ve had years and years of disappointment. So, some people, and I admire these people that always have that belief that we can do something. I always say that Clipper fans have a delusional sense of optimism. And I deep down like some people think the Clippers will never win a championship. I don’t subscribe to that notion at all. I just think that this era of Clipper basketball, we’re not winning a title. And if you want to listen to someone else, like there’s only How many Clipper podcasters are there even now? You’ve got Adam of course who’s you know our radio guy. Shout out to Adam. Um and then I mean we have the Clipcast guys, but they’re not as consistent as they used to be. We’ve got BJ who sometimes can be even more blunt than I can be. And you got a little bit of Money Mona in there that does stuff for the Sporting Tribune, but Money Mona is really realistic, too. Point being that there’s no guy you can go to that’s going to tell you that this team is a championship team. Adam obviously gives an optimistic side of things as well, but he’s also works for the team. So, you know, he’s not going to come out here and be as blunt as I am, and he’ll tell you that himself probably. But the reality is that the Clippers team I said is not going to win a championship because we’re too old. I’ll talk about that part of things in the next segment, but they’re not doing anything. Like I said, the way they can flip me around to have a little bit of belief is get that top three seed. The top three seed thing matters, especially for an older team. We’re not going to be able to win three, four series on the road and win a championship. It’s just not logical. So, I’m not a hater for saying that. Obviously, I love this team. But I’m also a guy that views basketball not just from a lens of a fan, but from a lens of somebody who played at I’m not going to say high levels, low levels and coaches. You know, it’s it’s not like for example with the Dodgers, right? When we were playing really badly to end the season and we had our relief pitching screwing up games for us, I still said, “Let’s see who can beat us in the playoffs cuz I don’t know the ins and outs of baseball like that. I still have that optimism and plus we just win a World Series.” So, and lo and behold, we win it again. But with the Clippers and with basketball, I’m so much more adamant with my takes because I love this game so much and I think I know what I’m talking about. Although, I still have a lot to learn at all times. But let’s just look at some team stats to start this season because I haven’t taken a look at them, you know, so far. So, here we go. talking about points per game. I don’t think points per game is as good as defensive rating, but we’ll just talk about it right now. Points per game, the Clippers are 27th. Now, that’s kind of misleading because we are a slower pace team, so it’s going to be less points than say a faster team like the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, when we look at the offensive rating, we are 17th. So that may that checks out. You know, I’m out middle of the pack. But I’ll tell you what, going into the season with the offensive additions that we made, we expected to have a better offensive rating than this. But I think one big factor into why our offense hasn’t been clicking thus far is Bradley Beal has been on a minutes restriction. And Bradley Beal is a very gifted offensive player. So without Bradley Beal being at full strength, I think it’s hard to expect because that was the whole thing about starting Beal, right? is, oh, our defense might not be as good if we start be over Collins, but our offense should be pretty lights out. We haven’t really reaped the benefits of that. So, 17th in offensive rating sounds about right. Now, when it comes to defensive rating, that’s where last year we were third in the NBA. And this might be the most concerning stat of all. We are currently 26th in the league. Bottom five defense. What’s changed? Well, we had Chris Dunn and Dererick Jones Jr. starting games together a lot last year. That automatically makes us a better defensive team. This year, we’ve replaced them with Beal. Not saying Beal’s bad, but it’s totally different when you don’t have Chris Dunn out there who’s an Energizer Bunny who’s all over the place. And then Chris Paul. I’ll say this, Kevin Porter was playing better defense than Chris Paul last year. Chris Paul cannot stay in front of anyone. James Harden to start this season, I think he’s had maybe one good defensive game out of seven, maybe two out of seven. He’s been bad defensively and he’s not I don’t expect anything out of him defensively to be honest. And then I do think Brook Lopez is better defensively than say Mo Bomba. Like I don’t think I think that’s a wash right there. but less Chris Dunn and DJ together, Chris Paul being a liability, James Harden not being good defensively. And then like I don’t know what to say about John Collins. I think he’s been exactly what I expected. He’ll get some blocks. He’s not the best on the perimeter, but you’re also, you know, you got these new pieces in there. They’re going to need some time to communicate with one another and stuff like that, but also the older we’ve gotten makes transition defense harder. So that matters. And I think that’s the biggest stat that sticks out to me is the defensive rating, bottom five in the NBA. 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One more time. That’s gusto.com/lockedon.nba. All right, Clippation three and four to start the season. There is no doubt that we are old and we are showing it in many ways. We when teams put ball pressure on us, we take a longer time to get into our sets and it rattles us a little bit. You know, we start turning the ball over. Chris Paul and James Harden in particular, right? CB3 was Mr. to turnover ratio. He was Mr. Take care of the ball. And we have not seen that so far this season with him. He has been a guy, and I’ve talked about this, that when he’s getting pressured, he’s looking to get rid of the ball. He’s looking to And tell me why we’re the only NBA game on tap tonight. What the hell is that all about? A random Tuesday where we’re the only game on tap. Is it a holiday or something? What is going on? Is there a holiday today? International day for preventing the exploitation of the environment. Okay, give me a break, dude. It’s not a holiday like that. So that’s just weird. Sometimes it’s Tuesdays is a very light day for the NBA, but so all eyes are going to be on us on NBA TV tonight. Chris Paul when he’s getting pressured, he’s not only just looking to get rid of the ball, he’s turning his back. And I’ve talked about this like he’s not Magic Johnson or Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson is big body used to do that. But CB3’s got one of the best handles in NBA history, but he’s older now. He can’t get by anyone anymore. And that’s a problem. And he’s also not turning the corner on pick and rolls. We are not creating good shots frequently with Chris Paul in the pick and roll, which is I mean that’s definitely the first time anyone’s ever uttered those words in humanity. We are not generating good shots with Chris Paul in the pick and roll. Like who’s ever uttered those words? That’s when you know it may be time to, you know, call it quits. I’ve been saying that Bogey should probably play I I shouldn’t I Okay, I haven’t been saying that, but I said it last episode that Bogey should be playing over Chris Paul. Now, I know it’s only a seven game sample size, but he’s only getting older. Like, every single day he’s getting older. I don’t know. And I’m going to take my L on this. When we got Chris Paul and throughout the offseason, I was like, “Oh, when James Harding gets tired and even if he gets injured, we got the perfect replacement. Chris Paul just played 82 games with the Spurs. I look like a clown right now. Put the red nose on me. I look like a clown because Chris Paul has been awful. I’m gonna read you Chris Paul’s stats right now, Clipper Nation. I’m gonna read it to you. Our and this, remember, this is our greatest player ever, arguably top two at minimum. He’s played every game. He’s averaged 13 minutes a game. He’s averaging two points and four assists, one turnover a game. So, he does still have a four to one assist to turnover ratio, which is still good somehow. I think it might still be the highest on our team. Yeah, it is. It’s the highest on our team. That’s just which is hilarious because it feels like he’s not been good with the ball. But four to one assist to turnover ratio. James Harden is averaging nine assists if you round up. 8.6 and four turnovers a game though. That’s a lot. That’s a lot. So, he’s got to be much better taking care of the ball. As far as turnovers, John Collins is second with 2.4. So, he’s also got to be better at taking care of the ball. and Zubots is averaging two turnovers a game. But CP3, just going back to the topic of Chris Paul, CP3 is averaging two points and four assists on 23% shooting from the field and 29 from deep. That is absurd. He’s shooting zero. No way. There’s no way his two point percentage is zero. He hasn’t made a two this season. Holyish. He has not made a two-pointer this season in seven games. That’s insanity. And and the thing is he’s not going to like he’s not going to be taken out of the rotation tonight because Kawhi Leonard is out. And then James Harden’s missing the game with personal reasons. I’ll talk about that in the next segment like previewing the game a little bit. But Chris Paul needs to be way better or he should be out of the rotation. It’s that simple. Now, as far as some different statistics, right? Field goal percentage, we are top half of the league, actually 12th. So, when we get shots, we actually generate pretty good ones. Three-point percentage, we are 12th. So, same as field goal percentage. So, top half of the league. We’ve been better though in terms of percentage over the last couple of years. Free throw percentage, we’re sixth. So that’s actually a really good statistic. So I like that. If we’re top 10 in free throw percentage, huge. Now rebounding, we are 17th. So about middle of the pack, which checks out. Turnovers. Wow. I thought we’d be much higher in this category. I can’t lie. Oh, I’m sorry. We are. We’re the We’ve turned the ball over more than any team in the league. We average 18 turnovers a night. So there you go. There you have it right there. Our defensive rating is 26th and we average the most turnovers in the league. That is it. There it is. You know, chop it up and throw it away. That those are the two statistic that stick out right there. You turn the ball over the most in the league and you are 26 in the league in defensive rating. You are not going to be good. You’re not going to be good. So we need to do better defensively. Now, how do we do that? She How do we do that? I mean, let’s I mean, we can start with the the starting lineup. I think the obvious thing is to have Collins over Beal, but Ty Louu doubled down on Beal’s a starter for this team. Beal’s a starter for this team. And I talked about this before the season. It feels like Russell Westbrook all over again where we promised him a starting spot and we’re digging ourselves a hole when it comes to that because it’s not best for the team. It’s not, at least not yet, because Beal’s on a minutes restriction, but I don’t think even when he’s off a minutes restriction, it’s best for the team because there are too many cooks in the kitchen in that starting lineup. You have our three best players in there. So, Beal in the first seven minutes of a game, how many shots is he getting? We’re definitely not running sets for him to get the ball much. So, he’s just kind of playing off of what the defense gives Harden and Kawawaii. And I think it would be much more beneficial, especially with Chris Paul being awful, to have Bradley Beal play with the second unit and be a bonafide six-man that could hopefully contend for six man of the year. I mean, look, the Clippers have been a sixthman breeding ground for the last 15 years. From Jamal to Lou to Tres to Norm, let’s add Brad to that mix. But if he doesn’t want to and he wants to be stubborn and we promised him a starting spot upon arrival. See, I didn’t agree with signing Bradley Beiel if it meant promising to start promising him a starting spot upon arrival. It’s just he’s not good enough for that anymore. And our team doesn’t need that in the starting lineup. We need to maintain our defensive identity. And I was afraid that if we started Bo, we’d lose that. But I was more afraid that we wouldn’t have a point of attack defender. But I think Jon Collins just gives us more size. is, you know, we’ll be able to rebound better. We’ll have more protection around the rim with Zoo. We’ll just have more more ground will be able to be covered with Collins as opposed to Beal. You’re talking about a 5 in 6 in difference there with John Collins and a younger more spry player. So until we do that, our starting lineup, what what it contains is if it if it remains the same is one awful defender in Harden, a mediocre defender in Beal, a good defender in Kawawaii that’s not going to guard the ball much, a great defender in Derek, and a very good defender in Zoo, who I think has been a little below average so far this season. And you can point that to our point of attack defense not being as good. But I also think he has come out in some games and not been as engaged and not been as intimidating around the rim. He’s just been okay this season defensively and we need better from him in that department as well. Then on the bench, can Chris Paul play better defense? I really don’t know. He’s just too old. And then Bogei’s not a very good defender. So, if we put him back in the mix, I don’t think he and Chris Paul can really play together like that because defensively it’s bad. Chris Dunn is obviously exceptional. John Collins is good. Brook Lopez is fine. You know, we knew we were getting from him. A second rim protector. And I I think Brook Lopez defensively has been what he is. He’s old. He’s gonna be slower, but he’s going to protect the rim a little bit, and that’s fine. That’s what we expected from him. But the turnovers, that’s a real problem. John Collins needs to take better care of the ball. Zubas needs to be stronger with the ball. And Harden cannot average four a game. That’s a lot because when you look at last year, let’s just take a look at last year, right? James Harden averaged I mean, he averaged four turnovers last year, too. I guess the rest of our team, See, we averaged 14 turnovers as a team last year, though. This year we’re averaging 18. So four more turnovers per game is a big difference. Harden is about the same. But the thing is Harden shouldn’t have to handle the ball as much this year because Kawhai’s there and and Beal’s there and Chris Paul’s there. But Chris Paul hasn’t done anything to help Harden at all. Kawhai has Kawhai has and then Beal hasn’t. But I don’t know. I would hope that if if James Harden can get that number under four, that would be fine. Even three is a lot. But four turnovers per game is a lot. The thing was he had the ball so much last year that it was kind of like if he’s the only one that’s turning the ball over a lot, no one else is turning the ball over that much, which is which was fine, but I don’t know. Anyway, coming up going to be talking about this game against Phoenix. What can we do to win it? Who needs to step up? I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. 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All right, Clipper Nation. 26th in the league in defensive rating and the highest turnover team in the league is not a recipe for success. That is something that we’re struggling with. Now, on the other hand, we actually foul the least of any team in the league right now. And I’m honestly going to say this, we should be fouling more. We should be a little bit more physical. You know, I think that’s something if we’re the I don’t know if it’s a good stat to be the team that fouls the least. I think you should be a little bit more aggressive. A little bit more aggressive. Now, let’s see if it correlates to the best defensive teams in the league. When we look at the highest defensive rating in the league, it’s again the Oklahoma City Thunder. And I promise you, I’m just going to look at the fouls for them. How many fouls they average? 20th. So, they’re like top they’re like 11th in the league in that category. So, I mean, we could we could always foul a little bit more, just not not as many shooting fouls, but let’s get a little more aggressive on the ball. Our ball pressure last year was really good because of Chris Dut and Derek. So, I don’t know. Let’s look at the minutes, right? Who’s getting more minutes right now? James Horn’s leading our team in minutes with 35. Oh, no, I’m sorry. That was last year. Last year, he averaged 35. This year he’s averaging 34. So, one minute less. It should be a little bit less than that, but Chris Paul hasn’t been good enough. Kawawaii 33 and a half. Zubat’s 29. So he went from 33 minutes to 29. And that’s obvious because obviously because of Brook Lopez. I honestly would get Zoo back to 30 31 even though he’s not playing well. Maybe it just gives him that little extra boost to get a little bit more aggressive. Derrick is playing 24. Last year he was playing 24. So that that checks out. Chris Dunn last year was at 24. this year he’s at 24. So that checks out too. So yeah, we need just need better from some of these guys, man, defensively. But like Harden and Chris Paul, but I don’t know how much you’re going to get. That’s the thing. I think our starting lineup can be better. I think the combinations, you know, can be better in terms of defense. And we’ll see with Beal how that goes in terms of like him starting and all that. As far as this game on Tuesday night or Thursday night, James Harden is out with personal reasons. From my guesses, I think he might be having another kid. So, if that’s the case, I have no proof on that, but if that’s the case, congratulations to James Harden. Definitely a reason to miss the game. But man, oh man, without Kawhi and James and Phoenix has been pretty good at home so far this season, it makes me very nervous. Now, it’s going to be the return for Bradley Beal, and he’s going to get booed into oblivion. I can promise you that. Chris Paul is going to make his return. He will not get booed into oblivion. I can promise you that. But if we don’t get a good Chris Paul game tonight, then it’s going to be loud about him on Friday morning. Loud. So, I don’t know. It’s it’s on Chris Paul Beal tonight. And is if Beal’s on a minutes restriction tonight without Kawi Harden, I don’t think we can win this game. We’re going to need a huge Bradley Beal game tonight to win. And who’s going and I think honestly with Chris Dunn and and Derrick Jones Jr. bound to play more minutes. We can shut down Devin Booker. Not shut down, but we can limit him, you know, make life tough for him like we did in the first game that we played him. Jaylen Green though however is expected to debut tonight which is a huge problem because the I mean the intensity the the moment what’s the word like the excitement in the building and for the team to get Jaylen Green back who was the main centerpiece of the Durant trade is going to be at an all-time high and you know they’re going to come out trying to fire so I’m nervous about that it could be like Jaylen Green’s coming out party in Phoenix and he goes crazy but here’s the thing we start Derek I think could we start John Collins Can we? I mean, I would love to, but Nico’s only playing 14 minutes anyway. We might as well just start Jon. So, especially when Phoenix is small, they don’t have a four that can match up with him. It’s just logical to start him. So, I’m thinking we we’re definitely going to start Dererick and Chris. One of them guards uh Booker, the other one guards Jaylen Green. And you best believe they’re going to try to put Chris Paul on the pick and roll and try to attack his ass. So, we’ll see. But we need better from CP3. We need better from Bradley Beal. Bradley Beiel’s averaging 20 and a half minutes. He’s played four games out of seven and he’s averaging eight points a game on 48 40 67 splits. But he’s shooting um six shots a game. He’s shooting less shots than Brook Lopez. He’s shooting less shots than Collins. He’s shooting less shots than Derek. He’s not really been a part of this team yet if we’re being honest. And that integration is slowing down our process. It is. And and here’s one thing I want to say. Ty Louu was talking about, “Oh, it’s going to take some time. We don’t want to rush him.” Ty Lou right now, and everybody says I defend him too much. He’s had no urgency to start this season. Oh, we’re not going to rush the process. Bro, then you’re not going to get a top three seed. So, what do you think this is? Do we have any championship aspirations? If we’re good with being a first round exit, second round exit, fine. This is the right approach. But like, we’re tired of the laxidasical approach. You know, Ty Lou, this is put up or shut up for him this season in my opinion. I love him. I think he’s been great. Like, he got us to the conference finals. He made huge adjustments in that playoff run. He did amazing in 2022. He did amazing last year. I think he’s a good coach. I wouldn’t say he’s a great coach. He’s a good coach. But, and he’s really good in terms of like managing personalities. I think that’s what he’s great at. But there’s no urgency to start this season. It’s like we’re content. Oh, you know, it’s going to take some time. It’s like, bro, wait till we go on that big road trip. Let’s see how much time we’re going to have. That’s all I have to say about that. But last stat I want to talk about too is the touches distribution, right? The touches distribution because I want to see where James Harden is at because I remember saying a couple episodes ago that he had the ball a little too much, right, for what we wanted him to be this season. We didn’t want him to have the ball so much. But again, I’ve talked about this as well. He’s the only guy on our team that’s consistently getting by his man. The only guy. But and and also again I’m going to say this. If we do not feed Zuba tonight or he doesn’t demand the ball, then it’s just a problem. It’s just a problem. Like if he got eight shots up last game when we didn’t have Kawhi Leonard, we don’t have Kawhi Leonard or James Harden. Chris Paul’s not going to get by his man. So we should be honestly playing through Zoo tonight. Playing through Zoo and Bradley Beal. If we don’t, then we got to really talk about Zoo. But right now, James Harden is leading our team in touches per game, obviously, with over about 30 more than the next highest guy, which is Kawhi Leonard. And time of possession, James Harden averages a full three minutes more than Kawhi Leonard with the ball in his hands, which is exactly as the same as last year. As far as leaguewide, let’s take a look at leaguewide. Who’s leading the league in touches per game? It’s, let’s take a look. touches per game is Luca Donuch right now followed by Tyrese Maxi. So James Harden doesn’t show up for a little bit there. Time of possession however Luca Cade Keonte George Jaylen Brunson Austin Reeves SGA Tyrese Maxi John and James Harden. So Harden is ninth in time of possession. So he’s moved down a little bit which is good. But right now I don’t know we don’t we struggle to get good shots without him on the floor. So also, you know, we might as well look at the net rating, you know, with James Harden as well. It is no good. It is no good as far as Let’s take a look, honestly, before we end this show. Advanced statistics, LA Clippers. Let’s take a look. Our net rating with James Harden is a plus two because we got we’re not talking about the benchwarmer. So, it’s the highest on the team. So, with James Harden on the floor, he’s been the most impactful player in terms of net rating, right? And with him off the floor, we’ve been awful. Awful. But anyway, that’s it for me in this one, guys. Hopefully, we get this win tonight against Phoenix. That would be a huge win without Kawhi and James Harden. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime Drop Pod, although my Twitter is still hacked. On YouTube, I released two vlogs for the backto-back. I was at both games, tried some new food items, captured fans thoughts from the two losses. Go check those out. Really solid atmosphere at both. That’s on the Dime Dropper YouTube channel. And of course, Locked On Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast, including YouTube. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell to get us to 8,000 subscribers before the end of November. And of course, you can listen wherever you get your podcast. The age-old proverb continues. Go Clippers. Phoenix buns tonight, boys. Get it done.

Los Angeles Clippers face a worrying start as injuries and turnovers threaten their championship aspirations. With Kawhi Leonard sidelined, James Harden out for personal reasons, and a disappointing 3-4 record, Clipper Nation is feeling the pressure. Are age and roster missteps catching up to the team, and can they fix their defensive woes before it’s too late?

Die hard LA Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri breaks down the Clippers’ troubling defensive rating, struggles with turnovers, and the impact of lineup choices, including Bradley Beal’s lackluster integration and Chris Paul’s early season slump. Key insights include Ty Lue’s approach under fire, the implications of a likely missed top-three seed, and what needs to happen for the Clippers to stay in the playoff hunt. Don’t miss this candid analysis as the Clippers prepare for a crucial showdown against the Phoenix Suns.

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