How The LA Clippers COLLAPSED In Their Homecoming Vs The Memphis Grizzlies

How The LA Clippers COLLAPSED In Their Homecoming Vs The Memphis Grizzlies

On today’s show, the LA Clippers somehow found a way to lose again. Even without John Morant, even leading by double digits the majority of the game, we found a way to blow it. Going to be talking about what went wrong, where we go from here on today’s lock 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 were 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 6 and four right here on the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day and now the number one sports podcast network. You can follow and listen wherever you get your podcast and of course subscribe on YouTube and hit the notification bell so you know every single time we post a video. On the road to 8,000 subscribers before the end of 2025. Somehow Clipper Nation, we lost this game after being up by double digits for a lot of it. After being up by as many as 16 points, we still found a way to lose. I’m going to be talking about my initial reaction, how it happened, how it was being at the game. The second half that we had, and just where we stand going into Saturday, I’m not going to lie, I did not know that John Morant wasn’t going to play. Their starting lineup was Jaylen Wells, Cedric Coward, Vince Williams, Jiren Jackson Jr., and Zack Edy. There is not one reliable perimeter shot creator there. They’re without all three of their perimeter shot creators, John Morant, Scotty Pippen Jr., and Ty Jerome. I attended this game, and a vlog will be out on my channel in the morning on Dimeropper to show the experience to the fans, including something that happened at the end of the game that I’ll talk about later. But I could see all those three in street clothes. Jiren Jackson Jr. was their only consistent sort of offense. You would think going into the game. And Cedric Coward has been a very impressive rookie so far. In the first quarter, it looked exactly like honestly the whole first half it looked exactly like how we thought it would go if it was to go great for us. We were up by 13. Kawi and Harden combined for 35 points in the first half. We were intentional about getting Kawhi Leonard the ball and we were playing really really solid. You had great contributions from Nico, from Chris Dunn. Not enough from Zoo yet, but we were up 63 to 50 at halftime. And I cannot lie to you, Clipper Nation. I legitimately felt so comfortable. It was the most comfortable I’d felt in a game this season. I was like, “Gh, we’ve lost so many games recently. We’re due for a good game. The Grizzlies have no shot creation.” It didn’t feel the same as that Atlanta game to me where I don’t know why but they seemed like they were in it for me. Whereas this game I never felt like they were really in it even in the third quarter where you know it started kind of slipping away. That’s the one that we went ice cold. They outscored us 28 to 18 in a third and that started to change but it wasn’t like the Warriors game or the Heat game or the Thunder game where I felt they just took it to us. I or it was like we were lethargic. We just didn’t shoot well anymore and like we just could not hit shots anymore outside of Kawaii. And when I look at that third quarter at one point we were still up 63 to 76. like we had a 13-point lead in the in the third quarter still. And and I have to say the Grizzlies did end it very well. They started knocking down shots. And here’s the sad part. Like in the first half, both teams were shooting well from three. In the second half, the Grizzlies continued to shoot well from three and we didn’t. And I cannot lie, the shot quality on both sides was pretty similar. It were open threes for the Grizzlies. They’re a worse three-point shooting team than we are, and they just happen to shoot great tonight. Just our luck. And you might think like, oh, well, that means it’s a consistent theme this season. You know, the Clippers allowing a lot of threes. Here’s the thing. I think we allow a we’ve allowed more dribble penetration this year, but I also think teams have just had some outlier shooting games against us. Now, if you want to really get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about the two guys that are constantly getting beat on the ball, it’s very clear, but I don’t know if people are ready for me to say it, but I have to be I have to be honest, right? Chris Paul and James Harden constantly put our defense in rotation. When I was at the game tonight, I saw everybody and it looked like everybody could hold their own one-on-one, but those two cannot. And then they’re on the court together at the same time, which Tyoo has to can completely. I don’t see any value for Chris Paul with Harden on the court. He does not shoot catch and shoot threes because his his uh g what’s the word? His shooting motion takes too long to get into for a six-foot guy and these guys are closing out and he doesn’t feel like it’s an open shot anymore by the time he takes it. And the thing about this is it’s been the case basically his whole career. He’s always had that slow load up and he’s not a very willing three-point shooter as a result off the catch. I think it’s definitely gotten a little worse. Like he’s had some years and phases where he was taking that shot and making that shot, but he needs a lot of space and it’s just pointless to have them two out there together. But again, another game where we didn’t play Brook Lopez and John Collins was playing small ball five and I thought he was taking fine shots, but he could not hit. And that’s been a consistent thing this season. Even though I’ve been saying, you know, you got to play Jon Collins, you got to live and die by John Collins because we made that trade. We lived and died by him tonight. And that’s fine. If he’s going to play badly and show that me maybe we made a horrible move, it is what it is. I’ll take my L on it. I defended it. I thought it was a good move given the fit, but it just it all started going south towards the end of that third quarter. And I really felt when Kawaii came out of the game, that’s when we started going ice cold. Started we got a lot of good threes. The only thing I can say if I want to like criticize our process was in the second half, Harden definitely fell off. He had a very good first half, 17 points, dictating the game well, but defensively was poor. And then the second half he ran out of juice and was shooting a lot of threes and it was a lot of really really even again I’m always going to say this because people always think it’s oh I’m being anti-H harden I’m being harsh. There’s no doubt that Harden has carried us this season. There’s no doubt that he deserves better than what he’s gotten. There’s no doubt. By the way, they did a very nice little tribute to Chris Paul um because he announced his retirement like a little video and people give him a standing ovation and then same with James Harden with his 55point game. So that was cool a cool moment for both. But there were people in the swell that were saying Harden’s got to pass the ball. Harden’s holding the ball too long. I could hear it. People are saying it because it’s true. Anybody that has eyes and isn’t biased can see that at times he is just stagnating ball movement and when he’s making shots it’s totally okay cuz he’s making shots and we’re winning. But in this game it wasn’t falling. Especially in the second half and when Kawhai was out of the game funny cuz usually we complain about when Harden’s out of the game. Throughout this season it’s been when James comes out we’re not getting enough offense. But in this game when Kawhai came out and remember he was still on a minutes restriction which I wondered in the preview this morning but Tailoo said before the game he is still on that minutes restriction and he capped at 28 minutes in this game and it was very frustrating because he was actually playing great and we were looking to get him the ball and when he went out of the game in that third quarter the Grizzlies started making shots and we couldn’t hit shots anymore because James didn’t have it going and Zoo who? Oh my god, just not enough in any sense. But I’ll talk about him a little later. But then Memphis took the lead early on in the fourth. Kawawaii had six straight points to kind of restore order. And then he had to be taken out of the game when it was 91 to 91 with about 7 minutes left. This was very hard to stomach. It was 7 and 1 half left and we were tied at 91. By the t by the time he came back into the game, it was 10395. So we got outscored by eight points in the three minutes that he was out of the game and we ended up losing by five. Like you can say all you want, oh, you know, James Harden and Zoo and them, you got to pick up the slack because, you know, he’s on a minutes restriction. It is what it is. Get it done. Unfortunately, I just can’t really subscribe to that first. first. I think there’s some validity to that, but I think the most glaring thing for me is like I’ll talk about the specifics of why this team is ass right now, but when you have your best player having the best game of their season, and I’m not blaming Kawaii at all. I’m really not. And I’m not blaming Tailoo at all. This is coming from, you know what? We don’t know. It’s coming from upstairs. I don’t think it’s the Clippers medical team. must be Kawhai’s because we know that there’s there are two different things going on over there with Kawhai having his own staff but Kawhai doesn’t look happy about it. Your best player is on a heater keeping you in the game preventing this team from making a run and then you take him out of the game in a crucial moment of the fourth quarter and then we’re down by eight and we’re playing catch-up for the rest of the game. And all I can say is if it was on James to, you know, put the cape on, he wasn’t hitting. But also the others weren’t hitting. And that’s a big thing we got to talk about as well. It’s just a lot of bricks. So it’s a horrible loss. We got outscored 28-8 in the third and 34 to 26 in the fourth. All in all, we got outscored by 18 points in the second half, 62- 44. And after scoring 63 points in the first half, we only scored 44 in the second. So my overall takeaway is this minutes restriction is killing us. He had 39 points in 29 minutes. I said 28 minutes earlier. 29 minutes. 39 points, three rebounds, zero assists, one steal, but just one turnover on 15 for 24 shooting. So he was uber aggressive. Three for seven from deep and six for six from the free throw line. I loved it. But 29 minutes is insane, especially when our depth is giving us nothing. Kobe Sanders was one for four from the field. Kobe Brown was two for seven. So, combined they were three for 11. CP3, come on. 15 minutes. And some of them were hard and just didn’t look good. But at least he shot efficiently. But all in all, we got 15 points from our bench. Pardon me, we didn’t play Brook Lopez. We didn’t play Cam Christie. So, it’s on the starters, but one of them’s on a minutes restriction. And then Collins is playing like ass. And then Zubas is not playing well enough. And then Harden’s not shooting well. Chris Dunn, honestly, I think he did his part. 11 points, four for nine from the field, two for five from three, seven rebounds, five steals, and he was all over the game to start. But he just felt like he couldn’t hit shots later, too. But given his shooting splits, I mean, that’s that’s good enough for him. But coming up, going to talk about how we went so cold. It’s a rough one, Clipper Nation. But I’m here. This This is a safe space. I got to tell you a little something about Door Dash. You see, the NBA season is heating up and Door Dash has found the perfect way to keep fans in their bag all season long. Whether you’re watching for the highlights, your fantasy team, or just your favorite player, Door Dash makes every game night even better. Door Dash is the official ondemand delivery platform of the NBA, and they’re celebrating with something called the Backdrop. So, next time someone goes off for 50, use promo code NBA50 the next day to get 50% off on Door Dash with Dash Pass, plus your shot at the backdrop. Dash Pass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50point game with promo code. Terms apply. No purchase necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to US residents 21 or older. Visit door-ashinyourbag.com for full details. Door Dash in your bag all season long. All right. Clippers lose at 112 to 107. We have now lost two out of our last 14 ball games. We’re five and 14 on the season now. three and six at home and have now been eliminated from the NBA Cup. This is absolute rock bottom of the season for me at to this point. The silver lining is that Kawawaii played great and was looking more like himself because it’s been a little shaky lately. But as we know, Kawhi Leonard always takes some time to get back into the swing of things and then eventually he goes through a period after people say that, oh, he’s washed. I think it’s officially gone to him now. then he starts playing great again. So maybe we’re hopefully if I want to put a positive spin on it looking at Kawi Leonard once this minute’s restriction is lifted and I doubt it’ll be lifted on Saturday night he will be dominating again. But overall yeah that minutes restriction it kills me. It really killed our momentum. Like I’m not going to lie. It was a tie game. Kawhai was the one who kind of we had a bad stretch with Kawhai out. But then now Kawhai’s in for the rest of the game, right? No. comes out when he’s carrying us, keeping us in the game from the preventing the Grizzlies from taking over. And it’s guys like Jon Landale and freaking Cam Spencer making these big threes. KCP was four for seven from three. And Santiel Dama, I’ve seen so many games this season where he was just breaking threes and he was two for two. So again, a team that does not shoot well from three went 43% from deep and 44% from the field. So they shot almost as well from three as the field and they’re not a three-point shooting team. They had they shot 77% from the free throw line. We shot 90. So again, consistent theme this season that we’re doing better than other teams from the line, but we shot 43% in the game. But the biggest disparity is the 43% from three for them to the 32% from three from us. And that’s sometimes it’s just a make or miss league. And I’ll tell you one thing that’s been consistent and it’s partially coincidence. Not I don’t want to say I don’t want to say coincidence, partially bad luck, but there’s also some schematic stuff to it. So it is true that it seems like teams are just getting really hot from three against us. Even teams that don’t shoot well from three. And sorry about sorry that if you’re watching on YouTube, sorry that I’m wearing a hood. It just like I made a mistake leaving my door open when I was at the game and it’s cold and I don’t know, maybe it’s symbolic. It’s a cold night in LA. Clippers lost. It’s just like damn. But anyway, very by the way, very festive Christmas-like vibe in into it outside the arena and the plaza and inside from the music to what people were wearing. Started seeing some Santa hats. Anyway, it’s a make or miss league, ladies and gentlemen. And it feels like sometimes we’ve had some bad luck when it comes to teams not when it comes to teams that aren’t even good shooting teams shooting well. And I do think that we will see a a regression to the mean against us, but there is a level of we’re not playing good enough defense. But again, if you want to talk about consistent guys that are getting beat in the half court, it’s Harden and Chris Paul mainly. bogei’s not great, but everybody else it’s more of a transition thing. You know, we start missing. And that’s part of what happened in that second half. We started missing and then they start getting out and running, getting easier buckets before the defense can get set. And so, and that we’re a bad transition defense team because we’re old and we also haven’t done a very good job communicating. You know, there’s been a lot of moving parts. That’s always hard. You know, you know, when you have so many guys in and out, you’re not developing that chemistry when it comes to what you’re doing coming off screens, how you’re talking to each other in transition, all these different things that go into playing with each other on the defensive end. Those have been hampered by these constant injuries and, you know, Bradley Beal minutes restriction. And it’s just like, I don’t know. I feel like this team has not really gotten to play and never will with in terms of with Beal, but without Beal, even still, we haven’t gotten the shackles lifted off of us. So, when it comes to the other teams shooting well, I think we will ste I still stand by what I’m saying that we will see a regression, but we offensively can do a better job of hitting shots which will set our defense because our halfcourt defense is infinitely better than our transition defense and we just went cold. And eventually, you know, you got to hold some of these role players accountable. You know, I’m very hard on the stars, very hard on the stars. But right now, these are the stats that stand out for me. We were up 6953 with 10 1/2 minutes left in the third and we were outscored 5938 in the last 22 and a2 minutes of the game. So, it was a total collapse, but the number that sticks out to me there is 38. You know, we stopped scoring outside of Kawhi Leonard. And just to make it even more clear about the non Kawawaii minutes in the second half, Kawawaii had 21 points, shot 66% from the field and 40 from three, and we were even in his minutes. The rest of the team scored 23 points in the second half, made the same amount of shots, eight, but instead of being 8 for 12, we’re 8 for 30. And instead of making the same amount of threes with or they made the same amount of threes with two, but they missed three times as many. Kawhai was two for five from three. The rest of the team was two for 15 from three. So 8 for 30 and two for 15 from three. 23 points and a minus 18 in the 9 minutes and 18 seconds that Kawaii was off the floor. According to Clipper beat writer Law Murray and our good friend minus 18 without Kawhai. Now, here’s the thing. There have been tons of games this season where it’s been, “Oh, when Harden goes to the bench, we collapse.” And again, it’s just, and I I don’t mean to keep saying this like it’s an excuse, but it really does matter because I again, you can put the red nose on me. This is one of the worst preseason predictions. And I’m not a great predictor. I’m on record saying that I’m not great at predicting. I think I’m much better at breaking down what happened as opposed to predicting what’s going to happen, but I look like a clown because I really believe that we were at worst like the six seed and you you know wanted I didn’t expect somebody to be out for the season that early and maybe that’s me being naive with Beal, but I really thought that you know if Kawhai was out be and them can step up. If Beal’s out, which will be most of the season, Kawhai and them will step up. I never thought of, oh, what if Kawan Beer out and we only have no other shot creators. But I I I thought about Zubat taking another uh step up. I thought about Chris Paul. I thought about Brook Lopez, John Collins. These guys, these new signings have all been disappointing. And here’s the thing, we talked about doubling down on old, you know, is that going to hurt? It’s definitely hurt cuz Brook Lopez looks too slow. Chris Paul looks too slow. Brook Lopez is out of the rotation in game number 19. By game number 18, he’s been out of the rotation. I think he offers some stuff offensively and maybe he could have made some shots, but I don’t know. I I honestly would play Brook Lopez because we’re devoid of offense. We just have to take the good and the bad that comes with him. And we we accepted though when we built this team that we’re going to probably not be as good defensively. We’re going to be but we’re going to be better offensively, but we’re awful defensively is the problem. Making shots would really help our defense though, you know, because it would set it. It would set it. And we just went cold. John Collins, I mean, he had so many open threes. Look, I I mean, John Collins got 33 minutes tonight. He got exactly what I wanted, more minutes. He had 10 points, seven rebounds. I thought in the first half he did some good things going to the basket, and I thought he had some nice finishes around the basket, but damn, this fool’s jumper was broke. And it has been broke lately and we need better because we don’t have Derrick Jones. We don’t Chris Paul. I mean Brook Lopez and Bogei’s still up by the way. So let’s just take away that means we have two players out of that initial 11 that we thought was going to be good. I thought was going to be good. I’m not even going to say we. I thought was going to be good. And we’ve subtract two of them with bogey and be outs. Now we’re down to nine. You got to play those nine and then one more which would probably be Kobe Sanders in my opinion because we played Kobe Brown. I still don’t think he’s really an NBA player. Five points for Kobe. Two for seven from the field. One for six from three and every single one but one was wide open. Zero boards, zero assists, two steals, zero turnovers. Again, Kobe Brown’s a dope dude. got to meet him in Vegas briefly. I wish him the best, but just being objective, I just don’t see anything there. Especially not right now for a team that’s trying to win. Kobe Sanders, yes. But yeah, 16 minutes for Kobe Brown. He was a minus six, missed a lot of threes. And then John Collins, 0 for four from deep, four for 12 from the field. It’s not good enough. And then Harden 6 for 18 from the field, 4 for13 from three. 13 of his 18 shot attempts were threes, which tells you the story right there. I think he’s much better when he’s getting downhill. 23 points, seven boards, 11 assists, two steals, and five turnovers for James. So even on a bad night, he’s having 237 and 11 and two steals. But five turnovers and shooting 33% from the field and then dribbling that much and everybody just standing around, that’s not good basketball. But coming up, we’re going to talk even more about what happened. The players, I mean, there’s just there’s just so much to say, isn’t there? 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. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. And right now on FanDuel, taking a look at the NBA odds. You can bet on anything from, you know, the finals to awards games today. Right now for the game, let’s see the lines. We’re minus six. All right, then. Got to get it done. FanDuel, baby. Clippers money line. Smash that. Just go to FanDuel because right now FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, so the Clippers losing 112 to 107. We’ve now lost two out of our last 14 games. Sorry, we’ve only won two out of our last 14 games. We were three and two at one point this season. But anyway, to talk about some of the matchups, you had John Collins on Jiren Jackson Jr., Vit Zubat’s matching up with Edy, Kawawaii on Cedric Coward, Chris Dunn on Vince Williams Jr., and James Harden on Jaylen Wells. And as I mentioned, Jaylen Wells is a good Harden defender, and you saw a lot of that in this game. He was guarding Harden. Vince was guarding Kawhai. And as I said, Kawi’s got that size advantage. He’s got three inches on him and he took advantage of it. Zack Edy on Zoo. By the way, Edy outrebounded Zoo by a lot. Zoo had 12 rebounds. Edy had 19 and Zoo played seven more minutes than him. And by the way, for Edy, six of those were offensive rebounds. So, Zoo still is not doing a good enough job rebounding for me, even though he’s one of the only people rebounding and boxing out, but he’s not boxing out enough. He’s just standing there watching sometimes. It’s not good enough, man. I’m very disappointed in Zoo. I’m very disappointed, honestly. Zoo was in drop coverage. I’m going to keep talking about that, by the way. Don’t think I’m going to forget. Zoo was in drop coverage. Jiren Jackson Jr. was in drop coverage. Jock Landale was hedging on the ball screens. And he’s been doing it all season, I’ve noticed, cuz they clearly don’t trust him at the rim. And then Edy was hedging and a little bit of drop. He was doing a little bit of both. The first 90 seconds of the game, we went up 9-0 because we had three threes. One Harden, one Chris Dunn, and one Kawaii. I was like, “Okay, this might be a blowout.” Like, we might actually we’re due for a good game. Chris Dunn’s all over the place getting offensive rebounds, getting steals, getting jump balls. But yeah, then we went with JC at the five and we’re hedging with him on the ball screens and Kawawaii was just cooking in the first half. I mean quarter 10 points in the first and then when he came out of the game, Nico comes in, gives us two blocks, a bunch of energy and we had Harden had a little heater to end the quarter and had 11 points at the end of one. So we’re looking good. And then the second quarter, we had a quick five nothing start to the quarter that led them to call a timeout. Kawawaii was continuing to be aggressive and Zoo was missing Chippy still. That part of the reason why they were still in striking distance within striking distance is because Zoo wasn’t great. You just not miss making his shots around the rim which has been somewhat consistent this season unfortunately. And so you saw the Grizz making a little push but then Kawawaii and Harden kind of the uh was able to were able to restore order. So at halftime, I just thought stay the course, continue to guard and rebound, then knock down open shots, and Kawawaii stays aggressive. A lot of that happened, but the biggest one that didn’t happen that I said knock down open shots. We went a bit cold without Kawawaii to make it an under to be uh going a bit cold without Kawawaii is an understatement. They cut it down to four. John Collins continued to miss whether it was a mid-range or an open three. We went ice cold from three. And Chris and James Harden just can’t stay in front of the ball. And Chris Paul doesn’t shoot those catch and shoot threes. That’s part of the reason why he doesn’t get shots off. He should not play with Harden because Harden Chris’s only value is him handling the ball on pick and roll. That’s it. He had five points in this game, two rebounds, zero assists, one turnover, and was two for four from the field and one for one from three. Both his shots came against drop coverage if I’m not mistaken. The second one did, and it was his classic patented right elbow jumper, which was great to see. I still think you got to play him, but only in the nonh hardened minutes. So that’s literally like 14 or 15 minutes a game max. And even then, you got to see CB3 Brook Lopez and Bogey all playing together is very dangerous. And with Derrick Jones Jr. out, it just is what it is. But we got to we don’t even have Bogey right now. But I think Kobe Sanders might make them a little better defensively or even Cam Christie. But just got to accept that Chris Paul’s kind of a flop right now. But I don’t know. I still think he’s looking more like Chris Paul, so I wouldn’t give up on him just yet. He’s a minus two in the plus minus this game. And look, he can’t guard, but I really think that not playing him with Harden would be a much better idea. As far as, by the way, we went with Nico at the five at one point in this game. I want to mention that towards the end of the third quarter, John Collins came out and it was Nico at the five with the Kobes, JH, and Chris Paul. I just want to take a look at how that lineup did because I don’t have the data off hand or on hand. But let’s see. So John Collins and Zoo come out at the 3minut mark and we’re up by seven 78 to 71. By the time we see any other big come in, it’s Zoo at the beginning of the fourth. We’re only up by three. So we got outscored by four in that lineup. Yeah, that was a little bit questionable. I just think that Tai was like John Collins isn’t playing well enough. So, he’s kind of in a pickle there because he’s right. John Collins was not playing well enough. And what is John Collins going to play? He played 33 minutes. So, would he have played 36 minutes? I mean, I think he definitely can, but he wasn’t playing well enough to warrant that really, but you’re taking a risk. And I see the thing is I don’t remember us, you know, really struggling at the rim too much in those minutes that we had Nico at the five. The Grizzlies were making threes and some of them weren’t even open. But whatever. I mean, all I can say is this. Now, I got to talk about Zoo real quick because I’ve talked about all the role players. Nico Batum played the most minutes of any bench player. He had two points, one board, two steals, two blocks, and a turnover. He didn’t get one shot off. He got fouled on a three and made two out of three free throws. But the fact that he can even get one shot off is nuts in 23 minutes. But it is what it is. You know, they know that he’s the best three-point shooter of these guys off the catch, like off these role players. Kobe Sanders, three points, two assists, one steal, no turnovers on one for four shooting and one for two from three. Yeah, I mean, it didn’t give us much. So, yeah, as I said, we did not get much off our bench, whereas they had 13 from Aldama, 12 from Landale, 12 from KCP, and 10 from Cam Spencer. So outside of John Konchar, they had double figures with every single bench player from every single bench player. That’s going to help you win a game. Then yeah, as I said, Collins only with 10 on 33% from the field and zero from three. Chris Dunn had 11 points, seven boards, one assist, five steals, and two turnovers on four for9 shooting and two for five from downtown. Already talked about Harden stat line. Now let’s talk about Zubots. I’m very disappointed. Very disappointed. Zoo not only missed chippies, but it’s the same damn story. Not only miss Chippies is not boxing out enough, not rebounding enough, but he I wanted to see after the game. I went to synergy to see how many post ups he had in the game. The answer is three. And we scored on two of them, by the way. He got doubled on almost every single one, but it led to him swinging the ball and then Chris Dunn attacking close outs and scoring twice. I get it. He’s missing chippies, you know, he’s not reliable right now. He’s not playing well enough right now. But I really think we’re hurting him. Like the team like Tailoo, Harden, like even I mean I don’t really blame Kawhai because I want him to be uber aggressive. It really has to come down to Harden AntiLoo. We need to play through him more and live with the results. And the results say that it’s he’s average points per possession, you know, relative to the league. He’s average in the post in terms of us creating shots right now. But I think any honestly even average, and that’s including him passing the ball out of the double, not the double, just out of the post. I think at this point average is is good enough for us to use it more and it might turn into above average. I still think I believe in Zoo. I just don’t think three post ups in a game that they’re you’re playing against Jock Landale is is is acceptable from every party. But I really do think this like we clearly had some intention behind getting Kawhai the ball in this game. We have no intention with Zoo and it’s consistent. Harden’s got to be a little bit more unselfish when it comes to this kind of stuff because he’s burning himself out and when he doesn’t have it going on, he’s got to play through Zoo more. Three postups in the game is not acceptable. He’s not just a play finisher. He can initiate a little bit now, too. And I get it. Seems like I’m defending him. He wasn’t good enough. He was what, nine points? Nine points, 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks, two turnovers. I think he was better protecting the rim, but four for 11 from the field. Made his only free throw, but that’s not good shooting percentage for him. He’s missing a lot of chippies and tippins, but nine points is ridiculous. Unacceptable from him. Unacceptable. But again, I just don’t think we’re doing anything to help him. I really don’t. He’s missing some bunnies, but he deserves some touches on the block. Again, I almost like I really would love to see what he would do if we gave up 15 games without Hard and Oracle. Why see what Zubots would do? Would we win or lose? We’d probably lose, but that player is still in him. I’m just saying that our that player is still in him. So, I’m just outside of Kawhi Leonard and Chris Dunn, I think everybody was pretty disappointing. Honestly, not even Nico. Sometimes he’ll have two-point games. I still think he made a positive difference. He didn’t get a shot off. He is who he is at this point and we knew who he was. So, I’m not going to blame Nico. Those other guys need to do better. In terms of Tyoo, I don’t really know what he could have done. That restriction is really hampering him. The only other thing I would say with him is John Collins should have probably stayed in cuz Nico at the five is too risky. But besides that, he’s hampered with the minutes restriction with I mean, Brook Lopez, maybe he needs to get back in the rotation. I don’t know. It’s either option is not great, but I I think we got to we just got to ride or die with the guys that we got and our record will be the record and then if Lawrence Frank made a mistake and like look, I’ll say this. When we got these guys, I was like, damn. Okay, they’re going to help. And I was wrong about that. But everybody knows that I never wanted to double down on trying to make this team better. I’ve been saying blow it up for years. And by the way, so this is what I want to talk about before the show ends. So we got Hey, here’s the bright side, Clipper Nation. We’re back at it on uh Saturday. We don’t Kawaii seems like he’s going to play, but I wouldn’t believe anything that he says after a game or what the you know, he said next question when asked about it, but he seemed like he was going to play. We shall see. The Mavericks lost to the Lakers. They’re on a second out of a backtoback. Both teams should be pretty fatigued. We got to win. The Mavericks are struggling immensely. We got to win. I mean, there’s nothing else to say about it because then we got a five game roadie and it’s going to get real dark. We I don’t even know what to say. After the game or towards the end of the game, a fan in the swell had a had a sign that said, “Lock him up.” And it was Lawrence Frank. And you know the guys people that run the swell were like no you know put that down. Why would you make a sign that’s negative you know criticizing our team and I think you know he had a little the the guy with the sign who I interviewed on my dimeropper video because I wanted him to tell the story said that you know they said it falls on us as the SWAT. It looks like the Clippers organization is putting that up and stuff like that. But you know Lawrence Frank he’s really really gone all in on this Kawawaii era. You know, I think Bomber deserves accountability. Needs to take accountability as well. It’s a tough place to be in because we just can’t really pivot unless we’re getting unless they bite the bullet that we’re not going to get much of Kawhi and Harden and maybe even Zoo and are just like we just got to get what we can at this point because it’s so bad. We’ll see though. It’s a long season, but it is dark right now. Clipper Nation, the only bright side and good news is we go again on Saturday and I’ll be there again cheering on the boys. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime Dropper Pod. Subscribe to my own YouTube channel, Dime Drop, where you can find a vlog of the channel in the morning hearing from fans and seeing more about the incident about the sign and all that. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dimeropper Pod. sub subscribe to this channel, Locked on Clippers, on YouTube, and get to let’s get hit the notification bell to help us get to 8,000 subs before the end of 2025. And by the way, as far as Lawrence Frank, like, you know, I’m okay with them getting fired, but I just think a fan needs to be able to express themselves. That’s all I got to say. The age old problem continues. Go Clippers.

LA Clippers spiral after blowing double-digit lead to the Memphis Grizzlies—can they recover from rock bottom? Kawhi Leonard drops 39 points in his best performance of the season, but a strict minutes restriction, shooting woes from James Harden and John Collins, and a lackluster bench leave the Clippers searching for answers as the team plummets to 5-14.

Die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri’ dissects the collapse, spotlighting defensive lapses, questionable lineups from Ty Lue, and concerning regression from veterans like Chris Paul and Brook Lopez. Key themes include the Clippers’ three-point defense woes, role player accountability, the ongoing impact of injuries, and mounting pressure on Lawrence Frank’s front office. With a daunting road trip ahead and Dallas Mavericks looming, is it time for the franchise to embrace major changes before hope fades completely?

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