The Ringer NBA Show - Can the Clippers Come Back and Win the Series? | The Answer

Episode Date: May 29, 2021

Seerat Sohi is joined by Wosny Lambre to discuss the Los Angeles Clippers' Game 3 win and if they believe the Clippers can come back and win the series. Host: Seerat Sohi Guest: Wosny Lambre Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ringer, Dave Hill, takes you on a journey into the underground lives and careers of six professional gamblers. This eight-part podcast is a unique look into the gambling world that you don't want to miss. Check out gamblers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, welcome to The Answer, where we are missing Chris Ryan, but we're joined by Wozney Lambray. We're super excited to break down what is, what was an interesting Clippers Mavericks matchup? What did you think? Super interesting. First of all, I just want to welcome everybody

to the affirmative action version of the answer. You're welcome, guys. We did it. No, you know what? We're taking over, by the way. Chris isn't going to be back. Yeah, I got him tied up in a closet somewhere. He's never coming back, guys.

Sorry. Shouts to CR, though. Man, it happens early on. Lucas is making every single step back. They got Zubach guarding him. him on switches. He's yelling at people like, this fool can't guard me.

They go up by 16 points early, just jump out on the Clippers. It's like, are we really about to do this? Are the Clippers about to lay down in the biggest game of their season, like six minutes passed before Kaua Lennon took his first jump shot?

It was looking bleak, Syri. And then Luca leaves the game and magically, things start working out for the clippers. Yeah, it was funny that every, every, uh, Clippers run really seemed to be tied with Luca being out of the game. And then obviously he also, I don't know how hurt he is, but he had, he was, he had a heating pad on his left shoulder that, you know, hopefully that's okay. But that also felt like a pretty big part of, of why the Clippers were, we're able to

make this comeback. Which brings us to the first thing that I want to tell. talk about. We're going to be breaking down the Clippers as of right now in the present moment, but we're also going to be taking a bit of a big picture approach. And the start of this game really struck me as having parallels, because it was really all about why do you keep trying Luca Donchich? Why do you keep doing this? First of all, you tank to get him. And I don't understand, I don't understand why you would ever do that to Luca, of all people. Like, Luca, who gets up for things like this. Luca, who, the moment you think that he is not going

to be able to do the thing, he just wants to do it just to show you that he can. And then, in game three, after he just slaughtered you, by the way, you're going to, you're going to welcome him back. He's making a hero's return. He has not played a game, a playoff game, in Dallas ever. This is after the bubble, this is after the two games they won this year, and you are introducing him with Zubodge on the switch. You're basically asking for what that first quarter was, and all of it just doesn't make any sense to me, because why would you ask for this? You know exactly what he's going to do to you. Then they made some adjustments, kind of, kind of, kind of, kind of, not the adjustments that I think they needed to make. And they came back and won this game. Was, do you think

there's a path to the Clippers winning the series. It feels super bleak, right? You have to win four out of five games. And the bottom line is Luca Donchich in 39 minutes, he's plus three in a game that they lost by 10. Right? So all that means to me is one, Carlisle, he understands, like,

we have to bury these guys, and that means Luca's going to play excess of 40-something minutes. That's a one. And fundamentally you didn't alter his game. Like this guy came out, he put 44 on you on 28 shots. And that's while shooting 7 of 13 from the free throw line, which I think is worrisome. His free throw shooting, he's got a lot of LeBron in him in that sense.

Like the free throw thing is just one of these weird things where you're draining step back threes. Like he's 7 of 13 from 3 and 7 of 13 from the free throw line. That's just, I. Right? So that's something you got to worry about it. But I just think in the Luca minutes, they didn't prove that this is a team

that they can get consistent stops against. And so to win four out of five against this team, while again, you got monster performances from Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Like these guys played incredibly well on the offensive end. Like Kawhi Leonard, 36 points on 13 of 17 shooting. You know, Paul George, another 29 on 11 of 18. shooting like these guys had solid, efficient knights.

I don't think you can reasonably expect Kauai Lennan to go 13 of 17, you know. And again, you have to win four out of five. You got your one now. But it's like, it just feels like a daunting task. I didn't see anything out of, because they don't have any good answers for Luca, right? Like they don't have the one-on-one guy, which again, why is Kauai not guarding this dude? I don't understand that. Like, you won defensive play of the year awards.

You're known as this legendary generational wing defender. And you're not guarding this dude. I get that you drop 30 now. And, you know, a lot of times defensive first type of guys when they become bucket getters is just like, well, I get buckets now. But if you're Kaua Leonard and you get your own trainer, you practice when you feel like it, You literally helicopter to games. You're a helicopter teammate last year.

You know, you don't talk. Okay, you can have all of those perks. But that comes with a certain amount of responsibility. Why is this fool not Garland Luca? You know, so I don't think this game pretends well for the rest of the series for the clippers. I don't think this is some tide that has shifted, right? Everybody who's listening will remember 2015. Golden State goes down to one to the Memphis Grizzlies.

They put Bogit on Tony Allen, and the series was effectively over after that. This is not, I don't think that was this tonight. You know what I mean? So, no, I don't think the clippers are a shoe-in for making this a competitive series again. Yeah, you're right. There wasn't a defining moment

that showed you why this game was different. But what you're talking about right now kind of gets to why I think this can be a real series because the clippers aren't necessarily doing all that they can do to stop Luca. They haven't even really scratched the surface of that, which is a huge problem. I mean,

Luca entered the game practicing, practicing jumpers over Boban because he knew exactly what was coming, which should be just be embarrassing for the entire clippers, coaching staff. And then they make the, they make the amazing adjustment of now that he's done this to us three times in a row. We're going to bring Patrick Beverly out to the nail because you know that Luca really respects Patrick Beverly, especially as a help defender.

And then they finally switched to Morris, which still isn't really an effective thing to do. Then we see some Reggie Jackson. Fourth quarter, we see Rajon Rondo, probably the closest thing we saw to a good job. I'll say. Kauai and Paul George figure things out on help side against Luka in a way that they had it in the first two games and that does make them more useful there. I don't think you need both of them there. There's a reason you have two of the world's best defenders on the same team playing at the same time. One of those guys needs to be on Luka if the clippers want to win this series. And I think it does make a difference. It's going to be marginal. But ultimately at the

of the day, all this stuff is marginal. I think Kauai should probably be the guy. I don't think Paul can do it. I think if anybody can do it, it's going to be Kauai Leonard, fully load managed and ready to go after, you know, after a pretty, a pretty reasonable load this season. That's, that to me is their path to victory. I think Kauai and Paul have to continue to do what they did tonight. I think they actually might be able to. That's one, that's one thing that I can take away from this game for the Clippers. Once Kauai and, and Paul George decide that they want to get to the rim, especially when they take Vaca out of the game.

Dallas doesn't really have an answer for that. Like, KP can't really switch onto Kauai. He picks up too many fouls. Like, DFS isn't doing it. He's too small. I think honestly, like, if it's really like, if you look at it frame by frame, Luca's probably the guy,

but, you know, for obvious reasons, he's not going to be the one to do it either. So I see a pass. towards it. But a lot went right. And the important adjustments that I think needed to be made weren't. But I think this is

going to be a real series, which is great because these guys hate each other. My God, they hate you. Yeah. Willie Collie Stein, my kind of playoff guy. First of all, the flagrant that they called on him for Terrence, man,

that's, to me, that's just a Tuesday. That's Tuesday to me. That's just a Tuesday file. Like, what are we getting up in arms for? Like, the guy went for the boss, you know, his elbow happened to hit the dude in the chin and it happens. This is the playoffs. You go to the rack. You better expect to get some type of contact, man. This is the fucking, the freaking postseason, you know. But, no, back to your point about Paul George and Kauai Leonard, I think what often happens because both of them are so excellent in the midrange, I don't want to say they're settling, but they're looking for it because it's a shot that they're really good

at making. But I do think when they're attacking the paint, it opens up the mid-range more, right? Like when the defender thinks that you're going all the way to the cup, they're playing you different and your mid-range is open. It's like it's sort of like another game that I watched, the heat versus the bucks where the bucks were just conceding all mid-range to the heat, but they can't make them, right?

Because they know the heat want to get to the basket. They know Bam and Jimmy want to get to the basket. It's the same thing for Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Like, when the defense knows that you want to get all the way to the basket, they play you for the mid-range. And you guys are two of the best mid-range shooters at your position that we have in the game. So it was very heartening to see Paul George actually finishing with a possession with a layup, right? Like going all the way down.

Like, Paul George, there's no reason he shouldn't be getting to the free throw line seven, eight times a game. You know, he doesn't have a matchup where people should be stopped. stopping him from getting into the lane. So it was good that they finally did that. And again, they did play marginally better defense, but it was in a non-luka minutes. And what their problem has been,

the entire series, has been that defense. They've scored reasonably well. They scored enough to win. They just have defended at putrid levels. And tonight, they were better than that. A little bit. A little bit. They were a little bit.

bit better than putrid. No, you know, honestly, like, credit to the Clippers, it did change some things. I think they can make this an interesting series, but at the same time, the reason I have doubts is also because of some of the bigger stuff that floats around them that just suggests

that at some point push is going to come to shove, and they're not going to do what they need to do. And to me, that starts with playmaking. And to me, that's another place where I think Kauai Lennar just needs to be more. he's capable of it. You know, I think just seeing him do it in Toronto,

seeing him do it early on when he first got to L.A. and he was, you know, really trying to be more of a ball handler for them. He's just not really doing that anymore. But when he does, he can make really solid plays. And if not, you know, this is just my opinion. You can let me know what you think. But Kauai playmaking to the extent that he's been doing for probably the second half of the season,

it just makes him obsolete as a superstar. Like, he just kind of needs to step it up and do superstar things at this point. Well, I'm happy you said that because, you know, there's a lot of Boston cats in my mention tonight, in my mentions tonight because Jason Tatum dropped 50. And the other day I said he's not the offensive hub of effective playoff offense. Yeah, they got a win. We get it. But what makes you elite as the fulcrum of a postseason offense that generates quality look after quality look is that you also playmate.

not just that you're a threat to score every time they single cover you. It's that when they try to send two your way, you're picking the defense apart. That's what sets every superstar apart from the next. Like, no, Steph Curry is not John Stockton, but Steph Curry gets the ball out quick when he recognizes the defense is playing them a certain way

and therefore there are creases and he can put his team into advantageous situations, i.e., the famous Draymond four-on-threes, right? He gets the ball at the top of the key because they sent to it to Steph. Draymond is going downhill. He has his pick. If your superstar is not somebody who can find other people, make the guys around him better. We always hear that, but what does that mean?

Get you open looks. Get you easy looks. That's what makes players better when their jobs are easier, right? If your superstar is not doing that, then like you just said, Siri, you're not really a superstar. Like, yeah, you can get a bucket. But there's ways for teams to load up on you and making buckets harder for you and switching up the looks, et cetera, et cetera.

And your offense can get bogged down to that. If you're not at the point of attack, a threat to find open guys as a high usage person, it's hard to really call yourself as superstars. The best in the world at it, LeBron, Yokage, Hardin, even KD to an extent, They're able to get the ball out quickly and set people up.

Yes, Kauai needs to do that. And you're right. I remember the first few games of last season where I was just like, man, Kauai didn't always have this playmaking stuff that he's doing, coming off the pick and roll, finding guys on the weak side, like sending skip passes one-handed off a pick-and-roll. Like, that's not something he was doing. That's hard in LeBron-Luca's stuff that he was doing at times.

last year. And yeah, I think you're right. He does have to assume that role because who else is going to do it on this team? Reggie Jackson, again, I can't stress this enough to people. Reggie Jackson didn't want to pass the ball to Westbrook and KD. That's how much of a ball hog this cat is, right? Luke Kinnard, he's getting 70 mil to not play. He's a towel boy now. So who's supposed to be doing it aside from Rondo? And I don't know if Rondo's the heavy minute guy that you want to put out there. I'm glad you brought up Kinnard and Reggie Jackson in general, because I'd be curious to hear

what you think of lose rotations during this series. The Reggie Jackson thing, I just don't get. I don't, if I'm playing Patrick Beverly and I'm playing Rondo, what do I need Reggie Jackson for? Why do I need the third guy,

the third point guard minutes, where you're supposed to be this team with elite wing depth. Why is Reggie Jackson? I don't understand what he's bringing to the table. This is a team that's not lacking for offensive power. It's not like he's going to go out and, you know, get the floor burns from how much he's

hustling on defense. Look, he came in with a bad rap defensively. He's been competent defensively, but it's not like he's not out there because he's so excellent at that. So he's not there for the scoring. He's not there for the defense. It's not like he's some lights out shooter. What are we doing with this guy?

Yeah. especially when you do have Conard on the bench. It's kind of one of the more strange scenarios in the NBA where you have a player who really demonstrates an organization's missteps both on the front office and the coaching staff because Luke Conard got overpaid earlier this season to come and be the playmaking hole that the Clippers needed. Is that what the Clippers?

Is that what they're getting paid for, Siritt? That's what they thought? Yeah. And look, I don't think that's even, that's not bad person else scouting. That's what Luke Kinnard does. I don't think you need to pay him specifically that much a Mountain Bunny to do it. But that is, I understood why they did it. And they were, I imagine they were probably in a pickle as well. Like, they probably didn't have a lot of leverage in that situation. And if you want to win a championship and you don't mind getting hard capped, honestly, all power to you. Why is he not playing? at all. And why are we not talking about this every day? I think Luca Nard's defense, though, as opposed to what they were putting on the table.

I know. But it's like you got Carlisle and Luca on the other side as the people you're scheming against defensively. This is the highest level of the, the form, right? NBA offense. Yeah, that's why you had at the start of this game. Switching on to Luca for the third game.

You know, it's, look, look, look, these guys are at the highest level of the form. When it comes to NBA offense, like Rick Carlisle, nobody, everybody knows. When it comes to NBA offense, this guy, he spits out competence like nobody else. and then you have Luke Dodgers and it's just like but Luke Conardis's like he's extremely bad like he's extremely slow footed

on defense and I get it not to not to say that they shouldn't try you know sometimes it's kind of like put him out there and like let me just see him completely fuck this up right even the way we're talking about this

like we're talking about it like we're going to try the third string guy just to see what he can do Dude, like, we're going to try to put David Lee into the finals just to see if he can muck things up and create 12 points. Like, this isn't that guy. You just signed this guy. Yeah, yeah. 64 mil. That's tough. Yeah, it's tough.

And, you know, it's so funny, it would be, you know, it would be as if if the Lakers were straight up. Because, you know, Montrez was signed on a mid-level, right? So it's like, all right, you can kind of understand it. But the amount of stuff that they gave away to get Dennis Schrooter, if he didn't play a lick in the three games against Phoenix, we'd be like, huh? We would be very, we would be very confused by that. There would be questions.

There would be questions. Denver just picked up Austin Rivers off the waiver wire and he won them a critical playoff game. Like, you can throw Luke Canard out there, man. I promise you it's not going to be that bad. It's going to be okay. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, and again, again, especially specifically when, and I know people are going to say we're belaboring this point. But like specifically when your two best guys are Paul, George, and Kauai Leonard. What is the point of these guys if I can't play Luke Kinnard near them? You know what I mean? Like, if they're the elite wing defenders that everybody told me they were in the summer of 2019 when the entire freaking media proclaimed the clippers to be absolute dominant world beaters, nobody's going to be able to touch them because of how excellent these cats are at defense, then shit, man, I ought to be able to play Luke Knorrh next to them.

It's strange, but at the same time, like, Luke Conard has his defensive highlight. or low lights, his like shacked in a full defensive moments are so bad, though. And I think that's what Ty Lou is carrying with him. It's like his bad is horrible on that end. It's... What's not enough? What do you think he would be specifically helping them with? I mean, I think...

Let me get on my rappers, so I'll be here for a minute. Yes. Because I think what's happening in this series is a little bit informative of what happened in 2019. And why it is that Kauai looked so dominant. Not that he wasn't. I think Kauai was clearly a healthier player back then. I don't really think at this point there's any denying that. Really?

You think so? Yeah. I thought the second half stretch of the playoffs. Like, game five bucks on or game four bucks on. he didn't look the same to me. Yeah, so that's what had happened, right? So he got hurt at some point in that series. He carried over with him to the finals.

But up until that point, he had been kind of like just getting better with every game and like getting into his final form, as, as, you know, series will do to players, right? You just get more and more challenges as you go on. And like, that's not happening here. Like, this was kind of the first sort of sign that I saw of that happening.

He's not really stepping up and taking those matchups. I know we're belaboring the Luca point, but look, the guy shut down Janus, man. He didn't shut him down, but like, you know, he can take the number one matchup and do some things with him that nobody else in the world can or he should be able to. And after seeing how well he did that before and how well he's doing it right now, maybe either he is not at that health or he is not being pushed to be all that he can be for this team. It's one of those two things, right? So when he was with the Raptors, he was kind of in this ideal situation from an on-court and off-court perspective where you had a lot of guys who can make plays on that team. Like Kyle Lowry, Fred Van Vleet, you can play them together, eventually trade for Marcus Sol, which really is what put that whole team together. Like that trade was everything for them.

And you also had those guys being really vocal off the court. So Kauai didn't have to go out and stretch himself and be honest. He didn't have to do the work of being the high. highest paid, most important person on the team? Look, I think it's okay to not, I think everybody on a championship team has to find a way to mitigate their biggest weaknesses. Sure.

But at the same time, I don't think it would be natural to ask Kauai to be like the vocal spiritual leader of this team. I just think that's way too big of an ask. I think the clippers probably didn't pay enough attention to that side of things. Because you've got a lot of guys on this team that are very temperamental alongside two superstars

that are pretty quiet. And that strikes me as one of their issues pretty much for the last two years. Yeah. It's interesting. I always go back to the Doc and LeBron Little Tiff, right?

Where Doc, well, LeBron went out of his way to talk about he didn't believe in load management, right? Which, this is the guy. I remember this in the 2014-15th season.

He went to Miami for three weeks. Okay. Yeah, but like, he played for the cabs. He went to Cleveland. He went to Miami. He went to Miami for three weeks in the middle of the season. So I'm like,

oh, LeBron is trolling these cats. Okay. then I heard and Doc's night because Doc C, he knew what it was she's like he wants to talk slick we'll talk slick

he's like we have a plan we believe in it the Lakers I don't know if they have a plan their plan is probably whatever LeBron tells him it is but we'll see

who's right at the end of the season you know in hindsight that's kind of like Doc was just projecting and didn't he didn't know it himself thank you thank you that's exactly what I was about to say

the plan is let Kauai do whatever the fuck he wants to do. And if you're the clippers, I understand the impulse to do that. Like, I'm the clippers. I've never landed somebody like this who chose me. And said, I'm coming here, planting the roots here. I want to do it here with you guys.

And I specifically spurned the Lakers who had the ability to acquire me for you guys, right? Like, that's a big deal. So somebody of Kauai's caliber coming off a finals season and a finals MVP, I understand you wanting to move mountains and all of that. But that shit comes at a cost, right? Like when your superstar player doesn't talk to people,

and he trains on his own, and he, everybody else is doing practice stuff and you guys allegedly building towards a championship. And he's like, it'll be like five minutes before, whatever it is. Five minutes might be an exaggeration, but it'd be right before. He's like, I'm not practice today. I'm not playing today.

And then you got a bunch of guys who are, invested on the team. Yeah. You're damn right, Siri. You're going to need some Kyle Lowry's, some Sergei Baca, some Marcus Halls in there that are going to be able to pick up that leadership slack,

if you will. And he did have that in Toronto. And Paul George is nobody's leader. Pat Bev kind of gets thrust into the position, but he's the sixth best player on the team. I think it's okay to be the sixth best player on the team.

Yeah, I think like a guy like Yeah, yeah, it's happened before. To be the guy who's barking orders? Depends who it is. And it's not necessarily about barking orders. Like being a team leader is bigger than that. I think it's just, I think you need a connector. I think you need somebody that can understand everybody on the team.

Gotcha. Like, I want Iguodala. Right. Hey, Isaiah, clip that, please. I didn't pull it off. that well. But okay, anyway. Yeah.

But you know what? It's too bad because the clippers are hard capped. So they're not really going to be able to get anybody unless. But look, people are going to be like, you guys are crazy. They, this is a series now. It's 2-1, et cetera, et cetera. Why are you projecting the doom? Because this is the NBA and that's what we do.

What could they really do if this thing goes up in flames? It's trade Paul George. That's it. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we should, like, I think that might be, with them being two one, I think that might be a bridge too far right now. Because I just, when you see what, when you see what you see from the Clippers, I don't think that those two together are necessarily an issue. If you can bring in somebody that can bring them together. Yeah, I was looking over their assets yesterday. Luke Conard's not an asset? You telling me?

He's saying he's just a couple too many years on his deal I don't know Zubach is actually on a pretty team friendly deal Marcus Morris on his insane deal is not an asset I don't think anybody wants him

for that long Oh okay Yeah Rondo's got two years on his deal Oh okay Yeah it's It's not necessarily looking too great When it comes to

Projecting on Clippers' future Can we address something right now? What? I'm seeing this Kawai Llan Miami stuff, get it out of here. Are you out of your minds? Like, for people to understand the level of cowtowing that goes on for Kauai within the

Clippers, like, they accommodate this dude individually in a very specific and specialized way. That's not the program in Miami. They wouldn't do that shit for LeBron James. That's not happening. all of the preferential treatment you get to live in San Diego when your job is in Los Angeles

Do you imagine Kauai going to Pat Riley Man like yeah I'm just going to be coming in from the keys for the more part Yeah no No No No your load management thing no

No Miami is anti all of the things that the clippers do for this dude And he moved heaven and earth to get to L.A. That blowing up everything in San Antonio, like the hit he took and the way he went about making that happen, he moved heaven and earth to get to where he wanted to be. So this idea that he's going to go to Miami and start taking orders from the Miami Mafia, the heat culture, people are insane. Like, that's not how life goes. It's like sort of like in a corporate world, serious. Like, you don't go from, you know, SVP to VP, EVP.

You don't climb the freaking corporate ladder to president. And then one day, be like, I want to be a director again. No, it doesn't work like that. Kauai Leonard is not going to Miami to have orders to be taking orders from those people. It's not going to happen. Anyway, that was my rent on a heat rumor. Pretty commanding stuff. Yeah, I don't think we're to see Kauai go anywhere.

Was, do you think the clippers have a shot? You always have a shot. in the sense that we see Lucas he got dinged today these series especially when the teams are this competitive

they swing on the margins right and Luca being nicked up and not being able to put his cape on you know that could have an effect I just don't think they figured anything out today

I just don't And so Dallas already has two wins. I think Dallas is going to pull this out. I don't, I mean, making a series means take it to six. I can see it going to six. Sure. Don't make it a series. I can see it going to six.

All right. Well, I think that's a show. How do we do? I don't know. We're going to have to send a note to Chris Ryan and the bosses up there. Hopefully Simmons don't listen to this. Well, that's the answer, everybody. Thank you guys for listening.

You can check out real ones on Monday. Make sure you check out mismatch on Tuesday. Check out all of our stuff at the ringer.com. Also, shout out Logan. Shout out Logan's, uh, Logan's tray piece. Trey Young. Villains are back. Check that out.

Have a good night, guys.