Julian Delgado: Who was your favorite NBA player when you were growing up? #LACmailbag
WJ – “Scottie Pippen. He did everything. It wasn’t just one thing he was overly good at. He would get the rebound, score, defend, sacrifice himself. You’ve got to think about the team they had – (Michael) Jordan, (Steve) Kerr, (Toni) Kukoc, all those guys. I’ve got film on them when they used to play. I love watching them, still do.”Jamie Bohn: Who has the most entertaining dance after a game in the locker room? #LACmailbag
WJ – “I have to give it to J.J. You’ve got to see it, I can’t give it away. He’s got rhythm. It’s just funny, because you think about J.J. being so serious.”Laabs_sports (@The_eminem_shuw): Do you have any pre-game ritual? #LACmailbag
WJ – “I’m pretty routine with all the stuff I do, but I always have to text my mom and my wife before the game. It’s like almost 40 minutes on the clock before the game, I’ll do it. I always have to. If I forget, I run back in the locker room and text them, just tell them I love them.”
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What’s it been like having Paul Pierce around?
CP: “It’s been great. Paul, we laughed and joked this summer when we were at (DeAndre Jordan)’s house about having a veteran guy like that. Me and Paul went to dinner last night, just me and him, sat there and talked, and he said he’s responsible for the dunks tonight.”You held your hands up on the first dunk, what were you saying?
CP: “I was just surprised. Don’t look at me, look at everybody on the bench. Doc (Rivers) was even with his hands up, and I was sort of just like, ‘I don’t know.’ I met my quota though. I usually get one or two for the season.”
Do you have to change the way you play with Blake Griffin out?
CP: “Losing Blake is a huge void. We all might have to be a little bit more aggressive. Me and Jamal (Crawford), J.J., we talk about that. The movement’s not the same, the easy baskets aren’t the same. You don’t have to overdo it, but you have to play a little bit harder.”
Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com
Nathanael Luther: What’s the memorable highlight of your career? #LACmailbag
Redick: “Man, well, I think winning Game 7s. Those are the best feelings I’ve had as an NBA player. That would be San Antonio last year, Golden State the year before, at Boston in ’09. I think winning Game 7s, it’s an incredible feeling.”
Graciela Santa Velazquez: What inspired you to get tattoos? #LACmailbag
Redick: “I like the way a sleeve looks, I guess that’s part of it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a few years. Probably a half truth, half joking, but the tattoo that’s existing on my left forearm I’ve hated since I got it, so it was a way to kind of cover that up to get a whole sleeve.”Adeleine Shayne Tan (@AdeleineShayne): Don’t know if you’ve ever been asked this, but why do you wear No. 4? #LACmailbag
Redick: “I wore 25 growing up. When I was a freshman in high school, I went to a Duke football game and I walked into Cameron for the first time and No. 25 was retired. I had to choose a different number. My high school had 4 and 3 as options, and I knew an upperclassman was going to pick 3, so I chose 4.”
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How’d it feel to get the added minutes tonight?
Aldrich: “It felt good. My goal all year is just to stay ready. It’s not easy, it’s never fun, but you just stay ready and have a positive attitude and go out and play hard.”How difficult with few practices and not much previous playing time was it to have your conditioning where you wanted it to be?
Aldrich: “It’s tough. Everybody else gets an off day, and you don’t. It’s just coming in early and being a professional. I felt pretty good. I did.”
Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com
Jordan’s Intelligence, Voice Stand Out To SnyderIt’s not the rebounding, the blocks or the dunks that stand out to Utah head coach Quin Snyder when he thinks about DeAndre Jordan.
Snyder said all that is evident, and he could echo the sentiments of everyone else when they talk about Jordan’s best traits, but what he believes doesn’t get referenced enough is Jordan’s intelligence on the court.
“I just think he’s a really smart player,” Snyder said before Saturday’s game. “I had a little moment with him where he’s looking at me for a play call and I was telling him, I said, ‘You don’t know our calls yet?’ and he says, ‘We’ve only played you once,’ so I figured he would remember it from last year.”Snyder compared Jordan to Ray Lewis or Mike Singletary the way he reads an offense.
“One of those guys that’s kind of a captain defensively and tells people where to go and what to do,” Snyder said. “He has that kind of presence in a game, not just at the rim.”“Or on the court, saying, ‘Try this, try that,’ he’s really good about it,” Aldrich said. “Some guys are just vocal just to be vocal. Some guys speak when they want to be heard. Every time DJ speaks, everybody’s ears perk up and listen.
“We all know he’s smart and he knows what he’s talking about. That’s what’s fun. You see that, and you kind of see the evolution from when we were all little high school kids to now. To see that growth is cool.”
Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com
Redick Finishes Off A December To RememberEight minutes into the game, the Pelicans had scored 17 points, while Redick was the only Clipper in the scoring column. Yet the Clippers only trailed by four.
“We were dead,” Redick said. “This was our fifth in seven nights, all on the road, five different cities. We talked about it during the first timeout a few of us on the bench, we were just like, ‘Let’s keep it close for a while. We’ll get our energy, we’ll get our rhythm.’ We just didn’t have it at the beginning of the game, so I just wanted to be aggressive and get us going offensively.”“We don’t see J.J. all summer, he goes to Austin, Texas, and probably sits on a back porch and fishes,” Rivers joked. “But he does something. This year, clearly he’s driving more. I think that’s what’s changed his game. He’s putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket. With that shot, it’s allowing him to get free.”
Redick said driving isn’t something he consciously worked on more this summer, but he believes his physical condition and shape could play a part. That, and a developed ability to read defenses.“I feel like I’ve played pretty well this whole month,” Redick said. “The rhythm is there, for sure.”
Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com
