Even The Clippers' Commentary Team Is Falling Apart As The Team Continues To Struggle This Season

By several metrics, the Los Angeles Clippers are failing miserably in the early stages of the 2025–26 season. This past weekend, the list of indicators came to include an incident that was both cringeworthy and hilarious.

News flash: Even the commentators covering the Clippers are falling apart.

In the third quarter of Saturday’s matchup between the Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks, play-by-play commentator Brian Sieman and color analyst Jim Jackson started getting into it on live television. Apparently, Sieman had a bone to pick with a certain question that his partner had asked recently.

“So, I go back to that trivia question you sprung on me, ambushed is a better word, the trios of the NBA…” Sieman said around the 9:36 mark.

“I didn’t ambush. What was an ambush?” Jackson protested.

For about three more minutes, the two commentators bickered while the Clippers and Mavericks fought a tightly contested game. Even when the live feed cut to a replay of Mavericks star rookie Cooper Flagg pulled off an impressive crossover-and-dunk combination, Sieman and Jackson continued to talk about off-tangent things like phrasing and wordplay. 

Every now and then, they’d acknowledge made shots and ball handlers. However, basketball purists looking for insightful analysis weren’t getting their money’s worth at this time.

“So you said trio,” Sieman said during a dead-ball situation with 6:53 left in the third. Jackson insisted, “And you kept going duo. You kept going duo.”

Fans could hardly be blamed if they viewed this on-air brouhaha as a reflection of the Clippers’ season thus far. Heading into that matchup with the Mavs, the Clips had lost 14 of their first 19 games in the 2024–25 campaign. Though the Clippers were leading by four at the start of Sieman and Jackson’s argument, Dallas ended up outscoring them in the second half to win 114–110.

The Clippers had Kawhi Leonard putting up 30 points, eight rebounds, and three assists, as well as James Harden flirting with a triple-double (29 points, eight boards, 11 dimes). Still, a Mavericks lineup with no Anthony Davis, PJ Washington, D’Angelo Russell, Dereck Lively II, and Daniel Gafford was able to power through, largely thanks to Flagg’s 35-point brilliance.

As for Sieman and Jackson, they went on to laugh at themselves before the third quarter came to an end. Their moment of levity completes the analogy: Like Sieman and Jackson’s exchange, the Clippers’ season has been filled with dysfunction that makes it hard for any hoops lover to take them seriously.