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Speaker 1: to Hoops to Night for Zitify FanDuel here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great weekend. I'm not gonna go too long
Speaker 1: today because I'm away from the studio, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit on the three big nationally televised games from the
Speaker 1: last two days. We're gonna hit Warriors Lakers, which just
Speaker 1: went down. Then we're gonna hit Souns MAVs in that
Speaker 1: crazy clutch showdown with Katie hitting the game winner, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna finish up with the Sixers getting a
Speaker 1: signature win on the road in Milwaukee last night. You
Speaker 1: guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So the Lakers get a huge win at
Speaker 1: home over the Golden State Warriors. I thought the story
Speaker 1: of this game was the ball handling differential between the
Speaker 1: Lakers guards, kind of just piecing together what a primary
Speaker 1: ball handler looks like versus kind of an uneven day
Speaker 1: from Jordan Pool in particular. But I do want to
Speaker 1: start with Ad because he was an absolute monster on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor in this game, and he
Speaker 1: deserves the most credit. Thirty nine points on twenty five shots,
Speaker 1: countless important baskets down the stretch, in the short roll
Speaker 1: and in isolation. He took much better care of the
Speaker 1: basketball than he did against Minnesota, which is a huge
Speaker 1: plot line in this game for the Lakers guards in particular,
Speaker 1: and he completely and utterly locked down the paint, held
Speaker 1: the Warriors to just twenty six points in the paint
Speaker 1: in this game. Went with a similar scheme to what
Speaker 1: they've used against the Warriors in the last couple of matchups,
Speaker 1: ignoring the non shooters trying to deny in top lock
Speaker 1: the off ball shooters. The Warriors did a much better
Speaker 1: job in this game of getting separation from those top locks.
Speaker 1: They got a lot of open shots curling around. Steph
Speaker 1: got hot in the fourth quarter and they had to
Speaker 1: start chasing him off the line and started to open
Speaker 1: up some things at the rim. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis did an amazing job locking down the paint
Speaker 1: and on the biggest possession of the game, a straight
Speaker 1: face up ISO against Draymond Green on that left block.
Speaker 1: You know when I've been critical of him over the
Speaker 1: years of settling for jumpers a lot in those situations,
Speaker 1: he just ripped through to the baseline. And again, Draymond
Speaker 1: is probably, if not the best, one of the very
Speaker 1: best defenders at his position in the league. Didn't settle,
Speaker 1: ripped through the baseline, went through that little push shot
Speaker 1: that he always goes to where he just kind of
Speaker 1: reaches up over the top of the defense and kind
Speaker 1: of shoots like a floater. And I've said a lot
Speaker 1: in recent weeks like that's when you can tell when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is really locked in, it is when he's
Speaker 1: making that little push shot, that floater. He had another
Speaker 1: big one in the short roll where he hit a
Speaker 1: floater over Looney down the stretch. That's that same type
Speaker 1: of shot, just in a short roll situation instead of
Speaker 1: in an ISO situation. That's when you can tell that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is really locked in, and he he made
Speaker 1: all the big plays down the stretch of this game
Speaker 1: to get the win. So tip of the cap to him.
Speaker 1: You know, I've said with a d a bunch, but
Speaker 1: this is such a great opportunity hit for him to
Speaker 1: prove his MVP value Because this Lakers team, if they
Speaker 1: can get healthy, if they can get D'Angelo Russell out there,
Speaker 1: if they can get Lebron James out there, they are good,
Speaker 1: not just good, but a legitimate threat in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter if they don't make it out
Speaker 1: of this play in tournament scramble situation. And the only
Speaker 1: way they're gonna do that with D'Angelo Russell taking his
Speaker 1: sweet time getting back from an ankle injury and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis or excuse me, Lebron James being out with his
Speaker 1: foot injury. They need Anthony Davis to produce at an
Speaker 1: all world level, and for the most part, he's been
Speaker 1: doing that. It's been a little uneven from time to time,
Speaker 1: but he's done what he's needed to do to notch
Speaker 1: a couple of wins here. And you know, it is
Speaker 1: specifically like that Minnesota Timberwolves win. That's a tough one.
Speaker 1: That's one that, especially with all of the other things
Speaker 1: that broke right for them in the standings, unique, but
Speaker 1: winning this one against Golden State, which I didn't think
Speaker 1: they'd be able to win without D'Angelo Russell, so major
Speaker 1: shout out to them. It kind of undoes some of
Speaker 1: the damage from that loss to Minnesota. But again I said,
Speaker 1: the story of this game was the collective ball handling
Speaker 1: of the Lakers Austin Reeves, Lonnie Walker, Dennis Schroeder and
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley. They took way better care of the basketball
Speaker 1: than they did against Minnesota. Nine total turnovers. Those four
Speaker 1: guys combined for forty six points and seventeen assists. That's
Speaker 1: cobbling together. Primary ball handling. Austin Reeves in particular was
Speaker 1: amazing sixteen points, eight assists in just twenty eight minutes
Speaker 1: only two turnovers made of huge three on the left
Speaker 1: wing in the fourth quarter. Just in general, you know, again,
Speaker 1: I like him slotted better as kind of like a
Speaker 1: second side guy, as that fifth starter, especially in clutch
Speaker 1: situations and running bench groups. But all of these guys,
Speaker 1: all four of these guys have been put in a
Speaker 1: tough spot because with D'Angelo Russell being with Lebron James
Speaker 1: being out, every single one of them is kind of underqualified,
Speaker 1: so to speak, for what they're being asked to do
Speaker 1: filling those roles. And particularly in the thunder win when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis sat out and in this game against the Warriors,
Speaker 1: though all of those guys stepped up and made big
Speaker 1: plays to help them win a game they shouldn't have
Speaker 1: been able to win. One last Laker I wanted to
Speaker 1: shout out was Troy Brown Junior. He hit a bunch
Speaker 1: of super important threes, including one on the right wing
Speaker 1: there down the stretch that wasn't even open, just rose
Speaker 1: up and knocked it down. That's a that is a confident,
Speaker 1: you know, like audacity type of shot that you love
Speaker 1: to see from a guy. And I think it's a
Speaker 1: great example of the benefit of having the pedigree that
Speaker 1: Troy Brown has. He's a former lottery pick who's now
Speaker 1: operating in a smaller role on a veteran minimum contract,
Speaker 1: But that is a player who earlier in his basketball
Speaker 1: career had the ball in his hands a lot and
Speaker 1: has a lot of confidence, and he leaned on it
Speaker 1: in that moment. On the Warriors front, I thought Steph
Speaker 1: was better than I expected him to be. He usually
Speaker 1: struggles with rhythm in these types of games. Didn't struggle
Speaker 1: as nearly as much as I expected to Usually when
Speaker 1: he comes back from injury, there's that three four game
Speaker 1: kind of like get back up to speed, get the
Speaker 1: timing right on everything before he really starts clicking, and
Speaker 1: he was pretty good right away. The Warriors made several
Speaker 1: runs in this game. I'm sure as a Warriors fan
Speaker 1: it was frustrating for you guys watching because it was
Speaker 1: like they just kept getting right back to within one,
Speaker 1: and then the Lakers would go on a run, and
Speaker 1: then they get back to with one, and then the
Speaker 1: Lakers would go on a run. That happened like seven
Speaker 1: or eight times in this game. The one guy in
Speaker 1: particular I thought really struggled today was Jordan Poole. And
Speaker 1: specifically on the last big Lakers run when they in
Speaker 1: the middle of the fourth quarter. I thought Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: took a couple of really bad shots early in possessions
Speaker 1: without really having his feet set that I thought sprung
Speaker 1: those Laker that final Laker run to get them back
Speaker 1: into the league. Now, some of it's to be expected.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a guy who's been starting a
Speaker 1: lot out of this season as a result of the
Speaker 1: Steph Curry injuries, and it's a complete roll shift. Not
Speaker 1: only is he coming off the bench, he's running with
Speaker 1: different groups plays that when he's on the floor with
Speaker 1: Steph's suddenly plays that we're running for him are being
Speaker 1: run for Steff. So I want to cut him some
Speaker 1: slack from the standpoint of just having that wrench thrown
Speaker 1: into everything. But I thought that him, in particular, that
Speaker 1: gap between like Austin Reeves's production today and Jordan Poole
Speaker 1: was a huge swing factor in a game that the
Speaker 1: Warriors should have won. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: Suns MAVs. So I only caught the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this one, but I'm going to watch the rest tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: and if I see anything specifically interesting. We'll cover it
Speaker 1: in tomorrow's show. We have Nick's Celtics tonight two. That
Speaker 1: game we're gonna be covering tomorrow as well, So a
Speaker 1: ton of good stuff to get into in tomorrow's show.
Speaker 1: But the Sun's win one thirty to one twenty six.
Speaker 1: Katie hits the game winner with eleven seconds left. You know,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting counter from Katie on that possession because
Speaker 1: the MAVs doubled him on almost all of his touches,
Speaker 1: especially on like high post low post, like catching triple
Speaker 1: threat type of situations. They were double teaming him, and
Speaker 1: on this particular possession, he's kind of dribbling out front
Speaker 1: against Tim Hardaway Junior at the logo and Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: just hard doubles from the right wing. And what he did,
Speaker 1: which I thought was really smart, as he made the
Speaker 1: swing pass to ish Wayne Wright and then that caused
Speaker 1: Kyrie to recover, and then when he got the ball back,
Speaker 1: he did a rip through away from the double team.
Speaker 1: So he took the double team out as an option
Speaker 1: by going quickly in the opposite direction. The Dallas defense
Speaker 1: was set up to double from Kyrie's side, and by
Speaker 1: Katie ripping through and going the other way. Kyrie kind
Speaker 1: of meandered in that direction like kind of soft, like
Speaker 1: chasing him like he was gonna double, but he would
Speaker 1: have had to sprint to get there in time, and
Speaker 1: that allowed Katie to operate one on one, and he
Speaker 1: just hit that classic dribble pull up jump shot that
Speaker 1: he's made so many times in his career and that
Speaker 1: he's been hitting at an insane rate this season. Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant is shooting a sixty percent effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on pull up jump shots this year. How freaking insane
Speaker 1: is that that's pull up off the dribble jump shots,
Speaker 1: one of the toughest shots in the league, counting when
Speaker 1: you add the weight of three point shots in their value,
Speaker 1: a sixty percent effective field goal percentage, which was just insane.
Speaker 1: Then Luca goes down and he smokes an easy layup.
Speaker 1: But Devin Booker comes in and has a little moment
Speaker 1: at his expense. And I tweeted about this, but like again,
Speaker 1: I liked Devin Booker for the record, so this is
Speaker 1: not me coming after him in the sense that you
Speaker 1: would think, But to be honest, like I thought it
Speaker 1: was kind of lame that, you know, Luca literally went
Speaker 1: into your house in a playoff series and embarrassed you.
Speaker 1: And in a regular season game where Kevin Durant hits
Speaker 1: the game winner, you're gonna start talking shit to Luca
Speaker 1: at that point like that just I mean again, some
Speaker 1: of it, that's just Devin Booker's personality. He's a shit talker.
Speaker 1: He does that all the time. But it did come
Speaker 1: off kind of lame when it's like, Okay, you brought
Speaker 1: in maybe the best player in the world to win
Speaker 1: a battle for you, and then you're gonna talk shit
Speaker 1: when literally Luca just embarrassed you on the bigger stage,
Speaker 1: not a regular season stage, but literally a playoff stage
Speaker 1: when you were the one seed in the conferences. It
Speaker 1: was definitely a little bit weird. But the suns Lay
Speaker 1: game offense was super interesting. Like I said, they were
Speaker 1: doubling Kad on the catch and they got a lot
Speaker 1: of really wide open shots out of that ish Waynwright
Speaker 1: and CP three in particular actually missed a couple of
Speaker 1: wide open shots down the stretch of this game, so
Speaker 1: their offense they were generating extremely high quality shots. There
Speaker 1: was a quote, I think it was from the last game,
Speaker 1: the Bulls game I can't remember who the reporter was,
Speaker 1: so I apologize for not getting this right. But somebody
Speaker 1: questioned him on just how he's been handling the doubles,
Speaker 1: and Kadi said something in the presser that's been something
Speaker 1: that I've talked about a lot, which is if, like
Speaker 1: your job as in a primary initiator is not necessarily
Speaker 1: to shoot every time or to get the assist, it's
Speaker 1: to draw that second defender to create that initial advantage
Speaker 1: that the other basketball hit players on your team can
Speaker 1: further the advantage and get that really great shot, right.
Speaker 1: And Katie straight up said that after when he was
Speaker 1: questioned about it and basically said, like, I understand that
Speaker 1: my role is to draw that second defender and from there,
Speaker 1: he said in the in the quote, he's like, from
Speaker 1: there we can play. That's when basketball starts, is the
Speaker 1: way he framed it. And that's the thing is like,
Speaker 1: when you have that four on three, now it's that
Speaker 1: driving kick basketball and guys making reads, but you need
Speaker 1: to get the basketball to start. And the only way
Speaker 1: the basketball is gonna start is if your best player
Speaker 1: or whoever your primary initiator is, can draw that second
Speaker 1: defender in to start that four on three action, but
Speaker 1: even when the MAVs got misses, they couldn't close out
Speaker 1: the defensive possession. The MAVs got two stops in the
Speaker 1: final minute of that game, they forced CP three into
Speaker 1: a miss at the foul line, Devin Booker missed like
Speaker 1: a driving, floating bank shot, and on both of them,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton kept the possession alive. On the first one
Speaker 1: he drew a foul and then on the second one,
Speaker 1: when Booker shot that driving bank shot, he drew Powell
Speaker 1: into help and as a result, that left Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Luca to contend with DeAndre eton under the basket, which
Speaker 1: is a battle they're gonna lose almost every single time,
Speaker 1: he ended up getting the offensive rebound putback, and again
Speaker 1: like this is this is if you have real size
Speaker 1: and athleticism at the forward position, then you can crack
Speaker 1: down from the wing and you have a chance of
Speaker 1: winning that rebounding battle. But this is a team that
Speaker 1: just doesn't have that athleticism. Like if Maxi Kleiba or
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell are drawn in to a ball handle or
Speaker 1: driving to the basket, everyone around them is going to
Speaker 1: be a guard or Luca, who's not a great athlete,
Speaker 1: So you're not going to win a lot of those
Speaker 1: contested rebound battles. That's just the reality of Dallas's predicament.
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Luca were both magnificent down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. They went blow for blow with the Suns,
Speaker 1: but the Sun's got two additional opportunities because of a
Speaker 1: physical disadvantage in the front court in the form of
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton. It's impossible to win games, or I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say impossible, but it's gonna make it so much harder
Speaker 1: to win games when you're asking your players to be
Speaker 1: nearly perfect because the other team has more margin for
Speaker 1: error because of their physical advantages. This game swung on
Speaker 1: Phoenix getting two additional shots because of two box out
Speaker 1: situations where the Mavericks couldn't contend physically. And the reality
Speaker 1: is is that problem will only get exacerbated when they
Speaker 1: get into the postseason. I'm going to dive into the
Speaker 1: film of this one tomorrow and if I see anything
Speaker 1: else interesting, we'll call. We'll dive into it in tomorrow's show.
Speaker 1: So the Sixers get a signature win on the road
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee one thirty three to one thirty. I've said
Speaker 1: a half dozen times on the show in the last
Speaker 1: few months that I've been super impressed with the fight,
Speaker 1: just that like competitive energy, and that like we're in
Speaker 1: the trenches together and we're going to find a way
Speaker 1: to win this game. Type of energy that I've seen
Speaker 1: from James Harden and Joel Embiid not just on a
Speaker 1: night in a night out basis, but especially in these
Speaker 1: major nationally televised games. Even in that game they lost
Speaker 1: against Boston, like they battled down the stretch of that
Speaker 1: game and made a lot of big plays, and you
Speaker 1: know what, you lost to a really good team on
Speaker 1: a really tough shot, which is gonna happen sometimes from
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum. But I've been impressed with their battle a
Speaker 1: lot this season. And you know, last night went on
Speaker 1: the road to what I think is the best team
Speaker 1: in the league in the Milwaukee Bucks, and both James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joel Embiid out played Jannis to not yet
Speaker 1: another signature win for them. I wanted to start with
Speaker 1: the shift to start the fourth quarters. So the Bucks
Speaker 1: were up double digits and Harden's running the bench group
Speaker 1: and he got them back into the game on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. On one end of the flour,
Speaker 1: he's guarding Jannis and on the other end of the flour,
Speaker 1: just making Milwaukee pay for their base shell principle defensive scheme.
Speaker 1: Like I've talked a lot when we talked about Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior, about having a tall player on the week
Speaker 1: side who was an aggressive and dead eye shooter. When
Speaker 1: you have that, it makes even shell drill principles, you know, useless,
Speaker 1: because the idea of shell drills, like if the balls
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the floor and I'm guarding
Speaker 1: the shooter, I am going to position myself several steps
Speaker 1: away from the shooter to be ready to help if
Speaker 1: I need to. Right. But when you have these super
Speaker 1: aggressive tall shooters a rifle pass into the shooting pocket,
Speaker 1: I can't rotate in time, not enough, not in time
Speaker 1: to bother that shot. And James Harden time and time
Speaker 1: again to start the fourth quarter of this game, was
Speaker 1: making that swing pass across the court just like Yokich
Speaker 1: does the Michael Porter Jr. But to your just kneeang
Speaker 1: and he was knocking him down and that was the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the run. On the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, James Harden held his own more than held
Speaker 1: his own against Giannis. There was a player Jannis got
Speaker 1: to the foul line, but for the most part, he
Speaker 1: held his own. Now, that's not something that you're going
Speaker 1: to go to in large doses in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: Jannis would figure that out and he would barbecue him.
Speaker 1: But in small doses like that, Harden has some physical advantages.
Speaker 1: He's built like a truck. He's got a low center
Speaker 1: of gravity. He's really hard to move off his spot.
Speaker 1: He's always a good post defender. Some of you guys
Speaker 1: might remember in that first elim ending game in the
Speaker 1: All Star Game, when James Harden was having some success
Speaker 1: guarding Jannis Antenna Kompo on the post right at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like that, just sliding your feet,
Speaker 1: having that taking that contact in the chest, having the
Speaker 1: strength to hold your ground. That will at least force
Speaker 1: Jannis to make shots over the top. They're gonna be
Speaker 1: easier shots because he has such a height advantage, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna make him make shots over the top. And
Speaker 1: Jannis has struggled making shots over the top this year,
Speaker 1: and James Harden got a bunch of stops there. But
Speaker 1: the bench unit basically erased a double digit lead, Milwaukee
Speaker 1: punched back. Brook Lopez was incredible down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game, made a huge three. He had like a
Speaker 1: really nifty kind of under the rim layup on Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad made him nice play in the short role to
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday in the week side corner. He was magnificent.
Speaker 1: But James Harden and Joel Embiid just went blow for
Speaker 1: blow with the Bucks every possession. Down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. Harden was beaten Chris Middleton off the dribble
Speaker 1: to draw fouls and to get all the way to
Speaker 1: the him. Joel embie when he was catching on his
Speaker 1: short roll, was being super physically aggressive to the rim
Speaker 1: to force the refs to blow the whistle. It wasn't
Speaker 1: grifty stuff, it was just physical aggression. He wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to draw fouls. He was just going hard to the
Speaker 1: rim and it was resulting in fouls. That to me
Speaker 1: is a way more honorable way to get to the
Speaker 1: foul line. But then they won the game on two
Speaker 1: critical threes in two critical stops. The first three was
Speaker 1: James Harden. I think it was Drew Holiday went underneath
Speaker 1: the screen. Now from way out, it was like a
Speaker 1: twenty eight footer, but James Harden rose up and knocked
Speaker 1: down that three over the top of that of that
Speaker 1: ball screen. And then the second one, Joel embiid with
Speaker 1: that pump bake and kind of reoriented himself and had
Speaker 1: a wide open three from the top of the key
Speaker 1: and he knocked it down. They made the two shots,
Speaker 1: and then on the other end they got two critical stops.
Speaker 1: The first one, the Bucks ran a ton of Drew
Speaker 1: Jannis pick and roll down the stretch of this game,
Speaker 1: and you know, Jannis actually drew a couple of fouls
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter on lob passes because it was
Speaker 1: kind of a tough predicament because you know, Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: hit a short pull up jump shot in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: so like Joel's having to come out from his drop
Speaker 1: to contain the ball handler right, which puts you in
Speaker 1: a tough spot on the back line. But on the
Speaker 1: first stop after the James Harden three, if I'm getting
Speaker 1: my possessions correctly, he Joel and Be did a really
Speaker 1: impressive job of showing out to stop Drew from taking
Speaker 1: the three, but then sprinted back in time to force
Speaker 1: Jannis into a post up rather than just to catch
Speaker 1: and finish, and he forced Jannis into a miss under
Speaker 1: the rim. It was an incredible defensive effort. And then
Speaker 1: after he hit the three to give him the lead,
Speaker 1: he just straight up switched the pick and roll onto
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday, which completely threw the Bucks off. They didn't
Speaker 1: even know what to do next because they were operating
Speaker 1: in that like pick and roll short roll situation the
Speaker 1: entire fourth quarter, and he slid his feet. Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: didn't kind of know what to do, and he ended
Speaker 1: up taking a tough, contested three off the dribble. Joel
Speaker 1: got a good contest and he forced the miss and
Speaker 1: that was the game. So you know, down the stretch
Speaker 1: of this game, James Harden and Joel Embid were the
Speaker 1: two best players on the floor. They made all the
Speaker 1: big plays on both ends of the floor. And that's
Speaker 1: why I haven't been able to write off Philly again.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna pick Philly to win the East.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick probably Milwaukee or Boston. Right if Milwaukee
Speaker 1: or Boston end up in a playoff series against Philly
Speaker 1: in the second round, I will be picking Milwaukee or Boston. Okay,
Speaker 1: but all season long. What I've told you guys is
Speaker 1: Philly has a real chance. If James Harden and Joel
Speaker 1: and Bid play this well, they can beat anybody. I'm
Speaker 1: skeptical too. Embiad's perimeter jumpshot has fallen apart a few times.
Speaker 1: He's been exposed in some specific matchups with his foot speed.
Speaker 1: James Harden obviously has a long resume of struggling in
Speaker 1: the NBA postseason. I'm skeptical too, but if they play
Speaker 1: to this level in the postseason, they are talented enough
Speaker 1: to beat anybody and we can't write them off. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. We're gonna be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow covering Nick Celtics, a little bit more from that
Speaker 1: Sun's MAVs game and whatever. I'll have to look at
Speaker 1: the slate to see if there's any other interesting games tonight.
Speaker 1: That show should be releasing in the early evening tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so to keep an eye on the feeds. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your guys as support and I will see
Speaker 1: you next time. The volume