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Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at

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Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you

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Speaker 1: guys have had a great week so far. Cover to

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Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. Here. Hoops Tonight is brought to you

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Speaker 1: by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right?

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Speaker 1: So watch hoard over the film this morning and all

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Speaker 1: of the data, and I have a lot of notes

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Speaker 1: on a very interesting game one of the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three NBA Finals. Is going to get into all of

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Speaker 1: that stuff today to prep you guys for Game two.

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Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any

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Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore

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Speaker 1: Jason lts you guys don't miss an show announcements. And

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason you guys missed one of these videos

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Speaker 1: and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish,

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Speaker 1: I'll forget. You can find them wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops Tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,

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Speaker 1: as I said last night, Miami played a really clean game,

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Speaker 1: and that was even more apparent as I looked over

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Speaker 1: the numbers they gave up just nine points in transition

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Speaker 1: attacks from Denver. To give you guys some perspective against

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Speaker 1: the Lake, the Denver Nuggets average twenty three points per

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Speaker 1: game in transition, So a really clean effort from Miami

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Speaker 1: sprinting back and stopping those Denver pushes. They had just

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Speaker 1: eight turnovers, Like we mentioned, forty five to forty three

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Speaker 1: on the glass. Really competitive there, and by cutting all

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Speaker 1: of that easy stuff out, they basically forced Denver to

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Speaker 1: play in the half court, and as a result, they

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Speaker 1: actually held them to a respectable one to twelve offensive rating,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty good compared to the one twenty two

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Speaker 1: that they had against the Lakers. That gives you an

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Speaker 1: example of that's a perfect example of what I've always

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Speaker 1: talked about about the stuff on the margins of games

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Speaker 1: that wins. When we zoom in on the half court,

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Speaker 1: it's a better indicator of talent because that's your static

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Speaker 1: basketball situation. But there's all sorts of things that happen

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Speaker 1: in basketball games that can swing outcomes that go beyond

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Speaker 1: that half court static situation. And one of the best

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Speaker 1: ways that Miami gives them a chance to win every

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Speaker 1: single night is they tend to be really sharp in

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Speaker 1: those details. That's a non negotiable thing for the Heat

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Speaker 1: the rest of the way, that has to be every night.

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Speaker 1: They have to compete on the glass, they have to

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Speaker 1: take care of the basketball, and they have to get

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Speaker 1: back in transition and force Denver to attack them in

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Speaker 1: the half court. Secondly, one of the biggest narratives coming

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Speaker 1: out of last night's game was that Miami did not

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Speaker 1: shoot the ball particularly well, which is hilarious to me

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Speaker 1: because Denver shot twenty nine percent from three, and I

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Speaker 1: dove into those numbers a little bit further as well

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Speaker 1: to give you guys some data. So when Denver was

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Speaker 1: wide open from three, so at least six feet away

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Speaker 1: from the defender, they were three for nine, which is

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Speaker 1: thirty three percent. They were three for ten on open

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Speaker 1: shots that's defender four to six feet away, which is

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Speaker 1: thirty percent. For Miami, they were five for sixteen on

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Speaker 1: wide open threes, which is just thirty one percent, But

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Speaker 1: they were six for fourteen on open threes that's four

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Speaker 1: to six feet away, that's forty three percent. So if

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Speaker 1: you combine every single three for both teams where the

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Speaker 1: defender was at least four feet away, Denver was six

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Speaker 1: for nineteen, which is thirty two percent. Miami was eleven

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Speaker 1: for thirty, which is thirty seven percent. So when it

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Speaker 1: came to knocking down relatively uncontested shots, Miami actually shot

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Speaker 1: better than Denver. So I don't think there's some universe

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Speaker 1: in this series where we can look at that game

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Speaker 1: and say shooting variants was what cost Miami. It's just

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Speaker 1: simply not the case. For the record Michael Porter Junior,

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Speaker 1: who was two for eleven from three last night, seven

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Speaker 1: of those were either open or wide open, and he

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Speaker 1: only made one of them. So is Michael Porter Junior

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Speaker 1: You're gonna go one for seven on open and wide

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Speaker 1: open threes the rest of the series. I say, probably not,

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Speaker 1: because the dude's the best spot up shooter in the

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Speaker 1: league in my opinion. So I don't see shooting variants

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Speaker 1: as something that affected Miami last night. They're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to figure out some other way to win games in

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Speaker 1: this series. Denver also has a tendency to wear teams out.

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Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot last night, the fatigue

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Speaker 1: element of playing against Denver and all their size and

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Speaker 1: the altitude and the way that disrupts the energy transfer

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Speaker 1: for shooters. That's something that can only get worse as

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Speaker 1: the series progresses, because Denver is a bigger team that

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Speaker 1: is in better shape. So I do think that that

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Speaker 1: specific area of the game actually leans towards Denver as

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Speaker 1: we look forward in the series. I want to zoom

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Speaker 1: in on Miami's defense against Denver's half court offense to start,

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Speaker 1: and then we'll go over to the other side. So

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Speaker 1: in pick and roll the Nuggets generated one point zero

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Speaker 1: nine points per possession on twenty two pick and rolls,

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Speaker 1: which is excellent. When I noticed on film early in

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Speaker 1: the game, you guys might remember Jamal Murray's first basket

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Speaker 1: when he got downhill on the right side of the floor,

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Speaker 1: and I think he got into Jimmy Butler's chest and

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Speaker 1: made a layup if I remember correctly. But on that play,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that Miami was doing is they

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Speaker 1: were trying really hard to front the post. So one

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Speaker 1: of the plays that Denver runs almost every game at

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Speaker 1: the beginning is essentially a cross screen for Yokic to

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Speaker 1: get him coming over to the right block with the

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Speaker 1: defender trailing him so that he can attack from the post. Well,

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Speaker 1: Bam went over and fronted and rather than trying to

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Speaker 1: throw that over the top pass Bam actually just Jokic

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Speaker 1: just walked Bam up into a ball screen with Jamal Murray,

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Speaker 1: except for BAM's trapped on the top side of the screen,

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Speaker 1: so how can he help in a drop coverage if

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Speaker 1: he's on the other side of Jokic. Jamal Murray just

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Speaker 1: went right around that screen and there's no help, and

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Speaker 1: that's how he got all the way downhill got to

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Speaker 1: the rim. Well. Bam eventually ends up adjusting by starting

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Speaker 1: to disengage from those fronts and sit back into a

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Speaker 1: drop coverage. And Jamal Murray just because Jokic is so

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Speaker 1: good of a screener, such a good screener, and Jamal

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Speaker 1: is so good at setting up his man for screen

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Speaker 1: and rolls, he was able to get a bunch of

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Speaker 1: good looks and pull up situations and driving to the basket.

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Speaker 1: He had one point three to eight points per possession

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Speaker 1: as the pick and roll ball handler last night for Denver,

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Speaker 1: so a lot of stuff there that was successful for Denver.

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Speaker 1: In the zone that Miami ran in the fourth quarter,

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Speaker 1: they also ran a lot of stuff and pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: There was one where Yokic caught it on a slip

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Speaker 1: and he hit Jeff Green cutting along the baseline. I

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Speaker 1: actually put this clip on my Twitter feed so you

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Speaker 1: can see it. But there was that double screen that

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Speaker 1: I really liked where they had KCP screen the top

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Speaker 1: right guy on the zone or top left guy in

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Speaker 1: the zone if you're facing the basket and Yokic screen

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Speaker 1: the top right guy on the zone face in the basket.

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Speaker 1: And as Jamal Murray came across right when Gabe Vincent

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Speaker 1: stepped out, that was when Jokic slipped. He hit Jokic bam.

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Speaker 1: Because he was paranoid about that drop off pass to

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Speaker 1: Jeff Green kind of hung back a little bit. That's

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Speaker 1: where Yokic got to that little floater that he's going

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Speaker 1: to make so consistently. The reality is is as I

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Speaker 1: looked at the film, I didn't really see a good option.

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Speaker 1: And that's just the reality of defending the Denver Nuggets.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, a lot of the adjustments that we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about as it pertains to the Nuggets

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Speaker 1: are not necessarily schematic adjustments. It's just things that they

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Speaker 1: need to do better, which we'll talk about here in

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Speaker 1: just a minute. When they were switching so they switched

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Speaker 1: a lot off ball actions, and they occasionally switched some

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Speaker 1: pick and rolls. Denver scored twenty one points on seventeen

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Speaker 1: post ups, which is one point twenty four points per possession.

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Speaker 1: Early in the game, there was one off ball screen

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Speaker 1: where Aaron Gordon got switched on to Gabe Vincent was

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Speaker 1: the first I think it was the second possession of

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Speaker 1: the game if I remember correctly, where Murray and Gordon

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Speaker 1: ran an off ball screen, Gordon got switched on to

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Speaker 1: Gay Vincent. He did the deep seal I think Jokic

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Speaker 1: through the entry passed and Aaron Gordon got a dunk.

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Speaker 1: But other than that, all the other Aaron Gordon post

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Speaker 1: ups were on transition cross matches, So what does that mean?

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Speaker 1: In transition defense? Were sprinting back, but you're usually guarding

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Speaker 1: the guy that's closest to you rather than guarding your

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Speaker 1: particular matchup. It's one of the first rules of transition defense.

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Speaker 1: And so Miami did a good job of sprinting back

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Speaker 1: and stopping those transition possessions, but Denver just then immediately

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Speaker 1: turned around and attacked those cross matches. There was a

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Speaker 1: post up against Max Strus transition cross match, a post

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Speaker 1: up against Caleb martin transition cross match. Another post up

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Speaker 1: against Gabe Vincent, same thing, transition cross match, and if

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Speaker 1: you watch the footage, Aaron Gordon is sprinting the floor

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Speaker 1: like crazy every time they secure the defensive rebound because

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Speaker 1: that's one of the easiest ways to get switches. So

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Speaker 1: two things to learn there. Push the ball on offense

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Speaker 1: great way to get switches that are beneficial to your

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Speaker 1: offense when you get back on defense. Miami in general

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Speaker 1: just has to do a much better job of avoiding

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Speaker 1: those cross matches, which one, that's everybody sprint back better

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Speaker 1: so you can get to your original matchups. And then two,

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Speaker 1: what they call scramming, which means when you see a

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Speaker 1: dude in transition, when you get back and you see

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Speaker 1: a dude who's picked up your man, signal to him

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Speaker 1: and quickly execute a scram switch before they have an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to attack out of it. Nikola Jokic also had

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Speaker 1: a couple of wide open three point shots that he

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Speaker 1: generated out of transition cross matches. There was one where

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Speaker 1: he got on Max Struss in transition he ended up

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Speaker 1: hitting Michael Porter Junior for a three. There was another

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Speaker 1: one where he got Jimmy Butler in a transition cross

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Speaker 1: match ended up hitting Bruce Brown for three on the

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Speaker 1: weak side. That was the one where Haywood high Smith

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Speaker 1: came over and hard double team. So Nikol Yokis, by

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Speaker 1: the way, finished with eleven points on nine post ups

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Speaker 1: in this particular game, counting passes. But the bottom line

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Speaker 1: is is that Miami really can't afford to give up

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Speaker 1: any size mismatches, at least not as easily as they

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Speaker 1: were doing so. And some of it's unavoidable just by

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Speaker 1: virtue of the way the roster is broken down. But

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Speaker 1: the reality is is they're going to have to do

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Speaker 1: a better job of avoiding those cross matches. So they

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Speaker 1: got to do a better job of getting back in

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Speaker 1: transition and then scramming out of those mismatches when they occur.

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Speaker 1: Against the zone defense. Like I said last night, I

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Speaker 1: didn't have the numbers yet, but I thought the zone

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Speaker 1: defense was actually Denver's most successful excuse me, Miami's most

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Speaker 1: successful defensive strategy. Well, it did end up showing on tape.

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Speaker 1: Denver scored one point one to two points per possession

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Speaker 1: against Miami set man to man defense, but they only

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Speaker 1: scored one point per possession against Miami's set zone defense.

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Speaker 1: So and we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into

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Speaker 1: that so you guys can see where they were having

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Speaker 1: specific success. But that to me was the big silver

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Speaker 1: lining coming out of that game. Not oh, Miami's just

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Speaker 1: gonna shoot better, because I actually think Denver will shoot

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Speaker 1: better in the long run. But I do think that

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Speaker 1: there was some stuff there with zone where they actually

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Speaker 1: bothered Denver a little bit. Now it remains to be

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Speaker 1: seen if it'll work over the course of the series.

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Speaker 1: My guess is no. But if I was watching that

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Speaker 1: particular game and trying to find something positive to cling to,

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Speaker 1: it would be the fact that the zone defense worked

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Speaker 1: pretty well. So again, they allowed twenty points and twenty

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Speaker 1: possessions against Denver with their zone defense. At first, they

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Speaker 1: didn't run it at all until the bench group came in,

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Speaker 1: But the bench groups actually did pretty well. I think

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Speaker 1: they scored fourteen of those twenty points. It's in the

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Speaker 1: bench group, But when Jokic came back in in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, they actually ran quite a bit of zone

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Speaker 1: and they had a little bit of success. They had

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Speaker 1: ten possessions in the game where they ran their two

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Speaker 1: three zone against the Nuggets with Jokic on the floor,

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Speaker 1: and they only scored six points. Now, there were a

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Speaker 1: couple of easy misses. Jokic missed like a short jumper

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Speaker 1: in the lane that he's gonna make seventy percent of

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Speaker 1: the time. Jamal Murray missed like a wide open twelve

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Speaker 1: footer right in the middle of the paint. Let's say

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Speaker 1: they make one of those, it's eight points in ten possessions, right,

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Speaker 1: So shat variants played a little bit of a role there,

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Speaker 1: but no matter what, they got a lot of stops

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Speaker 1: with that particular set. So I'd expect a lot more

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Speaker 1: zone from Miami against even Jokic groups in Game two.

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Speaker 1: Again on when we look at the actual basketball of it,

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Speaker 1: having Yokic at the high post as this guy who

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Speaker 1: can score and pass from there so effectively, Aaron Gordon

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Speaker 1: working out of the short corners, which is the other

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Speaker 1: most important part of his own defense, and then all

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Speaker 1: three of the dudes on the perimeter being such great

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Speaker 1: shooters in theory, they're gonna be able to get really

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Speaker 1: good shots that way too, and I expect him to.

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Speaker 1: But the man demand stuff in particular is slicing and

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Speaker 1: dicing Miami so much that I actually think that's their

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Speaker 1: best chance. And it did have some stretches where it

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Speaker 1: disrupt disrupted Denver's rhythm a little bit for no reason

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Speaker 1: other than it usually took them a little while to

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Speaker 1: get into their sets, and so there were a lot

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Speaker 1: of late clock situations where they had to take some

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Speaker 1: bad shots against Miami's zone. Miami, in offense, Jimmy had

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Speaker 1: some success matchup hunting. He generated some really good looks

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Speaker 1: from three attacking Jamal Murray and Contavious Cabble Pope in

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Speaker 1: the post. Miami just missed all of them, but it

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Speaker 1: was working. They did generate some good looks. Bam took

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Speaker 1: Jokic off the bounds three times and scored twice. He

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Speaker 1: had a pull up jumper on the right side and

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Speaker 1: then he hit like a drop step hook shot in

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Speaker 1: the first half. He missed another kind of drifting jumper

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Speaker 1: in the second half, but it was like right there,

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Speaker 1: he barely missed it. So I'd like to see a

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Speaker 1: little bit more of that. It's another way to kind

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Speaker 1: of potentially fatigue Yokic in the long run as well.

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Speaker 1: And pick and roll, I thought Miami made really good reads.

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Speaker 1: Bam scored six points in the short role. That's just

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Speaker 1: that opening that's in that drop coverage is just hitting

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Speaker 1: that little bounce pass to Bam in the short range

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Speaker 1: where you can make that little floater. But they got

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Speaker 1: downhill plenty. But with the way that Denver guards, remember

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Speaker 1: they bring Yoki's pretty high out of that drop they

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Speaker 1: helped from the weak side. It's those kick passes in

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Speaker 1: the when you get the defense in rotation and pick

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Speaker 1: and roll in the wide open threes that you can

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Speaker 1: get out of it that you have to capitalize on,

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Speaker 1: and they just did not capitalize on those possessions. As

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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Miami scored zero points six y

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Speaker 1: nine points per spot up possession in this game, compared

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Speaker 1: to one point zero six for Denver. And what's crazy

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Speaker 1: is Miami shot better. Denver shot twenty nine point six

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Speaker 1: percent from three in this game. Miami, like I said earlier,

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Speaker 1: thirty seven percent on open and wide open threes. But

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Speaker 1: it's a couple of different things. Miami made five pull

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Speaker 1: up threes, So as poorly as they shot in spot

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Speaker 1: up situations, they were dead on in these tough contested

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Speaker 1: pull up threes. So like that kind of balances out like,

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Speaker 1: maybe next game you hit more of your spot up threes,

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Speaker 1: but the chances of you hitting five more pull up

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Speaker 1: threes they're pretty low, right, And then it's about attacking

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Speaker 1: close out. So one of the big reasons why Denver

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Speaker 1: scored one point zero six points per possession and spot

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Speaker 1: up situations is there were pivotal possessions where guys attacked closeouts,

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Speaker 1: which counts as a spot up possession. You guys might

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Speaker 1: remember a late possession against the zone where Contavious called

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Speaker 1: Pope caught the ball in the right wing, hit a

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Speaker 1: hard jab step one dribble towards the foul line, and

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Speaker 1: knocked down like a pretty easy little shot there in

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Speaker 1: the mid range. There was a play where Nikola Jokic's

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Speaker 1: pump faked on Cody Zeller got downhill, Cody Zeller grabbed

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Speaker 1: his right arm and he threw up that like left

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Speaker 1: handed hook he got to the foul line. Those are

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Speaker 1: other ways to convert spot up possessions, and so despite

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Speaker 1: not shooting particularly well, Denver did tie off possessions where

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Speaker 1: they generated openings with good spot up play and Miami

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Speaker 1: did not. So that's another thing that they're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to tighten up, Miami's just gonna have to shoot better.

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Speaker 1: But like we talked about the reality of shooting better

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Speaker 1: against Denver, is it's just difficult. I said the same

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Speaker 1: thing after the Lakers Game one, and as it turned out,

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Speaker 1: especially at the end of games, they just didn't have

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Speaker 1: the legs after battling with Denver and all these physical

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Speaker 1: confrontations to rise up and knock down the shots. So

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Speaker 1: adjustments for both teams. For Denver, look, they played really well.

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Speaker 1: They could shoot a little bit better. I thought Nikola

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Speaker 1: Jokicz was capable of another level of offensive aggression that

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Speaker 1: he didn't really show until the fourth quarter. But there's

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Speaker 1: not really a whole lot that can do that much better.

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Speaker 1: I thought they played a good game For Miami. It's

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Speaker 1: avoid transition cross matches like we talked about earlier, more

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Speaker 1: zone defense, and then I'd try Kevin Love just because

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Speaker 1: of the switchable versatility against their post up attack. Right. So, like,

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Speaker 1: just by having three dudes on the floor that can

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Speaker 1: hold up in a post up, guys like Jimmy Butler,

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Speaker 1: Kevin Love and bam Adebayo, it just gives you a

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Speaker 1: little bit more flexibility in terms of avoiding those switches.

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Speaker 1: And then when somebody gets in those switch there's an

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Speaker 1: easier closer defender to scram out of so that you

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Speaker 1: have a better chance of holding up there. So again

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Speaker 1: with Miami, it's not really a ton of schematic stuff.

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Speaker 1: It's really they just got to do a better job

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Speaker 1: of avoiding those transition cross matches, and then I would

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Speaker 1: lean more into that zone. All right, guys, that's all

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Speaker 1: I have for tonight. We will be back after Game

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Speaker 1: two on Sunday Night live on AP after the final buzzer.

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Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you.

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Speaker 1: Then the volume