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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at

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Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. If ave you guys are

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Speaker 1: having a great we got a quick show for you

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Speaker 1: guys today. We're gonna be touching on four games from

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Speaker 1: last night's slate. We're gonna be going deep on Chicago, Denver,

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Speaker 1: and then I want to talk about Paul George's debut

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Speaker 1: at the Philadelphia seventy six ers. And then we'll be

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Speaker 1: briefly touching on wins by the Toronto Raptors and Miami

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Speaker 1: Heat from last night. You guys know the joke before

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Speaker 1: we started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you

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Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JCNLTS you guys don't miss show announcements.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: podcast on or Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if

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Speaker 1: you leave a rating and a review on that front.

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Speaker 1: Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there

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Speaker 1: for more content throughout the season. Then, last, but not least,

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Speaker 1: if you guys want to get questions into our Friday

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Speaker 1: mail bags, drop them in our full episodes on YouTube

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Speaker 1: in the comments right mail bag with a colon, drop

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Speaker 1: your question that helps me find them when I'm sorting

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Speaker 1: through the comments, and we'll get to them on Fridays

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Speaker 1: throughout the remainder of the year. Also, it's looking like

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Speaker 1: Lebron's probably going to play tonight, so our first playbackstream

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Speaker 1: of the week will probably be tonight for Lakers Jazz.

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Speaker 1: If he's a late scratch, then we'll just push it

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Speaker 1: to the Sunday night game when Lebron will inevitably debut. Then,

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Speaker 1: but I'm expecting Lebron to play tonight, we'll be live

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Speaker 1: on playback for that game, and then our second playback

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Speaker 1: stream this week is going to be for Nuggets Rockets

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Speaker 1: on Friday Night. Those are watch alongs. We're going through

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Speaker 1: the entire game. We take questions, we take callers, we

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Speaker 1: hang out, we watch oops. It's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 1: You guys should come check it out. All right, let's

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Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So Chicago snaps a five game losing

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Speaker 1: streak on the road in Denver last night, essentially riding

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Speaker 1: two big runs, one with Yokacho off the floor and

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Speaker 1: one with Yokaja on the floor, and then some timely

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Speaker 1: shot making in the clutch and one big defensive play.

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Speaker 1: I really want to zoom in on the matchup problem

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Speaker 1: that is Nicola Vusi when we get into crunch time.

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Speaker 1: But the first run was a run with Nicole Jokic

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Speaker 1: off the floor, and it started on defense. Ayod tos

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Speaker 1: Soon moved it a good job in Jamal Murray forced

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Speaker 1: him into a couple of misses, and then all of

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Speaker 1: Chicago's bigs did an amazing job in this game on

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Speaker 1: Yona's and on Joki. Jokich had thirteen misses in this game,

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Speaker 1: which was by far the most he's had since the

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Speaker 1: season opener against Golden State, and you know it's a

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Speaker 1: combination of him missing that pick and pop three point

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Speaker 1: shot but also forcing some misses around the basket. And

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Speaker 1: I want to shout out Patrick Williams, Jalen Smith, Smith,

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Speaker 1: Vussovich himself. All those guys did a great job battling

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Speaker 1: Denver's bigs. But during that first bench run, Patrick Williams

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Speaker 1: and Jalen Smith got a couple of really nice one

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Speaker 1: on one stops against Jonas Valancunis. Patrick had one against

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Speaker 1: Yonis where he forced him into a really bad miss

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Speaker 1: where he like hit the backboard first on a hook

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Speaker 1: shot that was right in front of the rim. And

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Speaker 1: basically if you watch him, he uses his left arm

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Speaker 1: and he gets down into the pocket and starts disrupting

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Speaker 1: the basketball. Which we talked about this all the time,

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Speaker 1: like if you just try to contest a guy up top,

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Speaker 1: these dudes are pros. These dudes practice making shots when

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Speaker 1: they're contested. That's not going to bother them. You've got

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Speaker 1: to find a way to disrupt their rhythm in one

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Speaker 1: way or another. We've talked about this concept with the

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Speaker 1: difference between like a Jonathan Kminga versus Moses Moody when

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Speaker 1: we talk about Golden State's perimeter defenders, Kaminga's often there

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Speaker 1: but not being disruptive, whereas Moses Moods constantly reaching and

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Speaker 1: being physical and can disrupt rhythm. Patrick Williams on this

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Speaker 1: play gets into the pocket, disrupts Jonas Valanciunas so that

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Speaker 1: when he goes up for his hook, he's way out

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Speaker 1: of rhythm and he ends up smoking it badly off

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Speaker 1: the back like way high up off the backboard, right

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Speaker 1: Jalen Smith gets a big stop stop on Yonas where

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Speaker 1: he tries to take away the middle. Yonas wants to

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Speaker 1: get towards the middle on either side of the block.

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Speaker 1: He's on the left block, he wants to get to

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Speaker 1: the middle for his left shoulder hook. If he's on

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Speaker 1: the right block, he wants to get to the middle

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Speaker 1: for that short little turnaround over his right shoulder, more

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Speaker 1: of kind of like a turnaround jump shot, but he

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Speaker 1: likes to get middle. Jalen took that away stood middle.

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Speaker 1: Us tries to bully threw him anyway, and he picked

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Speaker 1: up a big offensive foul. So they got the stops

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Speaker 1: on Murray. They got the stops on Yonis, and then

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Speaker 1: going down the other end, a nice combination of some

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Speaker 1: dribble penetration from Iotasumu and Dalen Terry, some transition pushes

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Speaker 1: from them that got easy layups, and hot three point shooting.

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Speaker 1: Jalen Smith continues to shoot the ball well. He hit

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Speaker 1: a couple of threes. Javon Carter hit a couple of

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Speaker 1: threes during that run. Iodasumo hit one, and the Bulls

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Speaker 1: found themselves up by eighteen in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: second quarter. Now Jokic comes in, he immediately helps reassert control.

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Speaker 1: The Nuggets come all the way back. We'll talk about

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Speaker 1: the Nuggets bench later, because that's becoming kind of a

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Speaker 1: weird up and down subplot for them this season. The

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Speaker 1: second run, though, is with Jokic on the floor in

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Speaker 1: the late third quarter, and this was the classic transition

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Speaker 1: pushes that Chicago has been killing teams with all season.

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Speaker 1: A ton of damage in transition during that third quarter run.

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Speaker 1: Josh Kitty got a layup, Iodasuon Mu got a layup,

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Speaker 1: Jalen Smith got an and one. Javon Carter hit another

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Speaker 1: three on one of those transition sequences off of an

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Speaker 1: offensive rebound. They also did some nice work against Denver

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Speaker 1: zone defense. They kept getting the ball to the middle,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things that happens in his zone

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Speaker 1: is once you get the ball to the middle, it

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Speaker 1: inverts everybody's eyes. So now all of a sudden, if

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Speaker 1: you're up top, you're looking down towards the middle, so

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Speaker 1: the guys behind you are hard to see. And if

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Speaker 1: you're at the basket, you're looking towards the middle, which

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Speaker 1: can cause you to lose sight of the baseline. And

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Speaker 1: I had assume who ended up getting two really nice

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Speaker 1: buckets off of cuts because the ball got to the middle.

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Speaker 1: Vusevich caught the ball in the middle. Disumu cut along

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Speaker 1: the baseline, got himself like a little floater there right

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Speaker 1: along the left block. Another one, Patrick Williams dribbles into

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Speaker 1: the middle of the lane, gets the ball into the

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Speaker 1: middle of the zone. Tim Hardaway Junior turns, puts his

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Speaker 1: back towards Patrick Williams. That allows assuming to cut right

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Speaker 1: behind him. He gets another layup against the zone. So

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Speaker 1: they end up getting another double digit lead in that

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Speaker 1: third quarter run, this time with Nikolay Jokic on the floor.

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Speaker 1: But to Denver bench's credit, the Denver bench did have

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Speaker 1: a nice response compared to their first shift. In the

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Speaker 1: early fourth quarter, they made an adjustment. Instead of going

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Speaker 1: with Valan Chunis with jokichat they went with Aaron Gordon

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Speaker 1: at center, and they actually managed to cut the lead

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Speaker 1: down to six on a Jamal Murray and one before

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Speaker 1: nikola Jokic came back. And then we got ourselves a

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Speaker 1: classic clutch battle. And while Denver continued to score like

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Speaker 1: they always do in the clutch, Chicago went bucket for

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Speaker 1: bucket with them some really high quality offense, a steady

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Speaker 1: diet once again, like we've talked about all season of

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Speaker 1: that Vusovich Giddy two man game or any sort of

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Speaker 1: ball screen involving Nikola Vusovich, and that was causing problems

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Speaker 1: for Denver. Giddy got downhill on one, got into Cam

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Speaker 1: Johnson's chest and spun over his left shoulder and made

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Speaker 1: a little hook shot. So Denver didn't want to give

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Speaker 1: up that level of downhill rim pressure. They didn't want

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Speaker 1: to give up that runway, so they started bringing Jokic

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Speaker 1: up to the level for the specific purpose of stopping

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Speaker 1: the basketball. That ended up leading to a bunch of

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Speaker 1: other problems. They had one sequence where it led to

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Speaker 1: a series of switches, is where Yokic got switched off

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Speaker 1: and Gordon got switched on too Vusovich. They ran a

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Speaker 1: quick interchange on the weak side, and so now Vusovich

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Speaker 1: had Cam Johnson on him. Cam Johnson starts back or

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Speaker 1: Vusovich starts backing down Cam Johnson. Jokic, who had been

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Speaker 1: switched on to Kevin Herder at that point, ends up

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Speaker 1: throwing a double team from the top side. Vusovich kicks

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Speaker 1: it out to hurt her and he hits a three,

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Speaker 1: so you come up to the level to try to

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Speaker 1: stop the dribble penetration, but that ends up leading to

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Speaker 1: a peel switch in a series of switches that gives

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Speaker 1: you a mismatch with Vusovich in the post, which leads

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Speaker 1: to an open three when Jokic rotates off of a shooter.

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Speaker 1: And then the game, the play that iced the game,

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Speaker 1: that Vusovich pick and pop at the top of the key,

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Speaker 1: that is the exact same type of sequence that is

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Speaker 1: always going to be open in a pick and roll

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Speaker 1: coverage where you don't switch. Jokic came up to the level,

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Speaker 1: they pitch it back to Vusovich wide open, popping out

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Speaker 1: of the screen, and he's just there at the top

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Speaker 1: of the key, and it's basically mak er miss at

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Speaker 1: that point, and he knocked it down. And so that

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Speaker 1: ball screen ended up causing all sorts of problems for

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Speaker 1: Denver down the stretch, with the combination of Josh Getty's

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Speaker 1: ability to get downhill off of those ball screens, what

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Speaker 1: that forced Denver to do and trying to contain him

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Speaker 1: at the level, which then led to all of the

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Speaker 1: shortcomings and the switches, and in the pick and pop

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Speaker 1: that Vusovich was able to do damage in and by

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Speaker 1: the way, he ends up making the biggest defensive play

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Speaker 1: of the game during that stretch. He ends up they're

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Speaker 1: up by one, they go down to the other end

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Speaker 1: Murray Jokic two man game. Vusovich himself comes up to

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Speaker 1: the level and gets a very nice deflection on a

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Speaker 1: pass towards Jokic in the pocket. That deflection ends up

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Speaker 1: leading to a just soon moved dunk going out the

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Speaker 1: other way. So really really nice basketball from the Bulls

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Speaker 1: down the stretch, fueled by that matchup problem that is

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Speaker 1: Nikola Vusovich. Now vouch is a matchup problem because he's

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Speaker 1: great at coverage beaters, right. So, like when you have

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Speaker 1: these different options on how to guard ball screens, whether

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Speaker 1: it's a deep drop or if it's a higher drop,

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Speaker 1: or it's a blitz or it's a switch, whatever it

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Speaker 1: is that you're doing to defend ball screens, there's a

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Speaker 1: way to beat every version of it. Right. For a

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Speaker 1: deep drop coverage, the deep drop is designed to take

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Speaker 1: away the roll and the rim right, so that opens

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Speaker 1: up mid range shot making right, or even sometimes three

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Speaker 1: point shot making if you can wipe the dude out

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Speaker 1: on a screen right. But then at the level coverages

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Speaker 1: they open up the role right or the skip if

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Speaker 1: you tag the roller right. Blitzes they open up the

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Speaker 1: four on three sequences where teams can pick you apart

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Speaker 1: in quick little you know, tic tac toe sequences for

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Speaker 1: layups and wide open threes, and then switches they open

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Speaker 1: up mismatch attacking right, a guard against the big or

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Speaker 1: a big against a guard. Those are the coverage beaters

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Speaker 1: for the coverage that you're trying to run right, and

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Speaker 1: Vucevic is just a textbook example of a coverage beater.

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Speaker 1: The pick and pop three is a perfect example. If

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Speaker 1: you come up to the level or run any variation

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Speaker 1: of drop coverage that doesn't involve you switching, you're going

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Speaker 1: to leave the pick and pop open, or at the

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Speaker 1: very least, if you rotate to it from the weak side,

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Speaker 1: someone's open on the skip like you are guaranteed to

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Speaker 1: leave a three point shooter wide open. If you have

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Speaker 1: a pick and pop big and you're not switching ball screens,

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Speaker 1: that is a coverage beater that Nikola Vusovich is bringing

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Speaker 1: to the table. That post up weapon. Okay, you switch

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you run a series of switches

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Speaker 1: and now Cam Johnson's on Nikola Vusovich. Yeah, you can

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Speaker 1: leave him on an island there, but vouch is probably

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Speaker 1: gonna do some damage one on one against a guy

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Speaker 1: like Cam Johnson. Okay, you double team off of a shooter.

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Speaker 1: There's an easy little kickout pass and a guy's knocking

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Speaker 1: down the shot, right. And so when you have that

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Speaker 1: type of weapon in a two man game, especially when

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Speaker 1: you've got someone who can do some damage on the

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Speaker 1: other side of it. I mean, Denver fans know this

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Speaker 1: personally rooting for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, but Usovich

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Speaker 1: just did a lot of damage last night and then

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Speaker 1: last shout out here again I said this off the top,

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Speaker 1: but all game long, Chicago's bigs and forwards battled Jokics

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Speaker 1: really well, and I thought they had an underrated defensive

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Speaker 1: performance in this game, forcing the misses that they forced,

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Speaker 1: and they just made life difficult. Really nice win, a

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Speaker 1: nice little bounce back for the Bulls to get back

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Speaker 1: over five hundred. Before we move on to the next game,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to talk briefly about Denver's bench we talked

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Speaker 1: to yesterday about how Denver's bench has been super weird

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Speaker 1: this year. Like, statistically they're better than previous seasons. They're

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Speaker 1: about six and a half points negative net per one

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Speaker 1: hundred possessions when Yokic is off the floor. That's about

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Speaker 1: half of what it's been in most of the previous seasons.

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Speaker 1: So that's good, but it's still feast or famine and

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Speaker 1: it's still statistically bad and a large sample. Like I

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Speaker 1: was hoping they'd be slightly positive with Yokich off the

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Speaker 1: floor this year, that has not happened, but it's manifesting

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Speaker 1: very much in this feast or famine way, right, Like

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Speaker 1: I talked about this before this last weekend, talked about

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Speaker 1: how it was like you'd have these games where they

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Speaker 1: would win a game because of their bench, like the

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Speaker 1: Sacramento game, right, But then they'd have these other games

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Speaker 1: where they'd lose a game because of their bench. They

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Speaker 1: lose control in those minutes. And then we just got

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Speaker 1: a perfect example of that. In their last two games.

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Speaker 1: They're plus eight and really help you win a game,

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Speaker 1: a tough road game against Minnesota, but then they're a

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Speaker 1: disaster and they have a minus fifteen shift spanning the

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Speaker 1: first and second quarter last night that digs you into

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Speaker 1: a sixteen point hole before Jokic comes in. But then

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Speaker 1: suddenly they come back and have a good shift in

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Speaker 1: the fourth quarter that helps shrink the lead back to

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Speaker 1: six before Yokic comes back. It's very up and down,

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Speaker 1: and it's one of those things where like there's two

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Speaker 1: different kinds of variants with that group that I think

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Speaker 1: are worth addressing here, variants that's kind of out of

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Speaker 1: their control and variance that's in their control. Like, for instance,

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Speaker 1: I do expect some offensive variance with this group no

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Speaker 1: matter what. Jamal Murray's a tough shot maker. Sometimes he's

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Speaker 1: gonna miss shots like that little drop coverage floater he

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Speaker 1: missed in the first bench unit in the first half.

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Speaker 1: That's a shot that is a tough shot. He can

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Speaker 1: make it, but it's a tough shot. He missed another

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Speaker 1: little mid range pull up during that stretch. It's a

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Speaker 1: tough shot and he can make it, but like he's

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Speaker 1: gonna miss it sometimes right the Yonas Valenciunas post ups,

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Speaker 1: Like we've seen Yonas win that battle and various points

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Speaker 1: this season. He got a couple of chances with that

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Speaker 1: first bench group and Jalen Smith and Patrick Williams won

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Speaker 1: their battles. Like credit to them, that's gonna happen. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: you're playing with offensive players in those groups that are

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Speaker 1: gonna be hot and cold sometimes. To me, the controllables, though,

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Speaker 1: the variants that they can control is on the defensive

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Speaker 1: end of the floor. Statistically, they've been okay on defense

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Speaker 1: when Yokich is off the floor. That's been how they've

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Speaker 1: won a lot of their shifts with that group during

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Speaker 1: the season. But they've had other stretches where they've been

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Speaker 1: really bad on defense with Yokich off the floor. And

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Speaker 1: I thought last night was an example of that, and

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Speaker 1: there were just a lot of different silly mistakes. I

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Speaker 1: thought Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Junior in particular were

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Speaker 1: very bad on defense in this game. Jamal there were

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Speaker 1: like four or five different possessions where he was like sagging,

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Speaker 1: not even in a defensive stance where he's helping and rotating,

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Speaker 1: but just sagging off the ball on a shooter and

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Speaker 1: it's like swing swing. There's Javon Carter hitting a three

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Speaker 1: when like they didn't even break down your defense, or

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Speaker 1: there's Ayodasummu hitting a catch and shoot three on the

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Speaker 1: left wing when they didn't even break down your defense

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Speaker 1: or swing the ball to Jamal's man and he just

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Speaker 1: rips the clothes out and Jamal is just asleep, and

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Speaker 1: now he's giving up dribble penetration, easy drop off for

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Speaker 1: a dunk for Dayalean Terry. Like there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: like just silly, fixable, like laziness mistakes happening defensively with

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Speaker 1: those bench groups in some of these nights where it's

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Speaker 1: like that is under your control. I like Jamal getting

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Speaker 1: to a spot and rising up, it's gonna go in

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Speaker 1: or it's not. You post up Jonas and he gets

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Speaker 1: single coverage. He's either gonna score or he's not. There's

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Speaker 1: a certain amount of variants there that's out of your control.

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Speaker 1: But there's these fixable problems on the defensive end of

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Speaker 1: the floor that they can that they can absolutely rectify.

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Speaker 1: Timartoway Junior was just kind of like space Casey last

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Speaker 1: night on defense, and like there's just a certain amount

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Speaker 1: of additional attention to detail that can go a long

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Speaker 1: way towards helping him avoid some of the catastrophe bench

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Speaker 1: nights like they had last night. Like at the end

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Speaker 1: of the game, anything can happen, right. It's a close game,

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Speaker 1: Like you synthesize any basketball game down to like a

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Speaker 1: half dozen possessions, and now anything can happen, right, Like

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Speaker 1: if Jamal Murray gets the ball to Jokic in the

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Speaker 1: pocket instead of throwing it into Yonis into Nikola Vusovich's

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Speaker 1: hand leading to the disson moved dunk. If he completes

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Speaker 1: that pass, Denver probably scores there, they have a really

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Speaker 1: good chance to win. Like if Jokic doesn't double off

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Speaker 1: of Herder one pass away on the Vusovich post up

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Speaker 1: and instead you double from the weak side off of

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Speaker 1: a lesser offensive player, maybe you get to stop there,

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Speaker 1: maybe you end up winning the game. That's close games,

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Speaker 1: they can go either way. There's you know, tough shot making.

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Speaker 1: Get Jokic HiT's a tough right shoulder fade in there,

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Speaker 1: like Giddy hits a tough little left shoulder hook in there.

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Speaker 1: Like there's a certain amount of anything can happen in

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Speaker 1: a close game that's got a half dozen possessions. What

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Speaker 1: you can't afford to do is spot a team like

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Speaker 1: the Bulls a eighteen point second quarter lead, because you

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Speaker 1: you have these like brutally bad stretches of your bench,

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Speaker 1: where like in a couple of minutes, you completely lose

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Speaker 1: control of a game. And I do think some of

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Speaker 1: that is fixable by just becoming a little bit more

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Speaker 1: attentive on the defensive end of the floor. Today's show

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Speaker 1: Moving on to Paul George's debut. The Sixer's got a

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Speaker 1: really nice come from behind a win against the Clippers

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Speaker 1: last night. Just an unbelievable performance from Quinton Grimes in

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Speaker 1: the second half of that game. James Harden came out

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Speaker 1: the gates and just absolutely fried the seventy six Ers

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Speaker 1: in the first half. And to James Harden's credit, the

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Speaker 1: first couple weeks of the season, you know, like he

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Speaker 1: was good, not great, right, like just kind of a

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Speaker 1: a like one of the many things going on with

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Speaker 1: the Clippers to start the season between the KWHI Leonard

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Speaker 1: injury and Chris Paul not playing very well and brad

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Speaker 1: Leyveal getting hurt, and like James Harden was good but

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Speaker 1: not great to start the season. James Harden has been

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Speaker 1: absurdly good over the last week. He's averaging thirty three points,

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Speaker 1: nine rebounds, and eight assists in his last five games. So, like,

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Speaker 1: James Harden's been on an absolute heater. And he did

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Speaker 1: a bunch of damage to the Sixers in the first

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Speaker 1: half of this game, and then they started the second

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Speaker 1: half with Quinton Grimes on him, and Quinton Grimes just

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Speaker 1: put the fire out. I thought he did a really

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Speaker 1: nice job of consistently funneling him towards his right hand,

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Speaker 1: so getting situated on that left hand side, but also

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Speaker 1: keeping his hands out of the cookie jar, like he

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Speaker 1: was picking up some foul on guys who were just

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Speaker 1: getting up underneath him or getting it at their hands.

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Speaker 1: Caught vj Edge Comb had one where he's like playing

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Speaker 1: with his hand out and all that James Harden does

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Speaker 1: when he sees that is he just goes into his

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Speaker 1: gather into your arm. I mean him and Embiid have

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Speaker 1: been doing that for years, right, and so like Quentin

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Speaker 1: Grimes just funneling him towards his right hand and keeping

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Speaker 1: his hands out of the cookie jar, which basically forced

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Speaker 1: Harden to just make contested shots and that ended up

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Speaker 1: cooling him off. So really nice job defensively. And then

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Speaker 1: Queen Grimes killed the Sixers in the fourth quarter with

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Speaker 1: his rim pressure off of drives and off of cuts

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Speaker 1: in transition and in the half court. He ended up

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Speaker 1: hitting basically the biggest shot of the game, a pull

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Speaker 1: up three over John Collins along the right wing. Just

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Speaker 1: an awesome game from Grimes, who very much looked like

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Speaker 1: a guy who wants a big contract next year. And

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Speaker 1: once again for the Sixers, the key is defense for

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Speaker 1: them to have any sort of sustained success. Tyree s

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Speaker 1: Maxy poured in another thirty eight points. He's leading the

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Speaker 1: league in minutes played up over forty minutes per game,

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Speaker 1: and he's leading the league and field hole attempts this year.

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Speaker 1: Kind of crazy. Status's taking twenty four shots per game.

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Speaker 1: Table that for a second, because I want to get

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Speaker 1: back to that when we're done talking about Paul George.

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Speaker 1: We got to see Paul George back on an NBA

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Speaker 1: court last night, though, and I thought he had a

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Speaker 1: better game than what you would think looking at the

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Speaker 1: box score, Like it'ld be really easy just to look

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Speaker 1: at the box score and go, oh, he's two for nine.

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Speaker 1: But I actually thought he did some decent shot creation

427
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:21,920
Speaker 1: off the bounce. He ended up drawing a foul and

428
00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:23,480
Speaker 1: a three point shot on one of those, and then

429
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 1: he had some really nice driving kick sequences that led

430
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:29,320
Speaker 1: to easy shots. I actually thought there was some decent

431
00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:31,920
Speaker 1: shot creation in there, and then he showed a little

432
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 1: bit of the scoring ability, like he hit a pull

433
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:36,400
Speaker 1: up three to start the game. He had a play

434
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 1: where he got a driving layup or zubots where I

435
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:40,760
Speaker 1: actually thought it was like kind of an encouraging sign

436
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 1: for his body, Like he really dislodged Zubots with like

437
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,359
Speaker 1: a hard step right into his chest and led with

438
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,399
Speaker 1: his shoulder and really knocked him off so that he

439
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 1: could go over the top of the little floater. And

440
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:54,159
Speaker 1: I was like, you don't do that against Zubots unless

441
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,119
Speaker 1: you trust your lower body. So I thought that was

442
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,000
Speaker 1: a good sign of just where his physical and mental

443
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,560
Speaker 1: confidence is right now. Again, I know he's two for nine,

444
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: but I thought he did some better shot creation than

445
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,040
Speaker 1: what you'd think looking at the box score. He's not

446
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,439
Speaker 1: moving super well, but he did have a couple of

447
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,320
Speaker 1: ISOs where he got to his spot and was able

448
00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 1: to make some stuff happen. A couple others where he

449
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 1: looked like he struggled to get separation, and that's to

450
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,119
Speaker 1: be expected. This is his first basketball game in forever,

451
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,199
Speaker 1: so it's gonna take a little while for him to

452
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,800
Speaker 1: get his lungs and to get his full mobility, at

453
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,560
Speaker 1: least whatever that full mobility looks like at this phase

454
00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:27,680
Speaker 1: of his career, after all the injuries he's dealt with.

455
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 1: But I left that game thinking the Sixers are gonna

456
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 1: need him, Like, in addition to forward depth, which is

457
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,119
Speaker 1: obviously going to be tested with Kelly Ubre out for

458
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:39,360
Speaker 1: a little while, the team also just needs more firepower,

459
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:42,159
Speaker 1: Like the team has a one twenty offensive rating with

460
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,679
Speaker 1: Tyre's Maxie on the floor according to Cleaning the Glass,

461
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:47,520
Speaker 1: but just one eleven point five when he's off the floor.

462
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 1: And we talked earlier about the minutes load and usage,

463
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: Like Tyres Maxie's playing over forty minutes a game, Tyres

464
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 1: Maxie is leading the league in field goal attempts twenty

465
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 1: four shot attempts per game. Like, you got to find

466
00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 1: a way to make things just a little easier for him.

467
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I like about Paul

468
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,120
Speaker 1: George's game in particular is I think it fits their

469
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,399
Speaker 1: current style of play better than embiid does. EMBIID. You know,

470
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: he can struggle to get up and down the floor

471
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:15,560
Speaker 1: with the speed they want to play with. He can

472
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: be a little bit of a ball stopper, He can

473
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,160
Speaker 1: struggle sometimes with playmaking. I think Paul George actually functions

474
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 1: a little bit more naturally as a second side creator

475
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: off of Tyrese Maxi. And again he made some kickout

476
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: reads yesterday that were the kinds of things that were

477
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:32,880
Speaker 1: missing from the Sixers early in the season to try

478
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: to grease the wheels in the half court for them.

479
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 1: I just hope you can stay healthy and regain a

480
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 1: little bit more of his mobility, because he does add

481
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:44,200
Speaker 1: a dynamic to the Sixers that I think helps them.

482
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 1: A couple other quick shoutouts from last night before we

483
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 1: get out of here. The Rafters won a fun game

484
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,920
Speaker 1: against the Hornets, and Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram basically

485
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: won the game with a couple of massive two way sequences.

486
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 1: Scotty Barnes backed down Miles Bridges and basically just buried

487
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 1: him under the basket and dunked in kind of like

488
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 1: a shocking play. You don't see that very often, just

489
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,920
Speaker 1: a back down dunk in the post, and then brandon

490
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 1: Ingram a little iso out of the right corner. He

491
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,680
Speaker 1: ended up drawing a bunch of attention and he made

492
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,439
Speaker 1: a very nice feed to RJ Barrett cutting off of

493
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:15,399
Speaker 1: the left wing. Another example of just the combination of

494
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: high level playmaking talent that the Raptors have which has

495
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: made them a better half court offense than you would

496
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 1: think to start the year, and then both of those

497
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: guys there were a couple of easy layups and dunks

498
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 1: that the Hornets generated out of action late in the game,

499
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,639
Speaker 1: where Brandon Ingram ended up getting Ryan Kalchbrenner with a

500
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,239
Speaker 1: massive dunk, or he was about to go dunk and

501
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,239
Speaker 1: he got a massive block off the glass, and then

502
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 1: Scotty Barnes ended up doing the same thing to save

503
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: a layup on the very next possession. Like a couple

504
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 1: of huge defensive plays from those guys and Scotty Barnes

505
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,040
Speaker 1: and Brandon Ingram last night forty three points, twelve rebounds,

506
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: and nine assists, three steals, in five blocks between the

507
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,440
Speaker 1: two of them, and the Raptors have now won four

508
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,160
Speaker 1: in a row, currently sitting third in the Eastern Conference.

509
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: We did a dive in the Raptors on Friday for

510
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: those of you guys who missed it. We discussed a

511
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,200
Speaker 1: combination of their defensive transition attack, but also they're really

512
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 1: high level half court playmaking that leads to these really

513
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,679
Speaker 1: high level driving kick concepts and spacing concepts that make

514
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,480
Speaker 1: them tough to guard. Playing really fun basketball right now.

515
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,880
Speaker 1: The Toronto Raptors and then lastly for today, the Miami Heat.

516
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 1: I caught just the fourth quarter of their win last

517
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 1: night versus the Brunson and Ananobi list Nicks, and it's

518
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 1: kind of another classic Miami Heat game from this year.

519
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: They had seven dudes in double figures. Everybody was involved

520
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,160
Speaker 1: in the offense. Late in the game, Davion Mitchell hit

521
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,920
Speaker 1: two of the most ridiculous lefty scoop shots that you'll

522
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 1: see a small guard make, and so I was digging

523
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: into the numbers. I was like, man, it feels like

524
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 1: dave Ion's been hitting these tough layups like all season.

525
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:50,440
Speaker 1: He's sixty five percent on layups this year, and again,

526
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: that's an insane number for such a small guard. The

527
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: vast majority of guards below sixty three you'll see in

528
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 1: that like fifty three to fifty seven percent range seven

529
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 1: being the high end for these like small guards. Like

530
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: for him to be making sixty five percent of his

531
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: layups shows really impressive touch around the rim. And then

532
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: they won the game with their perimeter defense, like the

533
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,840
Speaker 1: Nicks were killing them with dribble penetration. In the early

534
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, Duce McBride had this like absurd dunk in transition.

535
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook esque where he just took off like a

536
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: freight train and then just exploded off of one leg

537
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 1: and dunked it with his right hand. Jordan Clarkson was

538
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: killing him in the paint. Karl Anthony Towns b Timy

539
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:31,879
Speaker 1: Hawkes off the dribble and gets a little bank shot

540
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: like they were doing a bunch of damage off the dribble.

541
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: But in the final minutes, the heat started to keep

542
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 1: the ball in front, which started leading to some tougher

543
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 1: contested jump shots that didn't go in and then kill

544
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 1: el Ware at Norman Powell ended up having a couple

545
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 1: of big buckets each late in the game that iced

546
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:50,440
Speaker 1: the game. I'm still not super high on the heat.

547
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 1: They're a little gimmicky to me. They're reliant on catching

548
00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 1: teams sleeping in transition by not stopping the ball with

549
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,679
Speaker 1: those early drives that they constantly hit teams with. If

550
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: you can keep the heat in front, they're not gonna

551
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:06,120
Speaker 1: beat great defense consistently in the half court, and that's

552
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: shown in their record splits, like they're five and oh

553
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: this year against teams that are below five hundred, but

554
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: they're just three and six against teams that are five

555
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:15,719
Speaker 1: hundred or better, and two of those three wins were

556
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: against the Cavs in a game they lost Arius Garland

557
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 1: and the Knicks without Jalen Brunson and Ogannobe, although to

558
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: their credit, they did beat that healthy Knicks team early

559
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:26,719
Speaker 1: in the season. To be clear, I don't mean that

560
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: as a negative thing about the Heat, like this is

561
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: not a very good roster, like you're not if you're

562
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: stacking up the Miami Heats talent on paper, compared to

563
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: the other teams in the NBA, They're they're firmly in

564
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: like the sixteen to twenty range. They're not a very

565
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:45,000
Speaker 1: talented roster compared to some of the other teams around

566
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: the NBA. I mean, they were without bam Adebayo and

567
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow last night, right. I mean, but even when

568
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: they're fully healthy, I don't see them to be like

569
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 1: a very imposing set of talent. Right. But once again,

570
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: they're sitting at eight and six. They're full mix in

571
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. And it's because Eric Spolstra just keeps

572
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: finding ways to maximize talent in the modern NBA. Like

573
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 1: this year, he saw the clear strength on his roster,

574
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: like oh Man, like Jim Hawkez can beat dudes off

575
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:18,680
Speaker 1: the dribble like uh, you know, Davion Mitchell can initiate

576
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: a dribble drive attack. We've got some good read and

577
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,639
Speaker 1: react talent relative to some of the other teams in

578
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: the league, and so he kind of built this drive

579
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 1: and kick system that maximizes that specific set of talent.

580
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,560
Speaker 1: You've got just that little bit of top end from

581
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: Norman Powell, who has been fantastic this year, is a

582
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: guy who can score coming off coming off of action

583
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 1: by hitting shots over the top. The Heat are like

584
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: one of the very lowest frequency teams when it comes

585
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: to off the dribble jump shooting. But they got a

586
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: couple of guys like Norman Palellin and Tyler Harrow when

587
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 1: he comes back, that can do that, and it just

588
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: provides a little bit of a counter to their driving

589
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: kick system. And then they just dominate the margins like

590
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 1: every Eric Spolster team does. They dominate the transition battle,

591
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: they dominate turnovers and points off of turnovers, and so

592
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,640
Speaker 1: they just find ways to manufacture higher level basketball than

593
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:11,120
Speaker 1: what you would expect from the talent on the roster. Again,

594
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to say they don't have any talentsince

595
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 1: the league is stacked, like they're not going out there

596
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: with you know, even like Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes

597
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,120
Speaker 1: level a type of players that you see in terms

598
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: of top end compared to some of the other rosters

599
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: in the league, like the Heat are operating at a

600
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 1: talent deficit and they're competing every single night in a

601
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: stacked NBA because of Eric Spolser's ability to just find

602
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:37,680
Speaker 1: what his specific teams strength is and leverage that strength

603
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 1: on a night to night basis to win games. All right, guys,

604
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: It's all I have for today is always to sincerely

605
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show again.

606
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 1: We'll be back most likely tonight as long as Lebron

607
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: plays for the playback stream for Jazz versus the Lakers,

608
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: then we'll be back tomorrow with more game reaction. I

609
00:28:55,000 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: will see you guys though. F