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Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Tasmellis and this is what you need to

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Speaker 1: know in the NBA for Thursday, January fourteenth. The first

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Speaker 1: thing you need to know, probably the only thing you

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Speaker 1: need to know, is that the Houston Rockets traded James

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Speaker 1: Harden to the Brooklyn Nets in a four team deal

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Speaker 1: just before things got really awkward in Houston. The Rockets

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Speaker 1: shipped out a disgruntled James Harden to a team that

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Speaker 1: now has incredible firepower. Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James

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Speaker 1: Harden can put fifty on an opponent today and they

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Speaker 1: have multiple times, all three of them. That's the only

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Speaker 1: team that can say we have three guys who've done

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Speaker 1: it multiple times. So does this make them a contender

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Speaker 1: just because they can score? I say yes. The first

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Speaker 1: question is the chemistry on and off the court. On

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Speaker 1: the court, will Kyrie Irving enjoy sharing a backcourt with

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Speaker 1: James Harden sharing the ball with him? Did he sign

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Speaker 1: up for this? No? But I think, especially considering Kevin

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Speaker 1: Durant's smile in the ESPN postgame when he was asked

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Speaker 1: about James Harden joining that they are going to like

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Speaker 1: each other off the court, I think they can rally

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Speaker 1: around each other off the court and block out the

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Speaker 1: noise from the locker room like a lot of NBA

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Speaker 1: championship teams do. Kevin Durant in that interview with Cassidy

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Speaker 1: Hubberth was really really short. He's about playing ball. Kye Irving,

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Speaker 1: we know about his feuds with the media. James Harden,

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Speaker 1: he had a feud with the media the other day.

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Speaker 1: He likes to be short with the media. I think

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Speaker 1: they can all rally around each other like NBA titles

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Speaker 1: teams do and say it's us in this locker room

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Speaker 1: against everybody else. Now, it sounds kind of dumb for

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Speaker 1: me to be judging their mentality, but I think their

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Speaker 1: championship experience in that locker room. Kada has won multiple

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving's won one, James Harden a couple conference finals,

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Speaker 1: yet notoriously hasn't won one. Steve Nash has been through

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Speaker 1: many battles and so his experience on the floor I

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Speaker 1: believe will translate into him being able to bring these

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Speaker 1: guys together. He was the leader in high fives when

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Speaker 1: he was a point guard. It's a big task for Nash,

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Speaker 1: but that's why he's there, because he fits all the criteria.

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Speaker 1: They admire him. He's extremely passionate. He gives a crap

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Speaker 1: about his players. He has experience working one on one

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Speaker 1: with Kevin Durant when they're in Golden State. Kevin Durant

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Speaker 1: has experience playing with James Harden. Now, Kyrie Irving is

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Speaker 1: what it sort of all comes back to. He's not

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Speaker 1: with the team, so he is the biggest question mark.

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Speaker 1: But if Kyrie Irving doesn't want to retire early, if

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Speaker 1: he doesn't want to pull a Ricky Williams, he's got

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Speaker 1: an opportunity here to be on a championship level team.

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Speaker 1: He did sign up to play with Kevin Durant and

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Speaker 1: James Harden. Yeah, is a wrench that has been thrown

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Speaker 1: into the mix here. But again, he's twenty seven. If

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Speaker 1: he doesn't want to retire now and he's got the

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Speaker 1: opportunity in front of him, I expect him to be back.

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Speaker 1: And that brings us to the biggest Encourt question for me,

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Speaker 1: Will they stop anybody? Will they get enough stops to

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Speaker 1: be a championship level team. I think they can figure

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Speaker 1: that part out too. Now. They did trade Jared Allen,

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Speaker 1: who was probably their best defender. But I don't think

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Speaker 1: his twenty seven minutes off the bench was the only

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Speaker 1: reason that they were a pretty decent defensive team this year,

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Speaker 1: twelfth ranked in the league. They got some defensive rebounding problems.

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Speaker 1: They got some turnover problems on the other end, which

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Speaker 1: hurts their defense. But I think they can start a

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Speaker 1: couple guys that know their role alongside the big three

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Speaker 1: and won't have to score at all. And Bruce Brown,

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Speaker 1: a six to four point guard who's been starting recently. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be small moving Kyrie and James harden

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Speaker 1: Over if they start Bruce Brown and then DeAndre Jordan

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Speaker 1: at the five spot who has been contributing. He's only

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Speaker 1: thirty two years old. Yeh, these guys are getting a

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Speaker 1: little bit older. But then Jeff Green, who was a

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Speaker 1: small ball five in the playoffs last year with the

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Speaker 1: Houston Rockets, did a decent job of that. Timothy Luailu Cabareau.

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Speaker 1: I think they can make it work around these guys.

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Speaker 1: There's a passion and a desire amongst the top three

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Speaker 1: that will trickle down. That's what defense is. If you

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Speaker 1: want to do it, you can do it. Do they

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Speaker 1: have the personnel, No, I guess they don't have typical

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Speaker 1: defensive personnel, but Kevin Durant can be a really good defender.

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving was the starting point guard on a championship

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Speaker 1: team with the Cleveland Cavaliers when his backcourt partner was j. R. Smith,

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Speaker 1: who played pretty decent. And James Harden. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: like Kyrie Irving. When they want to play defense, they

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Speaker 1: can be good. James Harden will have less of a

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Speaker 1: burden on the offensive end. There's no excuses not to

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Speaker 1: play defense. He's shown that he can if he wants

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Speaker 1: get his hands in there. Same with Kyrie. I think

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Speaker 1: when it comes down to it, when the chips are

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Speaker 1: on the table, as they say in the business, which business,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, the lay's business, they'll be good enough.

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Speaker 1: I think they can get it done. Let's move on

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Speaker 1: to the Houston Rockets. In this deal, did they get

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Speaker 1: enough for James Harden? Yes, and no enough draft capital

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Speaker 1: that's for sure. They got three unprotected Brooklyn Nets first

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Speaker 1: round picks. They also got a first round pick that

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Speaker 1: originally belonged to the Milwaukee Bucks, and they got the

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Speaker 1: right to swap four first round picks with the Brooklyn Nets.

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Speaker 1: So if the Nets are bad, Yeah, it could look

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Speaker 1: like the time that the Nets traded for Paul Pearson

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Speaker 1: Kevin Garnett emptied their cupboard for him. They got bad.

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Speaker 1: The Celtics got all these great picks, but I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's going to happen. Great job by Rafael Stone

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Speaker 1: in the Rockets front office to reaccumulate draft assets. But

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Speaker 1: did they get a good young player back, No, they didn't.

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Speaker 1: They didn't get Kris Slivert. They got Victor Oladipot from

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Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers, twenty eight year old who's looking like

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Speaker 1: the old Victor ola Depot but isn't sign passed this year.

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Speaker 1: They got Australian Dante Exem who can't stay on the floor,

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Speaker 1: and they got Latvian Rodeon's Kurrooks. So they didn't get

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Speaker 1: a young star. That's the unfortunate part for them. Did

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Speaker 1: well to sort of reaccumulate those assets, not so much

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Speaker 1: in the on court player department actual, because Victor Oladipo

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Speaker 1: isn't signed passed this year. Will he even be a

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Speaker 1: member of the Pacers next year? I'm not sure. So.

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Speaker 1: Did the Rockets really acquire any players long term? No?

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Speaker 1: But Let's give Raphael Stone a B plus just because

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Speaker 1: of all those assets that he could turn into other

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Speaker 1: players via trade down the road. Let's move on to

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Speaker 1: the Indiana Pacers, who did get Karris Lavert in this

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Speaker 1: deal essentially for Victor Oladipo. They got a young star

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Speaker 1: who signed long term in Indiana can't really grab free

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Speaker 1: agents because the Pacers just haven't typically been able to

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Speaker 1: do that. So you get a guy who's a young

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Speaker 1: guy on a great deal to go along with Malcolm Brogden,

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Speaker 1: Demanto Saboni's TJ Warren when he's back, Jeremy Lamb when

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Speaker 1: he's back, Doug McDermot who's been playing better this year,

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Speaker 1: Miles Turner who's having his best year because he's shooting

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Speaker 1: threes and leading the league in block shots. This is

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Speaker 1: the typical can they do it by committee? Team? Can't

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Speaker 1: wait to see it in the playoffs because Nate Buerkrin

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Speaker 1: has these guys playing, they're seven and four and they

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Speaker 1: have potential to knock a lot of teams off. A

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Speaker 1: plus for them. A plus also for the Cleveland Cavaliers

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Speaker 1: that sent out Dante Axim in a Bucks first round

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Speaker 1: pick for Jared Allen. The young center from the Nets

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Speaker 1: and Torrian Prince from the Nets as well, and his

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Speaker 1: thirteen million dollar contract for next season. So that's a

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Speaker 1: part of why I believe the Calves had to take

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Speaker 1: on Torrian Prince because of his contract. But the Calves

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Speaker 1: get a young, big center. They now have thousands of centers.

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Speaker 1: It feels like they have so many. They've got big

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Speaker 1: guys and Andre Drummond and Kevin Love and Larry Knitts

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Speaker 1: and JaVale McGee. So if you're looking for a center,

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Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors, that's where you look. Moving on to game action,

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Speaker 1: Christaps Porzingis played his first game of the season. He

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Speaker 1: is back from injury. Classic Porzing in a road over Charlotte.

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Speaker 1: He hit four threes, looking and feeling good. In a

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Speaker 1: battle of teams at the bottom of the West, the

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Speaker 1: Timberwolves took on the Grizzlies. The Wolves getting Karl Anthony

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Speaker 1: Town's back healthy great news for them. Played in his

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Speaker 1: second game since returning from a wrist injury. Looked like

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Speaker 1: they were going to win this game and move on

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Speaker 1: to four and five on the season, somewhat respectable. That's

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Speaker 1: when I tweeted Minnesota having cat back They've got a direction, Houston.

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Speaker 1: With this new direction with James Harden gun, they're looking

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Speaker 1: all right. The Memphis Grizzlies will never quit on a game.

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Speaker 1: Will there be a bad team in the Western Conference? Haa.

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Speaker 1: That's when the Grizzlies came back big in this one.

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Speaker 1: They destroyed the Wolves in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies

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Speaker 1: had eighty points in the paint in this game, eighty

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Speaker 1: eight zero. That is ridiculous. I'm not sure that any

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Speaker 1: team has ever done that. Eighty inside, thirty eight outside

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Speaker 1: of the paint. And that's the problem with the Wolves.

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Speaker 1: They let everybody score. Everybody. Karl Anthony Towns after the

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Speaker 1: game said, that's a player driven loss. I agree. That's

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Speaker 1: why Jonas Fellonchunas had twenty four and sixteen season highs

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Speaker 1: on the inside. You can't let that happen. But the

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Speaker 1: Wolves do that. They have the twenty eighth or the

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Speaker 1: twenty ninth ranked defense, depending on where you like to

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Speaker 1: get your stats from. More stats. Milwaukee played Detroit. Jeremy

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Speaker 1: Grant led the Pistons in scoring for the tenth straight game.

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Speaker 1: I just like that stat. Even though they lost. The

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Speaker 1: Bucks win that game. Portland Sacramento. Damian Lillard had forty

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Speaker 1: in a win over Sack. The Lakers destroyed the Thunder

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Speaker 1: not even close. Lebron must be bored the Clippers. They

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Speaker 1: beat the Pelicans, who didn't have Zion Williamson, who's contact tracing.

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Speaker 1: They also didn't have Lonzo Ball or Eric Bledsoe. So

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Speaker 1: second year player from Canada Nikil Alexander Walker got the

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Speaker 1: start and scored thirty seven gray for him. Last thing

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Speaker 1: you need to know before I go. Two more games

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Speaker 1: have been postponed due to health and safety protocols. These

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Speaker 1: were going to take place on Friday. The Wizards and Pistons,

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Speaker 1: and the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns will be

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Speaker 1: played on later dates. That makes it nine contests this

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Speaker 1: year that have been postponed. The NBA, in response, is

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Speaker 1: now adding a third test that players must go through

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Speaker 1: in order to play. This one's going to be early

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Speaker 1: on game days. That's going to produce a result before

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Speaker 1: the game in order to avoid a situation like the

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Speaker 1: Sixers Seth Curry finding out he's positive while he's on

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Speaker 1: the bench in a first quarter last week against the

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets. That is it for me. Make sure you

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Speaker 1: check out our emergency podcast on the James Harden Trade,

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Speaker 1: plus the full length Thursday No Dunks episode. I'll be

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Speaker 1: back on Friday to give you the news as fast

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Speaker 1: as I possibly can. Take care