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Speaker 1: On today's show. The Brooklyn Nets are the first Eastern

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Speaker 1: Conference team to clinch a playoff spot. The Boston Celtics

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Speaker 1: don't deserve one. Just give it to the Raptors, and

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Speaker 1: Golden State's hopes of skipping the play in tournament seem

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Speaker 1: to be dashed in just one night. Hey, I'm tas

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Speaker 1: Mellus and this is what you need to know in

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Speaker 1: the NBA for Wednesday, April twenty eight. Good morning, everybody. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets. They're in the first Eastern Conference team

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Speaker 1: to earn a playoff berth, the first team in and

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Speaker 1: probably the last one still standing when the finals start

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Speaker 1: in July, because they have handled everything that's come their way.

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Speaker 1: New coach, in season, trades, injuries, tweets from players that

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Speaker 1: just read free me after being removed due to COVID

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Speaker 1: nineteen protocol. And speaking of Kevin Durant, KD has played

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Speaker 1: in only twenty six games this season. That's odd to

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Speaker 1: say that out loud. James Harden is likely to miss

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Speaker 1: the last month plus of the season. Spencer Dinwitty has

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Speaker 1: missed the entire year. Oh yeah, remember him. He's a

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Speaker 1: pretty good player and he'll be around for the playoffs.

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Speaker 1: Not sure if he's going to play. That would just

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Speaker 1: be bonkers. The only thing left to deal with is adversity,

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Speaker 1: and I kind of look at the twenty eleven Heat

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Speaker 1: as a template for Brooklyn if they do falter. If

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Speaker 1: you remember the twenty eleven Heat, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Chris

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Speaker 1: Bosh all got together, they made the finals. The adversity

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Speaker 1: was they just laid off Lebron. He couldn't hit a

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Speaker 1: three point shot the way he does now. They had

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Speaker 1: that whole episode sort of mocking Dirk for being sick,

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Speaker 1: and they couldn't come back in the NBA finals. Now,

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Speaker 1: they came back the next year and won it. But

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Speaker 1: that to me is the only sort of thing. If

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Speaker 1: the Nets have some issues in the postseason that can

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Speaker 1: really truly stop them. But that locker room has been

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Speaker 1: rock solid despite all those things. A brand new coach

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Speaker 1: going well here as we get into the stretch run. Now,

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Speaker 1: they clinched that playoff berth with a win over the Raptors,

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Speaker 1: who are the last team to beat Kevin Durant in

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Speaker 1: the playoffs. If you remember twenty nineteen finals, that seems

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Speaker 1: a long time ago. Katie wasn't even playing then he

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Speaker 1: was injured obviously, Like I talk about nets injuries a

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Speaker 1: lot here, but in this game they beat the Raptors,

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Speaker 1: not with Durant or Kyrie going off, but their depth,

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Speaker 1: that out depth the Toronto Raptors depth, which is kind

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Speaker 1: of shocking. Blake Griffin, Mike James, No, not that Mike James,

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Speaker 1: Raptors fans, and Tyler Johnson combined for thirty eight off

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Speaker 1: the Pine Blake signing has worked out pretty well. Durant

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Speaker 1: and Irving only had to combine thirty one points. Nick

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Speaker 1: Nurse still coaching his butt off, doing a very good

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Speaker 1: job here despite being a lost season for the Raptors.

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Speaker 1: Maybe if he give Toronto eighty two games they would

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Speaker 1: figure it out. But there are some bright spots for Toronto.

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Speaker 1: O Janinobi his fifth straight game with twenty plus points,

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Speaker 1: his growth over the course of the seas and is

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Speaker 1: probably the most meaningful development for Toronto. Wraps first round

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Speaker 1: pick Malachi Flynn also getting a little bit more confident,

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Speaker 1: and Kyle Lowry is still looking great out there. Not

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Speaker 1: sure if he's going to be with the Raptors after

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Speaker 1: the season, but he'll take his gorgeous car with him.

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Speaker 1: I don't care what model this Ferrari is. Just love

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Speaker 1: that it's a Matt finish and that gorgeous bluey color.

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Speaker 1: I've always dreamed of a color like that. Is a nice,

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Speaker 1: nice car. Now, who is going to handle the nets

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Speaker 1: in an Eastern Conference playoff series? There are only two

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Speaker 1: viable candidates right now, the Sixers or the Bucks. And

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Speaker 1: watching the Bucks on Tuesday, it's hard to truly believe

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Speaker 1: in them. They got by a Hornets team with some

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Speaker 1: late game execution. They go through yannisend the post, which

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Speaker 1: is a good development, then they spread it out around him.

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Speaker 1: They're closing lineup on Tuesdays. Likely what it's going to

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Speaker 1: be in the postseason. Yanni's Chris Middleton and Drew Hollidy

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Speaker 1: that's a lock, and then Dante DiVincenzo as a shooter,

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Speaker 1: and then Mike Budenholzer kind of swapped PJ. Tucker and

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Speaker 1: Brook Lopez defense for offense. And PJ. Tucker look great

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Speaker 1: out there working his butt off with his new team.

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Speaker 1: But as for the execution in late game situations, the

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Speaker 1: Yannies has shown in playoffs pass he needs somebody to

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Speaker 1: help down the stretch when it comes down to it.

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Speaker 1: The guys who are going to have to step up

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Speaker 1: are playmakers off the bounds, Chris Middleton and Drew Holliday.

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Speaker 1: And Milwaukee has been fairly healthy all season, and they

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Speaker 1: still haven't truly figured it out. They still don't have

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Speaker 1: a balance. It still looks like they don't know exactly

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Speaker 1: what they're doing. It doesn't come naturally like it does

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Speaker 1: for the Nets. And we're here sixty one games into

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Speaker 1: the season, only eleven more games for the Bucks to

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Speaker 1: figure it out. Now, it's not going to be the

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Speaker 1: Celtics who knock off the Nets. Not a chance. The

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Speaker 1: OKAC Thunder visited Boston on Tuesday. The Thunder are trying

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Speaker 1: to tank for a better draft pick. They're the only

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Speaker 1: NBA team that wasn't interested in making the playoffs or

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Speaker 1: the play in tournament. From the beginning of the season,

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Speaker 1: twenty of the thirty teams make the playoffs or play

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Speaker 1: in tournament. Okaysee was not interested the only one, And

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Speaker 1: now they've really leaned in. They've told Al Horford his

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Speaker 1: services are no longer needed this season. Stay home, you've

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Speaker 1: helped us win too many games. Same goes for their

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Speaker 1: stars Shay Gilgess, Alexander They at least pushed an injury

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Speaker 1: excuse for his absences and they traded the steady hand

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Speaker 1: of George Chill. As a result, they had lost fourteen

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Speaker 1: straight games going into Boston. That's good for them. Then

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Speaker 1: they go in there and they snap a fourteen game

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Speaker 1: win streak against the Celtics team that is trying to

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Speaker 1: make the playoffs. They're currently in sixth and in danger

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Speaker 1: of dropping into the play in tournament. He had no

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Speaker 1: Kemba Walker or Jason Tatum, but Boston absolutely did not

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Speaker 1: want to win this game. In the final two minutes

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Speaker 1: of this tight game. Okay, so he got two big

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Speaker 1: dunks because Boston just didn't care enough to put their

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Speaker 1: bodies on the line. Okay. Ces players are definitely playing

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Speaker 1: to win, but it's their front office that isn't. But

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Speaker 1: this was a rare game where both teams lost. OKC

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Speaker 1: currently has the fifth worst record in the NBA, and

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Speaker 1: it looks like they're running away with that spot. Fourth

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Speaker 1: worst is Detroit, two games worse than Oka. See NBA

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Speaker 1: draft lotteries on June twenty second. This season, that's usually

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Speaker 1: when the draft is. It is a bizarro year and

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Speaker 1: it continues in the NBA world. I hate how I

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Speaker 1: am refreshing tankathon dot com every day, but that's NBA life.

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Speaker 1: The play in tournament definitely worked in terms of keeping

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Speaker 1: teams hopes up for longer this season, but some teams

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Speaker 1: have no shot at making it at this point, so

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Speaker 1: their prize gaze has turned elsewhere, like the battle of

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Speaker 1: the bottom two teams in the NBA on Tuesday, the

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Speaker 1: Rockets and the Timberwolves, who don't even have a mathematical

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Speaker 1: shot of making it now. The Timberwolves pulled away late

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday, and it sure looks like Houston will finish

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Speaker 1: with the worst record. Houston now has about a fifty

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Speaker 1: percent chance of keeping their pick that they traded to

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Speaker 1: OKAC and the Chris Paul Russell Westbrook deal, but they

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Speaker 1: keep it if the lottery ball gods give them one

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Speaker 1: of the top four picks. Fifty percent chance of that happening.

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Speaker 1: And the Wolves have to slow down because they've won

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Speaker 1: three in a row and they're in a similar boat

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Speaker 1: as Houston. They traded away their pick to Golden State

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Speaker 1: with Andrew Wiggins for Dangel Russell, but their pick is

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Speaker 1: top three protected. Speaking of those Warriors before the game

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Speaker 1: versus Dallas. On Tuesday, head coach Steve Kerr said, we

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Speaker 1: could catch Dallas for the sixth spot if we beat

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Speaker 1: them and then we have the tiebreaker, that could happen,

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Speaker 1: we'd get out of the play in tournament. But that

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Speaker 1: did not happen. The Warriors got blasted by the Mavericks.

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Speaker 1: Now we're almost guaranteed to get Steph and the Warriors

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Speaker 1: in the play in tournament a couple weeks from now.

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Speaker 1: They delivered an offensive dud did the Warriors, and we're

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Speaker 1: down forty seven to sixteen. At one point. Steph Curry

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Speaker 1: continued to add onto his record for threes in a month.

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Speaker 1: It's now at ninety with one more game to play.

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Speaker 1: Luka Doncic had thirty nine in this one last game

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Speaker 1: of the night. The Portland Trailblazers took out their frustrations

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Speaker 1: on the Pacers, snapping a five game losing streak. Backup

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Speaker 1: guard Anthony Simons was scorching hot. He hit his first

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Speaker 1: nine threes and then he missed his last one, making

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Speaker 1: it a perfect night nine times three for twenty seven points.

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Speaker 1: As he didn't hit a two perfect night. Because I

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Speaker 1: love simple math, all right, That is it for me.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you check out the full Nodunks episode here

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Speaker 1: On Wednesday. We also have a beach step in Mailbag

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Speaker 1: pod coming to you today. I'll be back tomorrow to

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Speaker 1: give you the news as fast as I possibly can.

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Speaker 1: I'll talk to you then