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Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic is a basketball master. Centers are thriving in

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Speaker 1: today's NBA. Who said they were dead? Although defense, so

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Speaker 1: that's long dead. As Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Russell

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Speaker 1: Westbrook almost set some records on Sunday. Hey, I'm tas

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

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Speaker 1: the NBA for Monday, February. First two centers are legitimate

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Speaker 1: MVP candidates. Nikoliokic or Joel Embiid would be the first

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Speaker 1: center to win it since the early two thousands when

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Speaker 1: Shaquille O'Neill, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were running things.

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Speaker 1: Now we can always debate who is a center and

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Speaker 1: who isn't. Tim Duncan was playing with David Robinson back then,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't a center. All I know, as my man

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Speaker 1: Trey Kirby would say, the big man is back. Look

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Speaker 1: Jokichen Embiid. They're definitely not traditional centers. Case in point

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Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic's performance on Sunday when his his Nuggets took

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Speaker 1: on the hottest team in the NBA, the Utah Jazz.

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Speaker 1: He gave the Jazz forty seven points in all sorts,

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Speaker 1: of ways. He hit threes floaters on the move, going

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Speaker 1: past bigs, going past smalls. He got past all of them.

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Speaker 1: Two time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert didn't matter.

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Speaker 1: Defensive stalwart Derek favors uh uh wings, the spin, moves

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Speaker 1: down low, the English on pretty reverse layups, the footwork.

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Speaker 1: Jokic tied his career high with forty seven points and

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Speaker 1: added twelve boards and five assists. Unstoppable. Even though the

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Speaker 1: Jazz came into this one having won eleven straight, they

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Speaker 1: really had no chance. Jokic on a mission in this one,

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Speaker 1: methinks he likes playing against Rudy Gobert. Let's move on

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Speaker 1: to Embiid. But he didn't even play for the Sixers

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Speaker 1: against the Pacers Sunday because of a sore backed tass.

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Speaker 1: It's true other voice, and it looked like the Pacers

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Speaker 1: had a sure win without em Bead in the lineup.

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Speaker 1: Then I easily could have spun the storyline into Philly

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Speaker 1: is zero to five without Embid this season. See how

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Speaker 1: important he is to the number one seeded team in

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Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. Well, what's more important than manufactured storylines

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Speaker 1: for Embiid's MVP chances is that Philly keeps racking up

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Speaker 1: those wins, and it looked like they were done versus

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Speaker 1: Indy down sixteen early in the fourth quarter, Doc Rivers

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Speaker 1: needed something, so he decided to play zone, and the

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Speaker 1: Pacers hit only one shot the last eight minutes and

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Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. Doc said they were calling it the John

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Speaker 1: Cheney matchup zone, referring to the trailblazing Temple coach who

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Speaker 1: died on Friday. Rest in Power coach Tobias Harris had

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Speaker 1: twenty seven furkin' furk and Cork Maz hit a couple

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Speaker 1: huge buckets down the stretch. Malcolm Brogden had twenty five

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Speaker 1: in the loss. The Sixers are now number one with

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Speaker 1: a bullet in the Eastern Conference at fifteen and six.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of big men who have one MVP, let's get

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Speaker 1: to Kevin Durant's nets taking on the Wizards. Kd is

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Speaker 1: playing some center this season? Isn't he a big man?

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Speaker 1: Get out of here? Other voice. Durant versus Bradley Beal

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Speaker 1: the top two scorers in the NBA. They both got

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Speaker 1: their thirty seven points in a game that had a

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Speaker 1: final score of one forty nine to one forty six.

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Speaker 1: In regulation. A season high end points for the Wizards

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Speaker 1: came against the Nets. The Nets give up points, but

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Speaker 1: they always seemed to get just enough stops, just that

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Speaker 1: one that they need, and it looked like they had

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Speaker 1: that in this game against the Wizards, but a wild

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Speaker 1: sequence at the end, starting with eight seconds left, Beal

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Speaker 1: hit a three, and then the Nets literally gave the

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Speaker 1: ball right back to Washington. On the inbounds, Russell Westbrook

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Speaker 1: hit a three, two threes, all within three point eight seconds.

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Speaker 1: The Wizards were up one. The Nets then inbounded under

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Speaker 1: Washington's hoop, and because Washington's defense is horrendous, they somehow

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Speaker 1: got a direct pass underneath the hoop to Timothay Luabu Cabareau.

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Speaker 1: He missed a lefty layup, and the Wizards won. Russell

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Speaker 1: Westbrook got his second season high in a row. He

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Speaker 1: led all scores with forty one points, and probably most

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Speaker 1: words spoken, the Whiz got just their fourth win of

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Speaker 1: the season, but two of them have come against Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: They are four and twelve. James Harden sat with a

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Speaker 1: thigh contusion in this one. It could have been a

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Speaker 1: strategic sit by the Nets, as he has not been

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Speaker 1: in great shape, although thigh contusions have been running rampant

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Speaker 1: around the NBA this season. I'm not joking about that.

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Speaker 1: The combined two hundred and ninety five points two hundred

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Speaker 1: and ninety five points. It's so many I can't say.

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Speaker 1: It is the second highest scoring game in the last

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Speaker 1: twenty five seasons that didn't go to ot per ESPN

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Speaker 1: Stats and Info. Look, the Nets can't play defense, so

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Speaker 1: they made a signing. They signed free agent Emon Schumpert

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Speaker 1: otherwise known as Ema Schumpere. This will be Emon Schumpert's

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Speaker 1: tenth season in the NBA. Wow, he's been around for

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Speaker 1: a long time, but he's only thirty years old and

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Speaker 1: the signing sounds good in theory, the Nets needmeter defense.

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Speaker 1: But Emon Trumpert, again only thirty, So why isn't he

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Speaker 1: on an NBA team? Well, the three part has been

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Speaker 1: eluding him recently. He hasn't been a great score, hasn't

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Speaker 1: been a great three point shooter, and he was on

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Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets just last year, but they only kept

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Speaker 1: him around for a month. So hopefully Shumpert can turn

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Speaker 1: it around and be a contributor on this team like

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Speaker 1: he was to the twenty sixteen cas when he won

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Speaker 1: the championship alongside Kyrie Irving, who he'd be playing with

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Speaker 1: again in Brooklyn. Or was this just assigning to get

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Speaker 1: up to that fourteen player requirement. As the Nets needed

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Speaker 1: to sign a player on the weekend to get to

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Speaker 1: fourteen players, they decided Emon Trumpert was their guy. Another

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Speaker 1: rumored player to be going to the Nets is JJ Reddick.

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Speaker 1: He was a healthy scratch in the Pelicans' last two games,

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Speaker 1: and Sean Sherania of the Athletic has reported the Pelicans

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Speaker 1: are focusing on trading him to the Nets, the seventy

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Speaker 1: six Ers or the Celtics now. The Nets have said

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Speaker 1: they are not done, but I don't think Reddick is

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Speaker 1: a fit considering how bad they are defensively. The seventy

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Speaker 1: six Ers makes sense because Reddick was just there a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, but he would be taking minutes

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Speaker 1: away from players a lot younger than him. Reddick is

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Speaker 1: thirty six. The Celtics makes the most sense to me

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Speaker 1: because they need somebody off the bench. The Sixers have

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Speaker 1: enough players. The Celtics are desperate behind Kemba Walker and

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Speaker 1: Marcus Smart to get some guard play. Staying at the

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Speaker 1: top on Sunday, the Clippers had an early brunch matchup

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Speaker 1: in Madison Square Garden. After being polite and letting the

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Speaker 1: Knicks lead plenty of the conversation in the first half,

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Speaker 1: La did all the talking in the second half. We

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Speaker 1: get in a Seinfeld reference here, JD. The Clippers are

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Speaker 1: the NBA's best third quarter team this season. After what

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Speaker 1: happened in the playoffs last year giving up those three

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Speaker 1: one leads, you know that was a focus coming into

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Speaker 1: this year. Kawhi Leonard continued his potential MVP run with

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Speaker 1: twenty eight points, and with the Jazz loss, the Clippers

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Speaker 1: now own the league's best record sixteen and five. Good

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Speaker 1: news for the Minnesota Timberwolves, they haven't got a lot

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Speaker 1: of that this season. Number one pick Anthony Edwards started

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Speaker 1: his second consecutive game and was productive twenty three points,

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Speaker 1: five boards, forces and four threes in a win against

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Speaker 1: the Cavs. He and Malik Beasley and D'Angel Russell hit

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Speaker 1: plenty of three balls to overcome Karl Anthony Towns' absence.

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Speaker 1: They almost didn't overcome it because poor ed Davis had

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Speaker 1: to guard Beefy Andre Drummond. Ed Davis, that undersized center

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Speaker 1: that gets the horrible task year after year after year

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Speaker 1: of guarding guys that are way too big for him.

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Speaker 1: Drummond had twenty five points and twenty two rebounds as

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Speaker 1: the Wolves were also missing nas Reed. Bad news for

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Speaker 1: Cleveland that's hopefully not too bad. All Star Hopeful calling

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Speaker 1: at Sexton left the game after injuring that same ankle

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Speaker 1: that caused him to miss five games earlier this year.

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Speaker 1: Magic Raptors Pascal Siakam said he's been feeling better physically.

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Speaker 1: Siakam had thirty points and ten rebounds against Orlando, back

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Speaker 1: to back thirty point games for the first time this

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Speaker 1: season for Pascal, and he had a huge jam on

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Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon's hair. Raptors Win, Raptors Win. They're now eight

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Speaker 1: and twelve. Utah Watsonabe is the latest Raptor in a

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Speaker 1: long line of Raptors to seemingly come out of nowhere

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Speaker 1: and make an impact. The fan favorite hit all three

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Speaker 1: of his threes. He's Toronto's new Jorge Garbajosa. For all

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Speaker 1: you Jorge Garbajosa heads out there, that's it for me.

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Speaker 1: I'll be back Tuesday to give you the news as

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Speaker 1: fast as I possibly can. Make sure you check out

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Speaker 1: Monday's full length No Dunks episode, where we will go

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Speaker 1: through our winners and losers of the NBA weekend. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you tomorrow