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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the Volume.

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Speaker 1: We had a jam packed Monday night slate in the

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Speaker 1: NBA that we are going to be breaking down today.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna hit four games. Donovan Mitchell scoring outburst to

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Speaker 1: beat the Bulls, Clay Thompson scoring outburst to beat the

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Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks, Joel Embiads scoring outburst to beat the New

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Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans, and Lebron James and yet another scoring outburst

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Speaker 1: to beat the Charlotte Hornets. So we're gonna be talking

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Speaker 1: about scorers today. You guys know the drill before we

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Speaker 1: get started. Subscribed to the Volumes 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 Jason lt so you guys don't miss

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Speaker 1: any show announcements. Then, last, but not least, for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: you guys miss one of these videos and you can't

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Speaker 1: get back over to YouTube to finish. You can find

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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops tonight. And lastly,

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Speaker 1: January is gonna be an awesome sports month. We've got

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Speaker 1: the National Championship Game, with college football coming up next weekend,

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Speaker 1: the NFL playoffs are starting soon, and basketball around the

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Speaker 1: that football season is ending. Lots of good games for

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be going through four games today rapid fire style. We

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Speaker 1: had forty two from Joel Embiid, forty three from lebron

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Speaker 1: fifty four from Clay Thompson, and seventy one from Donovan Mitchell.

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Speaker 1: A crazy stretch of scoring last night. So the Cavs

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Speaker 1: are actually down. We're gonna start with Bulls Calves. The

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Speaker 1: Caves are actually down two starters last night, Evan Mobile

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Speaker 1: and Darius Garland were both out, and the Bulls of

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Speaker 1: sneakyve been playing some pretty good basketball. Um. It's always

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Speaker 1: interesting to me when things start to go south for

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Speaker 1: a team, what happens. Do they show fight and try

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Speaker 1: to save their season or do they let go of

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Speaker 1: the rope? I think, for instance, we're gonna talk about

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Speaker 1: the Hawks today too, and then we're gonna talk about

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Speaker 1: the Bulls and we're gonna talk about the Lakers. Those

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Speaker 1: are three teams that, for various reasons, have had really

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Speaker 1: rough seasons. And you're seeing the Bulls and the Lakers

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Speaker 1: actively fight to try to save their season, and you're

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Speaker 1: seeing the Hawks just to send further and further into

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Speaker 1: the struggle. UM. The Bulls had come in five and

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Speaker 1: two in their previous seven games with some impressive wins.

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Speaker 1: They'd beat a Heat team that's playing good ball lately,

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Speaker 1: they beat the Hawks, they beat the Knicks when they

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Speaker 1: were playing really well, and they beat the Milwaukee Bucks

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Speaker 1: in a really impressive comeback win. UM. They jumped the

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Speaker 1: Calves early in this game too. They went up twenty

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Speaker 1: one in the first half to Martin Rosen and Zach

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Speaker 1: Lavine were absolutely cooking. Donovan Mitchell only had sixteen at halftime,

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Speaker 1: but then the Mitchell Show began. He hung twenty four

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Speaker 1: on them in the third quarter, eighteen in the fourth quarter,

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Speaker 1: thirteen in the five minute overtime, perfect four for four

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Speaker 1: from the field and three for three from three, and

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Speaker 1: finished with seventy one points. UM. Yesterday, I had I

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Speaker 1: appeared as a guest on Sam Vicenni's podcast, who has

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Speaker 1: a podcast called Game Theory for the Athletic Um. Sam

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Speaker 1: does great work. You guys gotta check him out. I

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Speaker 1: tweeted out a link to that show you could find

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Speaker 1: on my twitter feed. We went for about an hour

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Speaker 1: and a half. We talked to m v P, talked

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Speaker 1: a lot Lakers, a lot of good stuff. And in

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Speaker 1: that show we started talking about just the wild scoring

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Speaker 1: bursts that we're seeing around the league. And I presented

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Speaker 1: to say in my theory, which is just that pull

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Speaker 1: up shooting and the massive improvements league wide didn't pull

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Speaker 1: up shooting and the fact that pull up shooting directly

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Speaker 1: beats most NBA coverages is a big part of why

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Speaker 1: we're seeing so many scoring oppers. You take away the

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Speaker 1: easy stuff, you take away the rim, even on the

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Speaker 1: defensive end, rotating around on the perimeter to shooters, you're

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Speaker 1: chasing guys off the line and funneling them into the paint.

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Speaker 1: There's all these openings in the middle of the floor

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Speaker 1: for pull up midrange stuff. And then obviously in ball screens,

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Speaker 1: anytime a guy gets caught on the screen, there's an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to shoot a pull up three and take advantage

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Speaker 1: of the math that's available to you there, so having

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Speaker 1: a guy that can knock down pull up jump shots

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Speaker 1: if he gets hot, it's so difficult to guard pull

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Speaker 1: up shooting that I think that that's why you're seeing

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Speaker 1: more of these scoring outbursts. Like Alex Cruso was doing

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Speaker 1: everything right last night, flying around screens and contesting shots,

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Speaker 1: but Donovan's just making him and there's really nothing you

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Speaker 1: can do about it. He was just sticking those pull

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Speaker 1: up jump shots time and time again, and that's what

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Speaker 1: he does. He's forty six point four percent on ten

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shots per game. That's outrageously good. On

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Speaker 1: six pull up threes a game, there are thirty two

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Speaker 1: players in the NBA this year taking at least three

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Speaker 1: pull up threes per game, and Steph Curry is the

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Speaker 1: only player in the NBA shooting better than Donovan Mitchell

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Speaker 1: on those shots. And that pull up three, in particular,

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Speaker 1: is what makes Donovan Mitchell so difficult to guard, because

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Speaker 1: it's not just in ball screens, it's also an ISO situations.

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Speaker 1: He's got a really good pound through his right leg

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Speaker 1: between the legs, step back three going to his left.

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Speaker 1: He hit a couple of them last night. That what

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Speaker 1: that does is it puts you in a really difficult

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Speaker 1: predicament as an isolation defender, because when you're up on

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Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, he's so good getting downhill to the rim

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Speaker 1: that you basically have to make a decision. Am I

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Speaker 1: going to concede these pull up threes to Donovan Mitchell

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Speaker 1: at the expense of trying to contain him, Or am

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Speaker 1: I going to press up on him and he's gonna

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Speaker 1: go right around me all game long. They ended up

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Speaker 1: having to sub Alex Caruso, who's one of the better

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Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in the league. They had to sub him

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Speaker 1: out of this game to try anything else that might

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Speaker 1: be able to slow Donovan down. And you know again,

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Speaker 1: and this is where pull up three point shooting adds

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Speaker 1: an element that other pull up shooting does not. It's

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Speaker 1: in iso enforcing defenders out on you. When you beat

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Speaker 1: people off the dribble at twenty five feet, you can

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Speaker 1: really get your head of steam going downhill before you

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Speaker 1: get to the rim, as opposed to when defenders are

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Speaker 1: meeting you lower, you know, seventeen eighteen, even twenty feet,

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Speaker 1: you don't get as much room and not not as

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Speaker 1: much of a runway to get a head start. You

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Speaker 1: don't get as much momentum going downhill towards the room.

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Speaker 1: I think that's a huge part of what makes Donovan

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Speaker 1: so hard to guard. Donovan Mitchell on the season twenty

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Speaker 1: nine points, four rebounds, five assists on sixty three percent

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Speaker 1: TRU shooting, which is just otherworldly, one point one four

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Speaker 1: points per possession, and pick and roll including passes, which

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Speaker 1: is sixth in the league among players who have run

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Speaker 1: at least two hundred and a solid one point zero

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Speaker 1: four points per possession in ISSO. And now the Calves

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Speaker 1: are just two and a half games back and the

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Speaker 1: best record in basketball. I talked to Sam also about

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Speaker 1: m v P and we did our rankings, and um know,

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Speaker 1: we talked about how there's like eight dudes right now

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Speaker 1: that have cases and eleven dudes that like realistically have

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Speaker 1: a chance if things go one way or another before

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Speaker 1: the end of the season. Donovan Mitchell's on that list.

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Speaker 1: If the Calves go on a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: run here and end up with the best record in

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Speaker 1: the league, there's no reason in the world why Donovan

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Speaker 1: can't win m v P, especially with how good he's

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Speaker 1: been offensively. And it's just kind of it's a testament

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Speaker 1: to how talented the top of the league is. It's

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Speaker 1: a testament to Donovan Mitchell and the score that he's

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Speaker 1: become in this league, and just how excited I am

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Speaker 1: for the NBA as a whole. Moving forward, all right,

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Speaker 1: moving on to Hawks Warriors. So this was a wild

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Speaker 1: double overtime game. The Warriors jumped out too hugely. They

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Speaker 1: were up twenty one early. Um the Hawks came all

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Speaker 1: the way back and went up nine. Then the Warriors

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Speaker 1: claud back and send it to overtime. Then the Warriors

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Speaker 1: fell down big in the first overtime, claude back to

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Speaker 1: send it to a second overtime. Then the Hawks fell

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Speaker 1: down big in the second overtime and Jon T. Murray

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Speaker 1: hits a pull up three, Trade Young hits a floater.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly it's tied. But then Clay Thompson mrs the three

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Speaker 1: and Covon Looney battling underneath the rim. We're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about some of the details of that particular play here

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Speaker 1: in a minute. But Kevon Looney battles under the rim

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Speaker 1: and gets a put back at the buzzer to win

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Speaker 1: it for the Warriors, who continued to roll without Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry going on a run and Clay Thompson finished with

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Speaker 1: fifty four eight and three countless big plays down the

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Speaker 1: stretch of this game since November in his last seventeen games.

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Speaker 1: Remember how concerned Warriors fans were about Clay early in

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Speaker 1: the season. In his last seventeen games, which is a

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Speaker 1: massive sample size spanning over a month, twenty four points

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Speaker 1: per game percent true shooting on eleven threes per game.

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Speaker 1: That's a seventeen game sample size of vintage Clay Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Maybe not quite some of his higher scoring numbers because

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Speaker 1: he had some stretches earlier in his career where he'd

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Speaker 1: go for like twenty eight a game for a while,

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Speaker 1: but in terms of efficiency and production, that's really really

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Speaker 1: high level stuff from Clay Thompson. My favorite thing about

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Speaker 1: Clay has always been his jump shot form. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's funny when we talk about the Splash Brothers. Step

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Speaker 1: is like the best shooter of all time, that's unassailable.

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Speaker 1: I think Clay Thompson is the second best shooter of

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Speaker 1: all time. Most of us would agree. But ironically, like

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Speaker 1: Steph is a little more unorthodox um in terms of

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Speaker 1: his form, Like he shoots a little bit down in

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Speaker 1: front of his head. He uses his opposite thumb. None

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Speaker 1: of that's wrong. I'm a big believer in who cares

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Speaker 1: what your form is as long as you can replicate it.

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Speaker 1: But if I was teaching a player from scratch, Like

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Speaker 1: if my son one day was like, I want to

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Speaker 1: learn how to shoot the basketball, can you teach me?

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Speaker 1: I would teach him the way Clay Thompson shoots. And

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Speaker 1: there's a couple of specific things that I wanted to

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Speaker 1: focus on. Uh. First of all, absolutely no wasted motion.

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Speaker 1: There's if you watch footage of Clay Thompson shooting, there

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Speaker 1: is no unnecessary body movement. Everything is straight up and down.

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Speaker 1: There's no weird back stuff, there's no weird legs stuff.

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Speaker 1: And up top, he's very rigid with a natural release

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Speaker 1: coming off of his right hand. First, the limited motion

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Speaker 1: is so important because that allows you to replicate your

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Speaker 1: muscle memory easier. When there are lots of moving parts,

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Speaker 1: it's a lot more area for you to make a mistake,

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Speaker 1: and that decreased margin for error makes it so that

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Speaker 1: it's harder for you to replicate that release. When you

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Speaker 1: have less movement, it's easier to replicate fewer areas for

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Speaker 1: you to make a mistake that that's that's how you

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Speaker 1: can get dialed in and get outrageously hot the way

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Speaker 1: that Clay did last night. And the second thing I

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Speaker 1: wanted to focus on was his wide base. Now, a

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Speaker 1: lot of shooters, most shooters, I would say, kind of

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Speaker 1: jump in a normal athletic stance where their feet are

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Speaker 1: kind of even with their shoulders, maybe even a little

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Speaker 1: bit more narrow. I think it's just a natural athletic

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Speaker 1: thing that a lot of young basketball players do. Clay

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Speaker 1: Thompson is a wide base his feet on and most

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Speaker 1: of his three point attempts are outside of his shoulders.

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Speaker 1: And I have a very wide base when I shoot

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Speaker 1: as well, And so that's one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I've always looked at with Clay that I've related to

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Speaker 1: because I've always done it that way for a very

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Speaker 1: specific reason when you are moving, whether that's coming off

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Speaker 1: of a screen to rise up with the one too

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Speaker 1: off the catch for three, or that's coming off the

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Speaker 1: screen and dribbling the way Clay did a bunch last

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Speaker 1: night to get too difficult, you know, pull up two's

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Speaker 1: um as defenders are chasing him over the top of

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Speaker 1: the screen regardless, in any movement situation, a wider base

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Speaker 1: gives you a much better chance of establishing balance while

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Speaker 1: on the move. For instance, if I'm jumping way off

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Speaker 1: to the right, if I jump and I keep my

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Speaker 1: feet close together, I might keep leaning that way, but

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Speaker 1: if I keep my feet wide, it's more likely that

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Speaker 1: this foot will establish enough force coming back the other

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Speaker 1: way to steady me so that I can go straight

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Speaker 1: up and down. Watch watch some footage of Clay Thompson shooting.

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Speaker 1: Watch how wide his feet are, and look at how

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Speaker 1: it gives him the ability to get good balanced lift

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Speaker 1: on his high difficulty three point shots that he takes.

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Speaker 1: I also wanted to shout out well first of all

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Speaker 1: before we move on. Um. But anyway, I told you

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Speaker 1: guys earlier when Clay was struggling, that I wasn't worried

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Speaker 1: about it because two reasons, he was still playing great defensively,

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Speaker 1: and two teams were guarding him like he was. Clay Thompson,

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Speaker 1: I care way less about the percentages on jump shots

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Speaker 1: than I do about the way teams are guarding you.

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Speaker 1: The reason why is Clay, let's say he takes eleven

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Speaker 1: threes per game. If he makes four of them instead

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Speaker 1: of six of them, that's only six points. Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: might be the difference in the game one way or another,

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Speaker 1: but who knows, Like, there's all this shooting variants that's

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Speaker 1: taking place. But if he is being guarded like Clay Thompson,

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Speaker 1: then over a hundred possessions we might score a lot

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Speaker 1: more than six points off of the attention that he

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Speaker 1: garners and the way it opens up things for other players.

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Speaker 1: When you start shooting low percentages and teams aren't guarding you,

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Speaker 1: that's where it becomes deeply problematic. There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of players around the league that shoot thirty eight percent

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Speaker 1: from three on wide open looks all game long because

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Speaker 1: the team isn't guarding them, and it's easy to be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from three, that equates to well over

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Speaker 1: fifty effective field goal percentage. That's great for us. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but is he is his defender helping on every single

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Speaker 1: one of your drives? Is his defender basically roaming around

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Speaker 1: the floor blowing up other actions? Because if that's the case,

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Speaker 1: then that thirty eight percent three doesn't really matter. You're

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Speaker 1: losing a lot of points over the course of the game.

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Speaker 1: I didn't worry so much about Clay because he was

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Speaker 1: being guarded like Clay, and on the other end, he

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Speaker 1: was defending at a high level. Now the shots are

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Speaker 1: going in. Now you're getting that ultimate ceiling with Clay

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Speaker 1: Thompson fifty percent true shooting on twenty four points per

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Speaker 1: game over seventeen games. That's where you get that. That's

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Speaker 1: just gravy. That's all just extra as it comes down

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Speaker 1: to the result. But the most important thing is that

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Speaker 1: they guard him like Clay. That's where the uh, the

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Speaker 1: flow of the Golden State offense will come from. A

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Speaker 1: couple of shout outs. So Draymond Green made a half

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Speaker 1: dozen more just unbelievable defensive plays. He blew up another

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Speaker 1: two on one break by blocking DeAndre Hunter, uh, stopping

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Speaker 1: what should have been a dunk. I talked a lot

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Speaker 1: about these load passes around the rim that he keeps

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Speaker 1: blowing up with his back line help. There's a play

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Speaker 1: in this game where a Congo rolled to the basket

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Speaker 1: for a lob. He was guarding I believe John Collins

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Speaker 1: in the opposite corner, and he came flying off of

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Speaker 1: John Collins at the last second to blow up a

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Speaker 1: lot at the rim. Defenders in the league, that's a dunk,

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Speaker 1: but for Draymond Green, it's erasing two points from the board.

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Speaker 1: And then he had a ridiculous block on a Trey

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Speaker 1: Young pull up three and overtime as well. He's just

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Speaker 1: been a defensive wrecking ball over the course of the

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Speaker 1: last few weeks. And the Kevon Louney on the game winner.

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Speaker 1: Understand your advantage. That Hawk's lineup was pretty small, uh,

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Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter and John Collins were the front court at

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Speaker 1: that point in the game, and because of some transition

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Speaker 1: cross matches after tray Young's lay up, the Gold Go

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Speaker 1: and say quickly pushed the ball off the floor, which

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Speaker 1: was a really smart decision because it kept things kind

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Speaker 1: of chaotic. Now, transition defensive principles take take a control

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Speaker 1: as opposed to regular defensive principles, so people aren't going

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Speaker 1: for their match, they're just guarding the guy that's nearest

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Speaker 1: to them. Well, um, I believe it was John Collins

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Speaker 1: got stuck out towards mid court. DeAndre Hunter ended up

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Speaker 1: on Clay Thompson, so Kevon Looney had de gen Ty

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Speaker 1: Murray on him. He understood that he had the advantage

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Speaker 1: there just buried him under the basket, ended up actually

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Speaker 1: getting two offensive rebounds in that final sequence, made the

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Speaker 1: second one and the game was over. Another really, really

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Speaker 1: impressive team win for the Golden State Warriors on the

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Speaker 1: strength of a Clay Thompson nuclear explosion. The Atlanta Hawks

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Speaker 1: have also lost four games in a row. They are

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Speaker 1: now six and thirteen since November, which is the best

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Speaker 1: record in the league over that span. For the season,

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Speaker 1: they're only thirteen and sixteen when both at Trey Young

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Speaker 1: and Degen Murray plays, so it might actually be crisis

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Speaker 1: mode at this point. And again, it's kind of one

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Speaker 1: of our long standing philosophies on the show. When you

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Speaker 1: build your team around two smaller guards, there are just

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Speaker 1: some limitations in what you can do from the standpoint

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Speaker 1: of physicality. Alright, moving on Pelicans sixers, so Zion hung

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Speaker 1: a smooth twenty six points on twelve shots before having

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Speaker 1: to leave with a hamstring injury, which is kind of

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Speaker 1: a bummer. Otherwise we might have had another forty point

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Speaker 1: game tonight or like on Monday night. This game was

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Speaker 1: actually tied at eighty nine. Early in the fourth quarter,

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Speaker 1: James Harden and Montrese Harold just started spamming pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: You know, so many of these Sixers games I watched,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of Joel and Beat stuff,

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Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk to all and Beat stuff. But

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Speaker 1: James Harden is having a fantastic season, just creating high

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Speaker 1: quality shots with what he can do in pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: They were getting all sorts of wide open dunks and

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Speaker 1: threes in the early fourth quarter, just spamming that Harold

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Speaker 1: Harden pick and roll, and they actually built a little

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Speaker 1: lead there, and then Joel and Beat came in and

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Speaker 1: they started is suing him right around the free throw line,

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Speaker 1: and he hit a jumper, hit another jumper, and is

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Speaker 1: So drew double team and kicked to James Harden. He

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Speaker 1: knocked down at three really high level stuff from James

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Speaker 1: Harden and Joel and Beat in the fourth quarter of

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Speaker 1: this game to build a lead. But then the Pelicans

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Speaker 1: threw a random curveball there in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter. They went to a three to zone, which

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Speaker 1: kind of jumbled up the Sixers for a few possessions,

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Speaker 1: and the Pelicans actually worked it all the way back

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Speaker 1: to three and then there was this chaotic possession where

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Speaker 1: loose ball just happened to bounce into the Anthony Melton's

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Speaker 1: hands on the left wing. He hit a three that

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Speaker 1: ended up essentially being the dagger as the Sixers went

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Speaker 1: up by six and got the win. Um. James Harden

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Speaker 1: and pick and roll this year done a really nice

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Speaker 1: job passing. Like I mentioned earlier, a couple of specific things. Um,

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Speaker 1: he doesn't always go directly to the rollman and they

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Speaker 1: mix in a ton of pick and pop. Was Georges

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Speaker 1: kneeing as well. And he's got this really nice like

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Speaker 1: behind the back passes he's coming off of ball screens

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Speaker 1: where he just whips it around as the defenders kind

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Speaker 1: of chasing around his hip and the screen defenders coming

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Speaker 1: up on him and bracketing him, he just whips it

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Speaker 1: around lefty behind his back. That starts that four on

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Speaker 1: three a different way by hitting that shooter, and you're

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Speaker 1: you're just Georges kneeing on the wing. Um. But then

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Speaker 1: he also did a nice job hitting Montress Harold as

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Speaker 1: well throughout that game. But that's something he's done really

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Speaker 1: well all season. The Sixers have scored one point zero

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Speaker 1: five points per possession when James Harden has passed out

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Speaker 1: of pick and roll, which is ex went. That's actually

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Speaker 1: ninth in the league among players who have done it

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Speaker 1: at least two hundred times this year. Um. And then

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Speaker 1: also handling traps. Uh, you're seeing James Harden get trapped

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Speaker 1: and pick and roll a lot more frequently lately. Um. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he's been the The Sixers are scoring almost two points

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Speaker 1: per possession unplaced where James Harden has been trapped in

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Speaker 1: pick and roll this year thirteen times for twenty two points,

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Speaker 1: just getting rid of the basketball quickly. Again, that behind

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Speaker 1: the back pass to the popping screener that I was

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Speaker 1: talking about earlier, um. And then Joel Embiad and ISO.

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Speaker 1: You know, we talked about how he went to work

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Speaker 1: a little bit from the free throw line with pull

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Speaker 1: up jump shots there in the fourth quarter. He this

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Speaker 1: season is scoring one point one six points per possession

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Speaker 1: on ISO including passes, which is fourth in the NBA

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Speaker 1: among players who have done it at least a hundred times.

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiad has already run two hundred and fifty one

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Speaker 1: ISOs this year, which is just an insane number. And

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Speaker 1: a big part of it is the jump shot. What

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Speaker 1: I've always said with Joel Embid, especially with Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: as well. Neither of them are great passers, and there's

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Speaker 1: a case to be made that Joel Ebad has actually

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Speaker 1: even been a little worse passing out of double teams

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Speaker 1: this year. This year than he's been in previous seasons.

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Speaker 1: He's turning the basketball more frequently than he used to.

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Speaker 1: So you know, it's so important for both of those

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Speaker 1: guys to be able to hit pull up jump shots

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Speaker 1: because that's their best way to beat teams packing the paint,

431
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 1: since they can't beat teams backing packing the paint with

432
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:21,640
Speaker 1: the pass. And Joel e Bead in his career, has struggled,

433
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,679
Speaker 1: particularly in the postseason, to knock down perimeter jump shots,

434
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 1: but this season has been his best perimeter jump shooting

435
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:31,360
Speaker 1: season by far, and if that translates to the playoffs,

436
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 1: that's monumentally important for Philly um. Joel e beats shooting

437
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 1: on short jumpers out to seventy on long jumpers from

438
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,800
Speaker 1: seventeen ft to the three point line, and a respectable

439
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 1: percent from three. But most importantly, he's doing all of

440
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 1: this on volume. He's taken three hundred, almost three hundred

441
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:54,120
Speaker 1: jump shots this year, so he's efficient on a steady diet.

442
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: Of jump shots, and it's also helping him beat double teams.

443
00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: There are a lot of plays this year where he's

444
00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 1: catching in the double was coming, but the double is

445
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,920
Speaker 1: not aggressive because teams are terrified of fouling him because

446
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,160
Speaker 1: he's so good at drawing fouls, and so he's actually

447
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: able just to rise up with his height in the

448
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,639
Speaker 1: fear of fouling, to rise up over a double team

449
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 1: and knock down a jump shot. It's ironic he's beating

450
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 1: doubles just by shooting over the top of them. Um.

451
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 1: The Sixers have now won ten out of twelve and

452
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 1: they are just three and a half games back of

453
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:25,120
Speaker 1: the best record in the league, which is really interesting

454
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: for Joel Embid potentially as an m VP candidate. And

455
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:30,119
Speaker 1: like I said, I expect the Sixers to go on

456
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 1: a big run here in January now that Tyree s

457
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,040
Speaker 1: Max he's back and they're healthy and they're defending as

458
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 1: well as they have been. Lookout for the Sixers to

459
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:42,160
Speaker 1: go on a run alright. Last game Lakers Hornets, really

460
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: impressive win over a Hornets team that kind of punished

461
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:48,640
Speaker 1: them last week. UM, just with their size and physicality,

462
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 1: especially in the offensive class. They won that game with

463
00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: the key offensive rebound back at Staples Center, I should

464
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: say Crypto dot com arena. Uh, there's kind of a

465
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: funny moment in the fourth quarter or Dennis Smith. Dennis Smith,

466
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 1: when you're tried to dunk on Lebron and Lebron kind

467
00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: of protected himself a little bit. Dennis took took exception

468
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: to it because he I guess he thought it was

469
00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,160
Speaker 1: a dirty foul or something. Um. Then he started talking

470
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 1: trash to Dennis Schroeder too, And so now Lebron and

471
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,920
Speaker 1: Dennis Struder like john back and forth with Dennis Smith

472
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:16,919
Speaker 1: while just killing them on the other end of the

473
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 1: floor every single time down. Uh. Kind of ballsy to

474
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: go at Lebron when he's playing as well as he

475
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,439
Speaker 1: has been. Um. And then Lebron just methodically worked his

476
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 1: way to forty three eleven and six on sixty percent

477
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 1: true shooting. Dennis Shudder also made a couple of big

478
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 1: plays in the fourth hit some threes and had a

479
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: nasty pullback druble crossover where he broke someone's ankles and

480
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 1: knockdown a jumper. Lebron has had thirty plus on sixty

481
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:46,280
Speaker 1: on at least six shooting three times in the last

482
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,160
Speaker 1: six games, it's looking like two thousand thirteen all over again.

483
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: The Lakers were plus nine with him on the floor

484
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: and minus three with him off in Lebron's last eleven games.

485
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 1: This is insane. Eleven games, that's almost a month. He's

486
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:03,679
Speaker 1: averaging thirty five seven and seven on six true shooting.

487
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:10,360
Speaker 1: What's wild is he's just from three on six attempts

488
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,480
Speaker 1: per game, So he's literally playing some of the best

489
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: basketball of his career despite the fact that he's having

490
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 1: this kind of relentless three point shooting slump that he

491
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: just can't break through. Um, which is crazy because you

492
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,119
Speaker 1: have to think, with the consistency that he shot the

493
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 1: three over the course of the previous you know, half decade,

494
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 1: you expect him to eventually turn that around. I mean,

495
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: if he just shot thirty seven percent from three during

496
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: this span, which is respectable more or less what you

497
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 1: would expect with Lebron playing as dialed in as he is. UM,

498
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: if you're shooting thirty seven percent from three, he'd be

499
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: averaging over thirty six points per game during this span.

500
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: But somehow, against all odds, the Lakers are now five

501
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 1: and five since the Anthony Davis injury, which just feels

502
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,880
Speaker 1: impossible because of an m v P level run from

503
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 1: Lebron James over the course of this last month. I

504
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,959
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out one other Laker before we call

505
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: it a day to day. Thomas Bryant. It's awesome again.

506
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:04,520
Speaker 1: Last night eighteen and fifteen five offensive rebounds had an

507
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: amazing putback, dunk and crunch time. When the Hornets made

508
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 1: a little bit of a run to get it somewhat close,

509
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,879
Speaker 1: offensive rebound rose up and dunked it. It It was just

510
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 1: a monstrous momentum play to ice the game. Um. You know,

511
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: as we look at Thomas Bryant, he does have some

512
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: defensive limitations. He's a little bit short, and he's not

513
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,720
Speaker 1: a great athlete, so in vertical situations around the rim,

514
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:28,239
Speaker 1: he can struggle, which is something that you know, it's

515
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: kind of out of his control. I just simply doesn't

516
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: have the tools to be a better defensive player than

517
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: he is. But he is a very very good offensive center,

518
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 1: and I would argue that his contributions on the offensive

519
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: end in particular for this Lakers team has probably been

520
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: the second most important thing behind this five and five

521
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,880
Speaker 1: stretch without a d behind Lebron, so he's been monumentally

522
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: valuable to this recent stretch and a couple of specific things.

523
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 1: He runs the floor super well. He's a great screener,

524
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: which is opening things up and pick and roll. He's

525
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,400
Speaker 1: got great hands to catch those difficult feeds in traffic

526
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,679
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. And he's a really strong finisher

527
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: around the basket. He shooting se restricted area this year.

528
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: He just muscles people off balance in those under the

529
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: rim confrontations. We talked a lot about post defense when

530
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 1: we were talking about Yoka Chaw. It's like a battle

531
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: of balance, like whoever can knock the dude off of

532
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 1: their like a base first has the better chance to

533
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: go up and score around the rim. And Thomas just

534
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:28,680
Speaker 1: knocks people off their base and then goes up strong

535
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:32,879
Speaker 1: to the rim. That prevents the taller, more athletic, longer

536
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: defenders from getting up above him and blocking shots. He

537
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: also crashes the offensive glass really well, and he's shooting

538
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 1: the laces off the basketball for from three this year. Again,

539
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 1: his offensive contributions have kind of been that other thing

540
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: that has revitalized the Lakers without Anthony Davis, who again

541
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: five and five since the A D injury is is

542
00:26:55,880 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 1: just probably the absolute best case scenario under the circus stances.

543
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 1: And what's crazy, as you can say, they blew that

544
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 1: first Hornets game could very easily be six and four.

545
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 1: But the Lakers again, you know, there are a lot

546
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,119
Speaker 1: of reasons to let go of the rope, but they

547
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 1: just keep fighting and riding the strength of what I

548
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: believe is still a top five player in this game Lebron.

549
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 1: I ranked him forward to start the season and he's

550
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 1: held up his end of the bargain after a rough start.

551
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,479
Speaker 1: You guys, I sincerely appreciate your support. As always, we're

552
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: gonna be taking tomorrow off. Um. We will be back

553
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: Thursday night breaking down I believe it's Celtics Mavericks, and

554
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: then Friday night I'm staying up to cover those games.

555
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: They'll actually be put on the Beats on Saturday morning.

556
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your support and I'll see you

557
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: guys next night. U