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Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Tas Mallis and this is what you need

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Speaker 1: to know in the NBA for Wednesday, January sixth. The

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Speaker 1: first thing you need to know is the Lakers have

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Speaker 1: moved into their rightful spot atop the Western Conference standings

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Speaker 1: for the first time this season. At six and two,

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Speaker 1: they are the league's best team, and they have temporarily

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Speaker 1: made me look dumb for taking the Clippers to win

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Speaker 1: the West. Admittedly, they beat up on a banged up

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Speaker 1: Grizzlies team, but everybody can play in the NBA. You

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Speaker 1: had Jonas Valanchounas for Memphis being a tree in the post.

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Speaker 1: You had Kyle Anderson being compared to Boris dil on

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Speaker 1: the broadcast by Grant Hill. I love that comparison. And unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: you had Dylan Brooks being called too small by Lebron

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Speaker 1: James when he sealed this game. Yeah, Lebron putting his

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Speaker 1: hand to the floor, like six inches from the floor, saying,

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Speaker 1: this guy is too small. Everybody is doing that in

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Speaker 1: the NBA. Maybe the kids are doing it. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Lebron trying to stay young, I get it. I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to stay young as well. Tea. That is definitely staying

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Speaker 1: young the San Antonio Spurs. I love watching this team play.

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Speaker 1: They beat the Los Angeles Clippers, who have dropped now

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Speaker 1: to five and three. The Spurs, Yeah, DeMar de ros

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Speaker 1: and the Marcus Aldridge. The old guys are their pillars.

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Speaker 1: But they've told the Marcus Aldridge, hey, step out even

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Speaker 1: more this year. You're taking a career high in threes

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Speaker 1: this year because we've got young guys who want to

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Speaker 1: move towards the rim. You've got to give him some space.

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Speaker 1: These young guys are a blast to watch. Keldon Johnson,

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Speaker 1: the Jeante Murray, Lonnie Walker are the starters beside Demart

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Speaker 1: de Rosen and LaMarcus Aldridge. In fact, this is the

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Speaker 1: youngest Spurs roster since Greg Popovic took over in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety six as the head coach. Yeah, he's been coaching

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Speaker 1: that long. Spurs average ages twenty six and a half

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Speaker 1: and Patty Mills off the bench, had in a phenomenal

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Speaker 1: game a career high eight threes twenty seven points for Patty.

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Speaker 1: He came into this season saying, I'm gonna be foeba Patty.

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Speaker 1: I've sacrificed for a long time in the NBA, but

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Speaker 1: I'm a better player than that. That's one reason I

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Speaker 1: took him on my fantasy team. And he is shooting

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Speaker 1: a career high fifty seven and a half percent from

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Speaker 1: three point lane. It's ridiculous off the bench, averaging fourteen

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Speaker 1: points a game. The Spurs are now at three and four.

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Speaker 1: Another team we expected to be good this season, the

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets, don't have Kevin Durant because of contact tracing

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Speaker 1: the next few games. One benefit of that we can

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Speaker 1: just watch Kyrie be Kyrie. And we didn't even get

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Speaker 1: to watch Kyrie all the way down the stretch in

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Speaker 1: this game against the Utah Jazz because they smoked the Jazz.

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Speaker 1: Is a thirty four point win. And yes, there is

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Speaker 1: a lot of blowout play happening in the NBA. There's

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Speaker 1: way more play with a margin of twenty points or

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Speaker 1: more this season. Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Seth Partnow

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Speaker 1: pointed that out. Anyway, Kyrie irving seven for seven in

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Speaker 1: the first quarter, it was ridiculous. Yeah, he ended with

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Speaker 1: twenty nine in only twenty nine minutes. As a blast

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Speaker 1: to watch Kyrie. The Nets had lost four or five

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Speaker 1: coming in. They are now back to four and four,

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Speaker 1: and the defensive numbers are good for them. They are

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Speaker 1: a solid team already done one ninth of the season,

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Speaker 1: four and four, one ninth, Love me some fractions. Moving

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Speaker 1: to Bulls Blazers, I think everybody, if you did tune

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Speaker 1: into these highlights or if you you saw anything from

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Speaker 1: this game, you saw Zach Lavine's game winner, and they

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Speaker 1: came back down from twenty. The Bulls did to beat

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Speaker 1: the Blazers. I think what you can take from this game, though,

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Speaker 1: is that the Blazers' defense is just not what people

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Speaker 1: expected it to be coming into this season. They signed

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Speaker 1: up Derek Jones Junior and Robert Covington in a trade

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Speaker 1: to be their wings alongside Damian Lillard and c J.

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Speaker 1: McCollum and Usuf Nurkic at the center spot. But man

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Speaker 1: Nurkic is struggling to guard in space, and then his

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Speaker 1: backup is Ennis Canter, and then Nurkic plays with Carmelo

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Speaker 1: Anthony at times who comes off the bench. That defense.

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Speaker 1: Something has to be done there, and they're likely to

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Speaker 1: keep Damian Lillard and CJ. McCollum there in the back

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Speaker 1: corn right the wings are there. It sort of emulates

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Speaker 1: how they got to the Western Conference Finals in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. But the Blazers sit twenty

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Speaker 1: ninth in defense, second last in defense after all of

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Speaker 1: those changes, and those new wings are unlikely to go anywhere,

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Speaker 1: and the backhard is unlikely to go anywhere. I think

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Speaker 1: it has to start with the center spot. Those bigs

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Speaker 1: just got to get more mobile. Nurkic, Canter and Mellow

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Speaker 1: who operates as a pseudo big. There has to be

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Speaker 1: more mobility on the back end. One thing that's unfortunate

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Speaker 1: is the Minnesota Timberwolves start this season. Karl Anthony Towns,

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Speaker 1: after his tumultuous offseason losing his mom, so many family

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Speaker 1: members and friends having going through COVID nineteen crises, started

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Speaker 1: this season two and zero. Things were looking great. Then, uncoincidentally,

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Speaker 1: when Karl Anthony Towns went down to injury, the Wolves

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Speaker 1: lost five in a row. Now, they fought on Tuesday

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Speaker 1: night against the Denver Nuggets. It was a scrappy battle.

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Speaker 1: They just are not deep enough with Towns out of

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Speaker 1: the lineup. Ricky Rubio's return to Minnesota hasn't helped enough.

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised He's coming off the bench and

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Speaker 1: not sort of solidifying the starting lineup that again just

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Speaker 1: isn't deep enough to be along with D'Angelo Russell, who

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Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns's buddy that they brought in last year,

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Speaker 1: is just not good enough. They need Towns back. It's

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Speaker 1: as simple as that. Everyone can play in the NBA,

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Speaker 1: Timberwolf can play, but in the Western conmence standings when

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Speaker 1: things are very, very very tough to make the postseason,

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Speaker 1: they need Towns back. One note I wanted to throw

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Speaker 1: in here. We just talked about the Blazers remaking their

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Speaker 1: roster to try and get more defensive. Well, the Milwaukee

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Speaker 1: Bucks remade their roster around Giannistatakunpo in the offseason, trying

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Speaker 1: to get more three point shots around him, and it

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Speaker 1: has worked incredibly well, even though they're sort of flying

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Speaker 1: under the radar right now because they do every season.

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Speaker 1: They have the best three point set percentage in the league. Well,

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Speaker 1: the last few years they have been bottom half of

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Speaker 1: the league, and they've always taken a lot of threes,

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Speaker 1: but now they're making them. Drew Holiday a big part

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Speaker 1: of that. Dante dien Vincenzo, who's moved into the starting

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Speaker 1: lineup after they tried to trade him for bog Down Bogdanovich.

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Speaker 1: They got him back and said, hey, you're a starter.

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Speaker 1: He's shooting fifty five percent from three. Actually that percentage,

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Speaker 1: it's not an anomaly. Four starters on the Bucks are

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Speaker 1: shooting a career high and three point percentage. Everybody besides

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Speaker 1: Yiannis that's unlikely to keep up, but that's exactly what

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Speaker 1: you want when you remake a roster around Yannis. And lastly,

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Speaker 1: before I go, I just wanted to show some love

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Speaker 1: to the Atlanta dream and WNBA players as a whole,

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Speaker 1: because they were courageous this past year in speaking out

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Speaker 1: against one of the Atlanta Dreams owners for what they

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Speaker 1: believed in. And as somebody who's watched basketball for a

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Speaker 1: long time and covered it really closely, makes me very

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Speaker 1: very proud to see players in both leagues speak out,

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Speaker 1: put their necks on the line for what they believe in.

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Speaker 1: It's also made Lebron James very proud, as he said, hmm,

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Speaker 1: maybe I'd like to own this Atlanta Dream team. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure how that works in the CBA, because you

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Speaker 1: can own a w you can own an NBA team,

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Speaker 1: but you can own a W NBA team. I'm not

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Speaker 1: so sure. Lebron will probably figure it out. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: joining me today. Make sure you check out the full

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Speaker 1: length No Dunk's episode. We've also got a mailbag Beach

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Speaker 1: step In episode dropping on Wednesday. I will be back

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Speaker 1: Thursday to give you the news as fast as I

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Speaker 1: possibly can