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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at

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Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Tuesday for the third time. Everyone, I

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Speaker 1: love Playoff Basketball. We are live on AMP. If those

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Speaker 1: of you guys that are listening on YouTube or on

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Speaker 1: the podcast feed, don't forget, AMP is the very first

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Speaker 1: place that you guys can get these shows throughout the postseason.

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Speaker 1: I was just talking with the with the my friends

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Speaker 1: of our production staff before the show about how much

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Speaker 1: more entertaining basketball games are when there's real stakes and urgency.

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Speaker 1: It's why I've been such a big advocator shortening the season.

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Speaker 1: I'd love to just see more NBA basketball games that

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Speaker 1: are like that, with more of the stars playing to

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Speaker 1: I said to you guys before this game, when we

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Speaker 1: did our preview on Monday, I said, my biggest fear

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers was that they had just played this

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Speaker 1: funky stretch of schedule where four of their final five

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Speaker 1: games were against really bad teams, at least relative to

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Speaker 1: what they would be facing as they had into the postseason. Right,

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Speaker 1: and then they had this one very important must win

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Speaker 1: game against the Clippers. Right. But the problem is is

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Speaker 1: in that particular game, they were on the back to

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Speaker 1: back third game in four nights, traveling home, just played

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Speaker 1: in overtime the night before, and so they kind of

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Speaker 1: mailed that one in. And so they've been playing bad

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Speaker 1: basketball for basically two weeks now. And I talk about

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Speaker 1: this a lot on this show, But like playing good

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Speaker 1: basketball as a habit, it's not necessarily a talent, it's

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Speaker 1: a habit. There are talent elements to it, right, like

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Speaker 1: having the ability to handle the basketball, having the ability

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Speaker 1: to shoot, seeing the floor well, and being able to reads,

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Speaker 1: athletic ability, size, strength, all those different things they'll help.

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Speaker 1: But the actual act of playing good basketball, which means

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Speaker 1: doing all of the little basketball things well, whether that's

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Speaker 1: running the floor consistently in transition both ways, running to

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Speaker 1: try to generate an advantage on offense and to try

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Speaker 1: to minimize an advantage on defense, boxing your man out

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Speaker 1: every single time, good closeouts, understanding the scouting report and

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Speaker 1: what specific players are good at or bad at, and

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Speaker 1: knowing what your job is within a defensive scheme. On offense,

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Speaker 1: protecting the basketball, making pass fakes, taking care of it

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Speaker 1: with the dribble, Protecting the ball by putting your body

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Speaker 1: between the ball and the man who's ball, pressuring you

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Speaker 1: there's so many different elements of the game that are

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Speaker 1: habitual that are not at all related to what your

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Speaker 1: talent level is or what your physical tools are. And

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Speaker 1: the problem with it is, if you play bad basketball

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Speaker 1: for four or five games in a row, you can

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Speaker 1: develop some bad habits, the wrong kinds of habits. For instance,

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Speaker 1: Lebron James. And you know, here's the thing. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: be pretty critical of Lebron James tonight. He is my

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Speaker 1: all time favorite player. I credit him for everything that

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Speaker 1: I've gained from the game of basketball. My parents raised

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Speaker 1: me on football and baseball. I would not be where

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Speaker 1: I am. I would not have had my school paid for.

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Speaker 1: I would not have had my college basketball career or

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Speaker 1: even doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for

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Speaker 1: Lebron James. I am not a Lebron hater, But as

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Speaker 1: I try to do with everything on this show, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna tell you guys exactly how I feel about stuff,

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Speaker 1: and that includes pointing out the good and bad from

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Speaker 1: every single player. That's the purpose of this show. This

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Speaker 1: is not this is not a propaganda show. This is

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Speaker 1: a basketball analysis show. And Lebron James has been practicing

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Speaker 1: completely mailing in the defensive end of the floor for

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Speaker 1: two weeks. His matchup to start this game was Tory

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Speaker 1: and Prince, who is a you know, a lot of

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Speaker 1: like Jaden McDaniels. For all of the talk about what

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Speaker 1: he does defensively, and he's had a decent season scoring

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Speaker 1: the basketball, but in my opinion as a connective piece offensively,

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Speaker 1: I actually think he's a better offensive player than Jaden McDaniels,

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Speaker 1: and consistently throughout his career he's had a lot of confidence.

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Speaker 1: Like Torrian, Prince's guy who feels very good about himself.

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Speaker 1: He's going to go into a big game thinking that

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Speaker 1: he's going to play well. And Lebron James was flat

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Speaker 1: out conceding open shots to him, and it was funny

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Speaker 1: because that was the same thing he had been doing

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Speaker 1: for two weeks before, and that kind of trickles down

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Speaker 1: to the rest of the roster. There's been a lot

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Speaker 1: of talk over the course of the last few days

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Speaker 1: about Anthony Davis and how incredibly frustrated he's been with

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Speaker 1: the overall defensive effort, particular particularly from his from the

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Speaker 1: perimeter players, and you know, Ad has been the one

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Speaker 1: guy I'm so impressed by him, because he's the one

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Speaker 1: guy on this roster that I've seen over there to

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Speaker 1: this last few weeks that seems frustrated and annoyed with

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Speaker 1: what's happening and is giving the requisite effort. And he

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Speaker 1: was chasing everything down tonight, and he had a million

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Speaker 1: offensive rebounds, made countless big plays as an athlete on

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Speaker 1: the court, of course, one of the greatest offensive player

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Speaker 1: defensive players to ever play the game. And for the

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Speaker 1: second time this season, he fouled a three point shooter

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Speaker 1: unnecessarily at the end of a game, which forced the

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Speaker 1: Lakers to earn this one. But it's funny, I tweeted

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Speaker 1: out right before I got on the air, I tweeted

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Speaker 1: out a little screenshot of the line score from tonight's games,

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Speaker 1: kind of like a little line chart that shows the

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Speaker 1: team's points increasing as the game progresses, and you'll see

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Speaker 1: Minnesota's scoring go like this, and then suddenly in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter it goes like that. Because what did I

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Speaker 1: say coming into this game. I expected the Lakers to

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Speaker 1: fall down early, but I expected them to win because

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Speaker 1: they're just a better team. Same exact thing happened in

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Speaker 1: Minnesota a couple of Fridays ago, they bs through the

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Speaker 1: first half. If they locked in in the third quarter,

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Speaker 1: they got a ton of stops. Suddenly it looked like

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Speaker 1: Minnesota couldn't score. In the fourth quarter, Anthony Davis lit

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Speaker 1: them on fire and the game was over. But again,

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Speaker 1: basketball is a habit, and this is what concerns me.

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Speaker 1: I was talking with some people earlier today about my

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Speaker 1: predictions that I'm gonna be making for this postseason, and

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Speaker 1: I'm saving those for tomorrow. We're gonna be having Carson

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Speaker 1: on and we're gonna just kind of go big picture.

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Speaker 1: In the NBA playoffs. We're doing, you know, these series

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Speaker 1: previews that I'll be releasing as the week goes along,

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Speaker 1: But tomorrow we're gonna do kind of a big picture

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Speaker 1: preview or I give my predictions for the entire postseason,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going into that show completely on the fence

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Speaker 1: in both conferences. I'm completely on the fence in the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Conference between Boston and Milwaukee, and I'm completely on

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Speaker 1: the fence in the Western Conference between Phoenix, Golden State

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers. And I said to some of the

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Speaker 1: people on my production staff earlier today that if I

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Speaker 1: if the Lakers came in and dominated this game that

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Speaker 1: I'd be picking them to come out of the West,

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Speaker 1: and now I'm not sure that I will. And the

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Speaker 1: main reason why is I just I'm not sure that

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Speaker 1: they're serious about it. There is a level, there is

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Speaker 1: a level of commitment to the details that you need

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Speaker 1: in order to win an NBA championship. This same group

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, from the start of the season to

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Speaker 1: the end, very rarely would you see a game like that,

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Speaker 1: and if they did, they bounce back from that game

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Speaker 1: with four or five magnificent performances. There is an attitude,

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Speaker 1: a locked in approach that you need to have it,

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Speaker 1: and Lebron's been saying a lot of the right stuff,

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Speaker 1: but he hasn't been doing it, and that's been really

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Speaker 1: concerning to me. But there's two elements to it. There's

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Speaker 1: the commitment phase and then there's the building habits phase.

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Speaker 1: I thought they'd be starting this game in the building

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Speaker 1: habits phase because I thought the commitment would have come

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Speaker 1: before the game. It was not. The commitment wasn't there,

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Speaker 1: And then you can actually see them working through those

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Speaker 1: habits down the stretch of this game. Lebron was much

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Speaker 1: more engaged defensively in the second half, but he still

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Speaker 1: made countless defensive mistakes. There's a play where he helped

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Speaker 1: off a Torrian Prince in the strong side corner, which

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Speaker 1: is one of the biggest no nos in NBA defense,

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Speaker 1: to leave Torrion Prince wide open for a massive three

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the fourth quarter. Late in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, a shot that could have cost them the game.

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Speaker 1: I think he had just hit a three to tie

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Speaker 1: it at ninety five, and he fell asleep and had

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Speaker 1: to do a late close out to Mike Conley on

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Speaker 1: the right wing. He just happened to miss the shot.

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Speaker 1: That's the that's that gap that he's trying to bridge. Okay,

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Speaker 1: he finally committed there in the second half. That's great,

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Speaker 1: But then you have to build the habits they're in OT.

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Speaker 1: You could see it. Just watch the film. Go back

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Speaker 1: and watch OT. Watch the way Lebron is chasing around

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Speaker 1: Torrion Prince. Watch watch how he's so much more alert

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Speaker 1: and aware of where he needs to be. And what's

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Speaker 1: concerning to me is they are not a massive favorite

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Speaker 1: against Memphis. I haven't seen the line yet. As a

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Speaker 1: matter of fact, Ryan, if you see the line texted

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Speaker 1: to me, I'd like to see it, but my guess

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Speaker 1: is it's gonna be pretty damn close. If the Lakers

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Speaker 1: are a favorite, they'll be a very slight favorite, and

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Speaker 1: if Memphis is a favorite, they'll be a very slight favorite.

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Speaker 1: That means this series is going to be determined by

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Speaker 1: the tightest of margins. And so if you spot them

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Speaker 1: at two oh lead because you're not sharp, you that

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Speaker 1: could be the difference in a series like this. It's

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Speaker 1: a big problem. Now. The advantage is it's funny. I

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Speaker 1: was joking with another one of my friends who's a

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Speaker 1: Laker fan during the game, and he was very down

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Speaker 1: about it throughout the game, and I kept saying, like, no,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna come back. They're gonna come back against They're

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Speaker 1: the better team. They're gonna figure it out. And they

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Speaker 1: finally got a little ugly there where it seemed like

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Speaker 1: they might not be coming back, but they just locked

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Speaker 1: in so intensely on the defensive end there in that

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Just got the line in from Ryan the

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Speaker 1: Lakers are an underdog plus one oh six. Memphis is

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Speaker 1: currently a very slight favorite at one twenty four. So again,

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Speaker 1: Memphis is a very slight favorite. You cannot go into

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Speaker 1: that series. Sloppy, but the advantages having won this game,

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Speaker 1: and I want a credit couple a couple of specific adjustments.

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Speaker 1: I talked a lot in I want to say it

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Speaker 1: was in the Miami Heat, the play in preview. In

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Speaker 1: the Miami Heat segment, I talked about how the Lakers

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Speaker 1: have some flexibility in their closing group. They start with

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Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, right, they go D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Jared Vanderbilt, Lebron,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. But I talked about how they have some adjustments,

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Speaker 1: like if one of their guards isn't very locked in,

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Speaker 1: they can go to Dennis Schroeder. You saw that tonight.

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Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell was atrocious in this game. Plug in Dennis Schroeder,

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Speaker 1: He's ready for that environment. Jared Vanderbilt stone hands all game,

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Speaker 1: was really struggling to catch and finish around the rim. Right,

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Speaker 1: rue hat Chmurau was struggling to hit a three, but

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Speaker 1: he hit a couple of big ones. He Darvin him

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Speaker 1: made the adjustment to go to Ruey hotch mur I

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Speaker 1: like that flexibility. There's a lot of good here. I

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Speaker 1: am a huge believer in what this team is capable of.

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Speaker 1: They've it's not a coincidence that they've been the second

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Speaker 1: best defense in the NBA post deadline. That is a

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Speaker 1: byproduct of amazing defensive personnel, especially on the back line.

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Speaker 1: Lebron James Anthony David like Lebron again, I've been super

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Speaker 1: critical of him tonight. No, it's not him being old.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, it's not. Oh he's old. Oh he just

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Speaker 1: doesn't have his legs. It's one hundred percent giving a shit.

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Speaker 1: Lebron is actually one of the most has actually has

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Speaker 1: one of the most terrifying closeouts that you'll see in

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Speaker 1: the NBA. And when he closes out to a shooter,

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Speaker 1: dude's panic. They won't even try to shoot. He is

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Speaker 1: more than capable of being not just above average, but

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Speaker 1: a great defensive cog on this team. Jared Vanderbilt and

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Speaker 1: Ruey hotch Mura. One of the big reasons why Ruey's

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Speaker 1: getting those closing minutes you think of it as an

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Speaker 1: offensive defensive sub Rui has been a great defensive player

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Speaker 1: for this team. And then Dennis Roder Like I thought

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Speaker 1: one of the kind of the sub subplots of this

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Speaker 1: particular game was Laker role players kind of struggling under

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Speaker 1: the intensity of the moment. There's a little touch and

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Speaker 1: go there for Ruey for a minute, but he ended

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Speaker 1: up making a big three and OT But like Austin,

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Speaker 1: Reeves had one of the worst games he's had in weeks,

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Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell had his worst game in a Lakers uniform.

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Speaker 1: Troy Brown Junior had his worst game in a long time.

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Speaker 1: When Ye Gabriel played a couple of minutes and it

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Speaker 1: became abundantly clear he wasn't capable of playing in this setting.

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Speaker 1: That's an issue You're gonna find out pretty quickly whether

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Speaker 1: or not some of these guys are capable of playing

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Speaker 1: at this level. So um again, tomorrow, we're gonna do

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Speaker 1: a deeper dive into a lot of this stuff. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk who I picked to come out of the West,

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Speaker 1: who I picked to come out of the East, who

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Speaker 1: I picked to win the title. We're gonna talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about some of the lower level contenders in

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Speaker 1: that list, and talk about some of the stakes that

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Speaker 1: are some of the things that are at stake in

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Speaker 1: this particular playoff run with Carson. So I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: go too much longer on this particular game, but it's good.

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Speaker 1: It's a good win for the Lakers. A win as

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Speaker 1: a win is a win. But they have four days

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Speaker 1: now to tighten some things up defensively, and if they don't,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be in some trouble against Memphis really quickly.

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Speaker 1: Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about heat hawks. So this was a

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Speaker 1: textbook example of the advantages, the physical advantages on a

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Speaker 1: basketball court and the way that they can lead to

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Speaker 1: skill advantages not mattering as much. So for instance, Miami

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Speaker 1: actually got more stops in this game than Atlanta if

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Speaker 1: you count missed shots and turnovers as stops. Miami got

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Speaker 1: sixty three stops and Atlanta got sixty stops. So Miami

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Speaker 1: actually stopped Atlanta from scoring a ton in this game,

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Speaker 1: but they gave up two offensive rebounds. Clint Cappela had eight.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm a huge believer in switching defense. I've

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Speaker 1: talked about this a lot, and I love the way

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Speaker 1: it stagnates teams. And I'm a big believer that the

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Speaker 1: good elements of switching out way the bad elements. The

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Speaker 1: bad elements you give up mismatches, you give up rebounding position.

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Speaker 1: You give up all these different things, right, but you

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Speaker 1: also stagnate the opponent, right. You force them to play

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Speaker 1: isolation ball, and you shut down all of their sets.

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Speaker 1: So there's a lot of advantages there. Here's the problem.

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Speaker 1: You have to have a certain type of personnel to

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Speaker 1: run a switching scheme. Every time you switch bam at

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Speaker 1: a bio off of Clint Cappella onto a perimeter player

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Speaker 1: to defend, you now have Clint Cappella battling against four

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Speaker 1: additional players where the tallest player in that group is

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler at six footstep. See the point. In order

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Speaker 1: to run a switching scheme, you need aggregate size in

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Speaker 1: the lineup. That's why I wish the Lakers would do

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Speaker 1: more switching. When you got Anthony Davis, Lebron, excuse me Lebron,

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Speaker 1: James Ruey, Hatch Murra, Jared Vanderbilt, and guards that are

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Speaker 1: six four or six five like d' angel Russell, like

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Speaker 1: De'angel Russell and Austin Reeves, then you have the aggregate

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Speaker 1: size to kind of crash the glass and have success there.

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Speaker 1: But Miami let PJ. Tucker go and did not replace him,

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Speaker 1: not with a real athletic forward like I like Kevin

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Speaker 1: Love the dudes an NBA champion. He's not fixing that problem.

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Speaker 1: Zeller not fixing the problem, right, And I was looking

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Speaker 1: at the I was looking at the payroll for the

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Speaker 1: Miami Heat after this, a lot most of these guys

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Speaker 1: are locked up. Kyle Lowry's gonna be making a ton

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Speaker 1: of money next year, Duncan Robinson's gonna be making a

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Speaker 1: ton of money next year. Tyler Harrow's making a ton

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Speaker 1: of money for a long time, and he's not exactly

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Speaker 1: a needle moving type of player. I tweeted out just

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Speaker 1: a kind of like an exercise to people. I said, hey,

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Speaker 1: here's Miami's payroll. What would you do if you were

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Speaker 1: a GM? And I saw a lot of different things,

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Speaker 1: and I didn't see anything specifically that really made much

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Speaker 1: of a difference in my opinion, except for what I

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Speaker 1: would do, which is make one last effort to go

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Speaker 1: all in around Jimmy and Bam. I'd packaged Tyler Harrow

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Speaker 1: and Duncan Robinson every conceivable draft pick they have, and

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Speaker 1: I'd throw it out Damian Lillard or Bradley Beale and

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Speaker 1: I'd build around the margins there. But they need to

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Speaker 1: need to get bigger and more athletic on the perimeter.

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Speaker 1: I was also just generally real impressed with that Lena's approach.

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Speaker 1: Quinn Snyder has been talking a lot about spacing, and

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Speaker 1: spacing is, you know, a very important part of the

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Speaker 1: game of basketball that doesn't get talked about it enough.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. What should have been the

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Speaker 1: game winner by Dennis Schroeder Tonight, Lebron drives along the baseline.

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Speaker 1: Tory Prince is a good job of funneling him behind

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Speaker 1: the rim so that Lebron doesn't have an opportunity to shoot.

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Speaker 1: You need to give Lebron a clear outlet, which is

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Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder in the corner. Spacing principles are about have

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Speaker 1: you guys in these specific spots on the floor so

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Speaker 1: that you always have a read to make. And if

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Speaker 1: guys aren't in those spots, or if they're congregated to

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Speaker 1: where they're making themselves easy to guard by standing too

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Speaker 1: close to each other, then you run into problems. Atlanta

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Speaker 1: has gotten really good at positioning themselves in the floor

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Speaker 1: where Clint Capella is under the rim, as as that

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Speaker 1: vertical spacing lob threat right and then they have like

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Speaker 1: cd Bay in one corner or DeAndre Hunter in the

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Speaker 1: other corner, and whichever guard doesn't have the ball on

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Speaker 1: the opposite wing. And so when Dejante Murray beat somebody

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Speaker 1: off the dribble, it's very straightforward. If you see two

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Speaker 1: defenders on you, and you see Clint guarded, and you

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Speaker 1: see the weak side corner guarded, and you see the

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Speaker 1: wing guarded, you know the opposite corners wide open. You

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Speaker 1: don't even have to look. You can just hook it

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Speaker 1: over there as long as you're spacing. Principles are lined up,

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Speaker 1: and Quint Snyder has done a really nice job of

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Speaker 1: turning this into a legit driving kick team. Just in

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Speaker 1: general is really impressed with Trey Young and Dejanta Murray

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Speaker 1: embracing their roles as advantage creators and not just hunting

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Speaker 1: their own shots, which got them into a really good

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Speaker 1: groove playing drive and kicked basketball and the heat were

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Speaker 1: in a blender all night long. Again, it's not like

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Speaker 1: they're about to go beat Boston, and I still think

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Speaker 1: that their best bet is to build around their best trait,

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Speaker 1: which is length and athleticism and size. By flipping Trey

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Speaker 1: Young this summer for some type of wing athlete, a

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Speaker 1: really good scoring wing, since you've already got de Jante

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Speaker 1: Murray as more of a traditional scoring guard, and go

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Speaker 1: in on what you're great at, which is being big.

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Speaker 1: And I think the Hawks are pretty much done with

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Speaker 1: the Tray Young experience. They're heading into a postseason run,

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Speaker 1: and they leaked to the press that the GM has

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Speaker 1: the approval of the owner to trade Trey Young. That

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Speaker 1: seems like a little bit of a concern to me,

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Speaker 1: But I mean, to Tray Young's credit, he's handled it

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Speaker 1: like a professional and he played a great game tonight,

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Speaker 1: and there's a big win for the Atlanta Hawk. The

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Speaker 1: Heat are in a lot of trouble because whether it's

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Speaker 1: Toronto or Chicago, if they play similar brand of basketball,

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Speaker 1: they could be in some big trouble. I expect Toronto

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Speaker 1: to beat Chicago if they do same rebounding problem. They

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Speaker 1: are just as likely to go into Miami and get

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Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen offensive rebounds as Atlanta was, and it could

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Speaker 1: be a problem for them all right. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna do Lakers fans, I'm gonna be talking a

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Speaker 1: lot more about that Lakers Wolves game when we do

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Speaker 1: our series preview for Lakers Memphis, and then we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be doing big picture predictions with Carson tomorrow morning. As always,

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Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: The One