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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, everybody, Round two coverage of the

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Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs. Here, Hoops Tonight is brought to you by

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Speaker 1: Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well, the

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six Ers go on the road to beat

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Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics resoundingly to take a three to two lead.

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Speaker 1: A ton of thoughts I want to get into. We

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Speaker 1: are also live on AMPS, so if you're watching on

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Speaker 1: YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that

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Speaker 1: get these shows. You guys know the drip before we

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Speaker 1: get started. Don't forget to subscribe to the Volumes YouTube

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Speaker 1: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you

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Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements. Last, but not least,

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos

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Speaker 1: don't forget you can find them where you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight all right, So if you guys remember

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Speaker 1: I was I predicted a big run by the Sixers

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Speaker 1: early in the year, as they were getting healthy, as

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Speaker 1: Tyree smack See and James Harden were coming back. I

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Speaker 1: liked a lot of things specifically that I was seeing

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Speaker 1: with that roster makeup, And in January they really started

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Speaker 1: to take off. And then they ran into a bunch

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Speaker 1: of really tough games, as every team does and as

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Speaker 1: stacked the league is in that February March April time

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Speaker 1: of the year, and those of you guys who followed

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Speaker 1: the show at that point, you might remember me frequently

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Speaker 1: talking about how much I appreciated the fight that James

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Speaker 1: Harden and Joel Embiid showed. There was a specific game

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Speaker 1: that they lost, and I think it was at home

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Speaker 1: actually to Boston where Jason Tatum hit that pullback game

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Speaker 1: winning three at the top of the key, where they

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Speaker 1: were up against it late in that game, and rather

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Speaker 1: than letting go of the rope or just saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: it's regular season, who cares, Let's just let it go,

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Speaker 1: both James Harden and Joel Embiid made a bunch of

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Speaker 1: big plays down the stretch of that game, and they

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Speaker 1: actually tied it late, I believe, on a foul post

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Speaker 1: up Joel Embiid on Jaylen Brown where he made a

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Speaker 1: couple of free throws and they made it a game,

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Speaker 1: and then Jason Tatum ended up just winning it at

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Speaker 1: the buzzer, but they had a bunch of other really

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Speaker 1: impressive performances down the stretch of that season. I thought

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Speaker 1: it was a big part of Joel Embid's MVP case,

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Speaker 1: which was essentially just he won all these big head

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Speaker 1: to head matchups. He was a much better defensive player

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Speaker 1: than Nikola jokicch That was kind of the narrative surrounding

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiid's MVP, right, and I wasn't very optimistic about

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Speaker 1: them in this series. But in my series preview, if

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Speaker 1: you guys remember, I said I would have given the

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Speaker 1: Sixers a very good chance to beat the Celtics if

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiid was healthy. There was just such a big

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Speaker 1: question mark surrounding his knee, and specifically I talked about

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Speaker 1: his rhythm and the fact that at the foul line,

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Speaker 1: which has become such an important part of Joel Embiid's

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Speaker 1: success in UH and I shouldn't even say success, but

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Speaker 1: taking that next leap from like guy who's just another

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Speaker 1: one of the stars at the top of the league

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Speaker 1: to a guy who's perennially in the MVP conversation, the

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Speaker 1: guy that can succeed and stay efficient in the NBA playoffs.

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Speaker 1: Was that success around the free throw line, but so

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Speaker 1: much of it relies on his jump shooting, and I

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Speaker 1: was worried about his rhythm getting disrupted. Well, I was

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Speaker 1: flat out wrong, because Joel Embiid has been incredible. He

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Speaker 1: completely shook off whatever that little rough stretch was that

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Speaker 1: he had against Al Horford down the stretch of Game four,

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Speaker 1: and he absolutely torched the Celtics tonight. James Harden after

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Speaker 1: a couple of rough games in Game two, in Game three,

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Speaker 1: I kind of broke down. If you guys remember the

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Speaker 1: dynamic in James Harden's playoff history of succeeding in game

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Speaker 1: ones and then struggling as the series progresses, Well, he's

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Speaker 1: thoroughly shook out off too, as he has been getting

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Speaker 1: stronger and stronger down the stretch of this series. Not

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Speaker 1: as much of a scoring performance in this game tonight,

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Speaker 1: but I thought he absolutely dominated the flow of the game.

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Speaker 1: He was the guy that repeatedly was setting up Joel

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Speaker 1: Embiid it with that pocket pass to the high post

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Speaker 1: there right around the elbow where he's so successful. He

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Speaker 1: just there was a an action that Philly could run

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Speaker 1: theoretically every time down the floor. Now they don't actually

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Speaker 1: do it every time down the floor. It's not how

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Speaker 1: basketball works. But anytime they got into his stet half

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Speaker 1: court environment, they were able to run a pick and

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Speaker 1: roll with James Harden and draw Rob Williams or allur

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Speaker 1: Ford or whoever into kind of like a loose drop

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Speaker 1: coverage around the foul line but extended out to where

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Speaker 1: James Harden was dribbling, and then he could just throw

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Speaker 1: that pocket pass with Joel Embiid, and Embiide could either

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Speaker 1: make a shot from the foul line, make a kickout

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Speaker 1: pass to the weak side if he drew a helper,

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Speaker 1: or just ripped through the basket and try to draw foul.

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Speaker 1: That was their like go to play. Whereas for Boston,

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Speaker 1: they are yet to really uncover anything in this series

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Speaker 1: that is kind of a tendible, Like we can, you know,

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Speaker 1: run this Jason Tatum post up from the left block

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Speaker 1: and he's just gonna score every single time, or get

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Speaker 1: a great shot every single time, or oh, here's this

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Speaker 1: pick and roll that we run with you know, Derek

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Speaker 1: White and Al Horford that you know, or pick and

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Speaker 1: pop that just leads to a wide open three, and

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Speaker 1: he can make it every single time. They haven't really

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Speaker 1: established anything, and that specific pick and roll dynamic with

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Speaker 1: James Harden and Joel Embiid more like a short role

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Speaker 1: to that foul line has been the ultimate trump card

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Speaker 1: in this series. And as we've made it to Game five,

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Speaker 1: as everyone else is kind of settled into the series

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Speaker 1: and all the Sixers guys are comfortable in their matchups, right,

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Speaker 1: like PJ. Tucker kind of has an idea of how

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Speaker 1: he wants to guard Jaylen Brown, right, Joel Embiid is

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Speaker 1: very much ignoring Al Horford and Al Horford had a

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Speaker 1: nightmare game trying to shoot the three tonight. But as

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Speaker 1: this series has progressed, James Harden and Joel Embid have

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Speaker 1: elevated and become the best players in the series. Now

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Speaker 1: series is not over a lot of basketball left. This

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Speaker 1: Boston team has a lot of talent and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: all you Sixers fans know Game six is not going

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Speaker 1: to be easy, But credits to James Harden and Joel Embiid,

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Speaker 1: because as we came into this postseason run, the biggest

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Speaker 1: fear surrounding them was will they be able to shake

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Speaker 1: off their reputation as being players who crater in efficiency

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Speaker 1: when they get to the postseason, And instead both of

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Speaker 1: them have gotten stronger and stronger as the series has progressed.

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Speaker 1: So shout out to those two guys. I think it's

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Speaker 1: been such a fascinating season from the standpoint of competitive

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Speaker 1: spirit for those two because it did. It wasn't pretty

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Speaker 1: last year. The vitam heat kind of punked you, and

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Speaker 1: you came back stronger, and you've made the improvements in

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Speaker 1: the areas of your game that you needed to and

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Speaker 1: now you're reaping those benefits here as you're one went

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Speaker 1: away from the Eastern Conference Finals. I also wanted to

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Speaker 1: shout out the defensive effort. If you guys remember in

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Speaker 1: game one that the James, the first of two James

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Speaker 1: Harden game winners. There was this focus on Boston's offensive execute,

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Speaker 1: you know, like, yo, Marcus Smart post up on the

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Speaker 1: final play, What the heck are they doing? Blah blah blah.

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Speaker 1: As I went back and watched the film in that game,

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Speaker 1: I thought Boston's offensive process was fine. I mean for

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Speaker 1: what Boston was doing, Philly was just defending their asses off.

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Speaker 1: They're doing a bunch of really basic, like defensive kind

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Speaker 1: of baseline principles that a lot of teams around the

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Speaker 1: league use, especially in the playoffs, and they're just executing

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Speaker 1: really well. So they're defending on the perimeter, well, they're

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Speaker 1: sliding their feet and they're flattening out drives. That's step one.

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Speaker 1: They're digging down into driving lanes. Right, So like if

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Speaker 1: a guy is on the left wing and I'm guarding

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Speaker 1: a and there's a ball handler on the right wing,

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Speaker 1: that dude who's guarding the guy in the left wing

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Speaker 1: is down at the nail, just prepared for that drive

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Speaker 1: to the right, and if they make that pass, it's

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Speaker 1: a hard closeout. And Boston, it's interesting. They have a

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Speaker 1: ton of guys that can shoot, and a ton of

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Speaker 1: guys that can pass, and a ton of guys that

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Speaker 1: can dribble. But what they don't have are just like

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Speaker 1: dead eye you cannot give this guy any space type

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Speaker 1: of shooters. And so as a result, like a good

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Speaker 1: hard close out go a long way to turning a

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Speaker 1: deadly shot into a shot that they can live with.

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Speaker 1: Right on the back line. The rotations like if anybody

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Speaker 1: gets beat off the dribble, you're seeing out, you're seeing

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiid step into help, and then the guy guarding

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Speaker 1: the ball handler just sprints out to Al Horford, or

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Speaker 1: the next guy on the way will go to Alofford,

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Speaker 1: and he'll sprint to the next guy. Their rotations are

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Speaker 1: incredibly sharp, and that's been from game one on in

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Speaker 1: this series. They just needed to get the offensive production

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Speaker 1: to make it work. It's funny. I'm gonna butcher this

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Speaker 1: because I can't remember who exactly conceptualized this idea, but

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Speaker 1: there's this two to one one theory in the NBA playoffs. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: you need your best player to win you two games,

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Speaker 1: you need your second best player to win you one game,

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Speaker 1: and then you need your role players to win you

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Speaker 1: a game. And that's typically like the not typically, but

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Speaker 1: there's that's a very common path that you'll see a

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Speaker 1: team win an NBA playoff series with and James Harden,

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Speaker 1: your second best player, got you two games in this series,

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Speaker 1: Game one by himself without Joel Embiid, and then in

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Speaker 1: Game four, as Joel Embiid was struggling with the Al

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Speaker 1: Horford matchup, James Harden carried you home, including hitting yet

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Speaker 1: another game winner, but that you needed to get a

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Speaker 1: game out of Joel Embiid where he dominates. And that's

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Speaker 1: what Joel Embiid did in this particular game, dominating at

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Speaker 1: the rim, defensively drawing a ton of fouls, torturing them

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Speaker 1: in the short row at the foul line. But that

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Speaker 1: was the offensive lift they needed to carry them to

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Speaker 1: their third win with a defense that has been mostly

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Speaker 1: phenomenal throughout this entire playoff runt, a couple of specific

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Speaker 1: things they're doing, so Horford missing that allowed Joel Embiid

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Speaker 1: to stay at the rim. That's an important part of it.

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Speaker 1: He was blocking and bothering a bunch of shots around

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Speaker 1: the rim, chasing them off the three point line. This

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Speaker 1: is the problem of being a one dimensional team. If

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Speaker 1: you really look at this Boston Celtics team, Jalen Brown's

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Speaker 1: the only guy who's really comfortable working out of the

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Speaker 1: mid range right and is kind of more of a

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Speaker 1: like a creative shot maker inside the three point line right.

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Speaker 1: And he only took sixteen shots in this game, which

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Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute. So like with that

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Speaker 1: limitation you've turned your perimeter defenders. You've turned their task

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Speaker 1: into something that's much more achievable. Chase the guy off

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Speaker 1: the three point line. If he beats you off the dribble,

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Speaker 1: just try to flatten out out his drive as best

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Speaker 1: as you can get. If you get beat just rotate

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Speaker 1: to the next shooter. You've got help behind you. The

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Speaker 1: helper doesn't need to come up to the mid range.

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Speaker 1: The helper just can meet you at the basket and

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Speaker 1: either take a charge or or embat if he's there,

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Speaker 1: is gonna be able to deter shots at the rim,

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Speaker 1: and you rotate around by by chasing them off the

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Speaker 1: three point line. And this team not feeling comfortable doing

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Speaker 1: anything but taking layups and threes, has turned the defensive

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Speaker 1: job for Philly into one that's much more achievable. And

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Speaker 1: that praise on Boston's weaknesses. They don't have a guy

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Speaker 1: who could score in the mid range. Look at the

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Speaker 1: points in the paint in this game. Go to look

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Speaker 1: at the team stats I checked before. We're going right

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Speaker 1: after the final buzzer, So I missed some of garbage time,

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Speaker 1: but it was literally thirty four to thirty four in

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Speaker 1: the late fourth quarter, and points in the paint. So

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Speaker 1: like Philly's not getting any points in the paint either,

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Speaker 1: but they don't care because they thrive in the mid range.

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Speaker 1: James Harden has been thriving in the mid range in

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Speaker 1: this series. Joel Embiid has been thriving in the mid

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Speaker 1: range in this series. So they can live with that.

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Speaker 1: But on the Boston front, when they're not getting points

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Speaker 1: in the paint, they damn well better be hitting all

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Speaker 1: their threes than they weren't tonight, and so it's made

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Speaker 1: them a little bit one dimensional and it's put them

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Speaker 1: in some problems. So shout out to Philly. I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of their their roster constructs that make them

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Speaker 1: a successful playoff team have come to the surface. And

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Speaker 1: big shout out to Joel embian and James Harden, who

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Speaker 1: have guys who have I've been I personally have been

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Speaker 1: very critical of in their playoffs playoff careers, have overcome

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Speaker 1: a lot of that in this playoff run really quickly

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Speaker 1: on Boston. I'm really confused by the fact that Joel

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Speaker 1: Missoula and I've been talking about this entire series, as

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Speaker 1: we've been talking about James Harden, ISO's and pick and

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Speaker 1: roll coverage and things along those lines. He just hasn't

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Speaker 1: done anything gimmicky or tried anything to try to throw

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Speaker 1: them off of rhythm. Right, we're covering this Lakers series,

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Speaker 1: and it's like every game there's a monumental chess move, like, Oh,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna put Jared Vanderbilt on Draymond Green. Oh, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna start Jamichael Green so that we can put Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis in the screen and roll. Oh we're gonna start

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Speaker 1: Gary Payton the second. Oh we're gonna put Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: on Andrew Wiggins. Now it's like both coaches are like,

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Speaker 1: as soon as they start getting burned by something, they're

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Speaker 1: always thinking about how they can adjust. Whereas like we're

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Speaker 1: in game four and I'm watching James Harden work in

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Speaker 1: isolation while PJ. Tucker's on the floor. How does that happen?

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Speaker 1: He's not a little bit at the end of this game.

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Speaker 1: But they started to putting Marcus Smart on Joel Embiid

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Speaker 1: in fronting and then having Al Horford ignore PJ. Tucker

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Speaker 1: behind the back. That should have been the entire damn series.

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Speaker 1: That should have been an adjustment they figured out in

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Speaker 1: game two and tried to force Philly to do something different,

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Speaker 1: so like being again, like you cannot be mister Oh.

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Speaker 1: All we gotta do is execute better. Yes, execution matters,

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Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, when you are

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Speaker 1: facing warping offensive person like Joel Embiid and James Harden,

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Speaker 1: you have to be willing to try different things. One

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Speaker 1: other thing is there's a clear hierarchy with Philadelphia. It's

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Speaker 1: like James Harden high pick and roll with Joel Embid,

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Speaker 1: or post ups with Joel Embiid, ISOs with James Harden, right,

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Speaker 1: and like every once in a while, when those guys

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Speaker 1: are tired, they'll toss the ball to Tyrese Maxi and

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Speaker 1: have him run a pick and roll, or they'll toss

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Speaker 1: the ball down to Tobias Harrison the post. But it's

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Speaker 1: the stars that decide, like, hey, we're taking a break

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Speaker 1: on this possession. It's very clear hierarchy. With Boston. There's

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Speaker 1: just so many guys that are used to having the

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Speaker 1: ball in their hands. Jaylen Brown used to have in

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Speaker 1: the ball in his hands, Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Malcolm Brogden,

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Speaker 1: Derek White, all of these guys are used to having

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Speaker 1: the ball in their hands and making decisions, and so

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Speaker 1: the hierarchy gets a little tricky in this game. Jason

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Speaker 1: Tatum in particular, was just full tunnel vision, empty the clip,

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Speaker 1: and I admired it from a competitive standpoint, but like

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Speaker 1: he was just driving into traffic and he was making

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Speaker 1: some shots and getting to the foul line, but like

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Speaker 1: it just ruins the flow of the offense and everyone

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Speaker 1: else is just kind of standing around, doesn't know what

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Speaker 1: to do. Jaylen Brown only takes six shots. The guards

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Speaker 1: are Malcolm Brogden and Derek Whider are co opting possessions.

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Speaker 1: It'd be a lot easier if you had spot up

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Speaker 1: shooters around them, and it's like Jason and Jalen are

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Speaker 1: the only two guys going. It just gets a lot

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Speaker 1: more simple. From a rhythm standpoint. We're seeing this in

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Speaker 1: the Denver Phoenix series. We got Devin Booker and Kevin

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Speaker 1: Durant just deciding every single possession now that Chris Paul's

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Speaker 1: out and their offense looks better. So like, sometimes less

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Speaker 1: is more when it comes to primary ball handling, And

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Speaker 1: I understand the predicament. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum art

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Speaker 1: traditional point guards, so you need guys that can ball handle.

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Speaker 1: But this is the catch twenty two. When your two

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Speaker 1: best players are not great playmakers, you end up in

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Speaker 1: a situation where you have to supply them with playmaking,

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Speaker 1: and now you just have a bunch of guys who

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Speaker 1: know how to dribble, and their offense can get really,

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Speaker 1: really stagnant. Look at Philly, you've got guys that are

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Speaker 1: just role player specialists. PJ. Tucker role player specialist, Daniel

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Speaker 1: House role player specialist, d'An Anthony Melton role player specialists.

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Speaker 1: Even the other two primary guys like Tobias Harrison, Tyres Maxi,

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Speaker 1: they can go six minutes at a time without touching

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Speaker 1: the basketball and they don't care because there's a clear

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Speaker 1: hierarchy there, and I think that's been an advantage towards Philly.

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Speaker 1: This is not over. Boston. I believe still has more

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Speaker 1: talent down the roster. They're very capable of going in

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Speaker 1: and beating Philly in game six. I mean they beat

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Speaker 1: them in Game three, and they were up big late

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Speaker 1: in game four, so they certainly are capable. But they're

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Speaker 1: in a tough spot here and I expect a raucous,

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Speaker 1: desperate Philly environment as they try to end this series.

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Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for right now.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be back later tonight on YouTube to break

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Speaker 1: down Game five of Nuggets Suns The Volume