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Speaker 1: and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to tonight. You're

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Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. Opeall if you guys

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Speaker 1: are having a great start to your weekend. Absolutely incredible

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Speaker 1: Game one of Minnesota Denver. We're gonna break down that

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Speaker 1: game from the perspective of both teams. You guys the

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Speaker 1: drip before we get started. To subscribe to a brand

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Speaker 1: new YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt so you

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Speaker 1: guys don't miss sho announcements. Don't forget about our podcast

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Speaker 1: feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight and

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Speaker 1: the last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions

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Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them

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Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the postseason. All right, let's talk

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Speaker 1: some basketball. So before we get into any of the

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Speaker 1: actual kind of dynamic of the way this game went down,

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Speaker 1: one of the things I talked about in the series

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Speaker 1: preview is Anthony Edwards is it's very difficult to kind

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Speaker 1: of project forward for him. You know, those of you

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Speaker 1: guys who've been following the show know that for a

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Speaker 1: couple of years now, I've been super super high on

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Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and his long term potential. But ANT is

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Speaker 1: different from some of the other, like all time greats

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Speaker 1: that come up out of you know, out of high

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Speaker 1: school in the sense that like ANT didn't have nearly

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Speaker 1: as much hype early on, and so you know, it

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Speaker 1: was kind of just in the last couple of years

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Speaker 1: where you start to look at it and you go, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this dude really has some potential as an athlete, and

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Speaker 1: with his competitiveness and the skill development that he's demonstrating,

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Speaker 1: that he could get to this crazy high level. But like,

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Speaker 1: you know, usually kind of project that sort of thing

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Speaker 1: as in a mid to late twenties, right, Like, how

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Speaker 1: many times have we been talking about players in that

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Speaker 1: mid twenties age group where we're just kind of waiting

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Speaker 1: for them to figure it out. We're waiting for them

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Speaker 1: to kind of get to that next level. And you know,

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Speaker 1: here's the thing going into this year's postseason run. In

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Speaker 1: the regular season, Minnesota was a less effective offense. They

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Speaker 1: were I think seventeenth in offensive rating, and they famously

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Speaker 1: would fall apart in the fourth quarters of games, especially

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Speaker 1: in crunch time. They had one of the worst offensive

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Speaker 1: ratings in the league when they get into clutch situations right,

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Speaker 1: And a big part of that was during the regular season,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards was not as efficient as a pull up shooter,

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Speaker 1: a pretty consistent theme over the last few years. But

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Speaker 1: every year he's gotten to the postseason and I don't

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Speaker 1: know if it's just his resilience athletically in these physical environments,

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Speaker 1: or if it's a supreme confidence, or or literally he's

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Speaker 1: just a gamer, but he gets into these situations and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he's like a knockdown pull up

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Speaker 1: shooter when you can when you combine that with like

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Speaker 1: his unbelievable athletic advantages, his supreme competitive spirit, it becomes

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Speaker 1: a bona fide top tier superstar in this level of basketball.

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Speaker 1: And again it makes it hard to kind of evaluate

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Speaker 1: Minnesota because he wasn't that in the regular season. He

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Speaker 1: was somewhere in the seventh to tenth best player in

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Speaker 1: the league in the regular season. Here in the postseason,

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Speaker 1: he's been the best guy. He's he's been the best

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Speaker 1: player in the playoffs so far. That that's what Anthony

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Speaker 1: Edwards has been. And like now at this point, I

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Speaker 1: actually think he's a little bit underrated in this sense.

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Speaker 1: I don't think people realize what we're witnessing with Anthony Edwards.

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Speaker 1: This guy has legitimate potential to be the best player

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Speaker 1: in the world in the league that already has Nicole

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Speaker 1: Jokic in his twenties, Luka Doncic in his twenties, Giannison,

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Speaker 1: Dena Kumpo, and Joel Embiid. He's he's got the potent

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Speaker 1: pass those guys, and he's barely scratching the surface of

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Speaker 1: what he can do in terms of managing his energy

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Speaker 1: better through games, in terms of reading defense, is better,

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Speaker 1: in terms of hunting easier shots, like he had a

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Speaker 1: baseline post up kind of like bully ball play against

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Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson in the early second half. That's gonna be

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Speaker 1: a huge part of his game in the future, just

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Speaker 1: absolutely bullying small guards on the block every single time

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Speaker 1: down the floor that he gets that type of matchup.

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Speaker 1: The sky is the limit for this kid. And I

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Speaker 1: don't think people have any idea how good he is already,

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Speaker 1: let alone how good he is capable of being. Forty

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Speaker 1: three points tonight, seven rebounds, a steal in two blocks,

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Speaker 1: seventeen for twenty seven from the field, three for seven

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Speaker 1: from three to six for six from the line. Just

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Speaker 1: an unbelievably dominant performance from Anthony Edwards. Nazrid did a

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Speaker 1: bunch of big shots in the second half as Minnesota

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Speaker 1: kind of started to pull away, and then Aunt just

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Speaker 1: slammed the door shut. Not just that ridiculous right shoulder

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Speaker 1: fade over KCP on the left elbow, but that play

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Speaker 1: after Michael Porter Junior came out of the time out

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Speaker 1: hit that three, and ant just gets the inbound pass

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Speaker 1: and just literally races past every single Denver nugget like

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Speaker 1: they're not even there for a wide open layup on

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Speaker 1: the other end of the floor. You know, I got

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Speaker 1: asked a male bag question the two or three days ago,

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Speaker 1: and Celtics fans are all mad because They're like, why

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Speaker 1: are you comparing him to Jason Tatum? It was it

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Speaker 1: was a male bag question, But there's another layer to it.

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Speaker 1: This is the debate of, like, who's the next great

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Speaker 1: American basketball player? Right beyond the Luka Jannis Jokic tier,

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Speaker 1: which is a group of obviously non Americans, we have

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Speaker 1: basically like Tatum and Anthony Edwards and like Zion Williamson. Like,

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Speaker 1: that's the group of guys that are kind of contending

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Speaker 1: for that best young American player. One of the when

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Speaker 1: when I was asked that male bag question, the reason

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Speaker 1: why I said Anthony Edwards so definitively has to do

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Speaker 1: with that supreme athleticism. This is a big thing I've

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Speaker 1: been talking about in the Clippers Mavericks series that just

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Speaker 1: ended last night. When you have an elite physical trade,

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Speaker 1: whether it's Luka Doncic's size and strength or it's Kyrie

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Speaker 1: Irving's quickness versus guys like Paul George and James Harden

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Speaker 1: that just don't have elite athletic traits at this phase

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Speaker 1: of their career, it makes it a lot harder to

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Speaker 1: get separation from top tier perimeter defenders in high stakes,

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Speaker 1: physical urgent and intense environments. Anthony Edwards is one of

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Speaker 1: the best athletes in the NBA. He is capable of

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Speaker 1: like just that right shoulder fade over KCP at the

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Speaker 1: end of the game, the one that kind of iced

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Speaker 1: it right that fade away. If you watch him, KCP

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Speaker 1: is defending it perfectly, bodying him, absorbing contact, keeping him

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Speaker 1: in front. If you watch a replay of that play,

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Speaker 1: watch how much separation Ant gets when he turns to fade.

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Speaker 1: He gets so much lyft that even though that shot

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Speaker 1: looks really difficult to us because of how athletic he is,

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Speaker 1: when he's up at the top of that jump, it

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Speaker 1: might as well be a free throw for him. Like

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Speaker 1: he's just got such great lift and balance that at

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Speaker 1: the top of that shot. It's just his classic muscle

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Speaker 1: memory and release. Just like on that play, it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior hits a three. It's a Now we've

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Speaker 1: got to try to contain here on this inbounds, It's

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Speaker 1: like all this pressure setting up in the back court.

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Speaker 1: But because he has that supreme physical gift of his athleticism,

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Speaker 1: he's able to rip through them like tissue paper on

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Speaker 1: his way to the basket. When you combine his supreme

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Speaker 1: athleticism his strength. I thought that first possession of the game,

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Speaker 1: when he was guarding Jamal Murray, we'll get back to

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Speaker 1: it in a second, where he's being handsy and containing him.

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Speaker 1: Is it's the supreme athleticism, it's the strength. He's got

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Speaker 1: good size, it's the supreme competitiveness, and he's putting in

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Speaker 1: the work behind the scenes to turn himself into a

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Speaker 1: polished score from all three levels of the floor. Just

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Speaker 1: I cannot. I cannot. I'm not. I'm gonna understate it

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Speaker 1: because it's not possible to put into words just how

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Speaker 1: impressed I am with this kid. I think he might

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Speaker 1: be my favorite player in the post Lebron era after

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Speaker 1: he's done. I just love everything out this kid, and

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited to see what he is capable of accomplishing,

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Speaker 1: not just the rest of the series, but the rest

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Speaker 1: of his career. I was literally thinking, like, like, this

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Speaker 1: kid has a chance to do stuff like this for

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Speaker 1: another decade, if not longer. We are just barely scratching

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Speaker 1: the surface of what aunt can be. So early in

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Speaker 1: the game. I thought it was super fascinating. Minnesota did

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Speaker 1: a similar thing to Phoenix in the in the first round,

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Speaker 1: where basically in the Sunday game, the game that was

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Speaker 1: the final game of the regular season, they put Anthony

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Speaker 1: Edwards on KD and they put Jaden McDaniels on Booker

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Speaker 1: and then they put Mike Conley on Bradley Beal, and

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Speaker 1: so we were all kind of planning on that series, like, oh,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna go into this series and they're gonna put

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Speaker 1: those same guys in those same matchups, and it's like, Nope.

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Speaker 1: They came into Game one and mix it up immediately

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Speaker 1: and Ant moved over to Bradley Beal and they put

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Speaker 1: Carl Towns on Kevin Durant and it just was kind

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Speaker 1: of like a random kind of tweak that we weren't expecting.

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Speaker 1: They come out the opening tip tonight, and all of

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Speaker 1: the film during the regular season was a strong indicator

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Speaker 1: it was gonna be a lot of Jaden McDaniels on

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray and you know, they go for just a

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Speaker 1: couple of possessions with Ant on Jamal and it works great.

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Speaker 1: There's that early possession where Ant fights over the screen

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Speaker 1: and then Jamal tries to iso him and like Ant

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Speaker 1: literally had him in jail. He could not break free.

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Speaker 1: He could not get separation from him. And that's the

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Speaker 1: whole other element of Ant's game that is is barely

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Speaker 1: flushed out from where it's gonna be. He could be

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Speaker 1: the best perimeter defender in the league. There is no

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Speaker 1: player that can move laterally and contain a player with

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Speaker 1: his hands and strength the way that Anthony Edwards can.

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Speaker 1: Now he was exhausted a lot tonight from what he

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Speaker 1: was asked to do offensively, and he took a lot

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Speaker 1: of defensive possessions where he wasn't super engaged in this game.

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Speaker 1: But like when he gets to that point or he's

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Speaker 1: you know, mid twenties supreme two way, you know, athlete

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Speaker 1: with the commitment on both ends of the floor, he

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Speaker 1: could be the best perimeter defender in the league. This

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Speaker 1: sky's the limit for this game. But I thought it

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Speaker 1: was so interesting because he's on Jamal and then they

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Speaker 1: quick switch him off. It was almost like sending a

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Speaker 1: message early. It was almost like sending a message like,

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Speaker 1: by the way, Jamal, I'm coming for you anytime this

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Speaker 1: game gets close, Like if this game gets close, I

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Speaker 1: just want you to know that you can't you can't

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Speaker 1: break free from me, you know, and honestly, like they

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Speaker 1: switched back to Jaden, and Jaden did damn near just

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Speaker 1: as good a job. Now Jamal over the course of

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Speaker 1: the game kind of started to figure it out, setting

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Speaker 1: him up for ball screens, doing a better job of

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Speaker 1: working multiple screening actions to get Jaden caught on the screen.

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Speaker 1: Jokic actually set some better screens and so in the

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Speaker 1: second half, Jamal was able to get some openings this year. Like,

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Speaker 1: here's the thing, this is gonna today. Today is about

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Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and celebrating his greatness and his potential. This

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Speaker 1: is gonna be a long series. They what spotted Minnesota

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Speaker 1: an eighteen to four lead. I think at the start

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Speaker 1: of this game, Denver's not going anywhere. They're gonna have

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Speaker 1: an answer. This is gonna be a really tough series.

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Speaker 1: But I'm more just kind of taking a moment to

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Speaker 1: celebrate when a than the Edwards did early in the game.

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Speaker 1: Defensive fastball completely shuts Denver down. They I think they

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Speaker 1: go up eighteen to four. It looks like it looks

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Speaker 1: like this is going to be a much different type

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Speaker 1: of series in terms of the defensive side of the

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Speaker 1: floor or exsuse me the offensive side of the floor

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Speaker 1: for Denver in terms of the types of players they're

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Speaker 1: dealing with on the perimeter. But Mike Malone's second timeout

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Speaker 1: gets called and then out of the time out, Denver

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Speaker 1: starts to lean into something that I talked a lot

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Speaker 1: about in the series preview, which is avoid Minnesota's half

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Speaker 1: court offense as much as possible by defending and getting

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Speaker 1: out in transition. And they went on a crazy defensive

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Speaker 1: run to end the first quarter. There was like a

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Speaker 1: like a twelve or thirteen minute span where I think

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Speaker 1: they had like ten twelve points. It was a dominant

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Speaker 1: defensive stretch from Denver. They got twelve steals in this game.

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Speaker 1: They had twenty six total points on fourteen Minnesota turnovers.

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Speaker 1: That was really the only reason this game stayed close.

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Speaker 1: Early on, all of the major metrics tilted toward Minnesota.

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Speaker 1: Minnesota out sh shot them fifty two to forty seven percent.

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Speaker 1: They won points in the paint fifty two to forty two.

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Speaker 1: They out rebounded them forty two to thirty four. They

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Speaker 1: out rebound him on the offensive glass seven to three.

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Speaker 1: They were the better transition offense. They had a one

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Speaker 1: to eighty six offensive rating and transition. Minnesota or excuse me,

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Speaker 1: Denver had a one forty three offensive rating, although much

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Speaker 1: better than their half court offense and then the half

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Speaker 1: court offense. Minnesota won the half court offense battle today

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Speaker 1: one oh six to one hundred in points per one

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Speaker 1: hundred half court play. So it was really a dominant

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Speaker 1: effort from Minnesota from top to bottom. What kept Denver

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Speaker 1: in the game was their defense, getting steels getting out

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Speaker 1: in transition that twenty six points on fourteen Minnesota turnovers,

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Speaker 1: that was what allowed Denver to regain control of the game.

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Speaker 1: And again as we look forward for Denver, one of

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Speaker 1: the most important things for them in this series is

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Speaker 1: going to be like prioritizing their defensive focus. This is

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Speaker 1: not a This is not a series you're gonna win

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Speaker 1: by grinding things down into the mud and playing in

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Speaker 1: a rock fight. If you grind things down and play

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Speaker 1: in a rock fight and stick in that half court environment,

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Speaker 1: as I showed in the film session yesterday, it's a

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Speaker 1: lot of hands on perimeter ball handlers and top locking

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Speaker 1: and shutting down actions with outrageous physicality, is just gonna

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Speaker 1: be really, really difficult because one of the things I

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Speaker 1: was texting with our production staff before the show. When

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Speaker 1: the league decided to kind of tilt things towards physicality

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Speaker 1: there in the middle of the season, it didn't just

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Speaker 1: affect the regular season. These playoffs have been substantially more

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Speaker 1: physical than previous playoff runs that I've watched, and that

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Speaker 1: is a tweak that specifically favors teams like Minnesota that

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Speaker 1: try to win with their defense, but looking forward for Denver,

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Speaker 1: Denver has the ability to win with their defense as well. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: it was one of the things that really impressed me

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Speaker 1: about their first quarter kind of recovery from that Minnesota blitz.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about real championship teams, they can win

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Speaker 1: in different ways. And what was fascinating is in the

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Speaker 1: Lakers series, they won by out executing them in the

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Speaker 1: half court. It was we can Yeah, you're right, you've

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Speaker 1: got a good five out offense. Lebron and Ad can

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Speaker 1: do a lot of damage on our back line. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're but we can score on you easier than you

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Speaker 1: can score on us. And that has to be kind

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Speaker 1: of flipped in the Minnesota series to the sense where

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Speaker 1: all their effort and energy has to be focused on

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Speaker 1: the defensive end, and it needs to be more like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're a great defense. That was cool. How you did

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Speaker 1: all this stuff to Jamal and you did this stuff

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Speaker 1: to Jokich and you got force some turnovers and did

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Speaker 1: all this stuff. Great, But we can slow down your

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Speaker 1: offense better than you can slow down our offense, and

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Speaker 1: we can get out and transition and take advantage of

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Speaker 1: that and have success. That's going to be a huge

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Speaker 1: part of this series, finding ways to keep Minnesota's offense

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Speaker 1: in the half court, get stops and turnovers, and force

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Speaker 1: out the other way in transition as often as possible.

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Speaker 1: They did get out and transition more frequently in that

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Speaker 1: first half than Minnesota is and that Minnesota did and

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Speaker 1: that's something they can lean on moving forward. Back on

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Speaker 1: the Minnesota side, I wanted to shout out Carl Towns

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Speaker 1: and Nas reed. Carl Town's in the early portion of

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Speaker 1: the game, especially in that third quarter, was just unbelievable,

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Speaker 1: giving a you know, bring in the scoring pop because

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Speaker 1: in that first half it was like all Aunt and

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Speaker 1: no one else could get anything going. And then Carl

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Speaker 1: Towns kind of provided that support there in that third quarter,

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Speaker 1: and then when Kat picked up that fifth Bowl running

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Speaker 1: into Jamal Murray while he was shooting. He had to

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Speaker 1: come out of the game and nas Reed came in

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Speaker 1: and he was unbelievable. Not just hitting threes, which he

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Speaker 1: knocked down two of them, but one of the big

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Speaker 1: things with nas is he's an excellent closeout attacker and

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Speaker 1: he will catch with the defender closing out at him,

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Speaker 1: read those angles, rip through and get all the way

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Speaker 1: to the rim. He was super active on the glass

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Speaker 1: as well. I thought his offensive rebound tip dunk that

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Speaker 1: he had in that I think it was in the

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Speaker 1: third quarter Run if I remember correctly, No, it was

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Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. If I remember, I think it

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Speaker 1: was in the fourth But that tip Donkey had that

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Speaker 1: was a huge momentum play in that game after he

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Speaker 1: had just scored on the previous possession, big time. So

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Speaker 1: you get thirty six points out of that power forward

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Speaker 1: spot between Carl Karl, Anthony Towns and nas Reed, really

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Speaker 1: really impressive stuff. I thought. Mike Conley hit a couple

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Speaker 1: of huge shots, two big threes in the third quarter.

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Speaker 1: Run started on kind of like a break rhythm one

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Speaker 1: on the left wing, and then he hit another just

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Speaker 1: big time effort from Minnesota their defense is going to

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Speaker 1: be an issue for Denver in this series. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to figure it out on the on the Denver

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Speaker 1: side again, a couple things. Jamal Murray, I think the debt,

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Speaker 1: I think the real giveaway with him moving forward in

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Speaker 1: this series is he's got to just work better on

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Speaker 1: setting up his man for screens. If he tries to

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Speaker 1: work too much connected to the defender and connected to

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Speaker 1: connected to Nikaie, Alexander Walker, connected to Jade McDaniels, it's

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Speaker 1: just gonna be really difficult for him to make shots.

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Speaker 1: Those guys are, just as I said in the series preview,

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Speaker 1: an entirely different class of perimeter defender than Austin Reeves. Right,

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Speaker 1: You're dealing with just an entire different universe of basketball player. Right.

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Speaker 1: So the big things for him are gonna be one,

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Speaker 1: capitalizing on the transition opportunities we're there, but two work

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Speaker 1: harder to set up his man for screens. That means

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Speaker 1: like multiple screening actions. So a lot of times what

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Speaker 1: you can do is come off of the ball screen,

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Speaker 1: then retreat, dribble and just go off the other side.

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Speaker 1: That gives Yokich a chance to flip the angle and

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Speaker 1: chances are when you come off the ball screen and

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Speaker 1: hit a retreat dribble, Jaden or whoever it is, is

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Speaker 1: going to have to take a really hard step in

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Speaker 1: that direction and you'll have an advantage going back the

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Speaker 1: other way. The other thing working from float range. This

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Speaker 1: was something I talked about in the series preview. I

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Speaker 1: think pull up jumpers, the rear view contests from guys

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Speaker 1: like Jaden and Nikil, Alexander Walker and are going to

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Speaker 1: be a lot more difficult to deal with. Like that

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Speaker 1: shot that Jamal Murray made in Game five to beat

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, Austin Reeves almost blocked it. The Jaden McDaniels

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Speaker 1: types are definitely going to block him. So a big

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Speaker 1: thing for Jamal I think is gonna be working downhill

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Speaker 1: into floater range. Got missed one off the back rim

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Speaker 1: in the first half, had a really nice floater in

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Speaker 1: crunch time though that he made that he made look easy.

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Speaker 1: I think that's a shot that he can lean on

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Speaker 1: more frequently. Nikole Jokic is gonna have to look to

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Speaker 1: score as much as humanly possible. I think he looked

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Speaker 1: a little. He looked a little just he was adjusting

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Speaker 1: to some of the physicality. Not a super efficient game

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Speaker 1: by his standards, eleven for twenty five from the field.

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Speaker 1: I talked about in the regular season. Nikole Jokic was

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Speaker 1: just not as good of a jump shooter this season

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Speaker 1: as he was last year. And I still think he's

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Speaker 1: the best player in the world even without a dominant

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Speaker 1: jump shot. But that's a shot that he's gonna have

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Speaker 1: to make in this series. He was two for nine

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Speaker 1: from three tonight, and again that was something all season long.

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Speaker 1: He just wasn't making him the same way he did

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Speaker 1: last year five percentage, and he's gonna have to hit him.

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Speaker 1: I think if the if the Nuggets are going to

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Speaker 1: have a chance to come back, I can win this series.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with my pick for now. I think

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Speaker 1: Denver's gonna respond in Game two. Again, I think Denver's

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Speaker 1: gonna find ways to slow down Minnesota's half court offense

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Speaker 1: over the course of this series. Never ever, ever, ever,

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Speaker 1: ever overreact to a Game one that said super impressive

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Speaker 1: win for Minnesota. Can't put into words how impressed I

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Speaker 1: am with Anthony Edwards, and I'm so thankful that we

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Speaker 1: got several more games of this series. This is gonna

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Speaker 1: be a fun one. I'm looking forward to it. Next

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Speaker 1: Game two is on Monday, so I've got a couple

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Speaker 1: series previews I need to do. I finished my prep

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Speaker 1: for Nicks Pacers. I'm recording that one actually right after this.

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Speaker 1: That's going up tomorrow morning. Then I have to do

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Speaker 1: Thunder MAVs. But I'm gonna try to find some time

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Speaker 1: either on Sunday or Monday morning to do a film

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Speaker 1: session for Game two of Timberwolves Timberwolves Nuggets. I always

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Speaker 1: have a better feel for the game after I have

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Speaker 1: a chance to kind of look back over the film,

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Speaker 1: So just keep an eye on our YouTube channel and

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Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed, and when I do do that

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Speaker 1: film session, I will put it. I'll make sure I

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Speaker 1: tweet the links out, but I'm gonna work hard to

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Speaker 1: try to get that out Monday morning so it has

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Speaker 1: some time to breathe before the game. All right, guys,

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Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, as sincerely,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will

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Speaker 1: be back tomorrow morning with a series preview on Nick Pacers.

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Speaker 1: I will see you guys. Then the volume