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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to him today here at

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Speaker 1: the Volume Heavy Wednesday. Everybody hopeful, If you guys are

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Speaker 1: having an incredible week. We are reacting to Night two

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Speaker 1: of the nd season Tournament quarterfinals, as we got an

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Speaker 1: excellent showcase from two of the top teams in the

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Speaker 1: Western Conference. How about the San Antonio Spurs beating the

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Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers to clear their

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Speaker 1: way to Vegas in a showdown with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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Speaker 1: I am buying all the Spurs dock right now. I

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Speaker 1: believe they are a legitimate championship contender in this league.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited to dive into that game. I want to

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about this disturbing trend of the

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Speaker 1: Lakers just consistently getting punked by the more athletic teams

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Speaker 1: in the league. Will dive a little bit deeper into

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Speaker 1: that than the Oklahoma City Thunder when casually just beat

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Speaker 1: the Suns tonight by like forty something. So we'll dig

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Speaker 1: a little bit of that into that game as well.

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Speaker 1: At the Telli end of into that game as well,

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Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show, you guys are

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Speaker 1: the joke before we get started to subscribe to our

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Speaker 1: YouTube channel, scroll down and like this video. It helps

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Speaker 1: us a lot if you take a second just to

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Speaker 1: scroll down and hit that like button. And again, if

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Speaker 1: you want to get mailbag questions into our weekly mail bags,

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Speaker 1: make sure you drop them in the comments here underneath

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Speaker 1: this video. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as

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Speaker 1: I said, tonight was an excellent showcase for two of

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Speaker 1: the top teams in the Western Conference, and both the

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Speaker 1: Spurs and the Thunder you saw everything about what makes

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Speaker 1: both of those teams awesome. And then another one of

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Speaker 1: the top teams in the Western Conference. You saw exactly

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Speaker 1: why no matter how many regular season games they win,

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Speaker 1: I will never view them as more than just a

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Speaker 1: puncher's chance upset threat, and I don't put them in

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Speaker 1: that top tier of contenders with teams like Oklahoma City,

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Speaker 1: Houston and Denver. And that game in particular, Let's start

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Speaker 1: with the Spurs. That was a wonderful showcase of everything

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Speaker 1: that's been driving their success this season, and it starts

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Speaker 1: with combining the level of offense that we've seen in

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Speaker 1: this now twelve game stretch without Victor wembin Yama with

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Speaker 1: the game breaking defensive talent that is Victor wembin Yama.

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Speaker 1: When they combine those two things, they become what I

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Speaker 1: think is an incredibly imposing playoff threat. Tonight was an

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Speaker 1: awesome showcase of that offense. And they've been playing like

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Speaker 1: this on offense for weeks now. Everything you saw tonight

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Speaker 1: that was not just a one night thing. That was

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Speaker 1: not just a oh, it's the Lakers and they get

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Speaker 1: punked by athletes. This is stuff they've been doing to everybody.

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Speaker 1: There's a little bit of weirdness tonight, like Steph Castle

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Speaker 1: and Keldon Johnson hit six threes in this game, but

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Speaker 1: it's basketball games. Weird things can happen. Marcus Smart hit

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Speaker 1: eight threes. Sometimes guys who are poor three point shooters

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Speaker 1: make a bunch of threes. Other than everything you saw

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Speaker 1: from san Antonio was like stuff they've been doing to everybody.

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Speaker 1: The athleticism in transition, they boat race the Lakers again

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Speaker 1: and again in the open court, just running right around

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Speaker 1: them for layups in easy threes, the consistent driving of

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Speaker 1: the basketball in the half court. San Antonio's drives per

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Speaker 1: game have skyrocketed since Victor women Yama went out because

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Speaker 1: it's their primary method of generating offense at this point.

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Speaker 1: It's also because Deeron Fox, who is a career star

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Speaker 1: ball handler, is now drawing more primary matchups. It's slotting

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Speaker 1: everybody else into more achievable roles. Steph Castle was feasting

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Speaker 1: tonight on whoever was standing in front of him, and

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Speaker 1: that driving thing has been a consistent trend they are averaging.

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Speaker 1: This is obviously the NBA dot Com stats haven't updated

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Speaker 1: from tonight's game, but in the eleven previous games since

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Speaker 1: Wemby went down, the Spurs were averaging fifty five drives

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Speaker 1: per game. That's sixth in the higher NBA. It's Deeron Fox,

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Speaker 1: It's Steel and Harper, it's Steph Castle, It's Keldon Johnson.

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Speaker 1: Jerry Sohan has done it at times. Keldon Johnson has

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Speaker 1: been bringing this like bullyball rim pressure element for most

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Speaker 1: of the season, the drawing of fouls. The Spurs have

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Speaker 1: been a top ten free throw right team in the

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Speaker 1: league this season. Why because their speed constantly has defenders

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Speaker 1: out of position. I saw a lot of Lakers fans

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Speaker 1: complaining about officiating tonight. There is this thing that consistently

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Speaker 1: happens in the NBA, and it seems bizarre on the surface,

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Speaker 1: but It makes sense when you really think about it,

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Speaker 1: and it's that when there is a team that is

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Speaker 1: being more physically aggressive, they tend to actually get called

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Speaker 1: for less fouls and they tend to draw more fouls

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Speaker 1: on their opponent. But that is literally because the more

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Speaker 1: physically aggressive team is almost always getting the opponent out

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Speaker 1: of position. On the offensive end, the defense is a

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Speaker 1: step behind their aggression, so they're out of position and

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Speaker 1: they're constantly hacking and fouling as they're getting beat. Most

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Speaker 1: of those were fouls. Guys, hate to break it to you,

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Speaker 1: because the Spurs were beating you to spots on offense,

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Speaker 1: and then on defense it's the exact same thing. They

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Speaker 1: were again, the more physically aggressive team that was beating

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Speaker 1: the Lakers to spots, So the Lakers weren't able to

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Speaker 1: draw fouls. A team that gets a lot of fouls

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Speaker 1: wasn't able to get to the foul. And there's a

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Speaker 1: handful of miss calls in there. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: pretend like the officiating was perfect, but there was miscalls

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Speaker 1: going both ways. I had no problem with the whistle tonight.

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Speaker 1: I thought the Spurs were the more physically aggressive team,

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Speaker 1: and I thought they deserved to get a better whistle

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Speaker 1: as a result, and they did. I thought most of

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Speaker 1: those fowls were fouls. The high level three point shooting.

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Speaker 1: They've been top ten in both volume and percentage since

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Speaker 1: Victor Wembenyama went down. And again, yes, Keldon Johnson and

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Speaker 1: Steph Castle and Marcus Smart were the weird kind of

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Speaker 1: low percentage guys for both teams tonight that made threes.

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Speaker 1: But all those other dudes, they've been shooting the ball

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Speaker 1: super well during this stretch. Darren Fox has been shooting

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Speaker 1: the ball super well. Devin Vessel has been shooting the

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Speaker 1: ball super well. If you live Julian Champagnie and Harrison

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Speaker 1: Barnes open, they're going to make shots. Harrison Barnes was

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Speaker 1: torching Luca for helping off of him in this game.

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Speaker 1: With just easy, little catching chwo jump shots. He's refined

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Speaker 1: is released so much, that's so quick you can get

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Speaker 1: it off in such a small window of space. Again,

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Speaker 1: the Spurs have been the seventh ranked offense in the

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Speaker 1: league since Wenby went down, and you saw all of

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Speaker 1: that on display. Their guards Fox and Harper and Steph Castle,

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Speaker 1: they were able to get wherever they wanted on the

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Speaker 1: floor over and over and over again. The transition stuff,

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Speaker 1: Like the Lakers deserved some blame there too. I thought

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Speaker 1: they showed some pretty embarrassing effort on that front, as

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Speaker 1: they were bitching at the refs and not running back

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Speaker 1: and not talking and getting matched up. A lot of

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Speaker 1: sloppy stuff from the Lakers. We'll talk about them later,

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Speaker 1: but that's something the Spurs can do. They can outrun you.

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Speaker 1: They got lay ups and threes all night. I Steph

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Speaker 1: Castle another thirty piece coming back. Like the one thing

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Speaker 1: that continues to blow my mind with Steph is how

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Speaker 1: he can wind the ground battle on drives. We've talked

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Speaker 1: about this on the show before, but like when you

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Speaker 1: drive to the basket, generally speaking, it's not gonna just

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Speaker 1: be a layup line. There's usually a little bit of

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Speaker 1: physical contact. The dude's gonna slide with you. He's gonna

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Speaker 1: try to hit that shoulder on your shoulder and try

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Speaker 1: to kind of win that leverage battle to flatten out

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Speaker 1: your drive and force you to go lateral to the

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Speaker 1: basket rather than directly at the basket. And Steph Castle

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Speaker 1: just tends to blow through those shoulders. You saw so

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Speaker 1: many examples of that tonight, the two little transition buckets

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Speaker 1: on Luca Lucas there, but Steph is just like power

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Speaker 1: dribble boom. Hit you with that left shoulder. You're going flying.

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Speaker 1: I'm going right up for a little layup kill. The

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Speaker 1: Lakers guards all night long with straight line drives. Darren

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Speaker 1: Fox it's a little bit more of like the shimmy shake.

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Speaker 1: He's got a lot of stuff with the handle. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot more like more like refer buying the skills

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Speaker 1: stuff with him because he's not the athlete that Steph

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Speaker 1: Castle is. But he's getting wherever he wants on the

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Speaker 1: floor again, getting to the foul line a ton as

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Speaker 1: the Lakers are constantly out of position. Everyone's hitting threes.

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Speaker 1: You saw it all tonight, and it's just exciting to

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Speaker 1: think about what this all could look like when they

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Speaker 1: get Victor wemen Yama back, because again, like Victor brings

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Speaker 1: the game breaking defensive weapon. I don't know, I've seen.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's some people that are like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: the offense wasn't as good when Victor was playing. Deren

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Speaker 1: Fox wasn't playing. There's a whole element to their offense

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Speaker 1: now that they're gonna have with Dearon Fox. That is

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Speaker 1: going to weaponize the ball screen attack with Victor wemen

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Speaker 1: Yama in a way that it wasn't weaponized earlier. Dearon

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Speaker 1: Fox is such a gifted skip passer. He's so good

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Speaker 1: at reading the lowman and hitting the weak side corner. Like,

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Speaker 1: I think Victor is gonna come back and just add

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Speaker 1: to this offense and with his ability to break the

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Speaker 1: game on defense. Like you guys saw how much damage

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Speaker 1: the Lakers did when they did actually get into the

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Speaker 1: half court and pick and roll attack. They were able

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Speaker 1: to score pretty effectively against the Luke Cornett drop coverage.

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Speaker 1: That's gonna be a lot harder when that's Victor wen Minyama.

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Speaker 1: And one of the big things with Victor is there's

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Speaker 1: a force multiplier factor with the athletes around him, Like

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Speaker 1: I love how athletic their perimeter guys are and how

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Speaker 1: that specifically compliments Victor. They killed the Lakers on the

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Speaker 1: glass tonight too, and it's because all of their guards scrap.

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Speaker 1: Keldon Johnson annihilates teams on the glass. Their pathway to

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Speaker 1: winning the Western Conference is combining all of those things,

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Speaker 1: combining the game breaking defensive weapon that is Victor, all

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Speaker 1: the scrappy athleticism off the ball, defensively and on the

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Speaker 1: glass with all their perimeter players, Combining the way they've

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Speaker 1: shot the ball in this stretch with how Deer and

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Speaker 1: Fox has been as a pick and roll shot creator,

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Speaker 1: with Victor wen Minyama as an additional offensive weapon. Combining

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Speaker 1: all of that is how they generate a path to

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Speaker 1: win the Western Conference. I'm super, super excited to see

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Speaker 1: their show down with the Thunder on Saturday night again.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna be breaking that game down live here on

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Speaker 1: YouTube after the final buzzer on Saturday night. I'm buying

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Speaker 1: all this Spur stock man, like I. We have our

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Speaker 1: on Friday. I actually recorded it today so that that

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Speaker 1: video has already done, but it's gonna be airing on Friday.

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Speaker 1: I talked about how one of the biggest things I

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Speaker 1: was wrong about the season we did like our What's right,

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Speaker 1: What's wrong? From my preseason predictions, I did five things

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Speaker 1: I was right about, five things I was wrong about,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things I was wrong about was

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Speaker 1: I just could not have been more wrong about the

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Speaker 1: Spurs team. And I'm buying all the stock right now.

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Speaker 1: I just think they're awesome. I don't think this is

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Speaker 1: like a fun, spunky young team anymore. I view this

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Speaker 1: as a legitimate championship contending team in this league. I

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Speaker 1: think we need to see a little bit more to

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Speaker 1: put them up in that like Denver okc group. But

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Speaker 1: like I firmly think they're every bit. I mean, they

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Speaker 1: demonstrated their every bit is good, if not better than

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Speaker 1: the Lakers tonight. I think their every bit is good,

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Speaker 1: if not better than the Minnesota Timberwolves. They're probably closer

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Speaker 1: to Houston than we think. Like I think this is

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Speaker 1: just a I think this team is ready right now

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Speaker 1: to compete for a championship. The Lakers, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: they've also been one of the best teams in the

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Speaker 1: NBA to start the season. But no matter how many

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Speaker 1: games they've won, I've even though they have Luka Doncic,

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Speaker 1: even though they have Austin reason Lebron James, I have

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Speaker 1: refused to include them in my top tier of contenders

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Speaker 1: alongside Oklahoma City, Denver, and Houston for one reason. They

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Speaker 1: have just consistently been physically dominated by more athletic teams,

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Speaker 1: seemingly at every opportunity. The good, more athletic teams, the bigger,

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Speaker 1: physical athletic teams on the perimeter, not just small and

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Speaker 1: fast like Philly for example. And no matter how many

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Speaker 1: regular season games they win, there will always be this

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Speaker 1: dark cloud that hangs over the team in the form

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Speaker 1: of that giant question mark. This week was another opportunity

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers to prove all the guys like me

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Speaker 1: wrong about them for holding that weakness over their head.

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Speaker 1: And yet they went out there again tonight and got

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Speaker 1: punked again, and all of the same things came to

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Speaker 1: the surface again. Luca will fill the box score, but

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Speaker 1: in these games he's made a ton of mistakes on

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Speaker 1: both ends of the floor that undercut his impact, so

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Speaker 1: he fails to control the game. This is becoming a

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Speaker 1: disturbing trend with Austin Reeves, where he's like it's his

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Speaker 1: ceiling is a ceiling, His averages are his averages, but

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Speaker 1: his floor. He has been so bad on both ends

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Speaker 1: of the floor against these types of teams, like he

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Speaker 1: was downright awful tonight. He got picked clean at half

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Speaker 1: court twice by Deerren Fox for pick sixes. Couldn't score

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Speaker 1: the ball effectively at all at any range, couldn't hit

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Speaker 1: spot up threes, couldn't hit off the dribble, three, he

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Speaker 1: wasn't hitting anything from the mid range, was missing everything

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Speaker 1: at the basket. And then on the other end, he

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Speaker 1: was getting picked on relentlessly by San Antonio's guards. He

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Speaker 1: couldn't keep the ball in front of him to save

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Speaker 1: his life. They were toying with it. It's too large

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Speaker 1: of a sample size now where this just keeps happening

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Speaker 1: with him. Lebron played really hard and he had some highlights.

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Speaker 1: That dunk on Luke Cornette was a fun one for sure,

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Speaker 1: but he also made several mistakes. And he's damn near

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Speaker 1: forty one years old. He didn't have the juice to

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Speaker 1: take over a game like this, and none of their

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Speaker 1: bench players other than Marcus Smart were able to have

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Speaker 1: any sort of real impact on the game. And the

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Speaker 1: reason why Marcus Smart had the positive plus minus was

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Speaker 1: because he had eight threes. Like Marcus was also getting

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Speaker 1: blown by on the perimeter. He made some plays, he

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Speaker 1: was active. I thought he did better than anybody else did,

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Speaker 1: but like he was also physically overmatched in this game.

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Speaker 1: And there's like a bit of a mental element too.

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Speaker 1: It feels like they're getting punked. They're complaining to refs.

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Speaker 1: They're losing discipline that sequence. At the end of the half,

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Speaker 1: Lebron dunks on Luke Cornett. They go down, they get

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Speaker 1: a stop. Luke Cornette makes an unbelievable defensive play, one

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Speaker 1: of the plays of the night. That block on Austin

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Speaker 1: Reeves at the rim felt like a complete momentum stopper. Whatever,

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Speaker 1: you go down to the other end, dearon Fox, HiT's

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Speaker 1: a tough contested floater. That's gonna happen. You gapped him, well,

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Speaker 1: your transition defense was good. I thought it was a

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Speaker 1: solid possession that pushes the lead back to ten. You

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Speaker 1: go down to the other end of the floor. Luca

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Speaker 1: Misses complains at the ress and literally him and Jackson

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Speaker 1: Hayes refuse to run back on defense, and the Spurs

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Speaker 1: just go down the floor and get it dunk. It

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Speaker 1: was like they decompose in these games again. Like they

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Speaker 1: didn't lose to San Antonio they got the shit kicked

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Speaker 1: out of them. They didn't lose to Phoenix, they got

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Speaker 1: the shit kicked out of them. They didn't lose to

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, they got the shit kicked out of them.

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Speaker 1: It's becoming too consistent of a trend. These same exact

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Speaker 1: things just keep happening in these types of games and

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Speaker 1: they get killed, and look, they're gonna have their chances

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Speaker 1: to rectify this. If I understand the scheduling for this tournament,

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Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are gonna get to play Phoenix. Now, well,

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Speaker 1: guess what, they were the team before the Spurs to

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Speaker 1: punk the Lakers on their home floor. So we'll see

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Speaker 1: if they do a better job in that game. But

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Speaker 1: even then, that's just like an entry level test. Phoenix

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Speaker 1: isn't as good as San Antonio, and San Antonio is

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Speaker 1: not as good as OKC. So I don't care how

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Speaker 1: many regular season games the Lakers win. They could be

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Speaker 1: we could fast forward six weeks and they could be

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Speaker 1: thirty and ten, and I would still view them as

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Speaker 1: a non threat until they demonstrate they can handle this

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Speaker 1: kind of opponent. That's the difference between Denver and Houston

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers. I know what Denver does works in

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Speaker 1: the postseason. I know it works against the athletic teams

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Speaker 1: in the NBA. I know they're gonna be able to

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Speaker 1: score against I know they're gonna be able to get

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Speaker 1: a certain amount of stops because they can stay mentally

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Speaker 1: focused and do their jobs, keep the ball in front,

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Speaker 1: and just come up with a game plan that allows

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Speaker 1: them to compete Houston. Like I know their size and

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Speaker 1: their defense. I know that translates. That's not something that

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Speaker 1: doesn't translate to the postseason. I don't know if any

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Speaker 1: of what the Lakers do translates to the postseason. It

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Speaker 1: just was incredibly disappointing. I don't think I'm punked tonight.

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Speaker 1: And like, look like you want to tell me that

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Speaker 1: San Antonio had some guys hit some threes that they

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Speaker 1: don't usually make threes, Like, sure, whatever, Marcus Smart hit

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Speaker 1: eight of them, guys, this was an outclassing. It was

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Speaker 1: just it was just so disappointing. And like again, it's

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Speaker 1: just like every time they run into this test, the

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Speaker 1: exact same thing happens. We'll see, we'll see what happens

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Speaker 1: against Phoenix. Not a good night for the Lakers. Moving

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Speaker 1: on to Suns Thunder. Not a whole lot to get

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Speaker 1: into here. The Thunder just beat the absolute shit out

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Speaker 1: of Phoenix from the opening tip. I think the Sun's

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Speaker 1: really felt the loss of Devin Booker in this one.

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Speaker 1: Colin Gillespie and Dylan Brooks were just utterly hopeless to

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Speaker 1: create advantage against this defense. Colin got ripped at half

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Speaker 1: court on the first play of the game by Cason

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Speaker 1: Wallace for a runout dunk. He had four turnovers in

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Speaker 1: the game. Dylan Brooks could like barely get the ball

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Speaker 1: over the front end of the rim, let alone make

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Speaker 1: a shot, but I'm not sure how much it would

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Speaker 1: have mattered because the Thunder are just playing truly special

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Speaker 1: hoops right now. This was their third consecutive twenty plus

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Speaker 1: point win. Their total margin to victory over the last

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Speaker 1: three games is one hundred points. The Sons tried to

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Speaker 1: park Mark Williams under the rim to deter drives early

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Speaker 1: in the game. Chat Holmgren went four for four from

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Speaker 1: three to make that impossible. His first shift was ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: just killed Mark Williams. Hit two threes where Mark was

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Speaker 1: sinking down into the paint, had another one where he

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Speaker 1: drove a close out and hit Cason Wallace in the

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Speaker 1: right corner for wide up in three. On defense, he

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Speaker 1: was like flustering Dylan Brooks and like defending him well

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Speaker 1: one on one, but also blocking him at the rim.

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Speaker 1: He had like a really nice play where he slipped

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Speaker 1: out of his screen at the top of the key

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Speaker 1: and like hit a little mid range jumper. Then he

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Speaker 1: came right in for a second shift and did the

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Speaker 1: exact same damn thing. Burned also Igdaro for helping off

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Speaker 1: of him by hitting another three. He blocked Dylan Brooks again,

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Speaker 1: he burned. He got a boy a on a switch

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Speaker 1: and just attacked him right to the front of the room.

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Speaker 1: We talked, we we're going to get into a deeper

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Speaker 1: dive into this on Friday. But he did an incredible

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Speaker 1: job over the course the last couple of weeks of

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Speaker 1: driving the basketball and his one on ones. It's been

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Speaker 1: one of the trends that's made him a really effective

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Speaker 1: one on one player this year. Chet's just been dominant,

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Speaker 1: and he was dominant in that first half. Shay had

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Speaker 1: a handful of sloppy turnovers, only the second time this

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Speaker 1: year that he's had four turnovers in a game, but

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Speaker 1: that was like the extent to which Phoenix's defense did

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Speaker 1: anything to bother Oklahoma City's offense, like Shay was surgical

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Speaker 1: in this game with his drives and kickouts. He finished

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Speaker 1: with twenty eight points and eight assists in just twenty

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Speaker 1: seven minutes. On just fifteen shots, team the Thunder over

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Speaker 1: twenty eight for forty from three. We talked about this

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Speaker 1: on Monday, but the Thunder have been top five in

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Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot three point percentage this season. Leaving

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Speaker 1: their role players open just doesn't work like it did

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Speaker 1: in years past. Lou Dort got a heater at the

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Speaker 1: end of the half and j Dub and Shay both

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00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,000
Speaker 1: added into three. They blew the single. It was over

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Speaker 1: so fast. They forced twenty one turnovers and scored thirty

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Speaker 1: four points off of those turnovers. They're continuing to widen

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Speaker 1: the gap between them and the rest of the league

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Speaker 1: in that regard. They're averaging twenty five points per game

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Speaker 1: off of turnovers. No one else in the league is

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Speaker 1: getting over twenty two, and they're allowing just twelve points

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Speaker 1: off of turnovers. That's thirteen points of margin every single night. Again,

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Speaker 1: I have an episode that I recorded today that's coming

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Speaker 1: out on Friday, and one of the segments in there

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Speaker 1: is talking about the Thunder and I was wrong to

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Speaker 1: not pick them to win the title before the season,

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Speaker 1: And in my next contender rankings, I'm putting them in

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Speaker 1: their own tier at the top of the league. I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to go into too much more detail on

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00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,880
Speaker 1: that to because I'm going into a lot of detail,

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Speaker 1: dig into a lot of the metrics on each specific

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Speaker 1: player and how they've gotten better in every facet of

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Speaker 1: the game the season. So I'll save that for Friday.

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Speaker 1: But to be frank, I think there's only a handful

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Speaker 1: of teams in the NBA that even have a shot

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Speaker 1: to compete with Oklahoma City like keep games close, let

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00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,840
Speaker 1: alone win, and at the very best of those teams

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00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:22,960
Speaker 1: are just upset threats. I don't think anyone has any

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Speaker 1: business picking against OKAC in any way. At this point.

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Speaker 1: I think it's more likely than not that they win

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Speaker 1: over seventy games. I think it's a very high possibility

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Speaker 1: that they break the NBA's all time wins record and

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Speaker 1: get something like seventy four to seventy five. This is

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Speaker 1: not a veteran team that's gonna deal with a lack

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Speaker 1: of effort. They're young, they're deep, they can handle their

396
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:43,520
Speaker 1: stars being out. They have a better net rating with

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Speaker 1: shake outs Alexander off the floor than every other team

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Speaker 1: in the NBA does in total for the entire season.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about like the all time great teams.

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Speaker 1: There's layers you have to get through, right, Like, in

401
00:20:58,200 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 1: order to be all time great, you got to be

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Speaker 1: a multi time champion. I talked about this with the

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Speaker 1: Celtics after they won in twenty twenty four. You gotta

404
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,880
Speaker 1: win multiple champions at championships, preferably two in a row,

405
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Speaker 1: like if you space them out like the Spurs, that

406
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 1: can get a little less respect than teams that win

407
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Speaker 1: two in a row that win three in a row.

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00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: There are dominance factors like how many regular season games

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Speaker 1: did you win? How many playoff games did you lose?

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Speaker 1: Like the twenty seventeen Warriors, they swept the Western Conference,

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Speaker 1: they won fifteen consecutive playoff games. The two thousand and

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00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 1: one Lakers did something similar. I think all of that

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00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:34,239
Speaker 1: is in reach for this Thunder team. I think they

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Speaker 1: could be looking at over one hundred and forty regular

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Speaker 1: season wins over a two year span. They just got

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Speaker 1: to win seventy two to make that happen. I say,

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Speaker 1: just as if that's easy, But it just feels like

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Speaker 1: it feels like like if you ask me, like seventy

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00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,080
Speaker 1: two wins, do the Thunder get there? It feels like

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00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,359
Speaker 1: coin flip or better that they do. That's how good

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Speaker 1: this team is. If they dominate in this playoff run,

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Speaker 1: like they only lose one or two games, like no

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Speaker 1: one's gonna care about the fact that they lost more

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Speaker 1: games last year. I'm just done putting a ceiling on

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Speaker 1: this group. I think they're destined to be one of

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Speaker 1: the great teams in NBA history. Last thing, I'll talk

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Speaker 1: about this on this note because I think this is

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Speaker 1: kind of interesting with the Luca and Shade debate. I

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Speaker 1: think Shane's been better than Luca this year, and one

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Speaker 1: of the specific reasons why is kind of like what

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00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,399
Speaker 1: we saw, which with Luca against San Antonio tonight, with

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00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:32,159
Speaker 1: Luca against Phoenix, with Luca against the Thunder back in November.

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Speaker 1: Shae has this like surgical mistake free approach to basketball.

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Speaker 1: He I don't think Shae's a like an outstanding defender

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00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:47,880
Speaker 1: by any measure, but he makes substantially fewer mistakes than

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00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 1: Luca does. He's not as much of an on ball

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00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 1: weakness as Luca is. He's not the defensive rebounder that

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00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 1: Luca is, but he still is a good, scrappy kind

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00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: of player that can make plays. He had a sequence

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Speaker 1: in the second half or it was either like late

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00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:02,480
Speaker 1: first half, early second half. Can remember exactly what it was,

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00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: but he like back to back steals in the I

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00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,639
Speaker 1: think it was early second half out on the out front,

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00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,639
Speaker 1: like just pick the ball clean and then got to

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00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 1: steal in the passing lane on he got a driving

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00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: layup on driving dunk on one, had a lob to

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00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 1: chet Holmgrin on the other one. Like he can make

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00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: plays on defense, He's actually a pretty impactful overall defensive

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00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: player on that end of the floor. But the main

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00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,320
Speaker 1: thing that has had me put Shay over Luca to

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00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 1: this point in the season is the lack of mistake making.

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00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: Like Luca undercuts so much of his success with sloppy turnovers,

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00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: with jogging back and transition, bitching at the refs, with

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00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:44,119
Speaker 1: just little sequences of decisions where he'll like do two

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00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 1: or three you know, bad things over a four possession span,

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00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: and it undercuts some of his success. Shay has increased

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00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: his scoring volume per minute and increased his efficiency and

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00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,479
Speaker 1: lowered his turnovers. This year, he's averaging less than two

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00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:04,239
Speaker 1: turnovers game, and it's allowing whatever his overall impact is

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00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: to stop being undercut by the kinds of mistakes that

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00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 1: you see from a guy like Luca. I just think

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00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,680
Speaker 1: Shay's been unbelievable. I think the only player in the

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00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 1: NBA that's still better than him is is NICOLEA. Jokic

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00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 1: at this point. And look, we dig a little bit

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Speaker 1: into that in the Friday episodes, so I'll save that

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Speaker 1: for then. But like just again, an incredible showcase for

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Speaker 1: two of the top teams in the Western Conference tonight

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00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 1: between San Antonio in Oklahoma City. I'm very, very excited

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00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:30,760
Speaker 1: to watch them play on Saturday. I hope Wemby plays

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00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: in that game. That would be awesome, so we could

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00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 1: see a little bit of the the physical dynamic that

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00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: San Antonio can present defensively against Oklahoma City and in

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00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: the big picture, like NBA fans, if you don't like

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00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,439
Speaker 1: the Thunder and you want someone to beat him. But

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00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: I think San Antonio is the only team I'm seeing

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00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:46,960
Speaker 1: out there right now that seems to have much of

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00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 1: a shot other than maybe Houston in the long run.

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00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:51,240
Speaker 1: But I mean they've got a little bit of a

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00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 1: you know, they've got a little bit of a shorter

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00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 1: window built around Kevin Durant's It's kind of a weird era.

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00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 1: You're seeing all these older teams flame out bad and

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00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,439
Speaker 1: there's just this new group of young teams and they're

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00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: just full of a bunch of ass kicking, good young

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00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,920
Speaker 1: players and kind of feels like the shift is happening right,

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00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be fun covering these guys over the

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00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: course of the next several years as we move into

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00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,679
Speaker 1: this next era of NBA basketball. All Right, guys, it's

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00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 1: all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate

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00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. No show.

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00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: Tomorrow morning, I have Lakers Collective with Trevor and Yovann.

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00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 1: If you want to hear me, come bitch and moan

492
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: about the Lakers for an hour with those guys. That'll

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00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: be going on at eleven am Pacific time tomorrow. And

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00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,200
Speaker 1: then Friday morning again, I have that episode with the

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00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 1: five biggest predictions I was right about and five biggest

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00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 1: predictions I was wrong about. That's coming out on Friday,

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00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: and then Saturday night Live on YouTube after the final

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00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 1: buzzer of thunder Spurs, I will see you guys that