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Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at

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Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you

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Speaker 1: guys are having a great weekend. Round one NBA Playoff

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Speaker 1: coverage on Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase

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Speaker 1: Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? We had a

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Speaker 1: jam packed, highly entertaining day of Playoff hoops. I was

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Speaker 1: traveling out of the country. My wife is turning thirty

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Speaker 1: this week and our favorite thing to do is ski,

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Speaker 1: So we're celebrating with a ski trip up in Whistler

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Speaker 1: that I'm very, very excited about. But so I apologize

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Speaker 1: that you guys had to wait a little bit longer.

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Speaker 1: But I'm recording after two thirty am here in Vancouver

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Speaker 1: so that our staff can get it up for you

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Speaker 1: guys bright and early tomorrow morning. We're just gonna focus

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Speaker 1: on Warriors Kings tonight and Nicks Caves. The Celtics and

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Speaker 1: Sixers also notched very impressive wins, but just for the

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Speaker 1: sake of the situation that I just laid out, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna hit them a little bit later on in this week,

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Speaker 1: so you guys know the drill before we get started.

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Speaker 1: To subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss

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Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements.

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Speaker 1: And if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of

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Speaker 1: these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube

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Speaker 1: to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk

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Speaker 1: some basketball. So it's so funny when you start watching

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Speaker 1: a playoff series, you could start to see these little

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Speaker 1: matchup things start to play out, and you can tell

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Speaker 1: that's gonna be the story of the series. And it's

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Speaker 1: clear to me already through one game that the story

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Speaker 1: of the series on the Warrior side of things is

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Speaker 1: going to be can they contain Dear and Fox and

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Speaker 1: Malik monk Off? The dribble was the vast majority of

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Speaker 1: their defensive breakdowns tonight was just dribble penetration, and that's

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Speaker 1: going to be a battle that they're going to have

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Speaker 1: to figure out. And then on the other side of things,

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Speaker 1: on the King side, where they particularly struggled, they defended

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Speaker 1: the three point line really well, and they forced the

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Speaker 1: Warriors into a lot of tough shots. There was some

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Speaker 1: impressive shot making from Stephan Clay and we'll get a

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Speaker 1: little bit deeper into that, but they didn't defend the

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Speaker 1: rim well. As a matter of fact, the Warriors shot

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Speaker 1: sixty eight percent on twos in this game. So if

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Speaker 1: the Warriors adjust their shot selection and start to play

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Speaker 1: more Warriors basketball and get more aggressive to try to

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Speaker 1: generate rim pressure, they could be in some problem, in

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Speaker 1: some trouble. So those are going to be the two

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Speaker 1: major matchups that we're going to be looking at. Looking

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Speaker 1: at the perimeter defense element, we talked about this a

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Speaker 1: lot on this show, but I look at perimeter defense

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Speaker 1: like the offensive line defensive line dynamic in the NFL,

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Speaker 1: that push and pull ends up kind of going on

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Speaker 1: underneath the radar a lot of the times because we

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Speaker 1: focus on skill players. It's just the natural inclination we

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Speaker 1: have as fans to focus on the more exciting things

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Speaker 1: that are happening. But the reality is is whether or

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Speaker 1: not you, you know, get a good push up front

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Speaker 1: when you're trying to run the ball is going to

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Speaker 1: make a lot bigger difference than anything involving the running

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Speaker 1: back correct and whether or not you can protect the

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Speaker 1: quarterback usually is going to go a long way towards

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Speaker 1: giving your quarterback time to make reads and make the

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Speaker 1: right reads and move the ball down the field through

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Speaker 1: the air right. So you just absolutely have to have

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Speaker 1: quality line play. And the same concept takes place in basketball.

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Speaker 1: I don't care how well you communicate, I don't care

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Speaker 1: how well you rotate. I don't care how athletic you are.

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Speaker 1: If you're constantly in rotation, you will severely struggle to

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Speaker 1: get stops as opposed to if you can flatten out

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Speaker 1: drives and force guys to you know, it kind of

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Speaker 1: goes even further to the way that your help defenders operate.

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Speaker 1: If your help defender can just kind of sort of

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Speaker 1: dig at the basketball but stay with his man as

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Speaker 1: opposed to having the outright leave his man to hard help,

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Speaker 1: that is makes a world of difference to you know,

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Speaker 1: whether or not got in passing lanes, whether or not

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Speaker 1: you can force turnovers as opposed to a wide open

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Speaker 1: shooter standing on the perimeter. That push pull dynamic of

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Speaker 1: perimeter defense means everything. Now, the encouraging part from the

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Speaker 1: Warriors standpoint is, I do think they have the personnel

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Speaker 1: to do so. Some of their problems they had down

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Speaker 1: the stretch of this game was you know, getting beat

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Speaker 1: and transition and leading to cross matches, or they spend

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Speaker 1: a good amount of the time with Klay Thompson on

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Speaker 1: Deer and Fox at the end of that game. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure if that's a matchup they'll be able to

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Speaker 1: stick with through the whole series. They might have to

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Speaker 1: try to keep Gary Payton on the floor longer, or

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Speaker 1: you know, but here's the problem, Like even Andrew Wiggins

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Speaker 1: was struggling a bit with containing Maleak monk Off the dribble,

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Speaker 1: so you know, and again like obviously he hasn't played

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Speaker 1: a lot lately, so conditioning can play a role in that.

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Speaker 1: Defensive rhythm can play a role in that. But it

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Speaker 1: is what it is. And by the time this series

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Speaker 1: is over, if the Warriors are going to advance, they're

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Speaker 1: eventually going to have to figure out how to contain

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Speaker 1: Deer and Fox and Malik monk Off the dribble. This

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Speaker 1: is a consistent kind of like theme that you see

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Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs. We're going to talk about it

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Speaker 1: a little bit more with the Nixon Cavs here in

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Speaker 1: a minute, involving Cheddy Ousman and their decision to play

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Speaker 1: him over Isaac Cacorro down the stretch, and the way

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Speaker 1: that opened up a matchup for Jalen Brunson to attack.

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Speaker 1: They were attacking Clay at the end of this game. Now,

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Speaker 1: I want to give Clay the benefit of the doubt.

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Speaker 1: This is a one game sample, and we can even

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Speaker 1: look back to the NBA Finals last year, and if

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Speaker 1: you watch the film of the first three games of

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Speaker 1: that series versus the last three games of that series,

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Speaker 1: and you look at the difference in the way that

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Speaker 1: guys like Klay Thompson were defending guys like Andrew Wiggins,

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Speaker 1: guys like Gary Payton, and then you look at the

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Speaker 1: second half of that series and how they just locked

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Speaker 1: everybody down. One of the most underrated plot lines of

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Speaker 1: that NBA Finals series was Klay Thompson locked down Jaln

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Speaker 1: Brown down the stretch of that series. And so that

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Speaker 1: battle is something that can win in the long run.

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Speaker 1: They just have to do a better job. It's less

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Speaker 1: about schematics. I mean, maybe Steve Kerr has to get

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Speaker 1: involved if you get deeper into this series and consistent

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Speaker 1: matchups are getting beat But a lot of times it's

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Speaker 1: just do better. You know, Clay's got to slide his

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Speaker 1: feet better. Guy's got to get back and transition better

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Speaker 1: on the offensive end for the Warriors, you know, and

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Speaker 1: I want to credit the King is a great deal

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Speaker 1: here because again, when you are in a drop coverage,

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Speaker 1: which is the vast majority of what you're going to

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Speaker 1: see in situations where Sabonis is involved in a screening action,

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Speaker 1: right and it's technically not a drop coverage because he's

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Speaker 1: coming up high out of his drop, but the semantics

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Speaker 1: are unimportant. Whoever's guarding the screen or whether he's up

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Speaker 1: at the level of the screen or he's back. Sabonis

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Speaker 1: is just not bothering a lot as as shooters are

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Speaker 1: coming up over the top. You saw Steph Curry hit

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Speaker 1: a few shots in his face as he was coming

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Speaker 1: over the drop coverage in the fourth quarter. But the

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Speaker 1: guard has a very important job there. His job is

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Speaker 1: to provide what's called a rear view contest, or to

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Speaker 1: provide back pressure, whatever you want to call it. He's

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Speaker 1: got to chase over the top. And there was a

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Speaker 1: little stretch there in that fourth quarter where Stephan Clay

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Speaker 1: got obscenely hot and they made some incredibly difficult shots.

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Speaker 1: I think the three that Steph him hit in the

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Speaker 1: corner on that like one timer catch and release from

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Speaker 1: behind the backboard that was ridiculous. There was that crazy

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Speaker 1: step back he hit on deer and Fox with like

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Speaker 1: a minute and a half left that got it back

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Speaker 1: within one. That was ridiculous. They hit some tough shots,

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Speaker 1: Klay Thompson hit a couple of tough ones, but surrounding

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Speaker 1: that were some ones that they missed. And again this

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Speaker 1: is where you have to separate process from results. I'll

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Speaker 1: give you an example. Towards the end of the game,

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Speaker 1: there was a play where Andrew Wiggins with one. It

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Speaker 1: was that final possession with like twenty something seconds left,

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Speaker 1: Warriors are down one, and the Warriors actually get downhill

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Speaker 1: and create triple penetration, get a paint touch, and they

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Speaker 1: kick to Andrew Wiggins in the weak side corner and

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Speaker 1: he misses the shot. And I get it, like Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry's hot, You're thinking, get the ball to Steph. But

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Speaker 1: that's a great shot for a good shooter, right. Whereas

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Speaker 1: even the ones that Stephan Clay were making in that

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, if you asked them, they'd probably say, you know,

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Speaker 1: those are tougher shots in our shot diet shots that

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Speaker 1: were capable of making, but ideally we'd want to get

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Speaker 1: something better. I felt like Steph and Clay were playing

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Speaker 1: a little bit of home run ball there in that

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and again like that's where you have to

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Speaker 1: separate process and results. They made a few of those,

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Speaker 1: but then they kept trying to do that and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't working right and there was no rhythm in flow

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Speaker 1: on their offense. And then they did finally generate a

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Speaker 1: wide open shot for Wiggins and he missed it. So

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Speaker 1: I do believe that over the course of the series,

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Speaker 1: the pathway to victory for the Warriors is figuring out

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Speaker 1: how to contain the basketball on the defensive end of

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Speaker 1: the floor and then improving their offensive process. Don't play

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Speaker 1: home run ball. The Kings are defending the three point

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Speaker 1: line really well. The pain opportunities are there. They can't

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Speaker 1: protect the rim. That's your opportunity to attack finish at

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Speaker 1: the rim when you have the opportunity to and generate

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Speaker 1: higher quality three point shots on the perimeter that are

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Speaker 1: off the catch or your stand still facing the rim,

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Speaker 1: either wide open or a close out coming that you

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Speaker 1: can attack right like shot quality is going to bear

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Speaker 1: out over a seven game series. In a one game

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Speaker 1: sample size, anything can happen. There was a really tough

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Speaker 1: shot that Harrison Barnes hit down the stretch of that game,

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Speaker 1: like a poundryable step back, pull up three, really tough

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Speaker 1: shot tip the cap. One game sample that like that

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Speaker 1: can happen. But if you don't solve the shot the

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Speaker 1: shot quality dynamic, then over seven games, that's not going

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Speaker 1: to work out in your favor. I just rewatched I've

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Speaker 1: watched the fourth quarter of King's Warriors at a at

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Speaker 1: a bar in Los Angele, at an airport bar in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles while we were waiting for our flight, and

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Speaker 1: I rewatched it just now and just kind of looked

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Speaker 1: at all the offensive possessions there in that fourth quarter,

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Speaker 1: and like, look at the King shots, Like there's there

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Speaker 1: were a couple tough ones in there, right, Like the

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Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes one was tough. That there was a step

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Speaker 1: back from darreon Fox over Draymond Green. That was tough.

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Speaker 1: But outside of that, it's a lot of like darreon

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Speaker 1: Fox getting tons of separation into a floater, getting all

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Speaker 1: the way the ram, trying to dunk on people Malik

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Speaker 1: Monk getting into the lane and drawing fouls and get

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Speaker 1: into the rim and transition just beaten guys off the

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Speaker 1: dribble and getting incredibly high quality shots. The two threes

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Speaker 1: that Darren Fox hitt in the fourth quarter, Like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's not the same type of shooter as Steph Curry,

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Speaker 1: but he's pretty damn open. Those are good looks for

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Speaker 1: a guy who's having a really good shooting season and

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Speaker 1: has been one of the best players in the league

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Speaker 1: this year. So again, like the series won't flip until

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Speaker 1: they flip the shot quality dynamic. From the standpoint of

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Speaker 1: the Kings, I was just generally impressed with thereff. We

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Speaker 1: talked in our series preview about how they might need

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Speaker 1: to balance out the dynamic of shot creation versus defensive personnel.

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Speaker 1: We saw a lot of Davion Mitchell in this game.

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Speaker 1: He did a really nice job defending Jordan Poole. That's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a dynamic they're going to have to continue

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Speaker 1: to figure out over the course of the series, especially

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Speaker 1: since Malik Monk in particular can run a little bit

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Speaker 1: hot and cold, and there's no guarantee that he'll continue

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Speaker 1: to shoot that well throughout the series a lot of good.

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Speaker 1: If you're a Kings fan, your guards seem to be

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Speaker 1: defending well. Sabonus didn't play very well. You have to

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Speaker 1: think that he's gonna play better over the course of

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Speaker 1: the series. Malik Monk and his game translating to the playoffs,

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Speaker 1: lots and lots of good and a lot to be

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Speaker 1: excited about. If you're a Kings fan. That said, you

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Speaker 1: know the Warriors have a championship pedigree. I do believe

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Speaker 1: that they can improve some process things that will help them,

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Speaker 1: particularly on the offensive end of the floor, and then

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Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. Look like we

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Speaker 1: were looking after Game three against Boston, like they can't

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Speaker 1: guard these guys, and then you know what, suddenly they

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Speaker 1: guarded those guys. And I talked a lot about this before,

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Speaker 1: but when you stand eye to eye with a ball

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Speaker 1: handler and he starts to make moves on you, it

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Speaker 1: might work one time, it might work ten times. Once

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Speaker 1: it gets up to twenty thirty, forty times, you've seen

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Speaker 1: that same dribral combination, you've seen that same move, you've

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Speaker 1: seen that same body language. You start to solve the

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Speaker 1: offensive player. And that's where, over the course of a series, like,

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Speaker 1: only the truly great players continue to create advantages and

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Speaker 1: you hope that that starts to swing in your favor

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Speaker 1: in the long run. But big time win for the Kings.

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Speaker 1: Warriors are still in this That was an incredibly exciting

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Speaker 1: first game of that series, and I think we all

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Speaker 1: figured that that would be the most entertaining game in

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Speaker 1: the first round, and it definitely lived up to the hype.

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Speaker 1: But good start for the Kings. Warriors. Need to contain

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Speaker 1: the basketball better and stop going for home runs on offense.

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Speaker 1: Play some Warriors basketball. Let's move on to Knicks Calves.

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Speaker 1: So when I picked the Knicks to beat the Calves,

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Speaker 1: there were a couple of specific reasons that I was

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Speaker 1: looking at. One, I thought that Jalen Brunson would be

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Speaker 1: able to hold up well in the matchup with Donovan Mitchell,

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Speaker 1: primarily as a decision maker. Right. I thought that bared

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Speaker 1: out today. Donovan Mitchell had put on it, put on

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous show, just like the level of shot making

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Speaker 1: there was that wild stretch in the fourth quarter was

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Speaker 1: like steel buckets, steel bucket, steel bucket. Like Donovan Mitchell

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Speaker 1: is insane. But here's the problem. He can also kind

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Speaker 1: of go through these extended stretches where he just tries

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Speaker 1: to shoot himself out of every situation. Right, It's like

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Speaker 1: just that tiny bit of Westbrook that he has in him.

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Speaker 1: And I thought you saw that a little bit at

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Speaker 1: the end of the third quarter when the Knicks were

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Speaker 1: going on their run. And Jalen Brunson's he doesn't have

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Speaker 1: the athletic ceiling that Donovan Mitchell has. He doesn't have

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Speaker 1: the ability to get separation against superior athletes the way

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Speaker 1: that Donovan Mitchell does. But he's just a little bit

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Speaker 1: more measured in his approach. He's much more methodical, and

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Speaker 1: he's a better playmaker. And so, like I thought that

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Speaker 1: would just be able to bridge that gap. And you

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Speaker 1: know what, like Jalen Brunson had a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a rough night in the early portions of the game.

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Speaker 1: He was struggling a bit with Isaac Korro, and then

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Speaker 1: he kind of picked his spots right like right there

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Speaker 1: at the end of the third and then right there

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Speaker 1: at the end of the fourth quarter. He just knew

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Speaker 1: his time to get involved offensively. And like again, when

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Speaker 1: you spam high, pick and roll all game long the

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Speaker 1: way that Donovan Mitchell does, eventually, and again, what is this?

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Speaker 1: What did I say in the series preview? The Knicks

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Speaker 1: guards are the strength of their defense, and so if

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Speaker 1: the Knicks guards get an extra thirty forty reps guarding

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Speaker 1: this same high pick and roll offense that the Calves

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Speaker 1: run every single time, they're just going to figure out

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Speaker 1: how to get good contests on Donovan Mitchell. And I

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Speaker 1: don't care how talented he is, those pull up contested

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Speaker 1: jump shots are going to be missed more than half

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Speaker 1: of the time, which means you can go through cold spells,

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Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened, especially when they needed baskets

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Speaker 1: towards the end of the game. I thought one of

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Speaker 1: the most interesting matchup things in this series. I talked

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Speaker 1: a lot about this in the series preview again, was

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Speaker 1: can the Calves keep Isaac Corro on the floor when

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Speaker 1: he's clearly their best perimeter defender but he's one of

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Speaker 1: the worst spot up players in the league. I can't

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Speaker 1: remember the exact number off the top of my head,

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Speaker 1: but Isaac Coro is converting spot up possessions at an

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Speaker 1: extremely low rate, despite the fact that he's shooting the

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Speaker 1: three ball well. Although he did not shoot the ball

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Speaker 1: well in this particular game, and I said, Isaac Accorro

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Speaker 1: needs to shoot in the forties from three to keep

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Speaker 1: him on the floor for his defensive impact. They ended

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Speaker 1: up going with Cheddy Osman instead, and Jalen Brunson just

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Speaker 1: picked on him at the end of that game, getting

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Speaker 1: him on switches, beating him off the dribble for easy shots.

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Speaker 1: And again, that's the thing. Donovan Mitchell can make the

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Speaker 1: most amazing shots in the world because he's one of

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Speaker 1: the most gifted athletes in the world. He's one of

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Speaker 1: the best basketball players in the world. But he doesn't

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Speaker 1: have that methodical surgeon approach that Jalen Brunson has, where

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Speaker 1: he's just picking on your worst defender and getting easy shots.

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Speaker 1: And that's what separates him. And that's why I believe,

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Speaker 1: even though Donovan has that higher upside, that Jalen can

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Speaker 1: outplay him. In this series, you saw Julius Randall just

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Speaker 1: bring that different, like that versatility element that I talked

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Speaker 1: about all the time, winning the game with physicality. It's

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Speaker 1: clear that as talented as Evan Mobley is, he's just

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Speaker 1: a little too thin for Julius. He's struggling to contain him.

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Speaker 1: In box outs, he's struggling to stop him from getting

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Speaker 1: to his spots. That's not going to change over the

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Speaker 1: course of the series. In fact, that might get worse,

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Speaker 1: not only as Julius gets in better shape, but he's

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Speaker 1: the bigger, stronger player. He's not gonna wear down the

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Speaker 1: way that Evan Mobley does. You know, I said this

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Speaker 1: going into the series. The Knicks were what seventeenth in

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Speaker 1: defense during the regular season. But the thing I said was,

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Speaker 1: they defend the Calves well. And you know what, they

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Speaker 1: defended the Calves well again tonight. I would, honestly, I

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Speaker 1: would consider just going with Isaac Carro anyway, even if

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Speaker 1: he's not playing well enough offensively, embrace the rock fight

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Speaker 1: in general, they need to compete better physically. Like Mobiley

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Speaker 1: and Allen just got bullied on the front line. The

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Speaker 1: Knicks guards bullied the Calves guards to rebounding position as well.

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Speaker 1: The offensive glass was a huge factor in this game.

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Speaker 1: What did I say in the preview? I said Josh

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Speaker 1: Hart's winning impact would scream off of the screen. When

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Speaker 1: you watch that game today, did it feel like Josh

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Speaker 1: Hart's winning impact would scream off the screen? Again, It's

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Speaker 1: just one game. It's a long series. The Calves were

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Speaker 1: favored for a reason. They're a good team, they have

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Speaker 1: a lot of talent. They absolutely can come back and

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Speaker 1: win this thing. But the concerning thing for the Calves

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Speaker 1: is all of these specific matchup pieces that I saw

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Speaker 1: as advantages for the Knicks going into the series have

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Speaker 1: played out as advantages for the Knicks early in the series.

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Speaker 1: They have to find a way to flip that on

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Speaker 1: their head at find some diversity offensively, mix things up,

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Speaker 1: don't attack the same exact way every single time. You

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Speaker 1: have to play defensive personnel that can switch because Jalen

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Speaker 1: Brunson is going to attack you throughout the game. You

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Speaker 1: have to compete more in the physicality areas of the game.

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Speaker 1: They simply have to play better. I think that was

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Speaker 1: probably the most disappointing thing for the Cavs is they

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Speaker 1: would get some stops towards the end of the game

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Speaker 1: and then here would come another offensive rebound just to

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Speaker 1: suck the life out of their sales. But yeah, a

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Speaker 1: very entertaining first day. We will be going I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure if we're going live or covering the games just

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Speaker 1: through a video upload to YouTube that entirely depends on

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Speaker 1: my Wi Fi situation when we get to Whistler tomorrow,

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Speaker 1: but just keep an eye on my Twitter feed at

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Speaker 1: underscore json LT. That's where I'll kind of post show

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Speaker 1: announcements to keep you guys posted as to how everything's going.

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Speaker 1: I apologize again for the delay on this video, but hey,

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Speaker 1: it's a happy birthday President to my wife. I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you guys, and I will see you the volume