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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 Monday, everybody. We are live on AMPS.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or listening on

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Speaker 1: the podcast feeds that AMP is the very first place

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Speaker 1: that you guys can get these shows. Round two coverage

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Speaker 1: of the NBA Playoffs here at Hoops Tonight is brought

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Speaker 1: to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back?

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Speaker 1: All right? So we are going to be hitting on

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Speaker 1: a bloodbath of a series. I know who would have

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Speaker 1: seen that coming between the Nuggets and the Suns in

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Speaker 1: a big, a little bit of a predicament that the

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Speaker 1: Sons are finding themselves in down two to oh. And

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Speaker 1: then James Harden puts the latest chapter in his revenge campaign,

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Speaker 1: a forty five point destruction of the Boston Celtics in

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Speaker 1: Boston without Joel Embiid as Boston tricks off yet another

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Speaker 1: game with late game execution. Lots of stuff to get into,

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

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Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more

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Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason

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Speaker 1: LT and if for whatever reason, you guys miss one

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Speaker 1: of these shows and you can't get back over to

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Speaker 1: YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever

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

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Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So you know, when the Lakers were

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Speaker 1: engaged in a couple of nasty games, I should say,

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Speaker 1: a nasty game with the Minnesota Timberwolves and then this

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Speaker 1: nasty series with the Memphis Grizzlies. There were a lot

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Speaker 1: of people that were saying things like, hey, those two

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Speaker 1: teams are terrible. Both of them can't score. Look at them.

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Speaker 1: They they're not as good as these other teams that

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Speaker 1: are playing in these free flowing series. And one of

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Speaker 1: the things I said during that series is rock fights

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Speaker 1: are a natural part of the NBA playoffs. Nobody is

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Speaker 1: immune to them. You guys might remember in the twenty

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Speaker 1: sixteen NBA Finals a certain very famous Game seven between

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Speaker 1: the Cavs and the Warriors. The Warrior scored eighty nine

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Speaker 1: points in a game despite being one of the highest

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Speaker 1: powered offenses in the league that year. The truth of

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Speaker 1: the matter is, no matter what type of team you are,

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Speaker 1: as soon as the game takes a certain type of energy,

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Speaker 1: whether that's a physical game, where the refs are allowing

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Speaker 1: a lot of contact to go where suddenly your skill

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Speaker 1: shots stopped working. It devolves into this uber physical lots

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Speaker 1: of uncalled fouls. No one can make a damn shot,

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Speaker 1: even guys that you expect to make shots and shots

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Speaker 1: that they've made their entire career suddenly don't go in

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Speaker 1: Nobody is immune. Now when you see two unbelievable defensive teams,

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Speaker 1: every game is gonna be like that. That's what Lakers

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Speaker 1: Grizzlies was right. This series, there's a lot more offensive

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Speaker 1: skill and there's a lot of guys on the floor

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Speaker 1: that have known to take some defensive possessions off for

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Speaker 1: the sake of kind of saving their legs for the

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Speaker 1: offensive ends. So this series will have more free flowing games,

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Speaker 1: and I will not be surprised if one of the

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Speaker 1: two games in Phoenix ends up being a higher scoring affair,

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Speaker 1: as a game takes on that certain type of feel.

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Speaker 1: But no matter what, this type of game is the

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Speaker 1: type of game that can happen a lot in the

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Speaker 1: NBA playoffs, and more and more the further you get along,

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Speaker 1: as you run into better and better defenses that are

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Speaker 1: playing with more and more physicality, and intensity, and the

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Speaker 1: refs are letting more and more go. And that's where

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Speaker 1: I think the Suns are in some trouble because one

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Speaker 1: of the things that I've said consistently is that when

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Speaker 1: you rely on pull up jump shooting as your primary

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Speaker 1: form of offense, you have the potential to go cold.

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Speaker 1: There is variance in pull up jump shooting. And here's

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Speaker 1: the problem. This series has been so physical, at least

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Speaker 1: on the Phoenix side of things, that we are two

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Speaker 1: games in now when they're not making their pull up

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Speaker 1: jump shots, not nearly at the rate that they normally do.

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Speaker 1: Devin Booker had a better shooting night tonight, but KD

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Speaker 1: was way off. KD had a better shooting night. He

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Speaker 1: shot forty percent on pull up jumpers in game one,

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Speaker 1: but Devin Booker was way off. And here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Pull up jump shots they look like these skilled type

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Speaker 1: of shots, and they are, but they're massive athleticism play.

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Speaker 1: If i am dribbling over the top of a screen

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Speaker 1: and I've got a player coming behind me to apply

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Speaker 1: back pressure, and I need to elevate over a rint

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Speaker 1: protector that's coming up to contest, I need to get

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Speaker 1: a ton of lift on those shots. Devin Booker and

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant in particular pride themselves at for the way

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Speaker 1: that they practice these shots at game speed, but they're

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Speaker 1: used to playing a certain type of effort defensively, and

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Speaker 1: in game one they weren't able to match that. The

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Speaker 1: Suns came with a much better defensive effort. In game two,

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Speaker 1: I thought Devin Booker and Chris and Kevin Durant in

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Speaker 1: particular were f criminal on the defensive end of the floor,

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Speaker 1: But that takes effort. That effort drains your legs, and

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Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor, when you need

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Speaker 1: to get that lift into that tough pull up jumper,

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Speaker 1: all of the timing is off. You're not getting as

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Speaker 1: much lift, so you've got to compensate with more in

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Speaker 1: your release. When you're putting more into your release, the

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Speaker 1: entire calibration of the thing is off. I saw Devin

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Speaker 1: Booker pull up a transition three in the first quarter

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Speaker 1: that went three feet over the rim and karened off

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Speaker 1: the backboard. He was wide open. I watched Chris Paul

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Speaker 1: I believe it was in the second quarter, come over

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Speaker 1: a ball screen get tons of separation by the right elbow,

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Speaker 1: elevate nice and high and shot it a foot and

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Speaker 1: a half over the back of the rim, a shot

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Speaker 1: he's been making his entire career. Pull up jump shooting

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Speaker 1: requires a great deal of conditioning and lyft, and when

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Speaker 1: you play in these super physical games, it's harder to

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Speaker 1: get that lift. Nikola Jokic made seventeen field goals in

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Speaker 1: this game. Fourteen of them were in the paint. Go

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Speaker 1: on your ESPN app or something where you've got a

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Speaker 1: shot chart and look up Nikola Jokic's shot chart. Look

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Speaker 1: at where all those field goal attempts are In a

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Speaker 1: game like this that devolved down into a rock fight,

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Speaker 1: where Jamal Murray can't make a shot, Kevin Durant can't

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Speaker 1: make a shot, nobody on the floor can make the

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Speaker 1: normal pull up jump shots that they make. Who suddenly

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Speaker 1: became the best player on the floor Nikola Jokic In

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Speaker 1: Game four of that Lakers Grizzly series, when Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: couldn't make a shot and Desmond Bayning got cold and

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Speaker 1: John Rant couldn't make a shot, and no one and

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Speaker 1: Dangela Russell and Austin Reeves cooled off, Who is the

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Speaker 1: one guy who suddenly was able to score. It was

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Speaker 1: Lebron James. That's why I look beyond you know what,

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Speaker 1: Like there's a culture in basketball these days that focuses

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Speaker 1: on the bag, so to speak, and the skill set

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Speaker 1: and that stuff. Not only is it monumentally important, it's

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite parts of the game, building out

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Speaker 1: your skill set, building out all of that dribble package,

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Speaker 1: going every direction, shooting off of any footwork, fading over

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Speaker 1: both shoulders, step backs, you know, side steps, all the

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Speaker 1: little floaters and pop shots in the lane. They're all

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Speaker 1: incredibly important. But at the end of the day, basketball

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Speaker 1: is a contact sport. And as we go back, look

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Speaker 1: at who ends up winning finals MVP every year, Right,

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Speaker 1: Like Steph Curry is a finesse player that's kind of

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Speaker 1: an outlier, right, But the year before that it's Giannis,

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Speaker 1: like a dude who thrives in rock fights. The year

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Speaker 1: before that, it's Lebron James, a dude who thrives in

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Speaker 1: rock fights. The year before that it's Kawhi Leonard, the

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Speaker 1: biggest strongest wing in the on the planet, not named

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Speaker 1: Lebron James. These kinds of guys thrive in this environment

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Speaker 1: because it from the beautiful form of basketball into a

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Speaker 1: different type of beauty, a competitive beauty that is the physical, knockdown,

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Speaker 1: drag out fight. I thought that you saw an adjustment

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Speaker 1: that we talked about in our series preview. I told

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Speaker 1: you guys that I wouldn't be surprised if the Nuggets

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Speaker 1: ended up putting Nikola Yokic on Josha Kogi at the

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Speaker 1: end of the games. And they ended up doing that tonight,

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Speaker 1: bogged down the Sun's offense. I think at one point

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Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter they were four for twenty from

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Speaker 1: the field. And I mean, this is the most concerning part.

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Speaker 1: Like Chris Paul being out's a big deal. It's my

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Speaker 1: father in law's birthday, and we were watching the game

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Speaker 1: together tonight to celebrate and and he goes like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I think they're better without Chris Paul, And I was

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Speaker 1: disagreeing with him because I said, yeah, I know, Chris

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Speaker 1: Paul is not having the same type of season that

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Speaker 1: you expect from a player of his caliber with his resume.

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Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is it goes beyond

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Speaker 1: that off of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. When they

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Speaker 1: are applying that much pressure on those guys Chris Paul

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Speaker 1: is a connective piece. If Kd's gonna hit Joshakog on

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Speaker 1: a roll because Nikola Jokic is ignoring him, they're starting

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Speaker 1: a four on three. And if that four on three

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Speaker 1: is Chris Paul with Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton and someone

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Speaker 1: like you know, Joshakog or Tory Craig, you might be okay.

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Speaker 1: Or Damian Lee, you might be okay. But subout Chris Paul,

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Speaker 1: an extremely high IQ great ball handler that can at

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Speaker 1: least competently score on high quality shots, and you fill

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Speaker 1: that in with another end of the bench guy that's

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Speaker 1: a problem. Two guys on the consistently in the rotation

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Speaker 1: down the end of this game for Phoenix were guys

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Speaker 1: that would not make an NBA rotation anywhere else in

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Speaker 1: this playoff field. I told you guys before this playoff

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Speaker 1: run that I still believe Phoenix can win a title

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Speaker 1: this year, but it's next year that I'll be most

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Speaker 1: worried about them, because they'll be able to supplement this

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Speaker 1: with more NBA level talent. They're going to be able

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Speaker 1: to bring in players that can do these jobs a

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Speaker 1: little bit better. And this series is not over. But

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Speaker 1: this is what I notice so far. Phoenix has to

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Speaker 1: play their stars huge minutes to have any chance, and

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Speaker 1: one of them already broke down the Joshakog minutes. He's

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Speaker 1: been great on the defensive end of the floor. He

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Speaker 1: had a great night tonight defensively, but the dude just can't.

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Speaker 1: The dude's killing you on the offensive end. They have

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Speaker 1: no depth of offensive talent or that can play both

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Speaker 1: ends of the floor, and they rely entirely on pull

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Speaker 1: up jump shooting. Devin Booker can get to the rim.

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Speaker 1: He gets to the rim better than most players at

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Speaker 1: his position, but he's a finesse get to the rim guy.

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Speaker 1: He is a guy who beats you off the dribble

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Speaker 1: with side to side moves and gets to the rim

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Speaker 1: in a physical series where he's getting There were several

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Speaker 1: plays tonight where Devin Booker's getting downhill, dudes are grabbing

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Speaker 1: his arms. He's getting fouled, but every one's getting fouled.

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Speaker 1: He's not the only one. It's not getting called for.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, the massive human beings on the

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Speaker 1: floor suddenly become the most valuable now. Kevin Durant missed

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Speaker 1: a lot of shots he normally takes and that dude

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Speaker 1: normally makes, I should say, and that dude has had

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Speaker 1: a lot of games in his career, big playoff games

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Speaker 1: under hugely physical environments where he's been great. He's like

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry, one of those guys that's somewhat immune to

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Speaker 1: that stuff. But again, he doesn't get to the rim.

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Speaker 1: It's all pull up jump shooting. So they will go

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Speaker 1: as pull up jump shooting goes. And if Kevin like

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Speaker 1: this is what happened against against Boston last year, he

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Speaker 1: wasn't making him in game one, and then he wasn't

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Speaker 1: making him in Game two, and you keep telling yourself like,

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Speaker 1: maybe they'll go in, but then he doesn't make him

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Speaker 1: in Game three, and then he makes some of them

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Speaker 1: in Game four, but it's not enough. And here we

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Speaker 1: are two games and that problem is at the surface again.

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Speaker 1: I believe Kevin Durant will get going in Game three,

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Speaker 1: in Game four in Phoenix, and I believe he will

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Speaker 1: have an imprint on this series. I refuse to believe

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Speaker 1: that KD will go out like he did last year.

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Speaker 1: I think too highly of him as a basketball player,

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Speaker 1: but as a team, that's what KD and Devin Booker

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Speaker 1: rely on and it's a problem. And Chris Paul's out.

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Speaker 1: So your aggregate ball handling and shooting has now fallen off.

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Speaker 1: And Denver looks like they're in great shape because they

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Speaker 1: lost it. They won a game where nobody else could

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Speaker 1: make a damn shot. I do want to give them

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Speaker 1: a bunch of credit. The defensive effort was insane tonight.

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Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon was amazing, Bruce Brown was amazing. I thought

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray did an excellent job on the defensive end

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Speaker 1: to compensate for some of the issues he was having

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Speaker 1: on offense. Nikola Jokis did a nice job just playing

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Speaker 1: center field on everything. Denver deserves a ton of credit.

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Speaker 1: Phoenix is in some trouble, man. I it just doesn't

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Speaker 1: They're not getting anything easy. There's no bread and butter

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Speaker 1: that they're getting that You're like, oh, we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: this eight out of ten possessions here in a big game,

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Speaker 1: five down down the stretch, and that concerns me. They better.

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Speaker 1: They need to get a good boost from their home crowd,

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Speaker 1: and they need to and they need they're going to

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Speaker 1: need Chris Paul to come back. All right, let's move

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Speaker 1: on to that. Like what I think was one of

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Speaker 1: the wildest and most embarrassing playoff losses that I can

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Speaker 1: remember seeing. This is a Boston Celtics team, by the way,

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Speaker 1: that wasn't overly impressive in the first round that pretty

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Speaker 1: much ever since the loss to Golden State about midway

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Speaker 1: through the season, wasn't the same type of dominant squad

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Speaker 1: that they were earlier in the season. Ended up losing

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Speaker 1: that one seed that they you know, that I believe

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Speaker 1: they needed. Of course they got bailed out by that

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Speaker 1: from that by the Milwaukee early exit. But this team

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Speaker 1: is just they've been getting buy morel on reputation as

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Speaker 1: of late, and a lot of the same ugly things

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Speaker 1: that you would expect that we've grown to expect from

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Speaker 1: Boston in certain situations came to the surface again in

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Speaker 1: this one. Joe Missoula, for whatever reason, as this game

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Speaker 1: denigrated into a five out contest again, take Joel Embiat out.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly you've got James Harden, Tyree Smaxy right, two good guards.

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Speaker 1: You've got Tobias Harris, who was amazing defensively in this game,

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Speaker 1: but as a guy who can make some plays off

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Speaker 1: the bounce, had a big driving layup on Al Horford

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Speaker 1: at the end. But then you've got two non factors

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Speaker 1: offensively on the floor at all given at any given moment,

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Speaker 1: whether it was you know, PJ. Tucker and Jaden McDaniel

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Speaker 1: or Jalen McDaniels or PJ. Tucker and Paul Reid, there's

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Speaker 1: no non threats on the floor at any given moment

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Speaker 1: versus a five out lineup in Boston. That was what

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Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden, Marcus Smart, Jason and Jalen and Al Horford,

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Speaker 1: every single one of them is an offensive threat. And look,

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Speaker 1: I was disappointed in Joe Miszula tactically for not getting

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Speaker 1: the ball out of James Harden's hands when there were

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Speaker 1: two non scorers on the floor. But let's forget about

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Speaker 1: that for a second and just look at the simple

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Speaker 1: fact that even if they're playing one on one all

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Speaker 1: game long, how in the world do you lose that matchup?

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Speaker 1: You've got about twice as much aggregate offensive skill and

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Speaker 1: about twice as much aggregate defensive talent in a five

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Speaker 1: out drive and kick contest. And I put most of

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Speaker 1: the blame on the defensive end of the floor. Like

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Speaker 1: I went back and I watched every single Boston Celtics'

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Speaker 1: offensive possession down the stretch. There were some bad ones

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Speaker 1: in there, Like, I don't know why you're posting up

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Speaker 1: Marcus Smart on the final possession. I don't really see

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Speaker 1: the point there. They were pretty late into the shot

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Speaker 1: clock to attack there there was and every time they

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Speaker 1: got into late shot clock situations, Doc Rivers did a

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Speaker 1: nice job of sending doubles. Bosson was really trying to

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Speaker 1: attack Tyrese Maxey. And there were a couple tricky things

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Speaker 1: in there, right, Like they've one time Jason Tatum got

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Speaker 1: switched on Tyrese Maxey and then like dribbled the clock out,

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Speaker 1: and then James Harden was able to double and there

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Speaker 1: wasn't enough time on the clock, so they ended up

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Speaker 1: throwing up. He ended up thrown up a crazy fade away.

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Speaker 1: There's another play Marcus Smart gets Tyrese Maxey switched on

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Speaker 1: to him, gets the switch he wants, and then passes

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Speaker 1: out of it to Jaylen Brown who ends up like

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Speaker 1: driving on on on somebody out of the corner. I

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Speaker 1: think it was off of PJ. Tucker. So that like,

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Speaker 1: there was some bad execution in there, but they got

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Speaker 1: a lot of good looks. Malcolm Brogden shot a wide

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Speaker 1: open three that he missed down the stretch. Al Horford

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Speaker 1: had a wide open three in the left corner that

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Speaker 1: he missed. Malcolm Brogden had a wide open, wonderable pull

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Speaker 1: up that he missed coming out of the left corner.

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Speaker 1: There was a play where, uh, there was a play

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Speaker 1: where Jason Tatum may or may now have gotten fouled

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Speaker 1: on a chaotic sequence where he's right at the rim.

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Speaker 1: There there was some bad had luck in there. But

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Speaker 1: how in the world were you allowing James Harden to

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Speaker 1: work in single coverage? Every other team that we've seen

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Speaker 1: it's like, oh, we're gonna ignore Josha Kogi and have

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Speaker 1: Nikolay Yokiz just double team or come way up high

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Speaker 1: and and and bother everything in Phoenix's pick and roll action.

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Speaker 1: Oh you know Jared Vanderbilts out there, We're just gonna

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Speaker 1: have Jared Jackson just ignore him and and just double

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Speaker 1: every single time. Like, how is it that you're letting

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Speaker 1: James Harden just get to his step back and not

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Speaker 1: either doubling him on these ball screens, telling Al Horford

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Speaker 1: and these other guys like push up on him if

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Speaker 1: he drives by you, we have help. We don't have

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Speaker 1: to guard two of these guys. I just thought it

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Speaker 1: was such a bizarre game. It was such a bizarre game,

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Speaker 1: and I want to give James Harden credity. He made

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Speaker 1: the shots and like the last shot he hit that

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Speaker 1: that step back three over over al Horford. Like, that's

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Speaker 1: a tough shot, that's defended perfectly well, but you gave

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Speaker 1: James Harden the chance for his elite shot making to

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Speaker 1: carry you over the top if you press him and

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Speaker 1: force him to drive there. He's driving into all this help,

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Speaker 1: the help that's there because you don't have to guard

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Speaker 1: two of the guys. There was a play. Do you

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Speaker 1: guys remember that Tobias Harris three at the top of

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Speaker 1: the key. That was literally, I want to say it

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Speaker 1: was Tatum in Horford in a Harris hardened screen. That's

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Speaker 1: gotta be a switch. That's gotta be a switch. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they ran a drop Tatum chasing over the top as

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Speaker 1: as Harden's driving left. Just bit what is the number

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Speaker 1: one thing you can use to beat a drop? Coverage?

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Speaker 1: A pick and pop with a real shooter just throws

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Speaker 1: it back to Tobias Harris. He's wide open at the

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Speaker 1: top of the key. Basically, Joe Mizoula and the Celtics

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Speaker 1: allowed James Harden to play pick up basketball like he

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Speaker 1: was at the YMCA down the stretch of this game,

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Speaker 1: while on the other end of the floor, it was

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Speaker 1: timely doubles, it was chaotic rotations, it was frenetic effort,

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Speaker 1: and Philly just outplayed them on both ends of the floor.

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Speaker 1: And James Harden just outfit those dudes in Boston. And again, like,

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Speaker 1: here's the deal. My guess is that Joel Embiid sits

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Speaker 1: out Game two as well since they got their split,

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Speaker 1: try to buy him some rest. I think there's a

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Speaker 1: hefty chunk of days off in there somewhere too, if

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Speaker 1: I remember correctly. With the schedule, Bostin's gonna beat the

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Speaker 1: shit out of them in game two. I like, they're

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Speaker 1: just better again, Like, look at those lineups I told

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Speaker 1: you about. How does Paul Reed and PJ. Tucker with

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Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, Tyres, Max and James Harden soundly outplay Jalen

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Speaker 1: and Jason with Malcolm Brogden, Marcus Martin al Horford. That

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Speaker 1: should never happen. They are twice as talented on both

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Speaker 1: ends of the floor. They should dominate Game two. But

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Speaker 1: what happened in this game is everything that's so discouraging

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Speaker 1: about this Celtics team, playing down to the competition, not

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Speaker 1: recognizing the opportunity that they have. Milwaukee just lost to Miami.

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Speaker 1: You were gonna play the winner of Nick's Heat. You

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Speaker 1: were gonna be a monster favorite in that series. There

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Speaker 1: are four teams in the Western Conference that are going

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Speaker 1: to murder each other Lebron and Draymond and Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: and Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry. They're gonna beat the

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Speaker 1: shit out of each other for six or seven games.

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Speaker 1: You literally are watching the Nuggets and Sons doing it

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Speaker 1: to each other. Then the winner of those two serieses

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Speaker 1: are gonna do it to each other. Beat the Sixers

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Speaker 1: without Embiid, go beat the Heat or the Knicks and

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Speaker 1: get like this is parting like the Red Sea for

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Speaker 1: you to win the NBA Championship, and you were going

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Speaker 1: out there and getting out played by James Harden in

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Speaker 1: a phase of his career where he has no business

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Speaker 1: doing that to you. I easily one of the worst

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Speaker 1: playoff losses I've ever seen. I can't I can't even

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Speaker 1: believe it. That's all we have for tonight. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: come back to tomorrow night breaking down Game one of

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Speaker 1: the Warriors and Celtics series and excuse me, Warriors Lakers,

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Speaker 1: and then I believe that's Nick's Heat Game two. And

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Speaker 1: then Wednesday morning, we're gonna be doing a show with

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Speaker 1: the Nerd Sash guys, the New guys, welcome to the volume.

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Speaker 1: Those of you guys who remember Carson from our shows

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Speaker 1: that we did, We're gonna be doing a show with

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Speaker 1: them on Wednesday, and we'll dive back into both of

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Speaker 1: these serieses. At that point, I'm gonna watch some tape,

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Speaker 1: try to learn a little bit more about how these

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Speaker 1: series are going the way that they're going. But man,

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Speaker 1: another bizarre night in the NBA playoffs. All right, guys,

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Speaker 1: that is all I have. I'll see you tomorrow. Even

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Speaker 1: the volume