WEBVTT

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This is the downbeat on ninety seven
to one, the freak five four three

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two one. Level up, level
up up, leve level up, level

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up up up, leve it up. But this room just got a lot

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more handsome once we turned on the
big screen. That lord audio only please

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get to him in one second.
Uh, it's our our Kevin of the

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day, as Kevin Turner not with
us today. I've been tracking this flight

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it is. It was just five
minutes and now it's switched to arriving shortly

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our sweet Kevin Turner destination Barcelona.
He's going to be uh planes hitting the

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ground or I've just landed. He
just landed, land taxing to terminal one.

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All that conversation, all the concern
and sweet Cavio and Roxy just landed

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in the last one minute. I
didn't notice. This is a connector flight

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to get him to uh Milan.
Yeah, Barcelona to Milan. He's going

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to have to fly over yet another
body of water to complete Yeah, to

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complete his trip. It looks like
we might be toasted. Yeah we do.

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Have We replaced one Kevin with another. Stay tuned for tomorrow when we

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have former medieval warrior Kevin Sorbo.
Yeah. Joining us, Kevin Sorbow will

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join us, and fake Kevin Costner
is probably gonna call in early in the

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show too. But we're all good
today because we've got a good Kevin.

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It is our friend, Kevin Gray. He is the host of the MAVs

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Free and Postgame Show. Here on
ninety seven on The Freak, excuse'se a

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YouTube sensation? The guy ever?
I look, I see Kevin Gray covering

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something in this town, making quite
the name for him. Sophomore. Honored

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to have you with us on the
downbeat on ninety seven on the Freak.

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What's up baby? Good morning fellas. How are you We're doing good?

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Man? I'm glad we don't have
a camera in here because you are looking

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sharp? What are you doing with
Pepper? If I had hair? There's

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plenty of assualt represented these days.
Yeah, man, you want to have

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you on? I guess to talk
some MAVs and whatever else is on your

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mind. How you kind of cover
everything in this town? But we're going

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MAVs crazy. We're the home of
the Mavericks and you work with us here.

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I guess. First things first,
how do you like in a ninety

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seven to one man? You made
the jump, I was life treating you

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I did. I love it,
man. It's it's been a new way

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for me to be able to showcase
my broadcasting chops, if you will,

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and going through I was It's funny
you asked me that, because I was

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thinking about it the other day,
that the pace of an eighty two game

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season and going through that for the
very first time throughout the most of the

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regular season, you get an appreciation
for the preparation that goes into the daily

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work of you know, not only
the broadcasts themselves, but covering the team

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on a daily basis and being able
to put together, you know, a

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presentation that fans and you know,
folks who listen can enjoy, to be

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able to bring you know, some
flavors, some different things to you know,

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these broadcasts. So I've enjoyed myself. It's tapped into another creative side

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for me that didn't necessarily know,
you know, I thought I had,

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but I was able to really,
you know, dive into it and it's

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been great. So I'm really looking
forward to this postseason and really being able

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to have some more fun because this
MAVs team has given us a lot of

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things to have a lot of fun
with, So I'm excited about it.

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You know, we were talking earlier
about just the absolute vast skill set that

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voice of the Mavericks, Mark Followell
has and his ability to retain knowledge,

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to to remember data and information,
and I was curious, like for you,

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you know, obviously you were tuned
in and dialed in on any and

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all things MAVs related, But how
much time are you spending just absorbing and

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taking in information on the rest of
the NBA. How much time does that

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consume on your day to day just
to make sure that you are connected with

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this entire league, not just the
MAVs. If that is something which I

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assume that you're you're pretty locked in
on. Yeah, it's it's a full

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time job. I mean being able
to try to have a working knowledge of

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the rest of the other twenty nine
teams in the league. Obviously super heavy

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in terms of covering the Mavericks on
a daily basis, but I mean this

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team plays everyone else as well,
so you've got to be able to have,

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you know, a working knowledge and
understanding of what these other teams are

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doing as well. So, yeah, I'm constantly watching games or reading articles

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and that kind of thing. To
be able to keep myself locked in on

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what's going on outside of the Mavericks
so that, you know, it enhances

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what I do from a broadcast standpoint, and when these teams do see the

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Mavericks, be able to add that
much more depth and knowledge to what you

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know, these game previews look like
and everything else. So it's it's definitely

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a full time job, but at
the same time, it's something that I

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love to do. I tell people
all the time, these are the days

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that I pray for to be able
to be this kind of busy and doing

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this kind of work. And it
doesn't feel like work necessarily because I enjoy

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it so much because I get to
immerse myself in something that I love and

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enjoy, which is sports. So
it's it's a dream come true for sure.

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But yeah, the worl and the
grind that goes into it, you

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definitely have to be able to have
that kind of preparation and now is to

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be able to kind of go through
what these teams are doing on a daily

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base, but also be able to
connect it to what the Mavericks are obviously

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doing. All right, sorry buddy, Kevin Gray jumping in with us.

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I want to jump in a little
bit here, and I guess let's just

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start with the state of the Western
Conference as the playing games started last night.

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And this is something Danny and I
talked about earlier. It's like,

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for maybe a casual fan, what
is the state of the West, because

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we had like, you see the
Lakers win last night, like, all

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right, that's Lebron. Then you
see the Warriors you eliminated. I'm like,

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all right, that's good for us. You don't necessarily fear the even

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the thunder who's a damn number one
seed, or Minnesota Timbers, like these

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other teams that are making the jump
backed by incredibly high level, like MVP

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level stars like SGA and Anthony Edwards. And I just think it's built into

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us to think Lakers, Warriors,
even Nuggets. Fine, I'm scared of

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all them. But as we dream
about what the Mavericks postseason run could be,

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we got a lot of oddly oddly
hurdles in front of us that we

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haven't seen for the last few years. So, just even before we go

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to hardcore MAVs specific in the MAVs
Clippers series, what do you think about

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the West right now and the changing
landscape of it. Yeah, it's interesting

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because you know, you mentioned with
the Thunder, you know, with SGA

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for s Say, Gilgas Alexander,
you know, legitimate MVP candidate, the

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youngest team to ever get the number
one seed. They've been spectacular this year.

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Chet Holmgren's a Rookie of the Year
candidate. Victor Wimenyam obviously, I

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think is going to win the award
for what he put together in San Antonio.

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But I mean the Thunder have been
putting this thing together for the last

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couple of years and SGA was able
to supercharge it with how good he was,

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and now they're sitting there at the
number one seed in the West.

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And you know, with Minnesota and
Denver. Denver obviously the reigning NBA champs,

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Nicola Yoki is looking like he's gonna
win his third MVP in the last

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four years. He's got a great
duo with Jamal Murray, really good supporting

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cast obviously with you know, Michael
Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon and could tave

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his callwell, Pepe. They are
obviously the rainy chance for a reason.

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Minnesota is incredibly interesting because they play
really big with Karl Anthony Towns now that

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he's back, of course, and
Rudy Gobert, and you mentioned Anthony Edwards,

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who's turning into legitimately one of my
favorite players in the league. He's

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so athletic, he can get to
the rim, he can put the ball

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on the deck like he can do
pretty much everything, and he loves to

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defend. Which I love about him
is that he loves to defend on the

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other end. So they're a dangerous
team because of how big and how well

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defensively that they play. Obviously with
the Clippers, who haven't been able to

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fulfill the expectations of what they've put
together with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard over

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the years for you know, the
kind of playoff run that would have lead

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to an NBA championship. Now you
throw James Harden into the mix, Russell

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Westbrook as well, maybe this is
kind of it for them as far as

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this group is concerned on whether or
not they can you know, win a

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championship. They getting ready to move
into a new building, you know,

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next season. Obviously the Mavericks and
what they're doing. The Suns are an

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interesting team because they gone all in
with Kevin Durant Bradley Beal and of course

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Devin Booker there and they've got their
team for a while now because they can't

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really spend outside of what they've gotten. They did sign Grayson Allen to an

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extension, but that's just to keep
him obviously, you know, internally there.

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But yeah, the Suns with their
top three guys, they can score

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with anybody, but they've been terrible
in the fourth quarter. So how does

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that translate, you know, into
the postseason? And you mentioned the Lakers

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as well. The Lakers over the
last month or so have really kind of

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figured it out with Lebron and Anthony
Davis, who's been healthy relatively all year

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long, as well good role players
with Ruyatra Mora and Austin Reeves. Like,

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the West is incredibly deep and it's
as talented as it's ever been.

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All ten teams you know who made
the play in and playoffs finished you know,

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ten games or more above five hundred. The West was incredibly deep and

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difficult this year. So if you
get out of the West this season and

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represent the West in the NBA Finals, you have went through a gauntlet to

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get there because of how incredibly good
and talented and deep as conferences this year.

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But you're right, there's a lot
of incredible storylines going into these playoffs

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for sure. Okay, staying on
the West, Kevin, and this is

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a fascinating conversation to me, and
Mikey brought this up just moments ago,

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talking about maybe the passing of the
torch from the teams that we kind of

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think of as super relevant right now, But mainly it's based on reputation and

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old fears of these teams, namely
the Lakers the Warriors. Now you have

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these kind of mystery guests in Sacramento
in Oklahoma City, which brings me to

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this and we're gonna have to use
our imaginations here a little bit to answer

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this question, I think. But
the Mavericks have just been otherworldly since the

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trade. What do you think?
Where do you is it unrealistic to speculate

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that had the Mavericks started this eighty
two game season with the roster they have

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right now, having it figured out
the way they have it right now,

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is it unrealistic to think that they
could just as easily be the number one

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seed in the West had they had
everything in place from Game one. I

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don't think it's unrealistic. What's funny
about that is is I think people forget

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that the Mavericks started not in three
this season, Like through their first twelve

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games, they were pretty pretty dog
one good themselves with the version that they

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had after acquired you know, Grant
Williams and obviously with Darren Jones Junior dantexem

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as well. But you know,
they were pretty good through the first you

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know, twelve games of the season. You know, it got to a

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point where this team was only three
games above five hundred after forty nine games

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at twenty six and twenty three,
and we're looking around, like, is

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this really the group that can really
get them to where they want to go.

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And then, as you mentioned,
with the trades of PJ. Washington

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and Daniel Gaffer, they finally got
guys that fit what Jason Kidd wanted to

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do from especially a defensive standpoint.
With that LinkedIn that athleticism that they brought,

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and it really turned things around.
I mean, in the most meaningful

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games that they played when they were
just three games above five hundred at twenty

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six and twenty three, I mean
they won twenty four out of thirty one

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games to get to fifty and thirty
two. Of course, the last two

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games, you know, the starters
in deep preserves didn't play, so those

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games didn't obviously, you know,
matter, But that's how good this team

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was and that kind of pace that
they were were on. Yeah, it's

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not unrealistic to think that this group
would have been challenging for the number one

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seed potentially if this group had been
together. Obviously would take some time for

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them to gel and put things together
and learn how to play with one another.

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But no, I think that's I
think that's fair that this group,

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based a way that they played in
the second half, they have been together

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all year, they could have possibly
challenged for the number one seed for sure,

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So that kind of you know,
using that logic, I think it's

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safe to say that where they are
at number six, they're probably a little

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bit better than their seeding as it
stands right now is. And I think

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we should expect a little more than
you would expect from a normal sixth seed

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in the West for them moving forward. Well, I mean they got to

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the five, so I mean they're
a five mass yeah, yeah, no,

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no, no, yeah, yeah, I mean, look, yeah,

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I think where they are is based
off of what they were able to

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achieve, especially in that second half. And you're right, this there's that

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should raise expectations for this team,
given what they've been able to do and

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the kind of pace of winning that
they've been on to give you a confident

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idea that, yeah, they have
a chance to legitimately challenge to get to

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the Western Conference finals this year.
And I think for a lot of Mavericks

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fans they feel good about that because
this is this is the best roster that

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Luca has been surrounded with, you
know, and now his first six seasons

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in the league. So Mavericks fans
should feel good about what they should see

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hopefully in this postseason going forward.
Here's Kevin Gray, hosts to the MAVs

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pre and posts and all things Mavericks
here on ninety seven won the Freak.

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I am and talk me down if
you need to. I am so bullish

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on what this team can achieve this
year. I'm talking of the Mountain.

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I think they have a chance.
I'm not you know, Hell Boston who

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knows, and Denver obviously, and
the teams we mentioned fine. I know

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Kyrie has got something in his head
where he wants to show that their last

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departure playoff departure in Brooklyn was a
fluke, he said, I can't wait

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to show him Luca. You know, he steps up his game when it

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matters more. I mean, I'm
just big bullish, but it's one step

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at a time, and we do
start with the Clippers, who, again,

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casual fan might be like, look, these are kind of some old

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heads. Phase one is the team
is night and day better with Kawhi Leonard

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on the floor. He hasn't played
in a couple of weeks. He's got

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some sort of leg injury. You
got anything on the status of Kawhi Leonard

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going into this thing, and then
anything else on the clips alone? Man,

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I feel like they don't love each
other. I think Paul George kind

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of disappears. Sometimes there's some headbutting
going on there. I heard this from

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a Clippers blogger just last night.
I was listening to all this stuff.

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So I guess your thoughts on how
phase one of a deep playoff run for

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the mass is going to look against
the LA Clippers. Yeah, I mean

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Kawhi Leonard's you know, knee injury
is shrouded in mystery, and I think

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the Clippers honestly don't mind that because
it doesn't really serve them to, you

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know, advise on his status until
they absolutely have to by the time we

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get to game one, you know, on Sunday at two thirty in the

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afternoon. So I think as the
week goes on, we'll try to get

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a better idea. But there really
hasn't been much of an update, you

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know, on Kawhi in terms of
his status. But I would anticipate,

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like if I'm the Mavericks, I'm
anticipating him to play in Game one and

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attacking my game plans with the idea
that Kawhi is going to play. And

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even at this stage in his career, he's still one of the best two

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way players in the league. We've
seen what he's been able to do against

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the Mavericks, you know, in
twenty and twenty one, you know,

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particularly in twenty one, where he
really put the Clippers you know, on

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his back to help them, you
know, take out the Mavericks, you

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know, in seven games. But
at the same time, you know,

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for Luca, you know, the
example that I keep coming back to is

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that, and you guys could appreciate
the reference. You know, Michael Jordan

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had to go through the Detroit Pistons
to eventually get to a title all those

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years that he battled the bad Boys
and you know the Jordan rules that were

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created for him, and you know, with Isaiah Thomas and all those guys,

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it feels like for Luca, the
Clippers are his version of the Detroit

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Pistons. At some point, He's
got to go through Kawhi Leonard and Paul

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George to eventually get to where you
know, he wants to go, much

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like how Michael had to get through
Isaiah to get there. And even in

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the Western Conference final run that the
mass made a couple of years ago,

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you know, they took out the
Utah Jazz and of course they took out

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you know, the Phoenix Suns before
losing to the Warriors. And the Clippers

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are in an interesting place because you
know, there's no guarantee that this group,

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as constructed as they are right now, you know, returns next year.

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Paul George has not signed an extension
there, James Harden is going to

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be an unrestricted free agent at the
end of the year, and they've got

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a lot riding on this in terms
of this era. So I wonder how

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much of the pressure plays into what
this team has to achieve based on who

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they are and what changes could be
coming for them at the end of this

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year. And for the Mavericks,
they've kind of relished that role of kind

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of sending teams packing, you know, into dysfunctional offseasons because I mean,

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the Utah Jazz were broken up after
have the Mavericks you know, dispatched to

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them. The Suns were never the
same after the Mavericks you know, took

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them out, you know, in
the West semi. So maybe the Mavericks

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can relish another opportunity to send an
organization into dysfunctional chaos, if you will,

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by taking them out. And I'm
sure Luca and Kyrie and you mentioned

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I love the point about Kyrie because
you know, his Celtics and Nets playoff

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runs weren't necessarily great, but I
think at this stage in his career,

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he's extremely motivated to show that he's
still that guy based on not what he

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just did in the regular season,
but how much in how good he's been

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in the postseason in years past to
be able to now showcase that once again,

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especially alongside Luka Doncic. Now,
okay, I'm I'm encouraged just based

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on you know, Mikey and I've
been talking about this all morning and breaks

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and before the show and having you
on. I'm encouraged that I don't feel

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like a myopic Homer MAVs fan having
the expectation that this team maybe should,

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but likely could go to the Western
Conference finals, which brings me to another

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point and help help us through this, because this is something Mikey and I've

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been battling all morning. Are we
being myopic Homer MAVs fans thinking that it

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is criminal if Luca doesn't win the
MVP? You've seen everything. I know

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you've seen everything we watched. We
all watched the Mark Followell breakdown with demeris

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about going over every element of this
season? Are we Are we so just

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glued in to Luca because we watch
him on a daily basis and we live

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in the same city, and we're
just missing something from Oklahoma City in Denver

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that they're seeing that that is probably
maybe a little bit better than what we're

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seeing here. No, I think
this has been The three candidates that you

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have in Luca, Yokich, and
Sga are all deserving of the award.

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For me, particularly though, and
to your point, you know, Luca

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for me is the MVP. I
mean, look, the guy, We've

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never seen a thirty four, nine
and nine season. He finished top fifteen

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in points, rebounds, assists,
in steals per game. He's one of

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only four players to ever do that
in NBA history. You know, they

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get fifty wins, they get a
top five seed in the West. He's

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got the most consecutive you know,
thirty point triple doubles, thirty five point

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triple doubles, like any way that
you slice it, whether it be the

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advanced numbers or the regular counting numbers. I mean, he put together arguably

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one of the most historic offensive seasons
that we've ever seen. And even the

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criticism of his defense he started to
alleviate because he finished top ten and steals

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00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:07.519
him was one of the better,
you know, isolation defenders. And that's

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something that folks who have been complaining
about. Well, he's not a legitimate

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00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:12.480
MVP candidate until he shows he could
do it, you know, on both

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sides of the floor. Well he
did that and then some this season.

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So I tweeted out the other day, I said, you know, just

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the idea of having a thirty four
nine and nine season, something we've never

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seen before and winning fifty games to
do it, and a team that I

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00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:34.079
believe, if I remember corrected,
was forty six and twenty four in the

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00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:38.799
games that he played like he's affecting
winning in a way that would lead to

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00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:44.079
an MVP type of year. But
if you tell me that NICOLEA. Yokis

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based on some of the you know, nerdy advanced numbers, that, yeah,

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you could legitimately give him the MVP. Again, that's fine. What

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I don't want people to do,
fellas, is I don't want folks to

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give Nicola Yokis to the MVP because
of quote unquote trying to make up for

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what they didn't give him last year
in terms of the MVP because embiid closed

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the way that he did. I
don't want that narrative to be built if

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you're gonna build it based off of
what these players did this year. Yeah,

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for me, it's Luka Doncic and
it honestly it's close, but in

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00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:18.359
my mind really shouldn't be that close. I love I'll let you go.

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00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:22.160
Last thing. I'm going to Vegas
this weekend. I'm putting one hundred bucks

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00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:26.400
on the MAVs to win the title. It's sixteen to one any reason that's

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00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:27.680
a bad idea. I mean,
I'm not saying they're gonna win, but

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00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:34.279
sixteen to one, I feel like
that. I feel pretty value mac the

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00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:37.839
league. You're about to get a
Venmo for me for for a hundreds show

312
00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:42.559
them right, Like, I mean, things go poorly, What's why would

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00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:47.960
they go poorly for the MAVs Because
optimism couldn't be higher around here. I

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00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:52.839
mean, if they go poorly for
the MAVs, it's because the Paul George,

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00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:56.559
no, particularly the James Harden.
I think James Harten is the X

316
00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.920
factor in this series because you know, you believe what you're gonna get from

317
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.920
in the most part from Kawhi and
from Paul George. But James Hard to

318
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.400
me is the X factor because his
ability to distribute as a passer, you

319
00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.240
know, still a good score.
He can do a lot of different things

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00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:14.559
that could put the Mavericks in a
bind. But the way that the Mavericks

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00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:18.880
would lose this series is that they
would just fall apart and collapse defensively that

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00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:22.440
we've seen at times this year,
but haven't really seen since the beginning of

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00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:26.400
February, where they've been, you
know, arguably the best defense you know

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00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.000
in the league. So I think
this series will go at minimum six games,

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00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:37.279
if not the full seven. But
yeah, I would definitely, I

326
00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:40.359
mean sixteen to one for them to
win the title. Yet I think that's

327
00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:42.599
pretty good, pretty good value there. So look, it's gonna be a

328
00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:45.880
hell of a series. The fact
that we're doing this again is just kind

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00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:49.599
of wild to begin with. But
where these two teams are versus what they

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00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.480
have been in the first two times
they've met is night and day. So

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00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:56.559
it should be one hell of a
series for sure. Kevin Gray, he's

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00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.839
the best. He's on ninety seven, the freak for all the Mavericks.

333
00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:03.839
Coridge pub your YouTube for me,
please, Yeah, you can go subscribe

334
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:08.480
to my YouTube channel at Kevin Gray
Sports as it's my name and sports,

335
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.759
and you can follow me the same
on Twitter or ex or whatever we call

336
00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:15.920
it, the same at Kevin Gray
Sports as well. So like you're approaching

337
00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:18.799
six thousand subs on YouTube something like
that, let's go happy for you.

338
00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:22.559
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you, all right, Kean, thanks for

339
00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:23.559
jumping in. Man. We'll have
you on in the next couple of weeks

340
00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:26.880
regularly if you don't mind, Man, we need to keep our heads right

341
00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:30.000
as hopefully a long playoff run is
a foot for your Dallas Mavericks this Sunday

342
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.240
in Los Angeles. Thank you,
Kevin. Thanks for the time. K

343
00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.440
That is the best Kevin we've ever
had on There's no question. That's a

344
00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:41.400
good Kevin. That's a good Kevin. Let's get him in here. Yeah

345
00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:45.680
every morning. They don't need European
Kevin trades around. You need Kevio,

346
00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:51.599
who has got to be struck.
Okay, so strutting off the airplace,

347
00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:56.839
I know you have been so MAVs
forny today and that was just a shot

348
00:22:56.839 --> 00:23:00.599
of testosterone having KG on Yep.
I'm so ready for this. I need

349
00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:03.319
That's why I asked him. I
need someone to tell me to not bet

350
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:07.920
more. I think they're gonna win
the fing NBA Championship, and I know

351
00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:10.839
that's that's way too much. I
know way too much. What are the

352
00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:15.079
odds for Western Conference Finals? Six
to one? Okay? Do two two

353
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.279
bets? I am yeah, because
they could run through the West and then

354
00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:21.799
get smacked by Boston. Okay,
I want will you bet one hundred for

355
00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.359
me? Yes on the Western Conference
and another one hundred on the finals.

356
00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:27.319
To win it, to win it
all if you agree to another hundred on

357
00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:30.920
one spin of roulette, one number, all right, I'll vent Okay,

358
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:36.319
all right, you're gonna do this. I'm do it. My proxy gamblers,

359
00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:40.119
Weddy comb over shale. Is I
going to be screaming in Vegas getting

360
00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:41.480
it done the most we could win? Okay, we win the roulette.

361
00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:45.440
That's one hundred. Well let's do
the math in yeah, right and discuss.

362
00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:48.519
Next we have some of your talkbacks. I think we've got birthdays,

363
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:52.480
d'jore and bandal. Okay, we
got bandle. Everything can be yours.

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00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.039
Next on ninety seven to one,
The Freak