WEBVTT

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The Downbeat on ninety seven one The
Freaky. It is seven oh five on

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a beautiful Wednesday morning in Dallas,
Ford word, you're listening to the Morning

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Downbeat, heard regularly weekdays from six
to ten am, right here on your

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home of the Dallas Mavericks ninety seven
point one The Freak. Stream us online

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via the iHeartRadio app. Interact with
us, be a text message or hell

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call us. The number is the
same either way. Two one four seven

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eight seven one nine seven one.
Mikey and myself and sweet JJ will be

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here until ten o'clock and talking all
good things, Little Mavericks. Maybe we'll

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sneak in a little Stars playoff action. Lots of news stories, exciting fun

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news stories, a couple of songs. Yeah, what a day? What

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a day? A review of the
spear at nine. Dude with a special

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guest, A very special guest.
Dude. We're loaded today. M h.

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Mikey fighting threw a little bit of
a you went to the doctor yesterday,

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even even a little sick since you
got back from Las Vegas. Yeah,

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just I mean just congested. I
didn't feel too bad. Pornography for

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the win, But you could not
have broadcast yesterday. No, there's no

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way your voice was gone. I
couldn't have. I was stuffed. My

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whole head was just stuffed. It's
one of those where I sound like hell.

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I do feel like hell, but
it's not like torture, like like

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strap throat or something that is completely
debilitating. But it was not a good

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idea yesterday. I'm not itself sound
like crap. I'm glad you're here.

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I feel believe me. I know
because when you get back from Vegas.

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Yeah, and then ask for an
extra day off because your quote unquote sick

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feel good. So we're gonna be
full strike tomorrow. Kevin's gonna be back

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and Downbeat returns and it's gonna be
great. Do you think bosses heads would

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turn if Kevin tried to call in
sick tomorrow? Man, there's something about

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big travel day. I mean it
might be. And if he is good,

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we'll take tomorrow off too and get
punking kell solidarity back in here.

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All right. Uh. The one
thing that will be a thread throughout this

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show is the excitement and the victory
of last night in Los Angeles time for

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Sports at seven and now Sports at
seven. It was a late night,

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but it was a great night and
uh life, I guess for your Dallas,

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Maverick's looking pretty damn good as they
went on the road, got to

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win in Game two over the LA
Clippers ninety six ninety three. Clippers got

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Kawhi Leonard back, and after the
Game one defeat where the Mass just sucked,

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I mean, we'll talk a lot
about defense, I think on both

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sides, you know, as we
discussed last night, but Clippers are tough

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on d you still got to hit
shots, and the Mass just shot incredibly

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poorly, specifically in the first half
in Game one, and they looked as

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bad as we've seen them in months
since the New year, just about.

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So, you know, there's no
shame in losing game one on the road

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to a you know, a good
basketball especially when they had all that time

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off and Luca and Kai didn't even
play in the final two games of the

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season. You know, not having
those guys on the court, there was

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gonna be a little bit of rust. I think that needed to get knocked

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off. You've got dudes that are
not used to being in this, you

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know, under the in the spotlight, playoff basketball is a different animal,

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and you guys, you got guys
you look, you got a freaking rookie,

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a twenty year old rookie that is
an important, massively important piece of

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this puzzle and lively, and then
you've got the new acquisitions. These guys

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don't uh, they're not used to
this. Yeah, it takes a little

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time to kind of get your feet
wet. And I think that's that was

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a little bit of trial by fire
in game one, for sure, But

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what a hell of a response last
night. Let me ask you this,

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And I think it's very normal if
you just watch the MAVs and you don't

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watch the NBA, or maybe you
watch see a few games through the year,

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and then you focus in on the
playoffs and you're looking at the MAVs

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going they don't look the same as
I'm used to seeing them. Things aren't

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the office, Vince doesn't look as
as fluid as I'm used as I'm accustomed

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to seeing them. That not everything's
as smooth, you know, as as

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I've grown accustomed to watching how they
figured this thing out and did what they

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did as far as winning like what
sixteen out of twenty games to end the

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season, with two of those games
being the games that LUKEA and Kyrie did

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not play in. Yeah, it
looks different because that's what happens in the

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playoffs. The refs they don't call
anything. Defense is ratcheted up, the

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scoring goes down, and everything that
you try to achieve comes with some form

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or forms of obstacles. Yeah,
it's not easy, I think, And

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what do you think? I think
basketball is the sport where you most crank

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it up for the playoffs, and
I don't. I'm not taking away from

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any other sport and hockey you could. The reason I say it's higher than

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hockey's because I think hockey players are
full pretty much full crank every shift they

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step on the ice. I think
basketball you can all, within reason,

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go through the motions regular season,
but man, every like it's like,

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you crank it up to NHL levels
in the NBA playoffs And it looked different.

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Man. That deep, Okay,
And we don't watch the Clippers that

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much, and I was maybe a
little too reliant on that interview. I

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heard with a blogger for the Clippers
who basically was like, look, we

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can't hang with the MAVs. Like
they're like, do you think the Clippers

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are gonna, you know, compete
or beat the MAVs and like I was

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like, no, we can't stop
Kyrie, we can't stop Luca. And

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to hear that reinforces what I thought, which is the MAVs are white hot.

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I'm like, all right, Maps
are gonna be fine. They're gonna

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win the series. I still think
they're gonna win the series. And I

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did, I mean, I tweeted
it before the game. Yes, I

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think they're winning Game two. I
think they're winning last night. I think

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the MAVs are a better team.
But all that said, the Clippers are

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a really, really good team with
some dudes with a lot of experience,

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and Harden's better than I. You
know, I hadn't watched them all that

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much, and it's still a tough
dude who maybe doesn't have the hops or

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the exact speed that used to have, but that dude can still fill it

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up. Paul George can too.
They're a very good team, but they're

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very tough defensively, and they clamped
down on the MAVs in both those games,

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specifically the first half of Game one, but both teams clamped down last

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night. Yeah, that was you
know, it's almost cliche at this point

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nineties basketball. You know it looked
like it. It didn't feel like almost

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any game I've seen all season that
involved the Mavericks. But the one.

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The best part is the MAVs were
doing it as much as the Clippers were.

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I've never seen the mass defense look
that good this year. I mean

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they've they've been really really good on
defense, but we haven't seen anything like

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that where it is. You know, it probably sounds, even not even

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twenty four hours, like a cliche, but that was a heavyweight fight and

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it was it was a slug fest. You know. Listen to Kevin Gray's

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podcast this morning on the Way in
his big recap of the of the game

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that he did last night, and
he used that term a couple of two

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or three different times, that it
was a slug fest. And the Mavericks

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in Game one, they didn't play
at full crank. I think they they

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were at sixty. They were at
sixty. They may have been a little

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bit under sixty two percent, but
I think that because of their inexperience in

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the playoffs, or a lot of
the components on their team, the fact

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that they had so much time off, I think they went into that game

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thinking they're going to play regular season
basketball. And the ball rotation, the

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perimeter passing, the open lanes that
those that that group has become accustomed to.

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In the back half of their season, those things were not there,

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and I think they got frustrated when
those things weren't there. And the only

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answer to that is to match the
intensity and play full crank just like the

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other team. And they did that
last night. And if that stuff as

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a wash, then yeah, the
Mavericks are the better I think the overall,

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the Mavericks are the better basketball team. I think the deeper basketball team.

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Injuries notwithstanding, you know, you're
dealing with a couple of who knows

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how long the lower back is gonna
nag Danny Gafford, who knows what Tim

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Hardaway's future looks like in this playoff
run. But you know, pound for

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pound, I think the Mavericks are
a better team. And you gotta absolutely

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love that they stole that game last
night, because, make no mistake,

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the way I was watching that game
last night, I wasn't sure that the

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Mavericks were gonna win until it was
mathematically secure. I agree. Well,

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the one thing I'll say is for
a defensive battle like that, when it's

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so low scoring relative like a six
or seven point lead a month ago is

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like a fifteen point lead. You
know, Like the defense is so tough

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on both sides. It is at
least multiple possessions, and as good as

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the defense of the Mass are playing, it's it's hard to chip way.

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But this is the NBA can still
knock down three three, and it's you

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know, there was a moment where
the Mass did that in the third quarter

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where the Clippers fought all the way
back to tie it right and then bam,

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it was Kyrie as Kyrie and that
had back to back threes, and

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I'm like, oh, that is
so exactly what we needed. But generally

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speaking, getting six points real quick
in a game like that is hard.

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So having a seven point lead feels
like something. But I'm totally with you.

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No point until the end, I
was like, Okay, they got

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this, But man, that it
was I thought it was fun. I

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thought I don't know if it was
fun. It was just different because of

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the defense in that game, and
the rest were letting him play. They

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were hounding Zubach on the inside because
he tore them up in Game one and

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they made his life hard. Yeah, today, how about the blocks they

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had five first quarter blocks. Don't
know if that's like a record on the

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year, maybe not, but it
felt like a lot. Luca got one,

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Gaff and PJ both got one in
the in the first first quarter.

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Five blocks in the first quarter was
great. They were just so tough on

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the interior defense and they were great
on the xterior defense too. They were

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a garden three point line. I
mean, the Clippers are not gonna shoot,

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just like the MAVs aren't gonna shoot
what they shot in Game one.

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You know, the Clippers are probably
not gonna shoot twenty six percent or whatever

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it was from behind the arc in
game two. Like numbers regulate, but

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I knew the MAVs numbers would regulate
and they'd make more shots, and they

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did so in Game two, and
that leads to victory when they shoot closer

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to their average. Yeah, that
was the frustrating thing about Game one,

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because you know in the playoffs that
offense is harder to come by, especially

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the offense that we've been used to. Seeing the style of offense that the

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Mavericks played in the back part of
the regular season, you knew that that

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stuff wasn't just gonna come so easy
and be there because it is the playoffs.

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But the one thing that you can
look at if you're getting frustrated that

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the threes aren't as open as they
normally are, if little bunnies are getting

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aren't going in right around the basket
that you're used to seeing, if the

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freaking alleyu the wild above the rim
stuff, you don't see any of that

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right now. If you get frustrated
with that, don't worry about that so

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much. Watch how your team is
playing, in what intensity level that they're

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playing when they're on defense. And
the Mavericks did not play an intensely defensive

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game in Game one last night.
They absolutely showed up full crank and sold

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out. Man. Yeah, and
it still was a Look, it was

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a three point game. And this
is going this. I think a long

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series benefits the MAVs. If this
goes six or seven, I think that

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I think that benefits the MAVs in
the long run because I think that they

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are more youthful and and I don't
know, I just I like the idea

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that if this goes to a game
seven, I like the MAVs winning a

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Game seven out there just because I
think that the I think the Clippers are

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are probably not going to be able
to sustain that type of intensity for as

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long as I think the MAVs can
do it well. And the reason why,

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I'm sorry real quick. There's a
reason why they were the best defensive

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team throughout the latter part of their
of their regular season in the NBA,

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and I think that's going to carry
over. They just needed a wake up

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call, and they got it in
Game one exactly, and to immediately go

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and win Game two and steal home
field or home court advantage back, because

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I know it's like seventy seven percent
or something if you go down two.

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But even had they lost last night, I wouldn't have been in complete panic

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mode, not at all, you
know what I mean? Not at all.

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Maybe that's just because we've seen them
play so well over multiple months,

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but I feel like there's no shame
in going two on the road now.

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I'm real glad it didn't happened,
especially in the way it played out last

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night, Like when the Clippers did
take whatever, they got their lead up

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to five or six, yeah,
I think they got it up to six

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at one point, yeah, and
then the Mavericks I think went on like

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a what a fourteen oh run.
Yeah, to draw the thing close.

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One thing I wanted to talk about, and look, the only thing that

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we have to compare the deepest playoff
run is twenty eleven and how unique and

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interesting that team was, and how
role players stepped up in certain moments or

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in certain games where you have the
Paygia game against LA, where you have

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the Brian Cardinals scrappy game with the
baseline defensive play that he made, and

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I can't remember what series it was, but those flashes stand out to you.

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If the Mavericks do end up taking
this thing all the way, one

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of the moments that I will remember
from last night, and it won't be

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the fact that PJ was excellent in
the fourth quarter. It won't be that

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Kyrie did what Kyrie does in the
fourth quarter, because Kyrie, Luke and

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PJ were ostensibly the reason that they
won that game last night. But the

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moments that will stand out to me
are the contributions of a guy that is

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so maligned and so frustrating to watch. But Maxy maxed out last night,

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and he was frustrating early in the
game, but he was in there for

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a reason, and that guy played
defense like he's supposed to he was excellent

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last night, and he drives me
bananas offensively, But yeah, you have

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to remember what he does defensively when
offense, and it's it doesn't help him

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that Luca is very frustrated with him
offensively. It seems, you know,

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well, he trusted him with an
open look three and Maxie absolutely drained it

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at an incredibly important moment in that
game. It was the it may have

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been the most timely three pointer that
the Mavericks made last night, but the

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offensive rebound after I believe it was
a Kyrie miss and he got the offensive

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rebound and got it back to Kai. Kai got fouled, put him at

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the line. That to me was
maybe the most important part of the game.

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Yeah, well, especially because kleebers
only getting those minutes because Gafford was

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hurt. Yeah, definitely, in
a nine minutes we had twenty eight.

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Well, keep in mind, keep
in mind Jason did go to that smaller

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rotation in game one, and it
seemed like the Mavericks had a good stretch

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of success playing small with Maxi in
there where you I don't believe at that

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point you had either Gafford or Lively
in the game. In game one,

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they did that last night, and
it was pretty effective in stretches. I

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think Jason Kidd. You know,
we had a lot of criticism of Jason

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Kidd, maybe not us, not
as much as the noise that's out there

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calling for his firing. I mean, remember that he's making really really smart

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decisions right now in the playoffs.
And another thing, real quick, Mikey,

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I don't want to know what you
think about this, the Luca technical.

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I know Jason Kidd referred to that
in his postgame press conference as being

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a key moment in the game because
it got him fired up. I wonder,

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I wonder how important that was for
Luca to get that technical at that

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point in the game, because it
seemed like I felt like he got a

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call later on in the game and
by the way that the refs were calling

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that game that he might not have
gotten otherwise. And the reason I say

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that is, you ever question this
is do do referees give technicals based on

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the content of what the player does? Or is it more of an emotional

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response of I'm sick of you,
I'm tired of this. I can't take

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any more, so I'm going to
punish you because I can't manage my emotions

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anymore without yelling and screaming at you. So I'm going to shut you up

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by giving you the tea. Yeah, I think in Luca's casystem was always

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cumulative of his not just that one
moment. I think it's the culmination of

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an evening of you yelling at me, and I'm sick of it. But

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it shouldn't be sick of it personally
like I feel, you know, like

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I'm sick of your attitude. I
mean, it's as his position as a

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referee, he has to take a
stand. I guess for the other referees,

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I think in their head that's what
they think, because I don't think

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what Luca did specifically on that one
play is just is the only reason he

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called the tech, you know,
I think it's You've been in my face,

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yep a lot of times, and
now I need to back you off.

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I mean, but it's a cat
and mouse game, it is.

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But no, remember this and anyone
gets frustrated with Luca at least in his

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head, and what he is doing
is building toward changing what the ref gives

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him. He is from the minute
he got in the league, he thought

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he should be treated like a superstar, not a rookie and get superstar calls,

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which in his first few years didn't
you know, you worn't it again,

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he didn't deserve. Now he is, he should get superstar calls.

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Now. He shouldn't bitch every single
play, but that one he was hacked

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twice? Yeah, too tight,
you got hit twice? Yes, yeah,

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so he was right, yes,
and and and and I think,

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in the dude, it's such a
it's such a chess game of emotions the

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way he rides these refs, I
really do. I don't. Sometimes we

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we see him as just a petulant
baby that can't that that's immature. But

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maybe there's more strategy to what he's
doing than even we realize. And I

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think by him being demonstrab demonstrative enough
in that moment to get that technical I

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think after the referees have a chance
to let their emotions settle and realize that

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they missed that call, subconsciously,
you cannot help but but issue a makeup.

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Yeah, and I think they did
that, or not even a makeup,

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but based on the way that they
were calling that game, by letting

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a lot of stuff go something that
I think they normally would have let go

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earlier in the game. They decided
to call it later in the game,

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and you saw Luca got a foul
called on him where the Clippers were kind

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of flipping out over it. But
those things make a difference. He's a

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smart kid man, especially when you
talk about basketball like you. I think

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you have to factor that into it
as well. I wonder if you,

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just like in the NFL, you
can't go holding on every play. I

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mean, as ball dominant as Luca
is, like he might by the finest

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letter of the NBA rule book,
get fouled on just about every time he

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enters the paint, you know what
I mean. And he reacts like that's

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how it should be called, even
though he knows it's not gonna get called

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00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:42.200
like that. You're only going to
get so many of them. They cannot

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call a foul every single time you
approach the basket, even though maybe if

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someone does it, if you got
if you graze him with a fingernail,

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he's gonna spaz out on it.
But by the letter of the law,

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I think he's right more often than
he's wrong. So whatever, I don't

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know. I don't know how that
affected the rest of the game. It

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doesn't matter because Luca was great.
Kyrie was great in the not the very

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beginning, because they were I saw
something from Kyrie there was interesting Him and

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hard and were like kind of going
at it Yea and their former teammates.

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But there was no love lost,
it seemed, and I almost saw Kyrie

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00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:18.759
getting a little angry. But he's
the management of his emotions is so good.

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Art form too, so whatever,
but he's just such a pleasure to

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00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:26.519
watch the hand of the game.
With three steals and he's so like crafty

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defensively, you can have that one
steal it led to a breakaway, was

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great, but he just waits and
then he explodes his arm into a lane

294
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or to break up a pass,
or to steal a dribble, and he

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00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:41.640
just does it seemingly better than anyone. It's so fun to watch him defensively.

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And you could see him, I
mean was he looked different defensively than

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he did for most of the season. Cranked it up, had room and

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00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:52.279
maxed it out, and Luca did
the exact same. Man. They've been

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00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:56.240
playing good defense for a while,
but they were on a different level.

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When those two superstars are, you
know they're going to get theirs offensively when

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they back that up on the defensive
side. Man, tough, tough team

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to be. It's a good thing
they have two days off too. Yeah.

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Yeah, no, do not not
just to uh give the the injured

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dudes, the guys that may be
a little banged up, Gafford and and

305
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.920
and Hardaway Junior. But dude,
just to get a couple of days of

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rest. Yeah, you know,
when you consider the travel aspect of it,

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and then the fact that you know, you saw Luca in the postgame

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00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:27.839
interview last night. He was gassed, even said as much. Yeah,

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he's kind of sorry, man,
I'm tired. Yeah, I bet.

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I will say I liked at the
very end that that I was surprised that

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00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:40.519
challenge on that inbound pass to Kyrie, which it was. Was it six

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00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:42.079
and that cut it to essentially three? If it's an an one, right,

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yes, it was a three point
game. If they uh, if

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00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.359
he gets the free throw the and
one and he makes it, it's a

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00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:56.599
two point game. Changes everything changes. The changes the dynamic to the way

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00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:03.720
the Mavericks defend, and it changes
the attack mode that and it expands the

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00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:07.359
options that LA has on what they
can do. But when it's a they

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00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:10.440
keeping it three smart challenge, Yeah, really smart. And from the one

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00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:11.279
angle, I thought he'd raked the
hell out of his arm, but then

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I saw him like, no,
I think he just ticked the ball ball

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And then you know, I mean, it's whatever. You can't take your

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challenge with you, so fine to
try it. But the fact that it

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worked was huge. And another thing, even though he missed one, which

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I was writing this note on my
phone while he missed that second free throw,

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00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:30.480
the Kyrie free throw. Yes,
yeah, the Kyrie free throws.

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Let's hope over the next month,
you know, not just over the next

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00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:37.759
ten days, are going to play
such a such a role man that the

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00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.279
fact that dude is ninety percent and
in the fourth quarter he almost never misses,

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which again he did miss the second
one. Then MAXI keeps it alive.

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I think that's what we're talking about, and Kyrie gets it back,

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00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:52.480
and that essentially ice of the game. But to have someone who basically doesn't

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00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:56.200
miss free throws when you need him
most, and the dude who's internal temperature

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00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:02.319
is probably the lowest in the NBA, Kyrie someone that cool, that will

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00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:04.279
matter in what will still be close
games. The Groopers are a good team.

335
00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:07.720
But god, it's a pleasure watching
that dude walk to the free throw

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00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:10.400
line knowing, all right, well
these are good. Did you look at

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00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:14.920
I don't you know you can't just
percentage wise or him running hot like I

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00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.799
don't, I don't count him as
in yeah, when Luca goes the line,

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00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:19.680
what Kyrie does? Man, I'm
like, dude, these are real

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00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:25.119
quick. Before we go, the
Luca pass to get it up the court,

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00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:29.160
which by the camera angle that we
had, which was side the side

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00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:33.200
court camera angle, looked incredibly dangerous
and when you looked at it from the

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00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:37.519
baseline angle, it was just a
great effing pass and that thing was never

344
00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:41.960
going to be stolen. And it
was beautiful how Luca kind of gave up

345
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:47.720
his dribble and as he he went
through three options on where to put that

346
00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:51.680
ball. Yes, you saw him. Look here, Look here, there's

347
00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:56.119
Kyrie. There's my lane wing bounce
pass right to him, bout pass through

348
00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:59.680
traffic, through traffic. But he
saw that. I can't remember who the

349
00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:04.519
player, what man maybe whose momentum
was going in one direction. He's able

350
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:10.319
to calculate that stuff faster than a
computer. It's incredible. His IQ.

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00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:11.880
I love him, I love them
all. Huge win for the maps.

352
00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:15.279
They steal home field and uh,
we're looking good man, We're gonna do

353
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:18.920
more maps. I think at eight
thirty yep, I think, my buddy

354
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:22.880
the machine, let's see, Yeah, the machine at eight forty five is

355
00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:26.720
gonna zoom in. We're gonna oil
up the machine. Machine's always just fun.

356
00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:29.160
Anyway, Hopefully we talk maps,
we don't just screw around. Because

357
00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:30.799
the dude's funny as hell. But
he works for the Mavericks and he's one

358
00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.519
of the biggest basketball brains in town. We'll have him on an eight forty

359
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:37.920
five. Uh, come up next, though, it is what the scut

360
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:41.839
the study. I have kind of
a hypothetical that I thought of. I

361
00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:45.400
tweeted about it last night during the
game and involved Steve Balmer will do that.

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00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:49.279
Plus I read this study that it's
sort of interesting. You want to

363
00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:52.680
be happy when I have less stress. There's just one day, a fifty

364
00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:56.359
year study, just one thing,
an easy thing that you should be doing.

365
00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:57.640
I'll tell you what it is.
Next to ninety seven on the Freak