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Speaker 1: You know, love it two on seven ninety Man and

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Ross with you. We spend ten minutes now with the

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head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets. Last night Rockets

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took care of business one to the LA Clippers. He

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may duckle with us, coach, good morning. How different was

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it facing a Clipper team without Zobots and a Harden

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on the floor. I know you know all those players

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very well. You certainly know Kawhi and what he's able

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to do. But just for the strategizing during the course

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of the game, was it a complete different change or

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there's some elements that used in previous games without those

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two guys on the floor.

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Speaker 2: No, it's very different. Obviously, Harden is just such unique

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player and what he brings to the table. You have

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to game plan this game for him. And you know,

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Zubo's kind of their anchor on defense, and so they're

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very different. As far as the space thing with Lopez,

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you know, more spaced out on the perimeter the ball

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and Leonard's hand one hundred percent of the time now,

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and then you know they're not at full strength. You know,

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Garland's out and obviously they're getting their guys up to speed.

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Mather and then Jackson playing in the first So it

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was very different than the team we faced before.

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Speaker 1: The double team on Kawhi. Look, he got his shots up,

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but it took him nineteen to get twenty four. So

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I think you'd be generally speaking pretty police the way

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you guys doubled him on a fairly regular basis.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's my point, you know, with with with

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hard Gun and some of the guys out we you know,

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have to go after Kawhi Leonard obviously he's going to

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have the ball in his hands and much more. And

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so yeah, you don't always look at the final score,

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you know, him having twenty four points, it's the nineteen attempts.

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Other than you know, nine free throws. I think we

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did a decent job on them.

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Speaker 1: Read back off the bench. Good to get Amen back

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out there. There was some time out there that looked

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like that Amen didn't have to necessarily worry about ball

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handling as much as maybe in previous games. Was that

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intentional or just how the game progressed, especially because he

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had not as many big men chasing after him as

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he had in recent weeks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, we'd like to have multiple

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handles out there at times, and so when we can

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get reading the men out there together, it's always been

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good for us. You know. Obviously you can initiaate through Alpe.

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Kevin does his share handling as well, so as always

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this year, you know, we tried to go through a

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little bit through committee while the young guys are learning.

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But yeah, several different ways to attack it. And like

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I said, without you being such a unique center that

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can play up top and get us into our sets,

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you can take some of the pressure off the other guys.

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Speaker 3: There has been a lot of talk about him and

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Thompson and the fives guarding him. How much has that

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been discussed in practices and meetings and things like that,

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and as part of you as a coach kind of

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like the challenge of seeing that and trying to work

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on ways to combat it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's something that we've seen since his

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first year, is since his rookie year when you know,

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when Alper went out with their last eighteen games, I'm

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in was technically our small ball five or you know,

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him and Jabbari out there at the four and the five,

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so quite a few teams had the bigs on him.

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So something that he and we are very accustomed to.

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And you know, he knows the spots that he can

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pick whether he's handling. Obviously, putting the big on him

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a second back takes away some of the drag lanes,

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but very good in the in the pocket, very good

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in the dunker spot. You know, him setting screens and

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rolling has always been good for us. And so he's

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had his practice over the last few years and we

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know the areas we can get to with him not

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handling the ball.

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Speaker 3: Rocket take coach Im Dooka was here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety just Reachepherd. Of course with the bounce back

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night shooting last night. Is there any bit of a

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kind of a semblance of a maybe he's not a rookie,

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but a rookie wall to he's played double the minutes

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that he did all of last year. What have you

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been seeing from him, not only just from on the floor,

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but as far as energy and maintaining and being out

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there on the floor.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's played a lot more this year.

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Obviously then you know, didn't play a ton of this

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rookie year. But I think for all young guys, everybody's

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gonna have a slump at some point during the season.

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And you know, what we say is don't let that

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affect your overall game. You know, don't just rely on

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jump shots to impact the game. And so for Reid,

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you know, he's making some really nice passes and stepping

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up on the defensive end is what we're asking all

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guys are doing. So they may hit that wall and

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obviously one more before all start break. You can get

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your legs back, get a little rest in, and kind

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of reset from there. But I think he's playing fine,

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you know, missing some shots that he normally made early

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in the season, but Jabari did a few weeks ago.

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Oppert has gone through his thing, and so you just

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have to push through it, like I said, and I

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just let made shots dictate how your games going to go.

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Speaker 1: We've discussed as many times where coaches like yourself have

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to kind of fight the All Star break, you know, like, hey,

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I want to think about the vacation or getting away

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from the sport. Your guys have fought through that the

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last couple of days. Discuss the bounce back in your

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mind the team has had after those two home losses

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to Boston Charlotte. How you fought back and now with

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a chance here to go to the break in a

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three game winning streak.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just the effort and intensity that

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takes to win a basketball game wasn't there in those

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two games. And you know, quite simple. You know, whether

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you make shots or not or guard well enough, if

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you don't play with the right effort in mindset, you're

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not gonna give yourself a chance on the nightly basis.

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And so for us, it was just getting back to that.

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I think you saw that in Oklahoma City game. We

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watched quite a bit of film on the Charlotte and

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Boston game and looked like two different teams, whether you

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know it was his legs or guys thinking about All

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Star break or whatever. We had five games left and

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we wanted to play well. So you know, two of

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those not too well. The last two have been really good,

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and it's like I said, you can see the difference

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on the tape. Our guys have been back locked in

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and obviously want to finish on a good note tonight.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard from the medical staff.

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Where are you on who can sit and who can

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stay tonight? Is there anybody that would be definitely out

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for tonight's game.

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Speaker 2: Dorian will be out tonight for sure. Sorry, will be

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a game time decision. You know, he's gonna try it

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down and see how he feels and go from there.

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Speaker 1: All right, Josh did not play a sure. Is everything

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okay with him?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, just Josh was fine. I think part of

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it was the fact that Dorian's going to be out

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tomorrow tonight and you don't want to rest him. But

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obviously Josh is always ready to be called upon and

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went with a little shorter rotation knowing that we were

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gonna run some guys some longer minutes and we'll have

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Josh to night for sure.

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Speaker 1: What did you think of Bennett matherin getting his first

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amount of playing time for the Clippers. We just saw

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him a few weeks ago wearing paster gear.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's gonna be a good asset for them.

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I think. You know, it's always hard when you kind

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of get implemented into a new situation like that, and

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you know, he wasn't as aggressive as he's been with Indiana,

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but expect that to happen over time here, you know,

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probably right after all start break when they gets some

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practices in. But good pickup for them in general.

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Speaker 1: Do you tell the NBA folks to keep your center

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and your power forward on ice and make sure you

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don't work him too hard. I mean, it's a great

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experience for both of them, especially for Albi when getting

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the late addition. But Kevin's been through this a lot,

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so do you think about that, Like, hey, man, I

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want you to get away from the sport. But it

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feels like to me that Katie's been such a gym

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r at his entire life that it's hero he trying

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to find a place to shoots some baskets even during

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this off time.

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Speaker 2: He definitely would have done that regardless, and so you know,

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it's another honor for him. Man outbring, you know, and

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we want those guys to be perennial All Stars. And

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you know, as much as the rest is good for you,

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that's a huge honor. And I think the guys will

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trade that off any day, but in know how to

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mix it in and get the rest in that they

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need in the in the days with the media and

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all that. And then obviously the game isn't full speed

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full speed, so they'll they'll be out there getting some rest.

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But even after that they got two, three, four days

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off to until our next game agains Charlotte and get

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a chance to rest up then.

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Speaker 1: And we've still been through this amazing run of back

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to backs. It's getting better. I mean, they're they're being

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knocked off the list, but it feels like this squad

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has had more back to backs in the last month

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and a half of maybe anybody else in the NBA

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has had.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm sure we have. I think we didn't

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have any for the first you know, eight or so weeks.

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I think we had our first in late December, and so,

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you know, we had it easier early in the year,

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and now it's catching up to us. You know, we

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basically had one every week for the last four weeks,

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and so it is what it is. You know, it's

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going to catch up to you at some point. And

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like I said, we have done a good job and

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some struggled earlier in some others and now we want

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to finish tonight with on a good note against Clippers.

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Speaker 1: Is there any the wrap things up with you? Is

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there any individual message you like tell the guys that

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they step away from the sport orders or is it

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more of a team get together conversation as guys try

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to take a step a break away from the sport

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for a few days.

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Speaker 2: I think I think it's both. I think, you know,

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team and individually, everybody needs to, you know, kind of

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take a step back and decompress, you know, get your

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legs back. We have twenty nine games coming out of

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the break and that goes really quickly. So get the

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work in that you need to. Obviously, don't come back

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out of shape or you know, rusty, but also get

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away from it for a minute, Like I said, clear

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your mind and prepare for what's ahead.

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Speaker 1: Are you much of a standings watcher guy right now

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or is that never going to happen for you?

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Speaker 2: No, I think we're all conscious of it. It's such

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a tight, tight race in the West that every game

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kind of matters, and so when it's that tight and

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this one of the season, you're already starting to peek

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at it.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for the visitors always, well see you tonight

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and good luck against the Clippers.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, guys, you got it.

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Speaker 1: Emao a Doka with us here on Sports Talk seven

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ninety