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Speaker 1: Twelve thirty.

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Speaker 2: It is a Matt Thomas show with Wasson here Portland

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Rockets call last night to the Blazers. Usually we get

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to visit with emay On on a happy note after

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a big victory. Unfortunately a tough, tough literal last tenth

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second of a moment lost to the Blazers and Amy

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had joining us here now, coach, good morning, thank you

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for the time. Walk us through if you don't mind

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what was going through your mind drawing up the play,

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the play itself and then obviously Tari's tipping it was

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just a bit bit too late.

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Speaker 3: Obviously wanted to get in Kevin's hands. You know he

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was he was on a hot streak with thirty seven

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points and knew he would get a good look and

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you know, had confidence to him. And then as always,

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we wanted to send everybody to the glass and you know,

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try made a great effort real point point one second

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too late.

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Speaker 2: Basically, did you think it went in or was in

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the back of your mind going I got to look.

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Speaker 3: At rep I definitely had to look at replay because

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when you when you look live and you have some

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doubt and it's it's you know, it's going to be

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close for sure, and my initial looking live was didn't

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look great, didn't look good. But from of the video

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video guys behind the bench, I thought he got rid

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of it. And obviously the other angleish is still on

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the finger.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw it like I did

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from up where I was calling it, but literally half

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the court was with elation on one side and half

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of the other court was yeah, we got it. I

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mean I have never seen and we've seen buzzer beaters,

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and you've been obviously been a few of them. It

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felt like both sides thought they had won the game

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on the final play.

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Speaker 3: Literally, yeah, that's how close it was. And even the

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replay showed that. And so you know, he made a

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good effort. Like I said, you know, Kevin got a

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quality lookoff. You know, heavily contested, but he's gonna shoot

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over guys and yeah, but overall, you know, regardless of

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that last play, I said to the group that we

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probably didn't deserve to win that game. You know, we

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didn't really show up and play to our standard for

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three and a half quarters, and the last half of

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the fourth quarter we really buckled down.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was literally a tale of two games when

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it came to that something that has happened. Look, obviously,

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you're right there in front of it. You're still crashing

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the offensive boards with great regularity. That's no surprise. Even

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with Altpi being gone. You got Adams out there and

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even Clint helping you out. The three point shot has

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gone away the last three games. What do you chalk

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that up to? I mean, this is a team that

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has been forty ninety percent of the year, but January

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has not been kind from the beyond the arc, what

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do you think is going on?

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Speaker 3: Just a normal slump that teams go through during the season.

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At times you hate that. You know, everybody other than

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Kevin really is is kind of going through it at

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the same time. But to your point that starting with

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the Dallas game, in Phoenix, last game and yesterday, if

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we shoot anywhere close to I know them, it's a

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comfortable fifteen point win. And so but at times you

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know that's going to happen during the season. Guy is

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gonna miss overshots, and yesterday it really stood out obviously

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the amount of wide open looks we had. But you

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still have to do the other things, and you know

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nobody's trying to miss shots on purpose, you get great

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looks and you live with the result. But you know

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what we can control is, you know, following the game plan,

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guarding specifically the way we want to and taking care

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of the ball, and so those things can always happen.

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You're going to miss shot at the times, but you

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can still lock in onto onto the game plan specifics

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and specifically on the Vida, we didn't guard him anywhere

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close to the way we wanted to.

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant taking the last shot and the last two

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games went in on Monday, unfortunately did not last night,

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but he was brought here to be a closer. What

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is it like for you just as a coach as

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opposed to last year? Does it make your life that

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much more easy? But also you know the other team

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knows that Kevin Durant is probably gonna get the ball

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as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean regardless, if he gets to a spot,

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it doesn't matter you know who's guardening him or how

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they're guarding him. You know he's going to get a

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quality look and the maker misses has nothing to do

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with the defense, honestly. And so you know, he made

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a pull up the other night and got a great

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look here that kind of rolled off the rim. And

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you know, you bring guys in for their efficiency, for

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their consistent scoring, and then obviously their closing, which we

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had struggled with their times last year. And so it's

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good there. But at the same time, you don't want

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guys to fully rely on him. You want other guys

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to continue to play throughout the game. And last night

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it was more so of him doing what he did,

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and we would have liked to see other guys that

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joined the party offensively.

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Speaker 1: Rockets head coach Immay Adoka with us here on Sports

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Talk seven ninety how is Alprea and Shoon feeling and

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do you have any idea as far as a possible

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timeline for him coming back?

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Speaker 3: Doing much better, much better than we thought. You know,

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he has the swelling, has kind of getting gun pushed out,

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had a really good workout yesterday post shoot around and

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just got to moving around and getting up and down

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and you know, jumping around, jump rope, doing some things

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on the ankle, just to see the flexibility. And we're

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happy with the progress. I'm not sure when he'll be back,

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but you know, it looked a little more bleak and

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this and now he's moving well, paying tolerance is pretty good,

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and so hoping to have him back definitely in the

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next few games.

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Speaker 2: He may is a guy who scores nearly twenty points

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a game most night's over, gives you seven or eight assists,

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seven or eight rebounds. It's an obvious question, but tell

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me from a strategy standpoint, the things you have to

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adjust the team, the team things your team has to

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adjust with Alpi being out of that lineup, not only

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not on the floor, but you know, missing as much

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time as he's missed a Laska a handful of games or.

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Speaker 3: So, he just takes away one one leg of your offense.

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And then it's really the post up threat, the isolation

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thread around the elbows and the things he's really good at,

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and so you kind of go to other actions, other players,

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other personnel, and it's a little bit more limited because

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of the post up thread. You know, Kevin and Jabari

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can get some posts, but not to the extent of

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alprind And just like Kevin draws those attention, Alpi does

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the same thing. And I think overall guys get more

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clean looks with those two on the court.

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Speaker 2: All right, Semiloaded questions if you want to just not

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answer it all the way I get it. Denny Avdia

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shoots a lot of free throws. In fact, he shoots

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more than anybody else in the NBA. When you talk

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to officials in the offseason, there are some guys that

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will chase after fouls and get the free throw line

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like he does. Do officials catch on to that or

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do they come to you and say contact is contact?

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I don't care if the guy goes a free throw

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line twelve or thirteen times, it's because a ball in

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his hand as much and your guys can't seem to

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not fiul. I'm not talking about you in general, but

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just in general about whether or not a player like

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him or sga In James was certainly like that when

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he was here in Houston live at the free throw

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line at least ten times per game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's a discussion that's always had at

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the head coaches and meetings of the referee. He is

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freedom of movement and who's initiating contact. It's definitely the

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hardest thing to officiate in the game. But at the

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same time, you know, you hate to see foul batters

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be rewarded to that extent. But at the same time

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you have to be disciplined as well. And so, yeah,

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they're gonna miss them, definitely, They're gonna stole their body around.

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And for us, it's being more disciplined, not reaching their

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hands in there and then having a nice point of

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contact instead of meeting them that low by the rim.

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And so weren't as disciplined as we need to be

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on him game plan wise, reached in too many times

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and you know, bailed him out there. But the things

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we wanted to do with him from the start we didn't.

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And let him get going, let him get downhill, and

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let him draw some of those files.

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Speaker 2: Uh. You. The schedule has given us a lot of

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off days over the first couple of months. I looked

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at January. It's a hot mess of games. I'm going

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to assuming that the number one thing you can probably

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do is eliminate the number of hardcore practices guys getting

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their shots in to do what they need to do.

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Is that is that the main thing you have to

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do here, beyond thinking about how many back to backs

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are ahead over this for this team in the next

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handful of weeks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. I mean it's games every other day and

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then a bunch of back to backs coming up, and

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so your time is definitely limited. You're very conscious of

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resting bodies and you know, saving one trip to the

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gym here and there they have their energy and juice

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for the game, and so it's always a balance there.

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You know, you up the film sessions, up the individual

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film sessions and team film sessions to you know, make

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sure we're checking boxes on everything that we need to.

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But you do want guys, you know, we're professionals, and

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I trust our guys. They are grinders that they get

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the right amount of work in. They get the rest

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they need or the shots they need, and so we

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have a lot of optional days and guys are always

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in the gym getting up work even if it's not

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a mandatory shoot around.

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Speaker 1: And keeping with that workload. Conversation, I'm in Thompson number

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two in minutes per game Kevin Durant number four. I

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guess obviously two different conversations with both of those guys

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because of their age, But can you kind of take

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us through both of those as far as talking with

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the player, talking with the trainer, and kind of figuring

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out how to try to at least help lighten the

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load a little bit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's definitely something we wanted to be, you know,

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shaved down to be and we are conscious and aware of.

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But at the same time, you know, I'm in there's

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you know, Swiss Army Knight for us, you know, with

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with Fred and point guards out, he's handling that duty initially,

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and then we bring and read or different guys, you know,

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with Dorian being out and Tari being out at times

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and Jay Shaw and the guys that were injured early.

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He was doing so much for us as far as

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defensively and playing the two, three four at times, and

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so you know, he's a young guy, but we still

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want to be conscious and aware of that. With Kevin

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obviously in age factor you are as well. You know,

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the guys that are missing, we've got to stay afloat

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and he's doing such a great job. And Kevin's like Fred,

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he'd never once come off the court anyway. But you know,

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sometimes you have to save guys from themselves and at

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some point we want to save those minutes down while

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we're fully hole and have nobody else on many restrictions.

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Speaker 2: Will Kevin tried to pass up Wilt in the first

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quarter at tomorrow night's game.

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Speaker 3: We wanted him to get a last night, but uh,

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you know, you know he's not. He's been on the

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high street lately, and like like I said, without alpering,

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there the balls in his hands even more. But you know,

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he'll do what he does and he's do need to

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pass up people on the list. And more so than that,

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we encourage our guys to not sit and watch, but

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like I said, join the party. Like last night and

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anybody had a normal shooting night. We're in good shape.

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So we don't want to fully rely on a thirty

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seven year old. Everybody else has to do their part.

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And while he does what he does, and his affision

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as he is scoring is like he is and closing

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like he is.

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Speaker 2: All Right, You've got a lot of guys on your

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bench behind you that will have notepads, iPads looking at

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officials calls. Will one of them be on the Indiana

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Oregon game tomorrow night during the game.

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Speaker 3: As much as I'd love too, we got a game

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to win here and so this is a good chance

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for us to get back at what we missed on

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last night. Yeah, like I said, if we play offensively better,

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you know we'll be in good shape, but shot taking

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the follow it or not. And even with you know,

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the fifteenth free coaster, have you and us being undisciplined

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early and for the first half at least, they still

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only scored one oh three and so we could do

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some things that definitely be better. And we've been number

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one in an offense or defense for the last month

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or so, and we need to have another big night

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defensively while making shots.

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Speaker 2: All right, assuming Oregon wins tomorrow, who do you want

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them playing ole mister Miami.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't matter to me. I love to see him

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in the championship.

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Speaker 2: We'll leave it at that. Thank you. You may for the time,

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enjoy the rest of today. We'll see you tomorrow at

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the arena.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, guys,