← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics CLOSE, but OKC has TOO MUCH Shai Gilgeous Alexander
00:34:31
Boston Celtics nearly topple the Oklahoma City Thunder despite missing Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Nikola Vucevic. Can the Celtics’ deep bench and high-energy defense unlock new playoff possibilities? John Karalis of Celtics On SI spotlights Jaylen Brown’s 34-point, 7-assist performance and Payton Pritchard’s clutch play, analyzing the “stay ready” bench led by Ron Harper Jr., Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh. Key breakdowns include how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP-level scoring proved decisive, the Celtics’ late-game turnovers, and the strategic impact of foul trouble and tight rotations. The evolving roles of bench players, Joe Mazzulla’s sub patterns, and Boston’s resilience against the Western Conference elite drive the debate. Will the Celtics find playoff success once fully healthy? Don’t miss this insightful Locked On Celtics analysis on Boston’s depth, execution, and strengths against NBA contenders.
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John Corrales
It's the Locked on podcast network your team every day
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John Corrales
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now on the locked On Celtics podcast that was a heartbreaking loss, but there's a lot to like about what we saw from the Celtics. Locked On Celtics pod. Home of the winners, baby. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network. Where does your team every day? Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday, so make sure you're subscribed. Get the show on YouTube, get into the comment section. Share your thoughts with me. John Corrales, beat writer covering the Celtics for Sports Illustrated's Celtics on SI. I've been covering this theme for about 20 years now. I've been doing this podcast for 10. I've got bonus podcasts all over the place. They play the Wizards on Saturday. There'll be a bonus podcast after that. Bonus podcast throughout the week as well. So you got to be subscribed. Today's show is brought to you by five Hour Energy. You can have your cake and drink it too. Birthday cake flavor is back. No fork needed. Vanilla E. Cakey flavor. Caffeinated kick, no sugar. It's party time. Order now at 5hourenergy.com or on Amazon. Today we're talking about a loss. 104, 102 to the OKC Thunder. Tough one this is. They had their chances, but I'm kind of in a good mood after this game. I I this and the San Antonio game. It's. It's weird to be this positive I guess after two losses. But I, I'm greatly encouraged by what we saw against the top two seeds in the West. This has been actually very encouraging basketball. I'll get to individual performances. Jalen Brown, Peyton Pritchard, later on. I'll spend the second segment talking about the bench and that, that whole second unit, the. The other guys, the other guys, the. The stay ready crew, however you want to call them, that group, was a major, major difference. And the only reason why the Celtics. The only reason, but the big reason why the Celtics not only had a chance, but had a big lead at some point in this game. But right away, let's just start with the game flow. And this was. It comes down to. They have Shea Gildis, Alexander. The Celtics didn't have Derrick White, Jason Tatum, Nikola Vucevic, and once again, the Celtics could have really used Vuch. Namish Kata was in foul trouble early. It's been a. A little bit of a tough stretch for Keda. He's been fouling. He hasn't been as good as he's been in the past. He was pretty good in the second half, especially defensively, but it's been a little bit of a tough stretch for him. So not having Vuch hurt, not having Tatum, obviously, as he continues now, this was just as a side note, this was planned. This isn't a thing. This isn't a re. Injury. I, I think everybody understands this, but just to be clear, this is just part of the plan. He's gonna miss games from time to time. Don't worry about it. Derrick White hurt his knee. I don't know how serious that is. They really waited till the end of the. The pregame to rule him out. So it wasn't. It doesn't feel like it's that bad. If it was bad, they probably would have ruled him out before. So hopefully he's back soon. Maybe a game. I don't know if it's going to be a second game or not, but still, having. Having those guys would have helped. And the Thunderhead shake. Gilders, Alexander, who. Yeah, I know you're probably annoyed at how he grifts for fouls. And there was that one hot mic moment in the game where Jalen, you know, it was SGA kind of driving left and bumping and kind of initiating the contact and flailing and all of that, and it becomes a foul. And he's like. Jalen's like, that's not basketball. And it's understandable to be that frustrated. Yeah, that's true. However, Shay Gildas Alexander also is good enough to put up 35 points on 18 shots. He went to the line eight times. You know, Jalen went to the line 14 times. So the free throws weren't really a difference. The Celtics won The free throws 19 to 13. So can you be a little bit upset at a couple of those fouls that SGA drew? Sure, I get it. I'm not going to argue that. At the same time it wasn't egregious and he just got to his spots late in the game and it's, it's a pick your poison kind of thing. He was 13 of 18 in the game. Fourth quarter SGA 7 of 8, 0 threes, 0 free throws in the fourth quarter. He just put up 14 points on 7 of 8 shooting. He got got to his spots. He got to that mid range and he hit the jumpers. That's it. This is why Shay Gilders Alexander is probably gonna win the MVP again this year. It's either him or Jokic. And at this point, the way, the way the, the Thunder are kind of being carried and no J Dub in this game, no Hartenstein in this game and it's just SGA over and over and over again and you got to tip your cap and just say, you know, what do you do? What do you do in those spots? You don't have Tatum with the length right. If you're looking at a wing defender with some length, that might, might have been. Now Jalen took the, took the assignment, the defensive assignment. He did a good enough job but the picks came in and there were switches and you know, late in the game everybody always switches everything because you don't want to get beaten. You don't want to get beaten down the on a drive, you don't want to get beaten on kickouts. So you switch, switch switches and sometimes who was. It was Baylor Scheireman that kind of let him get to a spot. Ugo let him get to a spot. At one point I remember just different guys switch on to him. There's nothing you can do if he's hitting 7 of 8 on those mid range shots. Congratulations. That's why you're and you know the reigning MVP and potentially back to back mvp. So too much SGA and the Celtics need to be perfect when that's happening. Even with all of everything that SGA was doing, the Celtics were right there. The problem is in the fourth quarter they weren't perfect. They turned the ball over four times. Even if it's just three points off those turnovers. OKC turned it over twice for zero points. So. And that turnover was Case and Wallace and Jalen Williams. No, none from Shea Gildis Alexander, who did turn the ball over a couple times earlier in the game. And I think the Celtics did a good job on him in those spots. But the Celtics, four turnovers, two of them were illegal screens. Again, annoying, right, because it's one of those. The screens, were they illegal? Yep. And that's kind of where the conversation ends. Except you can say everybody sets illegal screens in those, in those spots, though. As long as it's not egregious, what's the big deal? And Lou Dort makes him look egregious. He feels it. He goes, he just drops. He puts his hands on the floor and you call it. Because if you're officiating and watching for an illegal screen and you see a guy with his legs way outside his shoulders and he's set up too wide, that's an illegal screen. And if, if the illegal screen gives the team an advantage, like an over outsized advantage, then that's when you blow the whistle when Lou Dort goes down and like hits the deck. Even though he's probably one of the most sturdy people you're ever going to find. He's like a, a running back, you know, low center of gravity. He's just huge. There's no way Luca Garza is knocking him over. Right. There's no way Namish Kate is knocking him over. But he, he feels it and he goes down and there are the calls. So those are turnovers and that, that takes away opportunities, even though they're not live ball turnovers, which you know are better, the non live ball turnovers, I mean you're taking away opportunities to give yourself a chance to put up shots. The Celtics put up 18 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter. They were 4 of 18. So they needed more bites at the apple. But even so, the Celtics missed seven three pointers in the fourth quarter. Brown missed one, Hauser missed two, Pritchard missed three, Garza missed one. Just tough, tough, tough. I gotta say the Pritchard got good looks. The, the out of bounds play that the Celtics ran was really good. The way they used Jalen to draw a crowd and draw attention. And then they used Hauser and Garza. I believe it was to set screens to prevent anybody from getting out to Peyton. Peyton got the ball and that was 30, a 32 foot attempt, which is far. And to be in that spot, kind of turn, you know, catch turn, shoots in, you know, at that distance, it's tough because the momentum isn't carrying you towards the basket. You're catching, turning, and then leaning your body to try to get that something extra. Normally when somebody's taking from 32ft, it's. You're stepping into it. You're bringing the ball up, you're stepping into it. You. You've got your momentum moving that way, and it's a little easier to just get the legs underneath that shot and to catch, turn, and fire that shot. You really saw Peyton. You really had to lean to get that power, to get it that far. And he still airballed it short. It was right online, though. That shot was right online. They had it. It was right there. I'm not really too worried about the rebound, but this was the Shay Gilgis Alexander thing. You know, you overreact. You or you react to him. I don't think there's any such thing as overreacting to sga. He's awesome. You react to him. He moves the ball. It goes out to Caruso in the corner. He. You know, the defense is shifting and reacting now. Now you have to react to the pass. And it's just so easy for guys to get into position. A guy like Chet Holmgren to get into position, and they didn't have a big on the floor. The celtics didn't have a big on the floor. It just went over Sam's head. It goes into Chet's arms. He gets fouled. You throw your hands up, you're like, yeah, what are you going to do? That. That. That's unfortunate that he caught it and got fouled with point 8 left. If it was just an extra half second for the ball to swing, maybe it. It. The. The foul doesn't happen in time or whatever, you know, so, hey, that. That part is what it is. But good job. Good job all the way around by the celtics. Good job by the second unit. The bench crew. The stay ready guys, however you want to characterize them. I want to get into that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by doordash. Season's heating up, and doordash has a way to keep fans in their bag the whole way through. Whether you're catching the highlights, the tunnel fits or just your favorite player, Doordash makes the entire season more fun. But because every player has their bag with doordash, you have one too. Doordash keeps your snacks, stock your gear fresh, and your watch party vibes absolutely on point. There are nights where your team stresses you out. You shouldn't be stressed out by the Celtics in this one, but if you need a late night dessert to kind of get you through, this would be a great night or would have been a great night. I don't know if 2am anything's getting delivered around Boston, but you can try. You never know when the late night interviews hit and you need a bag of chips around midnight. DoorDash it's built for that too. The group chat says. Pull up DoorDash makes you make sure you show up prepared. You can get snacks, cups, even a phone charger if you need it. From tip off to overtime, Stay in your bag and order on DoorDash. Get snacks, drinks, gear, whatever you need to get you through the season delivered right to your door. Door dash in your bag all season long. Today's show is also brought to you by fanduel. It's college basketball season and you need to get in on the action. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings. You got upsets. UMass upsetting, upsetting Miami of Ohio. Big things happening and FanDuel gives you a way to turn all of this energy into bigger potential wins with the College Basketball Parlay Profit boost. You can build any college hoops parlay that you want. Rivalry games, ranked matchups, whatever you want. You can mix spreads, totals, player props to match how you see the slate playing out. And you can apply that profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout. Go safe. Go bold. Ride with the team. Team you've been following all season. It's your parlay. It's your style. Now you've got more upside behind it. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. That's FanDuel.com when you sign up you're going to see Set your budget. Set your limit. It's there for you to gamble responsibly. They will help you do it. Just whatever your budget is. Whatever you can afford to lose is your budget. Check it out@fanduel.com FanDuel play your game. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. You're an everydayer with me Monday through Friday. Why not join the everyday club? You can get ad free audio and and access to the group chat on Discord. It's five bucks a month, fifty bucks for the year if you sign up before the NCAA tournament tips off. You can get into our everyday or club bracket pool on Discord for a chance to win Lockdown merch. So check it out. Use the code March to get your first month free at lockdown celtics.supercast.com lockdown celtics.supercast dot com so let's get back to the conversation here. Press the wrong button. There we go. Early on, Namish Keita was in foul trouble and then Jalen Brown gets into foul trouble. And so you have a little blip at the end of the first quarter where it's Ron Harper Jr. Ugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheireman, Luca Garza and Jordan Walsh. Think about that just for a second here in the first quarter of a game the Celtics are trying to win. Foul trouble or no foul trouble. Ugo, Ron Harper Jr. Baylor Luca and Jordan Walsh. And it worked. They were playing well. That's the thing. If I'd said this lineup was out there in the first quarter against okc, you'd be like, oh man. Tank commander Joe Missoula didn't think he would buy into the tank this hard. No. Because these guys have been playing incredibly. Ron Harper Jr. Has been great and he, he definitely belongs. And I think that he's going to end up being the last, the, the last guy signed this season. The Celtics are playing the Duck the tax game. This is Friday the 13th. Ooh, scary. Saturday the 14th you're going to see news of Max Shulga being signed to either a 10 day contract or a standard contract. You're going to see a, another player being signed to a, a 10 day contract. And then you're going to, at the, on the last day of the season, I believe you're going to see Ron Harper Jr. Signed to a standard deal so he can be eligible for the playoffs. He's on the two way deal that's going to carry him right through the end of the season. He's got plenty of games, I believe so he should be fine. And I think the, the reward will be getting him on that standard deal. Not only do you get rewarded, you'll get a playoff share. And so there's a little extra money involved there to kind of help you with the, you know, they're not giving him the extra money during the season, but the playoff share will give him a little something extra. So he will be rewarded. You have Ugo Gonzalez, who obviously I'm driving the hype train on Ugo. Ugo was great in this game. The energy, the defense. He had one possession where he got a block, then he got a steal to start the transition. That was Ugo in his high energy nutshell here in this game. This is, and this is not even the reason why I think he's going to be great. But this is when you Put the things that I see from him instinctively, and this effort that you see, I. I don't think this is effort, like fake effort, like I can't wait to be good so I don't have to put in this effort anymore type of thing. I think this is just gonna be how hard he plays forever. And when you tap into the rest of his, you know, talent, it's gonna be really special. Baylor Shireman has been great. Luca Garza, play him, don't play him. Sit him for a week. Don't, you know, two weeks of DNPs, he'll come in and play fine. Jordan Walsh hitting threes, playing defense. All of these guys were. Were great. The Celtics bench did a phenomenal job. They had 11 for Ugo, 8 for Jordan, 7 for Luca, 5 for Ron Harper Jr. So was that 19, 24, 31 points overall for the Celtics bench, which is great to get that kind of production out of your bench players. It really was kind of special to watch the way these guys continue to step up in these roles. And the best answer post game from it came from Peyton Pritchard, where he was asked, so what are you learning from these guys? And Peyton's like, we don't learn anything. We're not learning anything. I think those of us on the outside, we sit there and we. It's still. Because we didn't think certain things. The beginning of the year, it still becomes kind of like, oh, man, this is so amazing that they're able to do this. How? This is crazy. And the guys in the locker room, Peyton, Jalen, all those guys, it's like, are they surprised? No, this is. This is March 13th. There are what, 16 games left? Something like that. If you haven't figured it out by now that these guys are capable of coming in and playing great, then you're never going to figure it out. But even so, even so, it. To have all of them come in and all of them at the same time play well, it just continues to be amazing against and against okc, right against the team, the defending champs, against another high energy, very physical team with a great defense. The Celtics kind of okc'd OKC like they played a physical, strong defense, forced turnovers. They won the second chance points in the first half. They won the points off turnovers. Battle. The bench was great. In fact, I almost think because Jalen played almost the entire second half might have been worth playing Ron Harper a little bit more or Jordan Walsh a little bit more. If you're going to second guess anything, it might have Been like, hey, how about for four minutes, give Jalen a little bit of a break. And these guys have proven it. Get. Get these other guys in there. Ultimately, obviously, the Celtics had their opportunities, and, you know, I'm not. I'm not second guessing Joe, really, but it would have been nice. It would have been nice to see those guys a little bit more in the. In the fourth quarter, especially, you know, early in the fourth quarter, just, just to catch a little bit of a break. You can always call a timeout if you need to. To get them out. It's okay to call a timeout, but those guys were. Were great. I haven't even talked really much about Jalen and Peyton in the other individual nights. So we'll do that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by 5 Hour Energy. It's the flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including options. New ones like confetti craze, fruity rainbow or cotton candy. There's something for everybody. Board is set. The flavors are ready. Let's get my number one pick for the five hour energy flavor draft. Now, I've been going with grape. I know I'm. That's been my thing. So I'm going to change it up. We're going to do like a redraft, and I'm going to say I can't pick grape. And we're going to go with other choices. Now all of these things are no sugar. And that's the big part of what five hour energy gives you a boost with caffeine but no sugar, which makes the sugar crash. Just eliminates that. So check out the different flavors. I'm not the big sweet tooth guy. So confetti or cotton candy. Yes. Is it delicious? Does it taste sugary even though there's no sugar? A nostalgic carnival style taste. Sure. Absolutely. You want sweetness from start to finish. That's a great choice for you. I like fruity flavors. Now I'm going to pass on the grape because I've been doing that. I could go with cherry cherries. Another good, solid backup. Right? Bold cherry candy style flavor. Bright, punchy tastes. Clean, slightly tangy finish. But I'm going to go with the. The tropical burst. Tasty caffeine with island vibes. Juicy fruit forwards. Tropical profile. I do like some good tropical fruit. Smooth, rounded flavor. It's basically island style fruit punch vibe. That's great. I'm. I think if I. If I'm not going with grape. If I'm. I think this is a good second choice. So all of these are available at five hour energy.com five the number five hourenergy.com or on Amazon. Today's show is also brought to you by Indeed. You gotta hire. You got an open spot. It's chaotic at the office and you're just hoping somebody's gonna come along. Don't hope. Make sure you find somebody that checks all the boxes with Indeed sponsored jobs. In this minute that I'm gonna be Talking to you, 27 people will be hired on Indeed around the world according to Indeed data. And just in this minute, it's a lot of people being hired. You need to spend less time searching and hoping that the right person falls into your lap and more time interviewing the candidates that check all your boxes with Indeed sponsored jobs. They will put out the work, they will put out the the bat signal, and they will find the people that check your boxes. Why would you act any differently than the people who are putting together the team that you root for? They know they need certain players in this spot that check certain boxes. Look at how good the Celtics are when everybody's in the right spot. You want that same thing for your business. So spend less time searching, more time actually interviewing with Indeed sponsored jobs. You get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen. Every day, check out Lockdown NBA locked on NBA game night. They're both in the same feed. Game night's got every game covered with some input from all the local experts. So go check that out to keep up on everything that's happening. Locked on NBA has all the stories from around the league. Not that button, John. Including. That's the button Reaction to Bama, to bios, 83 point game and all of that. So check that out. Okay, let's wrap up the show with just Jalen Brown, 34 points, 13 of 14 from the line, seven assists. His sixth straight game with seven assists. He did have five files, but he had. And he had six turnovers. He did get. I think he tried to do a little bit too much. I think he might have gotten a little tired down the stretch. I think that's why I would have liked to have seen Maybe Ron Harper Jr. Maybe Jordan Walsh. Both of those guys were playing so well. Jordan was hitting shots, he was hitting threes. It would have been fine to play him in the fourth quarter, but Jalen Joe just went with Jalen the entire second half and Jalen was. Was good. The turnovers, I think there were a couple of times where he like he was ready to make the move. And I just think OKC was kind of timing between the leg dribble and just kind of felt they could feel when Jay Jalen was going to make his move and they got in there to disrupt the dribble and force a couple of loose balls, a jump ball in there, you know, so Jalen was generally good. Efficiency still not there, which we talk about. I just got a question in the mailbag about his MVP candidacy. I think that the. The efficiency has hurt his case to a point where I just don't think he's going to be considered any more than maybe third or fourth in the. In the voting. But still, it's going to be. He's going to be in that mix and it's a good shine of sign of respect for the incredible season that he's had. But 34 points on 25 shots, the efficiency is kind of low. But he did make some great defensive plays. A block, two steals. He had that pick six for the dunk. He played great. And there were a couple moments late in the game where the Celtics had some incredible ball movement. I think it was the third quarter where 1. One play resulted in a Jordan Walsh three that missed. But the ball movement, the decision making was incredible. And I think Jalen was at the beginning of that because they were setting up to try to take a charge from him and he kind of read it, he stopped it, he moved the ball, he swung it and it. The whole thing resulted in a great play. It started with Jalen being poised and patient and that I thought was a really important kind of play there, really important kind of moment. So definitely things that, that, that Jalen could have cleaned up but was still pretty good. Same thing with, with Peyton, who did hit a buzzer beater to end the first half and did hit a couple of buzzer beaters and in, you know, to beat shot clocks. And with the Celtics out out, Derek and Jason, you know, he basically Peyton and Jalen were the two ball handlers and really Peyton is the ball handler in this group. His second quarter was what, you know, him in that group in that second quarter was him and the bench guys was. That was. That was where the Celtics played their best and built a. A nice lead. I think the lead got up to seven at one point. So Peyton did a good job and again, I thought that that shot was gonna hit at the end, Sam Houser, solid, but, you know, three of 10, two of eight from three. You want to see him hit a couple of shots there. I mentioned Charman, who had seven rebounds and five assists. Keita, I think, is kind of in a little bit of a struggle, though. His second half was definitely better. And then I've already talked about all the bench guys, so, look, I just find a lot of this to be positive. I think the Celtics did a great job in both the San Antonio and the OKC games. I think they have a lot to be proud of. I know there are no moral victories, but it's not about moral victories. It's about you have these. You got to put yourself in position to win, put yourself in position to, to give yourself a chance. And with Jalen ejected from the San Antonio game and Jason on minutes restriction and now no Jason, no Derek, no voucher in either of these games to give yourself a chance to beat the top two seeds in the west, that's, that's kind of all you can ask for, right? Because it you now you're at a point where you're like, if you, if you had Derek, if you had Jason, maybe you would have won or even without them, if you just didn't get busted on those illegal screens. Maybe if you were just a little cleaner on that. Jalen said after the game, you know, if I just. Maybe a couple more kickouts, maybe just move the ball a little bit more, it would have been better off. You just kind of learn those things as you're going along, and that could have been something. The turnovers in the fourth quarter hurt, the illegal screens hurt, those types of things hurt because you don't want to lose that shot field goal attempt battle, which they did. Those are margins that both these teams are very good at. And okc1, and that's kind of why they, they ended up winning this game by two, because they just give themselves a couple more chances. And those chances happen to be in the hands of Shea, Gilgis, Alexander. But I just feel like good execution or good intense, maybe not always the best execution, but generally speaking, they're, they're playing good basketball. The reads are there, everything is there. It just makes you feel good about when it comes down, down to a playoff series, that they'll find a way. You know, the reality of this game was the Celtics should have gotten smoked because you're missing key players. And while missing key players, two other key players were in foul trouble early. And that's a spot where the Celtics really should have just been, you know, the Thunder should have been running away with it in the second quarter. The Celtics defense was incredible. They did a great job. So as much as Peyton says we shouldn't be surprised, I do kind of get surprised still sometimes that these guys are all putting together the same kind of effort and execution at the same time, and it doesn't hurt them. You know, it's funny because my wife and I were talking earlier before the game. She's, you know, she said, oh, this is not, you know, I said, it's not going to go well. But every time I think it's not going to go well, they find a way. And like, I knew coming in, like, yeah, the reality is they should have gotten smoked. But also, I know the Celtics are going to find some way to keep it close. So even as it's happening, I'm like, wow, I can't believe it's happening. At the same time, it's like. But I kind of can. So I'm. I continue to be impressed by this team. They. I can never count them out. There's the basketball, real realist side of me that says, I know what should happen. But with these guys, they kind of. The should is not what happens. It's. They find ways to annoy the hell out of the opponent and put themselves in position to win. Comes down to a few different plays. The Thunder made them and the Celtics didn't. If they're fully healthy, it's going to be an interesting matchup down the road. Of course I will be here whenever that matchup happens. I will be here with a bonus podcast after the game Saturday against the Wizards. Hopefully, that's a very easy game and we can get that. We can get to the podcast and everything real quick after the game because the story of the game will have been told already. But whenever it happens, I will have a bonus podcast, so make sure you're subscribed. You can watch the show on YouTube, get into the comment section there and share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Here on the Lockdown Podcast network is your team every day.
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