Sports At 7

Mavs tie the series 1-1 with the L.A. Clippers. 

Episode Transcript

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The Downbeat on ninety seven one TheFreaky. It is seven oh five on
a beautiful Wednesday morning in Dallas,Ford word, you're listening to the Morning

(00:26):
Downbeat, heard regularly weekdays from sixto ten am, right here on your
home of the Dallas Mavericks ninety sevenpoint one The Freak. Stream us online
via the iHeartRadio app. Interact withus, be a text message or hell
call us. The number is thesame either way. Two one four seven

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eight seven one nine seven one.Mikey and myself and sweet JJ will be
here until ten o'clock and talking allgood things, Little Mavericks. Maybe we'll
sneak in a little Stars playoff action. Lots of news stories, exciting fun
news stories, a couple of songs. Yeah, what a day? What
a day? A review of thespear at nine. Dude with a special

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guest, A very special guest.Dude. We're loaded today. M h.
Mikey fighting threw a little bit ofa you went to the doctor yesterday,
even even a little sick since yougot back from Las Vegas. Yeah,
just I mean just congested. Ididn't feel too bad. Pornography for
the win, But you could nothave broadcast yesterday. No, there's no

(01:33):
way your voice was gone. Icouldn't have. I was stuffed. My
whole head was just stuffed. It'sone of those where I sound like hell.
I do feel like hell, butit's not like torture, like like
strap throat or something that is completelydebilitating. But it was not a good
idea yesterday. I'm not itself soundlike crap. I'm glad you're here.
I feel believe me. I knowbecause when you get back from Vegas.

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Yeah, and then ask for anextra day off because your quote unquote sick
feel good. So we're gonna befull strike tomorrow. Kevin's gonna be back
and Downbeat returns and it's gonna begreat. Do you think bosses heads would
turn if Kevin tried to call insick tomorrow? Man, there's something about

(02:14):
big travel day. I mean itmight be. And if he is good,
we'll take tomorrow off too and getpunking kell solidarity back in here.
All right. Uh. The onething that will be a thread throughout this
show is the excitement and the victoryof last night in Los Angeles time for

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Sports at seven and now Sports atseven. It was a late night,
but it was a great night anduh life, I guess for your Dallas,

(02:57):
Maverick's looking pretty damn good as theywent on the road, got to
win in Game two over the LAClippers ninety six ninety three. Clippers got
Kawhi Leonard back, and after theGame one defeat where the Mass just sucked,
I mean, we'll talk a lotabout defense, I think on both
sides, you know, as wediscussed last night, but Clippers are tough

(03:19):
on d you still got to hitshots, and the Mass just shot incredibly
poorly, specifically in the first halfin Game one, and they looked as
bad as we've seen them in monthssince the New year, just about.
So, you know, there's noshame in losing game one on the road
to a you know, a goodbasketball especially when they had all that time
off and Luca and Kai didn't evenplay in the final two games of the

(03:45):
season. You know, not havingthose guys on the court, there was
gonna be a little bit of rust. I think that needed to get knocked
off. You've got dudes that arenot used to being in this, you
know, under the in the spotlight, playoff basketball is a different animal,
and you guys, you got guysyou look, you got a freaking rookie,
a twenty year old rookie that isan important, massively important piece of

(04:11):
this puzzle and lively, and thenyou've got the new acquisitions. These guys
don't uh, they're not used tothis. Yeah, it takes a little
time to kind of get your feetwet. And I think that's that was
a little bit of trial by firein game one, for sure, But
what a hell of a response lastnight. Let me ask you this,
And I think it's very normal ifyou just watch the MAVs and you don't

(04:38):
watch the NBA, or maybe youwatch see a few games through the year,
and then you focus in on theplayoffs and you're looking at the MAVs
going they don't look the same asI'm used to seeing them. Things aren't
the office, Vince doesn't look asas fluid as I'm used as I'm accustomed
to seeing them. That not everything'sas smooth, you know, as as

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I've grown accustomed to watching how theyfigured this thing out and did what they
did as far as winning like whatsixteen out of twenty games to end the
season, with two of those gamesbeing the games that LUKEA and Kyrie did
not play in. Yeah, itlooks different because that's what happens in the
playoffs. The refs they don't callanything. Defense is ratcheted up, the

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scoring goes down, and everything thatyou try to achieve comes with some form
or forms of obstacles. Yeah,it's not easy, I think, And
what do you think? I thinkbasketball is the sport where you most crank

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it up for the playoffs, andI don't. I'm not taking away from
any other sport and hockey you could. The reason I say it's higher than
hockey's because I think hockey players arefull pretty much full crank every shift they
step on the ice. I thinkbasketball you can all, within reason,
go through the motions regular season,but man, every like it's like,

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you crank it up to NHL levelsin the NBA playoffs And it looked different.
Man. That deep, Okay,And we don't watch the Clippers that
much, and I was maybe alittle too reliant on that interview. I
heard with a blogger for the Clipperswho basically was like, look, we
can't hang with the MAVs. Likethey're like, do you think the Clippers

(06:26):
are gonna, you know, competeor beat the MAVs and like I was
like, no, we can't stopKyrie, we can't stop Luca. And
to hear that reinforces what I thought, which is the MAVs are white hot.
I'm like, all right, Mapsare gonna be fine. They're gonna
win the series. I still thinkthey're gonna win the series. And I
did, I mean, I tweetedit before the game. Yes, I
think they're winning Game two. Ithink they're winning last night. I think
the MAVs are a better team.But all that said, the Clippers are

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a really, really good team withsome dudes with a lot of experience,
and Harden's better than I. Youknow, I hadn't watched them all that
much, and it's still a toughdude who maybe doesn't have the hops or
the exact speed that used to have, but that dude can still fill it
up. Paul George can too.They're a very good team, but they're
very tough defensively, and they clampeddown on the MAVs in both those games,

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specifically the first half of Game one, but both teams clamped down last
night. Yeah, that was youknow, it's almost cliche at this point
nineties basketball. You know it lookedlike it. It didn't feel like almost
any game I've seen all season thatinvolved the Mavericks. But the one.
The best part is the MAVs weredoing it as much as the Clippers were.

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I've never seen the mass defense lookthat good this year. I mean
they've they've been really really good ondefense, but we haven't seen anything like
that where it is. You know, it probably sounds, even not even
twenty four hours, like a cliche, but that was a heavyweight fight and
it was it was a slug fest. You know. Listen to Kevin Gray's

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podcast this morning on the Way inhis big recap of the of the game
that he did last night, andhe used that term a couple of two
or three different times, that itwas a slug fest. And the Mavericks
in Game one, they didn't playat full crank. I think they they

(08:15):
were at sixty. They were atsixty. They may have been a little
bit under sixty two percent, butI think that because of their inexperience in
the playoffs, or a lot ofthe components on their team, the fact
that they had so much time off, I think they went into that game
thinking they're going to play regular seasonbasketball. And the ball rotation, the

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perimeter passing, the open lanes thatthose that that group has become accustomed to.
In the back half of their season, those things were not there,
and I think they got frustrated whenthose things weren't there. And the only
answer to that is to match theintensity and play full crank just like the
other team. And they did thatlast night. And if that stuff as

(09:00):
a wash, then yeah, theMavericks are the better I think the overall,
the Mavericks are the better basketball team. I think the deeper basketball team.
Injuries notwithstanding, you know, you'redealing with a couple of who knows
how long the lower back is gonnanag Danny Gafford, who knows what Tim
Hardaway's future looks like in this playoffrun. But you know, pound for

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pound, I think the Mavericks area better team. And you gotta absolutely
love that they stole that game lastnight, because, make no mistake,
the way I was watching that gamelast night, I wasn't sure that the
Mavericks were gonna win until it wasmathematically secure. I agree. Well,
the one thing I'll say is fora defensive battle like that, when it's
so low scoring relative like a sixor seven point lead a month ago is

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like a fifteen point lead. Youknow, Like the defense is so tough
on both sides. It is atleast multiple possessions, and as good as
the defense of the Mass are playing, it's it's hard to chip way.
But this is the NBA can stillknock down three three, and it's you
know, there was a moment wherethe Mass did that in the third quarter
where the Clippers fought all the wayback to tie it right and then bam,
it was Kyrie as Kyrie and thathad back to back threes, and

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I'm like, oh, that isso exactly what we needed. But generally
speaking, getting six points real quickin a game like that is hard.
So having a seven point lead feelslike something. But I'm totally with you.
No point until the end, Iwas like, Okay, they got
this, But man, that itwas I thought it was fun. I
thought I don't know if it wasfun. It was just different because of

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the defense in that game, andthe rest were letting him play. They
were hounding Zubach on the inside becausehe tore them up in Game one and
they made his life hard. Yeah, today, how about the blocks they
had five first quarter blocks. Don'tknow if that's like a record on the
year, maybe not, but itfelt like a lot. Luca got one,
Gaff and PJ both got one inthe in the first first quarter.

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Five blocks in the first quarter wasgreat. They were just so tough on
the interior defense and they were greaton the xterior defense too. They were
a garden three point line. Imean, the Clippers are not gonna shoot,
just like the MAVs aren't gonna shootwhat they shot in Game one.
You know, the Clippers are probablynot gonna shoot twenty six percent or whatever
it was from behind the arc ingame two. Like numbers regulate, but

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I knew the MAVs numbers would regulateand they'd make more shots, and they
did so in Game two, andthat leads to victory when they shoot closer
to their average. Yeah, thatwas the frustrating thing about Game one,
because you know in the playoffs thatoffense is harder to come by, especially
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 ofthe regular season, you knew that that
stuff wasn't just gonna come so easyand be there because it is the playoffs.
But the one thing that you canlook at if you're getting frustrated that
the threes aren't as open as theynormally are, if little bunnies are getting
aren't going in right around the basketthat you're used to seeing, if the

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freaking alleyu the wild above the rimstuff, you don't see any of that
right now. If you get frustratedwith that, don't worry about that so
much. Watch how your team isplaying, in what intensity level that they're
playing when they're on defense. Andthe Mavericks did not play an intensely defensive
game in Game one last night.They absolutely showed up full crank and sold

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out. Man. Yeah, andit still was a Look, it was
a three point game. And thisis going this. I think a long
series benefits the MAVs. If thisgoes six or seven, I think that
I think that benefits the MAVs inthe long run because I think that they
are more youthful and and I don'tknow, I just I like the idea

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that if this goes to a gameseven, I like the MAVs winning a
Game seven out there just because Ithink that the I think the Clippers are
are probably not going to be ableto sustain that type of intensity for as
long as I think the MAVs cando it well. And the reason why,
I'm sorry real quick. There's areason why they were the best defensive
team throughout the latter part of theirof their regular season in the NBA,

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and I think that's going to carryover. They just needed a wake up
call, and they got it inGame one exactly, and to immediately go
and win Game two and steal homefield or home court advantage back, because
I know it's like seventy seven percentor something if you go down two.
But even had they lost last night, I wouldn't have been in complete panic
mode, not at all, youknow what I mean? Not at all.
Maybe that's just because we've seen themplay so well over multiple months,

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but I feel like there's no shamein going two on the road now.
I'm real glad it didn't happened,especially in the way it played out last
night, Like when the Clippers didtake whatever, they got their lead up
to five or six, yeah,I think they got it up to six
at one point, yeah, andthen the Mavericks I think went on like
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
we have to compare the deepest playoffrun is twenty eleven and how unique and
interesting that team was, and howrole players stepped up in certain moments or
in certain games where you have thePaygia game against LA, where you have

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the Brian Cardinals scrappy game with thebaseline defensive play that he made, and
I can't remember what series it was, but those flashes stand out to you.
If the Mavericks do end up takingthis thing all the way, one
of the moments that I will rememberfrom last night, and it won't be

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the fact that PJ was excellent inthe fourth quarter. It won't be that
Kyrie did what Kyrie does in thefourth quarter, because Kyrie, Luke and
PJ were ostensibly the reason that theywon that game last night. But the
moments that will stand out to meare the contributions of a guy that is
so maligned and so frustrating to watch. But Maxy maxed out last night,
and he was frustrating early in thegame, but he was in there for

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a reason, and that guy playeddefense like he's supposed to he was excellent
last night, and he drives mebananas offensively, But yeah, you have
to remember what he does defensively whenoffense, and it's it doesn't help him
that Luca is very frustrated with himoffensively. It seems, you know,

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well, he trusted him with anopen look three and Maxie absolutely drained it
at an incredibly important moment in thatgame. It was the it may have
been the most timely three pointer thatthe Mavericks made last night, but the
offensive rebound after I believe it wasa Kyrie miss and he got the offensive

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rebound and got it back to Kai. Kai got fouled, put him at
the line. That to me wasmaybe the most important part of the game.
Yeah, well, especially because kleebersonly getting those minutes because Gafford was
hurt. Yeah, definitely, ina nine minutes we had twenty eight.
Well, keep in mind, keepin mind Jason did go to that smaller
rotation in game one, and itseemed like the Mavericks had a good stretch

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of success playing small with Maxi inthere where you I don't believe at that
point you had either Gafford or Livelyin the game. In game one,
they did that last night, andit was pretty effective in stretches. I
think Jason Kidd. You know,we had a lot of criticism of Jason
Kidd, maybe not us, notas much as the noise that's out there

(16:37):
calling for his firing. I mean, remember that he's making really really smart
decisions right now in the playoffs.And another thing, real quick, Mikey,
I don't want to know what youthink about this, the Luca technical.
I know Jason Kidd referred to thatin his postgame press conference as being
a key moment in the game becauseit got him fired up. I wonder,

(16:59):
I wonder how important that was forLuca to get that technical at that
point in the game, because itseemed like I felt like he got a
call later on in the game andby the way that the refs were calling
that game that he might not havegotten otherwise. And the reason I say
that is, you ever question thisis 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
response of I'm sick of you,I'm tired of this. I can't take
any more, so I'm going topunish you because I can't manage my emotions
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
cumulative of his not just that onemoment. I think it's the culmination of
an evening of you yelling at me, and I'm sick of it. But
it shouldn't be sick of it personallylike I feel, you know, like
I'm sick of your attitude. Imean, it's as his position as a

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referee, he has to take astand. I guess for the other referees,
I think in their head that's whatthey think, because I don't think
what Luca did specifically on that oneplay is just is the only reason he
called the tech, you know,I think it's You've been in my face,
yep a lot of times, andnow I need to back you off.
I mean, but it's a catand mouse game, it is.
But no, remember this and anyonegets frustrated with Luca at least in his

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head, and what he is doingis building toward changing what the ref gives
him. He is from the minutehe got in the league, he thought
he should be treated like a superstar, not a rookie and get superstar calls,
which in his first few years didn'tyou know, you worn't it again,
he didn't deserve. Now he is, he should get superstar calls.
Now. He shouldn't bitch every singleplay, but that one he was hacked

(19:00):
twice? Yeah, too tight,you got hit twice? Yes, yeah,
so he was right, yes,and and and and I think,
in the dude, it's such ait's such a chess game of emotions the
way he rides these refs, Ireally do. I don't. Sometimes we
we see him as just a petulantbaby that can't that that's immature. But

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maybe there's more strategy to what he'sdoing than even we realize. And I
think by him being demonstrab demonstrative enoughin that moment to get that technical I
think after the referees have a chanceto let their emotions settle and realize that
they missed that call, subconsciously,you cannot help but but issue a makeup.

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Yeah, and I think they didthat, or not even a makeup,
but based on the way that theywere calling that game, by letting
a lot of stuff go something thatI think they normally would have let go
earlier in the game. They decidedto call it later in the game,
and you saw Luca got a foulcalled on him where the Clippers were kind
of flipping out over it. Butthose things make a difference. He's a

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smart kid man, especially when youtalk about basketball like you. I think
you have to factor that into itas well. I wonder if you,
just like in the NFL, youcan't go holding on every play. I
mean, as ball dominant as Lucais, like he might by the finest
letter of the NBA rule book,get fouled on just about every time he

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enters the paint, you know whatI mean. And he reacts like that's
how it should be called, eventhough he knows it's not gonna get called
like that. You're only going toget so many of them. They cannot
call a foul every single time youapproach the basket, even though maybe if
someone does it, if you gotif you graze him with a fingernail,
he's gonna spaz out on it.But by the letter of the law,
I think he's right more often thanhe's wrong. So whatever, I don't

(20:56):
know. I don't know how thataffected the rest of the game. It
doesn't matter because Luca was great.Kyrie was great in the not the very
beginning, because they were I sawsomething from Kyrie there was interesting Him and
hard and were like kind of goingat it Yea and their former teammates.
But there was no love lost,it seemed, and I almost saw Kyrie
getting a little angry. But he'sthe management of his emotions is so good.

(21:18):
Art form too, so whatever,but he's just such a pleasure to
watch the hand of the game.With three steals and he's so like crafty
defensively, you can have that onesteal it led to a breakaway, was
great, but he just waits andthen he explodes his arm into a lane
or to break up a pass,or to steal a dribble, and he
just does it seemingly better than anyone. It's so fun to watch him defensively.

(21:41):
And you could see him, Imean was he looked different defensively than
he did for most of the season. Cranked it up, had room and
maxed it out, and Luca didthe exact same. Man. They've been
playing good defense for a while,but they were on a different level.
When those two superstars are, youknow they're going to get theirs offensively when
they back that up on the defensiveside. Man, tough, tough team

(22:03):
to be. It's a good thingthey have two days off too. Yeah.
Yeah, no, do not notjust to uh give the the injured
dudes, the guys that may bea little banged up, Gafford and and
and Hardaway Junior. But dude,just to get a couple of days of
rest. Yeah, you know,when you consider the travel aspect of it,
and then the fact that you know, you saw Luca in the postgame

(22:25):
interview last night. He was gassed, even said as much. Yeah,
he's kind of sorry, man,I'm tired. Yeah, I bet.
I will say I liked at thevery end that that I was surprised that
challenge on that inbound pass to Kyrie, which it was. Was it six
and that cut it to essentially three? If it's an an one, right,
yes, it was a three pointgame. If they uh, if

(22:48):
he gets the free throw the andone and he makes it, it's a
two point game. Changes everything changes. The changes the dynamic to the way
the Mavericks defend, and it changesthe attack mode that and it expands the
options that LA has on what theycan do. But when it's a they
keeping it three smart challenge, Yeah, really smart. And from the one

(23:10):
angle, I thought he'd raked thehell out of his arm, but then
I saw him like, no,I think he just ticked the ball ball
And then you know, I mean, it's whatever. You can't take your
challenge with you, so fine totry it. But the fact that it
worked was huge. And another thing, even though he missed one, which
I was writing this note on myphone while he missed that second free throw,
the Kyrie free throw. Yes,yeah, the Kyrie free throws.
Let's hope over the next month,you know, not just over the next

(23:33):
ten days, are going to playsuch a such a role man that the
fact that dude is ninety percent andin the fourth quarter he almost never misses,
which again he did miss the secondone. Then MAXI keeps it alive.
I think that's what we're talking about, and Kyrie gets it back,
and that essentially ice of the game. But to have someone who basically doesn't
miss free throws when you need himmost, and the dude who's internal temperature

(23:56):
is probably the lowest in the NBA, Kyrie someone that cool, that will
matter in what will still be closegames. The Groopers are a good team.
But god, it's a pleasure watchingthat dude walk to the free throw
line knowing, all right, wellthese are good. Did you look at
I don't you know you can't justpercentage wise or him running hot like I
don't, I don't count him asin yeah, when Luca goes the line,

(24:17):
what Kyrie does? Man, I'mlike, dude, these are real
quick. Before we go, theLuca pass to get it up the court,
which by the camera angle that wehad, which was side the side
court camera angle, looked incredibly dangerousand when you looked at it from the
baseline angle, it was just agreat effing pass and that thing was never
going to be stolen. And itwas beautiful how Luca kind of gave up

(24:41):
his dribble and as he he wentthrough three options on where to put that
ball. Yes, you saw him. Look here, Look here, there's
Kyrie. There's my lane wing bouncepass right to him, bout pass through
traffic, through traffic. But hesaw that. I can't remember who the
player, what man maybe whose momentumwas going in one direction. He's able

(25:04):
to calculate that stuff faster than acomputer. It's incredible. His IQ.
I love him, I love themall. Huge win for the maps.
They steal home field and uh,we're looking good man, We're gonna do
more maps. I think at eightthirty yep, I think, my buddy
the machine, let's see, Yeah, the machine at eight forty five is
gonna zoom in. We're gonna oilup the machine. Machine's always just fun.

(25:26):
Anyway, Hopefully we talk maps,we don't just screw around. Because
the dude's funny as hell. Buthe works for the Mavericks and he's one
of the biggest basketball brains in town. We'll have him on an eight forty
five. Uh, come up next, though, it is what the scut
the study. I have kind ofa hypothetical that I thought of. I
tweeted about it last night during thegame and involved Steve Balmer will do that.
Plus I read this study that it'ssort of interesting. You want to

(25:49):
be happy when I have less stress. There's just one day, a fifty
year study, just one thing,an easy thing that you should be doing.
I'll tell you what it is.Next to ninety seven on the Freak