How Bam Adebayo and Kel'el Ware Powered Miami Heat's Much-Needed Win vs the Rockets

He took on the rockets on Saturday and did the unexpected, or maybe it's the expected

at this point, winning a game against a team over 500, but the first time in over a month

with strong performances from a number of players in West, maybe Kevin Durant would have

been happier had to be traded to Miami instead.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what makes Kevin Durant happy at this point.

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After the Heat's 115-105 win over the rockets, their first win over a team with a winning

record in more than a month, they're best win in a very long time, we're going to hand

out credit cookies and talk about supposed decision to play BAM and wear it together

in a second.

David, what was your take away from this one?

Just Miami was standing a pretty solid effort from the Houston Rockets.

I think they were down early then they came back and took a big lead and Houston came

back and I think I was expecting Miami to crumble and we've seen that from this team before.

So just watching them play with the kind of poise, the kind of urgency and something

that we've talked a lot about recently given their two most recent losses, being able

to come up with big shots and big stops in the fourth quarter, something that they have

not done very well.

And so I think when you tie it all together, it's not their best win of the season but it's

a pretty good one for a team that has struggled to find good wins against good teams.

And even though the rockets were playing their six games and 10 nights, as the broadcast crew

mentioned quite often, I think Miami did show a pretty good effort overall without Norm

Powell on the lineup as well.

Given that Tyler here was starting again for the first time in quite some time, I think

it was a really great effort overall from a team that just desperately needs to find

ways to win and have that kind of sense of urgency much more consistently over the next

and 19 games of the season.

Weird game.

You mentioned the kind of weird flow of this one.

For people watching on YouTube, I'm throwing up the flow chart from NBA.com on here.

It just tracks the leads.

It's a sea saw, man.

It's like a rollercoaster.

It's up and down, big lead, big lead, like both teams getting double digit leads at points

during this game.

The fact that Miami was able to hang in despite all of that battle back, lose the lead, battle

back, come back, stay back and then go on that final run and push at the end of the fourth

quarter.

It was the type of resilience that we frankly have not seen from this team in a very long

time.

And the other thing that stood out to me in this game was the attention to detail, right?

We talked about this after the last two losses.

Miami needs to win these margin battles or really maybe the better way to say it is

not lose outright these margin battles in order to give themselves a chance.

They're not a team with elite star power that could basically just play a bad game and

still win because they have some apex superstar that could just carry them to a victory in

the fourth quarter.

They didn't outright win any of the margin battles that we always talk about in this game

right.

Offensive rebounding turnovers, but they didn't get beaten badly in any of those categories

either, which allowed them to just make enough shots without having to feel like they had

to fight an uphill battle in this one.

And against the rockets team that does struggle to make shots at times, that's a winning formula

in this game in particular.

But what really stood out to me was that they dominated the area around the rim on both

ends of the court.

They scored 66 points in the paint.

That is so many points in the paint.

66 points in the paint.

And they allowed Houston, defensively they allowed Houston to make just 14 shots at the

rim.

Miami made 24, so 10 more shots at the rim.

Rockets fans might look at this box score at the end of the game and point to the fact that

Houston went nine of 36 from three and that's why they lost.

That's not why they lost.

This game was decided in the paint.

And Miami dominated.

They got to the rim offensively and they protected the, it was one of the best defensive games

I'm seeing from this team in a very long time.

Yeah.

Houston, not a very good team defensively.

Like they've definitely lost that part of their identity or the last couple of seasons

they were slowly building that in the Emo Doka and definitely infused that team with

the emphasis on defense, but they've lost some of that this year and obviously they're

going through their own injury issues and things of that sort.

But they were pretty poor in the restricted area and it just felt like whether it was Andrew

Wiggins or Hi-Mahakas or Prada Larson or whoever it was just able to attack consistently

in the painted area.

Get those looks pretty easily and they didn't have any kind of rim pressure at all on the

Houston side of things.

For Miami being able to capitalize on that and I think they did a really good job defensively.

Like they allowed Kevin Durant to get 32 points and I say allowed but they really could

stop him in the same way that nobody really has been able to stop him of course of his

career.

He was dialed in.

He looked really phenomenal as great as he ever has and they did a really good job of

trying to make things much more difficult for everybody else.

And so in that sense they were able to allow Kevin Durant to get those points but they

did a pretty solid job of keeping everybody else from getting it going out.

Prada Shengu and also a level player.

He struggled from the floor as well.

He was just six to 14 for 13.

He's a deep ad.

Yeah.

So that was a really big I think pivotal match up that Miami was able to dominate.

The BAM versus Shengu and match up I think is what tilted this thing Miami's way.

Shengu and was bad on both ends and BAM was really good.

I thought on both ends of the court in this one.

And look Houston couldn't make a bunch of threes.

That's going to happen.

But this is a team that's not really built to make a ton of threes right.

If reach effort struggles they kind of don't have any three point shooting right outside

of Kevin Durant.

Obviously even Durant was two of eight from three in this game.

He wasn't great.

I like the point that he made about Durant allowing they kind of did just allow him to do

it.

They didn't double cover him a ton in this game.

They weren't sending help right it was a lot.

And that was the fact and they were like we're kind of okay with Pella Larson defending

Kevin Durant on all these possessions and they were just going to live with it and Durant

was looking at Pella and just like really this guy he's six four six five like he just

shot over him over and over again.

But it's a little bit of maybe I have the untrained eye David.

But it's a little bit of allow Kevin Durant to be a scorer and just let him be that and

kind of take Houston out of their flow.

I thought I was a really good game plan by Miami to not send help to Kevin Durant very

often and just say he's going to do what he's going to do.

We don't really have anybody to defend him anyway, especially after Wiggins had to leave

a big part of this game after getting hit in the face and getting stitches in his mouth.

He comes back and had a really nice dunk in this game too.

So he gets a shout out here.

But yeah, I thought I thought it was a really good game plan.

The other thing that stood out they they looked really disjointed Houston did really disjointed

and they've had a weird season.

There's rum like not good stuff coming out of Houston lately weird rumblings that said

they won three games out of the all star break three games in a row and you know they've

wobbled it a little bit since then.

But what's that who's what's that saying?

It's like as bad as you think your thing is never never overestimate how bad it is for

the other team on any given night in the NBA.

I'm botching the quote, but you know what I mean?

It's sort of a thing that people say in the NBA and with Houston it just it really does

feel like whatever Miami's dealing with Houston might have a worst case of it because they

look disjointed.

Miami looked totally in sync in this game.

Yeah, I kind of made the joke at the start of the show about whether not Miami should

have acquired Kevin Durant and obviously it wasn't up to them.

But you know, Katie, he didn't expect to do this.

Like he was joining a team with Shinkoon and veteran and Fred Ben Bleed and you know they

were going to get all these young up and coming players who were going to find a way to

thrive there and he was just going to provide that better leadership and he's carrying a

much bigger load than I think he expected to and I mean there have been tense moments over

the course of the season.

Yeah.

That's partly because well Kevin Durant is generally a kind of sour guy and I look what

he have been happier in Miami.

I don't know.

It's a tough question because like his happiness seems like it's almost unattainable.

But maybe he would have had more balance I guess like he wouldn't have to have carries

such a load.

I'm not sure.

I'm not entirely sure if things would have been any easier for him in Miami than they would

have been for this particular version of the Rockets team.

But if you look, he would have been starved for like a norm pal on this Houston team.

The van bleed injury really threw a wrench in the Rockets plans here.

But Reed Shepherd's been good at times for them, but it's too much to expect of him.

You know Kevin Durant is fifth in total minutes played this year.

I don't think he if you would have asked Kevin Durant, you think he'll be fifth in minutes

played this year.

Probably like probably not.

I'm 37 years old.

Nope.

They need them.

They need them on the court because they have zero offense when he's on the bench and

that was very evident in this one.

He was a plus five, which wasn't, you know, phenomenal.

But you know, you look at my Houston's other starters.

Tom and Tomson was a minus 18, Shangguin was a minus 18, Tariyessen was a minus 15,

Reed Shepherd was a minus three.

He was the only starter with a positive plus minus.

So it wasn't just the bench that played well for Miami and it did, but it was also the

starting group just dominating Houston's really nice win for the heat overall, obviously

and one that they badly needed.

A lot of guys get credit for this one.

We're going to talk about credit cookies hand him out after this.

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It's another Miami Heat win which means it's time for the tastiest segment of locked on

heat. It's time to hand out some credit cookies David. We have 10 of them to give out. Where do you

want to begin? I'm going to start off with Tyler heroes jumping into the starting lineup obviously

with the absence of Norm Powell who is weak to weak with his lingering injury issue.

So they're going to be without Norm for quite some time. Hopefully he's able to bounce back

before the end of the season and able to kind of cement what it is that Miami is doing and you

wonder whether or not the roles will be reversed where maybe Norm will be the player coming off the

bench at some point but Tyler I think did a really good job reinserting to that starting lineup

getting into a little chippy interaction with Kevin. Let's go. You will believe.

Apparently he called him Burnerboy. I don't know if that's authenticated or not.

I thought I really did see that report. He called him Burnerboy if I don't know if that's

really good. He said Burnerboy. A number of not so nice names that start with the B.

So that would have been interesting there to see had those two one of being teammates but

they did they did tap it up after the game. I do want to just at least if we're going to put the facts

out there but I love that I love that moment Tyler you're early in the game some real hoots by

there just I thought really set the tone that I love Norm Powell right like Norm Powell is steady a

first seven seconds of the shot clock you can always depend on him to make a quick decision we love

Norm Powell he's an all star what hero brings though is that that fireiness there's like there's an

edge to Tyler hero right that I think we don't talk about enough but has been evident since you

know the bubble right since he was snarling in the bubble and I do think that that kind of helped

set the tone in this one right because Houston wants to come in and they want to kick the snout

out of you that's their deal they're going to try to set that as sort of the tone of the game

and the heat generally don't allow that to happen but I really like hero as you know the small guy

in the starting lineup kind of standing up to when all time or in Kevin Durant I don't really

know what was happening other than sort of jawing back and forth I didn't see any like really

tough shots or anything like that he just like I'm not going to take your bleep I'm just going to

I'm going to I'm going to tell you exactly what I think about you and your burner accounts right to

your face KD seems like the type who just kind of says something not necessarily muttering under

his breath but kind of just as he walks away just letting everybody know look I'm Kevin Durant

you're not going to be able to stop me so I'm just going to let him be known whatever I'm thinking

I'm just going to say it because yeah at the end of the day I'm Kevin Durant you're not so

air like KD and LeBron are similar in that they'll do trash talking but if you trash talk to them

back they're almost a gas like do you know there I am like you think you could trash talk me

and it's like dude we're all on the same court we're all in between the same lines like you're

gonna trash talk we're gonna trash talk yeah yeah they all to me and be a Karen right there

look Tyler hero I think he had a great game that that moment there was really good and he kind

of just flick the switch a little bit for him and he really just seemed like he was a little

bit extra engaged but he had some really nice shot making there just two of four didn't take a

lot of shots from three-point range but was able to knock down half of them but in the paint the

floater he had one floater that was so soft and it just it didn't look like it was going to fall

through I honestly I thought it was going to be short and I did kind of just roll around the

rim gently gently gently and then drop through and I was like okay he's in his back he's feeling it

because when he puts up a shell like that you know he's got that shooting touch going eight of

twelve over off of the floor but he also had three assists two rebounds of steel four turn over

so not great but to finish with his 18 points they were very important for Miami to be able to

sustain those kind of impact the those those game shifting momentum from Houston etc Tyler was

very very steady at his production and while I wasn't great I still think it was deserving two

credit cookies so he's six of eight below the free throw line in the paint in this game and that

has really become and I want to be measured in what I'm about to say here and I don't want

people to take this the wrong way but that zone has become the zone of the superstar player right

it used to be the mid-range the long mid-range like those are the days of Michael Jordan

Kobe Bryant Dwayne Wade like the superstars of superstars were allowed to take those 17-18

footers and they made him at enough of a clip that that that's sort of his shift did now you look

at guys like Shagil just Alexander Nicola Yokech look at downchitch these guys dominate with that

float range like three to ten feet area you look at their percentages they're all shooting

over 50% in that range it based they they're shooting essentially layup efficiency without having

to get layup distance right they don't have to penetrate to the rim that much because defenses play

that way right they're going to protect the rim at all costs are going to give up those float

range things you talk to players around the league the floater has become maybe the most important

shot that they want to work on now other than the three ball and hero has put so much work into

that floater and you're I love the shot that you mentioned there like yeah it was in the air

forever it finally bounced on the rim and he kind of just does the thing and everybody's like looking

like like what's this uh uh in space jam where they're kind of looking at the ball and the kind

of the golf course and then it finally goes in that's kind of what everybody was looking at there

and it was a great shot and for hero to hit that stuff again I'm trying to be measured when I'm

saying I'm not calling telehero superstar but he was hitting those superstar shots in this game

when he needed it absolutely um and you know what you mentioned earlier I'm going to move on here

and talk about damn it by a nine to 17 from the floor for his 24 points three of six from the line

so not great efficiency there but three of five from three point range what's the chances

if you had asked this early in the year that he would shoot better from three than he would from

from the free throw line I would not have believed it but there he was also going along with 11

rebounds in the system of steel and a block plus 16 on the floor the highest for any heat player

he was great look the minutes with cluelware we'll talk about those later in this show but uh

there were moments there where bam was clearly the best player um for Miami he was great his

his three point shooting ability was such a big part of it but he was defending well he was doing

everything that he could out on the floor and you know what he was being aggressive and looking for

a shot so uh after saying that he didn't want to be in the play internament he played the way

he should have he carried this team with his production on the floor so kudos to him two credit

cookies going to bam well said i have nothing to add there he was the best player on both best two

way player in this game yeah uh two credit cookies going for another starter pellet larcen six of

twelve from the floor seven of eight from the free throw line uh did pellet hit in the face yeah

kind of a couple of times I think but uh really really solid game from him taking on every

defensive matchup what whatever it was uh being the antagonistic being physical four rebounds four

assists doing everything really out on the floor twenty points that's a really solid level of

production from him and I really liked his game because he just continues to be that kind of

connected just a guy that does all these other little things around the floor um he was bringing the

ball up he was creating place for others he was just making things happen offensively uh really

I liked the when they were using him in the post against reach shepherd I kind of uh an

opportunity there for him to to kind of put shepherd in the blender a little bit didn't work out

as well but it was a a matchup that I'd like them to continue to explore the course of season because

he is a little bit bigger and more physical maybe that's some cards out there so when you get a

matchup like that uh smart of Eric bolster I think to put hella in that situation where he could

take advantage of that down the road to great observation they're letting this guy lose this guy

is a good basketball player we're done with second round pick who is this guy this guy is essentially

cemented as a starter now yeah he's a connecting piece he's a multi-positional player they play him

at both forward spots right now and it's sort of the he had like the opposite game of hero right

where I was mentioned all the float game stuff hero you look at Bella's shot chart it's all at the

basket it he's using his muscle he's a great cutter we talk about it all the time he's great

and transitioned very opportunistic he does stuff right like this guy sees open space and eats it

up and I love that from pillow he's similar to high man that way where if you're gonna let me get

as close to the rim as possible I'm gonna like I'm not gonna mess around out here if you're gonna let

me get to the basket I'm gonna do that uh and he gets as close to the basket as possible uses his

strength he's under underratedly strong I think uh I love I love this game from pillow man and the

20 points is obviously a big reason why he goes one of five from three point range so he goes five

of seven from two point range and again all of that stuff most of that stuff rather at the basket

that is exactly what you want from your role players right starters or coming off the bench

that's exactly what you want let guys like bam and hero and all these guys sort of do the mid-rangey

kind of things your role player find easy shots make easy shots playoff of these other guys

Pella is an expert at it he we can have a bigger conversation about Pella at another time but

we're gonna have to about like where this guy is in terms of the hierarchy in terms of you know best

players on the seat roster he's absolutely he gets two uh everybody in tonight's game gets

two to be honest I think so I think five more players there or two more players to get him

Jaime Hack is juniors next seven of twelve for his 14 points three rebounds three assists really

solid game from him again the production it was what made it all the difference I think he

had a couple nice defensive possessions uh he was being used in different ways to uh being used

as a primary ball handler as we've seen throughout the course of the season it wasn't his best game

but it was a solid game from Jaime and I think it was deserving of that kind of credit because

honestly I thought David Mitchell was really good but I thought he was a little bit of a liability out

there right and I don't know if he'd still lingering uh injury issue or anything like that but he

was going under screens he wasn't fighting through the same way we've got accustomed to Damion being

out there and so I think the minutes from Casper C. Ecclesiardus he only played 12 so he wasn't

really solid either but to have Jaime as your ball handling option there I think it was a really

beneficial thing for Miami again kind of just showing that Miami's depth is great one of their

greatest if not their greatest strength this season is being able to use all these different players

as good as they are in different kinds of ways and for Jaime to be productive with his scoring

and his efficiency although he was only 0-1 for his 3% overall though and like you're getting

that you're getting that production you're getting that efficiency off the bench when Tyler

heroes moving from the bench to the start line yeah that was really important Jaime is clockwork

dude this guy is getting you getting get gonna get you 12 or 14 points every single night coming

off the bench it's why he's uh one of the favorites for six man of the year last one I think I know

where you're going kill him where you gotta give it to him 29 minutes on the night so he definitely

gets an uptick in his playing time 6 of 10 from the floor but 15 rebounds to lead the heat a number

of tippins really aggressive one handed rebounds going up for it this is the kind of production

that I think has to show Eric Spulzer you know what this guy is getting it and I don't know we

don't know at this point I'm sure Spulzer probably asked for about it after the game but just the

way that Calil responded when his minutes have been so up and down and you never know what you're

gonna get from him necessarily it but today was really one of his stronger games very aggressive

around the hoop as well finished with a couple nice dunks tippins like I said one of three from

three point range as well want us this too and a block so just really really good numbers from him

we'll finish with 13 points but it was just very impactful and it's nearly 30 minutes of play so I

really liked his game and playing alongside Bam and a bio for extended minutes both of them played

very well together we're gonna talk about more of that next Calil where well absorbing this crack

I just love the physicality that I played with the five off three bounces what stands out to make

great low second chance points especially against this Houston team and not allowing to get beat

for offensive rebounds against a rocket team that really wants to spam that part of the box score

like you said we got some plan Bam and where minutes in this one we expect to see more of that

going forward we'll talk about why after this

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welcome back to locked on heat thanks for making us your first listen every day let's go to our

questions from the cookie gang you can submit questions for the post game shows by joining the

every day or clubs have the link in the show notes to learn more this question comes from Jonah

writes in do you think spoke close with bamin wear to match up with the rocket size or might this be

more of a regular thing David yes right maybe yes to this question to both parts of this question

we have seen spoke find time planned time for bamin wear more recently right we've seen it in

first halves recently we've seen it now in the fourth quarter in a couple of games over the last

week I do think that suppose trying to find time to get these guys on the court together and now

against Houston a good excuse right because you want to match up with their size you want to make

sure you're not getting beat on the boards but it's not as if this rockets team and you alluded to

this earlier has been crushing the boards even Adams going down has really hurt them in that area

of the floor I don't know that they necessarily needed to do that in this one and that said I think

spoke found time for bamin wear wear played really well to your to to to your point earlier like he

played with physicality he deserved credit cookies in this game and I think that's why he's

able to stand the court if wear doesn't play as well earlier in this game people we don't see it as

much in the fourth quarter but I do think now it's been a couple games in a row that we've seen

bamin wear on the court together in the first half a little bit more extended time in this one

than it was in the last game and I think that's the right decision by Spowe that gives at least

an opportunity for bamin wear to prove that they deserve minutes later in the game so TBD but I

like where this is trending yeah I I have to agree I think with anything wear related though it's

all kind of it's working in trending in one direction until it isn't so it's hard to tell exactly

given how Spowe has managed his minutes but with wear playing the way that he did and showing

continued improvement steady aggression etc I think it's definitely something that they're

going to use much more frequently over the course of the season at least that would be my guess if

you're going to start in corporate look I talked about it I think going into the also break one of

the things that we wanted to see is you know what lean into it these are your players you've got to

make that choice here you know Khalil is who he is and you want him to get better and better you

want to be able to use that advantage that he creates because of his size of length and the things

that he does out in the floor you've got to be able to play him out there as much as possible if that

means combining with bam or not I think you've got to be able to figure it out and this is your

future so why not figure out what you've got now rather than wait until it's too late and decide oh

maybe I'm not sure if he's fitting there long-term goals or etc whatever so yeah I like the minutes though

I think it was great and I think to the question point there I think it wasn't necessarily to combat

Houston like I don't think Spowe necessarily operates that way maybe to give them a slight edge

but also just just showing one of our strengths you know kind of thing like like let's let's put

a guy out there that we know is aggressive and playing well and have him out there and putting him

alongside Bam and Bio who you know you're always going to get consistent effort from two more

questions that are sort of related here from William it really does seem like these guys have the

talent to win games against playoff teams are we doubting them too much is it if it if it is just

inconsistency what is it that keeps them from being consistent is it the talent isn't just good

enough to sustain winning or is this a coaching issue related question from Malachi after a big win

against a good rocket's team can this give them a boost to make a push out of the play in tournament

or not I'm not sure I'm not so sure until I see more consistent play we're back to the matter of

consistency David yeah it's it's it's gonna keep popping up because yeah I think to the original

question like this team is better than what they've shown I think that's the case but they are so

inconsistent and I know that it's a word that we've been mentioning a lot lately because you just

fall flat so frequently and so it's kind of hard to know exactly what this team is capable of

because while I think they have those heights they have to have them sustained for a long period of

time and that's just not the case whether it's due to injury or just flat effort or a number of

different reasons I don't think it's coaching I mean I think we can be honest in saying maybe Eric

Spolster hasn't done a great job this year or hasn't done a lot of maximizing what this roster has

given him because I think it's a fairly well-constructed roster it's just like superstar talent but there

have been some decisions particularly when it comes to color wear that are a little head scratching

there and I think it's not necessarily been the biggest problem on the season but it hasn't helped

making this roster reach their full potential at least not in my opinion so I think

I'm not sure like if you were to say what this team is capable of in the playoffs I probably

wouldn't be optimistic just because we haven't seen anything now to Malachi's question

if they're able to play like this over the last stretch of the season and continue to put up

these kinds of efforts where they show a sense of urgency and they come up big in fourth quarters

and they knock down those shots and they play the kind of impactful defense that we saw

tonight late in the game sure that's fine then I'll be much more of a believer going to the season

because I know that they'll have figured something out I'll be a maybe a little different than what

I would have expected but you know what at least there's that effort and I know that the talent is

there just it's mess it's missing superstar talent and that's definitely what you need heading

into the playoffs like you definitely need that star that you can go to particularly on offense and

Miami's lacking that um yeah I'll start with the last part of this I don't think this team can

win a playoffs series but I also think that they could be better than getting swept by the Cavaliers

I think there's somewhere in between what they were last year and just flat out winning a playoffs

series would they win against Detroit in a seven game series the pistons will crush them sweep or

would they win a couple games I think Miami can win a game I don't see them winning against any of

the top three or four seeds in the east like a series but I think they'll be more competitive than

they were against Cleveland in last year's first round so that's why I think this heat team is

I would push back and say like if you told me that this heat team with this roster with tile hero

missing as much time as he did would be top 15 in offense and top five in defense I would say wow

that is maximizing this roster I actually do think Spowe is maximized this roster I yes the

collet where stuff has been head scratching to use your phrase there I'm not really sure but also

at the same time like you know the production wasn't necessarily always there for collet like we

got to be fair on both sides of this and and you know we could do the chicken of the egg thing was

it was he not productive because of Spowe was Spowe benching on because he wasn't productive whatever

but I look at this team and I'm like I don't I don't think it's super talented I think they've

dealt with a lot of injury concerns over the course of the season top five defense top 15

offense that's kind of amazing to me that they were able to kind of generate this team those stats

from this team so we'll see I don't think it's really a coaching issue I think it's a talent

issue I've been on that all along with the the super the superpower is consistency I'll keep

saying it until somebody listens to me the superpower is consistency that's why the elite players

are the elite players shaggle trust Alexander has the most 30 point games this season right he

doesn't have one 50 point game he doesn't have 180 point game it's not like that he has the most

30 point games he goes out there and just scores a lot of points every single night it's why he's

the front runner for MVP right now consistency is a superpower elite players have it that he don't

have that elite offensive player that's a roster problem but overall that's this is kind of where

I expected this team to be kind of on the bubble to succeed coming coming into the season um that's

going to do it for us today thank you for tuning in today to lock down heat make sure you

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