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Speaker 2: welcome to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday. Everybody.
Speaker 2: Hope all you guys are having a great start to
Speaker 2: your week well as expected. Game four ended up being
Speaker 2: the long awaited, very close game in this series between
Speaker 2: these two teams. This series has been pretty rough to
Speaker 2: watch at times, as the teams have just beat the
Speaker 2: shit out of each other in different ways, but we
Speaker 2: finally kind of settled down into the appropriate game plans
Speaker 2: for both teams. And obviously both of these teams are
Speaker 2: very familiar with each other and the way they want
Speaker 2: to play, and tonight they both threw their best punches,
Speaker 2: and I thought Oklahoma City just looked like a better
Speaker 2: basketball team as they demonstrated a kind of not a
Speaker 2: wired to wire win, but a game that they felt
Speaker 2: pretty much in control of throughout as they responded to
Speaker 2: every single Minnesota Timberwolves run and never let them overtake
Speaker 2: them with that momentum, and now they're headed back to
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City up three to one and very likely going
Speaker 2: to send this thing to the NBA Finals on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: Very interesting game. We're gonna get into it from a
Speaker 2: bunch of different angles, and then we wrap up here
Speaker 2: tonight we're gonna be heading over to playback again that's
Speaker 2: Playback dot TV slash Hoops tonight, or we're gonna be
Speaker 2: taking callers and it's more informal. We just kind of
Speaker 2: shoot the shit, talk hoops and have fun for an
Speaker 2: extra hour after the show. So make sure you guys
Speaker 2: come over there and hang out with dust. You guys
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Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball. So obviously, there were
Speaker 2: a couple of things we knew Oklahoma City was going
Speaker 2: to do better tonight, no matter what, like, regardless of
Speaker 2: any other factors, involving some their young role players and
Speaker 2: conquering the specific demons that this team has dealt with
Speaker 2: over the years. Which we'll talk about in a little bit,
Speaker 2: But there are a couple of things we knew they
Speaker 2: would do better. No matter what we knew, they would
Speaker 2: up their defensive intensity. This is an elite defensive team,
Speaker 2: and defense is one of the most reliably reliable traits
Speaker 2: in a basketball team in these environments, you want to
Speaker 2: know why it's kind of unusual to see some of
Speaker 2: the offensive success we've seen in recent NBA seasons, teams
Speaker 2: like Denver winning a title, or teams like Indiana New
Speaker 2: York making it to the conference finals when they were
Speaker 2: mediocre defenses all year. Indie played better defense towards towards
Speaker 2: the tail end of the year, but the Knicks played
Speaker 2: shitty defense the majority of the season, and then they
Speaker 2: somehow played the best defense of their life against the
Speaker 2: Celtics and got them out of there. Right, It's unusual
Speaker 2: to see that sort of thing. There's a reason why,
Speaker 2: when you go back through decade after decade after decade,
Speaker 2: it's the defensive teams that end up making deep playoff runs.
Speaker 2: It's because it's the reliable trait. We all knew that
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City would bring a great defensive punch tonight. They
Speaker 2: kept aunt relatively in check as a score, because again
Speaker 2: that's their game plan by constantly swarming him and getting
Speaker 2: good closeouts on shooters. Obviously, their scheme concedes a bunch
Speaker 2: of corner threes. We've talked about that a ton in
Speaker 2: this series, and Minnesota hit a ton of those corner
Speaker 2: threes tonight, but they generally made things difficult and then
Speaker 2: they basically got Julius Randall to quit in this game,
Speaker 2: and so that that's another thing that we'll get to later.
Speaker 2: But we also knew that they would take much better
Speaker 2: care of the basketball. Right, those are the two things
Speaker 2: that we knew that they would bring, and they had
Speaker 2: that weird stretch in the first half of Game three.
Speaker 2: If you guys remember where they just gifted Minnesota a
Speaker 2: bunch of easy opportunities in transition, and they cleaned that up. Right,
Speaker 2: They took better pit care of the basketball tonight, and
Speaker 2: they came out and you know, were tough in their
Speaker 2: game plan. Again, their game plan concedes shots at that
Speaker 2: Minnesota hit tonight at a very high clip. But they
Speaker 2: came out and did a better job because if you remember,
Speaker 2: in Game three, it was everyone was going, including ant
Speaker 2: and Julius, and in this game, you had a little
Speaker 2: bit of a burst from Aunt in the second half,
Speaker 2: but they kept Ant and Julius under control, right. But
Speaker 2: we also knew that Minnesota changed their game plan right,
Speaker 2: less ball pressure on Shay, more shrinking the floor, more
Speaker 2: loading up the plane the paint, and so that was
Speaker 2: obviously going to put a heavy emphasis on different things
Speaker 2: for Oklahoma City than we saw in the beginning of
Speaker 2: the series. In the beginning of the series, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of just like Kinche and Jadab go one on
Speaker 2: one downhill and get to the rim. Very different in
Speaker 2: this setting where all of a sudden they're packing the
Speaker 2: paint the rim opportunities are fewer and further between all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, It's going to be about Shay's processing
Speaker 2: in his ability to make the right types of aggressive
Speaker 2: moves on the floor, a lot of over the top
Speaker 2: shot making right, a lot of processing out of double
Speaker 2: teams right. For Jadub, it was going to be a
Speaker 2: test of his secondary scoring and his ability to obviously
Speaker 2: be an off ball threat to score right spot up
Speaker 2: shooting across the board. For the entire Thunder roster, that's
Speaker 2: been one of the demons they've dealt with from time
Speaker 2: to time throughout this entire season and throughout last year
Speaker 2: as well, right, But those were those were the things
Speaker 2: that were gonna come to the surface. And then you
Speaker 2: can always give yourself a better chance to win a
Speaker 2: game if you can win the possession battle. Tonight, they
Speaker 2: forced the Timberwolves into twenty three turnovers and they grabbed
Speaker 2: nineteen offensive rebounds. That's forty two extra possessions. Guys, they
Speaker 2: attempted eleven more shots than Minnesota tonight in a game
Speaker 2: they won by two. And that's what it comes down to.
Speaker 2: We talked about this at the beginning of after after
Speaker 2: Indiana went up two to zero against the Knicks. This
Speaker 2: concept of like grabbing the low hanging fruit in basketball.
Speaker 2: These are things that they can do consistently by pursuing
Speaker 2: the ball when it comes off of the rim, by
Speaker 2: picking up full court, by digging into passing lanes, by
Speaker 2: trusting their game plan, by doing those those things, they
Speaker 2: can just increase their margin for air by generating forty
Speaker 2: two extra possessions. That obviously gave them all that margin
Speaker 2: for air. But again, the test needed to be solved,
Speaker 2: and I was just really impressed down the roster with
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City tonight, it felt like they were in a
Speaker 2: lot of ways, like leveling up from some of the
Speaker 2: mistakes that we've seen them make in series past. Within
Speaker 2: this postseason in Years Past, right, we saw Shay, a
Speaker 2: guy that I've seen many times in his career, just
Speaker 2: fly into the lane when teams are really selling out
Speaker 2: on him and just force up bad shots. He was
Speaker 2: super methodical, picking on specific mismatches that he liked, really
Speaker 2: liked Rudy Gobert right, really liked nas Reed, really like
Speaker 2: Dante DiVincenzo when he'd get the switch cycling out guys
Speaker 2: from that top of the key spot, like if he
Speaker 2: wanted to ISO in the top of the key, he
Speaker 2: didn't want a shooter super close to him. He was
Speaker 2: trying to cycle him down and have them work along
Speaker 2: the baseline because he wanted to have space around the
Speaker 2: elbows to work. He knew he wasn't going to be
Speaker 2: able to drive, but he knew he'd be able to
Speaker 2: get to his right shoulder fade, his left shoulder fade,
Speaker 2: his right shoulder step back, his left shoulder step back,
Speaker 2: and so he wanted to create space around the elbows
Speaker 2: for him to work. And he just repeatedly over and
Speaker 2: over again, got to his spots and hit those shots,
Speaker 2: hit threes against soft ball pressure, which again was part
Speaker 2: of Minnesota's game plan. It changed Shay's job from get
Speaker 2: downhill and score at the rim to become a surgical
Speaker 2: processor and over the top shot maker, and he knocked
Speaker 2: it out of the park. In addition to that making
Speaker 2: the kickout reads that he needed to make that big
Speaker 2: three that Jade up hit on the left wing hard
Speaker 2: nail help. I think it was Jaden because of a
Speaker 2: switch came over at the elbow and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can try to force it, or you can just
Speaker 2: throw the ball to j Dub and see if you
Speaker 2: can make a shot. You can throw the ball to
Speaker 2: Chet as he's slipping out of a pick and pop
Speaker 2: or as he's spacing on the wing and trust him
Speaker 2: to knock the shot down. Ten more assists tonight for
Speaker 2: Shay Gildas Alexander You's surgical tonight. I think the job
Speaker 2: has been very different for Ant, and I think that
Speaker 2: Ant has actually shown a lot of growth in this
Speaker 2: series in terms of his relentless making those corner kickout reads.
Speaker 2: As the game plan has been geared towards stopping him.
Speaker 2: But even with the growth from Ann, I think there's
Speaker 2: a lot of encouraging stuff from Ant in this series.
Speaker 2: Jay's been better than it. Shay's been better than it.
Speaker 2: Now will Ant in the long run, as he gets
Speaker 2: older and he gets more experiencedab will he'll be able
Speaker 2: to close that gap. We'll see. But in this series
Speaker 2: through four games, there's a very similar game plan tonight
Speaker 2: that Shay faced to what Ant's face. It a lot
Speaker 2: of a lot of bodies waiting for him at the basket.
Speaker 2: The difference is Shay has built out an ultra reliable
Speaker 2: shot making game in the mid range. Shay wasn't getting
Speaker 2: the grift calls in that second half. He got a
Speaker 2: nasty one against Gobert in the first half, kind of
Speaker 2: a textbook example of the kind of thing that I
Speaker 2: think needs to be taken out of the league. But
Speaker 2: in the second half he tried it twice. He tried
Speaker 2: the classic bump shot along the left lane line he
Speaker 2: actually made it, and then he tried another grift one
Speaker 2: on to kill Alexander Walker on the right elbow, which
Speaker 2: he actually made as well. But he wasn't getting the
Speaker 2: calls and so he adjusted his approach and he stopped
Speaker 2: trying to grift in that fourth quarter and he just
Speaker 2: went straight up, I'm going to get separation and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna knock down shots. And he just did it again
Speaker 2: and again and again and made the necessary reads when
Speaker 2: they were there, huge one late when he kind of
Speaker 2: lost control, and then Jaden McDaniels throws a double team
Speaker 2: off of JDub and he throws that beautiful pass just
Speaker 2: right through Jada mcdaniels's legs to JDub on the perimeter.
Speaker 2: It's like, if there's a lesson for Aunt to learn,
Speaker 2: because there's I was kind of getting frustrated as I
Speaker 2: was listening to Richard Jefferson talk about how Ant just
Speaker 2: needs to find ways to just force his way through
Speaker 2: all that traffic, or Steven A. Smith and the Halftime
Speaker 2: Show saying similar stuff Ant needs to The answer wasn't
Speaker 2: to force his way through and try to shoot through
Speaker 2: four people every single time. The lesson for Ant to
Speaker 2: learn from the series is that having a back to
Speaker 2: the basket or kind of like comfortable dribble iso game
Speaker 2: around the elbows is a very reliable thing that you
Speaker 2: can go back to when teams pack the paint. This
Speaker 2: is what Kobe Bryant made a living out of. Like
Speaker 2: when you have the ability this is what Michael Jordan
Speaker 2: made a living out of. When you have inevitably a
Speaker 2: defensive scheme that keeps you away from the rim, it
Speaker 2: will either make you a deep pull up three point
Speaker 2: shooter or a passer, or if you can build out
Speaker 2: that high post. Back to the basket game, you can
Speaker 2: have another card that you can go to that's impervious
Speaker 2: to the packing the paint method. And in this series,
Speaker 2: facing a very similar game plan tonight, Shay was able
Speaker 2: to get to his spots and repeatedly score without having
Speaker 2: to overpenetrate. They took a few bad ones tonight, but
Speaker 2: it wasn't like what we saw it sometimes in the
Speaker 2: Denver series, and that's the lesson that it needs to learn.
Speaker 2: There's a version of his game that could have a
Speaker 2: punch for this type of game. We talk all the
Speaker 2: time about how different series present different issues. Shae's the
Speaker 2: best driver of the basketball in the league. The first
Speaker 2: two games, with the way Minnesota was guarding, they needed
Speaker 2: him to drive. He used that skill. Let's say in
Speaker 2: Game five or Minnesota just starts hard double teaming. Then
Speaker 2: it's going to be about handling pressure and making quick decisions.
Speaker 2: Tonight sagging packing the paint all of a sudden, It's
Speaker 2: about being deliberate with your spacing and over the top
Speaker 2: shot making. You've got to have a punch for every
Speaker 2: single setting, and it had a punch for the game
Speaker 2: plan tonight. It was his corner kicks and I thought
Speaker 2: he was great with them, but if he could have
Speaker 2: put a few more buckets up, it could have been
Speaker 2: the difference in this game. And he was able to
Speaker 2: get to his pull up three plenty, But that's a
Speaker 2: much higher variance shot. It's twenty seven feet instead of
Speaker 2: fifteen feet. At fifteen feet, he might be able to
Speaker 2: hit it forty eight fifty two percent of the time
Speaker 2: a contested pull up twenty eight foot or twenty seven
Speaker 2: footer on his best day as a thirty to thirty
Speaker 2: three ish percent shot. That that's where he needs to
Speaker 2: bring in that part of his game that's reliable. What
Speaker 2: has made Luca a reliable offensive player round a round
Speaker 2: short range shot making, what is made Jokic a reliable
Speaker 2: player round to round short range shot making. That is
Speaker 2: the thing that he's got to add and I just
Speaker 2: thought Shay was super, super impressive tonight with that Jadub Obviously,
Speaker 2: with this game plan, it was going to put a
Speaker 2: heavy emphasis on JDub needing to be able to score
Speaker 2: the basketball and his ability to space the floor. How
Speaker 2: many times tonight did Minnesota get a stop and then
Speaker 2: someone would get an offensive rebound and the ball would
Speaker 2: get sprayed out to JDub and he did a backbreaking
Speaker 2: three or mail help off to to try to deal
Speaker 2: with shake yel Desallexander swing pass, backbreaker three. Those were
Speaker 2: so important in this game. And then in his on
Speaker 2: ball reps, perpetually getting into the lane, getting that dribble penetration,
Speaker 2: bringing in multiple defenders, and even when we're talking about
Speaker 2: the offensive rebounding piece, there's a lot of it that's
Speaker 2: super frustrating with Minnesota where it's like Rudy Gobert is.
Speaker 2: I find Rudy Gobert to just be an incredibly frustrating
Speaker 2: player to watch, and I just do not understand his
Speaker 2: stands and all of the belief in his talent level
Speaker 2: because like to me, he's a defensive player that gets
Speaker 2: himself out of position in no man's land constantly. He's
Speaker 2: a defensive rebounder that will legitimately just get his butt
Speaker 2: kicked by mediocre kind of like replacement level starting centers
Speaker 2: in this league. I don't see it. But there are
Speaker 2: also offensive rebounds that were happening tonight by a product
Speaker 2: of the rotations, by a product of the fact that
Speaker 2: there are people stepping over in the lane. There was
Speaker 2: an offensive rebound that gave up because he came over
Speaker 2: to strong side zone agains shake Gilgess, Alexander on an
Speaker 2: iso in case on Wallace just ended up crashing in behind.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of stuff that comes from the way
Speaker 2: that defense is getting broken down by shape, by getting
Speaker 2: broken down by Jay Dubb. But I thought Jay Dubb
Speaker 2: that's arguably the best game of his career tonight goes
Speaker 2: for thirty four points on twenty four shots, five assists,
Speaker 2: just two turnovers. He had three steals in this game
Speaker 2: as well. Unbelievable game. Spot up shooting down the board. Again.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this time and time again. How are
Speaker 2: the thunder going to be able to win in the postseason.
Speaker 2: They need their young guys to confidently step into tough
Speaker 2: contested catch and shoot threes and knock them down Chet
Speaker 2: two more threes tonight, a huge one off of a
Speaker 2: pick and pop where Aunt came peeling off of his
Speaker 2: man and got a great contest and he just confidently
Speaker 2: stepped in there, ripped the cord. We talked about Jay
Speaker 2: Dub hitting catch and shoot threes. Lou Dort hits one,
Speaker 2: Ken rig Williams hits one, Alex Cruso hits two, Isaiah
Speaker 2: Joe hits one, case On Wallace hits one. They hit
Speaker 2: the shots they needed to hit. Forty three percent from
Speaker 2: three tonight, sixteen for thirty seven. Chet Holmgren like that
Speaker 2: defensive play, that spin move from Jad McDaniel, swatting it
Speaker 2: off the glass, his aggressive iso attacks against nasried Or
Speaker 2: he's spinning off of him and dunking the spot up shooting,
Speaker 2: like we talked about Kesan Wallace, he had three or
Speaker 2: four tough contested mid range pull up jump shots tonight.
Speaker 2: Those are found money in the playoffs. Alex Crusoe obviously
Speaker 2: the destructive defender that we know he can be, but
Speaker 2: all those sneaky cuts along the baseline, just finding those
Speaker 2: openings and when his defender turns his head. He was
Speaker 2: amazing at that. Back in his days with the Lakers.
Speaker 2: They're just this looks like a team that has learned
Speaker 2: from previous failures and that has turned into a championship
Speaker 2: level basketball team. One of my things that I love
Speaker 2: about the game of basketball is it forces you to
Speaker 2: overcome adversity. It forces you to overcome checkpoints and tests
Speaker 2: to get to where you want to go. They had
Speaker 2: to be pushed by Denver tonight, even pushed by Minnesota,
Speaker 2: their weaknesses emphasized. I didn't like the game plan at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the series, thought Minnesota was accentuating their
Speaker 2: strengths here in Minnesota. They played the game plan that
Speaker 2: accentuated Okaysee's weaknesses and they got out of here with
Speaker 2: the split. Series isn't over, obviously, but I feel pretty
Speaker 2: strongly that Oklahoma City is going to close the deal.
Speaker 2: I think they've demonstrated themselves to be the better team
Speaker 2: in the series. I think their star is a better
Speaker 2: processor and a better more versatile score than Anthony Edwards is.
Speaker 2: I thought Jalen Williams one hard to do tonight with
Speaker 2: the low bar that Julius Randalls set, but I thought
Speaker 2: he was far and away the best secondary star tonight.
Speaker 2: Chet Holmgren out played any Minnesota role player except for
Speaker 2: Nakhil Alexander Walker, just to down the roster. Out classing
Speaker 2: in this series by the Oklahoma City Thunder against the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves. And I think they're gonna go to the
Speaker 2: finals and I think they're gonna win. I think they
Speaker 2: match up extremely well with Indiana. I think they match
Speaker 2: up extremely well with New York, and we could be
Speaker 2: heading into our We could be heading into our first
Speaker 2: situation where we have a roster young enough and cheap
Speaker 2: enough because of the situation with all their young talent,
Speaker 2: to where we could have some sustained success in the NBA.
Speaker 2: This was the chance I had Oklahoma City as my
Speaker 2: second leading championship contender coming into tonight or coming into
Speaker 2: this playoff run. But I viewed them as vulnerable. I
Speaker 2: viewed them as vulnerable this season. But with each passing year,
Speaker 2: the talent increase for Chet as he continues to develop,
Speaker 2: the talent increase for Jalen, the talent increase for every
Speaker 2: one of these young guys off the bench, like keyes
Speaker 2: On Wallace, They're going to get better and better every
Speaker 2: year from here in a way that's going to be
Speaker 2: probably more impactful than whatever mid level exception you can
Speaker 2: sign or mediocre trade you can make on the margins.
Speaker 2: This was the year to get Oklahoma City, and I
Speaker 2: think tonight was the last chance that anybody had, and
Speaker 2: I think Minnesota blew it. So with that being the case,
Speaker 2: this is the year that's supposed to be too early,
Speaker 2: and it looks like to me that Oklahoma City is
Speaker 2: going to get it done. Super super exciting for Timberwolves fans,
Speaker 2: or excuse me, for thunder fans, I am. I have
Speaker 2: to talk about Julius Randall for a second, because Julius Randall.
Speaker 2: Let me just tell a little story of the last
Speaker 2: three games. Julius Randall has a nightmaragely bad game two,
Speaker 2: like embarrassingly bad bad games happen in the postseason. He
Speaker 2: comes out in Game three and things go his way.
Speaker 2: It's hitting shots, the crowd is in it. It's up
Speaker 2: and down, fast ray type of game. Oklahoma City, let's
Speaker 2: go with the rope a little bit. They're up by forty.
Speaker 2: Julius is making plays and at one point he looks
Speaker 2: in the camera and he goes like, we're home now,
Speaker 2: We're home now. My bad game was because we were
Speaker 2: on the road, we're at home now. And then he
Speaker 2: comes out tonight and a couple of things don't go
Speaker 2: his way in the opening minutes, and then he floats
Speaker 2: through the rest of the game, stands around the three
Speaker 2: point line. Every time the ball makes its way to him,
Speaker 2: he's just rifling it down the line in the next
Speaker 2: skip pass or swing pass, just taking these mediocre to
Speaker 2: bad catch and shoot threes, not in impacting the game
Speaker 2: in any substantial way as a rebounder or as a defender.
Speaker 2: Just he was like, game's not going my way. I'm done.
Speaker 2: I like, I don't care who you are as a
Speaker 2: basketball player, if you're in a situation where you have
Speaker 2: the talent level that Julius Randall has a game like tonight,
Speaker 2: five points with five turnovers completely unacceptable, like completely unacceptable.
Speaker 2: He let his team down. Yeah, you're getting swarmed. You
Speaker 2: know who else was getting swarmed? Anthony Edwards. And I
Speaker 2: saw Anthony Edwards try like hell to solve that puzzle tonight,
Speaker 2: like legitimately in that second half, just pouring his heart
Speaker 2: and soul into the game to try to fucking get
Speaker 2: a win. And the dude who's partner in crime is
Speaker 2: pouting and floating around and not doing his job. You
Speaker 2: lost by two. You could have gone back to Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City in a two to two series. I talk about
Speaker 2: this all the time. I don't care what kind of
Speaker 2: game you're having. I don't care if you come out
Speaker 2: and you have four nasty turnovers and two or three
Speaker 2: bad shots and a couple of defensive mistakes, and your
Speaker 2: coach is chewing your ass whatever it is, you have
Speaker 2: time to make a play, and one play could be
Speaker 2: the difference. One play where you get a defensive rebound
Speaker 2: and you see an opportunity to just hit the jets
Speaker 2: in transition and just force the issue because you're one
Speaker 2: of the biggest, most powerful athletes on the floor, and
Speaker 2: an opportunity to go draw a fout, bulldoze your way
Speaker 2: to the rim for an offensive rebound, put back, do something, fight,
Speaker 2: show some fight. Julius succumbs to his bad games. Ah
Speaker 2: fuck it. I just don't have it tonight. And it's
Speaker 2: just so frustrating to watch because, like again, like one
Speaker 2: play could have been the difference. One play. Minnesota had
Speaker 2: possession down three in the final minute of this game,
Speaker 2: One more play could have been the difference. That's why
Speaker 2: you have to stay engaged. That's why you have to fight.
Speaker 2: You fight because you might have another chance. You just
Speaker 2: might have an opportunity fall into your lap to turn
Speaker 2: a bad night into a good night if you just
Speaker 2: stay engaged and you just fight. And I just was,
Speaker 2: I was just so disappointed. I can only imagine how
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards is feeling tonight as he's looking at the
Speaker 2: box score and feeling like his teammate like straight up
Speaker 2: was like, now my night, you guys got this. I
Speaker 2: just I was so annoyed by that. Anyway, let's get
Speaker 2: Jackson up here. Any other angles that you guys want
Speaker 2: to get to in this series, Just pop those questions
Speaker 2: in the chat. We're gonna take about ten fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: worth of questions here.
Speaker 1: Let's do it most of the questions. We're getting our
Speaker 1: Timberwolves questions. Let's start with the first one. It feels
Speaker 1: like Anthony Edwards has shrunk in some big moments. He
Speaker 1: didn't he didn't always, he didn't have a big score
Speaker 1: night tonight, and he you know, they lost in five
Speaker 1: last year in the Western Conference Finals. Not trying to hate,
Speaker 1: but what does he have to do to take the
Speaker 1: next step in.
Speaker 2: His game again? So like we talked about it earlier.
Speaker 2: I think again, there's there's multiple ways to attack a coverage,
Speaker 2: right and like the right way to attack the specific
Speaker 2: coverage that Ain't was seeing tonight and that that scene
Speaker 2: in this entire series is to drive the ball into
Speaker 2: the paint and make a corner kick. And he just
Speaker 2: did it over and over again tonight. I thought he
Speaker 2: did his job in terms of attacking the coverage. Here's
Speaker 2: the thing, though, there is a certain element of score
Speaker 2: that is impervious to coverage that Shay has that Aunt
Speaker 2: doesn't have. Right now. It has it in the form
Speaker 2: of the pull up three or the you know, four
Speaker 2: or five drives a game where he'll just knife through
Speaker 2: like three dudes and like eurostep and somehow find his
Speaker 2: way at the front of the rim. But again, you're
Speaker 2: going to be limited to being a sixteen point a
Speaker 2: game playmaker in a slow down half court game where
Speaker 2: the team is loading up on you unless you build
Speaker 2: some sort of reliable, over the top game. And for
Speaker 2: the record, guys like you want to know why James
Speaker 2: Harden never had success as like a sustainable, reliable offensive
Speaker 2: threat in the postseason, it was because his half court
Speaker 2: I need a bucket shot when teams would load up
Speaker 2: the paint and help on him and do all that
Speaker 2: stuff was step back three. And look, the step back
Speaker 2: three is a useful shot to have in your bag.
Speaker 2: I don't want to sit here and denigrate the step
Speaker 2: back three, but if it's all you got, then you
Speaker 2: are at absolutely handcuffing yourself. And I think there's a
Speaker 2: certain reliability to having that. Okay, you've got three dudes
Speaker 2: waiting for me in the paint. I've got a defender
Speaker 2: in front of me that I know I can shoot over.
Speaker 2: But I need to get to a spot where I
Speaker 2: can make half of these and that is around the elbows,
Speaker 2: that is in the short corner. And Shae has that
Speaker 2: in his game and like we talked about it throughout
Speaker 2: this postseason run and took like more than twice as
Speaker 2: many mid range jump shots just last year in the postseason,
Speaker 2: and he just needs to build that part out of
Speaker 2: his game. And if anything, getting into the offseason and
Speaker 2: watching the tape from this series, he just needs to
Speaker 2: look at not the fouls that Shay has drawn, but
Speaker 2: look at the shots that Shay has made in this series,
Speaker 2: and look at where they've come from. Because they're He's
Speaker 2: getting his opportunities right there at the elbows, regardless of
Speaker 2: what the coverage is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, another question about Ant. We talk a lot
Speaker 1: about conditioning for some stars, most often ones that are
Speaker 1: a little bit less athletic. But if it seems it
Speaker 1: seems like Ant has been might have been gassed at
Speaker 1: the end of the game tonight, it seems like he's
Speaker 1: been gassed at the end of games before. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like he needs to work in his conditioning.
Speaker 2: I think that there is a certain downhill verve that
Speaker 2: An't plays with that would exhaust any player in terms
Speaker 2: of like this, like, let me just put it this way.
Speaker 2: This is this is another reason why he needs to
Speaker 2: have that slow down game. Like what does Shay look
Speaker 2: like when he's walking down a team. He looks like
Speaker 2: almost too relaxed, but like he just kind of has
Speaker 2: like this kind of slouchy look and he just has
Speaker 2: slinky arms as he's dribbling the ball around. His ability
Speaker 2: to work with his back to the basket around the
Speaker 2: elbows is a way to conserve energy throughout a game.
Speaker 2: And like, right now, you know what, you know what
Speaker 2: I would argue the two toughest shots you can take
Speaker 2: as a basketball player is a contested rim attempt and
Speaker 2: a contested step back three in terms of like difficulty
Speaker 2: on the body, beating one defender, to swallom through a
Speaker 2: second defender, to elevate over a third defender is exhausting.
Speaker 2: And to get separation from an elite on ball defender
Speaker 2: to then lift from twenty seven feet from the basket
Speaker 2: and get enough lift for you to be able to
Speaker 2: flip the wrists and get the ball there, that's gonna
Speaker 2: take a lot of energy. And so I think that's
Speaker 2: part of it. The conditioning. Like I didn't see a
Speaker 2: moment tonight where it felt like Aunt was too tired
Speaker 2: to score. I just thought he took threes and wasn't
Speaker 2: making him because those are high variance shots and he
Speaker 2: was consistently getting into the paint making the kickouts. He
Speaker 2: just he doesn't have the indomitable scoring trait that Shay
Speaker 2: has yet, and he can. He's got all the tools
Speaker 2: for it. He's just got to build it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Richard Jefferson is kind of up and
Speaker 1: down as a commentator, But I did like at the
Speaker 1: very end of the game when he was like, look
Speaker 1: at Shay He's literally walking. He's literally walking to get
Speaker 1: to his spot. Right now, It's like that is such
Speaker 1: a crazy thing to say about an NBA basketball player
Speaker 1: in crunch time. He's actually walking to his spot.
Speaker 2: And it works for him, Like that's that's just his
Speaker 2: he doesn't let the game speed him up. Right.
Speaker 1: Okay, another Timberwolves question, and then we'll do a thunder question.
Speaker 1: What assuming the Timberwolves don't come back from three to one,
Speaker 1: what do you think the Timberwolves things to do this
Speaker 1: offseason to sort of get to the net, get to
Speaker 1: the place beyond where they've gotten the last two seasons.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's like nitpicky stuff like I don't know
Speaker 2: if I was if I was a Timberwolves fan, I
Speaker 2: would be so sick to my stomach after watching that
Speaker 2: Julius Randall performance, and I would be really really concerned
Speaker 2: about the realities that come in line with the thing
Speaker 2: with what Julius did tonight that drives me especially crazy
Speaker 2: is adversity is just like a non negotiable in the postseason,
Speaker 2: Like it's it's just a non negotiable, like you're just
Speaker 2: unless you're on the twenty seventeen Warriors, which is the
Speaker 2: most talented roster ever assembled, like or you're like like
Speaker 2: that Celtics team last year in the East, Like there
Speaker 2: are a handful of examples where a team can ride
Speaker 2: a supreme talent advantage all the way through to the
Speaker 2: finish line, but it's exceptionally rare and generally speaking, you're
Speaker 2: gonna face adversity. Like j Dubb was so bad in
Speaker 2: the Denver Series, Like so bad in the Denver Series
Speaker 2: last last round, but like he didn't quit on his team.
Speaker 2: He went one for fifteen or whatever the hell it
Speaker 2: was that he wentered four for seventeen, and then like
Speaker 2: he kept trying to make something happen and he conquered
Speaker 2: those demons and has been fantastic in this series. In
Speaker 2: I would be terrified with the Julius Randall thing if
Speaker 2: I like signed up long term for that that he's
Speaker 2: gonna just in a big spot bow out on his
Speaker 2: team because things didn't go his way as far as
Speaker 2: the rest of the roster. Like I'm over the Rudy
Speaker 2: Gobert experience. I think if you're paying thirty plus million
Speaker 2: dollars to a player that can't get a defensive rebound,
Speaker 2: that that is his defensive value is substantially lower than
Speaker 2: his pedigree would lead you to believe, and who legitimately
Speaker 2: can't catch and finish anything in traffic, Like you want
Speaker 2: to know why we all freaked out on that dunket Hartenstein.
Speaker 2: We're like, oh shit, I can't believe he did that,
Speaker 2: because it's just so unusual for him to like make
Speaker 2: a play in traffic in a situation like that. And
Speaker 2: so I think there's certain conversations you need to have
Speaker 2: about resource allocation. Like I love nasried love to Alexander Walker.
Speaker 2: I think Dante DiVincenzo is a playoff player. Mike Conley
Speaker 2: battles you know, Ant is the foundational piece of your franchise,
Speaker 2: But I'd be looking strongly at the Randall Gobert pairing
Speaker 2: and just be looking in the big picture what gives
Speaker 2: me the best chance. But don't let that take away
Speaker 2: from the fact that I do think that if Ant
Speaker 2: was better, they could have won this series. Ant's twenty
Speaker 2: three years old. He in the next two to three
Speaker 2: seasons needs to build out a reliable part of his game.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at Synergy right now, shag gilges Alexander is
Speaker 2: shooting fifty four percent on jump shots inside of seventeen.
Speaker 2: That is so reliable to be able to go to
Speaker 2: a shot that he can make more than half the time.
Speaker 2: That's the like I think if Ant builds that out,
Speaker 2: that is what will get him to the point where
Speaker 2: he can elevate some of these rosters too far above
Speaker 2: what they're capable of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the go bear offensive struggles are one
Speaker 1: thing because he's not an offensive player, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy to see him let up so many offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: It's like, this is your second most important thing behind
Speaker 1: being you know, a room protector, and Cason Wallace is
Speaker 1: just out rebounding it, Like, what what is happening?
Speaker 2: The kase on Wallace one was like I I was.
Speaker 2: I was floored watching it. I literally, I was, you
Speaker 2: competing so hard to get a stop against this hard
Speaker 2: and and he stood there, He stood there and watch
Speaker 2: Like rebounding is about going and getting the fucking basketball.
Speaker 2: There is definitely a ground battle part of it, especially
Speaker 2: when you're dealing with really big bodies that you need
Speaker 2: to keep ground bound, but it is a roster wide,
Speaker 2: five man pursuit of the basketball. In Oklahoma City was
Speaker 2: faster to the ball tonight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like, it's one thing I know, I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of the NBA players talk about this,
Speaker 1: how when you do have to play that ground game,
Speaker 1: we have to box out, Like in the Warriors against
Speaker 1: the Rockets. When you're Draymond being your boxing at Steven Adams,
Speaker 1: you're not going to get the basketball, but everyone else
Speaker 1: he's going to get the basketball. Rudy Gobert is not
Speaker 1: boxing at anybody, and he's any Like, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: Crazy crazy performance? Fro Rudy gober One more question and
Speaker 1: then we'll go over to playback. Is the amount of
Speaker 1: threes that Okac is giving up to the Timberwolves, you know,
Speaker 1: as you talked extensively about as part of their scheme.
Speaker 1: Is that a potential problem against teams that are better
Speaker 1: at generating threes and or have better converting players three
Speaker 1: point shooters like the Pacers are really good at generating threes,
Speaker 1: and the Knicks have a you know, quite a few shooters.
Speaker 2: I thought Minnesota made him pay for it over and
Speaker 2: over again. Tonight. The Minnesota got two. This is crazy,
Speaker 2: two point zero eight points per catch and shoot per
Speaker 2: unguarded catch and shoot. Three they generated thirteen of them,
Speaker 2: and I'll look up the makes Layer because I don't
Speaker 2: want to inundate the show right here, but like they've
Speaker 2: made them pay for it. But like there's here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Like Chris Finch, I thought went with his base defensive
Speaker 2: scheme to start the series, and I thought that was
Speaker 2: a mistake. I think that Mark Dagnault going with his
Speaker 2: base defensive scheme against Indiana would be a mistake. I do, okay,
Speaker 2: So I think Indiana is in the same way that
Speaker 2: like for Aunt, making him a playmaker forces him to
Speaker 2: confront his weaknesses, and by the way, he's making some
Speaker 2: signs of growth, but there's still a lot of potential there.
Speaker 2: To me, the weakness for Tyres Haliburton is like let's see,
Speaker 2: let's see you go get a bucket against Chet over
Speaker 2: and over again. Let's see you go get a bucket
Speaker 2: against Hartenstein over and over again. Or you're on ball
Speaker 2: defender a guard that you like against the switch. So
Speaker 2: I I think if you just let Tyris Aliburton, because
Speaker 2: here's the thing, Tyres Aliburton never turns the ball over.
Speaker 2: That's like his superpower. So if you let him dribble
Speaker 2: the ball at the floor and you load up the
Speaker 2: strong side and you let him just pitch it to
Speaker 2: Siakam in the weekside or a Nie Smith in the
Speaker 2: weekside corner all series long. Then you're gonna make what
Speaker 2: should be an unwinnable series into a winnable series for Indiana.
Speaker 2: So let's keep an eye on the game plan. Here's
Speaker 2: my thing. In this series, Oklahoma City's base game plan
Speaker 2: happened to line up with what is the most appropriate
Speaker 2: way to guard the Timberwolves. It doesn't in the next series,
Speaker 2: so they need to make that adjustment accordingly. And I
Speaker 2: think we'll see. And by the way, if he doesn't
Speaker 2: won game sure, whatever, But like if by game two
Speaker 2: they're still doing it and the games are more competitive
Speaker 2: than they should be, that'd be something that I would
Speaker 2: look at. All right, guys, that's all we have for
Speaker 2: the YouTube stream tonight. As always, we appreciate you guys
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Speaker 2: We're gonna hanging out, taking callers and just shooting the shit
Speaker 2: and having fun talking hoops for a little while. We'll
Speaker 2: see you guys over there in just a few minutes. What' so, guys,
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