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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume

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Speaker 1: heavy Wednesday, everybody of ball. If you guys are having

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Speaker 1: a great week. We are covering our next series today,

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Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Minnesota Timberwolves, same format

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Speaker 1: that we've been doing the season series, off the top,

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Speaker 1: the odds on DraftKings right now, what it looks like

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Speaker 1: with the Lakers on offense, what it looks like with

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Speaker 1: the Wolves on offense, the swing factors I see in

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Speaker 1: the series, and then at the very end, the pick

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Speaker 1: that I am making for who will win? You guys

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Speaker 1: know the drill before we get started. It's subscribed to

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Speaker 1: the Hoops and OT YouTube channels. You don't miss any

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Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore

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Speaker 1: json LTCs. You guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget

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Speaker 1: about podcast feed where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight.

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Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in

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Speaker 1: a review. On that front. We also have brand new

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Speaker 1: social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's

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Speaker 1: doing some great work this year. Make sure you guys

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Speaker 1: follow us there, and the last but not least, keep

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Speaker 1: dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments so that we

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Speaker 1: can get to them throughout the remainder of the season.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the season series

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Speaker 1: went tow to two between these two teams. Once again,

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Speaker 1: not a lot of useful data there. Luca only played

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Speaker 1: in one of those games, and the Wolves were missing

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Speaker 1: basically their entire starting front court at the time, so

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Speaker 1: not a whole lot to gather there as Ironically, when

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Speaker 1: it came to film, I spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: watching the Western Conference Finals today, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: footage of Luca attacking specific types of defenders and just

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Speaker 1: how he looked against all those different types of defenders.

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Speaker 1: The odds, again, all of our odds are provided by DraftKings.

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Speaker 1: The Lakers are a minus two hundred favorite. That line

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Speaker 1: has moved a lot. It opened closer to like minus

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Speaker 1: one sixty if I remember correctly. I think this is

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Speaker 1: a little too big of a line. I think that

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Speaker 1: the Lakers are a better team than the Wolves, and

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Speaker 1: as I've mentioned, I'm going to pick the Lakers to

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Speaker 1: beat the Wolves. I'll explain all the reasons why, but

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Speaker 1: I kind of thought it made more sense as a

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Speaker 1: gambling line closer down to one sixty. So there's some

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Speaker 1: value there on the Wolves the Lakers on offense. As

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Speaker 1: far as matchups go, again, I went back this morning

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Speaker 1: and I watched every single Luka Danchid shot attempt from

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Speaker 1: the Western Conference Finals, and even though Luca is very

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Speaker 1: comfortable against Jaden McDaniels, and he has a clear size

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Speaker 1: and strength advantage there. Jaden did log a lot of

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Speaker 1: good reps over the course of that series, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: there were good reps from Ant as well. There are

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Speaker 1: some good reps from Kyle Anderson, who's no longer on

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Speaker 1: the team, But I still think Jaden is probably your

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Speaker 1: best bet. So my guess is that we're gonna see

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Speaker 1: Jayden on Luca. We'll see Connley start on Austin Reeves.

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Speaker 1: That's gonna be a huge part of this matchup is

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Speaker 1: whether or not Austin can play Mike Conley off the floor.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about that in a little bit, but I

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Speaker 1: do think we'll see a lot of Dante DiVincenzo, a

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Speaker 1: lot of Nikhil Alexander Walker in that two spot. I

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Speaker 1: think we'll see Anthony Edwards on Rui. I thought he

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Speaker 1: might spend some time on Lebron, and I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: that he won't, but I think with the job that

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Speaker 1: Ant's gonna have on offense in this game, it almost

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Speaker 1: makes more sense for him to guard Rui and can

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Speaker 1: be a little like Lackaday's agal off ball tracking shooters,

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Speaker 1: which could be a little bit of an issue in

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Speaker 1: that matchup, but it will save his legs considered versus

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Speaker 1: trying to battle Lebron all over the floor. That would

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Speaker 1: mean Julius would guard Lebron, which we'll see how that

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Speaker 1: would end up going. And then Rudy Gobert on Jackson

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Speaker 1: Hayes to start. But again the Lakers will go small,

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Speaker 1: something we'll talk about right now. So the go Beart problem,

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Speaker 1: I've seen a ton of people on Twitter talking about

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Speaker 1: and debating the Lakers and their ability to play Rudy

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Speaker 1: Gobert off the floor, and I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: Timberwolves fans come back and play at point out the

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Speaker 1: obvious fact that Rudy Gobert is a very good switch defender,

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Speaker 1: and for the record, I agree with Wolves fans about that.

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Speaker 1: To me, the go beart problem has nothing to do

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Speaker 1: about with hunting ISOs against Rudy Gobert. I think if

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Speaker 1: the Lakers fall into that trap, it could actually backfire

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Speaker 1: on them. Looking back at the Western Conference Finals, we

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Speaker 1: didn't really see a lot of Luca attacking Gobert. We

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Speaker 1: really only saw that in Game two. The Wolves mostly

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Speaker 1: ran rock coverages with Gobert. In that series, they just

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Speaker 1: went to the switching in crunch time of Game two,

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Speaker 1: and yeah, Luca did score on Gobert once on a

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Speaker 1: step back three to win the game. But it's not

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Speaker 1: a matchup that I think the Lakers should get obsessed

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Speaker 1: with hunting. The advantages that Luca and Lebron have in

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Speaker 1: this series are against the smalls, Luca attacking a skinnier

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Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels, attacking into Keile, Alexander Walker, attacking in Anthony

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Speaker 1: Edwards attacking the smaller defenders that are on the floor.

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Speaker 1: Lebron as well. If Lebron, especially if he gets into

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Speaker 1: hunting Gobert, I don't think that's gonna go super well.

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Speaker 1: So like that is not the right focus point for

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Speaker 1: me as far as how Gobert fits into this series.

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Speaker 1: Where the Lakers can really hurt go Beart is in

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Speaker 1: his off ball defense. And then on the other end

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Speaker 1: of the floor. What I mean by off ball defense,

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Speaker 1: So when you go to your five out spacing groups,

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Speaker 1: so take Jackson Hayes out, put in a either a

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Speaker 1: Dorianfinny Smith or a Gabe Vincent, You're gonna see a

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Speaker 1: lot of Dorian Finney Smith. That's the line. That's the Lakers'

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Speaker 1: clear best five that you're going to see a ton

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Speaker 1: of in the series, Austin Lebron, Luco, Dorian Phinney, Smith

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Speaker 1: and Ruy Hachimura. All of those guys, if left open,

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Speaker 1: are going to hit a high percentage of their threes.

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Speaker 1: So with that being the case, I'm more concerned about

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Speaker 1: Gobert when Luca and Lebron are hunting Smalls, being put

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Speaker 1: in a position where he has to either help at

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Speaker 1: the rim where his rim protection value is very high,

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Speaker 1: but he's going to have to concede wide open threes,

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Speaker 1: or him having to track shooters on the perimeter off

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Speaker 1: the ball, which dramatically mitigates his defensive value. Either way,

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Speaker 1: his rim protection is less valuable if it's conceding open threes,

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Speaker 1: and him tracking shooters on the perimeter is way less

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Speaker 1: valuable because the Lakers just won't even go that way.

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Speaker 1: They'll look to score at the rim or in other

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Speaker 1: spots on the floor. And so that's where I look

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Speaker 1: at Gobart on defense being minimized by the Lakers five

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Speaker 1: out lineups not hunting him and switches mitigating his rim protection.

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Speaker 1: And then on the other end of the floor, when

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Speaker 1: Gobert is out there, You're going to see a ton

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Speaker 1: of defensive game planning from JJ Reddick. When it comes

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Speaker 1: to the dynamic of like playing guys off the floor,

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Speaker 1: it actually, to me comes down to a little bit

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Speaker 1: of Gobert and Conley. If Austin Reeves can score effectively

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Speaker 1: against Mike Conley, that Chris Finch goes away from Mike Conley,

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Speaker 1: Gobert's offensive value sinks considerably. Mike Conley is the only

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Speaker 1: player on the Wolves over this era that's been able

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Speaker 1: to successfully weaponize Gobert as an offensive threat. They're timing

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Speaker 1: in ball screens in the way they go Beart can

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Speaker 1: free Conley up in screens, the timing of when Gobert

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Speaker 1: slips out into his roles. Conley's just kind of chemistry

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Speaker 1: with him over the years from when they played together

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Speaker 1: on the Jazz that was the dynamic where they could

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Speaker 1: actually use Gobert as a successful role man. But if

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Speaker 1: Austin can score successfully enough against Conley to get Conley

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Speaker 1: off the floor to where it's more Nikhil, Alexander Walker

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Speaker 1: or Dante DiVincenzo, those guys are much better defensive players,

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Speaker 1: and obviously both of them are knocked down three point shooters,

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Speaker 1: but those two guys don't have the playmaking talent that

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Speaker 1: Conley does. If you can play Conley off the floor

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Speaker 1: and space Gobert away from the rim on the other

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Speaker 1: end of the floor, then Gobert becomes basically an offensive

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Speaker 1: rebounder and a screen setter, and a screen setter that

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Speaker 1: can't score on the other side of the screen. And

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Speaker 1: so that's where I could see the Gobert problem being

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Speaker 1: an issue if they can play Conley off the floor

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Speaker 1: and if instead of just hunting him and switches, they

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Speaker 1: space him away from the rim in their five out groups.

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Speaker 1: Right where I could see Gobert being a benefit to

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Speaker 1: the Wolves defense in this matchup is in the other lineups,

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Speaker 1: like when Jordan goodwins on the floor, when Jared Vanderbilt's

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Speaker 1: on the floor. Jackson as it's a little tricky because

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Speaker 1: he's a vertical spacer, and as we saw in the

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Speaker 1: Western Conference finals last year, Luca did a really nice

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Speaker 1: job of kind of baiting Gobert into no man's land

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Speaker 1: between Luca and the lie threat so that he could

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Speaker 1: get those lobs as he was attacking downhill against his

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Speaker 1: matchup and running into Gobert. So it's less about Jackson,

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Speaker 1: But when Vanda's on the floor, I think Gobert could

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Speaker 1: be devastating. When Jordan Goodwin's on the floor, I think

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Speaker 1: Gobert could be really devastating. And then just like all

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Speaker 1: of the usual stuff that he does on offense, he's

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Speaker 1: just got to be really impactful there. He's got a

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Speaker 1: offensive rebound like crazy and set really good screens as

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Speaker 1: best as he can. But that's gonna be the dynamic

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Speaker 1: in this series that's going to be really interesting. It's

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Speaker 1: just how much can Mike Conley play and how effective

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Speaker 1: can Rudy Gobert be In the context of the Lakers

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Speaker 1: five out groups. Lebron attacking Smalls, I think Anthony Edwards

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Speaker 1: on Lebron is going to be an interesting type of

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Speaker 1: matchup because ant is so quick laterally and so big

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Speaker 1: and strong and like a fire hydrant that I think

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Speaker 1: he can actually force Lebron to shoot over the top.

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Speaker 1: But the other Smalls, Nikhil, Alexander Walker, Mike Conley, Dante DiVincenzo,

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Speaker 1: Lebron's gonna have some opportunity to attack there. Lebron's been

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Speaker 1: a good amount of time attacking nas Reid in switches,

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Speaker 1: in their regular season matchup most recently, and Nas defended

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Speaker 1: him really well there. In general, I don't really like

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Speaker 1: Lebron attacking centers as much as I like him attacking smalls.

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Speaker 1: He did have a game recently, I think it was

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Speaker 1: the Dallas game if I remember correctly, where he over

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Speaker 1: and over again just started going at I think it

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Speaker 1: was gafferd down the stretch and getting stuff at the rim.

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Speaker 1: He's had some good reps there, but I don't think

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Speaker 1: it would work particularly well against Nas Reed and Rigobert,

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Speaker 1: So keeping an eye on where Lebron looks to attack

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Speaker 1: the Timberwolves. Ball pressure I've used an important factor in

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Speaker 1: the series. If you guys remember in their last matchup,

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Speaker 1: the one that Luca played in, the Lakers really controlled

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Speaker 1: the early part of the game, but there was a

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Speaker 1: second half run for Minnesota in there where they just

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Speaker 1: picked up full court and wore down Austin, Lebron and Luca,

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Speaker 1: and they lost control of the game for a little bit.

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Speaker 1: They did regain control in the fourth quarter, but there

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Speaker 1: was a stretch there on the game chart where you

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Speaker 1: saw that lead shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, and it

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Speaker 1: was a lot of that ball pressure from the Timberwolves,

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Speaker 1: forcing turnovers, getting out in transition. I'm a little worried

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers about the Wolves overall athleticism and physicality,

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Speaker 1: not so much their size. Everyone talks about like how

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Speaker 1: much bigger the Wolves are than the Lakers. I actually

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Speaker 1: don't see them as much of a bigger team, because

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Speaker 1: they're bigger at every other position, Like if you're looking

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Speaker 1: at guard, like Austin's bigger than Mike Conley, Luca's bigger

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Speaker 1: than Anthony Edwards. Ruy Hachimura is bigger than Jayden McDaniels.

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Speaker 1: Lebron James is every bit as big, if not a

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Speaker 1: little bit bigger than Julius Randall. It's really just the

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Speaker 1: center position and when they play two bigs that they

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Speaker 1: have a little bit of a size advantage in the

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Speaker 1: front court. But I don't look at it as a

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Speaker 1: size advantage to me. It's more of just like an

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Speaker 1: overall athleticism advantage than Minnesota has that can manifest with

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Speaker 1: their ball pressure and with them making like really hard closeouts.

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Speaker 1: That spooks some of the Laker role players if Ruy

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Speaker 1: gets a little spooked, if you know Dorian Phinney Smith

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Speaker 1: gets spooked, if some of these guys in their spot

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Speaker 1: up situations just don't look comfortable because of the Minnesota closeouts.

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Speaker 1: That's where it could get a little tricky, and Minnesota

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Speaker 1: could start getting away with devoting more attention towards Lebron

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Speaker 1: and Lucas. So keep an eye on just the Laker

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Speaker 1: role players and how comfortable they are in this particular matchup.

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Speaker 1: So keys for the Lakers. When the Lakers are on offense, Luca, Lebron,

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Speaker 1: Austin handling ball pressure, not turning the ball over, punishing

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Speaker 1: smalls instead of hunting bigs, and switches again in one

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Speaker 1: last note, Well, actually we'll get to that when we

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Speaker 1: get to the Wolves. And then three their role players

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Speaker 1: just being confident and comfortable as the intensity picks up

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Speaker 1: defensively from the Wolves. Keys for the Wolves, ball pressure

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Speaker 1: like crazy, Gotta try to disrupt their offense, slow down

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Speaker 1: their offense, force turnovers you can get out transition. And

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Speaker 1: then secondly, I would switch with their fives again when

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Speaker 1: they ran all that drop in the Western Conference finals.

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Speaker 1: It allowed Luca to constantly operate with a size advantage

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Speaker 1: and to get those kind of baked in driving lanes

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Speaker 1: that he gets from ball screens. I would switch with

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Speaker 1: my fives with Nasried especially, but also with Gobert, because

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Speaker 1: that is where you can bait Lebron and Luca into

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Speaker 1: making the mistake of strictly hunting fives. We've seen that

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Speaker 1: happen before. They did it against Al Horford and the

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Speaker 1: Celtics game and at backfired. That is where you have

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Speaker 1: a game plan advantage. You can bait Lebron and Luca

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Speaker 1: into some bad process by switching with your fives, moving

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Speaker 1: to the wolves on the offensive side of the floor.

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Speaker 1: JJ's defensive game plan in the regular season with Ant

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Speaker 1: was similar to what he used against all the athletic

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Speaker 1: guards that they faced. He would funnel them towards the

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Speaker 1: sideline with a strong side zone, meaning the defender who's

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Speaker 1: guarding the next closest player on the weakside is skipping

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Speaker 1: all the way to the other side of the paint,

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Speaker 1: basically just waiting for Aunt. There were some downsides there

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Speaker 1: because it had a baked in runway. As you open

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Speaker 1: up your stants, Ant can really just drive and when

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Speaker 1: he gets ahead of steam, it doesn't really matter if

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Speaker 1: someone's in front of him. If it's not a rim

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Speaker 1: protector like Ant struggles with rimp protect at the rim.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't struggle with really anything else at the rim.

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Speaker 1: So one of the things I think JJ will do is,

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Speaker 1: after watching the game tape from that game, I think

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Speaker 1: he'll do a little bit more forward aggression. So with

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Speaker 1: that strong side zone, I think he'll bring the defender

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Speaker 1: further up, and I think he'll close the stance just

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Speaker 1: a little bit more, try to make it for the

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Speaker 1: on ball guy to try to make it so that

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Speaker 1: ant just can't cleanly get a runway to take off.

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Speaker 1: But in general, I think it's gonna be like literally

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Speaker 1: a chess match type of game between JJ and Anthony Edwards.

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Speaker 1: A lot of mixing up of coverages, that strong side zone.

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Speaker 1: I talked about, blitzes, high drops, gapping in ISOs, late

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Speaker 1: double teams, after he puts the ball on the floor,

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Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see a ton of that stuff

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Speaker 1: geared towards targeting ants, inconsistent playmaking ANTS. Playmaking is arguably

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Speaker 1: the biggest swing factor in this series. If he can

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Speaker 1: take JJ's game plan and use it as a consistent

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Speaker 1: method to get the Lakers in rotation, they can win

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Speaker 1: this series. There as long as they get the ball

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Speaker 1: out to an advantage and they incrementally break down the

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Speaker 1: Lakers defense with playmaking, they can win this series. It's

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Speaker 1: just not a strong suit for this team. Aggregate playmaking

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Speaker 1: falls off of a cliff when Mike Conley's off the floor.

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Speaker 1: It is not a strength of this team. But if

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Speaker 1: they can swing that factor in their favor, it could

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Speaker 1: be the difference. Julius post mismatch hunting, I hope the

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Speaker 1: Lakers start with Lebron on him instead of Ruy, but

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Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to. I think they're gonna

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Speaker 1: start Lebron on Jaden McDaniels. My guess is the matchups

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Speaker 1: look like this. I think we'll see Ruey on Julius.

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Speaker 1: I think we'll see Austin on Ant. I think we'll

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Speaker 1: see Luca on Conley. I think we'll see Lebron on

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Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels. And I think we'll see Jackson Hayes on

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Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert. Now, when Dorian Phinney Smith comes in and

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Speaker 1: they go to that core lineup, I think Dorian Phinney

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Speaker 1: Smith will go to Ant. I think Austin will move

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Speaker 1: over to the off guard, whether that's Conley or Dante

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Speaker 1: or Nikiel and then I think Luco will guard either

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Speaker 1: Jaden or Rudy Gobert, but that's going to leave Ruey

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Speaker 1: on Julie, and Julius has had his way with Ruy

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Speaker 1: over the years. As a matter of fact, I can

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Speaker 1: almost guarantee you that Julius Randall at some point in

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Speaker 1: the time since Sunday has thought to himself, Ruy Hachamura

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Speaker 1: cannot guard me. He has had a lot of success

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Speaker 1: in that matchup over the years. Ruy struggles specifically with

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Speaker 1: holding his ground and understanding that he has a huge

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Speaker 1: strength advantage. Ruy's a big, strong dude, and sometimes he

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Speaker 1: just doesn't use that on defense. And I think Julius

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Speaker 1: has a gift for like finding those weak points in

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Speaker 1: a defender's defensive stance and just attacking it with power

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Speaker 1: and dislodging the player and getting to his spots on

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Speaker 1: the floor. Julius is a better passer than Anthony Edwards,

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Speaker 1: so I am curious to see how much doubling jj

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Speaker 1: Reddick will do there. He may go an opposite route

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Speaker 1: and go, let's see if Julius just plays hero ball

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Speaker 1: on all series and see if that actually benefits us

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Speaker 1: more than trying to send extra defenders there. I think

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Speaker 1: that'll be interesting. Jaden McDaniels is going to be a

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Speaker 1: huge swing factor in the series, obviously, his shooting ability,

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Speaker 1: his ability to knock down the open threes. He's been

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Speaker 1: shooting much better post All Star Break, but the Lakers

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Speaker 1: are going to concede some shots to him. His crashing

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Speaker 1: and cutting. He can be a really devastating athlete going

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Speaker 1: towards the rim that the Lakers are going to have

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Speaker 1: to contend with. Nas Reed was actually a non factor

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Speaker 1: in the Lakers game that Luca actually played in. Lebron

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Speaker 1: guarded him and Lebron did an excellent job on him

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Speaker 1: and basically removed him from the game. Lebron will likely

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Speaker 1: get that job again in this series at times. That'll

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Speaker 1: be an interesting matchup to watch keys from Minnesota when

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Speaker 1: they're on offense. A's playmaking, as we mentioned earlier, got

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Speaker 1: to take advantage of the game plan as an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get the defense in rotation nas Reed, Julius Randall,

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Speaker 1: and Dante DiVincenzo supporting scoring. This is a Lakers team

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Speaker 1: that's been scoring a lot of points lately. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: need guys that can score the basketball. Jady McDaniel's three

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Speaker 1: point shooting again. He shot well after the All Star break,

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Speaker 1: but that's going to be something he's going to have

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Speaker 1: to continue to do really, really well. And can Rudy

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Speaker 1: Gobert do enough damage as a screener as an offensive

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Speaker 1: rebounder to stay a net positive with some of his

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Speaker 1: defensive value getting mitigated by the Lakers five out groups.

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Speaker 1: That's going to be an important factor in the series

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Speaker 1: for the Lakers. Game plan discipline. When the Lakers let

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Speaker 1: go of the rope a little bit on defense, they

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Speaker 1: look super unathletic and the bottom can fall out for him.

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Speaker 1: That's why they look so bad against bad teams after

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Speaker 1: the Luca trade. That's why they're susceptible to some really

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Speaker 1: long runs for the opponent as they let go of

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Speaker 1: their defensive focus. Them staying focused on defense, to the

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Speaker 1: game plan and doing their job on a possession by

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Speaker 1: possession basis is vital to their ability to guard this team.

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Speaker 1: Aggressive coverages, pray on Minnesota's lack of playmaking talent forced

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Speaker 1: them to beat you with the pass, and then lastly,

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Speaker 1: the boxing out and gang rebounding against Gobar and Jaden McDaniels.

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Speaker 1: There's going to be a lot of offensive rebounds that

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Speaker 1: Gobar and Jaden are going to be going for. It's

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Speaker 1: going to be about multiple efforts from multiple guys getting

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Speaker 1: bodies him to box out, and then other dudes come

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Speaker 1: and flying in against better athletes to try to meet

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Speaker 1: them up top. When you box them out on the ground,

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Speaker 1: they can't jump. When they can't jump, that allows another

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Speaker 1: player to beat them over the top to the rebound.

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Speaker 1: It's going to be a team effort to survive on

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Speaker 1: the glass. Swing factors in this series Jaden McDaniels defense

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Speaker 1: on Luca. One of the biggest factors in the Western

400
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Speaker 1: Conference Finals last year was the simple fact that Jaden

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Speaker 1: was too skinny to manage Luca. He did log some

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Speaker 1: good reps, but overall in this series, Luca was very

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Speaker 1: comfortable and it basically caused the base defensive scheme for

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Speaker 1: Minnesota in their pick and roll coverage to crack and

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Speaker 1: to not work. That's going to be important factor in

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Speaker 1: the series is is Jaden gonna hold up better against

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Speaker 1: Luca than he did last year? Ants playmaking. As we've

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Speaker 1: mentioned multiple times in the show, I'm gonna say role

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Speaker 1: players shooting for both teams. Specifically, for the Wolves, it's

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Speaker 1: gonna be off ball shooting from guys like Jaden McDaniels

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Speaker 1: and guys like Julius Randall. But for the Lake it's

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Speaker 1: more about good shooters who are proven shooters, but that

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Speaker 1: might struggle a little bit under the intensity of the

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Speaker 1: environment as the Wolves are so athletic. So I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna say role player shooting for both teams. Julius Randall

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Speaker 1: is a player that has played very poorly in the

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Speaker 1: playoffs in his career. I think it's a little more

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Speaker 1: complicated than that because of some of the injuries he's

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Speaker 1: been dealing with or recovering from in some of those situations.

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Speaker 1: But Julius Randalls play in this series. Him getting up

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Speaker 1: to the player he was when he was an All

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Speaker 1: NBA guy could be a huge factor for the Wolves.

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Speaker 1: And then Lebron. This is a big physical defense that

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Speaker 1: Minnesota has. Lebron killed the Wolves in their last regular

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Speaker 1: season matchup. I think he had thirty three points and

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Speaker 1: seventeen rebounds. Lebron's ability to leverage himself to that extent

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Speaker 1: is going to be a big factor in this series.

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Speaker 1: If you look back at that at that point in time,

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Speaker 1: that was before Lebron's groin injury, when he was playing

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Speaker 1: like a literally like an MVP candidate every single night,

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Speaker 1: really hasn't gotten to that level since the level since

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Speaker 1: he came back from the injury. A lesser version of

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Speaker 1: Lebron could obviously be a swing factor in Minnesota's favorite

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Speaker 1: A favor as we head into the series. My pick,

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Speaker 1: I think this is a very favorable matchup for the Lakers.

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Speaker 1: I think Minnesota's greatest defensive strength, which is the combination

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Speaker 1: of perimeter defense, talent and rim protection, is neutralized by

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Speaker 1: Luca because none of those perimeter defenders can really bother Luca.

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Speaker 1: And then on the other side of the floor, I

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Speaker 1: think the strength of the Laker defense, which is game planning,

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Speaker 1: loading up, and swarming, lines up with the weakness of

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Speaker 1: the Wolves, which is their playmaking talent and just their

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Speaker 1: overall decision making. So as I see on both ends

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Speaker 1: of the floor, the strengths and weakness line up, this

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Speaker 1: is going to be my first five game prediction. I

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Speaker 1: think the Lakers are going to beat the Timberwolves in

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Speaker 1: five games in this series, So we'll see what ends

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Speaker 1: up happening. Obviously a lot that can go either way,

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Speaker 1: but this is a matchup that I think lines up

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Speaker 1: really well for the Lakers. All right, guys, that's all

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Speaker 1: I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you

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Speaker 1: guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be

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Speaker 1: back with our two seven matchups tomorrow. I will see

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Speaker 1: you guys there. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would

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Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would

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Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.

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Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if

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Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. The volume