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Speaker 2: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
Speaker 2: and happy conference finals as we kick it off with
Speaker 2: the Western Conference tonight. Well, was a pretty entertaining game
Speaker 2: for the most part, outside of a couple of things.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get into it from a bunch of different angles. Yes,
Speaker 2: we'll have a little bit of ref talk off of
Speaker 2: the top, and then at the tail end of the show,
Speaker 2: we're gonna take ten to fifteen minutes of mail bag
Speaker 2: questions from you guys. So if there's some specific angles
Speaker 2: from tonight's game that you want to dive a little
Speaker 2: deeper into, let's get those questions into the chat and
Speaker 2: we'll hit them at the end. It's also nice because
Speaker 2: right around the time I finish my monologue is when
Speaker 2: I can get into some of the advanced metrics that populate,
Speaker 2: you know, fifteen twenty minutes after the game, So we
Speaker 2: can get a little bit deeper during that mailbag segment.
Speaker 2: And then when we finish up here tonight on YouTube,
Speaker 2: we're heading over to playback dot tv slash Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2: We'll be taking callers, we'll watch film, we'll just get
Speaker 2: into the weeds and have some fun. It's a more
Speaker 2: informal vibe. I've been really in and I've been really
Speaker 2: enjoying that setting over there, So we'll be heading over
Speaker 2: there when we finish on YouTube tonight. You guys knowe
Speaker 2: the Joe before we get started it subscribed to the
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Speaker 2: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
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Speaker 2: rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great
Speaker 2: work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and
Speaker 2: Facebook and TikTok, so make sure you guys follow us there.
Speaker 2: And then, last but not least, like I mentioned, keep
Speaker 2: getting those questions into the chat so we can hit
Speaker 2: him at the tail end of the show. First of all,
Speaker 2: as we shift to this game, I'm just very excited.
Speaker 2: This series is going to be a blast as long
Speaker 2: as Shaye doesn't get a free throw every damn time
Speaker 2: he flails or falls or trips over air or whatever
Speaker 2: it is he was doing for the most For the
Speaker 2: most part in this particular game, I tweeted out after
Speaker 2: Shay's first foul the first time that he grifted his
Speaker 2: way in the lane. There was a second one where
Speaker 2: Julius Randall clearly grabbed him and was like a very
Speaker 2: clear There was a similar one late in the game
Speaker 2: where Jaden McDaniels clearly grabbed Shae when he was initiating
Speaker 2: that contact. Those sorts of things, I want that called
Speaker 2: every time. That's not defense. You're just grabbing. But if
Speaker 2: you're sliding your feet and you're going down the lane
Speaker 2: line and Shay's going to just slightly bump into you
Speaker 2: and fall backwards and flail and throw it up, I
Speaker 2: don't think that's a basketball play that should be rewarded
Speaker 2: with free throws. And one of the things I tweeted
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the game was, if Shae wants
Speaker 2: to lean on that, that's a great sign for Minnesota
Speaker 2: because that's not something that's gonna work out in the
Speaker 2: large sample. But it did work out tonight as he
Speaker 2: continued to get the calls. Conspicuously, it was the same
Speaker 2: ref every time. It was Mark Lindsay who kept giving
Speaker 2: Shae every single damn touch foul throughout the game. And
Speaker 2: I think the NBA just needs to pluck Mark Lindsay
Speaker 2: and just get him out of the playoffs so that
Speaker 2: we don't have to watch him anymore, because, like to me,
Speaker 2: it's not about fairness. The whistle was relatively even tonight.
Speaker 2: Maybe Shae gets three or four additional calls. It's not
Speaker 2: the reason Minnesota lost this game. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 2: that more here in a minute. Okay, so he did
Speaker 2: a lot of good. To me, it's just about the
Speaker 2: television product. Basketball calls, like bad calls are a part
Speaker 2: of basketball games. I'm never gonna get overly worked up
Speaker 2: on that as far as it pertains to one team
Speaker 2: or anything along those lines. Again, I don't think that's
Speaker 2: why Minnesota lost tonight. I'm just super excited because this
Speaker 2: is going to be a showcase for the young generation
Speaker 2: in the NBA. And what we don't need is to
Speaker 2: watch Shay Gildas Alexander just flailing and doing all that
Speaker 2: bullshit and getting rewarded with free throws for it. So
Speaker 2: let's just let's NBA. Let's get Mark Lindsay out of
Speaker 2: the series. It's not the type of series for him.
Speaker 2: He wants to ref like it's February. No one's interested
Speaker 2: in watching that. So let's get him out and then
Speaker 2: hopefully we can enjoy this series with some quality basketball
Speaker 2: between these two teams. The reason why I'm excited about
Speaker 2: this series is just about every player in this series
Speaker 2: is a good defender who can do a little bit
Speaker 2: of dribbling, shooting, and passing. A textbook modern basketball showcase.
Speaker 2: O Ant and Shay. It's a super fun matchup. You
Speaker 2: could tell they don't like each other. Aunt with a
Speaker 2: lot of little gamesmanship early in the game. One time
Speaker 2: he's standing over the top of Shay. One time he's
Speaker 2: throwing the ball at him. It's clear they don't like
Speaker 2: each other. That's great, that's great for the television. Julius
Speaker 2: randolvers Jdubb. Two very different types of players. Julius has
Speaker 2: this insane first half offensively. Jdubb just brilliant defensively all night,
Speaker 2: showcasing why he was getting just a little bit of
Speaker 2: defensive player of the Year buzz this year. Again, just
Speaker 2: an excellent showcase for the young generation of the NBA.
Speaker 2: I want it to be about basketball, though, so no
Speaker 2: more of the grifty bullshit, Like we don't need to
Speaker 2: see every driving bump get rewarded with free throw, so
Speaker 2: I hope they get that out of there. It was
Speaker 2: the tail of two halves though. In the first half,
Speaker 2: I thought it was very clear that Ant and Julius
Speaker 2: were pretty comfortable against Oklahoma City's primary perimeter defenders. That
Speaker 2: what led to Julius getting nice separation on moves into
Speaker 2: the lane. At he was really decisive against Alex Caruso,
Speaker 2: not messing around and trying to beat him with fancy
Speaker 2: dribble combinations. He was just like, I'm bigger and stronger
Speaker 2: than Alex, so if I just make a simple move
Speaker 2: and I protect the basketball, I'm going to be able
Speaker 2: to get some sort of dribble penetration against this guy.
Speaker 2: And I thought he had great success there. None of
Speaker 2: Okase's guards can really stop it from getting to his spot.
Speaker 2: It's really just a question of his ability to rise
Speaker 2: up and knock down shots and to make the kickout passes.
Speaker 2: I thought both guys, and this is a credit to Okasee.
Speaker 2: I thought both guys really wore down over the course
Speaker 2: of the game under Okayse's defense, and foul trouble disrupted
Speaker 2: their rhythm. But there was a nice trend early in
Speaker 2: the game that I think should leave all Wolves fans
Speaker 2: feeling like they have a chance to win this series,
Speaker 2: which is just okay sees athletes. They're very good defense,
Speaker 2: but they don't do too much to make ant and
Speaker 2: Julius uncomfortable. I also thought in the first half. Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City looked a little caught off guard just by Minnesota's
Speaker 2: size and athleticism, just a very different type of athletic
Speaker 2: file than Denver was or even Memphis was, and I
Speaker 2: think that it just took them a little bit of
Speaker 2: time to adjust, particularly on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is look at the box score.
Speaker 2: They go for forty four points in the first half,
Speaker 2: and they go for seventy in the second half. Right
Speaker 2: in the second half, Oklahoma City settles in. They get
Speaker 2: some nice ISO scoring early in the third quarter from
Speaker 2: both Shay and j Dubb. Chet starts getting aggressive and
Speaker 2: scoring in the middle of the floor. They start to
Speaker 2: on the other end of the floor start to win
Speaker 2: some of those battles on defense against Julius and against
Speaker 2: and they start to force them into some misses, they
Speaker 2: get into some foul trouble, and then from there Shay
Speaker 2: and Chet just put the game away. There were a
Speaker 2: lot of openings for Chet. I can't wait to dive
Speaker 2: further into this in the film, but there were a
Speaker 2: lot of openings for Chet around the rim, on rolls
Speaker 2: and on cuts and on crashes, on offensive rebound situations.
Speaker 2: A bunch of that kind of stuff, and I thought
Speaker 2: you could really see the difference in the two defensive
Speaker 2: game plans in that regard, and it manifested in a
Speaker 2: bunch of key spots in the box score. So, for instance,
Speaker 2: Minnesota takes fifty one threes, Oklahoma City takes twenty one threes. Right,
Speaker 2: Minnesota gets twenty points in the paint, Oklahoma City gets
Speaker 2: fifty four points in the paint. The way that's manifesting
Speaker 2: is Minnesota is a lot of like stay home, trust
Speaker 2: the guy on the ball to do his job. Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City very much is ford aggressive. We're gambling, we're packing
Speaker 2: the paint. We're giving up three point shots in hopes
Speaker 2: of turning you over and having the aggregate kind of
Speaker 2: impact of that be it positive. Right, And that's the thing.
Speaker 2: They gave up a ton of threes tonight. Minnesota did
Speaker 2: not burn them, and we'll have to talk about that
Speaker 2: here in a minute. Specifically, their bench really struggled to
Speaker 2: shoot the ball. But Oklahoma City generated thirty one points
Speaker 2: off of nineteen Minnesota turnovers and that ended up being
Speaker 2: a kind of a balance that pays off for them.
Speaker 2: But you can see the difference in that defensive scheme
Speaker 2: right Oklahoma City Ford aggressive packing the paint, overloading the
Speaker 2: strong side, giving up a lot of threes. It felt
Speaker 2: like if Minnesota got any sort of dribble penetration into
Speaker 2: the middle of the floor, there was some sort of
Speaker 2: kickout opportunity that would lead to a wide open three
Speaker 2: in the corner for a good shooter that was capable
Speaker 2: of knocking the shot down. For Oklahoma City, once they
Speaker 2: started to get into the middle of the paint, especially
Speaker 2: when Rudy Gobert checked out of the game, We're gonna
Speaker 2: get dive into that a little bit here in a minute.
Speaker 2: But they started to get into the paint and find
Speaker 2: openings because it's a lot of one on one and
Speaker 2: two on two down there. Like on that play where
Speaker 2: Jaden McDaniels gets called for the foul grabbing on Shae
Speaker 2: when he kind of got tied up going down the
Speaker 2: lane line, there's nobody there at the rim. He was
Speaker 2: able to go right back there and get an easy
Speaker 2: right hand scooping layup a couple possessions later, a lot
Speaker 2: of one on one, a lot of two on two
Speaker 2: that created opportunities for Chet to be an impactful vertical
Speaker 2: spacer as a cutter and crasher and finisher around the basket,
Speaker 2: and then Shay getting into the lane consistently drawing those fouls.
Speaker 2: In that second half, Aunt and Julius were never able
Speaker 2: to gain any sort of rhythm outside of a brief
Speaker 2: little Anthony Edwards burst in the middle third quarter, and
Speaker 2: next thing you know, we're looking at a blowout because
Speaker 2: that Oklahoma City train got going and Minnesota was never
Speaker 2: never able to reassert control of the situation. I want
Speaker 2: to just kind of go through some notes that I
Speaker 2: have from both teams, and then when we're done with
Speaker 2: that again, we're going to go to the mailbag, and
Speaker 2: you guys, any direction of the series you want to
Speaker 2: dive further into, will start to dig into some of
Speaker 2: the numbers too as they update. So on the Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City front, I thought Jay Dubb was great in this game.
Speaker 2: I think he was fine on offense. Nothing that you're
Speaker 2: going to write home about. Not super efficient, but he
Speaker 2: didn't turn the basketball over and to get nineteen points
Speaker 2: and five assists with zero turnovers on eighteen shots, even
Speaker 2: though it's not the most efficient thing in the world,
Speaker 2: that's a fine offensive game. In the Western Conference Finals,
Speaker 2: I thought he was incredible on defense in this game.
Speaker 2: Five steals, attacking Aunt and Julius every time they turned
Speaker 2: their back in post ups and getting the ball knocked
Speaker 2: away that way, random turnovers with full court pressure. He
Speaker 2: got one against Julius Randall that way. Just flying around
Speaker 2: on defense. He defended on an island against nas Red
Speaker 2: multiple times and got stops. Just bumped him really hard
Speaker 2: on the first one and forced a turnover, bumped him
Speaker 2: on a spin on the second one. They brought a
Speaker 2: nice little baseline double. I think it was from Caruso
Speaker 2: on that play too that they got another stop. JDub
Speaker 2: was just an incredible defensive force in this particular game. Okay,
Speaker 2: so he got a nice little shift from Kenrich Williams
Speaker 2: in this game, he defended really well. He ran some
Speaker 2: pick and pop where nos Reed was kind of defending
Speaker 2: him as like a traditional screen defender, which was leaving
Speaker 2: him open on the pop. He had a three there.
Speaker 2: He was plus thirteen in eight minutes. A nice little
Speaker 2: stretch from Williams. Overall, I thought it was one of
Speaker 2: Chet's best games in this playoff run. We talked about
Speaker 2: the work that he did as like kind of a
Speaker 2: vertical spacer in the middle of the floor. I also
Speaker 2: thought he did an amazing job on the defensive glass
Speaker 2: in the second half. You watched the tape in that
Speaker 2: second half, He's getting a body on somebody. Every time
Speaker 2: he's boxing out, he's high pointing the basketball. Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: was able to regain control because Minnesota did a lot
Speaker 2: of damage on the offensive glass in the first half.
Speaker 2: Minnesota was not able to do that damage in the
Speaker 2: second half, and I thought a big part of that
Speaker 2: was chet Holmgrin and then Alex Caruso all the work
Speaker 2: he's doing defensively. He struggled a little bit with Julius
Speaker 2: Randald tonight. Him continuing to be like the most reliable
Speaker 2: catch and shoot spot up guy for Oklahoma City is
Speaker 2: a revelation and it's turning him into one of the
Speaker 2: most profoundly impactful playoff role players in the league right now, because,
Speaker 2: like I mean, I remember when I rooted for Alex Cruz,
Speaker 2: so that wasn't really a big part of his game.
Speaker 2: It was like you could knock him down shot forty
Speaker 2: percent his final season with the Lakers, but struggled to
Speaker 2: shoot him in the postseason. It was never really what
Speaker 2: you were in the alex Crusoe business for but him
Speaker 2: knocking down all of these catch and shoot threes is
Speaker 2: making him immensely valuable as a three and D player
Speaker 2: in this playoff field. On the minutes the front again,
Speaker 2: I still think Aunt and Julius can generate quality shots.
Speaker 2: I thought in the second half it was a lot
Speaker 2: of fatigue and foul trouble related stuff where you know,
Speaker 2: there was an extended stretch there where Aunt and Julius
Speaker 2: were both just off the floor. I mean, an it
Speaker 2: was playing pretty well in that mid third quarter and
Speaker 2: he picked up a weak ass foul and another one
Speaker 2: of those stupid ass shake yilds of Alexander bump and
Speaker 2: run shots, and it just took him out of the game.
Speaker 2: And I just thought when he came in he struggled
Speaker 2: to regain rhythm at that point. It was a very
Speaker 2: different game too. By the time Aunt came back in,
Speaker 2: the game was not out of reach, but it was
Speaker 2: in a fundamentally different type of position as a late,
Speaker 2: you know, fourth quarter double digit lead than it was
Speaker 2: in that third quarter stretch. But over the course of
Speaker 2: this series, those two guys have to do essentially what
Speaker 2: they did. They have to basically do what I always
Speaker 2: talk about with veteran players, which is like find the
Speaker 2: stuff that's working and replicate it. Take the mistakes, got
Speaker 2: to trim that fat, stay away from it right. Julius
Speaker 2: Randall got a little sloppy with the basketball in the
Speaker 2: second half. Anthony Edwards got a little sloppy with the
Speaker 2: basketball in the second half. You give up thirty one
Speaker 2: points to Oklahoma City off of turnovers. You're shooting yourself
Speaker 2: in the foot and you're gonna make it really, really
Speaker 2: difficult to win at that point. But overall, just looking
Speaker 2: at the physical dynamic, Ant's too big and strong and
Speaker 2: athletic for all of Oklahoma City's guards, and Julius Randall
Speaker 2: is a big, powerful forward that can find matchups that
Speaker 2: he can attack. So that's a very strong foundation for
Speaker 2: them offensively in this series. Their bench guys have to
Speaker 2: hit shots, though, like it's it's rough. Nas Red one
Speaker 2: for eleven, Dante DiVincenzo three for fourteen, Nikhil Alexander Walker
Speaker 2: three for eleven. That's seven for thirty six from the field.
Speaker 2: From the depth that we talked about coming into this
Speaker 2: series as one of the strengths of this Minnesota roster
Speaker 2: and a lot of them guys like this, there are
Speaker 2: some uncomfortable things. I thought Dante looked a little rushed
Speaker 2: on some of his on ball stuff, right like I
Speaker 2: thought nas Reed's post up were ugly. But there was
Speaker 2: a lot of butt naked three point shots in there
Speaker 2: that those dudes were missing. And they went five for
Speaker 2: twenty eight from three and so with At and Julius
Speaker 2: and the types of quality threes that they were generating,
Speaker 2: those guys just have to pay them off the turnovers
Speaker 2: to transition. Again, this is going to be the key
Speaker 2: to the series. Like Oklahoma City will have a hard
Speaker 2: time scoring against Minnesota in the half court, especially when
Speaker 2: they have a big on the floor. But if you're
Speaker 2: going to gift wrap them thirty one points running out
Speaker 2: the other way when your defense isn't set, you're putting
Speaker 2: yourself in a really tough position to win. And then, lastly,
Speaker 2: the last thing I want to focus on before we
Speaker 2: get into our mailbag is Rudy Gobert. I can't come
Speaker 2: into the series if you guys remember in my series
Speaker 2: preview I talked about how I didn't really see this
Speaker 2: as as much of a center type of series. I
Speaker 2: specifically said I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back
Speaker 2: at the end of the series and that both Rudy
Speaker 2: Gobert and Isaiah Hartenstein averaged fewer than twenty minutes per game.
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein twenty minutes tonight, Rudy Gobert twenty one minutes.
Speaker 2: The Rudy Gobert piece, by the way, I thought Chet
Speaker 2: held up fine, So this is not necessarily an OKA
Speaker 2: see take. I thought okac's small ball groups did fine.
Speaker 2: If it turns into something where Minnesota starts really overwhelming
Speaker 2: them with physicality, maybe it's something they have to look
Speaker 2: into expanding Isaiah's role, But specifically with Gobert, I think
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more complicated than just what meets
Speaker 2: the eye there. Rudy's a frustrating player. There were a
Speaker 2: lot of sequences tonight where he was gift wrapped pretty
Speaker 2: high quality opportunities on trails and rolls around the basket
Speaker 2: where his inability to finish anything in traffic was a problem.
Speaker 2: And that's an important problem, something that we need to
Speaker 2: factor in when we have discussions about Rudy. He also
Speaker 2: had a pretty rough first defensive ship as he picked
Speaker 2: up a couple of fouls, but I thought from that
Speaker 2: point forward, I thought he was fine defensively, and I
Speaker 2: actually thought his presence on the back line was part
Speaker 2: of the struggles that Shay Gilders Alexander was dealing with.
Speaker 2: Shay really got comfortable going downhill towards the rim in
Speaker 2: the second half of this game. And so when I
Speaker 2: really start to parse out the impact of Rudy in
Speaker 2: this particular matchup against an Oklahoma City team that isn't
Speaker 2: the highest level back line processing sort of team in
Speaker 2: this matchup, I would like to see Rudy Gobert at
Speaker 2: least I would like to see Chris Finch explore using
Speaker 2: him a little bit more, simply because there is a
Speaker 2: little bit of a dynamic when he's on the floor
Speaker 2: when SHA's there, where Shaye wants to operate a little
Speaker 2: bit more in the short to mid range, whereas when
Speaker 2: he's not out there, he wants to go right to
Speaker 2: the bucket. And so I think it's worth just exploring
Speaker 2: a little bit more, just expanding Rudy Gobert's role more.
Speaker 2: There was an extended stretch in this game where Chris
Speaker 2: Finch went with no center with nas Reed off and
Speaker 2: with Rudy off, and look, I get it. You know,
Speaker 2: Rudy has his offensive limitations. Nas Reed was having the
Speaker 2: game from Hell for him. But I'm not necessarily, you know,
Speaker 2: pushing back against that in this particular game because it
Speaker 2: was going off the rails anyway. But it's something to
Speaker 2: adjust potentially in game two. I wouldn't be so quick
Speaker 2: to the pull the plug on Rudy Gobert because I
Speaker 2: do think he has a little bit of a mental
Speaker 2: impact on Shae on Jdubb, forcing them into some of
Speaker 2: those tougher contested mid range shots.
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Speaker 2: A lot of stuff I want to get into with
Speaker 2: you guys. So let's get into our mailbag and any
Speaker 2: questions you guys have about this series. Let's dig into it.
Speaker 3: Let's do it. Let's do it. First question, sort of
Speaker 3: a general question, what adjustments can Minnesota make to play
Speaker 3: with OKC and give them their best chance to win
Speaker 3: given the fact that Sga and Jada both shot under
Speaker 3: forty percent this game and they still blew out the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2: You know, when you really dig into it, the question
Speaker 2: is shot creation right and do we felt do we
Speaker 2: feel like Aunt and Julius did a good job of
Speaker 2: creating shots tonight for Minnesota. I think they did. They
Speaker 2: just got to shoot substantially better on them than they did.
Speaker 2: And it's and it's it's one of those things where
Speaker 2: I feel like when Aunt and Julius didn't turn the
Speaker 2: ball over and they got some sort of rim pressure
Speaker 2: in the form of a dribble drive from Aunt or
Speaker 2: a post up ripped through from Julius, I thought they
Speaker 2: got good looks. They just lost control of the game
Speaker 2: and transition and Julius got in foul trouble and got
Speaker 2: a little fatigued in the second half, and their advantage
Speaker 2: creation wasn't as good and like they're four bench spot
Speaker 2: up guys went five for twenty eight from three liked.
Speaker 2: Do you agree with me Jackson that Minnesota got some
Speaker 2: quality looks on those kickouts, Like did you think it
Speaker 2: was you know, okay See rushing them or do you
Speaker 2: think they were just missing some shots.
Speaker 3: I think in the first half, especially, they got a
Speaker 3: lot of open looks that they could have made more of.
Speaker 3: In the second half, it did feel like okay See
Speaker 3: turned up the intensity defensively, or maybe at least got
Speaker 3: their bearings on the athletic sort of the pace of
Speaker 3: the series and the physicality of the series a little bit.
Speaker 3: But still it did feel like and there was some
Speaker 3: criticism of Dante's shot selection. I think some of those,
Speaker 3: like uber deep ones, might have been not the best shot,
Speaker 3: but some of them I thought he were great looks
Speaker 3: and he just missed. He was one for six at
Speaker 3: one point, and I think I think the first four
Speaker 3: or five of those were very makeable. So it's tough.
Speaker 3: I mean, I do think that they their stars were sloppy,
Speaker 3: were too sloppy at times from a shot from like
Speaker 3: a turnover and shot creation standpoint. But I also feel
Speaker 3: like the bench just has to shoot that.
Speaker 2: Right, they have to shoot so so so much better.
Speaker 2: Cleaning the Glass has Oklahoma City at a one oh
Speaker 2: two half court offensive rating in Minnesota at an eighty,
Speaker 2: but that obviously does in factor an offensive rebounding, so
Speaker 2: offensive rebounding was a big part of it. In transition, Okay,
Speaker 2: see a one forty offensive rating, And I don't think
Speaker 2: Cleaning the Glass has Minnesota logged for zero transition points
Speaker 2: off to see how that shows up on Synergy. But uh,
Speaker 2: I like the point you made about Dante DiVincenzo. I
Speaker 2: think that there's a we know Dante can make those shots.
Speaker 2: It's just when you take a relatively quick above the
Speaker 2: break three when you're not in rhythm, it just has
Speaker 2: a higher percentage chance of leading to one of those
Speaker 2: long rebounds that leads to one of those runouts. I'm
Speaker 2: a big believer in your shot selection should reflect your rhythm.
Speaker 2: So like if you're out of rhythm, meaning like you're
Speaker 2: you've been missing, the answer is to hunt easy opportunities.
Speaker 2: Run your lane in transition. See if you can't get
Speaker 2: a layup or a wide open three, crash the offensive glass.
Speaker 2: See if you can't get an offensive rebound, put back
Speaker 2: or draw a foul, get yourself to the foul line.
Speaker 2: When I see guys that are already having poor shooting
Speaker 2: nights start taking pretty tough off the dribble threes, it's
Speaker 2: like that's the kind of shot that you're not that
Speaker 2: that's not going to get you out of your slump,
Speaker 2: Like that's that's trying to ram your head through a
Speaker 2: brick wall. And I did think we saw a little
Speaker 2: bit of that with Dante tonight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Flipping to the other end of
Speaker 3: the floor, though, why do you think Minnesota played zero
Speaker 3: zone in this game? It did feel like something that
Speaker 3: we talked about they might be able to use. It
Speaker 3: would maybe be a way to keep rooty on the floor,
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: I think it's something that we'll see over the course
Speaker 2: of the series. I think, you know, these game ones
Speaker 2: are always a little bit of a feel out game,
Speaker 2: and I thought their Manda Man defense was fine until
Speaker 2: it wasn't. And oftentimes in a situation like that, like
Speaker 2: Chris Finch may be looking at it like zone is
Speaker 2: the thing I can pull out in game two that
Speaker 2: puts a game away, and he may be more willing
Speaker 2: to use it like. Okay, So let's say game two.
Speaker 2: Game two typically follows a certain feel. We've all seen
Speaker 2: this kind of series million times.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Minnesota will come out, probably lead in that like seven
Speaker 2: to ten point range for the first two and a
Speaker 2: half quarters, right, because that's just what happens in game two.
Speaker 2: It's the push and pull of urgency. You get blown out.
Speaker 2: Minnesota comes out, gives you a great effort. Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: will inevitably make us a run at some point in
Speaker 2: the second half of that game. You know, a couple
Speaker 2: of steals, a couple turnovers, a couple of runouts, they
Speaker 2: cut the lead to two, they tie the game. That's
Speaker 2: where you can throw a card like that and stall
Speaker 2: out okac's offense and potentially steal a win. I think
Speaker 2: Minnesota's base man to main look can work in this matchup.
Speaker 2: And I think Chris Finch just made a judgment call
Speaker 2: in this game that it wasn't worth pulling that card.
Speaker 2: They lost by twenty six. You know, it may be
Speaker 2: a totally different vibe in game two.
Speaker 3: In terms of Julius Randall, he had twenty first out points.
Speaker 3: Obviously some of that was just you know, catch and
Speaker 3: shooting hitting some tough catch and shoot threes. But what
Speaker 3: was the difference in that you saw from the way
Speaker 3: that he was attacking the first half of the second
Speaker 3: half that felt like he struggled so much in the
Speaker 3: second half compared to his first half.
Speaker 2: As you mentioned, there was definitely an uptick in just
Speaker 2: the overall intensity. His jump shot cooled off, they started
Speaker 2: chasing him off the line. A lot of the threes
Speaker 2: that he got in the first half were concession threes,
Speaker 2: like they were open, looks like he was hitting them,
Speaker 2: but like there was an early three that Julius made
Speaker 2: where he like smiled, and I think I think the
Speaker 2: specific thought that he was experiencing with that smile is like,
Speaker 2: are these dudes just gonna leave me open? All serious? Like,
Speaker 2: I think that's what he was thinking. And so I
Speaker 2: think there's a good amount of Julius just pressing up
Speaker 2: and not giving him those wide open catch and shoot threes,
Speaker 2: and Julius was I thought Julius's driving kick play was
Speaker 2: fine in the second half. I mean, he kind of
Speaker 2: has this like lebron esque ability to just elevate off
Speaker 2: of one leg and throw these jump passes that are
Speaker 2: like terrible passes for like anybody else in the league,
Speaker 2: but because he's a good enough athlete and he just
Speaker 2: rifles the one handed, you know, line drive past to
Speaker 2: where it needs to go. Thought his kicks were fine,
Speaker 2: it's just they pressed up on his threes and inside
Speaker 2: the paint. It is going to be a playmaking series
Speaker 2: for Randall. Like it's not like this is not Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City is overloading the ball. Aunt and Julius are going
Speaker 2: to be taking a lot of over the top shots.
Speaker 2: I meant to mention this when we were talking about
Speaker 2: Gobert earlier. But that's the other thing. Is like ant
Speaker 2: and Julius's success as scores in tonight's game came from
Speaker 2: the perimeter. So from a certain point of view, Gobert's
Speaker 2: spacing concerns are less valuable again within in the context
Speaker 2: of an over the top shooter than they are just
Speaker 2: like a downhill type of threat. Right, Like it could
Speaker 2: be a death sentence if John Moran is your guard,
Speaker 2: but if it's Anthony Edwards, a guy who's an excellent
Speaker 2: three point shooter, it's not as big of a deal.
Speaker 2: And so that's why I think like it'll be something
Speaker 2: to experiment a little bit more with over the course
Speaker 2: of the series, but specifically with Julius. I thought he
Speaker 2: was fine with his driving kicks. They pressed up on
Speaker 2: his threes. He had a few soppy turnovers in the
Speaker 2: second half of you know that that bullyball post up
Speaker 2: against lou Dort and then that you know little half
Speaker 2: court ripped from j dub where he just lost it
Speaker 2: at it bounds. But overall overall, I think he's got
Speaker 2: plenty of advantages. It's just gonna be a playmaking series
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it did feel like he was more bothered in
Speaker 3: the second half. And I and Okay sees they have
Speaker 3: so many ultra quick guards have ultra good hands that
Speaker 3: they do such a good job of digging and not
Speaker 3: but not creating any like real openings to get a
Speaker 3: pass off. I think they need to do some like
Speaker 3: clear side mid post work. Don't even. Don't even you
Speaker 3: don't have to think about a second guy coming here
Speaker 3: with Julius unless you're seeing it from a mile away.
Speaker 3: Because I didn't feel like there was quite a few
Speaker 3: times where they were stunting and they were maybe doubling
Speaker 3: for one second and getting back. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: like mental mind games. I felt they were playing with
Speaker 3: Julius in the second half because they have so much
Speaker 3: speed on the perimeter.
Speaker 2: This is a really good point. Like there the post
Speaker 2: up that he had in the middle of the floor,
Speaker 2: you could tell he was like uncomfortable. Someone's got was coming, right.
Speaker 3: I think somebody's got to be coming to that note, right,
Speaker 3: I know Dorts around here somewhere right, Yeah, and just
Speaker 3: clearing the side.
Speaker 2: It's a great way to simplify the reads. And most importantly,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter as much when you're an over the
Speaker 2: top shooter like Julius wants to get to that little
Speaker 2: left shoulder fade, so you clear the left side of
Speaker 2: the floor so that he can spin over his left
Speaker 2: shoulder into the middle of the floor. And with Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 2: same sort of thing. And I actually think Aunt has
Speaker 2: more post up ability in this series, especially against some
Speaker 2: of the smaller guards. Dort's probably the only guy I
Speaker 2: don't like him posting against. Also really quickly, guys, here's
Speaker 2: these are These are just insane numbers coming out of
Speaker 2: this game. Minnesota generated eighteen unguarded catch and shoot jump shots,
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City generated eleven. So sticks to the thing we
Speaker 2: talked about earlier, in terms of quality catch and shoots.
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City got two point one point eight points per
Speaker 2: unguarded catch and shoots, so they made almost all of them.
Speaker 2: Minnesota zero point eight three three, So substantial shooting gap
Speaker 2: towards OKC if you take a look at the all
Speaker 2: catch and shoots thirty five for Minnesota, sixteen for OKC,
Speaker 2: zero point eight to three points per tempt for Minnesota
Speaker 2: one point eight eight points per tentp for OKAC. So
Speaker 2: there was definitely, like, I mean, guys like they're shooting
Speaker 2: variants is a part of basketball. There are certain types
Speaker 2: of shots that the process leads to the result, and
Speaker 2: then somewhere down that list of factors is like when
Speaker 2: dudes are getting wide open looks, they just got to
Speaker 2: knock them down and there was just like a clear
Speaker 2: nas Dante, Nikiel. The three of those dudes just missed
Speaker 2: open look after open look after open look, and that
Speaker 2: became something that got in their heads a little bit
Speaker 2: over the course.
Speaker 1: Of the game.
Speaker 3: Next question is about Anthony Edwards. The question is simply,
Speaker 3: can you be more critical of ants? He didn't score
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter and compared to a lot of
Speaker 3: other stars that it feels like he's sort of in
Speaker 3: the tier of Luca, Shay, whoever else. If they scored
Speaker 3: zero points in the fourth quarter, it might be a
Speaker 3: lot more criticism.
Speaker 2: It was bad. It was bad down the stretch of
Speaker 2: this game. It was a foul trouble issue though, Like
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a bummer that he picks
Speaker 2: up a lame ass ticky tack foul going down the
Speaker 2: left lane line. But the I'm more of, like I'm
Speaker 2: looking at the big picture of the series. There's no
Speaker 2: doubt that down the stretch of this game, Shae was
Speaker 2: the better player. If Shaye continues to outplay Ant over
Speaker 2: the course of the series, they're going to win, and
Speaker 2: it's got to be better, There's no question. And it
Speaker 2: goes with both of them. Julius as well. I thought
Speaker 2: Jay Dubb was better in the second half than either
Speaker 2: of Julius or Ant. But yeah, like we're gonna talk
Speaker 2: about that when we get to the series, Like this
Speaker 2: is game one, guys, Like I'm not I'm gonna bury
Speaker 2: guys at the end of the series, like this is
Speaker 2: this is where we're in Round one here, guys and
Speaker 2: everyone everyone who was here when Aunt got eliminated in Dallas.
Speaker 2: Does anybody remember how I talked about Aunt then I
Speaker 2: criticized him for the way he played, Like you get
Speaker 2: the series, ain't over people.
Speaker 3: Last question before we go over to playback. Are there
Speaker 3: any matchups you would change? Is sort of like defensive
Speaker 3: matchups one on one from from the game one a
Speaker 3: game two.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't think Crusoe works on Julius.
Speaker 2: I think I would. I would tinker with that a
Speaker 2: little bit. I think Julius has got some favorable matchups there.
Speaker 2: I did think it was interesting. I did think it
Speaker 2: was interesting, like Dort would be a kind of guy
Speaker 2: that I'd consider potentially using on Julius instead. Maybe they
Speaker 2: could swap the matchups there and give Crusoe more opportunity
Speaker 2: on Ant and try Dort on Julius. But I thought
Speaker 2: Julius was generally pretty comfortable going against Caruso. Dort's got
Speaker 2: a little bit like wider, lower center of gravity and
Speaker 2: is a little bit more of a fire hydrant than
Speaker 2: Alex Crusoe is. So I think it's one of those
Speaker 2: things where it's something you could tinker with. But honestly,
Speaker 2: I didn't think that was the I didn't think that
Speaker 2: was the game. I mean, they're defending Julius and Ant
Speaker 2: with multiple bodies every single time. It's more just about
Speaker 2: it's like it like if I dig into the ice,
Speaker 2: let me check in the isodata here real quick. I
Speaker 2: didn't think there was any specific like, oh, Julius is
Speaker 2: just getting one on one buckets over and over again.
Speaker 2: It was he hit threes over the top, and he
Speaker 2: was able to spray out to shooters. Yeah, Minnesota twenty
Speaker 2: one ISO zero point six seven points per possession including passes,
Speaker 2: like they weren't. They weren't now again including passes, you
Speaker 2: got to count the kickouts. But it's one of those
Speaker 2: things where it wasn't like thirteen post ups for Minnesota
Speaker 2: zero point five to four points per possession including passes,
Speaker 2: So it wasn't like they were getting beat one on one.
Speaker 2: It was you know, it was the shot result at
Speaker 2: the end that was that was causing those those numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The only thing I'd say on that before we go
Speaker 3: over to playback is sort of the opposite of the question,
Speaker 3: which is that there's one matchup. I think that a
Speaker 3: team should hunt more. I think the timber Wolves should
Speaker 3: try to do whatever they can to get Julius with
Speaker 3: matchups against Chet. I feel like after Chet got his
Speaker 3: chest caved in by Nikola Jokic last matchup, you want
Speaker 3: to replicate that Hertenstein is obviously very very big and strong,
Speaker 3: and Hertenstein is doing an awesome job, you know, keeping
Speaker 3: Julius from really getting deeper position on some of those
Speaker 3: post ups. But Chet doesn't have that, I don't think.
Speaker 2: I thought when Shay was able to put Julius and
Speaker 2: Nas in particular and screening action too, that was favorable
Speaker 2: because he that was how they got the pick and
Speaker 2: pops too, like they don't want to concede that switch,
Speaker 2: and the few times they did, he was able to
Speaker 2: pretty quickly get dribble penetration. So I think that's something
Speaker 2: that they can explore more over the course of the series.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. We
Speaker 2: are headed over to playback though, so playback dot TV
Speaker 2: slash Hoops tonight will be taking callers, will be hanging
Speaker 2: out just having fun talking hoops for another forty five
Speaker 2: minutes or so. We'll see you guys over there in
Speaker 2: a little bit. As always, we appreciate you guys. We'll
Speaker 2: have a film session on our YouTube channel tomorrow morning,
Speaker 2: breaking down Game one. I'll see you guys then. What's
Speaker 2: up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
Speaker 2: and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful
Speaker 2: for us if you guys would take a second and
Speaker 2: leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
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Speaker 2: minute to do that, I really appre ship.
Speaker 1: The volume. M