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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, hope all if
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week so far. Game
Speaker 1: one of the Western Conference Finals was a barn burner,
Speaker 1: super entertaining game, very different than any series we've seen
Speaker 1: to this point. I'm excited to get into all the details.
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Speaker 1: throughout the remainder of the postseason.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So simply, as a basketball fan, I really appreciated just
Speaker 1: how different this series looked than Minnesota Denver, and it's
Speaker 1: a very fascinating example to me of how matchups dictate
Speaker 1: a lot of what happens on a basketball court instead
Speaker 1: of talent. That's what's fun, right. If it was just talent,
Speaker 1: be a lot easier to predict these sorts.
Speaker 2: Of things, right.
Speaker 1: But as my friend Mark Titis once said, basketball is
Speaker 1: more art than science, right, and it just a lot
Speaker 1: of it is just about these magical kind of ingredients
Speaker 1: mixing together to make a certain thing, rather than just
Speaker 1: accumulating talent and seeing if that manifests on a basketball court. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, Dallas and Denver or these are two of
Speaker 1: the top three teams that I had in my contender
Speaker 1: rankings coming into the postseason, and they're very different in
Speaker 1: the way that they're constructed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Like one of the things I pointed out in the
Speaker 1: series preview, Dallas is a very different defense than Denver,
Speaker 1: and a better defense than Denver in my opinion. Even
Speaker 1: though the defensive rating in the regular season was higher
Speaker 1: for Denver, it was more of a static thing. Over
Speaker 1: the eighty two games. Dallas down the stretch of the
Speaker 1: season really nailed things down in terms of their processes
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor and hit a
Speaker 1: level that Denver hasn't been able to get to. And
Speaker 1: a big part of that is they're just more athletic,
Speaker 1: They're more athletic on the perimeter, and they're much better
Speaker 1: at protecting the rim. Denver was eighteenth and points in
Speaker 1: the paint allowed per game this season. Rim protection is
Speaker 1: not a strong suit of their So, just to put
Speaker 1: it simply, going from a Entavious Callwell pope on the
Speaker 1: ball on Anthony Edwards to a Derek Jones junior who
Speaker 1: is a taller, longer, more athletic player, and then going
Speaker 1: from Nikola Jokic on the back line to Derek Lively
Speaker 1: and Daniel Gafford to more vertically athletic rim protectors. It's
Speaker 1: just a fundamentally different type of matchup, right, manifested in
Speaker 1: a massive differential in points in the paint scored in
Speaker 1: this game. I think Minnesota only scored thirty eight points
Speaker 1: in the paint in this game. How many times did
Speaker 1: it feel like Anthony Edwards got downhill and drove to
Speaker 1: the rim? Not very many, Right, We're going to get
Speaker 1: into that in more detail later. Also, Dallas's offense attacks
Speaker 1: in a very different way than Minnesota are then Denver's
Speaker 1: offense attack right, Denver's offense is very much about interior passing. Right,
Speaker 1: It's very much about Nikola jokicch drawing multiple bodies. Is
Speaker 1: there a lot of like cutting along the baseline by
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon. It's a lot of operating out of Jokic
Speaker 1: as the decision maker at the high post, whereas with
Speaker 1: Luka Doncicch and Kyrie Irving, it's very much perimeter initiation.
Speaker 1: The guy who sets the ball screen is simply just
Speaker 1: rolling hard to the rim. And it's very classic four
Speaker 1: out offense. Right, it's set the ball screen, roll hard
Speaker 1: to the rim. There's a shooter in the left corner,
Speaker 1: a shooter in the right corner, and a shooter on
Speaker 1: the opposite wing. And it's just if you tag the roller,
Speaker 1: we're throwing the skip pass and we're playing rotation basketball.
Speaker 2: Out of that.
Speaker 1: You don't tag the roller and you stay home on
Speaker 1: the roller, I'm shooting in the ball screen. If you
Speaker 1: come to me on the on the ball screen, I'm
Speaker 1: throwing the lob to a gafferter lively at the room.
Speaker 1: It's a very very different type of offensive attack, right.
Speaker 1: Like one of the things that worked for Minnesota against
Speaker 1: Denver was funneling.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Funneling is what happens a ball screen when you get
Speaker 1: trapped behind right. So like, if I'm dribbling off of
Speaker 1: you as the ball screen at the camera there, and
Speaker 1: there's an on ball defender guarding me as I drive
Speaker 1: that way. If you said a good screen, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get into trail position on me, right. And that's that
Speaker 1: textbook drop coverage that we talk about all the time
Speaker 1: in the NBA, where you have a guy chasing over
Speaker 1: the top and trying to funnel you into your rim protection.
Speaker 1: The difference is Jamal Murray's not very big, so Jada
Speaker 1: McDaniels and Anthony Edwards when they would get trapped on
Speaker 1: Jamal's backside, it was actually advantageous for Minnesota because in
Speaker 1: those situations, if Jamal tried to shoot anything, they would
Speaker 1: disrupt it or block it, and Jamal would have no
Speaker 1: choice but to drive into their rim protection and it
Speaker 1: would cause a lot of problems for Denver's offense. Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: He loves working with the player trapped on his backside,
Speaker 1: and he's just a lot bigger than Jamal Murray is,
Speaker 1: and certainly bigger than Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards. And
Speaker 1: so again, in terms of just basketball matchups, this is
Speaker 1: a very, very different type of series than the Denver
Speaker 1: Minnesota series, and it's what makes it a very fascinating
Speaker 1: challenge for both teams going in. So, like even just
Speaker 1: looking back, kind of flipping the angle here looking at Dallas, right,
Speaker 1: like Luka Doncic is playing against a damn middle linebacker
Speaker 1: in lou Dort who's like super big and strong and
Speaker 1: physical and gave Luca issues in terms of just his
Speaker 1: physical ball pressure everywhere on the floor. Jada McDaniels is
Speaker 1: a player that's regarded as a better perimeter defender as Loudort.
Speaker 1: I think they're on similar levels, but Jada McDaniels is
Speaker 1: considered at least on the same level. Right, Luca looked
Speaker 1: way more comfortable against Jada McDaniels. You know why, because
Speaker 1: length doesn't bother Luca the way that strength hands. Sometimes
Speaker 1: Luca's best advantage as an athlete is he's just bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger than you. Right, So lou Dort was able
Speaker 1: to challenge that, you know, Jada McDaniels was not right,
Speaker 1: and so it's just fundamentally different. Like another thing too,
Speaker 1: Like Anthony Edwards, as we talked about this preview, he
Speaker 1: can really lock in defensively when the chips are down
Speaker 1: and be one of the best defenders in the world
Speaker 1: when he needs to be. But one of the things
Speaker 1: we talked about in the series preview is he chills
Speaker 1: a lot on defense. Like there's all this conversation about
Speaker 1: Ant being the best two way player in the world.
Speaker 1: That can only happen when Ant actually has the level
Speaker 1: of conditioning and commitment to do it throughout entire basketball games. Like,
Speaker 1: it's not the same as like Cason Wallace or Jalen Williams,
Speaker 1: like really devoting their energy to guarding Anthony Edwards. I
Speaker 1: thought didn't do a good job on Kyrie Irving in
Speaker 1: this game, and so it's fundamentally different perimeter matchups for Dallas.
Speaker 1: So the point is these are very different basketball teams
Speaker 1: playing very different opponents than they did in the last round.
Speaker 1: And it's just kind of cool in terms of the
Speaker 1: art of basketball that it manifests in a very different
Speaker 1: type of basketball game. You know, it's interesting coming into
Speaker 1: this show, I was half expecting to have a very
Speaker 1: similar opening monologue to what I said in the Boston
Speaker 1: game last night, which is, well, this is the best
Speaker 1: case scenario because Minnesota led most of that game and
Speaker 1: and very well could have stolen it, especially after they
Speaker 1: went up what did they go up by four? I
Speaker 1: think in pretty late there before Luka Dancic hit the
Speaker 1: three off of the Derek Lively offensive rebound. Minnesota came
Speaker 1: this close to escaping this game with a win, and
Speaker 1: I thought Dallas badly outplayed Minnesota in every single phase
Speaker 1: of the game except for knocking down three point shots.
Speaker 1: That was the only thing that I thought Minnesota did
Speaker 1: better than Dallas in this game. And so I was
Speaker 1: about to be like, here we go again, another example,
Speaker 1: kind of like Boston last night, where it's like they
Speaker 1: have all of this stuff that they need to clean
Speaker 1: up and maybe they end up getting out of there
Speaker 1: with the win. Right, No, Dallas ends up winning, which
Speaker 1: I thought was what was deserved. They played better basketball,
Speaker 1: they deserved to win, and they did. And so that
Speaker 1: I thought was kind of a fascinating subplot in this game.
Speaker 1: The only reason it was as close as it was
Speaker 1: and the only reason Minnesota had a chance to win
Speaker 1: is they just shot the basketball better than Dallas did
Speaker 1: in this game. They've got a lot that they need
Speaker 1: to clean up. We will get to that a little
Speaker 1: bit later in the show, I want to move the
Speaker 1: attention to Luka Doncic. Luka Doncic was the best player
Speaker 1: on the floor in this game by a mile I
Speaker 1: talked before we get into some of the specifics I
Speaker 1: talked coming into this series. We did a ranking the
Speaker 1: playoff players with the NERD Slash guys last week on Friday,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, and when we did the rankings,
Speaker 1: I put Luka doncicet two and I put Aunt at
Speaker 1: four if I remember correctly right. And one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons why I said that is just I think
Speaker 1: Luca's a better half court surgeon at this point. He
Speaker 1: just is a little bit more experienced, a little more
Speaker 1: comfortable at navigating all the different challenges and curve balls
Speaker 1: and weird stuff that you can see in the half court.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I talked about in the
Speaker 1: series preview is what if Lucas knee is messed up,
Speaker 1: And if lucasne is messed up, that might allow Ant
Speaker 1: to close the gap. And the only chance that Dallas
Speaker 1: has to win the series is Luca's got to be
Speaker 1: the best player. He's got to be the best player comfortably.
Speaker 1: And he was tonight and it was a big part
Speaker 1: of how Dallas got to win. And again, I thought
Speaker 1: this game was a lot lot more spread apart than.
Speaker 2: The score would lead you to believe that.
Speaker 1: Like I thought Dallas badly outplayed Minnesota in this game
Speaker 1: in large part because Luca badly outplayed Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 2: He was picking them apart in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: One of the things, like I talked about earlier Minnesota
Speaker 1: was chasing over the top with Jada McDaniels right. Luka
Speaker 1: Dancic has this size to keep you trapped on his backside.
Speaker 1: It's one of his best traits as a ball handler.
Speaker 1: He kind of positions the ball in front of him
Speaker 1: and he kind of like does a reverse post up
Speaker 1: where he's kind of working his way into the lane,
Speaker 1: letting you kind of ride his backside in and then
Speaker 1: if you happen to get too aggressive, he'll just rise
Speaker 1: up and shoot and draw fout, which he did late
Speaker 1: on Jada McDaniels right, or if you continue.
Speaker 2: To funnel him. All he's doing is methodically.
Speaker 1: Working and reading go bear and reading the low man right,
Speaker 1: and he's just kind of working down the lane. And
Speaker 1: you saw it was like sometimes early in the game,
Speaker 1: Go Bear wouldn't commit, and so then Luca would just
Speaker 1: work to the block and then just kind of.
Speaker 2: Take that little short four foot pop shit.
Speaker 1: That he's gonna make, you know, sixty sixty five percent
Speaker 1: of the time, right every time go Beart stepped up,
Speaker 1: it was just a simple wraparound pass too Lively or
Speaker 1: Gafford underneath the rim boom dunk. Anytime some guy the
Speaker 1: lowman actually came over and tagged the center, it was
Speaker 1: just a whip pass across the court to a shooter
Speaker 1: in the corner. That is where Luca is at his best.
Speaker 1: And Stavin Gunny talked a lot about this in the
Speaker 1: broadcast in terms of Luca operating and drop coverage. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna go over some different options that We're gonna
Speaker 1: go over some different options that Minnesota can go to.
Speaker 1: But there's a big reason why I think Luca is
Speaker 1: the second best player in the world, and it really
Speaker 1: is this simple. He is capable of doing damage to
Speaker 1: every single type of coverage. Like we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: some different options that Minnesota can go to, none of
Speaker 1: them are good options. That's what keeps him on a
Speaker 1: up on that level close to a guy like Nikola
Speaker 1: jokicch in my opinion, the same thing with jokicch you
Speaker 1: double him. He can beat you playing straight up, he
Speaker 1: can beat you play ball. If he could beat you
Speaker 1: in ball screens, he could beat you with every conceivable
Speaker 1: coverage that you throw his way. Luca has a very
Speaker 1: similar approach. Right, It's like he can go straight Iso.
Speaker 1: He went straight Iso on the dagger against Jada McDaniels.
Speaker 1: Didn't want to blitz because he knew if they if
Speaker 1: I call a ball screen, they'll probably blitz. If they blitz,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be somebody else on my team taking a shot.
Speaker 1: I'm the one who trusts myself to knock this down,
Speaker 1: So stay away. I'm gonna attack Iso, and he got
Speaker 1: to his step back jumper and hit it on Jada McDaniels. Right,
Speaker 1: there was a play in the fourth quarter where Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobar switched on him.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Gobar actually won that battle and forced him to give
Speaker 1: up the basketball. But like we know, Luca can beat
Speaker 1: bigs on switches. That's been a big part of what
Speaker 1: he's done in the NBA. You run a drop coverage, well,
Speaker 1: he can just wait for you to chase over the top,
Speaker 1: trap you on his backside, methodically work down in the
Speaker 1: lane and just make a decision based on what the
Speaker 1: guy on his backside's doing, what the rim protector's doing,
Speaker 1: and what the low man is doing. He's just methodically
Speaker 1: working in the lane making decisions right like he can
Speaker 1: do it all, and that is what makes him such
Speaker 1: a devastating player. And then he made a bunch of
Speaker 1: huge defensive plays late in this game. I thought that
Speaker 1: the play where Mike Conley attacked the closeout off the
Speaker 1: left wing, he did a nice job of stunting up
Speaker 1: at Conley to make him get rid of the basketball,
Speaker 1: but then recovered back to tip away the pass from
Speaker 1: Gobert at the rim. That was a huge play. Had
Speaker 1: a huge defensive rebound late in the game. And most
Speaker 1: importantly thought I thought in terms of his knee, he
Speaker 1: looked fine.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If his knee is fine and this is just a
Speaker 1: much better matchup for him because he doesn't have a
Speaker 1: middle linebacker guarding him, then he like he has potential
Speaker 1: to just be the best player in the series throughout,
Speaker 1: and if he is, Dallas can win. Dallas can absolutely
Speaker 1: win this series. If Luca is gonna play this well.
Speaker 1: I thought tonight was just a masterful performance from him.
Speaker 1: I thought he was magnificent down the stretch of this game. Again, like,
Speaker 1: even with everything with Minnesota that we talked about, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into more detail here in a minute. Even
Speaker 1: with everything Minnesota did poorly, they almost shot well enough
Speaker 1: and Dallas shot poorly enough for them to steal, for
Speaker 1: them to steal for Minnesota to still win this game,
Speaker 1: and Lucas snatched it for him. He made sure that
Speaker 1: they closed the deal despite some poor shooting results. Typically
Speaker 1: Captain Luca donchs that was a special playoff performance from him.
Speaker 1: Kyrie irving a couple of specific things that I thought
Speaker 1: Kyrie did that that worked really well. Anthony Edwards when
Speaker 1: he's engaged athletically, is a deeply impactful defender, but he
Speaker 1: has a lot of situations where he stands upright and relaxes,
Speaker 1: and Kyrie attacked him a couple of specific things. Quick
Speaker 1: changes of direction on the catch. He had a like
Speaker 1: a floater in the lane off of a rip through
Speaker 1: to the left early in the game, where like he
Speaker 1: caught it off of the dribble handoff, and then when
Speaker 1: ant was kind of like methodically, you know, nonchalantly getting
Speaker 1: ready to chase him over the screen. He just ripped
Speaker 1: back to the left and just toasted Ant off the
Speaker 1: dribble got into the lane. I thought he did a
Speaker 1: lot of work in semi transition, which is like that
Speaker 1: phase between transition and the half court where you're like
Speaker 1: everyone's in the half court, but no one's really set.
Speaker 1: Defense had a lot of success there, A big one too,
Speaker 1: A big difference between Anthony Edwards in this game and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Luca. Kyrie and Luca attacked downhill in
Speaker 1: the ball screen. And by the way, Minnesota's got rim
Speaker 1: protection too, Like as good as Derek Lively and and
Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford are, Rudy Gobert is a better rim protector
Speaker 1: than those guys. But you just saw Kyrie and Luca
Speaker 1: attack down hill with the pace regardless because they knew
Speaker 1: that the benefits of them pressuring the rim, even if
Speaker 1: they do miss some shots, is going to outweigh the
Speaker 1: negatives like that, Like the uh there was a like
Speaker 1: the offensive rebound that Derek Lively got late that got
Speaker 1: kicked back out to Luca, the one where he waited
Speaker 1: for Ant to close out and hit the step back.
Speaker 1: That was the play where Rudy Gobert got engaged as
Speaker 1: the rim protector. Like Lively and Gafford thrive off of
Speaker 1: anything that engages the rim protector, and in order to
Speaker 1: engage the rim protector, you have to attack down hill.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, we're gonna get to it
Speaker 1: with aunt Ant's got a lot that he can get
Speaker 1: better at after after tonight, and he's gonna look at
Speaker 1: that film and he's gonna he's coming off these screens
Speaker 1: and he's not attacking. Whereas Kyrie every single time was
Speaker 1: looking to get downhill, Luca every single time was looking
Speaker 1: to get downhill. Even when they took pull up jumpers,
Speaker 1: most of the time it was in closer towards the
Speaker 1: basket while it was taking pull up threes. I thought
Speaker 1: Kyrie was excellent. He poured in thirty points. And again,
Speaker 1: like like with Anthony Edwards, like he talked a big
Speaker 1: game after Game seven, but like it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: challenge to guard Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is a really
Speaker 1: damn good basketball player, and he's gonna make you put
Speaker 1: your money where your mouth is when you talk like
Speaker 1: that and he won Game one of this battle. Dallas's
Speaker 1: defense one of the things I talked about again coming
Speaker 1: into the series, and I want to get into more
Speaker 1: detail about it, the U them being more athletic on
Speaker 1: the perimeter and more athletic underneath the basket. So Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards's supreme advantage is he's just got this preposterously quick
Speaker 1: first step and he's you know, six five sixty six,
Speaker 1: built like a super vertically athletic, and he's been deadly
Speaker 1: as a pull up shooter over the course of.
Speaker 2: This playoff run.
Speaker 1: I pulled the numbers and put him on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed earlier tonight, but he's like, coming into tonight, he
Speaker 1: was like one point three zero points per catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jumper, which is outrageously good. One point zero seven
Speaker 1: points per pull up jumper, which is really good. One
Speaker 1: point five zero points per like face up jab step jumper,
Speaker 1: which is like really really good. Like Ant's just been
Speaker 1: amazing in pull up jump shooting situations, right, So like
Speaker 1: it's it's that's what makes him so difficult to guard.
Speaker 1: You have to have the quickness to keep him in front,
Speaker 1: in the length to offer a contest on the pull
Speaker 1: up jumper. Derek Jones did just an amazing job tonight.
Speaker 1: He just found that sweet spot in terms of distance
Speaker 1: between Ant where it kind of like made Ant feel
Speaker 1: like he was baiting him into taking a pull up,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't really get that much separation without a
Speaker 1: ball screen. And then whenever he made some sort of
Speaker 1: aggressive move, he was having trouble actually turning the corner
Speaker 1: against Derek Jones Jr. Derek just did a really good job.
Speaker 1: And then in ball screen situations, it's that bracket that
Speaker 1: I talk about, right, It's Derek Jones and his ability
Speaker 1: to chase an over the top and apply back pressure,
Speaker 1: but it's also you've got this other seven footer who's
Speaker 1: super athletic waiting for you at their rim. That combination
Speaker 1: of rim protection in perimeter athleticism caused a lot of
Speaker 1: problems for Minnesota's offense tonight. And so to tipic the
Speaker 1: captain Dallas's defense, they've been fantastic throughout this entire postseason
Speaker 1: run and the tail end of the season, they've been amazing.
Speaker 1: One last guy I want to shout out for Dallas
Speaker 1: before we get into some of the Minnesota stuff. PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington really really struggled to shoot tonight. Staman Gunny I
Speaker 1: thought did a really nice job on the broadcast of
Speaker 1: talking specifically about how he was struggling above the break
Speaker 1: but making shots in the corner. And by the way,
Speaker 1: that's a schematic thing, like Carl Anthony Towns was guarding him,
Speaker 1: and so when Luca would call Karl Anthony Towns into
Speaker 1: the ball screen, when Carl Anthony Towns shows, Pj's at
Speaker 1: the top of the the key setting the screen, and
Speaker 1: then he's slipping, but he's slipping to the three point line,
Speaker 1: and when he's slipping to the three point line, he's
Speaker 1: at the above the brake. Rather than if Luca's attacking
Speaker 1: somebody else in a ball screen and Pj's sitting in
Speaker 1: the corner, then he can be the beneficiary of short
Speaker 1: roll passing when Luca gets trapped, or if Luca is
Speaker 1: in a drop coverage and they'd end up tagging the roller,
Speaker 1: he can throw that skip pass right. So like by
Speaker 1: virtue of PJ being involved in the screening action, so
Speaker 1: Luca could attack Karl Anthony Towns. That was what put PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington in a bunch of above the break three point
Speaker 1: shooting situations where he hasn't been as good, but to
Speaker 1: his credit, for as much as he struggled shooting, I
Speaker 1: thought he hit the biggest shout of the night, that
Speaker 1: one in that left, the one in the left corner.
Speaker 1: I think Minnesota had gone up one o two, one
Speaker 1: oh one if I remember correctly, Jaden McDaniels made this
Speaker 1: like absolutely preposterous decision. I genuinely don't know what he
Speaker 1: was thinking, or he kind of caught the ball in
Speaker 1: that middle flash and then like just made an aggressive
Speaker 1: driving move out of bounds and then like jumped and
Speaker 1: went flying into camera row and then turned to throw
Speaker 1: like a jump pass to somebody and ended up throwing
Speaker 1: it right into one of the guys underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: But in that sequence they immediately had a five on four.
Speaker 1: Going out the other way, PJ. Washington got wide open
Speaker 1: in the left corner and knocked down the biggest shot
Speaker 1: of the game, which turned the It turned that Minnesota
Speaker 1: lead into into something that was I can't remember if
Speaker 1: it made a four point game into a one point
Speaker 1: game or for a game in the lead. It was
Speaker 1: a huge shot though, that PJ. Washington hit there in
Speaker 1: the left corner. Again, I'll have a better fear for
Speaker 1: feel for this stuff after we rewatched the game tomorrow,
Speaker 1: But anyway, shout out PJ.
Speaker 2: Washington.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a huge shot, especially after you
Speaker 1: didn't shoot well throughout the rest of the game. Minnesota
Speaker 1: so much stuff that they need to clean up, first
Speaker 1: of all the ball screens. So I think that, like
Speaker 1: I talked about earlier, there's nothing that's gonna work, right,
Speaker 1: nothing works against a top three player in the world.
Speaker 1: It just you just try to make it more difficult, right,
Speaker 1: And so what do we know about Luka Doncicic right now?
Speaker 1: With what he's doing well right now? Right, all his
Speaker 1: short range shot making is dialed in. All the push shots,
Speaker 1: hook shots, short range jumpers, those are all dialed in.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We know he's gonna hick you apart with the lob
Speaker 1: pass or the drop off pass to the big guy
Speaker 1: underneath the basket, right, So I think the drop where
Speaker 1: you chase over the top probably not a good idea anymore,
Speaker 1: right because Jada McDaniels just doesn't bother Luca from behind,
Speaker 1: and he just can methodically work down and bait in
Speaker 1: the rim protector and throw those drop off passes. Right,
Speaker 1: the blitz comes with its own share of issues. Now,
Speaker 1: I think Minnesota can blitz for stretches as long as
Speaker 1: their rotations are sharp. I did not think Minnesota played
Speaker 1: a very good defensive game tonight in any facet. I
Speaker 1: didn't think Gobar protected the rim as well as Lively
Speaker 1: and Gafford did. I didn't think Aunt and Jade McDaniels
Speaker 1: defended on the perimeter as well as Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: and PJ.
Speaker 2: Washington did.
Speaker 1: Like, I didn't think they did nearly as good a
Speaker 1: jo in any phase of the game. Right, So, like
Speaker 1: that that's a big part of it. And I think
Speaker 1: that Minnesota can do a better job blitzing than they did.
Speaker 1: But I think the chasing over the top drop coverage
Speaker 1: is no longer an option that they can go to.
Speaker 1: What is Luca struggling with right now? He made I
Speaker 1: think one tonight, maybe two he made the step back
Speaker 1: off of the kickout, but like, uh, he hasn't been
Speaker 1: shooting the three balls super well in this postseason, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: one thing you can do is just have Luca operate
Speaker 1: in pick and roll without Jaden on his backside, but
Speaker 1: rather Jayden on his front side. Right, So one option
Speaker 1: you can do there is just go underneath screens. So
Speaker 1: obviously Luca could get going as a three point shooter.
Speaker 1: If you do that, then you can react right again,
Speaker 1: none of these coverages work. It's just about finding It's
Speaker 1: like the it's like the cliche lesser of two evils, right,
Speaker 1: you're looking for the best way to try to make
Speaker 1: things difficult for Luca. Luca's not shooting the three super
Speaker 1: well right now. Most of his misses tonight were way off.
Speaker 1: So try ducking underscreens as opposed to chasing over the top.
Speaker 1: It's the exact same coverage right like go Bear is
Speaker 1: still in drop, but what you're doing is instead of
Speaker 1: chasing Luke over the top and getting into trail position,
Speaker 1: you're ducking under and meeting him at spots on the
Speaker 1: other side of the screen. So Luca's counter to that
Speaker 1: will be to use pullback dribbles as soon as Jaden
Speaker 1: Duck's under the pick to try to shoot a pull
Speaker 1: up three there. But maybe he's not making it well
Speaker 1: enough for it to matter. That's one thing you can try. Switching.
Speaker 1: They got to stop in the fourth quarter of this
Speaker 1: game by just switching Gobart onto the ball right, Lively
Speaker 1: and Gafford are not guys that typically attack in the
Speaker 1: post super well. So you just put a put Jada
Speaker 1: McDaniels switch onto the post guy, right, and then you
Speaker 1: ask Rudy Gobert to try to defend Luca down to
Speaker 1: john An Island. Yes, I know Luca can do damage
Speaker 1: to go bear on An Island, but again, it's just
Speaker 1: about trying to find something different that that does a
Speaker 1: better job. Right, So I think I get the actual
Speaker 1: deep drop chasing over the top. I just think lucas
Speaker 1: too good for that. I think he's comfortable and too
Speaker 1: big for Jaden McDaniels. I think he's too good at
Speaker 1: baiting Gobert to where he needs Gobert to get for
Speaker 1: him to throw that drop off pass or that lob
Speaker 1: pass that I don't think is an option. I think
Speaker 1: you mix coverages up with ducking, underpicks, switching and blitzing,
Speaker 1: because those are gonna at least make things a little
Speaker 1: bit tougher on Luca defensive rotations. In general, the game
Speaker 1: of sixty two points in the paint tonight, I don't
Speaker 1: care how good Luca is in ball screens. You just
Speaker 1: have to do a better job in general in rotations.
Speaker 1: You guys heard Rudy Gobert at the start of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter doing his interview. He specifically mentioned the lowman
Speaker 1: has to be more engaged. What that means is when
Speaker 1: Gobert steps up, you need to not make that a lob.
Speaker 1: It needs to be a corner three because here's the thing,
Speaker 1: or a drop off pass. I mean, the corner three
Speaker 1: is gonna be worth for know pj WA Like for
Speaker 1: shooters that are shooting really well, it might be worth
Speaker 1: one point two points per possession. Right, A lob dunk
Speaker 1: or a drop off dunk is worth two points per possession,
Speaker 1: So you at least got to make him make a
Speaker 1: jumper instead of having an easy dunk. That means when
Speaker 1: Gobert's up on Luca, the guy guarding, the guy in
Speaker 1: the opposite corner has to step in and guard the
Speaker 1: center rolling to the rim. In general, I did not
Speaker 1: think Minnesota had nearly the level of defensive intensity and
Speaker 1: engagement that they had at the tail end of the
Speaker 1: Denver series. That's your bread and butter. That's why you're here.
Speaker 1: You're in the conference finals because you defend. So that
Speaker 1: needs to be where they devote the majority of their
Speaker 1: resources they have to do a much better job. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, their offensive process. And this goes in two
Speaker 1: different phases. Like I'll start with crunch time. A lot
Speaker 1: of classic Minnesota Timberwolves crunch time offense that we saw
Speaker 1: in the regular season in this game.
Speaker 2: They've been much.
Speaker 1: Better in the postseason, but in the regular season this
Speaker 1: was a god awful offense. In the in crunch time
Speaker 1: they had a one h four offensive rating. It was
Speaker 1: one of the worst in the league. In A big
Speaker 1: part of it was just silly decision making from a
Speaker 1: bunch of key players. Like I mentioned the Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: play like Ant's tired, so he throws the ball up
Speaker 1: to Jade and he ends up kind of co opting
Speaker 1: a possession. He drives out of bounds and then throws
Speaker 1: some bizarre kick back pass underneath the basket that Mike
Speaker 1: Conley play drives into the lane. If you watch that one,
Speaker 1: Luca is kind of splitting the difference between Gobert and
Speaker 1: Conley as he's driving. But Jaden, I think it was
Speaker 1: Derek Jones, Yeah, Derek Jones. I can't remember who was
Speaker 1: guarding Ant on the weak side. I think it was
Speaker 1: Derek Jones. Derek Jones was guarding Anthony Edwards on the
Speaker 1: weak side, and he left ant to come into the
Speaker 1: lane to help on Mike Conley. So Mike Conley looked
Speaker 1: and saw Luca in front of Gobert and saw Derek
Speaker 1: Jones coming and Anthony Edwards was wide open on the
Speaker 1: right wing. Is a poor decision. That's Mike Conley. That's
Speaker 1: what he's out there for is to make good decisions.
Speaker 1: He forces a lob that's not open, Luca turns it,
Speaker 1: turns it back and they go the other way. Throw
Speaker 1: a kickout past to Anthony Edwards for catching choo three.
Speaker 1: He's been getting one point three points per catching chew
Speaker 1: jumper in this postseason. Anthony Edwards again in crunch time
Speaker 1: either completely disengaged or just looking for a pull up three.
Speaker 1: So like in general, in their offensive offensive processing crunch time,
Speaker 1: it looked way too much like the regular season. They
Speaker 1: have to do a much better job on in the
Speaker 1: meat and potatoes of the game. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of good stuff. Carl Anthony Towns looked great throughout. They
Speaker 1: had a lot of success running Horn's chest. Those of
Speaker 1: you guys who've watched What's the Mind the game the
Speaker 1: Show with JJ Redick and Lebron they've broken it down before.
Speaker 1: It's a basic horn set where you have two guys
Speaker 1: at the at the elbows, a guy at the top
Speaker 1: of the key.
Speaker 2: He dribbles off Carl Anthony Towns this way, and Carl
Speaker 2: Anthony Town's comes off.
Speaker 1: Gobert, Ornazrit, whoever it is, comes off the opposite side.
Speaker 1: You throw the skip pass and there's a three point
Speaker 1: shot there right. Carl Anthony Town's had a lot of
Speaker 1: success with that. He had a lot of success with
Speaker 1: four or five pick and roll, which is basically just
Speaker 1: have Gobert's at the screen, catworks down hill. He had
Speaker 1: some lob passes to go bear that way. So they
Speaker 1: had some success with offense run through Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 1: The main thing they have to get way better at
Speaker 1: is the offense run through Anthony Edwards. And again a
Speaker 1: couple of key things. First of all, I understand you're fatigued,
Speaker 1: but like you weren't defending well enough on Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: to actually justify being as tired as he was Conference finals, man,
Speaker 1: and your team needs you to your team needs you
Speaker 1: to create shots. So like the fatigue thing, I can't
Speaker 1: accept that as an excuse. Like Aunt has to find
Speaker 1: a way to power through that right Specifically, like I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, when he was coming off of those screens,
Speaker 1: he was looking at the rim protector in this case
Speaker 1: go Gafford or Lively and just not applying any pressure
Speaker 1: on them at Like Aunt applied almost no pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim in this game, and it's like, that is
Speaker 1: your superpower, Man, that is your superpower.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: To be clear with Ant, I haven't watched any of
Speaker 1: the postgame pressers. Aunt's a high character guy and a
Speaker 1: great leader. My guess is I'm gonna get on my
Speaker 1: phone after this game and I'm gonna see some sort
Speaker 1: of quote from Aunt saying like I played like dogshit,
Speaker 1: I let my team down tonight. I need to be
Speaker 1: better on Friday, and I believe Ant will be better
Speaker 1: on Friday. But the reality is is in this game,
Speaker 1: I thought Aunt was a major driver of their struggles throughout,
Speaker 1: and a big part of it was just because there's
Speaker 1: not some sort of clear obvious advantage like there was
Speaker 1: against Denver, where you're just slashing down the lane and
Speaker 1: getting easy lamps doesn't mean you don't try the rim
Speaker 1: protector Again, like I talked about with Kyrie and Luca,
Speaker 1: a lot of times, you just need to engage the
Speaker 1: rim protector somehow, because if you do, that's where your
Speaker 1: your waves of size coming on the weak size or
Speaker 1: week side are rolling from the perimeter can do damage.
Speaker 1: Right Like, if Gobert's rolling to the rim, he's not
Speaker 1: gonna get the offensive rebound if Ant shoots to pull
Speaker 1: up three, because if Ant shoots to pull up three,
Speaker 1: Gafford or Lively can just turn and box out go
Speaker 1: bear right. They're the only way you're gonna get any
Speaker 1: sort of benefit there is if you turn the corner
Speaker 1: on the ball screen and get into Gafford or Lively
Speaker 1: and engage them. That way, you can either throw the
Speaker 1: drop off pass or get something up on the rim. Now,
Speaker 1: since Gafford or Lively are engaged on Ant, that is
Speaker 1: where Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy.
Speaker 2: Gobert can do damage on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: And so again, like you know, a lot of times,
Speaker 1: and this is it's a good thing in some ways,
Speaker 1: and it's a bad thing in others, because, like ant is,
Speaker 1: he did a really good job for stretches of game
Speaker 1: Savage and for stretches of the last round and against
Speaker 1: the Suns of like, Okay, they're loading up on me,
Speaker 1: don't force it, make the extra pass. Let my teammates
Speaker 1: go to work. And like, I get that, there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of that that you need to do. But
Speaker 1: the reality is is you're the guy have to superpower.
Speaker 1: You're the guy that has the ability to break this
Speaker 1: defensive part with your downhill athleticism. At a certain point,
Speaker 1: you need to force the issue. You need to turn
Speaker 1: the corner, get into traffic, gets something on the rim,
Speaker 1: or get a drop off pass to your bigs. And
Speaker 1: the only way you're gonna do that is if you
Speaker 1: turn the corner in those ball screens instead of constantly
Speaker 1: settling or just throwing swing passes. Again, just a really
Speaker 1: bad game from Anthony Edwards on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: But again I expect that he will have taken accountability
Speaker 1: for it and that he'll be ready to go on
Speaker 1: Friday for Game two. So again, Minnesota a lot that
Speaker 1: they can clean up. But tip of the cap to
Speaker 1: Dallas tonight. I thought they came in and just put
Speaker 1: on a clinic. I thought they out played Minnesota in
Speaker 1: every phase of the game.
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 1: They deserve to win, and they deserve to be up
Speaker 1: one to zero in the series. This is going to
Speaker 1: be a super entertain series. I'm super excited. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get into the film tomorrow morning, So keep an eye
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed and on my YouTube channel. I'll
Speaker 1: have a film breakdown up at some time, you know,
Speaker 1: in that mid morning area. Just keep an eye on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed. I'll tweet out the links once it
Speaker 1: goes live. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys. It means
Speaker 1: a lot to me that you guys have rocked me
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. Has been fun building
Speaker 1: this channel out. We will be back tomorrow morning with
Speaker 1: the film breakdown, and then again tomorrow night for Game
Speaker 1: two of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume