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Speaker 2: Hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody hope
Speaker 2: alth You guys are having a great start to your week.
Speaker 2: We are giving our series preview for the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 2: versus Golden State Warriors today. Agonizing, I walked into this
Speaker 2: zoom call still not knowing who I was going to pick,
Speaker 2: but then I ended up following my gut. You guys
Speaker 2: will see at the tail end of the show. You
Speaker 2: guys are the drill before we get started. Subscribed to
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Speaker 2: there and the last, but not at least keep dropping
Speaker 2: those mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So the season series, the Warriors
Speaker 2: went three to one. They lost their first matchup of
Speaker 2: the year, but they won three straight. All of the
Speaker 2: games were before the trade deadline, so a lot of
Speaker 2: different players involved, specifically for the Warriors, a lot of
Speaker 2: Andrew Wiggins, a lot of Dennis Schroeder, guys that obviously
Speaker 2: aren't on the team anymore. I did think there were
Speaker 2: plenty of examples though, of just the sheer difference between
Speaker 2: this matchup and the Lakers matchup, specifically for Minnesota's defense,
Speaker 2: which will go over and We've talked about it a
Speaker 2: few times already, but I want to get into some
Speaker 2: more detail today, and particularly in crunch time, the Wolves
Speaker 2: really struggled to guard Golden State. In the three Warriors wins,
Speaker 2: there were ten clutch minutes, meaning ten minutes of game
Speaker 2: time where the game was within at least five points
Speaker 2: and with than five minutes left. In those ten minutes,
Speaker 2: the Warriors logged a one thirty two offensive rating as
Speaker 2: they repeatedly struggled to deal with steph in space. The
Speaker 2: overall metrics for the matchup, both teams logged a one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirteen offensive rating. Overall, both teams grabbed over
Speaker 2: thirty one percent of their own misses, so both teams
Speaker 2: struggled to keep each other off of the offensive glass.
Speaker 2: The odds right now, Minnesota is a minus one seventy
Speaker 2: five favorite. That feels about right to me. In terms
Speaker 2: of Vegas odds, I think this is going to be
Speaker 2: a very close series. In a vacuum, I would view
Speaker 2: this series as essentially a coin flip, But under the
Speaker 2: real world circumstances, I feel like Minnesota should absolutely be
Speaker 2: the slightly favor the slight favorite that they are. If
Speaker 2: you start to go down the list, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: they looked more impressive in the first round, right, Like
Speaker 2: they beat a better team quicker, right, Although for me personally,
Speaker 2: I don't think that has much bearing on this series.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer that each matchup in the playoffs
Speaker 2: is its own unique brand of basketball and and it
Speaker 2: just doesn't matter, right, Like, for instance, Minnesota beating Denver
Speaker 2: last year, I thought Denver was the best team in
Speaker 2: the Western Conference. They caught an extremely unfavorable matchup against Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Minnesota beat them. I think Denver was better than that
Speaker 2: Dallas team. Minnesota runs into Dallas, totally different matchup. Minnesota
Speaker 2: really struggles and gets ousted in five games. Like just
Speaker 2: because Minnesota looked more impressive against a better team in
Speaker 2: the first round, that means nothing. As you throw the
Speaker 2: ball up in the air at center court tomorrow night
Speaker 2: against the Golden State Warriors. It is a fundamentally different
Speaker 2: basketball team that plays a fundamentally different style. It is
Speaker 2: not it is not remotely the same situation. But for Vegas' sake,
Speaker 2: Minnesota did look more impressive. They have home court as well,
Speaker 2: and they have a substantial rest advantage. They've been done
Speaker 2: since Wednesday prepping for this series and getting rest, although
Speaker 2: I don't think it matters as much for as young
Speaker 2: and athletic team as they are. But on the other side,
Speaker 2: Golden State just finished a blood bath with Houston. Yeah
Speaker 2: literally just finished last night, And as def said, they'd
Speaker 2: literally packed their bags from Minnesota and they went straight
Speaker 2: to Minnesota from Houston. So obviously a bunch of like
Speaker 2: those kinds of factors that favor Minnesota. I think that's
Speaker 2: enough to at least make Minnesota a slight gambling favorite
Speaker 2: the way that they are. So let's talk about Minnesota
Speaker 2: on the offensive end of the floor. The first big
Speaker 2: question is how will the Warriors look to counter Minnesota's
Speaker 2: interior size, like, will they size up to try to
Speaker 2: compete physically, or will they size down to try to
Speaker 2: space Minnesota out and win with their speed. My guess
Speaker 2: is that Kurr is going to start by splitting the difference,
Speaker 2: meaning he'll start Quinton Post. You're bigger that way, but
Speaker 2: Posts can also drag at least one of Minnesota's bigs
Speaker 2: out of the paint, although I would not be surprised
Speaker 2: if in this series we see Minnesota and Chris Finch
Speaker 2: try a similar strategy to what Houston tried and try
Speaker 2: to put Rudy Gobert not on Julius Rant or excuse me,
Speaker 2: not on Draymond Green, not on like a you know,
Speaker 2: a more of a screening a screen en roll threat
Speaker 2: like a Gary Payton. But keep an eye on whether
Speaker 2: or not they try to go bear on like Moses
Speaker 2: Moody whenever he's on the floor, try to put him
Speaker 2: in a situation where he can help. There's also the
Speaker 2: issue with if you put Gobert, if you put Draymond
Speaker 2: on Gobert, there's there's the simple problem that you're gonna
Speaker 2: have another size mismatch elsewhere in the front court, right,
Speaker 2: But like I think they'll start with Quinton Post. That's
Speaker 2: my guess. The other direction I could see Steve Kerr
Speaker 2: going is to ride the hot streak up Buddy Heeld
Speaker 2: is on. In the last three wins in the Rockets series,
Speaker 2: Buddy Heeld averaged twenty two points per game on fifty
Speaker 2: six percent from the field and fifty five percent from three.
Speaker 2: He was massive on offense in all three games. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that would put the Warriors in a physical bind in
Speaker 2: terms of size and strength, But that comes with all
Speaker 2: sorts of advantages on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 2: which we'll talk about. Step one on this side of
Speaker 2: the floor when Minnesota's on offense is the physicality matchup.
Speaker 2: Will the Wolves be able to do to Golden State
Speaker 2: what the Rockets did to Golden State or what the
Speaker 2: Wolves did to Golden State in the regular season, which
Speaker 2: is dominate them on the offensive glass. There's no real
Speaker 2: schematic thing to get to here. For Minnesota, it's about
Speaker 2: being relentless with their effort and wearing Golden State down
Speaker 2: over the course of the series. For Golden State, it's
Speaker 2: about Sandwich rebounding, getting a body on the Bigs, coming
Speaker 2: over the top and grabbing those rebounds while the Bigs
Speaker 2: are in physical altercations on the ground. That's just we're
Speaker 2: gonna see which direction that swings over the course of
Speaker 2: the series. My guess as well, see phases for both
Speaker 2: teams where they do extensive damage on the offensive glass
Speaker 2: in action. So in the half court, how are they
Speaker 2: going to guard the Wolves? In the first round, the
Speaker 2: Wolves ran a steady diet of ISO and post ups
Speaker 2: because the Lakers did a ton of switching. So it
Speaker 2: turned into Aunt and Julius picking on whatever matchup they
Speaker 2: wanted and looking to attack, and Ant made a lot
Speaker 2: of really high quality reads throughout that series. In the
Speaker 2: four wins, Aunt averaged eight assists per game in just
Speaker 2: one turnover. He did have zero assists in their one loss, though,
Speaker 2: something to keep in mind, like if you can play
Speaker 2: him into a game where he doesn't pass the ball
Speaker 2: as well. But this series will likely involve some more
Speaker 2: variety in the coverages than what they saw from La
Speaker 2: We're probably gonna see more zone from Golden State in
Speaker 2: the series than the Lakers tried. Draymond will likely be
Speaker 2: on Rudy Gobert every time he's on the floor, and
Speaker 2: that's not gonna be a switching look. Like I think
Speaker 2: they'll switch with Draymond if the on ball guy gets
Speaker 2: like completely wiped out by a screen, but I think
Speaker 2: he's gonna be in more of a high drop coverage.
Speaker 2: I think Draymond's gonna be up at the level trying
Speaker 2: to disrupt at knowing that they're gonna be sharp on
Speaker 2: the back line with Uh, with Rudy on his rolls
Speaker 2: or whoever it is that Draymond's guarding in those situations.
Speaker 2: But what that means is that Anthony Edwards's job is
Speaker 2: going to be very different as an initiator in this series.
Speaker 2: His ball screen attack is going to be very different.
Speaker 2: The Lakers did not try any hedge and recover type
Speaker 2: of scheme to protect Luca, meaning like if they screen
Speaker 2: with Luca's man, Luca would just switch on to Ant
Speaker 2: and they would go. What you will see is if
Speaker 2: Ant tries to attack Steph Curry in a ball screen,
Speaker 2: Steph's gonna throw a hedge, and then he's gonna get
Speaker 2: back to you know, Dante E Vincenzo, Mike Conley, Na Kail,
Speaker 2: Alexander Walker, whichever one of those guards that he's guarding.
Speaker 2: They're not gonna let Ant just pick on Steph if
Speaker 2: they can avoid it. Obviously, guys get wiped out by screens,
Speaker 2: and Steph will have to guard Aunt occasionally, whether it's
Speaker 2: a transition cross match, on offensive rebound cross match, or
Speaker 2: just a really good screen that he is forced to set.
Speaker 2: But for the most part, they're not gonna switch with Draymond.
Speaker 2: They're not gonna switch with Steph, which means all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Anthony Edwards's passing reads are not just simple
Speaker 2: drive in kick reads. There drop coverage reads. They're being
Speaker 2: making the read against that little slip screen to Dante
Speaker 2: Devincenzo or Mike Conley every time that Steph is throwing
Speaker 2: a hedge. It's just a very different mental job for
Speaker 2: Ant in this series. And one of the things we
Speaker 2: saw is like if you can with that Dallas Maverick series,
Speaker 2: and even at times in the Denver series last year
Speaker 2: when Denver was you know, because again Denver controlled that
Speaker 2: series for a good half of it. Before you know,
Speaker 2: Minnesota pulled away in that series. High drop activity on
Speaker 2: Ant at the level was what actually played him into
Speaker 2: his worst tendencies. And so it's just gonna be a
Speaker 2: very different job. And that's the biggest thing I'll be
Speaker 2: watching in game one, just how uncomfortable Steve Kerr can
Speaker 2: make Anthony Edwards with his defensive game plan. Draymond's a
Speaker 2: master manipulator on defense, making you think he's doing one
Speaker 2: thing and then doing another, baiting you, like if if
Speaker 2: Ant changes his tactic and decides to start attacking Jimmy
Speaker 2: Butler in ball screens and just in gener attacking Quinton
Speaker 2: Post in ball screens and anywhere where Draymond's off the ball,
Speaker 2: Draymond will be in the paint, making Ant think he's
Speaker 2: in the paint, while always being completely attentive to whatever
Speaker 2: would happen on the skip pass or swing pass that
Speaker 2: could make Draymond close out to the perimeter. I will
Speaker 2: be watching carefully to see just how comfortable Ant looks
Speaker 2: offensively in Game one. Steve Curry is going to mix
Speaker 2: in that one to three one zone. He's going to
Speaker 2: mix in blitzes. I think he'll do a better job
Speaker 2: of keeping Ant off balance than JJ Reddick, and that
Speaker 2: limited Lakers defensive roster was able to do. The last
Speaker 2: thing I want to hit here is just more the
Speaker 2: on ball like ball pressure piece for Golden State with Ant,
Speaker 2: like this is more a question about Golden State's offense
Speaker 2: because we know it's going to be Moses Moody or
Speaker 2: Brandon Pajemski or Gary Payton, and it's gonna be about
Speaker 2: which one of those guys can provide the best combination
Speaker 2: of that ball pressure and containment while also being useful
Speaker 2: on the other end of the floor, because again, like
Speaker 2: we saw in the Houston series, if they end up
Speaker 2: having to lean towards Buddy Heeled a lot because the
Speaker 2: other guys are not doing anything offensively, that changes some
Speaker 2: of the athletic dynamic for this team. Right Like Moody,
Speaker 2: I would be tracking Moody's shooting substantially early in the
Speaker 2: series because if Moody can't shoot and he can't play,
Speaker 2: that's where it gets tricky, because he's the one guy
Speaker 2: who really has the combination of the length to bother
Speaker 2: Ant's pull up jumper while also having enough mobility to
Speaker 2: be a little bit of a deterrent on the ball,
Speaker 2: so keep an eye on specifically Moses Moody's shooting early
Speaker 2: in the series. Now, a Minnisota is a lot more
Speaker 2: versatile than people think. They can attack size mismatches. With
Speaker 2: Julius Randall and Nas reed. They have guards that can
Speaker 2: get going and scoring as scorers. Dante di Vincenzo can
Speaker 2: get going in action. But Golden State did defend their
Speaker 2: big forwards well in the regular season. Both Julius and
Speaker 2: Nas were well below their season averages and well below
Speaker 2: their season efficiency against Golden State. Jada McDaniels didn't have
Speaker 2: He shot the ball well from three, but didn't put
Speaker 2: up any real high volume scoring against Golden State this season,
Speaker 2: but he came on way more as a score in
Speaker 2: the later portion of the season after all those Golden
Speaker 2: State games, So obviously Jada McDaniels doing more damage as
Speaker 2: a score would be an interesting thing that could swing
Speaker 2: this series. Golden State is generally good at keeping the
Speaker 2: ball in front, which makes this substantially tougher than what
Speaker 2: the Lakers matchup looked like. They were able to get
Speaker 2: dribble penetration pretty consistently whenever they wanted. Golden State is quick,
Speaker 2: they can slide their feet, and they're gonna beat guys
Speaker 2: to spots. And so I would argue the most important trend,
Speaker 2: the most important thing that Minnesota has to do to
Speaker 2: flip the regular season trend, which is where Golden State
Speaker 2: won those last three games, is they got to get
Speaker 2: their big guys going, They got to get nasried, and
Speaker 2: they got to get Julius Randall going because they did
Speaker 2: not provide the complimentary scoring to what Anthony Edwards was doing.
Speaker 2: In general, Minnesota shot the ball really well or really poorly,
Speaker 2: excuse me, from two point range in this regular season matchup.
Speaker 2: Even ant Ant did most of his damage behind the
Speaker 2: three point line. And so that's that's a testament to
Speaker 2: Golden State's defense and the job that they do sliding
Speaker 2: their feet and winning the battle on the ground. But
Speaker 2: if in order for Minnesota to win this series, they're
Speaker 2: gonna have to get for their front court players going
Speaker 2: in some way on offense. I just think Golden State's
Speaker 2: defense is really good and I think they're well equipped
Speaker 2: to handle this particular Minnesota team. I think it's going
Speaker 2: to be a challenge for Minnesota to score. And like again, guys,
Speaker 2: I understand that that the Timberwolves had a very dominant
Speaker 2: performance against the Lakers. I'm not trying to undercut that specifically,
Speaker 2: but if you get into the details, the Lakers did
Speaker 2: slow them down. They did not score super effectively in
Speaker 2: that first round series. I'm pulling up the numbers right
Speaker 2: now on cleaning the glass because I would just want
Speaker 2: to give you guys some perspective. But this is a
Speaker 2: team that I do believe the Warriors will be able
Speaker 2: to slow down. So just for a basic example, in
Speaker 2: the first round series against the Lakers, the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 2: logged a ninety two point one offensive rating in the
Speaker 2: half court against that Laker defense. The Houston Rockets averaged
Speaker 2: ninety two point four points per one hundred possessions in
Speaker 2: the half court against Golden State in the first round.
Speaker 2: So literally, Minnesota scored less effectively in the half court
Speaker 2: against Golden State than Houston did against Golden State. Or
Speaker 2: excuse me, I just butchered debt. Minnesota averaged more fewer
Speaker 2: points per one hundred possessions and half court against the
Speaker 2: Lakers than Houston did against Golden State. And so what
Speaker 2: that means to me is that Minnesota is going up
Speaker 2: a level and the level of defense that they're going against,
Speaker 2: and Minnesota's offense can be slowed down when they're stuck
Speaker 2: in the half court and they have to process and
Speaker 2: it comes down to Anthony Everwards making decisions. And so
Speaker 2: I do think Golden State will have extensive success slowing
Speaker 2: down Minnesota's offense over the course of this series. So
Speaker 2: let's move over to the other side of the ball.
Speaker 2: Jada McDaniels is going to get the primary matchup on Steph.
Speaker 2: He does a good job of making up for like
Speaker 2: he's a little bit upright, like we talked about last
Speaker 2: night on playback, Like he's a guy that you know,
Speaker 2: you can get shifted side to side, and Steph can
Speaker 2: get around every once in a while. The main thing
Speaker 2: is Jaden does a good job of just using his
Speaker 2: hands to just kind of keep Steph attached to him.
Speaker 2: He does a good job. The biggest problem for Minnesota
Speaker 2: isn't their ability to defend Steph straight up with McDaniels.
Speaker 2: It's handling him in any sort of screening action. If
Speaker 2: you put Gobert on Draymond, Steph's gonna just run high
Speaker 2: ball screens with Draymond, and he's gonna get the ball
Speaker 2: to Draymond in the pocket behind Gobert. Now, all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you're playing four on three with Gobert trapped
Speaker 2: on the perimeter guarding right like, I think the Wolves
Speaker 2: are gonna have to strongly consider putting Rudy Gobert on
Speaker 2: a guy like Moses Moody, even a guy like Gary Payton,
Speaker 2: although Gary Payton, as we've seen, can have a lot
Speaker 2: of success as a role man. But they're gonna have
Speaker 2: to try to keep Gobert close to the rim whenever possible.
Speaker 2: If they put Gobert on Draymond, I think that they're
Speaker 2: gonna just spam a bunch of high ball screens and
Speaker 2: have some success there where I worry about Minnesota, specifically
Speaker 2: Nas Reed and Julius Randall. Those two guys did extremely
Speaker 2: well defensively in the first round in what was a
Speaker 2: very different matchup. The Lakers were just trying to attack
Speaker 2: by going one on one, and so it was a
Speaker 2: lot of like Julius and Nas on an island guarding
Speaker 2: Lebron and Luca and doing a very good job sliding
Speaker 2: their feet using their big strength. They're big frames to
Speaker 2: absorb contact in bump Lebron and Luca off of their
Speaker 2: base and force them into tough shots either at the
Speaker 2: rim or over the top. That is not what this
Speaker 2: offensive matchup is gonna look like. This is gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of Steph Curry attacking them in space. We
Speaker 2: went over film examples in our last two playback sessions,
Speaker 2: but like Steph pretty consistently destroyed Julius Randall in space
Speaker 2: in the regular season when these teams matched up, he
Speaker 2: got around Naz Reed whenever he wanted to. He was
Speaker 2: able to move around off ball on those guys and
Speaker 2: have success. Nas Julius and even Anthony Edwards to a
Speaker 2: little bit, to a certain extent, really struggled to handle
Speaker 2: Steph in those like kind of run around situations. And
Speaker 2: that really is where this is fundamentally different than the
Speaker 2: Lakers matchup. This is not a one on one matchup
Speaker 2: attacking series. This is a ball in player movement series.
Speaker 2: But even if it degenerates down to one on one
Speaker 2: ball in a late game situation, I think Steph is
Speaker 2: gonna feel comfortable attacking Julius Randall in a way that's
Speaker 2: different than Luca and Lebron because it's a fundamentally different matchup.
Speaker 2: One of the things too, is the Wolves they won
Speaker 2: that series by staying out of rotation in against the
Speaker 2: Lakers in the situations where the Lakers were able to
Speaker 2: get two on the ball. So for instance, in the
Speaker 2: there were like there were like fifteen sixteen possessions in
Speaker 2: that series where they blitzed Luca. When they blitzed Luca,
Speaker 2: the Lakers averaged a one point eighteen offensive rating, which
Speaker 2: is really good. When you get the Wolves into rotation,
Speaker 2: you can score on them because they're bigger and they
Speaker 2: you know, they can be a little bit susceptible to
Speaker 2: quickness on the ground. Right. The problem is that the
Speaker 2: Lakers just couldn't get that situation often enough to really
Speaker 2: capitalize on it. I think Steph is going to be
Speaker 2: able to consistently either generate one on one advantages against
Speaker 2: Nas and Julius in this matchup, or get two to
Speaker 2: the ball and be able to get the Wolves in rotation.
Speaker 2: And so I think this is just going to be
Speaker 2: a very very different type of matchup in terms of
Speaker 2: what Minnesota is dev is going to do. I'm not
Speaker 2: worried about them being able to handle Jimmy. I think
Speaker 2: they match up really well with Jimmy. I think they
Speaker 2: match up really well with the other Warriors guards. But
Speaker 2: that Steph Curry problem is the one that I'm worried about.
Speaker 2: And this is the last stat that I'll give you, guys,
Speaker 2: to drive this home. In the three wins that the
Speaker 2: Warriors had against the Wolves in the regular season, Steph
Speaker 2: Curry averaged thirty one points per game. He shot forty
Speaker 2: nine percent from three, he averaged nine assists per game,
Speaker 2: and just one point seven turnovers. And Guys, this was
Speaker 2: all before the deadline. This was back when Steph wasn't
Speaker 2: playing particularly well. Steph didn't really start regularly hitting these
Speaker 2: numbers until after news of the Jimmy Butler trade came
Speaker 2: down to him. Like, Steph in a phase of the
Speaker 2: season when he wasn't particularly comfortable, was super comfortable in
Speaker 2: this matchup. And that's just something to keep him keep
Speaker 2: in mind. No one cares how impressive you looked in
Speaker 2: the last round. It ultimately comes down to your ability
Speaker 2: to succeed in this individual matchup. Now, one of the
Speaker 2: things that I think will be interesting is Minnesota has
Speaker 2: a lineup that they've had a ton of success with
Speaker 2: this season that they started using more towards the end
Speaker 2: of the year and a lot in the Lakers series,
Speaker 2: which is, what if they just take go Bear off
Speaker 2: the floor and it turns into nas Red at the
Speaker 2: five next to Julius Randall with Dante DiVincenzo on the floor,
Speaker 2: more spacing, more ability for them to create opportunity for
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall to work one on one.
Speaker 2: That's great, but once again, it doesn't work if Steph
Speaker 2: can easily attack nas Reid in space and generate easy offense.
Speaker 2: The Wolves went to nas Red in crunch time in
Speaker 2: this season series and couldn't guard Steph. And so that's
Speaker 2: where I keep coming down to, like, I was really
Speaker 2: on the fence about this series because on the one hand,
Speaker 2: I have this big part of me that's like, don't
Speaker 2: underestimate the Timberwolves again. Don't make that mistake you did
Speaker 2: last year against Denver, you did last year against Phoenix,
Speaker 2: you did this year against the Lakers. And I get that,
Speaker 2: and I have this like part of me that's like screaming, like,
Speaker 2: don't make that mistake again. But I keep thinking about
Speaker 2: the simple dynamic, which is that this is a very
Speaker 2: very very good defense in Golden State that should be
Speaker 2: able to play Minnesota into some rough stretches on the
Speaker 2: offensive end of the four. And I think Steph is
Speaker 2: going to be the most comfortable star in the series.
Speaker 2: It's not even about versus Steph in a vacuum. It's
Speaker 2: just the simple fact that Steph is kind of an
Speaker 2: antidote for this particular type of defense because of his
Speaker 2: relentless motion and his ability to win on the ground
Speaker 2: with quickness. And so this is how I see the
Speaker 2: series going. This is my prediction. I think that Game
Speaker 2: one tomorrow night is a game that actually could bode
Speaker 2: really well for Golden State as an opportunity to steal
Speaker 2: home court advantage. The reason why Wolves haven't played since Wednesday,
Speaker 2: and they just played a really really different series. They
Speaker 2: won comfortably, They're riding high. There's a lot of optimism there.
Speaker 2: Golden State's coming in out of a blood bath, which
Speaker 2: I actually look at as an advantage in a game one.
Speaker 2: Golden State just played three straight super high stakes games.
Speaker 2: Well I call it two straight because they kind of
Speaker 2: punted Game five, but they wanted Game six and they
Speaker 2: didn't get it. They needed Game seven and they did.
Speaker 2: They've been playing super high leverage basketball for the last
Speaker 2: few days, Minnesota has not. I think that gives them
Speaker 2: an advantage, and their style is just so different and
Speaker 2: so unique. I think it has a chance to catch
Speaker 2: Minnesota off guard. So I think Golden State's gonna steal
Speaker 2: game one. I think Minnesota get Game two. I think
Speaker 2: Golden State will get games three and four back in
Speaker 2: Golden State. I think Minnesota gets Game five. And then
Speaker 2: the thing that put it over the edge for me
Speaker 2: is you have a must win Game six at home
Speaker 2: for Golden State and Golden State, the older, more physically
Speaker 2: frail team gets three full days off between Game five
Speaker 2: and Game six, where they would come out fresh on
Speaker 2: their home floor with an opportunity to close out the series.
Speaker 2: So for me, I'm going Warriors in six based on
Speaker 2: the dynamic that I believe this Warrior's d defense is
Speaker 2: capable of really strangling this Minnesota offense, and I think
Speaker 2: Steph Curry is a nightmare matchup for Minnesota's defense. I
Speaker 2: was on the fence about this. I kept going back
Speaker 2: and forth. I totally understand why Minnesota's favored. Maybe I'll
Speaker 2: watch Game one and totally feel differently, but I just
Speaker 2: have this feeling in my gut that Golden State's gonna
Speaker 2: win this series, and it just stems from the matchup
Speaker 2: and just how gifted Steph is at attacking this particular
Speaker 2: type of defense. So we'll see. Maybe I'll be wrong.
Speaker 2: I was wrong on three of my eight first round
Speaker 2: series picks.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 2: Can't shake the feeling that Golden State's going to go
Speaker 2: to the conference finals. And by the way, this is
Speaker 2: a this is not a oh wishful thinking about the
Speaker 2: Warriors piece. Like I talked about this last night, I'm playback.
Speaker 2: I'm having a really hard time talking myself into any
Speaker 2: type of way for Golden State to beat Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City, to me, is a team that has the
Speaker 2: same sort of guard speed issue that Houston presented to
Speaker 2: Golden State. That they have just even more better guard
Speaker 2: defenders that they can throw at Steph, and they have
Speaker 2: rim protection and they have more offensive talent than Houston. Like,
Speaker 2: I have a really hard time talking myself into Golden
Speaker 2: State having any chance to beat Oklahoma City. But I
Speaker 2: do think that they can beat Minnesota. I think this
Speaker 2: is a matchup that they can win, and it's just
Speaker 2: based on what I've seen on tape in the dynamics
Speaker 2: that I explained in this video. So again, we'll be
Speaker 2: covering all the games live on YouTube after Larwriors and six.
Speaker 2: Don't feel particularly great about it, but that's where I'm
Speaker 2: going right now with my gut. Tonight we are live
Speaker 2: after the final buzzer of Nuggets Thunder. I will see
Speaker 2: you guys then. What so, guys, As always, I appreciate
Speaker 2: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would
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Speaker 1: The volume