The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Mavericks-Timberwolves Reaction: Luka Doncic ERUPTS, Mavs take Game 1 vs. Wolves

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to the biggest highlights from Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks' 108-105 Game 1 win over Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals. Jason breaks down Luka and Kyrie's big nights, what went wrong for the Wolves, and shares his main takeaways ahead of Game 2 in Minnesota. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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See DKNG.com slash B-Ball for eligibility, wagering, and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. Game one of the Western Conference Finals was a barn burner, super entertaining game. Very different than any series we've seen to this point.

I'm excited to get into all the D.S.' We're going to break it down, then get out of here for the night, and then we'll do a film session tomorrow morning. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to our brandy YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed, wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. And keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. So we keep hitting them throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So simply as a basketball fan, I really appreciated just how different this series looked. than Minnesota, Denver.

And it's a very fascinating example to me of how matchups dictate a lot of what happens on a basketball court instead of talent. That's what's fun, right? If it was just talent, it'd be a lot easier to predict these sorts of things, right? But as my friend Mark Titus one said, basketball is more art than science, right?

And it just, a lot of it is just about these magical kind of ingredients mixing together to make a certain thing rather than just accumulating talent and seeing if that manifests on a, basketball court. So for instance, Dallas and Denver are two, these are two of the top three teams that I had in my contender rankings coming into the postseason. And they're very different in the way that they're constructed, right? Like one of the things I pointed out in the series preview,

Dallas is a very different defense than Denver and a better defense than Denver, in my opinion, even though the defensive rating in the regular season was higher for Denver. It was more of a static thing over the 82 games. Dallas down the stretch of the season, really nailed things down in terms of their processes on the defensive end of the floor and hit a level that Denver hasn't been able to get to. And a big part of that is they're just more athletic. They're more athletic on the perimeter and they're much better at protecting the writ. Denver was 18th and points in the paint allowed per game this season. Rim protection is not a strong suit of theirs. So just to put it simply, going from a Contavius Caldwell Pope on

the ball on Anthony Edwards to a Derek Jones Jr., who is a taller, longer, more athletic player and then going from Nicola Yokic on the back line to Derek lively and Daniel Gafford to two more vertically athletic rim protectors. It's just a fundamentally different type of matchup, right? Manifested in a massive differential in points in the paint scored in this game. I think Minnesota only scored 38 points in the paint in this game. How many times did it feel like Anthony Edwards got downhill and drove to the rim? Not very many, right? We're going to get into that in more detail later. Also, Dallas's offense attacks in a very different

way than Minnesota, or Denver's offense attacked, right? Denver's offense is very much about interior passing, right? It's very much about Nicole Yokic drawing multiple bodies. There's a lot of, like, cutting along the baseline by Aaron Gordon. It's a lot of

operating out of Yokic as the decision maker at the high post. Whereas with Luca Donschitz and Kyrie Irving, it's very much perimeter initiation. The guy who sets the ball screen is simply just rolling hard to the rim. And it's very classic four-out offense, right? It's set the ball screen, roll hard to the rim. There's a shooter in the left corner, a shooter in the right corner and a shooter on the opposite wing. And it's just, if you tag the

the roller, we're throwing the skip pass. And we're playing rotation basketball out of that. You don't tag the roller and you stay home on the roller. I'm shooting in the ball screen. If you come to me on the ball screen, I'm throwing the lob to a Gafferter lively at the rim. It's a very, very different type of offensive attack, right? Like, one of the things that worked for Minnesota against Denver was funneling, right? Funnaling is what happens in a ball screen when you get trapped behind, right? So like, if I'm dribbling off of you as the ball screen at the camera there and you're, there's an on ball defender guarding me, as I drive that way, if you set a good screen, he's going to get into trail position on me, right? And that's that textbook drop coverage

that we talk about all the time in the NBA where you have a guy chasing over the top. and trying to funnel you into your rim protection. The difference is, Jamal Murray is not very big. So Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, when they would get trapped on Jamal's backside, it was actually advantageous for Minnesota. Because in those situations, if Jamal tried to shoot anything,

they would disrupt it or block it, and Jamal would have no choice but to drive into their rim protection, and it would cause a lot of problems for Denver's offense. Luca Donchich, he loves working with a player trapped on his backside, and he's just a lot bigger than, Jamal Murray is and certainly bigger than Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards. And so again, in terms of

just basketball matchups, this is a very, very different type of series than the Denver, Minnesota series. And it's what makes it a very fascinating challenge for both teams going in. So even just looking back, kind of flipping the angle here,

looking at Dallas, right? Like, Luca Donchich is playing against a damn middle linebacker in Lou Dort, who's like, super big and strong and physical and gave Luca issues in terms of just his physical ball pressure everywhere on the floor. Jada McDaniels is a player that's regarded as a better perimeter defender as Ludo. I think they're on similar levels, but Jada McDaniels is considered at least on the same level, right? Luca looked way more comfortable against Jada McDaniels. You know why? Because length doesn't bother

Luca the way that strength can't sometimes. Luca's best advantage as an athlete is he's just bigger and stronger than you, right? So Lou Dort was able to challenge that. You know, Jada McDaniels was not, right? And so it's just fundamentally different. Like another thing too, like Anthony Edwards, as we talked about in the series preview, he can really lock in defensively when the chips are down and be one of the best defenders in the world when he needs to be. But one of the things we talked about in the series preview is he chills a lot on defense. Like there's all this conversation about aunt being the best two-way player in the world. That can only happen when it actually has the level of conditioning and commitment to do it throughout entire basketball games.

Like it's not the same as like Kaysan Wallace or Jalen Williams like really devoting their energy to guarding Anthony Edwards, I thought, didn't do a good job on Kyrie Irving in this game. And so it's fundamentally different perimeter matchups for Dallas. So the point is, is these are very different basketball teams playing very different opponents than they did in the last round. And it's just kind of cool in terms of the art of basketball that it manifests in a very different type of basketball game.

You know, it's interesting. Coming into this show, I was half expecting to have a very similar opening monologue to what I said in the Boston game last night, which is, well, this is the best case scenario. Because Minnesota led most of that game and very well could have stolen it, especially after they went up, what did they go up by four, I think, in pretty late there before Lugentonchich hit the three off of the Derek lively offensive rebound. Minnesota came this close to escaping this game with a win. and I thought Dallas badly outplayed Minnesota

in every single phase of the game except for knocking down three point shots. That was the only thing that I thought Minnesota did better than Dallas in this game. And so I was about to be like, here we go again. Another example, kind of like Boston last night where it's like they have all of this stuff that they need to clean up and maybe they end up getting out of there with the win, right?

No, Dallas ends up winning, which I thought was what was deserve. They played better basketball. They deserved to win. and they did. And so that I thought was kind of a fascinating subplot in this game. The only reason it was as close as it was. And the only reason Minnesota had a chance to win is they just shot the basketball better than Dallas did in this game. They've got a lot that they need to clean up. We will get to that a little bit later in the show. I want to move the attention to Luca Donchich. Luke Adonchich was the best player on the floor in this game by a mile. I talked before we get into some of the specifics, I talked coming into this series. We did a ranking the playoff players.

with the nerd sash guys last week on Friday, if I remember correctly. And when we did the rankings, I put Luca Danchich at 2 and I put at 4, if I remember correctly, right? And one of the big reasons why I said that is just I think Luke is a better half court surgeon at this point. He just is a little bit more experience, a little more comfortable at navigating all the different challenges and curveballs and weird stuff that you can see in the half court. But one of the things I talked about in the series preview is what if Lucas knee is messed up? And if Lucas Knea is messed up, that might allow Ant to close the gap. And the only chance that Dallas has to win the series is Luke has got to be the best player. He's got to be the best player comfortably.

And he was tonight. And it was a big part of how Dallas got the win. And again, I thought this game was a lot more spread apart than the score would lead you to believe. Like, I thought Dallas badly outplayed Minnesota in this game in large part because Luca badly outplayed Anthony Edwards. He was picking them apart in pick and roll. one of the things like I talked about earlier, Minnesota was chasing over the top with Jada McDaniels, right? Luca Donchich has the size to keep you trapped on his backside.

It's one of his best traits as a ball handler. He kind of positions the ball in front of him. And he kind of like does a reverse post up where he's kind of working his way into the lane, letting you kind of ride his backside in. And then if you happen to get too aggressive, he'll just rise up and shoot and draw a foul, which he did late on Jada McDaniels, right? Or if you continue to funnel him,

all he's doing is methodically working and reading Gobert and reading the low man, right? And he's just kind of working down the lane. And you saw it was like sometimes early in the game, Gobert wouldn't commit. And so then Luca would just work to the block and then just kind of take that little short, four foot pop shot that he's going to make, you know, 60, 65% of the time, right? Every time Gobert stepped up, it was just a simple wraparound pass to lively or Gafford underneath the rim. boom, dunk. Anytime some guy, the low man actually came over and tagged the center, it was just a whip pass across the court to a shooter in the corner. That is where Luca is at his

best. And Stan Van Gunty talked a lot about this in the broadcast in terms of Luca operating and drop coverage. And we're going to go over some different options that we're going to go over some different options that Minnesota can go to. But there's a big reason why I think Luke is the second best player in the world. And it really is this simple. He is capable of doing damage to every single type of coverage. Like we're going to talk about some different options that Minnesota can go to. None of them are good options. That's what keeps him up on that level close to a guy like Nicola Yokic in my opinion.

Same thing with Yokic. You double him, he can beat you. He can beat you in ball screens. He can beat you in ball screens. He can beat you in every conceivable coverage that you throw his way. Luca has a very similar approach, right? It's like he can go straight ISO. He went straight ISO on the dagger against Jada McDaniels.

didn't want a blitz because he knew if they if I call a ball screen they'll probably blitz if they blitz it's going to be somebody else on my team taking a shot I'm the one who trust myself to knock this down so stay away I'm going to attack ISO and he got to his stepback jumper and hit it on jada McDaniels right there was a play in the fourth quarter where rudy gober switched on him right gobert actually won that battle and forced him to give up the basketball but like we know Luca can beat bigs on switches that's been a big part of what he's done in the NBA you run a drop coverage. Well, he can just wait for you to chase over the top, trap you on his backside, methodically work down in the lane, and just make a decision based on what the guy

on his backside is doing, what the rim protector is doing, and what the low man is doing. He's just methodically working in the lane making decisions, right? Like, he can do it all. And that is what makes him such a devastating player. And then he made a bunch of huge defensive plays late in this game. I thought that the play were Mike Conley attacked the close out off the left wing. He did a nice job is stunting up at Conley to make him get rid of the basketball, but then recovered back to tip away the pass from Gobert at the rim. That was a huge play. Had a huge defensive rebound late in the game. And most importantly, I thought, I thought in terms of his knee, he looked fine. And here's the thing. If his knee is fine, and this is just a much better matchup for him because he doesn't

have a middle linebacker guarding him, then he, like, he has potential to just be the best player in the series throughout. And if he is, Dallas can win. Dallas can absolutely win this series if Luca is going to play this well. I thought tonight was just a masterful performance for him. I thought he was magnificent down the stretch of this game. Again, like even with everything with Minnesota that we talked about, we're going to get into more detail here in a minute. Even with everything Minnesota did poorly, they almost shot well enough and Dallas shot poorly enough for them to still, for them to still, for Minnesota to still win this game. And Lucas snatched it for him. He made sure that they closed the deal despite some poor shooting results.

Tip of the captain, Luke Donchus, that was a special playoff performance from him. Kyrie Irving. A couple of specific things that I thought Kyrie did that, that worked really well. Anthony Edwards, when he's engaged athletically, he's a deeply impactful defender, but he has a lot of situations where he stands upright and relaxes. And Kyrie attacked him. A couple of specific things. Quick changes of direction on the catch. He had a, uh, uh, like a floater in the lane off of a rip through to the left early in the game where like he caught it off of the dribble handoff. And then when aunt was kind of like methodically, you know, nonchalantly getting ready to chase him over the screen, he just ripped back to the left and just toasted aunt off the dribble,

got into the lane. I thought he did a lot of work in semi-transition, which is like that phase between transition in the half court where you're like everyone's in the half court, but no one's really set defensively. Had a lot of success there. A big one, too. A big difference between Anthony Edwards in this game in Kyrie Irving and Luca. Kyrie and Luca attacked downhill in the ball screen.

And by the way, Minnesota's got rim protection too. Like as good as Derek lively and Daniel Gafford are, Rudy Gobert is a better rim protector than those guys. But you just saw Kyrie and Luca attack downhill with the pace regardless because they knew that the benefits of them pressuring the rim, even if they do miss some shots, is going to outweigh the negatives. Like there was a, like the offensive rebound that Derek lively got late,

that got kicked back out to Luca, the one where he waited for Ant to close out and hit the step back. That was a play where Rudy Gober got engaged as the rim protector. Like, Lively and Gafford thrive off of anything that engages the rim protector. And in order to engage the rim protector, you have to attack downhill. As a matter of fact, we're going to get to it with Ant. Ant's got a lot that he can get better at after tonight. And he's going to look at that film and he's going to, he's coming off these screens and he's not attacking.

Whereas Kyrie every single time was looking to get downhill, Luca every single time was looking to get downhill. Even when they took pull-up jumpers, most of the time it was in closer towards the basket while Ant was taking pull-up threes. I thought Kyrie was excellent. He poured in 30 points. And again, like with Anthony Edwards, like he talked a big game after game seven. But like it's going to be a challenge to guard. Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is a really damn good basketball player,

and he's going to make you put your money where your mouth is when you talk like that, and he won game one of this battle. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please!

But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, I'm a hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice.

Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Oh, cream of chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know.

Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coutura Podcast Network available on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular stream. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines

ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey.

And we have been joined at the Hipsons High School. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later. We're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips, wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks.

Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a bogo. Well, then you got it. Do you want a white collar or something here? Just take it. Oh, what are y'all doing? Microphones?

Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would. Come on. Could you believe? I would buy it. Cut through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake. That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky.

I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You're lucky I'm not a killer. I love this team and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Dallas is defense. One of the things I talked about again coming into the series and I want to get into more detail about it. them being more athletic on the perimeter

and more athletic underneath the basket. So Anthony Edwards' supreme advantage is he's just got this preposterously quick first step. And he's, you know, 6-566, built like a truck, super vertically athletic. And he's been deadly as a pull-up shooter over the course of this playoff run. I pulled the numbers and put him on my Twitter feed earlier tonight.

But he's like, coming into tonight, he was like 1.30 points per catch and shoot jumper, which is outrageously good. 1.07 points per pull-up jumper, which is really good. 1.5.0 points per like face-up jab step jumper, which is like really, really good. Like, it's just been amazing in pull-up jump shooting situations, right? So like, it's, that's what makes him so difficult to guard.

You have to have the quickness to keep him in front and the length to offer a contest on the pull-up jumper. Derek Jones did just an amazing job tonight. He just found that sweet spot. in terms of distance between Ant, where it kind of like made Ant feel like he was baiting him into taking a pull-up, but he couldn't really get that much separation without a ball screen. And then whenever he made some sort of aggressive move,

he was having trouble actually turning the corner against Derek Jones Jr. Derek just did a really good job. And then in ball screen situations, it's that bracket that I talk about, right? It's Derek Jones and his ability to chase Ant over the top and apply back pressure, but it's also you've got this other seven-footers, who's super athletic waiting for you at the rim. That combination of rim protection and perimeter athleticism

caused a lot of problems for Minnesota's offense tonight. And so tip of the captain Dallas's defense, they've been fantastic throughout this entire postseason run and the tail end of the season. They've been amazing. One last guy I want to shout out for Dallas before we get into some of the Minnesota stuff. PJ Washington really, really struggled to shoot tonight.

Stam Van Gundy, I thought, did a really nice job on the broadcast of talking specifically about how he was struggling above the break, but making shots in the corner. And by the way, that's a schematic thing. Like Carl Anthony Towns was guarding him. And so when Luca would call Carl Anthony Towns into the ball screen,

when Carl Anthony Towns shows, PJ is at the top of the key setting the screen. And then he's slipping, but he's slipping to the three point line. And when he's slipping to the three point line, he's at above the break, rather than if Luke is attacking somebody else in a ball screen and PJ's sitting in the corner,

then he can be the beneficiary of short, roll passing when Luca gets trapped or if Luca is in a drop coverage and they end up tagging the roller, he can throw that skip pass, right? So like by virtue of PJ being involved in the screening action so Luca could attack Carl Anthony Towns, that was what put PJ Washington in a bunch of above the break three point shooting situations where he hasn't been as good. But to his credit, for as much as he struggled shooting, I thought he hit the biggest shot of the night, that one in that left, the one in the left corner. I think Minnesota had gone up 102, 101, if I remember correctly, Jaden McDaniels made this like absolutely preposterous decision.

I genuinely don't know what he was thinking where he kind of caught the ball in that middle flash. And then like just made an aggressive driving move out of bounds and then like jumped and went flying into camera row and then turned to throw like a jump pass to somebody and ended up throwing it right into one of the guys underneath the basket. But in that sequence, they immediately had a five on four going out the other way. PJ Washington got wide open in the left corner and knocked down the biggest shot of the game, which turned the, it turned that Minnesota lead into, into something that was, I can't remember if it made a four-point game into a one-point game or if it gave him the lead. It was a huge shot, though, that PJ Washington hit there in the left corner.

Again, I'll have a better feel for this stuff after we re-watched the game tomorrow. But anyway, shout of PJ Washington. I thought that was a huge shot, especially after he didn't shoot well throughout the rest of the game. Minnesota. So much stuff. that they need to clean up. First of all, the ball screens. So I think that, like I talked about earlier,

there's nothing that's going to work, right? Nothing works against a top three player in the world. It just, you just try to make it more difficult, right? And so what do we know about Luca Donchitz right now with what he's doing well right now, right? All of his short range shot making is dialed in. All the push shots, hook shots, short range jumpers. those are all dialed in, right?

We know he's going to pick you apart with the lob pass or the drop-off pass to the big guy underneath the basket, right? So I think the drop, where you chase over the top, probably not a good idea anymore, right? Because Jada McDaniels just doesn't bother Luca from behind and he just can methodically work down and bait in the rim protector and throw those drop-off passes, right? The Blitz comes with its own share of issues.

Now, I think Minnesota can blitz for stretches as long as their rotations are sharp. I did not think Minnesota played a very good defensive game tonight in any facet. I didn't think O'Barre protected the rim as well as lively and Gafford did. I didn't think Aunt Jade McDaniels defended on the perimeter as well as Derek Jones Jr. and PJ Washington did. I didn't think they did nearly as good a job in any phase of the game. Right.

So like that that's a big part of it. And I think that Minnesota can do a better job blitzing than they did. But I think the chasing over the top drop coverage is no. longer an option that they can go to. What is Lucas struggling with right now? He made, I think one tonight, maybe two. He made the step back off of the kickout, but like he hasn't been shooting the three balls super well in this postseason, right?

So like one thing you can do is just have Luca operate in pick and roll without Jaden on his backside, but rather Jaden on his front side, right? So one option you can do there is just go underneath screens. So obviously Luca could get going. as a three-point shooter, if you do that, then you can react, right? Again, none of these coverages work. It's just about finding, it's like the cliche lesser of two evils, right? You're looking for the best way to try to make things difficult for Luca.

Luca's not shooting the three super well right now. Most of his misses tonight were way off. So try ducking under screens as opposed to chasing over the top. It's the exact same coverage, right? Like, Gobert's still in drop. But what you're doing is instead of chasing Luca over the top, and getting into trail position, you're ducking under and meeting him at spots on the other side of the screen. So Lucas counter to that will be to use pullback dribbles as soon as Jaden ducks under the pick

to try to shoot a pull up three there. But maybe he's not making it well enough for it to matter. That's one thing you can try. Switching. They got to stop in the fourth quarter of this game by just switching Gobert onto the ball, right? Lively and Gaffert are not guys that typically attack in the post super well. So you just put a Jada put Jada McDaniels switch onto the post guy, right? And then you ask Rudy Gobert to try to defend Luca Dantajan on an island. Yes, I know Luca can do damage to Gobert on an island. But again, it's just about trying to find something different that does a better job, right? So I think I get the actual deep drop chasing over the top.

I just think Luke is too good for that. I think he's too comfortable and too big for Jaden McDaniels. I think he's too good at baiting Gobert to where he needs Gobert to get for him to throw that drop off pass or that lob pass. That I don't think is an option. I think you mix coverages up with ducking under picks, switching and blitzing, because those are going to at least make things a little bit tougher on Luca. Defensive rotations in general. The game of 62 points in the paint tonight.

I don't care how good Luca is in ball screens. You just have to do a better job in general in rotations. You guys heard Rudy Gobert at the start of the fourth quarter doing his interview. He specifically mentioned the low man has to be more engaged. What that means is when Gobert steps up, you need to not make that a lob. It needs to be a corner three. because here's the thing, or drop-off pass, I mean, the corner three is going to be worth for, you know, PJ, like for shooters that are shooting really well, it might be worth 1.2 points per possession, right? A lob dunk or a drop-off dunk is worth two points per possession. So you at least got to make him make a jumper instead of having an easy dunk. That means when Gobert steps up on Luca, the guy guarding the guy in the opposite corner has to step in and guard the center rolling to the rim. In general, I did not think Minnesota had nearer. the level of defensive intensity and engagement that they had at the tail end of the Denver

series. That's your bread and butter. That's why you're here. You're in the conference finals because you defend. So that needs to be where they devote the majority of their resources. They have to do a much better job. And then lastly, their offensive process. And this goes in two different phases. Like, I'll start with crunch time. A lot of classic Minnesota Timberwolves crunch time offense that we saw in the regular season in this game. They've been much better in the postseason, but in the regular season, this was a god-awful offense in the in crunch time. They had a 104 offensive rating. It was one of the worst in the league. In a big part of it was just silly decision-making from a bunch of key players. Like,

I mentioned the Jada McDaniels play. Like, it's tired, so he throws the ball up to Jaden. He ends up kind of co-opting a possession. He drives out of bounds and then throws some bizarre kickback pass underneath the basket that Mike Conley play, drives into the lane. If you watch that one. Luca is kind of splitting the difference between Gobert and Conley as he's driving, but I think it was Derek Jones. Yeah, Derek Jones, I can't remember who was guarding Ant on the week's side. I think it was Derek Jones. Derek Jones was guarding Anthony Edwards on the weak side and he left Ant to come into the lane to help on Mike Conley. So Mike Conley looked and saw Luca in front of Gobert and saw Derek Jones coming and Anthony Edwards was wide open on the right wing. It was a

poor decision. That's Mike Conley. That's what he's out there for is to make good decision. He forces a lob that's not open. Luca turns it back and they go the other way. Throw a kickout pass to Anthony Edwards for a catch and shoot three. He's been getting 1.3 points per catch and shoot jumper in this postseason. Anthony Edwards, again, in crunch time, either completely disengaged or just looking for a pull-up three. So like in general, in their offensive processing crunch time, it looked way too much like the regular season. They have to do a much better job.

In the meat and potatoes of the game, there's a lot of good stuff. Carl Anthony Towns looked great throughout. They had a lot of success running horns chest. Those of you guys who've watched what's the mind the game, the show with JJ Redick and LeBron. They've broken it down before. It's a basic horn set where you have two guys at the elbows, a guy at the top of the key.

He dribbles off Carl Anthony Towns this way. And Carl Anthony Towns comes off Gobert or Nasred, whoever it is, comes off the opposite side. You throw the skip pass and there's a three-point shot there, right? Carl Anthony Towns had a lot of success with that. He had a lot of success with four or five pick and role, which is basically just have Gobert set the screen. Cat works downhill. He had some lob passes to go bear that way. So they had some success with offense ran through Carl Anthony

Towns. The main thing they have to get way better at is the offense run through Anthony Edwards. And again, a couple of key things. First of all, I understand you're fatigued, but like you weren't defending well enough on Kyra Irving to actually justify being as tired as he was. You're in the conference finals, man, and your team needs you to create shots. So like the fatigue thing, I can't accept that as an excuse. Like, Ant has to find a way to power through that, right? Specifically, like I mentioned earlier, when he was coming off those screens,

he was looking at the rim protector, in this case, Gafford or lively, and just not applying any pressure on them at, like, Aint applied almost no pressure on the rim in this game. And it's like, that is your superpower, man. That is your superpower. Now, to be clear with Ant, I haven't watched any of the postgame pressers.

Ant's a high character guy and a great leader. My guess is I'm going to get on my phone after this game, and I'm going to see some sort of quote from Ant saying, like, I play like dog shit, I let my team down tonight. I need to be better on Friday, and I believe Aunt will be better on Friday. But the reality is, is in this game, I thought Ant was a major driver of their struggles throughout.

And a big part of it was just because there's not some sort of clear, obvious advantage like there was against Denver, where you're just slashing down the lane and getting easy layups, doesn't mean you don't try the rim protector. again, like I talked about with Kyrie and Luca, a lot of times you just need to engage the rim protector somehow because if you do, that's where your waves of size coming on the weak side

or weak side are rolling from the perimeter can do damage, right? Like if Gobert's rolling to the rim, he's not going to get the offensive rebound if ant shoots a pull-up three. Because if Ant shoots a pull-up three, Gafford or lively can just turn and box out Go-Ber, right? The only way you're going to get any sort of benefit there is if you turn the corner on the ball screen and get into Gafferter Lively and engage them.

That way you can either throw the drop off pass or get something up on the rim. Now since Gafferter Lively are engaged on Ant, that is where Carl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert can do damage on the offensive glass. And so again, like, you know, a lot of times, and this is, it's a good thing in some ways and it's a bad thing in others because like,

he did a really good job for stretches of game seven and for stretches of the last round and against the sons of, like, okay, they're loading up on me. Don't force it. Make the extra pass. Let my teammates go to work. And like, I get that there's a certain amount of that that you need to do. But the reality is, is you're the guy after superpower.

You're the guy that has the ability to break this defense apart with your downhill athleticism. At a certain point, you need to force the issue. You need to turn the corner, get into traffic, get something on the rim, or get a drop-off pass to your bigs. And the only way you're going to do that is if you turn the corner in those ball screens, instead of constantly settling or just throwing swing passes. Again, just a really bad game from Anthony Edwards on both ends of the floor.

But again, I expect that he will have taken accountability for it and that he'll be ready to go on Friday for game two. So again, Minnesota, a lot that they can clean up. But tip of the cap to Dallas tonight, I thought they came in and just put on a clinic. I thought they outplayed Minnesota in every phase of the game. I thought they deserved to win and they deserve to be up 1-0 in the series. this is going to be a super entertaining series.

I'm super excited. We're going to get into the film tomorrow morning. So keep an eye on my Twitter feed and on my YouTube channel. I'll have a film breakdown up at some time, you know, in that mid-morning area. Just keep an eye on my Twitter feed. I'll tweet out the links once it goes live. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys. It means a lot to me that you guys have rocked with me over the last couple of years.

It's been fun building this channel out. We will be back tomorrow morning with the film breakdown. And then again, tomorrow night for game two of the Eastern Conference Finals. I will see you guys then. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel

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It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hiring. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your The story I told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the

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