May 21, 2025 • 34 mins
Jason reacts live after the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. He discusses Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having a great game, the OKC defense sparking a third quarter run, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle not quite providing enough offense, and more.
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(02:02):
welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
and happy conference finals as we kick it off with
the Western Conference tonight. Well, was a pretty entertaining game
for the most part, outside of a couple of things.
We're gonna get into it from a bunch of different angles. Yes,
we'll have a little bit of ref talk off of
the top, and then at the tail end of the show,
we're gonna take ten to fifteen minutes of mail bag
(02:22):
questions from you guys. So if there's some specific angles
from tonight's game that you want to dive a little
deeper into, let's get those questions into the chat and
we'll hit them at the end. It's also nice because
right around the time I finish my monologue is when
I can get into some of the advanced metrics that populate,
you know, fifteen twenty minutes after the game, So we
can get a little bit deeper during that mailbag segment.
(02:43):
And then when we finish up here tonight on YouTube,
we're heading over to playback dot tv slash Hoops tonight.
We'll be taking callers, we'll watch film, we'll just get
into the weeds and have some fun. It's a more
informal vibe. I've been really in and I've been really
enjoying that setting over there, So we'll be heading over
there when we finish on YouTube tonight. You guys knowe
(03:03):
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Facebook and TikTok, so make sure you guys follow us there.
And then, last but not least, like I mentioned, keep
(03:24):
getting those questions into the chat so we can hit
him at the tail end of the show. First of all,
as we shift to this game, I'm just very excited.
This series is going to be a blast as long
as Shaye doesn't get a free throw every damn time
he flails or falls or trips over air or whatever
it is he was doing for the most For the
(03:45):
most part in this particular game, I tweeted out after
Shay's first foul the first time that he grifted his
way in the lane. There was a second one where
Julius Randall clearly grabbed him and was like a very
clear There was a similar one late in the game
where Jaden McDaniels clearly grabbed Shae when he was initiating
(04:06):
that contact. Those sorts of things, I want that called
every time. That's not defense. You're just grabbing. But if
you're sliding your feet and you're going down the lane
line and Shay's going to just slightly bump into you
and fall backwards and flail and throw it up, I
don't think that's a basketball play that should be rewarded
with free throws. And one of the things I tweeted
at the beginning of the game was, if Shae wants
to lean on that, that's a great sign for Minnesota
(04:28):
because that's not something that's gonna work out in the
large sample. But it did work out tonight as he
continued to get the calls. Conspicuously, it was the same
ref every time. It was Mark Lindsay who kept giving
Shae every single damn touch foul throughout the game. And
I think the NBA just needs to pluck Mark Lindsay
and just get him out of the playoffs so that
we don't have to watch him anymore, because, like to me,
(04:50):
it's not about fairness. The whistle was relatively even tonight.
Maybe Shae gets three or four additional calls. It's not
the reason Minnesota lost this game. We're gonna talk about
that more here in a minute. Okay, so he did
a lot of good. To me, it's just about the
television product. Basketball calls, like bad calls are a part
of basketball games. I'm never gonna get overly worked up
(05:12):
on that as far as it pertains to one team
or anything along those lines. Again, I don't think that's
why Minnesota lost tonight. I'm just super excited because this
is going to be a showcase for the young generation
in the NBA. And what we don't need is to
watch Shay Gildas Alexander just flailing and doing all that
bullshit and getting rewarded with free throws for it. So
let's just let's NBA. Let's get Mark Lindsay out of
(05:34):
the series. It's not the type of series for him.
He wants to ref like it's February. No one's interested
in watching that. So let's get him out and then
hopefully we can enjoy this series with some quality basketball
between these two teams. The reason why I'm excited about
this series is just about every player in this series
is a good defender who can do a little bit
(05:54):
of dribbling, shooting, and passing. A textbook modern basketball showcase.
O Ant and Shay. It's a super fun matchup. You
could tell they don't like each other. Aunt with a
lot of little gamesmanship early in the game. One time
he's standing over the top of Shay. One time he's
throwing the ball at him. It's clear they don't like
each other. That's great, that's great for the television. Julius
(06:15):
randolvers Jdubb. Two very different types of players. Julius has
this insane first half offensively. Jdubb just brilliant defensively all night,
showcasing why he was getting just a little bit of
defensive player of the Year buzz this year. Again, just
an excellent showcase for the young generation of the NBA.
I want it to be about basketball, though, so no
more of the grifty bullshit, Like we don't need to
(06:38):
see every driving bump get rewarded with free throw, so
I hope they get that out of there. It was
the tail of two halves though. In the first half,
I thought it was very clear that Ant and Julius
were pretty comfortable against Oklahoma City's primary perimeter defenders. That
what led to Julius getting nice separation on moves into
(06:59):
the lane. At he was really decisive against Alex Caruso,
not messing around and trying to beat him with fancy
dribble combinations. He was just like, I'm bigger and stronger
than Alex, so if I just make a simple move
and I protect the basketball, I'm going to be able
to get some sort of dribble penetration against this guy.
And I thought he had great success there. None of
(07:19):
Okase's guards can really stop it from getting to his spot.
It's really just a question of his ability to rise
up and knock down shots and to make the kickout passes.
I thought both guys, and this is a credit to Okasee.
I thought both guys really wore down over the course
of the game under Okayse's defense, and foul trouble disrupted
their rhythm. But there was a nice trend early in
the game that I think should leave all Wolves fans
(07:41):
feeling like they have a chance to win this series,
which is just okay sees athletes. They're very good defense,
but they don't do too much to make ant and
Julius uncomfortable. I also thought in the first half. Oklahoma
City looked a little caught off guard just by Minnesota's
size and athleticism, just a very different type of athletic
file than Denver was or even Memphis was, and I
(08:03):
think that it just took them a little bit of
time to adjust, particularly on the offensive end of the floor.
All you gotta do is look at the box score.
They go for forty four points in the first half,
and they go for seventy in the second half. Right
in the second half, Oklahoma City settles in. They get
some nice ISO scoring early in the third quarter from
both Shay and j Dubb. Chet starts getting aggressive and
(08:26):
scoring in the middle of the floor. They start to
on the other end of the floor start to win
some of those battles on defense against Julius and against
and they start to force them into some misses, they
get into some foul trouble, and then from there Shay
and Chet just put the game away. There were a
lot of openings for Chet. I can't wait to dive
further into this in the film, but there were a
lot of openings for Chet around the rim, on rolls
(08:48):
and on cuts and on crashes, on offensive rebound situations.
A bunch of that kind of stuff, and I thought
you could really see the difference in the two defensive
game plans in that regard, and it manifested in a
bunch of key spots in the box score. So, for instance,
Minnesota takes fifty one threes, Oklahoma City takes twenty one threes. Right,
(09:09):
Minnesota gets twenty points in the paint, Oklahoma City gets
fifty four points in the paint. The way that's manifesting
is Minnesota is a lot of like stay home, trust
the guy on the ball to do his job. Oklahoma
City very much is ford aggressive. We're gambling, we're packing
the paint. We're giving up three point shots in hopes
(09:31):
of turning you over and having the aggregate kind of
impact of that be it positive. Right, And that's the thing.
They gave up a ton of threes tonight. Minnesota did
not burn them, and we'll have to talk about that
here in a minute. Specifically, their bench really struggled to
shoot the ball. But Oklahoma City generated thirty one points
off of nineteen Minnesota turnovers and that ended up being
(09:53):
a kind of a balance that pays off for them.
But you can see the difference in that defensive scheme
right Oklahoma City Ford aggressive packing the paint, overloading the
strong side, giving up a lot of threes. It felt
like if Minnesota got any sort of dribble penetration into
the middle of the floor, there was some sort of
kickout opportunity that would lead to a wide open three
in the corner for a good shooter that was capable
(10:14):
of knocking the shot down. For Oklahoma City, once they
started to get into the middle of the paint, especially
when Rudy Gobert checked out of the game, We're gonna
get dive into that a little bit here in a minute.
But they started to get into the paint and find
openings because it's a lot of one on one and
two on two down there. Like on that play where
Jaden McDaniels gets called for the foul grabbing on Shae
(10:35):
when he kind of got tied up going down the
lane line, there's nobody there at the rim. He was
able to go right back there and get an easy
right hand scooping layup a couple possessions later, a lot
of one on one, a lot of two on two
that created opportunities for Chet to be an impactful vertical
spacer as a cutter and crasher and finisher around the basket,
(10:56):
and then Shay getting into the lane consistently drawing those fouls.
In that second half, Aunt and Julius were never able
to gain any sort of rhythm outside of a brief
little Anthony Edwards burst in the middle third quarter, and
next thing you know, we're looking at a blowout because
that Oklahoma City train got going and Minnesota was never
never able to reassert control of the situation. I want
(11:20):
to just kind of go through some notes that I
have from both teams, and then when we're done with
that again, we're going to go to the mailbag, and
you guys, any direction of the series you want to
dive further into, will start to dig into some of
the numbers too as they update. So on the Oklahoma
City front, I thought Jay Dubb was great in this game.
I think he was fine on offense. Nothing that you're
going to write home about. Not super efficient, but he
didn't turn the basketball over and to get nineteen points
(11:45):
and five assists with zero turnovers on eighteen shots, even
though it's not the most efficient thing in the world,
that's a fine offensive game. In the Western Conference Finals,
I thought he was incredible on defense in this game.
Five steals, attacking Aunt and Julius every time they turned
their back in post ups and getting the ball knocked
away that way, random turnovers with full court pressure. He
(12:05):
got one against Julius Randall that way. Just flying around
on defense. He defended on an island against nas Red
multiple times and got stops. Just bumped him really hard
on the first one and forced a turnover, bumped him
on a spin on the second one. They brought a
nice little baseline double. I think it was from Caruso
on that play too that they got another stop. JDub
was just an incredible defensive force in this particular game. Okay,
(12:30):
so he got a nice little shift from Kenrich Williams
in this game, he defended really well. He ran some
pick and pop where nos Reed was kind of defending
him as like a traditional screen defender, which was leaving
him open on the pop. He had a three there.
He was plus thirteen in eight minutes. A nice little
stretch from Williams. Overall, I thought it was one of
Chet's best games in this playoff run. We talked about
(12:50):
the work that he did as like kind of a
vertical spacer in the middle of the floor. I also
thought he did an amazing job on the defensive glass
in the second half. You watched the tape in that
second half, He's getting a body on somebody. Every time
he's boxing out, he's high pointing the basketball. Oklahoma City
was able to regain control because Minnesota did a lot
of damage on the offensive glass in the first half.
(13:12):
Minnesota was not able to do that damage in the
second half, and I thought a big part of that
was chet Holmgrin and then Alex Caruso all the work
he's doing defensively. He struggled a little bit with Julius
Randald tonight. Him continuing to be like the most reliable
catch and shoot spot up guy for Oklahoma City is
a revelation and it's turning him into one of the
most profoundly impactful playoff role players in the league right now, because,
(13:36):
like I mean, I remember when I rooted for Alex Cruz,
so that wasn't really a big part of his game.
It was like you could knock him down shot forty
percent his final season with the Lakers, but struggled to
shoot him in the postseason. It was never really what
you were in the alex Crusoe business for but him
knocking down all of these catch and shoot threes is
making him immensely valuable as a three and D player
(13:57):
in this playoff field. On the minutes the front again,
I still think Aunt and Julius can generate quality shots.
I thought in the second half it was a lot
of fatigue and foul trouble related stuff where you know,
there was an extended stretch there where Aunt and Julius
were both just off the floor. I mean, an it
was playing pretty well in that mid third quarter and
he picked up a weak ass foul and another one
of those stupid ass shake yilds of Alexander bump and
(14:20):
run shots, and it just took him out of the game.
And I just thought when he came in he struggled
to regain rhythm at that point. It was a very
different game too. By the time Aunt came back in,
the game was not out of reach, but it was
in a fundamentally different type of position as a late,
you know, fourth quarter double digit lead than it was
in that third quarter stretch. But over the course of
(14:41):
this series, those two guys have to do essentially what
they did. They have to basically do what I always
talk about with veteran players, which is like find the
stuff that's working and replicate it. Take the mistakes, got
to trim that fat, stay away from it right. Julius
Randall got a little sloppy with the basketball in the
second half. Anthony Edwards got a little sloppy with the
(15:03):
basketball in the second half. You give up thirty one
points to Oklahoma City off of turnovers. You're shooting yourself
in the foot and you're gonna make it really, really
difficult to win at that point. But overall, just looking
at the physical dynamic, Ant's too big and strong and
athletic for all of Oklahoma City's guards, and Julius Randall
is a big, powerful forward that can find matchups that
(15:24):
he can attack. So that's a very strong foundation for
them offensively in this series. Their bench guys have to
hit shots, though, like it's it's rough. Nas Red one
for eleven, Dante DiVincenzo three for fourteen, Nikhil Alexander Walker
three for eleven. That's seven for thirty six from the field.
(15:45):
From the depth that we talked about coming into this
series as one of the strengths of this Minnesota roster
and a lot of them guys like this, there are
some uncomfortable things. I thought Dante looked a little rushed
on some of his on ball stuff, right like I
thought nas Reed's post up were ugly. But there was
a lot of butt naked three point shots in there
that those dudes were missing. And they went five for
(16:07):
twenty eight from three and so with At and Julius
and the types of quality threes that they were generating,
those guys just have to pay them off the turnovers
to transition. Again, this is going to be the key
to the series. Like Oklahoma City will have a hard
time scoring against Minnesota in the half court, especially when
they have a big on the floor. But if you're
going to gift wrap them thirty one points running out
(16:27):
the other way when your defense isn't set, you're putting
yourself in a really tough position to win. And then, lastly,
the last thing I want to focus on before we
get into our mailbag is Rudy Gobert. I can't come
into the series if you guys remember in my series
preview I talked about how I didn't really see this
as as much of a center type of series. I
specifically said I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back
(16:50):
at the end of the series and that both Rudy
Gobert and Isaiah Hartenstein averaged fewer than twenty minutes per game.
Isaiah Hartenstein twenty minutes tonight, Rudy Gobert twenty one minutes.
The Rudy Gobert piece, by the way, I thought Chet
held up fine, So this is not necessarily an OKA
see take. I thought okac's small ball groups did fine.
(17:11):
If it turns into something where Minnesota starts really overwhelming
them with physicality, maybe it's something they have to look
into expanding Isaiah's role, But specifically with Gobert, I think
it's a little bit more complicated than just what meets
the eye there. Rudy's a frustrating player. There were a
lot of sequences tonight where he was gift wrapped pretty
(17:32):
high quality opportunities on trails and rolls around the basket
where his inability to finish anything in traffic was a problem.
And that's an important problem, something that we need to
factor in when we have discussions about Rudy. He also
had a pretty rough first defensive ship as he picked
up a couple of fouls, but I thought from that
point forward, I thought he was fine defensively, and I
(17:54):
actually thought his presence on the back line was part
of the struggles that Shay Gilders Alexander was dealing with.
Shay really got comfortable going downhill towards the rim in
the second half of this game. And so when I
really start to parse out the impact of Rudy in
this particular matchup against an Oklahoma City team that isn't
the highest level back line processing sort of team in
(18:17):
this matchup, I would like to see Rudy Gobert at
least I would like to see Chris Finch explore using
him a little bit more, simply because there is a
little bit of a dynamic when he's on the floor
when SHA's there, where Shaye wants to operate a little
bit more in the short to mid range, whereas when
he's not out there, he wants to go right to
(18:37):
the bucket. And so I think it's worth just exploring
a little bit more, just expanding Rudy Gobert's role more.
There was an extended stretch in this game where Chris
Finch went with no center with nas Reed off and
with Rudy off, and look, I get it. You know,
Rudy has his offensive limitations. Nas Reed was having the
game from Hell for him. But I'm not necessarily, you know,
(19:01):
pushing back against that in this particular game because it
was going off the rails anyway. But it's something to
adjust potentially in game two. I wouldn't be so quick
to the pull the plug on Rudy Gobert because I
do think he has a little bit of a mental
impact on Shae on Jdubb, forcing them into some of
those tougher contested mid range shots.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
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Speaker 2 (19:55):
A lot of stuff I want to get into with
you guys. So let's get into our mailbag and any
questions you guys have about this series. Let's dig into it.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Let's do it. Let's do it. First question, sort of
a general question, what adjustments can Minnesota make to play
with OKC and give them their best chance to win
given the fact that Sga and Jada both shot under
forty percent this game and they still blew out the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
You know, when you really dig into it, the question
is shot creation right and do we felt do we
feel like Aunt and Julius did a good job of
creating shots tonight for Minnesota. I think they did. They
just got to shoot substantially better on them than they did.
And it's and it's it's one of those things where
(20:38):
I feel like when Aunt and Julius didn't turn the
ball over and they got some sort of rim pressure
in the form of a dribble drive from Aunt or
a post up ripped through from Julius, I thought they
got good looks. They just lost control of the game
and transition and Julius got in foul trouble and got
a little fatigued in the second half, and their advantage
creation wasn't as good and like they're four bench spot
(21:01):
up guys went five for twenty eight from three liked.
Do you agree with me Jackson that Minnesota got some
quality looks on those kickouts, Like did you think it
was you know, okay See rushing them or do you
think they were just missing some shots.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I think in the first half, especially, they got a
lot of open looks that they could have made more of.
In the second half, it did feel like okay See
turned up the intensity defensively, or maybe at least got
their bearings on the athletic sort of the pace of
the series and the physicality of the series a little bit.
But still it did feel like and there was some
criticism of Dante's shot selection. I think some of those,
like uber deep ones, might have been not the best shot,
(21:37):
but some of them I thought he were great looks
and he just missed. He was one for six at
one point, and I think I think the first four
or five of those were very makeable. So it's tough.
I mean, I do think that they their stars were sloppy,
were too sloppy at times from a shot from like
a turnover and shot creation standpoint. But I also feel
like the bench just has to shoot that.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Right, they have to shoot so so so much better.
Cleaning the Glass has Oklahoma City at a one oh
two half court offensive rating in Minnesota at an eighty,
but that obviously does in factor an offensive rebounding, so
offensive rebounding was a big part of it. In transition, Okay,
see a one forty offensive rating, And I don't think
(22:24):
Cleaning the Glass has Minnesota logged for zero transition points
off to see how that shows up on Synergy. But uh,
I like the point you made about Dante DiVincenzo. I
think that there's a we know Dante can make those shots.
It's just when you take a relatively quick above the
break three when you're not in rhythm, it just has
(22:46):
a higher percentage chance of leading to one of those
long rebounds that leads to one of those runouts. I'm
a big believer in your shot selection should reflect your rhythm.
So like if you're out of rhythm, meaning like you're
you've been missing, the answer is to hunt easy opportunities.
Run your lane in transition. See if you can't get
(23:07):
a layup or a wide open three, crash the offensive glass.
See if you can't get an offensive rebound, put back
or draw a foul, get yourself to the foul line.
When I see guys that are already having poor shooting
nights start taking pretty tough off the dribble threes, it's
like that's the kind of shot that you're not that
that's not going to get you out of your slump,
Like that's that's trying to ram your head through a
(23:29):
brick wall. And I did think we saw a little
bit of that with Dante tonight.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Flipping to the other end of
the floor, though, why do you think Minnesota played zero
zone in this game? It did feel like something that
we talked about they might be able to use. It
would maybe be a way to keep rooty on the floor,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I think it's something that we'll see over the course
of the series. I think, you know, these game ones
are always a little bit of a feel out game,
and I thought their Manda Man defense was fine until
it wasn't. And oftentimes in a situation like that, like
Chris Finch may be looking at it like zone is
the thing I can pull out in game two that
puts a game away, and he may be more willing
(24:05):
to use it like. Okay, So let's say game two.
Game two typically follows a certain feel. We've all seen
this kind of series million times.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Minnesota will come out, probably lead in that like seven
to ten point range for the first two and a
half quarters, right, because that's just what happens in game two.
It's the push and pull of urgency. You get blown out.
Minnesota comes out, gives you a great effort. Oklahoma City
will inevitably make us a run at some point in
the second half of that game. You know, a couple
of steals, a couple turnovers, a couple of runouts, they
(24:34):
cut the lead to two, they tie the game. That's
where you can throw a card like that and stall
out okac's offense and potentially steal a win. I think
Minnesota's base man to main look can work in this matchup.
And I think Chris Finch just made a judgment call
in this game that it wasn't worth pulling that card.
They lost by twenty six. You know, it may be
a totally different vibe in game two.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
In terms of Julius Randall, he had twenty first out points.
Obviously some of that was just you know, catch and
shooting hitting some tough catch and shoot threes. But what
was the difference in that you saw from the way
that he was attacking the first half of the second
half that felt like he struggled so much in the
second half compared to his first half.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
As you mentioned, there was definitely an uptick in just
the overall intensity. His jump shot cooled off, they started
chasing him off the line. A lot of the threes
that he got in the first half were concession threes,
like they were open, looks like he was hitting them,
but like there was an early three that Julius made
where he like smiled, and I think I think the
specific thought that he was experiencing with that smile is like,
(25:35):
are these dudes just gonna leave me open? All serious? Like,
I think that's what he was thinking. And so I
think there's a good amount of Julius just pressing up
and not giving him those wide open catch and shoot threes,
and Julius was I thought Julius's driving kick play was
fine in the second half. I mean, he kind of
has this like lebron esque ability to just elevate off
of one leg and throw these jump passes that are
(25:56):
like terrible passes for like anybody else in the league,
but because he's a good enough athlete and he just
rifles the one handed, you know, line drive past to
where it needs to go. Thought his kicks were fine,
it's just they pressed up on his threes and inside
the paint. It is going to be a playmaking series
for Randall. Like it's not like this is not Oklahoma
City is overloading the ball. Aunt and Julius are going
(26:18):
to be taking a lot of over the top shots.
I meant to mention this when we were talking about
Gobert earlier. But that's the other thing. Is like ant
and Julius's success as scores in tonight's game came from
the perimeter. So from a certain point of view, Gobert's
spacing concerns are less valuable again within in the context
(26:38):
of an over the top shooter than they are just
like a downhill type of threat. Right, Like it could
be a death sentence if John Moran is your guard,
but if it's Anthony Edwards, a guy who's an excellent
three point shooter, it's not as big of a deal.
And so that's why I think like it'll be something
to experiment a little bit more with over the course
of the series, but specifically with Julius. I thought he
was fine with his driving kicks. They pressed up on
(27:00):
his threes. He had a few soppy turnovers in the
second half of you know that that bullyball post up
against lou Dort and then that you know little half
court ripped from j dub where he just lost it
at it bounds. But overall overall, I think he's got
plenty of advantages. It's just gonna be a playmaking series
for him.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, it did feel like he was more bothered in
the second half. And I and Okay sees they have
so many ultra quick guards have ultra good hands that
they do such a good job of digging and not
but not creating any like real openings to get a
pass off. I think they need to do some like
clear side mid post work. Don't even. Don't even you
(27:37):
don't have to think about a second guy coming here
with Julius unless you're seeing it from a mile away.
Because I didn't feel like there was quite a few
times where they were stunting and they were maybe doubling
for one second and getting back. There's a lot of
like mental mind games. I felt they were playing with
Julius in the second half because they have so much
speed on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
This is a really good point. Like there the post
up that he had in the middle of the floor,
you could tell he was like uncomfortable. Someone's got was coming, right.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I think somebody's got to be coming to that note, right,
I know Dorts around here somewhere right, Yeah, and just
clearing the side.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's a great way to simplify the reads. And most importantly,
it doesn't matter as much when you're an over the
top shooter like Julius wants to get to that little
left shoulder fade, so you clear the left side of
the floor so that he can spin over his left
shoulder into the middle of the floor. And with Anthony Edwards,
same sort of thing. And I actually think Aunt has
more post up ability in this series, especially against some
(28:29):
of the smaller guards. Dort's probably the only guy I
don't like him posting against. Also really quickly, guys, here's
these are These are just insane numbers coming out of
this game. Minnesota generated eighteen unguarded catch and shoot jump shots,
Oklahoma City generated eleven. So sticks to the thing we
talked about earlier, in terms of quality catch and shoots.
(28:50):
Oklahoma City got two point one point eight points per
unguarded catch and shoots, so they made almost all of them.
Minnesota zero point eight three three, So substantial shooting gap
towards OKC if you take a look at the all
catch and shoots thirty five for Minnesota, sixteen for OKC,
zero point eight to three points per tempt for Minnesota
(29:12):
one point eight eight points per tentp for OKAC. So
there was definitely, like, I mean, guys like they're shooting
variants is a part of basketball. There are certain types
of shots that the process leads to the result, and
then somewhere down that list of factors is like when
dudes are getting wide open looks, they just got to
knock them down and there was just like a clear
(29:32):
nas Dante, Nikiel. The three of those dudes just missed
open look after open look after open look, and that
became something that got in their heads a little bit
over the course.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Of the game.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Next question is about Anthony Edwards. The question is simply,
can you be more critical of ants? He didn't score
in the fourth quarter and compared to a lot of
other stars that it feels like he's sort of in
the tier of Luca, Shay, whoever else. If they scored
zero points in the fourth quarter, it might be a
lot more criticism.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It was bad. It was bad down the stretch of
this game. It was a foul trouble issue though, Like
it's a little bit of a bummer that he picks
up a lame ass ticky tack foul going down the
left lane line. But the I'm more of, like I'm
looking at the big picture of the series. There's no
doubt that down the stretch of this game, Shae was
the better player. If Shaye continues to outplay Ant over
(30:21):
the course of the series, they're going to win, and
it's got to be better, There's no question. And it
goes with both of them. Julius as well. I thought
Jay Dubb was better in the second half than either
of Julius or Ant. But yeah, like we're gonna talk
about that when we get to the series, Like this
is game one, guys, Like I'm not I'm gonna bury
guys at the end of the series, like this is
(30:42):
this is where we're in Round one here, guys and
everyone everyone who was here when Aunt got eliminated in Dallas.
Does anybody remember how I talked about Aunt then I
criticized him for the way he played, Like you get
the series, ain't over people.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Last question before we go over to playback. Are there
any matchups you would change? Is sort of like defensive
matchups one on one from from the game one a
game two.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's a good question. I don't think Crusoe works on Julius.
I think I would. I would tinker with that a
little bit. I think Julius has got some favorable matchups there.
I did think it was interesting. I did think it
was interesting, like Dort would be a kind of guy
that I'd consider potentially using on Julius instead. Maybe they
(31:26):
could swap the matchups there and give Crusoe more opportunity
on Ant and try Dort on Julius. But I thought
Julius was generally pretty comfortable going against Caruso. Dort's got
a little bit like wider, lower center of gravity and
is a little bit more of a fire hydrant than
Alex Crusoe is. So I think it's one of those
(31:47):
things where it's something you could tinker with. But honestly,
I didn't think that was the I didn't think that
was the game. I mean, they're defending Julius and Ant
with multiple bodies every single time. It's more just about
it's like it like if I dig into the ice,
let me check in the isodata here real quick. I
didn't think there was any specific like, oh, Julius is
just getting one on one buckets over and over again.
(32:07):
It was he hit threes over the top, and he
was able to spray out to shooters. Yeah, Minnesota twenty
one ISO zero point six seven points per possession including passes,
like they weren't. They weren't now again including passes, you
got to count the kickouts. But it's one of those
things where it wasn't like thirteen post ups for Minnesota
(32:27):
zero point five to four points per possession including passes,
So it wasn't like they were getting beat one on one.
It was you know, it was the shot result at
the end that was that was causing those those numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
The only thing I'd say on that before we go
over to playback is sort of the opposite of the question,
which is that there's one matchup. I think that a
team should hunt more. I think the timber Wolves should
try to do whatever they can to get Julius with
matchups against Chet. I feel like after Chet got his
chest caved in by Nikola Jokic last matchup, you want
to replicate that Hertenstein is obviously very very big and strong,
(33:00):
and Hertenstein is doing an awesome job, you know, keeping
Julius from really getting deeper position on some of those
post ups. But Chet doesn't have that, I don't think.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I thought when Shay was able to put Julius and
Nas in particular and screening action too, that was favorable
because he that was how they got the pick and
pops too, like they don't want to concede that switch,
and the few times they did, he was able to
pretty quickly get dribble penetration. So I think that's something
that they can explore more over the course of the series.
All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. We
(33:30):
are headed over to playback though, so playback dot TV
slash Hoops tonight will be taking callers, will be hanging
out just having fun talking hoops for another forty five
minutes or so. We'll see you guys over there in
a little bit. As always, we appreciate you guys. We'll
have a film session on our YouTube channel tomorrow morning,
breaking down Game one. I'll see you guys then. What's
up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful
(33:52):
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I really appre ship.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
The volume. M
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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(02:02):
welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody,
and happy conference finals as we kick it off with
the Western Conference tonight. Well, was a pretty entertaining game
for the most part, outside of a couple of things.
We're gonna get into it from a bunch of different angles. Yes,
we'll have a little bit of ref talk off of
the top, and then at the tail end of the show,
we're gonna take ten to fifteen minutes of mail bag
(02:22):
questions from you guys. So if there's some specific angles
from tonight's game that you want to dive a little
deeper into, let's get those questions into the chat and
we'll hit them at the end. It's also nice because
right around the time I finish my monologue is when
I can get into some of the advanced metrics that populate,
you know, fifteen twenty minutes after the game, So we
can get a little bit deeper during that mailbag segment.
(02:43):
And then when we finish up here tonight on YouTube,
we're heading over to playback dot tv slash Hoops tonight.
We'll be taking callers, we'll watch film, we'll just get
into the weeds and have some fun. It's a more
informal vibe. I've been really in and I've been really
enjoying that setting over there, So we'll be heading over
there when we finish on YouTube tonight. You guys knowe
(03:03):
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And then, last but not least, like I mentioned, keep
(03:24):
getting those questions into the chat so we can hit
him at the tail end of the show. First of all,
as we shift to this game, I'm just very excited.
This series is going to be a blast as long
as Shaye doesn't get a free throw every damn time
he flails or falls or trips over air or whatever
it is he was doing for the most For the
(03:45):
most part in this particular game, I tweeted out after
Shay's first foul the first time that he grifted his
way in the lane. There was a second one where
Julius Randall clearly grabbed him and was like a very
clear There was a similar one late in the game
where Jaden McDaniels clearly grabbed Shae when he was initiating
(04:06):
that contact. Those sorts of things, I want that called
every time. That's not defense. You're just grabbing. But if
you're sliding your feet and you're going down the lane
line and Shay's going to just slightly bump into you
and fall backwards and flail and throw it up, I
don't think that's a basketball play that should be rewarded
with free throws. And one of the things I tweeted
at the beginning of the game was, if Shae wants
to lean on that, that's a great sign for Minnesota
(04:28):
because that's not something that's gonna work out in the
large sample. But it did work out tonight as he
continued to get the calls. Conspicuously, it was the same
ref every time. It was Mark Lindsay who kept giving
Shae every single damn touch foul throughout the game. And
I think the NBA just needs to pluck Mark Lindsay
and just get him out of the playoffs so that
we don't have to watch him anymore, because, like to me,
(04:50):
it's not about fairness. The whistle was relatively even tonight.
Maybe Shae gets three or four additional calls. It's not
the reason Minnesota lost this game. We're gonna talk about
that more here in a minute. Okay, so he did
a lot of good. To me, it's just about the
television product. Basketball calls, like bad calls are a part
of basketball games. I'm never gonna get overly worked up
(05:12):
on that as far as it pertains to one team
or anything along those lines. Again, I don't think that's
why Minnesota lost tonight. I'm just super excited because this
is going to be a showcase for the young generation
in the NBA. And what we don't need is to
watch Shay Gildas Alexander just flailing and doing all that
bullshit and getting rewarded with free throws for it. So
let's just let's NBA. Let's get Mark Lindsay out of
(05:34):
the series. It's not the type of series for him.
He wants to ref like it's February. No one's interested
in watching that. So let's get him out and then
hopefully we can enjoy this series with some quality basketball
between these two teams. The reason why I'm excited about
this series is just about every player in this series
is a good defender who can do a little bit
(05:54):
of dribbling, shooting, and passing. A textbook modern basketball showcase.
O Ant and Shay. It's a super fun matchup. You
could tell they don't like each other. Aunt with a
lot of little gamesmanship early in the game. One time
he's standing over the top of Shay. One time he's
throwing the ball at him. It's clear they don't like
each other. That's great, that's great for the television. Julius
(06:15):
randolvers Jdubb. Two very different types of players. Julius has
this insane first half offensively. Jdubb just brilliant defensively all night,
showcasing why he was getting just a little bit of
defensive player of the Year buzz this year. Again, just
an excellent showcase for the young generation of the NBA.
I want it to be about basketball, though, so no
more of the grifty bullshit, Like we don't need to
(06:38):
see every driving bump get rewarded with free throw, so
I hope they get that out of there. It was
the tail of two halves though. In the first half,
I thought it was very clear that Ant and Julius
were pretty comfortable against Oklahoma City's primary perimeter defenders. That
what led to Julius getting nice separation on moves into
(06:59):
the lane. At he was really decisive against Alex Caruso,
not messing around and trying to beat him with fancy
dribble combinations. He was just like, I'm bigger and stronger
than Alex, so if I just make a simple move
and I protect the basketball, I'm going to be able
to get some sort of dribble penetration against this guy.
And I thought he had great success there. None of
(07:19):
Okase's guards can really stop it from getting to his spot.
It's really just a question of his ability to rise
up and knock down shots and to make the kickout passes.
I thought both guys, and this is a credit to Okasee.
I thought both guys really wore down over the course
of the game under Okayse's defense, and foul trouble disrupted
their rhythm. But there was a nice trend early in
the game that I think should leave all Wolves fans
(07:41):
feeling like they have a chance to win this series,
which is just okay sees athletes. They're very good defense,
but they don't do too much to make ant and
Julius uncomfortable. I also thought in the first half. Oklahoma
City looked a little caught off guard just by Minnesota's
size and athleticism, just a very different type of athletic
file than Denver was or even Memphis was, and I
(08:03):
think that it just took them a little bit of
time to adjust, particularly on the offensive end of the floor.
All you gotta do is look at the box score.
They go for forty four points in the first half,
and they go for seventy in the second half. Right
in the second half, Oklahoma City settles in. They get
some nice ISO scoring early in the third quarter from
both Shay and j Dubb. Chet starts getting aggressive and
(08:26):
scoring in the middle of the floor. They start to
on the other end of the floor start to win
some of those battles on defense against Julius and against
and they start to force them into some misses, they
get into some foul trouble, and then from there Shay
and Chet just put the game away. There were a
lot of openings for Chet. I can't wait to dive
further into this in the film, but there were a
lot of openings for Chet around the rim, on rolls
(08:48):
and on cuts and on crashes, on offensive rebound situations.
A bunch of that kind of stuff, and I thought
you could really see the difference in the two defensive
game plans in that regard, and it manifested in a
bunch of key spots in the box score. So, for instance,
Minnesota takes fifty one threes, Oklahoma City takes twenty one threes. Right,
(09:09):
Minnesota gets twenty points in the paint, Oklahoma City gets
fifty four points in the paint. The way that's manifesting
is Minnesota is a lot of like stay home, trust
the guy on the ball to do his job. Oklahoma
City very much is ford aggressive. We're gambling, we're packing
the paint. We're giving up three point shots in hopes
(09:31):
of turning you over and having the aggregate kind of
impact of that be it positive. Right, And that's the thing.
They gave up a ton of threes tonight. Minnesota did
not burn them, and we'll have to talk about that
here in a minute. Specifically, their bench really struggled to
shoot the ball. But Oklahoma City generated thirty one points
off of nineteen Minnesota turnovers and that ended up being
(09:53):
a kind of a balance that pays off for them.
But you can see the difference in that defensive scheme
right Oklahoma City Ford aggressive packing the paint, overloading the
strong side, giving up a lot of threes. It felt
like if Minnesota got any sort of dribble penetration into
the middle of the floor, there was some sort of
kickout opportunity that would lead to a wide open three
in the corner for a good shooter that was capable
(10:14):
of knocking the shot down. For Oklahoma City, once they
started to get into the middle of the paint, especially
when Rudy Gobert checked out of the game, We're gonna
get dive into that a little bit here in a minute.
But they started to get into the paint and find
openings because it's a lot of one on one and
two on two down there. Like on that play where
Jaden McDaniels gets called for the foul grabbing on Shae
(10:35):
when he kind of got tied up going down the
lane line, there's nobody there at the rim. He was
able to go right back there and get an easy
right hand scooping layup a couple possessions later, a lot
of one on one, a lot of two on two
that created opportunities for Chet to be an impactful vertical
spacer as a cutter and crasher and finisher around the basket,
(10:56):
and then Shay getting into the lane consistently drawing those fouls.
In that second half, Aunt and Julius were never able
to gain any sort of rhythm outside of a brief
little Anthony Edwards burst in the middle third quarter, and
next thing you know, we're looking at a blowout because
that Oklahoma City train got going and Minnesota was never
never able to reassert control of the situation. I want
(11:20):
to just kind of go through some notes that I
have from both teams, and then when we're done with
that again, we're going to go to the mailbag, and
you guys, any direction of the series you want to
dive further into, will start to dig into some of
the numbers too as they update. So on the Oklahoma
City front, I thought Jay Dubb was great in this game.
I think he was fine on offense. Nothing that you're
going to write home about. Not super efficient, but he
didn't turn the basketball over and to get nineteen points
(11:45):
and five assists with zero turnovers on eighteen shots, even
though it's not the most efficient thing in the world,
that's a fine offensive game. In the Western Conference Finals,
I thought he was incredible on defense in this game.
Five steals, attacking Aunt and Julius every time they turned
their back in post ups and getting the ball knocked
away that way, random turnovers with full court pressure. He
(12:05):
got one against Julius Randall that way. Just flying around
on defense. He defended on an island against nas Red
multiple times and got stops. Just bumped him really hard
on the first one and forced a turnover, bumped him
on a spin on the second one. They brought a
nice little baseline double. I think it was from Caruso
on that play too that they got another stop. JDub
was just an incredible defensive force in this particular game. Okay,
(12:30):
so he got a nice little shift from Kenrich Williams
in this game, he defended really well. He ran some
pick and pop where nos Reed was kind of defending
him as like a traditional screen defender, which was leaving
him open on the pop. He had a three there.
He was plus thirteen in eight minutes. A nice little
stretch from Williams. Overall, I thought it was one of
Chet's best games in this playoff run. We talked about
(12:50):
the work that he did as like kind of a
vertical spacer in the middle of the floor. I also
thought he did an amazing job on the defensive glass
in the second half. You watched the tape in that
second half, He's getting a body on somebody. Every time
he's boxing out, he's high pointing the basketball. Oklahoma City
was able to regain control because Minnesota did a lot
of damage on the offensive glass in the first half.
(13:12):
Minnesota was not able to do that damage in the
second half, and I thought a big part of that
was chet Holmgrin and then Alex Caruso all the work
he's doing defensively. He struggled a little bit with Julius
Randald tonight. Him continuing to be like the most reliable
catch and shoot spot up guy for Oklahoma City is
a revelation and it's turning him into one of the
most profoundly impactful playoff role players in the league right now, because,
(13:36):
like I mean, I remember when I rooted for Alex Cruz,
so that wasn't really a big part of his game.
It was like you could knock him down shot forty
percent his final season with the Lakers, but struggled to
shoot him in the postseason. It was never really what
you were in the alex Crusoe business for but him
knocking down all of these catch and shoot threes is
making him immensely valuable as a three and D player
(13:57):
in this playoff field. On the minutes the front again,
I still think Aunt and Julius can generate quality shots.
I thought in the second half it was a lot
of fatigue and foul trouble related stuff where you know,
there was an extended stretch there where Aunt and Julius
were both just off the floor. I mean, an it
was playing pretty well in that mid third quarter and
he picked up a weak ass foul and another one
of those stupid ass shake yilds of Alexander bump and
(14:20):
run shots, and it just took him out of the game.
And I just thought when he came in he struggled
to regain rhythm at that point. It was a very
different game too. By the time Aunt came back in,
the game was not out of reach, but it was
in a fundamentally different type of position as a late,
you know, fourth quarter double digit lead than it was
in that third quarter stretch. But over the course of
(14:41):
this series, those two guys have to do essentially what
they did. They have to basically do what I always
talk about with veteran players, which is like find the
stuff that's working and replicate it. Take the mistakes, got
to trim that fat, stay away from it right. Julius
Randall got a little sloppy with the basketball in the
second half. Anthony Edwards got a little sloppy with the
(15:03):
basketball in the second half. You give up thirty one
points to Oklahoma City off of turnovers. You're shooting yourself
in the foot and you're gonna make it really, really
difficult to win at that point. But overall, just looking
at the physical dynamic, Ant's too big and strong and
athletic for all of Oklahoma City's guards, and Julius Randall
is a big, powerful forward that can find matchups that
(15:24):
he can attack. So that's a very strong foundation for
them offensively in this series. Their bench guys have to
hit shots, though, like it's it's rough. Nas Red one
for eleven, Dante DiVincenzo three for fourteen, Nikhil Alexander Walker
three for eleven. That's seven for thirty six from the field.
(15:45):
From the depth that we talked about coming into this
series as one of the strengths of this Minnesota roster
and a lot of them guys like this, there are
some uncomfortable things. I thought Dante looked a little rushed
on some of his on ball stuff, right like I
thought nas Reed's post up were ugly. But there was
a lot of butt naked three point shots in there
that those dudes were missing. And they went five for
(16:07):
twenty eight from three and so with At and Julius
and the types of quality threes that they were generating,
those guys just have to pay them off the turnovers
to transition. Again, this is going to be the key
to the series. Like Oklahoma City will have a hard
time scoring against Minnesota in the half court, especially when
they have a big on the floor. But if you're
going to gift wrap them thirty one points running out
(16:27):
the other way when your defense isn't set, you're putting
yourself in a really tough position to win. And then, lastly,
the last thing I want to focus on before we
get into our mailbag is Rudy Gobert. I can't come
into the series if you guys remember in my series
preview I talked about how I didn't really see this
as as much of a center type of series. I
specifically said I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back
(16:50):
at the end of the series and that both Rudy
Gobert and Isaiah Hartenstein averaged fewer than twenty minutes per game.
Isaiah Hartenstein twenty minutes tonight, Rudy Gobert twenty one minutes.
The Rudy Gobert piece, by the way, I thought Chet
held up fine, So this is not necessarily an OKA
see take. I thought okac's small ball groups did fine.
(17:11):
If it turns into something where Minnesota starts really overwhelming
them with physicality, maybe it's something they have to look
into expanding Isaiah's role, But specifically with Gobert, I think
it's a little bit more complicated than just what meets
the eye there. Rudy's a frustrating player. There were a
lot of sequences tonight where he was gift wrapped pretty
(17:32):
high quality opportunities on trails and rolls around the basket
where his inability to finish anything in traffic was a problem.
And that's an important problem, something that we need to
factor in when we have discussions about Rudy. He also
had a pretty rough first defensive ship as he picked
up a couple of fouls, but I thought from that
point forward, I thought he was fine defensively, and I
(17:54):
actually thought his presence on the back line was part
of the struggles that Shay Gilders Alexander was dealing with.
Shay really got comfortable going downhill towards the rim in
the second half of this game. And so when I
really start to parse out the impact of Rudy in
this particular matchup against an Oklahoma City team that isn't
the highest level back line processing sort of team in
(18:17):
this matchup, I would like to see Rudy Gobert at
least I would like to see Chris Finch explore using
him a little bit more, simply because there is a
little bit of a dynamic when he's on the floor
when SHA's there, where Shaye wants to operate a little
bit more in the short to mid range, whereas when
he's not out there, he wants to go right to
(18:37):
the bucket. And so I think it's worth just exploring
a little bit more, just expanding Rudy Gobert's role more.
There was an extended stretch in this game where Chris
Finch went with no center with nas Reed off and
with Rudy off, and look, I get it. You know,
Rudy has his offensive limitations. Nas Reed was having the
game from Hell for him. But I'm not necessarily, you know,
(19:01):
pushing back against that in this particular game because it
was going off the rails anyway. But it's something to
adjust potentially in game two. I wouldn't be so quick
to the pull the plug on Rudy Gobert because I
do think he has a little bit of a mental
impact on Shae on Jdubb, forcing them into some of
those tougher contested mid range shots.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
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Speaker 2 (19:55):
A lot of stuff I want to get into with
you guys. So let's get into our mailbag and any
questions you guys have about this series. Let's dig into it.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Let's do it. Let's do it. First question, sort of
a general question, what adjustments can Minnesota make to play
with OKC and give them their best chance to win
given the fact that Sga and Jada both shot under
forty percent this game and they still blew out the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
You know, when you really dig into it, the question
is shot creation right and do we felt do we
feel like Aunt and Julius did a good job of
creating shots tonight for Minnesota. I think they did. They
just got to shoot substantially better on them than they did.
And it's and it's it's one of those things where
(20:38):
I feel like when Aunt and Julius didn't turn the
ball over and they got some sort of rim pressure
in the form of a dribble drive from Aunt or
a post up ripped through from Julius, I thought they
got good looks. They just lost control of the game
and transition and Julius got in foul trouble and got
a little fatigued in the second half, and their advantage
creation wasn't as good and like they're four bench spot
(21:01):
up guys went five for twenty eight from three liked.
Do you agree with me Jackson that Minnesota got some
quality looks on those kickouts, Like did you think it
was you know, okay See rushing them or do you
think they were just missing some shots.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I think in the first half, especially, they got a
lot of open looks that they could have made more of.
In the second half, it did feel like okay See
turned up the intensity defensively, or maybe at least got
their bearings on the athletic sort of the pace of
the series and the physicality of the series a little bit.
But still it did feel like and there was some
criticism of Dante's shot selection. I think some of those,
like uber deep ones, might have been not the best shot,
(21:37):
but some of them I thought he were great looks
and he just missed. He was one for six at
one point, and I think I think the first four
or five of those were very makeable. So it's tough.
I mean, I do think that they their stars were sloppy,
were too sloppy at times from a shot from like
a turnover and shot creation standpoint. But I also feel
like the bench just has to shoot that.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Right, they have to shoot so so so much better.
Cleaning the Glass has Oklahoma City at a one oh
two half court offensive rating in Minnesota at an eighty,
but that obviously does in factor an offensive rebounding, so
offensive rebounding was a big part of it. In transition, Okay,
see a one forty offensive rating, And I don't think
(22:24):
Cleaning the Glass has Minnesota logged for zero transition points
off to see how that shows up on Synergy. But uh,
I like the point you made about Dante DiVincenzo. I
think that there's a we know Dante can make those shots.
It's just when you take a relatively quick above the
break three when you're not in rhythm, it just has
(22:46):
a higher percentage chance of leading to one of those
long rebounds that leads to one of those runouts. I'm
a big believer in your shot selection should reflect your rhythm.
So like if you're out of rhythm, meaning like you're
you've been missing, the answer is to hunt easy opportunities.
Run your lane in transition. See if you can't get
(23:07):
a layup or a wide open three, crash the offensive glass.
See if you can't get an offensive rebound, put back
or draw a foul, get yourself to the foul line.
When I see guys that are already having poor shooting
nights start taking pretty tough off the dribble threes, it's
like that's the kind of shot that you're not that
that's not going to get you out of your slump,
Like that's that's trying to ram your head through a
(23:29):
brick wall. And I did think we saw a little
bit of that with Dante tonight.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Flipping to the other end of
the floor, though, why do you think Minnesota played zero
zone in this game? It did feel like something that
we talked about they might be able to use. It
would maybe be a way to keep rooty on the floor,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I think it's something that we'll see over the course
of the series. I think, you know, these game ones
are always a little bit of a feel out game,
and I thought their Manda Man defense was fine until
it wasn't. And oftentimes in a situation like that, like
Chris Finch may be looking at it like zone is
the thing I can pull out in game two that
puts a game away, and he may be more willing
(24:05):
to use it like. Okay, So let's say game two.
Game two typically follows a certain feel. We've all seen
this kind of series million times.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Minnesota will come out, probably lead in that like seven
to ten point range for the first two and a
half quarters, right, because that's just what happens in game two.
It's the push and pull of urgency. You get blown out.
Minnesota comes out, gives you a great effort. Oklahoma City
will inevitably make us a run at some point in
the second half of that game. You know, a couple
of steals, a couple turnovers, a couple of runouts, they
(24:34):
cut the lead to two, they tie the game. That's
where you can throw a card like that and stall
out okac's offense and potentially steal a win. I think
Minnesota's base man to main look can work in this matchup.
And I think Chris Finch just made a judgment call
in this game that it wasn't worth pulling that card.
They lost by twenty six. You know, it may be
a totally different vibe in game two.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
In terms of Julius Randall, he had twenty first out points.
Obviously some of that was just you know, catch and
shooting hitting some tough catch and shoot threes. But what
was the difference in that you saw from the way
that he was attacking the first half of the second
half that felt like he struggled so much in the
second half compared to his first half.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
As you mentioned, there was definitely an uptick in just
the overall intensity. His jump shot cooled off, they started
chasing him off the line. A lot of the threes
that he got in the first half were concession threes,
like they were open, looks like he was hitting them,
but like there was an early three that Julius made
where he like smiled, and I think I think the
specific thought that he was experiencing with that smile is like,
(25:35):
are these dudes just gonna leave me open? All serious? Like,
I think that's what he was thinking. And so I
think there's a good amount of Julius just pressing up
and not giving him those wide open catch and shoot threes,
and Julius was I thought Julius's driving kick play was
fine in the second half. I mean, he kind of
has this like lebron esque ability to just elevate off
of one leg and throw these jump passes that are
(25:56):
like terrible passes for like anybody else in the league,
but because he's a good enough athlete and he just
rifles the one handed, you know, line drive past to
where it needs to go. Thought his kicks were fine,
it's just they pressed up on his threes and inside
the paint. It is going to be a playmaking series
for Randall. Like it's not like this is not Oklahoma
City is overloading the ball. Aunt and Julius are going
(26:18):
to be taking a lot of over the top shots.
I meant to mention this when we were talking about
Gobert earlier. But that's the other thing. Is like ant
and Julius's success as scores in tonight's game came from
the perimeter. So from a certain point of view, Gobert's
spacing concerns are less valuable again within in the context
(26:38):
of an over the top shooter than they are just
like a downhill type of threat. Right, Like it could
be a death sentence if John Moran is your guard,
but if it's Anthony Edwards, a guy who's an excellent
three point shooter, it's not as big of a deal.
And so that's why I think like it'll be something
to experiment a little bit more with over the course
of the series, but specifically with Julius. I thought he
was fine with his driving kicks. They pressed up on
(27:00):
his threes. He had a few soppy turnovers in the
second half of you know that that bullyball post up
against lou Dort and then that you know little half
court ripped from j dub where he just lost it
at it bounds. But overall overall, I think he's got
plenty of advantages. It's just gonna be a playmaking series
for him.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, it did feel like he was more bothered in
the second half. And I and Okay sees they have
so many ultra quick guards have ultra good hands that
they do such a good job of digging and not
but not creating any like real openings to get a
pass off. I think they need to do some like
clear side mid post work. Don't even. Don't even you
(27:37):
don't have to think about a second guy coming here
with Julius unless you're seeing it from a mile away.
Because I didn't feel like there was quite a few
times where they were stunting and they were maybe doubling
for one second and getting back. There's a lot of
like mental mind games. I felt they were playing with
Julius in the second half because they have so much
speed on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
This is a really good point. Like there the post
up that he had in the middle of the floor,
you could tell he was like uncomfortable. Someone's got was coming, right.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I think somebody's got to be coming to that note, right,
I know Dorts around here somewhere right, Yeah, and just
clearing the side.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's a great way to simplify the reads. And most importantly,
it doesn't matter as much when you're an over the
top shooter like Julius wants to get to that little
left shoulder fade, so you clear the left side of
the floor so that he can spin over his left
shoulder into the middle of the floor. And with Anthony Edwards,
same sort of thing. And I actually think Aunt has
more post up ability in this series, especially against some
(28:29):
of the smaller guards. Dort's probably the only guy I
don't like him posting against. Also really quickly, guys, here's
these are These are just insane numbers coming out of
this game. Minnesota generated eighteen unguarded catch and shoot jump shots,
Oklahoma City generated eleven. So sticks to the thing we
talked about earlier, in terms of quality catch and shoots.
(28:50):
Oklahoma City got two point one point eight points per
unguarded catch and shoots, so they made almost all of them.
Minnesota zero point eight three three, So substantial shooting gap
towards OKC if you take a look at the all
catch and shoots thirty five for Minnesota, sixteen for OKC,
zero point eight to three points per tempt for Minnesota
(29:12):
one point eight eight points per tentp for OKAC. So
there was definitely, like, I mean, guys like they're shooting
variants is a part of basketball. There are certain types
of shots that the process leads to the result, and
then somewhere down that list of factors is like when
dudes are getting wide open looks, they just got to
knock them down and there was just like a clear
(29:32):
nas Dante, Nikiel. The three of those dudes just missed
open look after open look after open look, and that
became something that got in their heads a little bit
over the course.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Of the game.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Next question is about Anthony Edwards. The question is simply,
can you be more critical of ants? He didn't score
in the fourth quarter and compared to a lot of
other stars that it feels like he's sort of in
the tier of Luca, Shay, whoever else. If they scored
zero points in the fourth quarter, it might be a
lot more criticism.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It was bad. It was bad down the stretch of
this game. It was a foul trouble issue though, Like
it's a little bit of a bummer that he picks
up a lame ass ticky tack foul going down the
left lane line. But the I'm more of, like I'm
looking at the big picture of the series. There's no
doubt that down the stretch of this game, Shae was
the better player. If Shaye continues to outplay Ant over
(30:21):
the course of the series, they're going to win, and
it's got to be better, There's no question. And it
goes with both of them. Julius as well. I thought
Jay Dubb was better in the second half than either
of Julius or Ant. But yeah, like we're gonna talk
about that when we get to the series, Like this
is game one, guys, Like I'm not I'm gonna bury
guys at the end of the series, like this is
(30:42):
this is where we're in Round one here, guys and
everyone everyone who was here when Aunt got eliminated in Dallas.
Does anybody remember how I talked about Aunt then I
criticized him for the way he played, Like you get
the series, ain't over people.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Last question before we go over to playback. Are there
any matchups you would change? Is sort of like defensive
matchups one on one from from the game one a
game two.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's a good question. I don't think Crusoe works on Julius.
I think I would. I would tinker with that a
little bit. I think Julius has got some favorable matchups there.
I did think it was interesting. I did think it
was interesting, like Dort would be a kind of guy
that I'd consider potentially using on Julius instead. Maybe they
(31:26):
could swap the matchups there and give Crusoe more opportunity
on Ant and try Dort on Julius. But I thought
Julius was generally pretty comfortable going against Caruso. Dort's got
a little bit like wider, lower center of gravity and
is a little bit more of a fire hydrant than
Alex Crusoe is. So I think it's one of those
(31:47):
things where it's something you could tinker with. But honestly,
I didn't think that was the I didn't think that
was the game. I mean, they're defending Julius and Ant
with multiple bodies every single time. It's more just about
it's like it like if I dig into the ice,
let me check in the isodata here real quick. I
didn't think there was any specific like, oh, Julius is
just getting one on one buckets over and over again.
(32:07):
It was he hit threes over the top, and he
was able to spray out to shooters. Yeah, Minnesota twenty
one ISO zero point six seven points per possession including passes,
like they weren't. They weren't now again including passes, you
got to count the kickouts. But it's one of those
things where it wasn't like thirteen post ups for Minnesota
(32:27):
zero point five to four points per possession including passes,
So it wasn't like they were getting beat one on one.
It was you know, it was the shot result at
the end that was that was causing those those numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
The only thing I'd say on that before we go
over to playback is sort of the opposite of the question,
which is that there's one matchup. I think that a
team should hunt more. I think the timber Wolves should
try to do whatever they can to get Julius with
matchups against Chet. I feel like after Chet got his
chest caved in by Nikola Jokic last matchup, you want
to replicate that Hertenstein is obviously very very big and strong,
(33:00):
and Hertenstein is doing an awesome job, you know, keeping
Julius from really getting deeper position on some of those
post ups. But Chet doesn't have that, I don't think.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I thought when Shay was able to put Julius and
Nas in particular and screening action too, that was favorable
because he that was how they got the pick and
pops too, like they don't want to concede that switch,
and the few times they did, he was able to
pretty quickly get dribble penetration. So I think that's something
that they can explore more over the course of the series.
All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. We
(33:30):
are headed over to playback though, so playback dot TV
slash Hoops tonight will be taking callers, will be hanging
out just having fun talking hoops for another forty five
minutes or so. We'll see you guys over there in
a little bit. As always, we appreciate you guys. We'll
have a film session on our YouTube channel tomorrow morning,
breaking down Game one. I'll see you guys then. What's
up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful
(33:52):
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I really appre ship.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
The volume. M
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