Hoops Tonight X Nerd Sesh - Nuggets-Timberwolves Reaction: Ant Edwards & Wolves BLOW OUT Denver - Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
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welcome to tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody,
hopefull if you guys are having a great week. Got

(01:56):
a jampackshow for you guys todaight. We decided to pivot
around the end of the first half there as it
turned into a complete and utter destruction as the Minnesota
Timberwolves tie the series at three, sending us to a
Game seven in Denver on Sunday, they are up by
as much as fifty the most destructive blowout of this
postseason to this point. So with that we're gonna bring

(02:18):
in the guys from Nerd SESSH Logan and Carson, and
we're going to take a deeper dive into this particular series,
talk about what we saw tonight, talk about what we
expect in Game seven. Then we're gonna use tonight as
an opportunity to bounce around to the other two remaining
semi final series that we have Mavericks, Thunder and Nick Pacers.
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Speaker 3 (02:49):
All right, let's talk some basketball.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
So what's up, guys, Thanks for taking the time to
come on short notice and hang out talk some hoops
this game.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
You know, it's really hard to learn much.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
About a game where a team goes up by fifty
points after they got out classed three times in a
row right before that, right I said the same thing
after the Knicks one game Game five at home, after
the Pacers tied in game four, Like when you play
in Indiana and the Knicks get killed, and then you
go back to New York and the Pacers get killed,
it's very clear that effort and energy and focus is

(03:25):
the primary determining factor. I thought that was clear in
this game from the opening tip. I'm gonna pitch it
to you guys, to you first, Carson, and we're gonna
go round. I want you guys to give your thoughts
on what happens tonight. I'm gonna give you one stat
before we start. Minnesota's defense tonight, another incredible performance. According
to Cleaning the Glass, held the Nuggets to sixty five

(03:48):
point two points per one hundred half court plays. They
outscored them by forty one point one points per one
hundred half court possessions.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
It was a complete and total destruction.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
What did you notice tonight, Carson, Well, I think you
hit on the key point, which is that this was
clearly going to be a bad Denver game, not from
the jump right, because early they were actually getting out
in transition and they got out to that nine to
two lead.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
But pretty clearly thereafter once you see the twenty zhering run,
and I think that we have to give a lot
of credit to Minnesota for that, because this is a
fantastic defense. I believe one of the best defenses that
we've seen this century, and the last few games didn't
change that. That was just an all time offense winning
out against still a great defense, and in this game

(04:35):
there was a reversal. To me, it immediately felt more
like Game two. This was a very physical game from
Minnesota defensively. The ball pressure actually had a substantial impact
at a few points, which we've seen Denver has found
ways to negate over these last few games. But like
there's the bad Jamal Murray turnover early, and they were

(04:55):
much more physical, and I thought they did a really
good job on Jokic as well, super rac with their hands,
they're getting those backtabs, they're poking balls out just like
they were in Game two at a ridiculous level, and
they did a really good job of forcing anybody other than.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
Yolkic to beat them.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
I thought last game's game plan was just shockingly bad
from Minnesota in terms of how willing they were to
allow Yolkish to work in single coverage. Now there came
a point where he started specifically hunting that stuff.

Speaker 6 (05:22):
He was like, Okay, I'm not gonna let Rudy Rome.

Speaker 5 (05:25):
I'm going to force the switch here and then you're
not gonna send help when I have go bear on me.
But like he was just allowed to really toast them
in that game. And they have seen by far their
most success against him and the Snuggets offense in this
series when they send doubles. In Game two, that was
the single biggest thing. With Rudy off the floor. They
didn't really have a choice, but they doubled the hell
out of him, and they just have such an athletic advantage.

(05:48):
Their rotations were so excellent in that game. They were
running dudes off the line, they were forcing contested threes,
and they just sped up that offense and they threw
it into the chaos.

Speaker 6 (05:57):
And that's what happened in this game.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
Again, it felt like the Uggets completely lost their sense
of self and they were just operating at this very
hectic pace that was clearly to their disadvantage. Like you
have early shot clock Aaron Gordon threes and I know
that he shot the ball quite well from beyond the
arc in this series. But you don't like those looks
early shot clock Jolkic threes, with how he's been shooting

(06:19):
over this postseason, you don't love, and you would just
like for them to work to get a better shot
off of these Jokic doubles. Oftentimes they're just taking like
the first catch and shoot three that they get instead
of trying to consistently swing that ball and put the
defense further into rotation. And I just thought that things
got worse and worse for them, and the issues compounded,

(06:39):
and then you have like Aaron Gordon forcing an ISO
on go Bare missing a turnaround he dribbles off his
foot trying to attack Kat. The non Yolkic minutes were
awful in the first half offensively and ultimately as well
as Minnesota defended and as much as Denver was thrown
off their rhythm, they also just couldn't make a shot,
Like even when they got a good open look from deep,

(07:00):
it didn't matter.

Speaker 6 (07:00):
They were four of.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
Twenty one from three in the first half, I believe,
and Rudy also did an incredible job protecting the rim
in this game, and I thought forced a number of
tough misses in the paint where Jamal is just way
off on a floater. Christian Brown doesn't even want to
put up a shot.

Speaker 7 (07:16):
Like.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
His presence was monstrous in this game, and he really
kept them from scoring in the paint. And when they're
struggling to score from deep as they were in this game,
that is obviously a massive factor. And Jamal was brutal
one of ten in the first half. Really disappointing effort.
I thought that Ant did a great job on him.
I thought, again, this was a very physical performance and
that threw him off his rhythm. He was also just

(07:38):
missing open shots, so the offense broke down. But I
was really disappointed by just the effort as well. They
allow eleven offensive rebounds just in the first half. You
have that sequence to end the half when yeah, they've
been down big for the entire period, but they're finally
building some semblance of momentum and Aaron Gordon throws the
ball up into the air and then they just concede
an easy offensive rebound to Jade McDaniel. And from that

(08:00):
point forward it was like awful rotations. You get a
jokicch lazy turnover. He wasn't protecting the ball like he
has been just a really bad let down performance from
them facing a team on the road that you know
is first of all, gonna pride themselves on the defensive
side of the ball, and they're going to start their
effort there. They are going to bring the physicality if
it is allowed, more so than anybody else in the league.

(08:22):
They are more athletic than you, and so if they
are giving a bunch of effort and you aren't, you
can just get smacked in the mouth. And that very
much happened in this game.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
Yeah, they did get smacked in the mouth. I do
want to give a ton of credit to Minnesota. Man,
it was a defensive masterclass in this one, and I
think you.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Hit on it, Carson.

Speaker 7 (08:40):
It's not really the consistency of this defense and how
they can affect Denver, but it's the capability the fact
that they can have games like this. Like everybody wanted
to make big declarations about this series at every step
of the lay, myself included. Wanted to write Denver off
after the first two games, wanted to write Minnesota off
after the last three games. But the bottom line is
that nobody has been able to disrupt Denver. In the

(09:03):
way that Minnesota has, and I think it is a
testament to their defense at a game like this is possible,
let alone that we get three in a single series.
Like I think the big key is doubling nikoley Jokic,
getting the ball out of his hands consistently and forcing
other guys to kill you. They did a phenomenal job
and recovering off doubles.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Carson.

Speaker 7 (09:20):
You mentioned how they dominated the glass. Two eleven first
half offensive rebounds. Guys, that's the most in the first
half in the playoffs since two thousand and four. They
also grabbed sixty one boards overall, that's the most in
a game since the twenty twenty two Warriors. And they
just forced the Nuggets to settle for so many jump shots.
The Nuggets in the regular season were thirtieth and three

(09:41):
pointers attempt under just under thirty two threes a game.
They attempted twenty one in the first half. That's on
the Boston Celtics pace for a single game. You guys
know how I feel about the Boston Celtics, Like, that's
not a great stat.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
You just got to get downhill.

Speaker 7 (09:56):
They finished this one seven to thirty six overall and
they beat him in the paint forty six to thirty six,
Like that's a huge key, man. They can't get anything
else going. They can't hit the broad side of a
barn on a jump shot, and their offense was just
out of sorts. I thought the game plan was great.
I thought the energy and the effort was great. And
I want to give a big shout out too. You
mentioned Rudy Gobert Karson. I want to give a big
shout out to Kat and how he stood physically in

(10:18):
the post two and Jaden McDaniels, like the will of him, dude,
not even what he did offensively, He had a great
offensive game to I too, But just that takes a
toll man, that consistent effort and energy, and he didn't
looked tired at all throughout this game. Man, kept applying
ball pressure, kept getting after it. It was just a
genius game plan, tremendous effort, tremendous energy, and something that

(10:38):
you rarely see against this Denver team. Man, it is
really amazing that Minnesota is able to pull off three
games like this in a single series against maybe the
best offense I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, the talk after this game is going to be
tactically focused around the double teaming, right, Like that's going
to be the big thing. Is like, oh we double
team jokicch it threw off Denver's offense. This is this
is where things kind took off. And I think we're
gonna learn a lot more about that adjustment in game seven.
I do think that that's the best available route for them,

(11:10):
mainly just because Michael Porter Junior is not shooting particularly
well in this series, and so as a result of that,
and Jamal Murray's not shooting particularly well either, So like
you gotta go down by making these dudes that are
out of rhythm make shots. So, like, I one hundred
percent agree that that's the strategy, but I didn't think
that that was the determining factor in tonight's game at all.
It was just a complete physical, athletic bludgeoning. That's literally

(11:34):
all it was to me. And you know, one of
the things we noticed, and we saw this at the
opening stretch in the first first quarter of Game one,
pretty much throughout Game two, and then throughout the game tonight,
Like one of the big things that Minnesota's defense has
done to Denver for stretches is speed them up and
Carson you specifically referenced this, but this really like kind

(11:57):
of showed through for me at the end of the
first quarter tonight, where it's like you just see them
making uncharacteristic non Denver Nuggets types of plays, like you said,
rushing a jump shot when there's an opportunity to get
something better, you know, just not being as methodical with
their execution. I think the best complement that you can

(12:18):
play that you can pay a defense, or I should
say that the best indicator of a defense really having
an effect is when you make an offense or an
offensive player play a different way than they typically do,
meaning like if you get them out of their their
kind of like tendencies and get them to start like rushing,
making mistakes, taking shots they don't normally take anytime, you

(12:40):
get them to like literally lose their head, so to speak.
That's a testament to the defense. And again one of
the things that regardless of what happens in Game seven,
I think we can even say for sure that Denver
has really struggled for stretches with this Minnesota defense. They
have a way of kind of like holding up underneath
that onslot, and to me, it comes down to being

(13:02):
like really deliberate with their offensive execution. It kind of
reminds me of Game Three, where it's like just being
really good about handling ball, pressure, being patient to get
the ball up the floor into your spots, setting really
good screens, kind of executing from there.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Honestly, like, there was a stretch early.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Second quarter where Jokic stayed on the floor where he
typically doesn't, and I think they did that. I think
Michael Malone did that on purpose to try to kind
of regain control of the situation before he put Jokic
out because he knew thirty one fourteen or whatever the
score was at the end of the first quarter. You
bail on Jokic there, it could be a twenty seven
point game in a matter of minutes, right And honestly,

(13:41):
during that stretch, they generated multiple wide open threes off
of the yokch doubles and they were missing them. But
what happened was they got a few offensive rebounds and
got a couple putbacks, and then they went down to
the other end. They locked in, they got stops. They
actually kind of methodically worked it down to eleven even

(14:01):
though they weren't shooting well. And then as soon as
Yo gets checked out of the game, it was nineteen
and ninety seconds, like it was. It was over that fast,
and so really like that, that to me is the
is the is like the kind of like like the
kind of ebb and flow of this series. Minnesota's defense
is oppressive, but Denver is capable of executing against them

(14:22):
and scoring. Carson, you had a tweet that you sent
out after Game five that I thought was really really
fascinating that Denver had a one to twenty seven offensive
rating in those in those three games against this defense
that we all think is the best, right, And what's
crazy about that is Boston had the best offense in
the league this year at a one to twenty two
offensive rating, So just think about that. That's the level

(14:44):
of production you were getting out of that Denver offense.
We know that they're capable of scoring against them, they
just have to be really deliberate with their execution as
soon as they let go of the rope a little bit.
The problem is Minnesota's way more athletic than them, and
so as soon as they do let go the rope
in terms of like their discipline and execution. It's not
just that they lose, they run into a buzzsaw, and

(15:06):
that's why we're seeing these like blowouts in Game two
and in game in game six, where it's like when
they let go, they just can't hang. But before we
kind of move forward, I want to make sure that
we appropriately kind of focus on Minnesota here, because Minnesota
has their flaws, you and you two and us or
my you two and myself. We've discussed that specific set

(15:28):
of flaws all season long, having to do with some
of their offensive limitations, especially if you can force Anthony
Edwards to give up the basketball since he's playing like
he's playing like prime Kobe and MJ these days, right, So,
like there is obviously limitations there, but their defense is real.
They're capable of shaking their opponent's foundation, and when they do,

(15:48):
it doesn't really matter what their other flaws are. It's
almost like confidence takes over and then all of a sudden,
Jade McDaniels gets going offensively all of a sudden, like
my Conley starts being super aggressive and hitting pull up
threes and other pull up jump shots, and like, I
just want to credit Minesota. I thought they played a
hell of a game. I thought Anthony Edwards had an
incredible bounce back after that rough Game five. Actually that
there was a report that he went to one of

(16:09):
the staffers for Denver. It was like, see you in
game seven. That's right in the check and he had
to cash it today and he did. And so I
just want to shout those guys out. So here's the thing.
I still think that Denver is capable of executing and
beating this team in game seven. However, the problem with
this is you now have put yourself in a situation
where the variance of a single basketball game gets you eliminated,

(16:32):
and so there's a considerable amount of risk here. As
far as it pertains to game six, I don't really necessarily,
and I said this to you guys before we actually
went live, I don't really see tonight as a huge
downmark for Denver in the sense it's just really hard
to beat a team four times in a row under
any circumstances, let alone a really good team.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
The damage they did was the damage they did in
the first two games. By dropping those first two games,
they put themselves in a predict commit where they were
almost certainly going to face the Game seven if they
were to win the series. Now here we are I'm
gonna toss it to you first s logan as we
head into game seven, I'm assuming we all are sticking
with our Denver pick. Do you still remain confident there

(17:15):
or do you feel like Minnesota has him on the
ropes and has a chance to win.

Speaker 7 (17:18):
Confiden's an interesting word. I wouldn't say confident. I'm hopeful.
There's just still other things that need to swing back
in Denver's way for them to win. I mean, I
think the biggest thing is the supporting cast. Like this
game is a complete indictment on the supporting cast and
what they've done this series. And the first guy that
you got to point the finger at is Jamal Murray.

(17:39):
Like the thing with Jamal too, is he's a rhythm guy, right,
and a lot of scorers and a lot of shooters
in the NBA are like that.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Man.

Speaker 7 (17:46):
You get that first one to go through to nylon
and it's like, all right, I'm gonna.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Have a good game.

Speaker 7 (17:49):
And I felt like you could see the confidence kind
of leave Jamal's body as this game went along, Like
he starts out this game four to five and then
he's getting these open mid range looks that he's he
would put up without any hesitation if his.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Shot was falling, and he starts being passive.

Speaker 7 (18:06):
It's like what you said, Jason's got a great defense
getting you off of your game, and he missed enough
early and they got him off his game where he
was second guessing himself and being more passive and passing
up open Looks like it's a broad blanket statement that
you could make for almost any team. But like, the
second guy's got to pull his weight, he's got to
play so much better Game one, Game two and or
receiving this is game one. In game two, thirteen points

(18:28):
on thirty seven percent true shooting, and this one he's
ten points on four of eighteen and two of seven
from deep. Like he's got to be better. Michael Porter
Junior has got to be better.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Man.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
In round one, he was probably Denver's second best player
against LA like they needed him. Twenty three points in
seventies percent true shooting, and this one. In this series overall,
he's twelve points on.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Fifty five percent true shooting.

Speaker 7 (18:50):
And a big thing here with Denver is the fact
that they don't have a luxury of depth here. They
don't have role players that they can turn to. Guys
they're benching this game, and they've talked about the bench in
this series a ton, and I think that's an interesting
factor to look at. It is Holliday gonna hit his
open looks. Is Christian Brawn gonna do brown? Excuse me?
Is he gonna do something? And this one they shoot

(19:11):
four of twenty eight. The bench does for Denver, like
they don't really have margins offensively if MPJ and Jamal
aren't pulling their weight, they don't have avenues to easy offense.
Like you know, maybe the boring take. Denver's got to
bring energy. They got to bring more effort, obviously, or
Jamal and MPJ gonna hit a freaking shot.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Man.

Speaker 7 (19:30):
If they can't, it's wrapped like Minnesota's gonna steamroll them
once more. And Jokic can make all the right reads, man,
he can make all the right passes. If they're diverting,
this kind of defensive attention to Jokic and the nugget
supporting cast is not gonna make them pay.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
They're not gonna win.

Speaker 7 (19:46):
So it may be a boring answer, but like the
number two and number three just have to hit open shots, man,
They got to alleviate some of this pressure off of Jokic,
because once they do, and you gotta stop doubling Yokic
as much, it opens up the floor for him. Everything
for Denver gets going. It's all those two guys to
get it going.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
In Game seven, absolutely, those guys have to be way better.
Aaron Gordon, who has been really good in this series,
I thought just the decision making tonight again, he was
just chaotic in the first half of this game, and
I thought that that was costly.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
Where he has been so good. But I do expect
Denver to win.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
And a big reason is that so much of what
we've talked about has been an issue of focus and
of effort and of consistency, which really has been the
polar opposite of the done of the Denver team that
we saw last year. Like that's what's so stunning to me,
is where they really separated from the pack last year
was just the consistency of their offensive process, taking care

(20:42):
of the basketball, always engaged defensively. They didn't have like
a bad game in all of last postseason. They didn't
lose a game by double digits, whereas this year we've
seen obviously all the slow starts and all the carelessness
against the Lakers, and they pulled through because they're just
that much better. But then you have this series, the
bludgeoning that they take in Game two, which I thought
was more about like an all time effort by Minnesota's defense,

(21:05):
but of course, like they got sped up and thrown
off their rhythm and they weren't ready for that battle
in this game.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
They just don't have the focus.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
They went Jason from as you say, like three games
of offensive perfection, posting an offensive rating of one to
twenty seven against this defense. Jokics played two back to
back masterpieces, and they were hitting forty five percent of
their threes.

Speaker 6 (21:24):
Just everything was clicking.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
They figured out the ball pressure, they were playing so
more methodically, making such great collective decisions. And then they're
the first team tonight to score seventy points or fewer
in a playoff game in eight years. So that's just
completely bipolar. But to me, locked in Denver is still
the best team in the league, and that's what they
showed over these last three games. But as you say,

(21:48):
like they leave themselves open now to the variance of
one game against a really good basketball team that kicked
their asses legitimately in the first two games of this series,
and obviously again tonight. But again that was just sort
of like you just throw your hands up and it's like,
all right, that was never gonna happen. They obviously have
to be focused from the jump, but I fully expect
them to be. That is why I think doubling Yokic

(22:09):
makes sense. Though, it's just the inconsistency of the supporting cast,
and that's the trend that we've seen. The Lakers found
their most success doubling against Yokich. The Timberwolves had by
far their best defensive game doubling him aggressively.

Speaker 6 (22:21):
It's not a question of him making the right reads.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Like we consistently see he can make those skip passes
if you really pressure him with length, like sometimes they'll
come out a little bit high, but generally he's gonna
make the right read. It's just a question of, all right,
can we contest them, can we rotate well, can we
run them off the line? Can we force anybody else
to make decisions and make shots? Michael Porter Junior over
his last three games six points per game on thirty

(22:44):
eight percent true shooting.

Speaker 6 (22:46):
This is one of the greatest pure jump.

Speaker 5 (22:48):
Shooters in NBA history, I legitimately believe, and he can't
make anything right now. The shots that he's taking are
out of rhythm, they're forced even for him. I give
him leeway because he's such a crazy, contested shot maker,
but these are not good shots that he's taking, and
Jamal absolutely has to be better. So I do expect
them to heavily double Jokic, but I also agree it's
not like they figured things out, being like, hey, we

(23:09):
can double Jokic if the Nuggets jump shooters are hitting well,
then that's still a really really bad answer. But this year,
when you leave yokicen single coverage on a post up,
he's averaged one point twenty five points. When you double,
the Nuggets average point nine to four points. So a
lot of that is just the shot making of the teammates.
But like there is a pretty clear answer, there's no

(23:30):
good answer to Nicole Jolkic and specifically his post up offense.
But the worst answer to me is clearly just letting
him work in single coverage like they did in Game five.
I do think that the bench minutes are certainly crucial
for Denver. They have outperformed there, but this was a
really night rough. This was a really rough performance tonight,

(23:52):
and the Timberwolves were absolutely just better in this game,
not just defensively, their offensive process was way better.

Speaker 6 (23:58):
Having Mike Conley back on the floor.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
You just had more shot making, You had more good
decision making out there. That ball was moving, you saw
it from the jump. Kat was being proactive as a playmaker.
Jane McDaniels was outstanding, and he has been pretty rough
offensively this series. He was two of twelve from deep
coming in to tonight, and he was hitting his open threes,
but he was also attacking closeouts. He was aggressive as
a driver. So this Timberwolves offense has had some low lows,

(24:24):
but tonight was a pretty high high. All of that
to say, yes, this was a night that was all
Minnesota and it was no Denver. But when it comes
down to it, all the money on the line, I
do think Denver can focus up. I do think they
can dial in their offensive process. They have the best
player on the floor. And even if Jamal and MPJ
aren't shooting well right now, like those are really really

(24:45):
good shooters of the basketball. This is an incredible offense.
I believe one of the three best offenses we've seen
this century, and I would bet that to win out
on their home floor.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, I'm picking Denver as well. I want to look
at this from both perspectiveives. The Denver win on Sunday
would look more or less I think like what Game
three looked like in the sense that I do believe
that Minnesota will go back to doubling a lot, and
I think that Denver will counter that by going back
to a more steady diet of pick and roll and

(25:16):
using Yokic more as a screen and roll guy than
as a post guy, just to try to kind of
maintain some of that rhythm and flow. And again, we
know what Denver is going to do to try to
mitigate some of the ball pressure stuff. They're going to
have Jokic and Gordon bring the ball up the floor more.
Jokic is going to be setting monster screens from the
opening tip of this game to really try to free
up Jamal and help them get kind of free right

(25:39):
from there. It's just about them kind of maintaining that
methodical approach and then continuing the defensive game plan. Because
one of the things we haven't talked a lot about
tonight is Denver I thought had a really bad defensive game,
and the dead giveaway was like a lot of the same,
you know, kind of extra attention they throw it through
at Anthony Edwards wasn't there from Game five. A big
part of that is I thought they allowed Minnesota operate

(26:01):
a lot in semi transition, and a big part of
that is just not ever scoring and constantly being in
transition cross matches and where you know, when you let
Ant really kind of gallop up the floor with a
head of steam into like that semi transition, it's just
really difficult to kind of corral him and make him
play passive basketball. And then I also want to credit Ant.

(26:21):
I thought he had a really good playmaking game, even
above and beyond just assist totals, just like getting the
defense in rotation and making easy reads, which by the way,
is contagious and it kind of sets everything else upright,
So we know what a Denver win.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Would look like.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think it would look a lot like Game three
for Denver going into Game seven. Minnesota I do think
has a legitimate path here though, and I think it
kind of comes down to a couple of key things.
First of all, you have to throw a hallacious defensive
punch from the opening tip, like we talked about earlier,

(26:54):
you can shake Denver's foundation, and when you do, they
kind of let go of the rope mentally and they
can kind of fall apart. Right, So, like you got
to throw that sledgehammer at that at that foundation at
the opening tip, and see if you can crack it
a little bit. Right, That's a big piece of it.
Just a lot of defensive intensity, which by the way,
in Game three they very much did not bring. And
that was a big part of what Anthony Everards talked

(27:14):
about after the game.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Secondly, Anthony Edwards, in my opinion, is probably a top
five player in the world and is flat out unguardable
in the majority of situations. And so what if he
just goes in and has a red hot pull up
jump shooting game. You know, that's a factor that has
to be kind of weighed in here. You mentioned Jada McDaniels.
He got kind of going in a big way offensively tonight.

(27:39):
Some of this stuff like Kat and nas Reed posting up.
A big part of that I thought was Denver didn't
really bring the physicality. I think they've demonstrated that they
can flat out, flat flatten out Cat's post ups and
turn him into more of an over the top shot
maker and kind of limit his effectiveness. I do agree
that Mike Conley just in a lot of ways. It's
just kind of like blue guy is kind of like
a cliche that we use in basketball, but he just

(28:00):
kind of makes everything come together, especially with this decision
making of that group.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Right.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
So, like again, I'm picking Denver, but Minnesota absolutely has
a chance to win this game. There's a pathway for
them there. I wouldn't even say they have a chance.
There is a version of this game that they will
win if things go a certain way. They have they
have that type of firepower. And so this, to me,
I would put it roughly, we'll go we'll go around quickly.

(28:27):
I'm gonna put it at at about like sixty five
thirty five in favor of Denver.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
What do you think, Carson?

Speaker 5 (28:38):
That is exactly what I was gonna say, And I
agree with everything that you laid out. But I do
expect Denver to be much more prepared for the physicality
of this game, to be prepared for that sort of
relacious defensive effort like if you're not in game seven,
and if you are, as you say, just giving the
sort of lazy defensive effort that we saw tonight. I
thought some of the rotations were really poor. That's not

(28:59):
gonna happen in a game seven. So yeah, I think
sixty five to thirty five is a good spot.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, that's the exact same number.

Speaker 7 (29:05):
I'd say, way, yeah, No, that's so weird.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
That's so weird. I was going to go seventy thirty.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
But that's for you guys, are coward good number.

Speaker 6 (29:13):
No.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
I wanted to see Carson.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
I wanted Carson to come out with like the ninety
seven to three, like I wanted Carson just to just
lean into his Jokic standum with the full fource.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
Minnesota is great.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
I think he's yeah, there teams, so okay. On that note,
let's move around to the other two series real quick.
We'll just spend at about ten minutes on each of them.
So I want to start with uh, let's start with
New York Indiana Game four and five. Kind of similar
to what we talked about tonight. Not really a whole
lot for you to learn about, in the sense that
you know, we have this bizarre Game four where the

(29:46):
Knicks just let go the rope basically for the first
time all postseason. It seems like every other time they've
been up against it and they find themselves in a
ten twelve point deficit, they would just somehow nix their
way back into the game.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
You know, and they let go the rope.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Right then we go back to Game five in Indie
or Game five back in in MSG, and it kind
of it was like a little bit of like Game
one where Tyre's Halliburton's weirdly super passive, but at the
same time, the Knicks just bring this hillacious, desperate effort
and they pull out to win. Rick Carlisle super pissed
off after the game about their effort level. It will

(30:21):
start with you, Logan, how are you guys feeling about
Game six back in Indiana tomorrow night.

Speaker 7 (30:26):
You have to be po at Indiana's effort level. Man,
that's the biggest thing. I was, Oh, Jason, I don't
know if you saw, man. I was all in on
the Pacers. I said, they're gonna mop the Knicks last
two games and next a retired, they're depleted. They're gonna
run these boys.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
And I bet on.

Speaker 7 (30:42):
The girl that doesn't play defense, and I bet against
the team that plays really hard most nights, and I
feel quite foolish for it. Like New York just has
bankable things that are consistently going to show up night
tonight in the way that the Pacers don't. The first
bedrock of this team is Jaylen Brunson, and the Indiana
Pacers have no idea how to contain or how to
defend him. Last game Game five, forty four points, seven

(31:06):
assists on fifty eight percent true shooting. These numbers were
midway through game five, so they're probably there's a few
more shot attempts on them for sure, so they're not
fully right. This is about in the third quarter. Brunson
was fourteen to twenty one on them hard in the series,
eleven to twenty eight on Nie Smith, and three of
eleven versus McConnell. So I think a big thing for

(31:27):
the Pacers is you just got to match the Smith's minutes.
You have to have him on Brunton as.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Much as possible. He just gives you.

Speaker 7 (31:34):
The best route to maybe winning against him. I don't
think it's gonna work. Like I think Brunson has been
dissecting doubles. He's been getting everything that he wants and
so again, again that's just something that you can bank
on with New York. Jalen Brunston's gonna show up. The
other thing that you can bank on is just how
New York has crushed the glass and the effort.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
You mentioned it, Jason.

Speaker 7 (31:54):
They're plus thirty two in total boards in this series,
they're plus eighteen in offensive boards, and in Game five
they they win fifty three to twenty nine. Overall, they
win twenty to five on the offensive glass, and they
dominate second chance points twenty six to nine.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Like, that's the scary thing about Indiana.

Speaker 7 (32:09):
Man, is it feels like, sure New York does not
have many quality basketball players. They are playing their like
eighth to ninth men as starters. It's ridiculous how many
bodies and how many guys they're out. But I expect
this team to play hard, really hard. I expect the
role players to do their jobs to a great level.
I expect Jalen Brunson to put the team on his back.

(32:30):
And the Pacers scare me, like, are the Pacers gonna
play defense? Is Tyre's Halliburton gonna shoot more than ten shots.
That's the biggest question mark to me too, dude, as
a superstar player. The Pacers were scoreless for six minutes
in the third quarter of Game five, and it's like,
where is Halliburton?

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Where what are we doing? You gotta take a shot.

Speaker 7 (32:49):
So Indiana just scares me to bet on after I
put all my chips in on them. Man, are they
gonna play defense? Are they gonna give me effort? Is
Halliburton gonna shoot enough shots? And the other guy that
I point the f his Pascal Siakam. I've just been
consistently disappointed at him not succeeding in attacking mismatches, and like,
this is a small Knicks team that are routinely trotting

(33:10):
out four guards in Hartenstein. That's a scenario that Siakam's
just got to dominate. So when I look at these
two teams, I just think New York has more bankable
and consistent things that they're gonna do on a nightly basis.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
I think the Pacers can get hot.

Speaker 7 (33:23):
I expect them to match that effort and energy, but
they burn me man, And I'm scared about betting on
Indiana again. They just have way more red flags than
me than New York. New York maybe lacking quality basketball players,
but I know Brunson and the boys are gonna bring
it hard.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Pivot from Logan from where he was at after Day.
I expect Indiana to win Game six. I would take
the Knicks to win this series in seven. I don't
necessarily disagree with a ton that you said, Logan, like.
The reason that I ultimately have a little bit more
faith in a Knicks team that is so shorthanded is
because Brunson has much more consistently played up to the

(34:04):
superstar or friend, superstar, top fifteen guy, whatever you want
to call him, level that he has earned recognition for,
whereas Hallie, although he had an amazing stretch in games
three and four of this series, has been much less
consistent with the aggression. And so I absolutely would bet
on them having the best player on the floor in
the biggest game. I would bet on them winning the

(34:26):
effort category. And then I think they've gotten enough in
terms of spot up shooting. I still think there are
some really good connective playmakers there, guys who make really
instinctual plays. Defensively, they still have more of a defensive
foundation even without Og in a do or guy spot.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
I would lean the.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Next But for Game six, it's just tough for me
to see the Knicks going into Indiana and I know
that they have this ability to summon this superhuman effort
within themselves, but they didn't in game four. Game four
was finally the spot where they were like, ah, man,
that was the one to steal Game three, where we
shoot fifty something ver from three, Dante gives us thirty five.

(35:03):
They couldn't get up for that specific game, and obviously
we saw tonight like when you are the team up
three to two going on the road, it's tough to
summon the same level of effort that the home team has.
And Indiana has been really good at home. They haven't
lost a home game in these playoffs. And that's where
it's like, Okay, now they have clear basketball advantages. They
have nine real quality basketball players. They have two stars

(35:26):
on the floor of the Knicks. One they play super
fast and can just build those leads, especially at home.
I'm with you on like Siakam has to play those
small ball looks off the floor. He has to be
better as a mismatch attacker, and that goes from Ales
Turner as well. And those guys have to rebound better
because there's no reason for the Knicks to beat you
on the glass when they are playing this super small

(35:47):
ball look. And that's a win for them because Deuce
McBride is just better than precious, and it allows them
to match your pace more effectively and bring ball pressure,
and they have more shooting, all these things that were
big in Game five. But with the home crowd behind them,
knowing that they have to bring that sort of energy
and ultimately having more weapons, I do think Indiana probably
takes Game six.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
So I'm actually a little bit more optimistic about the
Knicks winning Game six. I think I leaned slightly towards
Indiana in that game. It's probably like a fifty five
to forty five for me. I think it's gonna be
a really close game. I think the underrated part of
Game four that people are forgetting is it was like
a really quick turnaround. It was basically a day and
a half after Game three. In Game three was very
much a heartbreaking end to that game, right, So I

(36:30):
think that plays a role the especially with Jalen Brunson
dealing with his foot injury. We're not just talking about
not having a quick turnaround. We have an extra day
in here. The Nicks and Pacers played two days ago
and they don't play again until tomorrow, and so you
got two full days off. That's big on a big
for Jalen Brunson's foot. I think one of the things
that Tom dibdou figured out, and he figured it out

(36:52):
earlier in the series, but he did it with the
starting lineup in game five is just kind of understanding
that Duce McBride is one of his five best players
and there's just way too much presses. There was a
playing game, I think it was in Game five that
to me like perfectly encapsulated the problem with precious to Chua.
He catches in the left corner wide open for three,
doesn't take the shot, drives the baseline, and shoots a

(37:13):
floater short off the front of the rim, and you're like,
oh man, yeah, so like and one of the specific
things from a matchup standpoint with Deuce McBride on the
floor that becomes a problem for the Pacers is they
can't stash Haliburton on Josh Hart because Josh Hart's just
a wrecking ball in the offensive glass, and it becomes
a problem. I still think i'd put ty Reese on

(37:34):
Josh Hart. I just don't think they'll do it. The
main reason why I'd put Tyree on Josh Hart is
I think you could hedge and recover and get away
with a late close out on Josh Hart when he
slips to the three point line. And then again, I
would confront the rebounding issue more as a team. But
they're not going to put him on Josh Hart. I
just I don't think Rick Carlisle wants that physical mismatch.
Don Died Evencenzo on Miles McBride can both hit picking

(37:56):
pop threes at a pretty high level, and Duce McBride
did an amazing job in Game five of just kind
of making the next read in line to kind of
get the the defense in rotation and kind of take
advantage of it really when it comes down to it
for me, Even though Indiana actually has won the half
court battle so far through five games, they're at one
hundred point eight points per one hundred half court plays.

(38:18):
The Knicks are at one hundred flat in the series.
But I do think a big part of that was
the blowout in Game four, kind of poisoning the.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Data a little bit.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
I think I think I trust New York's half court
offense a little bit better, And so think of it
like this, from the standpoint of the odds, I think
the Pacers, I give them like a fifty five to
forty five chance to win Game six, right, but I
think I give it like eighty twenty in favor of
the Knicks in Game seven. So for me, just from
the standpoint of like a basic statistical analysis, the Knicks

(38:47):
have a pretty good chance to win Game six and
a really good chance to win Game seven, And to me,
that makes them the clear favorite. I don't want to
write them off entirely, but yeah, I think Jalen Bruns
is the best player. I think that they're just a
little bit more distant with their effort and energy on
both ends of the floor. I just think they're a
better basketball team. You know the Haliburton piece, and you
got Logan, you broke it down beautifully. But like one

(39:09):
of the things with Taliburton is like he was taking
eleven three is a game and hitting over forty percent
of them for a few weeks before that game five,
and then he goes out and takes four of them,
and like I did, I did this bit on my
show after that game. You know, I think every single
player archetype has a downside. I think Jocic has a
little bit of this too with his playmaking, where it's like,
all of a sudden in game two, he's passing a
sick but he's he's passing out a single coverage, you know,

(39:34):
and it's like, dude, your team's falling apart. You got
to be aggressive, you know what I mean? And like that,
by the way, Lebron had that a lot over the years,
where it's like he's just continuing to make the right
play and it's like, yeah, but we need you to
kind of take over the game here. And so some
of that is kind of a natural side effect of
his personality as a basketball player, but I think it
gets exacerbated with his age and some of the stakes

(39:56):
at play here because this is this first time being
the best player on a chain tam best player on
a playoff team, Yeah exactly, I misspoke. The best player
on a team that's actually making a playoff run. It's
a different vibe entirely than than being in a supporting role. Right,
So I lean, I lean New York. I probably lean
in that sixty sixty five to thirty five for them

(40:17):
to win the series at this point, feeling pretty comfortable
about that, So let's move on to Let's move on
to the Mavericks Thunder series. This to me has been
a really fascinating exhibition of the downsides of having a
really young team. And one of the main things that
I point to there is, like, you know, around the league,
we're seeing youth actually win, but not youth in the

(40:40):
early twenties. We're seeing youth in the late twenties win.
It's the it's the prime guys. It's the guys in
that twenty five to twenty nine range that have kicked
the shit out of the thirty to thirty five guys, right,
and that that has been kind of the big story
of this postseason And one of the things that's really
noticed that I've really noticed in this series for the
between the thought under in the MAVs is just the

(41:01):
Thunder have been unable to reach their ceiling through a
lot of young guy decision making mistakes, and the MAVs
have had issues with their stars being consistent, but in
terms of overall process, they've been more diligent about getting
the right shots and playing for each other and playing
to their strengths, which I think is manifested every single

(41:22):
time that they've really put their foot on the gas.
As a matter of fact, the two losses to me
primarily came down to Luca just sucking like in game one,
in game four, and as long as Luca reaches a
certain floor, I think they're gonna win. And so we're
headed back to Dallas for Game six, which I believe
is on Saturday. We'll start with you, Carson, where are
you at with this series?

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (41:44):
I'm confident in Dallas and I would pick them to
close it out at home. This should have been over
in five, like, if not for an absolute Luca disaster
class in game four and of course Shay coming through
huge clutch in the well as well, but even Kyrie
couldn't make shots in the fourth quarter of that game
like that was just such a collective meltdown.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
Clearly, we are seeing a.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
More consistent level from this Dallas team, because it's exactly
like you say, not only has this not been a
good Lucas series.

Speaker 6 (42:14):
Last game he was really good Kyrie.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
A lot of it to me has just been so
consistently seeing two defenders, and he's playmaking well. But also
I would have liked to see him assert himself more
in some of these spots and maybe even go away
from pick and roll and just go to work in isolation.
He's such a great shot maker, like heats, to me,
hasn't quite had the offensive impact you would like to see.
Neither of them have had like the sort of collective
big night that we know that they're capable of, partly

(42:39):
as a product of scheme, but also just as a
product of their performance, the level that they're playing at.
And still they're up three to two, and again this
series should have been over by now, so I have
a lot more confidence in Dallas's role players right now.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
I think that PJ.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Washington and Derek Jones are kind of running circles around
what you're seeing from the OKC Wings in terms of
shot making from PJ, but also just in terms of
the physicality, the athleticism, how they're making plays. They are
consistently getting the ball to those corners when you're seeing
two guys Senate Hyrie and Lucan, they're making shots. And
on the flip side, I just think Okac's offense is

(43:15):
kind of broken down. Both these teams are having to
deal with awesome rim protection. Like the efficiency in the
restricted area for both these teams is just brutal. It's
like way below the rest of the field in this series,
and you got to give props to Check there, and
you got to give props to Gafford Lively there. But
one team is still producing, one team is still getting
good open looks in the corners, and the other team

(43:37):
is just really struggling to move the ball. They're at
times forcing finishes, which is just not going to work
out when you're dealing with this level of rimp protection,
and they're forcing some shots from beyond the arc as well,
like where you make an extra swing pass and you
can get a better look. And they also just aren't
really knocking down even the decent looks that they're getting

(43:58):
from three to oka.

Speaker 6 (43:59):
See.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
I do think it's more a product of just not
having very good shot quality though.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
So you can.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
Start Isaiah Joe like last game, and then you can't
roam off of Josh Giddy super easily. But Isaiah Joe
wasn't on as a three point shooter last game, nor
was Caseon Wallace, nor was Aaron Wiggins those guys have
to make shots to ultimately figure things out.

Speaker 6 (44:20):
For Okasee and Jadab has just been really, really rough.

Speaker 5 (44:23):
Has not been nearly the second shot creator that they've needed,
hasn't been able to consistently create advantages. Also, just has
struggled as a shooter, Like he's just off. So when
I think about where Dallas is at without getting like
really good Lucan Kyrie consistently, they're just checking more boxes.
They're physical, the defensive foundation is so strong. I think

(44:45):
they can win even more convincingly on the glass than
they have in some of these games. So I would
confidently expect them to finish out this series.

Speaker 6 (44:52):
I'm with you. I just think Oka see they're incredible
what they've done for being so young.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
They're the youngest one seed in NBA history. That is awesome,
What an accomplishment. But up and down this roster, the
dudes other than Shay just aren't ready for this moment yet.

Speaker 7 (45:07):
Yeah, the supporting cast has really let Oklahoma City down.
And so when you couple in the other factors, like
you know, Sga has been pulling his weight, like he's
thirty points last game this series, he's thirty two ten
and seven on fifty nine percent true shooting. I know
you mentioned this last episode, Carson. When you're facing this
kind of defensive intensity and pressure and these kind of

(45:29):
packed lanes and all this defensive attention, it really is
remarkable that Sga has been this effective and he's playmaked well,
like he's seven assists of this series. He'd have way
more if his boys could hit a shot, like they're
really letting him down. J dub is the guy that
I point the finger at the most. Game Forty's fourteen
points on five to nineteen from the field, Game five,
he's twelve points on six to thirteen. And you can't

(45:51):
overstate like how important three point shooting is to this team.
They were number one and three point percentage in the
regular season. Game five, they shoot ten of five already
this series, they've been at thirty five percent against Dallas,
and outside of Game one, they've shot thirty five percent
from below thirty five percent excuse me from deep in
four consecutive games against Dallas. So you couple the fact

(46:14):
that Oklahoma City has consistently gotten very little from their
supporting cast, Dallas has gotten everything, and then you get
to the physicality department, which is why I really give
the edge to Dallas. They've won every game on the
glass outside of Game one, either plus twelve in defensive
rebounds or excuse me, total rebounds or plus nine in
offensive rebounds, Like those are just things.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
That don't change.

Speaker 7 (46:36):
Like, I trust Dallas's defense, I trust them on the glass.
If Luca can shut up and stop crying too the
reffs and do what he did in Game five, Like,
I'm very confident that the Dallas is gonna come through
and handle business. But it really comes down to Oklahoma
City supporting cast, and I just don't think they have.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Done enough to propel Shae.

Speaker 7 (46:54):
Shae has done everything you could have asked for him
in this series, Like he has gone above and beyond,
and I'm really disappointed at how the supporting cast has
let him down in this series.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, the stat that I gave to just kind of
demonstrate the bad process is they're actually shooting forty two
percent on a wide open threes in the series. They're
making them. The problem is they're only generating sixteen of them.
They generated twenty three of them per game in the
regular season. They were just so much more diligent.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
About that.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Something I've noticed for a long time. I work with
a lot of young basketball players, obviously through a bunch
of different avenues. I work with the college kids that
come back to town. I work with my high school
team that I coach. And one of the most frequent
things I noticed, and I've used this kind of like
this story on the show before, but like young basketball
players struggle to identify what's working and repeat it and

(47:46):
then identify what's not working and like trim that fat
out of whatever they're doing, is they have a tendency
to kind of bounce back and forth and not really
be aware of the value of what every possession is.
And I think the dead giveaway there is like, look
at how Dallas is, Like PJ. Washington has it going,
so they're just like hunting him with skip passes every

(48:08):
single time he's being left open. You can literally see
Kyrie and Luca like like just trying to find reasons
to give him the basketball, you know what I mean.
And with Oklahoma City, it's kind of just they're just
playing so read and react, but not like not with
any sort of diligence and bigger picture sense of what's
happening in the game.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Everyone's just kind of playing, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
And I'll see that with young players where it's like
you'll you'll run a basic action, maybe it's a ball
screen where you're attacking a specific mismatch and this one
guy can't guard when a guy's going downhill at him,
and you'll get an easy layup. And then you'll go
down the floor the next time, and I'll be sitting
there thinking like, let's do the same thing again, and
then someone will just go off script and take a
random pull up jumper and You're like, what are you doing?

(48:50):
We just got an easy layup doing this, So how
about we do that until they figure out how to
stop it, and then we figure out what we're gonna
do next. Right, Like basketball doesn't need to be as
difficult it is as it is sometimes And like, honestly,
like one of the big things that's dawned to me
in this series, I actually do think Oklahoma City has
more offensive talent than Dallas, and I think they've demonstrated

(49:12):
that throughout the throughout the season.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
The problem is is like Dallas is just playing better basketball.
They're just playing a more diligent and smart brand of basketball.
I do think one of the things that has stood
out in a big way is Dallas's defense is for real,
particularly at the perimeter and at the rim. And this
is one of those things. I remember after the trade deadline,
they went on an East Coast road trip and that

(49:37):
was the game where Maxtrus hit the that was the
trip where extras It beat him on a on the
full court game winner, if you guys remember. But their
defense was just straight ass on that road trip, Like
it was so bad. And I remember sitting there thinking like,
man like, I don't know if this team is capable
of really locking in on that in the way that
they need to, but they did down the stretch of
the season, and like, I legitimately have been super i

(50:00):
by them in this playoff run. And one of the
things too, that I want to say before we move
on Tyrie, there are some funky box scores in there,
and and like I get it. I know I'm a
Kyrie fan, but like, I think he's been pretty damn
good in this series. Like Kyrie is just a basketball player,
man Like, he just does all of these little things

(50:21):
really well and and just kind of has a feel
for like the timeliness of what's happening in a game
like he didn't have I can't even remember how many
points he scored in Game five, on't much, but he
hit this like huge pull up three I want to
say it was in the early fourth quarter that put
them up fourteen, and like he hadn't even been being aggressive,
but he was aggressive on that possession, and it almost

(50:44):
felt like he was like, I can hit the shot.
I'm gonna hit it right here. It's just gonna change
the mental dynamic of the game because fourteen just feels
insurmountable in a lot of ways. And so yeah, like
I just want to shout out Dallas. I've been really
really impressed with them. They flipped me in the last
month of the season. I had to considerably lower in
my contender rankings, and I ended up moving them up

(51:04):
to third behind Denver and Boston at the very end
of the season after watching that latch that last stretch,
just because I thought they were peaking at the right
time and I really thought they were figuring some things
out defensively, and like it's been cool to kind of
see that come to fruition, and I've just been really
really impressed by them and Honestly, I think Dallas. If

(51:25):
Dallas and Denver both escape, I think that would be
a really really fun Western Conference Finals And to me,
that does feel like a proper conference finals type of matchup.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
Before we get out.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Of here tonight, I've decided, I've made an executive decision.
We're going to We're going to do an additional segment,
not gonna be a long one. We're going to rank
the top five remaining players in the NBA playoffs. Okay,
we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it as a
group effort and get into a little bit of a debate. Okay,
so let's just start with this. We all agree that

(51:58):
that Nicole Yoki is at number one?

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Correct? Does anybody want to argue that at all? Whatsoever?

Speaker 6 (52:03):
No agreed?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Okay, So I've Nicole Jokic at number one. Who's number two?
And let's start with you, Carson, who's the second best
player remaining in the playoffs?

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (52:14):
This is in terms of who would I want for
the remainder of these playoffs, like based on the level
they've been playing.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
At purely in a vacuum, playing at this level in
a vacuum, but within the scope of this playoff run. So,
for instance, I want you to evaluate Anthony Edwards and
guys like guys like Jalen Brunston. I want you to
evaluate them within the lens of how they're playing in
this postseason run.

Speaker 5 (52:38):
So that's what makes this tricky, because I do think
that Luca is the second best player remaining big picture,
I also think Luca has been the second best player
on his own team in this playoff run.

Speaker 6 (52:51):
And even though he figured a lot.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
Of things out last game and got his attitude together,
and the pull up jumpers were following in a way
they just haven't been, and his decision making was great,
and he was getting down hillmore, he was engaged defensively,
he's been so so uh, I don't.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
Even know if I would say up and down.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
It's been more bad than good, considerably more bad than
good for Luca considering the standard that we hold him to.
To me, ant's been the top two guy in this
playoff run. And part of that is like, yeah, he's
been unbelievable as a pull up shooter, and he finally
had a clunker in Game five where those shots just
weren't following, and that was rough. But also like I

(53:30):
really like a lot of the shots that he's getting
as a pull up shooter. I don't think it's always
gonna be this good, but I also do think it's
legitimately better than it was in the regular season, and
he has taken a jump in every postseason.

Speaker 6 (53:42):
He's defending at a high level.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
The athleticism just does not stop his willingness to dominate
a game.

Speaker 6 (53:50):
I feel like.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
He's earned two right now, and that's not big picture,
Like I would still have Luca and I would have
Sga higher on my player rankings, but An's been It's
in these playoffs so far.

Speaker 7 (54:02):
Ants number two for me as well, Like when the
difference I would make is I think Luca's ceiling is higher,
but I think Ant's floor has consistently been higher in
these playoffs. Like you know, Ants strong all these double
teams too, when his pull up jump shooting isn't hitting
and he's making good decisions. But what we were talking
about on our show too, is the fact that you know,
when Ann gets a double, he's not really gonna make you.

(54:22):
He's not gonna punish you for the worst part, Like
he's not ever gonna kick week side to the corner
like that nail in the Coffin type pass that's gonna
He's gonna make the right decision. And so that's why
I say on like it is ceiling when Luca's drawing
those kind of coverages and he's on and he's strong
and he's getting downhill. Luca, I think is definitively number two.
But like the floor that we've gotten from Man has

(54:44):
been so phenomenal, And I mean, Jason, you say he's unguardable,
like already I do. Man, nobody can stay in front
of the kid. And yeah, the level he's been at,
I think he's number two. And almost spoil it a
little bit, guys, I think i'd have Luca maybe four
or five out of the remaining guys, Like, just with
where he's been.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
At, where his floor has been at, and where.

Speaker 7 (55:03):
He's been at consistently, Luca's probably lower than I would
have him at full health.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
So I think it's unquestionable that Ant has been the
second best player in this postseason run based solely on results,
Based on how he's played to this point, I am
going to bump him to three for Luca, though, in
the sense that even though Luca has had some really
bad moments, Like if I was picking players that i'd
want to lead my team going into the conference finals,

(55:33):
for instance, I just trust Luca a little bit more
with his experience and a little bit more of his
like half court surgery type of stuff, to be a
little bit more resilient to adjustments and things along those
lines over the course.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Of the series.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
And it's just a respect to the fact that I
do believe Luca is the second best player in the
world right now. So I'm gonna go with Luca at
two on my list, but I would put Aunt at three.
I'm assuming Carson you would put it, or you'd put
Luke at three as well, right I would, although I have.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Been concerned by a lot of what we've seen, and
I think, like even as his jumpers start falling more,
just the fact that he hasn't been getting downhill consistently,
and I think the knee is definitely a component in that,
Like we are definitely not seeing the Luca that we're
used to. So I don't want to be overly encouraged
just because Game five was really good, but I do

(56:26):
just think he's earned the recognition just because of how
great of a basketball player he is and the offensive mastery.
Long story short, Yes, I would still have him at three,
even though I definitely don't think he's been at that
level consistently in these playoffs.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Okay, so Logan, since you think Luca's at seventeen and
he's a bum, who do you have at three?

Speaker 1 (56:45):
He's not a bum? Thank you for putting those words
in my mouth, Jason.

Speaker 6 (56:50):
Luca.

Speaker 7 (56:51):
I'm not super encouraged consistency wise, and I agree with
you guys, like at full strength, I think Luca's definitively
number two. But I think they gave him somebody that
good good before Game five, some of that that big
Ben's special in his leg, something like that. I think
they gave him, you know, some of that you ain't
gonna feel it during the game, and I think it

(57:11):
was able to get him to lock.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
In a little more.

Speaker 7 (57:14):
I am just skeptical at how healthy he's gonna be,
how much he's moaning at the rest, how much he's
concerned with that aspect of the game. Mister consistent has
been SGA and like I just bank on it, Like
I think that he might be the most consistent scorer
in basketball. If I need thirty man Like, No, I
wouldn't put him over Yokics, but I might put him too.

(57:34):
Sga just has an unstoppable skill set, and I think
his playmaking numbers would look better if his teammates were hidden.
Looks like he's been so good as a decision maker,
he's been so great at dealing with doubles, he's gotten
any bucket that he's wanted, and in the fourth quarter
of these games, like he.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Stepped his game up.

Speaker 7 (57:49):
It's a It's been about the consistency for me in
these playoffs, and Luca has just consistently played below his means.
Is that still a really good freaking basketball player. Yeah,
but I'd rather take the guy that has been consistently
great and great in almost every single game in these playoffs,
and that's been Sga. And so again, this is nothing
against Luca. I think Luca at full strength is number two,
but I wouldn't put him. I wouldn't put him over

(58:12):
SGA in these playoffs thus far.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Okay, So I have Carson at Jokic aunt Luca, and
I have Logan at Jokic aunt SGA. Correct, I am
gonna tweak mine because I made a mistake this was
something I intended to do, but I made a mistake.
I'm moving Aunt down to four, and I'm putting Jason
Tatum at three. And here's the reason why I'm a
huge believer in Aunt. I think he might actually be

(58:35):
my favorite player. And I think that Ant is going
to be better than Jason Tatum within within eighteen months.
Like I think that's how highly I think of Ant.
Aunt right now, though, is just a little bit volatile
like any other twenty two year old in terms of
his like just ability to handle the random kind of

(58:56):
curve balls that the NBA Playoffs can throw at you,
kind of like him just getting completely, like just completely
blindsided by the double teaming in Game five, for instance.
I also think has had some really bad defensive moments
in this postseason, and he's one of those guys that's
like devastating on the ball. And I thought he had
his best defensive game of the postseason tonight against Jamal Murray,

(59:19):
much better screen navigation, just stayed attached to him a
lot better. But a big part of what happened that
kind of hurt the team in Game three. In Game
four was and just kept losing Jamal on screens and
that's a big weakness in his game at this point.
Jason Tatum can be a frustrating basketball player. God knows that.
I've gone into that in excruciating detail over the course

(59:39):
of the last few years. And there are things that
I despise about his approach, and then I wish that
he could get better at in terms of his scoring resiliency,
in terms of his ability to be efficient, Like he
shot over fifty percent for the first time all postseason
last night. Yeah, like he's not having a good scoring
playoff front. That said, I think Jason Tatum has been

(01:00:00):
underrated in a bunch of key areas in this playoff run.
First of all, I think he's been unbelievable defensively. He's
arguably their smartest and most impactful team defender in terms
of like just his versatility's ability to switch everything, like, oh,
let's put him on Evan Mobley or like to let's
put him on Evan Mobley to start a playoff series
so that we can switch ball screens and we know

(01:00:21):
we're not giving up anything there rebounding or imp protection
even like there's just a lot of upside there. He's
an excellent rebounder, in a way that I think is
really underrated at his position. He's averaging over ten rebounds
in the Cavs series. Another big piece of it, too,
for me, is like he's uniquely kind of like a

(01:00:42):
nice fit with this group because his passivity and is willing,
willingness to just make the right play kind of allows
a lot of the other guys to kind of stay
to be more impactful. I think the big weakness of
his is like identifying when to be like, no, give
me the damn ball and get out of my way.
And that's why I don't have him higher on this list.

(01:01:04):
That's why I think that Jokich and Luca are clearly
better basketball players than him. Think they just are better
at identifying that balance between playing in the flow of
the game versus being really aggressive. So I just think
I think right now Tatum's floor is so much higher
than Ants, just because he's a more experienced, better kind
of like all around basketball player that I'm putting him

(01:01:26):
at three. But to be clear to Ant, I think
he's been the second best player in this playoff run
to this point. I'm just saying, like if I was
peaking players for a seven game series, that started tomorrow
in a vacuum. I think Tatum is just a little
bit more reliable in all of the other areas of
the game. Where would you guys have Tatum? Would guys
have Tatum in your top five?

Speaker 5 (01:01:46):
So I feel very confident about Aunt above him. To me,
the gap in defensive consistency does not offset the fact
that at the end of the day, I don't think
there's any world in which Jason Tatum could have done
could be doing what Anthony Edwards has consistently done. Just
as that takeover offensive number one thirty a night on

(01:02:07):
sixty six percent for shooting, and yes hasn't been great
as a playmaker, has been mostly good enough when we
are talking about projecting this, as I mentioned, like he
has an effective field goal percentage of fifty seven and
a half on pull up jumpers in the playoffs versus
forty four percent in the regular season.

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
That is not going to be sustained. That is like.

Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
Better than any single pull up jump shooter in basketball
this year. But he is in a rhythm right now,
and like that rhythm has been pretty consistent over the
course of these ten games. I just think Ann is
a significantly better score of the basketball. At the end
of the day, I think his unrelenting downhill pressure, combined
with the fact that right now he is just way
better as a pull up shooter.

Speaker 6 (01:02:47):
I just don't think Tatum could do what he's doing
right now.

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
And I don't agree that Tatum is in some ways
like a very good connective number one. But also, when
you're in Boston, you get to have the luxury of
doing that because you can have offensive explosions from Derek
White for a series, you can have Jalen Brown be
your best offensive player, which I would argue up until
last game, like, well, he's been their best score throughout

(01:03:11):
this playoffs. I would say Jalen Brown has been, so
I would have Tatum at five.

Speaker 6 (01:03:18):
I would have Sga confidently at four.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
I think his floor is a score is just outstanding,
and again I think he is capable of providing a
consistency there that I don't get from Tatum. SGA shooting
fifty three percent from the mid range and even facing
as we've talked about, a great defense with great athletes
on the perimeter, Derek Jones Junior is a tough draw
pack paints. He's the best downhill guard in the league,
and he can't get all the way downhill right now,

(01:03:41):
and he is still killing you with great volume and efficiency.
He's still making the right reads, and he's having a
real defensive impact. I think Sga is a better basketball
player than Jason Tatum, both within the context of this
run and outside of it. Five is tough because I
really have so much respect for Jalen Brunson and what

(01:04:02):
he's done as an offensive number one. But I do
think that is the threshold at which, like the all
around value of Tatum does surpass the singular shot making
value that you get from Jalen Brunson and playmaking because
he's drawing such obscene amounts of offensive attention. Like, I
do think Brunson is clearly a better offensive player, but

(01:04:24):
I do think Tatum is the better all around basketball player,
and I would take him going forward. But that's even
close to me, So I'd have Tatum five.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Okay, hold on, hold on for a second. Logan, So
I've got, I've got. I'm actually putting Jalen Brunson at five.
I think that in Wow when you cut, when you
kind of yeah, well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Again, we're splitting hairs here. This is a tier of players.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
That's probably six long, not five long, but we're forcing
it to five for the sake of some good debate,
So I'd have sgah six. And I certainly don't see
much of a gap really between three and six, really
between two and six, I don't see much of a
gap there. Like Joki is kind of on a tier
on his own. So don't take this as an insult
thunder fans. I just am kind of giving this as

(01:05:04):
a as a an opportunity to shout out Jalen Brunson.
Jalen Brunston, to me, has had kind of a similar
job to Shay in this postseason, and I just think
he's done a better job of it. In fact, I
would argue that, like there's more pressure on Jalen Brunston
to produce every single game, Like to put it simply,
like we just talked about how we think the Knicks
are gonna beat the Pacers, and it requires Brunson to

(01:05:24):
go score seventy points in those two games or thirty
five to forty in a one game if they close
it out, Like it is an absolute necessity for Jalen
Brunson to just completely tattoo those guys a score as
a score the entirety of one or both of those games,
and he just continually shows up every single time they
need him to. I think he's one of those guys too,
where his like lack of physical imposition on the game

(01:05:47):
kind of makes people think what he's doing is fluky.
And look, I need to really really dive into the
tape to kind of and I plan on doing that
this summer to kind of get like a better feel
for what makes Jalen Brunson such dominant score on the
surface kind of take on it is like kind of
thirty thousand feet is just he's the ultimate. It reminds

(01:06:08):
me of Kyrie in the sense that, like he literally
has every move in the book. Yeah, he can shoot
step back threes, he can hit forward moving threes off
of ball screens. He can do it going both directions.
He can hit pull up mid range jump shots in
ball screens. He can hit turn your back to the
basket fade away jump shots in ISO and post up situations.
He's got all of the floaters and hooks from the

(01:06:29):
short range, and he can finish at the rim. And
he's a great playmaker, and so like he literally can
do it all and that in and of itself, I
think kind of gives him a level of versatility that
he can always kind of throw a change up at
whatever defender is guarding him, and that makes him kind
of super resilient in these situations. And so even though, like, yeah,
in a vacuum, I would take Shay to run a

(01:06:50):
franchise because I think he's younger and more physically gifted
and obviously like there's a lot of upside there. But
to me, like Jalen Brunson deserves his flowers for this
playoff run, and I think he's just done a better
job of what Shay's doing on a nightly basis and
a higher pressure situation for a team who needs it more.
And so I put Jalen Brunson at five. So Logan,
I have you at So that puts my list at

(01:07:11):
jok Luca, Tatum at Brunson, Carson's at Jokic Aunt Luca,
Sga Tatum, Logan, I have you at jokic ant Sga,
and we need your four and five.

Speaker 7 (01:07:25):
Luca, and then Brunston, I just want to ask real quick, Jason,
what do you mean about by his lack of physical imposition?

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Like on the game. Like, I think Brunson's a pretty
physical guy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
No, he plays a physical brand.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
When I say what I mean is he's not particularly fast,
he's not particularly strong. Well, he is a strong player
for his size, but he's not like particularly big. He's
not particularly tall or athletic like. He just he's straight
up beating these dudes with with skill development and and
just IQ and savvy and audacity and just like Alpha Dog,

(01:07:57):
you can't guard me like that, He's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
Just doing it. I'll tell you that the Baldon stop
would love him.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
He's just just straight hooping these guys into the dirt.

Speaker 6 (01:08:07):
But he's no Jamal Crawford.

Speaker 7 (01:08:10):
Tell you that the reason I would go with Brunson
and like SGA over Tatum.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
You make a great argument, I think, Jason.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
About what you have Tatum outside the top five entirely, wouldn't.

Speaker 7 (01:08:22):
I mean, I'm I'm the resident Boston Celtics and Jason
Tatum hater. I will wear that hat. I will wear
the hat. I will be the spokesperson for the campaign.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
Like, I think you make a great case for Tatum
with what he brings defensively, with how great he has
been on the boards and how imperative that is to
Boston's winning formula, Like without Christoph Sporzingis, Boston is kind
of at a significant size and interior disadvantage with Horford,
Like you need Tatum to play that role. And so
I think he's great at those things and all the

(01:08:51):
extra things, but I just don't think Jason Tatum could
do what Jaylen Brunston is doing right now. I don't
think Jason Tatum could do what shake Gilges Alexander is
doing right now. Like Saston, Tatum has such a high
ceiling when his pull up jumper is going, and that's great,
but I've also seen Jason Tatum's offensive floor.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
And it's a pit man, it is a big hole.

Speaker 7 (01:09:11):
Like I just Tatum brings such a lack of offensive
consistency that I would always take Brunton and Sga over
them because I can just count on these guys to
consistently deliver. I don't trust Jason Tatum consistent to consistently deliver.
Like he's got all the tools, he's got all the traits,
but it's about putting it together. And SGA and Brunson

(01:09:32):
to me clear him as number one scorers and number
one playmakers and I just value their offensive skill sets
more than Tatum. I don't know why you guys are surprised,
Like I had Tatum outside of my top ten players playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:09:45):
Yeah, like I'm not.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
Tatum is hotly, It's not a big gap for me.
Like I do view Tatum more highly as an overall
basketball player. However, what Brunson is doing right now is
ridiculous and there's nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:09:59):
Fluky about it. I compare them, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:10:02):
Six weeks ago maybe, or really he and this whole
next team to being very iverson and early two thousand
and six ers esque, and that you have this team
that is built on high effort, defensive minded guys. It's different,
of course, because now it's twenty twenty four and most
of these dudes can shoot, but you have no other
shot creators, and you have this small guard who has
to bear a ridiculous offensive burden, and it's not possible

(01:10:24):
to be super efficient under those circumstances. Like Jalen, Brunson's
true shooting percentage is fifty four in these playoffs, well
below the average. There's no question he has been one
of the best offensive engines because he is the only
reliable shot creator.

Speaker 6 (01:10:38):
And my gun.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Yeah, none of them are shots of offense. Yeah, none
of them are bad shots because they literally need hit.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Like if he takes a tough traundateaway, You're like, that's
the highest value shot they can get on this possession.
And then honestly, like most of one of the things
that you're hitting there too, with the fifty four percent
for shooting percentage, it's being amplified by offensive rebounding because
he's just getting so many additional attempts.

Speaker 6 (01:11:00):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
So what I think is really interesting about the Brunton
Tatum dynamic is like there's no question that both of
them is very much engineered for their current situation. Like
Jason Tatum is never going to need to carry the
offensive burden that Jalen Brunson does as a scorer, as
a creator, him being such a strong part of that
connected elite when they're dialed in defense, that's what the

(01:11:22):
Boston Celtics need. Whereas I think if Jason Tatum were
on the New York Knicks, like you would not be
seeing the level of offensive production that you're getting from
Jalen Brunson. So that one is legitimately tough to me
but when I think about the ceiling of configuring a
team around either one of them, I do think it's
a little bit higher with Tatum, just marginally so, because

(01:11:45):
of course Brunson's doing this under difficult circumstances, but he's
never going to be like the most efficient offensive number
one because of some of his size limitations.

Speaker 6 (01:11:54):
He's incredible.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
And then it is like the gap in the two
way impact and Jason Tatum being one of the best
rebounders in these playoffs. And by the way, that's part
of the reason that I go SGA over Bruntson. It's
not purely about the offensive impact. It's not to say
that Brunton is bad defensively. We all know he's a
champion charge taker, but like SGA is making impactful plays
as a help or he's averaging like over three stocks

(01:12:16):
a game, like he's not all world there, but he's
legitimately quite good. And I think that that's where the
gap is as much as anything.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
This was fun.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Yeah, one last thing I want to hit just on
the Tatum thing, Like, I let's not forget it that
he does play one of the most important positions athletically
in the league, which is like that big forward, Like,
this is the guy that's responsible for low man responsibilities
a lot of the time. This is the guy that
has to clean up the defensive glass a lot of
the time. This is the guy that has to usually
staying with a larger post player. Yeah, exactly, And so

(01:12:46):
like I think that like we again, I believe. I
think I believe truly everything I said about as it
pertains to Tatum. I think that ants ceiling is a
pull up jump shooter in his first step are just
gonna be what a to enter into conversations both currently
and all time that Tatum is kind of incapable of
entering into that said, like, focusing on the scoring is

(01:13:09):
just one small part of what Jason Tatum does. And
as much as he's been frustrating and plateauing as a
pull up shooter and as an efficient scorer, especially in
the postsetting or in the postseason setting, his overall impact
has been ascending. In my opinion, I thought the end
of that game against Cleveland last night was one of
his best moments as an NBA player in the sense

(01:13:29):
that like he just looked like the old savvy like
it reminded me of like Lebron where it's like he's
not doing anything stupid other than just looking the direction
the defense is leaning and throwing basic swing and skip
passes that set guys up for success. And so I
just want to make sure that Tatum gets the appropriate

(01:13:50):
level of respect that he deserves that goes beyond just
the scoring piece. All right, before we get out of here, guys,
why don't you tell me a little bit about what
you're working on over at the nerd Sets channel. Everybody
who's tuned in tonight, make sure you guys head over
there and hit that subscribe button for them. They're doing
a bunch of really cool stuff. Carson's going to tell
you about it right now.

Speaker 6 (01:14:06):
Yeah, So we are at nerd Sash.

Speaker 5 (01:14:08):
First of all, of course, appreciate you having us on
as always, Jason, a bunch of fun. Very glad that
you added that segment. Also the top five players that
was fun fun. I thought that was great. So yeah,
follow us at nerd Sash on YouTube. We are doing
almost nightly shows. We're reacting to a bunch of these games.
We're actually gonna take tomorrow night off, but then we'll
be back on Saturday. On top of that, you can

(01:14:31):
watch all of our shows on our YouTube page. We
also are doing some in depth video breakdown film driven content.
I just made a video about why Yoki is the
best score on the planet right before they lost by
forty five, so go check that one out.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
Beautiful timing by me, O, my, and Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
You can follow us across social media if you want,
Instagram and TikTok at Nerd, sash, Twitter, at nerd, Underscore, sesh.
We do a bunch of trivia content there on top
of posting some clips from the show to get more
of our analysis, so that pretty much covers it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Thank you guys seriously for taking the time tonight. I know,
short notice, but when we get a team losing by
fifty in the playoffs, it's no longer no longer makes
sense for me to get up here and talk to
x's and o's about what's going on. So I appreciate
you guys taking the time out of your night to
make this happen. All of you guys supporting the show obviously,
it means the world to me that you guys keep

(01:15:23):
rocking with us as we get through this playoff run. Again,
it means a lot to me as well. If you
guys head over to nerd Session and subscribe and support
those guys are doing great work over there. That's all
we have for tonight. I may or may not do
something with film in the morning. We'll see how I
feel when I wake up. And then we're for sure
going live after the final buzzer of Nick Pacers Game six,
so I will see you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Then the volume

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Hoops Tonight X Nerd Sesh - Nuggets-Timberwolves Reaction: Ant Edwards & Wolves BLOW OUT Denver