Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Minnesota Timberwolves fall to the Oklahoma City Thunder in
Game one of the Western Conference Finals, and the performance, well,
it was laughable by a majority of the Timberwolves roster.
So that's what we're going to talk about today. What
(00:27):
was the most laughable part? Wow, tough to choose because
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Contact five Star Bass Solutions of Minneapolis and they will
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Bass Solutions of Minneapolis. All right, what was the most
laughable part of the Timberwalls and fourteen to eighty eight
loss to the thunder Squad. One. First, I want to say, Okay, sure,
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on the scoreboard, the Timberwolves lost by almost thirty points,
But the truth of the matter is they really lost
by like thirteen. The scrubs were in and they played
the final few minutes of that game, and the Wolves surrendered,
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And okay, they really lost by like thirteen to fifteen points.
You look at the score and it looks a lot
worse than it actually was because it was a competitive
game until the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter, the Timberwolves never
really put a dent in the lead that the thunder
accumulated in the third quarter. And my first takeaway because
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this is when the game turned. The Timberwolves were up
sixty to fifty six. After Edwards found Mike Conley in
the corner, the defense gravitated towards Edwards. As he got
in the paint, he found an open Mike Conley on
the corner and he knocked down a three. Thunder immediately
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called him out from that point on. The Thunder then
went on a ten to oh run, And during the
thunders ten to oh run, not a single time did
I see that Anthony Edwards initiated the offense to get
a similar look as Mike Conley just got to knock
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down an open three point shot. From that point on,
I saw a passive Anthony Edwards, someone that did not
demand the basketball. He was just kind of resting and
chilling in the corner, allowing guys like Nikhil Alexander Walker,
allowing guys like Mike Conley and nas reed to initiate
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offense when the Timberwolves were up by four and had
an opportunity to put their foot on the gas pedal
and get up by double digit entering the fourth quarter.
Why was Anthony Edwards passive in that third quarter and
in the fourth quarter, Because this was not a superstar
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performance from a player that we want to see consistent
superstar performances. From eighteen points five of thirteen, only thirteen shots,
three for eight from the three point line, five of
seven from the free throw line, nine rebounds, three assists,
one block, four turnovers, four personal fouls, and maybe the
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biggest knock on Edwards, he was the worst, the worst
on the Timberwolves roster and the plus minus category, and
was a minus twenty three when he was on the court.
This next horse was nas Reed, who was a minus
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twenty one. He went one, four eleven. He played his
worst basketball game I think I've ever seen in his career.
So I don't understand why Edwards, from the point the
Wolves went up sixty to fifty six, became passive and
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indecisive and didn't attack the paint or be aggressive with
his shot. After the Wolves were up by four, because
the then the Thunder went on their run and then
the game was practically over. Edwards sat at the end
of the third quarter, and I think everybody was anticipating that, Okay,
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he's gonna sit at the end of the third one
minute left, and then he going to be in in
the fourth to start so that maybe the Wolves can
make one final good run at the game. Well, Shay
Gilgis Alexander takes a break to start the fourth, Edwards
is gonna come in and the Wolves are gonna make
their run, and it's gonna be a competitive finish. Edwards
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did not come in until about like eight minutes left
in the fourth quarter, and it was a double digit
game at this point, and there was hardly any time
or any momentum to gain after Edwards went in, and
it was just a performance that had a lot of
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people wondering what the heck is going on because Edwards
was passive. The bench mob combined to go seven for
thirty six. Nazarid one for eleven, zero for seven from three,
Dante DiVincenzo three for fourteen, three for twelve from three,
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Nikhil Alexander Walker three for eleven, two of nine for three.
The only really great takeaway from this performance is that hopefully,
I'm gonna say hopefully because I think we all know
that it can. Hopefully it does not get any worse
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from this point on for the Timberwolves bench unit and
for the Timberwolves starters, because this is as horrendous a
performance as you could ever witness. In Game one of
the Western Conference Finals, following a thunder series that went
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seven games with the Denver Nuggets, Julius Randall was the
only bright spot nine for thirteen, five of six from
the three point line, five of six from the free
throw line, twenty eight points, eight rebounds. One is this
one steal, but he too had five turnovers. The Timberwolves
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are not facing the Golden State Warriors without Kurry, and
they are not facing a forty year old Lebron James
and a Luka Dancic who is slow. They are facing
a juggernaut, a team defensively that is long and athletic
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and can move quicker than any of the opponents that
they've seen so far in the playoffs, which means the
Wolve's intensity needs to ascend to a new height that
they have never played that before. And I think that's
the biggest concern going into the series. Can the Wolves
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take their game to another level, because what we saw
in Golden State and versus the Lakers as a team
that struggled throughout those games but were younger and fresher
in the fourth quarter and then they just kind of
took over. The Thunder can match the Wolves athleticism offensively
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and defensively. So you cannot go through these four to
five minute lulls of not scoring the basketball and expect
to win the game. And that's what you saw. The
Thunder went on a seventeen to two run in the
third quarter when Edwards became passive and the game was over.
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The Wolves could never get back into it and the
game was over. The Timberwolves had six turnovers in their
first seven minutes in the first quarter, and they only
finished with seventeen, so they corrected that issue as the
game went on. But six turnovers in the first seven minutes,
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you are not playing thirty five to thirty six year
olds anymore to advance to the NBA Finals. You are
playing athletic twenty seven year old guys, twenty six year
old guys in their prime that can lock down. So
Edwards and really the whole Wolves roster needs to take
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their game to another level, especially the bench. A combined
seven for thirty six and Dante Divincenzo's firing heat check
threes when it was one for eight. Here's the role
the Vincenzo needs to play. Okay, if you're feeling yourself,
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if you've knocked down two or three threes in all,
let go the heat check. Let's see what happens. But
until that point, you camp your ass in the corner.
You wait for Edwards to break down the defense. Edwards
kicks it out and you knock down and open three.
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That's your role, that's your game. But to come and
bring the ball up the court, to receive one simple
screen from Gobert or whoever, and then to just jack
and brick it. You finish three for twelve for the
three point line. That is not good basketball. A lot
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of people are discussing Shae Gyogis Alexander and their first finger,
of course, doesn't go to the Timberwolves performance. It always
goes to the officials, because it's never the Timberwolves that
loss of the game. It's the officials. That's the NBA
that are out to get Minnesota sports fans. One. I'll
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say this, the Oklahoma City Thunder committed twenty two personal
fouls throughout the entire game. The Minnesota Timberwolves committed twenty
two personal fouls. If you want even this, the officials
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called the same amount of fouls on the Timberwolves and
on the Oklahoma City Thunder. So you cannot point to
the foul discrepancy and say you called forty files on
the Timberwolves and only fifteen on the Thunder. It was
even twenty two twenty two shake Gilgus, Alexander eleven of
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fourteen from the free throw line, so it's not like
he's at the free throw line twenty times. Although I
will say and admit that the physicality shake Gilgis Alexander. One,
there is an art to drawing fouls and ricocheating your
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body off of others at certain angles to get to
the free throw line, and he has almost perfected that.
But two, I will say that the officials have called
Shake Gilgis Alexander differently than anybody else that I have
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seen throughout these entire playoffs, because throughout the entire playoffs
they have let everybody play contactical it has all been
a part of the game. And Bill Simmons sent on
a tweet on x and said this, I don't care
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who wins this game. The touchfowl calls SGA gets are
really awful. They don't resemble anything else that's happening in
the playoffs. And that's the biggest problem with it is
the inconsistent officiating towards SGA that we have not seen
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towards any other player so far in these playoffs. Because
the dude falls over over and over again in Game one,
and he was receiving the benefit of the whistle. But
let me make this clear, that is not why the
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Timberwolves lost this basketball game. They lost this game because
the Thunder out smarter, out physicaled, out shot, and outplayed
the Timberwolves players. And one thing real quick, I love this.
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I love it. The Timberwolves shot fifty one threes twenty
The Oklahoma City thundershot twenty one threes and made eleven.
They shot fifty percent. I love love the Thunder brand
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of basketball, the fact that they are not so reliant
on knocking down a ton of threes every game to
win basketball games. They rely on the mid range game,
points in the paint, and the foul game. And that's
how they win. That's how they win basketball games, which
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is such a relief from fifty one. Three is a game,
sixty three is a game, twenty threes in the first quarter,
whatever the case may be. I love that the Thunder
look at the way the game is played. They shove
it down other team's throats and say, hey, we're gonna
mid range game you to death, and we are going
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to score in the paint and score from the free
throw line. So credit to the Thunder for taking a
different approach to the game than the NBA because they
only shot twenty one threes. Some teams shoot twenty one
threes in a quarter, but the Thunder are selective on
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the amount of threes that they take so that they
can get the best shot available. And the Timberwolves live
and die by the three. Some games they're twenty five
twenty nine percent from the three point line. Other games
they are fifty sixty percent from the three point line.
They are hit or miss. They're inconsistent. One more thing
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on Shay gigis Alexander and the way the Timberwolves can
adjust the way they play. What you saw from the
Thunder defensively against Edwards. They were physical with Edwards immediately
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from the top of the key, and that's what you
need to do with SGA. You need to be physical
with him immediately as he crosses half court. Because when
you're physical with him there and they don't call the foul,
the physicality you have with him as he enters the
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mid range game doesn't look as physical and he can't
flop job that as much, he can't sell that as
much if you're already physical with him at half court.
So the adjustment the Wolves need to make versus the
thunder in Game two is to be physical with Shaye
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Gilgis Alexander as soon as he steps across half court
or as he's bringing the ball up the court. Because
when he attacks and gets into driving lanes and into
the paint and then you're physical with him, he's too
good at selling that and ricochetting his body off of
defenders and it looks like a foul. So the way
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to not make it look like a foul is to
be physical with him as he crosses half court or
as he's bringing the ball up the court, because then
there's not such a differential in how you're playing him defensively.
If you go from okay, we're not touching it too,
we're gonna put your hands on you as you enter
the paint, well, then he's gonna flop job that one.
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He's gonna sell it and he's gonna get to the
free throw line. But he only shot fourteen free throws.
It's not like he was living and dying from the
free throw line. The Timbrels lost this game because they
could not shoot the ball and they did not take
care of the ball, and Anthony Androids was passive. So
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the hope of this game is that it was just
a feeling out game. It was just a let's see
what you got here. But it was disappointing because the
Thunder looked like the fresher team after playing a seven
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game series, and Anthony Edwards looked passive and was not
playing like a superstar because I don't think he is
one yet he has too many of these performances. Anyways,
thank you for watching and for listening. Remember five Star
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Bass Solutions of Minneapolis. On the game two we Go
Timberwolves down, Oh one better come back