Jonny Athletic with Dan Barreiro Before Game 5!

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
It's time, Tony, Tony,Tony, I didn't do something about right
now. Yeah, we are indeedat the Target Center cage. We laid
out some details regarding the historic verdictin the first Donald J. Trump case,

(00:25):
convicted on all found guilty on whatdo we say, thirty four counts,
thirty four Kirby counts. Uh.And we may get back to that
later in the program. But we'reat Target Center for Game five tonight,
and Johnny has joined us here,as you could hear from that intro in
the booth. Let's get to theimportant stuff first. Yeah, we're just

(00:45):
following the following the news. Butwhat your sources are saying regarding the possibility
that tonight will be the night wewill see KG inside the lower bowl staring
Daggers at Glenn Taylor. So sofar my sources have been a little bit
down on it like that, itseems unlikely at this point. I can't

(01:07):
rule it out completely. No,I've certainly with Perk. We know that
he has a direct relationship with KG, and so you know, I'm assuming
he's operating on some sort of intel. But as of right now, from
what I have heard, don't expectit. But I'm leaving the door open
just in case I've heard the samething. However, it sounds like JG

(01:27):
is going to offer up perhaps acontrary at least opinion or bit of speculation.
Well, it's a nugget from someoneinside the Target center that as they
are going through pregame preparations and warmnot warm ups, but pregame preparations and
rehearsals, there was a Kevin Garnetttribute video played as a part of it.

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And my follow up was it wasn'tthe one where he's twelve telling everybody
to get pumped up for the playsall the time that plays almost every game.
Johnny could tell us that, andI was told no, it was
a separate Kevin Garnett tribute video.Interesting, although that could be, Well,
whenever he does come, we wantto have that ready, we want
to show it could be what IWhat I also will say is that at

(02:12):
the start of this series, whenwe started to wonder, hey, will
he show up, I was toldby people in the no, definitely,
not for one or two, butpossibly for five. So that was always
kind of hanging out there as akind of destination, you know, date
or whatever you think he's trying toinspire the club to say, I want
you to get to seven. Igot faith in you that you're gonna get

(02:36):
to seven. So I'm not gonnashow up for five. That could very
well be and I don't know,he may think they have it in the
bag already. So does anybody onthis team care about KG anymore? Oh?
Yeah, I mean Cat for sure, But Anthony Edwards has started to
vibe with him because KG has beenvery supportive and you know, vocal in
his approval of ANT. So thosetwo have started to get a little bit

(02:59):
of a But Kat and CAG stillregularly talk a lot. All right,
So what do we need to know? What? What do you feel today?
Just in the basis of talking topeople, reading some things, and
maybe having some time to think aboutit. Not too much time, thank
god. I like we're going everyother day. Yeah, that we need
to cover today, that that standsout for you, that will help us

(03:21):
figure out whether there's going to bea game six. Yeah. I mean,
you know, I was driving inand I'm trying to get my mind
around this whole series and get readyfor tonight and thinking about things, and
just the overwhelming thought that I havekind of don't go into game five here
with is this series has been sodamn close, and you know, we

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think about kind of, you know, this was not This has not been
forty one donut, This has notbeen blowouts or anything like that, and
so when you look at the possibilityof very easily could be three to one.
The other way it could be twoto two. I didn't like how
the scene was set going into four, as if the Mavericks had completely embarrassed
the Wolves all the time they havebeen in every single game, And so

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I do go into five here almostI've been waiting all series for the Game
six Nuggets version of the Wolves toshow up, and I feel like it's
there, we just haven't seen ityet, and so maybe maybe tonight is
the night. But I just thinkthat, you know, when you talk
to everyone coming out of Game four, all I heard from players from coaches

(04:33):
is we have not even played wellyet, including Game four. We have
to find a way to find thatother level because it's there, they just
haven't got there yet. So maybetonight's the night. Well, I would
argue that that it's a requirement becauseif you're going to talk about pulling off
four straight victories, which is hardenough to do under any circumstance when two

(04:54):
teams are fairly evenly matched, justbecause of random things that happen, right,
you're gonna have to have a cleanerat least one, maybe two cleaner
games that you even had in fourbecause it's easy to gloss over what we're
still some pretty critical mistakes where yougo, what are you doing? Yeah,
that they got they survive because Kathit some shots, Anthony Edwards hits

(05:16):
a shot, et cetera. Soto your point, again, I don't
think it's realistic to expect it's gonnabe like Game six against Denver when they
won by fifty or forty five,whatever it was. But I think that's
a requirement, and I'm assuming that'spart of if Finci's giving them the speech
I'd like to hear, it wouldbe guys, I love that we won
the game. I love we didthis, this, and this, but

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we're kidding ourselves if we think wecan actually do this win four in a
row unless we tighten up some ofthe things that we're tighter actually against Phoenix
and Denver right to a large extent, at least when they won those against
those two teams. Yeah, andin some ways, Dan, I think,
like I think Game five tonight mightbe the most difficult of these next
three, if there are three,in terms of I think Kyrie and Luca

(06:01):
are going to come with everything theyhave to try and end this thing now,
so that they don't have to extendit. They don't have to have
any nervousness coming back to Dallas forsix and Boston's already resting. They really
did not neither one of them shotthe ball well in Game four, So
I think that they came out ofthat game just saying, man, we

(06:23):
left a lot on the table,and so I think that they are going
to be at their very best tonight. And so for the Wolves to do
it and extend this series, it'sgoing to require more than anything that they've
given to this point, including Gameseven and Denver. So I thought that
a I think a strategic switch whenit comes to who's matched up against who

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was interesting, looked defective, AndI guess it. Maybe it'll take another
game or two games to see wasit the move that that change or were
other things involved? Was it justKyrie missing shots? I thought, and
it made all the sense in theworld. And as I recall it,
the way Finchy put it was afterthe game was almost like, well you're

(07:09):
down three to zero, you gotto just try some stuff. Whether they
were convinced it was gonna make abig difference. And I'm referring obviously to
we're gonna move Jade McDaniel's over toKyrie. I took it as, look,
Luca's going to score against anybody,is what I think we're figuring out.
Maybe we can take a little bitof Kyrie away and that can make

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a difference, and we'll move Auntover to Luca. We'll use other people
slow mo as well on him.And I think it did frustrate Kyrie.
I thought it was obviously much tallerguy, different look, And that to
me is another crucial question. Canthat advantage that I think went the Wolves
way, can that be extended anothergame where then the Mavericks do have something

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psychologically think about it that oh mygod, this is not the same Kyrie
that we were accustomed to him.I am I expecting too much? Well,
I mean I don't think so,but I think the one thing that
I would expect going into this isthat now that element of surprise is gone,
and so Kyrie and Luca, whoare two incredibly intelligent players, will
be able to prepare for this andmaybe look at other ways to attack it,

(08:16):
which is you know, Jaden McDanielshistorically has been not quite as good
on the super shifty guards like Kyrieis, but he was really good in
Game four and I do think hecan do that again. I also do
like what it does for Ant interms of I just think that, like

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you said, I think covering Lucais different from Kyrie in a physical exertion
standpoint, and so Ant is alittle stronger than Jaden. And even though
much yes, even though Luca isso good and the better player, he
is not wearing Ant out running arounda bunch of screens doing you know,

(09:01):
darting in and out. He ismethodical and slow, and at least Ant
might have a little bit more ofa chance against that than Kyrie as well.
So it does make sense. ButI also, with players as great
as those two are, I don'tthink you can expect them to go what
they did in Game four, whichagain means you have to be so much

(09:22):
better in every other area to compensatefor their inevitable comeback. To reality,
I would say anything that can takethe edge off. You're looking for every
edge that you could possibly get.Towns obviously was the key to this last
game, hitting some shots. Sowhat can we expect from him tonight?

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I mean I said earlier when itcomes to the foul issue, I don't
think you can. That's why Iwould never bet on these sorts of games,
because he might have another game wherehe only commits three files and is
that you know, relatively disciplined.Or he might have a game where he
falls out even fast. Sure,there's he's been nine years in I don't
think he's figured it out. Soyou just have to hope that he can,

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you know, put a better gametogether. In that regard, you
can't know at this point, rightYou can't how much he's been told until
you got to stay down. Yougot to be smart about it. You
can't do the files forty feet fromfrom from the basket, that's what he's
repeatedly tended to do. You cannotexpect nine years worth of evidence to be
washed away, you know. Goinginto this game that is you know the

(10:28):
stakes are so high, so youdo have to expect that. I think
the one thing that you can maybehope for is that Mark Davis is the
crew chief and not Scott Foster,and maybe it's a looser whistle. But
that said, almost every foul thatCarl committed, uh you know in game
four were legit fouls. Any anyreferees calling that. So he has to

(10:48):
play smarter, and that's something thatis hard to rely on. I will
say that. I just think thatif he found a real them shooting like
that's what you have to ride.You have to hope that he does,
you know, again, has anotherbig game, maybe hits five or six
threes, and he comes in confidentand loose and doing it. That's your

(11:11):
key because he is going to havethose silly fouls. He I don't think
there's a good defensive matchup for himin this like you know, shockingly like
Jokichen Durant were for him. SoCarl's gonna They're gonna ride him. He's
he is their star, like heYou need big players to make big plays
and he's fully capable of doing that. And just if he can stay out
of foul trouble that would be ahuge help. What unlocked him offensively is

(11:35):
it just some shots just went thatthere's not. This isn't a Rubric's cube.
It just or do you think therewas something in the way they used
him or the way he approached thingsoffensively? What did you see? Well,
one thing that I did like,and I have not been in the
in the camp, that says,you know, you get down in the
pain and score, but he didn'tdo that. They got him sort of

(11:56):
on the move going to the basket, which is different than don't into the
post and try to go to work. And so in the first half he
didn't shoot many threes at all,but it was a lot of coming off
of screens, getting downhill, thenusing his size at the rim to kind
of go over people. Now withoutlively, that's a huge advantage and they
took they took advantage of that totheir credit, so that I think helped.

(12:20):
And then maybe that got him intoa little rhythm because the threes that
he was missing in games one throughthree were good looks. It wasn't the
Mavericks defense was not flustering him toomuch in those guards, he just missed
them. And then I think hegetting seen the ball go through the basket.
Then all of a sudden he hada couple of really tough threes in

(12:41):
the third and fourth quarter, andyou saw, just as Kevin Harland said,
the confidence was swelling in him bythe time he took the quick corner
three trigger when when a hand wascoming up, still knocked it down.
So I just think that he seemedmore at ease and comfortable because he got
a little bit going to the basket, especially started the third quarter, and

(13:03):
that got him going because the firstfirst half he was pretty quiet, and
he got going ten and the thirdten in the fourth and that was all
they needed. Is Lively going toplay tonight. He was at shoot around
today in a in a jersey,which is usually a good sign. I
think he'll be a probably say agame time decision. But how much does
he change then hugely? You know, the Wolves were able Ant and Kat

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were able to attack the rim witha lot more ease without Lively in there.
You put Dwight Powell in there,you put Kliba in there and as
more of a spacer. They don'thave the rebounding and they don't have the
rim protection that Derek Lively brings.So if he comes back and is you
know, really close to one hundredpercent, that is an enormous change for

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Dallas, and you know the hill, the mountain gets even steeper to climb.
Kyle Anderson played I think until threeminutes to go right in at range.
There's two and a half three minutesyep, pretty late. Yes,
understand as effective as he was.So is that indicate yeah, you're gonna
see a lot of him. Wasit something specific to just the flow of
that game, because it certainly appearsthat he makes a lot more sense this

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series and he has previously. Whyis that yeah? I think, I
mean, I just think that hehas someone to guard in this series,
and the way that the Mavericks playdefense, he is able to kind of
get into the soft underbelly right inthat middle area between the rim and the
three point line and hit those littlefloaters that are really effective. The other

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thing that I think is clear rightnow that this team needs against that defense,
which is very good, is theyneed a smart guy who can direct
traffic. We've all seen the playwhere he motions Cat to the corner,
tells Ant to throw him the pass, and sets the screen to get him
open. That's what is required inthe Western Conference Finals, and I think

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that Kyle Anderson has the ability tothink the game on the fly in a
way that several of the other guysout there just do not have, and
so they desperately need his feel andhis intelligence and his ability to direct traffic
out there as much as possible.Is it foolish? Is it too much

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to expect the Wolves to shoot?Didn't shoot fifty two percent? No?
No, it's not too much.I mean they I don't think it is.
They've been getting good shots most ofthis series. Now with Lively,
I think there'll be fewer shots atthe rim, but even then they have
been getting to the rim and missingat an alarming rate. I think they're

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shooting sixty two percent out of therim. Yes, and it's included the
finisher has not been a great fash. No, No, it hasn't been
great, and notwith Yeah. Ithink part of it is that they're sped
up by by the Mavericks and they'reforcing things and rushing and they haven't finished
there. But these are all thingsthat they have not done well, that
they have done well historically, andso if they can get back to more

(16:06):
progress to the mean rather than regressto it, I think it's possible for
them to do it, especially athome. I think you can expect Nikkio
to shoot better at home. MikeConley is usually pretty comfortable shooting at home.
If they knock down some of thosethrees in the first half to loosen
everything up, that should give thema little bit more wiggle room getting to

(16:26):
the basket and scoring there as well. I had another really good, juicy
question you get to on the edgeof it. Well, I'll try to
remember. I got two, soI do remember the second one. The
Wolves are not a how do Idescribe it? They're not a bad boys
kind of team. No, butI do believe that I like that they

(16:52):
bump people around a bit. Yeah, I thought it annoyed Luca. Anything
they can annoy Luca. Now canLuca acts annoyed over everything so much as
a really bothering him? I don'tknow, but I actually didn't think that
was a bad component and might havebeen a helpful component last game. I
don't know how consciously the Wolves didit, but it felt like first it
was Rudy and then ultimately it wasKyle I think, who nailed Luca once

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as well. What did you makeof that? Yeah? Well, I
mean, for yeah, like yousaid it wasn't bad boys pistons. They
weren't knocking, they were it wasn'tthe Jordan rules. But one thing that
I have known about Chris Finch throughouthis time here, but especially this season,
is when things are not going well, his first instruction to the team
is up your physicality, play withmore force, make them know that you're

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there. And so I do thinkit was a conscious effort. I mean,
Rudy did throw a forearm shiver,Kat did as well, and some
of them I thought were, actually, you know, are you really going
to call that in the playoffs thekind of thing because it was usually kind
of tagging the roller coming through.But it was clear that that was a
focus of theirs going into this gameof you have to play tougher, especially

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against this Mavericks team that has beenvery tough, very physical, very athletic
around the rim. The only wayfor them, I think, to neutralize
that to any degree is to sharpentheir elbows a little bit, get tougher,
get nastier, and so I thinkaggression will be key for them tonight
as well. Ideally, you don'thave Rudy cat antal'n follow trouble like you
saw in the first half. Thisstat it's unofficial, but it's interesting to

(18:27):
me if it's close to accurate.You know, we all know the stat
one hundred and fifty five zero oneto fifty five for teams down three.
But what I heard this morning andmaybe you know this, is that only
twenty two of those times has theteam that's been up three to zero in
the series had five or fewer victoriesthan the team that they're beating. In

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other words, it's a much smallersample size the situation that the Wolves are
in. And I don't know ifthat changes how much hope you give them,
but it's very different because to me, that's always been the problem with
the stat is you almost have tobreak it down. How often has the
team higher seeded with a better recordIn this case, I think by six

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games found itself in a position thatit is down zero three. It's a
lot different than teams that are justinferior, who they're down eight and they
get a couple of games and winthree games. The Denver team that upsets
Seattle, that's exactly what they did. What does that do for you?
If anything? So I'll say whyit doesn't do a whole lot for me

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is because it is clear that theMavericks pre trade deadline and the Mavericks post
tread are totally different teams. Thisis not a This is a five seed
in name only, like they playedlike a one or two seed down the
stretch. So I think that,you know, the implication that the Wolves
are a vastly superior team, oreven a markedly superior team, I think

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is not. I think they're veryclose. So I under that. But
here's where I do put there.There's another stat and again I don't have
it at my fingertips, but Ibelieve that the Wolves, going down oh
three to the Mavericks, the scoringmargin in those three games was the smallest.
Yeah, the smallest of any teamthat's been down three. Uh,
that's correct. So again, gettingback to our point of this has been

(20:18):
could flip a coin on any oneof those first three games, and it
could be the other way. Sothis is not a there is no way
that the Wolves can win type ofa situation. This is not the flip
side the other way where they're justcompletely overmatched. They have been in every
single game. They just had notbeen able to close until Game four.
So if they can get up big, or if they have found some little

(20:41):
secret sauce that they finished these lastthree minutes of games much better all of
a sudden. I think anything ispossible that way. Well, last thing,
Johnny Athletic from our target Center cagelocation. One of the theories that's
been advanced nationally has been that,you know, part of the reason the
Wolves didn't get swept and why thereis still hope is that they're the twenty

(21:04):
two year old kid just seems tostay so loose that the other players can't
possibly do anything but loosen up themselvesand not feel the same tightness. Do
you do you think there's truth tothat or I think that's over overstated.
I think it's had some effect.You know. I will say that I
had some people around, several ofthe other of the players, you know,

(21:26):
send me unprompted texts saying, man, Aunt is really leading right now,
like he is really finding the rightmessage to send, you know.
After game three, they're down three, We're in the locker room and he
is just in there saying, youknow, hey, here, we're here.
We might as well not go anywhere. Guys, Like, what are

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we going to do? How arewe going to respond? And it was
very much Kat, we need you. Let's go, Rudy, we need
like it was very encouraging. Youknow, there was a point in Game
four where he jumped on the floorfor a loose ball and his barking at
somebody and then got stuff with smiling, So he's like, he's very he
is loose, it seems like,and I do think that helps a little

(22:08):
bit. Is it going to makethe difference, I don't know, but
but this is a team right nowthat I feel like is not playing tight,
and that I think is an importantaspect when you're trying to do what
many think is impossible. They're notlooking at as impossible. They're just looking

(22:29):
like, hey, we're here,the pressure's on lemb that's just go out
and play and see what happens.So now I remember what the other question
was. I think we've lost fourthe last five at home. Yeah,
so what's that about? And doesthat take away any confidence that people should
have that, yeah, tonight they'regoing to extend the series to six.
Yeah, for sure. What shouldnot be nothing should be assumed that just
because they are at home, thatthis is automatically going to six. One

(22:53):
thing I will say is the strugglesat home are not unique to the Wolves.
Across the league, home court advantagejust is not what it once was.
Why is that? I don't know. Is it the travel schedule,
is it the way players take careof their bodies? You know, there's
a million different reasons that it couldbe, but it is not the you

(23:14):
know, be all and end allthat it used to be. That said,
if you want to spin it positively, you win tonight. There are
six and two on the road inthe playoffs. Like so, going back
to Dallas and trying to extend theseries is not going to be again something
that they think is completely impossible andsomething that they cannot do. So anything

(23:36):
can happened tonight. Man, Johnny, will you allow me to thank RBC
Wealth Management for helping us bring youto our audience. Please do the good
folks at RBC Wealth Management, thanksso much. Couldn't have picked a better
time to come in. It's perfect. With all the attention on the Wolves
in this it's been super fun andI'm very appreciative of them jumping on board
here. We'll see you downstairs.Thanks man, all right, Thanks John
Krazinski helping us out is only hecan do. Odds on Tim Conley coming.

(24:02):
Uh, they're long, they're long. I'm not gonna lie to you,
but we're we're going to continue tonegotiate with him and and and and
take the steps a fan has learned. By the way, we don't know
about KG. Johnny thinks no.I think no. But you know is
landed just landed in twin cities.Well, I'll tell you what. We'll
come back and tell you it's interesting. It ain't KG, but it's a

(24:25):
very interesting name. Nevertheless, thatis a tease. We'll also do Top
five and we're gonna try to doit like a short version of one.
Is that right? Outstanding guards Hewill be in on that as well,
and we'll take it all the waytill six thirty to night on the Fan.