Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Just in case you missed it,it's the top five sports talkers of the
day. Now it's time for DanBurrero's Top five at five. It is
a little lonely in here now becausewe have no more guests at our target
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center cage location, at least scheduledguests right now. Guards you back at
headquarters in Saint Louis Park. Imean he'll get here eventually. Somebody just
came by, tapped on the windowon the door and I opened it and
they said, it's Guards. Youalready in Denver for Game seven. I
said, well, wouldn't rule thatat out. I've looked at I've looked
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at flights. I'm sure you have. My plan is ready, Okay,
your work, you're playing. I'llbe ready. That's all I'm gonna say.
Will the team be ready? Thatis the question. That's why you're
down there tonight. Will Mike Conleybe ready? According to Sham Sharania from
The Athletic and I think Johnny whojust left, all indications are that Mike
Conley is expected to play at leastgive it a shot tonight after missing Game
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five with that calf injury. Here'sKarl Anthony Towns from this morning shoot around
and the importance of having the pointguard back. He means a lot to
us. Like I say, he'sour captain. He's the guy that always
brings the composure to the game anddisciplines at the game. And you know,
he's the guy with the ball inhis hand the most, and he
starts the offense. You know,I'm getting mere Ant set up or Rudy
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with the lobs or Jaden with thecornerkick. So he's very vital for our
team. He's vital for the energythat we bring to the court. So
I mean, obviously we hope heplays. Cheryl Reeves stopped by the booth
an hour ago. She's gearing teena game six victory. DraftKings has the
Timberwolves as two point favorites tonight seveno'clock. Three games and Max will take
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over at six point thirty for apre to the pregame show all of our
coverage about ninety minutes from now.Your thoughts, Cheryl Reeve also, I
was about to say suggest that shedidn't suggest. She mandit an explanation for
why Jamal Murray was not suspended.She is in a liberating or liberated position,
whereas the Wolves, including the Wolveshead coach, been a little bit
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more passive aggressive on the decision tonot suspend the Denver Nuggets guard Cheryl Reeve
with Cheryl Reeve, which was,it's absurd, it's a joke. It's
ridiculous that it took place without thathe had hit, He did what he
did without there being any sort ofmeaningful punishment. It's old news. The
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Wolves can't wallow in it because itain't gonna do him any good tonight.
They just have to go out andplay. But it was interesting to hear
her comments there as well. Iam done having pretending I have a feel
for what might happen in a particularballgame. It is worth noting that Johnny
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Athletic, who's very close to thisclub, came away from Game five feeling
that the team mentally seemed a bitmore spirited than it was after games three
and four. And is that indicativeof they've kind of like given up the
ghosts. I expect an effort,but that's the unknown is have they been
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beaten down enough, basically by oneguy, that they're gonna have a hard
time mustering it up. And someof this I do is out as it
sounds. I think depends on Denver. I mean, can they have a
clunker in them? I mean,can they have a forty two shooting game
in them? That might very wellchange everything and give a little bit of
an opening. I'm not gonna suggestI would be gobsmacked if the Wolves won
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at all. But I don't havea feel. I'm not I'm not sitting
here saying they're done. I'm notsitting here saying there's They've got a great
chance to send it back. We'veseen so many. Well, see,
that's the thing. We actually haven'tseen so many. We've seen one significant
shift. And my one concern aboutthe Wolves is they have yet to shift
it back correct. They have onemore chance to do that, and that
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obviously is tonight, and that wouldbe a significant shift. I don't care
what anybody says to force game seven, even in a situation where Denver would
still be very much favored. Butthat's what we're waiting for, right We're
waiting for. Okay, lob itback in their other court, give them
something to think about. They Wolvesjust have not done that to any meaningful
degree the last three games. TargetCenter is the place to be tonight.
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Target Field was the place to bethis afternoon, and unfortunately, if you're
a Twins fan, it did notgo well against the Yankees. Here's Rocko.
We didn't make a baseball place thisseries. We had for the previous
month, probably one of the longeststreaks of good quality, fundamental baseball that
I've been a part of anywhere,and then we had three straight days of
not doing it. So no one, not myself or anyone else, has
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a reason for that. You know, we're going to have to make sure
that we turn that around as soonas possible, and as soon as possible
would be tomorrow night on the roadagainst the Cleveland Guardians. He's talking about
a series where the Twins got onthe board first, led the Yankees one
zero on Tuesday, and then neverscored again. After Ryan Jeffers Dong.
They did not score the rest ofthe series. They lose five zero.
Today Joe Ryan gets the loss.He went five and a third, allowed
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four runs and gave up a Dongalso struck out five. But the Twins
had some misadventures in the field,misadventures playing some things, and that was
that was it. That was allshe wrote. Five rip So if I'm
doing my math, right, nineand nine is eighteen eight. We were
held scoreless the last twenty six inningscorrect of this three game series against the
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Yankees. Correct. Meanwhile, theirbig big bopper the hit what's the slugger's
name, Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge. Every ball he hit apparently was minimum
one hundred and five miles per hour. He had a four hundred and sixty
seven foot home run last night.I think he had two more doubles today.
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You know, it's the old dealof baseball being a funny game.
Even if you're a slugger. Youcan get she pitch a came actually right,
you know, like you can hitbloops, singles whatever. Everything he
hit apparently was crushed, and evenI think the first I was told the
first two times he was at theplate he hit line drives that were out
like he crushed everything after what,by his standards, I think was a
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slow start. So the Yankees offto it. Now they're one of the
hottest teams in baseball. And wecooled down considerably after winning what seventeen out
of twenty, and we got anotherlitmus test, as you said, against
the against the Guardians, we gotnothing going offensively. Starting pitching wasn't horrible,
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but it wasn't good enough. Andif you only score one run in
three games, your chances are limitedto not get swept. They are two
and a half games back now theCleveland Guardians, who are in first place
in the Central Kansas City in second, a game ahead of the Twins Cleveland
twenty seven and seventeen. That's wherethe Twins had tomorrow night. A Viking
schedule is out. We don't needto go through it game by game,
but it is interesting to note andCharchy and did this tweet about a half
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an hour ago. I know hewas listening to the show earlier. I
appreciate that charge DraftKings has released bettinglines for every game of the season.
The Vikings are underdogs in fourteen ofthe seventeen games. They are not favored
until week nine. That's the IndianapolisColts, that's what we surmise, yeh
think right, and are never favoredas of now by more than a point
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and a half man, so they'renot feeling the club. I believe the
over under the DraftKings has his sixand a half for the win total for
twenty twenty four, so that thoseare some nuggets, some Denver nuggets on
the Vikings seem to trust us,but then why should they in all honesty,
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I mean a lot of unknowns.I know last year we didn't get
any breaks and Cousins got hurt.But we've got a perennial backup as the
starter right at quarterback, at leastat the start of the season. Sam
Darnold ye is Vegas. Similarly,are they doing any odds on the odds
the best odds indicating the week atwhich the phenom young quarterback JJ McCarthy will
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be elevated to the starter position noninjury related. I have they got to
do that? I'm somebody does.Yeah, if it's not Vegas, it's
one of the betting apps, I'msure they'll do something like that. But
I haven't seen anything like that.And it is an interesting discussion on when
that might be, yes, becauseI don't know if there's a great spot,
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like a great spot to just throwhim in, because well, maybe
it's that soft three game stretch wetalked about AFC. That might be it.
That might be it. That mightbe the one. A couple of
road games too. Yeah, youcan't you can find a reason to not
play a guy forever. At somepoint he's just got to play. You
can't just you know, you know, spoon feed him. Well, I
think they want to coddle him early. I do. I think maybe that's
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just the game they're they're saying that. I hope they don't coddle him too
much. I think they have tobe sensible about it. We'll all agree,
you don't want to force him in, right. I also, you
know, don't think you want tohold him back. You know, often
these things to take care of themselvesby what people observe in training camp,
right. You know, a guycan come in with high expectations and look
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lost, right, and look overwhelmed. And then there's times where a rookie
can come in at that position andsay, oh, it looks like he's
got a little bit more going thanwe thought. So we'll see. The
Vikings also today signed Robert Tanyan,the former packer who doubted him was this
season, yep, go ahead,not a bad tight end, not a
bad you know tight end, depthguy. He caught eleven touchdowns in twenty
twenty. Yeah, it probably hisbest in the five years at Green Bay.
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According to our guy, Ben Gesling, he tore his ACL in twenty
twenty one, also popped over toChicago for a bit, but he is
added to a didn't I tight endroom? Didn't I also read that suddenly
the Hockinson rehab is like miraculous thepace it's at, and now all bets
are off on when he might beavailable. Did I have did I dream
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that? I hope I'm not dreamingabout TJ. Hawk, But did I
not read something to that effect?I'm not sure. I don't know if
I saw the same thing. I'mnot saying you maybe. I mean,
I'm sure I saw someone with him. I don't even know exactly what that
means, because I think originally thefeeling was, well, don't count on
him for the start of the seasonright, certainly not the start of training
camp. So I don't know howmuch that's changed. It sounded like there
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were some favorable reports on that regard. It's something we can obviously check with
one of our Viking sources, perhapsSeffert or Guestling. Xander Schoffley is your
leader in the PGA Championship at ValhallaGolf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, home
of Rick Bozai, fired a nineunder sixty two. Today he leads Tony
Fenow and Saheith Thigala, who aresix under par. Rory McElroy is five
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under as well as Robert McIntyre.A big group at four under par includes
Brooks Koepka and Colin Morikawa and Fargo'sown North Dakota's own Tom Hogey is three
under par along with Scotti, Schefflerand a cast of thousands. Tiger Tiger
was one under par through sixteen three, putted both seventeen and eighteen to finish
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a one over seventy two. Lumpy, Well, it's Lumpy. I think
he's at Excelsior Brewing Company right now. In you blame him drinking Lumpy's logger.
I don't even know if they stillmake it. It's good to be
lumpy. It's great to be lumpy. Yeah, grant in your hand the
fanom big deck dot com. I'mgonna give you a shot to join our
national cash contest. You can enterthe keyword check to kfan dot com.
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Go to kfa dot com and enterthe keyword check. Have we located the
original? It's frustrating. More onthat when we come back here. Fan.
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You know It's a scary moment whenon location here Target Center, Scott
Way, where it is starting tofire up with activity, not surprisingly since
the game time tonight is seven thirty. Right here on the fan regular pre
game seven pre game to the preAt six thirty, I hear the music
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indicating we have to come back onthe air, and I'm scrambling looking for
the headset so i can listen toyou, Guardsie and listen to the music
more closely. And it's already overmy ears. That's not a good sign,
is it. I'm seriously, I'mlooking at it on the floor.
Did it fall off during the break? I put it on a chair and
I have them over my ears.And he wondered why you were hearing the
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music. Yeah, that's also true. It's a short segment you can rebound.
You know. At the five thirtybreak production meeting, I did send
you a video that is absolutely worthyof our airing, but it will have
to be sanitized because it involves KGand Paul Pierce. But it's in very
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interesting challenge being offered up for yourMinnesota Timberwolves for tonight's game six. So
maybe during the longer break you cansee what you if you can work your
magic at some point, because Ido think it raises a number of entertaining
and salient points regarding game number six. Meanwhile, his dan went a soda
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unearthed the original or earliest example ofit's frustrating, going back to nineteen hundred
and eighty six, presumably on thisdate, let's see, and on that
occasion, much to your devastation,Guardsie, well, no, were you
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even born in eighty six? Iwas four? Yeah, you were four
years old or four. This isa soccer story. The Strikers lose Game
seven of the MISL Championship after beingahead three to one. That's it's got
to be pretty close to him,possible to lose a soccer game after being
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up two goals, isn't it threeto one? And they end up losing,
And he cites a Star Tribune storywritten by a reporter named Susan Fader,
and here's the headline, Strikers joinclub, disappoint fans in big game.
So in this case she writes closefor a while. At one point
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Strikers were head three games to all. I see this is not three to
one. Score three games to onein this series, which is still not
great, and they lose five tothree to San Diego in the all decisive
Game seven, giving the championship tothe San Diego Soccers as an sock ers
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and the lead quote from a womannamed Linda Fitch of Bloomington, who went
to Eddie Webster's the infamous four toninety four strip to watch the game is
as follows. It's frustrating we alwaysseem to make the playoffs, but then
we can't win the championship. Husbandadded John, it's like there's a curse.
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I'd like to see Minnesota break it. So on record, that's this
might be our earliest precursor to It'sFrustrating nineteen hundred and eighty six, and
this of course would have predated theTwins breaking through in eighty seven. Yep,
right, So I found that fairlyinteresting. I think I'm pretty sure
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we've talked about this game before,have we, because I'm pretty sure we
tried to track down the original It'sFrustrating game. Oh I don't remember this.
I mean, maybe it's another fan, you know, right, man
or woman on the street, ButI remember that we were trying to get
you know, forty years ago,you know, one of these on one
of these anniversaries. You know,some of the was quoted in the paper
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that day or whatever it was,and I know we've tried. I feel
like it was this one, butwe couldn't find her obviously because maybe she
moved away. Maybe that game wasenough where she said, I've had it
possible, it's over. I'm movingto Arizona, and I'm forgetting about it.
The original It's frustrating, pretty interesting, it really is that. I
mean, the reason why we madethe its frustrating state fair t shirts.
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How many markets have every single sport, multiple people that have said it over
the years, where we have likefifty of them in our system, and
I could have another two hundred,probably because people send them to me constantly.
There are a bunch aether or not, it seems. And you know
what's interesting about it is if wetried this same experiment to get sound that
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that reflects disappointment of let's say,for the sake of this discussion, Philadelphia
fans over the years, or Bostonfans over the years, or Chicago fan
over the year years. I don'tthink it would. I mean, it
wouldn't be it's frustrating, it wouldbe it's bleeping ridiculous, embarrassing, it'd
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be so over the top. Itfeels so Minnesotan to me. To hear
Joe Mauer say it's frustrating, hedoes. There isn't that quintessential Minnesota right
there? Yes, it's just soperfect, perfect Minnesota word, which is
exactly why we liked it, becauseI don't think the word's frustrating in a
number of other markets. Do youno embarrassing, ridiculous, pathetic, pathetic,
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sad? There's a million of bleepyou exactly. Yeah, it's the
expletives that are not included in ours. Very true. Well, will there
be more of that tonight after Gamesix? We'll see. I don't know.
Let me ask you this question.We're in it to win, right,
so it may be viewed as afeeble question to ask at all,
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or a small market we never expectthe best to happen happened to this kind
of question. Is there a meaningfuldistinction or will there be a meaningful distinction
for you as a Timberwolves fan goingway back to when you were four years
old and expected later a little laterage for the team to leave between the
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Wolves being eliminated tonight in game sixand carrying it to game seven and losing
in seven to Denver. Yeah,to me, there is yes. I
think as we said at the topfive or whenever it was, they have
to be there has to be somefight back here. There has to be.
And I guess if they play reallywell and it goes down to the
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wire and they lose, yeah,one hundred and ten to one oh nine,
and there's a great play by Jokeror Murray at the end or whatever,
and they lose and everybody played well, then it all depends obviously on
how tonight goes. But just ifyou're just asking me six or seven,
losing in six after you dominated gamesone and two seems it's frustrating. It
seems like we were just talking aboutworse than he got it to seven.
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You fought back when you even mentionedit, and Johnny did. The locker
room felt different after game five,like you picked yourselves back up after getting
blown out essentially three straight games andforced a game seven in Denver where you're
not gonna be the favorite, butat least you did that. I could
live with seven much more comfortably thantonight. If they come in and Denver
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just kind of does what they've doneand beat you by eight to ten points
and it's over. I think thereis a big difference. I think there
is a big difference. I agree, and I was a part of it.
Doesn't go out on this road atall, because I don't want to
say, well, then commeminative print. If you lose to Denver in game
seven, and let's see how youlose in seven, you get killed by
twenty six or is it a gamethat's relatively competitive. But I think there
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is a difference because, as wetalked about earlier, if there's hesitation for
people here, even you know wholike this team about yep, you know
what te tonight, they're going toget it back. Sooner or later.
You got to get it back.You have to return the punch, as
you say, you have to plantyour feet, even if it's not quite
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your time. Even if Denver endsup winning the whole thing, and that's
how you do it. It mayhave come a little too late if it's
tonight, But at least tonight opensthe door to a game seven where weirder
things have happened, believe me.And maybe Denver has an injury, Maybe
Denver again has a bad scoring game. Who knows, huge difference, especially,
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as you say, because of thefact that you took the first two
games at home and then you dropfour in a row and you can't you
know, win a single one ofthose, you know, those three games
at home. I mean, comeon, come on, seriously. Yeah,
I think there is a big difference. Even if ultimately we're not here
for commemora of Prince for losing toDenver in seven games, I think it
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rightly for Wolves fans among others,will it will It will feel a lot
a lot more acceptable than man.They never countered, not once. Right,
you know, we go to thefinals, they were going to win
the title, and then they nevergot back into the fight, not even
once. Yeah, exactly, itall right, let's do this. Let's
make this the bottom of our pause. It doesn't look like we're gonna get
Mitchell. I don't think I washoping to get Sam Mitchell today. Maybe
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we end up getting him tomorrow.Whether the series is extended or it ends,
I'll keep attempting to work on him. So we are for the moment.
Guest free. The rest of theway. You can tweet at me
Dan Barrero Cafe en if you havequestions or observations to get to. We'll
mix and match a number of differentstories. We'll get back to a little
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bit of Vikings schedule talk, We'llget to a couple of a bit of
a Twitter battle that Johnny Athletic hasgotten in with the hockey community again,
and discuss also interesting stuff from CherylReeve, not just on our own links
team, but on the Timberwolves Nuggetsseries and Joker as well. Stay I
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mentioned some I think very compelling soundinvolving a conversation between KG and Paul Pierce.
They do a I guess is it? Would you call it a video
cast podcast? It's all it's allcontent, and it's a direct challenge to
the Minnesota Timberwolves and to Rudy Gobert, and it's frontal, but I think
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it raises a couple of issues thatmake it worth listening to the challenge.
However, is that any sound involvingKG, definitely and Piers two degree tends
to be littered with language that probablyget us in trouble if we air it.
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So guard he tells me that they'renot one, not two, not
three, not four, not five, six or seven or eight, but
nine words that he has to editout for us to make it playable.
Yeah, and you're seven in sohe ran out of time during the break.
Yeah, there's still two to go. To be fair, it's only
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two words, yes, but oneof them is eight times, one of
them is once, I think,and I always have to triple check as
you know. Sure, I don'twant to do this quickly. No,
no, do this as deliberately aspossible. And I'm by myself, there's
no one here. Usually i'll havesomeone else come in and listen, Yeah,
and say what with the garnet stuff? Because it's always great, but
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it's always vulgar. So yeah,i'll see here. I think being deliberate
and being judicious about this thing isdefinitely the best way to go. So
we'll get to that eventually. Whenwe had Johnny Athletic here on location,
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I'm at the Cage Target Center,fans already lining up to get into the
building for game number six Wolves andthe Denver Nuggets. And we'll be with
you till six thirty tonight. Pregameto the pregame with Max at six thirty
and the regular pregame will start atseven. I think we're the only basketball
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game tonight, aren't we It's onESPN for TV purposes. It's on the
fan of course for radio purposes.But I think we're the only game.
Yes, I don't think there's alate game. That's why this game time
was set about a week ago,because the New York Pacers series is tomorrow
night. That's tomorrow night Boston eliminatedCleveland. That's going to be part of
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what we're going to get into injust a minute. But I had been
quoting from the Hollander piece that attemptedto, in very specific terms, layout
the absurdity of Joker's third quarter inGame five against the Wolves. I think
he finished with sixteen points and fourassists. And there's a quick passage from
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that that I think is important toget to because it connects pretty directly with
all the stuff on T and T, all the challenges, the mocking of
Rudy Gobert in a way that makeit makes it pretty important for us to
get to. Here's what Hollinger writes. This is in a section where he's
laying out the play by play ofthat third quarter, which might well be
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the best single quarter that Joker hasever played in an already pretty illustrious career,
he says, or he writes,Yes, you read that correctly.
The Nuggets were hunting the four timedefensive Player of the Year on switches.
Denver didn't want Gobert lurking as ahelp defender while Jokic battled another bit and
tried to force the matchup directly.The Wolves, on the other hand,
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were trying to keep Jokic matched upagainst one of Karl Anthony Towns, Nas
Reed or Kyle Anderson, so Gobertcould be the helper. Jokic cooked Gobert
on a variety of post moves overthe course of this game, but the
one he made on the following playwas is He's got a video his Mona
Lisa, a double spin high offthe class finish that will surely end up
in the Jokers Hall of Fame Movessection. So the key to that is
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exactly when, Because you know,Reggie Miller on the broadcast said the same
thing that Jokic is hunting Rudy Gobert, that he's making this personal. I
think Hollinger has the more accurate point, which is, I don't think it's
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we think so little of Rudy Gobertthat we are can't wait for Joker to
get matched up with him one onone. I think it's more to do
with what Hollinger wrote and the manyof you and I have certainly talked about
this for a while, that thisdefense is set up in a way that
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it's better served. It's not amatter of we're afraid of putting Rudy on
him. It's more are off Ourdefense in general is better served if Rudy
is off of him, so hecan play the same role he's played through
much of this season, which isto his strengths, which is as a
help defender, as a team defender, and even a defender who has shown
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this year, I think surprising abilityin switches to occasionally guard guards right out
on the court. So that's basicallyit. In fact, one of the
one of the the baskets that thatthat Jokic scores during this ridiculous stretch.
Hollinger later mentions that at the startof it, it's it is cat on
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him and then they do a pick. The the pick and rolls we were
talking about yesterday where with Aaron Gordon, where Gobert has to switch on him
because of the action of the playas well. So I'm not here to
tell you that Rudy Gobert can't playbetter. I would say it's fair to
say Rudy Gobert needs to play better, needs to make his presence felt more,
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no matter how he does it.I don't think that's out of bounds
to you. I don't think that'sIt's not a matter of saying he can't
play better and be a bigger factor. It's this hunting go bear game.
Media from a media standpoint is justit's misleading. It leaves out so much,
most notably the fact that this isan all time great player who is
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He does this to pretty much everybody, whether they happen to be called Defensive
Player of the year, A lotof other players who can, who either
have won that award or considered verygood defenders as well. I was thinking
about this today because, as youknow, the Rudy slander has been relentless
from a lot of places. Nowthere also are, to be fair,
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some others, and I think wetalked about JJ Reddick yesterday, who's saying
the same thing that we're saying,that it's not about it's not an indictment
on Rudy Gobert that they're bringing himout twenty feet away to make him guard
Jokic's They know that's where he's notas good. He's so good by the
rim in that Rover. They don'twant him doing that. That's the adjustment.
It's in a way a compliment tosay, we're not gonna let you
do what you do best. We'regonna make you come out here to something
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that we do best. And Jokerdoes everything well. But I was thinking
about it, like when Jordan wascooking somebody in the playoffs, like who
was it like in any of thePistons or Clyde Drexler. I mean,
did it automatically become There's no middleground on Rudy. It's not just oh,
hey, Joker got the best ofhim tonight, or the Nuggets got
the best of the Wolves. It'sI can't believe this is our defensive player
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of the year. Like when Jordanwas cooking guys. Was the discussion that
when Kobe was cooking guys, whenLebron would do that, Like, was
that the discussion? It seems likethere's so much more on the Rudy side
of it. I can't like thisguy's got to stand up and do it.
Like were we asking people to dothat when former best players in the
world were absolutely dominating playoff runs,when Jordan once Jordan emerged with team success
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to go along with individual success.The answer to your question is never right.
It was about him. It wasnever about well, God, what
what happened to Drexler? There?What happened to Joe Dumars? Wow?
I thought he was a great defender. What happened it was you shake your
shoulders, you shrug your shoulders,and you go, guys, that good.
And that's why we led with himyesterday, with Joker yesterday at the
(30:37):
top of the list. It's him, he's doing stuff. I mean,
Anthony Edwards, you might not wantto hear it from the player because there's
still another game to play tonight.But he wasn't wrong when he said sometimes
you just have to laugh. Imean, basically what he said is he
was ridiculously good in this last game. And generally speaking, unless there's agendas,
(30:59):
and in this case, this goesback to you make the decision to
start using players as analysts while they'restill in the league. I'm not against
it necessarily. I'm not gonna ripit now. I'm gonna say this is
one of the dangers of doing itis you're gonna get less objectivity if a
player has a grievance with a particularplayer who's still playing. Believe me,
(31:22):
in Draymond Green's case, that's thedeal. He's gonna milk it. He's
gonna use the opportunity. And there'san under there's to me, a patent
unfairness to that that, especially,as I said, when it involves players
who are still toiling, who arestill in the league. And that's what's
bizarre about this is that there canbe absolute criticism of well, but Rudy's
(31:45):
got to be a little stouter,He's got to show a little bit more
physicality whatever. I think. There'sagain their grades to this thing that you
can get into, shades of graythat you can get into, but that's
not close to what's happening on theTNT crew right now. And Green is
really fueling it. I mean,the other guys are getting in on it,
(32:05):
but it's because Green is sort ofleading the way. And what I'm
disappointed by is on that panel sometimeswhen they're at their best is they push
back against each other correct, Andthere's been no pushback on this. There's
been no Charles saying, Draymond loveyou, but how did you your Defensive
Player of the Year too, how'dyou do against him? To at least
(32:27):
open that conversation to it. Butyou're on hundred percent right. With any
of the greats. You could thinkof Magic when he was on an offensive
role, or even just orchestrating MichaelLarry, Joe Bird go through the greats.
Rarely was it what that's an alldefensive player he's doing that. It
would be more admiring the offensive performancethan it would be ripping the defensive player.
(32:52):
It would be you shrug the shouldersand you go, god, he's
ridiculous. He's that good. That'swhy he one of the all time greats.
And the difference is the personal partthat a player who's still in the
league, who has all these weirdgrievances against him, who resents the number
of times he's won the Defensive Playerof the Year award, is given a
(33:15):
big platform, the biggest, thebiggest while still playing. So I would
you know, I'd love to seesomebody write about that or at least mention
it, at least throw it intothe mix a little bit, but so
far we have not. Unfortunately,we have not seen well Timberwolves Twitter,
not the official account, but whatthey would call Wolves Twitter, the fans
of the team that tweet about itand follow them obviously very closely. They're
(33:37):
doing their part to try to makeeverybody aware of Draymond Green's own record against
Joker. Yes, and it's noteven just about Draymond's. It's everybody.
It's everybody that Joker has done thisto. And the other night it is
obviously. I mean Tim Legler calledit maybe the best twelve minutes he's ever
seen any player play. There's somethinglike that, right, paraphrasing that,
(33:57):
like, you can't play basketball anybetter than you'll Couich played it the final
six minutes of that third quarter.It's just but that's not what the focus
is. It's the focus on whohe did it against, which, by
the way, wasn't all on Rudy. At one point, it was on
every single seven foot that the Wolveshad besides Luca, who wasn't in the
game. It was Rudy, itwas Towns, it was nos There was
no there were no answers, whichordinarily would be a further compliment to the
(34:20):
guy doing it. Guy. Theytried five different people on him. He
burned them all. And people aretrying to make that point, but the
loudest voices are the ones that aregetting the most oxygen, are the ones
that want to make it all aboutthe Frenchman, as Gobert would call him,
right or I'm sorry his Draymond wouldcall it Raymond, Yeah, eleven
what do we say Earlier we quotedfrom the piece I think they scored on.
Was it eight straight persent? No, it was eleven eleven straight possessions
(34:42):
and like thirteen fifty yeah, absurd. It was crazy efficiency. And by
the way, often you know,because it's him shooting it or him dishing
for a dunk, high percentage,very high percentage shots that were working as
well. And it wasn't like hewas breaking ankles and you know, just
getting by. It was him doingwhat he does. There's a couple I
mean, we talked about the threedifferent spin moves, like Rudy stopped the
(35:06):
first two like not everybody's got athird counter to the counter to the counter,
and then flips it high off theright upper edge of the backboard to
kiss sweetly off the glass and falllike that's just absurd basketball. And Rudy
was with them for the first two. Now he's got to play better,
of course, but it's just aweird spot where it's got to be this
all or nothing on Ruthy, allor nothing, yeah, and it's it's
(35:28):
it's there's this concentration on him,and I do think frankly, there's not
much other explanation than envy and jealousy. And I don't know if he deserved
all those defensive Player of the yearor two. I who's to say in
a given year. Maybe maybe Draymondgot screwed out of another one. I
don't know, But I mean thefact of matter is I well, I
(35:52):
say factor matter matter. My beliefis that some of this is that he's
from France, that he's not oneof us. It's bizarre. Is he
two like two aeradite and two cosmic. There's just weirdness here that ordinarily should
bug people, you know, wouldsay, well, what's your problem with
(36:13):
him? What exactly the Frenchman?What exactly does that mean? For the
record. In an eight minute spanin the third, Jokic scored or set
up twenty seven of Denver's twenty ninepoints. They scored on eleven straight possessions
and fifteen out of seventeen. Nowagain, you could say, well,
(36:34):
that's got to be you gotta havesome pride, I mean, and that's
eventually if we get to the GarnettSoundBite. I think that's part of the
rage that he's attempting to articulate.I don't know if he's anti Rudy.
For all I know he is too, because it's like going around in the
league. Other item I mentioned,Cleveland got eliminated by by Boston last night,
and sure enough the athletic autopsy onBickerstaff as being in trouble as the
(37:02):
coach landed about thirty seconds later.And here a couple of points I think
that are important to make about thisthat have I think relevance whether you care
about Bickerstaff or Cleveland Cavaliers or whateveryour team is. One is that I'm
never going to rip any reporting,good reporting, solid reporting that anybody does
(37:28):
that indicates that, based on theirinformation, a coach is in trouble,
right, because that doesn't necessarily meanyou think the coach should be in trouble.
It means following your sources based onyour information. Here's the vulnerability that
allegedly this coach should feel on thebasis of what they have, you know,
in front of them. Right,you can't get mad at people for
(37:50):
following the story. Okay, that'sreally important here, because some people I
think are even sell I shouldn't bedoing this at all. Well, if
that, if that information is accurate, your job you're obligate is to report
it. You don't have to evenendorse it. You could say, I
don't even think it's fair to JamieBigger staff, but that's the reality in
that organization. Right. On theother hand, the trend which seemed to
(38:15):
indicate an unwillingness or reluctance to everon the part of the reporters if they're
also trying to sort of kind oftrying to analyze what's going on there,
to ask hard questions about the bestplayers, or to look at the Cleveland
situation, because a lot of thisapparently had to do it before they went
on a huge run during the season. He was in trouble because they were
(38:37):
struggling and there were some issues thereand then they took off, and by
taking off, they seem to takethe pressure off of bigger staff and now
they're they're eliminated. So there's allegedlyhe's in trouble again. But do you
not, and maybe this was allincluded in the report, is it not
fair as a reporter to say,well, let's look at some of the
(38:59):
realities here of this particular series.Okay, they're playing a better team,
right, Boston's been better than anybodythis entire season. They're down how many
players. Jared Allen hasn't been inthis series at all? Right, he
has not played start to finish.There they their best scorer missed the last
(39:22):
two games, I mean, theirstar don Donald Mitchell missed the last two
games of the series, and LeVertmissed I think the last game of the
series. And they still took Bostoninto the fourth quarter at Boston Garden in
you know, in game five.Ultimately Boston did you know, Boston's weird,
But they eventually took care of business. So that's part of my suspicion
(39:45):
about this trend is that, youknow, it's it's so easy, it's
so much easier to get quotes,even off the record, quotes from players
ripping the coach. And I don'tknow how much of that is this or
how much of this is management feelingthe way it does. Certainly with Phoenix
it was players right that that apparentlywe're taking pot shots at Frank Vogel And
(40:08):
you say, well, it justbecause it's easier for the coach to get
a hammerd because players can leak stuffdoesn't necessarily mean that's the whole story.
When are we gonna do, youknow, ask some hard let's see some
hard questions on Kevin Durant. KevinDurant is not known as a troubled you
know, troublemaking player. But isit not a fair question to say when
(40:30):
is Kevin Durant happy? Because nowit's Kevin Durant's unhappy against like what what
defines Kevin Durant's happiness is that partof the problem, here's part of this
is that part of the story whenhe goes from place to place to the
degree he does, those stories shouldbe available and should be of interest as
well, rather than the hey,we got three players pounding away on the
(40:51):
coach. Communications not good and maybeit isn't or we don't like the way
we're maximizing the talent we have.We don't like our late game decisions,
et cetera. That's what's starting totrouble me, is it's become in the
age of player empowerment. I thinksome reporters are being manipulated. I really
do. I think they're they're andthey're they're going for it because it's good,
(41:15):
good copy, right, It's it'sentertaining, it's interesting. But is
it really telling in all fairness thecomplete store. No. And they're getting
it because they do put that stuffout there, right. They we talked
about at the time the last timethis happened Vogel right after the Wolves swept
them. They get, especially withthe star stars, you want to be
(41:36):
the one that also gets the scoopthat they're moving on or they've demanded a
trade, or they're signing with thisteam and this is their max contract.
Right. It is very transactional.And this is part of the transaction for
the reporter is basically throwing the coachunder the bus as quickly as they can.
Which is a tough place to be, a tough place to live because
players, you know, the playersin the agent disadvantage. Yeah, and
they control all the info now,the agents and the players, right,
(42:00):
very true and there and Shams iscompeting with woes, who's competing with all
the local guys and and by theway, I mean, I can say
from my own experience it is abalancing act because if you have relationships.
You know, I had a prettygood relationship with Flip obviously when he coached
here, and so you know,it's human nature. Everybody's gonna spin it
in a way that maybe puts alittle bit more of the attention on if
(42:23):
he's a coach a player, Soit works both ways. You know,
you got to be it's a balancingact to do it because everybody is is
going to come up with their ownyou know, they're going to be more
concerned about anything the more than anythingabout their own self interest, right,
and so that's part of what youhave to watch. But I think it's
(42:44):
the balance. It's out a whackright now. And I don't even know
what the answer to it is,because, as you say, the change
in the business is the degree towhich agents talk more than they ever did
before, and manipulate and play withthis stuff and toy with this stuff,
and they have very definite interests.We know that above and beyond. Sometimes
(43:05):
even the player himself or the headcoach, and it's just it's it's it's
just I don't know, it's anunsavory look to me because again, maybe
bicker Staff, there are people wholook at their offense and say, I
never understood what they run. Youknow, there may be I'm not ever
saying that. You know, coachesare beyond criticism, and obviously some coaches
(43:29):
have to go more than others.But God, there's so much in there
that tends to get lost. Itseems like at that last moment, we're
gonna get that, gonna get thatheadline out. Bicker Staff's in trouble,
you know, just like Frank Vogelin trouble, rha in trouble when in
each of those three cases there areroster configuration issues, personnel decisions that at
(43:52):
the very least have had every bitas much to do with the relative dysfunction,
if you want to call making thepostseason dysfunctional, and the team's potentially
underachieving as well. There was abig ovation in the skyway a few moments
ago. Yes, actually, I'msure the gate. I think the gates
are about to open here, sat. Yeah, it's getting it's getting crowded
in here for sure. Was thatovation related to the fact that per Chris
(44:15):
Finch at his media availability, MikeConley is in tonight officially? Might have
been. I don't know. Icouldn't really tell tonight within the last three
or four minutes from downstairs at TargetCenter. So that's key. Yeah,
then goes back to being off thebench, which also works better for all
concerned. I don't think we're goingto see my dream of Luca. I
(44:38):
don't think it's going to be realized, but I've been surprised before. I
mean to be honest, I don'twant to root for foul trouble, but
that's what it would take, right, It would take less three of the
big men each having four files atthe half or something where you go,
oh, we gotta let's just puthim out there for five minutes. See
what happens. Now against Denver.That's dangerous because five minutes might mean twelve
(45:00):
to two, but maybe not.Maybe Luca actually hits a couple of threes.
What do you think of that?Well, they need somebody to hit
try hard. They need somebody.It wouldn't be a problem with that's for
sure. Intensity No, all right, let's do this top of the hour
pause. Maybe you'll have a littlemore time to try to edit the sound
we wanted to play from AKG andPierce very timely for tonight's game. Six.
(45:23):
Doors have just opened here at TargetCenter. I'm at the Skyway location.
I see a few leftover Twins fans. Maybe they're doing the double dip.
They were here for Game three sweepat the hands of the Yankees.
We know it's not good baseball.They're hoping it might be something a little
bit better tonight at Target Center.All of the action right here in the
fan. Yeah, we just playa random basketball. I've been saying it
(45:51):
multiple times. I mean, we'veshown how we look when we're fully engaged
defensively and playing at our level,in our highest level. I think we
just need to do We need tofind a way to do that tonight for
sure. So just getting back tothat self, that that image of ourselves,
this is gonna be important to that. Stop fouling. Can I make
(46:15):
it any more clear than that,Stop fouling. Stop making it impossible for
the coaches to keep you on what, at least in theory, is the
best matchup against Yo Kitchen. Aswe talked about yesterday, I mean,
(46:35):
he didn't come close to filing outyet in Game five, but that third
file is an example of when wasthat was that in the second quarter of
the third It was like five minutesleft in the second that's right, And
that was, as we talked aboutyesterday and as Johnny confirmed with us today,
(46:57):
that was the half where Denver didlook look more beatable, look more.
They weren't in charge, they weren'tsmooth, they weren't state of the
art offensively at all. But andit was a chance maybe offensively for the
Wolves to get something done because theywere in their own way. Every bit
is just disjointed, but you haveto take them to the bench there.
You want to have your best playerson the court as much as you can
(47:20):
when your playoff lives are at stake, right, we all understand that.
So I don't. I'm not holdingmy breath that he's gonna suddenly figure it
out in this game. You needa little bit of luck, right,
You need an officiating crew that maybefeels sorry for him a couple of times.
So I'm not gonna that's too easyon Kat. I'm gonna let that
one go. That's to be morelikely what you have to hope for.
(47:45):
We're gonna save the sound for thelast segment. Guards, He's that correct,
Just to be sure you've you've properlybleeped everything out. I'd to it
too many times. I think that'svery fair. The last thing I want
to do is get you or mein trouble in any way, shape or
form. It's not worth I mean, it's good sound, but I don't
think it's worth our jobs by anystretch, or even suspensions. But then
(48:05):
maybe, like Jamal Murray wouldn't besuspended at all, maybe we be fine.
We could only hope that Adam Silveris the one in charge? Yeah,
Or is it Joe Dumars. Isn'the the discipline? Yeah, technically
it is. I guess we allassume that on big ones in the playoffs,
there's a decent chance that the commissioneris knocking on Joe Dumar's door and
(48:27):
executives. Yeah, what are youthink in here? Joe? What do
you think? I mean a discipline? But I don't know that we ever
will know exactly how that plays out. I think it's impossible to not believe
that the commissioner is some way,shape or form involved, or has some
measure of veto power, and Ididn't ask. We had Cheryl, we've
here on location at four o'clock andtalk some links in some Wolves, very
(48:52):
loquacious about believing flat out that JamalMurray should have been suspended. I guess
I wasn't prize that she wasn't passiveaggressive, but it was nevertheless refreshing to
hear somebody in the organization right withties to the Wolves. Obviously the Lynks
willing to say it out loud,having perhaps less to lose, because they
(49:15):
can't really say to Cheryl, well, you're supposed to just coach your team.
That's a bad signal you're sending yourown club. And I think that's
maybe part of the reason Finchy hasgone sideways on it without being all that
direct. Cheryl Reeve was about asdirect as one can imagine on that very
point. But you know, Ididn't ask her what a lot of people
have surmised that if the Wolves,if Denver had been up to nothing rather
(49:40):
than down to nothing, that therewas a greater chance that Jamal would have
been sacrificed, because then you couldsay, all right, we're gonna do
that to get credit for being tough, and it's not really going to have
any huge impact on the series,right because well, in fact, we
kind of want the Wolves to getback in this series, right, We
want him to win a game soit makes it more interesting. So we'll
(50:04):
never know. It shouldn't matter.I'm a big believer that it shouldn't matter
at all, but I think sometimesit does. I think, you know,
things getting away that end up clutteringthe mind and not contributing to just
making a good sound decision on thebasis of what is this he did.
He did something that we've rarely seenhappen in the league, and yeah,
(50:28):
maybe ever in a league where wehave become really really draconian about delivering messages
as it pertains to you know,fan behavior right to throwing anything on the
court, even something that wouldn't necessarilypotentially hurt a player. We're sending a
conflicting message going the direction that weare here. Somebody said today they were
(50:52):
because they played back I don't rememberwho it was I was listening to today.
They played back the Finchy sound pregame five in which he did the
the tried the funny bit about itemizedreceipt and you know, the the question
that on the table was well,does that mean the Wolves haven't let that
(51:13):
go? And is that a badmessage that is being conveyed either explicitly or
implicitly by the head coach to hisplayers, And because you can't have him
wallowing in it, I I'm notthat concent. I mean it would be
if that's what they're spending a lotof time on with the team. My
guess is Finchy hasn't spent any timeon it. I'd be surprised if he
(51:36):
did, because I think he issmart enough to know I can believe what
I believe. We can believe whatwe believe. But there's no point in
stressing over this in terms of themessage I'm delivering to the team, you
know, and quite frankly, themessage he's been delivering to his team the
last couple of games has been we'renot doing this. We need to do
this better, right yep? Thegame four, you know, disaster at
(51:57):
the start of the quarter and wellmore so the end of the quarter he
called flat out inexcusable. So I'mnot I don't. I think he's just
okay. I haven't really had achance to weigh in, so I'll try
to do it sideways here, justgive it a little bit of a jab
and the rooty thing gave him theopening exactly right. Yep, Yeah,
that's exactly it. So we'll see. You said. The latest info was
the Wolves were two point favorites byat least one service that you said going
(52:22):
into tonight, two to two anda half. Yes, by DraftKings,
and I'll hit refresh here to seewhat happened. They are two point favorites
according to DraftKings. Interesting, veryvery interesting. Here's the other thing.
Yeah, if you're Finchy and ifyou're the Wolves, looks like Dallas is
in a pretty good spot to beatthe thunder They did they look at now.
(52:44):
So if you're looking for extra motivation, which you're not because it's the
Western Conference SEMIS and you're trying towin, but think of the opportunity lost
with all of the things that wetalked about, you know, being up
to zero and having the rough gamesthree and four here in Minnesota and not
being able to stop Joker and gamefive in the way it's looking, I
mean, the MAVs are now favored. They're up three games to two.
(53:05):
Right on the under wrap it upat home at all in Dallas. And
if you figure this thing out,you're hosting game one of the Western Conference
Finals next week, home ice advantage. Think about it. Yeah, that's
it. Whoever wins this series ishosting if Dallas wins, and that that's
a huge deal. Should I mean, not that it matters, it's the
Western Conference Finals, but come on, now, get it together. Well,
Dallas, you know they they lookedso dead in in what the previous
(53:32):
game of the game before, theylooked so dead in Now I'm mixing up
which game it was that that thatCharles basically Yester said not only was Oklahoma
City gonna win Game five? Well, Dallas game four, they they they
could have gone up three to one, and they laid an egg in game
(53:52):
four. And so Game five withOklahoma City Barkley was then, I think
because of that performance into saying notonly Okay City gonna win this game,
they're gonna crush them, They're gonnathey're gonna run them out of the gym.
And what happened, Okama City cameback play I should say, Dallas
came back and played a much bettergame. The big two, especially Luca,
(54:14):
who was dreadful the previous game wasmonstrous in this game, so you
know, again you can overreact becausenow it's set up for Dallas to wrap
it up at home. Maybe OklahomaCity digs deep. Who's to say,
but it certainly looks favorable to whatyou're suggesting that Dallas is in good position
and Dallas is what are there fouror five? They were the five?
(54:37):
The five, which again yeah,the CLI. So what this tells you
is you if you can find somehowa way to do what the Minnesota north
Stars did during the nineteen eighty playoffs, and that was drop to three down
to three games to two, wingame six at home home. Funny,
(55:00):
that's where're in the position we're innow, and then win seven in Montreal,
steal it. Uh. Then youhave you find yourselves with home home
court advantage at least to the tothe next round and preparing for the likelihood
of a a a winner take allNBA Finals against TIBs. Think about it.
(55:22):
Would that motivate Cat or would thatterrified Cat? So I don't think
Kat was the biggest TIBs fan,probably not, probably not, yeah,
probably right about that, But Ithink he hated Buckets more than TIBs now,
I don't know how they were inthe pecking order, You're probably right.
All right, let's get one morebreak in. We're going to take
a shot at the KG Paul Pierceback and forth, which I do think
(55:45):
is very topical. It's Wolves related, Denver related, it's Game six related.
So we'll wrap up the program withthat, turn it over to Max
at the bottom of the hour fora pre game to the pre game opening
tip off schedule for just past seventhirty right here in the
Just in case you missed it,it's the top five sports talkers of the
day. Now it's time for DanBurrero's Top five at five. It is
a little lonely in here now becausewe have no more guests at our target
(00:21):
center cage location, at least scheduledguests right now. Guards you back at
headquarters in Saint Louis Park. Imean he'll get here eventually. Somebody just
came by, tapped on the windowon the door and I opened it and
they said, it's Guards. Youalready in Denver for Game seven. I
said, well, wouldn't rule thatat out. I've looked at I've looked
(00:42):
at flights. I'm sure you have. My plan is ready, Okay,
your work, you're playing. I'llbe ready. That's all I'm gonna say.
Will the team be ready? Thatis the question. That's why you're
down there tonight. Will Mike Conleybe ready? According to Sham Sharania from
The Athletic and I think Johnny whojust left, all indications are that Mike
Conley is expected to play at leastgive it a shot tonight after missing Game
(01:04):
five with that calf injury. Here'sKarl Anthony Towns from this morning shoot around
and the importance of having the pointguard back. He means a lot to
us. Like I say, he'sour captain. He's the guy that always
brings the composure to the game anddisciplines at the game. And you know,
he's the guy with the ball inhis hand the most, and he
starts the offense. You know,I'm getting mere Ant set up or Rudy
(01:26):
with the lobs or Jaden with thecornerkick. So he's very vital for our
team. He's vital for the energythat we bring to the court. So
I mean, obviously we hope heplays. Cheryl Reeves stopped by the booth
an hour ago. She's gearing teena game six victory. DraftKings has the
Timberwolves as two point favorites tonight seveno'clock. Three games and Max will take
(01:49):
over at six point thirty for apre to the pregame show all of our
coverage about ninety minutes from now.Your thoughts, Cheryl Reeve also, I
was about to say suggest that shedidn't suggest. She mandit an explanation for
why Jamal Murray was not suspended.She is in a liberating or liberated position,
whereas the Wolves, including the Wolveshead coach, been a little bit
(02:09):
more passive aggressive on the decision tonot suspend the Denver Nuggets guard Cheryl Reeve
with Cheryl Reeve, which was,it's absurd, it's a joke. It's
ridiculous that it took place without thathe had hit, He did what he
did without there being any sort ofmeaningful punishment. It's old news. The
(02:30):
Wolves can't wallow in it because itain't gonna do him any good tonight.
They just have to go out andplay. But it was interesting to hear
her comments there as well. Iam done having pretending I have a feel
for what might happen in a particularballgame. It is worth noting that Johnny
(02:50):
Athletic, who's very close to thisclub, came away from Game five feeling
that the team mentally seemed a bitmore spirited than it was after games three
and four. And is that indicativeof they've kind of like given up the
ghosts. I expect an effort,but that's the unknown is have they been
(03:13):
beaten down enough, basically by oneguy, that they're gonna have a hard
time mustering it up. And someof this I do is out as it
sounds. I think depends on Denver. I mean, can they have a
clunker in them? I mean,can they have a forty two shooting game
in them? That might very wellchange everything and give a little bit of
an opening. I'm not gonna suggestI would be gobsmacked if the Wolves won
(03:38):
at all. But I don't havea feel. I'm not I'm not sitting
here saying they're done. I'm notsitting here saying there's They've got a great
chance to send it back. We'veseen so many. Well, see,
that's the thing. We actually haven'tseen so many. We've seen one significant
shift. And my one concern aboutthe Wolves is they have yet to shift
it back correct. They have onemore chance to do that, and that
(04:00):
obviously is tonight, and that wouldbe a significant shift. I don't care
what anybody says to force game seven, even in a situation where Denver would
still be very much favored. Butthat's what we're waiting for, right We're
waiting for. Okay, lob itback in their other court, give them
something to think about. They Wolvesjust have not done that to any meaningful
degree the last three games. TargetCenter is the place to be tonight.
(04:23):
Target Field was the place to bethis afternoon, and unfortunately, if you're
a Twins fan, it did notgo well against the Yankees. Here's Rocko.
We didn't make a baseball place thisseries. We had for the previous
month, probably one of the longeststreaks of good quality, fundamental baseball that
I've been a part of anywhere,and then we had three straight days of
not doing it. So no one, not myself or anyone else, has
(04:45):
a reason for that. You know, we're going to have to make sure
that we turn that around as soonas possible, and as soon as possible
would be tomorrow night on the roadagainst the Cleveland Guardians. He's talking about
a series where the Twins got onthe board first, led the Yankees one
zero on Tuesday, and then neverscored again. After Ryan Jeffers Dong.
They did not score the rest ofthe series. They lose five zero.
Today Joe Ryan gets the loss.He went five and a third, allowed
(05:10):
four runs and gave up a Dongalso struck out five. But the Twins
had some misadventures in the field,misadventures playing some things, and that was
that was it. That was allshe wrote. Five rip So if I'm
doing my math, right, nineand nine is eighteen eight. We were
held scoreless the last twenty six inningscorrect of this three game series against the
(05:32):
Yankees. Correct. Meanwhile, theirbig big bopper the hit what's the slugger's
name, Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge. Every ball he hit apparently was minimum
one hundred and five miles per hour. He had a four hundred and sixty
seven foot home run last night.I think he had two more doubles today.
(05:54):
You know, it's the old dealof baseball being a funny game.
Even if you're a slugger. Youcan get she pitch a came actually right,
you know, like you can hitbloops, singles whatever. Everything he
hit apparently was crushed, and evenI think the first I was told the
first two times he was at theplate he hit line drives that were out
like he crushed everything after what,by his standards, I think was a
(06:17):
slow start. So the Yankees offto it. Now they're one of the
hottest teams in baseball. And wecooled down considerably after winning what seventeen out
of twenty, and we got anotherlitmus test, as you said, against
the against the Guardians, we gotnothing going offensively. Starting pitching wasn't horrible,
(06:40):
but it wasn't good enough. Andif you only score one run in
three games, your chances are limitedto not get swept. They are two
and a half games back now theCleveland Guardians, who are in first place
in the Central Kansas City in second, a game ahead of the Twins Cleveland
twenty seven and seventeen. That's wherethe Twins had tomorrow night. A Viking
schedule is out. We don't needto go through it game by game,
but it is interesting to note andCharchy and did this tweet about a half
(07:04):
an hour ago. I know hewas listening to the show earlier. I
appreciate that charge DraftKings has released bettinglines for every game of the season.
The Vikings are underdogs in fourteen ofthe seventeen games. They are not favored
until week nine. That's the IndianapolisColts, that's what we surmise, yeh
think right, and are never favoredas of now by more than a point
(07:26):
and a half man, so they'renot feeling the club. I believe the
over under the DraftKings has his sixand a half for the win total for
twenty twenty four, so that thoseare some nuggets, some Denver nuggets on
the Vikings seem to trust us,but then why should they in all honesty,
(07:46):
I mean a lot of unknowns.I know last year we didn't get
any breaks and Cousins got hurt.But we've got a perennial backup as the
starter right at quarterback, at leastat the start of the season. Sam
Darnold ye is Vegas. Similarly,are they doing any odds on the odds
the best odds indicating the week atwhich the phenom young quarterback JJ McCarthy will
(08:07):
be elevated to the starter position noninjury related. I have they got to
do that? I'm somebody does.Yeah, if it's not Vegas, it's
one of the betting apps, I'msure they'll do something like that. But
I haven't seen anything like that.And it is an interesting discussion on when
that might be, yes, becauseI don't know if there's a great spot,
(08:28):
like a great spot to just throwhim in, because well, maybe
it's that soft three game stretch wetalked about AFC. That might be it.
That might be it. That mightbe the one. A couple of
road games too. Yeah, youcan't you can find a reason to not
play a guy forever. At somepoint he's just got to play. You
can't just you know, you know, spoon feed him. Well, I
think they want to coddle him early. I do. I think maybe that's
(08:50):
just the game they're they're saying that. I hope they don't coddle him too
much. I think they have tobe sensible about it. We'll all agree,
you don't want to force him in, right. I also, you
know, don't think you want tohold him back. You know, often
these things to take care of themselvesby what people observe in training camp,
right. You know, a guycan come in with high expectations and look
(09:13):
lost, right, and look overwhelmed. And then there's times where a rookie
can come in at that position andsay, oh, it looks like he's
got a little bit more going thanwe thought. So we'll see. The
Vikings also today signed Robert Tanyan,the former packer who doubted him was this
season, yep, go ahead,not a bad tight end, not a
bad you know tight end, depthguy. He caught eleven touchdowns in twenty
twenty. Yeah, it probably hisbest in the five years at Green Bay.
(09:35):
According to our guy, Ben Gesling, he tore his ACL in twenty
twenty one, also popped over toChicago for a bit, but he is
added to a didn't I tight endroom? Didn't I also read that suddenly
the Hockinson rehab is like miraculous thepace it's at, and now all bets
are off on when he might beavailable. Did I have did I dream
(09:56):
that? I hope I'm not dreamingabout TJ. Hawk, But did I
not read something to that effect?I'm not sure. I don't know if
I saw the same thing. I'mnot saying you maybe. I mean,
I'm sure I saw someone with him. I don't even know exactly what that
means, because I think originally thefeeling was, well, don't count on
him for the start of the seasonright, certainly not the start of training
camp. So I don't know howmuch that's changed. It sounded like there
(10:18):
were some favorable reports on that regard. It's something we can obviously check with
one of our Viking sources, perhapsSeffert or Guestling. Xander Schoffley is your
leader in the PGA Championship at ValhallaGolf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, home
of Rick Bozai, fired a nineunder sixty two. Today he leads Tony
Fenow and Saheith Thigala, who aresix under par. Rory McElroy is five
(10:43):
under as well as Robert McIntyre.A big group at four under par includes
Brooks Koepka and Colin Morikawa and Fargo'sown North Dakota's own Tom Hogey is three
under par along with Scotti, Schefflerand a cast of thousands. Tiger Tiger
was one under par through sixteen three, putted both seventeen and eighteen to finish
(11:05):
a one over seventy two. Lumpy, Well, it's Lumpy. I think
he's at Excelsior Brewing Company right now. In you blame him drinking Lumpy's logger.
I don't even know if they stillmake it. It's good to be
lumpy. It's great to be lumpy. Yeah, grant in your hand the
fanom big deck dot com. I'mgonna give you a shot to join our
national cash contest. You can enterthe keyword check to kfan dot com.
(11:26):
Go to kfa dot com and enterthe keyword check. Have we located the
original? It's frustrating. More onthat when we come back here. Fan.
(11:54):
You know It's a scary moment whenon location here Target Center, Scott
Way, where it is starting tofire up with activity, not surprisingly since
the game time tonight is seven thirty. Right here on the fan regular pre
game seven pre game to the preAt six thirty, I hear the music
(12:15):
indicating we have to come back onthe air, and I'm scrambling looking for
the headset so i can listen toyou, Guardsie and listen to the music
more closely. And it's already overmy ears. That's not a good sign,
is it. I'm seriously, I'mlooking at it on the floor.
Did it fall off during the break? I put it on a chair and
I have them over my ears.And he wondered why you were hearing the
(12:37):
music. Yeah, that's also true. It's a short segment you can rebound.
You know. At the five thirtybreak production meeting, I did send
you a video that is absolutely worthyof our airing, but it will have
to be sanitized because it involves KGand Paul Pierce. But it's in very
(13:00):
interesting challenge being offered up for yourMinnesota Timberwolves for tonight's game six. So
maybe during the longer break you cansee what you if you can work your
magic at some point, because Ido think it raises a number of entertaining
and salient points regarding game number six. Meanwhile, his dan went a soda
(13:22):
unearthed the original or earliest example ofit's frustrating, going back to nineteen hundred
and eighty six, presumably on thisdate, let's see, and on that
occasion, much to your devastation,Guardsie, well, no, were you
(13:46):
even born in eighty six? Iwas four? Yeah, you were four
years old or four. This isa soccer story. The Strikers lose Game
seven of the MISL Championship after beingahead three to one. That's it's got
to be pretty close to him,possible to lose a soccer game after being
(14:07):
up two goals, isn't it threeto one? And they end up losing,
And he cites a Star Tribune storywritten by a reporter named Susan Fader,
and here's the headline, Strikers joinclub, disappoint fans in big game.
So in this case she writes closefor a while. At one point
(14:30):
Strikers were head three games to all. I see this is not three to
one. Score three games to onein this series, which is still not
great, and they lose five tothree to San Diego in the all decisive
Game seven, giving the championship tothe San Diego Soccers as an sock ers
(14:52):
and the lead quote from a womannamed Linda Fitch of Bloomington, who went
to Eddie Webster's the infamous four toninety four strip to watch the game is
as follows. It's frustrating we alwaysseem to make the playoffs, but then
we can't win the championship. Husbandadded John, it's like there's a curse.
(15:16):
I'd like to see Minnesota break it. So on record, that's this
might be our earliest precursor to It'sFrustrating nineteen hundred and eighty six, and
this of course would have predated theTwins breaking through in eighty seven. Yep,
right, So I found that fairlyinteresting. I think I'm pretty sure
(15:39):
we've talked about this game before,have we, because I'm pretty sure we
tried to track down the original It'sFrustrating game. Oh I don't remember this.
I mean, maybe it's another fan, you know, right, man
or woman on the street, ButI remember that we were trying to get
you know, forty years ago,you know, one of these on one
of these anniversaries. You know,some of the was quoted in the paper
(16:00):
that day or whatever it was,and I know we've tried. I feel
like it was this one, butwe couldn't find her obviously because maybe she
moved away. Maybe that game wasenough where she said, I've had it
possible, it's over. I'm movingto Arizona, and I'm forgetting about it.
The original It's frustrating, pretty interesting, it really is that. I
mean, the reason why we madethe its frustrating state fair t shirts.
(16:22):
How many markets have every single sport, multiple people that have said it over
the years, where we have likefifty of them in our system, and
I could have another two hundred,probably because people send them to me constantly.
There are a bunch aether or not, it seems. And you know
what's interesting about it is if wetried this same experiment to get sound that
(16:47):
that reflects disappointment of let's say,for the sake of this discussion, Philadelphia
fans over the years, or Bostonfans over the years, or Chicago fan
over the year years. I don'tthink it would. I mean, it
wouldn't be it's frustrating, it wouldbe it's bleeping ridiculous, embarrassing, it'd
(17:08):
be so over the top. Itfeels so Minnesotan to me. To hear
Joe Mauer say it's frustrating, hedoes. There isn't that quintessential Minnesota right
there? Yes, it's just soperfect, perfect Minnesota word, which is
exactly why we liked it, becauseI don't think the word's frustrating in a
number of other markets. Do youno embarrassing, ridiculous, pathetic, pathetic,
(17:32):
sad? There's a million of bleepyou exactly. Yeah, it's the
expletives that are not included in ours. Very true. Well, will there
be more of that tonight after Gamesix? We'll see. I don't know.
Let me ask you this question.We're in it to win, right,
so it may be viewed as afeeble question to ask at all,
(17:55):
or a small market we never expectthe best to happen happened to this kind
of question. Is there a meaningfuldistinction or will there be a meaningful distinction
for you as a Timberwolves fan goingway back to when you were four years
old and expected later a little laterage for the team to leave between the
(18:17):
Wolves being eliminated tonight in game sixand carrying it to game seven and losing
in seven to Denver. Yeah,to me, there is yes. I
think as we said at the topfive or whenever it was, they have
to be there has to be somefight back here. There has to be.
And I guess if they play reallywell and it goes down to the
(18:38):
wire and they lose, yeah,one hundred and ten to one oh nine,
and there's a great play by Jokeror Murray at the end or whatever,
and they lose and everybody played well, then it all depends obviously on
how tonight goes. But just ifyou're just asking me six or seven,
losing in six after you dominated gamesone and two seems it's frustrating. It
seems like we were just talking aboutworse than he got it to seven.
(19:00):
You fought back when you even mentionedit, and Johnny did. The locker
room felt different after game five,like you picked yourselves back up after getting
blown out essentially three straight games andforced a game seven in Denver where you're
not gonna be the favorite, butat least you did that. I could
live with seven much more comfortably thantonight. If they come in and Denver
(19:21):
just kind of does what they've doneand beat you by eight to ten points
and it's over. I think thereis a big difference. I think there
is a big difference. I agree, and I was a part of it.
Doesn't go out on this road atall, because I don't want to
say, well, then commeminative print. If you lose to Denver in game
seven, and let's see how youlose in seven, you get killed by
twenty six or is it a gamethat's relatively competitive. But I think there
(19:41):
is a difference because, as wetalked about earlier, if there's hesitation for
people here, even you know wholike this team about yep, you know
what te tonight, they're going toget it back. Sooner or later.
You got to get it back.You have to return the punch, as
you say, you have to plantyour feet, even if it's not quite
(20:02):
your time. Even if Denver endsup winning the whole thing, and that's
how you do it. It mayhave come a little too late if it's
tonight, But at least tonight opensthe door to a game seven where weirder
things have happened, believe me.And maybe Denver has an injury, Maybe
Denver again has a bad scoring game. Who knows, huge difference, especially,
(20:22):
as you say, because of thefact that you took the first two
games at home and then you dropfour in a row and you can't you
know, win a single one ofthose, you know, those three games
at home. I mean, comeon, come on, seriously. Yeah,
I think there is a big difference. Even if ultimately we're not here
for commemora of Prince for losing toDenver in seven games, I think it
(20:45):
rightly for Wolves fans among others,will it will It will feel a lot
a lot more acceptable than man.They never countered, not once. Right,
you know, we go to thefinals, they were going to win
the title, and then they nevergot back into the fight, not even
once. Yeah, exactly, itall right, let's do this. Let's
make this the bottom of our pause. It doesn't look like we're gonna get
Mitchell. I don't think I washoping to get Sam Mitchell today. Maybe
(21:07):
we end up getting him tomorrow.Whether the series is extended or it ends,
I'll keep attempting to work on him. So we are for the moment.
Guest free. The rest of theway. You can tweet at me
Dan Barrero Cafe en if you havequestions or observations to get to. We'll
mix and match a number of differentstories. We'll get back to a little
(21:29):
bit of Vikings schedule talk, We'llget to a couple of a bit of
a Twitter battle that Johnny Athletic hasgotten in with the hockey community again,
and discuss also interesting stuff from CherylReeve, not just on our own links
team, but on the Timberwolves Nuggetsseries and Joker as well. Stay I
(22:17):
mentioned some I think very compelling soundinvolving a conversation between KG and Paul Pierce.
They do a I guess is it? Would you call it a video
cast podcast? It's all it's allcontent, and it's a direct challenge to
the Minnesota Timberwolves and to Rudy Gobert, and it's frontal, but I think
(22:42):
it raises a couple of issues thatmake it worth listening to the challenge.
However, is that any sound involvingKG, definitely and Piers two degree tends
to be littered with language that probablyget us in trouble if we air it.
(23:03):
So guard he tells me that they'renot one, not two, not
three, not four, not five, six or seven or eight, but
nine words that he has to editout for us to make it playable.
Yeah, and you're seven in sohe ran out of time during the break.
Yeah, there's still two to go. To be fair, it's only
(23:26):
two words, yes, but oneof them is eight times, one of
them is once, I think,and I always have to triple check as
you know. Sure, I don'twant to do this quickly. No,
no, do this as deliberately aspossible. And I'm by myself, there's
no one here. Usually i'll havesomeone else come in and listen, Yeah,
and say what with the garnet stuff? Because it's always great, but
(23:47):
it's always vulgar. So yeah,i'll see here. I think being deliberate
and being judicious about this thing isdefinitely the best way to go. So
we'll get to that eventually. Whenwe had Johnny Athletic here on location,
(24:07):
I'm at the Cage Target Center,fans already lining up to get into the
building for game number six Wolves andthe Denver Nuggets. And we'll be with
you till six thirty tonight. Pregameto the pregame with Max at six thirty
and the regular pregame will start atseven. I think we're the only basketball
(24:27):
game tonight, aren't we It's onESPN for TV purposes. It's on the
fan of course for radio purposes.But I think we're the only game.
Yes, I don't think there's alate game. That's why this game time
was set about a week ago,because the New York Pacers series is tomorrow
night. That's tomorrow night Boston eliminatedCleveland. That's going to be part of
(24:48):
what we're going to get into injust a minute. But I had been
quoting from the Hollander piece that attemptedto, in very specific terms, layout
the absurdity of Joker's third quarter inGame five against the Wolves. I think
he finished with sixteen points and fourassists. And there's a quick passage from
(25:14):
that that I think is important toget to because it connects pretty directly with
all the stuff on T and T, all the challenges, the mocking of
Rudy Gobert in a way that makeit makes it pretty important for us to
get to. Here's what Hollinger writes. This is in a section where he's
laying out the play by play ofthat third quarter, which might well be
(25:40):
the best single quarter that Joker hasever played in an already pretty illustrious career,
he says, or he writes,Yes, you read that correctly.
The Nuggets were hunting the four timedefensive Player of the Year on switches.
Denver didn't want Gobert lurking as ahelp defender while Jokic battled another bit and
tried to force the matchup directly.The Wolves, on the other hand,
(26:03):
were trying to keep Jokic matched upagainst one of Karl Anthony Towns, Nas
Reed or Kyle Anderson, so Gobertcould be the helper. Jokic cooked Gobert
on a variety of post moves overthe course of this game, but the
one he made on the following playwas is He's got a video his Mona
Lisa, a double spin high offthe class finish that will surely end up
in the Jokers Hall of Fame Movessection. So the key to that is
(26:27):
exactly when, Because you know,Reggie Miller on the broadcast said the same
thing that Jokic is hunting Rudy Gobert, that he's making this personal. I
think Hollinger has the more accurate point, which is, I don't think it's
(26:49):
we think so little of Rudy Gobertthat we are can't wait for Joker to
get matched up with him one onone. I think it's more to do
with what Hollinger wrote and the manyof you and I have certainly talked about
this for a while, that thisdefense is set up in a way that
(27:11):
it's better served. It's not amatter of we're afraid of putting Rudy on
him. It's more are off Ourdefense in general is better served if Rudy
is off of him, so hecan play the same role he's played through
much of this season, which isto his strengths, which is as a
help defender, as a team defender, and even a defender who has shown
(27:34):
this year, I think surprising abilityin switches to occasionally guard guards right out
on the court. So that's basicallyit. In fact, one of the
one of the the baskets that thatthat Jokic scores during this ridiculous stretch.
Hollinger later mentions that at the startof it, it's it is cat on
(27:56):
him and then they do a pick. The the pick and rolls we were
talking about yesterday where with Aaron Gordon, where Gobert has to switch on him
because of the action of the playas well. So I'm not here to
tell you that Rudy Gobert can't playbetter. I would say it's fair to
say Rudy Gobert needs to play better, needs to make his presence felt more,
(28:19):
no matter how he does it.I don't think that's out of bounds
to you. I don't think that'sIt's not a matter of saying he can't
play better and be a bigger factor. It's this hunting go bear game.
Media from a media standpoint is justit's misleading. It leaves out so much,
most notably the fact that this isan all time great player who is
(28:42):
He does this to pretty much everybody, whether they happen to be called Defensive
Player of the year, A lotof other players who can, who either
have won that award or considered verygood defenders as well. I was thinking
about this today because, as youknow, the Rudy slander has been relentless
from a lot of places. Nowthere also are, to be fair,
(29:03):
some others, and I think wetalked about JJ Reddick yesterday, who's saying
the same thing that we're saying,that it's not about it's not an indictment
on Rudy Gobert that they're bringing himout twenty feet away to make him guard
Jokic's They know that's where he's notas good. He's so good by the
rim in that Rover. They don'twant him doing that. That's the adjustment.
It's in a way a compliment tosay, we're not gonna let you
do what you do best. We'regonna make you come out here to something
(29:26):
that we do best. And Jokerdoes everything well. But I was thinking
about it, like when Jordan wascooking somebody in the playoffs, like who
was it like in any of thePistons or Clyde Drexler. I mean,
did it automatically become There's no middleground on Rudy. It's not just oh,
hey, Joker got the best ofhim tonight, or the Nuggets got
the best of the Wolves. It'sI can't believe this is our defensive player
(29:48):
of the year. Like when Jordanwas cooking guys. Was the discussion that
when Kobe was cooking guys, whenLebron would do that, Like, was
that the discussion? It seems likethere's so much more on the Rudy side
of it. I can't like thisguy's got to stand up and do it.
Like were we asking people to dothat when former best players in the
world were absolutely dominating playoff runs,when Jordan once Jordan emerged with team success
(30:14):
to go along with individual success.The answer to your question is never right.
It was about him. It wasnever about well, God, what
what happened to Drexler? There?What happened to Joe Dumars? Wow?
I thought he was a great defender. What happened it was you shake your
shoulders, you shrug your shoulders,and you go, guys, that good.
And that's why we led with himyesterday, with Joker yesterday at the
(30:37):
top of the list. It's him, he's doing stuff. I mean,
Anthony Edwards, you might not wantto hear it from the player because there's
still another game to play tonight.But he wasn't wrong when he said sometimes
you just have to laugh. Imean, basically what he said is he
was ridiculously good in this last game. And generally speaking, unless there's agendas,
(30:59):
and in this case, this goesback to you make the decision to
start using players as analysts while they'restill in the league. I'm not against
it necessarily. I'm not gonna ripit now. I'm gonna say this is
one of the dangers of doing itis you're gonna get less objectivity if a
player has a grievance with a particularplayer who's still playing. Believe me,
(31:22):
in Draymond Green's case, that's thedeal. He's gonna milk it. He's
gonna use the opportunity. And there'san under there's to me, a patent
unfairness to that that, especially,as I said, when it involves players
who are still toiling, who arestill in the league. And that's what's
bizarre about this is that there canbe absolute criticism of well, but Rudy's
(31:45):
got to be a little stouter,He's got to show a little bit more
physicality whatever. I think. There'sagain their grades to this thing that you
can get into, shades of graythat you can get into, but that's
not close to what's happening on theTNT crew right now. And Green is
really fueling it. I mean,the other guys are getting in on it,
(32:05):
but it's because Green is sort ofleading the way. And what I'm
disappointed by is on that panel sometimeswhen they're at their best is they push
back against each other correct, Andthere's been no pushback on this. There's
been no Charles saying, Draymond loveyou, but how did you your Defensive
Player of the Year too, how'dyou do against him? To at least
(32:27):
open that conversation to it. Butyou're on hundred percent right. With any
of the greats. You could thinkof Magic when he was on an offensive
role, or even just orchestrating MichaelLarry, Joe Bird go through the greats.
Rarely was it what that's an alldefensive player he's doing that. It
would be more admiring the offensive performancethan it would be ripping the defensive player.
(32:52):
It would be you shrug the shouldersand you go, god, he's
ridiculous. He's that good. That'swhy he one of the all time greats.
And the difference is the personal partthat a player who's still in the
league, who has all these weirdgrievances against him, who resents the number
of times he's won the Defensive Playerof the Year award, is given a
(33:15):
big platform, the biggest, thebiggest while still playing. So I would
you know, I'd love to seesomebody write about that or at least mention
it, at least throw it intothe mix a little bit, but so
far we have not. Unfortunately,we have not seen well Timberwolves Twitter,
not the official account, but whatthey would call Wolves Twitter, the fans
of the team that tweet about itand follow them obviously very closely. They're
(33:37):
doing their part to try to makeeverybody aware of Draymond Green's own record against
Joker. Yes, and it's noteven just about Draymond's. It's everybody.
It's everybody that Joker has done thisto. And the other night it is
obviously. I mean Tim Legler calledit maybe the best twelve minutes he's ever
seen any player play. There's somethinglike that, right, paraphrasing that,
(33:57):
like, you can't play basketball anybetter than you'll Couich played it the final
six minutes of that third quarter.It's just but that's not what the focus
is. It's the focus on whohe did it against, which, by
the way, wasn't all on Rudy. At one point, it was on
every single seven foot that the Wolveshad besides Luca, who wasn't in the
game. It was Rudy, itwas Towns, it was nos There was
no there were no answers, whichordinarily would be a further compliment to the
(34:20):
guy doing it. Guy. Theytried five different people on him. He
burned them all. And people aretrying to make that point, but the
loudest voices are the ones that aregetting the most oxygen, are the ones
that want to make it all aboutthe Frenchman, as Gobert would call him,
right or I'm sorry his Draymond wouldcall it Raymond, Yeah, eleven
what do we say Earlier we quotedfrom the piece I think they scored on.
Was it eight straight persent? No, it was eleven eleven straight possessions
(34:42):
and like thirteen fifty yeah, absurd. It was crazy efficiency. And by
the way, often you know,because it's him shooting it or him dishing
for a dunk, high percentage,very high percentage shots that were working as
well. And it wasn't like hewas breaking ankles and you know, just
getting by. It was him doingwhat he does. There's a couple I
mean, we talked about the threedifferent spin moves, like Rudy stopped the
(35:06):
first two like not everybody's got athird counter to the counter to the counter,
and then flips it high off theright upper edge of the backboard to
kiss sweetly off the glass and falllike that's just absurd basketball. And Rudy
was with them for the first two. Now he's got to play better,
of course, but it's just aweird spot where it's got to be this
all or nothing on Ruthy, allor nothing, yeah, and it's it's
(35:28):
it's there's this concentration on him,and I do think frankly, there's not
much other explanation than envy and jealousy. And I don't know if he deserved
all those defensive Player of the yearor two. I who's to say in
a given year. Maybe maybe Draymondgot screwed out of another one. I
don't know, But I mean thefact of matter is I well, I
(35:52):
say factor matter matter. My beliefis that some of this is that he's
from France, that he's not oneof us. It's bizarre. Is he
two like two aeradite and two cosmic. There's just weirdness here that ordinarily should
bug people, you know, wouldsay, well, what's your problem with
(36:13):
him? What exactly the Frenchman?What exactly does that mean? For the
record. In an eight minute spanin the third, Jokic scored or set
up twenty seven of Denver's twenty ninepoints. They scored on eleven straight possessions
and fifteen out of seventeen. Nowagain, you could say, well,
(36:34):
that's got to be you gotta havesome pride, I mean, and that's
eventually if we get to the GarnettSoundBite. I think that's part of the
rage that he's attempting to articulate.I don't know if he's anti Rudy.
For all I know he is too, because it's like going around in the
league. Other item I mentioned,Cleveland got eliminated by by Boston last night,
and sure enough the athletic autopsy onBickerstaff as being in trouble as the
(37:02):
coach landed about thirty seconds later.And here a couple of points I think
that are important to make about thisthat have I think relevance whether you care
about Bickerstaff or Cleveland Cavaliers or whateveryour team is. One is that I'm
never going to rip any reporting,good reporting, solid reporting that anybody does
(37:28):
that indicates that, based on theirinformation, a coach is in trouble,
right, because that doesn't necessarily meanyou think the coach should be in trouble.
It means following your sources based onyour information. Here's the vulnerability that
allegedly this coach should feel on thebasis of what they have, you know,
in front of them. Right,you can't get mad at people for
(37:50):
following the story. Okay, that'sreally important here, because some people I
think are even sell I shouldn't bedoing this at all. Well, if
that, if that information is accurate, your job you're obligate is to report
it. You don't have to evenendorse it. You could say, I
don't even think it's fair to JamieBigger staff, but that's the reality in
that organization. Right. On theother hand, the trend which seemed to
(38:15):
indicate an unwillingness or reluctance to everon the part of the reporters if they're
also trying to sort of kind oftrying to analyze what's going on there,
to ask hard questions about the bestplayers, or to look at the Cleveland
situation, because a lot of thisapparently had to do it before they went
on a huge run during the season. He was in trouble because they were
(38:37):
struggling and there were some issues thereand then they took off, and by
taking off, they seem to takethe pressure off of bigger staff and now
they're they're eliminated. So there's allegedlyhe's in trouble again. But do you
not, and maybe this was allincluded in the report, is it not
fair as a reporter to say,well, let's look at some of the
(38:59):
realities here of this particular series.Okay, they're playing a better team,
right, Boston's been better than anybodythis entire season. They're down how many
players. Jared Allen hasn't been inthis series at all? Right, he
has not played start to finish.There they their best scorer missed the last
(39:22):
two games, I mean, theirstar don Donald Mitchell missed the last two
games of the series, and LeVertmissed I think the last game of the
series. And they still took Bostoninto the fourth quarter at Boston Garden in
you know, in game five.Ultimately Boston did you know, Boston's weird,
But they eventually took care of business. So that's part of my suspicion
(39:45):
about this trend is that, youknow, it's it's so easy, it's
so much easier to get quotes,even off the record, quotes from players
ripping the coach. And I don'tknow how much of that is this or
how much of this is management feelingthe way it does. Certainly with Phoenix
it was players right that that apparentlywe're taking pot shots at Frank Vogel And
(40:08):
you say, well, it justbecause it's easier for the coach to get
a hammerd because players can leak stuffdoesn't necessarily mean that's the whole story.
When are we gonna do, youknow, ask some hard let's see some
hard questions on Kevin Durant. KevinDurant is not known as a troubled you
know, troublemaking player. But isit not a fair question to say when
(40:30):
is Kevin Durant happy? Because nowit's Kevin Durant's unhappy against like what what
defines Kevin Durant's happiness is that partof the problem, here's part of this
is that part of the story whenhe goes from place to place to the
degree he does, those stories shouldbe available and should be of interest as
well, rather than the hey,we got three players pounding away on the
(40:51):
coach. Communications not good and maybeit isn't or we don't like the way
we're maximizing the talent we have.We don't like our late game decisions,
et cetera. That's what's starting totrouble me, is it's become in the
age of player empowerment. I thinksome reporters are being manipulated. I really
do. I think they're they're andthey're they're going for it because it's good,
(41:15):
good copy, right, It's it'sentertaining, it's interesting. But is
it really telling in all fairness thecomplete store. No. And they're getting
it because they do put that stuffout there, right. They we talked
about at the time the last timethis happened Vogel right after the Wolves swept
them. They get, especially withthe star stars, you want to be
(41:36):
the one that also gets the scoopthat they're moving on or they've demanded a
trade, or they're signing with thisteam and this is their max contract.
Right. It is very transactional.And this is part of the transaction for
the reporter is basically throwing the coachunder the bus as quickly as they can.
Which is a tough place to be, a tough place to live because
players, you know, the playersin the agent disadvantage. Yeah, and
they control all the info now,the agents and the players, right,
(42:00):
very true and there and Shams iscompeting with woes, who's competing with all
the local guys and and by theway, I mean, I can say
from my own experience it is abalancing act because if you have relationships.
You know, I had a prettygood relationship with Flip obviously when he coached
here, and so you know,it's human nature. Everybody's gonna spin it
in a way that maybe puts alittle bit more of the attention on if
(42:23):
he's a coach a player, Soit works both ways. You know,
you got to be it's a balancingact to do it because everybody is is
going to come up with their ownyou know, they're going to be more
concerned about anything the more than anythingabout their own self interest, right,
and so that's part of what youhave to watch. But I think it's
(42:44):
the balance. It's out a whackright now. And I don't even know
what the answer to it is,because, as you say, the change
in the business is the degree towhich agents talk more than they ever did
before, and manipulate and play withthis stuff and toy with this stuff,
and they have very definite interests.We know that above and beyond. Sometimes
(43:05):
even the player himself or the headcoach, and it's just it's it's it's
just I don't know, it's anunsavory look to me because again, maybe
bicker Staff, there are people wholook at their offense and say, I
never understood what they run. Youknow, there may be I'm not ever
saying that. You know, coachesare beyond criticism, and obviously some coaches
(43:29):
have to go more than others.But God, there's so much in there
that tends to get lost. Itseems like at that last moment, we're
gonna get that, gonna get thatheadline out. Bicker Staff's in trouble,
you know, just like Frank Vogelin trouble, rha in trouble when in
each of those three cases there areroster configuration issues, personnel decisions that at
(43:52):
the very least have had every bitas much to do with the relative dysfunction,
if you want to call making thepostseason dysfunctional, and the team's potentially
underachieving as well. There was abig ovation in the skyway a few moments
ago. Yes, actually, I'msure the gate. I think the gates
are about to open here, sat. Yeah, it's getting it's getting crowded
in here for sure. Was thatovation related to the fact that per Chris
(44:15):
Finch at his media availability, MikeConley is in tonight officially? Might have
been. I don't know. Icouldn't really tell tonight within the last three
or four minutes from downstairs at TargetCenter. So that's key. Yeah,
then goes back to being off thebench, which also works better for all
concerned. I don't think we're goingto see my dream of Luca. I
(44:38):
don't think it's going to be realized, but I've been surprised before. I
mean to be honest, I don'twant to root for foul trouble, but
that's what it would take, right, It would take less three of the
big men each having four files atthe half or something where you go,
oh, we gotta let's just puthim out there for five minutes. See
what happens. Now against Denver.That's dangerous because five minutes might mean twelve
(45:00):
to two, but maybe not.Maybe Luca actually hits a couple of threes.
What do you think of that?Well, they need somebody to hit
try hard. They need somebody.It wouldn't be a problem with that's for
sure. Intensity No, all right, let's do this top of the hour
pause. Maybe you'll have a littlemore time to try to edit the sound
we wanted to play from AKG andPierce very timely for tonight's game. Six.
(45:23):
Doors have just opened here at TargetCenter. I'm at the Skyway location.
I see a few leftover Twins fans. Maybe they're doing the double dip.
They were here for Game three sweepat the hands of the Yankees.
We know it's not good baseball.They're hoping it might be something a little
bit better tonight at Target Center.All of the action right here in the
fan. Yeah, we just playa random basketball. I've been saying it
(45:51):
multiple times. I mean, we'veshown how we look when we're fully engaged
defensively and playing at our level,in our highest level. I think we
just need to do We need tofind a way to do that tonight for
sure. So just getting back tothat self, that that image of ourselves,
this is gonna be important to that. Stop fouling. Can I make
(46:15):
it any more clear than that,Stop fouling. Stop making it impossible for
the coaches to keep you on what, at least in theory, is the
best matchup against Yo Kitchen. Aswe talked about yesterday, I mean,
(46:35):
he didn't come close to filing outyet in Game five, but that third
file is an example of when wasthat was that in the second quarter of
the third It was like five minutesleft in the second that's right, And
that was, as we talked aboutyesterday and as Johnny confirmed with us today,
(46:57):
that was the half where Denver didlook look more beatable, look more.
They weren't in charge, they weren'tsmooth, they weren't state of the
art offensively at all. But andit was a chance maybe offensively for the
Wolves to get something done because theywere in their own way. Every bit
is just disjointed, but you haveto take them to the bench there.
You want to have your best playerson the court as much as you can
(47:20):
when your playoff lives are at stake, right, we all understand that.
So I don't. I'm not holdingmy breath that he's gonna suddenly figure it
out in this game. You needa little bit of luck, right,
You need an officiating crew that maybefeels sorry for him a couple of times.
So I'm not gonna that's too easyon Kat. I'm gonna let that
one go. That's to be morelikely what you have to hope for.
(47:45):
We're gonna save the sound for thelast segment. Guards, He's that correct,
Just to be sure you've you've properlybleeped everything out. I'd to it
too many times. I think that'svery fair. The last thing I want
to do is get you or mein trouble in any way, shape or
form. It's not worth I mean, it's good sound, but I don't
think it's worth our jobs by anystretch, or even suspensions. But then
(48:05):
maybe, like Jamal Murray wouldn't besuspended at all, maybe we be fine.
We could only hope that Adam Silveris the one in charge? Yeah,
Or is it Joe Dumars. Isn'the the discipline? Yeah, technically
it is. I guess we allassume that on big ones in the playoffs,
there's a decent chance that the commissioneris knocking on Joe Dumar's door and
(48:27):
executives. Yeah, what are youthink in here? Joe? What do
you think? I mean a discipline? But I don't know that we ever
will know exactly how that plays out. I think it's impossible to not believe
that the commissioner is some way,shape or form involved, or has some
measure of veto power, and Ididn't ask. We had Cheryl, we've
here on location at four o'clock andtalk some links in some Wolves, very
(48:52):
loquacious about believing flat out that JamalMurray should have been suspended. I guess
I wasn't prize that she wasn't passiveaggressive, but it was nevertheless refreshing to
hear somebody in the organization right withties to the Wolves. Obviously the Lynks
willing to say it out loud,having perhaps less to lose, because they
(49:15):
can't really say to Cheryl, well, you're supposed to just coach your team.
That's a bad signal you're sending yourown club. And I think that's
maybe part of the reason Finchy hasgone sideways on it without being all that
direct. Cheryl Reeve was about asdirect as one can imagine on that very
point. But you know, Ididn't ask her what a lot of people
have surmised that if the Wolves,if Denver had been up to nothing rather
(49:40):
than down to nothing, that therewas a greater chance that Jamal would have
been sacrificed, because then you couldsay, all right, we're gonna do
that to get credit for being tough, and it's not really going to have
any huge impact on the series,right because well, in fact, we
kind of want the Wolves to getback in this series, right, We
want him to win a game soit makes it more interesting. So we'll
(50:04):
never know. It shouldn't matter.I'm a big believer that it shouldn't matter
at all, but I think sometimesit does. I think, you know,
things getting away that end up clutteringthe mind and not contributing to just
making a good sound decision on thebasis of what is this he did.
He did something that we've rarely seenhappen in the league, and yeah,
(50:28):
maybe ever in a league where wehave become really really draconian about delivering messages
as it pertains to you know,fan behavior right to throwing anything on the
court, even something that wouldn't necessarilypotentially hurt a player. We're sending a
conflicting message going the direction that weare here. Somebody said today they were
(50:52):
because they played back I don't rememberwho it was I was listening to today.
They played back the Finchy sound pregame five in which he did the
the tried the funny bit about itemizedreceipt and you know, the the question
that on the table was well,does that mean the Wolves haven't let that
(51:13):
go? And is that a badmessage that is being conveyed either explicitly or
implicitly by the head coach to hisplayers, And because you can't have him
wallowing in it, I I'm notthat concent. I mean it would be
if that's what they're spending a lotof time on with the team. My
guess is Finchy hasn't spent any timeon it. I'd be surprised if he
(51:36):
did, because I think he issmart enough to know I can believe what
I believe. We can believe whatwe believe. But there's no point in
stressing over this in terms of themessage I'm delivering to the team, you
know, and quite frankly, themessage he's been delivering to his team the
last couple of games has been we'renot doing this. We need to do
this better, right yep? Thegame four, you know, disaster at
(51:57):
the start of the quarter and wellmore so the end of the quarter he
called flat out inexcusable. So I'mnot I don't. I think he's just
okay. I haven't really had achance to weigh in, so I'll try
to do it sideways here, justgive it a little bit of a jab
and the rooty thing gave him theopening exactly right. Yep, Yeah,
that's exactly it. So we'll see. You said. The latest info was
the Wolves were two point favorites byat least one service that you said going
(52:22):
into tonight, two to two anda half. Yes, by DraftKings,
and I'll hit refresh here to seewhat happened. They are two point favorites
according to DraftKings. Interesting, veryvery interesting. Here's the other thing.
Yeah, if you're Finchy and ifyou're the Wolves, looks like Dallas is
in a pretty good spot to beatthe thunder They did they look at now.
(52:44):
So if you're looking for extra motivation, which you're not because it's the
Western Conference SEMIS and you're trying towin, but think of the opportunity lost
with all of the things that wetalked about, you know, being up
to zero and having the rough gamesthree and four here in Minnesota and not
being able to stop Joker and gamefive in the way it's looking, I
mean, the MAVs are now favored. They're up three games to two.
(53:05):
Right on the under wrap it upat home at all in Dallas. And
if you figure this thing out,you're hosting game one of the Western Conference
Finals next week, home ice advantage. Think about it. Yeah, that's
it. Whoever wins this series ishosting if Dallas wins, and that that's
a huge deal. Should I mean, not that it matters, it's the
Western Conference Finals, but come on, now, get it together. Well,
Dallas, you know they they lookedso dead in in what the previous
(53:32):
game of the game before, theylooked so dead in Now I'm mixing up
which game it was that that thatCharles basically Yester said not only was Oklahoma
City gonna win Game five? Well, Dallas game four, they they they
could have gone up three to one, and they laid an egg in game
(53:52):
four. And so Game five withOklahoma City Barkley was then, I think
because of that performance into saying notonly Okay City gonna win this game,
they're gonna crush them, They're gonnathey're gonna run them out of the gym.
And what happened, Okama City cameback play I should say, Dallas
came back and played a much bettergame. The big two, especially Luca,
(54:14):
who was dreadful the previous game wasmonstrous in this game, so you
know, again you can overreact becausenow it's set up for Dallas to wrap
it up at home. Maybe OklahomaCity digs deep. Who's to say,
but it certainly looks favorable to whatyou're suggesting that Dallas is in good position
and Dallas is what are there fouror five? They were the five?
(54:37):
The five, which again yeah,the CLI. So what this tells you
is you if you can find somehowa way to do what the Minnesota north
Stars did during the nineteen eighty playoffs, and that was drop to three down
to three games to two, wingame six at home home. Funny,
(55:00):
that's where're in the position we're innow, and then win seven in Montreal,
steal it. Uh. Then youhave you find yourselves with home home
court advantage at least to the tothe next round and preparing for the likelihood
of a a a winner take allNBA Finals against TIBs. Think about it.
(55:22):
Would that motivate Cat or would thatterrified Cat? So I don't think
Kat was the biggest TIBs fan,probably not, probably not, yeah,
probably right about that, But Ithink he hated Buckets more than TIBs now,
I don't know how they were inthe pecking order, You're probably right.
All right, let's get one morebreak in. We're going to take
a shot at the KG Paul Pierceback and forth, which I do think
(55:45):
is very topical. It's Wolves related, Denver related, it's Game six related.
So we'll wrap up the program withthat, turn it over to Max
at the bottom of the hour fora pre game to the pre game opening
tip off schedule for just past seventhirty right here in the
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