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It's the sports dad, Judd Zilgad, live on the Scorn Earth YouTube channel, Live at Flagren Howles, post-game, game one recap of a 108-105 timber wolves loss here. So, a little bit of an opposite situation from that Denver series, Judd were the wolves, and Bush the Nuggets jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, and then had to claw back into it after Denver won the first. We'll see how the flow of this series goes. But how are you feeling?
What's your main takeaway here after the wolves fall 108-105 to the Mavericks? The main takeaway is it's definitely a blown opportunity, but by the wolves because they led this game for a large portion. But I think it's important to point out that this was, it was not necessarily a well-played game, I thought it was a fun game to watch. It was sort of what I wanted from the Denver series, which was close games.
But, you know, if you look at game one of this series compared to any game in the Nuggets series, it was very clear that Nuggets and wolves were very familiar with each other. We know huge surprises, there were adjustments, but there were no, this felt like the classic game one feeling out game. Like you could tell the wolves and Mavericks both hadn't played in a while and didn't know exactly what to expect. So, a very different type of feeling, but no question about it, a blown opportunity.
Yeah, it does. I mean, you know, just, I think it felt like two boxers sort of feeling each other out. It was like you said, this post-trade deadline version of the Mavericks, better defensively, more size, the rookie, Derek Lively, by the way, just an absolute presence in the paint, the putbacks, making, and we can talk about some of the things that stood out here just in terms of the strategy and the Xs and Os, but it did kind of feel like to your point. The Nuggets and the wolves knew exactly who the other opponent was.
And we got literally people screaming at Draymond Green from across the world. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, she's very upset. So, we are just, we'll get into the game here in a second, but we're sitting here, just kind of on the top of the lower level of seats across the court from the inside of the NBA, TNT crew.
We had some derogatory Dremon chants before the game here. Shaq was roaming around Courtside before the game, so we'll give you more of the vibe here behind the scenes. But yeah, I felt like two boxers kind of feeling each other out. I think the biggest story at the end of the day, when this thing went back and forth in the fourth quarter, it was the first real nail-biter game that we've had, I feel like, in the playoffs.
And at the end of the day, the two heavyweight fighters for the Mavericks, Luca and Kyrie delivered more big punches than the two offensive heavyweights for the wolves, Anthony Edwards and Karl Anthony Townes, who were largely atrocious offensively in this game. Ant looked exhausted by the end of the game chasing Kyrie around for the better part of two and a half hours. But yeah, I mean, Luca and Kyrie definitely had a bigger and better night than Anthony Edwards and Karl Anthony Townes. And there's a million other things to break down in this game, but to me, that's the headline, Judge.
Yeah, and between Luca and Kyrie, you talk about a combined 63 points. Kyrie absolutely held the match in this game in the first half. He was brilliant, 24 points. 33 for the, or I'm sorry, 30 for the game.
So only six second half points for him, but Luca, who had 14 points in the first half, finished with 33. So like each superstar took a half. Here's something else I would say because I think that there's going to be the freaking out period here about. Oh my God.
Now it's going to be Mavericks and four. Are we going to do that? Are we really going to do that? I'm already starting up in the series.
Comments, but here's what I would. Here's what I here's what I love about this. And I don't know if this was true. I mean, Denver's got talent defending champions, so this is not putting them down.
But didn't you get the feeling tonight that you were watching to in some ways, very similar teams as far as the work ethic goes, as far as the defense goes? Like this, this is going to be a dog fight. And I really felt like tonight set the tone. I think that the familiarity of the series is going to take off now.
Adjustments definitely were made starting in game two, but just from a standpoint of game one, didn't you feel like this was the Spider-Man meme? I mean, it was like, it was definitely especially. It was very much size versus size. But I think what's crazy is throughout the regular season, and especially in the Phoenix and Denver series, it felt like Minnesota's size made the opponent uncomfortable more than the other way around.
This was the first game in a long time for sure. The first game in the playoffs, right? I thought, oh, the opposing team's size made the tear-wolves uncomfortable. And I'm looking, I guess we close these laptops here.
Oh, no, I've got one. So what's the points in the pain? It was like 64, 36 or something? 62 to 38, which was off for Dallas, which was offset by the Wolves because they were 18 to 49, 37% from three-point range in Dallas with 6 to 25.
But it kind of felt like with Lively, in particular, coming off the bench for however many minutes you wound up getting in, and then Gafford, too. I mean, Lively had a bigger impact than Gafford, but both those guys are like seven feet tall. The Mavericks, I think, pretty obviously wanted Anthony Edwards to shoot his way to 28 or 30 points, and if that was going to be the final box score, then they were going to live with it. But they made it really hard for the Wolves to get in and go through the layup drill and even getting to the free throw line.
I mean, the Wolves shot some free throws tonight, but I guess it felt like the Mavericks size made the Wolves more uncomfortable than the other way around. And part of that, dude, is because Kairi Irving and Luca Donchich make it look so easy in among the trees. I mean, Luca's ability throughout the fourth quarter to just get a little shoulder into a Jaden or a Nas or an Anthony Edwards. Just a little separation for that fadeaway.
In the first half, not much was working for the Mavs offensively, except Kairi Irving was just getting anything he wanted. And he was weaving in that quick little release at the rim. It was a huge dose of Kairi in the first half and a huge dose of Luca Donchich. And part of the problem for the Wolves is, you might say, well, those guys are hitting ridiculous shots, and they combine for 63 points.
I mean, isn't that kind of what they do all the time? I don't know that I look at this and say, boy, like the Mavericks were unsustainable offensively because Kairi and Luca hit a bunch of tough shots. Like, well, that's just kind of who they are. That's why they're two of the greatest offensive players in the league.
And it's going to be on Anthony Edwards and Carly Anthony Talon in particular to match that. In a game in which Jayd McDangles, by the way, knocks down six three pointers. It feels like a waste of one of the great games he has played in his career to this point. Yeah.
The thing that would concern me about Kairi and Donchich is this. They each took a half. So what happens if they both play complete games? So like, yeah, I would not dismiss that in the first half, especially, too, though.
So Luca gets in the paint. And yes, he first of all tries to draw fouls constantly. But second of all, he does that subtle, you know, where he does throw a shoulder or an arm in. But what really impressed me in the first half was Kairi literally gets to the basket.
Yeah. Like how many times did he just get to? He created and I don't know how clear paths to the basket where they didn't exist. Like that to me is a special gift because to your point, you're going through the trees there.
And it wasn't that he got into the paint and then found a way to score. He got into the paint, got to the basket and was making this ridiculous circus layups and that seems impressive. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you should shrug your shoulders and that's just kind of, it wasn't like either one of them went off for 45 points, which could absolutely happen at some point in the series.
The amount of, by the way, like the amount of putbacks and, you know, the Mavericks wind up with 11 offensive rebounds. And I feel like almost every one of them was like an emphatic putback dunk by a lively or somebody just coming in hot. Here's another just quick take. It's funny because the timber wolves are percentage-wise one of the best three-point shooting teams in the entire league throughout the regular season and the playoffs.
And I'm just going to pull this up here because I have a take on this. So the wolves in the regular season finished, I think top three, yeah, they finished third in three-point make percentage. Just behind the thunder and the Celtics. So they knocked down 39% of their three pointers, but they ranked 23rd in attempts.
So the wolves only took like 32 threes per game. You got the box score there. What do they take tonight? Like 50?
Did they take 53s tonight? 49? 49. 49.
Yeah. So I think on one hand, you could say, well, the wolves are one of the best percentage three-point shooting teams in the league. They should be taking threes, right? But I think there comes a point of diminishing returns and the Mavericks clearly decided they were okay living and dying with the wolves taking 40 to 45 to 49 three-point attempts.
I think you get to a point where if you're tacking on another 17 attempts from your season average, those aren't all clean looks. Or you've got streaky guys like the Keel Alexander Walker who hasn't knocked on a three in like a week. I feel like he'll get hot again at some point in the series. So like it's funny that the Mavericks looked at the Timberwolves and said, we know you hit three at a high clip, but we don't think if we just let you sit out there and shoot yourselves tired, and we'll contest as many as we can, they dared the wolves to beat them with jump shots and the wolves weren't able to.
It's interesting. And that goes back to a conversation that I think we had a couple of times during the Denver series, right? About the fact that the Rockets in their prime. Like that was the thing.
They okay, they're gonna make a bunch of threes. But if you just let them take the threes, especially against the good team, eventually if that dries up, they're absolutely screwed. Yeah, Dallas brought, look, without, be on a shadow, we saw tonight from Dallas for I think the first time in the playoffs and the wolves, yes, they got their drawers blown off. But I don't think we have seen a performance that was as workman-like and as wolves like in the effort as we saw from the maps.
Yeah, yeah, it was a Spider-Man meme. You're kind of right about that. It was it was almost like having two Anthony Edwards who can kind of just get their own shots whenever they want in Luca and Kyrie and then they just they make you go through the trees and the pain. Hey, real quick, we're getting a bunch of questions on some of the officiating tonight.
So yeah, last on wants to know about the basket interference. I'll throw also so the basket interference on cat and then I'll throw the Mike Conley offensive foul. What was the phrasing from Mark Davis? It was the subtle but effective push.
Yeah, I thought both those were bogus and like the well, I don't know, I guess by the letter of the law, maybe the Carlin Anthony towns put back. What's the rule on that exactly? Because above the cylinder. Because but that ball was out.
If you go back and watch it, it looks to me like the ball has come out of the cylinder, but it's above the cylinder. So the cylinder goes up in perpetuity to the right of the arena. Right. But what about when it's out of that of that sphere?
Because that's what we look like to me. Yeah, once it moves like I would so imagine that the sphere goes all the way up, right? It goes up and you know, the camera angle from the top. I guess my point is usually when the ball is that high off the rim and someone comes in and it was kind of like it was at least halfway off.
Letter of the law, I guess it might have been the right call. I don't know. There was a couple calls like that and I don't want to make this about officiating. But like I'd rather make it about the end of the first half sequence where the wolves, it was like a five point swing unnecessarily because the wolves got sloppy.
But right. But it's like whether the ball was in or out. I just don't know that that's a call that you see made a lot and that was kind of jarring to me. And then the Conley like, come on guys, what are we calling in that situation of all the things you could have called in a physical playoff game.
And we're calling that in a key moment. It's funny that Mark Davis, right? That's the the head of the issue. Yeah.
People won that like in game two and then in game six, the two biggest blowout wins for the wolves in that nugget series. He just let everyone play for two and a half hours. But what was weird about it was they also tonight let them play a lot, which I liked. Look, like that's the thing is there were a few calls both ways that were incredibly ticky tack.
But for the most part, there were some good old fashioned muggings that they didn't call. And I prefer that just, you know, just allow allow the game to play out, especially this one. I mean, this series is going to be a lot of times ugly, like there's going to be a lot of ugly basketball, not aesthetically pleasing. But yeah, I was really surprised because every once in a while, you get a whistle and you'd be like, hold on, you're going to call that, but you didn't call three before.
And I thought and again, from the replay that I saw, I thought that. Ball had come out of what is considered the cylinder. So I didn't like that call. And I also again, I've just seen worse like like if that if that is offensive basket interference, I got bad news for you.
We're going to start just allowing a lot of baskets. We should also, I'm just making up rules because I'm pissed about the outcome of the game. Maybe but if a ball clangs off the rim and goes straight up in the air, if it's like above the level of the backboard at any point, the offensive goal tending should go out the window. You know, I don't know.
No, I'm just making up rules because I'm spiteful that the wolves are down. But again, the wolves did and I told you when the wolves led at halftime, this felt like because there were times in the first half where I saw I was going to look up at the jumbleboard here and the wolves were going to be up by like 12 points, 15 points, right? But it never happened. It always stay close.
And I told you at halftime, it feels like a type of game where the visiting team hangs around and hangs around. And then at the end, they've suddenly won by like four points. That's how this game felt. And that's what they can do.
I know that, you know, we kind of go back to the regular season from last year and one of the most fun moments of that season was wolves up by three. I think in Dallas. And so Dallas has like 17 seconds left to knock down a game tying three. They're inbounding from half court and Jade McDaniel's and Anthony Edwards put the handcuffs on Luca Doncic and Kyrie ring and they couldn't even get a shot off before the buzzer sound in the game was over.
It was one of the one of the great defensive sequences of the year and it really put Jade McDaniel's on this different platform just clamping to the best get your own shot offensive creators in the league. And and I'm kind of guilty of this. I think you watch that and then you watch the way that by the way, Jade McDaniel second team all NBA defensive team Anthony Edwards second team all NBA period. And he thought, well, the Mavericks are a nice matchup because you can just throw Jade McDaniel's on Luca and you can throw Anthony Edwards on Kyrie Irving and you can roll the ball out and you know you're not going to shut those guys down entirely.
But like good luck getting out of the handcuffs that are Jade McDaniel's and Anthony Edwards. Well, you look up and Luca Doncic winds up with a classic Luca Doncic performance and Kyrie Irving was getting pretty much anything he wanted whether Anthony Edwards guarded him or anyone else in the first half anyways. And Anthony Edwards by the end of the game was like he was walking up the court on some of those key possessions grabbing at his shorts because he was exhausted trying to shut down Kyrie Irving. So, you know, that's the consequence when you put Anthony Edwards on Kyrie Irving, yeah, his life is going to be harder than if you put calmly on him, but he's going to be freaking tired and it's going to be, he's not going to have as much in terms of legs for jump shots.
He's not going to get to the rim as often. So I will say this like was that an annoying loss 100% was like, were there things that could have been different in the wolves could have won that game easily? Of course, but I still I watched the outcome of that game and how many things just weren't there for the wolves that usually have been there against Phoenix and Denver and I still feel like it's a wolves and five or wolves in six series. I don't watch that game and think, oh my God.
Oh, it's not like the Mavericks or this insurmountable mountain. It was a good game. Two teams luncheon back and forth and a couple of super stars got the best of a couple other superstars. Yeah, I feel like the key is this.
You're going to need. So I firmly expect that Kyrie and Luke are both going to get theirs. Like, I don't think you're going to just stop them both. I think they're just too good.
Now the Mavericks also have a really nice supporting cast. I don't think, you know, PJ Washington makes some shots, but I don't think that the Mavericks have a supporting cast that's going to beat you. I think that they can help beat you certainly. And the one thing that I would say is, I think there's no question starting game two, you are going to need probably more scoring from Ant and Cat.
You know, I mean, tonight was sort of weird because Jaden was out of his mind. Which look, I mean, Jaden should make shots. He's really good. Should he have to make as many shots as he did tonight?
That's debatable. Kyle Anderson, I don't know where that came from. And I hope he enjoyed it because, you know, that is almost certainly, and there's a role for him physically here, I think. But I mean, as far as the points go, Nas was really good tonight.
I thought Nas played a great game. But just as far as like the matchup of Kyrie and Luca, I think you're going to need Ant and Cat to, as Brad Childers used to say, impose their will on the series a little bit more. Well, on the Jaden front, I mean, he winds up hitting the six three-pointers. He goes nine for 15.
He had a brutal turnover in like the final minute and a half where he just kind of, he got himself in No Man's Land drive to the hoop. And he just jumps in the air and panics as he's falling out of bounds and tries to thread the needle to Rudy who's not going to catch that pass. That was brutal. But, you know, he was 24 points on 15 shots, knocks down the six threes.
And he's guarding Luca for the majority of the time that he was out there. You know, on the negative side for the Wolves, that's a terrible game to waste, man. Like, if you were to say, hey, Jaden's going to give you like two or three really high-end offensive performances in this series. One of them is going to be a night where he hits six three-pointers, most of them in the first half to get you going, right?
And you're going to lose the game. Like, that feels like one that you have to put in the wind column when he goes off like that. But then on the flip side, how many times are Carl Anthony Townsend and Edwards going to combine to go 12 for 36. Right.
And this, a bunch of three, like rattling out all these three-pointers. So, you know, it was two boxers feeling each other out. I'm sure the Wolves are going to have a bunch of adjustments that they can implement in Game 2. And we'll see what happens in a couple nights.
I also think it's obvious that the Wolves, in fact, I think if I'm not second here, Dallas had more turnovers on the night than the Wolves did by a couple. But the Wolves seem to have some really untimely ones. And I want to say it was, in particular, it might have been in the first half alone had three. That sequence at the end of the second quarter was really, in my opinion, damaging.
I think it turned the ball over twice in a short period of time, led to a Kyrie basket. And like, that's the type of thing where that ball is precious. Like, that's the thing is we're to a series. And this is awesome.
But we're, I think we're in a series now where every game could be really close. Like the blowouts are done. But the Wolves also are going to have to find a way to deal with, I think, being dealt a dose of their own medicine, which is your opponent is going to work its ass off, especially those supporting cast guys on the maps. And they're going to try to wear you down like you wore Denver down.
It's just a really interesting series because it's going to be, I think, more fun than Denver. But I also think it's a very different tone and there's going to have to be an adjustment to what are we up against here because it's not going to be what the nuggets threw at you at all. It's going to be a very different tone to it. Couple other things to note here.
The Wolves 11 of 18 at the free throw line, including, no Mike Conley missed the last one on purpose, but he was one for three before that. He was one for four on the night, one for three from the free throw line when he was trying to make them. Now Rudy gives you a four for six. He missed the two, but I think four of six for Rudy is fine.
And then Nas Reed winds up going two for four. They didn't shoot a ton of free throws tonight. But when Conley misses a couple of free throws like that, I mean, you're talking about little margins here in a three point. Loss to Dallas.
I would say just a couple missed free throws that are uncharacteristic compared to your overall percentage and the end of the first half sequence where it winds up being like a four or five point swing and you probably I'm blanking on the math exactly. But I think like so, I guess the Wolves had a six. It was it would have been like a six point leader, seven point lead and stand at winds up being a three point game going into the into the half. So things like that.
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Just the vibe in here tonight. Did you feel at all like I thought early on the fans were amazing. I thought you were halfway through the playoffs. It felt like there might have been some burnout after that nugget series.
I think there was a pins and needles vibe late in the game here inside targets and by large the vibes were off the charts in the early part of that game tonight. I thought it was fantastic. Yeah. It's funny.
You know, when I got here for Game six, the lines that that had, you know, for games three and four, the lines that had started in the sky where I come through were gone. Like people were sort of roaming in late tonight. It was back to anticipation. This crowd was great.
And yeah, I felt like I felt like this game game one was louder than games three and four games six was really loud. But yeah, it was a great vibe. And aside from the fact that I guess the roof sprung a leak, it was. Oh, yeah, let's talk about that.
Fantastic. But yeah, so there's there's video out there and our guy Patrick Royce tweeted about it because I think he got hit by some of the condensation that was coming down from the roof. Now, the only thing and this is just pure reckless speculation on my part. The only thing I could think of is that the roof here now is a greenery.
So it's like a garden, but you know, it's like gets grass. So it's not like an old school roof. And I wonder if that's somehow from all the rain that we got in the past couple days holds holds the water. Because the tweets I saw the video was literally like raindrops, not gizoring down, but just coming down slowly.
And it was weird. I saw some tweets about this and I can't dismiss it completely. It did look like guys slipped on the court more than I'm used to seeing in NBA game. Now that could be from sweat as well.
But I saw a few guys slip. So I don't know what the explanation is. And I don't know. But you definitely do not want your roof springing a leak with a basketball floor below it.
That's a bad idea. I mean, yeah, it's an old arena. So your conspiracy theory might be right here. The audience grows and the spotlight is brighter.
It might as well poke the whole so we get a new arena. Hey, you know what? The greatest day in Vikings history is the day the Metro don't roof collapsed. Because if that roof does not come down, I don't know that US Bank Stadium is there.
But once it came down, they're like, we got to move the game to Detroit. What are we going to do here? But that roof collapsing also cost the public $500 million in taxpayer money to help build that US bank stadium. So first, I know the wheels are OK with it.
I'm sure A-Rod Lorian, whoever owns the team, would be OK with that too. But yeah, I mean, we're doing for a new arena at some point. Kind of embarrassing when people are getting. I did feel like the what you call them, the ball people who run out there with the little towels and stuff.
They were working overtime. I feel like every possession to keep the court dry. I would not want to pay let's say 500 smackers to be here and been rained on. Yeah, no or whatever these some of the secondary market prices for those courtside seats, man, were like 10,000.
I don't know people that's what they were listed at. I don't know if anyone was pulling the trigger on a $12,000. By the way, if you're buying a courtside seat on the secondary market for like $12,000, isn't there like a more because don't you have to rely on whoever it is to like send you the emailed version of the tickets? This is beyond my.
I'm in the second deck. Like I'm OK using stuff. But I don't know. All I know is tonight's game was so big that Viking star receiver Justin Jefferson, who's always courtside when he comes was on the baseline and he wasn't even in the first row.
He was in the second row baseline. So it's tough to afford the front row ticket when you don't have a new contract. You get low ball. Poor guy.
Guy can't get a $35 million a year average annual value contracts at courtside at a Western. What you supposed to do? Poor guy. Feel bad for me.
Yeah, Jordan Addison was here. Christian Deras, Brian O'Neill. Jimmy Goldstein was here again. Big time playoff game.
He had was here. Troy Hudson was in the house tonight. Look at the camera, which was sort of weird. They showed him on the scoreboard and he either didn't realize or he was deep in a conversation.
So when I asked him, yeah, and then Montel Jordan performed one song at halftime. By the way, full disclosure, I never knew that that who sang that song until tonight. This is how we do it. I've heard that song thousands of times.
What do you think they paid him to show up for six minutes to perform one song and have that? It's a really that's a great question. I think when like Brett Michaels and poison go to a casino, they get like 30 or $40,000. Maybe like 50.
And he did redo the words to include Nas Reed and some I think that there is now an understanding, especially after last round when they came back from the brink of elimination, the precipice. I don't think people are going to freak out. Plus, you know, I think it's different Phil when you lose pretty decisively and that Denver series, that whole thing, including from the wolves and it was weird. I mean, what three complete blowouts?
No game like game seven was a blowout in the first half or Denver and then the wolves came in and basically blew the nuggets drawers off in the second half. I think tonight really set the tone for what we're going to see. I really do. I think it's going to be a hard series.
I think it's going to be long. I think it's going to be close. I could see it going either way, but I don't know there's going to be the freak out unless the wolves lose game too. Now that because that's two games at home might cause some consternation or almost certainly would, but I really think the tone was set tonight and it's going to be if you feel like you need the wolves to win in four or need blowouts, you probably should discontinue your viewing of this series right now.
But you know what? It was not a pretty game to watch, but I thought it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it was a major deviation from the Denver series.
I feel completely at peace with this loss in terms of like I don't think this loss changes anything about my outlook on the series. I still think the wolves win the series. I don't even think game two is a must win because the Mavericks aren't this like unbeatable force at home. Like the Mavericks lost like 16 home games in the regular season.
They've lost, I believe they've lost playoff home games too. So I think it'd be nice to get game two here. Don't get me wrong. Falling into a hole is not ideal, but yeah, I mean this is the roller coaster of the playoffs.
You found out in the Denver series, it ain't going to be smooth sailing 16 and O. You're playing some of the best offensive players in the world here. And maybe in some ways this was a good thing. All of the energy spent coming back from down three games to two, the game's six emotions and then being down 20 points, biggest comeback in NBA history and a game seven to knock out the defending champions, the three time MVP.
I know you had an extra day off in between, but like that is an emotional mountain to climb. And even before the game, like we're down here, we're talking to Dane Moore, our buddy, you know Kyle Teggis in the house and Jack Warman from Canisoopa's like, all kind of kicking around. What's the feeling? Just talking to the different people who covered this team.
Nobody really knew what to expect in game one because it was again, two fighters feeling each other out for the first time. But also nobody really knew what the wolves energy was going to be like. And I'm not excusing it. Like they came out flatter than you would have hoped.
They didn't bring as much of a late game burst as you would have hoped. It felt like it was exhausted. But if you were to tell me after scaling the mountain that was Denver in the second round, the wolves are going to come out a little flat and they're going to lose to Luca and Kyrie in the first game. I'd say, yeah, I mean, that probably makes sense.
That's within the realm of realistic things that could happen in game one. And it did. And the Mavericks want to make you flat as well. Like that's the thing is they're going to work their asses off just like the wolves have to make you look flat.
Their approach to ant. Let's talk about that. It was interesting. And I sort of appreciated it.
But if ant also gets really hot, it's going to backfire. Now the question is at what point does it backfire so bad that it costs the mabs of game and the wolves win? But you know, it was basically a 180 in approach when you look at how Denver tried to disarm him. And when you look at the fact that the Mavericks almost didn't try to disarm him.
They almost encouraged him to shoot. And they almost encouraged him to just try to make plays. Now I do think that he's going to have games where he goes off. But it's a very interesting philosophy.
And I'll be curious to see if it gets tweaked or if this is going to be sort of their ride or die option of ants going to get his is going to do what he's going to do. We're not going to do what Denver did, which was try to stop him at all cost times. Yeah. Yeah, I would say just, I mean, Chris Finch is going to probably sleep about three and a half hours over the next two days while you wait for game two, just putting together a counter attack here.
But the biggest thing that stood out to me as we talked about like 30 minutes ago is I don't know that shooting 49 threes is in the best interest of the Tinder Wolves and this offense. And I know that a lot of them were open looks and that's great. But like Kyle Anderson was shooting threes tonight. And Kiel Alexander Walker, who hasn't made a three in a week, you know, he probably should be taking four corner threes.
So I'm not, you know, but should Ant be taking 12 threes out of 16 shot attempts, 75% of his shot attempts coming from three. They got to find a way to unlock him either in the mid range or somehow getting into the rim. But you know Dallas came in. I think they executed their game plan exactly how they wanted.
They just packed the paint. Let's make these guys launch a bunch more threes than they're comfortable with. And if Anthony Edwards, if he wants to launch 12 threes a game and they wind up winning four games with Anthony Edwards being a three point shooter, so we can live with that. So they got to find a way to unlock some things inside.
No, it's funny because they actually did unlock some Rudy Labs inside like the cat to Rudy stuff was on point tonight. But yeah, it'll be, you know, this was Chris Finch has been a master adjuster throughout the entire season. This, this team finds ways to come back at you and tweak rotations and counter punch and raise their energy levels. And it'll be a really interesting 48 hours here.
Now that now that they know what Dallas is bringing to the boxing match. Yeah, in fact, if I was to do a quick PyT you're right on the three. You don't want to shoot 53. That's very circa 2017.
I also think if you could get back to a formula where you actually have cat shooting more of the threes and you know what Ant has to do starting game two, it's got to sort of do what Kyrie did in the first half. He's just got to drive. He's got to get inside. Now he doesn't have the same moves.
He's a great player, but I mean Kyrie is special too. But I feel like I feel like Ant has to get to the basket like Kyrie did. And look what Kyrie did in the first two quarters was not easy. Like you're going against a big guys there.
That's not that's not some type of let's exploit a weakness here. They found that. So yeah, I think you're going to see adjustments. I also think you're going to see guys probably have better games.
You know, I'll do respect again. But when slow mo is a star player, you're going to have a problem. I mean, I keep going back to that man. Slow mo and Jade McDangels combined for 35 points.
Most of them in the first half and you lost. So that's a dream. That's right. That's two really good games.
Yeah, he can do this man. Like he's not going to hit six threes every night, but you know, he can get aggressive and you know, I've used the comparison to like a diet Kawai Leonard. He's got that quiet demeanor, but he's a three level scorer who clamps down on defense. Similar sizes, right?
Kind of lanky. So I don't think it should be an anomaly that he's an offensive contributor and you have seen him assert himself more. By the way, just kind of going through some of the post game quotes that are coming in here. Anthony Edwards at the podium said we were just a little tired probably, you know, understandable to some extent.
You just fought your ass off against Denver and coming back home here. But if that I mean, if that's what the adjustment is, hey, we just need to like get a couple extra hours of sleep and shake off that crazy Denver series and now we're locked back in. All right. Well, then the wolves probably win this thing in five or six.
I see a people are conning me for saying the wolves can still win this thing in five games. I mean, like the wolves are decidedly the better team on paper. Obviously the interest to the greatest offensive players of this generation might have something to say about that. But I think like I legitimately think that there's a chance the wolves could roll off four straight wins or four out of the next five to win this game, win this series in five or six, call me a homer if you want to.
But I told you guys what was going to happen after game five against Denver and you all call me a homer to. Yeah. Yeah, we all did. I see it going more six or seven, but I see here's what's interesting is the Mavericks have as you pointed out on flagritt this morning in ranking the 10 best players.
The Mavericks have two phenomenal players. The wolves have a deeper talent in their roster, but I really think again after tonight these are two really evenly matched teams as far as philosophies go. So that's what I'm curious about. I love the fact that this is going to basically be two teams that are going to just grind their asses off and there's going to be fans I saw a comment when you were talking before about this game was boring.
Well, I don't think it's boring. I think it's interesting to watch and I think it's fun. I mean, yes, if you want if you want basketball where you're like, oh man, look at that play. Look at that play.
This is not going to be the series. But I think what really intrigues me is that while there might be an overall talent gap, you're looking at a couple of clubs that are really, really team oriented, which is weird in today's NBA. I don't feel like there's a ton of true teams necessarily across the board. I got to refresh.
Oh, you're refreshing. Yeah, it's all my mind. All right. Alright, Phil is taking a little break.
So again, the wolves fall tonight in game one to Dallas going through your comments here. To go back to my point, I don't I didn't find this game boring. I found this game to be entertaining and think of it like this. Think of this series as a soap opera.
Okay. So episode one or a drama, a streaming it's a Turner streaming drama. Episode one set a tone, but like it's episode one. You got to be patient here.
You know, a lot of times you start to stream a show and you're like, I had to go in my way through the first two episodes and then oh my God, episode three was unbelievable. And now I'm hooked, right? I think the series resembles that way more than this just high flying start to finish a great basketball. I think what we're going to see is sort of a rolling out of where this thing is going to go.
And I think it will probably get progressively more entertaining as the familiarity and the animosity, which I'm looking forward to. Let me, okay, let me, I'll drop this bomb of a question on you 43 minutes and we'll wrap this year pretty soon. But again, I think they still win the series. Let's say they don't.
Let's say what we saw tonight was just this Maverick's team is tough as nails. They kind of take on Jason kids personality, scrappy defense. You know, they've got the size that makes the wolves uncomfortable and Kyrie and Luca just won the all time great offensive pairings of the last 20, 25 years. And the Mavericks are just too much.
Maybe the Mavericks just have the got two guys who are a little further along. Kyrie Irving is a former champion, right? And Anthony Edwards just wasn't quite ready to take it across the finish line. If the wolves get beat in this series, how will you feel about the season?
I think we talked about this as far as like progressing in the playoffs back in like January so you're in the Western Conference finals. It's a success. I'm, you know, I said, I believe my statement at the time and I will remain consistent was I think they need to get through two rounds to be considered a success. They've done that now.
And here's the thing I like about this team. I don't think they're going to go down without a fight. It would be different if they now sort of just collapsed, right? And then you're like, where did those where did that resilient group to play great defense go?
I don't see that. But I'm not sure what your response is, but I think if you make the Western Conference finals and you know what? To a partial degree, we are to the point in the playoffs where a team can run out of a guess. We've seen it happen before.
Well, Connie's one to keep an eye on on that point. You know, like we've seen Chris Paul at a similar age run out of gas once you get to late May early June and oh my God, the sun's about to win it all whatever. And all of a sudden gas light comes on and Chris Paul needs an off season break. Because guys like you and Dex never fill your damn tanks up before it's too late.
You always let it run down. This is why you should go zol again. You got to stop in at like a quarter of a day. Talk to Mike.
It's his gas tank. We're talking about the dude's got to go. You know what? He's got to quit trip.
Wow. Go to quick trip for all your all your chicken needs. All your. I so OK on the macro.
It's already been a successful season because this team is in the Western Conference finals for the first time in 20 years. It feels like the start of an era here that you've you've you've built it up the last three years. Anthony Edwards is 22. He's not even going to peak for like three or four more years.
It feels like the start of something even as you turn this thing over and like really go bare ages out and goes away and you know you have to start bringing in some different pieces. The core group of Anthony Edwards, Jade McDaniel's at some point I think it's going to be a 17 19 points per game guy at age 24 25. I mean you've got something here. So on the macro.
It's already been a successful season. You knocked out the defending champions. But now that we know that that happened. OK, if we're if we're we're being plopped down right now and we have to say what would be a successful season now that you know what happened.
You just beat the defending champ. You swept Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns. It would be really disappointing if you didn't get to at least the NBA finals as the better team in this in this conference files and then looking on the other side of the bracket. You know Boston my God like they're just giving these games away how they pull that one out the other night in game one is insane.
I mean Boston's begging to get beat by either the Mavericks or the Wolves and I mean if the Pacers get through I think you know either the math or the Wolves would be the heavy favorite in that series. I had to disrespect them too much but I just think like yes it's already a successful season but here you are and the path is clear. There's no dynasty. There's no 2016 Warriors waiting for you to pummel you in five games.
Go take it at this point. There's a difference between disappointing and unsuccessful I think. So like yes you're right like the path is never going to be probably better than than this. Your path is phenomenal and the fact that you came back you know if you had lost a Denver it would have been I would not have called it the season of success especially when you jumped off to a 2-0 lead on the road okay.
But I'd be hard pressed now if they lose to the Mavericks to say the season was not a success disappointing because of the path absolutely no question. So like I think there's a difference there because I'm with you if you're a Wolves fan and you look at where where this team is right now and sort of the road map which is this Route 66 wide open you can go it's the out of bond you can drive 120 and nothing's going to stop you. So yes I would agree on disappointment but I am to the point now where I do consider for a team that is on the upswing it's a success to go farther than again any men's team that we care about really in this town has gone since 2004 when these guys for the last time made the conference finals. Yeah whether they really go bare said I have to do a better job on the rebounds I can't let those guys just get offensive rebounds.
He's correct. All be better. Not a whole lot of like revolutionary stuff coming out of the locker room right now they just you know like the main themes are Anthony Edwards thinks that they were a little sluggish a little tired he looked gassed at the end of the game chasing Kyrie around and they were just kind of baited at taking way too many jump shots. I mean the Mavericks the Mavericks did a better job imposing what they wanted to happen in this game than the Tim Roles did but you see what happens in game two.
It's a disappointing loss like it's a it's a blown opportunity but the comments that you are reading from Finch and the players right now makes sense because I don't think it's a loss to get super upset about if that makes sense like you had a chance you very easily could have won but also I don't think it's the type of thing where it's like oh my god this is you know it's game one and look we just saw this. The series they pendulum swings or constant you know this thing could go six or seven games it could go either way. But I mean this is game one and I mean hell look the table is one of the first two games in Denver and damn near lost the series because they came back so I think it's the double R resilience and rest resilience and rest are the most important things here because you do have to get some rest. You know yep so alright well I think that's a wrap here on this game one recap podcast flagren howls on the scorn earth YouTube channel for those of you who are maybe just discovering this podcast for the first time you're looking for wolves content during this playoff run.
Thank you. Please click the like button and the subscribe button on the scorn earth YouTube channel and if you haven't already give us a five star rating and a positive review on Apple podcasts and or Spotify. Those things help us continue to grow this thing Kyle Teige will be back in the mix tomorrow. We'll talk to Grady and Jim Pete again next week if you haven't checked out Craig Kilborn on flagren howls from a few days ago he was excellent and will be live you and me from target center for the home games after every game and then from at least we're going to be watching the road games from home maybe we travel for the NBA finals we'll see if they go really well we applied for our NBA you to apply for NBA finals credentials by like tomorrow so you know we got our NBA finals credentials submitted.
I mean this league I'm not sure if you knew that or not. Silver's a big fan of mine I'm probably going to go to a five star restaurant with Chuck and the guys I can see you roaming around Boston. Oh I love Boston. Great bars.
I can tell you about the bars. You know Boston okay I'm not like a huge Boston fan but if it's for the LOB. Great city and you go to Finway. Hey Maua kind of a dump not gonna lie.
Oh it's a historic dump. It's played there. I'd rather go to Riggly for talking about your exams. I love Riggly too.
You know what I don't like when my basketballer now leaks. That's what I don't like. This is not a great old arena. Alright for the sports dad Judd Zilgad I am Phil Mackie thank you guys for hanging out with us everyone.
Deep breath. It's early. It's the roller coaster of the NBA playoffs. If you survived the Denver Nuggets series you can survive losing a game one to the Dallas Mavericks.
This is a Tim Rwolves lifestyle podcast.