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These guys survived the David Conn era of Timberwolves basketball and live to tell about it. It's Flagrant Howells. Hey, Chuck, bring your ass back. Bring your ass back to Minnesota.
Come on back. Don't let them get one, as they say. It's Flagrant Howells live on the Score North YouTube channel. Positive Phil here with our guy, Artis Woods.
You see him on the Taxi Squad podcast and hear him. You see him and hear him on Four Wolves Takes on the Score North YouTube channel and Flagrant Howells podcast feed. And the Timberwolves fight off the Dallas Mavericks 105-100 to stay alive. Three games to one now.
No team in NBA history has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit. And I think I've been saying this to a positive Phil. He's been hard on Karl-Anthony Towns. But on the other side, he said, at some point, your best shooter is not going to shoot 27% from the field.
At some point, he's going to go on a barrage. He knocks down four three-pointers. The foul trouble was annoying. But he shows up for the first time in the series and carries the Wolves for a stretch late in this game.
And at some point, Artis, at some point in NBA history, somebody is going to overcome a 3-0 deficit. The Timberwolves coming back home in game five. We'll see what happens. Yeah, literally what you just said is what I've been saying all day.
At some point, it's going to happen. Somebody's going to come back from 3-0. Why not it be the Wolves? Nah, I mean, I also want to be positive Phil to an extent.
I don't want to go as far as to say Wolves in seven now. But I mean, they got a game. And honestly, when they lost game two, blowing that 18-point lead that still haunts me right now, especially right now that they've won this game, should be 2-2. But when they lost that game, in my mind, I'm like, look, they're not going to win both games in Dallas.
Just to be honest. Like, I never expected them to win both. But if they can get one, I mean, we've seen the team come back from 3-1. And that's the kind of mindset I would have if I'm Coach Finch.
Like, we ain't seen 3-0, but we've seen 3-1. We've seen those comebacks in the NBA before. So Carl Anthony Towns also tweeted earlier today, like, I'm just thinking about how can they come back and win this series or at least get a game, get it back to Minnesota. Cat has to play well.
And as you said before in previous episodes, he was shooting so bad. I mean, terribly. He's one of the best three-point shooters in the league. This can only happen for so long.
He has to have at least one good shooting night, right? Sure enough, tonight, he shoots the lights out. Got to line a little bit. Got some layups going.
Got to see the ball go through the net. And got the shot to fall. This is what they needed to get back in this thing. I mean, I'm going back to Minnesota.
Yeah, let's definitely do a big Carl Anthony Towns conversation, a big Anthony Edwards conversation. What was it? 29-10-9 in this game. I mean, this was a desperate sort of throwback to, like, early LeBron James days where either you're playing with, you're either, like, going without a Robin or your guys are in foul trouble.
It's just kind of on you to keep this thing alive. Hostile environment back against the wall, so to speak. Not a perfect game by Anthony Edwards. A bunch of turnovers.
He was in foul trouble for different stretches. But he winds up playing 40 minutes. Like I said, flirts with a triple-double. Just one assist shy of a triple-double.
He plays a ton of defense on Luka Doncic in this game. They had him, like, the entire first quarter, basically. Ant was matched up on Luka. And for big-time stretches throughout the game.
And Luka was one of his least efficient offensive nights. Seven for 21. Kyrie was a 6 for 18, I believe. Let me do the math here.
Luka 28. Kyrie 16. That's 44. And Townsend Edwards had a combined, what, 54 points.
The first time in the series that the Wolves' two best offensive players outperformed and outsored the Mavericks' two best offensive players. So we'll do a deep dive into those two guys here. But I just want to throw this out. We can turn this into a Vettline celebration.
This is either going to lead to something that increasingly gets more fun over the next few days. Or maybe it was just like the Wolves sitting up like the Undertaker with pride one last time. Either way, we'd love to hear from you guys. We will open up the Vettlines.
We'll use the Vikings Vettline email address. So I'm just staring at the inbox right now. Send me an email at vikingsventline at gmail.com. vikingsventline at gmail.com.
And we'll get a few of you guys in the room so you can chime in with us here on this live edition of Flagrant House. People asking where the sports dad Judd Zolgat is. So unfortunately a few days ago his brother-in-law passed away due to cancer. And so he's with family yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
And he should be back in the mix later on this week. But yeah, if you see him on Twitter or even in the YouTube comment section, just be thinking about Judd and his family and his wife Dawn. And the sports dad will be back in the mix later on this week. From Target Center, by the way, where we will get at least one more game.
So I mean, this was kind of the classic all-over-the-map Carl Anthony Towns experience where he comes out, dude, he did not take a three-pointer until halfway through the third quarter. He winds up with two early fouls, picks up his fifth foul, like halfway through the third quarter, and then picks up the sixth foul later on. But between the fifth and the sixth foul, when he came back in, he was the best player on the floor for a really key stretch. And if it wasn't for that stretch, the Wolves do not win this game and extend the series.
Then again, you'd like it to stay on the floor more often, as Anthony Edwards says, stop bleeping fouling. So you had foul trouble Carl, you had hesitance to pull the trigger Carl for a while, but then you had the best version of Carl when they needed him the most artists in the early stages of the fourth quarter there. Yeah, it was kind of all over the place. But it came together.
My biggest thing with Cat has been watching this series. Sometimes, like I said earlier, sometimes, man, you just got to get to the rack at times, right? Or, you know, you see they're packing the paint, they're taking charges, they're drawing into those crazy offensive fouls. Man, where's the mid-range shot?
Where's the mid-range floater in the lane? Because you know that's what they're looking to do, because they know nine times out of ten. Most likely, if Cat isn't taking the three, he's attacking the basket the same way, right? And so my biggest thing is like, Cat, man, get to the free throw line, get to the mid-range game.
The post game is the thing that bothers me, because I feel like Cat should be a better post player at this point in his career. I feel like he should, especially with him being such a great shooter. There's so many things you can go to, you know, you can face up and shoot over the top, you can spin baseline, spin to the middle of the paint. There's so many different moves you can go to, especially as a shooter, and being a threat from the post, but he doesn't really go to any of that stuff.
So it's like he's either one or two, and I'm just like, man, to start the game, I was not mad at him at all. Me and my fiance watching the game together, and she's like, he's attacking the basket, yes. And I'm like, yeah, attack the basket, get to the free throw line, get a couple shots to fall. Then, he got like an and one, I believe, on Derek.
And after that and one, he shot the free throw all net. I said, he's going to start jacking threes. And now I want him to. Now I'll shoot the threes.
Literally, next possession, three. My fiance's like, no, I'm like, let me shoot this one. I'm like, okay, that's what a shooter needs. You just got to see it go through the net, get out of your head a little bit.
So I appreciate what I saw from Cat tonight. You brought up the fouls, the fouls are mind-boggling sometimes. He gets that same like body check blocking foul almost every game at the top of the key or at the half-court line. And it's like, by now, you would think, come on, Cat.
Come on, man. Like, that's at least one foul he's going to say. And the over the back, like, kind of like his toes are still on the floor, and he's just reaching over the back. I feel like he's, you know, it's a cat experience, man.
It's a straightener to watch. But he did his job tonight. He fought out. He was that number two to Anthony Erwin, who also had a really good game.
I just feel like they need Ant to be aggressive. Even last game, you know, even if the shot isn't falling, just like him getting to the rack, him getting a dunk, him getting a layup, or even missing shots. But guys getting offensive rebounds and putbacks, those are huge, right? Because their points at the end of the day and they get everybody going.
So just a total effort from both of those guys. And like I said, I like what I saw for the most part. Dude, I think on the Anthony Edwards front, he is such a fast learner and processor. He's 22 years old.
It feels like, first of all, his game elevates in the playoffs every year he's been in the playoffs, even when he was 20 years old. Go look at his scoring averages. Go look at his, even like some of the deep dive analytics, his pull-up shooting goes from being kind of below average in the regular season to Kevin Durant like in the postseason. Just almost everything about his game elevates.
And even within the series, I don't know, you tell me if I'm just like making things up here, Artis. But I feel like he watches Luka operate and he watches Luka manipulate defenses and rifle passes to why he gets into the lane, looks for his first because if he can get a little mid-range, you know, 12, 15, 16 footer, that's an efficient shot for Ant. But then he's rifling it to NAH, to Jade McDaniels, to Mike Conley in the corner. And now he's learning how to grab key rebounds in big moments too, how to read the ball off the rim.
I almost feel like he's watching Luka play chess at a high level and he's like, he's like importing some of that information on the fly at H22 and adding to his own game. Like we don't see a lot of 29, 10, and 9 from Anthony Edwards in his career. And so I don't think it's a coincidence that when your team needs it the most and Luka's doing it on the other side, that he says, oh, okay. Okay, I can import, I can download some of this and I can get to another level with my rebounding, with my passing, my playmaking and my manipulation of the Dallas Mavericks defense.
Yeah, to your point about the mid-range shot, I think just like Cat, I think he needs to go to that a little bit more too. Like sometimes I think he settles for taking those threes. And I like the threes, don't get me wrong. But sometimes I feel like the mid-range is there too for him, but he's shooting the ball across court.
And sometimes it works, other times it's out of bounds, other times it's turnover. But yeah, Coach Finch has to kind of be in his ear telling him to watch those things. When you go back and watch film, you can attack the defense the same way. You can exploit mismatches the same way, draw fouls, get into the paint, be patient the same way.
Luka, I have a gripe, let me get this off my chest a little bit, though. This is kind of a topic. Luka is one of the more frustrating players to watch in the game today. He's a great player, he probably go down as one of the best all-time players, you know, especially with his backcourt now with Kyrie, he's a sensational player.
But man, the way that man flops and jumps into guys, and he gets frustrated, he gets mad when guys get physical with him. It's like, dude, what do you expect? You're above 200-something pounds jumping into guys, and it's like, oh man, don't bump me. He's like, dude, are you serious?
But I still have to say, eh, you can do a lot of the same things Luka does on the basketball floor. I don't think Luka is a better overall offensive talent, eh? I just think he's a tick-bit more advanced from, you know, the mental side of the game so far. Yeah, I mean, definitely, I mean, Luka, by the way, is only, he just turned 25.
And the way that he dissects a defense and sets up the screens and manipulates the way, I mean, he's doing it like a 31-year-old who's been in the league for 12 years would do it. And to your point about the Wolves getting physical with Luka and him sort of just kind of pushing back and complaining to the refs, early in the game, I mean, the Wolves took a 12-point lead, it evaporated as it does when you're playing on the road and you're playing these two great offensive players. But building up that lead helped the Wolves be able to absorb a run. The game is still tied instead of you being down by 10.
And part of the reason why the Wolves took that 12-point lead to begin with, what you were talking about, is because they were physical with Luka. You know, Rudy ran him over at one point. There was another play, was it, was it, there was two plays where they got really physical with him in the first half. And he did not like it.
He stepped up at one point to either Kyle Anderson or somebody. But you're thinking, like, where was that? It's almost like the Wolves were treating the Mavericks with a little too much respect or just a little too friendly. I think it was Reggie Miller on the broadcast that mentioned it took the Wolves until game four to find disdain for their opponent.
You know, it was pretty evident even in the sweep over Phoenix that those two teams were kind of sick of each other after like game two. And then the Denver series, those two teams having played each other twice in the playoffs. And it really felt like it took the Wolves until game four to say, I don't care if he's Luka Doncic or some random dude off the bench. Let's, you know, let's not be dirty, but let's show him that we're here.
Let's be physical. Let's run him over a couple times and see how he reacts to it. And it kind of threw Dallas off their game for the first part of that first half tonight. Yeah.
And like, I was also thinking going into this game, like, dude, like, how long are those two guys, Kyrie and Luka, going to shoot the lights out? I mean, they were hitting shots. I think the physicality helps them, you know, especially Kyrie earlier in the game. Because it was kind of bumping him around a bit too and kind of knocked him off his rhythm.
But Kyrie coming into this game, I mean, he was averaging like, you know, 28 points, shooting like 43% from three, 52% from the field. You know, Luka was, you know, putting up close to 30, shooting 46, 47% from the field, 40% from three. I'm like, you got to try something. You got to try being physical.
I honestly thought during this series, I had the Wolves winning this series in six or five, in all honesty. Because I just thought that Jaden and Ant would just be a bit better defensively against those guys. But they were missing a ton of the physicality, I feel like. They were missing a ton of the physicality.
And I feel like aside of them, and maybe even this was a bit coaching too, I think that they feared foul trouble, in all honesty. Like, Luka and Kyrie get calls for them nonstop all game long. And so it's like, you can be physical with these guys, but you got to also stay out of foul trouble. And I think that this game had just said, look, this is it.
This is it. This is back against the wall completely. We don't want to get slept. Let's get physical with them.
If we get in foul trouble, heck, we get in foul trouble. But they will fill us this game, and it worked to their advantage. Yeah, there was a nothing-to-lose feeling about the way the Wolves were playing. You know, let's be more physical.
Obviously, a bunch of dudes got in foul trouble early. Rudy got to three fouls early, and then eventually racked up more in the second half. And Kat, even Ant, was in foul trouble. But then, like, you get to a certain point where, okay, you're Carl, and you haven't made a shot the whole series.
And you got five fouls halfway through the third. Or you come back in the game, like, your season's going to be over if you don't just sort of eliminate all of it and start chucking. And he did. And I still think now it's like the pressure at this point, it's not totally – it's gone for the Wolves for the entire series.
Like, there is no more pressure on the Timberwolves. Maybe we can talk – if it gets to a Game 7, we can talk about, like, who feels pressure. But it's gone right now. It's going to be gone in Game 5.
And Dallas is going to feel really tight if they can get this thing to a Game 6 because you don't want to have to go back to Minnesota for a Game 7. So this is a lot of ifs and sort of – it's a lot of hypotheticals to get to three more wins in the series. But like you said, no one's come back from down 3-0. But there's been teams come back from down 3-1, and that's what the math is right now.
So he's our guy, Artis Woods. You can find him on the Sworn Earth YouTube channel a couple times a week on the Taxi Squad with his four Wolves takes. Also on the Flagrant House podcast feed, I am Phil Mackey. And we will get to David and Jake and Will and a bunch of others here for a Wolves vent line live on the Sworn Earth YouTube channel.
I've had a bunch of people over the last week in Declan too, and Kyle has one of these now too. Where'd you guys get those hats? Where'd you guys get those badass little Minnesota logos with the Wolves howling in them? And it's a great company called Legendary Golf.
You can find all sorts of hats like these and great apparel at lgndy.co, and we partnered with them to offer a 20% off discount site-wide with the promo code HOWL, H-O-W-L, at checkout. Promo code HOWL at checkout for 20% off your order. Veteran-owned, family-operated, Minnesota-based company. And when I say veteran-owned, they donate a portion of all proceeds to veteran organizations.
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Any other just like final broad takes? I've got a bunch of other stuff for you too before we get to Wolves fans. Are there anything else that like stood out that we should address real quick here? Well, for one, I did want to make sure I said this.
Guys, every time I've been slated to come on Flavor House, the Wolves have won. I just want to say that. What's your record now? I'm 3-0.
I'm 3-0. So I think Artist Lewis deserves like, you know. Yeah, you know. Be on standby.
Be on standby here for game five in a couple nights. Hey, I'm always ready. I'm always ready. I just think I deserve like 1% credit.
Just 1%. No, that's more than that, man. I think it's the Artist vibes, man. It's the Artist vibes that you bring to the series here.
I try to bring that optimism. I try to bring that. I try to bring the flavor. You know, a little flavor, you know, results in Wolves' victories.
But one more thing I'll add to this. I really think, and Reggie's been saying it all series, man. Luka, you can tell the last like minute and a half in that game, he dragging that leg, man. He dragging it.
And I don't know why Coach Finch is not attacking him on offense more. Like, it's weird to me. Like, they say it all broadcast. Like, they let Luka just sit in the corner or sit, you know, on the baseline in the paint and just watch everything go down.
He kind of plays like pretty safety back there. And it's like, why are they not attacking him? Or do exactly what the Mavs do. The Mavs love to play the switch game, right?
They know the Wolves want to switch everything. We want to target Rudy Gobera. We want to target Nasri, Karthony Towns, whoever it is. Somebody's in foul trouble, let's target him.
Let's get a switch and let's try to exploit that. I think the Wolves need to do a better job of doing that going forward with Luka and other players. These guys are great offensive players, Luka and Kyrie, but they're not great defenders. So attack them, go at them, especially Luka, who's clearly not 100%.
And then he might not be the same in the fourth. He might not be the same in the fourth. I agree. I think making him work a little bit more, you're right, his leg, a lot of guys are banged up.
Anthony Edwards, clearly his tailbone was bothering him in the first part of the series. If you look at just the weight, I think some of the fatigue also might have just been soreness for him. But everyone's got something. Carl's leg got smashed into, what, like two weeks ago?
But to your point, yeah, I mean, making Luka work a little bit more instead of just camping out. I mean, he's picked up a couple, I think tonight he picked up two different defensive free second calls because he's just, like, resting in the lane on defense. I don't think he's, like, playing his own. He's just, like, getting a breather and forgets to leave and go touch his guy on defense.
One other thing, just to bring up here, are you a baseball fan of all artists? You're mostly football and basketball, right? Mostly football and basketball, yeah. I can relate to that.
So in 2004, the Boston Red Sox were coming off back-to-back 90-win seasons. In 2002, they won 93 games, but I believe it was the Yankees above them in the American League East. They didn't make the playoffs. They had a really good team.
All right, we built this thing. We feel like we're ready to pop, and, oh, there's just a couple teams at the top. We didn't even get to the playoffs. And then 2003 comes along, and they get to the playoffs.
Another 90-plus win team. They've got the horses. They've got Pedro Martinez, best starting pitcher of his generation. They've got a lineup just full of dudes who match.
Manu Ramirez, all these guys. They get to a Game 7 against the Yankees in the playoffs. Aaron Boone hits a walk-off grand slam to send the Red Sox home. Okay, dust yourself off again.
Come back. 2004 comes around. Red Sox, even better. Kurt Schilling in the rotation.
Pedro Martinez, lineup. David Ortiz. They've got all these dudes up and down. And they are the team.
Everyone's looking at them the whole season. They are the team to beat. And they fall behind three games to none to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. And for the two days, or I think it was a day, maybe between games, it was just this feeling of dread.
How did this happen? They're not better than us. I mean, yeah, they're the Yankees, but like, we've got a damn good team here. How can we possibly be down three games to none?
And what they did was, before Game 4, the Red Sox said, well, we've got nothing to lose. Nobody ever comes back in these series. We feel like we are the better team. We're just in a bad spot.
Let's all rip a bunch of shots of whiskey before the game, play loose, and see what happens in Game 4. They go out, they take Game 4. Walk-off win. Okay, let's do it again.
Rip some shots before Game 5. Let's get in Game 5. And the momentum starts to build. And they come all the way back, 20 years ago, to beat the Yankees in Game 7.
And they go on, I believe, to sweep the World Series with their momentum over the, if I remember correctly, St. Louis Cardinals. I feel like, here's my grand point. Usually when a team in any sport, especially basketball, falls down three games to none, the team that's up three games to none is clearly better.
Like Boston, Indiana, right? Okay, Indiana's going to show some fights. Maybe they can steal a game at home and force a gentleman to sweep. But at the end of the day, Boston is just levels better than Indiana.
And that goes for most of the time when a team takes a 3-0 lead. In this case, I don't know that you can say that Dallas is definitively better than the Timberwolves. They have beat the Timberwolves in three straight. They are better late-game executors because of Kyrie and Luka Doncic.
And they are a better defensive team than people give them credit for. But this isn't your normal 3-0 lead that you can just, ah, maybe they'll get one and then we'll just flick them off our arm like a gnat. This is a real team that you just let pick up a game and now they're going back home. So Timberwolves, rip some shots at whiskey, whatever you have to do before Game 5.
Don't feel any pressure. Go get Game 5 and see what happens in Game 6. I couldn't have said it better. I mean, they're there.
They got it. They got a game. We've seen 3-1 comebacks. As long as the Stars can see to play well.
And your role players will play well again at home. They'll play better. The role players for Dallas will not play. They have been playing lights out in Dallas.
I don't see it happening in Minnesota. So obviously you got to key in on Kyra who didn't have a great night. Luka is well. But as long as Carl Anthony Towns, the key is him carrying this momentum now throughout the series.
Same with Anthony Harris who has found his groove. If you could just carry this going forward, you can win in Minnesota. And then Game 6 is a dogfight in Dallas again. And every game, like you said, every game has been closed.
It's just about closing. But if guys are in rhythm and guys are making shots, you got a shot. The problem is a lot of times in these late games, Carl doesn't have it going. Anthony Harris is turning the ball over.
And I know this is way off topic, but the Wolves going forward, they just need another offensive, you know, distributor, offensive playmaker, offensive scorer outside of Anthony Harris on the printer. That's off-season talk, but those are thoughts that go through my head when I watch. Like, they need another guy that can get his own shot on the offensive end on the printer besides his hand because it's too much on him. But if Cat can continue to elevate, Nas give us another great game on Game 2?
Yep. It's possible. Yeah, no, Cat kind of feels like, and again, these are more off-season conversations, but Cat kind of feels like a 2.5 or a third, like a third or like a 2.5 on a championship team if he's going to win a championship. But we'll see because there's plenty of time for those off-season speculative conversations.
Let's go to David here, Wolves Ventline on Flaggart Howells. David, what's your level of faith right now, my friend? I'm excited. I mean, obviously, you know, getting one.
We knew this team had a fight in it, and so to get one, you had to get one in Dallas to prove, you know, to the world that we're back and we're in this thing. I want to take it back on March 29th. I lived down here in Colorado, drove up to Denver, and saw something I haven't seen very often in this game. And that is that the Wolves just put the defensive, they put the beat down on the Nuggets.
And I think that in some ways, we've seen a fight in this team, even late in the season. I know they didn't take first place. I know they didn't end up with home court through the whole thing. But we know this team has a fight.
We know it has a heart. And I just feel like it's finally like a series for the first time, right? Like, even after game one loss, game two loss, it's just, I don't know, like, all the energy dissipated and all that positivity. We know this team's special.
And the second thing I want to say is that the other thing I'd like to see down the stretch tonight is with Carl in battle trouble and on the bench, Ant was getting different looks that were important for him to develop. It wasn't just the fairways. It wasn't just the getting to the rack. But there was something about the bank shot late, and I just really like to see.
You get that sense that, like, that shot is just going to be there, right? If he gets any separation, he gets out on the wing, he had it in the lane. I mean, I just, there was something about his development tonight with Cat kind of in battle trouble. I think it was really important long-term.
Yeah, great points, David, dude. Thank you for coming on Wolves' vent line here. That just, that bank shot, I can't remember if it was a three-point game, but it was close enough, and the Wolves needed a bucket to create some space there. And Ant is dribbling up, and you can tell he's gassed.
He's been guarding Luka for much of the night, 40 minutes, elimination game. You know, Carl's been in foul trouble, and he's just had his, and by the way, he's grabbing rebounds, he's creating open looks for teammates, and he just pulls up from, like, 18 feet, elbow extended, and finds that sweet spot off the glass. That's the element of his game that didn't really exist in the first three years of his career, and he added it during the off-season. I don't know if it was, like, during the FIBA World Cup run.
He found some extra gym time to mix in that mid-range bank shot, and he is super comfortable taking those shots. Not a lot of guys in the NBA would even take those bank shots with the game on the line, and he does it with pretty high efficiency, man. That's one of his shots, and that's one of his spots on the floor. You know, I've heard you guys talk about it, and I've had the same thought.
Like, he has to figure out over time, and I think maybe Team USA will help him with this, like, going forward in the off-season, but he has to do a good job, or find a way to find his spots on the floor. And he makes quick passes, great quick passes out of those double teams, too. And those are a little bit easier passes to make, because you're essentially centered, right? It's a shorter distance to the other corner.
So let's get Jake in the mix next on Flaggered House. What up, Jake? Hey, I've got to bring it back to you. I really love that you brought up the 0-4 Red Sox.
I've been feeling that the last couple days. I can't remember who said it, but it was, like, it was before game four in that series. I think it was one of the Red Sox coaches. He's like, don't let us win today.
And they let him win today. They let him win, and we beat the Mads tonight. I've been positive Jake all postseason. And really just, like I said, I think this team is special.
I think they can still come back in the series. I really like that we put Jaden on Kyrie tonight. I think, you know, holding him in check, like, Kyrie's still Kyrie. He's a freak, right?
But he only got 16. I mean, if you look at the rest of the series, look at the playoffs. Like, you held him to 16. I think that's important.
Switching Kyrie, or switching Jaden on Kyrie and then on Luka. Obviously, you know, Luka has some crazy shots tonight. Cannot believe. I mean, I thought Trey Young was the biggest flopper in the NBA.
I think Kyrie is, or not Kyrie, I think Luka's got, he's the biggest baby. Like, when he fouls somebody, and they call it, and then he gets fouled, and then he's just, like, chirping at the refs. Like, I get it, dude. But it's like, come on, man.
Like, some of the things, like, I don't, and Artis, you said this earlier, like, maybe he has to do more of that. Honestly, like, I'm old school. I don't want him to do that. I like when he goes to the racket.
I like when he doesn't flinch, and he just blows through guys. And, yeah, he gets fouled, but he doesn't get called. That sucks. I hate it.
They got to change that. But, yeah, man, I don't know. Love this Wolves team. Whatever happens.
Thursday, whatever happens. The rest of the series has been such a fun season. The most joy I've gotten from a Wolves team in 20 years. Let's just keep going.
Let's win at home, and anything can happen. Hey, man, Jake, jumping on the old school Wolves years in there, too. Another thing that we haven't touched on that was a huge factor in this game, Derek Lively out indefinitely with, they're calling it, like, a neck strain. I don't know if they officially diagnosed him with a concussion, but, I mean, he got rattled, and he didn't play tonight.
And he's been, on the down low, one of the sneaky best plus-minus players in the playoffs. If he comes in, he's a rim protector. He catches everything off the roll. Those little pocket passes, too, and the paint, like, he's sure-handed.
And he made a huge impact early in the series. And him being out tonight, I think, was huge. Anthony Edwards can get to the rack without having to go through as many trees. So that was, we'll have to see what his status is going forward.
But him being out for the Mavericks was a huge factor in that game tonight. I think they were saying today on the broadcast that he should be back. He didn't have a concussion, which I just don't know if I really believe. He was, like, wobbly on the bench.
I had the same thought. That was my first thought. Like, oh, he's got, obviously, I don't wish that on anybody. But, like, first thought was, oh, he's got a concussion.
He can barely open his eyes. He's wobbly. You know, we see it all the time in football. We've seen it in basketball.
We've seen it in all sports, right? And he had the normal concussion look. So I'm shocked that he doesn't apparently have one. I'm hearing he might be back for game five.
They're expecting him to be back. And I'm sure they want him back for game five because they don't want to, you know, go to a game six. And so I expect to see him back. And, man, the picks that they have.
That's one thing I underestimated going into this series. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine. And I was like, I think the Wolves have the size advantage with, you know, Rudy and Cat and Nas going into this series. You know, they didn't really, they had it to an extent against the Nuggets, but Jokic is just so dominant, right?
He just kind of dominated from time to time in the paint. But these guys, Cat, Cat, Rudy, Nas, they got it. These guys, Gafford, Lively, these guys are so, PJ, they're so athletic. They're so athletic.
They're solid. Like they, they've got, I think they've got better hand. How many times in the series have you seen Gafford like fumble the pass in the paint? Has he at all?
Not often. At all. At all. Rudy, on the other hand, it's sometimes just like all over, all over the place.
It's like, come on, Rudy, man. Come on now. But yeah, their athleticism really just stands out. The lobs at the rim.
I mean, I'm glad they kind of slowed that down, but they've kind of given up the corner shots and a three things. Number one, Carl plays within himself. You know, he lets the game come to him. He doesn't force the issue.
He's really able to get it going. I think once he realized he had five fouls, like you said, he had really nothing to lose. He was able to just kind of calm down, attack in a correct way, and just really find himself in that shot, which was. Number two, they played insanely much more harder than they did on game three.
The play that comes to mind is not diving. I think it's fourth quarter. Or that loose ball. Like, I didn't see that fire in games one, two, or three.
Not in long stretches. I think it was there in long stretches tonight. Number three, are we getting Garnett on Thursday night? Man, I mean, it's a great will, dude.
Thanks for coming on. I don't know what he's waiting for. If he's going to show up to a playoff game, is he that confident that he's going to wait for game seven? Right.
Either KG shows up to game five, or he's not showing up until Glenn Taylor is no longer the owner of this team. Yeah, I thought for sure he'd be there for game two. I was shocked that he wasn't. And now with him losing game two, and, you know, at the time being down three-oh, I'm like, okay, he said he would come, but now the wills might not give him an opportunity.
So I'm hoping that now the wills have earned the opportunity to have KG come to a game. And, like, I hope that he brings that extra fire, that extra juice that they need, man. You know KG, man. He's going to bring that juice.
Yeah, I mean, that place, it's already a pretty electric atmosphere, your target center in these playoffs, but that would be next level if he were to show up. Let's go to John. What's going on, dude? Phil, man, I wish I, when you came out here and met your dad, I would love to meet you.
But shout-out from Arizona. Good to be talking to you guys. I just want to say thanks to ScoreDork, man. You guys have kept me connected.
I've never had been before, man. I got a ticket. Got to meet Jim T for the first time here. And, man, best in the game.
Timberwolves, best people in the game. My goodness seemed, like, real. So, like, this is, like, the reason I want this to keep going and I don't want it to end is I'm just having fun. Like, I feel connected, like, when my kids were in, like, club top off, right?
I'm just coaching now. Like, I feel back in. I get almost like a family. You guys are going to do it, man.
So, I just want to say shout-out to you. And, man, shout-out to Ant. You know, I'm bold enough to, I'm almost a sadly 4th at age, which terrifies me a little bit. I never thought I had that thought.
We need to get to watch that some of those white-framed glasses that you're rocking very nicely, by the way. Yeah, man. See, I thought I was cool. I got, like, eight jerseys.
So, I think this one's going to be unique, but the dude from me wears it. Man, I'm all like, I'm going to fall back with some of the other ones. That's not. But, man, so, I'm only going to remember Marino, right?
My favorite quarterback is, like, I mean, trying to talk to him, really. So, man, that guy can throw up darts. And I thought, you know, he probably thought he was going to be back, and he wasn't. So, there's a part of me that's like, man, if we're going to do it, like, the stars are lined, right?
But then there's this other part of me that's like, nah, basketball's different. One dude can make the difference. At 22 years old, I have a daughter who's 22. I cannot believe, or she's 23 as well.
I can't believe it at the same age. The amount of maturity that guy has. He says all the right quotes. All the right confidence.
I mean, LeBron used to be so fun to watch from him. He'd do the chalk, and he'd smile, and dance, and, like, have a blast. And then he became, like, LeBron, the whatever he is now, who's always serious, and always seems like he hates basketball half the time. Like, I don't get it.
Like, he was so fun. And that's bringing that joy back, man. Like, Ant makes me pumped to watch it. Ant says all the right things.
I took my daughter who sat behind the bench. Man, I wanted Jimmy to take out those stupid episodes to dab him up. He was too locked in. But, like, we saw Ant play live.
Like I say, I shared that with my 15-year-old, right? Like, her first NBA game to watch him in person. Man, he's going to bring this. He's going to win this thing.
The reason, I love what you said. We don't have to remember Minnesota of the past. It's stressing me out. I want to.
Man, like, when he had his three plays where he threw it over everybody's head in the first game, I was like, this is it, man. It's old Minnesota all over again. They got my hopes up. But you know what?
It's not over. I'm just happy for more games. Maybe do one more, and one more, and one more. Man, but just props to you guys.
Props to Ant. Giving me hope. Man, it's going to even spill over. Ant has been mic'd up, and to watch him, and it's not like fake rah-rah leadership stuff, to watch him at 22 years old looking at 30-year-old Rudy Gobert and nine-year veteran Carl Anthony Towns, and Mike Conley is out there, dude.
That dude's been in the NBA for almost two decades, and he's saying, hey, huddle up now. Hey, get here. Huddle up right now. Guys, we need to rebound.
rebound, right? And then they show him on the bench and he's saying, he's telling him like, hey, desperation. If they win this game in four, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. To watch him lead like that at 22 is incredible.
And again, like I said, I don't think it's fake rah-rah stuff. They're engaged with him. They are buying into him. They're feeding off his energy.
And then he's delivering by hitting these huge shots down the stretch and making the right play and coming up with steals. So like the mic up stuff has been a really interesting open window to the Anthony Edwards dynamic here, artist. Yeah, honestly, my favorite part is, I think it might have been the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. There was like a loose ball.
He's on the ground. He's like on the I don't know about like, dude, you're hilarious. Like, you know, just having fun. There's another where he, where he after the, I think it was after the whistle and he does like a kind of a, I don't know, like a reverse layup and kind of spins the ball off the backboard.
And then he runs by Kyrie and pats him on the ass and says, I learned that from you. Yeah, it's just, it's nice to see him like having fun still being down in the series 3-0 at the time. And it's like, that transfers to the team when the star player isn't really concerned and is still, you know, laughing, having a good time, trying to win, leading the team. The respect is there too.
They know, I mean, Kat said himself like, you know, he's the face of the league in my opinion. Like, that's what he said. He won't say it, a second. Shout out also to our friends at EcoFun for helping power us through this Wolves playoff run.
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It's EcoFunMotorsports.com, EcoFunMotorsports.com. Duke, what's up, guys? How are you doing? Good.
How are you this fine evening? I'm doing all right. How much time you got? As much as you want, Duke.
All right. I got a whole list of notes here for you. I took a lot of notes from the first three games, and I just threw them all out because I was just too angry to even think about it. Just the effort, the rebounding, defense, all of it was just terrible the first three games.
They looked like they didn't want to be there. It was kind of like when game two happened against Denver. They were just out of it. Didn't really want to try.
Didn't want to play. Except for Ant. Ant was trying, but he just played horribly. Just had a bad night.
The defense of the first quarter, they really picked it up. They were getting aggressive on Luka. They were making contact with Luka, but Luka was initiating the majority of the contacts, which is why I'm really happy they didn't make those calls. It was kind of like what Jokic does, where he just kind of gives a little shove with his elbow as he's going into the paint.
Except for Luka's just flailing his arms trying to get a whistle. And when he doesn't get it, he just turns and complains to the ref every single time. It's just infuriating. Yeah.
Offensively, the ball movement was a lot better, I noticed, especially in the third and fourth quarters when the score got a lot tighter. They were moving the ball really well. It wasn't a lot of... Early on in the game, it was a lot of Ant driving in and trying to draw fouls, which he did pretty well in the first quarter.
But they kind of went away from that when he came off the court for the foul trouble. So the defense also kind of... They opened the door and let them back in because the fouls, having Cat off the floor and Rudy pretty brutal. If you guys noticed, Kyle Anderson had a game.
He's had a series. Yeah. He's had a series. It's a Kyle Anderson series.
Yeah. It wasn't even offense, though, this game. It was mostly defense because there were a couple of times where he got switched on to Luka. Yeah.
He can body Luka. I mean, no one's going to shut Luka down entirely, but he can body Luka. And by the way, Duke, thank you, dude. Definitely come back on Wolves' met line here on Flag and Howls.
But it's funny because the Phoenix series was not really a Kyle Anderson series and there were parts of the Denver series. If you look at the Wolves when he's on the court versus off the court, it was kind of a train wreck. But he's been a facilitator. He's just a guy.
Yeah. Luka's such an interesting body type because you can't just throw Jade McDaniels on him like you can with most of the league's top scoring perimeter players and be like, I'll just kind of extinguish this guy. He's less affected by Jade McDaniels than a lot of other players. And so, I mean, hell, even just this has been touched on briefly, Artis, but the decision to start the game and throw out different chunks of the game, put Jade McDaniels on Kyrie Irving and put Anthony Edwards on Luka Doncic.
Edwards did a great job contesting a lot of Luka shots, just making life hard. And Kyrie was clearly bothered by Jade McDaniels' length and to the point where he didn't even shoot very much early in the game, I feel like. So to some extent, those guys just missed shots. But also that defensive switch up, I think played a role in those guys combining to go, what was the math you're 13 for 39 between Luka and Kyrie?
Really interesting. I think it's a switch up that they should have went to a little bit earlier, but I think they feared again. I think they feared Ant getting in foul trouble dealing with Luka. You know, I think it was the third foul, maybe the third or the fourth foul of the game where he fouled Luka.
I think it was the third where I was just like, what are you? Because he got frustrated because he got fouled on the opposite end and then Luka comes down. He just does that crazy reach and gets a foul and gets taken out of the game. But Luka length, in my opinion, just watching Luka, length doesn't really bother him like that because he's got that weird release.
Some of the yoke's where he just release it at this really high release plane and get a shot off. But muscle mass and size does bother him to an extent. So, you know, and he kind of looks small on TV, but he's in person. He's a pretty bulky guy.
And same thing with Kyle Anderson. He has the size, he has length, but he has muscle mass. And it's weird because he's, I mean, he's slow-mo. That's the nickname, but Luka's also kind of slow-mo at times, right?
So, you know, they move at the same pace. And so it kind of matches up well. And I think Kyle does a really good job of defending without fouling as well. Yeah.
Okay, let's go to Cam here next on this live of Flagler House. Cam, what up, dude? What's up, guys? Hey, can you hear me?
Are you at work right now? Yeah, I was about to say, I've been at work, so I had to listen to the game. I got to listen to the lovely Alan Gordon and Jim Peep do their thing on the call. I got to watch a little bit of it, but yeah, I was going to bring up Kyle Anderson, too.
He only got two points, you know, one three from the floor, but three steals, four assists, four rebounds, and was just a crucial part of the game. Cat and Ant combined for 10 more points than Kyrie and Luka, and that ultimately helped them win the game in this one. So it's good that they got their offense going in. Yeah.
Not booking those vacation flights yet, my man. Not booking those vacation flights yet? Nope. There he is, Cam.
Thanks for coming on this live edition of Flagler House. So two things, if you're still hanging out with us, and there's over 2,000 people still hanging out with us after this Game 4 win, Wolves still alive. It's 11 o'clock p.m. Central Time.
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