← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
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- [00:00]
Host
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Jason
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Jackson
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- [01:08]
Jason
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Download the DraftKings Sportsbook App and use code HOOPS. That's code HOOPS H O O P S for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny to 467-369 in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG Co Audio. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody and happy conference finals as we kick it off with the Western Conference tonight, what was a pretty entertaining game for the most part, outside of a couple of things. We're going to get into it from a bunch of different angles. Yes, we'll have a little bit of ref talk off of the top and then at the tail end of the show, we're going to take 10, 15 minutes of mailbag questions from you guys. So if there's some specific angles from tonight's game that you want to dive a little deeper into, let's get those questions into the chat and we'll hit them at the end. It's also nice because right around the time I finish my monologue is when I can get into some of the advanced metrics that populate, you know, 15, 20 minutes after the game so we can get a little bit deeper during that mailbag segment. And then when we finish up here tonight on YouTube, we're heading over to Playback TV slash Hoops tonight. We'll be taking callers, we'll watch film. We'll just get into the weeds and have some fun. It's a more informal vibe. I've been really in. I've been really enjoying that setting over there. So we'll be heading over there when we finish on YouTube tonight. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and TikTok, so make sure you guys follow us there. And then last but not least, like I mentioned, keep getting those questions into the chat so we can hit them at the tail end of the show. First of all, as we shift to this game, I'm just very excited this series is going to be a blast as long as Shay doesn't get a free throw every damn time he flails or falls or trips over air or whatever it is he was doing for the most, for the most part in this particular game. I tweeted out after Shay's first foul, the first time that he grifted his way in the lane. There was a second one where Julius Randle clearly grabbed him and was like a very clear foul. There was similar one late in the game where Jaden McDaniels clearly grabbed Shay when he was initiating that contact. Those sorts of things. I want that called every time. That's not defense. You're just grabbing. But if you're sliding your feet and you're going down the lane line and Shea's gonna just lightly bump into you and fall backwards and flail and throw it up, I don't think that's a basketball play that should be rewarded with free throws. And one of the things I tweeted at the beginning of the game was, if Shea wants to lean on that, that's a great sign for Minnesota because that's not something that's gonna work out in the large sample. But it did work out tonight as he continued to get the calls. Conspicuously, it was the same ref every time. It was Mark Lindsay who kept giving Shea every single damn touch foul throughout the game. And I think the NBA just needs to pluck Mark Lindsay and just get him out of the playoffs so that we don't have to watch him anymore. Cause, like, to me, it's not about fairness. The whistle was relatively even tonight. Maybe Shea gets three or four additional additional calls. He. It's not the reason Minnesota lost this game. We're going to talk about that more here in a minute. OKC did a lot of good. To me, it's just about the television product. Basketball calls, like bad calls, are a part of basketball games. I'm never going to get overly worked up on that as far as it pertains to one team or anything along those lines. Again, I don't think that's why Minnesota lost tonight. I'm just super excited because this is going to be a showcase for the young generation in the NBA. And what we don't need is to watch Shay Gildress Alexander just flailing and doing all that bullshit and getting rewarded with free throws for it. So let's just. Let's NBA, let's get Mark Lindsay out of the series. It's not the type of series for him. He wants to ref like it's February. No one's interested in watching that. So let's, let's get him out and then hopefully we can enjoy this series with some quality basketball between these two teams. The reason why I'm excited about this series is just about every player in this series is a good defender who can do a little bit of dribbling, shooting and passing. A textbook modern basketball showcase. Showcase. Ant and Shay, it's a super fun matchup. You could tell they don't like each other. And with a lot of little gamesmanship early in the game. One time he's standing over the top of Shay. One time he's throwing the ball at him. It's clear they don't like each other. That's great. That's great for the television. Julius Randolph versus J Dub. Two very different types of players. Julius has this insane first half. Offensively, J Dub just brilliant defensively all night, showcasing why he was getting just a little bit of defensive player of the year buzz. This year, again, just an excellent showcase for the young generation of the NBA. I want it to be about basketball though, so no more of the grifty bullshit. Like we don't need to see every driving bump get rewarded with free throws. So I hope they get that out of there. It was the tale of two halves though. In the first half, I thought it was very clear that Ant and Julius were pretty comfortable against Oklahoma City's primary perimeter defenders. That led to Julius getting nice separation on moves into the lane. I thought he was really decisive against Alex Caruso, not messing around and trying to beat him with fancy dribble combinations. He was just like, I'm bigger and stronger than Alex, so if I just make a simple move and I protect the basketball, I'm going to be able to get some sort of dribble penetration against this guy. And I thought he had great success there. None of OKC's guards can really stop Ant from getting to his spot. It's really just a question of his ability to rise up and knock down shots and to make the kick out passes. I thought both guys, and this is a credit to okc, I thought both guys really wore down over the course of the game under OKC's defense and foul trouble disrupted their rhythm. But there was a nice trend early in the game that I think should leave all Wolves fans feeling like they have a chance to win this series. Which is just OKC's athletes. They're a very good defense, but they don't do too much to make Ant and Julius uncomfortable. I also thought in the first half Oklahoma City looked a little caught off guard just by Minnesota's size and athleticism. Just a very different type of athletic profile than Denver was or even Memphis was. And I think that it just took them a little bit of time to adjust, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. All you got to do is look at the the box score. They go for 44 points in the first half and they go for 70 in the second half, right? In the second half, Oklahoma City settles in. They get some nice ISO scoring early in the third quarter from both Shay and J Dub. Chet starts getting aggressive in scoring in the middle of the floor. They start to, on the other end of the floor, start to win some of those battles on defense against Julius and against Ant. They start to force him into some misses. They get into some foul trouble, and then from there, Shea and Chet just put the game away. There were a lot of openings for Chet. I can't wait to dive further into this in the film, but there were a lot of openings for Chet around the rim, on rolls and on cuts and on crashes, on offensive rebound situations, a bunch of that kind of stuff. And I thought you can really see the difference in the two defensive game plans in that regard. And it manifested in a bunch of key spots in the box score. So, for instance, Minnesota takes 51 threes. Oklahoma City takes 21 threes, right? Minnesota gets 20 points in the paint. Oklahoma City gets 54 points in the paint. The way that's manifesting is Minnesota is a lot of like, stay home, trust the guy on the ball to do his job. Oklahoma City very much is forward aggressive. We're gambling, we're packing the paint, we're giving up three point shots in hopes of turning you over and having the aggregate kind of impact of that be a positive, right? And that's the thing. They gave up a ton of threes tonight. Minnesota did not burn them. And we'll have to talk about that here in a minute. Specifically, their bench really struggled to shoot the ball, but Oklahoma City generated 31 points off of 19 Minnesota turnovers. And that ended up being a kind of a balance that pays off for them. But you can see the difference in that defensive scheme, right? Oklahoma City, forward aggressive, packing the paint, overloading the strong side, giving up a lot of threes. It felt like if Minnesota got any sort of dribble penetration into the middle of the floor, there was some sort of kick out opportunity that would lead to a wide open three in the corner for a good shooter that Was capable of knocking the shot down for Oklahoma City. Once they started to get into the middle of the paint, especially when Rudy Gobert checked out of the game. We're going to dive into that a little bit here in a minute. But they started to get into the paint and find openings because it's a lot of one on one and two on two down there. Like on that play where Jaden McDaniels gets called for the foul, grabbing on Shay when he kind of got tied up going down the lane line. There's nobody there at the rim. He was able to go right back there and get an easy right hand scooping layup. A couple possessions later, a lot of one on one, a lot of two on two. That created opportunities for Chet to be an impactful vertical spacer as a cutter and crasher and finisher around the basket. And then Shay getting into the lane, consistently drawing those fouls. And in that second half, Ant and Julius were never able to gain any sort of rhythm outside of a brief little Anthony Edwards burst in the middle third quarter and next thing you know, we're looking at a blowout because that Oklahoma City train got going and Minnesota was never, never able to reassert control of the situation. I want to just kind of go through some notes that I have from both teams and then when we're done with that again, we're going to go to the mailbag. And you guys, any direction of the series you want to dive further into, we'll start to dig into some of the numbers too, as they update. So on the Oklahoma City front, I thought J Dub was great in this game. Like he was fine on offense. Nothing that you're going to write home about. Not super efficient, but he didn't turn the basketball over. And to get 19 points and 5 assists with 0 turnovers on 18 shots. Even though it's not the most efficient thing in the world. That's a fine offensive game in the Western Conference finals. I thought he was incredible on defense in this game. Five steals, attacking Ant and Julius. Every time they turned their back in post ups and getting the ball knocked away that way. Random turnovers with full court pressure. You got one against Julius Randall that way. Just flying around on defense. He defended on on an island against Nas Reed multiple times and got stops. Just bumped him really hard on the first one and forced a turnover. Bumped him on a spin on the second one. They brought a nice little baseline double. I think it was from Caruso on that play too that they got another stop. J Dub was Just an incredible defensive force in this particular game. Okay, so you got a nice little shift from Kenrich Williams in this game. He defended really well. He ran some pick and pop where Nas Reed was kind of defending him as like a traditional screen defender, which was leaving him open on the pop. He hit a three there. He was plus 13 in eight minutes. A nice little stretch from Kenridge Williams. Overall, I thought it was one of Chet's best games in this playoff run. We talked about the work that he did as like kind of a vertical spacer in the middle of the floor. I also thought he did an amazing job on the defensive glass in the second half. You watch the tape in that second half, he's getting a body on somebody every time he's boxing out, he's high, pointing the basketball. Oklahoma City was able to regain control cause Minnesota did a lot of damage on the offensive glass in the first half. Minnesota was not able to do that damage in the second half. And I thought a big part of that was Chad Holmgren and then Alex Caruso. All the work he's doing defensively, he struggled a little bit with Julius Randall tonight. Him continuing to be like the most reliable catch and shoot spot up guy for Oklahoma City is a revelation and it's turning him into one of the most profoundly impactful playoff role players in the league right now. Because like, I mean, I remember when I rooted for Alex Crusoe, that wasn't really a big part of his game. It was like you could knock him down, shot 40% his final season with the Lakers, but struggled to shoot him in the postseason. It was never really what you were in the Alex Crusoe business for, but him knocking down all of these catch and shoot threes is making him immensely valuable as a 3 and D player in this playoff field. On the Minnesota front again, I still think Ant and Julius can generate quality shots. I thought in the second half it was a lot of fatigue and foul trouble related stuff where, you know, there was an extended stretch there where Ant and Julius were both just off the floor. I mean it was playing pretty well in that mid third quarter. And he picked up a weak ass foul on another one of those stupid ass Shay Gilders Alexander bump and run shots. And it just took him out of the game. And I just thought when he came in he struggled to regain rhythm. At that point it was a very different game too. By the time Ant came back in, the game was not out of reach, but it was in a fundamentally different type of position as a lake, you know, Fourth quarter double digit lead than it was in that third quarter stretch. But over the course of this series, those two guys have to do essentially what they did. They have to basically do what I always talk about with veteran players, which is like find the stuff that's working and replicate it. Take the mistakes. Gotta trim that fat, stay away from it, right? Julius Randle got a little sloppy with the basketball in the second half. Anthony Edwards got a little sloppy with the basketball in the second half. You give up 31 points to Oklahoma City off of turnovers, you're shooting yourself in the foot and you're going to make it really, really difficult to win at that point. But overall, just looking at the physical dynamic ants too big and strong and athletic for all of Oklahoma City's guards. And Julius Randle is a big powerful forward that can find matchups that he can attack. So that's a very strong foundation for them offensively in this series. Their bench guys have to hit shots though, like it's, it's rough. Nas Reed 1 for 11. Dante DiVincenzo 3 for 14. Nikhil Alexander Walker 3 for 11. That's 7 for 36 from the field. From the, the depth that we talked about coming into this series as one of the strengths of this Minnesota roster and a lot of them guys like this, there were some uncomfortable things. I thought Dante looked a little rushed on some of his on ball stuff. Right. Like I thought Nas Reed's post ups were ugly, but there was a lot of butt naked three point shots in there that those dudes were missing and they went 5 for 28 from 3. And so with A and Julius and the types of quality threes that they were generating, those guys just have to pay them off the turnovers to transition again. This is going to be the key to the series. Like Oklahoma City will have a hard time scoring against Minnesota in the half court, especially when they have a big on the floor. But if you're going to gift wrap them 31 points running out the other way when your defense isn't set, you're putting yourself in a really tough position to win. And then lastly, the last thing I want to focus on before we get into our mailbag is Rudy Gobert. I can't come into the series. If you guys remember in my series preview I talked about how I didn't really see this as as much of a center type of series. I specifically said I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back at the end of the series and that both Rudy Gobert and Isaiah Hartenstein averaged fewer than 20 minutes per game. Isaiah Hartenstein, 20 minutes tonight. Rudy Gobert, 21 minutes. The Rudy Gobert piece, by the way, I thought she held up fine. So this is not necessarily an OKC take. I thought OKC's small ball groups did fine. If it turns into something where Minnesota starts really overwhelming them with physicality, maybe it's something they have to look into, expanding Isaiah's role. But specifically with Gobert, I think it's a little bit more complicated than just what meets the eye there. Rudy's a frustrating player. There were a lot of sequences tonight where he was gift wrapped, pretty high quality opportunities on trails and rolls around the basket where his inability to finish anything in traffic was a problem. And that's an important problem. Something that we need to factor in when we have discussions about Rudy. He also had a pretty rough first defensive ship as he picked up a couple of fouls. But I thought from that point forward I thought he was fine defensively and I actually thought his presence on the back line was part of the struggles that Shea Gildrich Alexander was dealing with. Shay really got comfortable going downhill towards the rim in the second half of this game. And so when I really start to parse out the impact of Rudy in this particular matchup against an Oklahoma City team that isn't the highest level, backline processing sort of team in this matchup, I would like to see Rudy Gobert at least I would like to see Chris Finch explore using him a little bit more simply because there is a little bit of a dynamic when he's on the floor, when Shay's there, where Shay wants to operate a little bit more in the short to mid range, whereas when he's not out there, he wants to go right to the bucket. And so I think it's worth just exploring a little bit more, just expanding Rudy Gobert's role more. There was an extended stretch in this game where Chris Finch went with no center with Nas Reed off and with Rudy off. And look, I get it, you know, Rudy has his offensive limitations. Nas Reed was having the game from hell for, for him. But. And I'm not necessarily, you know, pushing back against that in this particular game because it was going off the rails anyway. But as something to adjust potentially in game two, I wouldn't be so quick to pull the, the pull the plug on Rudy Gobert because I do think he has a little bit of a mental impact on Shay on J Dub, forcing them into some of those tougher contested mid range shots.
- [20:25]
Vice Sports
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- [20:59]
Jackson
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- [21:30]
Host
I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.
- [21:45]
Jason
Across the country, cops called this Taser the Revolution.
- [21:49]
Host
But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
- [21:51]
Jason
Cops believed everything that Taser told them.
- [21:54]
Host
From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season one, Taser Incorporated.
- [22:10]
Guest
I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really really bad.
- [22:17]
Host
Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2 and 3 on May 21 and episodes 4, 5 and 6 on June 4 ad free at Lava for Good. Plus on Apple Podcasts.
- [22:39]
Dan Flores
The American west with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. Hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores and brought to you by Velvet Buck, this podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode I'll be diving into something of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best selling author and Meat Eater founder Stephen Rinella.
- [23:09]
Jason
I'll correct my kids now and then.
- [23:11]
Clayton English
Where they'll say when cave people were here.
- [23:13]
Jason
And I'll say it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves.
- [23:19]
Dan Flores
So join me starting Tuesday, May 6, where we'll delve into stories of of the west and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.
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Jason
Listen to the American west with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:38]
Clayton English
I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lodd and this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back in a big way.
- [23:45]
Jason
In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.
- [23:48]
Clayton English
This is kind of star studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.
- [23:54]
Jason
It's just the compassionate choice to allow.
- [23:56]
Guest
Players all reasonable means to care for themselves.
- [24:00]
Jason
Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher, Brent Smith from Shinedown.
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Clayton English
Got be real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer Riley Cote, Marine Corps vet MMA fighter Liz Caramouche.
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Guest
What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.
- [24:22]
Jason
Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
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Clayton English
It makes it real.
- [24:25]
Jason
It really does. It makes it real.
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Clayton English
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- [24:49]
Jason
A lot of stuff I want to get into with you guys. So let's get into our mailbag and any questions you guys have about the series. Let's dig into it.
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Guest
Let's do it. Let's do it. First question, sort of a general question. What adjustments can Minnesota make to play with OKC and give them their best chance to win? Given the fact that SGA and J Dub Both shot under 40% this game and they still blew out the Timberwolves.
- [25:11]
Jason
You know, when you really dig into it, the question is shot creation, right? And do we felt, do we feel like Ant and Julius did a good job of creating shots tonight for Minnesota? I think they did. They just got to shoot substantially better on them than they did. And it's in and it's. It's one of those things where I feel like when Ant and Julius didn't turn the ball over and they got some sort of rim pressure in the form of a dribble drive from Ant or a post op rip through from Julius, I thought they got good looks. They just lost control of the game in transition and Julius got in foul trouble and got a little fatigued in the second half and their advantage creation wasn't as good and like their core bench spot up guys went 5 for 28 from 3. Like do you agree with me, Jackson, that Minnesota got some quality looks on those kickouts? Like did you think it was, you know, OKC rushing them or do you think they were just missing some shots?
- [26:08]
Guest
I think in the first half especially they got a lot of open looks that they could have made more of. In the second half it did feel like OKC turned up the intensity defensively or maybe at least got got their bearings on the athletic sort of the pace of the series and the physicality of the series a little bit. But still it did feel like and there was some criticism of Dante's shot selection. I think some of those like uber deep ones might have been not the best shot. But some of them I thought he were great looks and he just missed. He was 1 for 6 at one point and I think, I think the first four or five of those were were very makeable. So it's tough. I mean I do think that they, their stars were sloppy, were too sloppy at times from a shot from like a turnover and shot creation standpoint. But I also feel like the bench just has to shoot better than that. Right?
- [26:54]
Jason
They have to shoot so, so, so much better. Cleaning the Glass has Oklahoma city at a 1-02-half court offensive rating in Minnesota at an 80. But that obviously doesn't factor in offensive rebounding. So offensive rebounding was a big part of it in transition. OkC a 1:40 offensive rating. And I don't think Cleaning the glass has Minnesota logged for zero transition points. I'll have to see how that shows up on Synergy. But I, I like the point you made about Dante DiVincenzo. I think that there's a we know Dante can make those shots. It's just when you take a relatively quick above the break. 3. When you're not in rhythm, it just has a higher percentage chance of leading to one of those long rebounds that leads to one of those runouts I'm a big believer in your shot selection should reflect your rhythm. So like if you're out of rhythm, meaning like you're you've been missing the answer is to hunt easy opportunities. Run your lane in transition. See if you can't get a layup or a wide open. 3. Crash the offensive glass. See if you can't get an offensive rebound put back or draw a foul. Get yourself to the foul line. When I see guys that are already having poor shooting nights start taking pretty tough off the dribble threes, it's like that's the kind of shot that you're not. That, that's not going to get you out of your slump like that. That's. That's trying to ram your head through a brick wall. And I did think we saw a little bit of that with Dante tonight.
- [28:26]
Guest
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Flipping to the other end of the floor though. Why do you think Minnesota played zero zone in this game? It did feel like something that we talked about they might be able to use. It would maybe be a way to keep Rudy on the floor, et cetera, et cetera.
- [28:38]
Jason
I think it's something that we'll see over the course of the series. I think, you know, these game ones are always a little bit of a feel out game. And I thought their man to man defense was fine until it wasn't. And oftentimes in a situation like that, like Chris Finch may be looking at it like, zone is the thing I can pull out in Game 2. That puts a game away and he may be more willing to use it like. Okay, so let's say game two. Game two typically follows a certain feel. We've all seen this kind of series a million times, right? Minnesota will come out probably lead in that like seven to ten point range for the first two and a half quarters, right? Because that's just what happens in Game 2. It's the push and pull of urgency. You get blown out, Minnesota comes out, gives you a great effort. Oklahoma City will inevitably make us a run at some point in the second half of that game. You know, a couple of steals, couple turnovers, couple runouts, they cut the lead to two, they tie the game. That's where you can throw a card like that and stall out OKC's offense and potentially steal a win. I think Minnesota's base man to man look can work in this matchup. And I think Chris Finch just made a judgment call in this game that it wasn't worth pulling that card. They lost by 26. You know, it may be a totally different vibe in game two in terms of Julius Randle.
- [29:53]
Guest
He had 20 first half points. Obviously some of that was just, you know, catch and shooting, hitting some tough catch and shoot threes. But what was the difference in that? You saw from the way that he was attacking the first half to the second half, that felt like he struggled so much in the second half compared to his first half.
- [30:07]
Jason
As you mentioned, there Was definitely an uptick in just the overall intensity. His jump shot cooled off, they started chasing him off the line. A lot of the threes that he got in the first half were concession threes. Like they were open, looks like he was hitting them. But like there was an early three that Julius made where he like smiled. And I think, I think the specific thought that he was experiencing with that smile is like, are these dudes just gonna leave me open all serious? Like, I think that's what he was thinking. And so I think there's a good amount of Julius just pressing up and not giving him those wide open catch and shoot threes. And Julius was. I thought Julius's drive and kick play was fine in the second half. I mean he kind of has this like LeBron esque ability to just elevate off of one leg and throw these jump passes that are like terrible passes for like anybody else in the league. But because he's a good enough athlete and he just rifles the, the, the one handed, you know, line drive past where it needs to go. Thought his kicks were fine. It's just they pressed up on his threes and inside the paint. It is going to be a playmaking series for Randall. Like it's not like this is not Oklahoma City is overloading the ball. Ant and Julius are going to be taking a lot of over the top shots. I meant to mention this when we were talking about Gobert earlier, but that's the other thing is like Anton Julius success as scores in tonight's game came from the perimeter. So at from a certain point of view, go bear spacing concerns are less valuable again within in the context of an over the top shooter than they are just like a downhill type of threat. Right. Like it could be a death sentence if John Morant is your guard, but if it's Anthony Edwards, a guy who's an excellent three point shooter, it's not as big of a deal. And so that's why I think like it'll be something to experiment a little bit more with over the course of the series. But specifically with Julius, I thought he was fine with his driving kicks. It was just they pressed up on his threes. He had a few sloppy turnovers in the second half. You know that that bully ball post up against Lou Dort and then that, you know, little half court rip from J Dub where he lost it out of bounds. But overall, overall I think he's got plenty of advantages. It's just going to be a playmaking series for him.
- [32:11]
Guest
Yeah, I did feel like he was more bothered in the second half. And I and okcs, they have so many ultra quick guards who have ultra good hands that they do such a good job of digging and, and not. But not creating any like real openings to get a pass off. I think they need to do some like clear side mid post work. Don't even, don't even. You don't have to think about a second guy coming your way, Julius. Unless you're seeing it from a mile away. Because I did feel like there was quite a few times where they were stunting and they were maybe doubling for one second and getting back. There's a lot of like mental mind games. I felt like they were playing with Julius in the second half because they have so much speed on the perimeter.
- [32:47]
Jason
This is a really good point. Like there the, the post up that he had in the middle of the floor. You could tell he was like uncomfortable. Someone's got to be coming, right?
- [32:54]
Guest
Somebody's got to be going to come to D, right?
- [32:57]
Jason
I know Dort's around here somewhere. Yeah. And I and just clearing the sides a great way to simplify the reads. And most importantly, it doesn't matter as much when you're an over the top shooter. Like Julius wants to get to that little shoulder fade so you clear the left side of the floor so that he can spin over his left shoulder into the middle of the floor. And with Anthony Edwards, same sort of thing. And I actually think ANT has more post up ability in this series, especially against some of the smaller guards. Dort's probably the only guy I don't like him posting against. Also really quickly, guys, here's. These are, these are just insane numbers coming out of this game. Minnesota generated 18 unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. Oklahoma City generated 11. So sticks to the thing we talked about earlier in terms of quality catch and shoots. Oklahoma City got 2.18 points per unguarded catch and shoot. So they made almost all of them. Minnesota 0.833. So substantial shooting gap towards OKC. If you take a look at the all catch and shoots 35 for Minnesota, 16 for OKC. 0.83 points per attempt for Minnesota, 1.88 points per attempt for OKC. So there was definitely like, I mean that guys like they're shooting. Variance is a part of basketball. There are certain types of shots that the process leads to the result. And then somewhere down that list of factors is like when dudes are getting wide open looks, they just got to knock them down. And there was just like A clear Nas, Dante, Nikhil. The three of those dudes just missed open look after open look after open look. And that became something that got in their heads a little bit over the course of the game.
- [34:37]
Guest
Next question is about Anthony Edwards. The question is simply, can you be more critical of Ants? He didn't score in the fourth quarter and compared to a lot of other stars that it feels like he's sort of in the tier of Luca, Shea, whoever else. If they scored zero points in the fourth quarter, it might be a lot more criticism.
- [34:54]
Jason
He was bad. He was bad down the stretch of this game. It was a foul trouble issue though. Like, it's a little bit of a bummer that he picks up a lame ass ticky tack foul going down the left lane line. But the I'm more of like I'm looking at the big picture of the series. There's no doubt that down the stretch of this game, Shea was the better player. If Shea continues to outplay Ant over the course of the series, they're going to win. Ant's got to be better. There's no question. And it goes with both of them. Julius as well. I thought J Dub was better in the second half than either of Julius or Ant, but yeah, like we're going to talk about that when we get to the series. Like, this is game one, guys. Like, I'm not, I. I'm going to bury guys at the end of the series. Like, this is. This is. We're in round one here, guys. And everyone, everyone who was here when Ant got eliminated in Dallas. Does anybody remember how I talked about Ant then I criticized him for the way he played. Like, you get the series ain't over, people.
- [35:49]
Guest
Last question before we go over to playback. Are there any matchups you would change a sort of like defensive matchups, one on one from. From game one to game two?
- [35:59]
Jason
That's a good question. I don't think Caruso works on Julius. I think I would. I would tinker with that a little bit. I think Julius has got some favorable matchups there. I did think it was interesting. I did think it was interesting. Like Dort would be a kind of guy that I'd consider potentially using on Julius instead. Maybe they could swap the matchups there and give Caruso more opportunity on Ant and try Dort on Julius. But I thought Julius was generally pretty comfortable going against Caruso. Dort's got a little bit like wider lower center of gravity and is a little bit more of a fire hydrant than Alex Caruso is. So I Think it's one of those things where it's something you could tinker with. But honestly, I didn't think that was the. I didn't think that was the game. I mean, they're defending Julius and Ant with multiple bodies every single time. It's more just about. It's like it. Like if I dig into the ISOs. Let me check in the ISO data here real quick. I didn't think there was any specific, like, oh, Julius is just getting one on one buckets over and over again. It was. He hit threes over the top and he was able to spray out to shooters. Yeah. Minnesota 21 ISO 0.67 points per possession, including passes. Like, they weren't. They weren't. Now, again, including passes, you got to count the kickouts. But it's one of those things where it wasn't like 13 post ups for Minnesota 0.54 points per possession including passes. So it wasn't like they were getting beat one on one. It was, you know, it was the shot result at the end that was. That was causing those. Those numbers.
- [37:32]
Guest
Yeah. The only thing I'd say on that before we go over to playback is sort of the opposite of the question, which is if there's one matchup, I think that a team should hunt more. I think the Timberwolves should try to do whatever they can to get Julius with matchups against Chet. I feel like after Chet got his chest caved in by Nikola Jokic last matchup, you want to replicate that. Hartenstein is obviously very, very big and strong, and Hartenstein is doing an awesome job, you know, keeping Julius from really getting deeper position on some of those post ups. But Chad. Chad doesn't have that, I don't think.
- [38:04]
Jason
I thought when Shea was able to put Julius and Nas in particular in screening action too, that was favorable because he. That was how they got the pick. And Pops too. Like, they don't want to concede that switch. And the few times they did, he was able to pretty quickly get dribble penetration. So I think that's something that they can explore more over the course of the series. All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. We are headed over to playback, though. So playback TV slash hoops. Tonight we'll be taking callers. We'll be hanging out, just having fun, talking hoops for another 45 minutes or so. We'll see you guys over there in a little bit. As always, we appreciate you guys. We'll have a film session on our YouTube channel tomorrow morning. Breaking down game one. I'll see you guys then. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
- [38:56]
Jackson
The volume.
- [39:00]
Jason
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- [39:28]
Host
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