The Timberwolves Don’t Care What You Think

The Timberwolves Don’t Care What You Think

I watched about 30 different series previews of the Los Angeles Lakers versus the Minnesota Timberwolves across all different types of media, both legacy and on YouTube, both national and local, both in Minnesota and LA. Only about three of those people picked the Minnesota Timberwolves to win this series, with a majority of them picking the Lakers in six. and a good amount of them picked the Lakers in five. Even I in my NBA playoffs preview picked the Lakers in seven, but it pained me to do so. And if I’m being honest, I was trying to account for my bias as a lifelong Timberwolves fan just like I did last year in the Phoenix Suns Wolves series. But instead, the Minnesota Timberwolves just put the entire NBA on notice. They are coming for the West. Not just beating the Los Angeles Lakers, Luca Donuch, and LeBron James in five games, but let’s be honest here, they pretty much manhandled them. So, as we get into this video, let’s talk specifics about every single game of this series, and then we’ll talk about what went wrong for the Lakers, why so many got it wrong, and ultimately, how high of a ceiling do the Minnesota Timberwolves have the rest of these playoffs. Let’s dive in. Don’t worry, soon here we will get to game five, breaking it down, talking about Rudy Gobear silencing every single hater and also Anthony Edwards playmaking leap. Plus, the Minnesota Timberwolves being the first team ever to shoot 40 plus threes in a game, shoot 15% and win. But first, we have to talk about how we got here. Starting with game one, and honestly, the expectations going into the series. Everyone thought the Lakers had the three out of the four best players in this series with Austin Reeves being the fourth best player. They also felt like, which the data did show this, that the Lakers were a better clutch time team and that these games would be close, but the Lakers in clutch time would just outperform the Minnesota Timberwolves, which was pretty reasonable to suspect given Luca and LeBron’s reputation and the Wolves being like the 20th best clutch time team in the regular season. There was also narratives about playing Rudy Gobear off the floor on the defensive end and Julius Randall just being an all-time playoff choker. With that being said, let’s get into game one where the Timberwolves absolutely dominated the Lakers. They shot over 50% from three. And although Luca had 37 points, he had just one assist and five turnovers. The Wolves are pretty much saying Luca can get his, but he’s not going to have 10 assists and accumulate 60 to 70% of the Lakers points. Jade McDaniels feasted having Luca on him. And that’s the biggest thing the Wolves learned from the Western Conference Finals last year was that they were going to put Luca in as many actions as possible and attack him off the dribble. A team high plus 27 plus minus 25 points for Jane McDaniels, 11 for 13 from the field. and Nasreed had 23 points. But after game one, what was the consensus? The Wolves are going to put up a fight, but they’re not going to shoot 50% from three the rest of the series. And that’s exactly what happened in game two. The Wolves would shoot just 38% from the field, 5 for 25 from three, scored just 85 points. Randall and Anthony Edwards had 52 of those 85. And nobody else had double figures. But on the Lakers end, what I think a lot of people missed after game two was that they didn’t really solve anything. The Wolves just could not score. Now, Luca did have 35,12 and N, but they only scored 94 points, and the Wolves offense was not going to put up 85 points again. It still felt like in that second half the Wolves had multiple opportunities to really close that lead, getting it to 9 and 8, but they just shot terribly from three, and things would definitely even out. So, going back to Minnesota for game three, this game was by far the closest back and forth. And with about three minutes to go, the game was tied. It was going to be our first test of which team was going to perform well in the clutch. Luca makes this bucket, tying it at 103 with 437 to go. Anthony Edwards hits this three with 419 to go. A step back three. And then he finds Nas Reed for this three, putting the Wolves up six. This is the playmaking leap that everyone thought if Ant could make it would unlock his game to a whole new level. The Lakers score just one point down the stretch. It’s an Austin Reeves free throw. Ant has this layup here and then also he hits another step back three. Jade McDaniels ices it with this three in the corner. And the Wolves completely outplay Luca, LeBron, and the Lakers in the clutch. 116 104, outscoring them 13 to one in the final four minutes of the game. Luca finishes with only 17. LeBron had 38. And it felt like one of these games that LeBron was only going to have once in this series. Anthony Edwards finishes with 29 8 and 8, a team high plus 13. And then lastly, Jade McDaniels again, 30 points on 13 for 22 from the field, just punishing Luca Donuch being on him going into game four. This now becomes a must-win for LA. Split the series going back to LA and you’re in the driver’s seat. After a pair of Rudiggo Bear free throws, the Wolves are down 9484 at the end of the third quarter. The Lakers just outscored them by 13. But Chris Finch matches JJ Reick’s five players that are playing the entire third and starting the fourth. And he starts Anthony Edwards the fourth as well, which proved to be massive. He hits backto back threes within the first minute. Then he hits this little runner/flater making it a seven-point game. Again, a step back three, and now it’s a four-point game. Nazreed’s been incredible in the fourth quarter in this series. At this point, he has not missed a shot. This three makes it 104 102. Luca fowls and they’re now up three. Bear with me, guys. There’s so much left that happens in this game. Ruy Hachimuro was actually fantastic for the Lakers. Hits his fifth three of the ball game. Lakers back up two, but Nas Reed man again 108 107. And then he gets switched on to Luca and kind of locks him up. Dante Devenenzo and one. The Wolves are up four with just two minutes to go. But the Lakers aren’t done. Austin Reeves three, LeBron James block off Dante. And a DFS3 in transition. 113 111 Lakers lead after just being down four. And LeBron actually strips Nas Reed again, but then he takes this 30 foot3. I mean, there’s 5 seconds left on the shot clock, but this was just LeBron trying to put the game away. They double ant. He finds Nas on the roll down to Jade McDaniels and one and the Wolves are back up one. Luca trips over Jade McDaniel’s foot. The two-minute report after the game said this was a foul. It was not called and because they call a timeout, there’s only 1 second left to get across the half court line. LeBron James turns the ball over and then Anthony Edwards gets fouled. They challenge it cuz they didn’t call it right away. This overhead view shows it’s a foul. Ant makes both free throws. Austin Reeves misses a pretty good look at the end and the Wolves escape 116 113 going up 3-1 in this series again outplaying the Lakers in clutch time. And with that it brings us to game five that just occurred yesterday. I was honestly shocked by the continued double down and really just stubbornness by some of the national media saying the Lakers still had a very good chance of coming back in this series. Almost everyone picked them to win game five. But if you’ve really been paying attention this series, the Lakers are just flat out the worst team than Minnesota. They have huge roster flaws, which is what happens when you make a massive unexpected acquisition midway through the regular season. But still, everyone thinks the Lakers are forcing a game six. They’re going to come out very aggressive, and they just don’t. Also, I have to briefly say I just summarized four games in five minutes and I didn’t mention Julius Randall. He has completely changed his entire reputation through these first four games in the series. He is has been Minnesota’s rock honestly offensively and he’s playing extremely hard defensively being able to guard LeBron pretty well. So, I have to say that going into game five. But there’s one player that has not helped his reputation. Even though he’s held up well on the defensive end, and that’s Rudy Gobear. He’s averaging just three and a half, four points in this series. He cannot punish a team that does not have a legitimate center. But that all changes in game five. Rudy finishes the first half with 15 points, which is about as much as he’s had in this entire series. eight rebounds, four offensive, and the Wolves are up on the Lakers by 10 at halftime. Even though they shot six for30 from three in that first half, they should be up by 25. Honestly, all of those looks were incredible. The Lakers will take their first lead of the game, 80 to 79 on this LeBron James free throw, and they’re down just one point going into the fourth. So, we’re probably going to have another clutch time game again. Rudy Gobear puts the Wolves up three with this O board and dunk. Julius Randall an incredible number two, but LeBron hits a three right back, making it a two-point game. Randall does his thing again. And then after Luca misses this layup and complains to the official about a foul, Anthony Edwards goes down and it’s a six-point game. Ruhachimura again was honestly I thought incredible offensively in this game. hits a three. 9794. But Anthony Edwards, this is the stuff he was not doing in the past. He drives on a night where he’s 0 for 11 from three and where the Wolves are 7 for 47 15 16%. He drives, kicks it out to Mike Connley for the three. And the Wolves win this one. They seal it with some Julius free throws. 10396, sending LA home in their home arena in five games. And like I said, becoming the first team ever to win a playoff game, shooting more than 40 attempts from three while hitting just 16% of them. A majority of them wide open. If the Wolves have just a decent game from three, they win this game by 25. Rudy Gobear was the star. a team high plus 18 plus minus 27 points, 24 rebounds, nine of them offensive. And that’s also a playoff careerhigh in points and rebounds for Rudy. Anthony Edwards, even though he went 0411 from three, he still had 15 11 boards and eight assists while zero turnovers. Luca had 28,9 and seven. He hurt his back in the middle of this one, but he powered through. And then LeBron had 22. Ruy Hachimura 23 again. Austin Reeves just 12. Minnesota shut down Austin Reeves in this series honestly. And off the bench they had just four points combined. Let’s start with what the Wolves did well in this series. Number one, their offense is just leaps and bounds better than last year. They can beat you on a night where they’re not impeccable defensively because of their offense. They could not do that last year. Their defense was their calling card and their offense was not going to bail them out ever. Anthony Edwards had 31 assists in this series to just six turnovers. And quite honestly, he outplayed LeBron James. He outplayed Luca. He was the best player in this series, even with a couple games where he struggled shooting. Something I didn’t even mention about last game was that he had 43 points, nine assists, and six rebounds. But ultimately, Minnesota’s just more versatile than the Lakers. The Lakers, they do not have a true big. Minnesota does in Rudy. He finally had a game where he could punish them. But even when he wasn’t punishing them, he had incredible defense. Their offense was able to sustain with a secondary creator and playmaker and Julius Randall and having Luca Donic to attack off the dribble with Jade McDaniels and Julius all series long. Not to mention multiple of those close clutch time games, game three and game four, they closed with a death lineup that was of all shooters that could switch everything in Anthony Edwards, Dante Devincenzo, Julius Randle, Jade McDaniels, and Nas Reed, which is something not a lot of teams can really say. They’re so versatile. They have eight players that could start on any team. Meanwhile, the Lakers struggled to find even one guy off the bench once Jackson Hayes was removed that could contribute in this series. We’ll talk more about the Wolves in a second, but I got to say about the Lakers, I think everyone just saw Luca and saw LeBron and just assumed that was enough to win a playoff series in the Western Conference. Completely forgetting that that Dallas Mavericks team that went to the finals last year was perfectly, I’m saying that correctly, perfectly constructed for Luca Donuch. They had corner three-point shooting. He had a secondary creator when he needed a break and was still on the floor. It had length. It had defense. It had rim protection at all times in Dererick Lively and Daniel Gaffford. And most importantly, they had a lob threat on the court at all times that really stifled Minnesota’s defense. The Lakers do not have that. If Luca didn’t have it going, he either had to hope that he created an open three for Rui Hachimura or DFS or that he shifted the defense just a little bit so that LeBron or Austin could create for themselves. That’s literally all they had going on on offensively. And then defensively they have absolute liabilities. Austin Reeves not a good defender. The Wolves picked on him a ton. Obviously Luca Donuch not a good defender. The Wolves did a terrible job of capitalizing putting him in actions last year in the Western Conference Finals. That was their number one goal in this series. And I’m pretty sure there was someone on Twitter, I’ll link the tweet here, who’s a defensive film breakdown guy who mentioned in game five, Luca gave up like 41 points. And so that was something that the Wolves capitalize on. Jade McDaniels, Julius Randall primarily was who Luca was guarding. They cooked him all series. But honestly, if I’m the Lakers, you did this to yourself. The national media did it to you. There’s no reason that you had such high hopes for these playoffs. you just got handed to you a top five player in the NBA in his prime for nothing. But with that, it takes time to build a roster around him and they just didn’t have anything beyond Ruie Hachimura and Austin Reeves who didn’t have a good series and Reeves beyond them to be able to compete in the playoffs to the level that the Wolves were able to play to. And so if you’re the Lakers, they’re going to be fine. I don’t understand people getting upset about Luca. Yeah, he’s horrible defensively. He probably needs to get in a little bit better shape. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be fine. But there’s no reason that this Lakers team should have had that high of expectations. You don’t make a move like that and compete for a title in the same year. It just does not happen. With that being said, for the Wolves, where do I think they can go from here? I think whether it’s Houston, whether it’s Golden State, they are going to be favored in that series. I think with Golden State, they don’t have anybody that can guard Ant either. People try to say Moses Moody. Hell no. Not to mention Jimmy on Julius. Julius is a lot bigger than Jimmy. I think you’re not giving Julius enough credit. He’s proven in this series he can be a phenomenal phenomenal number two. Also, Jaden is really good at chasing Steph. You have Na off the bench. You have Anthony Edwards at any given time. You have big bodies for Jimmy Butler. And you have Rudy Gobear in rim protection. As for Houston, their defense definitely scares me. Shenon scares me a little bit with Rudy, but at the end of the day, they just don’t have enough offense to compete with the Wolves offense. The Wolves can go small if Rudy is not playing well, and they can beat you with shooting and getting to the rim. And so, I think at this point, the Wolves are going to make the conference finals. They’re going to meet OKC there. And I’m going to be honest with y’all, I’m not going to pick the Wolves to beat OKC. But right now, I think the Wolves would give OKC a lot better of a shot than most people would give them credit for. With that being said, though, that’s where I’m at. I’m not going to go any further than that right now. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. But the Minnesota Timberwolves, they don’t care what you think of them. Anthony Edwards, he doesn’t care what you think of him. Julius Randall doesn’t care what you think of him. Rudy Goar does not care what you think of him. This was a statement win for Anthony Edwards at 23 years old. back-to-back playoffs, knocking out Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Nicole Joic, and now Luca Donuch, and LeBron James. We’ll see how far they can go. Thank you so much for watching this video. We’ll see you soon. I know I haven’t been doing too many NBA playoff videos this year. That changes soon. And as always, we’ll see you on the hardwood.

Go Wolves 🙂