WHAT HAPPENED? 😳 Anthony Edwards’ struggling in WCF? Marcus & Markieff Morris DEBATE 🍿 | First Take

WHAT HAPPENED? 😳 Anthony Edwards’ struggling in WCF? Marcus & Markieff Morris DEBATE 🍿 | First Take

Good day. What’s going on everyone? Welcome into First Take. Thank you for being with us. I am Molly Carum here with the Morris twins, Marcus and Markeff. All warmed up after Get Up, fellas. How we feeling? Really good. Really good. All right, we are going to have Big Perk and Stephen A with us momentarily. But let’s dive into what went down last night. Shay Gilis Alexander had 40 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists, while Jaylen Williams scored 34 points, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder snap back from a 42-point loss by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 1281 126 game four Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals. Anthony Edwards only got up 13 shot attempts and spoke on the idea of if he struggled. I don’t look at it like I struggled or he struggled. They just they had a good game plan making us get off the ball. Um, especially for me, man, they was super in the gaps. I made the right play all night. So, I don’t really look at it like I struggled. I didn’t get enough shots to say I struggled. So, that’s might that might be how you guys look at it, but yeah, I didn’t struggle at all. It just I made the right play. All right. The struggle is real for all of us sometimes. So, Marcus, tell me this. What did you make of what Anthony Edwards just had to say there? I I have to agree with him. I wouldn’t say he struggled. I would say he just wasn’t aggressive enough like to start the game when me and bro were sitting at you know we was having our little wine we we was watching the game and we were talking about keys to the game and the both of us said the same thing a has to come out aggressive game three he was super aggressive he came out and he set the tone yes you can miss shots but it’s all about the rhythm of the game like we want him to have a rhythm going into the fourth quarter when they really need him to make some shots we want him to have the rhythm going into the third quarter he took two shots the first half two shots regardless of if he if the you know that he was given what the defense presented him he was making the right passes yes that’s perfectly fine but you’re Ant-Man you have to be offensively aggressive and miss or make yes take your hats off to OKC but they didn’t present anything different really than what they’ve done the first three games so I didn’t see the fact that he said he didn’t struggle which I I can agree you didn’t struggle but you didn’t you didn’t shoot the ball enough you didn’t attempt shots enough to give yourself a better chance at the end of the game to put the game to Um I I I think I disagree with that. I think he did struggle when you shoot one for seven from the three-point line. That’s struggling. When you only allowed to get a they only allow or you’re saying you tried to find your team, but only getting up 13 shot attempt. That’s considered struggling. You’re a guy that averaged 30 in this in this playoff series. You played 30 minutes last game and you had 30. I didn’t see them do anything different than what they’ve been doing being the great defense they already was. Y’all hung 143 up on them last game. two shots in the first half. That’s unacceptable. But that is that’s also struggling. I don’t know what category is struggling in, but one for seven. Is that on him not being aggressive enough? Is that on the defense? It’s definitely on him not being aggressive enough. You have to shoot your shot. SGA shot 30 times. That’s the MVP. Only made 13 shots, but he shot 30 times. So, at the end of the game, I have my rhythm. Miss or make, I have my rhythm. I’ve been shooting the whole time. two shots at him like you said in the first half. That’s unacceptable. All right, hold that thought. Let’s bring in Big Perk and Stephen A. They were there live in person last night. Good morning, guys. How we doing? Good morning, Molly. Good morning, Molly. Morning. Morning. All right. Uh I don’t know what you actually heard, but we we played the sound of Ant-Man. You heard everything. Okay. So, just Yeah, just dive in Stephen A on the thought of the sentiment of Ant-Man struggling. You know what? It’s not a matter of him struggling or not because you can make a legitimate argument that he didn’t struggle because he made the right plays as he articulated or you can go well what Mar said and then you can say you shot one for seven from three-point range and you did struggle. Here’s my deal. Are you the superstar player you’ve proclaimed to be or not? The fact of the matter is that Ant-Man is special. We all know this and you saw how special Shay Gilas Alexander was. That individual pride is what I was looking for. I don’t want to hear something like I made the right play. Okay, when you play you when you play a 48minute game, uh your season potentially is on the line. Nobody’s really coming back from a 3-1 deficit. That’s very very rare in NBA history in the conference finals and you find yourself in that precarious of circumstances if you lose this game. One would think that you would embrace the level of aggression that’s needed in order to do all that you can do to ensure that your team does not lose. That’s what Sheay Gil just Alexander did. They got blitzed by over 40 in game three. What does Sheay do? Sheay, the reigning league MVP, a man you watched hoist the MVP trophy just a few days ago, goes out there on your home turf and drops 40, 10, and nine. I’m gonna repeat that again. 40, 10, and nine. And your response is, well, you know what? I I I I don’t think I struggled. Uh, I made the right play when it was a relatively pedestrian offensive performance for you. That’s inexcusable as far as I’m concerned. Ant-Man is so much better than that. And the reason why the M Minnesota Timberwolves are in this position to begin with is because he didn’t just focus on doing the right thing. Sometimes you have to engage in hero ball. Sometimes you got to be a little bit selfish. Sometimes you got to go out there and and display a level of aggression that might turn people off until you turn them on because you’re a showstopper. That’s what I was looking for from Ant-Man last night. I did not get it. So what? I don’t think it mattered that he struggled. I don’t think he had a choice to be honest with you. Man, you you’ve been feeling that way about OKC for a little while. I’ve been feeling you damn right. That’s right. You didn’t feel that way in game three. Hey, listen. I But I I told you what was going to happen last night when we was on Countdown. I told you what was going to happen last night. I told you that the Oklahoma City Thunder felt some type of way about Anthony Elvis having back-to back 30 plus point games and damn it, they went out there and showed it. Y’all have to see this in person. We are witnessing one of the greatest defensive teams in NBA history. In NBA history. Like usually you could search a match a mismatch and search for somebody that you want to pick on. It’s not the case with the Oklahoma City Thunder. You’re starting you’re starting Luke Dors off on Anthony Edwards who is a linebacker. He probably weigh 235 240 getting physical. Then you bring in Alex Caruso the specialist. And then you got Kay Wallace. They’re throwing at him multiple bodies time and time again. Again, SA Twins. Let me say this. They scored 126 points at the crib. You you score 126 points at the house and lose. Yeah. You see, you could talk to the twins all you want to about how you got to see it in person. I was standing right next to your big ass self. Okay. I was standing right there next to you. I was right there No, I got you. I was standing right next to you. Okay. You and and the crew, all those kids, all of their Oh, they’re all here with us. We’re all together. All right. So, we’re sitting up there and I said to you, how in God’s name can you justify Ant-Man attempting two shots in the first half? There is nothing you could I don’t give a damn about how good Alex Guso Kase Wallace is. Lou Dort the linebacker play masquerading as a basketball player because the brother’s a linebacker. That’s how big and strong this brother is. I don’t care. Your Ant-Man Anthony Edwards, you attempt more than two shots in a half of a conference finals game. Now, if you talking to me about makes and miss, I get you. We’re talking about activity. We’re talking about aggression. We’re talking about the fact that that that wasn’t clear. That wasn’t evident in game four last night. There is no excuse for that. I don’t care what anybody says. I will agree. I will agree from this standpoint with you guys. Anthony Elvis, we know this is the heart and soul of that team. He does give that team swag. And when he comes out and he’s aggressive on both ends of the floor, he definitely set the tone last night in that first half. I will say he was missing and didn’t set the tone which he should have set especially in a crucial game. Should he have shot more than two times? Yeah, absolutely. You did say that. Damn it. I just said it. You tried to weave through it all eloquently. I just want to say something. He should have shot more than two times about about OKC defense. Timber scored 260 points in two games. Like 260 points in two games. There’s flaws in that defense, right? But the beginning of this game, we said soon as we seen Ant Edwards shoot two times in the first half, me and you both looked at each other and said, “They’re in trouble. There’s no way you now now they’re not going to allow him to get a rhythm in the second half.” And now you coming down the stretch where you need big buckets and he don’t have a rhythm. Like we all watch guys get rhythms. No matter if you miss or make, get that rhythm early because quite frankly, if he plays well like he did in game three when he was just super super super aggressive, no matter who was on him, they blew him out. They literally blew him out. But now he’s not aggressive. The game stays close and is it’s down in and it didn’t even seem like it was as close as it really was to be honest. But they still won. I mean, OKC still won by two, but it didn’t even seem like the game was that close just because Aunt Erits wasn’t aggressive and you figured down the stretch that that would come to show that he didn’t have his rhythm. Let me ask you this, and I’ll come to you, Markeff. What scenario do you feel like could derail OKC at this point? Cuz right now, it feels like they’re completely in control. That’s that’s tough, man. And I’m gonna piggy back on what Perk says. That defense at home in OKC is a tough place to play. Game five, Western Conference Finals. It’s almost going to be impossible to beat OKC, but we have to see what Ant does. And not only, let’s talk about Julius Randle a little bit. Like, Julius Randle was a no-show yesterday. Literally a no-show. Him and Ant combined for 6 for 20, 1 for 10 from the three, and 21 points total. Ant had 15 of them. Aunt had 18 of them. I’m sorry. There is no way that we letting Julius Randle off the hook like that. Go ahead. Well, let me say this to y’all. Let me say this to y’all. Randall, um, it it was bad. Five points, one of seven shooting. That’s 14%. It was It was awful. It was It was It was horrible. But here’s But here’s the issue. We all know that Randall has no business dribbling the basketball. You know, he’s very very powerful, close to the basket, play bully ball, or launch the three. when you put the ball on the floor, you’re going to be a you’re going to have problems if you’re Julius Randall as they showed in game two when they neutralized him. Okay, he’s not a ball handler. So, anytime you see him ball handling, it’s problematic. All right, so we got that part. That ain’t Ant-Man’s excuse. He don’t have that excuse. And again, you understand that Dagnot was sitting up, you know, defensively with your where your focus li you had Caruso on him and others. We get that part. I’m just talking about a level of aggression. And when you don’t show that in a game of that magnitude, I don’t know about y’all, my arrangements are made. My arrangements are made. It it it ends Wednesday night. I’m I’m I’m I’m traveling. I’m try I already made my arrangements. I ain’t thinking about coming back to Minneapolis for game six. There ain’t going to be no game six. Game six. Hey, Keith. Keith, I know you I know you and Marcus have a lot of disagreement and I could tell he is a stubborn individual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Molly, Stephen A, I’m I’m very disappointed in the both of you. I’ve been here for 6 years. Okay. I’ve been on First Take for 4 years. Damn. I thought it was longer than that. Oh, I thought it was less. I felt like and and listen, Marcus, listen. Y’all doing an outstanding job. Yes. Y’all say a lot of things chess out. Y know y’all basketball, but the thing that I learned, you could you you’re going to be wrong at times. Okay. And Marcus, you have been wrong. And Molly and Stephen A, you have y’all you guys have left left let let him off the hook. Y’all have not brought up receipts from the beginning of the postseason when he came out disrespecting this Oklahoma City Thunder team talking about they didn’t want to see the Lakers. They didn’t want to see the Clippers. He didn’t believe in him. They wasn’t this. They wasn’t going to do this. They wasn’t going to do. and they doing everything he said they wasn’t going to do because they got every piece and they check all the boxes. They have a championship experienced leader on their team and Alex Caruso who has been the off hero that I call the specialist. Now when I used to get it wrong, it used to be the flashback moments where y’all would actually pull it up on camera and say, “Well, perk, you said this, you said that.” So, hey Marcus, so this is a teach that is false. We did not do that. We We did not do that to you until year two. We did not We gave you the We gave you a pass year one. We let you get We We let you get We We We We We let you get We We gave you We gave you one. Yes, you were. Yeah, you were. Yeah, you were. You were wrong every year. You’re wrong every year. But we gave you a pass year one. Let you get We have brought up the tape and then we brought the hammer down. We have brought up the tape for Perk quite a bit, but I don’t think the tape Marcus now cuz you just did it for him. He’s saying that prior seen. This is not the same team. This is not the same aggression. Have I seen against the Lakers? As I said before, if you pull up tape, a Edwards was guarding LeBron James 94 feet. He was two hand push. That same aggression and that same attitude is just not the same. So, yes, I was wrong, but I didn’t I didn’t think a drop off from when they played against the Lakers would be that drastic to going against the OKC team. Anytime anytime we debate perk, not to cut you off, I’m 80% of the time, right? He’s a younger brother. He’s God. We We give him We give him He’s not really right all the time, but I can say What are you guys like 30 seconds apart? 7 minutes. And it means a lot. 7 minutes. He said it means a lot. He said it means a lot. He said it means a lot. Hey, initially I can’t say he wasn’t wrong. Initially, he said the Lakers He said we were going to win it all. So that that that was his initial. And then once it got closer to this series, you know, you think he was picking with his heart when he went Lakers? No, he was picking right. We just had a bad matchup. We We know Minnesota just took it to us. It was a bad matchup for us. Well, the the matchup problem is is that y’all didn’t have a big. Now all of a sudden Minnesota is looking out of eye with with bigs. They looking out of eye with a Chad Homegr, Isaiah Hardenstein, and some dogs. And I’m just saying y’all, we got to we got to when we start to look at certain things, SGA is on the verge of becoming the greatest Thunder ever. Yeah. Ever. I I I think I think if he wins the championship, you can make that argument. I think I think if he wins the championship, whether KD didn’t bring no championship to OKC, Russell Brun love, but he didn’t bring a championship to OKC. He’s the one that will have done it. So, he would deserve that.

Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Marcus Morris Sr. and Markieff Morris join Molly Qerim on First Take to react to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Game 4 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

0:00 Thunder vs. Wolves
1:20 Anthony Edwards’ struggles
3:36 Stephen A.’s thoughts
6:40 Had to see it in person?
8:40 Did Ant-Man cost them the game?
9:35 What could derail the Thunder?
11:07 Stephen A.’s arrangements are made
13:01 Stephen A. & Perk bicker

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