How can the Timberwolves win Game 5 & extend the WCF? | NBA Today

How can the Timberwolves win Game 5 & extend the WCF? | NBA Today

So impressed with a my favorite player to watch. He’s a special person, a special player, I think, in this league. Oh, now that’s the next step. I already knew it. Come on. I just want to kill everything in front of me, man. Anthony Edwards. A serious rack attack. We want that swag that Ant-Man brings to the table. I’m here. [Applause] We are live from Oklahoma City and it’s now or never for Ant and the Wolves. The good news, 13 teams have come back from down 3-1. The bad news is that 283 have not. Now Anthony Edwards, he can jump with the best of them, but his ups and downs in the conference finals, they’ve been frustrating for Wolves fans. He’s had a pair of 30-point games. He’s also had a pair of games going just five of 13 on his shots. But Rudy Goar, he defended ant shot diet this morning. speaking to reporters, you know, and for a lot of people that just think basketball is about going 30 every night, which is not true. Um, it’s hard to understand, but for someone, you know, for people that truly understand that it’s about winning. It’s about making the right play. And if you bring two guys, make the right play, you’ve done your job. For more, we bring in our Dave McMinnon who is covering the Minnesota Timberwolves for us this postseason. So Dave, Udonna said at the top of the show, it’s not just Anthony Edwards, it’s also Julius Randall that needs to have a big game if they want to extend this series. He’s been a little bit inconsistent this postseason. What have you seen from him that maybe reflects a larger story here for the Timberwolves? Yeah, Malikica, I spoke to Julius in between games two and three. Obviously game two, he was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of Nas Reed. The Timberwolves were able to cut it from 24 down to 10 and he didn’t pout. He was cheering from the bench. Chris Finch spoke to him about it afterwards and Julius said he understood it. Uh this is really the first time of his 11-year career where he is figuring what it’s like to be on a contender night in and night out. It’s an experience that he relishes, but he’s learning with it. He told me that the theme of his career has kind of been bouncing back from adversity and learning on the job. Now certainly he had a great game three and a tough game four and he finds himself once again in a position where he needs to bounce back from some adversity in order to keep this season alive for the Wolves. What he knows this is what he has done his entire career and he knows what it takes in order to execute that tonight. Dave, thank you so much for that insight. And as Dave details in his story that’s up right now on ESPN espn.com, Julius Randle has been a huge barometer for the Wolves success this postseason. He plays well. They put themselves in a position to win. when he struggles, they really drop off here. UD, why do you think that he is the guy that actually needs to step up if they want to send this to a game six? Well, I mean, definitely Batman needs his Robin. You need another guy. You can’t do it with just Ant-Man. But one thing I would say about Julius Randle is he likes to operate in that mid post area around the free throw line. That’s death against the OKC Thunder. That is the same place where Joker like to operate. So, they’ve seen that they are too long. They are too athletic. He’s not operating in space. every time he gets the ball, he’s seeing clutter and bundles. So, I would say move him down to the baseline where you can have everything in front of him. If he attacks the middle, he can make the right play. But putting him in the middle of that right there, I think that doesn’t work for him. And also early and often, get the ball to him early in transition. We saw some plays early on where he got the ball in transition, he was able to get downhill and get to the basket with not that much clutter in the paint. So, he’s got to figure out ways to get to the paint with not much clutter and also working from that baseline instead of being in that mid post area where they saw Joker in. He’s not as good as Joker, right? Is in that spot right there. But at the end of the day, we know in elimination games, all eyes are on the star player. And I think 13 field goals, two and a half, will never be good enough when it’s Anthony Edwards in these circumstances. Everyone wants him to literally shoot a shot. I want you guys to take a look at these numbers here about stars in elimination games because when you see them, focus on the right side of the screen. On the left, it’s the points, but on the right are the field goal attempts. 24 25 for Luca. Wilt obviously 22. KD 21, AI 26. When the game is on the line, these guys shoot their shot. And I think we’re going to see a more aggressive Anthony Edwards like we saw in game three. We all realize that a lot of his misses were based off of rhythm, but now he’s going to shoot his shot early on to be aggressive to set the tone. Like game three, right? Like he came out in game three and he had 16 points in the first quarter. He had 16 points in the last game. And that just is is the juxtaposition of these two Anthony Edwards. But okay, so he makes the adjustment. He’s going to shoot more. than the Timberwolves or excuse me the Thunder they’re going to adjust to Anthony Edwards shooting more and then Anton’s gonna have what is the adjust the counter adjustment to the adjustment it’s like UDI said it comes on Julius Randall because he shares the playmaking in the last series against the Warriors when we saw the Timberwolves really at full power it was Randall feeding Aunt there was one game where Randall assisted Ant six times in this series he’s only averaging three and a half or so assists a a game so they they need to have Jul off the ball a little bit so that Julius can be the playmaker Because when Ant’s on the ball, it makes it easier for the Thunder to set their attack on him. Yeah. And I once again, like I said, Julie has Julius has to go early and often and he has to get in the paint without that clutter. So that’s a coaching thing. They have to figure that out. There may be some adjustments being made. But with the Alice Caruso, can we give him some credit where credit’s due? Because it’s not all on this is not all on Julius. I mean, he’s walling up against those guys. We seen that series against Golden State where Julius was going through people, putting other guys in the front row. Caruso is hanging in there, bodying up, not giving him any angles, and those guys are swarming from the wings, and it’s very tough for Julius to get shot. So, some of this is OKC as well. It’s not all just Julius playing back. There’s still basketball to be played here, but Brian, there are larger implications for the Timberwolves. Can you just lay out what’s at stake? Yeah, they’ve got three of their sort of core eight players whose contracts are basically going to be up if they lose one more game in this series. Uh, Julius Randle is a opt out of his contract. It’s one of the reasons why I think the Knicks were looking to move him. They were worried that he was going to be really expensive in free agency. Uh Nquille Alexander Walker has had a breakout season. It’s a great time for him and Nas Reed can also opt out of his contract which I expect him to. Now I don’t think the Wolves are going to be to keep all three. They might argue that there’s a white board that they can show you how they’re going to do it. They have prepared for this. When they traded Carl Towns, they offloaded some future money. They reworked Rudy Gobear’s contract. They brought down his average and gave him more money so that they can resign probably two of these three. Right. I would likely think it would be Randall and and Reed would be the guys they focus on. And then they drafted a couple guys and Terence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham whose rookie year was derailed by injury, but they’re hoping for them to have a bigger role. But what I’m saying is this might be the last time we see these Wolves together in this particular form. But by no means are we hoping that this is the end. You’re looking at four people who want more basketball, but that is some of the context here for the Timberwolves whenever their off season begins. Give it to me. That’s right. It’s a title wave here in Minnesota. It’s humbling. It’s good. Basketball is humbling. You get punched, it’s about getting back up. It’s about responding. Pull up jump shot. Got it. SGA gets it to Williams. Three-pointer puts it in. Jayla Williams once again. Oklahoma City rebounds from a 42point loss. It’s 3-1. We know what’s state. Let’s try to get one and come back home. [Music] We are live in Oklahoma City and walking around downtown, you can’t pass two buildings or homes without seeing thunder signage. The support in this city has been unreal. Our Uber driver driver yesterday, Brian, he opened his trunk and there was a Thunder flag flapping out the back. SGA is quickly becoming a franchise icon for the Thunder, winning MVP and playing up to that level in the playoffs. He has 10 games this postseason with 30 or more points, one shy of tying Kevin Durant in 2014, a year he won MVP as well. I don’t know if it’s I I mean I asked I asked Mark Dagenald after the game uh game four, I said, “What did they show you? What did they prove to you?” And he said, “Nothing. I’ve known who this team is, but it still feels like we’re seeing something special from SGA. Dare I ask one more time, Brian, what he has proven to you this postseason?” I’m going to channel coach Dagenol and say he hasn’t proven anything to me because I knew who this guy was. He was runner up for the MVP last year. He won the MVP this year. He has showed no signs of sweating under the pressure in the last round. They were in some trouble in game five against Denver. He stepped up with an elite fourth quarter. In this series, he’s been there right from the start. Big 40point game and basically potentially the kill game in game four. This is guy. He has played the exact same way he’s played during the regular season. He hasn’t changed his game at all and he hasn’t changed his demeanor at all. It’s that quote, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. We believe SGA. We absolutely believe. But I do think it’s a beautiful thing to watch him succeed because you’re seeing the organic ascension of a superstar. You know, just from where he started with his game to now refining it. One thing I talked to my sister about is as you become a vet in the league. It’s not about you’re doing things differently. It’s that you’re doing it at the highest level. You’re understanding how to make reads. You’re understanding how to be unstoppable and be unguardable. And we’ve seen his patented mid-range, his off the dribble. No one can stop that. But it’s also the fact that that super stat star status you mean it means you bring your teammates with you and he’s sort of leading on the fly. We heard some great sound of, hey, we might be down. This is the only game we lost so far this series. It doesn’t matter. We beat ourselves. Let’s let’s have another opportunity. So, it’s been cool to see how he’s grown in the league. And for me, it’s his leadership. He’s such a quiet guy and often times you wonder, is he leading? Is he not? Is he just in his own lane? But I’ve seen his leadership up front. I saw him when they lost the game against Denver and the crowd was on him and he smiled it off. I saw him when he he he was on the bench and they were getting beat by 40 and he was talking to there it is right there. He was talking to the guys. He’s keeping guys encouraged. I remember it was a game in play a playoff game against Boston where our bus came late and we literally showed up to the game about an hour before the game and we were all in shambles and we looked at Brown and Braun said don’t worry about it. And instantly everybody lock good we good. We good. I never believed you were in shandel shambles. I never believed that. He scored like 50 or whatever it was. He said and we was like okay we good. We good. So when your leader and your best player keeps you stable and is always confident, he’s never too high and too low, that just continues to keep your team the same way. And I think when we talk about, oh, proving something, it wasn’t SGA who had any questions going into this series. Frankly, it was JDub. It was what is Jayen Williams going to break? Oh, you’re on to something. That was where I think Mark Dagenol was being a little disingenuous because we had we did learn a lot about Jaylen Williams. I am going to call him Jaylen Williams because he was so terrific in this game. Look, he has struggled in big spots in his career. Not always, but there’s been times where he’s not been able to pick up Shay. There’s been times when his outside shot has let him down. He has worked very hard on it. And my gosh, did it come around in game four. Six three-pointers. So many of them daggers. A big step forward game where we learned about him. And it feels like this is a game back at home that is prime for JDub to finally say, “None of this is a fluke. What you see, believe your eyes. I am here with this team and with this group to take them to the next level.

On NBA Today, Brian Windhorst, Udonis Haslem and Chiney Ogwumike discuss how the Minnesota Timberwolves can win Game 5 against the Oklahoma Thunder and force a Game 6 in the Western Conference Finals.

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