MAVS’ BAD GAME or BAD SIGN? 🤔 Stephen A. can’t rule out Wolves FORCING GAME 7 👀 | First Take

MAVS’ BAD GAME or BAD SIGN? 🤔 Stephen A. can’t rule out Wolves FORCING GAME 7 👀 | First Take

what’s the biggest reason the Wolves won game for well I mean I got to give credit or credits due to call Anthony towns we know that he was a rfic uh from three-point range in the first three games of this series we were wondering where the self-proclaimed best shooting big man in basketball had gone it was an APB out for him but he showed up he showed up big time in a big way um last night shot 69% from the field four or five from three-point range 20 points in the second half and obviously that freed a lot of up particularly uh Anthony Edwards and so you got to give credit what creditors do and we got to remember that each and every single game of this Series has come down to clutch time and you know it was one of those situations where Minnesota who ranked 22nd in clutch time uh moments this season you know last night that wasn’t the case they scored like eight points they hit some of their shots meanwhile Dallas who was playing pretty damn good during clutch time really really struggled missed all five of their three-point shooting attempts in that particular span neutralized KY Irving to some degree obviously to a to a degree with LCA donic as well give Kyle Anderson some credit with some defense he took the assignment he took on the challenge and did relatively well against against Luca donic we can’t ignore that um of course you got to look at Kyrie Irving and he wasn’t his usual spectacular self it’s just one game but closing out is something uh that Kyrie Irving has been able to do he was 14 and0 coming into uh last night in closeout scenarios and this is the first time he’s lost in a closeout game so this is definitely foreign territory for him but that’s just another reason to give the Minnesota Timberwolves a boatload of credit because looking at them do what they did you just can’t say enough about how what the moment called for watching Indiana get swept even though they they fought valiantly against Boston knowing the odds were so stacked against Minnesota and to answer the call the way that they did you got to give credit what credit is do and give them their props and if we’re going to point the finger at Carl Anthony towns when he’s not doing well we certainly have to reverse course and give him credit where credit is due when he showed up the way that he did last night wish I can argue but he sharp in Miami this morning 100% call Anthony towns makes three threes in a row in the fourth he’s py a day off look at him he’s flying they got Brian here I guess he feels he need Udonis is coming so he’s sharp but Stevie’s right I mean you could look at this two different ways number one this should be 22 because Minnesota never should have lost both games at home they should have won game twoo so really where we are we should be 2 two in the series instead of three in Dallas you’re going look at it that way or you can look at it the other way and say gez when you go up 3 in a series and you have game four at home I think there’s 95 examples Brian might have the stats and three4 of the time minimum the team wins the game four so usually you get a sweep in these spots and Minnesota showed some weari all they were in some trouble last night they had a lead they got caught and in a fourth quarter on the road they figured out a way to win now I don’t know if that means they’re going to win the next three games Kyrie had a terrible game I said you were here did I say last week that the reason why I like Dallas in this series because they had two closers yes compared to one for Minnesota well last night it was the other way around Minnesota had two closers and Dallas only had the one in Dage I think that will change I think Dallas will eventually win a game here either five or six could lose game five but I think Dallas eventually win a series but give Minnesota credit for last night they did a heck of a job yes so after game was over last night I really wanted to find some people in Carl’s life to see how he handled everything after Monday because Monday obviously was a terrible game uh it felt like the end of their season he goes 0 of8 from three he says he takes 1500 shots a day he’s just getting roasted he’s getting roasted on the TNT set in the arena and his dad Carl Senor who’s you know like his Rock and his agent Jess Holtz you know they spent some time with him uh on Monday night and he was fine like he he did remained having confidence that’s who he is I know that there are times when he comes off like a little bit goofy but that kind of helps him in times where he faces some adversity because it you know it enables him to relieve the stress and you know I talked to Carl and one of the things that Carl said was he wanted to vary his game a little bit okay so his three-point shot wasn’t going what else can you do that you can control and if you watch this game he totally changed his strategy he really went to the basket he actually went to the basket 13 times in this game he’s never gone to the basket like that and a play playoff game in his career and look it wasn’t perfect he didn’t have a perfect game he ran over the Mavericks they knew that he wasn’t going to shoot the three early in the game so they tried to bait him into charges and Carl commits um fouls that aren’t always uh you know right there aren’t always the best decision and he committed a couple charges and he was in foul trouble but he kept his team in the game and he attacked matchups when he saw it and then when he had established himself going to the basket then he looked for that three-point shot and finally all that uh came around and he started making them and that was big and really it was a part of a bigger game plan change I mean Chris Finch the Wolves coach he kind of threw it all into the court last night he changed the matchups he put ant Edwards on to Luca now they’ve been trying to save ant’s energy he’s been running down the end of this game the end of these games Luca goes five of 15 against ant that was huge so changing up the defensive strategy changing up the mentality from Carl towns gives the the Timberwolves life life going into tomorrow night was last night a bad game or a bad sign for the Mavs and I’m I’m talking long term here right they’re going against the Celtics I’m not just talking about this series bad game I’m going to go bad game reserving is so good Steve gave you the statistic 14-0 in closeout games he had a bad game last night young uh Luca wasn’t as good as we’ve seen him and by the way I I if if you’ve watched the NBA and I don’t watch it nearly as much as our two P pal here do he’s the second best player in the league it’s not even CL yic is one and he’s two that’s he is so good he is he is the second best player in the NBA Luka Luca there is not my mind there’s not even a now we’re going to put LeBron aside he’s 40 years old yeah all right he’s the second best player in the league he is so good it is unbelievable and I have enough confidence in him to get another game now Celtics different story go ahead he said yic is first I feel like this just turned into a new debate Y is first he’s two he’s the Brian he’s the second I don’t think there’s any doubt about it he’s do you want to go last night a bad game or bad sign or do you want to react to the fact that he just said they’re one and two joic and luk both both both both both both both are simple listen I think I think doggy listen I can dispute it but the fact of the matter is doggy makes a very compelling argument there’s no reason to argue with that right now with the greatness of yic and the greatness that we’re witnessing from Luca donic there’s no question about it and I know why doggy is saying that because Luka donic reminds him of Larry Bird dogy don’t want to admit it but that’s really where he’s going Luca reminds him of Larry Bird and I got news for you that’s not a that’s that’s not farfetched because luc’s got that Gene and he’s got that ability and the ability to control pace and to do the kind of things that he’s doing Larry Bird was absolutely magnificent and show so is Luka donic but I’m gonna say it was just a bad game and the reason why I’m gonna say it’s a bad game because Kyrie Irving is not going to shoot six for 18 most nights not going to shoot 33% from the field most nights he’s not going to shoot one or six from three-point range as he does most nights and Luca donic is certainly not going to find himself in a situation where he’s shooting seven to 21 from the field which is 33% as well that’s not going to happen with Luka 36% that’s not going to happen with Luka Don that’s not going to happen often and so I look at it from that standpoint and I’m going to say it was just a bad game which they which is great as they are they are more than entitled to that is not something that is normal when it comes to those two brothers right there and Luke and Kyrie I firmly believe that yeah we’ve played four games in this series and these teams are separated by eight points so the fact that it’s 3-1 it is really really tight and and the fact that Minnesota as you said Mad Dog wasn’t able to pull out one of those home games I suspect when this is all over that’s what they’re going to really regret that they weren’t able to get one of those but let me just say a couple of things one is a big X Factor going forward here is Derek Lively Derek Lively I said this is a series decided by eight points over four games Derek Lively is plus 22 when he’s on the court for the Mavericks that super springy athletic rookie he makes a huge difference in this series he’s 13 of 13 shooting because he is the relief baskets on those on those lobs and he gets putbacks and not having him last night was a big factor there was other things going on you’re right Stephen A that donic and and Kyrie just didn’t have a good game and that was a factor and I don’t know where Lively is going to be in the next game or two I think there’s a chance he’s going to come in back and play but you as you watch him play his energy and his ability to to bounce around everywhere is his game and if he’s got a sore neck he’s basically got whiplash I I got to see how he look so that’s that’s a factor the other thing I’m going to say is I would never predict any team down three I don’t care what teams are I don’t care if you’re playing the worst team in the league and the best team I would never predict anybody winning four straight but I would say this if we’re ever going to see it I do believe it’s this scenario where the team that has homecourt Advantage is the one that’s down and when they win game four they get to go back home for game five that is a huge difference because and this just happened last last season when the heat were stunning the Celtics in the Eastern finals got up 3 the Celtics win game four then they get to go home for game five and then if there’s a deciding game seven it’s at home now obviously the Celtics didn’t finish it off and I wouldn’t expect the Wolves to finish it off but I’ll just say that and then one last thing I’m going to say just to point this out again not that I think this is going to happen the wolves are three and0 this year facing elimination two of those being on the road that’s where I was going go ahead that’s where I was going three three and 0 in elimination games DC these these Timberwolves and so we’ve got it listen and then we got to also think about who they were two- 0 against they were two- 0 against the defending Champions led by as you would say doggy the best player on the planet in yic and they came back from a 3-2 deficit and won both closeout games and one was on the road in the game seven if you can win a game seven on the road in Denver why can’t you win a game five on your home turf in in Minnesota in a series where each single game has been decided by a grand total of eight points and come down to clutch time it is plausible that they can make this series very very interesting and again we’re not going to predict that 155 and 0 all of a sudden somebody’s going to win four straight but is it possible that there’s a scenario where a game seven can be forced after being down 03 if we saw Boston do it last year against Miami who’s to rule out the possibility of it happening with Minnesota against Dallas not impossible I mean I but I don’t think they’re going to do it I just don’t think they’re going to even if they had to play a game seven I still like donach and and Irving in the seventh game I mean those two in big spots at the end of these games are going to make enough shots for them to win but I think Brian made a great point if you’re Minnesota you say to yourself okay we we played three close games we could have won any of them and then when we f elimination on the road we won a game four we got towns back in the mix we got a home game we’ve just lost two in a row we do the win one we go to Dallas who the heck knows yeah and we got a chance then to get a seventh game at home so it’s not impossible I would be I would be shocked but I think the other thing is too it’s going to happen one of these years nobody thought it was going to happen in baseball Red Sox be the Yankees I mean one of these years somebody is going to come from three down to win an NBA playoffs I don’t think it’s going to be this team but it’s going to happen in our lifetime we’ll see it [Music]

Stephen A. Smith, Brian Windhorst and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo join First Take to discuss how the Minnesota Timberwolves overcame a 3-0 series deficit by defeating the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.

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