FIRST TAKE | “KAT really made difference” – Stephen A. on Timberwolves beat Mavericks to avoid sweep

FIRST TAKE | “KAT really made difference” – Stephen A. on Timberwolves beat Mavericks to avoid sweep

you know I was expecting a sweep like most of America and Beyond but Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony towns came through and extended our NBA playoff season not necessarily in days but clearly in games that should make doggy happy it has windy looking sleepy but it doesn’t matter ladies and gentlemen he about to get up you know why cuz he’s with his boys tell him doggy speak I’m giving you an opportunity to speak speak right now we got Wendy in the house and we got you in Miami and the greaty and I’m here if I’m here the show will be good if I’m here the show did you see doggy just now Wendy are you ready H boy leads by going to the fourth staring elimination in the eye Don the other way hold on go ain’t no time to have any doubts in your mind especially at this time it’s game four you down three 0 ain’t no time to have any doubts the line fight forces draws the oh no he just do that so is Michael Parson you know he was rocking at a ones and I told him he wear a size 14 I’ll bring back some nice shoes for game six it’s first to Fourth no matter if you’re winning in four or in seven I just got to win for you know Stephen A we let you have the day off and I got all your boys here with you Brian windhorse Christopher madg Russo Jay Williams is stopping by udon is Haslam we’re going to talk a lot of basketball you’re in Miami so I’m officially hating on you right now how are you feeling this morning I’m great I’m great good to see y’all what’s up doggy what’s up Wendy I like the Wendy like look like you campaigning are you are you on a deck like what’s happening right now look uh I want Stephen a first off to enjoy your sweep I want you to savor that sweep because not all of us are so lucky here’s the situation we got no sleep here in Dallas and because of storms we got no wifi but it’s the playoffs we’re going to push through it it’s Mr Smith it’s Mr Russo here we are let’s go wow game all business Game Face Christopher mad Russo you look very handsome my favorite little blue jacket I love the powder blue this way to bring it it’s classy I mean you could just go straight to the country club in Greenwich hit a few balls I mean you’re I’m not sure if I like to go in that direction M but I like the this one this is one of the best times this is one of the best he’s ever looked this one of the best you’ve ever looked you mean I mean you’re coming a long way coming a long way my brother I’m very proud from you that means proud of you from you that means something all right you guys want to talk basketball or you want to just hang out you tell me I’m down for whatever okay Carl Anthony towns and the Wolves grinded up game four to avoid the sweep towns who put the Wolves ahead for good on a three-pointer with 541 remaining scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half of the 10500 win over the Mavericks Anthony Edwards had 29 Points 10 rebounds and nine assists aunt and Cat are at Mike late in that fourth because cat and Jaden was knocking them down I was able to just get anywhere I wanted and whether I miss it or make it I can live with that and um I haven’t been doing that the last three games of of the series I’ve been going to the corner and not shooting the ball and not being aggressive and um yeah that won’t happen anymore anytime late in the fourth I’m going to shoot it every time I tell you about five what you mean you have five but I didn’t foul out filed out I did what I need to I’mma beat him up on the bus y’ yeah here don’t believe that all right ESS what’s the biggest reason the Wolves won game four well I mean I got to give credit or credit is due to call Anthony towns we know that he was horrific 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 or5 from three-o range 20 points in the second half and obviously that freed a lot of guys up particularly uh Anthony Edwards and so you got to give credit what credit is Du 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 Kyrie 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 that Kyrie Irving has been able to do he was 14-0 coming into uh last night and closed out 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 the 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 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’s sharp in Miami this morning 100% Carl 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 home they should have won game too so really where we are we should be 2-2 in the series instead of 3-1 Dallas you’re going to look at it that way or you can look at it the other way and say gez when you go up 3 0 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 where withall they were in some trouble last night they had a lead they got caught and in the 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 from 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 this series but give me Minnesota credit for last night they did a heck of a job yeah so after the 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 8 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 he 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 in a 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 looks 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 towns gives the the Timberwolves life life going into tomorrow night well this is the thing that I wanted to point out here because I think that we got to give credit what creditors do collectively to Minnesota and and basically Wendy and doggy really highlight this is what this strategy should be but it can only work if Carl Anthony towns is effective so you got Anthony Edwards he attempts 25 shots he hits 44% of his shots 11th of 25 from the field 205 from three-point range Carl Anthony towns he shoots nine of 13 from the field four or five from three-point range in a perfect world You’ like to see him shoot a little bit more particularly when he’s that effective but this is the point that I wanted to point out all five starters scored in double digits the other three did an attempt 10 shots that’s what you’re looking for Rudy Gober four of five jayen McDaniels four of eight Mike Conley Jr five of nine you need them to shoot less Anthony Carl Anthony towns and Anthony Edwards shooting more but them shooting as effectively as they did Anthony Edwards should be even a little bit better than that 44% but you for e for spee foreign spee CLE obliteration [Music] be [Music] hey h he foreign speech [Music] foreign foreign speech he foreign speee blood speech a for for e the bull only talks with his hooves up Pierce The Monkey King’s got bro step back everyone the bull has arrived your tower has been destroyed

FIRST TAKE | “KAT really made difference in Game 4” – Stephen A. on Timberwolves beat Mavericks to avoid series sweep