How Anthony Edwards & Timberwolves SURVIVED SWEEP vs. Luka Doncic & Mavericks | Hoops Tonight

How Anthony Edwards & Timberwolves SURVIVED SWEEP vs. Luka Doncic & Mavericks | Hoops Tonight

all right welome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Wednesday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great week we’re going to do an in-depth film breakdown of game four of the Western Conference Finals as Minnesota finally gets a win on the road in Dallas as I mentioned last night my main goal for today was to pour over the film since we got all this time before the NBA Finals I want to pour over the film and try to see if there’s anything in there that is replicable for Minnesota anything that could lead to a sign of optimism that they might be able to turn this into a series and it really is this simple if Minnesota can go home and win game five game six becomes this pivital moment in the series right it’s on the road it’s in Dallas Dallas will be favored rightfully so but if Minnesota can win that game then it becomes a game seven at home where Minnesota would likely be favored right but it’s very difficult to beat a team four times in a row especially when they have the advantages to beat you three times in a row the way that they did to start the series obviously Derek Lively will be returning at some point as well to complicate things but I have a long film session for you guys we have 46 clips that we’re going to go through from this game I’m going to start off the top with just a little bit of a monologue on Big Picture stuff that I took away from the film session and then we’ll get into the clips you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter atore Jason LT so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep keep hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason all right let’s talk some basketball so before we get into the film couple major takeaways first of all Kyle Anderson was one of the biggest MVPs of this game in my opinion not just the stuff that we talked about last night like the big off ball screens that he set for Carl Anthony towns we’re going to hit those in the film again as well not just the offensive rebounding but there was a specific thing that he was doing with uh Luca donic in his on ball possessions that I thought was super important outside of a little stretch in the second half he did a really good job of staying out of jail what that means is not getting into Trail position on Luca donic when Luca gets you into Trail position you’re dead to rights and one of the main reasons why is he can start to methodically work downhill it’s kind of operates as a reverse postup where he keeps you trapped on his backside while he kind of methodically Works downhill and then from there he can just wait for the help Defenders to make a decision and then make reads out of it and he did a really good job throughout the game of just kind of avoiding that that goes to everybody as well a and Jaden McDaniels in their reps on Luca also did a much better job in this game of just kind of fighting through contact and getting back in front of Luca so that their help Defenders didn’t have to make as aggressive help moves that could get them out of position where Luca can pick them together with the pass so or pick him apart with the pass so shout out to Kyle Anderson he was really good he’s going to be heavily featured in the film session today Anthony Edwards I thought was just brilliant in the entire fourth quarter in addition to the shots that he was hitting just a lot of really quality kickout passes and Skip passes I thought he just did a a brilliant job of of kind of manipulating things in the half court and had by far his best game of this series I thought he was the best player on the floor last night Dallas had a lot of lapses on the defensive end somewhat to be expected you’re heavily favored you’re at home you’ve dominated this matchup you don’t have the urgency that Minnesota has like to put it simply they’re fighting for their lives and you have four chances to beat him once it’s not possible to replicate that sense of urgency PJ Washington in particular had a nightmarish defensive game he’s going to be heavily featured in the film session today just overall though as a team they just weren’t quite as locked in as they are capable of being and they certainly will have to be at some point in the next week if they’re going to close this series out uh Minnesota went with a huge lineup down the stretch of this game they put in Kyle Anderson for Mike connley and so they ran a lineup they had goar and Carl Anthony towns with Jaden McDaniels Kyle Anderson and Anthony Edwards that is an absurd amount of size an absurd amount of length and a ton of really really highlevel defensive Personnel now obviously the spacing can be an issue with a group like that but I thought Kyle Anderson was really useful off the ball in terms of just making himself a threat offensively either either as a screener or as a cutter so that he was uh you know kind of trying to maximize the spacing the best that he could and then a big part of it was Carl Anthony towns and Anthony Edwards made their over the toop shots I talk about this a ton on the show but one of the biggest ways to counter spacing issues is just to be really good at hitting shots over the top of Defense it doesn’t matter how packed the paint is if you can rise and fire somewhere outside of 15 feed in knockdown shots over the top of contests and that was where cat and ant made their money last night again hit like something like 11 jump shots last night and Luca and Kyrie combined to make six it was one of the bigger differences in the game so the question is what is replicable for game five what are things that Minnesota discovered in this game that they can continue to use moving forward to attempt to try to make this more of a series first of all I really liked the Jaden McDaniels on Kyrie Irving matchup I thought that was the right way to go we talked about it last night but you can’t cut off the head of the snake LC is too good but you can make things tougher on Kyrie and they did in this game in large part with the Jaden McDaniels move really liked that two the Kyle Anderson in for Mike Conley lineups I liked it give yourself the best chance to get stops and to get out in transition again that group to it puts the pressure on Ant and Carl towns to make over the top shots but they were gonna have to do that anyway it’s not like with Conley on the floor all of a sudden gafford’s not under the rim waiting for you right so like I kind of liked that move just to lean more into defensive Personnel it also puts him in a position where Kyle Anderson and Jaden McDaniels can take the Kyrie and Luca assignments and put ant in a position where he doesn’t have to to be as active on the ball defensively three the overall level of defensive commitment just this was their best and most physical defensive game that’s something that they can absolutely bring back to the table in game five lastly though it just is going to come down to the pull-up shooting and an and Carl Anthony towns beat Luca and Kyrie in game four they’re gonna have to do that again and it just feels like a long shot that it’s going to happen three times in a row and that’s why I still feel pretty confident that Dallas is going to close this series out but there are absolutely some things that Minnesota has figured out to this point through game four to give them at least a decent chance to do this again it’s not likely but I do think they have a chance you go home and you win game five that’s a that’s a home game that you absolutely as a desperate team facing elimination can win a game at home this is not a a matchup where Dallas is overwhelmingly more talented than Minnesota from there it’s just win one game on the road in game six then in game seven anything can happen right so a pathway is there there’s a tiny little crack in the door it’s very very unlikely but at least there’s some drama centered around this series in a way that it didn’t seem like 24 hours ago on that note let’s get into the film again we got a long film session today we’re going to be bouncing around all over the place working through the game in a linear fashion here we’re this close to crowning a new NBA champ and with the action heating up on the court it’s even hotter a draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA there’s only so many games left draftking Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays live betting odds boosts and so much more don’t miss out or you’ll have to wait until next NBA season to place your bets it’s super easy for first- timers to get started try betting on something simple like picking a team to win go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app select your squad and place your first bet it’s that simple the championship odds right now as we head into the Conference Finals according to DraftKings Boston’s at minus 150 the Timberwolves at plus 275 the Mavericks at plus 500 and the Indiana Pacers a long shot at plus 2500 new to DraftKings listen up new customers can get a no sweat bet up to 1,500 bucks just deposit at least five bucks and you’ll get a bonus bet back equal to your first bet if it doesn’t hit download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops that’s h o o PS that’s code Hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet up to 1,500 bucks if your first bet doesn’t hit only on DraftKings the crown is yours this was cat’s first three and I thought it was a really good example of why it’s important to kind of build your game Inside Out rather than focusing on Over the Top Shot making to start we are what 24 plus six so we’re 30 minutes into this game and Cat still hasn’t taken a three and so as a result PJ Washington hasn’t even been programmed to be thinking get up on a cat right away he’s kind of pinned on the screen from Jaden McDaniels and even when uh the pass gets completed watch out the lack of urgency from PJ cat has the ball at the three-point line there’s a lack of urgency his hands are down watch him hands down and Cat Just Rises up and knocks down the shot still gets a decent contest but cat had already gotten into his muscle memory there and again it’s because he built his game in game four around attacking the basket first and his jump shot is a counter to that rather than vice versa I mean what C was talking about in the uh in the press conference after game three like all I can do is laugh I take all these shots every single day and it’s like that’s great but jump shooting is has variability in it it just does no matter who you are so like if like it doesn’t matter how many times you shoot in the gym by yourself you better have something that works when your jumper is not going in I like these rotations from Minnesota out of a double team a soft double team of Luca in the post here so watch the way this gets set up so Luca’s in the post it’s a soft double not a hard double Anthony Edwards is is making it so that Luca can’t actually look to attack Conley either way because of goar here the only thing that is open is a skip over the top to Josh green or a skip over here to PJ Washington but everyone’s in position to rotate if this pass goes here to Kyrie ant’s going to rotate Jaden might kind of stunt at him and that’s that’s going to end up what you uh what you end up that’s GNA be what you end up seeing here watch Luca makes the kick to Kyrie he kind of tries to manipulate and get the guys committ a little bit more makes the kick watch the stunt from Jaden boom stunt that’s going to make Kyrie think instead of shooting he’s thinking passing because Jaden’s stunted had he not done that he probably just pulls up from three because ants a step slow swing pass over Jaden closes out and is able to get to PJ and then the second piece of this watch Carl Anthony towns as soon as the pass is thrown he disengages from Gafford and now he’s in position to rotate on the weak side chase him off the line drives into the lane really good Defense Forces him into a tough contested hook shot to get a stop this is just a really impressive closeout attack from nas Reed off of the dhoo here nail help kick pump Drive left snake into the lane bucket bad close out from uh from uh PJ Washington watch his footwork here so as PJ Washington closes out look at where his feet are and like yeah you want to send him towards the sideline that’s fine but this is way too open of a stance you can accomplish this with a less open stance as a result Nas can just easily go right around him get into the lane like that little slalom move around Gafford too to get in there all right here’s our counter for Minnesota against the stack pick and roll which I thought was fascinating so Dallas is going to come down in the same setup now as they run this stack pick and roll watch Jaden Hardy he’s preparing to set the back screen on G on goar right Jaden’s chasing over the top but here’s the difference look at goar goar has already bailed on LCA he doesn’t care about what happens with Luca he just recovers to the rle man that allows him to avoid this screen right Hardy can’t screen him because Gaff goar has his back turned to Luca now so then what Jaden and a do is they just switch the pick and roll so now ant stays on Luca and Jaden goes back out to Jaden Hardy in this case they just double team him but if there’s a kickout pass they’re set up but nothing’s open anymore by virtue of the fact that goar Bales had goar stayed in a traditional drop coverage Jaden Hardy back screens him just like he did in the last two in min is in trouble but they basically just left the action up to Jaden and ant and by the time Luca makes the read and he makes the read but he’s completely surrounded by athletes so it’s a really slow pass which gives them the ability to close out and Kyle Anderson closes out gets a stop that goes out the other way for a dunk for ant really interesting counter there from Minnesota I thought this was an overhelmed so again ants here look at PJ Washington him and Luca switch this right so Luca communicates the switch now uh PJ’s on Jaden but look how far he’s in the lane and gafford’s in position to handle that if ant turns the corner there he’s running into Gafford this is just completely unnecessary easy catch and shoot three for Jen and a nice read from Ant just taking what the defense has given him really nice semi-traditional for the play to develop look at how methodical he’s being slow waiting he’s reading PJ Washington PJ Washington’s just not paying attention leaving nqu Alexander Walker open works his way into the lane and makes a nice Kickback pass to nille on the right in the right corner so really nice work from Ant to methodically work in pick and roll and make a read but back up again Watch PJ Washington what’s PJ Washington doing that’s the worst place you want to be as a Defender is in no man’s land where you’re not helping on the action and you’re leaving a shooter open another really nice move from Jaden Hardy off the dribble against Anthony Edwards really nice Jaden Hardy game he gets ant a switch and then he starts talking to him after he gets a bucket here nice dribble move though this is one of the hardest guys in the league to beat off the dribble straight up one-on-one nice high gather to split the difference between him and na NZ Reed nice finish another big three from Jaden Hardy um again this is one of the few possessions where Kyle Anderson got trapped on Luca’s backside in a ball screen you can see now he’s in jail now it’s over this again is the one of the biggest Dynamics for Minnesota in ball screens is whether or not they can fight through and stay in front of Luca versus when they’re in trail position soon as he’s in trail position he can methodically work through the lane wait for the play to develop look at the step through that step through gets ke Alexander Walker to commit and that gets Jaden Hardy wide open for three who knocks it down Big Time game from Jaden Hardy same thing ball screen Luca gets Kyle Anderson in jail now Luca can slowly work downhill see what develops oh I got Nas Reed and help now drick Jones drives the close out makes the drop off pass to gaff this was a a really big mistake that Gafford made in the game transition push Gafford just randomly goens a goar shot that probably wasn’t going in look just unnecessary now that’s an and one I mean it might have gone in but at least make at least make goar make the shot so as you can see a lot of lot of like just silly mistakes from Dallas a generally unfocused effort from them this is an unbelievable lob we talked about in the mailbag yesterday how Luca might be the best lob passer in the NBA watch this he’s throwing the lob and Derrick Jones Jr has not even crossed a three-point line yet unbelievable pass some really nice work uh by Anthony Edwards against the drop coverage uh um specifically watch how many times ant uses a rescreen to make sure that he gets separation from PJ screen once screen twice now he gets the separation he wants I like this little driving drop off from cat to go bear so uh just nice work from cat getting leverage against PJ Washington and getting downhill PJ gambles and I mean again like this is another mistake from PJ gambles on that side against the basketball now cat has the angle to drive now PJ has just taken away his ability to contain cat on the drive he wrestles The Ball away and just quickly goes around PJ that engages Gafford and help nice job jumping to make Gafford jump before he makes the drop off pass now it’s an easy dunk for goar so yeah a lot of bad from PJ Washington in this game here’s one of the first screens that uh cat Kyle Anderson set to get cat open just a really good pick here that he sets on PJ Washington that gets the separation for cat to knock down the three being a screener is one of the best ways to be a threat offensively if you struggle to put the ball in the basket here’s some really good individual defense from Jaden McDaniels on Kyrie Irving let’s just watch watch sliding the feet staying attached fighting through screens forcing him into a tough shot that tough Lefty Banker it’s a miss going the other way this is the other uh the back screen that Kyle Anderson set one of the things I really appreciated about this play is Kyle Anderson orchestrating the low man setup so again as a is working look at the set up of the floor so Luca donic is the guy that’s most likely to sink into the lane and help right that means that this guy in this corner is most likely going to be the open shooter when the play develops Kyle Anderson sees this coming and knows I’m not a very good Corner three-point shooter I’d rather have cat be the guy who gets the shot so watch him waving at cat hey Cat come down here you need to go to the corner so that you end up being the recipient of this pass he’s screaming at him clapping at him go get into the corner get into the corner so now when everyone’s zoning up on a and he beats PJ Washington off the dribble once again an unnecessary Gamble from PJ just gambling on that left-and side every time he’s reached in he’s been beat off the dribble here but now as a gets into the lane now Carl Anthony towns is the beneficiary of whatever that kick kickout pass is to the week side corner what I like he from from Kyle Anderson too he’s kind of playing in between K Kyrie and Luca waiting to see which one of them closes out then when a throws the pass and he’s signal he’s signaling for it the whole time see he’s signal throw the ball to cat throw the ball to cat ball gets thrown Kyle Anderson sees Kyrie is the guy who closes out he sets a square a screen on him this is called a pin in flare whenever you hear someone talk about a pin in flare that’s what it is all that is all it means is a pin in flare is the guy who’s in the dunker spot and Kyle Anderson is more or less operating in the dunker spot extended up a little bit but he’s in the short corner right the guy in the the dunker spot sets a pick on whoever closes out to the guy in the corner after the skip pass that’s what a pin in flare is but really nice setup there from Kyle Anderson throughout the whole possession again this is a big lineup look at this lineup and this is the lineup That Minnesota used to get a lot of stops down the stretch of this game Jaden McDaniels huge Elite wi Defender Kyle Anderson huge Elite Wing Defender Rudy goar something like the fifth best defensive player in the entire world Anthony Edwards one of the best individual isolation defenders in the league even if he struggles navigating screens right so in order for this to work offensively there has to be smart off ball positioning and we just saw a lot of that there from Kyle Anderson Kyle Anderson does get into Trail position here but one of the things I noticed I thought Luca had an opportunity to take a floater but Kyle Anderson’s one of the few players on this team if not the only player on the team that can bother Luca from behind and actually make him unwilling to take that shot this is the shot that’s open Gafford is basically throwing a block on goar PJ Washington’s kind of open in the corner right but like Luca can easily take a floater here but he’s got Kyle Anderson behind him so he’s hesitant to take it this gives Anthony Edwards the opportunity to close out on PJ Washington and they get a stop nice wall up verticality from goar at The Rim to get the stop remember last night when I talked about how as we look forward to game five the problem isn’t going away and I was referencing the fact that Rim protection is still a problem for Minnesota and that Dallas still has it even without Derrik Lively this is a great example of that a ends up running a little bit of action but he decides just to isolate Derrick Jones on this left Wing So they try to set a pick they recover through the high drop now it’s a late clock situation A has no choice but to just try to beat Derek Jones off the dribble but goar is a non-threat and so as a result Gafford is just waiting in the lane so when ant actually beats Derrick Jones off the dribble he ends up having to contend with Gafford at the rim and they get a stop that was the play I referenced last night on the show to kind of make that point like no matter how much momentum Minnesota might have coming out of this game that specific problem the goar finish under the rim and so ant has to try to challenge Rim protection constantly that problem’s not going away huge three from KL Anthony towns on a kick out from Anthony Edwards here Derrick Jones falls asleep for just a split second if you watch so as ant is working over to this sideline fast forward a little bit working against Luca drives left Derek Jones digs but then he turns around Derrick Jones turns around and goes to find cat but in that Split Second where Derrick Jones can’t actually see the ball coming a makes the pass and in the Split Second while Derrick Jones kind of falls asleep cat finds enough space for him to release the shot knocks down probably the biggest shot of the game to put him up 9892 actually I take that back there’s a bigger shot later from Anthony Edwards that we’ll get to probably the second biggest shot of the game though this is just ridiculous footwork from Anthony Edwards in the post gets downhill crosses back over now it’s an ISO watch this footwork crosses over pivots back over his right shoulder pump Derrick Jones Goes step through floater over the top of the rim protector Banks it in really really impressive shot making there from Anthony Edwards again he was the best player on the floor down the stretch of this game this is Anthony edwards’s dagger that he hits here on the right side this is I was thinking about this earlier this is big shot in Anthony edwards’s career it’s to 97 it’s a onep possession game there’s 55 seconds left continually in the series Minnesota has found themselves in situations like this and lost the game and him hitting the shot basically iced it to keep his team alive in the Western Conference Finals just we we’ll just let it play out but this is this is a big time shot in the early career of Anthony Edwards ball screen crossover dribble into the lane Big Time shot look at how balanced he was too this was very very poised very easy confident looking smooth jump shot from Anthony Edwards and then the last possession a blitz of Kyrie Irving watch the ball pressure from go bear and Jaden McDaniels to force the deflection so again the blitz Kyrie’s dragging the blitz over he wants to make a skip pass to somebody presumably he’s trying to throw this to Derrick Jones Jr but look at goar pressing the ball the pressure forces the turnover right to Kyle Anderson now the game’s over so again like I talked about last night I wanted there’s a lot of focus on the Lively injury and obviously that plays a role but just credit Minnesota they played a hell of a game like Anthony Edwards played his best game of the series they defended a lot better than they have in any other game in this series a lot of key little offensive geometry stuff with Kyle Anderson on the floor there going to that big lineup credit the the Timberwolves they came out they outplayed Dallas they deserved to win that game I believe they would have won that game even if Derrick Lively played tip of the cap to them again it’s just really difficult for me to Envision them out executing Dallas like this three additional times in a row especially considering it’s kind of a weakness of theirs and has been a weakness All Season not so much for Dallas right so I my guess if I had to pick something I’d put tomorrow night’s game at as about a 5050 split I give Dallas actually maybe even a tiny bit bigger chance of winning maybe like a 55 45 type of chance to win but it’s just really difficult for me to imagine Minnesota going on the road on Saturday against a desperate Dallas team in game six to win so I’m gonna pick Dallas to win I’ll go ahead and pick them to win in six but I do think that they have a good chance to close it out in five tomorrow night as well but there are there is a pathway for Minnesota here if they can replicate these things that we talked about in the film session today they absolutely have a chance it’s just a it’s a long shot it’s going to depend on Anthony Edwards just rising to the occasion the way that he did last night three consecutive times in a row all right guys that is all I have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show we have no show tonight obviously with the Eastern Conference Finals being over we’ll see what we decide to do tomorrow morning when may take the morning off as a matter of fact we probably will take the morning off so I’ll just plan on seeing you guys on Thursday night after the final buzzer of game of game five [Music]

Jason Timpf reacts to Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 105-100 Game 4 win over Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks to stay alive in the Western Conference Finals. Jason breaks down film from the game’s biggest highlights and discusses how Minnesota was finally able to overcome Dallas. Will the Wolves be able to carry this momentum over to Game 5?

Watch the Game 4 instant reaction: https://youtu.be/Drd5RAWbM-Q

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:33 – Game 4 Reaction
08:24 – Film Study

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