2024 Playoffs- 3rd Round: Minnesota Timberwolves - Dallas Mavericks- MAVS WIN 4-1!

[KillerLeft]

Interesting, I thought the opposite coming in. I'm not ready to change my opinion on that just yet, not that it matters or that we'll ever know. I just thought their size would negate ours and not having Maxi against the Wolves would be almost impossible to overcome.

The size is nice, but it's in the wrong spots, imo, at least relative to what Dallas tries to do. 

I saw this drop coverage issue coming when they made the Gobert trade. I wasn't really thinking about Dallas at the time, because who even knew these teams would match up in the playoffs, but I think I said early this season that I wasn't worried about Minnesota at all. At some point, teams like Minnesota run into great, 3-level scoring ball-handlers (Dallas has TWO, lol) and Gobert, for all of his greatness, looks like he doesn't belong. 

Now, to be clear, Minnesota did MUCH better this season than I expected, but to me that's more about how GREAT Edwards has been, and how impactful McDaniels can be, defensively (though not so much against Luka, so far). 

And, there are adjustments that can be made to make Dallas' life much harder, so don't take this as me saying this will be an easy series or anything like that. Minnesota is a better team than they showed last night, for sure. But, I really think Dallas has a chance here. The trick will be containing Edwards (so far, so good) and not getting Gafford matched up with KAT (I was a little alarmed that PJ had so much trouble with him last night).