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

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

The thing to be scared about relative to Minnesota, imo, is Anthony Edwards. Many of you have watched this team a bunch and will now what I'm talking about, but for those who started paying attention last night, he is a BEAST, and last night didn't show his game in adequate light.

There's loads and loads of negative talk out there about him today, which scares me to death. "What's wrong with Edwards? Is he really admitting he was tired?" Etc. That's going to do nothing but piss him off and motivate him. This is a man who, once he's headed downhill, can run through a brick wall and finish at the rim like he didn't even feel it. OR, he can pull up from midrange almost as well as Kyrie/Luka. Or, he can hit transition, back breaking 3's. Or, he can hit catch-and-shoot 3's, stepbacks, etc. AND, when he's locked in, he can actually be one of the better, more physically imposing defenders in the league. HE is scary.

I don't think he understood how to beat the Mavs' defensive gameplan last night, and that's encouraging to me, because I don't think the Wolves can hit those 3's through the entire series, even if they're wide open.

There's a lot of talk on the internet today about this great Chris Finch film session, but if you know Minnesota, you know that was 10000% about their DEFENSIVE effort and attention to detail, and I, for one, trust Luka/Kyrie to have counters ready and loaded for whatever changes come. It's going to be tougher, for sure, and there might be a game or two coming where the Wolves blow our Mavs out, but if packing the paint was THIS effective at neutralizing Edwards in game 1...idk, I just have a good feeling about that.

Kind of reminded me of how Dallas dealt with LeBron in 2011, a little.

Ant is great and can absolutely explode for some huge games but he has been wildly inconsistent this post season despite what how the national media paints the picture.  If he is given the same treatment that we gave Shai (forcing tough mid range jumpers) then I think he have a worse showing that what Shai gave us.  Not to say that he won't find a way to take games over throughout the series, he just isn't nearly as consistent or as good in the mid range as what we just saw and also has worse shooting (on paper at least) than Shai had at his disposal for drive and kick situations.  Game 2 is going to be very interesting but winning a shooting variance game like we did last night has to have the Wolves kicking themselves today and looking for answers.