Hoops Tonight - Mavericks-Timberwolves Reaction: Luka Doncic ERUPTS, Mavs take Game 1 vs. Wolves

to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a team to win. Go to the Draftking 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 one point fifty, the Timberwolves at plus two to seventy five, the Mavericks at plus five hundred, and the Indiana Pacers a long shot at plus twenty five hundred. New to DraftKings, listen up.

New customers can get a no sweat bet up to fifteen hundred 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 alough the DraftKings sportsbook gap now and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet up to fifteen hundred bucks if your first bet doesn't hit only on DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia, visit

www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort In Kansas twenty one plus age

varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no sweat bet per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See DKNG dot co slash bball for l eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions. Terms and responsible gambling resources. All right, well, come to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, hope all if

you guys are having a great week so far. Game one of the Western Conference Finals was a barn burner, super entertaining game, very different than any series we've seen to this point. I'm excited to get into all the details. We're gonna break it down, then get out of here for the night, and then we'll do a film session tomorrow morning. You guys know the drive before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel so you don't

miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys dont miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we keep hitting them throughout the remainder of the postseason.

level that Denver hasn't been able to get to. And a big part of that is they're just more athletic, They're more athletic on the perimeter, and they're much better at protecting the rim. Denver was eighteenth and points in

the paint allowed per game this season. Rim protection is not a strong suit of their So, just to put it simply, going from a Entavious Callwell pope on the ball on Anthony Edwards to a Derek Jones junior who is a taller, longer, more athletic player, and then going from Nikola Jokic on the back line to Derek Lively

and Daniel Gafford to more vertically athletic rim protectors. It's just a fundamentally different type of matchup, right, manifested in a massive differential in points in the paint scored in this game. I think Minnesota only scored thirty eight points in the paint in this game. How many times did it feel like Anthony Edwards got downhill and drove to the rim? Not very many, Right, We're going to get

into that in more detail later. Also, Dallas's offense attacks in a very different way than Minnesota are then Denver's offense attack right, Denver's offense is very much about interior passing. Right, It's very much about Nikola jokicch drawing multiple bodies. Is there a lot of like cutting along the baseline by Aaron Gordon. It's a lot of operating out of Jokic as the decision maker at the high post, whereas with Luka Doncicch and Kyrie Irving, it's very much perimeter initiation.

The guy who sets the ball screen is simply just rolling hard to the rim. And it's very classic four out offense. Right, it's set the ball screen, roll hard to the rim. There's a shooter in the left corner, a shooter in the right corner, and a shooter on the opposite wing. And it's just if you tag the roller, we're throwing the skip pass and we're playing rotation basketball.

The difference is Jamal Murray's not very big, so Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards when they would get trapped on Jamal's backside, it was actually advantageous for Minnesota because in those situations, if Jamal tried to shoot anything, they would disrupt it or block it, and Jamal would have no choice but to drive into their rim protection and it would cause a lot of problems for Denver's offense. Luka Doncic.

He loves working with the player trapped on his backside, and he's just a lot bigger than Jamal Murray is, and certainly bigger than Jada McDaniels and Anthony Edwards. And so again, in terms of just basketball matchups, this is a very, very different type of series than the Denver Minnesota series, and it's what makes it a very fascinating

challenge for both teams going in. So, like even just looking back, kind of flipping the angle here looking at Dallas, right, like Luka Doncic is playing against a damn middle linebacker in lou Dort who's like super big and strong and physical and gave Luca issues in terms of just his physical ball pressure everywhere on the floor. Jada McDaniels is a player that's regarded as a better perimeter defender as Loudort. I think they're on similar levels, but Jada McDaniels is

considered at least on the same level. Right, Luca looked way more comfortable against Jada McDaniels. You know why, because length doesn't bother Luca the way that strength hands. Sometimes Luca's best advantage as an athlete is he's just bigger and stronger than you. Right, So lou Dort was able to challenge that, you know, Jada McDaniels was not right,

and so it's just fundamentally different. Like another thing too, Like Anthony Edwards, as we talked about this preview, he can really lock in defensively when the chips are down and be one of the best defenders in the world when he needs to be. But one of the things we talked about in the series preview is he chills a lot on defense. Like there's all this conversation about Ant being the best two way player in the world. That can only happen when Ant actually has the level

of conditioning and commitment to do it throughout entire basketball games. Like, it's not the same as like Cason Wallace or Jalen Williams, like really devoting their energy to guarding Anthony Edwards. I thought didn't do a good job on Kyrie Irving in this game, and so it's fundamentally different perimeter matchups for Dallas. So the point is these are very different basketball teams playing very different opponents than they did in the last round.

And it's just kind of cool in terms of the art of basketball that it manifests in a very different type of basketball game. You know, it's interesting coming into this show, I was half expecting to have a very similar opening monologue to what I said in the Boston game last night, which is, well, this is the best case scenario because Minnesota led most of that game and and very well could have stolen it, especially after they

went up what did they go up by four? I think in pretty late there before Luka Dancic hit the three off of the Derek Lively offensive rebound. Minnesota came this close to escaping this game with a win, and I thought Dallas badly outplayed Minnesota in every single phase of the game except for knocking down three point shots. That was the only thing that I thought Minnesota did

better than Dallas in this game. And so I was about to be like, here we go again, another example, kind of like Boston last night, where it's like they have all of this stuff that they need to clean up and maybe they end up getting out of there with the win. Right, No, Dallas ends up winning, which I thought was what was deserved. They played better basketball, they deserved to win, and they did. And so that I thought was kind of a fascinating subplot in this game.

The only reason it was as close as it was and the only reason Minnesota had a chance to win is they just shot the basketball better than Dallas did in this game. They've got a lot that they need to clean up. We will get to that a little bit later in the show, I want to move the attention to Luka Doncic. Luka Doncic was the best player on the floor in this game by a mile I talked before we get into some of the specifics I

talked coming into this series. We did a ranking the playoff players with the NERD Slash guys last week on Friday, if I remember correctly, and when we did the rankings, I put Luka doncicet two and I put Aunt at four if I remember correctly right. And one of the big reasons why I said that is just I think

Luca's a better half court surgeon at this point. He just is a little bit more experienced, a little more comfortable at navigating all the different challenges and curve balls and weird stuff that you can see in the half court. But one of the things I talked about in the series preview is what if Lucas knee is messed up, And if lucasne is messed up, that might allow Ant to close the gap. And the only chance that Dallas has to win the series is Luca's got to be

the best player. He's got to be the best player comfortably. And he was tonight and it was a big part of how Dallas got to win. And again, I thought this game was a lot lot more spread apart than.

He kind of positions the ball in front of him and he kind of like does a reverse post up where he's kind of working his way into the lane, letting you kind of ride his backside in and then if you happen to get too aggressive, he'll just rise up and shoot and draw fout, which he did late on Jada McDaniels right, or if you continue.

broadcast in terms of Luca operating and drop coverage. And we're gonna go over some different options that We're gonna go over some different options that Minnesota can go to. But there's a big reason why I think Luca is the second best player in the world, and it really is this simple. He is capable of doing damage to every single type of coverage. Like we're gonna talk about some different options that Minnesota can go to, none of

them are good options. That's what keeps him on a up on that level close to a guy like Nikola jokicch in my opinion, the same thing with jokicch you double him. He can beat you playing straight up, he can beat you play ball. If he could beat you in ball screens, he could beat you with every conceivable coverage that you throw his way. Luca has a very similar approach. Right, It's like he can go straight Iso. He went straight Iso on the dagger against Jada McDaniels.

Didn't want to blitz because he knew if they if I call a ball screen, they'll probably blitz. If they blitz, it's gonna be somebody else on my team taking a shot. I'm the one who trusts myself to knock this down, So stay away. I'm gonna attack Iso, and he got to his step back jumper and hit it on Jada McDaniels. Right, there was a play in the fourth quarter where Rudy Gobar switched on him.

and what the low man is doing. He's just methodically working in the lane making decisions right like he can do it all, and that is what makes him such a devastating player. And then he made a bunch of huge defensive plays late in this game. I thought that the play where Mike Conley attacked the closeout off the left wing, he did a nice job of stunting up at Conley to make him get rid of the basketball, but then recovered back to tip away the pass from

Gobert at the rim. That was a huge play. Had a huge defensive rebound late in the game. And most importantly thought I thought in terms of his knee, he looked fine.

I thought he was magnificent down the stretch of this game. Again, like, even with everything with Minnesota that we talked about, we're gonna get into more detail here in a minute. Even with everything Minnesota did poorly, they almost shot well enough and Dallas shot poorly enough for them to steal, for them to steal for Minnesota to still win this game, and Lucas snatched it for him. He made sure that

they closed the deal despite some poor shooting results. Typically Captain Luca donchs that was a special playoff performance from him. Kyrie irving a couple of specific things that I thought Kyrie did that that worked really well. Anthony Edwards when he's engaged athletically, is a deeply impactful defender, but he has a lot of situations where he stands upright and relaxes, and Kyrie attacked him a couple of specific things. Quick

changes of direction on the catch. He had a like a floater in the lane off of a rip through to the left early in the game, where like he caught it off of the dribble handoff, and then when ant was kind of like methodically, you know, nonchalantly getting ready to chase him over the screen. He just ripped back to the left and just toasted Ant off the

dribble got into the lane. I thought he did a lot of work in semi transition, which is like that phase between transition and the half court where you're like everyone's in the half court, but no one's really set. Defense had a lot of success there, A big one too, A big difference between Anthony Edwards in this game and Kyrie Irving and Luca. Kyrie and Luca attacked downhill in

the ball screen. And by the way, Minnesota's got rim protection too, Like as good as Derek Lively and and Daniel Gafford are, Rudy Gobert is a better rim protector

than those guys. But you just saw Kyrie and Luca attack down hill with the pace regardless because they knew that the benefits of them pressuring the rim, even if they do miss some shots, is going to outweigh the negatives like that, Like the uh there was a like the offensive rebound that Derek Lively got late that got kicked back out to Luca, the one where he waited for Ant to close out and hit the step back. That was the play where Rudy Gobert got engaged as

the rim protector. Like Lively and Gafford thrive off of anything that engages the rim protector, and in order to engage the rim protector, you have to attack down hill. As a matter of fact, we're gonna get to it with aunt Ant's got a lot that he can get better at after after tonight, and he's gonna look at that film and he's gonna he's coming off these screens and he's not attacking. Whereas Kyrie every single time was looking to get downhill, Luca every single time was looking

to get downhill. Even when they took pull up jumpers, most of the time it was in closer towards the basket while it was taking pull up threes. I thought Kyrie was excellent. He poured in thirty points. And again, like like with Anthony Edwards, like he talked a big game after Game seven, but like it's gonna be a challenge to guard Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is a really damn good basketball player, and he's gonna make you put your money where your mouth is when you talk like

that and he won Game one of this battle. Dallas's defense one of the things I talked about again coming into the series, and I want to get into more detail about it, the U them being more athletic on the perimeter and more athletic underneath the basket. So Anthony Edwards's supreme advantage is he's just got this preposterously quick first step and he's you know, six five sixty six, built like a super vertically athletic, and he's been deadly as a pull up shooter over the course of.

which is like really really good. Like Ant's just been amazing in pull up jump shooting situations, right, So like it's it's that's what makes him so difficult to guard. You have to have the quickness to keep him in front, in the length to offer a contest on the pull up jumper. Derek Jones did just an amazing job tonight.

He just found that sweet spot in terms of distance between Ant where it kind of like made Ant feel like he was baiting him into taking a pull up, but he couldn't really get that much separation without a ball screen. And then whenever he made some sort of aggressive move, he was having trouble actually turning the corner against Derek Jones Jr. Derek just did a really good job.

And then in ball screen situations, it's that bracket that I talk about, right, It's Derek Jones and his ability to chase an over the top and apply back pressure, but it's also you've got this other seven footer who's super athletic waiting for you at their rim. That combination of rim protection in perimeter athleticism caused a lot of

problems for Minnesota's offense tonight. And so to tipic the captain Dallas's defense, they've been fantastic throughout this entire postseason run and the tail end of the season, they've been amazing. One last guy I want to shout out for Dallas before we get into some of the Minnesota stuff. PJ. Washington really really struggled to shoot tonight. Staman Gunny I thought did a really nice job on the broadcast of talking specifically about how he was struggling above the break

but making shots in the corner. And by the way, that's a schematic thing, like Carl Anthony Towns was guarding him, and so when Luca would call Karl Anthony Towns into the ball screen, when Carl Anthony Towns shows, Pj's at the top of the the key setting the screen, and then he's slipping, but he's slipping to the three point line, and when he's slipping to the three point line, he's

at the above the brake. Rather than if Luca's attacking somebody else in a ball screen and Pj's sitting in the corner, then he can be the beneficiary of short roll passing when Luca gets trapped, or if Luca is in a drop coverage and they'd end up tagging the roller, he can throw that skip pass right. So like by virtue of PJ being involved in the screening action, so Luca could attack Karl Anthony Towns. That was what put PJ.

Washington in a bunch of above the break three point shooting situations where he hasn't been as good, but to his credit, for as much as he struggled shooting, I thought he hit the biggest shout of the night, that one in that left, the one in the left corner. I think Minnesota had gone up one o two, one oh one if I remember correctly, Jaden McDaniels made this

like absolutely preposterous decision. I genuinely don't know what he was thinking, or he kind of caught the ball in that middle flash and then like just made an aggressive driving move out of bounds and then like jumped and went flying into camera row and then turned to throw like a jump pass to somebody and ended up throwing it right into one of the guys underneath the basket. But in that sequence they immediately had a five on four.

Going out the other way, PJ. Washington got wide open in the left corner and knocked down the biggest shot of the game, which turned the It turned that Minnesota lead into into something that was I can't remember if it made a four point game into a one point game or for a game in the lead. It was a huge shot though, that PJ. Washington hit there in the left corner. Again, I'll have a better fear for feel for this stuff after we rewatched the game tomorrow, But anyway, shout out PJ.

short range shot making is dialed in. All the push shots, hook shots, short range jumpers, those are all dialed in.

their rotations are sharp. I did not think Minnesota played a very good defensive game tonight in any facet. I didn't think Gobar protected the rim as well as Lively and Gafford did. I didn't think Aunt and Jade McDaniels defended on the perimeter as well as Derek Jones Junior and PJ.

What is Luca struggling with right now? He made I think one tonight, maybe two he made the step back off of the kickout, but like, uh, he hasn't been shooting the three balls super well in this postseason, right, So, like, one thing you can do is just have Luca operate in pick and roll without Jaden on his backside, but rather Jayden on his front side. Right, So one option you can do there is just go underneath screens. So obviously Luca could get going as a three point shooter.

If you do that, then you can react right again, none of these coverages work. It's just about finding It's like the it's like the cliche lesser of two evils, right, you're looking for the best way to try to make things difficult for Luca. Luca's not shooting the three super well right now. Most of his misses tonight were way off. So try ducking underscreens as opposed to chasing over the top.

It's the exact same coverage right like go Bear is still in drop, but what you're doing is instead of chasing Luke over the top and getting into trail position, you're ducking under and meeting him at spots on the other side of the screen. So Luca's counter to that will be to use pullback dribbles as soon as Jaden Duck's under the pick to try to shoot a pull up three there. But maybe he's not making it well enough for it to matter. That's one thing you can try. Switching.

They got to stop in the fourth quarter of this game by just switching Gobart onto the ball right, Lively and Gafford are not guys that typically attack in the post super well. So you just put a put Jada McDaniels switch onto the post guy, right, and then you ask Rudy Gobert to try to defend Luca down to john An Island. Yes, I know Luca can do damage to go bear on An Island, but again, it's just about trying to find something different that that does a

better job. Right, So I think I get the actual deep drop chasing over the top. I just think lucas too good for that. I think he's comfortable and too big for Jaden McDaniels. I think he's too good at baiting Gobert to where he needs Gobert to get for him to throw that drop off pass or that lob pass that I don't think is an option. I think you mix coverages up with ducking, underpicks, switching and blitzing, because those are gonna at least make things a little

bit tougher on Luca defensive rotations. In general, the game of sixty two points in the paint tonight, I don't care how good Luca is in ball screens. You just have to do a better job in general in rotations. You guys heard Rudy Gobert at the start of the fourth quarter doing his interview. He specifically mentioned the lowman has to be more engaged. What that means is when Gobert steps up, you need to not make that a lob. It needs to be a corner three because here's the thing,

or a drop off pass. I mean, the corner three is gonna be worth for know pj WA Like for shooters that are shooting really well, it might be worth one point two points per possession. Right, A lob dunk or a drop off dunk is worth two points per possession, So you at least got to make him make a jumper instead of having an easy dunk. That means when Gobert's up on Luca, the guy guarding, the guy in the opposite corner has to step in and guard the

center rolling to the rim. In general, I did not think Minnesota had nearly the level of defensive intensity and engagement that they had at the tail end of the Denver series. That's your bread and butter. That's why you're here. You're in the conference finals because you defend. So that needs to be where they devote the majority of their resources they have to do a much better job. And then lastly, their offensive process. And this goes in two

different phases. Like I'll start with crunch time. A lot of classic Minnesota Timberwolves crunch time offense that we saw in the regular season in this game.

a possession. He drives out of bounds and then throws some bizarre kick back pass underneath the basket that Mike Conley play drives into the lane. If you watch that one, Luca is kind of splitting the difference between Gobert and Conley as he's driving. But Jaden, I think it was Derek Jones, Yeah, Derek Jones. I can't remember who was guarding Ant on the weak side. I think it was Derek Jones. Derek Jones was guarding Anthony Edwards on the weak side, and he left ant to come into the

lane to help on Mike Conley. So Mike Conley looked and saw Luca in front of Gobert and saw Derek Jones coming and Anthony Edwards was wide open on the right wing. Is a poor decision. That's Mike Conley. That's what he's out there for is to make good decisions. He forces a lob that's not open, Luca turns it, turns it back and they go the other way. Throw a kickout past to Anthony Edwards for catching choo three. He's been getting one point three points per catching chew

jumper in this postseason. Anthony Edwards again in crunch time either completely disengaged or just looking for a pull up three. So like in general, in their offensive offensive processing crunch time, it looked way too much like the regular season. They have to do a much better job on in the meat and potatoes of the game. There was a lot of good stuff. Carl Anthony Towns looked great throughout. They

had a lot of success running Horn's chest. Those of you guys who've watched What's the Mind the game the Show with JJ Redick and Lebron they've broken it down before. It's a basic horn set where you have two guys at the at the elbows, a guy at the top of the key.

is the offense run through Anthony Edwards. And again a couple of key things. First of all, I understand you're fatigued, but like you weren't defending well enough on Kyrie Irving to actually justify being as tired as he was Conference finals, man, and your team needs you to your team needs you to create shots. So like the fatigue thing, I can't

accept that as an excuse. Like Aunt has to find a way to power through that right Specifically, like I mentioned earlier, when he was coming off of those screens, he was looking at the rim protector in this case go Gafford or Lively and just not applying any pressure on them at Like Aunt applied almost no pressure on the rim in this game, and it's like, that is your superpower, Man, that is your superpower.

on Friday. But the reality is is in this game, I thought Aunt was a major driver of their struggles throughout, and a big part of it was just because there's not some sort of clear obvious advantage like there was against Denver, where you're just slashing down the lane and getting easy lamps doesn't mean you don't try the rim protector Again, like I talked about with Kyrie and Luca, a lot of times, you just need to engage the rim protector somehow, because if you do, that's where your

your waves of size coming on the weak size or week side are rolling from the perimeter can do damage. Right Like, if Gobert's rolling to the rim, he's not gonna get the offensive rebound if Ant shoots to pull up three, because if Ant shoots to pull up three, Gafford or Lively can just turn and box out go bear right. They're the only way you're gonna get any sort of benefit there is if you turn the corner on the ball screen and get into Gafford or Lively

and engage them. That way, you can either throw the drop off pass or get something up on the rim. Now, since Gafford or Lively are engaged on Ant, that is where Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy.

You're the guy that has the ability to break this defensive part with your downhill athleticism. At a certain point, you need to force the issue. You need to turn the corner, get into traffic, gets something on the rim, or get a drop off pass to your bigs. And the only way you're gonna do that is if you turn the corner in those ball screens instead of constantly settling or just throwing swing passes. Again, just a really bad game from Anthony Edwards on both ends of the floor.

But again I expect that he will have taken accountability for it and that he'll be ready to go on Friday for Game two. So again, Minnesota a lot that they can clean up. But tip of the cap to Dallas tonight. I thought they came in and just put on a clinic. I thought they out played Minnesota in every phase of the game.

over the last couple of years. Has been fun building this channel out. We will be back tomorrow morning with the film breakdown, and then again tomorrow night for Game two of the Eastern Conference Finals.