I have been rewatching series against DAL and I have couple of notes and question. I was kind of too disappointed after Game 5, and could not or better say did not want to rewatch those games because I was hurt and upset. But I had couple of easy "days" this week, so I have finally rewatched them.
1) Conley in defense was actively hunted by DAL players, because they wanted favourable matchup against him. Hardy in ISO, Kyrie shot over him, some DAL plays were designated to involve Conley in defense against Luka, like here Exam plays DHO with Doncic making Conley guard Gafford by tagging DAL bigman, or leave Exam completely wide open. It was lose-lose situation for MIN
Or here, Conley was guarding "least dangerous DAL offensive player" which is Jones, but DAL recognise it and instantly plays double drag screen, involving Conley who tried to hedge and recover, but McDaniels and Gobert miscommunication led to another open dunk
2) overall after re-watching this series I was surprised how close MIN were to win this series (which still frustrates me). I mean our defense was NOT working like in series against PHO and DEN, and MIN is not an offensive minded team, but still MIN were close in Game 1, 2 and 3 to win. So it is still a mystery to me why neither McDaniels nor Edwards were not able to stop one of Doncic or Irving. I can remember ONE impressive defensive sequence where MIN got two stops in row. I can only guess that Edwards and NAW were both injured against DEN (remember when Edwards landed hard on his back after Jokic foul and Nickeil injured his shoulder after Jokic screen), and finally Towns knee was hurting him as he said recently in PG13 podcast. But overall our defense was passive, one step slower than DAL offense. Sometimes I had feeling that only Anderson was fully locked in both in defense and offense, despite being least talented player on the floor. So my question here stands: why our defense feel apart in that series? Was it physical conditioning? Injuries? Team strategy?
3) I mentioned that DAL did great job of hunting Conley, however MIN players were not so decisive in mismatch hunting. Luka was injured, Kyrie is not a great defender. But no player in MIN had mentality to attack them, it was something that BOS were able to explore in Finals. While Edwards had great improvement in terms of passing the ball, however he made some very dumb TOs in clutch that costed us games
4) both McDaniels and Reid had great series against DAL. In Game 3 it was evident that coaching staff tried to run more plays to create for Reid opportunities to attack from the catch when he got the ball on the move and immediately attack the rim
After rewatching this series my reasons for optimism are following:
1) I remember that a year DEN players said that they knew all MIN plays, but this year in playoff MIN were better prepared for matchup against DEN and won that series. I expect same happen this offseason: both coaching staff and players should study these games and improve
2) I find VERY encouraging that both McDaniels and Reid who missed playoffs a year ago played very well in playoffs this year. They both made winning plays and should only improve
3) I think that this group has enough talent and experience to compete, and real X-factor is chemistry, preparation process and conditioning. In DAL series it was evident, when they missed defensive rotations, or lost concentration at the end of the quarter, or miscommunicated, or did not boxout. Those little things that can not be skipped.
