WCF: WOLVES V OKC

[80HD]

I’m a firm believer in trends.

Wolves v Lakers: Wolves in 5
Wolves v Warriors: Wolves in 5
Wolves vs Thunder: Wolves in 5

Naz and DDV finally show up and have a huge series.

[Ethomasp31]

Looking into the rosters more, it could be argued the talent is close to a wash. Each team has 3 all-star level talents, mixed with defense, shooting, experience and rebounding.

SGA has a slight edge over Ant, but they have been very close in the postseason numbers. Julius vs Jdub and Chet vs Rudy offer similar impact. It comes down to who's role players are playing better, hitting their open shots, defending, rebounding. Jaden, DDV, Naw, Naz, Mike vs Wallace, Dort, Caruso, Hartenstein, and Wiggins. Dort has been bad in the post-season, and Jdub has struggled a bit as well. DDV and Caruso are both nba champs. Excited to see our guys compete with a rest advantage, and how the series is called as both teams really like to play physical defense.

Wolves in 6.

Who is as good as Randle? That's the ex factor in the series. By the end of this people will realize that we have the advantage of Ant over SGA and Randle over whoever their second best player is...Wolves in 6. We win one of the first two games. I think it will be game one. In game two we turn it over and lose. Then we come back home and win three of the next 4. We are a tough team...We got Dawgs dude....OKC is soft.

[Movics]

Yes, PO Randle is the third best player in this series, and I’m not even sure if JDub and Holmgren are more valuable than Rudy. My only concern is our home record, but I think we’re capable of winning even two games on the road

[KGdaBom]

I’m a firm believer in trends.

Wolves v Lakers: Wolves in 5
Wolves v Warriors: Wolves in 5
Wolves vs Thunder: Wolves in 5

Naz and DDV finally show up and have a huge series.

I like the way you think.

[KGdaBom]

Looking into the rosters more, it could be argued the talent is close to a wash. Each team has 3 all-star level talents, mixed with defense, shooting, experience and rebounding.

SGA has a slight edge over Ant, but they have been very close in the postseason numbers. Julius vs Jdub and Chet vs Rudy offer similar impact. It comes down to who's role players are playing better, hitting their open shots, defending, rebounding. Jaden, DDV, Naw, Naz, Mike vs Wallace, Dort, Caruso, Hartenstein, and Wiggins. Dort has been bad in the post-season, and Jdub has struggled a bit as well. DDV and Caruso are both nba champs. Excited to see our guys compete with a rest advantage, and how the series is called as both teams really like to play physical defense.

Wolves in 6.

Who is as good as Randle? That's the ex factor in the series. By the end of this people will realize that we have the advantage of Ant over SGA and Randle over whoever their second best player is...Wolves in 6. We win one of the first two games. I think it will be game one. In game two we turn it over and lose. Then we come back home and win three of the next 4. We are a tough team...We got Dawgs dude....OKC is soft.

I like the way you think.

[winforlose]

I think the Julius matchup will be extremely important. I don't see Chet on him all series just due to the size/physicality difference. How will it affect other matchups? Will it pull Caruso or Dort away from Ant a bit more? Can Ant take advantage of that?

We saw Caruso guard Jokic last series and it seemed to be slightly effective at times. Can't wait for Tue.

The smarter OKC matchup is Chet on Rudy and use his rim protector skills to swat shots. Put the stronger IHart on Randle and bother him with strength and size. We also saw Caruso loves to defend big guys and give them grief. I could see him getting the nod over some other defenders to contain Randle. Jaden is gonna be a tough cover for anyone under 6’9, if they try to defend him with a smaller player he must take advantage. I agree with the talking heads around these parts that we cannot win without at least good regular season NAW and Donte. If they show up our bench will compete and our 3 point shooting should be an edge. If not, that is a lot of pressure to put on only a few guys, especially when they are facing top defenders.

[KGdaBom]

Tonight. 18 hours to go.

[BlacJacMac]

I'd love to see Clark get some run.

Charlie Walton: "SGA went 5 of 17 (29.4%) against Clark this season, Shai's 2nd lowest FG% against a defender that has guarded him for 10+ minutes".

[younggunsmn]

This series is going to come down to 2 things:
1. Our ability to take care of the ball.
2. Winning the rebounding battle.

If we win the possession battle, we win the series. I firmly believe that.

OKC's halfcourt offense is pretty medicore and I think we matchup pretty well against it.
But they are the best in the league in turning over the other team and getting points in transition.
They have 5 really really good defenders they can throw at Ant and Julius.
If I were them I would probably throw Dort on Julius, Chet on Jaden, and rotate Caruso/Shai/Wallace/Williams on Ant.
Our off ball screen game is going to be important because they are going to just trap any on ball screens and they are really really good at that.

I'm worried about our ability to take care of the ball.
If we turn it over like we did in the Warriors series we are going to get swept.
julius and Dante in particular are going to be vulnerable as they like to pound the ball and will be defended by guys with great hands.

Our 2nd unit has more scoring punch but also can be really sloppy with the ball, especially Naz and DDV.

OKC has a ton of players that can't create their own shot and basically need to be spoon fed open 3's and back door cuts.
We did a really good job in the previous series shutting off the shot creation of the opposing stars which basically shut down all of their supporting players. That all stemmed from 2 things:
1. Keeping them out of transition and forcing a half court game.
2. Being able to defend their stars without a lot of help or double teaming.

Early in the Lakers series Luka and Lebron were shredding us from the middle of the floor.
Once we made schematic adjustments to force them out of the middle of the floor it made our help defense so much better as we only had to worry about 2 or 3 rotations to make at the most. That also put us in much better weakside rebounding position.

If we can keep our turnovers low and win the rebounding battle, I think we can hold them under 100 points.
If Shai and Williams spend most of the game trying to create 1 on 1, I think that heavily favors us.

Both have been uncharacteristically bad in mid range, and I don't expect that to continue.

Gobert dominating is also going to be key because it keeps Hartenstein on the floor.
They are much more dangerous defensively with Dort plus 3 really good wing defenders on the floor.

Wolves are going to be a lot tougher than the Nuggets for OKC because we are not going to be as one dimensional offensively and we are not going to run out of gas the way Denver did with 2 hurt starters and no depth.

But I don't believe either team has played their best series yet.
It will be interesting to see if OKC got the butterflies out in the Nuggets series or if they are going to continue to be so out of synch offensively.

For what it's worth, I think our ceiling is higher for playing well, but their floor is lower because of their depth and defense.

[Guest84]

Now that game one is out of the way, what should Finch and Co. change for game 2? First thing, I think Rudy has to play a little bit more to start.

[Guest84]

I think you let Mike guard Shai to start and let Jaden be a help defender along side Rudy.

Also, what about loading up and trapping him like they do Ant?

[Worm Guts]

Now that game one is out of the way, what should Finch and Co. change for game 2? First thing, I think Rudy has to play a little bit more to start.

The issue with Rudy is that he can't hold on to ball and that can be a problem against this team. The big change I would make is to play Jaylen Clark more, probably close to 20 minutes, let's save Jaden both energy and fouls by letting someone else guard SGA for a significant period.

[minimus]

It is very naive to think that Conley gives us impact either in offense and defense. He has been struggling mightily against athletic guards. His struggles creates chain reaction, last season his empty side pick-n-roll with Rudy and step-back, side step threes were unstoppable. This year, I dont remember when last time he or Rudy scored in such situations. Which leaves us without much production from two starters. Also I think that Gobert can still be contribute in offense next to quality pick-and-roll ballhandler such as Trae Young

[Biff Cooper]

Now that game one is out of the way, what should Finch and Co. change for game 2? First thing, I think Rudy has to play a little bit more to start.

Rudy did have 2 fouls within the first 90 seconds of play. That was the main reason he didn't get much play to start.

[KGdaBom]

Now that game one is out of the way, what should Finch and Co. change for game 2? First thing, I think Rudy has to play a little bit more to start.

Rudy did have 2 fouls within the first 90 seconds of play. That was the main reason he didn't get much play to start.

We survived Rudy's early benching for the fouls. We didn't survive him being removed in the second half. The Thunder went ballistic on us as soon as Rudy was removed.

[Guest84]

Now that game one is out of the way, what should Finch and Co. change for game 2? First thing, I think Rudy has to play a little bit more to start.

Rudy did have 2 fouls within the first 90 seconds of play. That was the main reason he didn't get much play to start.

We survived Rudy's early benching for the fouls. We didn't survive him being removed in the second half. The Thunder went ballistic on us as soon as Rudy was removed.

Finch also mentioned he made the wrong move by not playing him more. I'm not worried about the 2 early fouls since Rudy is typically good about it. Game 1 was just not going to go the wolves way in terms of the calls.

One thing about Rudy, is that he's one of the only players who consistently draws fouls due to battling in the paint. That's important for this team.

[Norseman79]

This series will expose Wolves roster flaws in a major way, hope I am wrong but Thunder in 5....unless refs completely surprise me.

What flaws do you feel those are?

I look at OKC’s roster and I think they’re thin upfront. I don’t know who they have as an answer for Julius if he plays anywhere near how he did last round (or even for Rudy.)

See now?

[younggunsmn]

A series like this is why lowering our ceiling by trading away an elite offensive talent and 3 level scorer in KAT was a really bad idea.
The Thunder defense is built to destroy mediocre players like Julius Randle.

[minimus]

A series like this is why lowering our ceiling by trading away an elite offensive talent and 3 level scorer in KAT was a really bad idea.
The Thunder defense is built to destroy mediocre players like Julius Randle.

Nah. Without spacing Towns would have 2 offensive fouls in first quarter. I still remember how BOS defended Karl with Jrue Holiday. I think our backcourt construction Conley/DDV/Edwards/NAW is a problem, not Randle or Towns.

[guest81]

A series like this is why lowering our ceiling by trading away an elite offensive talent and 3 level scorer in KAT was a really bad idea.
The Thunder defense is built to destroy mediocre players like Julius Randle.

The wolves have two bad games in THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS and the vultures decide to jump in.