Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / POST-GAME DEBRIEF: Anthony Edwards Played The Perfect NBA Game...

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POST-GAME DEBRIEF: Anthony Edwards Played The Perfect NBA Game... · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whew.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um Wolves versus Lakers.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Classic.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute classic.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Wolves take a 3-1 series lead.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it over?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is it not?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: But this game was so ridiculous that I said, sorry, Celtics versus Magic.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta film during your game.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Pacers versus Bucks.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna put a video out on your game unless you give us a double overtime win or something.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I do got some things to say about Knicks versus Pizzas, but those gotta wait.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because we just experienced, in my opinion, the perfect Anthony Edwards game.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: By far my favorite game of his career.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's had a couple bangers, right?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: He had um a couple against the Fing Suns last year, and a couple, like he's had some bangers for sure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: But this one right here is my favorite.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's Reese Bias, right?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because it just rounded uh ended up finishing like 20 minutes ago, regardless.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite performance of his entire career.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were up 3-1, and I'm never gonna count out Brian because I've seen what he can do in the 3-1, but that was almost 10 years ago.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Wolves have just been the better team full.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Stop.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: But let's go back to Anthony Ewits.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you missed the game, here's his stat line: 44 minutes play, 43 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, one turn with a match those assists, just one, 17 free throw attempts, 14 of those went in, five made threes, a true shooting percentage of a 70.5 if you want to do the math or want me to do the math for you.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: The perfect game.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest X factor for this series going into it was like, could the Lakers make Anthony Everest think?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: There have been times in his career where he's been phenomenal in that, right?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I remember earlier in the season when he did have a good stretch, people were asking him what he did.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I watched Luka Dante's tape in order to get better and make a decision out of a pick and roll.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I watched Luka Dante's tape to see how he plays when people hedge his screens.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he looked great.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then a little while after that, it was back to being like, oh man, can Anthony Edwards really handle all of the different looks that you could throw at him?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why in this series, I thought that Mike Connolly would have to play a huge part if the Wolves wanted to win.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if Anthony Edwards is personally struggling at all the different looks, then that means that Mike Conley's job to settle everything down, to get the offense running, becomes extremely important.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: But because Anthony Edwards has looked at every single thing JJ Reddick has thrown in him and dominated it, a guy like Mike Conley becomes expendable.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: He played 25 minutes today.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: He got the big block on Braun, which I thought was insane.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: A couple different plays in this game, it felt like a certain player tore the ACL.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards at the moment with LeBron dove on his leg.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he was done with.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mike Conley got the block and it started tweaking at his leg.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh no, is that the end for Uncle Mike?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he becomes somewhat expendable, and because he becomes somewhat expendable, that means Rudy Gobert does too.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Rudy Gobert's never had a good offensive series, don't get me wrong.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this is by far the worst offensive series of his entire career.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that is saying something.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Me and the guys were talking about the Discord because we were just watching this game together.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is insane.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I told somebody, watch this game right here, watch game four of Wolves versus Lakers.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: At least three of the dudes on the court together right now are gonna make it to the Hall of Fame.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can you pick out who it is?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna say Braun, you could tell that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna say Luca, you could tell that.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: The last dude is Rudy Gobert.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The jury is still out on like Anthony Everett, he's 23.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But like three of those guys are guaranteed into the hall.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you have never watched basketball before, you would never suspect that that man's gonna make it to the hall of fame when his career is over.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's been bad.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And today I thought this was worse uh defensive performance too.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, not gonna play much.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Chris Fence.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you make a$40 million annually.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you got a$300 million contract.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: If your ass can't play, your ass can't play.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Nas Reed, ridiculous.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go down it again.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Ericts has played the perfect series or the perfect game in this one.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the reasons I picked the Lakers to advance before the series started, I'm not one of the dudes that feel like they need to get be right, so I would I'm not rooting either way.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, was because of the top end talent, A, right?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Luka Doncic and LeBron James in the playoff series just feels unstoppable.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Has it been that unstoppable?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing was the defense, right?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: The defense had that month stretch even without Anthony Davis being on the team, well, the defense was really good.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at how many different looks they could throw at Anthony Edwards, and I'm combining that with the fact that Luka Doncic, another playoff riser and LeBron James, because even though he's 40, he's still amazing.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Lakers win this in seven, I think was my official pick, and I guess it's not dead, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but a lot of those things have changed, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: The more I'm watching these series, I'm like, man, having the best player on paper in the series hasn't really done much.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is a team-oriented game.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that in this game, uh JJ Raddock was like, hey, Gabe Vincent, hey Jackson Hayes, hey, Jordan Goodwin, or hey, Vanderbilt.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all, y'all can't play, man.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run our guys to the end of time.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Must-win game.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You do not want to go down 3-1.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, Braun, Doe, Reeves, Luca, Rui, y'all gotta play every single second in this half.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there were times in this game you can tell that they were gas, absolutely gas.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: While the Wolves were kind of doing this platooning thing, not platooning, or or having Rudy Gobert come in for two minutes.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nas Reed come in for four.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Rudy Gobert comes in for two.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, they always had some fresh legs on the court, and Nas Reed hasn't missed a shot in the entire fourth quarter of this series, is what they said on the broadcast.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you missed one after that, but he's been so ridiculous and well-rested when it comes to the fourth quarter.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have never seen Julius Randle care about basketball as much as he cares about basketball right now.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: On a game-to-game basis, whether they're winning, whether they're losing, you're sitting down in that chair, and um, on both sides of the floor, he's been incredible, right?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: You you still have moments in time, you're like, damn, Julius, you're gonna force that one up.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you live with that if you're telling me that he's gonna have switches on Luka Doncic and hold his own and force a turnover here or there.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Insane stuff from him.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anas Reed, like I mentioned, big shots, but at the end of the game, it was him getting into Luka Doncic and LeBron James to force it to be Austin Reeves was the one to take this shot to end the game.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not one of your all NBA players, not one of your future Hall of Famers.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was Austin Reeves.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Austin Reeves, for what it's worth, wasn't having an amazing game in this one.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you live with that, you live for the results.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been well coached and they've been running well together.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: The second game in a row where they killed the offensive glass, just hustle plays, hustle plays, hustle plays.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even say from the Lakers perspective, that's a size thing.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because Rudy Gobert ain't getting them rebounds.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the other guys getting it too.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Who led them in offensive rebounding today?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You got four from Anthony Everett's perfect game, I mentioned.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, this was the Rudy Gobert offensive rebound game.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, Rudy! There we go.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know if they've scored out of those offensive rebounds because I don't remember a single one of them.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have it in my notes.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, they're killing their offensive glass, right?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that has been huge.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But more than that, anything, the penetration to the paint.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And game number three, Anthony Edwards drove to the paint.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have the exact numbers a hundred times, ended up with zero free throw attempts.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today, he gets downhill and attempts 17.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Progression, growth as an NBA player.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The perfect game.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: JD McDaniels started off slow, eventually hit some big old shots down the stretch.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we got to talk about a couple plays that mattered the most.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes right here.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: 30 seconds ago, for the second time in the last three weeks, we watched LeBron James throw a lazy, lazy inbound pass that led to a turnover.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that turnover was JD McDaniels who got it to Anthony Edwards.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards, they thought it was off on Anthony Edwards, and that was the moment that they replayed it, and it ended up being a foul on LeBron James.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards iced the game with the free throws.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Second game in a row.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or not second, not second game in a row, but the other time I'm thinking about was when Josh Giddy hit the half-court shot.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you need to go rewatch, that go rewatch that.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was a great moment.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but LeBron James just throwing a laxadaisical pass out of a timeout.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Inexcusable for anybody, but definitely inexcusable for one of our GOATs, right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: LeBron played every single second in that second half, and he didn't score in the fourth quarter, but he had some really good defensive plays, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: He had the chase down block who I think it was Dante DiVincenzo on the backdoor cut, and LeBron James just got his fingertips on top of it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, even though Bron didn't score in the fourth quarter, he had a really impactful game nonetheless.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And in the fourth quarter, even when he didn't score, he he had an input on this game.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that turnover, that turnover, that turnover, not being able to get a shot up in that moment of time after Jaden McDames just got the what dunker spot and one um dunk where I don't know why the hell Austin Reeves is contesting that shot.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's a 0% chance you're ever gonna get that block.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: My boy even looked up how many blocks did Austin Reeves have this season.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was 24 or 27 or something like that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're better off just you're better off just um letting them have it.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're better off just letting them have it because that and one puts them up by one, and now you playing from behind.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just let them have it and you walk down.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: We got 30 seconds to go, or whatever it may be, to go get a bucket, and you got bucket getters on your team.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But bad decision by Austin Reeves.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like we had a couple of those because I think he was getting his ass roasted a lot in this game.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just like Luca was getting his ass roasted last game in this game as well.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, man, the Lakers have a lot to make up if they want to win the series.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that if they don't win the series, we have an idea of what type of play.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we already knew what type of players they needed, but like they really need some size.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: They really need um some guys that were sitting in that chair outside of Doe.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, last game we talked about how Ruy Hachimura was a non-factor on both sides of the floor.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Today he gave them 23, and unfortunately it didn't matter because they didn't walk out able to win.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what the Timberwolves have been able to do so very well in the series is allowing Luca to score.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna sound weird, but it's not just a Luca Dontis-oriented thing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: This kind of goes for a lot of the guys that are known as premier playmakers as well.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you turn them into just a scorer, they lose so much value.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: If if Luca Dontis is playing isolation ball and granted scoring 38 points, so be it.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's when he gets you in rotation, when he generates uh open threes.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's those moments that hurt you more than if he has an individual scoring game.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is the second time in a row.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me look at these box scores real quick.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think this, not in the row, but in these four games, if I'm not mistaken, two of these, he's had more turnovers and assists.
• 9:34
  unknown: Right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Game one, what do you have?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: One assist?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in this game, he only had two.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They did an amazing job of just playing straight up.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if Luka Dodges beats you off the dribble, so be it.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be fine.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been able to have Jaden McDaniels to get around those screens, and then they've been completely okay when they did have switch moments with saying Julius Randle can hold his own.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because as great as of a player Luca Dodges is, he's not the quickest man of them all.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like it's Julius Randle guarding De'Aaron Fox, where the shiftiness and the quickness is gonna be the detriment to this defensive play.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lucas is a strong-ass guy with a good dribble package, but like we feel okay on that switch.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if he happens to hit a step back three and he happens to go on a personal 9-0 run, so be it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't want him to allow other players to really get their things going.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want him to get Austin Reeves um 15 open three-pointers.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 12 of them, but 15 open three-pointers.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say a 12 open because some of them was awful.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let Luka beat you through the score.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that people did four years ago with Jokic.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: When they had the stat years ago, Jokic's team was 0-7 anytime he dropped 40 or 40 or more because they eliminated the others.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if he's the guy that's just killing you, one guy in the in the grand scheme of things is not gonna be able to do it by himself.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But one guy can do it by himself if he's generating shots for the others.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Luca hasn't been able to do that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't been able to generate open looks for these other guys.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: They shot 45% from three this game and still ended up losing, or 40.5% and still ended up losing because they didn't.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tough, it's a tough one.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's really a tough one.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I want to go back and re-watch that fourth quarter because they went into the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta rewatch because one of the biggest criticisms um Lakers fans have with JJ Reddick's offense right now is that there are times where he completely goes away from any structured offense, any sets or anything, and it's just freelance hoops.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And freelance hoops make sense when you have Luca and LeBron James in your team, but sometimes they don't.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta re-watch that entire fourth quarter to figure out exactly what ended up happening there.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I feel like I'm forgetting to give love to somebody.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I gave love to Nas Reed, didn't I?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I gave Julius Randall his love.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I gave Anthony Everything his love, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let Luca beat you.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, man, this series might be over way quicker than any of us expect.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said Lakers and seven, again, it's still in play.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel good about Lakers and seven, I'll tell you, tell you that.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even though some of these games have been close, I just feel like the Wolves have been the better team.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm still tugging and pulling, trying to figure out have they been better coaches in this series?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Has Chris Finch out coached JJ Reddick so far?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know yet.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have to rewatch the footage.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it's gotta hurt to play 46 minutes and 46 minutes for your top end dudes and still walk out with an L.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Wolves retain home court, um, they go into staple center.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they get three chances to close this series, man.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to believe that they won't be able to do that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I've seen LeBron in this situation before.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, like that, that's that's always what it boils down to.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: This series has been amazing.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: This game itself was amazing.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards, big time players make big time plays, the old cliche, and Anthony Edwards is a big time player.