Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 1:09 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 10:02 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 8:58 pm

My favorite play of the game too. Q. I'll point out another thing about Naz. Kek has wisely pointed out in the past how easy it was to score on us when Rudy went to the bench. I don't know if he has posted this even once this series. That's meaningful.

Wellllll......there's that 3rd quarter we need to talk about.

I don't know if this was instructions from Finch or if Naz was freewheelin' it, but the Lakers were clearly trying to get Doncic matched up on Reid. So Naz's guy would set a screen for Doncic and Naz would immediately switch AND Jaden would stick with Doncic too, essentially employing a blitzing defense. It was the first time I saw the Wolves double Doncic early in the shot clock in this series. The result? He made the right pass every single time and then the guy he passed to made the next right pass and it was one wide open 3-point shot after another.

Now why on earth would Finch suddenly employ that strategy when the one they had been using had been working throughout the series!?! Or did the players (i.e. Naz) mess up the coverage?

Either way, I thought Naz should have showed on those screens and then recovered back to his man. In the 4th, they just switched everything and Naz actually got a stop or two on Luka. But we need to stick to the "make Jokic (now Doncic) a scorer" strategy!

Wolves have been good defensively in the Naz/Randle pairing these 4 games what is huge (slightly above average compared to the rest of the nba playoff lineup) and the offense has hummed.

I know like it might seem not true but I do not hate Naz. Haha. I am probably too hard on him I just see him through the prism of a potentially a 30 million dollar player and that scares the shit it out of me. I think he struggles on the defensive glass, fouls on so many drives, not a great passer and goes super streaky on offense.

With all that said he can get buckets and has been so huge in 4th Q this playoffs so far. I admit my biases probably come through when talking about Naz. I’m just terrified of that next contract.

But hope he keeps it up because he is a huge X factor for this team.

kekgeek wrote: ↑Tue Apr 29, 2025 1:09 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 10:02 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 8:58 pm

My favorite play of the game too. Q. I'll point out another thing about Naz. Kek has wisely pointed out in the past how easy it was to score on us when Rudy went to the bench. I don't know if he has posted this even once this series. That's meaningful.

Wellllll......there's that 3rd quarter we need to talk about.

I don't know if this was instructions from Finch or if Naz was freewheelin' it, but the Lakers were clearly trying to get Doncic matched up on Reid. So Naz's guy would set a screen for Doncic and Naz would immediately switch AND Jaden would stick with Doncic too, essentially employing a blitzing defense. It was the first time I saw the Wolves double Doncic early in the shot clock in this series. The result? He made the right pass every single time and then the guy he passed to made the next right pass and it was one wide open 3-point shot after another.

Now why on earth would Finch suddenly employ that strategy when the one they had been using had been working throughout the series!?! Or did the players (i.e. Naz) mess up the coverage?

Either way, I thought Naz should have showed on those screens and then recovered back to his man. In the 4th, they just switched everything and Naz actually got a stop or two on Luka. But we need to stick to the "make Jokic (now Doncic) a scorer" strategy!

Wolves have been good defensively in the Naz/Randle pairing these 4 games what is huge (slightly above average compared to the rest of the nba playoff lineup) and the offense has hummed.

I know like it might seem not true but I do not hate Naz. Haha. I am probably too hard on him I just see him through the prism of a potentially a 30 million dollar player and that scares the shit it out of me. I think he struggles on the defensive glass, fouls on so many drives, not a great passer and goes super streaky on offense.

With all that said he can get buckets and has been so huge in 4th Q this playoffs so far. I admit my biases probably come through when talking about Naz. I’m just terrified of that next contract.

But hope he keeps it up because he is a huge X factor for this team.