Following the Trend - Warriors at Wolves GDT

[60WinTim]

I was struggling with a decent tag line for this GDT, and am still not happy with it. If someone suggests something better I'll change it! The "Trend" we are "Bucking" is all 2nd round favorites losing their first game of their series.

I feel like the Wolves should win this series, despite all the little facts that might hint otherwise. The Wolves have not been a dominant home team. The Warriors handled the Wolves pretty well in the regular season. If you ask me which team has the better clutch player, I might start with Steph and Jimmy. And while the Wolves beat the Lakers in 5, 3 of their wins were coin flips down the stretch. They were not as dominant as a 4-1 series win might suggest. Other than game 1, the Wolves have not shot the ball well at all: just .323% on threes for the series (which includes that game 1 barrage)!

But defense travels, and keeps you in games. Hopefully we see a bit more offensive efficiency in this series. The guy I worry about the most is Buddy Hield -- I see him as the real X-factor for the Warriors.

How's everyone else feeling?

[thedoper]

I worry Jimmy and Draymond may become big distractions this series. Steph is still amazing. I still think we can do it. Wolves in 7.

[Coolbreeze44]

I feel good, but then again, I felt great before the Dallas series last year.

[FNG]

Matchups will be interesting. I think we'll see a lot of zone from GS, but I'm curious how we set our defense. I would go:

Rudy on Draymond
Ju on Butler
Jaden on Curry
Ant on Hield
Mike on Podziemski

Rudy and Jaden each have 7" on their guy and Ju has 2. Ant and Buddy are the same size, and Brandin has 4" on Mike. Huge size advantage for us, and I'm not worried about Mike guarding Podziemski.

[Coolbreeze44]

Matchups will be interesting. I think we'll see a lot of zone from GS, but I'm curious how we set our defense. I would go:

Rudy on Draymond
Ju on Butler
Jaden on Curry
Ant on Hield
Mike on Podziemski

Rudy and Jaden each have 7" on their guy and Ju has 2. Ant and Buddy are the same size, and Brandin has 4" on Mike. Huge size advantage for us, and I'm not worried about Mike guarding Podziemski.

I think you have the matchups right FNG. But I wouldn't hate Ant on Butler and Ju on Hield. I'm also not worried about Mike.

[Coolbreeze44]

Tim, since the Bucks got knocked out already, how about "Wolving the Trend"?

[Monster]

During the regular season the Wolves were one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the league. At what point does that return?

GS had a pretty good record once Butler got going there right?

I don't expect Randle to have as good of series partly because he had a really good series against the Lakers and who he will face with GS. Who will play better this series? There are a fair amount of options.

[Q-is-here]

Matchups will be interesting. I think we'll see a lot of zone from GS, but I'm curious how we set our defense. I would go:

Rudy on Draymond
Ju on Butler
Jaden on Curry
Ant on Hield
Mike on Podziemski

Rudy and Jaden each have 7" on their guy and Ju has 2. Ant and Buddy are the same size, and Brandin has 4" on Mike. Huge size advantage for us, and I'm not worried about Mike guarding Podziemski.

I wouldn't assume that's who they're starting. It might be who they start, but Kerr is a lot more flexible with his rotations than Finch (for better or for worse). BTW, we should look at throwing a modified zone at Golden State too given the fact they may constantly have two or three guys on the floor that aren't great 3-point shooters.

[TAFKASP]

Nice to see they found their 3-ball.

[thedoper]

Kerr is so annoying