Game 4 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks saw Anthony Edwards do a fairly good job of guarding Luka Doncic. In the lead-up to Game 5, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was asked about Edwards’ good defense on Doncic and he had an interesting explanation for that.
“He does a better job of getting through all those illegal screens they set for Luka,” Finch said. “Jaden (McDaniels) was getting cracked a lot. Jaden’s traditionally been really good on Luka with his length but he’s been cracked by a bunch of screens out there.”
“I think he gets into the ball, gets down, gets over, a little bit more physical,” Finch said when asked what made Edwards better at navigating through those screens. “When the screener hits, he hits back a little bit better.”
“They move at the last moment,” Finch replied when asked what made the screens illegal. “They move in, they really give you a great shoulder crack at the last moment and it’s hard. They’re hard to get through.”
Finch added that he felt the Timberwolves weren’t getting enough respect from the officials in the series. He stated they had sent some clips over as well, but didn’t think anything was coming of that.
It does come across like sour grapes when coaches bring up illegal screens and things of that nature. While I wouldn’t say that Finch is just making things up here, the counter to that would be that Rudy Gobert is often accused of setting illegal screens too.
You just really go nowhere when you start talking about these screens. Almost every team can be accused of setting them, with some perhaps doing it with greater regularity than others.
I am not sure if Doncic heard those comments or not, but he ripped apart that Timberwolves defense in Game 5. The five-time All-Star had 36 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in the contest, as the Mavericks blew out the Timberwolves 124-103 to advance to the NBA Finals.
It didn’t matter who the Timberwolves had guarding Doncic out there in Game 5. You could see very early on that he was in the mood to crush the home team and that’s what he did.
The Minnesota Timberwolves Will Be Back
While the season ended in a very disappointing fashion for the Timberwolves with a blowout loss at home, I have no doubts they will be back at this stage sooner rather than later. This was the first deep playoff run for some of their key pieces like Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Jaden McDaniels and they’d have learned a lot from it.
Here against the Mavericks, they just came up against a more experienced team that executed better down the stretch. The Timberwolves led late in the fourth quarter in each of the first three games of this series but ended up losing all of them. With this experience, they will be better prepared for these scenarios the next time they’re in the same position.
Also, the biggest reason why I am confident they’ll be back at this stage is Edwards. While all the Michael Jordan talk was a bit much, there is no denying he is a special player. As a 22-year-old, he averaged 27.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game during these playoffs, and Edwards will only get better in the coming years.
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