FULL Western Conference Semifinal Preview: Anthony Edwards Return? Any Hope In LA?

0:03 Out west, um we had a very interesting

0:08 um uh injury update today from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

0:14 Um There was a belief that Ant Edwards was looking

0:20 at multiple weeks out with this hyperextended knee and bone bruise.

0:24 And no matter when he would come back,

0:27 certainly would almost certainly miss the start of the series.

0:31 Well, the Wolves put out a put out a injury report on Sunday

0:35 that Ant Edwards has been cleared

0:37 for basketball activity and listed him as questionable,

0:42 straight from out to questionable.

0:45 Also, by the way, uh Ayo Dosunmu,

0:48 who missed the last game with the calf injury, also listed as questionable.

0:53 Both of those were significant, McMahon.

0:56 And uh you know, Ant has is truly one of the most remarkable athlete, you know,

1:01 in a in a league that is totally populated with freak athletes,

1:07 uh f- being a freak athlete is table stakes for the for the NBA.

1:13 He is a lead amongst elite.

1:16 Um and I've seen him shake off injuries before that I couldn't believe it.

1:22 But this one I thought, you know, I mean it's a knee.

1:26 I don't know if he's going to be able to play in game one,

1:28 but the fact that they went straight

1:29 to questionable and the fact that that, you know,

1:31 indicates he's going to be back, I would say sooner rather than later,

1:35 gives this series with the Spurs a bit of a new look.

1:40 Yeah, and this is the first year

1:41 that Ant's really had significant injury issues.

1:44 He had the foot stuff going on and uh there

1:48 was like an infection in a toe or something like that.

1:51 Then he had the runner's knee.

1:53 infection, I think, right?

1:54 Didn't they say that?

1:55 Yeah, I think so.

1:55 And then he then he had the runner's knee that, you know,

1:58 cost him uh a place on the ballots on the on the award ballots.

2:03 And then uh obviously that this then he

2:06 hyperextends his other knee and they called him week-to-week.

2:09 Uh he did that on April 25th, so That's a new week.

2:15 That's two.

2:18 Yeah, I mean that it's it's been Ginger's

2:20 reporting has been fairly suspect in the past.

2:23 I mean, they did say week-to-week.

2:25 Well, I know, but I would combine the combination

2:27 of that with Anthony Edwards being bionic man uh seemingly and you know,

2:33 here we are with him I would guess playing in game one on Monday night,

2:37 which is a fun wrinkle.

2:39 He's also just a ruthless competitor and like he knows that it Credit

2:44 to the Wolves that they were able to close out the Nuggets without him.

2:48 Um Yeah, that We haven't talked about that.

2:51 Um I would We'll talk more about the Nuggets in the coming weeks.

2:55 We talked about it on Thursday.

2:57 did?

2:57 That's right.

2:58 We did.

2:58 Can I just say that I learned so much in my time covering the Miami Heat.

3:06 I refer to it all the time.

3:09 And one of the things Erik Spoelstra did,

3:11 even when he was a very young head coach and even when it wasn't true,

3:15 he had this saying where he would say, no matter what the situation he had.

3:19 And you you guys know, you've heard this.

3:21 He would say, we have enough.

3:24 You know, like he always would like this is just an organizational mantra.

3:27 We have enough.

3:28 I don't care if we're missing our top three scorers, we have enough.

3:32 That's not what Chris Finch said, but that was the mantra of the of the Wolves.

3:37 They didn't complain and worry about what they didn't have,

3:39 they just focused on what they did.

3:41 We have enough.

3:42 We have enough.

3:42 They don't lack confidence in in that Minnesota Timberwolves locker room.

3:46 No, they don't.

3:47 That And if you had any doubts, I mean, again,

3:50 Jaden McDaniels talked all kinds of talk and then

3:53 came out and had the series of his life.

3:55 going to talk about the bad defenders on the Spurs?

3:58 It's going to be a shorter list.

3:59 Well, ooh.

4:00 Yeah, he might need to look for a while to find those guys.

4:04 And they it sure ain't uh that number one.

4:08 Yeah, I Wemb is a pretty good defender.

4:11 Or number five.

4:12 Or number five.

4:13 Yeah, Area 51's populated with pretty good defenders.

4:16 Castle, by the way.

4:18 Yes.

4:18 I mean, look, to me, the thing that's going to be interesting about this series,

4:21 let's assume Ant plays, let's assume Ayo Dosunmu plays.

4:23 He's questionable, hopefully he can play too.

4:25 He missed a couple games or game six with that calf issue.

4:29 Um but assuming those guys play, Portland was overmatched in the first round.

4:34 And so, they had potentially some opportunities to make that series interesting.

4:38 They were up in the second half, I think,

4:39 double digits in both game three and game four in Portland.

4:42 San Antonio came back,

4:44 took care of business and then closed the series out in five.

4:47 Obviously, San Antonio is an excellent team.

4:50 Victor is a singular force.

4:52 I think the Spurs will win the series,

4:54 but but the Wolves have made the conference finals the last two years.

4:57 They are a very experienced team, as you just said, Big Ben.

4:59 They are a very confident team.

5:01 They're not going to be overawed by the moment.

5:04 Anthony Edwards certainly is not going to be.

5:06 Um and if they can push the Spurs a little bit,

5:10 who have had practically no adversity all season, real adversity,

5:16 it will be interesting to see if, say,

5:18 the Wolves can get up 2-1 going into game four in the series.

5:21 Like, how will the Spurs respond to that?

5:23 How will they handle being down?

5:25 How will they handle if they don't hit shots?

5:27 Or if, you know, they do have some injury

5:29 or something and sort of breaks the wrong way on them.

5:31 They also might just win the series in five

5:35 and it it might not be very competitive.

5:38 The Spurs did get a a little taste of adversity

5:40 in the first round when it's a 1-1 series,

5:43 Victor Wembanyama was ruled out by the uh league's

5:47 concussion protocol for game three and they were down,

5:50 I forgot what it was at halftime.

5:52 Believe they were down 15 in the third.

5:54 Yeah, it you know, on the road and then it wasn't De'Aaron Fox,

5:58 it wasn't Stephon Castle, it was rookie um Dylan Harper who dominated them.

6:05 So, they you know, they had a little taste of adversity,

6:07 but this is a higher caliber opponent.

6:11 I'm fascinated.

6:12 Look, we just watched Jaden McDaniels completely

6:14 forget what he did offensively, which was awesome.

6:17 He completely shut down Jamal Murray,

6:21 who probably is going to be an all-NBA player this year.

6:24 Had the best year of his career.

6:26 He's a guy who's had many big-time big-time playoff performances,

6:30 but series, a championship run.

6:33 Jaden McDaniels totally shut him down.

6:35 And then, I'm not going to say Rudy Gobert shut down Joker,

6:39 but he made things more difficult for Joker

6:42 than maybe we've ever seen in a playoff series.

6:44 And so, one, what is McDaniels' primary assignment?

6:50 I think it'll be De'Aaron Fox, but we'll see.

6:53 You know, and that'll tell you who they think

6:55 the priority is in terms of Fox or Castle.

6:57 And then, two, [laughter]

7:00 you know, Rudy, congratulations on getting the best of Joker.

7:04 Now, and I know Windy, you like to take credit for discovering Wemb, but

7:09 I don't n- never said that one time.

7:10 Bontemps talks about that.

7:12 Well, Bontemps Bontemps is never wrong.

7:14 If you don't believe me, just ask him.

7:17 [laughter]

7:16 Um but you know, Rudy's Rudy's known that Victor Wembanyama is going to be

7:20 an NBA star since he met him when he was, I think, 14 or 15.

7:23 I mean, the first time I ever saw

7:24 Victor Wembanyama was on social media when there's

7:26 this 16-year-old 7-foot-3 string bean who's like knocking down

7:31 jumpers over Gobert in a in a two-on-two game.

7:34 I'm going to call on our French brethren in the media,

7:39 cuz I have to assume that Victor and um Rudy

7:42 are going to be talking some trash to each other.

7:44 I'm going to need some lip reading in French.

7:48 Yeah, the one thing I'll say about Rudy,

7:52 he kept it very respectful the entire series against Joker.

7:57 There was going to be not a word of bulletin

7:59 board material coming out of his mouth in any language.

8:02 I don't mean uh in the in the in the press.

8:05 I mean, on the court.

8:07 Well, Wemb apparently is asking Rudy stuff like what

8:09 kind of water filter he uses in his house.

8:12 That was a great quote.

8:13 It was the It was the kind of stuff like that, you know,

8:15 Bontemps relentlessly makes fun of me,

8:18 but the couple interviews that I saw Victor give when he was 17 years old,

8:23 when I went into the French translation and got them translated,

8:28 Again, uh no, it's no one's making fun of your discovery.

8:30 We're celebrating your bringing this incredible phenom to the Americas.

8:35 I was so fascinated by the way that Victor thought.

8:40 It was the combination of the talent and the personality is what I was like,

8:44 I've got to know and and know I've

8:47 got to understand and know more about this guy.

8:49 Got to bring him out.

8:51 Bring him out to the people.

8:53 Thank you for doing it.

8:55 It's been great for all of us.

8:57 I will put forth the profile that I wrote after a week in Paris

9:01 is on Victor as I will put forth I will put it forth.

9:05 And if you didn't you didn't learn something about Victor there,

9:07 what do you want me to say?

9:08 It should have been a headline, my discovery.

9:10 He's the Wemb whisperer and for better or worse, I'm the Rudy whisperer.

9:14 Oh, that's Hey, listen, I don't cover him every day.

9:15 That's that's our guy Michael C.

9:17 Wright.

9:17 I'm not trying to pretend like I know what's going on.

9:19 I'm just telling you the fact that that Rudy

9:23 Gobert talked this week about how one

9:25 of his early conversations with Victor was about

9:28 how he filters the water in his house.

9:31 Yeah.

9:32 I mean, listen, in all seriousness,

9:34 it does tell you Wemb is looking for every little thing he can do,

9:40 cuz all he's trying to do is squeeze every bit of potential that he has out.

9:45 That's why he's so unbelievably exciting.

9:47 He wants to be the greatest.

9:48 Yes, and he's like, I can be the greatest player of all time.

9:51 Let me leave no stone unturned.

9:54 Yep.

9:53 Like I've gotten to see just cuz the way the, you know,

9:56 the Mavericks, there's not like a visiting

9:58 weight room at the American Airlines Center.

10:01 So, that hallway is where most of our guys do like their postgame workouts.

10:05 So, That's been the case for years, yeah.

10:07 I've been in the hallway and just kind of like looked down the hallway.

10:10 And this was like when Wemby was a rookie and I was like,

10:12 man, this guy is attacking his postgame workout.

10:16 Like he he is I remember thinking that about Jokic about 4 or 5 years ago.

10:21 Yeah.

10:21 Seeing him at a postgame preseason postgame in in Oklahoma City.

10:27 And they I mean now the setup is better,

10:29 but like they basically had like a hallway

10:31 to do uh visiting weight room weight training.

10:34 And I saw Jokic killing it after a after a preseason game.

10:39 I saw the same thing in Dallas once.

10:40 I was like, okay.

10:41 And this is when he was like kind of you know, early chubby Jokic.

10:44 I'm like, oh, wow, if he starts taking that stuff seriously, look out.

10:48 did.

10:48 Um I love the follow-up from our Minnesota brother.

10:51 And I'm not sure who it was Chris Hein or Dane Moore or um John K,

10:57 but somebody asked a follow-up, does Ant ask you about [laughter]

11:02 what do you how you're filtering your water?

11:04 And Rudy I thought had a great line.

11:06 He goes, I dream of that day.

11:08 No, he said I pray for that day.

11:09 He prayed for that day.

11:13 [laughter] No, Ant does not.

11:15 Uh I mean I would love to hear

11:18 uh a three-person podcast between Ant, Victor, and Rudy.

11:22 I mean you would have You well, you did have to be have the uh the beep button

11:26 ready or it would it couldn't be on a Disney platform.

11:30 Uh [sighs and gasps] Maybe Ant would say, pardon my French.

11:34 Anyway, I think we'll learn a lot about how that series

11:37 is going to go based on what we see if Ant plays,

11:40 what he looks like, and what he can do.

11:42 And And by the way, we're we're talking about I would

11:46 say the two most dominant defensive forces in the game today.

11:50 And we all know how offended Rudy was

11:52 that he wasn't a finalist for Defensive Player

11:54 of the Year even though there was no question as long as Victor got 65 games,

12:00 it was going to be him.

12:02 He was unanimous.

12:03 I think you're I think you're selling Chet a little short.

12:06 Okay.

12:07 Chet's Chet's Chet's awesome.

12:09 Chet's up there.

12:10 I I still would Rudy Gobert is a four-time Defensive Player

12:13 of the Year and arguably had his best defensive season this year.

12:17 he was on my ballot.

12:18 I Listen, I would have had him on there.

12:20 He was on my ballot.

12:21 This summer uh an assistant coach in San Antonio was

12:27 showing uh Wemby some stuff that that Gobert does especially well.

12:32 And you know, basically saying, hey, you know,

12:33 we need to we need to you know, you to do more of this and that.

12:37 Da da da.

12:38 And Wemby said something like uh I'm already better than him.

12:43 You know, like I I'm already a better defender than him.

12:46 That's exactly what he said.

12:48 And he and it was like, well, he's won four Defensive Player of the Year

12:52 awards and we were 25th last year in defense.

12:54 So, let's go ahead and lock in and let's prove that this year.

12:57 And he did.

12:58 Yeah.

12:58 Well, uh all right, the other series that we've got in the West,

13:03 Lakers um Lakers Thunder, that's the series you'll be on, McMahon.

13:09 Um Looks like you won't be seeing Luka to start the series.

13:13 Luka's story is just going to you know,

13:16 it's the Lakers aren't putting a timetable on it,

13:18 but making it clear that he is still not I mean maybe we'll get

13:21 an update tomorrow that over the weekend here he's maybe starting to get closer.

13:25 You know, Shams reported today he hadn't even been sprinting,

13:28 much less playing one-on-one or anything beyond that.

13:31 think as you said last week, okay,

13:32 let's say he gets cleared the next 30 seconds.

13:35 Let's just say that happens.

13:37 He's going to need a total conditioning ramp-up.

13:39 Like you just can't throw him into a second round playoff series.

13:42 Well, and then you throw in the fact that like, hey,

13:46 the Lakers went 0 and 4 against the Thunder this year

13:50 and lost by an average of 29.25 points in those four games.

13:55 In the three games that Shai played, they lost by an average of 36 points.

14:00 The last game Luka and Reaves didn't play.

14:01 So, I it'll be a little they got hurt during that game.

14:05 When they went down They exited when they were down third.

14:08 Yes, they got hurt.

14:08 You've forgotten that because the game started off

14:11 with the with the Lakers being down about 9,000 points.

14:14 Yeah, I was at the game.

14:15 I was actually at the game.

14:16 That's when they both got hurt, but it was a blowout.

14:18 No, you the game was in Oklahoma City, I believe.

14:20 I don't think you It was in Oklahoma City.

14:22 It was definitely in Oklahoma City.

14:23 Trust me, bro.

14:24 They got hurt there cuz then it went to Dallas

14:26 and then Austin Reaves' MRI got messed up in Dallas.

14:30 It became a whole thing.

14:31 I with with with respect,

14:32 I attended a game within the last 2 weeks of the season

14:35 in LA where Reaves and Luka didn't They played twice late in the season.

14:41 The game they got hurt in was in Oklahoma City and they both got hurt in Yeah.

14:46 Yes.

14:47 Yes.

14:47 We're not guessing.

14:49 We're we're not guessing.

14:50 like you got to be careful with the game by a trillion points and Luka came

14:54 in in the third quarter and got hurt when they were down by 30 something points.

14:56 Yes, it's not it's not relevant.

14:58 The the Thunder are good.

15:01 relevant.

15:01 LeBron missed the first blowout in November or whatever.

15:05 Here's And also, here's the thing.

15:07 According to our ESPN research folks,

15:11 the largest regular season point differential between teams

15:14 that met in the playoffs was the '06 finals.

15:21 The Mavs had mopped the floor with the Heat that year

15:24 two times at average by 24 and a half points.

15:26 And we know how that series ended up.

15:28 Having said that, they started off 2 and 0 in that series, too.

15:30 That's right.

15:31 Having [snorts] said that, like I it's going it's going to be a monumental task.

15:37 Yeah, is are Dwyane Wade and Shaq on on this team

15:40 cuz I don't I don't remember seeing that.

15:42 Yeah, look, the Lakers the Lakers had a great Lakers

15:44 had a great series getting out of the first round.

15:47 LeBron played really well.

15:48 JJ Redick did a really good job.

15:50 Obviously, we talked about the you know,

15:52 the Rockets had another very rough performance in game six.

15:55 Lakers close the door.

15:57 But the Lakers, if they had everybody,

15:59 aren't good enough to beat this Thunder team or too

16:02 flawed to beat this Thunder team and they don't have everybody.

16:04 So, it should not be a competitive series.

16:07 And I think if it's five, I think the Lakers should feel pretty good.

16:11 How many How many first round wins in his career has

16:14 LeBron been very like reflective after and really savored the moment?

16:19 Well, he has 17 of them.

16:21 I know.

16:21 And this one Not that many.

16:23 with that 10 afterwards, he was you know,

16:26 And and that's because [clears throat] like honestly,

16:29 it's going to be a miraculous if the Lakers

16:32 are able to pull off an upset in this series.

16:35 If the Lakers should get three home games in the series,

16:37 it would be a very impressive accomplishment.

16:40 Yeah.

16:40 Like we don't know when Jalen Williams is going to play,

16:42 JayDub is going to play for the Thunder.

16:45 Well, I wouldn't hurry him back.

16:46 I yeah.

16:47 So, I and I wouldn't hurry him back either.

16:49 You need him next round.

16:50 I don't know that you need him this round.

16:52 They don't.

16:53 Well, we look forward to your exemplary coverage of it.

16:57 Well, I might be spending a decent amount of time at home between series again.