The Athletic NBA Daily
Durant & Beal return to crush Lakers | What is wrong with the Timberwolves?
Wed, 27 Nov 2024
Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal return from injury to blowout the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA Cup group play. The Milwaukee Bucks continue their steady stretch, in spite of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s absence, with a win over the Miami Heat. The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski joins Dave DuFour and Zena Keita react to the Timberwolves loss to the Houston Rockets and the bad vibes in Minnesota. Then, the gang discusses a potential pivot for the Pelicans and action movies.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, Jon KrawczynskiExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Suns vs. Lakers game?
Chapter 2: How did Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal perform in their return?
They've got their full starting unit out there for only like the fourth time all year. And what do you know? They blow out the Lakers 127 to 100. The three guys, you know, Booker plays the most minutes, plays 34 minutes. I think only 27 for Beal, 30 for KD. So just a nice, easy night for everybody, which is kind of what we want for the Suns, right?
Like this is a team that's built for the playoffs. They should be crushing teams like the Lakers that can't really score.
that's exactly what you want is your big three being able to come in, handle business, and then sit down in the fourth quarter and allow the young guys to cook. And that's exactly what happened. I mean, this is probably the best iteration of a big three living like right now. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like there's not, there's not, there's few teams that have been able to bring in a new talent, a big name talent and work it out. And the funny thing is, Their move actually had nothing to do with the big three that was already there. It was about Tyus Jones coming in and becoming the thread between the three of them and being able to have him be the floor setter with this team.
And not, you know, not to put anything away from the big three, but there's something to be said about their rookies too. Ryan Dunn and Oso Iguodaro have been so solid of presences and they play well. so much older than they are just being responsible with the ball and making the right decision.
And I'm sure that that is a byproduct of being around these three superstars in Beal, Booker and Durant.
Well, they get big minutes out of Iguodoro filling in when Nurkic was kind of banged up and in foul trouble. And I mean, and Ryan Dunn has just been a good story all year long. Nurkic, you know, hit a three, another three made by Yusuf Nurkic in this game. I think we were contractually obligated to point out every single time he makes one because it was going to be rare.
But on the other hand, the Lakers, J.J. Redick, made history in the game or after the game, I guess you could say, becoming the first Lakers coach in their history to lose an NBA Cup game. Zena. Oh, wow. Darvin Ham undefeated on the way to the NBA Cup championship.
I actually did not know that.
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Chapter 3: What are the issues plaguing the Lakers this season?
Now, I don't have the stats in front of me, but I know that Rui Hachimura coming off the bench in previous years for the Lakers has been a burst of energy. He has been a burst of defense and offense. He can hit that corner three, give the Lakers a lift, especially as they're in transition, wanting to get a quick bucket early in the shot clock. Now...
One thing about D'Angelo Russell, he's been excellent in general. Against the Phoenix Suns tonight, not good. Yeah, well, okay.
I was just going to have some stinkers here and there. Let's swing it to the Bucs. Number one, the court... in the Miami Heat arena for the NBA Cup is legal pad yellow. And I just do not get it. We just cannot do this. That is an awful call.
There's like five yellow cards.
We got to get rid of the yellow. That's the first note in my notes from the game, Zena. My second note, no Giannis. No, Chris Middleton, he's not back yet, but we did get the news that he's playing five on five. So he's going to hopefully be back soon. You know, we've been talking about that for a couple of weeks now that it's up to him. So hopefully he's back soon.
But the Bucks did get a win over the Miami Heat. Thanks to Damian Lillard, 37 points. And look, they they really did. They came out like game busters. And they held off the Miami Heat, who came back and made this a real game. But the Bucs, they showed some stuff, I thought, showed some toughness. I think Damian Lillard making shots helps rise a lot of tides, right? But I think A.J.
Green and Andre Jackson have shown things when Damian Lillard was out, when now Giannis out. Just those guys need to play more. Good stuff happens for the Bucs when those guys are playing.
When Dame Lillard was hot early on in the game, there wasn't a lot of movement that the rest of the cast had to do. They were allowing Dame Lillard to cook. And for that reason, their energy was conserved.
When you saw things slow down for Dame Lillard and the Bucs had to do more work to get themselves open, to get themselves running in transition and defending as well the Miami Heat, who got hot, especially in that third quarter, You saw them get fatigued. And who were their saving grace? It was A.J. Green hitting those three-pointers and Andre Jackson Jr.
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Chapter 4: What positives can we take from the Timberwolves' recent game?
He could get a little salty and ornery when things weren't going well, and sometimes the team needs that. Some guy to stand in the middle of the locker room and say, knock this shit off and get going. And that's what Kyle Anderson did sometimes.
And so they are missing him on multiple fronts right now, just in all of the different things that he brings to the table outside of his poor three-point shooting.
That's one of my favorite aspects of Kyle Anderson's game that often goes unnoticed is that he was actually a point guard first and then grew. I love those type of players that have a handle all out of nowhere at a 6'9 frame. It's like, oh no, this was actually my job before I became a defensive specialist and a slow-mo, down-the-paint, fundamental type of player.
Chapter 5: Who is Rob Dillingham and what impact has he had on the Timberwolves?
But you just talked about this and you wrote about this, John, that Anthony Edwards is Speaking of being a guy that's in the locker room telling people to knock things out and figure it out, being the leader on this team, he said, we aren't playing hard enough. And in the games that they have been able to kind of get out a win, it's because they were playing hard enough to cover up the mistakes.
How do you get them to play hard enough and play together? Like, what is Chris Finch's task in front of him to get this team to trust each other?
Yeah, it's been, I think, a real point of exasperation for him this season and something that he openly worried about before the season is that I think there was concern that with a young core, now they have Rudy Gobert and they have Mike Conley as veteran dudes, but their core is young. Ant, Nasri, Jaden McDaniels, now Rob Dillingham.
And that group made it to the Western Conference Finals last year, and I think there was concern that maybe they'd be slightly bored with the regular season. Maybe they would just assume that, hey, we're just going to get back to the playoffs, no problem. You know, everything is going to come easily and naturally for us. And that hasn't happened. And I think one of the things we all...
know what Anthony Edwards does and what he brings to the table. He's been terrific for them, but he has not been the defensive presence that he was last year. He has not been a tone setter at the start of games that they need from him. He is the number one guy. Now cat is gone. Julius Randall is what he is. He's a good player, but he's not, you know, a number one B like Carl Anthony towns was.
So this is Anthony Edwards team. He's still only 23. He's still figuring things out and how to be a leader effectively. And all of those things. But I do think they need a little bit more consistency in intensity, but especially on the defensive end from him against good teams and bad to really just get everyone to set the tip to follow his lead.
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Chapter 6: What challenges are the Timberwolves facing this season?
Chapter 7: How are the Milwaukee Bucks performing without Giannis?
Chapter 8: What are the future prospects for the Pelicans?
They've got their full starting unit out there for only like the fourth time all year. And what do you know? They blow out the Lakers 127 to 100. The three guys, you know, Booker plays the most minutes, plays 34 minutes. I think only 27 for Beal, 30 for KD. So just a nice, easy night for everybody, which is kind of what we want for the Suns, right?
Like this is a team that's built for the playoffs. They should be crushing teams like the Lakers that can't really score.
that's exactly what you want is your big three being able to come in, handle business, and then sit down in the fourth quarter and allow the young guys to cook. And that's exactly what happened. I mean, this is probably the best iteration of a big three living like right now. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like there's not, there's not, there's few teams that have been able to bring in a new talent, a big name talent and work it out. And the funny thing is, Their move actually had nothing to do with the big three that was already there. It was about Tyus Jones coming in and becoming the thread between the three of them and being able to have him be the floor setter with this team.
And not, you know, not to put anything away from the big three, but there's something to be said about their rookies too. Ryan Dunn and Oso Iguodaro have been so solid of presences and they play well. so much older than they are just being responsible with the ball and making the right decision.
And I'm sure that that is a byproduct of being around these three superstars in Beal, Booker and Durant.
Well, they get big minutes out of Iguodoro filling in when Nurkic was kind of banged up and in foul trouble. And I mean, and Ryan Dunn has just been a good story all year long. Nurkic, you know, hit a three, another three made by Yusuf Nurkic in this game. I think we were contractually obligated to point out every single time he makes one because it was going to be rare.
But on the other hand, the Lakers, J.J. Redick, made history in the game or after the game, I guess you could say, becoming the first Lakers coach in their history to lose an NBA Cup game. Zena. Oh, wow. Darvin Ham undefeated on the way to the NBA Cup championship.
I actually did not know that.
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