Bill Simmons had Doc Rivers on his most recent podcast, and they were full of praise for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They discussed how the Wolves were ahead of the curve on the “bigs” revolution and whether or not they could reach the NBA Finals.
But first, they discussed the moment that the Wolves arrived. Simmons started with the “What’s wrong with Golden State conversation?”
After Minnesota beat them the second time, when they had the fight, when [Jaden] McDaniels got into it with Klay [Thompson], and the whole thing. And you texted me that night, you thought that was absolutely fascinating that that happened. So explain why.
Rivers had the perfect explanation.
Because I think Golden State saw who Minnesota is. And the greatest respect – they were like, ‘Okay, Minnesota’s good.’ And you can feel that. You can feel that in the beginning [of the game]. Because Minnesota just beat them, they played a second game, and Golden State thought, ‘Okay, let’s show up and be Golden State.’ And it wasn’t working out.
Anthony Edwards, he didn’t get the message, Bill. He didn’t know he was supposed to lay down with Draymond [Green]. He was talking crap, the team was playing, and I loved it. I loved seeing stuff like that, and it was almost like Minnesota was anointed that night by Golden State and by the reaction of Draymond and their entire team.
Simmons said the Wolves wouldn’t get that reaction if the Warriors didn’t take them seriously.
So Golden State, Klay getting mad, Draymond getting mad, you don’t get to do that if you don’t take the team serious.
Doc agreed.
No, it wouldn’t have meant as much. And that’s why, I’ve said it for years, I love the back-to-back games because that second game, I don’t care if it’s two good teams or two bad teams, that second game always brings something. And that game had a lot in it.
Because the first game, there was a lot of talking going on, and you could see that Minnesota was doing some talking, and Golden State showed up and was like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna show you who the big boys are.’ And when it didn’t work out, you could see it didn’t work out.
That’s why I like back-to-back games.
Everyone knew that it was a big deal when the Timberwolves took two games in San Francisco, but Rivers put it into perspective. The Warriors would not have reacted the way they did if they didn’t take the Wolves seriously, and they won nine of 11 games after that to take the lead in the Western Conference.
Be sure to listen to the entire episode to hear Simmons and Rivers break down Minnesota’s chances of making the Finals and why they believe they were ahead of the bigs revolution.
