u/EsotericPotato

There are obviously a lot of issues to pick at, but this one has been driving me crazy. We’ve had two full seasons of Ant seeing some of the most aggressive double coverage in basketball, and the only person who has figured out how to beat them is Ant himself, which he’s struggled to do this series with his knee injuries.

But when the Spurs trap/double Ant (or whoever else has the ball), nobody on the court knows what to do, the coaches seemingly have no answer for it. If anything, when Ant gets trapped his teammates make it worse by bringing another defender up to the top of the key to screen or by all 4 of them for some reason moving to the same side of the court. They can’t even get the geometry of breaking doubles right, it should be 3 v 4 and instead the entire process breaks down.

To me, it just speaks volumes about the preparation/lack thereof and poor attention to detail in game planning. Breaking double teams is not complex, and the looks the Spurs have been giving Ant are nothing new. Yet the entire team is just helpless to do anything.

Been loving PL lately, feels like he’s in a really good spot, but there are some games where I feel like I’m lacking damage. Most recently, yesterday I played a game against WK, mid Viper, offlane Razor, all of whom went for high sustain/survivability builds. By 25 minutes I had diffusal, manta, skadi, and had no issue with illusion survivability, but I was having a hell of a hard time actually bursting down their cores. Eventually got there with butterfly and bloodthorn, but there was like a 12 minute period where it felt like I was hitting them with a pool noodle.

I’m a big believer in just maxing stat items on PL/illusion heroes generally. Where do you go when you’ve got enough tankiness already and just need more raw damage? Maybe I’ve already answered it myself with the build I went for, but I want to make sure there’s not some obvious build I’m missing.

Edit: I recently returned to this game for the first time in like 4 years and didn’t know diffusal no longer worked with your illusions. Thank you all

Against the Nuggets last week, Chris Finch straight up said that his team told him all season that they’d play differently in the playoffs. Meanwhile, his players have been talking about waiting for the playoffs since January and not being focused on the regular season. This seems like a ridiculous notion to have for a team which hasn't earned anything but a gentlemen's sweep in the conference finals two straight seasons.

Two years in a row, they've underperformed in the regular season. They've looked lazy, uninterested, apathetic. It's been so bad at times that Finch has remarked (multiple times) that last year was not fun to coach because of the team’s approach to the season.

Lack of energy, poor defense, horrendous attention to detail, lack of adherence even to basic basketball fundamentals you learn in grade school (boxing out, not losing your man off-ball, moving around the court on offense), constantly dropping games against objectively bad or severely undermanned teams because they thought they didn't have to try.

All defining traits of the Timberwolves regular seasons. Two years in a row, the regular season has left a poor taste in the mouths of fans, coaches, players, and media alike.

Yet, two years in a row, come playoff time, they look like a totally different team (at least in the first two rounds). The defense-- regardless of who's out there-- has been focused and intense, relentless pursuit on the glass, smart offense, well designed and executed gameplan counters every night. They have just exerted their will physically and mentally, exhibiting a level of endurance which seems to just be overwhelming and exhausting opponents.

Something about how this team that Minnesota has built seems to click better in the playoffs. We've seen instances of teams coast in the regular season because they have real championship expectations (e.g., Cleveland in LeBron's 2nd stint), but what other teams have looked so consistently, dramatically different in the postseason compared to their regular season demeanor?

The Timberwolves are now up 3-1 against the Nuggets, suffering a pyrrhic victory Saturday night which cost them Donte—and likely Ant—for the entire playoffs, and certainly for the remainder of this series.

It goes without saying that Ant and Donte are crushing losses. Ant is the best player on the Timberwolves and what gives them a contender ceiling, while Donte has been a lynchpin in everything the Timberwolves are trying to do this season on both ends of the court.

Without them-- and especially Ant-- they are doomed beyond the first round.

A key point of optimism for Timberwolves fans; they’ve won their last two games with an average margin of victory of 15, and Anthony Edwards averaged 11-4-1 on 30-27-100 shooting splits and just 21 minutes per game.

The reality is that Ant has spent much of this series looking physically hobbled and playing poorly (though he’s still had moments of brilliance). He’s struggled to get to the rim at his regular frequency, he hasn’t been able to get his usual lift on jumpshots, and he’s struggled to physically navigate the court on defense, let alone defend well. He averaged 19-7 on 36-26-86 shooting splits with wildly inconsistent defense. In fact I think it can be pretty plainly argued that Donte-- for this particular series-- will be the more impactful loss.

While the odds of Minnesota winning this series have justifiably dropped dramatically, the Timberwolves have been winning off of team defense and collective rim pressure, both of which are largely still intact. Randle, Jaden, Ayo, and Naz have all had little difficulty in getting to the rim, and their best defenders in this series are still healthy.

Minnesota also has two bench players who have gotten limited run this series who project to slot in pretty seamlessly, in terms of providing more shotmaking and rim pressure:

- Bones Hyland: Averaged 15-3-4 on 47-42-82 shooting splits when he played more than 20 minutes this season (23 games). Difficult shot maker who plays with a ton of pace, can finish at the rim well, and whose game has scaled really well when he's played for the injured Ant.

- Terrence Shannon Jr: TSJ has struggled with health issues this season, but his single greatest NBA skill is attacking the rim with power/athleticism, which has been the formula for the Timberwolves this series. He also demonstrated some quality playoff reps against OKC last season, and closed this regular season’s final three games averaging 27 ppg on 55-48-85 shooting splits.

While neither of them are a replacement for Ant, and neither of them can do the dirty work that Donte did, they are both offensive weapons whose skillsets can help fill part of the deficit left by Ant and Donte, and specifically whose skills on offense align with a playstyle that Denver has proven they don't have a counter to on defense.

The Nuggets almost certainly will tonight, but I think writing the Timberwolves off this series simply because Ant is done does not take into account how these specific four games have actually played out.