The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Thu, 15 May 2025
The Minnesota Timberwolves finished off the Golden State Warriors 4 games to 1 to advance to the Western Conference Finals, and Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni are here to react. They discuss Anthony Edward’s playmaking and Julius Randle’s playoff ascension. Then, Fred Katz joins the show to breakdown the Celtics win over the Knicks, discuss the problem with the Knicks starting lineup, and why the Celtics still have a chance.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Fred KatzExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: How did the Timberwolves advance to the Conference Finals?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, the Wolves have moved on to the Western Conference Finals after beating the Warriors. And we got Fred Katz to talk about the Celtics and their big win over the Knicks and whether or not they can come back from down 3-1. Fire up that boys to men. Good morning, everybody.
Good morning, S. The Golden State Warriors have reached the end of the road, S. It's over. They did not pick up the one win they needed to hopefully get Steph Curry back for the theoretical game six. They dropped game five, 121 to 108. Excuse me, 110, 110. The final score just updating in front of me. S, the Wolves, they did not play with their food. They got this done five games.
That's what we like to see, especially for a team that has confused us and confounded us all year until literally the playoffs.
Yep. They flip the switch in an incredible way. I mean, confusing and confounding is basically how I've described them over the last 82 games. That's exactly how they felt. They play with their food often. And the fact that they did not play with their food. in this series is a sign of maturity.
Chapter 2: What role did Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle play in the playoffs?
It's a sign of growth on Anthony Edwards's part, who I think generally didn't have like the most outstanding, incredible scoring game. He only finished with 22 points, but 12 assists, which is a career high for him in the postseason. I think he's been incredible as a passer throughout this season and postseason, if you will. He was great against the Warriors. They were showing, too.
It just shows growth from his side, right? Like the development that he's been. And we've talked about this a bunch, but him and Randall headed to the Western Conference finals.
Another big Randall game. Another big Randall game. And Randall, obviously, like big source of contention this whole year. Totally. How's the fit? You know, obviously, he comes in for Towns. His playoff fit has been excellent. Absolutely. Number one, this guy has brought an intensity on the defensive end that I didn't really know he had.
I mean, you think about him guarding Luka Doncic in that Lakers series at times, but his offensive aggressiveness and he's just been getting them like just getting into the paint. getting shots up, and then other things are coming out of that for them. I mean, they kind of got this nice, this two-headed attack with those two guys, which I think is what the vision was in New York, right?
Chapter 3: How did Julius Randle transform his playoff performance?
Like if he could have been that with Brunson, you see how it works. And Anthony Edwards and Randall over the course of the season figured out a way to make this work, and it looks really good. I mean, Randall being able to play bully ball – Against the Warriors, right? Against Trayvon. Yeah, against Trayvon.
Has there been a single player in these playoffs that has changed the way we think about him as a playoff player as much as Julius Randle?
Maybe not.
Yeah, maybe not. Right. Because I've seen everybody quote that 15 game sample of when he was in New York and the shooting percentages. Man, I even mentioned them. The fact that he's like he shot 28 percent from three and was barely shooting well in any of those postseason playoff series with the Knicks. He has completely changed that in the first time with the Timberwolves.
Incredible score, very poised. You mentioned the defensive effort. He's bought in on that. And I think he's been a great second fiddle for the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards, a guy who can create his own shot when they need it to. And that's actually a quality that you'll listen to us talk to Fred Katz about Carl Anthony Towns. That's a quality that is very different than Carl Anthony Towns.
Towns needs a little bit more of a setup. to get him going. Randall can get his own shot and he's showing why that's really important for the Timberwolves right now.
For all the talk about Randall being a spacing problem coming to Minnesota. I mean, he took six threes in the game and Carl Anthony Towns took three for the Knicks, right? So spacing is relative. It's how you use a guy and Randall showing a willingness to take five or six threes a game. I think shows, you know, That guy's out there willing to go along to get along.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, look, this, if anything, from the Warriors perspective, you can look at this and say this would have been a much, much closer series if Steph Curry was playing. That's the obvious.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do the Timberwolves face against the Nuggets or Thunder?
He did not know. And look, I know the aggressiveness from him wanes sometimes. And again, that's why I think they need to add some shooters and some shot creation next to those two. But generally, they were awesome in the regular season when it was him, those two and Draymond Green. And so that nucleus moving forward into next year, I don't think they should resign Jonathan Kaminga.
I think Kaminga looked good. Yeah. Really good in this series. But it just makes sense for him to kind of spread his wings. I think Kaminga probably makes sense, right?
Yes. Go to Brooklyn, go to Utah, get your shots up. And that's a piece for the Warriors, though. See, this is the thing, right? Like, a signing trade for Kaminga, I actually... A lot of people have looked at this from the Kaminga side where, hey, Kaminga probably earned himself some money back that he may have lost in the last half of the season.
But the truth is he reclaimed a lot of value for the Warriors also in this. That's a tool that they're going to be able to use to maybe pick up another piece or two, right? Like when you consider how young he is. And maybe it's a draft pick. I don't know how much they're going to get, right, player-wise. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Kuminga had another pretty good game.
I mean, it's not the same as what we saw. I think game three was his best game in the series because he was playing both ways at a high level. But I thought he was pretty good again, showed that he can go out and get a bucket, which is what the Warriors theoretically needed, you know, quite often this year.
Yeah. And look, maybe that's the argument for bringing him back, honestly, is the fact that like, hey, we have this young guy who clearly can get a bucket. How do we solve this issue? How do we solve the fact that him and Jimmy Butler can't work or the fact that we just really he fell out of the rotation when everybody was healthy for this team? Maybe that's the way they look at it.
But I also think from your side of things, you can probably get something in a sign and trade for Kaminga.
Let me ask you a question before we go to Fred Katz. Let me ask you a question. Who does the Minnesota Timberwolves want to play? The Denver Nuggets or the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Okay, this is interesting, right? Because I think both teams are going to really be a pain in the butt for the Minnesota Timberwolves. But it's kind of like the devil you know versus the devil that you don't know type of thing because they've played Denver. They know what Denver can be. I think the lack of a rim protector, now you can call Nikola Jokic a rim protector. He's still a big body.
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Chapter 5: Can the Celtics come back after their win against the Knicks?
They had that 20-point comeback loss that they had to the Bucs, which was all zone defense. I don't know. I think that's part of it that makes me say, like, it's a toss-up. Whoever comes at this point, I'll take it. I feel like they would say Denver, though. How about you?
I think Denver is probably what they would say, just because you've got the blueprint, right? You've done it. You know what to do. Theoretically, this Denver team isn't as good as the one from last year. Theoretically, right? MPJ looks like a shell of himself with the shoulder issue. No KCP, obviously. Yeah, they've got six guys. I mean, really, you've got four. Maybe four and a half, right?
Like depending on how MPJ is rebounding. So, you know, I do think that you probably want Denver except Nikola Jokic. Jokic might have, you know, spent a lot of time watching that tape. Maybe he's got that defense all figured out. Who knows? I'm not sure.
And it's not Carl Anthony Towns this time as the primary. It's Randall and Gobert helping. So it's a little bit different than last year's Timberwolves team too.
Yeah. I don't know. I'm excited. Guys, stick around. We got Fred Katz and man, Fred, Fred really believes in the Celtics. Let's just say that.
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Just when we thought the Boston Celtics had run out of hope, hope returned. They win the game five that they were expected to lose after the loss of Jason Tatum. Here to talk about it, Fred Katz. He was in the building. Fred, that was a bit of a dud for the Knicks.
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Chapter 6: How did the Knicks' lineup affect their performance against the Celtics?
It was absolutely a dud for the Knicks. I don't think there's any playing around with it. They were okay in the first half. They got off to an okay start and it was tied at halftime. And then all of a sudden, Boston just completely torched them to begin the third. And by that point... It was just done with. Boston shot 18 free throws just in the third quarter.
Jalen Brunson had five fouls in one quarter. The Knicks were put into rotation constantly. They didn't pick up guys in transition. Boston completely took advantage of that, which was somewhat of a problem all night. Derek White was freeing himself left and right. No rhyming scheme intended whatsoever. They... Boston just played like a much better team. Fantastic game from Jalen Brown, I thought.
Fantastic two-way performance, picking it up with Jason Tatum missing his first game. And Luke Cornett with a third quarter for the ages, five blocks in the third quarter for Luke Cornett, with him being the halftime adjustment. But Kristaps Porzingis not coming out to start the second half and Luke Cornett starting there. So, I mean, a bad night for the Knicks, but a really great night for Boston.
I wish Luke Cornett chased that triple-double. I was looking for it. I was waiting for it. I was like, I just need the stat that says Luke Cornett has a triple-double with blocks. That would be incredible. But look, yeah, this was an all-around effort for the Celtics. From the Knicks perspective, it seems like Mitchell Robinson has been a really important part for them this series entirely.
Do you think they have to lean on him more? As I mean, for game six, is that just the equation here for them?
Could be. I mean, there are a couple of questions that I have after that game five. And they're kind of all and maybe they're more than a couple, but all of them involve the starting lineup to a degree. I mean, Mitchell Robinson has been.
best non-brunson player in this series so far you look at the impact metrics and it's not even close he coming into this game he and miles mcbride were the only two players on the team who were a plus when they were on the floor and robinson was a plus 35 mcbride was a plus five and the reason he's a plus five is because he plays so many of his minutes with mitchell robinson because they come off the bench together
I mean, when Mitchell Robinson was on the court coming into this game, the Knicks were recovering 38% of available offensive rebounds, which is just obscene. It is an unbelievable number. And you watch the games and you're like, how is it not more like he's just is getting a hand on everything. Their defense is a million times better when he's out there because it was pick and roll defense.
And he hit all six of his three throws in the game tonight. So obviously that wasn't a problem. That could be something you go to that double big lineup. You know, Mitchell Robinson ended up closing that first half for the Knicks over Carl Anthony towns. Cause towns had three fouls and he was playing well enough and towns was struggling enough to,
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