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00:00we're excited to talk to uh jim peterson who's a former warrior and now analyst for the minnesota
00:05timberwolves and he joins us on the river islands guest line here on willard and dibs 95.7 the game
00:11hey jim how you doing mark and dan good to talk to you guys man um it's great to have you what's
00:18your uh what's your read on this like give us a little bit of an idea of of of this rest advantage
00:24that the wolves uh have coming into this series and and and how much you think that matters in
00:29this game tonight well i think it matters uh for preparations you know situations i think that
00:37chris finch like one of the things that we wanted to do because we've done it both ways we've we've
00:42gotten into the playoffs through the play-in and we've gotten into the playoffs by being in the top
00:47six and i can tell you uh the last couple years you know not having to go through the play-in
00:53situation was a lot better for this team that's how we got out of the first round against phoenix
00:58last year we were able to game plan against kevin durant and the phoenix suns and ant was able to
01:03you know basically destroy that suns team um you know carl anthony towns played great we had a great
01:09run in that series and then you know getting to the western conference finals i just think having that
01:14preparation time makes a huge difference and for us you know getting that prep time for the lakers as
01:19well you know just you know having that time to game plan just makes a difference having that week
01:24off as well um helped us prepare against the lakers and i think it'll help here too i mean i you know
01:30now it hasn't helped the other teams so far here in this second round because all the home teams have
01:35lost right so i mean the celtics took it on the chair last night and you know started okc obviously and
01:41you know cleveland lost too in game one um against indiana so i think you know it's kind of a cautionary
01:48tale too for chris finch because he can say hey i know we've had this time off guys but look what
01:53happened to the other teams that had some time off you got to come ready and this golden state team i
01:57mean they took their time getting here i mean they didn't come right after the game in houston they
02:02came the next day they came in yesterday at noon they didn't practice um so steve kerr getting his
02:08guys some rest and they had shoot around and they're getting ready for game one so you know we'll see
02:13how much it helps minnesota yeah an older team probably was the smart move for steve kerr and jim
02:19i'm i'm fascinated by the arc of the year for minnesota because you go back to the end of february
02:25you go to utah and you lose and you fall to 32 and 29 but after that minnesota is one of the best
02:31teams in basketball what did coach finch and the team do to make the adjustment to become a real
02:37juggernaut well you know that game you know we had played the lakers the game before and ant got
02:45his 16th technical foul and so he missed that game in utah that we lost that helped in that situation
02:52as well so you know julius randall you know he um when minnesota was struggling there like at the
02:59beginning of february you know he missed 15 games in that stretch um all he missed he almost well he did
03:05missed the entire month of february so and the wolves during that stretch you know they what they
03:11lose they lost uh nine games in that stretch 10 games in that stretch that julius was out and rudy
03:17was also out for part of that stretch as well but once we got uh once we got you know fully constituted
03:24we got dante divincenzo back we got julius randall back rudy came back minnesota went on a big time run i
03:31think they only lost uh four games down the stretch from the beating beginning of march until the end
03:38of the season so and even in those four games that we lost you know one of them was against india we
03:44should have not even lost the four games we should have won all those games that we lost we lost we
03:48were up 24 at milwaukee and lost in the fourth in the second half that game was crazy it was it was just
03:55an insane game um so anyway so like what i say is it's getting it's getting healthy we lost and
04:02we're having difficulty closing games as well we have been uh an awful clutch team all season long
04:09we went 20 and 26 we played the most clutch games so we were in every game i mean think about that we
04:14we had 46 clutch games and so we lost 26 of those clutch games and had we been better down like and i'm
04:23not even saying like in the clutch we were bad we were bad in the last 30 seconds and so it was you
04:30know and so and you know you know to his credit you know got us into clutch and then was great in
04:35clutch but then and when it came down to winning the game at the end game situation we were not good so
04:39had we won six or seven more of those clutch games we would have been a two or three seed
04:44and so you know that's why i say once we got fully constituted at the beginning of of march
04:51julius randall has been so good the way that he's been able to be play make and play bully ball
04:57he plays such a different style than carl anthony towns um and when you add dante divincenzo who we
05:04got in the towns trade dante adds such a layer of toughness to our perimeter defense he gives us
05:09another three-point shot you guys know you guys had him there at golden state you know what a tough
05:13guy he is um and so you know i just think that we're a better team now than we were last year
05:20and i think that people when i saw all the espn pundits this came out before the lakers series
05:26not a single person at espn picked minnesota to win the series not a single one and i think that
05:33that took you know that that that gave our guys a lot of impetus to want to destroy the lakers and
05:39then i think this series you know we're looking at people were asking me who would i rather play
05:43houston or golden state and you know i'm kind of thinking you know houston can't shoot as well as
05:50golden state can i think we got better matchups maybe a man thompson would be a problem guarding
05:55amp but i just think that rudy draymond green the jimmy butler angle coming back to minnesota
06:01he's going to get roasted tonight at target center it's going to be awesome uh it's going to be an
06:05awesome it's going to be an awesome environment jimmy's going to have to deal with all that he's
06:09only played three times here since he was traded in 18 by the way that's 17 18 season he's only
06:14played here three times and anthony edwards got into it with jimmy when he was a member of the
06:19biome heat ant's rookie year and jimmy was like trying to talk smack to ant and he didn't know
06:25who he was talking to his ant went right back at him um and and then also just the steph curry factor
06:31you know just you know um all the smack that dream on talks uh and respecting steph curry so much
06:39i just think this is going to be a fascinating series jim peterson is with us former warrior and
06:45current wolves analyst here on whether to divs let's go a little deeper into that draymond green
06:50and rudy gobert um what do you see in that matchup and and and maybe i i think give us a little bit
06:59more on gobert and what do we not know about him how do his teammates feel about him what what what
07:06is to the mystery of rudy gobert uh rudy is is is is so misunderstood um all the smack that draymond
07:15talked about rudy last year on tnt uh in the dow series you know how they were just i basically
07:21just i mean mocking rudy all the whole panel chuck shack uh draymond uh you know to an extent kenny too
07:31i just think that rudy is so misunderstood and so disrespected and let me tell you this like first of
07:38all minnesota has been a top 10 defense the last three years since pretty gobert's been part of this
07:44team uh we've only had one other season in 33 years where we had a top 10 defense so rudy comes
07:51here we're a top 10 defense every year and rudy has been involved the last 10 years of his career
07:57the teams that he's been on have been in the top 10 defensively nine out of his last 10 years so
08:02i mean if you want to have a top 10 defense have rudy gobert on your team
08:06and so from that standpoint he doesn't get played off the floor defensively like people think he can't
08:12guard on the perimeter he absolutely can and you know there's plenty of guys that get blown by on
08:18the perimeter when you close out to luca donchich or or steph curry or whoever um it's just that
08:23when it happens to rudy there's no rudy behind him to pick up the slack you know when he gets blown by
08:28and so it just it looks it looks worse than it actually is the other thing is that for the reason
08:34why rudy might get taken out of the game sometimes is just missing issues you know it's just the same
08:40thing with kavon looney you know it's like the reason why kavon looney doesn't play because he
08:43he's not a perimeter jump shooter and and he just takes up space he he gets played out the court
08:48offensively not defensively and kavon looney's awesome player and and so like so the reason
08:54you know rudy can sometimes is just naz reed is also a tremendous player naz reed um is is such a great
09:01inside and out player and he and julius randall both i mean they both can play bully ball and so i just
09:08think it's going to be fascinating you see who does dream on guard that does dream on guard uh
09:12julius randall who guards julius randall is it going to be jimmy butler is are they going to start
09:17kavon looney and uh and are they going to have to play big to be able to put who's going to guard
09:21anthony edwards i mean like if if gary payton the second can't play or can't play big minutes i mean i
09:28just don't know who's going to guard anthony edwards you're going to put the gem ski on him
09:31i just i just i just can't wait to see how steve kerr matches up with this team yeah i think it's
09:37gp too and you're right jim like that's the hope to uh to guard the ant man and i do think it's going
09:42to be draymond having to guard julius randall and then it comes down to what you're saying do they go
09:47to i think quentin post when you get naz reed out there you're a stretch five against our stretch five
09:53but the other one is how do they how do they find a way to get rudy gobert out of the paint have
10:01teams been able to get rudy away through you know getting the the cross match or the screen and roll
10:06and get rudy gobert away from the basket well you know yeah that's they're going to probably do a lot
10:13of switching and you know rudy will will go out to the perimeter and guard the fan and he can actually
10:17do that like he's he's i'm just telling you if you don't watch rudy every night you don't have an
10:22appreciation how good he is you have to watch him every night and so my son was an assistant coach
10:28with the utah jazz for three years and uh he and rudy was there for for two of them so i saw a lot
10:34of jazz games and i saw rudy i saw quinn snyder used him and they did they used rudy a lot like in a spy
10:40role and so he would guard whoever the worst shooter is and so a lot of times you know teams put that
10:46worst shooter in the corner and so he would just be zoning up uh they call it spy rudy and so they spy
10:52him and we'll do some of that we'll do some switching we'll play some zone we'll mix defense
10:58you saw a lot of zone this last series against the houston rocket so they'll utilize rudy in a lot
11:04of different ways but um i just think that it's the the chess match and that's where steve kerr i
11:09love steve kerr i mean you look at how he changed up the lineups whatever the whatever the lineup
11:14called for and whatever he felt like from a coaching standpoint that the lineup needed
11:18what they what they play four different lineups in a seven game series um so i just thought i just
11:25think that steve kerr's willing to do that he keeps teams off balance um i'm thinking that you know some
11:30of the reason why he did that is because he wanted to keep us guessing because we have no idea how they're
11:34going to match up initially so uh i you know gp2 is is the is the best matchup for ant um and then i just
11:42i just i'm just going to be fascinated to see how much time jimmy butler or during my green spend on
11:47julius randall because julius was a monster against the rockets and um against again excuse me against
11:53the lakers the lakers did a great job neutralizing rudy on the glass they put a body on him for four
11:59games for four games rudy gobert was never left alone and then in that fifth game they did they
12:05just lost their focus and what did rudy do he had 27 and 24 in the game so um if you don't put a body
12:12on rudy gobert he's going to make you pay and so that's going to be another factor that the
12:16warriors have to deal with jim uh going to that lakers series for the wolves what was when you
12:21look back on it what was the key thing the wolves did to dominate that series the way they did and
12:28how does that whatever it was however you answer it how does that apply to this series well well one
12:34of the things that that really applies um to this series uh mark and dan is is like i just think that
12:43when when you think about transition defense it's it's one of the things they spent a ton of time
12:49i just going going to the practices and shoot around leading up to the lakers game and during
12:55the lakers series they spent a ton of time in transition defense and we did the same thing
13:00the last couple days here um you know working on getting back and getting matched because you know
13:06how dangerous this warriors team is in transition shooting threes shooting step shooting walk up threes
13:11but jamski shooting walk up threes buddy healed has killed us in the past um this season you know
13:16doing that very thing so getting back and getting matched is is really super important and jimmy adds
13:22another complexity because there's nobody better at you know when you pitch ahead to him
13:26way that he can collapse the defense by getting to the to the rim he's not a three-point threat but
13:31he is a threat to collapse your defense by by getting into the painted area and getting to the rim
13:35getting followed so um you know we we didn't follow the lakers we did a great job in transition
13:41we won all the miscellaneous points second chance points fast break points points off turnovers
13:47getting to the free throw line we out free throwed them we didn't follow luka we didn't follow lebron
13:52and we did a great job in that regard um and so all those factors i think are a big factor here
13:58and also and and julius were the two best players in the series and was better than luka
14:02julius was better than lebron and our four through eight completely outplayed them
14:07jim my father is from uh minnesota he's from uh cohasset international falls and so i i have deep
14:14ties to minnesota and my thoughts and memories of the minnesota people are that they're understanding
14:20and gentle friendly and kind are you really are you guys really gonna give it to jimmy butler
14:27can't we let bygones be bygones oh jimmy jimmy um no no no not jimmy the way jimmy got out of
14:36minnesota and the way that he got out of philadelphia and the way that he got out of out of
14:40miami i i'm not sure i mean it doesn't sit well you know what i mean and jimmy like he the way he
14:49went out of minnesota that whole that whole meme about you know the last practice um with tibbs and the
14:55way he got on you know he he took the four worst players on minnesota's roster and they played
14:59against colon anthony towns and andrew wiggins and jeff teague and you know i just was it just was
15:04something else so it's going to be it's going to be interesting you know it's been a long time
15:08but these people up here they got a long memory and they're they're very they're basketball savvy
15:13just like warrior fans i just another reason why i loved it another reason why i love this series
15:19though is the oakland the oakland memories that i have being at the being at at um at the old
15:25oakland coliseum being at oracle it was some some of the greatest basketball i've ever seen in my
15:31entire life that whole step clay thompson run um it's just an unbelievable experience in the chase
15:37center um it's just a great fan base i got a lot of love for the bay area and i mean just just an
15:43incredible incredible series it's just going to be fascinating jim it's going to be awesome it's great
15:48having you i i really do i want to ask you this though uh after the comments you just made about
15:54about the the jimmy butler experience in all three of those cities jim was he ever wrong
16:00was he ever wrong like joel mbid okay miami wouldn't you want to you want to you want to know
16:09something yeah you know anthony anthony edwards could be um the same way too like anthony edwards you
16:16i just think it's different management styles you know i mean would you rather be managed by
16:21by somebody that criticizes you every day and calls you soft and calls you an idiot
16:27and and it is not supportive and like um um tries to date your girlfriend or whoever who knows what
16:34has gone on between these people uh i'm just saying i'm just saying like i'm just saying i'm not saying
16:40he did that okay okay i'm just saying the threat of it you know what i mean like um and just i'm
16:45saying like or would you rather uh work and be managed by somebody that that believes in you that
16:51that sees the best in you and so anthony edwards anthony edwards is is like he saw all those things
16:56about carl anthony towns but he didn't choose to focus on that he always every day pumped carl up and
17:02when carl was the player of the game and he was doing the post-game interview anthony edwards was waiting
17:06for cat to get done and and to to pour water on him or give him a hug or support him like i just i
17:13give me anthony edwards type of of player camaraderie any day yeah no jim i get that but then what did
17:21the organization do they traded that guy do you know what i'm saying you know like i like anthony edwards
17:28i think you've even played i i don't know i you know jimmy jimmy there's jimmy is a great player i
17:34loved watching him play he was an incredible incredible athlete incredible player he's a winner
17:38i i i dig his game i dig his work ethic um but he's uh but i just don't dig the way that he forces
17:47his way out of situation i mean i get it it just that's that's just me and i i i think that the guy's
17:53awesome um and and the warrior fans are lucky to have him because he's made them a better team and
17:58he's given them belief and um you know uh but you got to pay him you got to pay him to keep him oh
18:05yeah oh and they did yeah exactly oh yeah yeah jim it's so fun to hear you thank you you're bringing
18:11back the memories of uh run tmc and like my youth in the late 80s and you know run timmy and mitch and
18:18chris and tom tolbert and you know back then when you guys won a playoff series it was parade worthy
18:25back in the day well i you know i just i just was texting with gary st gene today um i saw gregory
18:32his son um when when when i was playing for the warriors greg was a baby he was a toddler basically
18:38and and so now he's a coach with the los angeles lakers but he'd been with dallas with luca
18:44and then he was in phoenix last year with with kd and then uh he he went to los angeles with jj
18:51and just seeing greg and and just talking with him and texting with saint today uh just was a lot
18:57a lot of great memories i mean chris mullen is and tom tolbert are two of my favorite teammates of
19:02all time um you know that that run tmc tim hardaway mitch richmond chris mullen it didn't last long
19:10but it was such a it was such a it was a mega force it's so memorable and they're still talking
19:15about it yep and um you know it just it and nelly was just a folk hero in and of himself too so
19:22it was a different era he was he was ahead of his time you know the draw and kick game that the the
19:27small ball lineup and spreading the floor playing five out what nelly was so far ahead of his time
19:33and warrior fans um we're so lucky to be able to see that that we believe warrior team um and then
19:41also i mean i mean i can't believe what it'll be like you know to be a fan of the world during the
19:46clay thompson stuff curry era just uh so what a blessing um jim you are uh you're a true gentleman
19:53for coming on on a game day thank you so much for doing it okay guys we'll talk to you later
19:59definitely thanks jim here we go yeah thank you jim peterson former warrior