The Timberwolves Learned A Valuable Lesson Of What Can Happen When Talking Shit Goes Wrong

Greenie4/27/2022 3:20 PM

Joe Murphy. Getty Images.

When you're a young team that has made the playoffs for just the 2nd time in 18 years, it's a bit of a learning experience. How you prepare, how you execute, how you handle adversity, these are all things that unless you've actually been through the gauntlet of the playoffs, you don't really know what it's like. For the Wolves, they are a very confident bunch. When you're the underdog, you have to be confident and believe in yourself because outside of your fans, not many other people might. That confidence is something that I truly felt help the Wolves break through and actually get to the postseason.

That's the good part.

The bad part of being a young team in the playoffs is sometimes you make mistakes. I'm not talking about missing a defensive rotation, or maybe you have a careless turnover. Often times we see young teams get caught up in the moment and start talking shit, only to see it immediately backfire. That is what we got down the stretch last night in the MEM/MIN Game 5.

Our first mistake came from KAT. He made a deep three to put the Wolves up 92-79 with 9:38 minutes left.

A big shot in the first part of the fourth quarter for sure. So what did KAT do? He talked his shit

Here's the thing. I love that KAT talks shit. We need more of it. But a 13 point lead with 9:37 to go is not exactly a "silence the crowd" moment. Wayyyyyy too early for that type of shit talking in my opinion. At this point I get it, KAT was feeling good and the Wolves were going on a run. I imagine this is a little bit of a Pat Bev influence on KAT and that's a dangerous game to play.

I think that because later in the quarter it was Pat Bev himself that joined the shit talking party. His came over his big bucket late in the fourth

While it wasn't really clear who KAT was talking shit to, I think we can assume it was the crowd. With Pat Bev, there is no doubt. Hr gave Ja the "too small" celebration. NBA players get really worked up when someone does that to them. They do not care for it.

We know that Pat Bev will NEVER pass up an opportunity to talk shit to someone, for better or worse. It doesn't matter who you are or what is currently going on in the game, if Pat Bev can talk shit then Pat Bev will talk shit.

There's really only one massive problem with this strategy. He poked the bear that is Ja Morant. That's….a bad idea. Why? Because from that moment on, Ja did this

That's right, from the 4:25 mark through the final buzzer, no other Grizzlie scored a point. It was the Ja show. It just so happen to start at the immediate next possession following that Pat Bev bucket and shit talking. We know that shit motivates Ja, so what, it's a coincidence? No way. The Wolves were running their mouth all quarter despite actively blowing a double digit lead. That's tough, but part of the playoff learning experience. You probably shouldn't do that.

This has me in a tough spot because I LOVE when players talk shit. I want to see more of it throughout a game and love what happens when stars are motivated by it. At the same time, part of me thinks if the Wolves didn't talk all that shit and bait Morant, they could very well be up 3-2 heading home for a close out Game 6 at home. It's just not a smart idea to poke Ja Morant, but if you decide that's something you want to do, you HAVE to win the game. That's my general stance with talking shit. Do it all you want, but you better make sure you're backing that shit up. If not, you sort of lose all your shit talking powers in my opinion.

There are certainly things I'm sure the Wolves will go over in the film room about how they executed down the stretch of this game and ways they can improve. Ant will learn you definitely shouldn't gamble like that on a final play where you then give Ja a wide open lane to the rim. They'll see that offensively in big moments you don't always have to just go isolation where you're making it easier on the defense. But they also should learn that when you are on the verge of pulling off a huge win on the road against Ja Morant, wait until the final buzzer to talk your shit. He can't kill you if the clock reads 0.0.

Instead, the Wolves ran their mouth with all kinds of time left on the clock and Ja did what Ja does. He ended you. The best part of all of this is you know deep down Pat Bev will never change no matter what, so I expect more of the same in Game 6. That might not be the best idea but