If anyone played a drinking game with the term “pick and roll” during the media availability of Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, they would not have been of much use most of Tuesday afternoon.
Finch was underscoring how different a matchup the Dallas Mavericks would be beginning with Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night at Target Center, and he appeared to have a new favorite term of the day.
“Well, this is going to be a heavy pick-and-roll series,” Finch said. “This is kind of the primary driver of their offense, a lot of pick and roll. We’re going to have to be good in pick and roll, a lot of different coverages, different things through a series you’re going to have to employ and go to at different points. But yeah, last series wasn’t that heavy in pick and roll, so fortunately we’ve been pretty good in pick and roll this year.”
Such will be the challenge against Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and a revamped Dallas team that looks different from the version the Wolves played four times before the NBA trade deadline in February.
The Mavericks added size and some shooting when they dealt for forward P.J. Washington and center Daniel Gafford at the deadline. Washington, in particular, played a big role in the Mavericks’ second-round series victory over the Thunder by being able to hit open shots that came out of the attention Oklahoma City paid to Doncic and Irving.
Washington had three games of 20 or more points in the Thunder series, and the Mavericks won two of those games.
The Wolves spent a significant portion of Tuesday’s practice relearning some of their pick-and-roll coverages after playing two series against teams that did not run as much of it.
