ESPN’s Brian Windhorst Talks NBA Playoffs, Giannis & More with Rich

The Timberwolves did not need a fastball to take Game 1 from the Spurs. They needed a navigator.

Brian Windhorst, in studio with Rich on Tuesday, broke down what he saw in Minnesota's two-point road win, and the answer came down to mental discipline against a player nobody else has had to plan for. Victor Wembanyama blocked twelve shots, joining only Andrew Bynum and Hakeem Olajuwon with a postseason triple-double involving blocks. Most teams wilt against that.

Minnesota navigated.

"They would drive here. He's in the way. They would come over this way. Nope. He's in the way," Windhorst said, comparing the Wolves' offense to a New York taxi trying to reach LaGuardia during the U.N. General Assembly. The blocks turned into six points for San Antonio. Minnesota won by two. "That to me illustrates the approach you have to have against a player like this."

Anthony Edwards played despite questionable status that fooled even the press. Windhorst, who lives inside this kind of information, admitted the league office had assumed the listing was subterfuge.

The other big story Tuesday was the Knicks. After dropping Game 3 to Atlanta on a one-point loss, New York held a team meeting. Whatever happened in that room flipped the series. The Knicks dominated the next half of basketball and have not slowed since, all the way through Game 1 against the Sixers. Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each beat Joel Embiid in transition for first-quarter dunks.

"A beast awakened," Windhorst told Rich, quoting coaches and scouts. "Is this who they're going to be now?"

Maybe. Windhorst was honest about the catch. The Knicks went 2-9 in mid-season. They could not beat Detroit in the regular season. A Pistons matchup is the worst-case scenario in the East. Cleveland is the better draw. The path to the Finals is real, but only if it stays open.

The bigger NBA news this week is Sunday's lottery, the last under the current format. Windhorst is going to be in the room.

He laid out the stakes. The Clippers' pick, owned by the Thunder via a deadline trade with Indiana, is a five-through-nine rangefinder. The Pacers keep it if it lands in the top four and the Thunder get it otherwise. The Hawks own New Orleans' pick. Sam Presti, despite being mid-series against the Lakers, plans to be in the lottery room because the Thunder could draft top-four with a pick they did not earn.

Last year, three teams entered the final lottery slot tied for the worst record. The Hornets won the draw and got the fourth pick. The Wizards and Jazz got fifth and sixth. "Entire billion-dollar businesses come down to this," Windhorst said.

The Boston conversation was harder. The Tatum injury. The Brown contract. Five straight years of top-three three-point attempts. Two Finals trips, one title. Windhorst voted Joe Mazzulla for Coach of the Year and called him "borderline defiant" about the shooting strategy. The question Brad Stevens has to answer, Windhorst said, is not whether to chase Giannis. It is whether the trio of Tatum, Brown, and Derrick White is staying together at all.

His read is they are. But Stevens has not done his end-of-year discussion yet, and Windhorst was clear it is not a no-brainer.

Steve Kerr's status in Golden State is also unfinished. Windhorst's read: this is not just an emotional call. Kerr was paid $17 million last season. Whether the current Warriors ownership wants to keep paying that during this stage of the build is a real question that is still in process.

"If Kerr just wanted to go play golf, then he would be playing golf," Windhorst said. "He's in San Francisco, as far as I know, working, discussing this."