Quick notes on Heat-Timberwolves, which was a wildly impressive Minnesota win. -Miami obviously wants to get up and run which is an amazing fit for Giannis. His first half entirely dominant on offense, but man their halfcourt offense was a mess tonight. Felt like Mitchell was so sped up and struggled with making the right decisions. Way too much Nikola Jovic. Obviously they didn't shoot it well but I also don't think they created a crazy number of good 3-point looks. Lot of work to do on offense with Miami. The space for Giannis is good, and Minnesota is like, the worst possible matchup for them with Rudy on the interior. But if it wasn't Giannis in early offense, everything felt exceptionally hard. -Klay Thompson was a magnet in the first half for Minnesota to attack with its primary playmakers. Was pretty clearly the target. He struggled to deal with screens and just was stuck behind the play so often, giving Ant and Jaden particularly advantages they took advantage of. But even one on one, it felt like he wasn't quite quick enough to deal with those guys, especially as he was picking them up in transition. Minnesota is tough for this group defensively, but through one game at least it seems like they're gonna have to do a better job of hiding Klay defensively instead of challenging him to guard opposing teams' best players, which is a bit of an issue because it feels like Miami wants to stick Giannis on the non-shooter to let him roam in help. -Gonna predict that at some point we're gonna see Pelle Larsson enter the starting lineup for Klay if he shows even a modicum of willingness to do anything on offense. I thought Larsson was so good on defense tonight in making LaMelo and Ant work for their shots after they got hot early. Was great at flipping his hips and walling up. But Heat can't see possessions like the one at 2:04 in the 3rd Q where Larsson passes up an open 3, attacks the closeout and turns it over on the drive. -Nearly flawless game from Minnesota. Every single thing you could have wanted to see. Ant getting to play more consistently off of the ball and having LaMelo to help him get loose was a major help. Just absolutely buried shot after shot. Loved Ant's aggression on the defensive glass. Spectacular in Game 1. -Thought LaMelo was really good, too. Even with Miami wanting to get up and run, thought he totally dictated the tempo of the game and found Minnesota better shots in early offense than Miami's battering ram Giannis approach. Also loved all of the ball-screen to flare actions to get Ant and LaMelo loose and to get them space. -Rudy made exactly zero shots and he was still a monster on defense and played such a good game. Contested everything at the rim and cut off angles in ball-screens. Struggled in space a bit with Giannis but was phenomenal in every other aspect and controlled the glass. His gap control in help and one-on-two situations is sort of unteachable because his length is an outlier, but it's perfect on nearly every single play. -McDaniels is going to feast off of so many easy shots from LaMelo and Ant, either open 3s or attacking closeouts. Thought he was awesome on defense tonight, too. His length and disruption was everywhere. -Would say Beringer was maybe the only disappointing part for Minnesota. Thought he was overaggressive early in ball-screen coverages then struggled a bit defensively in one-on-ones with Bam. Did well crashing the O glass but would like to see more before immediately concluding that backup center is solved for MIN for this year (long-term, think Beringer will be really good).

IDK what has happened since, I'm five minutes into Wizards-Bucks. But in those five minutes Trae Young has gotten backcut by Jaime Jaquez for an and-one, given up a post-seal bucket to Jaquez, then tried to draw a foul on a 3, airballed leading to a runout dunk for Jaquez. yikes