2 Jun 2024

St. Paul native Sean Sweeney says ‘it was special’ to help lead Dallas past Timberwolves in West Finals. Now, he’s focused on a title

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The celebration was effectively over Thursday night, at least for the in-arena edition. Many of the Mavericks players had departed Target Center, as had all of the coaches — except for one.

There in the coaches’ locker room sat Dallas assistant coach Sean Sweeney, by himself, reveling in his team’s achievement.

“Everybody else is trying to get on the buses to get on the plane. I’ve got no rush, man,” said Sweeney, the St. Paul native who is Dallas’ defensive coordinator. “I’m just happy to enjoy it. It’s fun to be here after the games, especially when you’re winning.”

The Timberwolves shot 34% from the field in the first half of Game 5 in Minneapolis, while also committing nine turnovers en route to scoring just 40 first-half points. It was yet another Mavericks’ defensive masterpiece, which have become frequent occurrences over the past three months.

This one led to a 124-103 win that sealed the Western Conference title for Dallas.

“It was special, definitely. I think the way that the team played and the way they approached the series and, in particular, the game today, was really fun to be a part of,” Sweeney said. “And to win and go to the Finals is an awesome feeling. And to do it here in the hometown is even better, in front of friends and family.”

Sweeney experienced what’s a career peak to date, something Mavericks players fully recognized in the moment. In the closing minutes of the blowout Game 5 victory, everyone on the bench was cheering and screaming in Sweeney’s direction.

“It was great,” said Sweeney, a Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas alum. “It was really nice and felt really good to have everybody so connected and excited to see the smiles on everybody’s faces with how much hard work they put in and how excited they are for the next step.”

Awaiting the Mavericks in the NBA Finals are the Boston Celtics, who sported the NBA’s top offense this season, averaging 1.22 points per possession. That number has barely decreased in postseason play. It’s another challenge, but Sweeney and Co. have answered every bell to date. In these playoffs, Dallas has silenced top-five offenses in the Clippers and Thunder. It largely flummoxed Minnesota in the West finals.

Heading into the series, Sweeney said Dallas wanted to stick tight on Minnesota’s primary three-point threats: Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid and Mike Conley.

Towns shot 24% from deep for the series. Reid went 1 for 10 from deep over the final three games of the series, and Conley had just one triple in three of the five contests.

Sweeney said Dallas also wanted to make it as difficult as possible for Minnesota to reach the paint, and when it got there, have a firm understanding of what the Wolves wanted to do.

For instance, Dallas knew Edwards liked to go right to left to get to his left hand, or execute a left to right euro step. Sweeney also noted the Wolves have a larger magazine of packages than most teams, so the Mavericks tried to understand conceptually what the Wolves were trying to accomplish in their sets.

“Where their players want the ball and how they want to attack,” Sweeney said, “and then just giving them as much resistance as possible.”

As the series progressed, Dallas gained more information on where Minnesota was trying to go with kickout passes, so it could attempt to be more disruptive. On top of it all, a strict emphasis was placed on finishing possessions with defensive rebounds.

The plan was largely executed at a high level.

“They’ve done a great job of putting in the effort, being connected and making sure that they understand the game plan,” Sweeney said of the players. “And if we make a mistake with the game plan, they try to cover for us. We try to adjust when something needs to be adjusted. So the partnership that goes into it has been something really special thus far, and a lot of fun to be a part of.”

It’s what the coach has enjoyed most about this run to date. He savors being part of something bigger than himself. He loves that the Mavericks players want to see one another succeed. Sweeney never takes for granted that he gets to compete at the highest level, against and with the sport’s top coaches and players. Everything is heightened to yet another level this time of year, but as his dad taught him at a young age, “pressure is earned.”

“So it’s great to be in these situations that have the highest competition and the highest pressure and it’s exciting to see guys succeed,” he said. “Because coaching is teaching, and seeing your guys succeed is always great.”

Sweeney made the most of his time in his home state. He nabbed 12 tickets each to Games 1 and 2 and had 10 for the closeout Game 5. His brother and his family were at every game. The rest of the tickets were spread out from game to game. On the off day between the first two games, Sweeney hosted approximately 40 people for dinner at Mancini’s in St. Paul. The night before Game 5, he was at J.D. Hoyt’s in Minneapolis. He was grateful for all the support from family and friends.

“It was great. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad on tickets,” Sweeney said. “No, it was great. It was fun. Happy to be here. Fortunate. Now, looking forward to getting ready for the next series.”

Because as great as this experience was, the job is not finished. Sweeney was asked if he’d stay in the Twin Cities on Thursday night to celebrate before returning to Dallas separate from the team on Friday. After all, there were seven days between the West finals and Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Sweeney noted the Mavericks would’ve surely allowed such a plan had he requested it, but the coach had no intention of wasting a moment of prep for the biggest series of his professional career.

This was fun, but it was done. And now, it was onto the next one.

“Nah, I’m going to go back and get to it, man,” said Sweeney, who’d already started the Celtics scout. “I’m looking forward to it. Happy to be here. Don’t want to squander the opportunity.”

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NBA FINALS

Boston Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks

Thursday: Dallas at Boston, 7:30 p.m.

June 9: Dallas at Boston, 7 p.m.

June 12: Boston at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

June 14: Boston at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

x-June 17: Dallas at Boston, TBA

x-June 20: Boston at Dallas , TBA

x-June 23: Dallas at Boston, TBA

x- if necessary

2 Jun 2024

The Timberwolves’ offensive approach won’t change next season — the execution will have to

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Multiple times throughout the Western Conference Finals, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch recognized the abilities of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic to withstand defensive pressure and knock down tough shots.

At some point, incredible offensive players will find ways to score. Particularly in crunch time, Finch said you simply have to “score alongside of them.”

And that’s just not something Minnesota proved capable of doing for sustained stretches this season.

The Wolves sported just an average offense all season and were more than capable of stalling out for lengthy stretches. It was the team’s ultimate downfall. Which is surprising for an offense that features the likes of Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Conley.

“We need to get better offensively,” Finch said after the season’s conclusion.

But don’t expect that to come via any sweeping personnel or schematic changes. All conversations regarding the offense since Dallas downed the Wolves have centered on offensive execution.

Finch said the Wolves did a good job this season adding more structure to what they aimed to do offensively. He lamented their lack of shotmaking at times and said Minnesota had to find ways to play faster.

“We don’t have the physically fastest guys, but we’ve got to make an effort and commitment to get easier stuff in transition, running, stretching the floor,” Finch said. “The league plays so fast now, so when you aren’t fast and you’re struggling to get easy looks, that’s a good place to start and try to find them. We’ve got to be better there.”

That’s particularly where a team lacking in high-end offensive talent may look. And, to be fair, Minnesota’s roster does lean more toward the defensive side of the equation. Rudy Gobert does a lot for the offense with his screening, rolling and rebounding, but he’s not great with the ball in his hands. Jaden McDaniels’ shooting was sporadic this season. They represent 40% of the starting lineup.

Off the bench, Nickeil Alexander-Walker has shown flashes as a shooter and playmaker but proved in the playoffs that he’s still not a finished product on the offensive end.

Anthony Edwards is one of the most explosive scorers in the NBA. And while the 22-year-old grew as a decision-maker this season, Dallas challenged him in that area in the West Finals — and won.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks were able to spam pick-and-rolls for Doncic and Irving to best the NBA’s top defense. That system works well for Dallas, but Finch doesn’t believe a helio-centric offense is a good fit for the Wolves. Edwards doesn’t see the game at Doncic’s level.

“You have to have a player who is pretty special to be able to create that much offense for himself and everybody else. He has to have a complete skill set,” Finch said. “Some teams now, Boston’s a good example, they kind of just spread you out and try to beat you one-on-one, and that creates a lot of advantages. I’m not sure we have those type of players, either.”

The Wolves, frankly, don’t have enough perimeter playmakers for that to work. So Finch plans on the Wolves remaining “movement based.”

“We’re still going to be sharing the ball. We still have the bigs to incorporate,” Finch said. “There’s a lot of different things.”

One obvious area of growth Finch identified is in the two-man game between Edwards and Towns. Conley and Gobert have shown what a great two-man game can do for a team. Those two ran pick-and-rolls all season that often led to easy Wolves’ buckets.

But Towns and Edwards have yet to establish that type of synergy. Finch envisions the two potentially helping one another on offense in the same way Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray do in Denver.

“They can do it. There’s certain things that they do in combination with each other that works seemingly every time they try it. They just need to do it more,” Finch said. “I think that’s just a willingness to give themselves to the greater good a little bit. It may not be natural in how they play, but as these things happen — if I write it up or play-call it — it usually works. But they’ve got to be able to find it in the flow, which is probably the next step.”

That’s part of the problem for Minnesota’s offense. When things are going poorly, nothing seems to come naturally for the team’s top offensive players. There are no go-tos they can rely on to get a good shot.

Even in Game 4 in Dallas, it was Kyle Anderson directing Edwards and Towns to generate Minnesota’s best fourth-quarter looks. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing to have Anderson and Conley control traffic, but an offense is most decisive and efficient when the players with the ball in their hands are the ones seeing the game at a high level.

Doncic was a prime example of that.

Maybe Edwards can reach that level. He’s certainly flashed a willingness to be coached throughout his career. Minnesota spent a week of practice prepping Edwards for certain defensive looks in the playoffs, and he responded by roasting Phoenix in the first round. But Edwards also had distinct physical advantages against the Suns and Nuggets that weren’t as prevalent against a Dallas defense that had perimeter defenders and rim protectors.

Pair the Mavericks roster with their scheme aimed specifically at stopping him, and Edwards struggled to take control of the game. He nor Towns have been considered to date as players who see the game a step ahead of the action. Anderson said that’s something you’re either born with or develop early in your playing days.

“Mike’s a really high IQ player, he’s a point guard. My dad raised me to be a point guard, I’ve always watched high-IQ players. I grew up watching Jason Kidd, playing for the New Jersey Nets. Rajon Rondo, just high-IQ guys that can affect the game in many different ways, not just scoring,” Anderson said. “I think it’s just a point guard thing.”

If that’s true, then a team-based offensive approach makes sense for Minnesota, as Finch has identified.

Minnesota’s growth on that end may simply be players better understanding and committing to the philosophy. Conley said that process will start in training camp.

“Like watching film and what style of pace we want to play, the energy that we put in defensively we have to put that same energy in offensively, pass and cut, making extra plays, just being on time with stuff, and it has to become habits for us,” Conley said. “Those small things on offense can be a big thing when it comes down to it. Execution in big moments. I think that’ll be something we’ll continue to look at, and look at going through the offseason.”

Conley did say there is room for Minnesota to experiment, as well, to diversify its attack. He noted Minnesota could maybe even roll out a small-ball lineup, or different approaches to operate against different teams. That type of versatility is advantageous specifically in the postseason, even for elite offenses. Folks in Denver have lamented the Nuggets’ over-reliance on the Jokic-Murray two-man game since Minnesota bounced Denver.

But Conley said a lot of the team’s offensive improvement will come from areas as simple as passing the ball and playing as a group.

“Not just one or two guys or three guys out there,” Conley said. “Where all five, being able to have multiple facets to their game as far as driving, kicking, pushing the ball, making good decisions when you have the ball.”

When executed properly, that leads to fewer turnovers and better shot attempts which obviously generate more points over the course of 100 possessions. Minnesota established some of that when Towns was out of the lineup late in the season. From March 11 to April 11, Minnesota sported the NBA’s eighth-best offense. But the Wolves never established that as their true identity. That requires more sustained success. That will be the goal for next season.

Wolves basketball boss Tim Connelly called Finch the best offensive coach in the NBA. Anderson backed that up with the following sentiment:

“Finch is a genius offensively, so, I think you don’t expect to see him, his offenses in the middle or lower part of the ranks anymore,” Anderson said. “Like, he’ll get it together. Trust me.”

But that will require buy-in and execution from the team’s most-skilled offensive players.

“I think it’s less about, ‘Score, score, score,’ ” Finch said of Edwards and Towns’ mindsets, “and more about, ‘I want to play in this style. This is the manner that I’m comfortable playing.’ ”

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2 Jun 2024

Literary pick for week of June 2

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More Than a Single Story began in 2016 when Carolyn Holbrook used a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant to launch a series of three discussions with women writers of the African diaspora aimed at showing there are different cultures represented by women who could not be simply defined as “Black” writers. Holbrook had worked at the Loft Literary Center, founded SASE: The Write Place to help writers of color, and taught at Hamline University. But she wasn’t sure how More Than a Single Story would go over. She needn’t have worried. So many people attended the first program they filled the Loft’s auditorium and extra chairs had to be found.

Suleiman Adan (Courtesy of More than a Single Story)

Since then MTSS has gained a five-person staff, with Holbrook as executive director, and expanded to include a variety of free panel discussions/public conversations where writers of color discuss issues of importance to them in their own voices and words. In 2021 the organization published “We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World,” edited by Holbrook and poet David Mura (University of Minnesota Press). The 34 essays in the book, focusing on race and police violence after George Floyd’s murder, are by Twin Cities-based BiPOC writers, most of whom participated in MTSS programs.

The theme for this Father’s Day month is Songs for Our Fathers, panel discussions celebrating fatherhood. The next program is at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at Highland Park library, 1974 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul, with the theme of The Invisible Load: The Unsung Realities of Modern Fatherhood with moderator Suleiman Adan, writer, poet, and writing teacher whose work is in “We are Meant to Rise.” He is a systems builder and community advocate with more than a decade of experience empowering teams and building capacity through grassroots training and organizing efforts. An advocate of youth education, he has operated a free tutoring company focused on increasing literacy and proficiency in BIPOC youth. Panelists will be Erik Anderson, Jonathan Brown, Linus Chan, Chris Martin and Michael Torres. Although they come from different backgrounds, they are united in navigating the complexities of fatherhood in today’s world.

The final program, For the Love of Our Grandfathers, will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the Highland Park library, co-moderated by Adan and Ben Weaver, father, caregiver, songwriter, poet and hide tanner who travels by bicycle. They will be joined by grandfathers Russel Balenger, David Mura and Jim Rock discussing how historical practices and events affected them as fathers, what it is like to see their own children as parents, how they connect with their grandchildren and advice they have for today’s young fathers. (RSVP to wendyw@thefriends.org.)

Ben Weaver (Courtesy of Nicollazzi)

“I love the way things happen sometimes,” Holbrook wrote to the Pioneer Press. “Last year Ben Weaver, a young single father, asked me if More Than a Single Story would consider doing something around single dads. A couple weeks later, Suleiman Adan, a young married father, asked if we’d consider doing something with married dads. Then I decided to include something with grandfathers. So we ended up with a series of three panels (one has already been held) we’re doing in partnership with The Friends (of the St. Paul Public Library). I’m so excited about this.”

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2 Jun 2024

Loons do little things to produce a 3-1 over last-place Kansas City

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Minnesota United’s two hottest players — Tani Oluwaseyi and Robin Lod — produced goals Saturday, but it was the little preceding plays before that were the differences in a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City at Allianz Field.

Sang Bin Jeong’s pressing action caused a Kansas City turnover before Oluwaseyi’s goal in the first half, and Devin Padelford’s long throw-in preceded Oluwaseyi’s assist on Lod’s goal in the second half.

Padelford’s toss was noticed. Dayne St. Clair ran from his goal to praise the left wingback. Head coach Eric Ramsay also showed appreciation.

MNUFC (8-3-4, 28 points) got back in the win column after dropping points in its past two matches and moved into a tie for second place in Western Conference. They kept last-place Kansas City (2-9-5, 11 points) down. Sporting has now lost seven straight and is winless in 10.

Kervin Arriaga also did important little work, but he did so to set up his goal in the 83rd minute. His sprinting in an overlapping run put him in a great spot to blast a shot in the side netting.

Oluwaseyi’s seventh goal of the season padded his team lead. Bongi Hlongwane, who fed Oluwaseyu a nice cross, notched his first assist of the season.

The Loons produced three shots on goal in the first half. Kansas City didn’t manage one in the opening 45 minutes.

Johnny Russell got a goal back for Kansas City in the 86th minute.

Briefly

The U.S. women’s national team will play South Korea in a friendly match at Allianz Field on Tuesday night. The USWNT beat South Korea 4-0 on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Colorado. New head coach Emma Hayes won her debut match. Mallory Swanson and Tierna Davidson each scored two goals. … Caden Clark was scratched from the starting XI less than an hour before kickoff due to a toe injury. He was slated to make another appearance as a right wingback. DJ Taylor, who stepped in for Clark, had to exit with a leg injury in the first half. Joseph Rosales came off the bench.  … MNUFC will have eight players head to national team duties next week, including Dayne St. Clair, Robin Lod, Teemu Pukki,  Joseph Rosales, Kervin Arriaga, Carlos Harvey, Alejandro Bran and Zarek Valentin. They will all miss next Saturday’s match versus FC Dallas. … Rosales was issued his fifth yellow card in the second half. He will be suspended for Saturday’s game vs. FC Dallas.