Minnesota Timberwolves’ comeback falls short against the New York Knicks

Minnesota Timberwolves’ comeback falls short against the New York Knicks

Hello and welcome into another episode of lock on wolves today on the show it’s the postgame podcast from the Wolves New Year’s Day lost to the New York Knicks in OG an and obi’s debut we’ll talk about what happened to the wolves in this one including I don’t know maybe a

Quarter and a half of the worst basketball the wolves have played call it since Atlanta in game three back in October it was a rough one at times still a good comeback in the second half some key Jordan mcgoffin minutes we’ll talk about the rotation talk about the rebounding issues and uh everything

Really to do with this game it’s all up coming welcome in you are lock down wolves you are locked on Timberwolves your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day hello and welcome to the lockon Wolves podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day my name is Ben be and I’m the host of lockdown wolves today’s episode is brought to you by prize picks the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize.com

Lockdown NBA and use the code all lowercase lockdown NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 happy Tuesday everybody this is the postgame pod from the Wolves disappointing MAA New Year’s Day loss to the New York Nicks at Madison Square Garden there uh is a lot

To talk about from this one is a it’s a really a fun game overall although the worst uh some of the worst basketball I’ve seen the Wolves play in months literally maybe all season um in the middle stages so I want to break that down a bit talk about the rotation some

Of the tweaks Chris Finch made on both ends of the floor throughout the game and uh my take on on what the biggest issues were in this one so we’ll do all that here today A big thank you off the top for making lockdown wolves your first listen every single day of course

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Right um so I was a bit I was a bit uh I guess dubious that the Wolves could emerge victorious in this one I thought I thought they’d be okay I think I said that on the show on Monday they were one point underdogs when I or sorry onepoint

Favorites when I recorded Monday show on Sunday afternoon and I don’t know where that line closed at but you know being OG and and obi’s debut being on the road for an afternoon game on New Year’s Day like the Knicks hadn’t played since Saturday either so there was no really

Rest or travel advantage or disadvantage at play but there was a lot of energy I mean the Nicks announcers who are on BV were talking about you know basically there being as much energy in the crowd there at Madison Square Garden as they’d had pretty much all season they talked

About like I think it was after the first three they made like hey that’s a bigger cheer for I granted it was anobi but you know the biggest cheer we’ve heard for a first quarter three-pointer all year or whatever um so all that to say like this was never an easy game the

Knicks are good right like they gave the Wolves a tough time in Minnesota a few weeks ago they’re a good team um so this isn’t like a horrific list loss by any stretch of the imagination um but it was certainly disappointing because there were a lot of things the Wolves did

Really well they actually started really well I was worried about a slow start they were up uh I think double digits briefly in the first quarter they closed the first quarter up by nine points over the Knicks they were efficient offensively I believe a had 15 14 something like that

In the first quarter um cat looked good like he scored on the Wolves first couple of possessions the the um the shot making was good the shot selection was good the defense was fine um you know the Knicks had a a couple of moments there they got to the line quite

A bit I think early you know first quarter um but up nine at the end of the first it’s hard to complain about that and then all of a sudden the wheels came completely off in the second quarter and I want to get back to that in a second

And that continued into the third and the Wolves eventually pushed back at the end of the third I want to break down some of the lineup stuff we’ll get to all that but if you look at this game from a macro perspective the reason why it’s so disappointed is they got off to

A good start they came back from a big deficit and were competitive enough to get it to within I think as close as four or five in the fourth quarter and and you look at the box score and I’m going to throw up these stats now

I’ll put them up again later too but uh if you’re watching on YouTube I’m going to put up these stats the Wolves actually outshot the Knicks from the field by almost four points three and a half points uh wolves shot over 47% for the field the Knicks were under 44% from

The field the Wolves did not shoot enough threes in this game but they only made one less three they turned it over a lot early far too much but they ended up equal in terms of the turnover battle um they shot one more free throw they

Made one more free throw like all these key stats you look at and and it’s very rare in fact I believe this is the first time this season the wolves have outshot an opponent in terms of just field goal percentage from the you know just overall field goal percentage which is

Obviously not like the be end all but it’s something we’re tracking with this wolves team because their opponent field goal percentage against and effective field goal percentage against is so good um I believe this is the first time all season the wolves have won the field goal percentage battle if you will and

Then lost the game and they indeed they won by 3.6 points in terms of field goal percentage but because of rebounding and you can see that stat there on your screen if you’re on YouTube The Wolves were a minus 15 on the glass in this game and that is essentially why they

Lost this one right like it pretty much boils down to that so you know at times they played really strong defense so with the defense being as solid as it was and the offense actually overall being you look at the whole you know the body of work the 48 minutes it was solid

You know the box score looks good in terms terms of team numbers offensively you feel like this is a game you could steal on the road you shouldn’t have to steal like you should just outright win it right but the middle stages of this game were so bad

That that’s you the Wolves just dug themselves a hole that was just a little too big to dig out of in the road or on the road excuse me in the fourth quarter the second quarter was an absolute disaster the Tim rves rolled out a lineup to start the second quarter of

Mike Conley Troy Brown Jr at the two Kylie at the three Nas Reed and Rudy Gober um I haven’t I you know what I should have done is I should have pulled how often those that that fome has played together I don’t know that they have Troy Brown doesn’t play a whole lot

At the two but you know I even said on I think it was even yesterday show I think on Monday I was saying like hey Troy Brown’s gotta find the wolves have to find six eight minutes for him every night to get him on the floor because he

Do does so many good things and he did it Saturday against the Lakers against his former team well this was Chris Finch in a in a way trying to fit that square peg into a round hole by putting Troy Brown at the two and just saying

Like hey let’s go with this big lineup with limited shot creation and see what happens and that lineup was not it on either end of the floor and I you know certainly with no carony towns or no Anthony Edwards you worry about what that offense is going to look like and that wasn’t

Good but the lack of perimeter quickness and you know lateral quickness in general with this lineup was was just as big of an issue with no Jaden McDaniels and no nil Alexander Walker on the floor there’s really no reason the Wolves should not always have

One of those two on the floor and and I I’m not as hard and fast of like you can’t steal any minutes with no anat I I don’t know if there’s any reason not to especially in a night that’s not a back-to-back you know on either end

Right so it seems a little silly to me to not have one of those guys on the floor like really you should always have one of anter cat and one of Alexander Walker or McDaniels like depending on opponent like there’s some exceptions in there but with a team with Jaylen

Brunson and you know even a guy like OJ anobi who’s not necessarily attacking and creating his own shot all that often uh in the half court uh but and even with Julius Randle like there were times the Wolves were using McDaniels and Alexander Walker to guard Randall too it wasn’t strictly Carlon

Towns that was checking Julius Randle so it seems a little weird that Finch tried to roll out that lineup with no cat no ant no Alexander Walker and no McDaniels and over the course of the you know the early the second quarter the Wolves just

Like they had it handed to them I mean they they what was the run the Wolves were up by nine at the start of the quarter and the Knicks went on a a 17 to7 run to put the Knicks up by a point and then that run just kept going so it

Was what 17-7 then they scored another five so it was it was H 22 to7 before the Tim rules really started kind of fighting back and the Knicks ended up winning the second quarter 38- 17 38 to 17 the Ws minus 21 in the second quarter in this game it was

Almost entirely the the the first chunk of that that allowed the Knicks to eat away at that nine-point lead and almost immediately take their own lead four or five minutes into the quarter that was because of the lineup that Chris Finch had on the floor and I’m a huge Chris

Finch Defender I said back when they were losing last year like hey it’s far too easy to just blame the coach and it’s the old it’s easier to fire the coach than the players like I get that I get that that’s part of it Chris Finch

Is a good coach this was a bad a a bad lineup choice a bad rotation where he for some reason felt the need to try and steal minutes with without any without either of his best two perimeter players or his Leaps and Bounds best two offensive players and maybe it was like

Hey Nas had a big game Saturday Troy Brown was good Saturday like Nas can carry us and he can you know Anderson can create and get looks for Conley and brown like that that just it was too idealistic and it did not work um also it allowed Jaylen Brunson to get cooking

Brunson started this game 0 for five from the field and McDaniels and NCO alander Walker did a great job on him in the first quarter but then in the second quarter with those guys off the floor he got hot the tal defense was okay but

They were a little bit slow they had too many lapses in the second quarter and then the offense of course had no flow and all of a sudden now you’re minus what did I say minus 17 in the quarter uh no sorry minus 21 in the quarter and

You’re down at Halftime by uh what were they down by nine no they were down by more than that they were down by 12 at halftime um and it was because of that rotation I want to get to the third quarter and then that Tipping Point where the Wolves finally started to push

Back and then I’ll get to my key takeaways and individual studs and Duds we do all that here next today’s episode of Locked Out wolves is brought To Us by our friends over at prize Pi they are our title sponsors here today prize Pi is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in

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Subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel all right um so in the third quarter the Timberwolves got down by as many as 22 points and things really looked like they were spiraling and uh then Chris Finch decided to put in Jordan mcclaflin and when mcgoffin enters the game the

Timber rules were down by I’m going to get the exact number here but this is with a little bit more than four minutes to play uh in the third quarter uh 422 the wolves are down by 21 they’d been down by as many as 22 McDaniels had just

Split a pair of free throws they’re down 21 when McDaniels comes in and this lineup is uh it’s it’s uh excuse me when mlin comes in it’s mlin uh it’s Anthony Edwards and it’s other bench guys it’s Nas breed it’s nil Xander Walker um and I believe Kyle Anderson was on the floor

At that point in time too so it’s strictly bench players except for Anthony Edwards and for the rest of the quarter the wolves go on a run where they chew Five Points off the deficit they go from 21 down to 16 down and they had multiple opportunities to get much

Closer they were down 14 and azed missed a wide open three from the left side lot um ant missed a three in there too like it could have easily been an 11 or 12 point deficit instead it’s back up to 16 at the end of the quarter uh but what

That did is it gave the wolves um not true switch ability because obviously mclin’s a little bit limited due to his size defensively but he at least was fighting through screens screens more effectively and more quickly uh I thought he was better at at that portion of at fighting through screens than

McDaniels was for much of the night um Alexander Walker was his typical solid self doing that uh McDaniel struggled a bit on both ends of the floor in this game um and mlin provided a spark on both ends he had a couple of quick steals he hit an open three-pointer had

A quarter three rattle out he hadit a floater in the lane he hadit a layup um and it just was like the straw that serves the drink in the way that only Jordan mcclin really can be for this team and it’s just it was his typical

Spark plug self that we saw early early last season prior to the calf injury we saw a couple of times early this season uh prior to the knee injury um and it makes you wonder we’ll talk more about the rotation here in a minute like what

Is his Outlook in terms of the rotation moving forward for the Wolves but that bench that bench unit plus Anthony Edwards um got this thing all the way down to 14 points then in the fourth quarter Finch does come back with towns with McDaniels with Mike Conley um and

He leaves mlin on the floor and Edwards on the floor I think to start the fourth um and you know the Wolves continue to chip away and they eventually get it down to within I believe it was four points at one point in the fourth quarter um but they can’t quite get over

That hump um I’m gonna see what it was exactly they were down six with four and a half minutes to play it’s stuck at six by the way for over two minutes so yeah I don’t think it ever actually got closer than six they were down 10397

With four and a half minutes to play after ant hit a pair of free throws and the Wolves Finch decided to go a little offense defense I thought this was weird um because there were still four and a half minutes left and I guess part of it

Was towns had five fouls and that’s probably the main reason for it um but K comes out Anderson comes in they do a little bit of back and forth and this thing stuck at six points like nobody nobody scored at all either team for two and a half minutes until just over two

Minutes to play when Julius Randle hits that jumper uh top of the key just under the just inside the three-point line as the shot clocks winding down and uh puts the Knicks up eight cat then makes a tough shot it’s back to six and then Randle comes down hits another tough

Shot McDaniels missed a mostly open three-pointer and that was basically at that point the Wolves did get it to within five um but then cat took that terrible that’s right they had the ball with 40 seconds left down five cat had maybe a 28f footer it would have been a

Trail three semic contested almost the perfect shot for cat but it wasn’t he wasn’t quite in Rhythm he passed it up and tried to hit a tough floater from the elbow essentially and missed it uh wanted a foul call I don’t think that particular play was a foul but uh didn’t

Get the call and that was all she wrote um so you know great I like big picture great to see the wolves fight back in this one you know a good start terrible middle to the and needed it was Jordan mlin and a little bit of ant there that

Really kind of spurred this thing forward and got the Wolves back into it because they easily this could have turned into a Suns game this could have turned into a Hawks game where they lose third by 30 um because literally it was some of the worst ball we’ve seen since

That Suns game on the on the second night of a back-to-back in in what early November or the Hawks game the third game of the season this was non-competitive for I’ll call it a quarter and a half like basically the whole second quarter and the first half

Of the third quarter it seemed like the Wolves wanted to be anywhere but Madison scor Garden in those moments uh which is disappointing it happens but disappointing and then they should fight and and to go you know the Knicks are a good team and so with the energy in the

Building with anobi to go from down 22 to down just six with four and a half minutes to play uh like they spended a lot of energy getting to that point I get why they didn’t close it out and it’s weird to see the Wolves not close

Out a close game by the way I I meant to go back and look at this I don’t think the wolves have lost actually this is a really quick thing to look at uh yeah the Wolves did not have a single digit loss all season since opening night at

Toronto now this has only lost eight so they’ve lost eight games two of them are single digit losses Monday against the Knicks by six opening night at the Raptors by three every other loss has been a double digit loss because the wolves are good in close games and it

Takes another team’s best game to beat the wolves and oftentimes if other teams have showed up with the best game the wolves have also played a great game and won or the Wolves just cave and thankfully in this game they did not completely cave but because they had to

Come all the way back they UL timately fell short in the fourth quarter with their comeback understandable how that happens um given everything that led up to it overall key takeaways from this one early in the game the offense was good in the first quarter but it was

Still too sloppy it was a lot more of the the the the turnover issues that we continue to see for this team the Wolves scored 32 points in the first quarter but they turned it over too much they turned it over a little bit too much in

The second quarter and that’s what led to you know losing a point lead at the end of the first frame to be down by 12 at halftime that was part of the issue right the defense was was the main culprit but the turnovers offensively you know were an issue and they ended

The game with only 13 but you know that was part of what gave the Knicks life in this game and if the Wolves had just done a better job of limiting those early um you know they they finished with what uh 13 individual turnovers 14 total turnovers if you include team

Turnovers so actually at a plus one in terms of total turnovers but they allowed 13 fast break points to the Knicks and the Knicks got 23 total points off wolves turnovers so the Wolves actually turned it over one less time than the Knicks but the Knicks got nine more points than

The wolves in points off turnovers and that is because the Knicks were getting out and running in transition the Wolves had a bunch of live ball turnovers and didn’t get back defensively and it goes back to like this seems like such a silly thing but it’s not it

Matters when these guys when cat falls down and Nas falls down and in this game Anthony Edwards falls down um even late in the game when ant missed a shot he was complaining the Knicks were getting back and I think they got a dunk out of it um

And maybe even an and one late in the game because ant was complaining about a foul call like it’s it’s hearkening back to what cat used to do all the time and I thought an gotten a little better and he’s been getting a lot more whistles

Lately but that was a problem in this game I lump that in with turnovers it’s essentially the same thing if you’re going to shoot a bad shot and fall down and complain um and some of the times sure you’ve got to complain it was a foul whatever they didn’t call it but

You can’t compound the mistake by you know maybe it was a bad shot or whatever you can’t make it worse by Falling Down not getting back and or complaining to the official the entire way instead of just getting back complain defense and that was a problem early in this game so

Turnovers we get an issue and along with that I’m gonna I’m going to lump in with turnovers the the complaining issues and the not getting back defensively because again even though the Wolves were at plus one in turnover margin they were a minus 9 in points off

Turnovers and that matters in a game that you end up losing just by six I have two and a half more takeaways before we get to individual studs and Duds we’ll do all that here next to close the show today’s episode of lockdown wolves is brought To Us by our friends at

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Partner of the NFL all right so my first takeaway from this game was turnover issues plus the complaining falling down Etc not getting back defensively uh those are that that’s my first takeway second one is the wolves have to shoot more threes I’ve said this before

I did a whole show on it a couple of weeks ago um The Wolves efficiency wise uh percentage wise are a good three-point shooting team they came into this game fifth in the league in team three-point percentage they are 19th in three-point attempt rate if you factor

In pace so actually only 25th in attempts per game because they just don’t shoot enough and part of that is ant shooting more mid-range shots and actually a little bit less threes which is weird um but they’ve just got to get up more threes and in a game like this

Uh the Knicks ended up attempting six more threes than the wolves and making one more three especially and the Wolves continue to shoot it well like they were over 39% 39.3% from three in this game above their season average so that number is only going to stay the same or improve

On the season um you know if the wolves get up another five six shots they’re going to make at least one of those maybe two of them and and then that’s the difference between this being a six-point loss and potentially you know uh down to the final possession at the

End of the game they just got to get up more threes and I know it’s well I don’t know it is that simple really like they had some opportunities to shoot more threes like actually that last possession is not a bad one like typically towns lets that fly 28 feet

Out or whatever even if he’s slightly off balance I’d take my sh chances there versus cat shooting a runner trying to draw a foul at the elbow like just the Wolves just have the decision- making has to be a little better and part of that is shooting more threes and Finch

Maybe needs to just keep going back to this scheme up a few you know call a few more set plays Four open three-pointers for the Wolves whether it’s Conley catch and shoot so deadly from three cat catch and shoot um you know whatever it is and

He’s so good with the atto with the out of bounds plays um The Wolves they had a couple against the Lakers that were just Dynamite that they got them open threes I it’s and it’s easier to to scheme up an open you know catch and shoot three off off a sideline out of

Bounds or a baseline out of bounds play than it is in a halfcourt set in general um but they just got to find ways to shoot more threes the headline obviously is rebounding the Wolves were at minus 15 on the glass in this game A minus 15 on

The glass goar had 15 of the Wolves 34 rebounds nobody else on the Tim wolves had more than six and only one player besides towns had more towns and goar had more than four so they had let me say this a different way the Wolves only had three players that individually

Grabbed four or more rebounds ants had four cat had six Rudy goar had 15 of the wol 34 rebounds Jade McDaniels again a bad rebounding game one Rebound in 33 minutes Conley You’ like him to grab more than two in 29 Off the Bench Nas

Had two boards in 19 minutes he had five personal fouls in this game The Wolves need to find a way to be more consistent on the glass and it had been getting better so I’m I’m willing to accept that this could be a blip on the radar this

Could just be like hey we didn’t grab enough boards in this game uh but but you also look at it like who led the Knicks to rebound Josh Hart had 11 rebounds th this going back to last year one of my biggest gripes last season was the Wolves back court and wings not

Rebounding their positions well and the Wolves got rid of d’angel Russell he was a major culprit when it came to that uh guys like like Brinn Forbes is one of the worst rebounders in recent memory in the NBA was playing rotation minutes Austin Rivers like these guys were not grabbing rebounds Conley’s probably

Better for another board board per game than DLo is um but they need McDaniels to do more they need ant to be more consistent four isn’t enough in 38 minutes for Anthony Edwards rebounding was a huge issue in this game uh the Knicks had a not only were they a plus

15 on the glass they had 16 offensive rebounds in this game were a plus 12 on the offensive glass the Wolves had four offensive rebounds the Knicks had 16 offensive rebounds in this game and it directly contributed to the Knicks being competitive in terms of points in the

Paint and and the Nicks actually got a couple of three-pointers off Second Chance opportunities but the uh the wolves are a plus two in points in the paint and yet they allowed 16 offensive rebounds to the Knicks that was a major issue my last takeaway is the rotation

Very curious to see what this looks like and I’ll talk about it a bit more on Wednesday show as I get you ready for Wednesday night’s wolves Pelicans game um but interesting to see if now Jordan mlin is suddenly part of the rotation similar to like a couple years ago Jared

Vanderbilt found his way in the rotation by competing uh in some you know garbage timey type minutes providing energy for Chris Finch a couple of years ago found his way into the rotation that way um this isn’t Apples to Apples because I don’t know whose minutes mcclaflin is taking necess necessarily Shake Milton’s

Already out of the rotation he would have been the easy answer but like yeah he could take Troy Brown’s minutes but now all of a sudden who’s your other Wing right like you’re playing Kyle Anderson at the three even more than you were already and that’s not a recipe for

Winning he was an issue in this game at times as well with his non threat you know complete as a complete non-threat offensively so if you’re playing more mlin that means you’re getting more Kyle Anderson at the three and or more Jade McDaniels at um well I guess he’s

Already played mostly the three so mostly you’re just getting more k Anderson at the three and uh you know that I guess that’s what you’re doing um or less Kyle Anderson in general right because that’s kind of slowmo role with the second unit is initiating offense he and kill Alexander Walker you’re not

Going to trip Alexander Walker’s minutes I thought he was pretty good in this game so whose minutes to see eaten into now is Troy Brown completely out of the rotation I think the answer is probably yes um just curious to see and obviously that the matchup should should dictate

That somewhat and and the Pelicans match up maybe isn’t the best one for mlin although I guess could counteract the Alvarado minutes maybe um anyway we’ll talk about that on Wednesday’s Show preview in that game and also the rotation as a whole uh but something to keep an eye all right individual studs

And Duds quickly here studs for the Wolves yes a had some turnover issues some bad ones there was one really bad one when they were down just a couple possessions late uh but still he was essentially it was ant and Jane McDaniel or excuse me Jordan mlin that were the

Reasons in the third quarter that this thing went from 21 to 16 very quickly and along with cat were the reasons why it went from 16 to what six or five or whatever late in the game or middle stage of the fourth quarter it was good overall uh you you’d

Like a little more work on the glass you’d like him to be better defensively you’d like less than you know four turnovers in 38 minutes for somebody with the ball in his hands that much isn’t awful but a couple of them were pretty brutal um 35 points and 21 shots

Four of nine shooting nine of 10 at the line uh not not too bad of an ant game I’m also going to give a stud to carony towns um there were moments that weren’t great but after his last three performances his second half was also vital to the Wolves being competitive in

This game and I thought again he got the short end officiating wise I I if you listen to the show I talk about officiating maybe every two to three weeks I don’t know on average every like five or six games it becomes a thing we need to talk about I never tweet about

It I never post on X about it I did during this game because I couldn’t help myself like there was a couple sequence in there where cat you know somebody’s putting two hands on cat like literally standing him up um I can’t remember I think it might have been hardenstein but

Like putting a body into him when he’s trying to turn and face the basket like that’s a foul 10 times out of ten I don’t like it just is and then literally the next time down the floor Brunson does a step through and you know kind of

I guess like the way his body was it looked like cat like used his knee and tried to like undercut Brunson which he didn’t and the ref got tricked and and called a f and Cat and that was like the perfect example of a ref going oh it’s cat so he probably

Filed him which like I get it you have a reputation you earn I understand that there’s implicit or or unintentional bias because you assume a player is going to commit an act it’s obviously not what you’re supposed to do as a ref but I get it right refs are human one of

The reasons I don’t like to complain too much about it they’ve got a job to do too but the way that cats officiated is so wrong and so just incorrect like he’s just wrong I mean he was guys follow him constantly on offense and he doesn’t do himself

Favors and I I’ve it’s been a while since I’ve mentioned this but it’s a vicious cycle it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of cat saying I don’t get a good whistle him complaining and then ref saying you’re complaining we’re not going to give you a whistle we’re sick of this it’s it’s awful and because

Otherwise he had such a good like 29 Points on 18 shots three of five from outside the arc bad decision on that last possession to shoot it from the elbow on a floater instead of a three-pointer but um like competitive Julius Randle ate his lunch a little bit

There in the first half stole his lunch money ever you want to say that in the first half um but I mean I don’t know the Wolves forced him into six turnovers couple of those were by Kyle Anderson I think but um you know cat cat was good

In this game overall he just had some of those issues again and the refs didn’t do him any favors um third stun up obviously Jordan mcgoffin nine points three assists he was four or five shooting one of two on threes his only miss was a a corner three that just

Rattled out couple of steals was a plus 13 and 12 minutes and likely earned himself a rotation job for uh for Wednesday against New Orleans uh my Duds for this game I’m gonna go Jade McDaniels just a poor performance from jayen on both ends uh you know following up his horrendous

Technical late against LeBron and Lakers on Saturday he went one of five on threes missed an easy little four-footer the the Knicks gave him on the Baseline like just a bad McDaniels game eight points one Rebound in 33 minutes two of eight shooting one of five on threes and

A a subpar offensive game for him as well also Troy Brown Jr he only played six minutes but the Wolves lost his six minutes by 15 points 15 points he had a couple of bad offensive plays had one turnover had two three horrible defensive plays uh I love Troy brown but

He like based on this performance it was the opposite of what he did Saturday and and it’s it’s the trick right if you’re if you’re one of these Fringe rotation guys and you’re called on you better perform if you don’t you’re out of the rotation and that’s probably what

Happens here um you know him and Shake Milton two of the the the two outside additions this offseason to the bench unit um are or I guess to the to the rotation period the only two guys that were completely new to the organization this this offseason both are likely to

Be DN PCD Saturday if things play out according to plan probably for Chris Finch all right so uh studs cat ant and Jord mcgoffin Duds Troy Brown Jr and Jade McDaniels in this one next up the wolv sou the New Orleans Pelicans at home on Wednesday that’s a 700 p.m

Central tip back at Target Center it’s a one game homeand after this one game Road Trip before the wolves go on the road for four a weird like Texas Florida Boston Road Trip they get Houston at Houston Friday at Dallas Saturday excuse me Sunday um and then at Orlando and at

Boston on a back-to-back next week which will be real tough so uh almost done with this Gauntlet five more games if you go back to that uh that New Orleans loss if you want to call that the beginning of the gauntlet since then the Wolves are six and

Four like you know maybe a game worse than I thought but six and four against this this run of games and you know with they’ve only had two consecutive home games this whole time it’s a bunch of road games and they’re all playoff teams not bad so far overall we’ll see how

They bounce back against the pels uh on Wednesday of course last time the Wolves played the pels it was the the start of the stretch back on December 11th and that was that uh that 14-point loss on the road uh in New Orleans all right Wednesday we’ll talk

About that matchup we’ll talk rotation I want to talk lineup data I want to talk about you know what are M mun’s ideal lineups how does Chris Finch get him some minutes we’ll look at some of the big rotation stuff as well on Wednesday too we’ll do all that on Wednesday on

The show a big thank you to those that do make lock done wolves your first listen every day of course this show is free and available everywhere including YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms wherever you like to listen to podcast you can find locked on

Wolves you can also watch on the locked on Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV and you can follow on X lock. wolves don’t forget the tea and also at BB with 2 B’s 2 e cken of course the lockdown wolves podcast is part of the lockdown podcast Network remember

The lockdown network is your local experts on all the biggest stories once again I’m Ben Beacon this is the lockdown wolves podcast and we’ll catch you next time

The Minnesota Timberwolves fell behind by as many as 22 points in the second half before a furious comeback attempt fell just short against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) breaks down the key takeaways, including rebounding woes, uneven defense in the middle stages, strong play late from Karl-Anthony Towns, and how Jordan McLaughlin (!) turned the tide of the game in the third quarter.

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