“Timberwolves confirms position as No. 1 in the NBA” – ESPN reacts to Twoles beat Nuggets 111-98

“Timberwolves confirms position as No. 1 in the NBA” – ESPN reacts to Twoles beat Nuggets 111-98

11- 98 the final score tonight the wolves are back on top in the West Welcome to wolves live in our Trio Orthopedic Studio Kevin Lynch and Rebecca Brunson with us here tonight I’m Marne gilner we’re talking about a very big Timberwolves win and one where the Wolves absolutely dominated the first

Half and played nearly Flawless basketball in the first half and uh leading the way over and over again was this connection Mike Conley and Rudy go bear one way or the other whether it’s passing assisting you can see the chemistry from those two players yeah we’re so used to talking about the

Chemistry from the angle of Mike passing to Rudy but Rudy is one of the best screen assist guys in the league so they have the com the combination of Mike being able to play in certain situations and finding the three ball off of that so you that was on full display the

Comfort that they have Rudy understanding when to rescreen and Mike just knowing that he’s going to be able to come off of those screens and be able to shoot the three a lot of times the guy that’s guarding Rudy is in drop coverage so he knows that there’s

Going to be nobody really there look at where yic is dropped so there’s nobody to really defend except for Reggie Jackson that has to chase over top and they did that throughout the entire night and that’s the benefit of having a guy you know a lot of Defenders feel

Like since Rudy can’t shoot the basketball from there that they able to sit back in the paint and they want to make sure that they can guard Rudy on the roll but what they don’t uh take into account is the fact that Mike Conley is a sniper right now and if

You’re not up there and you’re not guarding him at the point of screen then he’s going to do that all night long you see he was able to hit five or six from three you know he hit the first four so he had it rolling early and that’s something that the combination between

Rudy and Mike is going to give you night in and night out and you Mike is using that to his Advantage right there at the top of the key or either in the slots he’s able to get threes from that position if he’s not getting threes

There set in the corner he he’s able to knock it down from there too but the connection between these two and in some instances it might be Nas up there as well setting the screen but Rudy for the most part because of the way that teams

Guard him and the way that they was able to have that massive amount of space for Mike to come off and knock down that three so it’s an impressive night and that combination’s been working all season really and you heard Mike connley before we started the postgame show

Praise Rudy goar in the way that Conley was able to get free for shots get the looks that he wanted get those shots off five of six from three tonight A lot of that because of the screens Conley was getting from Rudy Gober overall Kevin it was a very good night for the

Timberwolves moving the basketball they had 19 assists in the first half finished the game tonight with 28 yeah they had 19 in the first half and zero turnovers that’s never happened in a half uh in the in franchise history so the ball was moving that was a great

Sign that really set the tone really for the rest of the game I thought it was a a variety of guys whether it’s connley with his eight assists in this game or Kyle Anderson coming off the bench with seven Anthony Edwards five assists was a variety of guys moving the basketball

Really one of the best parts to this huge win for this team is how everybody’s moving the basketball now granted there’s still situations where a guy like Anthony Edwards got to isol you got to take advantage of that strength that you have but it’s contagious guys

Moving the ball the open player gets the shot and it’s not selfish basketball it’s not you know exclusively ISO basketball now Minnesota finished with 28 assists in this game so things kind of calmed down a little bit in the second half and Minnesota had nine turnovers in the second half but the

Tone was set especially in that second quarter when Minnesota had a 19point lead going into halftime so great win for this team back in first place in the Western Conference and a big part of it how the ball was moving and one of the recipients of that is Jaden McDaniels a

Week ago a week and a half ago when the wolves in Denver played at Target Center McDaniel had 26 points it tied his season High tonight he had 17 and maybe just as important 13 at halftime to kind of set a tone for the night he was going

To have yeah and you’ve heard F say throughout the season you’re talking about the ball movement Kevin that Jaden is a barometer for how well the ball is moving because he’s the beneficiary of a lot of those assists a lot of those shots when he gets things off ball so

Just being able to spot up in the corner that was his one three for the night but over the past couple games you know his three-point field goal attempts has continued to creep up he just looks so much more comfortable than we’ve seen him you know in this last stretch of 10

Over five he’s been being able to be aggressive like you said 26 the last time these two teams met 17 70% from the field in this one 70% from the field in that last game as well so just him being comfortable and I think that this is a

Every man needs a step up situation without cat and I think that the team is really understanding that when they share the basketball and shoot when they’re open shoot your shot Don’t Force anything play to your strengths and the strength that this timberwol team has is jayen McDaniel spotting up he’s really

An underrated Creator off of the bounce as well so he can get into the mid-range able to float he’s a great cutter off ball and you see him doing all of those things as of late to be able to create easy offense for this wolves team you

Know you see things starting to click and that’s what they need they need everybody involved and a guy that’s going to be able to get his shot um offensively and then he’s locking down on the other end too so playing on both ends has been really great as of late

And the Timberwolves as a whole playing well on both ends and part of that is taking care of the basketball Kevin you talked a little bit about turnovers and the lack thereof in the first half and when you don’t have a lot of turnovers you don’t give the other team a lot of

Fast Break opportunities and that was one of the benefits for the timber holes tonight yeah that’s how your offense really affects what you do defensively ly because if you’re sloppy with the basketball making bad decisions turning the ball over all it does is feed what the other team is trying to do and

They’re rushing down the court trying to pound it down your throat and uh yeah you know Denver committed 13 turnovers in this game The Fast Break points 15 for Minnesota four only for Den Denver and a lot of that like I’m saying the Wolves just did not make a lot of

Mistakes especially in the first half but even in the second half when Minnesota had a pretty big lead um but a big part of this win also is Minnesota attacking Denver I don’t know what it seemed it seemed like Denver a little bit was low on energy in a game like

This which was surprising I thought they might try to come out and and really punch Minnesota right off the bat but they didn’t do second quarter Minnesota extended the lead and a part of that was Minnesota taking advantage of nugget turnovers and getting out in transition especially with that smaller lineup that

Was really successful in the second quarter and that was a part of this win too that doesn’t get talked about enough but Denver has been a little sloppy in Minnesota tonight and then in that game last week as well and the wolves have really capitalized and now the timber

Holes have a two to one season series lead over the Nuggets one more game to come in a week and a half back in Denver but this one was important for so many reasons and it lived up to the hype we built it up Timberwolves fans and then

We watched our team come home with a big victory uh Michael Grady Jim Peterson in Denver where it all went down as Minnesota dominated in Denver tonight thanks a lot Marty you know I had a conversation with nas Reed before the game and I asked him what’s the

Approach are you going to treat this like any other game or you going to treat this like your Super Bowl and he cut me off said no Super Bowl we want to win this ball game we want to get number one in the west and there is a there is

A fire there’s a competitive fire inside of these guys that they’re not happy with what they’ve done to this point 50 games not enough they want number one in the west and the way that they played and that first half Jim P was as impressive a first half as we’ve seen

From this squad it really was you know they they defensively they they took it to the Denver Nuggets and it kept on extended into the second quarter where they just put on a clinic defensively but then they played with Pace too they just played with great pace and uh Mike

Connelly was very aggressive you know and he was making shots but you know this team’s not had a lot of success obviously in their team history they’ve only won you know another Playoff round a couple times they they got the two in 2003 2004 but other than that they have

Not done anything so you give yourself such a better chance to win series if you can get home court advantage so I I I think it’s a worthy goal and task to be able to do that to get that home court advantage so I mean you see the standings as they

Are right now it’s nice to see Minnesota back on top they been number one my life reborn for the battle e one of these days I’ll find my old self an enemy has been defeated my an enemy has been defeated you have defeated an enemy even if I forget my name I’ll

Remember her smile an ally has been defeated an enemy has been defeated here we go your team has destroyed a tower the past is a dream tomorrow is a new day an ally has been defeated enemy double kill look Up it Out enemy ultimate enemy double kill your tower has been Destroyed my life reborn for the battle our base is under attack out fall for me over you have defeated an enemy double kill is the last for me an enemy has has been defeated victory V for trust is a luxury we can’t afford First Blood we will create a new new world

With our own Hands an enemy has been defeated double kill an ally has been defeated your tower has been destroyed an ally has been defeated always prepare for the worst ultimate spit Yi onlly double kill faster long everyone has a weakness our base is under attack hey over here an ally has been defeated our base is under attack trust is a luxury we cast dominating

“Timberwolves confirms position as No. 1 in the NBA” – ESPN reacts to Twoles beat Nuggets 111-98