Locked On Wolves POSTCAST: T-Wolves STUN The Denver Nuggets, Reclaim #1 Seed

Locked On Wolves POSTCAST: T-Wolves STUN The Denver Nuggets, Reclaim #1 Seed

Lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 all right man where do you even start okay wolves coming into this one three-game win streak re really starting to figure it all out what it’s going to look like without Carl Anthony towns for another couple weeks but tonight was one

I feel like we’ve all had circled on the schedule since the All-Star break coming out of that All-Star break you knew this was going to be a big one on the road in Denver against arguably the hottest team in the ba and you knew even with nine

Games left here after this one this was probably your best shot at the number one seed it was probably going to come down to tonight tonight was going to be a big Make It or Break It factor for sure you couldn’t script though a better first half start for them tonight 19 to

Zero 19 to zero assist to turnover ratio unbelievable the Nuggets man they had no answers the the crowd was like Shell Shocked Denver players they looked like disgusted at times uh Jaden McDaniels 13 points at half slow-mo seven assists at half the bench put up a 14 to4 Advantage

At half wolves led by 19 at the break and they really never look back 19 was enough they got it up to about 25 I want to say at one point 11198 that’s your final another defensive outing where the Wolves held their opponent under 100 points they go

Into Denver and make a serious statement win and really what what felt like okay maybe not on paper but it felt like a must-win game tonight Jack so kick us off uh biggest takeaways top of your head and big picture now what’s a win like this mean for this team right now

As we get down to crunch time with the playoffs so close yeah I mean this this was a massive win for for the Timberwolves for for a myriad of reasons I mean first of all they had every reason to cave in to all the noise surrounding them with all the ownership

Drama that’s going on right now with all this dirty laund that’s being aired publicly between Glenn Taylor and Mark Lorie and Alex Rodriguez and then they just come out Chris Finch said pregame it didn’t affect us down here at the troop level which I thought was just the most Chris

Finch way of putting it um and they just absolutely dominated the defending champs on their on their home floor yes I know the Nuggets did not have Jamal Murray blah blah blah guess what wolves didn’t have Carl Anthony towns and the Wolves didn’t have any of their three

Bigs and they played last week on the second night of a brutal backtack losing an hour traveling from Utah lost in in a nailbiter in that game and this is now the second time that they’ve really given Denver a ton of problems and they just had more Firepower to do it tonight

Um I mean you you talked about it with with the crowd and the Nuggets players I mean when Anthony Edwards clamped up kabius Caldwell Pope in the left corner for that shot clock violation right in front of the Wolves bench everyone’s barking like dogs at ant ant’s mean

Mugging going crazy more excited about that play than any offensive it’s the Rudy Flex when when ant pulls out the Rudy Flex man nothing better yeah I mean they were up 15 with what was it here 528 to go in the second quarter and it just felt like this the Nuggets Spirit

Was broken at that point um and that was just a massive boost I think for the Timberwolves emotionally in this game because they were already rolling a little bit but to just be able to win so demonstratively and so loudly in the fashion that they did and be able to

Celebrate and Showboat and and carry that same Swagger that that we’ve seen from them of late into Denver and and just dominate Denver was awesome I mean if I had told you that Nas and ant would struggle they’d shoot 10 of 31 from the floor and combined to score only six

Points in the fourth quarter would you have think the Timberwolves won let alone dominated this game I mean Nas had seven points on two of 12 shooting a had 25 Five Points on eight of 19 shooting I mean we first of all we hope nasri’s wrist is okay that was really the

Potentially one huge negative in this game he fell on that left wrist same wrist he broke around this time last year but I mean the reason they won this game like you said the assist turnover ratio 19-0 in the first half it was only nine to eight in the second half because

They kind of messed around in the fourth quarter but um you know that really enabled guys like Mike Conley to to be aggressive uh and really be impact back full he had 23 points on 12 shots five of six from three had eight assists and the timber roles have really ramped up

Their pick and roll game we’ve talked about that but but we’ve seen a lot more of Mike Conley and Rudy goar pick and roll in two-man game especially since that Golden State game last Sunday was it and they went to it a lot in the fourth quarter of that game and helped

Them close that game out in in a in a big way and then they’ve just carried it through uh the rest of this week playing that same way and it and it’s been huge and especially when when Mike Conley’s rolling and his aggressive as he is

First you got to worry about ant then you got to worry about Nas then Jaden then Rudy on the roll and then Mike Conley all of a sudden is a super efficient scorer when when he chooses to score and he just kind of grabbed hold of this thing in

The perfect spots and it was it was fun to watch and then and then again Jaden McDaniels right again awesome game from him tonight is his fourth time in his last five scoring at least 15 points he had 17 points on seven of 10 shooting at three rebounds three assists and and

Really made life difficult for for everyone that he guarded he switched to ton on the perimeter and and was a huge reason why uh the Nuggets were just really uncomfortable and and why the Timberwolves were able to throw so many different looks at yic he was able to

Get aggressive and get into passing Lanes tip balls which was which was a ton of fun to see and and most importantly I just think his confidence is all the way back on the offensive end and you saw it with the difficulty of some of his scores off the dribble in

That mid-range and and his just willing to let the ball fly from Deep the second he catches it he’s not even thinking about it you know we we’ve talked about it on this show plenty of times this season where you can tell he’s really thinking about oh should I shoot it

Should I not shoot it from three and he’s and he just let it go tonight and again we saw really positive results from him and when you get a combined what is it here 21 44 61 points from Jaden McDaniels Rudy goar and Mike Conley man you’re gonna

Take that every single day of the week and we can get into some some defensive uh things next year but I just think those were the big things it was really an offensive driven game which is crazy to say when the Timberwolves held Denver really felt more like 85 points because

Of how much how long that free throw game was uh at the end of the game but but man just what a performance and it couldn’t have come at a better time with with all the external noise and drama and everything surrounding this team right now well let me ask you the same

Question you just brought up a minute ago if I were to pull out the schedule month ago and say listen you see this game right here March 29th on the road in Denver going to be the hottest team in the NBA I tell you that they play

Without cat and Nas Reed was going to go two of 12 like you mentioned and they would not just win but they’d win by double digits they actually would manhandle them for three and a half quarters what’s your first thoughts like who is this team not my wolves who was

Out for Denver would probably be my first question fortunately but yeah I mean it just goes to show the depth this team has right and for them to be able to flex the way that they did and and just in the second quarter when they were rolling everybody that played in that

Second quarter scored and and like Richard just said the first half was so satisfying because everybody played well it wasn’t a situation where it was two or three guys carrying the load it was every single guy was buying into the way that they were playing excuse me where you get off the

Ball early you get the ball movement you move without the basketball you play off the catch well you make quick decisions and and you get everybody you touch and the Wolves been playing that way really they kind of found their stride in that Clippers game so what was it the fourth

Game without Carl Anthony towns yeah so it took them a little bit to kind of get their bearings a little bit and figure out exactly how they were going to play but they haven’t looked back since that point they’ve been tremendous tremendous offensively what if they only lost one

Game since that point I don’t have the schedule in front of me and and it was that Denver game and and they they very easily could have won that game had had the ball bounced their their way in the fourth quarter so just the the way that

This team continues to fight and it’s different guys who step up it’s kind of like reverse whack-a-mole you know where just another guy pops up and and that’s a good thing for you uh for for Timberwolves role players and and for the Wolves to also do this with only

Scoring 18 bench points I think was huge too for them to have four of the five and double figures off for the starting lineup I think was was really important just to prove that hey you know we’re all veterans we can buy into this we can

Get it down on the road in a hostile environment and you know they go as number five goes and it’s and it’s fun to see the the tone that he’s helped set in these huge games and and really just kind of bring these guys together and

And put them on his put him on his back was that the best first half this team has played all year like like not trying to be a prisoner of the moment I know it’s just all you know it’s so fresh right now and raw but I really don’t

Feel like that’s that much of an overreaction right like considering everything that was at stake that we already went over on the road no cat you’re playing the the hottest team in the NBA arguably right and you come out and play the cleanest crispiest first half I personally think I’ve seen all

Year 19 assist zero turnovers not this not the team that I watched this year’s struggle turning the ball over that first half of the season so often can’t be yeah I think that’s certainly one that comes to mind I think another one that to mind and and one that I kind of

Had in my mind as we were as as this game was was going on was that second game of the season or third game of the season whatever it was against Atlanta oh sure sure where they just absolutely came on set the world on fire and then just totally dominated I

Think you you think about that that game at Orlando that they played was incredible where where they were just incredibly dominant on both ends of the floor uh there there was a game against against New Orleans early in the season where they just came out and laid it on

New Orleans in the first half and and then the other one I want to say too was that game in Chicago I know they ended up losing that game in the second half from a from an insane run from Kobe white but that was another game where

They just dominated on both ends of the floor and and really played Super efficiently offensively and for for the Wolves to to put together a half like this I think this is probably the best offensive half we’ve seen from the Timberwolves just because I think such a

Big problem for for them has been the the turnovers and the indecision and and everything not totally clicking at once offensively and I think for that to all kind of come together all at once certainly had to be had to be satisfying for the Timberwolves but yeah one of the

One of the two best offensive halves for sure between this game and that game against Atlanta where I want to say they they almost hung like 80 points on on the Hawks in that first half right yeah nope good memory you’re right certainly up there as well with that one all right

Plenty more Deep dive on the Wolves monster tonight and the number one seed now in the west that’s all coming up right after this quick reminder tonight’s episode brought To Us by eBay Motors passion Drive patience what brings home the winning trophy is what also keeps your

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Customers all right I I do want to touch on that defense tonight they were phenomenal but there’s an elephant in the room here we we just got to touch on real quick of course I’m talking about all the drama that went down today with the top Rass really over the last 24

Hours or so I’ll just tee you up real quick with the bullet points uh the owner Glen Taylor basically pulled the plug on A-Rod and Mark Lorry they were set to buy the team they already own 36% as of now Taylor basically said okay that’s fine they can keep it but he’s

Not given up anything more than that Lauri and A-Rod straight flabbergasted pretty much they thought it was a done deal they thought the deal was imminent everything sounded like it was a done deal anyways they even went on our guy Dane Moore’s podcast today aired out a little dirty laundry there just

Expressed you know how disgusted they were how frustrated they were especially that Taylor kind of made this so public they’re like you know what we could have done all this behind closed doors um I think the first thought in a lot of people’s minds at least this was one of

My first thoughts what a coincidence now all of a sudden the Wolves put up their best season in 19 years the ticket values are through the roof the team’s you know just straight up value probably most importantly that’s increased by W wide margins uh and now all of a sudden

You want to pull the plug on this thing that’s been kind of In Motion now for two three four years it feels like so um anything major there I missed and then I guess you know give us your take on on the whole Fiasco and to be quite honest

It feels like some fans are kind of split on this on the fence um it feels like you know what is this a sketchy move to pull or I mean if you were selling a team and the value went up would you do the same thing where do you

Kind of stand in all this yeah well the first things first is uh I think it’s pretty significant that you have someone like Alex Rodriguez saying quote we will fight for our dream we will fight for the fans of Minnesota the team and really protect the fan base from Glenn

Taylor wow that is just a crazy thing to say about a guy that you’re going to be purchasing a team from and and A-Rod also said that he had gotten probably two or three dozen phone calls over the last two and a half years suggesting uh

That him and Lori have the best law firm make sure you protect yourself to make sure the te’s are crossed the eyes are dotted and A-Rod said Mark and I took the approach that was like no Glenn and Becky have been great with us we believe

Them a contract is a contract and sure enough we get this bomb yesterday and every single one of those people said I told you he’s a traiter and A-Rod said and unfortunately he Le he lives up to the Glen Taylor reputation so it’s all just pretty scathing stuff and and I got

To say I understand the frustration from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lori and that you know if they truly believe that they held up their end of the bargain on this contract which based on what I’ve have seen on the contract that has Flo been floated on social media it seems like

They are following the contract and and and if Glen Taylor is in in effect breaking this contract because he has sell remorse uh is just crazy and for Glenn to do this he he sent this out through the the team PR W or Shams neither of

Them had any wind of this scoop and it happened on on Thursday morning so right away in in the morning after the the deadline for the for the two guys to exercise the option had passed is is kind of crazy and uh Mark Lori said on Dane’s podcast today that they are

Banned from being in the back end back part of the arena and there was an internal memo that was sent out Banning any Timberwolves employees and players from including Tim Connelly from communicating with Mark and Alex and I think that is crazy regardless of what happened contractually these guys own

36% of the team they are the biggest limited partners that Glenn has and for Glenn to treat his Partners in this way whether they broke what whether Mark and Alex didn’t hold up to their the bargain or not that is irrelevant to me when it comes to evaluating the way that Glenn

Taylor is treating his LPS in this situation is just crazy to me and it it just seems like there there is I think it was Phil Mackey put out a tweet that said you know either incompetence or chaos has just always surrounded the the Timberwolves side of

The house at least for for Glen Taylor and and I kind of have to agree with that statement um and I think all of this going on and and how dysfunctional the Timberwolves have been is a huge huge hat tip to Cheryl Cheryl reev her wife Carly Knox who who run the links

And do an incredible job of keeping their house in order and running a first class organization that has largely been the gold standard of the WNBA while the Timberwolves have been largely a laughing stock for the last 20 years and have been one of the worst I mean buy

Win percentage franchises in American Pro Sports and you know you can look at a lot of different things you can look at presidents of basketball operations or general managers you can look at coaching you can look at the guys on the roster outside of star player I mean you

Can look at anything and there’s been one common denominator there and you know I thought it was interesting too that Alex Rodriguez said on on Dan’s pod that uh Glenn Taylor did not want to do the Rudy gobear trade he did not want to do uh the Tim Connelly hiring he he

Basically said that guys like Tim Connelly don’t come to Minnesota is What Glenn said and then they went out and got Tim Connelly who is made a ton of good moves to put this team in the position that he’s in and and Glenn and A-Rod basically said

Now Glenn’s trying to take credit for all that when it wasn’t his you know when he was not the one driving a bus on those decisions so I I certainly say that we have to reserve final judgment uh until all of this is settled because

I think there has been a lot of uh you know PR jockeying from both sides in terms of trying to win in the court of public opinion and and we all know that that is not where legal matters are adjudicated so we’re going to have to

Wait and see what ends up coming out but what I can tell you is that Mark Lori and Alex Rodriguez are very confident that they will end up uh assuming majority control of this team and running this team and whether or not that ends up coming to fruition remains

To be seen but um yeah I I am keenly interested to see what happens and if Glenn Taylor appears at Target Center on Sunday because if he does I would not be surprised one bit if uh if this fan base starts some sort of sell the team chant or or something just

Because somebody’s gonna glue their arm out on the court or something themselves to the stanion yeah I don’t know I mean yeah I mean the the biggest thing my point in all of this is that it’s just so unfortunate that it is distracted from what has been an awesome

Season been a ton of fun and it came 24 hours before this game the biggest game of the season and now the great part about it is that the Timberwolves just went out there and kicked the Nuggets rear ends and now everyone gets to talk about how great this Timberwolves team

Is and that they’re back in top on top of the West they control their own destiny in the Western Conference in spite of all this crazy external stuff happening and and now the conversation can shift back to basketball and and fans can continue to enjoy uh yet another entry in what has

Been a really fun season and a season that I will always remember regardless of what happens in in the playoffs and how this this ride ultimately comes to yeah we were going to remember this season regardless no matter what but now there’s just an extra kind of funny Wild

Card chapter in this book of the 2023 2024 season that we’ll have to flip through someday bottom line here Jack sounds like like you said they got an ironclad case they’re still awfully confident they’re going to get a deal done one way or another does A-Rod and

Mark Lori own this team one day in the future and if so how many years do you think just got tacked onto it I I have no idea man I I you know I’m not going to speculate on that just because um I don’t we don’t know and we got to let

The let the legal process play out whatever is going to happen is is going to happen but what I can say is that um you know the Rudy gobear trade has has done pretty well the Tim Connelly hiring has been awesome and everyone that Tim Connelly has brought in has been pretty

Good and uh the Mike connley trade has probably added years onto my life and and nil Alexander Walker coming in that move too and like it’s it’s just hard to dispute everything that everything good that has happened since A-Rod and Mark Lori came into the picture uh they also

Signed sha reev to a five-year contract extension which was pretty huge and green lit the links to try to spend as much money as they possibly could to improve the team um and that certainly had their fingerprints on it as well so um yeah it’s just just kind of hard to

Dispute those those uh pull points I guess absolutely right all right uh I know we could talk about that subject all night long don’t go anywhere though we’re going to preview this three-game home stand coming up starting with the bulls this Sunday night that’s all coming up right after

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Certain areas in your game notes what else stuck uh stuck out tonight on the defensive side of the ball yeah really quickly I mean what I was really pleased with was the way that they changed a bunch of looks on on joic uh was was awesome they had Rudy guard in

One-on-one they had Nas start out guarding in one-on-one and they did that spy coverage where Ry goar played off of Aaron Gordon to to just not only make y shots at The Rim a little bit tougher with Rudy contesting him but also to make his passes a little tougher when

You have Rudy goar and Jane McDaniels both off the ball it’s it’s really tough to to find open passes this was the third and third time in the last four games that the Timberwolves have held yic under 50% shooting and it’s the third straight game that they’ve held

Joic this is including the playoffs third straight game of um holding yic to five assists or less that’s those are both of those in combination are pretty staggering and for you know the Timberwolves have probably defended joic better than any team in the league maybe

The Knicks have done almost as good of a job the last couple of Seasons here but the Timberwolves just forced other guys to beat them they played percentages really really well they were comfortable with guys like Aaron Gordon or or Reggie Jackson just hucking up shots and um I

Thought that the way that they clamp down on Michael Porter Jr and Aaron Gordon was phenomenal those two guys had 17 points between them in the first quarter while joic was kind of struggling getting off to a a slow start but they just had 11 points in the rest

Of the game which was incredible U Reggie Jackson scored 12 points on 15 shots he did have 10 assists but a lot of those came late in the game when when in my view the the result was pretty much already in hand and then yeah like

Tang is saying there I mean a a lot of this game and the stats I feel like were were flipped a little bit in the in the garbage time period and the Nuggets only had seven bench points coming into the fourth quarter and then they erupted for

19 in in that first part of the the fourth quarter there and and I think you got to give a lot of credit for the way the timber was played tonight to Rudy goar and and to Kyle Anderson I mean Rudy was back tapping on the offensive

Glass his timing with his helps on yic he was contesting everything he did a great job in isolation he he was great on the on the rooll he had a couple of finishes including that Euro to his right hand and a couple of assists on kickouts and then Kyle Anderson his

Timing on steals down low and just poking and needling and Walling up joic in the post made him really uncomfortable and kind of made yic Force up some awkward shots that were really contested and and out of rhythm and uh and just pretty unorthodox and I think

That that’s always a great recipe for trying to make jic uncomfortable and then on the other other end of the floor had seven assists and one turnover he had six assists in his first six minutes of play tonight and uh and then of course had had his two blocks as well

Which was which was great um and then yeah like you said the Timberwolves also inside in the paint did a great job finishing um they were 73% at The Rim 50% on floaters anything above like 42 43% on floaters is a great number and and anything above 60 or 65% at The Rim

Is a great number so really efficient night from the Timberwolves offensively and then um had all their best defenders really Step Up defensively and also too I I do think you got to give a lot of credit to NAS Reed for the way that he

Was able to yeah um kind of force yic into some help and and not just get killed in oneon-one which yic just kills everyone seemingly in one-on one so uh a big job well done to uh to number 11 yeah total package tonight top to bottom the bench the starters the offense the

Defense you name it t-wolves save their best for last for sure as far as just bringing their a game in such a Do or Die just kind of felt like a do or die kind of game if you wanted that one seed in anyways all right let’s close out we

Got uh two two and a half minutes here let’s close out little preview for Sunday’s matchup Now versus the Bulls actually talk to me about all three of these home games coming up now you got the Bulls Rockets Raptors three absolutely winnable games games you should be winning anyways what’s your

Assessment or forecast I guess now coming up should win and almost have to win all three of these just to keep a top the uh the standings now on top the West yep no question got to win all three of them I mean I I you you know

Starting with the bulls I mean demard de rosen’s been incredible he’s certainly 25 points per game over his last 10 really he like 26 27 a game since the first of the year he’s been incredible I dunu has been really good uh since Zack LaVine went down has been playing really

Well since the allstar break for them as well with Kobe white not playing quite as well coming off of that injury so that’s a that’s a very winnable game um even with those guys playing well they’ve still been pretty terrible of late um the r that’s the big one they’ve

Won 10 games in a row and they’re now just a game and a half back of Golden State for the uh for the 10 seed yeah Jaylen green and amen Thompson have both been phenomenal uh in in Alper and shanon’s absence so the Timberwolves are going to have to really uh give their

Full attention of that game and really dominate in the paint with Jabari Smith Jr really being the only guy uh for them inside and then the Raptors game the Raptors have been the worst offense in the league for for a while now U but they do do a great job of of forcing

Turn turn overs and getting out and running in transition so um you know really have to uh pay attention to that and make sure that they’re they’re playing like they did tonight making quick decisions getting off the ball not driving into crowds not playing in the

Gaps things like that so um yeah if they can take care of the ball they should beat the Nugget or they should beat the the Raptors because the Raptors have had uh some pretty bad spacing problems but the Raptors will get back um RJ Barrett who unfortunately has been out for the

Last couple weeks dealing with um the death of his younger brother which was a really terrible uh sad story but um you know good to see him back and and hopefully hopefully playing well so uh should be should be a nice home stand nice three three and0 home stand for the

Timberwolves that they continue to play the way that they’ve been playing um over the last two weeks or so yeah and Houston beat the Jazz by one tonight so they have won 11 games in a row now absolutely unbelievable uh well done tonight my man as always that was a lot

Of fun huge night tonight wolves thumped the nuggets on the road they jump back into first place in the Western Conference back at home now for three straight starting Sunday verse the Bulls tip off for that one 6 pm. Central Standard Time as always huge shout out

To everyone that joined us on the stream you guys are the absolute best you are on fire tonight rest assured we’ll be back each and every game same time same place right here to break it all down quick reminder as well go check out all of Jack’s work on Twitter Jr Borman 13

Make sure you check out him and the entire crew on the Minnesota basketball party that’s each and every Wednesday Sam xtram hosting Co Legend Ron Johnson Carol Evans Reggie Wilson and don’t forget Ben Beacon always ripping it up over on the lockon Wolves podcast each

And every day as well that’ll do it for us tonight he’s Jack Borman I’m Luke Inman on Twitter lukor spin until next time Sig now

The Minnesota Timberwolves travel to Denver and shock the Nuggets 111-98 and regain the top seed in the western conference. Join Luke Inman and Jack Borman for the instant reaction.