Locked On Wolves POSTCAST: T-Wolves Gut Punched By Chicago Bulls, 109-101

Locked On Wolves POSTCAST: T-Wolves Gut Punched By Chicago Bulls, 109-101

The Wolves fall back to Earth they lose to the Bulls tonight 10911 I got the expert Tyler metf he’s going to help us break it all down it’s all coming up next on the lock on wolves Postcast you are locked on wolves postcast part of lockon Minnesota on the locked on podcast Network your team every day what’s up what’s up back in the lab back at it another t-wolves postcast episode right here on the lockdown Sports Minnesota Network you got myself Luke Inman lukor spin that’s the man right

There Tyler meaf he’s on X at tmf1 and Tyler before we jump into all the action quick reminder tonight’s episode brought to you by prize picks the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to priz pick.com lockon NBA use code all lowercase lock on NBA for first deposit

Match up to $100 all right man where do you even start uh wolves coming off that you know electric win on the road in Denver just two nights ago you retake the number one seed everyone’s loving life we’re riding high life is good now you come back home

Three straight games at home all very winnable starts tonight vers Chicago but as Chris Burman says but that’s why they play that game uh give some credit to the Bulls man they came out they shot the uh the lights out of the gym it was insane I’ll

Let you bust out like all the numbers all the stats all the analytics but bulls with Caruso I think he he broke his his his career best from three but anyways to roen they were just money from all night shot 57% from three 17 of 30 meanwhile the Wolves you shoot 30% 11

For 36 uh Bulls took a 16-point lead in that first half give credit to the Wolves too I mean I thought they played pretty well tonight pretty tough despite you know again not scoring I mean that didn’t really show up in the Box Score we’ll get into that a little bit later

But turnovers were a big issue tonight fast break points were a big issue tonight and the Bulls come into the Target Center just gut Punch The Wolves they knocked them back down to earth a little bit after that big win versus the Nuggets which now that feels like an

Eternity ago but 109 101 that’s your final Bulls come out on top k us off here Tyler biggest takeaways biggest eight topics top of your head yeah and the the biggest disparity was just the the difference in shot making between the two teams tonight uh the Bulls were making anything and everything they

Threw up uh like you said I 58 and a half percent from three on the night they they shot better from three than they did from two tonight uh conversely the Wolves 29.7% you’re never going to win an NBA game shooting that poorly so when J McDaniels goes one of six Anthony

Edwards is 0 of five nikil Alexander Walker is one of five when you get two two made threes between those three guys they’re probably not going to win um it it was tough and it didn’t feel like the Bulls were just feasting on open look after open look after open look the

Defense felt solid um guys were closing out there were rotations their hands were really active they were disrupting uh drives and passing Lanes they forced and they had where we at 12 steals and 16 turnovers by the Bulls solid defensive game they just made literally everything they threw up there Alex kuso

7 of eight from three he just turned into Kyle corver tonight and just couldn’t miss and you know D Roan’s even knocking down threes for the first time in five years and knocking down every mid-range jumper that he you know steps into so it was an incredible shot making

Performance by the Bulls and then conversely the the timberl just could not buy a shot tonight so outside of just the cold shooting I mean again you mention it there were times they just couldn’t buy a bucket tonight and the Bulls on the other hand okay they couldn’t miss but outside of the

Shooting aspect of everything which obviously I know that’s what makes or breaks every single game but what was the one thing that really drove you nuts you know with the tangible stuff the the points off turnovers fast break points what was it and the points off turnovers

They were scoring like 2.7 points per possession in the first half off of that so he’s like okay that’s not sustainable and ended up being that way um and the the big thing that drove me crazy tonight was Anthony Edwards just kind of reverting back to some old bad habits

Where he was just really forcing the issue uh over dribbling the ball not keeping it moving as quickly as we’ve seen him do for most of the season um and he was just really kind of trying to force himself into a rhythm he couldn’t buy a jumper we saw him miss a handful

Of layups in the third quarter too um especially down the stretch of the third before he was going to get subbed out for that you know the start of the fourth there so you could feel him just really trying to find a rhythm try and find a scoring Groove and he couldn’t do

It and that led to a bunch of Misses uh both at The Rim from the perimeter six turnovers him just kind of driving into stuff without a plan and as we’ve seen in these La this last month or so the refs are letting a lot more contact go

Around the rim it kind of affected him tonight more than we’ve seen in these last couple games yeah well set on Ant to we’ll talk about that maybe a little bit more here in segment two but what’s a loss like this now mean for your psyche right your momentum we’re so

Close to the playoffs now you go from beating arguably the hottest team in the league on the road to losing to a sub 500 team at home just another roller coaster kind of of emotions is this a game you know once the dust settles we wake up tomorrow morning we should just

Give more credit to the Bulls for playing the way they did or is there plenty to pick on if you’re a wolves fan um I mean the the the easy way and you know probably the healthier way to go about it is ah 20 9% from three never

Going to win a game when you shoot like when and then the other team shoots 30% better from three um that’s probably the healthy way to go about it I’m sure you know there’s I’m sure on a rewatch there’s a bunch of little more nitpick stuff especially with the ball movement

Um that you know we can kind of dive into and I’m sure the coaching staff will probably have that similar approach but we just saw what they looked like against the best team in the league just the other night so I I this isn’t a game where I’m freaking out about it where

I’m really panicking about oh my God what’s the identity of the Wolves oh my God they’re throw away another game in clutch time they couldn’t make a shot tonight and will that happen a handful of times in the playoffs proba probably but we’ve seen when they get hot they

Offense is awesome and every single game their defense translates so I I I just chalk it up to a really awful shooting night all around yeah agreed I think most people would agree with you there too let’s go to the stream our boy random Planet anyone else a little

Worried that once again they are falling back to not getting up for teams they should beat this has been a common theme for this team going back to last year now I will say of course they’ve kind of bucked that Trend quite a bit this year

And in theory I mean once you get to the playoffs this shouldn’t really be an issue you’re not playing any sub 500 teams anymore then that’s never really been the issue win or lose they usually bring their a or a minus kind of game most of those nights how do you explain

It though I I mean here we are almost the end of a second season now where it still feels like they’re losing these really winnable games yeah and I I think it’s just kind of it’s a brutal part of the Season these guys are tired you know

It’s end of March their eyes are on the playoffs they’re focused on you know like that game against Denver they knew they had to have that game they knew that you know that was a huge swing in the standings and tiebreakers um so they had to have it you know this was you

Know realistically all these games are kind of must haves but I would with what nine 10 11-ish games left in the season I would much rather see them consistently step up and really dominate their playoff uh competitors right and maybe take some of these games for granted

Obviously we never want to see that but the fact that they’re not dogging it or coming out flat or not showing up at all against the really highle teams I’m not worried about it if this was more of a consistent thing where this was game after game after game them coming out

Flat and just not respecting their opponents and this was December and January then it’s like okay how many of these are going to pile up and is that really going to affect the standings but there’s so little time left in the season these guys are just solely

Focused on getting to the playoffs um and kind of dominating the teams that are right around them in the standings yeah and I think our guy Jaden kind of Hit the same head that you’re talking about as well not only so late in the season It’s a Grind it’s a gauntlet

Everybody’s tired but but after what you just went through I mean how much gas did you really expect them to have left in the tank and I get it you got to show up man uh no excuses doesn’t really matter these games are so PIV pivotal

And so huge at the end of the day but um you’re right I think they’re they they may be just kind of riding on E here a little bit um hopefully that’s not the case though and we’ll find out in these next two home games box score scouting

Here let me pull it up doesn’t always tell the whole story I know but something to go off of let me just read these off you tell me what just kind of jumps out the most Rudy 19 points 11 boards Naas Reed 14 points three of nine

From three Conley 19 points five of nine from three he’s been red hot from three the past two games now Monte Morris nine points Off the Bench but then ant 22 points 0 of five from three Jaden eight points boy he’s been hot and cold hot

And cold eight points one of six from three and naw Five Points one of five from three uh just final thoughts on that just another opportunity to shout out anyone else tonight for good or bad yeah let’s keep it positive um I thought Rudy goar was phenomenal tonight um just

The amount of possessions that he kept alive on those tip outs the offensive rebounds he secured on his own um the and ones obviously five Miss free throws hurts but that’s who he is he’s going to have some of those nights you know next game he could easily go seven to seven

From the line we’ve seen that from him all year so we we it kind of has a similar feeling to that Detroit game where he was really the only guy that consistently kept them in the game with his ability to control the pain in the interior on both ends of the

Floor so I thought his defense and the interior was really good tonight the rebounding was huge and the way that he just constantly kept possessions alive and finished around the rim was really really big for them when no one else could buy a bucket yeah well said he was absolutely outstanding once again

Tonight on both ends of the Court per usual all right plenty more Deep dive on the Wolves tough tonight that’s all coming up right after this quick reminder tonight’s episode brought to you by eBay Motors passion Drive patience what brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your

Ride or die alive and eBay Motors they got everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to the ultimate Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights eBay Motors literally has it all and whether you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors they got you covered check this

Out over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you’ll always find exactly what you’re looking for and with eBay’s guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you’re burning rubber not cash

With all the parts you need at the prices you want it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay’s guaranteed fit only available to us customers uh this gonna kind of sound

Weird after a loss but I never got you two cents in kind of your biggest takeaways from that last game vers Denver that that was just so epic man so huge now you lose tonight though as we’ve discussed does it feel like now that game was kind of all for not after

You lose a game you’re supposed to come back home and definitely supposed to win and and again just real quick 30 60 seconds what was your biggest takeaways from that Denver matchup that we might have missed uh biggest takeaway was just how me how just how how consistently

They can make things really difficult for Nico yic um I I don’t want to say that they can stop him or you know really give you know whatever all they can do is slow slow him down he’s the best player in the world but I think

They’re the best team in the west who matches up with them and I think that last game was yet another I know he put up big numbers again but God they make life difficult for him and have being able to have Rudy kind of roam off of

Him and then throw Kyle or Nas um at him as the Y Bal Defender it’s huge so I I really think they have some fascinating defensive game plans um in matchups that kind of work out pretty well against the Nuggets um it it feels like is all for

Not but when you beat the best team in the league is that ever a bad thing so right right right no it it’s kind of a bummer to see that you know they’re going to probably drop back down to third um tonight cuz Denver won earlier

And uh OKC was beating the Knicks I think that game’s almost over so both those will probably jump up into one and two again so it sucks especially when you lose to a team that you should have blown out at home it’s a bummer but it also helped with the tiebreaker against

Denver depending on how how these next 10 games go um somebody who maybe’s got NBA TV keep us posted but OKC they’re down by one 112 111 with 4.1 seconds left so check that out uh what do you think it’s going to look like when cat comes back like obviously A lot’s going

To depend on is he 100% healthy is he 90% what’s his stamina what’s his you know you know a lot of different factors going on um their winning percentage even after tonight’s loss I think it’s still higher without him than it was with him so they’ve proven they can win

Either way I’m not on here and saying they’re a better team without him by any stretch okay but I think there is something to be said here Tyler about chemistry and cohesiveness and and just the way they’re playing right now and even though cat’s been on the team I get

It it’s not like he’s a new player that just got traded here or anything like that but but my question is here do you worry at all just the way they have been playing so well them switching things up kind of shaking the lineups back around again right when the playoffs start I

Mean that feels like what going to end up being the timing when he does ultimately come back like is it a if it ain’t broke don’t fix it kind of thing or catch just too good you’re gonna find a way to make it work you figure it out

And and if there is a little bit of rust then so be it yeah I I I think it’s more so the latter because um I I know it kind of has similar Vibes of last season where he came back from the injury super late and they were still trying to

Figure things out good point but they’ve had two years now to kind of figure out chemistry and how everyone fits into their rotation and it’s basically the same team so I don’t think that there’s going to be that that much upheaval as there kind of was last year before

Everyone figured out their roles and how they connected with each other on the court um and I I just I think it’s G to hopefully you know cat kind of comes back and simplifies his game a little bit I you know this stretch by Nas is hopefully showing that okay when that

Ball kicks out to you on the wing just let it fly just get those three-point attempts up to 7 8 n 10 a game simplify your game be super decisive and then that allows the wolv to put Reed back in the second rotation and really kind of

Dominate bench units again um like he was before cats injury I think RP’s right on this too just touching on what you said this was a we miss cat kind of game they’re just you know Nas has been such a spark plug as this comment mentions here but they are tired man and

They’re running out of steam they could certainly use just some fresh legs again and all that talent doesn’t hurt as well uh we touched on this Friday with Jack um just because I know how closely you follow a lot of this stuff and and just

Given how huge of a story this is too I’d love your quick two cents on the whole Glen Taylor versus A-Rod and Lorie situation we’ve kind of found ourselves in here obviously there’s always two sides to every story we don’t ever have every single fact in front of us I get

That maybe someday we will but just given what we know now and maybe The Stereotype around L Taylor not being the greatest owner out there to put it lightly kind of which side of the fence are you on like what’s your whole take on the whole thing I guess and and how

Do you think it all shakes out where do you stand on everything um boy it it it just sucks it sucks that this is happening in the best season in franchise history um it it’s a really bummer of a time of timing for it too especially on the home stretch by all

Accounts it’s not affecting the locker room or coaches or players or anything and I wouldn’t imine that it really would um yeah Thunder went up um but it it kind of sounds like buyers remorse or sellers remorse from Glen Taylor and you know if if Lori and A-Rod

Have missed some deadlines that Glenn was okay with then it’s a little misleading for him to all of a sudden not be okay with it now with even though they reportedly have the money and all that kind of stuff so it’s a lot of you know he said he said and the the

Timing’s awfully funny after all these reports are coming out that the wolves are now worth almost a billion dollars more than what he agreed to sell them for but when you agree to sell something you lock in a contract so I I don’t know it just sucks all of it sucks and the

Fact that’s distracting so much from the discussion of how awesome the basketball has been all season long it’s just kind of a bummer especially as we get into the postseason here yeah perfectly said all right don’t go anywhere we’re going to preview the Wolves next game vers the

Rockets that’s all coming up right after this quick reminder tonight’s episode brought To Us by Amazon Fire TV the number one streaming platform around Fire TV it’s your One-Stop shop destination for everything Sports from live games to Highlights to in-depth analysis with Fire TV they offer amazing viewing experiences with Smart TVs as

Well as the Fire TV stick that you can plug into your existing TV that gives you access to millions of movies and TV episodes not to mention free and live cable TV as well whether it’s opening weekend for the MLB season the PGA Masters that’s right around the corner

NFL draft at the end of the month the March Madness Tournament trust me when I say you’re going to want to have a fire TV at your fingertips on every device possible plus Fire TV now includes all of our daily content from every lockdown Channel and a vast majority of pro

Leagues and college conferences as well you got to check out Fire TV channels on Fire TV and your Alexa devices Fire TV channels it’s the newest and latest and greatest way to tap into all your watching needs so don’t miss out to learn more visit amazon.com loock onfire TV that’s amazon.com loock onfire

TV all right let’s close out a little quick preview these next two home games um red hot Rockets uh that’s Tuesday you get a Daybreak in between here red hot Rockets I know they lost tonight vers Dallas but they what 11 in a row I want

Say so 11 of 12 so red hot rockets and then the very next night it’s the Raptors on a back-to-back um again I know the Rockets lost tonight to Dallas but man they were on an absolute heater what’s made them so dangerous like I If you haven’t watched them at all in the

Last two and a half weeks uh what’s made them just kind of click and turn it on all of a sudden and how do the Wolves match up yeah and the the big driving force has been Jaylen green turning into just a supernova of a scorer um you know up

Until this last couple months he’s always been a freak athlete ton of potential uh but he just hasn’t been able to find that consistency and that that game by game consistency that we’ve you know seen and experienced and been frustrated with ant early on in his career and Jaden all throughout his

Career and he’s seemingly starting to find it um he looks incredible right now he’s playing the best basketball of his career and really the driving force behind their offense they’ve also kind of made this interesting shift to kind of a small ball lineup a lot where they

Have their rookie uh he is a point guard but they’ve been playing him at Center and the man Thompson and that’s allowing them to just really push the pace allow him to kind of cut and disrupt stuff on the boards and off ball um and it just

Throwing a ton of athleticism ton of energy out there to be just super obnoxious um so they’re fun this is an incredible streak they’re on I don’t think they match up well with the Wolves I think the wolves have way too much size way too much athleticism way too much

Strength that they’ll be able to deal with it especially um you know I it’ll be interesting to see how they kind of match up with Jaylen green if they throw ant on him or Jaden I kind of like the idea of just throwing nille on him little bit similar body types allows

Jayen to roll more off ball be a better rebounder weak side rim protector and then allows uh n to use his kind of quicker feet to stay in front of Jaylen a little better so it it will be a really interesting matchup um but I think the Wolves m match up pretty

Favorably with them okay you’re making me feel a little bit better last thing I want to do now is go again into a team after this loss tonight clearly uh dude they they are running on E right now they’re running on fumes but then go

Into a team that’s you know again 11 of 12 last thing I want but I’m glad after listening to you we do match up pretty well well that feels good uh What what else is going on in the western conference right now you know since the

Last time we spoke whose stocks kind of up Who’s down what’s caught your eye the most we already touched on the Rockets obviously I know the Mavs have won seven in a row beating the Rockets snapping that streak what else is going on in the

West yeah I think the Mavs are the other big one um you know I never felt that intimidated or poorly about them but Luca and Kyrie really seem to kind of be figuring out that two-man pairing and Gafford has added just a ton of size athleticism rebounding to their

Rotation Derrik Lively has been really good for them all year but now having two Center footer two seven Footers in the rotation uh basically at all times has been absolutely huge for them and then the Clippers just I know they’ve won three in a row but their defense has

Been awful uh they they’re just coming out flat they’re looking like the Clippers right after the James Harden trade and not during that 30 game stretch where they went like 25 and five um so I I think that those two teams kind of find jockeying for the that four

Five spot will be really interesting H how important is it for the Wolves to get this top seed versus you know let’s just say they end up in the third seed how big of a difference is that ultimately going to play at the end of the day like how important truly is that

Number one seed if I told you hey you can have the one seed but again you’re going to be running on fumes heading in the playoffs versus Maybe they re-energize like Jaden’s talking about right here but you end up the third the the yeah the three seed um you know how

How huge of a contrast I guess from the one to the three um I I I don’t think that much um okay I obviously having home court through out would be incredible but I you look at the Wolves record on the at home versus on the road

And it’s really similar at home they’re 26 and 10 on the road they’re 25 and 13 so there isn’t that huge drop off or just erity in performances and you kind of look at a team like the Nuggets they’re 30 and8 at home and 22 and 15 on

The road o OKC 29 and eight at home 22 and 14 on the road so a little bit different for those guys and with Denver you always have the you know the elevation aspect so you don’t want to have to deal with that for four games instead of three um but if

It’s really just giving it everything that’s left just to get that one seed um I think I’d rather go in healthy and ready and uh just fully prepared um for the playoffs um because that they they basically have the top three locked up unless something goes horribly wrong in

These last 10 games uh two weeks left now in the regular season what’s what’s the biggest surprise or the biggest shocker you’ve seen in the NBA this season could be a team could be a specific player for good for bad I don’t care give me one wolves specific and

Then one NBA as a whole kind of broader scope big picture um oh boy uh wol specific you know I’m I’m just G to stick with the overall development of Anthony Edwards um especially with his feel for the game how much the game has slowed down

Mentally for him we see it in his room attacks where he the the deceleration that he shows every night is Just absurd um he finish with finesse with power but then he’s also really Blended in and grown as a playmaker and started throwing those kickout passes the lobs

Still aren’t really there but in time in time he’s 22 um so I think just o his overall growth as a real Superstar where yes he can take over a game um scoring he can take it over with his playmaking he can you know put up double digits

Rebounding he can lock down the the number one scoring option on the other team he’s really emerging into one of the faces of The League at 22 which is dud they showed that graphic most points in the NBA before age 23 LeBron KD Carmelo ant like when you just

See his name up there with those three other names man it just I know we talk about it every day we follow this team you know 82 games of season we’re here every day it’s tough not a lot of changes from night to night but man it makes you take a step back

And just relx we are watching greatness right now and he’s only going to get better it’s insane um Duke lost my bracket’s pretty much tost I know you’re an elite college basketball mind though last one before we get out of here what do you think of this final four we got

Now Yukon everyone’s favorite that’s Shock first Bama NC State the Cinderella there’s always one Cinderella Man taking on Zack Edy and Purdue break it all down for us Yukon looks Unstoppable um it’s you know it’s the boring analysis but they they are just so so good everyone defends everyone can score everyone

Passes they play off each other they they play just a gorgeous brand of basketball um so yeah they’ve been dominant but they’ve been really fun to watch um just like individual matchup wise we got some really fascinating matchups of like Old School Big Man centers who would maybe go top five in

Any draft 20 years ago if not number one overall uh Zack Ed versus uh DJ burn is going to be a lot of fun in that Purdue North Carolina uh or NC State matchup and then yeah that’s going to be good and then Donovan cling and an Yukan is

Looking like a top five pick uh one of the most dominant players in the country absurd Defender um if him and Edy meet up in the finals it’s going to be uh basically the real life version of Godzilla versus King Kong oh dude I didn’t even think about that potential

Match up that would be outstanding and and I don’t know the spreads or the lines but I would guess as of now that’s probably the favorite to happen that match up ukom ver Purdue I got to imagine um all right man a lot of fun

Always have a lot of fun with you win or lose well done tonight wolves get punched in the gut 109 101 to the Bulls OKC wins Denver wins wolves drop back to third in the west two more at home next one up is Tuesday versus the red hot

Rockets tip off for that one 7 P.M Central Standard Time uh as always huge shout out to everyone that joined us on the stream you guys are the absolute best and rest assured we’ll be back each and every game same time same place right here to break it all down quick

Reminder go check out all of Tyler’s work on X at Team metf 11 and make sure you check out the entire crew on the Minnesota basketball party that’s each and every Wednesday Sam xtram hosting our guy Jack Borman gopher’s Legend Ron Johnson Carol levans 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 Tyler Mecha I’m Luke Inman on Twitter lukman until next time Sig now

The Minnesota Timberwolves fall back to earth after losing to the Chicago Bulls 109-101. Join Luke Inman and Tyler Metcalf for the instant reaction and analysis following the game.