ESPN reacts to the Timberwolves destroying the Raptors 133-85 to earn their first tie in the West

ESPN reacts to the Timberwolves destroying the Raptors 133-85 to earn their first tie in the West

And um you know I always said I thought he was the top uh two guard in the league um on both hands so um I’m excited for his growth and I’m glad I’m his teammate so how important is a win like this now as you guys have to head

Out onto the road and play some tough teams in Phoenix and la oh it’s big I mean we got to finish out strong but taking care of home court has been coach fence is um biggest you know issue with us playing at home so I’m glad we got it

Done tonight all right congratulations thank you you Monte Morris hit three three-pointers tonight for the timber wolves he had 13 total points but three threes and the Timberwolves as a team had 23 pointers their season average is 13 their season high is 21 so one off of

The Season High tonight I mean they dominated from three you know they only have 46 points in the paint but the where they sh shared the basketball and it was equal opportunity from three ball they had 23s like you said but 19 of those were assisted they were not tough

Shots they were not a lot of dribbling into the three just being prepared to shoot the ball as soon as it touch your fingers right that’s the only one where I feel like someone took a dribble to get the three off know slowmo got his

Three off in the corner but it was just so easy it was seamless offense for the woles tonight to be able to knock down the three just because of the ball movement moving it playing with each other you know like we talked about Nas he got it rolling and then you get

Confidence when ant hits a couple you know n can shoot the three ball extremely well so just the ball movement and the way that they just took whatever the defense gave them and it it was just the shots were not tough very easy not a lot of contests just being able to knock

It down so it it was a you know barrage from three ball tonight for the it was a barrage yeah 20 made threes for the Timberwolves seven for Toronto a huge discrepancy in three-point shooting here tonight and a big Timberwolves win over the Toronto Raptors we’ll bring you

Postgame reaction from Chris Finch here is Finch right after the game tonight Chris how important is a win like this to um rest players to get different guys in before you guys head out on the road uh yeah you know taking care of business U taking advantage of a

Severely depleted team um and just you know kind of just kept kept growing the league growing the league growing the league um you that was a challenge at halftime was to to play against our own standard um and you know guys I thought for the most part did did a great job of

That all game long and did you feel like ant kind of got back to normal here yeah absolutely I thought uh stepping into a shot um you know just rising up and taking it um I love the fact that he took 12 of them you know just to try to

Shoot himself back into some Rhythm um so yeah that was really good to see Chris uh one of the better Monte games do you think just in terms of aggression and just playing in a flow yeah I think that was definitely a silver lining um with Mike being out

Today uh something that we really hoped for that Monte would get out there get some extended minutes get some uh run with some different lineups you know um jmck has been playing so well and some of those lineups have been playing so well that um you know he’s been a little

Hemmed in on some lineup combinations and um you know I think it’s definitely affected him at times uh he’s been playing great but just the opportunity hasn’t been there um so you know just getting him out there with different guys it was good to see so just in terms

Of his overall fit like what have you learned about how he fits specifically with this group and how you can kind of deploy him going into the playoffs um I’ve said this about other players and good fits around some of our guys is you need like low usage high impact you

Know guys that don’t need the ball in their hands but when they do have the ball in their hands they’re always making the right play being efficient with it um so he he plays seamlessly on or off the ball um and um you know I like

To see him be even a little bit more aggressive when he has his opportunity with the ball at times early in the offense just to try to get to the heart of the defense uh and you know his defense I’ve been said this before I’ve been really impressed with the

Physicality which he guards being him a standup guys particularly bigger guys um but yeah know he’s he’s been he was a huge acquisition for us and um you know we’re going to need him to play like this coming down the stretch for sure so did seem like every bucket to start the

Game was assisted was that especially maybe like the first quarter and a half really like a really strong continuation of what you guys have been doing on that end yeah for sure just keep continue to move the ball um we knew we’d face different looks um you know we seem to

Be handling switching a little bit better now I think guys are understand that you defeat it with the pass and the movement rather than just the the bounce um uh but yeah guys are really looking for each other for the most part I mean Nas

Was hot um and and ant was you know you could see was being extra aggressive trying to work through his issues but other than that you know guys were really moving the ball and playing well so d s Sports we’re pretty okay with an just kind of trying to work through that

Shot use as a reason for that yeah 100% you know um I thought he stayed within the flow of the game you know I thought there were some other plays he to be made for him but I was happy with him being that aggressive tonight for sure

No doubt Leonard Miller has been pretty productive in his couple of minutes he’s gotten to play this year what have you seen from his progression from where he was the first day of training camp to today well like most rookies his first day of training camp you know his head

Was spinning um everything’s moving fast he’s trying to learn and catch up um and just you know once he has uh an understanding what we’re trying to do um game kind of slows down for him a little bit um so so that’s definitely different um but what we like about Leonard is just

He’s Fearless you know he comes in he just plays makes basketball play he’s just kind of hooping out there right now um but he’s got he can do a little bit of everything you know he can can play make he can you can knock down enough

Shots um he got a nose for the ball both ends of the floor um that’s what we loved about him in the draft and and we and it’s held true right now you know so we just got to keep polishing him up and you know keep getting him getting better

With his understanding and everything like that and kind of figure out who he is best but the the raw materials are certainly pretty intriguing couple of years ago um you decided to diversify a little bit away from the high wall because you needed more looks for the playoffs yeah um now

I mean you’ve got an enormous amount of looks is there a point where you need to start culling uh to kind of focus in on what you need for the playoffs or is it um I mean we’ve gone through so many different looks of The Season’s gone

Along I don’t feel like we have to kind of just force things into the game right now um just for the sake of working on them um but you know there are things we are continuing to brush up on when we do get those moments to practice um but

Yeah I mean just being able to employ different things get confidence in that it’s huge right now so but not so much in the games just for the sake of it you know try to do what the game says is finishing out the regular season that separate from preparing for the playoffs

Do you think I mean you taking it one at a time or is it kind of now blending yeah I think uh for for us it’s all about you know playing in our best best Rhythm and just you know we talked about what playing at home court means for us

I think we you know we got a a couple games coming up here that are really meaningful I mean they possible playoff oppon opponents um those teams are fighting for their lives you know it’s going to be a great test for us so I think I think the more that we can go

Through those things all the way to the end the better for us the Timberwolves win the game tonight over the Raptors by 48 points which is a season high in margin Victory they hold Toronto to a season low 85 points and Rebecca just really Domination by Minnesota tonight I mean which it should

Have been if you look at the records 23 and 53 and the wolves are completely opposite 53 and 23 um so the Wolves came out they shot the ball extremely well you look at the three-point differential uh when Toronto only hit seven threes With The Wolves hit 20 you know they

Limited their free throws if you look at the way that the wolves are able to share the ball with 37 assists and Toronto only had 19 assists but they turned the ball over 21 times and the Wolves were able to get 28 points off of that so that absolutely stood out

Nikil Alexander Walker was in the starting lineup tonight for Mike connley n finished with 14 points and here he is inside the Wolves locker room I think it was important for us to remain professionals to come out doing the right things I think games like this are great opportunities for us to build

And to prepare and work on things that we need to do to get better and for everyone to get in guys like Luca Wendell D Josh everyone who supports Leonard um um and for them to get minutes as well to have fun and uh get some live action we saw Monte Morris as

Well get some good minutes with the team how do you see him fitting into this team right now I think he just adds another point guard for us I think last last season uh it was tough Mike had so much uh pressure on his shoulders I was

Think just to being the soul merry guy that can provide offense and I think Monte did a great job of doing that for us tonight you guys started the season in Toronto with that l a tough one I mean how far has this team come from training camp preseason early on in the

Season to where you guys are at right now in thep left just credit to to everybody here I want just TI my hat to everyone that stuck with it especially after the first loss starting the season one and two um kind of just opened our eyes like the

Work has to be put in uh we’re not going to get where we want to be by showing just showing up and everyone stepped up and did the right things it was fun to see Aunt get his um shot back together tonight what did you see from Aunt on the court tonight what

I always see aggression um confidence and a desire and will he’s going to will his way to make those shots and I know he works on it and he trusts his work and everybody contributed tonight including Josh Minot threw down e e e e e for e for but foree spee spe back

For for for for for for get fore

ESPN reacts to the Timberwolves destroying the Raptors 133-85 to earn their first tie in the West