Anthony Edwards drops 40, Karl-Anthony Towns double-doubles as Minnesota Timberwolves sweep the Suns

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome into another episode of Lockdown, Wolves WORK_OF_ART.

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Today on the show, it's the postgame pod from the Timberwell's Game 4 win and series sweep over the Phoenix Suns ORG. Anthony Edwards drops 40, a poster dunk, a massive second half. Also, Carltonie Towns best game of the series. Lots to get to today. A celebratory postgame pod. It's all upcoming. Welcome in. You are locked on wolves.

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You are locked on timber wolves. Your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

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Hello and welcome to the Lockedon Wolves podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I'm the host of Lockdown Wolves. Today's episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go PRODUCT. I admit it, like many people, I have a competitive side, and it's a big fan of Monopoly Go PRODUCT. The mobile hit twist on classic Monopoly. So join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play ORG. Happy Monday, and it is a victory Monday. The Timberwolves win game four. They win the season, or excuse me, the series, they sweep the series over the sixth-seededPhoenix Suns ORG. And I, it was incredible. Game four was incredible, a really fun game. Carl Thetown PERSON's consistent throughout his best game of the series. And Anthony Edwards, just nine points in the first half, finishes with 40 and really puts the suns to sleep down the stretch.Just a phenomenal Anthony Edwards performance. So much to get to today. Obviously, there's also the horrible Chris Finch injury. We'll talk a little bit about that. Lots to get to here today. Big thank you off the top for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen every day.Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube ORG as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find Lockdown Wolves ORG. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV PRODUCT. And you can follow an X at Lockdown T Wolves and also at B Be Beacon with 2B's, 2 E's, CK, E.N. All right, let's start with the Chris Finch injury because that's, as I'm recorded this, it just broke that Shams Trani reported first and then John Krasinski PERSON, the athletic chimed in that, but I guessthey're both at the athletic as well. Chris Finch has a ruptured Patelotendant, which is obviously a horrible injury and surely excruciatingly painful. So we'll see what that means moving forward. Of course, Mike Conley was kind of nudged into Chris Finch on the sideline with under two minutes to play in the game. And Finch PERSON was kind of caught at the end of the scorers table area and the seats there and didn't really have anywhere to go. And immediately it looked bad and it looked like a knee. And that's what it was.So no idea, of course, what that means in the coming days. I'm sure there's a surgery. The wolves won't play until the earliest the next series would start would be Saturday. That's if Denver GPE wins game five Monday night over the Lakers ORG closes that series. Then the wolves could play either Saturday or Sunday. I would imagine they'd play Saturday would be my guess, unless there's no other series that end through just five games. Like if the Thunder ORG don't manage to close it outMonday either, then perhaps Wolves game one of the next series could be pushed to Sunday. But either way, Saturday is the earliest it could be. I would imagine that's a surgery that's got to happen sooner rather than later. And who knows, you know, it's too early to say what that presence, what Finch PERSON's presence would be. I'm sure he would still be around and everything immediately following the surgery and would probably still be able to be near the bench, I would think. You know, it's obviously going to change his routine in terms of standing and walking, all that stuff related to being on the bench.But, you know, lots of cool pictures, you know, obviously a horrible situation, but cool pictures coming out with, you know, the players in Finch PERSON after the game, surrounding him in the locker room and having, you know, one-on-one moments with Finch PERSON after the game as well. So obviously, hopefully that is something that, you know, can, I don't know, there's, there's no good way to, to, there's nothing good that comes out of this, right? Like, it's just horrible, bad luck, terrible that all that happened. Hopefully, it doesn't impact the preparation too much for round two.Obviously, the concern is with Finch PERSON's well-being, but I'm sure the surgery can get things corrected here very quickly. So that was weird, fluky. I don't know that I've ever seen that before. Certainly it happens occasionally in football with coaches on the sideline. Rarely the head coach, right? It's just it's not something you see a whole lot of.So tough situation all the way around. In terms of the game, I mean, this thing, this, this was a really fun game. It was the best, the best game of the series in terms of well played by both sides. There were certainly moments, especially in the first half, of just very sloppy basketball. But that happens in any given basketball game. I mean, there was a stretch, I think it was third quarter where like both teams were making just impossible shots. It was just high level basketball on both ends of thefloor. It was no question the best Phoenix ORG has played. And there were stretches in this game where Minnesota ORG looked as good as they have all series as well. So in terms of both teams collectively, this was the best game of the series, and it was certainly entertaining. And, you know, early in the game, it was foul trouble that, you know, first Yusuf Nerkich with two files, then Rudy Gaubert, both picked up, I think one of the two for each of them was kind of a cheapie that like, you know, letter the law, it's a foul.Maybe don't put yourself in that spot in, you know, in a game four of a playoff series for both of those guys. But it led to both teams playing small. And of course, Phoenix ORG kind of had to anyway. And, you know, they were planning to anyway when Nirkich PERSON was off the floor. And the wolves are comfortable playing, quote, unquote, small. And of course, Phoenix kind of had to anyway. And, you know, they were planning to anyway when Nirkich was off the floor. And the wolves are comfortable playing, quote unquote, small, because small for the wolves is still having a center on the floor, just a only one insteadof two, right? Like, that's the difference. And we'll talk a lot about Carltony Towns PERSON, but he picked up a ton of slack with the Rudy Filed PERSON trouble in this game. And the wolves were more than comfortable playing small. But also, they didn't really play small because they didn't actually play a backup point guard in this game. Chris Finch didn't use Monta Morris or Jordan McLaughlin PERSON. And it was, it was Nikiel Alexander Walker and Kyle Anderson that initiated offense with the bench unit. So the wolves never had anyone other than Mike Conley was out there. They didn't have anyone under what, 6'6?How tall is Nikol, Nikol kill Alexander Walker? Six-five. Like, the wolves just played, you know, not positionless basketball, but they didn't, they just, they didn't, their adjustment to the son's adjustment was like, all right, we'll play, quote-unquote, small because the Rudy PERSON foul trouble, but we're still going to play big because everyone in our lineup is massive and we're all, you know, flexible defensively and switchable and completely versatile. And basically everybody can handle the ball on the perimeter. It just, it's remarkable that thisis still, you know, we're how many years removed from like the Warriors ORG death lineup where it was, you know, just complete small ball and like that's where everybody thought this was going. And now the wolves do the exact opposite. It's the classic zig when everyone's zagging. And I talked about this quite a bit in the off season. Like, it's, it's a gamble, right? It's certainly a roll of the dice for the wolves to build the roster in this way. But when you, this is a more macro, and maybe I'll get into this a little bit on Tuesday.We've got all week to prep for wolves, likely wolves nuggets, right? But on a macro level, you look at the roster building of the Sons and the Wolves ORG, and it's not close. Like the actual amount of talent on the roster, 1 through 10 or whatever you want to do on the wolves is so much greater than the talent on the Sons ORG. I mean, the Sons had to play, Nasir Little had like, I don't think he'd played in this series. And he played seven minutes.They benched Drew Eubanks PERSON. He didn't play. Eric Gordon played 39 minutes off the bench for this team. He didn't log a single stat besides shooting the basketball. I didn't mean for Eric Gordon to catch a stray in the first six minutes of this podcast, but he did. Six points on seven shots for Eric Gordon, 39 minutes.He was third on their team in minutes played. Zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, zero blocks, zero fouls. The man managed to not commit a foul in 39 minutes. It's like he wasn't on the floor. The Tim PERSON rules were not in that position.Now, they only played eight because it was, you know, a game four of a playoff series. You tighten your rotation. And, you know, the response, as I said already, was like, let's play bigger. I mean, Monta Morris was getting cooked a little bit with the size of the Phoenix ORG cards. Now, next series is going to be different, right?Monta Morris PERSON is going to play in the next series. I mean, you play in the first three games of this series. And maybe even McLaughlin PERSON. I mean, McLaughlin PERSON may play too, right? Monta Morris probably was the backup point guard in the first three games just because he provides a little more size against a big son's lineup. That, you know, Chris Finch may flip that in the second round. We may see McLaughlin PERSON as part of the rotation. Anyway, I thought that was creativeby Minnesota and it was a way to get Kyle Anderson involved and on the floor and make him be active and impactful with the ball in his hands, right? You can't put Kyle Anderson in the corner because he's not a spot-up threat. But with the ball in his hands, he can put the ball on the floor and he can score. And he can also create, and also the size of Kyle Anderson, effectively playing the back court in this game, and also defensively, was the right way to use him in the series. So I thought that was really creative.I want to talk about the middle portion of the game. I want to talk about the certainly ant and certainly cat. There's a lot to get to in this game. So we'll do all that here next. Today's episode of Locked Out Wolves is brought to us by our friends over at Nissan ORG. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further?Ever wonder what the adventure might be around the next quarter? 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Lockdown Sports Today ORG brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network ORG, your team, every day.All right. So I did want to talk a little bit about how the wolves have won in different ways. And this is, I'm not going to go blow by blow for this game. I try not to do that on post game pods. I mean, you can go watch the highlight package on YouTube ORG if that's what you're looking for. Instead, I want to pull out a couple of themes from this. I think, you know, I talked a little bit about the rotation already. I think when it comes towinning in different ways, like this ended up being an aunt second half, but like Rudy Gobert was such a big part of these first wins in this series. And he was good in this game, no doubt, when he was on the floor, but he only played 25 minutes. Carl Thiti Towns PERSON was awesome. And until Ant went nuts late in the game, this was, Kat PERSON was the best player in the floor in the first half.There's no question. I would even say, like, I know that Booker ended up scoring 49 and I know that Durant PERSON ended up with 33. Devin Booker shot 21 free throws. I mean, come on. Carl Thetowns was likely the best player in the floor, period, in the first half of this game.You could argue for Durant PERSON. I thought he was, I mean, he was really good in this game. But as I said, many times, I think early last week I made this point after the Wolves ORG were up 2-0, or I guess it would have been 1-0 because they won Saturday. They played last, what, Tuesday night? So it was Monday or Tuesday of last week when the wolves were up 1-0.I talked about how the Timurals calculus here was let's put the biggest body we can on Durant PERSON. He's going to score. Let's at least make it a little bit difficult by putting Katz PERSON's size on him. And then it frees up. McDaniels, it frees up, and then also Nikolixena Walker PERSON. So two of those three can be on the floor and be guarding Booker or Beal PERSON at all times.And they can, you know, do a better job with those guys. And Kat can at least stay in front of Durant PERSON for the most part and contest his shots, make it difficult. But if he scores 30 plus fine. And that's exactly what they did in the series. Durant PERSON was good.Like he was good throughout. This was his best game in the series I thought overall. But the Wolf still won by multiple possessions. Despite Durant PERSON and Booker combining for 82 points, nobody else in the sun scored more than nine, including Bradley Bill PERSON, who was 4 of 13, missed a bunch of bunnies at the room, was one of five outside the arc, and is owed like a kajillion dollars over the next three years. It was like that was the calculus, right? It was makesomebody else beat us and Durant PERSON's going to score and very likely Booker PERSON's going to score on some level and Booker PERSON was good in this game. I don't want to take too much away from him. He was solid. But that was the calculus the wolves hadand Kat PERSON did his part. I thought Kat PERSON was good defensively in this game. I thought he was very good. Durant PERSON made some tough shots. Kat did it up committing five fouls. I don't believe a single...No, none of them were offensive fouls. He had zero turnovers in this game, too. This was a masterful Carl Thetown's PERSON performance. It really was. Best player of the floor in the first half. Really good in the second half.He finished with 28, 10, and 3. No turnovers. 11 of 17 shooting. Four of six outside the arc, two of three at the line. He had a couple of big plays late. In fact, his hustle play, I think the wolves were down a bucket. They might have been down one at the time, one or two. And I forget who shot it. The wolves missed a shot. Cat PERSON crashed from the left corner.This is like midway through the fourth quarter. Cat PERSON crashed from the left corner. Beat his man to the ball. And instead of trying to go back up and score when he was kind of like came down on the edge of the paint on the other side of the rim, on the right side of the rim. And instead of trying to go back up and force something, he makes the right play.Shovels it to Ants in the corner for wide open three. He makes it. The wolves take the lead. I believe it was a lead changing play. And it was massive. An absolutely massive rebound and decision by Carl Thinney Towns PERSON.The decision to shovel that ball here, actually it's right here. No, wait, I lost it. I thought I had it in front of me. At one point that was in the fourth quarter, but maybe it's not as, yeah, it's not as readily. It might have been third quarter, actually. But anyway, that play, and I'm sure you know the one I'm talking about, was huge.It was the activity of Kat PERSON, the ability to actually get the rebound, and then the decision making to shovel it to Ant for the three. That was one of Kat's three assists in this game. Very, very impressive Kat PERSON game. And I thought the Wolves did a good job keeping him as kind of one of the focal points of the offense early.And for the most part, him staying on the floor because we talked a little bit about Rudy PERSON's foul trouble already. For Kat to be as productive as he was, 28 and 10 lead the team in rebounding was huge because of, it was underscored or magnified, I guess, because of the Rudy Gobert PERSON foul trouble. So that was really impressive from Carl Anthony Towns PERSON. Another takeaway.The Timberwell ORG's defensive activity, I know they ended up giving up 116 in this game. It was the worst defensive result of any of the four games of the series. But Phoenix also shot a billion free throws, and that's only a slight exaggeration.Phoenix shot 36 free throws in this game. The Woolsey had 31. There were just way too many files called period in this throws. And that's only a slight exaggeration. Phoenix shot 36 free throws in this game. The Wolfs had 31. There were just way too many files called period in this game. I mean, Devin Booker still shot 21 free throws. Nobody else in this game had more than 10. And Durant had 9, Ant had 10. So in terms of actual, like, and Phoenix did shoot over 50% from the field. But a huge part of that was Rudy's absence in the paint. So Phoenix ORG was better in the paint than they had been all series because they don'tactually attempt that many shots through him anyway. We've talked about that on the show before. But the free throw shooting was the other big part of it. And, you know, the Suns ORG talked a big game about shooting a bunch of threes the last couple of games. The Wolves still shot more threes than them in game three and in game four.Vogel PERSON said they wanted to shoot 43s. They shot 26 threes. The wolves did an awesome job. The activity level of this team, the first quarter was off the charts. And I know they were down one at the end of the first quarter.The wolves activity defensively was completely off the charts. They were extending out to the half court line to just deny catches. Like they were the ball pressure and then denying catches off the ball. Was incredible by everybody. Like Nas Reid PERSON was out there near the timeline defending.It was crazy. And then there was, of course, that sequence that, you know, preceded the aunt poster around Beale and kind of over Durant PERSON, that possession right before itwhere I think it was Beale PERSON, I know it was Gordon PERSON, almost got off a three-pointer, cat contested and forced him to pass the ball. The wolves got in a rotation. They doubled Durant at one point.They recovered. Nikol Alexander Walker steals the pass to the corner after Beal PERSON panics. Beal PERSON pump fakes from the left corner drives. You should have just shot it either from the three in the first place or pulled up in the mid-range. And Beal PERSON tries to pass it to the left corner, or I guess the right corner. And Alexander Walker PERSON steals the pass.It leads to the aunt dunk on the other end. Just a remarkable defensive sequence. And I mean, how many NBA ORG teams could even do that if they tried? And frankly, the battle, especially the regular season, is having the stamina and the want to to have a possession like that period. That's a huge part of the battle. The other part of it is having the personnel and the want to to have a possession like that, period. That's a huge part of the battle. The other part of it is having the personnel, the length, the athleticism, and the IQ, basketball IQ, the knowledge to be able to pull that off. And the Timberals ORG have both.And now they're going to get six or seven days off to be fully rested. And of course, Rust will be a concern in round two. But to get this defense fully rested and just fly around. Remember game one against Phoenix ORG? How the Wolves just flew around in the third quarter of that game and just ended up dominating down the stretch. And they got two days off before game two.Same deal. Two days off before game three. Same deal. A well-rested wolf's defense. I truly, and I know I said this a bunch last week, I'm going to say it again. But having only one day off between these two games,I think that has something to do with, you know, the kind of the, at times the waning in terms of the wolves, I don't want to say effort, but you're just naturally going to be a little bit slower, a little bit, you know, whatever, with one last day off of rest.And now a fully rested Timberwolves team going into round two, they're going to be able to fly around in game one. The shooting, the offense might be a little rusty. The defense should be on point because they're going to be well rested. And Rudy, by the way, also only played 25 minutes because of the foul trouble. So the defense was incredibly impressive once again for Minnesota ORG in this game.I have a couple minor takeaways that are just kind of, you know, rotation related, Rudy PERSON related, et cetera. And then we'll do studs and duds. We've got to talk a little bit more about Ant PERSON. I haven't enough yet. But, I mean, everyone else is too, right?We'll talk Ant PERSON. We'll talk Cat PERSON. And a couple more nuggets here. And that's how we'll... A couple more notes here from the game. And that's how we'll close out the show.Today's episode of Lockdown Wolves is brought to us by our friends at DoorDash ORG. Do you want to make your mom smile? Start Mother's Day with flowers or surprise her with gifts from the brand she loves, delivered the very same day with DoorDash ORG. 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I'm Trey Wingo and I'm Kevin Frazier. We're teaming up on a new weekly sports podcast from Wondry Alternate Routes ORG. As former sports center anchors and current sports obsessives, we're consumed by all the what-if questions that make being a sports fan so excruciatingly fun. If you're like us, then you also live and die on the fallout from every drop pass, busted draft pick, and game-changing play. Or play call.Intercepted at the goal line by Malcolm Butler PERSON. Sorry, Marshawn PERSON, still too soon. Each week on alternate routes will take a flashpoint in sports, break down what actually happened, then explore every alternate scenario and the ripple effects it would have caused. Follow and listen to Alternate Routes on the Wondry ORG app or wherever you get yourpodcast. You can listen ad free by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple ORG podcast. I mean, the possibility is a limitless, Kevin PERSON. What if Portland drafted Michael Jordan PERSON? What if the NBA never vetoed the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers ORG?

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That's the butterfly fact for real. All right, a couple more quick notes here from this game. Let's talk about Rudy Goberer's PERSON free throw shooting. I know he only attempted three in this game, but like, I think he's just a really good free throw shooter now. Like, the sample keeps growing. He was, I'm going to a quick look at the game log here, but he like hasn't missed a free throw hardly at all.He was seven of eight last game, six of seven in each of the first two games. So he's 19 of 22. That's an 86 plus percent clip, 86.4 percent clip in the postseason. But go back a little bit further. He was seven of nine in the regular season finale. Five of eight the game before that, one of three the game before that, nine of 13 against Washington. So he was, um, for the month of April, he was a little bit above career. He's like, what, 63-ish percent? He was 66 percent for April.But since mid-April, he'd improved dramatically. And then now in the playoffs, he's, what did I say? I guess he's 88%. No, wait, 86.4%. Yeah, that's what it is. 86.4% in this series against Phoenix ORG.And it wasn't a super small sample. I mean, we're talking what? 22. He was 19 to 22 CARDINAL free throws. That's crazy. Keep an eye on that.Hopefully this week off, you know, doesn't, six days or whatever it ends up being, doesn't hamper that at all for Rudy PERSON. Also, the Timberwolves were 10 of 15 on three-point attempts in the second half of this game. They were not shooting the ball ball ball in the first half. They started one of 11 or 10 of 15 on three-point attempts in the second half of this game. They were not shooting the ball ball in the first half. They started one of 11 or one of 12 from three. And they finished shooting better than Phoenix ORG did.They finished what? 41.7%. Phoenix was 38.5%. Alexander Walker was 0.4 in this game from outside the arc, which was a harsh kind of crash back down to Earth for Nikiel PERSON based on how he shot it early in the series. But still 42% as a team. They were 6 of 8 in the 3rd and 4 of 7 in the 4th.And two of those misses, I think one of the 3rd, one of the 4th were late shot clock heaves, like that cat one toward the end of the game. Jaden PERSON kind of had one similar toward the end of the game as well. So like you take a couple of three of those out and it's just nuts. They were like 10 of 12, 10 of 13 from outside the ark in the second half of the game as well. So, like, you take a couple, three of those out, and it's just nuts. They were like 10 of 12, 10 of 13 from outside the arc in the second half of this game if you take out those heaves.So, um, crazy. Like, you know, the wolves were a top three, three point shooting team percentage wise during the regular season for a reason. And also the, you know, cats volume finally increased a little bit too. One more thing related to rotations in Phoenix ORG. I meant to hit this earlier.I mentioned in passing that Eubanks PERSON didn't play in this game. They tried to Sear Little PERSON and he was awful. Like he could not stay in front or cat scored around him. Somebody else, they tried to put him on someone else. That did not work. I don't know that he was better or worse than Drew Eubanks PERSON.Neither one of those guys played well in the series. And that, like Josh Okogey PERSON wasn't in the rotation earlier in the series. Bull Bull wasn't and then he was in game three and that he wasn't in this game. And I get it. Frank Vogel PERSON's pushing different buttons to see what works. But Nasir Little played seven minutes, had one rebound, was 0 of 1 shooting, committed two fouls. Okogey PERSON got into some foul trouble because of the way he plays.I thought he played well overall. And I would have used him much earlier in the series if I were Frank Vogel PERSON. I would have used Thad Young in the series if I were Frank Vogel PERSON, just for positional versatility. He played great in Game 82 against the Wolves, you know, a week plus ago, or I guess two weeks ago now.So I don't know. I thought that was strange, the rotation decisions by Phoenix ORG, but it doesn't really matter if all those guys aren't as good. You know, small is small, right? And guys that aren't as good as other guys, that's going to matter over the course of a series. Now, it only took four games, you know, for this thing to wrap up. But that's an example of depth and why it does matter. We always talkabout how depth matters less in the playoffs. Well, it matters a little. And you need to have different levers you can pull if you find yourself down in a series. The wolves have a few different directions they can go, right? They can play as big as anybody or as small as anybody and still have essentially the same capabilities out on the floor because of the way the roster was built. And that's a huge credit to Tim Connolly. All right, studs and duds quickly. Obviously, Anthony Edwards haven't talkedenough about Ant, but everyone is talking about it. 40 points, 13 to 23 shooting, 7 of 13 on threes, 7 of 10 at the line. He did it from everywhere in this game. He also was second of the team with nine rebounds. Second on the team with six assists, tied for the team lead with two blocks, pitched in a steel, only had two turnovers. So six assists to two turnovers, and he had 23 shot attempts in this game, but 41 minutes played. And he just didn't turn the ball over.There were so many plays we could pick out and just like gush over the way he played things. To me, still the most impressive thing was the overall decision making. There was like one play in each of the last two games where I was like, ah, bad choice by Ann PERSON. But that was it. Like for as much as that dude has the ball in his hands,one or two plays a game to be like, ah, man, wrong decision. Totally fine. Like an incredible performance again by Anthony Edwards. He was like the sons were, the gap help was crazy once again. They were loading up on him as much or more as they were early in this series. It's almost like, I don't know. I mean, the Sun ORG's tried to do the same thing. And well, Aunt got off to a bit of a slow start and barely touched the ball early, then was like one of his first five, took a couple of if he shots trying to get rolling. But as soon as he hit, I actually think it was that corner three.It was the corner three that I referenced earlier. That was in the third quarter from Carl Anthony Towns PERSON off that offensive rebound. And hit that corner three. A couple possessions later, he hits a three from the left wing kind of in transition. And he was just rolling at that point. He hit the tough left corner three a little bit later. Obviously the massive dunk got to the line a couple of times, started making his free throws after starting cold from the line. And it was just an avalanche. And as soon as theaunt got hot, you knew it was over. You just knew it was over. 40 points on 23 shots. And like, this is one of those cases where we're not overselling what this guy's doing. Like, this isn't, it's crazy. How good he has become and how quickly he's become this good. And Kevin Durant PERSON said as much after the game. He said he's his favorite player to watch. Like everybody, he's such a well-rounded player.There really aren't any holes to his game. There's areas that are a little bit rougher than others, right? Like occasionally the handle gets loose. The off-ball defense still there's some lapses. Sometimes he tries to make the hero pass more so than the hero's shot occasionally. But like I'm nitpicking, right?He is legitimately, got to be one of the most well-rounded players. Somebody just the other day I was watching called him the best two-way player in the NBA ORG right now. And he probably is in terms of the level of defense and offense, right? Like there's other guys that, you know, SGA's in that conversation, like there aren't many guys that are in that conversation in terms of being that well-rounded and being a plus defender and a plus offensive player.It's so unbelievable how good he is at this point. Carl Thetow is also a stud, 28 and 10. We talked a little bit about him already. 11 of 17 from the field, four of six from three, three assists, zero turnovers. And he was able to play 39 minutes in a game where Rudy PERSON was saddled with foul trouble. Rudy turned it over four times. Rudy only played 25 minutes. By far his worst game of the series, by far Kat PERSON's best game of the series,one of Kat PERSON's best all around games ever. He was good defensively. He was great offensively. The decision making was nearly impeccable, nearly impeccable from Carl Thetowne. Very impressive performance. And I just, I don't want it to get lost. And it doesn't, it doesn't matter. But on the national level, it's going to get lost because we're going to be talking about ants 49 and 6 and 49 and 6. And rightfully so, but don't lose the Carl Thiti Towns PERSON piece of this. Because the wolves can't, they can win the title.They absolutely can't. They can't do it with just Ant PERSON and some role players. They have to have Carl Thetowns PERSON come along and be that secondary score. And he absolutely was in this game. Third stud, Jane McDaniels PERSON, that's an easy one. Remember he had 25 points.It was a game two. He had 18 in this one. He had 10 very early, and then had a couple of big plays late that kind of flew under the radar. And it was the activity level. And we talked about that early in the series. He talked about the coaching staff and Chris Finch specifically telling him, hey, crash the glass from the weak corner, you're going to get some buckets. That's exactly what he did in a couple of big moments in this game. He had two offensive rebounds, and I think they both resulted in baskets for him in the paint. 18 points on 6 of 12, 1 of 4 outside the arc,perfect 5 of 5 at the line, three rebounds in a block. And yes, the sun's had a couple guys go off, but Jaden PERSON had the assignments in the series are so tough. So tough, and he was fantastic. I don't have any duds. You can't have duds when the Wolf's Super Series EVENT.Conley was two of ten shooting. He missed his first, what, six shots or something? But he hit a big three late. He had seven assist to two turnovers. And he was a plus 16 in this game. Phoenix ORG said a team without a point guard.That showed in this series. Even Rudy PERSON. Rudy was a plus 10 in this game. Only played 25 minutes because the Wolf ORG's defense was that much better with him on the floor. And I know even with Rudy off the floor in the regular season, the Wolf ORG'sdefensive ratings actually would have been the best in the league. But they're so good with Rudy PERSON on the floor. And Phoenix ORG is still a good offensive team, right? Nikiel PERSON, really good defensively in this game too. And I thought played well overall, hit a couple of tough two-pointers, even though the three-point shot wasn't hitting.Kyle Anderson was effective. Kyle Anderson had seven rebounds in 17 minutes. Don't let that go unnoticed. I mean, the wolves out rebound in Phoenix by 11. The wolves had 17 offensive rebounds in this game. Those 50-50 balls floating around in the middle of the floor,the wolves got to all of those in the second half, it seemed like. That was a huge theme, especially in games three and four of this series. Minnesota getting 17 offensive rebounds is huge. That does not happen very often for this wolf's team. That was big. All right.That's all for my takeaways. I had a lot of takeaways. There's so much to get to this week. We'll do a little bit more series wrap up here the next couple of days before we kind of shift at some point, assuming it is Denver, we'll do a crossover episode with either Adam PERSON or Adam or Matt, I guess, over at Lockdown Nugget ORG. So we'll do a crossover episode at some point. That'll be upcoming later in the week. Depends on how long the Lakers ORG are able to last againstDenver. One more game. Or I guess no, not one more game in game in LA. They're back in Denver for game five on Monday night. So likely the series wraps up. So I would guess maybe Thursday's episode, maybe Friday would be the crossover episode with the Nuggets ORG. But lots to get to eventually preview that series. A fun week ahead as we look ahead to next weekend, either Saturday or Sunday will be game one of the second round. You don't need me to tell you the history, but I'm going to anyway.It's been since 2004 since the wolves won a series. They've never swept a series. There's no Minnesota sports team that's ever had a sweep in a best of seven series. The links had some sweeps in Best of Five EVENT series. The Twins had a Best of Three sweep last year or whatever. But like nobody swept four games in a best of seven in Minnesota ORG sports history.The Wolfsev won a series since 2004, 20 years ago. And they're going to run into a really tough matchup against Denver GPE, but this team can beat Denver. I know my prediction was off in this round. I had not going to run from it. I've already seen people, you know, hitting me up about it.It's fine. It's why I make the prediction, right? Like, that's part of the gig here. I said Sons in Seven ORG. I didn't think Phoenix ORG would fold the way they did. Obviously, the wolves are an incredible team.I'm not about to make a prediction yet for next round, but the wolves absolutely can win the series over the Nuggets ORG. They absolutely can. And if they do, I mean, like, they could be the favorites to win the title, right? Boston ORG's had some well-documented playoff troubles. There's lots to get to over the coming days, you know, to talk about this.I don't want to get too massively big picture on this, but it's going to be a ton of fun. It can be a lot of fun. All right. A big thank you for making Lockdown Wolves, your first listen every day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere, including YouTube ORG as well as all of your favorite audio platforms.Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find Lockdown Wolves ORG. You can also watch the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on Roku and Amazon Fire TV PRODUCT. And you can follow an X at Lockdown T-Wolves and also at B-Beacon with two Bs, two E's, C-K-E. Of course, the Lockdown Wolfs podcast is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network ORG. Remember, the Lockdown Network ORG is your local experts on all the biggest stories.Once again, I'm Ben Beacon PERSON. This is the Lockdown Wolves ORG podcast, and we'll get you next time.

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