Game 3: What the Timberwolves must do on offense, how the defense changes, + adjustments from the Nuggets?

Speaker 10s - 43.7s

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to another episode of Lockdown Wolves ORG. Today on the show, previewing game three, what we might expect to change in game three, what the wolves need to make sure they keep doing, how the Timberwolves defense may change with Rudy Gobert back on the floor compared to what they did in game two, and also how to keep their offensive flow going. It's all coming on the show. Welcome in, you are locked on wolves. You are locked on Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves

Speaker 243.7s - 49.1s

podcast, part of the Locked onon Podcast Network, your team every day.

Speaker 150.16s - 1251.8s

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 ORG. Today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prizepix.com slash lockdown NBA and use the code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100. Happy Friday. Everybody happy weekend.And finally, it is game day once again. Game three of Wolves and Nuggets tonight at Target Center FAC. By the way, the first time the Wolfs still played at home in 16 days. 16 days. They won the first two against Phoenix ORG, went on the road, had the big gap between games, had to start on the road this series,back at Target Center for the first time in 16 days. It's going to be a madhouse. 8.30 p.m. Central tip tonight. Today on the show, we are previewing the matchup, what I think will change from games two to three, mainly due to the presence of Rudy G Gobert and also potential adjustments for Denver ORG,whether it's the rotation or how they try to attack the Timberwolves ORG' defense. So we'll talk about all that on the show. I also want to talk about the Wolf ORG's offense, which has been basically the league's best offense through the playoffs so far, you know, a pretty major departure from a middle of the pack offense to the regular season. So we'll talk a little bit about that today as well. A big thank you here 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 Roku and Amazon at Fire TV PRODUCT. And you can follow on X at Lockdown T. Wolves and also at B. Beacon ORG. And a reminder, it is a game day. So a reminder about the postcast. Not only do we cover your team every day right here on the regular Lockdown Wolf's ORG show, we also had the LockdownWolf's postcast immediately following each and every Timberwolves ORG game. You can find that in Lockdown Sports Minnesota ORG YouTube channel. It's live there. And then after the fact, we'll post the audio to this feed. So if you're listening to the audio version of this podcast, your next show in your feed will be tonight's postcast with, I think it's Tyler Metcalf tonight with Canisupis and hosted by Luke Inman PERSON. So check that out tonight.If you can watch it live, you're at home. Great. If you're at Target Center, you've got to listen to it later. Listen to it here on the Lockdown Wolves ORG feed. Also, a reminder, if you can't watch the game live, you can listen on SiriusXM ORG, our friends over there on the SXM app. Just search Minnesota Tim Roles. You'll get Alan Horton PERSON on the hometown call of Wolves Nuggets tonight. All right. So leading into game three, things that we are pretty sure are going to happen.So there was one of anybody in the injury report. Rudy Gober is going to play on Friday night. The Nuggets have, Jamal Murray's PERSON official list is questionable. Obviously, we'd expect him to play. And then Reggie Jackson PERSON listed as questionable with the, I think it's an ankle injury that he hobbled off with, ankle or injury that he hobbled off with,ankle or calf that he hobbled off with at the end of, or second half of game two. That would be a potentially major absence if for no other reason, then the Nuggets ORG just don't have depth. And we've talked about that pretty extensively here on the show. I mean, like the, actually, that's how I closed Thursday show. The Timberals are just a significantly deeper team than the Nuggets ORG. Clearly, Michael Malone PERSON does not trust his,not even his deep bench, his bench period. Outside of, you know, apparently veteran Justin Holliday PERSON to some extent, even Christian Brown only played 11 minutes last game, which was interesting to me. You know, the take, obviously, is that Malone was like,, got to leave my best players in the four as much as possible to overcome this deficit.But maybe the response should have been, I'm searching for something. And I know you don't want to appear desperate as the champs, but like, I mean, they're at that point. And if Christian Brown and Peyton Watson PERSON are going to give you, Peyton Watson played a few rotation minutes in that game, if they're going to give you energy and effort and some athleticism, a jolt of some sort, then I don't know. I don't expect Michael Malone PERSON to make that tweak. And I know that veterans are what got them thereand veterans are what got them there last year. I mean, Christopher Brown was part of the rotation last year for most of the year. Zeke Naju is part of the rotation for most of the year. These guys are no longer in Denver ORG's rotation. And it was their choice, obviously partly salary cap inflicted, but to move on from the Bruce Browns and the Jeff Greens and, you know, a couple of years ago, Monta Morris and even like not suggesting Bones Highland PERSON would make a difference of this series. But that's another one that last year was moved on.They moved on from, I guess, prior to them actually winning the championship. But rotation guys that had experience that were part of this team going back several years when they've been one of the best teams in the West LOC, you know, really going back to the pandemic-ish era. So like all that to say, if Reggie Jackson PERSON doesn't play, it might actually be, in my opinion, a good thing for the Nuggets ORG.He has not been good. And I know that he, in theory, provides some scoring punch for them and maybe would be helpful if Jamal Murray PERSON's not able to do so if he's if he's going to keep playing the way he has in games one and game two game one and game two but in my mind it's can you get enough out of Peyton Watson can you get enough out of Christian Brown PERSON who are probably going to be more efficient and certainly going to be better defenders than Reggie Jackson PERSON have more size thanReggie Jackson and then you know if you need to use Justin Holiday PERSON too, and he's effectively helping run that offense, fine. I know that's not like the optimal Justin Holiday PERSON role, but like somebody's got to, right? Because who else is there? Who else is there? Like, clearly, you know, I talked about the November 1st game. Like, back then, Julian Strother PERSON was in the rotation.And remember, Hugh's a first round pick this year. He's not in the rotation anymore. Like, they don't even have any other than Reggie Jackson PERSON. They don't even have any other true point guards on this roster. So it's going to be some combination of Murray, Caldwell Pope, Christian Brown PERSON, and I guess Justin Holliday, if Reggie Jackson PERSON can't go, that are going to kind of initiate some of the offense.But in my mind, if I'm Michael Ballone PERSON, I just want to infuse some more energy into the team by using some of these bench guys. Related to that with no Rudy Gobert in game two, the Timberwolves, we talked about this on Thursday show and maybe, I think, a little bit Wednesday, too.It wasn't 100% the defense they played two years ago with Jared Vanderbilt and Patrick Beverly PERSON. But it was closer to that coverage than their typical drop coverage, right? They were trying to trap the ball. They were blitzing on the perimeter. They were switching when they needed to, but recovering and getting back.They were also, you know, I forget how I described it on Thursday show, but in pick and rolls, they were putting two on the ball briefly and then recovering to the role man. I can't remember the term that I, that I called it, but basically recovered to the role man. They got a couple of steals that way, with Murray just kind of like panicked with two on the two guarding him and just whipping a pass to Yokic PERSON, but like there's what I have in my mind where Nas PERSON peeled off and intercepted the pass because that was the coverage, right?Confuse them, show them length, et cetera. I think there's a time and a place for that in this game too. Like the wolves have done a little bit of that with Rudy this year, but obviously he's so good and drop. And that worked great in game one. I mean, I know compared to game two, it was a close game.They still ended up winning by seven. But Rudy Gober and drop, like, Jamal Murray PERSON was never comfortable with him. It was just like Bradley Beale in the Sun ORG series. Bradley Beal with Rudy PERSON on the floor was awful. He was petrified of getting within 16 feet of the basket because Rudy PERSON was always lurking. And that's not quite as effective against the nuggets because, well, Murray PERSON's better,or at least he's supposed to be. And also Nicola Yolkich PERSON, right? And the lob game. And occasionally if Yokich is handling, then they kind of invert that, then you got the Yukish to Aaron Gordon Lob PERSON you have to worry about. So in my mind, the Wolf's defense likely goes back to what it was in game one.But because game two is so effective, they have to find a way to not lose that intensity. And I'm not suggesting they weren't intense in game one. But the non-order defense, as it's now apparently being called, of Nikiel Alexander Walker and Jane McDaniels and Anthony Edwards just swarming on the perimeter. That can still be a thing as long as, you know, if they do that plus Rudy PERSON covering on the back end as kind of the safety net, that could be extremely effective. I do think they play more drop.I think it'll be some sort of hybrid between game one and game two. We'll have to see how they handle that. But the defense should only be better with Rudy Gobert PERSON on the floor. It's going to be really tough to replicate just that insane effort from game two on the perimeter. But they've had four days off, right? And I made that case earlier in the week. Like, that's going to really help the wolves. Four days off, get away from altitude. Rudy hasn't played in six days. These guys should be fresh. And, you know, I always worry a little bit about offensive rust when they get that much time off. But it's only going to help them defensively, which is Advantage Minnesota because of the way they play defensively and because of how flustered Denver was because of the wolves defense in game two.I want to talk about some specifics that I expect to happen or things the wolves need to make sure they do in game three in order to hopefully go up 3-0 in the series. We'll get to all that here next. Today's episode of Lockdown Wolves ORG is brought to us by our title sponsors over at Prize Picks. Prize Picks is America's number one fantasy sports app with more than three million members. It is the easiest and most exciting way to get in on the action when you watch your favorite sports and players. You just pick more or less on two or more player statsand watch your winnings roll in. 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Let's talk specifics about what to expect and what to watch for for Minnesota ORG in game three tonight at home. Number one for me, I don't know, this is necessarily the top thing, but it's the thing I'm maybe most concerned about is the impact of rebounding. Last game, when the Wolves won by 26, it didn't really matter because the Wolf's defense was so good and Denver ORG's offense was so bad.And it was legitimately both of those things. And obviously the Wolf's defense was the primary factor for the offense struggling for Denver ORG. But Minnesota ended up being a minus eight on the glass. They gave up 18 offensive rebounds to Denver ORG. Again, Denver ORG missed a lot of shots. That means there were a lot of loose balls, a lot of 50-50 balls, a lot of there were a lot of block shots,a lot of Yokic PERSON getting blocked and getting the ball himself in the paint to try again. Like that's going to add up and that's, I understand that that was a major factor here. However, Aaron Gordon still had three offensive rebounds and he's the guy you got to look out for. He averaged a ton of offense rebounds in the regular season and that was something that was a concern of mine coming into this series. In game one, closer game certainly, the Timberwolves were a plus eight on the glassand only allowed three offensive rebounds. So, obviously, Rudy Gober PERSON is a major part of that. The Wolves ORG won the points of the paint battle in both games, by the way. They were, I think, a plus 14 or plus 16 in game two. They're actually a plus 10 points of the paint in game one.Again, size, obviously, but activity level. And Rudy PERSON's going to do his part. He had, I think, 16 rebounds in game one. That's going to be huge. But it's rebounding all five. Remember, we talked about Jade McDaniels' corner crashing against the Suns ORG.That's not necessarily the strategy here. But there's got to be a level of activity. There's got to be, I talked about this after game one. Mike Conley PERSON's scooping balls up in kind of that mid-range, that like, 10 to 18-foot place on the floor where a lot of these long rebounds are going to end up. Mike Conley scooping balls up in kind of that mid-range that like 10 to 18-foot place on the floor where a lot of these long rebounds are going to end up. Mike Conley PERSON's got to continue to be active on the glass. They need Jade McDaniels to continue to be activeon the glass at some level. In game two, they, McDaniels had two rebounds. Conley PERSON had three and Ant only had two in game two. Again, it didn't matter. It was a massive blowout. The nuggets were just like, you know, just chucking the ball at the rim, had no shot of making shots because of how the wolves were playing defense.Game one, Jaden had eight rebounds. Ant had seven rebounds. Conley had four rebounds. That's what the wolves need to do in game three. With Rudy PERSON on the floor, and I said Rudy had 16,he had 13 rebounds in game one. With Rudy PERSON on the floor, the rebounding should be much better. But if nothing else, it also provides more attention for the nuggets, right? It was a free-for-all with no Rudy PERSON on the floor. And I know Kat and Nas PERSON are both big.They're not as big as Rudy PERSON. They're not the rebounding caliber that Rudy PERSON is. So Denver ORG, it was just, again, more of a free-for-all. With Rudy PERSON on the floor, the gravity that he provides. And I know Chris Finch talks about this all the time. And usually when we're talking gravity, it's about, you know, somebody rolling to the rim, right? Rim gravity and being able todraw the attention to the defense, which opens up just slivers of room for shooters and cutters, right? Defensively, on the glass, gravity matters too. With Rudy PERSON on the floor, their mind is going to be completely focused on, let's get this big guy off the glass. That's when Jaden PERSON has to sneak in and grab a rebound. And at his size of athleticism, I've been harping on this his whole career. He needs to be able to. I know he's expended energy guarding Jamal Murray PERSON.I mean, game one, he didn't score a point. Jaden was 0 of 7 from the field, but he played great defense and he had eight boards. Like that's awesome, right? The wolves will take that. They need that type of a game out of J-Dade and again in game three. It'd be nice if you knocked down a couple open shots,but the rebounding and the defense is so important. And then some of those almost cheapies that are just 50-50 balls. Over the course of a series, you're going to lose some of those, right? There's going to be some regression to the mean. But 50-50 balls, a lot of that is making your own luck. Like sometimes there's a bad bounce.I get it. Occasionally an offensive rebound will be grabbed by sheer luck. It'll bounce right to somebody, whatever. But those balls in the middle of the floor that bounce near the free throw line, like that's got to be Ant, it's got to be Connells, it's got to be McDaniels PERSON, it's got to be Monta Morris when he's on the floor, Kyle Anderson.These guys all have to rebound because otherwise you're going to have Aaron Gordon's sneaking baseline grabbing a board and getting an easy dunk or kicking it to the corner for KCP to knock down a three. That's a concern of mine in this game. It's got to be more like game one, rebounding wise. And I do think it will be because of Rudy PERSON's presence. One of my predictions before the series is that the wolves would flip the script and winthe rebounding battle against Denver ORG. And I was right in game one. They did. They 100% did. And Denver is a better rebounding team pound for pound than Minnesota ORG. And over the course of regular season, they were. They need to do what they did in game one on They did. They 100% did. And Denver is a better rebounding team pound for pound than Minnesota. And over the course of regular season, they were. They need to do what they did in game one on the glass. That's going to be super important in this game. Another thing is three pointvolume. Game one, the Timberls ORG were outshot from outside the arc, both takes and makes. Denver is 13 to 31. They attempted four more threes. The wolves were 11 to 27. They attempted they attempted four less and made two less threes. Both teams were 11 to 27. They attempted four less and made two three. Both teams over 40%. So they shot it well in game one, right? Game two, the Tim Roles ORG did shoot Denver ORG from three, which is crazy, considering that Denver was trailing the whole game. The Wolves outshot Denver. They made four more and they attempted three more. So they shot more andthey shot it better. That needs to carry forward in this game. I talked about this the other day. The Tim Roles three point attempt rate in the postseason has been identical to their regular season in three-point attempt rate, which is awesome. I was worried it was a little bit lower because it feels like they've been living in the mid-range because of all these anti-hilight Kobe-esque jumpers. I get it. But they need to keep that three-point volume up. I think it's 35% of their shot attempts in the postseason have come, according to cleaning the glass from outside the ark.That's exactly what it was in the regular season. That volume needs to stay up. A big part of that is Carl Thetowne PERSON staying involved. Game one, Kat had four three point attempts. Game two, he had five three point attempts. That's fine.That'll work. I'd love him to get six or seven. And he's shooting lights out. He's over 50% for three in the postseason. More three point attempts overall. More for Kat. More corner three is for Nikiel, Alexander Walker PERSON, which, I mean, he had five attempts in game one and seven attempts in game two. That's awesome. That's awesome for Nikiel. And of course, he's lethal in the corners. He's one of the leagues, I think he might haveactually been the best corner three point shooter in the entire league this season. Nause is awesome from the corners. He had four three point attempts in game one and eight three point attempts in game two. So that volume, especially from these bigs and spacers like Alexander Walker, needs to stay up on three point attempts. Denver ORG's is only going to come up as well. I know that they were dead last in the league and three point attempt rate, but they're also one of the league's best. They were top five in terms of percentage. And if they find themselves down, I could see them really, you know, pushing the envelope in terms of three-point attempts,maybe even outside of the regular comfort zone in order to try and keep pace with the wolves. I want to close by talking about a couple more things. I want to talk, I talked a little about the defense at the beginning. I'll circle back to that and then a little bit of cat stuff here. And then I'll give a prediction here for the weekend because there's a game tonight and on Sunday. So I'll predict both of those games. All that is coming up here next. All right, game off. We have to pause here to talk more about Monopoly Go PRODUCT. I know what you're saying. It's a whistle. It's a technical foul. You already talked about Monopoly Go PRODUCT. But hey,there's too much stuff that's awesome to talk about regarding Monopoly Go PRODUCT. In Monopoly Go PRODUCT, you can team up with friends for timed tournaments where you work together to build up each other's boards. 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Speaker 01252.58s - 1313.28s

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Speaker 11315.12s - 1938.96s

Okay, a couple more things here in terms of the preview before I get to my prediction. Offensive flow for Minnesota ORG has been awesome. We talked about this the other day. The Tim Wolves have essentially the best. I'm not technically the Pacers ORG pass the wolves in terms of offensive efficiency in the postseason so far. But the wolves are within 0.8 points per possession and the Pacers ORG have played in a bunch of track meets.That's how the Pacers ORG play. They're four and four in the postseason so far after falling to Knicks again the other night, Rick Carlisle losing his mind. The wolves are 6 and 0 in the playoffs, and they're within 0.8 points. So they're technically the second best offense of the playoffs so far. We talked about this extensively on Thursday. Top five free throw rate in the playoffs, top three offense rebound rate, second in effective field goal percentage. Turnover rate is still a little bit of an issue. But again, that's the onekind of bugaboo they've had all season. And it's been the flow more than anything else. And occasionally, Ant PERSON's gone hero ball. But it's never been like unwarranted. I mean, they're six and no, right? So there's never been a time where it's like, oh, shoot, we're down. Like, they really haven't trailed in the second half of games. I know they were down at half time, maybe even three times against Phoenix, at least twice. The Denver game, you know, was a game of runs. I think they were down by a bucket or two at half time against Denver. It might have been down four, I think, in game one. But there's never been like a moment in the fourth quarter where it's like, oh, man, they need, you know, we need to do something to get back and save us. So the first time that happens, and it will at some point in the playoffs. You're not going to run the table in the playoffs, although let's ride the good vibes as long as we can. I'm curious to see if that happens.And there is a time and a place for it. Like, this is just a statement. It's not a direct comparison. There were times where MJ or Kobe had to pull their team to a win. But there were also times when those guys, especially Kobe, because a lot of times, I mean, Kobe had other guys who you could run offense through like obviously Shaq and Paugasol PERSON.I know Michael had Scotty PERSON a little bit different the way that they operated their offense. But there were places that those teams could go. And Kobe sometimes would try to take over and it didn't work. Same thing with the wolves. There's a time and a place for it. If Kat PERSON's having a bad game, if Kat's in foul trouble,if Rudy PERSON's having a bad game, can't catch the ball. If nobody's making perimeter jumpers and Ant PERSON needs to take over, fine. Because he can do it. It gives you a puncher's chance at that point if you're down 10 in the fourth quarter. But the biggest thing for me that I want to see over the course of the game is this continued offensive flow that they've shown. And Ant PERSON could pick his spots. He's been making the right read all six games so far in the postseason.If you're going to put two plus on the ball, two to three guys on the ball, I'm going to make the smart pass. Sometimes it's a skip pass to the weak side corner. Sometimes it's the easy, you know, next pass in the rotation and the ball may swing back to me and I get an open shot. Other times it's probing.And this is game one, this is what i was so impressed with against denver PERSON they were in a controlled drop where they were essentially forming like a little perimeter around ant like he would dribble inside the three point arc and yokic would drop and drop and drop and they would kind of keep one to two defenders near him so they weren't crowding him they were daring him to shoot midrange jumpers they were trying to corral him basically it was like watching cattle dogs on a ranch right, like trying to be around him and keep him from getting into the paint, but keep him from getting off a completely open jumper. And Ant PERSON found the soft spots and made the right play moreoften than not. Occasionally it was slithering all the way to the rim around Yokic PERSON. We saw that in game two. Occasionally it was pulling up for the mid-range and occasionally it was kicking the pass to the perimeter, back to the perimeter. And of course, he scored 43 in game one, so obviously what he did made sense. But to keep that offensive flow, to run some offence through Kat, to do some of the big, big pick and roll with Kat and Rudy PERSON and keep Yokic in that action as much as possible, you know, make him work, that's huge. So just to continuethat offensive flow, and then when things break down or when you're in a tough spot, which hasn't happened really yet. But, you know, and I don't want to discount like withstanding runs in Phoenix ORG. And of course, game one against Denver ORG when they were up 18.4, Denver came back and took a lead all in the first quarter. That would have been, you know, a previous version of the wolves would have collapsed. That isn't this team.But at some point, there will be real adversity in the second half for one of these playoff games. And will the wolves be able to maintain that offensive movement that's been so impressive and that has led to the best location effective field goal percentage, like we talked about Thursday, the best shot selection, statistically speaking, of any team in the playoffs, the second best overall effective field goal percentage of any team in the playoffs.I'm very curious about that. I talked about the defense in the beginning, so not much more there. I just think they'll be back to guarding Joker PERSON one-on-one with basically no doubles. I think it'll just be Kat and then it'll be Nas, maybe Kyle Anderson. And let's provide some resistance. And when he gets into the paint, Rudy PERSON's there.Rudy PERSON's there to, you know, it's the, this actually came up. I can't remember who, it might have actually been Yokic PERSON. Or maybe it was, or maybe it was a, no, it wasn't Yolkich PERSON. It was a former player on a podcast, and I cannot remember which one. Talking about the defense, the Lakers played, it might have been, no, it wasn't LeBron PERSON. I can't remember who it was.But I saw it on a podcast in the last few days because who hasn't been listening to all the national podcasts this week after the Wolves incredible game too the other day. But whoever it was was talking about how the Lakers in the bubble play that essentially what the wolves are doing now, similar, with Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis PERSON. And using Dwight Howard PERSON as the guy who's roaming and blocking shots. And that's essentially what the wolves are doing now. But Rudy's better than late stage Dwight Howard PERSON, obviously.And that's what they're doing to Joker PERSON. That's the defense to play against Joker PERSON. Put a physical body on him, make him work for everything he gets, try and force him into tough fadeaways, try and force him into three-pointers, contested three-pointers. And if he does get himself into the paint, Rudy PERSON's there. And Rudy's also there, you know, to not over-comit, to not truly double because he could also peel off and guard that lob to, Gordon PERSON, the patented lob that never gets broken up except for when it did a game won by Rudy PERSON and the lobs to other guys or, you know, baseline cutters, cornershooters. Rudy's there to help disrupt that. And that's the plan against Joker PERSON. I think they go back to that. Less traps on the ball with, with Yokic PERSON. Keep your guys, you know, keep the perimeter guys at home to guard KCP and shooters from the perimeter um and jama mary i guess to a lesser extent um until he makes me my words hopefully not but we'll see you know i don't want to play with fire with jamao mary so like stay home on those guys make joker beat you scoring the basketball with rudy lurking behind him playing off of of Aaron Gordon, the defense we expected the wolves to play in this series. I think that comes back. All right. My predictions, I said this on Wednesday on the basketball party.If you miss that show, you can go back and listen to it and get takes for myself, Jack Borman from Cana Supis, as well as Reggie Wilson from Carolevin and Ron Johnson PERSON for the Ron Johnson show. And my prediction was that the wolves would lose game three. I know I'm a Debbie Downer, but I just got to believe the Nuggets ORG are a good team. They're one of the best three teams in the NBA ORG. They were all season.They're going to have a little bit more fight. Michael Blone's a good coach, other than the Murray PERSON calf injury, and I guess we'll see with Reggie Jackson PERSON. But again, I wouldn't be surprised that this team was better without Reggie Jackson PERSON. But it also just goes to show how much they don't trust the younger players, which is worrisome, right? Go back to some of the Calvin Booth interviews in the offseason talking.It sounded very, what did he say? There was some quote where he said something about we don't want to just go back to back. We want to build a dynasty. Very Golden State Warriors, Joe Laker PERSON, like, hey, we're smarter than everybody else sounding. See how that's turning out, right? Like, you know, we're going to rely on these young guys who we actually then don't trust after a full season.Anyway, I hope Reds Jackson and Jim L. Murray PERSON play, honestly. And I think, I think Murray will, who knows on Jackson PERSON. Anyway, I still worry about, I think they lose a close game Friday night. I just, there's so much, there's going to be a little offensive Russ PERSON, a little bit of maybe flipping back to the Rudy PERSON defense, could throw them off a little bit, a little bit of maybe overhypness in Target Center FAC. Obviously, I hope I'm wrong.I think they lose a close game Friday. I think they come back and win, maybe not even a close game. I think they win on Sunday in game four. And it goes back to Denver ORG with a 3-1 lead. And I think the wolves will close it out in Denver, and I'll amend that if I feel based on how the weekend goes. And hopefully on Monday, we're talking sweet. Hopefully on Monday we're not talking about going back to Denver ORG,and we're already looking ahead to either OKC or Dallas ORG, which, by the way, that series is now 1-1. And I don't, we'll have plenty of time next week. I'm not trying to look too far ahead or jinx anything at all to look at that matchup. But I like how the Wolves ORG matchup with both OKC and Dallas ORG. I prefer the Dallas matchup a little. But I like the matchup with both of them. And of course, either way you're dealing with Luca or you're dealing with SGA ORG, I know Dallas also has Kyrie, but that's kind of it. And with Maxi Klebera, like, there's an advantage there for Minnesota ORG.So that series is 1-1. Keep an eye on that. But anyway, postcast tonight, Lockdown Sports ORG Minnesota on YouTube live after the game. So roughly 11, 1115 or so tonight. That'll be Jack or Tyler from Cana Supis joining Luke Gidman on Lockdown Sports, Minnesota ORG on YouTube. That audio will be on this audio feed late tonight, so be sure to check that out this weekend. I will be back on Monday, which will be the postgame pod following Sunday's game four, and hopefully a Wolf ORG's sweep.But either way, I'll be back on Monday talking the weekend of Wolves Nuggets ORG. A big thank you for making Lockdown Wolves your first episode, your first listen every day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere, including YouTube, as well as all of your favorite audio platforms, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can find Lockdown Wolves ORG. You could also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV ORG. And you can follow on X at Lockdown T. Wolves and also at B. Beacon with 2B's, 2 E's, CK.E.N. A reminder that Lockdown has launched to the first E's, C-K-E-N. A reminder that lockdown has launchedto the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube ORG. It's now also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV PRODUCT channels app. Lockdown Sports Today ORG is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of lockdown.Plus are national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today ORG now available on the free Fire TV PRODUCT channels app. 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. This is the Lockdown Wolves ORG podcast, and we'll catch you next time.

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