Welcome into the Daily Wolves court side. Big time win over the Denver Nuggets. We're super excited to guys. Everyone to be joining the live stream talking Minnesota, basketball, the big win over the Nuggets.
Obviously it took care of business guys. Denver had her number right? 3-0 against us this season. You just can't get swept by this team.
Both teams of the identical record coming to this game and down the line. This could be one of the things that decides whether you get the three say or not. So it's a big big time win big win for the Wolves. We're going to go on over the game.
Everybody who stuck out players X factors all that and more. But I guess first I'll kick it over to you Cole. You watch the Knights game. You see some big time talent.
You see some big time players. You got superstars on both sides of the court. I guess to start the game, we'll kind of stuck out to you about the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yeah, I mean, honestly, the biggest thing that stuck out to me was Julie's Randall.
Kind of like that one thing that we've been kind of discussing over the last few games since the All-Star break happened. You know, he was averaging like 12 points a game, you know, four and a half rebounds, but his efficiency has been off the charts, you know, just bad. 34% from the field, 16% from three. You know, there was a, you know, a spurt there where, you know, he was able to get himself going just a little bit and then he just kind of reverted back.
But I felt like as the game went on for him, it just like slowed down. He became more engaged, you know, guarding Yolka, I don't know if that was the reason, but he started to look a little bit better than he has the last four games since the All-Star break. But overall, I mean, it was just kind of a slow starting game that we've been seeing from the Wolves here since the All-Star break. But then once that second quarter hit, it was game on.
I think we all scored them 36, 19 in the second quarter and went up by eight points or something heading into the second half. So overall, it was just a tough battle game against Denver. And it's, you know, I'm happy that we're sitting here with the W and being able to talk about it. What about the bench, Jack?
What do you got for us in the bench? Because I feel like they came in with Cole was saying they come in, they took over, you see it with Bones Island, you see it with I.O. to sumo, just electric together. Nas Reed struggling with those two alone.
I feel like they changed the complexion of this game. What was it like when they came in? It was incredible. I think the best, I think, day more tweeted.
A friend of the show, day more tweeted. This is the best collective bench effort since I.O. joined the team. And maybe there's been higher collective point or scoring output, although this may have been the highest scoring output collectively since he joined the team.
But in such a big game against such a good team and our bitter rival and a team that we're neck and neck in the standings with, for them to play that well was massive because we've obviously been lacking it all year long. It's been pretty much just Nas and then an inconsistent supporting cast, but Bones Island was unbelievable. I mean, so much happened down the stretch in this game and kind of the usual cast stepped up Anthony, Nas, Jaden, you had big Dante game. Julie has kind of maybe started to shake himself out of the funk a little bit.
I know it still wasn't pretty like Cole was saying, but Bones Island saved this basketball game. We were getting not throttled, but we were down double digits early and Bones Island just gave us a massive shot in the arm. We've got our guy Ben King in the comments, the braided bench strikes again. And he's exactly right.
All the dudes with the dreads, the dreaded bench lineup absolutely did strike again and Bones Island was unbelievable, making shots, injecting pace, injecting energy, scrapping with the biggest guy on the nuggets gets elbowed in the head, which actually did look like a little bit too much from balance, Junus and he took offense to it. And I think it gave us such a big spark. Not only that, his attitude, his energy, but the shot, it was unreal. And then to round out the bench, Nas made some incredible big jelly plays down the stretch.
I.O. was efficient hit big timely buckets. They were huge for us. It was just awesome to like you said with Bones coming in just right away, like 15 points in a blink of an eye just really got it going for the timber.
Well, it's quite a second half of the game at 18 points and 16 minutes for Bones tonight. And like you said, shot efficient six for seven for Bones Island, but it's the tempo. It's the electricity. It's the vibe.
It's the connection with the audience with the fans. Like you can feel his energy as a fan watching on TV. And I think that's something why again, I always clamor for Bones. It's like, it's not just his play on the court.
It's the ability and the special gift to become a fan favorite here in Minnesota. Really bring that energy to the Timberwolves and then again to the locker room. I think the guy's feed off that. I O feeds off that again, getting into that scrap without chewiness.
I think that sets the tone getting the energy back and pumps the guys up. They got to have his back as their boy and you just see Bones Island out there making plays, shooting threes hustling and trying to play defense. But usually it's like a feeling. Scraping.
Yeah, but he's scrapping. Please like totally. People are listening is like he always goes out and he tries hard. You never have to question Bones Island effort.
I do not question it. If he plays bad or he plays good, he goes out there and he plays 110. I think I all plays the same way. I think Dante plays the same way.
Those three players tonight were absolutely incredible for the Timberwolves. The big ragu rated our regular is I like to call him at his mind. It's cold. What did you like about Dante's game tonight?
He exploded from the three defense hustling. He always does the things that don't show up in the statute as well. Tonight you see how important he is. What's the vision like moving forward for Dante?
Why was he so special tonight? Cole? Yeah, 100% one thing I just want to go back just with Bones real quick. When that balance, you and his flag are happened.
The wolves went on an 18 to seven run. So that put us ahead by seven with just under six minutes to go. You know, in the second quarter and that was huge and that got the game going for us to be able to kind of pull away there in the first half and then going and leading in the second half, but going into that second half, you know, Dante, man, there's a saying that me and my body's always say and hustles free and that's what Dante shows every single night. That's what Bones shows every night.
And that's what IO has been showing for us here since he's been here with us. But Dante meant he was shooting lights out. You know, every time that it seemed like the nuggets were getting closer, he would hit a big three or, you know, there would be a defensive rebound or the ball that was going out of bounds throwing it up court to be able to save it so that the nuggets wouldn't get another opportunity to get the ball back and maybe. You know, sore from the out of bounds play there.
But honestly, I mean, this was just a collective unit or as a collective unit of the team. This was probably the best team or the best game that we've seen from the Wolves in a while, you know, coming down to the trade deadline. And then after the all star break, we really haven't seen this team click and that kind of was what we were seeing there in the first quarter at the beginning before Bones and IO came in and you're just sitting there on your couch going, Oh, man, here we go again. This is the Wolves that we've come to see here the last week or so or the last couple weeks, but then something clicked and the team was just able to kind of run with it.
And it's just it's just weird. This team just shows that they want to fight against the top tier teams in the league. They don't care about, you know, the Indiana Pacers of this year. They don't they don't care about the Dallas Mavericks this year.
You know, they don't care about those teams. They want to play against this high leverage situation and loves it. The whole team loves it and they feed off of it. And that's what you felt once IO and Bones came into the first quarter there just to be able to push this team forward and then it just bled into the game and we just kept going and kept going and it's just great to see, you know, moving forward here in the second half.
We had Katie win John to preview on the show the other day. I mean, Jack, we're on here with her. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the Wolves Nuggets preview, it's on our YouTube channel. You're watching.
It's on her podcast feed. You can go listen to it. One of the things that Katie winch who's one of the hosts and reporters for the Denver Nuggets brought up was she thinks the game is not going to be decided so much by Ant and Joe kick. It's going to be decided by role players.
There's going to be X factors. Those are the players are going to play and what happens tonight? You see it right there like we talked about Dante coming in hot. A.
Oh, all these things, right? Bones, Highland. I thought that was really cool in the way that tied it up and yeah, shout out to Katie winch before we get keep going to show guys. We're just going to give a shout out to our friend Heather over at North star realty.
Exhale, really, she's hosting actually a Timberwolves watch party coming up here March 15th in Burnsville, Minnesota at bricksworth bricksworth. We've been there amazing beer. Awesome pizza. Different specialty pizzas, different wings as well.
They even have like a to read a cool ranch Doritos wing, which is kind of cool, but Heather is going to be there. Tons of Timberwolves fans. She's going to be doing giveaways for Wolves fans. So definitely go check it out.
Heather is also one of the best realers in Minnesota. And the best part about Heather is that she's a Wolves fan and that's why I want to connect with when I'm going to buy my next property. Go to wolvesrealtor.com and check it out today. You can RSVP for that party along with getting in contact with Heather again.
That's wolvesrealtor.com. Shout out to Heather again for sponsoring the show. Guys, Nas Reed tonight, electric in the second half started off the game slow. Jack, you see it.
He's got the moves. He's showing it, man. He's hitting threes. He's everything man.
How special is Nas Reed and what did you like this second half performance? He's just so much fun, man. I mean, the whole team, but I've been a Wolves fan my entire life that has not changed for one second. But I started doing post game recap videos during the 2023-2024 season because this team just is so much fun when they're rolling.
Anthony Edwards with the charisma and the highlights and the athleticism and the shot making, Jayden McDaniel's Nas Reed when they're making plays, they're just so skilled and athletic and swaggy and it's just so fun. And Nas Reed absolutely epitomized that tonight. When he went on that little mini run, I mean, as far as Nas Reed games go, this was pedestrian for him. You know, in terms of like the box score, he 11 points on 5 of 11 shooting, only one for five and three.
But he made such a big difference with that little mini Nas Reed run that he went on. I mean, when he got out in transition and I think it was kind of like a Eurostep floater over Valentunus in transition, he was like, he was kind of doing like a patented Jayden McDaniel's like gallop into the end of the lane. And you could tell he was just feeling himself and he made such a tough cool bucket in such a critical moment to stretch our lead. You see the bench going crazy for all of the like maybe perceived bad vibes with this team with some of the lack of efforts or, you know, the spat with Finch and Ant on the bench in the last game.
They love each other. You can see it. They, they, they look for each other so hard. They have so much fun together.
The bench erupted when he made that move and the nuggets called the timeout. And it's just, it's so fun to watch man. We have so many, we're so lucky to have so many like big athletic skilled fun players and Nas Reed is a, is a national treasure. What's, what's going on with Julius Randall called because you see him struggling, then he gets, makes some amazing plays that goes back and forth.
There's a tug. I think fans watching feel some type of way about Randall, you know, he's one of those players that can sometimes his game can be a little bit frustrating. But Joyce Randall also plays in all NBA level sometimes and he is special when he's locked in. What tonight did you see from Randall as well?
Because I felt like he, you know, he's been searching in the last couple games here. But I thought he made some big plays as well tonight. Yeah. Yeah.
And just kind of one of the things with Randall all year. I mean, we can kind of go back to what the beginning of last year was, you know, opening night against the Lakers. It was, he just didn't gel wasn't, you know, just didn't know what was going on really with the team, you know, defensively, whatever the case was. But I don't know.
It's just kind of one of those things he was playing at an all-star level. And then once the trade talks started coming in there filtering more and more with the whole, John is thing. It just made it just maybe mess with his mind a little bit and he's just not 100% back to it. But one thing that we're, we are all noticing is that he's starting to look tired.
Now I've read it. I've seen it. I've heard it from different people. And it's, you know, Julius put a, you know, a goal for this year playing 82 games playing the whole season.
Is that something that we're kind of seeing now where he's starting to, you know, get tired out, you know, as we're getting, you know, later in the season. But I don't know, I saw spurts of him today where when he was starting to guard Yolkitch. And it was like when he was going to win B when we were playing the Spurs here, he was into it. He was engaged, but his shot is not falling.
Like I said, I mean, over the last four games until, you know, before today, you know, 34% or 37% or whatever it was. And then 16 from three, that's going to take a toll on anybody. Like, I mean, whether it's Ant, whether it's, you know, not as whoever it is as an athlete in general, as a human, you know, the failures of not being able to put the ball in the hoop, it's going to take a toll on you. But I was impressed to an extent, you know, that he was starting to break out of it a little bit here today.
And maybe this win with him being able to kind of show us that he's not all gone. Maybe we'll, it'll be something that we can kind of see here moving forward. Yeah, I hope so, because Randall is so special when he's locked in. And I think there's an upside there with what you always Randall is like when he's on, he's a triple double machine and he can really get everyone involved with this team.
I'm curious to see moving forward what, what the Kyle Anderson getting Kyle Anderson into, you know, coming to the team here. How does that affect Randall? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing?
Did they clash the locker room? Does he say anything? I'm not really sure. Does Kyle Anderson play a lot of minutes?
We don't even know. Is he the same player? Like there's a lot of questions going on with that before we keep going on the show guys. If you love sports betting like myself, absolutely.
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That's the daily SPM on Better. Kyle Anderson's coming to the team. We know this, Jack. What are you looking for fans listening right now?
What kind of impact is Kyle Anderson going to make moving forward for the rest of the year? Is this a big time move or just something kind of small that, you know, it's not that big of a deal. Just kind of a filler at the end of the bench. For the Timerwolves for a team as good as the Timerwolves, I think when you make a move in the margins like this, it absolutely has the potential to be a big impactful move.
It's maybe not in a vacuum, a big move, but because we're a team that's right there in the thick of it battling for the three seed in the Western Conference, if you get marginally better, that makes a huge difference. And Kyle Anderson has been quietly planning some really good basketball on some bad teams. And so I think that's going unnoticed, which, you know, I don't blame folks for not having been super locked into Utah Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies basketball this year. But Kyle Anderson is shooting the ball really well from three.
He's shooting the ball really well from the short corner, I believe. And just in terms of his basket, he's always been a high basketball IQ guy, a high impact guy in areas that don't show up in the stat sheet. And he's obviously super familiar with our roster despite the turnover. I mean, Nas, Jaden, Rudy, and all those guys, he's played with them.
They clearly all like him. I don't know, silly that Rudy loves him. I think they do actually like each other despite their very public physical altercation. In 2023, I think it was.
But I genuinely think that he just gives us a versatility. Julius doesn't have it one night and we need to bring in Kyle to facilitate a little bit with the second unit or play some defense and fill some gaps. He can do that. And I personally, I'm really excited to see how he gets used.
And who knows, like tonight, we had eight guys who all played really well or we had our starting five who is not going to change and three guys off the bench. I played really well, not a ton of spare time for Kyle Anderson, but he just gives us an option. He gives us an option to mix it up a little bit. And personally, I just always thought he was kind of funny and hilarious and a good guy that brings good vibes.
So I'm stoked to have him back and I genuinely think it's possible he makes a difference in a game or two. And that's all it takes when you're in such a tough battle in the Western Conference and you're in the playoffs. I can see it for sure. I think Kyle Anderson, what you're betting on is that he brings vibes to the locker room.
He's the leader in the locker room, which he was when he was here. He's the guy that notoriously calls guys out in the film room when other players are too scared. He holds guys accountable. He gets in their faces.
He'll get an Anthony Edwards face. He's done it before. He is that guy that commands that respect that locker room loves him and they respect him. Like you said, him and go there have a good relationship.
It didn't matter that that punch had happened previously. They respect each other now. And moving forward, you have a guy that Chris Finch also is very familiar with Kyle and knows the system here. And then you get that awful lineup with with Randall and Nas Reed defensively.
I mean, it is bad. It is horrendous. And Rudy Gebarras out the floor. Kyle gives you deflexibility where you don't have to play in every game, but he can come in and play here and there when need be in certain games, certain match ups.
And you can really experiment with that because when he was here in the Temerals uniform, you go look back. Nas Reed and Kyle Anderson were fantastic defensively together off the bench. That is something that Minnesota and Chris Finch now have in their arsenal. Maybe that can survive like the bleeding and you can pick and she was when you want to really invest in offense.
Or if you want to just stop the bleeding, hold ground hopefully until Rudy Gebarras can get his break there and the guys. But I think it is going to be big for the Temerals. We are not looking for Kyle Anderson to be the exact same guy. We are just hoping he can come in and do a lot of the little things.
Be that blue guy. I think the most important thing is coming to the locker room. Probably connect them and say some things that maybe the other guys are a little bit too scared to say. Jayden McDaniel is as well.
We have to give him his flowers. We have to talk to him. We have a lot of Jayden fans in here. I am sure.
What do you think of his game? Because I thought he was a two-way star tonight. Swapped into the rug again. The game is some flowers on TV, man.
How special is Jayden? Unbelievable. That is all I can say to him. It is just unbelievable.
When they were starting to double and sending out three guys to end, they kept saying Jayden has got to be the one to take this over. I read it too. You are nine of twelve from the field. You have to guard one of the better guards on their team.
Jamal Murray, our second scorer. It is not like he has an easy night. He has got to do everything. Be in the second highest score on the team tonight.
He just did everything well. He went over three from three. But honestly I do not even care about that. He was working the floater.
He was doing everything that he was supposed to do in this game. Those 20 points proved to be huge. We won by nine. What if it was a Jayden kind of dug game that he has from time to time?
That game is a lot closer. Maybe we are talking about a two-point loss in overtime or something like that. Jayden has been proving this year specifically but lately ever since the trade deadline talks. He is just like, I am the guy.
I want to be the second guy. I want to be the skydpip into this team. I need to be Robin to Ants Batman. I have to.
He is willing himself and willing this team to keep moving forward. But again, it is just this team is playing, you know, played well tonight. But yeah, it is just, he is awesome. I love Jayden.
I love his demeanor. I do not care attitude. He will go up to anybody. He will fight anybody whether it is the other way.
He will go up there and do what he needs to do. Him going over three from three. He finished nine for the floor. He was nine for nine inside the three-point line.
He is shooting like 45% from the three-point line. Just like a rare off-night from him in terms of the shooter. He is a game 22. Nine for nine inside the three-point line.
Almost every one of those shots are really difficult shots. He is not difficult for him because he has mastered bully-balling himself into the paint and just rising up and shooting over smaller defenders because basically everyone in the NBA that is guarding him is smaller than him because he is so long and so athletic. They are not tough shots for him, but it is insane that he is hitting shots at that grip with that level of difficulty. That floater that he hit at the very end of the game on the baseline was ridiculous.
That is such a difficult shot and it essentially clinched the game for us. On top of that he is harassing Jamal Murray, all game full court. That is a ridiculous level of endurance, a ridiculous level of versatility. It shows up in that plus minus column like you said.
Unbelievable, unbelievable two-way game from Jay McDaniel today. The floater game, you brought up two-call. It is crazy. I will re-point that out.
All the stuff he is showing you that it is in his bag offensively. You see it on display, a guy that size that can move like that. I mean the length and the floater was just awesome. I think those shots are so hard for so many players.
You are kind of off-balance a couple of games ago. He had that fade-away dark-and-white shot on the back leg. He can do everything now. He is becoming one of those players that if there is no ceiling to Jay didn't completely, we don't really know just because that size is so elite.
I get the flashes of like I am not saying the same player but again, the KD comparisons which they have in the past. Those guys have that slim frame and they have that ball handling skill that is rare at that size. You can put him in any position and guard whatever. You said too cool.
The way he guards him all, Marie, tonight was just so special. I mean how many guys of that size can do what he is doing. I thought Ayo D'Souma was awesome as well. I have to give him a shout out again on the defense of Jim Mulmerry.
The perimeter made his life out. He started off like one for nine or something. They were all over until later in the game. You can only keep an all-star numbers so long.
But no man, tonight or today I should say Bravo National Television Game big time game. You can build off of it and it's going to be really fun. Now we only have like 21 games or so remaining. So it's going to be super quick.
We're going to the plaster going to be before we know it before we get out of your guys. Last thing I just want to say to fans watching. We do have an Instagram post up again. It's on the screen for you as well.
Our Instagram username, it's only on our Instagram this time. But it is a giveaway and we're giving you guys club tickets to go see the Minnesota Temerals and the Treasure Island Club. It is going to be unlimited beer, wine. All you can eat food buffet, free parking, lounge areas.
Play pool in the lounge areas out there. It's all private. Again, shout out to our friends over at Lake Ridge Lickers. But you can enter the club ticket giveaway on our Instagram.
It's only going to be up there for a few more days and they're going to announce the winner. So definitely if you want club tickets or you want a special date night, get away from the kids. That's what I recommend. But it's great.
It's been great having you on Jack. It's cool. As always guys, we're going to get going here. Until next time, go Wolves.
Yes, sir. Boom.