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How about it? I got it out today. I actually pulled it out earlier today. I thought I was putting it way down 20, but...
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, it's fun to have two of us, but three's a party. Get the flag! Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, he's here, Kyle! Get the flag, Kyle?
I think Kyle's crying. Kyle's crying. Kyle's crying. Dude!
I wasn't been here before. Kyle, Flagrant Howells is live on the Score North YouTube channel. The Minnesota Timberwolves are headed to the Western Conference Finals after overcoming a 20-point deficit in ball arena. I'm going to keep crying.
Kyle, let it out, dude. This is amazing. Come on, Kyle, first up. Years.
Years. Kyle, your thoughts. Dude. I said all year that this team was just different, right?
And there's so much scar tissue in the state and in the city and with this fan base. And it's been a tough year for a lot of people. There was more Timberwolves fans in ball arena today than Nuggets fans. There was a Wolves chance on the road.
That 22-year-old never let him die. And then the game-clinching play was a complete put-back dunk. I am so happy for everyone on that team. The coach has one leg.
The president left a title contender to try to build something. They were rattled in the first half. And they just, it's different, man. I don't know how else to say it.
It's a different team. I love you guys. I appreciate everyone listening. I debated doing this, but it's the happiest sports moment of my life.
Yeah, absolutely. Wait, where's it? Here it is. Hit those flags.
Hit those flags. Hit those flags. Happy 20th anniversary of the last time the Wolves won a Game 7. Wow, like, I mean, by the way, I want to throw this out too, because this will turn into a Ventline celebration here.
VikingsVentline at gmail.com is our Ventline inbox. VikingsVentline at gmail.com. I will send links to as many people as we can get to here, live on the store on our YouTube channel, Flagrant Howells. But this was, they were cooked.
I mean, not cooked because we know it's the Timberwolves and they come back. But like, the announcers were talking about the game like it was over. A lot of people in my timeline were already looking ahead to who the Wolves should trade. They were down by 20 points in the third quarter on the road to the best team in the world.
And here's my biggest takeaway here, boys. It felt to me the whole time throughout, like once the Nuggets woke up after the Lakers series, it felt like, okay, this is the team that won the championship last year, and the NBA has a natural order of events historically, where a team that good is supposed to be sort of dynastic. They're supposed to win back-to-back championships. Or three out of four, whatever it is.
The Nuggets have felt dynasty-like to me. Jokic is 28 years old. He's a three-time MVP. To show how powerful this win was tonight, the Timberwolves essentially upset the natural order of the NBA.
This was not supposed to happen. Like, the Nuggets are so with a three-time MVP, 28 years old, based on everything you know about NBA history, a 22-year-old Anthony Edwards is not supposed to be ready to climb this mountain yet. And they did, tonight, in Ballerina. How about the fact, though, that I think we have to give him his props.
Carl Anthony Towns has a fantastic complete game. Like, the first half was pretty much a disaster for much of that half. Now, Ant is going to have a very so-so box score, but in the second half, the defense was phenomenal. And that's the thing, though, that I think is the key to this team.
I don't know that they were willing to do it in the first half, but somebody, it feels like, with a fire under them. They came out really slow in the third quarter, but after that, as the TNT crew kept saying, this is a defense. Like, they were willing to pay a price again. Like, you look at almost every tone that this team has set, and it's really not offense.
It's their defense. And tonight, second half, was no exception. Jamal Murray disappeared, but it's not because he wanted to. It's because that defense suffocated with him.
They didn't go away. And Ant did some great things there. Jokic, who they played, I think, all but a minute, was exhausted, but they guarded him really. I mean, I just, I come back to, it might not be sexy, but this is how you win.
And, man, it's impressive. When you barrel down like that, it's so impressive, Kyle. Again, I go back to the different thing. The moment was, I'll be honest with you, the moment was too big for Ant in the first 24 minutes.
And I bet you he'll admit it. He got on a fast break and gave the ball up to Rudy Gobert. He got on a fast break and gave the ball up to Mike Conley. And you could tell he was processing and trying to figure it out.
And like you said, Judd, they have a lot of good assistants on this team, right? They've got some old school guys. They've got, what, Coach Williamson that was there for that 0-304 Pistons run. I would imagine there was more swear words at halftime than a Kyle Taggart appearance on the Dane Moore pod.
But they grew up in the second half, and he took it. And they took it from everyone. Jane McDaniels, best game of his career. There's a lot of battles.
I'd fight online, Phil, as you know, with people worrying about how much he's going to make next year. Bargain. Best game of his career. Best game of Conley's career.
And just the poised, man. I mean, Mike Conley looked like the most unpoised person in the first half. Russian things. Rudy Gobert, halftime, was crushed.
Told him to get off the floor. His ability to draw those fouls to get me. I don't know what the free throws were tonight. They shot 30 free throws tonight.
A lot of that just because Rudy was just accumulating fouls on their guys. Rudy went 7 for 9 from the free throw line. Different, man. I don't know.
I don't have a lot of ammo right now. It's just I am so happy for a lot of people that were chastised and made fun of for cheering for this team It doesn't matter, man. This is just a different franchise than for the first time in 20 years on Kevin Gardner's birthday. They're back one series away from the title.
I mean, we've got some people trickling in here and we will turn it over to Wolves fans. But I just like, I've been watching sports for consciously for like three and a half decades. And we, you know, Judd, you're a generation older and you got to see the 87 and the 1991 runs. There's like my generation and younger.
We haven't seen Jack. We've seen a couple like Vikings. If you're a full-on Minnesota sports fan, you've seen a couple Vikings trips to the NFC Championship game. Most of them ended in ass-whippings.
A couple ended in just like soul-crushing overtime defeats. The Timberwolves had the one run in 2004, but like the list of things that make you feel this good as a Minnesota sports fan and specifically a Minnesota Timberwolves fan is very, very short in the last three and a half decades. And the crazy part is you just scaled the biggest mountain in the NBA. Maybe the biggest mountain in franchise history because this was a bigger mountain than the 2004 mountain.
That Kings team was not this Nuggets team. And congratulations, you're at the halfway point of the NBA playoffs is a whole other mind trip that we can worry about tomorrow and the following days. But before we get to some of these other Wolves fans here, Kyle, just you speak so well on behalf of fans and I think you are just like the master ringleader of Wolves fans. You understand how to bridge the gap between like jumping on a microphone as a professional but also like being a fan at your heart and your soul.
Just any other words from you to put into context what we just saw tonight, Wolves advancing past the defending champions. Dan and I did a live show in St. Paul last week and a guy came up from California in a cool jersey, retro jersey, and he had a cool necklace on. And it was a picture of his kid.
And him and his dad loved watching Wolves games and the kid died 10 years ago. And this is not a community, there's a community no one knew about because we were all hiding. It was about to be a Wolves fan. You were just a punchline everywhere you went.
I remember John Krasinski told me once that when he told people he covered the Timberwolves, people asked him if it was by choice or by force. And for them to just, you know, it's not easy all the time being punched and being made fun of. And this team and this sport, I mean, with all due respect, Judd, this is a hockey state. And I grew up in the Midwest and it's hockey, but it's also a basketball state.
And it just wasn't allowed to flex its muscle until they had the right 15 guys and the right coach and the right owners, right? Shout out to all six of them or whatever. But it's just, you know, it's a lot of people that use this sport and this organization as a distraction for a lot of years. It was worse than what was going on in real life sometimes.
And this team is just special. I was thinking back, Phil, when they lost to the Hawks, right? Game 3 and it just seemed like, here we go again. And every time they were backs against the wall, they just kind of defied the odds.
So I'm happy for that team. I'm happy for the coaching staff. I'm happy for the three of us. But I'm so happy for every fan that never stopped believing and that has just shown out time and time again and it packed the away arena to the point where in the Nuggets' biggest possessions, there were just Wolves in seven chance and let's go Wolves.
I said all the time, Phil, I think it's the best group of fans in sports. And this is their moment and I just am so happy for them. I also feel good in general for the sports fan in this town because again, there's a generation that has, you know, the Vikings, right? But like the Twins have disappointed them.
The Wolves basically did nothing. The Wild has disappointed them. So like this is, I mean, you not only beat the defending champions, you came back from down 20, it looked like you were dead. And the resilience to me, I mean, I saw this morning on X, starting this morning, I saw, okay, the officiating crew is out.
It's Scott Foster, we're screwed. It's over. And look, I understand your fears. I understand your trepidation.
But this team couldn't care about that. And I don't think that they did. Like I think the thing about, the lesson from this team that we need to take away is this. If you build a resilient team, they're not going to sweat the officiating crew.
They're not even going to sweat a 20-point deficit in game seven early in the third quarter, which is absolutely incredible. So in some ways, I'm hoping that this begins to purge the angst of the Minnesota sports fan who is convinced, and it's young people. Like it's not me, but young people who think like, oh, the Twins won when my parents were young. It'll never happen.
It can happen. Dude, that's the one thing like, I'm so sick. I watched the first half of that game with about 500 Wolves fans at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park.
And when they were down by 13, down by 14, that Minnesota sports fan creeping anxiety and that sort of auto-doom feeling that we get. You can hear people who are verbalizing it and start complaining about the officials who classic Minnesota sports choke job. Stop. This Wolves team should put an end to that forever.
And there's going to be times where you do lose a series or you do lose in the Western Conference Finals, whatever, but like this is, first of all, Anthony Edwards, six for 24, still found a way to make a major impact. Like this team doesn't quit. This is one of the most toughest-nails teams in the history of Minnesota sports that I can remember. And here's a crazy parallel.
You want to talk about tough-as-nails players, even when things aren't going their way, do they still find a way to impact? The last time a superstar like this went six for 24 exactly in a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs? Kobe Bryant against the Boston Celtics. It was one of the worst playoff performances shooting-wise in his entire career.
But he went out, he grabbed a bunch of rebounds, he played a bunch of great defense, he trusted his teammates, run our test, right, to bail him out in the office. I mean, Anthony Edwards is paralleling Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. It took Michael Jordan four cracks at the Pistons in the 80s, by the way. Ant only needed a second shot at the Nuggets before destroyed them.
I'm just glad you brought that up because biggest comeback in Game 7 history, right? 20 points. I think the biggest one before that was 11, maybe. And they did it all despite the fact that Blair Walsh missed the field goal.
And they did it all despite the fact that Brett Favre threw across his body. Doesn't matter, man. The younger generation is going to take us somewhere and they don't care about all that stuff, so sorry to the talk radio people, but this is a different group of guys and a different organization and to Phil's point, I don't want to hear it anymore. Western Conference Finals, we've talked about 0-3-0-14 Phil all year, right?
Like, we've always confirmed to them, but everyone said, do it in the playoffs, do it in the playoffs. Well, they did it in the playoffs. So what do you got now? All the flags.
That's what we got. We got flags to wait. We got about 5,000 people hanging out with us live right now on the Sworn Earth YouTube channel and we appreciate you guys. If you're new here, click that like button, the subscribe button.
People asking where I got this Wolves culture shirt, where you can find it, Sworn Earth.com slash shop, Sworn Earth.com slash shop for your Break Every Record swag, your culture swag, and your 48 minutes of Howl swag. There's also a QR code on the YouTube channel here, but let's go. Let's go to Jake first here. Impromptu Wolves Game 7 daggering the Nuggets vent line.
There we go. I said it a few times ago. I'm going to say it again. Tonight was destiny.
I don't know what I had coming back from a 20-point deficit on my bigot card, but this Wolves team continually this season has just surprised me and I just think you're exactly right. Like talking about that Minnesota sports psyche, like this team doesn't care at all about that state. I think Cat had maybe his best, I mean, surely his best playoff game of his career. I feel like we've said that like five times this playoffs, but I just think the resolve of this team, I can't explain it.
I'm so proud of him. We got home court going to the West Finals. I was literally in third grade the last time this team won in the center round for the West Finals and I'm just speechless, honestly. I'm so proud of this team.
I cannot wait to see where we end up. I'm just going to say it now. We've got to be a tough Dallas team, but bring them on. I think we're running the finals.
I can see it. I think this team is just an absolute great train and anything can happen for the Rock. It's been such a season. Jake, thank you, man.
I've got no words. Yeah, no. Thanks for coming on, man. Jake, yeah, that's the crazy thing.
Now you're in, because 20 years ago, the only other thing we can compare this to, 20 years ago, you still had, you get through the Kings and now you're in uncharted territory while you were uncharted territory after the first round 20 years ago. But then you're facing this big, bad Lakers team with four Hall of Famers in their starting lineup and you were underdogs going into that series and I haven't seen the lines on the Dallas series, but it's like, it felt like, okay, Lakers are next, but it's going to be a tall task. This is even further uncharted because now it feels like, holy crap, they could legitimately win the whole thing. With home court now.
Home court in this round. Yes. In Western Conference finals, you now have home court. It starts here on Wednesday night.
Yeah, this is wild. Let's keep going. Let's bring in. Ben, what's going on, dude?
Hey, Ben. What's going on, guys? I would like to take this time to apologize to Kat. He gives my full apology here.
I never thought he was a winning player. I didn't think he had that in a postseason, but his performance tonight and that dunk, the putback dunk to seal the game, that was just like, yeah, I'm sorry, dude. You are a winning player. You have what it takes to win a championship.
You have it in you. And I was loving Kat in terms of Minnesota athletes. Thank you. cousins i did not mean to disrespect you like that cat i'm sorry no you are not like that you are a championship level winning type of player and even when i know even when he was struggling he's again he found ways to make impact this the last time the wolves went to the conference finals i was a freshman in high school that's that's just how old i was and i'm really not the mood to hear all this what was this sport stuff stop it they just defeated the defending champions that has to mean something to somebody right so again my apologies to cat he's a winning player he's proved it now let's go win it all awesome stuff then let's do a quick little cat side street here right um i think of the three you want to start i think the three of us kyle's been the hardest he deserves every drop of praise for the micro this game tonight if it wasn't for him in the first half with everybody else either being swallowed up by the moment or dangerous defense or a combination of both of those things he was the one that made every right pass out of double teams he was the one that made a couple huge shots of a couple three-pointers and his defense on jokic you never mean you look at the box score what do you mean his defense on jokic jokic was jokic goes for 34 19 and 7 yeah but like if you watch with your eyes a 13 or 28 performance that's about as inefficient as you're gonna get uh with nicole jokic just making it a little harder for him making it making him take a little bit longer so the nuggets can't get into their spin cycle offense he did a really good job on defense in the micro cat was the reason why they weren't down by 30 points and in the macro this was a career altering playoff stretch for him 2018 getting clowned by the tnt guys after all those games against the rockets the memphis meltdowns from a couple years ago last year i mean some of it was self-inflicted a lot of it for him but like he has stepped perfectly into the role that they are asking him to play and then going beyond that as needed and he was marvelous again tonight man like he was the glue at the beginning that held it together just enough and then he was the dagger at the end to stick it right between the rib cage of the denver nugget so bravo to cat he has absolutely erased a lot of the bad narratives and realities from those first few playoff series and he is a huge driving force for why they're playing in the western conference finals bravo carl anthony and he does it three hours after tom gets eliminated from the playoffs and he does it after a third quarter commercial from jimmy a pack of beer uh they said he wasn't a winning player and for most of his career right he didn't win so that starts to add up but uh he sacrificed as soon as rigo bear got here and tim conley saw the vision he's like we gotta get two bigs we get out rebounded we don't play good defense and they expedited the timeline and get a lot of credit for growing up on the fly but carl just continued to wear retro stuff support the franchise and never ask for a trade could have made it really ugly and he didn't and i will never forget him crashing the boards for that put back dunk that sealed the game because that was uh that was the biggest play of the game also in a series where the opponent had a guy that you know every time he had a bad game talked about his injuries i mean carl never brought up that knee and he's dragging that knee around right like again tonight he gets it banged up so just a lot of professionalism and maturity and uh maybe not class i think jane tried to bounce the ball off the backboard to himself for a dump there at the end that was a little spicy uh but yeah carl three towns i mean bill simon said it right and if he's if he's saying it he's been so anti-cat that's a what did bill said he said it was a career arc changing performance from carl and uh that's what you said too so i'm with you and i think it actually started in game six i know that the wolves drilled them but you know the way that you know cat again the box floor is not great but game six was a just an all-in cat did everything he was asked to do i think it started in game six probably you know built his confidence a little bit and then continued into game seven now i would like to say this in addition to cat's brilliance uh the fourth quarter also naz reed when cat left for an extended period with five fouls had the same type of putback dunk as cat did at one point played his ass off as well and it was pretty much a seamless transition from cat who was having a brilliant game to naz who came off the bench and basically replicated what cat did so but i mean again this is this is the definition this defines this team they are willing to work their asses off especially at key times and and so you don't have this huge drop off what you have is contributors but i mean to me the most important thing in the last two games from cat and then fourth quarter night from naz was the work that they did they worked and worked and that can't be fun like that is a draining draining thing they were marvelous both of them are marvelous we're getting some just trying to follow the tnt feed in the clips here obviously on mute but also the post game stuff uh an interaction between charles barkley and anthony edwards they had anthony edwards with the headset on talking to the inside the nba group and charles barkley goes i haven't been in minnesota in probably 20 years and anthony edwards says bring your ass oh man all right good point by the way i forgot about naz and that was not his struggle throat i would argue maybe both these playoff series uh 11 points and nothing crazy but he hit some timely shots and just gave him a boost so you can't do a game recap without talking about naz so shout out to oh let's go to noah in the comment section says phil i apologize for doubting your option i just randomly mail box is open baby that was the one that phil was on board game five it looked weak and you were on board the entire time i just want to say because you might think it was just complete blatant blind homerism that after they got drilled for a third consecutive game like oh yeah just maggie but if you watch these two teams play for the last two and a half three years it is literally two heavyweight fighters that are so good that one punch could knock the other one down or out in the third round but then the other one gets up in the next fight and throws a haymaker and the nuggets were shooting lights out for two or three of those games and that was gonna regress at some point so i don't know just it never felt like based on watching these two teams play for the last couple years it never felt like oh now denver has figured this out and they're never gonna lose to the wolves again and uh well i mean if you're denver how about the roller coaster of what you felt about five days ago thinking okay we're back it's good they're feisty but we finally solved the problem and now you're probably going into the summer questioning whether you have the roster to compete with this team next year and the year after like you might have to make roster tweaks to thwart the timberwolves in the playoffs next year so boy how the tables have turned in the last five days let's go to i think gareth oh yeah yeah what's going on dude how you guys doing can you hear me we got you yeah we got you all right perfect so first thing i have to say is i want to thank all three of you specifically because i'm by far like what you call a casual basketball fan this is like the first season i really kind of dove into the season because of you three on the show and play your house um i was three when the timberwolves were in the western conference finals the last time they were in okay three years old and this is the first season that a minnesota sports team has actually like felt like they actually went at all like you know 2009 was great and then i came on the show before i write that down for purple daily and i told you guys you know i had my heart ripped out and then 2017 same thing but like this season or whatever for whatever reason it just feels like wolves are going to stop the mavericks because like you guys said last season when anthony jake with angles lock up luca and kairi that's just going to be the sporting series in my opinion i think they're going to sweep them ass and go to the finals um i'm just i'm through the roof really i'm excited my hands are literally shaking right now i haven't been able to watch any of the games on tv i'm just keeping track of my phone and i've been annoying i've been annoying my family you know calling my grandfather and my parents like the wolves could actually do this thing and i just it's crazy it really is i just want to thank all three of you and uh kyle i get it man sometimes the sports team will just get you just right so i get it the tears are a good thing my friend keep them coming appreciate you by the way the comments are wildly pro kyle tears yeah i will regret this tomorrow so i am excited for the dallas mavericks aggregators to make a video a hype video of me crying and talking about my family but you know what you make a good point by the way because this is another group we should thank uh wives girlfriends husbands boyfriends grandparents my grand maria uh because they had to put up with a lot this season as well just like the last 20 years of being like hey i think this is the year and then you know they go 20 and 62 so i'm sure it's all the support systems out there uh my wife included for believing in us as we believe in this team i just want to say i'm going to shout out my wife as well here because so so john and i we went and we went and watched the first half of park tavern and we drove home at halftime but we missed like the first two minutes of the third quarter and they were down by 20 so they are down by double down by 20 and she says okay um let me know what happens here i'm gonna go let the dog out and stuff but while she wasn't watching the wolves cut it down to like four and she said okay i'm just gonna follow on my phone because i feel like if i keep watching i'm the jinx so i just want to shout her out for doing her duty as a wolf fan my wife put on a timberwolf sweatshirt for the first time in now 93 games at halftime and that's you know how they hang jerseys in the rafters that sweatshirt will go up in our new house like that'll be hung up there very high yeah she's never watching it again she's like she's got to wear it and then the final she's got to wear it again and uh the last caller brought up a good point and this is my request no mouse talk for 24 hours we've waited way too long this is a oh i don't feel well on monday calling sick type thing everyone should have a beverage like don't worry about the next series yet just let this soak over you i like it we'll talk playoff previews we'll do all that we'll have jim grady everybody for now it's just about what they just did not about what tomorrow 100% agree with kyle here couple other things too people in the comments wanting us to give some love to gobert for a 20-foot fadeaway jumper as the shot clock expired you know it was over there oh man he also had he had kind of like a semi-switch-handed layup as he was getting fouled and the ball just kind of springs up off the backboard and reggie miller goes the audience is going to kill me for saying this but was that kind of a michael jordan against the lakers 1991 switching hands thing that was incredible um and then it's funny on the nazaree front i was taking notes throughout the game just like trying to formulate the most important things and at one point just to be fully transparent when they were down by 15 20 points one of my notes at the time was nazaree never really showed up for the playoffs like he had a couple of spurts he had some rebounds you know a couple games ago but he came in shooting like 32 percent from three in the playoffs and it's like he hasn't been a train wreck but there's been a lot of like minus double digit games for him and inefficiencies like as i'm finishing hyping that out in my notes boom like energy plays the plays that you've grown accustomed to the plays that made him the sixth man of the year he literally brings it home in the last eight to ten minutes when cat got into foul trouble so huge props to nazaree for for coming in hot at the right time game seven ball arena tonight conley's game too because i mean he didn't shoot particularly well but he hit some massive shots and just to go back to game six as well after he sat out game five the stabilization that he brings to a team that can get excited at times is just i mean it's off the charts like like conley can have an okay to bad game but if you watch the game you're like that wasn't bad at all and he did knock down some just huge timely threes i mean this team in the second half think about the timely shots like just the absolute clutch shots shot clock is at 2-1 and again it all really did start with the fact that they played lights out defense and the nuggets clearly got flustered they got really flustered i mean i thought jokic looked flustered well he was tired certainly right oh he was yeah and that's the thing like the only two players that could get anything going for denver were jokic and those guys combined for 69 points um and it was fairly efficient it was like 48 percent from the field for both those guys but they made the right decision with jokic because i don't know if you could arrested him for five or six minutes you know end of the third quarter early fourth and so by keeping him out there he was just exhausted by the end of the game i thought i thought there were times throughout this series where mike could kind of sense it he's talked a lot about how this might be his best chance last chance to get to the mountaintop i mean he's we forget right he's been in the league so long he's ohio state he has a very impressive resume uh but he's never gotten a title and i thought he was pressing a little bit but i know i know judge will appreciate it as just like a pure ethical hoops lover but eight assists tonight and never turn the ball over uh the only one i think in the starting lineup to not turn the ball over he uh he's just a steady hand that i kind of comp to phil having like a co-host that just gets each of the ad breaks in the segments when he's out there he allows everyone else to just kind of play basketball and he dissects and directs the pod uh he was yeah three for ten tonight but those eight assists uh actually four assists zero turnovers i'm looking at the wrong thing but pretend that that made sense so still never turn the ball no i mean yeah it was eight rebounds it was eight rebounds four assists he did not turn the ball over in this game what's crazy is that there's so many things you could play around with the box where if i were to tell you hey uh nikki alexander walker's gonna miss five wide open three-pointers four of them from the corner thoughts on how things went for the wolves right or if i would have said hey uh mike conley and anthony edwards are gonna go nine for 34 in this game thoughts on how the game turns out but that's the thing the wolves don't have to play their a game to win games and win series you can have games where like anthony edwards is kind of off or yeah my time they can't knock on three or all of the bench players miss all of their wide open corner threes and they can still dig into the bag for a little extra defense a little extra carl anthony towns or rudy gobert 20 foot fade away with the shot clock winding down and still find a way this team is not defined by a box score yeah it's just not yep i mean jay mcdaniels is exhibiting of that yeah yeah and actually if you told me not if you told me not was going to have a bad game shooting my immediate question is is jayden as well because if they both are going to have a bad game i'd say they probably lose but if you tell me that one and i mean jay mcdaniels so so in games six and seven let's go through the guys who essentially stepped up huge conley because he came back jayden like jayden again like naz he was pretty quiet and and i feel like jayden has this weird temptation to sort of slide into the background he'll still work his butt off on defense but i mean he has offensive potential and talent but like the last two games hit some absolutely key shots cat and again if you look at cat's box score it's like oh okay he played well i mean he was a superstar yeah on the jayden front like i brought this up to both you guys like i don't know late last week but at worst he is what bruce bowen was for those first championship teams 15 20 years ago where okay we know we have a lockdown perimeter defender who might knock down a couple threes but we know we can just trust him to do those things and those things are going to be huge for us winning a championship but unlike bruce bowen jay mcdaniels has a little diet kawai leonard in him and and you saw tonight like he's knocking down threes but he's also like dribble driving to his mid-range getting to the rack putbacks transition he's got a multi he can score in four different ways if there's four different boxes right can you get to the rim do you have a mid-range game three pointers are you good in transition he checks all of those boxes not many guys on the team check all four of those boxes except for maybe anthony edwards and so when he brings the diet kawai leonard and gives you 21 and lockdown defense they're the best team in the nba and he might have received the most criticism of any player on this team this season so you know again i'm biased because i'm a fan of his but a team high 23 points tonight on 7 of 10 shooting he spaced the floor he took what they gave him six rebounds two steals one block no turnovers again doesn't foul out never really in foul trouble uh the apologies need to be as loud as the criticism was because they do not win that game without him tonight and he continues a judge right he has an offensive bag they just don't really let him use it he's always the fifth person in the starting lineup to eat so uh i was just happy for him and happy for that 2020 draft class it kind of changed i know we talked about ownership and tim connelly and the coaching staff but to get anthony edwards and jay mcdaniel's back in 2020 in a draft that no one really could figure out that's uh that's pretty impressive yeah let's go to by the way kyle i didn't mean to like corrupt you for 40 minutes here so if you have life to live right now you're i'll bounce in but i just feel good to be uh hanging out with you guys so well we love having you man uh let's go to sean here on this live flagger house one of our youtube channel hey guys i uh first of all i gotta say shout out to my dad he's from deer river and he got me this hat still from the retro collection but more importantly jay mcdaniel's that was my biggest x factor for this game and like in this series.
When he's on, both offense and defense, I like the Wolves' chances a lot. And it really can fill that gap when Nas isn't having a game or when Nas isn't having a game. And obviously, a lot of that production was crazy. Even though when he wasn't soaring, finding him in the corner open, so big.
Those threes just got me going. I was like, man, that's what we needed. And yeah, that Rudy Shaw was crazy. Does that have, by the way, that's an awesome connection.
So that goes back, what, to what, that's like a 30-year-old 97, maybe? And then I got, of course, you know, we're going back. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Kevin.
Can we do a reading of Kevin Garnett's Twitter account, by the way, Sean? Awesome stuff. Great stuff. Thanks for coming on here.
He has to have been tweeting, right, tonight? Let's see. I think he, at some point, he doesn't know what to say. He was just like, he too was kind of caught up in the moment, so.
Okay, his last two tweets are so intense, I had bleep for y'all with a bunch of wolf emojis. And then his next tweet was just all capital letters, Nasty Nas, with nine snorting emojis after it. And then he blacked out. Good for him.
He sure is. Perfect. Thomas. Thomas is driving right now.
Is this safe? Is this legal right now? I don't know. Yes, I'm good.
I'm good. Can you hear me? Yeah, please. Okay, right on.
Yeah, so, I'm down here in Phoenix. I grew up in South Dakota. The last time the Wolves were in the playoffs, or I should say in the Western Conference Finals, I was nine. So, it's been a couple years.
But, I gotta say, to me, definitely, Daniel stepping up was huge. Rui deciding he wanted to become MJ all of a sudden with that turnaround fadeaway was pretty crazy. You know, Cat, honestly, we wouldn't be here, guys, if Cat didn't show up in that first half. Like, honestly, to me, he really carried the team there while Ant was still in Minneapolis or something.
But, thankfully, Ant was able to step up and show out in the second half there. And I went to Game 4 down here in Phoenix. I got a trip planned for Boston. I'll be at Game 2 if the boys make it.
So, we just gotta make sure the Wolves get to the finals and we'll have some Wolves fans out there. So. Hey, man. Thomas, great stuff, man.
Nice job being safe as you sling takes on a freeway in Phoenix somewhere. Let's go to Jonah. You're up next on Flagler Halls. What's up, Jonah?
Hey, guys. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, dude. Okay, good.
So, I'll be honest. I've never followed the NBA too much before this season. It just was never my sport. But, oh, man, this Wolves team is so much fun to watch.
It's completely hooked me. And tonight was just a pinnacle of what it could be as a Minnesota sports fan. It's been a long time since I felt this sort of excitement for a team and I cannot wait for them just to see where they can go with this because the energy they're bringing is off the charts. Yeah, it is, man.
Jonah, thank you for it. It's fun to see when a team brings in new fans. And by the way, welcome to being a Wolves fan. There haven't been that many on-ramps to being a Wolves fan.
There's like two of them. There's like the KG era, maybe like the Rubio Kevin Love era for a minute. I don't know if Jimmy Butler brought any new Timberwolves fans. But like the on-ramps are like 40 miles apart as you're driving around looking for a gas station.
And this is one of them. This is an on-ramp for you. Well, and I do think a difference here is when, and it's been a long time, but when you win like they are, when you go through two playoff series, I mean, the town jumps on. Yeah.
The entire town jumps on. And will they be Wolves fans on opening night next October? I got no idea. I don't care.
But I mean, there's nothing more fun now than we have. TNT's on now. Right. But I mean, you know, more and more of those bars, which are already packed, are going to be super packed.
I mean, there's nothing like sports, community, and a playoff run. Like one player, a player can't get that. You need to have the team go through rounds. And I think we've sort of forgotten about that.
But, you know, in 2003, I remember that upstart wild team. Like, I would call home, and the bars would be filled because it's so great. So like, it's great. It's just the sense of community that this type of success draws is so cool.
And it's why I feel good for fans here, because everyone should get an opportunity to experience this if they're a sports fan. And I've listened to you guys for a long time. Not to make you sound old, but you're young at heart. But you two are someone I look up to when it comes to kind of like Minnesota sports, because you have the record books, and you've seen it all.
I'm with you, but I just want to throw it back to you. I gave a lot of credit to the day ones, the people that have stuck through the as Glenn Taylor called it, decades of futility. But if this is your first time, just like the last caller, and you just want to ride this wave for the next 10 days, or maybe two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, you're also welcome. Like, we're not gatekeeping fandom.
So if this is your first time tuning in or watching this team and learning who they are, I don't want to speak for you guys. But welcome aboard, because as you guys have always said, this city and state and this overall community deserves to feel happiness for the first time in a long time. Yeah, and the two, like, if you're and there's probably people that are just hunting for content here now that this thing is picking up steam. Hello, we are Flagrant Howells.
You can also find Kyle on the Daymore NBA podcast. Those are two great places to start. And by the way, if you are new here too, and there's been over 5,000 people hanging out with us on the Sworn North YouTube channel steadily for the last, like, almost hour, please click the subscribe button on this YouTube channel. Help us grow this thing, and we will help you by giving you content every day pertaining to your favorite Minnesota sports teams.
So let's go to a couple more here. We got Jake in the house next on Flagrant Howells. Jake, he's back. Let's go.
I'm back. You know, after game two, I was feeling all the hype. I brought the broom out. I was all excited.
I was ready for the sweep, and I gotta apologize. I gotta apologize to you, the players, the coaches, Wolves Nation. I jinxed us a little bit. I came on here with so much confidence about the sweep on.
It was a little much. And so as much as I, like, want to hold on this broom, I gotta cast it aside and wait for the next two rounds. Maybe we bring the broom back. But, you know, we'll wait on there.
Now's my main points for the night. We talked about the defense, but I'll be honest, halftime game, we're down 15, and every game that we've lost in this series, it was the exact same thing. Our offense is fluttering, can't make shots, we're making turnovers. Because we can't make shots, we're not getting back quite on defense, getting the spots we need to be.
And I think the biggest difference was the second half. We just started making a few shots, we got the momentum on our side, got the defensive stops, and we just kept pushing, kept fighting. And I mean, the fact that I literally, at halftime, turned off the TV, went to the bathroom, just sat there for 15 minutes, just like... You and me both, brother.
I was in pain. I realized I wasn't wearing my Anthony Edwards jersey. I realized I gotta turn that on, watch the rest of the game on my phone, on the couch, and it's just... Everything that happened to me, man, we scored 30 points, we had to keep them under about 45 points, really under 100, and we had a chance, and they couldn't do nothing in the second half.
So, I mean, all I gotta say is... Get the play! Let's go! Awesome, man.
Jake, we'll see you next round, brother. Absolutely. I'll get my jump. Don't forget the jersey.
Sweeping Jake. Chandler, you're next, man. Hey, what's up, guys? How you doing?
We're feeling pretty good. We're feeling pretty good. I'm all smiles. I don't know if you recognize me, but the last time, one of the last times that we got together, I was wearing an Astro Dobbs beanie in Denver.
So, I just want to let you know that I traded my Astro Dobbs beanie in for the City Edition Minnesota Timberwolves hat. So, no, I just want to come on real quick, and just, you know, I'm one of the OG fans, too, just like the Vikings, but just, it's such a sigh of relief to know that we can make those deep playoff runs. I mean, we've gone through like the last 10 years, and it's kind of been hard to see these early exits, or, you know, not make the postseason, and it's just, what an exciting time to know that we're going to the Western Conference since 04 with a big ticket. So, just super excited.
I'm pretty sure my neighbors are wondering what's going on, because I've been clapping and screaming for the last two hours, so I'm kind of surprised I didn't have a courtesy call and have the police... It's worth it, it's worth it. But, also, so if we win this whole thing, is there going to be a parade in Minneapolis? Because I've got to make the trip from Phoenix if we are.
Absolutely. Oh, yeah. I'll talk to some people, and there will be a parade. We'll shut down the freeways.
Awesome. Chandler, thanks for coming in, dude. Appreciate you. All right, good to see you guys.
I think we'll call that when the Queens won the World Series. I remember it vividly in 87. It started downtown, it was a madhouse, and then shut down 94 to go to St. Paul.
Yeah. Because you're trying to be equal about the parade. So, I mean, my God, yes, there will definitely be a parade. One more cool thing about this is, as nice as it is to have fans jump on board and stuff, because we're older, we probably don't think about this, but think about the impact that this has on kids, too.
Like, if you're a nine-year-old sports fan, right? Like, you need something that'll be like, oh, okay, this is fun to watch. I would argue that this playoff run has now taken kids and made them lifetime fans. Yep, yep.
It has you. Because, like, your parents are excited. Everyone's excited, and this team's damn good. And they're going to the conference finals, and those kids have no idea that this team or franchise has been floundering, right?
Nor does it matter. No, it doesn't. Think about, like, all the other examples of, like, the Packers, for instance, right? Like, from the 70s and 80s, the Packers were garbage, and then Brett Favre came along at age 24 or whatever, and now 30 years later, you can't even remember the last time the Packers were bad.
And there's a bunch of examples. The Golden State Warriors were largely irrelevant for decades. The Chicago Bulls have only been relevant for, like, a decade and a half, and before and after. And Anthony Edwards is doing exactly what Judd just said.
And, you know, what's cool, too, to Judd's point, is that not only did they finally break through and do something successful for the first time in 20 years, they just kind of did it, like, in their own way, right? Like, I think back to 2020 and COVID when that draft comes, like, Ant wasn't, by any means, like, a bona fide guaranteed number one overall pick. Like, James Wiseman was in there, LeMelo Ball was in there. When they hired Finch that same season, Rick Carlisle was very vocal about it.
He didn't like the process, right? Rick Carlisle was the head of the coaches association. They fired Ryan Saunders and named Chris Finch that same coach that night, and they judged that. They judged the Tim Connelly thing and the ownership stuff going to go bear trade, and all these different things.
And just to do it that way makes this extra special for me, because they did it their own way. And for, and to Judd's point, I think you have a lot of young basketball fans now, both in this state and around the world, that are going to buy in, because the scary thing is, Anthony Edwards is 22. Like, we talk about all the time, Phil, because we're like, oh, he's 22, he's got to get his scars. I'll tell him that to my wife.
I'm like, you know what, maybe this is just those scars he's got to get. And credit to him, because all the young guys, like him and Jayden, and Akil, they're all under 25. Like, they grew up on the fly. Like, they grew up not in the offseason, but during a playoff run, and that just makes this all extra special.
A team that has their seven best players signed for next season, right? Yeah. Dude, okay. I'm just going through press conference clips here.
Read the Ant one. Well, which one? Here's one of them. So Carl goes, being here for nine years, I've seen everything.
I've seen it all. Ant cuts him off and goes, man, F them nine years. And Kat goes, man, F them, right. Yeah, F them.
Yeah, I'm going to go grind that up and put it in a needle and just inject it. But Dane had one too from Ant that said, Big Rue hit the turnaround on the ass. That's when I thought we had him. So, shout out to Anthony Edwards.
He's not wrong about that. He's not wrong about that. Could we say that the, you know, clearly at the time we didn't know it, but could we say that the day that the woe is us wolves came to an end goes to what Kyle said, and that's when they drafted Ant? Because it wasn't a clear cut pick.
Like, it wasn't as well. We've got to take him. I mean, Gerson took a chance to a certain degree. It looks fantastic now.
And I feel like there's now a revisionist history about Ant. Well, of course they took Ant, but that's not true. And I just, with his attitude and demeanor and the way that he plays, I wonder if without knowing it, the day that the franchise really shifted from the Timberwolves and, you know, Kat struggling in the playoffs and Jimmy Butler's being an ass, I wonder if the day that came to an end was the day that they decided to turn the card with Ant going one to them. When Ant left Ball Arena tonight, he told a group of his friends and some reporters, shout out to Ben Gulliver for having this video, I had Jamal in handcuffs, he said.
So I think there's a nice little brewing rivalry there between two Adidas basketball members. But, you know, in those big moments about the playoffs, Ant threw himself on KD, there was a possession in game six, I think Ant threw himself on Jokic. I mean, they rub a little bit, but it's impressive stuff. He played 44 minutes again tonight.
He averaged over 40 minutes in this whole series, a series that had, what, four games in that dreaded altitude. And it's impressive for him because his conditioning was not at where it should have been last year. I think he learned that. And he just continues to find ways to improve his game on the court, and then the leadership stuff off the court is pretty special.
So, shout out to Anthony Edwards. Some of the, I'm just, yeah, I mean. Twitter's a good time right now. Like, I did.
It is. Yeah, check it out. Jokic was asked, do you think the better team won this series? And he said, quote, I think the team who wins is the better team.
You have a best of seven series, the team that wins is the better team. So he's saying, another way to say that would be. I hope Mike Malone was the only 23 NBA title championship sweatshirt to the post-game presser that he wore to the pre-game presser. Yeah, how about that?
I mean, I hope he had another outfit, so. You basically need to be perfect to win a championship, is what Jokic said, or don't run into the Timberwolves. Like, the Timberwolves are the only team that has really given the Nuggets an actual fit in the playoffs the last two years. Kat said, happy birthday, KG.
Here's your present from all of us. That's pretty cool. Wednesday night, game one. I wouldn't rule out him being there.
I wouldn't rule out him being there. I think he knows the moment now, so. I don't know if we've got to glue Glenn Taylor to a different part of the floor, but. I mean, if Kevin Burnett gets it, and he's itching to, I mean, they're, you know, so we talk about this, right?
They're greasing the wheels and stuff behind the scenes, so. No reporting, I just, I would not be shocked if that man makes an appearance at some point. Yeah, that would be, I think, I think the way that I would prefer to do it is they play that 20-year-old clip sometimes going into the fourth quarter of him pumping up the crowd as a kid. Come on, Bull, come on, Target Center, let's go, right?
I'd love for them to start, so they do the pre-game introductions, and then you've got that little, like, two-minute period where they're playing music, they're getting the crowd amped up and everything. Put that up on the screen, the 2004 version of it. Here we go, Wolves fan, let's go, let's go. And then right when it's done, the camera cuts to modern-day Kevin Garnett sitting courtside with the powder in his hands, headbutting the stanchion, walking out on the court, getting the crowd pumped up.
Like, dude, that building would explode if he showed up for game one. Or, and this is a little more dangerous, he's 48 now, so probably putting his life at risk, but a little wrestling throwback, Phil, where all of a sudden the lights just pan to the top, right, where there's no banners, and it's Kevin Garnett in a sting mask, and just drops down to the court. He's got a bat, he's got a bat, he's got a bat, he's got a bat. Yeah, we're workshopping here, no bad idea.
No, so, I mean, not to look ahead, I know we still wouldn't do that, but you got another, I mean, you do at least have to talk about the fact that to win this series and regain that home court, I mean, this team, this is a little homer, but they deserve home court, right? I mean, they were the best team in the West for a long time this season, and it slipped up at the end, and they had to fight back, and they had to go win a game seven on the road, but it's going to be a really good Western Conference Finals, for sure, with some just awesome talent, but so far, Ant has now gone through KD, his idol, he's gone through Nicole Jokic, the three-time MVP, the best player in the world, and now he gets a chance against maybe the best backcourt in the NBA with Kyrie and Lucas, so. Yes, I'd love to just, by the way, Kyle, if you do, if you do, I love you guys, I appreciate everything you've done, Phil and John, and we will see you later, but again, shout out to Timberwolves fans, because you deserve this night and this week, and you guys are the best, so. He's Kyle Tygey, we love Kyle, man, we'll get Kyle back on a couple more times this week here on Flagrant Howls, OG founder of Flagrant Howls, let me see if I can get this back on the two-shot here, there we go, produce another fly, are you going to keep blabbing on for a little bit here?
Yeah. Okay, I got more takes, I could even open the line back up, but. This does not happen much here, so this is a lot of fun, the passion's awesome, and Kyle's tears were, uh. How genuine did you possibly get?
Yeah, I mean, it is emotional because we're not Boston, we're not yet anyways. We'll see what happens here. J.J. McCarthy era, you got Royce Lewis that he can stay on the field, but you don't get moments like this as a Timberwolves fan.
Like this isn't, like you go two years in the Lakers without winning a championship and they're talking about they fire coaches every year. The bar is very low here and this team has, let's talk about Ant a little bit more because we've done some stuff on Anthony Edwards here, but as Kyle mentioned, you're knocking off Durant and now Jokic. That shouldn't be breezed past. Like I said at the top of this podcast, there is generally a natural order of the NBA.
The NFL can be a little random. There's a bunch of good quarterbacks. There's, you know, the worst team in the league get the best draft picks, get access to the best quarterbacks at the top of the draft. Caps base, like it's a little more random.
It's hard to win three championships in four years. In the NBA, it's mostly dynasties for like 40 years, right? In the 80s, it was the Lakers, Celtics mixed in. And then the Bulls owned the 90s and then the Spurs and the Lakers owned for a decade back and forth.
And then there was the Miami Heat with their super team and the Warriors had a dynasty. It's not, it hasn't really been random over the course of a decade in the NBA going back to like the 1970s, like post Bill Russell, post Will Chamberlain. It's been a little bit more sporadic the last three, four, five years where it's kind of single champion, single champion. But historically it's dynasties.
The Nuggets, as I have said, this whole series feel like a dynasty in the making because they've got one of the best players to ever play at age 28, three-time MVP, playing at the top of their game. Three straight wins. They finally figured it out. They're going to beat the Timberwolves and then they're going to go back to back.
And it's like Anthony Edwards stepped in and everyone else too, but like led by Anthony Edwards stepped in and said, we're changing the course of the NBA's natural order of events here. We are inserting ourselves into this ecosystem and we are taking it away from the Denver Nuggets and we will be the team that moves forward. Now they have to pay it off to like to get the full headline, but I just find it so fascinating that he walked in and daggered Kevin Durant in a sweep and then Jokic on his home court in a game seven. That should not be something we breezed past.
Anthony is really intriguing too because TNT had a mic up tonight and you know at halftime it was pretty much a mess and he certainly had not played well. And I will say this, despite the doubles, his lack of aggressiveness in the first two quarters was concerning. He was deferring at times when he shouldn't have. He would almost play into the double, but I think it was at the third quarter they played a soundbite coming out of halftime.
And Ant, you would have thought, was having a fine game. He doesn't change the demeanor, which I think in a big game is so crucial. And you know, to the credit of the rest of the team and the coaching staff too, Ant was at his best or his team was when other people came along. You know, you go back to the, what was it?
The game four loss where Ant was brilliant, scored a ton of points and the Wolves lost. But when you go back to now game six and seven and game seven was basically the second half. When they start to play that just suffocating defense, I liken it to, do you know how there's a, there's a certain gadget, I don't know what it's called for a candle and you, and you put it, it snuffs out the flame. Yeah.
So it just takes away all of the oxygen and so the flame has nowhere to go and so it's gone. That's what I liken the Wolves defense to, which is really, really rare because how many teams are willing to, I mean, it's what they do when they are going well is a pain in the ass. It's hard. And when you look at this team, they literally snuff guys out.
Yeah. Yeah. I like that. It's a good analogy.
It is suffocating. It is, it's hard. And Phoenix just said, screw it. Like Phoenix did not want to deal with it.
Denver, Denver is a champion. Denver does that. And Denver did it to the Wolves in the first half. The Wolves like, the Wolves couldn't get a look to save their lives.
How many shot clock violations in the first half? So Denver like, they impose that feeling on other teams regularly the last couple of years. But I'll give, I'll give Matt credit to Denver too, dude, because that is a great team. And they, they solve the puzzle and then you come back.
So they have another solve. They haven't, they always have an answer for what you're trying to do to them. And Jokic, it may not be aesthetically pleasing, but my God, opened up a hood. Yeah, they were not like, they didn't have a lot of fights.
Denver has all of the fight. And even with them coming right back at you in this series and then taking a 20 point lead in this game and absolutely clamping you in the first half, it makes this series victory so much more impressive because of the quality and the heart of the opponent. And you still reached inside their chest and pulled their heart out. We'll still find out about Dallas, by the way, because the Wolves aren't going to just stop doing the things that have made them this team, right?
We're about to find a lot out about Luca and Kyrie Irving in this next series. But tonight, what impressed me so much about the Wolves was they took a club from their bag that they hadn't shown. This series was very formulaic, right? It was weird, but game one was pretty close.
But then you had, what, three absolute embarrassing blowouts both ways. And tonight, so when the Wolves were down 20 tonight, I'm like, okay, if this series holds, Denver's going to win by 35. And the Wolves brought out a club that we hadn't seen yet against the defending champion. Jamal Murray absolutely destroyed them for two quarters.
And then he disappeared. And again, that's not because he disappeared. It's because they made him like a magician. He went behind the curtain and then he didn't come out.
There are just, this to me is so impressive. And I'm trying to think for reference points in sports in this town, in men's sports, where we have seen this type of run and this type of resilience. And it has been a long time. I would say, well, this team was not as good.
The last resilience that I saw like this was probably 2003. That wild team that beat Colorado and then the Canucks. Because I mean, that team worked its ass off. This team, you know, it's funny.
This team is extremely talented. They are very good. But without how hard they work, they ain't here right now. Yeah.
It's so much more fun, I think, to get behind a team that has the grind and the heart that this team has. It's not just, not that it wouldn't have been fun to get behind some of those like Warriors teams that were just bombing threes. And that team had grit and heart and Draymond, love it or not. By the way, Draymond might want to go back and look what he was saying after game five.
Well, yeah, Vince Carter was on tonight in place of Shaq. But yeah, like the personality of this team to what you were saying, the grit and the grind and just the hardworking nature to not only the willingness to do the little things that are a pain in the ass in the NBA, 50-50 balls, fighting through screens, hitting the fifth rotation in a defensive whirlwind, right? All those things. This team loves doing that stuff.
Or if they don't love it, they certainly swallow hard and take pride in doing it. And then you plop the talent and the personality of Anthony Edwards on top of the whole thing. And it's powerful, man. It is a very powerful thing here.
Well, we're an hour and 10 minutes into this post-game show. We definitely have Michael Grady lined up for this week, Jim Peterson. I'm working on another fun guest here maybe for tomorrow on Flagrant Howls. But let's land this plane here, Judd.
Any final thoughts from you? We still have 4,000 people hanging out with us on this corner of YouTube channel. So thank you guys for staying up late with us on this Sunday night. I guess my last thought is this.
Minnesota sports fans, this is how it can be. Like this is, don't take this for granted. Don't forget this. Don't think that you didn't deserve this.
And don't think that this cannot be repeated because it certainly can. I just, I think this is such a good reference point for a town that lacks them, especially in series. The Vikings playoff games are great fun and they're very tough, but they're single games. This is what, like I think this series against the Nuggets, this is what a series is supposed to be.
It's not supposed to be a sweep. It's supposed to be going through hell. And the Wolves did exactly that. If you had come to me before the series and predicted that this was how it was going to happen, and I'm not saying predicted that the Wolves would win because I actually would have said, oh, okay.
But if you had predicted, hey, it's going to be like this, three blowouts and then in game seven they're going to be down by 20. I would have said you're crazy. But that's what makes it great. And as we talked about last show, this also, game sevens are weird.
Weird things happen. Momentum and flows change. Being on the road and being on the road can help because when the Nuggets started to miss shots and the crowd tensed up, that didn't impact the Wolves in a negative way at all. It helped them.
Like the pressure was on, like winning game six, the Wolves did a great job of returning serve and saying, okay, Denver, defending champions, you have to know what it feels like. Yeah, I mean, it's a legacy building series for Anthony Edwards. It's a career altering, 180 degree career altering series and playoff stretch for Carl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, by the way. All this talk about Rudy Gobert, he's played off the court in the postseason and even Barkley at halftime was like, was it Barkley?
I was driving at halftime. You got to get him off the court and you need more offense out there. Well, I mean, Rudy Gobert has been one of the most impactful players in the series and the playoffs for this team. Yeah, he's not going to get out there and stretch the floor while he did with that 20 foot fadeaway, I guess.
I won the chess match with Michael Malone, who's one of the best coaches and best tacticians of any coach in the NBA. And it's funny, Jim Peterson came on. Jim Peterson joined us starting in February for his weekly appearances on Flagler Halls and it's been awesome. And one of the hottest takes he had on one of the first couple episodes was Chris Finch is the best coach in Timberwolves history.
And he even like, off mic afterwards, he even hit up me and Kyle and he was like, that come off like as, I'm getting a lot of feedback from fans that maybe I'm being disrespectful to Flip Saunders and it wasn't meant to disrespect to Flip. He was a great coach. I'm just telling you, like Chris Finch is the best coach in Wolves history. Doesn't need to be a slight on Flip.
And even like, when he said that, I was like, Jim doesn't offer a lot of hot takes, but that was like, wow, that really made me pause for a second. Hard to argue after what you've seen the first two rounds of these playoffs. Chris Finch, by the way, sitting in the second row with an immobile leg still finding a way for Mike and Nori to channel the right adjustments and to make the final move to put the nuggets in checkmate. And wow, we're only halfway through.
We're at the halfway point of the past. And I think if there's one guy that you on this roster feel great for, it's Conley. Mike Conley deserves this. He's a pro's pro.
He has had heartbreak himself, not here, but previously. And you almost can sense that he is grabbing the moment and controlling as much as possible because he knows. Like he knows that because you can't say, well, I'm signed for a couple more years and at my age next year, you don't know. Like you do not know in sports.
And so I think if I feel really good for one person in particular on the floor, it's Mike. Yep. This is all pretty surreal, man, because like this franchise has not been this far in 20 years. And like I said an hour ago, the last time they were at this point, it felt like the Lakers are going to be a really hard team to overcome.
They had won three straight championships. I think then the Spurs came in. So there was a gap there, but it was still like a Lakers dynasty, Kobe and Shaq in their primes. And that always felt like, I know I think if Cassell had stayed healthy, I do think that Timberwolves team gets to the finals, but it wasn't like a clear path in a way where, boy, you might have an advantage here going forward.
Right. That's what makes this uncharted and a little terrifying, if I could be honest, like, because we have, we don't have a lot of experience. But the great thing is, I don't think this team well, that's great, but this can come to an end quickly. But the thing is, and this goes back to when we talked about the Suns games, Phil, what this team does when it's willing to do it and does it well is completely sustainable.
Yeah, it is. It is because like that Rockets example, sometimes if you're a three-point shooting team and that's the backbone of your existence, sometimes you're going to go over 27 and you're just not going to make it. But when the backbone of your existence is clamps defense and energy and always sitting up from the casket like the Undertaker, the WWE, right? Yes.
That travels, man. That traveled to Denver three times. Oh, I think it travels really well because I think it frustrates the home team and the home crowd. I create doubt and there is nothing, I've always said this, as much fun as it is to win playoff games at home, I've always contended the greatest feeling on earth has to be when you go into a building and it gets quiet.
Like a playoff crowd just shuts up. Yeah. I think that would be the most gratifying thing in sports. Yeah, and they did it tonight big time in Paul Arena.
Well, wow, this has been amazingly fun. This has been one of the best hour and 15 minutes of probably my career doing this anyways on a microphone. With the Timberwolves advancing to the Western Conference Finals, a 98 to 90 win over the Denver Nuggets. You can get your Score North related Flagrant Howls related merch at scorenorth.com slash shop.
Scorenorth.com slash shop. We'll be back at you basically daily at this point on Flagrant Howls. You can also check out our entire network of podcasts at Score North Purple Daily, the hockey show, Minnesota sports with Mackie and Judd, the Score North twin show. But thank you guys for coming along with us here.
We've had a blast growing this podcast the last couple of years and now we just wait and see how far this ride goes, man. This team can win the NBA championship. Halfway there. They're halfway there.
Dallas is next and we'll see you guys tomorrow here on this Timberwolves lifestyle podcast with Flagrant Howls.