It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This is Corbin Smith from the Lockdown Seahawks Podcast. January, are you ready to rock? Set the stage for a killer 2025 with Dave's Killer Bread. Get the whole grain nutrition and awesome organic ingredients you need to rock your reset. Throughout January, we'll be delivering weekly epic prompt text alerts to our SMS subscribers plus new signups who opt in through the sweepstakes offer to next to reset to 73876, enter for a chance to win three VIP concert prize packs. No purchase necessary visit Dave's Killer Bread dot com slash reset for details. Hello and welcome to another episode of Lockdown Wolves. Today on the show, it's the post game pod for the Tyrells Lost to the Celtics on Thursday night. It was a thrilling game back and forth. The wolves built a lead. They lost it. They had a chance to win at the end or at least to tie at the end of the buzzer. But again, turnovers sink the wolves and three point shooting the Celtics out three point shoot the wolves. But we have to talk once again about the good lineup. We'll talk about what that is to help come in here next. You are locked on Timber Wolves, your daily Minnesota Timber Wolves podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I'm the host of Lockdown Wolves. Today's episode is brought to us by Fandall. The NFL playoffs are almost here, but it's not too late to get in on the regular season action with Fandall because right now new customers could finish the season strong with $250 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, visit Fandall dot com to get started. Happy Friday. Happy weekend. The Timber Wolves lost the Celtics last night. This is the post game pod. We're going to talk all about that game. The wolves do not play tonight. They play again next on Saturday. So we will focus on what happened in this one. There were a lot of positives actually. Like I come out of this game with a bit of a more positive attitude based on some of the things the wolves did well in this one very clearly and also some of the same issues we've seen that are still pretty correctable. And remember the wolves have played two of the best three teams the entire NBA this week and they played them both tough with a chance to, to win down the stretch. And this isn't like, this isn't like 2012 silver linings, Timber Wolves, like this is, the wolves are still a good team that played poorly at the start of the season and is playing much better during a really tough stretch in their schedule and is still above 500 during this stretch of playing only playoff teams. So we talked with us the other day. I don't want to get too, too far into this now, but the wolves have like not played a non playoff team, not played, they have not played a team that's not currently in the play in or better. And I believe the eighth seed or better in either conference since like a week before Thanksgiving, like this is seriously like a six week stretch where they're playing only good teams and they finally get a few, which should be layups upcoming, which as we know, that's not always the case, but it's certainly going to help the bottom line, if you will. So, um, this was a legit competitive game and I know the Celtics are missing, poor Zingas, I know they're a Mr. Jailed Brown, and I know that that matters. However, there's still a really, really good team. Jason Tatum is one of the best five players in the league and, uh, you know, like a well coached team, a team that, uh, does a lot of things really well and the wolves played them tough. And if it wasn't for self-inflicted issues, they would have had a real shot or they still had a shot in this one. So I want to get into all that, what happened, we'll talk about the lineup that continues to impress throughout this week, at least the three games they've played this week. Uh, so a lot to get to on the show today, a big thank you off the top for making us your first listen every day. Of course, you can listen to lockdown wolves anywhere. You can also watch on YouTube or on the lockdown sports, Minnesota app and a quick reminder that you can subscribe to the daily newsletter at lockdown daily.com, you get an email in your inbox Monday through Friday, each day with ultimate team and league coverage. Uh, a really, a really good newsletter to sign up for if I do say this to myself. So I had to lock down daily.com and, uh, sign up there. All right. So I want to talk about the lineup stuff first. So I'm just going to hit a couple of real quick hitters to get us to that point. The wolves led early in this game, Minnesota was actually up by seven at the end of the first quarter. The first quarter was just a three point barrage. Like I believe both teams combined shot more threes in the first quarter of this game than then any team shot in any quarter to this point this season. Um, and they, the wolves shot them well. The wolves were seven of 11 on three point attempts in the first quarter, although they only shot one in the final four minutes, attempted one, three in the final four minutes, which was, uh, kind of a side of things to come. They only got up seven three point attempts in the second quarter as the Celtics completely outpace them. And while it was basically equal in terms of three point attempts at the end of the first, when it was all said and done at the end of the game, Boston had 18 more three point attempts to Minnesota. They also had 18 more shot attempts, just field goal attempts period, then Minnesota and they won by three points. So we'll get back to that, but that was something that started happening in the second quarter. The wolves fell apart offensively. They had too many turnovers. They finished, uh, or, or I should say they took, they turned a seven point advantage at the end of the first quarter into an 11 point deficit at halftime, mainly because of turnovers and just the three point differential. I mean, that's, that's really what this was, um, and they didn't actually turn it over like crazy. Those, it was actually a bigger deal as the game more on, but I think that five turnovers in the second quarter, the Celtics only had two and Boston for the game only had three turnovers, which again, we'll talk more about. But then when the wolves were down in the third quarter, they were down by 11 still. So it was 11 at halftime, they were down 11 in the third quarter and Chris Finch turned to what I've started to refer to as, uh, we could just call it the good lineup, uh, compared to what we've seen out of the starting lineup offensively is a really, a really positive lineup for Minnesota and albeit relatively small sample to this point, but we've seen it increasingly more between the Spurs game on Sunday, the Thunder game Tuesday and then last night against Boston, which is the bench lineup. So the, the bench trio that we've seen all season, that's been great as a trio with any lineup. We talked about that extensively on the show, Alexander Walker, Reed, and David Chenzo with Josh Minot, who's finally starting to get rotation minutes and Julius Randall as, as the other, the only starter in the game. So no aunt, no Rudy, no other starters. It's the bench four plus Julius Randall and I, I retweeted a guy, Jack Borman, who does the post cast, um, over at lockdown sports, Minnesota on YouTube after every game live. And then also that audio, it's actually the, the episode before this in your audio feed is Jack with Luke Goodman, Jack tweeted out last night, the wolves were done 11 when that lineup got together in the third quarter. And in under five minutes, 443 since then, the wolves went on an 18 to seven run and tied the game with just over nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Um, I don't, I, like obviously we do need more evidence because this has still been a relatively small sample of seeing this lineup played together, but that, that lineup can do, as I said the other day, could do basically anything, there's not a peer point guard, which is its biggest weakness. And, and we saw that again be an issue, uh, Jay McDonald's isn't in this lineup, but we saw Jayden turn them all over after a timeout because he just, he just isn't a primary ball handler. He just dribbled into a turnover, um, but between Alexander Walker and Devin Chenzo and Randall, there's enough ball handling on the floor there that you could make it work in again, shorter stretches. And this is the lineup the wolves have been using this week to get them back into games. Um, now the overall data on this lineup, they've now played 112 possessions together. There's still a 95th percentile lineup, League wide, a plus 30.7, a plus 30.7, a 99th percentile offense and a 72nd percentile defense is that unit, Devin Chenzo, Alexander Walker, my not Randall and Reed again, everyone in that lineup can shoot the three. Everyone can handle the ball on some level, although you don't want like my not or, or not as necessarily bringing the ball up the court, but they can all handle the ball a little bit, they can all pass a little bit. They're all athletic. They're all long, um, and between Alexander Walker, my not David Chenzo, you've got enough point of attack defense. So we know Nas is a pretty good week side shop locker and both he and Randall can if they have a matchup on the perimeter that, that they're invested in on the ball, they could both be pretty good on the perimeter. The issues are more Randall off ball. Um, I think mine has got some work to do off the ball, although his activity level and in racking up stocks is just one of the very best things about him period, but there's clearly a little bit of work to do there. He's still raw, but that lineup can do so many different things and above all, it's, it's the ability to play five out offensively, kind of switch other plane and play with energy, athleticism, switch ability on defense, all those things combined to make it a really potent lineup and that's the lineup that the wolves used to get back into the game. And then they were basically in it down the stretch. I mean, it, it stretched you a couple of possessions a little bit, but, um, and actually I guess it did get up to, um, I mean, what I got up to, did you get up to nine late in the fourth quarter, which again was what's this lineup wasn't on the floor anymore. Um, let's see. The Celtics got it up to eight. I don't think it got to nine got up to eight a couple of times. Those are down eight with two minutes left. And then the defense kind of clicked in from Minnesota and I was made a shot in the paint off it off. It's rebound. Ant missed a three. He also blew a layup in there and then even Chenzo got filed in the three point shot, which, which made this a three point game. They get a stop on the other end and then Ankit's a look at the buzzer, which the Celtics messed it up. They blitzed him so hard on the perimeter that they both, the both defenders flew past Ant and Ant was surprised clearly, it was like leaning to his left, ready to kind of double clutch and shoot over a double team and kind of psyched himself out of a out of what was a really clean look. Yeah, he could have swung it to even Genzo, but it was a wide open three. He just couldn't quite get his balance right in the shot missed to the left, but, um, impressive clothes by Minnesota again, like this is real stuff. Like this isn't just patted him on the head and say, nice try. So we're lining this is still a conference finals team from last year. That's trying to find his footing this. It's footing this year and has played a couple of really good teams this week. Really well losing to OKC by eight in a game that was closer than that, losing to Boston by three in a game with a chance to tie at the buzzer, those don't mean nothing. Those performances don't mean nothing for Minnesota. The problem is the 15 to three turnover margin and the 12 additional three point attempts in part because of the turnover margin that Boston got up in this game. We'll talk a little bit about more about that here next and then we'll close the show with individual studs and duds. Today's episode of lockdown wolves is brought to us by our friends over at fandoorl. The NFL playoffs are almost here, but it's not too late to get in on the regular season action with fandoorl. America's number one sports book. There's still NFL games Saturday, Saturday and Sunday this week. Right now new customers can finish the season strong with $250 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, fandoor has so many ways for you to pick up at W. I love betting in which players will score a touchdown and how many points each team will score. It's thrilling. There's different ways you can get involved to get in the live betting. You can look at like who's going to score a touchdown in the Saturday games. There's only two of them. It's always fun when there's just one or two games going on. How many points each team will score in a game. You can do that. You can look at wolves lines for this weekend. They play the piston Saturday, not a line on that game yet, but that'll be a ton of fun to look at as well. There's a ton over at fandoorl visit fandoorl.com to join today. That's fandoorl.com for your chance at $250 in bonus bets. Take every moment more with Vandal, an official sports book partner of the NFL. This is Corbin Smith from the Lockdown Seahawks podcast. January, are you ready to rock? Set the stage for a killer 2025 with Dave's killer bread. Get the whole grain nutrition and awesome organic ingredients you need to rock your reset. Throughout January, we'll be delivering weekly epic prompt text alerts to our SMS subscribers plus new signups who opt in through the sweepstakes offer. Next reset to seven, three, eight, seven, six, enter for a chance to win three VIP concert bias packs. No purchase necessary. Visit Dave's killer bread.com slash reset for details. All right. So we talked a little bit about about the good lineup. We talked about the three point differential. We talked about the number of shot attempts, the turnovers. I mean, that's, that's, those are really the biggest items. I thought Minnesota defended Jason Tatum. Okay. Um, he ended up with 33 points, but it took him 27 shots to do it. He was six of 17 on threes. I thought, uh, now the big adjustment that was made during the game was when they got down, they gave it 34 points in the second quarter, a bunch of eight threes to Boston. And they were playing it straight up in the, in the second half, they started switching everything, which I thought worked pretty well. There were a couple of misses as there, unfortunately, always are. There was one stretch in the third quarter when Boston kind of rebuilt their lead before the good line I've gotten the game where it was, it was, it was actually like, I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, TNT's silent reporter, I think it was Ali LaForse, maybe whoever their silent reporter is said that Chris Finch was upset in the timeout about the defensive scheme. And then like as she was talking, basically, Jane McDaniels just like didn't, didn't switch like he didn't get through a screen and switch, um, which that's, that's what happened. Right? Like, like he allowed himself to get screened without switching without getting around the screen and gave up a wide open three. I think it was actually Tatum too, who made it, which like you obviously can't do and Chris Finch was apoplectic on the sideline. Like that's why you're switching, right? It should be a lot more smooth and there should be no reason why somebody, especially Jason Tatum should be getting that clean of a look from three. But the wolves, you know, there were too many of those lapses, I think would be the other thing that doesn't show up in the box score, which is of course related to the 57 threes that Boston gets up. We talked about this on Thursday's show, they average over 53s per game. This was still above their season average. And yeah, the wolves only made one less and they shot 54% from three, but turns out when you shoot, I said earlier, 12, it's actually 18 more three-point attempts. That's crazy. The wolves got up 39 attempts, Boston attempted 18 more. They were only one for those 18, but guess what? They won by three points and I know the wolves had a big free throw advantage, but like that's not something they've been able to hang their hat on it all this year. And nobody on the wolves had more than four. It was almost every bit as much Boston getting into the penalty as it was the wolves actually getting to the bucket. You know, Nas and aunt and Julie Sraino, each head for free throw attempts and the wolves as a team were 20 of 22, which is great. But guess what? Boston attempted 18 more shots because of Minnesota's 12 more turnovers and actually the wolf said 16 terms. I've been saying 15. They had a team turnover in there that doesn't show up in the, in the regular box score. So 13 more turnovers helped lead to 18 more shot attempts for Boston and those 18 more shot attempts were all three pointers. And that's how you lose a game by three to one of the league's best teams. And I blame the turnovers more than I blame the shot distribution because the wolves do need to get to the line a little bit more than Boston. They don't quite have the exact same three-point shooting personnel that Boston does. Minnesota does need to get to the line a bit. It's just been a little bit more fickle for them this year. They haven't been able to rely on that necessarily and certainly not an aunt to do that. So again, like scheme wise, flow wise offensively, the, the, the tweak to switching everything in the second half. I thought all of those things were fine. It was the turnovers primarily in the, in the middle portions of the game. And then we'll talk of, actually, we can talk a little bit about aunt now. We'll also cover aunt and studs and duds, but let's talk about how he handled the Celtics putting two on the ball. And in short, I actually thought he handled those possessions decently well. He had six assists and only two turnovers in the third quarter. You know, TNT made a big deal about how he only attempted one shot, which is a big deal, but he also had five assists in the third quarter. He was being a little bit more decisive then than he had been, you know, in the second quarter, for instance, when they had just 16 points as a team. Minnesota scored 34 points in the third quarter and they were a plus five for the quarter. So yeah, you'd love it to shoot more, but he had five assists. Like that's okay. The problem was the rest of his, the decision making for most of the game was just, it wasn't quick enough. And that's like, I remember saying this early, like his first couple of years of his career. And I feel like he had mostly solved it last year until he got really, frankly fatigued in the, you know, conference finals was when it really hit, but against Phoenix and Denver in the first two rounds of the playoffs, where he was being decisive. He was playing off the catch much more quickly, like, I'm going to get it and go. I'm going to get it and shoot. I'm going to get it and go. I'm, you know, the doubles coming, I'm going to wait until they're, you know, the point in no return. I'm going to swing the basketball. It's like now he gets so frustrated when he sees the double coming that he waits and waits and waits and waits until he's basically trapped or he goes too quickly and doesn't get the ball back being, and that's in part because of his teammates not swinging the ball back to him, which is part of the reason why you're not seeing him pass as much early in possessions because he's afraid he won't get it back. And that's in part in indictment on the system and part of indictment on, like, McDaniels and Randall and guys that aren't going to swing the ball back to him. But the biggest issue is his, I'll call it indecision. I mean, that's the only real reason for it. If he goes quickly, he can attack. There were a couple of possessions in this game where like he allowed the double to come and then still made the wrong pass. Like he, he, and part of that is credit to Boston, but like, uh, where the double would come from one spot and he'd throw it to the other side of the floor where there's, you know, what, what's essentially the strong side of the defense where there's more guys, where there's two guys on two guys instead of the other side where there's one guy on two guys, right? Like there was a possession where I think it was David Chenzo and Randall on the left side of the floor and answer it to the right side to Nas where the, you know, the defense was loaded up already because they were loaded up to Ants right, even though he likes to, to drive left, but it, it, it, which by the way, on that possession, if he'd gone quickly, he had a lane to drive. There were a couple of those possessions. He's just got a process quicker, make a quicker decision and, um, again, actually passing out of true traps in the third quarter was good for him. Like any game where he's got six assisted two turnovers, you take it and you're happy with it, but he also had 15 points on 16 shots, only got to the line four times, which as DMA and good, he put it out of the broadcast is a lot for him over the past couple of weeks because he's averaging like around two free throws per free throw attempts per game, which is not okay. He attempted nine threes. He attempted seven twos. He was three of seven on two point shots and three of four at the line. His shot distribution, I pulled this up a minute ago. He only attempted to non paint to so five of his seven two point attempts were in the paint. He was one of two on non paint to so the overall like he's not like he's mid range shooting like crazy. And we talked about that a few weeks ago when we, when we dug in a bit on a shot chart. So that's good. It's just he's not getting enough opportunities period, you know, and obviously at the rim is the most important thing because he is getting threes up, but they're not even the cleanest looks because he's playing against these traps and because he's not getting off the ball quickly and being decisive. Teams are able to just straight up trap him or retrap him when he gets the ball because they're not like the, again, the decision making just isn't crisp enough. And that was, that was the biggest problem. I think in, in this one as well, for the, you know, the 15 shots on 16 attempts. All right, let's close by looking at individual studs and duds and we'll set up the weekend for you. We'll do all that here next today's episode of lockdown wolves is brought to us by our friends at game time. 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We'll be delivering weekly Epic prompt text alerts to our SMS subscribers plus new signups who opt in through the sweepstakes offer to next reset to 73876 enter for a chance to win three VIP concert price packs. No purchase necessary. Visit Dave's killer bread.com slash reset for details. All right, individual studs and duds for this one. Um, I thought Julius Randall was great. I thought he was probably the best, um, I don't know, best all around player on the floor for the wolves. He had a really good first quarter was a big part of the wolves scoring 35 in the first quarter, um, which is important because like that, that continues to be a problem typically for this team is getting off to a strong start and he was aggressive from the beginning. Not that like being aggressive is usually an issue for Julius Randall outside of a couple of games early this season. We had 27 points on 16 shots, five of seven from three was willing to let it fly from deep, which is important for Julius Randall's game. Like, um, I know he's kind of a league averagey volume three point shooter, um, outside of that one 40% season he had a couple of years ago. I mean, he's up to almost 38% now he's shooting about 40% over his last 10 games from deep. He's got to let it fly from three. It bends the defense or it can bend the defense if he gets on on a bit of a hot streak, which is super important. Like part of the reason the wolves scored on 15 points. I mean, obviously part of the reason they scored 115 points on 50% shooting for the floor was because Julius Randall, Jane McDane is combined to shoot nine to 15 from three. That's not going to happen every night, but I think Julius shooting seven threes is going to make a difference. He's willing to catch and shoot instead of spinning into a, you know, a back down and a tough, you know, 14 footer, which I know he can make, just let it fly from three. And I know that it's weird for me to be coming out of this game with, you know, nearly a hundred combined. I mean, what, what was the come combined threes in this game? 96 combined threes between the two teams to be saying shoot more threes, but I'm saying this game specifically for Julius with seven three point attempts is an important one to have moving forward because it can bend the defense. It can alleviate pressure on Anthony Edwards and his seven threes. Those looks were a lot cleaner than Anthony Edwards nine three point attempts. I promise you that. So Julius Randall was really good. We just need to copy and paste this performance to future ones. I know he had four turnovers. Um, I mean, like fine. He had the ball in his hands a lot. He also had seven assists. So he led the team in assist. He tied for the team leading rebounding. He led the team in scoring. This was a good Julius radar game. And I've been on Julius plenty this year. I'm going to call a spade a spade. And in this case, Julius played really well. 27 eight and seven a steal. By the way, the wolves only steal in the entire game was Julius Randall. They had one steal in this game. Boston had the returnovers, which is as much a credit to Boston as anything else. You can't be gambling and jumping passing lanes against the Celtics or they're going to beat you with as they did with plenty of wide open threes, but still that's just mind blowing the wolves played 48 minutes of NBA basketball and had one steal. Julius was great in this game. Jade McDaniel's, I got to give him props too. Like he was very quiet in the fourth quarter, which normally wouldn't be a surprise because that's been an issue and his just offense completely be non-existent and him being a negative at offense is pretty typical, but he had 19 points, eight rebounds in this game. He got to the 19, I think pretty early on in the third quarter. He also had two assists, which is, you know, a not a terrible number for him. Like he usually isn't swinging the ball. Like he's usually the guy shooting the three because it swung him in the corner of pump faking and driving, but for him to have two assists is nice. He also had three turnovers, six of 12 shooting, four of eight on three point attempts, got to the line for three, three throw attempts, a really active Jade McDaniel's game. I thought he was good defensively and, you know, other than some of those defensive laps is already covered, which wasn't limited to Jade McDaniel's, but he certainly was kind of front and center in some of those because he's guarding the ball so often. Tatum had 33 points on 27 shots and, you know, I thought Jade played a pretty big role in limiting what he was able to do in this game. The other stud for me is got to be Nas Reed. I mean, he was a big part of the second half kind of pushback when they, when they were down 11 at halftime, 11 minute through the third quarter, he's part of that good lineup that, that pushed it to a six point game at the start of the fourth. And then also was on the floor for, for a decent part of the, I guess we can call it comeback in the fourth quarter to 20 points for Nas second on the team and scoring in this game on six of 11 shooting four or five on threes, he got to the line four times. Five Reba. Five rebounds, three assists, only two turnovers, which is a good number for him, especially with how much he has the ball in his hands and turnovers and fouls. I should say two turnovers and only one foul are both good numbers for him because he's been turning the ball over and fouling a lot lately. So I thought this was a good Nas Reed game overall. I don't really have any duds. I guess if I had to pick one, it would still be Ant even though he, I talked about how the third quarter when they scored, you know, I scored Boston by five. He actually played pretty well in that quarter, but besides that, and besides a couple of attacks and I made three early in the game, I thought this was a poor Anthony Edwards game overall, even if there were some glimmers of hope of like, Hey, Ann, do this. You know, there was also plenty of, Hey, aunt, don't do this in this game. It was, even though he only had 15 points, it wasn't a quiet performance from Ant. He did a lot of good things and a lot of really bad things in this game. And I think Chris Finch could take it and chop it up and be like, Hey, look, man, see here when you dribbled into the trap instead of playing off the catch quickly and driving to the bucket or swinging the ball to the side where there's one guy guarding two players, like make this decision quicker. And then he could show him the video in the third quarter that says, Hey, look, when you made a quick decision and pass out of the strap, you got yourself an assist. You racked up five dimes in this quarter because you were decisive. I think you could play that tape or cut up the tape for this game and say good aunt, bad aunt, and there's going to be a lot in both categories. Overall, 15 points on 16 shots for him in a, in a minus 10, like by far the worst plus minus on the team in a game they lose by, by three, that's a problem. I should say it's a problem. It's a bet. It's a, it's a overall a poor performance, but there was some good in this game for Anthony Edwards as well. I also want to point out Josh Minot, seven points in 11 minutes made a three pointer had a massive dunk. Only in one rebound had a couple of blocks. The world's had two blocks in this game, by the way, both from Josh Minot. Also had a couple of hustle plays that, you know, it's a cliche, but it's true. They don't show up in the box score. Not had a couple loose balls, couple deflections in a game where the world's had just one steal. I mean, that sort of havoc that he can, that he can, you know, kind of force onto the game is super important. He was a plus seven, which was the second best mark on the team besides Julius Randall. They had three guys that had positive plus minuses. Julius was a plus 10 and 39 minutes, which is nuts in a game that they lost by three. That means when Julius was off the floor in those seven minutes, or excuse me, nine minutes, he was off the floor. They were a minus 13, which is pretty crazy. Minot was a plus seven in just 11 minutes, only 11 minutes for Josh Minot, which is progress. I believe he played 11 also on Tuesday. So these are the two games he's played double digit minutes. The only two games all year, Josh Minot has played double digit minutes that didn't include garbage stock. So we're getting there. We're making progress. I need to come up with a catchy name for people that are, that are, that are pushing Josh Minot on, on, on folks, because I've been doing that now for a while. And I got to come up with a better name with, with a name period for, for people that are with me on the, on the minute journey here, the only other player with a positive plus minus was Mike Conley. He only played 19 minutes. And he was a plus one. Nikhil had a quiet game, only four points in 17 minutes. He is the one that saw some minutes cut or seen minutes cut because of David Chenzo's surging play of late. David Chenzo was good, not great in this game. I thought he could have been a little bit more aggressive offensively. The Celtics were doing a great job at leaping out at him on the perimeter. He was three for five on threes. All of his shot attempts were threes. He did get to the line for three free throw. Well, actually that was all on the one plate toward the end of the game. They were really aggressive in trying to contest David Chenzo. And I thought that he probably like could have done a better job of being more aggressive himself or putting the ball on the deck and being aggressive. But I thought overall it was a good game. He clearly had an impact on what Boston was trying to do defensively. So overall, a positive performance from Dante. David Chenzo. All right. Coming up next for the wolves, they finally get to play a team that is not currently in the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference or in either conference. And that's the Detroit Pistons. Detroit is 15 and 18. I take that back. They are in the playoff picture. I forget that that that still puts them in the plane in the east. So they're currently ninth in the east at 15 and 18. So they're below 500. This is the first team the wolves have played that's below 500 since. I'm going to see if I can pull it up real quickly because it's astonishing. And I'm going to bring it up again on Monday because I just can't get over the way that this schedule has shaken out. Like we're talking November 21st was the last time the wolves played a team that was below 500 when they played them. There's a couple mixed in there like Sacramento, for instance, yeah, they're below 500 now, but they weren't when they played them. They had that long losing streak that of course led to Mike Brown being fired. But you have to go back to November 21st when they lost to Toronto. They were eight and six coming into that game and that started their four game losing streak and the skies falling and all that stuff right around Thanksgiving. That's the last time the wolves have played a team that's below 500. They now play Detroit who's 15 and 18. And you know, obviously a bit, a bit resurgent given expectations for them. Then they get the Clippers. Then they play at New Orleans on Tuesday who is obviously the league's worst team and a disaster right now injuries also more injuries. And I should point out Jay Nivey's hurt too for Detroit. Unfortunately, they just found out he's got a broken leg. So he's out, which is, which is a big loss for the Pistons. But the schedule lightens up a little. The wizards are, you know, just a couple weeks away as well. And, and, but you know, Memphis for the first time they get Cleveland, the Knicks again, like it doesn't get a lot easier in January, but it will be easier than the last four to six weeks have been for Minnesota. So Detroit on Saturday didn't get a chance to really preview that match up much other than that injury. But we'll talk about that on Monday show and on Monday, we'll get you ready for wolves Clippers Monday night. A reminder that the lock that wolves postcast goes live on a lockdown sports, Minnesota on YouTube after every single game. So just follow along to watch that typically hosted by Luke Goodman with Jack Borman, occasionally all fill in as host for that. So Saturday night following the Pistons game and then I'll be back on Monday with the regular Monday show. We'll talk about the Pistons game. We'll get you ready for wolves Clippers as well. Big thank you for making lockdown wolves your first list in every single day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere, including YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. You can also watch on the lockdown sports, Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon fire TV, a reminder to sign up for the newsletter at lockdown daily.com. One stop for ultimate team and league coverage. We get an email in your inbox every day, Monday through Friday with everything about the wolves plus some links to league coverage, some national articles, the whole thing, some additional wolves coverage will link out of the newsletter. So be sure to subscribe at lockdown daily.com. It really is a one stop shop. Remember, the lockdown wolves podcast is part of the lockdown podcast network. The lockdown network is your local experts on all the biggest stories. Once again, I'm Ben Beacon. This is the lock that wolves podcast and we'll catch you next time. (upbeat music)
The Minnesota Timberwolves fell short to the Boston Celtics in a hard-fought battle of the 3-point line. The Celtics only turned it over three times all game while the Wolves were their typical turnover-prone selves, and it came back to bite them as Jayson Tatum scored 33 in the win for Boston.
