Wolves Bite Back: Games 1 & 2 Breakdown + Lynx Roster Revealed

We’re breaking down a massive week in Minnesota basketball. First, we dive into Games 1 and 2 of the Wolves-Nuggets playoff series. We discuss what swung the momentum, who showed up, and what the series looks like from here. Then we shift to the WNBA, where the Lynx have unveiled a refreshed roster that could reshape their season. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:26

Welcome to Love and Basketball, a Timberlink fancast. I'm Matt.

SPEAKER_08 0:30

And I'm Marissa, and we're a married couple and longtime fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

Every week we break down the games, spill the off-court tea, and share our takes. This is our weekly catch up, and you're invited. Welcome back. In today's episode, we'll share the highs and lows of the first two playoff games in Denver between the Timberwolves and the Nuggets.

SPEAKER_08 0:51

And we'll give some updates on the Lynx and give an overview of the new current roster, and we'll share what's coming up both for the Timberwolves and the Lynx.

SPEAKER_05 1:00

So here we are. We had so much going on over the last week with the Timberwolves, with the Lynx. It seems like we could, you know, talk for hours, but we're really going to focus it in, focus in today on the games themselves.

SPEAKER_08 1:13

We've already had two playoff games for the Timberwolves. And coming off of the last game, we're pretty excited right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:22

Yes, exactly. But game one happened.

SPEAKER_08 1:25

Game one happened.

SPEAKER_05 1:28

We were really disappointed that we weren't able to like really dedicate time because we were in Boston um visiting Eli.

SPEAKER_08 1:36

And we thought, well, this should be easy enough. It's during a time we thought where Eli might be in a tech rehearsal, and it's an it should be a nationally publicized game. I mean it televised, not publicized. It's like, hello, it's the playoffs. Up Prime, it was on Prime. Prime is a streaming service, and bars don't have Prime. Oh, also, boutique hotels also do not have Prime. They have Netflix, they have Pandora. Hello, is this the 1800s? And what was the other YouTube? Yeah, it was those three things.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Oh, and they also had um really small beds in really small rooms with a bathroom that had a barn door that didn't close.

SPEAKER_08 2:16

We don't love barn doors. But like, why barn doors?

SPEAKER_05 2:19

Why barn doors?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

I don't understand. Give me some privacy.

SPEAKER_08 2:23

They were like they were trendy for like a year and a half, but all the places that added a barn door, it's too late. Like, what are you supposed to do?

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08 2:30

Too late.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

And these little hotel rooms were like, how do we save space? Okay, we won't have a real door. Well, this'll work.

SPEAKER_08 2:36

Right. It's such a we won't give you an actual comforter, we'll give you a sheet over your comforter.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 2:42

And call it a duvet. Oh. But so we were watching it on our phone, and that first quarter was great. It played so well.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

And we got to like dedicate. It was just me and you in the room.

SPEAKER_08 2:53

And then Eli calls and he's like, Where are you at? Let's get together. And he wanted to have us meet his girlfriend. And we're like, heck yeah, let's get together. Let's go to the bar. In fact, we went to the bar ahead of time and were like, just wanted to make sure that you all will be playing the Timberwolves game later. And when you asked the hostess that, yeah, you were 50% confident that her answer of yes, it'll for for sure be televised.

SPEAKER_05 3:15

Well, she came back like with no verbalization. She just went, mm-hmm. Like, like it was like she nodded, and that was.

SPEAKER_08 3:23

Basically, what she heard was, will there be games on? Right. And she's like, yes. You're like, yeah, yeah. It's like, how do I do that?

SPEAKER_05 3:30

So we get there with Eli and Sabrina, and they're not showing the game. So we have like the game on the T on the little on the little phone while having like a really important conversation with Eli's girlfriend for the really first time.

SPEAKER_08 3:47

I am not good at multitasking. Well, I am I'm not good at like being distracted. I like to give my full, you know, I like to be present when I'm with other humans, especially like when I'm meeting them for the first time. This is an important game. And how do you explain to someone you don't know, especially if their world is mostly like theater and the arts and non-sports?

SPEAKER_05 4:09

Like, yeah, we we probably seem kind of like in this I would just say distracted. But I think that after the second quarter, we were locked into conversation with her, and we didn't feel bad about not paying attention to the Timberwolves because they were crap in the bed.

SPEAKER_08 4:26

It was up and down, but mostly down. But there was a point where I was like, ooh, we're within six. Yeah. And then it just went down hell again.

SPEAKER_05 4:34

Exactly. So normally in a game like that, I would go back and I would rewatch the whole thing, but I didn't really want to do it. I was kind of in a bad mood about it.

SPEAKER_08 4:42

I mean, we got the gist of it.

SPEAKER_05 4:45

The gist of it.

SPEAKER_08 4:46

So good first quarter. That was the high.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

That was the only high, in my opinion. But um, and then, you know, to go along with that, the the highs, you know, Jaden had 16 points, eight rebounds, you know, three assists, not that great. But uh Gobert really stood out. And I've listened to, you know, a bunch of other people talk about his his um first game stats and what he was able to do, 17 and 10, and he seemed like he was the only one out there that like was was trying because it was another one of those Timberwolves games that like it was just lackadaisical on the defense end. So, um, and then ant um 22-9-7 and then three blocks. So he turned it up. Um, you know, he he didn't have a good a good first quarter, um, you know, if I remember correctly, but overall, you know, he was getting the people were saying, Oh, his knee's really bothering him. It didn't look himself. I mean, the numbers weren't that bad.

SPEAKER_08 5:40

Um no, and I think people didn't know if it was because he was uh touching, holding it, but also he hadn't played, he said a month and a half. I don't think that's true, but he hadn't played in a hot second. So there's the endurance and then playing in the altitude. So what was it? Yeah, maybe a combination of all the things. But we were I came back to Minnesota from Boston going, Ant's injured, this is gonna be bad, it's over. Really quite pessimistic and hopeless. Because I mean, it's just we're not gonna probably win without Ant.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

Right. And then if Ant doesn't show up, you at least need um Julius Randall to show up. And he did not. Like he was he was lazy and um sorry, I'm hearing some clanking. Um it's picking something up. I think it's the cord. Anyway, no big deal. Little on air um broadcast meeting there. So um, but yeah, I I'm you know me. I always have to have my um bad Julius news, but also Nas was really bad. I mean, he he couldn't shoot.

SPEAKER_08 6:44

Um you know, when you're playing uh Nicola Jokic and Aaron Gordon, I mean, we need some of our bigs, like our bigs need to be big. Yeah, they do, and they were not, and yeah, so it was an unfortunate game one, and I knew coming back that we were gonna play at 9 30 Central Standard Time on Monday. I know in the and I was like, I am gonna take off Tuesday morning. That was my plan.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

That was genius.

SPEAKER_08 7:12

It was I'm still tired, even though I technically slept in a little bit, but yeah, I woke up. Um let's get so let's get to the game two.

SPEAKER_05 7:20

Yeah, so 9 30 ball arena, which I thought it was funny that Owen was like, what a boring name.

SPEAKER_09 7:28

Ball Arena.

SPEAKER_05 7:29

Um, so I was I was I was very quiet. I was not I was not.

SPEAKER_08 7:36

I was contemplating letting Owen also sleep in and miss some school. And then the first quarter happened. I was like, Owen, it's time for you to go to bed. Oh my goodness. Brush your teeth. I love you, good night. Um, it was a terrible first quarter. We fell into a massive 19 point deficit.

SPEAKER_07 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 7:53

Um, we looked so bad, everybody. Anything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, including a massive amount of fouling.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

Yeah, I just it's so frustrating to watch them make the same errors over and over and over.

SPEAKER_08 8:08

But different players making the same errors.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

Um they okay, we fouled them and they made three three-pointers to make three four-point plays in the first quarter.

SPEAKER_08 8:21

In the first quarter. In the first quarter. I'm sure some of you are watching it too. But we were, I mean, I don't when what quarter was it when I started practicing my breathing?

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Probably the it was the second half.

SPEAKER_08 8:33

Was it okay? I was I was yeah, I was needing to implore some strategies because I was very angry.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

We got into foul trouble like right away, like everybody. I mean, it was it was we could not defend at all without they were making everything, they were shooting the lights out, and so the first quarter, we were like, okay, Owen, time to go to bed.

SPEAKER_08 8:55

And then the second quarter happened, and it was we we had a really good second quarter.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

What's crazy is they scored 39 points in the first quarter, and we scored like 17 or something like that, or 20 something, but it felt like dumb very much like single digits. Um, but it was exactly flip-flopped in the second quarter because we went into half, tied at 65.

SPEAKER_08 9:15

And we were actually up by six with like less than two minutes. And then um they had a three-pointer, and then they had a last second. Oh, it wasn't more than a half-court shot.

SPEAKER_05 9:26

Yeah, it was. It was like a three-quarter shot.

SPEAKER_08 9:28

Three-quarter short from Jamal Murray, he makes it to tie it up. But we were mad at that. We're like, whatever, Jamal. But he made it, we tied it up. We were like, oh, it would have been nice to go into the second half being up by six, but it's fine. We had a really good second quarter. But you know, at this point, we're not confident.

SPEAKER_05 9:46

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_08 9:47

We have a lot of fouls. Um, I think the fouling was mostly Rudy. Rudy fouled early and was benched early, right?

SPEAKER_05 9:55

But Rudy, um well, and then no, but it was it was Io, Dante, they were fouling on the perimeter. Like it was everyone on the perimeter in the first quarter. It was yeah, it was just crazy.

SPEAKER_09 10:07

Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:08

And then and then Rudy got into foul trouble early. But um then the second half happened, and it would we were we were playing decent in the third quarter. It felt it felt like we were staying in it. Like it was kind of we were down faster. We were moving faster. Io and bones were turbo turbo Turbo Twins.

unknown 10:28

Turbo.

SPEAKER_08 10:33

We needed that.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

We were moving the ball around. It was really nice to see.

SPEAKER_08 10:37

We were, you know, when we were aggressive, we were drawing more fouls, which was great, except we missed so many free throws. So, Matt, how many teams are there in the NBA? Because we are the 29th uh best team at free throws.

SPEAKER_05 10:48

There's 30.

SPEAKER_08 10:49

So we are second to last, and it was so embarrassing.

SPEAKER_05 10:52

It was brutal.

SPEAKER_08 10:53

Like, it wasn't just Rudy. Like, if Rudy was missing free throws, I'd be like, it's all right, you're really large and have you're just that's not your thing. Then you can do all the things. But it was everyone, it was Julius, it was and it was so many. And then when like we were close that whole third, fourth quarter, you're like, if you just start calculating if we would have made those free throws, how much would we up by our now? And it's like just don't go there, don't go there. But you have to go there because you're like, we would be up significantly more.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

And then two things happened. One, our defense stepped up like old defense in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_08 11:25

Yeah, so um they look like a totally different team defensively.

SPEAKER_05 11:29

So Jamal Murray and Jokic scored uh like I think a total of four points in the fourth quarter. Um Jokic was one for seven in the fourth quarter. Um, it was locked down, amazing defense. I mean, Jaden and and Gobert both just did their jobs. They were they were incredible.

SPEAKER_08 11:54

Jaden um he didn't have as much luck offensively in the second half, but it was all defense, locked in. He was getting a little spicy.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

He wasn't shooting the three, he was just going right at him. Yeah. And we'll get more into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_08 12:06

Um, there was a play. I did have us pray. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_05 12:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 12:10

I'm trying to think. So it was pray with me.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

I'm like, okay, we're doing that now.

SPEAKER_08 12:13

There's a squirrel right outside our window. He's did you know squirrels scratch their ears like dogs? Right there.

SPEAKER_09 12:19

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 12:19

So Finch challenged a foul um or a play, a call. I'm trying to think. It was Jaden. They're saying Jaden fouled Aaron Gordon, and we were like, we don't see it.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

There's no way there's like foot to foot to knee.

SPEAKER_08 12:34

But so I did not see the foul. And all three announcers. So the announcers were our very own Michael Grady on Prime, then Austin Rivers, who used to play for the Timberwolves, and then a guy that sounded like Jesse Ventura. What's his name?

SPEAKER_05 12:45

Scalabrini.

SPEAKER_08 12:47

But multiple people, multiple people on the internet were like, who is this guy that sounds like Jesse the body?

SPEAKER_05 12:51

And that's what I thought too, right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_08 12:54

Um everyone thought that's not a foul. That's not a foul. That's playoff basketball. So I was like, Matt, pray with me. Because I felt like this could be the moment that really like sealed the deal where we win, and then we lost the challenge. And Matt had such an astute call, he's like, um, what's his name?

SPEAKER_05 13:10

Tony Brothers.

SPEAKER_08 13:11

Tony Brothers was the lead official. So it all comes down to Tony Brothers. Did y'all know this? I didn't know that. I thought when they took the little time out, that the people in the room, I thought there was the people in the room that also viewed the play.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

I think they do. They also review it, but I think Tony Brothers makes the call.

SPEAKER_08 13:28

Well, when you said something like he's the lead guy, and he was the one that called it in the first place, and he and so he called it as like need a leg or they they replayed it afterwards, and all the announcers were going nuts. They're like, no way, that should not be. And these announcers were not necessarily loving Minnesota early on. They were like, come on, at least try. This is the playoffs, you know. It was brutal, but then it was like nice to see them come around, not like wanting us to win, but really thinking that was not a bowel.

SPEAKER_05 13:58

And it was because we actually were playing well. You know, we uh we had to earn them say nice things, and the first quarter we weren't earning it.

SPEAKER_08 14:05

Um we prayed, it didn't work. Then I have tried this new breathing strategy where you put your thumb, you connect your thumb to every different finger, and you use a different part of your body to breathe, and it really helped me calm down. Matt's like, I don't really know if I can tell the difference. But I made him do it too.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Yes, yeah, breathing and praying and it was like I because we could see, I mean, at any point, yeah, it could have they, you know, um Jokic and um Murray could have just gone crazy from three.

SPEAKER_05 14:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 14:35

And they didn't, and they didn't because of our good defense. Yeah, it wasn't just like a fluke.

SPEAKER_05 14:41

So and the other thing, uh, I'll go back to I said there were two things that happened. One was our defense. Secondly, we figured out, finally realized that we shouldn't probably shoot as many three-pointers against the Nuggets.

SPEAKER_08 14:51

That's right, we have to go to the inside. Why?

SPEAKER_05 14:53

Because there's nobody that plays they're all horrible.

SPEAKER_08 14:56

Bad defender. Who said that? Oh, so I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but um after the game, Jamal was interviewed, and um, well, I'll just play it.

SPEAKER_05 15:08

Not Jamal. Not Jamal.

SPEAKER_08 15:09

Jaden, I apologize. Here it is. Can't hear the question. Just listen to it answer.

SPEAKER_06 15:17

All the bad defenders, Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team. Just go at it. They're all bad defenders. Yeah, they're all bad defenders.

SPEAKER_08 15:29

So Jaden essentially calls out the whole team by like first and last government names for being bad defenders when we won by three.

SPEAKER_07 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 15:41

And like he didn't even have the best game.

SPEAKER_07 15:43

No.

SPEAKER_08 15:44

And so um makes me a little nervous, but because like, but like, what, they're gonna come out and play defense really hard. Yeah. Also, like Jaden's is the best.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

Oh my god. He just said a deadpan. Yeah. Like he just he's like looking at them and and he's like, Are you this is the they're they're the worst defending team. They're just like he names everybody and he's just looking like, yeah, they're horrible.

SPEAKER_08 16:05

He's kind of the opposite of ant, because ant loves to give people their flowers.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 16:09

Um, you know, he will sometimes say the refs are being unfair in his own like ant way, but he rarely like blames the other team or like jobs on them. Yeah, and he like literally just starts naming them first and last name. I'm like, oh my gosh. How I would feel if I were like a true Nuggets fan. I'd be like, I hate that Jaden McDaniels. But because he's ours and it's hilarious, I just love it. Yeah, it's so fun to be.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

It was awesome. Uh, I just like I'm so glad that he's on our team. That's just what I'll say. It's just my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_07 16:38

It's just the best.

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Um, so yes, he he he took advantage of what everyone was talking about, that the Nuggets are one of the worst defensive teams. They're 20th in the league. Um at the end.

SPEAKER_08 16:50

We have guys that can slash, so there's no reason that we should be taking outside threes. Exactly. And that's what we were doing in the first quarter, and we were bling blong, bling blong. It wasn't working. Exactly. We have Jaden, we have Nas, we have Ant, we have Rudy, we have Julius is like the best one. When Julius got going, slashing, it's like, who's gonna stop Julius?

SPEAKER_07 17:07

Nobody.

SPEAKER_08 17:08

He's scared, he's very large.

SPEAKER_07 17:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:10

And think about every other team that has like a true big center. Oh, yeah. And not saying I know Jokic is a big center, but he doesn't play it like that.

SPEAKER_05 17:16

He doesn't play defense like it.

SPEAKER_08 17:18

No. It's like there are people that stop where Julius is like trying to back it up, and it's like he's stuck kind of further out where he could just, it's like when he put his mind to it, he had a really good game. We were very happy with Julius. Game two was good for him.

SPEAKER_05 17:30

Yes. Um, a couple well, one side note. Let's talk about what we talked about last night with Owen, and I think Julius's hair might have been the reason why he played better. He's got a new haircut. New hairdo.

SPEAKER_08 17:47

Okay. I don't think it's I I I I don't I don't know if it's new. It looked a little different, but I it was new.

SPEAKER_05 17:55

I mean, he had it he had it like pushed up and back, and it was like fanned out like it wasn't.

SPEAKER_08 17:59

It wasn't cut short, but it was styled. Yeah. It wasn't yeah, you're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

It was it had uh he had a different look to him and it brought some confidence. I thought that you would enjoy this because you usually like to you know comment on their hair.

SPEAKER_08 18:12

I know, but I wasn't sure what what the yeah. Oh, and it thought maybe he took his hair out of braids, but that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

That wasn't it. It was uh it was something new, and he brought him the confidence that he needed. I'm gonna I'm gonna give it, it's all about the hair.

SPEAKER_08 18:25

And probably a little you know, having a bad game one was like, I'm gonna have a good game two, too.

SPEAKER_05 18:30

Right.

SPEAKER_08 18:30

Like I'm sure someone was like, Julius, we're paying you a lot of things.

SPEAKER_05 18:33

Okay, yeah. Obviously, it isn't actually because of the hair. I understand. Okay. The sketches. Um, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_08 18:42

Um I did want to oh, we talked about how our bench did a good job. Nas is another one who can slash on the inside, and we need him to do that, continue to do that. That was big. Um, and so so can the turbo twin? Turbo twin turbos.

SPEAKER_05 18:57

Twin turbos.

SPEAKER_08 18:58

They both are fast. If they can fast and get in the paint before, there's no reason to take those threes, although they had some success with that too, especially Dante. Dante had a lot of success from the three, he did, and he took it really confidently. And usually when like Ant would take those shots, he ant like passed it and Dante took it.

SPEAKER_05 19:16

Yeah, it was it was it was a strong game. 33 bench points um from Nas, Ayo, and Bones, which is great. Um, I think there was 50 some odd um paint points, which is what we're talking about, and getting to the hoop. Um, it's overall that's that's the framework. What's nice is those things can travel or come back home with us. The good defense and and slashing, those things can come with us. So it isn't like we re-inventente the wheel, we're not doing anything crazy. It's just good, you know, fast basketball. That's it. Just effort, that's all it is. I feel like sometimes in the NBA, it the effort doesn't seem there because it's just like it's like a screen and um pick and roll or a three-pointer, and that does that seem lazy at times.

SPEAKER_08 20:02

I agree, especially for the playoffs. Come on now, right?

SPEAKER_05 20:04

So I love watching ball movement, slashing, going to the hoop, aggressive, and then aggressive defense. And so it's it's pleasurable to watch.

SPEAKER_08 20:13

What wasn't pleasurable were those when we were fouling on the three. Now Ant did I um Ant pulled, I don't know if it was Tony Brothers aside or one of the other refs, but he was like very like calmly and like a leader does said, Hey, you've just called four. I think it was I remember him saying four, so maybe it was in the second quarter, um, and ones against our team. And so then Finch was asked about it in the post-game interview, and he said he just sighed and said, Next question. So clearly there was a disparity between with the calls, they got to the line a lot more, and they were three and ones. Like that's just crazy. Um yeah, I'm just curious if they were if they really fouled him.

SPEAKER_05 20:58

Uh I think a few of them I think were fouls. I I I was I thought it was just bad defense uh in those scenarios.

SPEAKER_08 21:04

Yeah, we stopped doing that towards the end of the game, so we Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:06

Did you hear about the you know, Adelman, the coach for the Nuggets? Did you hear the spicy stuff that he was talking about after the game?

SPEAKER_08 21:12

I mean, I watched it and I thought he was very like, so there was more to it that we didn't hear.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

And I I read it was a Yahoo Sports thing that I read earlier today. Um, he's basically he basically was like, they're out there cheering like they had just done something. It's you know, one game. We gave that game away.

SPEAKER_08 21:31

Oh well, first of all, I watched the interview, you did too, with Julius and the um was it on Prime? No, it was on Peacock. The Peacock crew interviewed Julius, and he's like, We're not out here celebrating. We know it's one game, we know we had to get one on the road. Yeah, we just need to get home now. We're tired. Like he made a point to say Jalen Jaden was like, We're not celebrating. Okay, did Arod come out and hug and Julius? Yeah, that's what it was exciting, and also.

SPEAKER_05 22:00

like did the bench erupt because we're mate yeah but um I don't know about that I know I think he I think he was just salty yeah like they they didn't I mean they did give it away but we uh we actually took we actually took it from them I mean our defense took it from them it wasn't just them missing shots right giving it away like that last shot um so uh we were up by one and um Jokic had just had a really awesome dunk yes on Rudy on Rudy um and uh were we up by one no we were up by then Dante scored a three yeah so then we are up by three and they they really should have come down and taken a three like why why not have Jamal Murray take a three he takes him all day blindfolded and nails him he takes this weird long two doesn't go in it bounces off the rim Dante grabs it he's with all these tall people and he's like I'm short but I jump by and he just grabs it passes it to um to what's our player name back that thing Julius and Julius passes it right back to Dante for a dunk and that wins the game like just take the three like we lucked out that they didn't take the three there you go there you go so some other fun so we told you about Jane uh Jaden's call out to the Denver players and had some good postgame interviews I thought he handled himself pretty well other than swearing a lot he does swear a lot but um there's no sway words in this in this one but he talks about let let's first hear what he says about Dante.

SPEAKER_06 23:41

I love Dante he got gorilla nuts he's willing to take any kind of shot at any at any moment of the game um no matter how far it is and you know you gotta live with it uh because he makes those a lot of times and uh when he took the three at the end today I was like ah Dante dude he made I was like let's go Dante was awesome the other day too I thought I thought he's he's had a great series so far he's playing at such a high level he's got winning DNA look at his pedigree he's so active shooting the ball really well right now um making the making a good good decisions guarding his tail off rebounding the ball like we we love we love his rebounding and you know he's not afraid to stick his nose in anywhere so you know he was he was key into that second quarter run for sure you know Dante you know even even on the nights when the shots don't go in he's gonna he's gonna get some rebounds he's gonna you know potential shots at the ring uh be cheese cut on defense and uh make winning play after winning plays I love um Dante reminds me of Owen's teammate Jalen yeah he's jumped so high he's everywhere he's going for the loose balls he's just sacrificing his body he's awesome so I haven't always thought that I've but this playoff series he's done really well yeah and then lastly um Ant gives his props to Rudy which talk a little bit about like how you feel about how people talk about Rudy.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Well I mean the narrative behind Rudy is that he hasn't deserved all of the accolades that he's gotten I mean they they don't like you know so many people look at offense and they they just forget about impact on defense and they and they really don't look at the like the plus minus or like the overall effectiveness of a player they look at blocks and they think that the things that show up on the statement yeah just a stat sheet you know where really Rudy shines is the overall position. Yeah he people just don't like to go up against Rudy he they they go the other direction and he just makes an impact on every single play even if he isn't getting a block or a rebound on the play.

SPEAKER_08 25:44

Well I saw an entire um like edit of like those prevention plays that what do you call them? Neverminds never minds I don't call them that but that they're called that yeah when people like start to go up and then they're like never mind Rudy's there and I saw um they edited together like it was a pretty long video of all of the times that he did something significant in that game too and mind you he was on the bench for a good portion of that game because of fouls but when when he was in he was so important and this is coming from someone who just last episode I was talking complaining about Rudy because you can't catch the ball. I didn't notice as much with this game like they didn't feed him the ball that much like it was it was him he just had a I don't know his stats but here's here's what Ant has to say about Rudy.

SPEAKER_06 26:29

I told him in the locker room just now before I came in here like brother we don't we we we're have the team when you're on the bench it's just it's just that simple like everybody gonna say this about Rudy he's this he's that they don't understand what he means to us when he's on the floor like um people don't want to lay a ball up around him um people just don't want to go at Rudy like regardless of what they say about him on the offensive end of the floor like he's a four time defensive player of the year for a reason he's been doing it at a high level for a long time and we need him on the floor that's why I challenged him at the end of the third because there was a time in was it last no two years ago playoffs we had that's when we had Carl right and Carl kept fouling.

SPEAKER_08 27:07

Yep and and if infamously said stop leaping fouling cat and I think he had a similar talk with Rudy on Sunday night what day is it Monday night um like stop fouling like we need you out here just please stop and I agree like some of the fouls when you watch them you're like Rudy that's not necessary but I think it just comes from he just wants it so bad and sometimes he over he map modes it yeah overdoes it but so that's game one that's game two really excited next game is on Thursday at 830 at home at Target Center on Prime video.

SPEAKER_05 27:47

Ugh can't we just be on ESPN or TNT or I know we have to wait till Saturday night on ABC at home again on ABC.

SPEAKER_08 27:55

So that'll be so what are your do you think we're gonna have a good shot?

SPEAKER_05 28:00

I mean it's just so hard to it's really it's really hard I mean I would love for them to come out with the same intensity and and just and see what happens. You know if they come out and have another bad first quarter I'll be really disappointed just because it's like get our four first quarters down we just and that's been a theme all year. Like we just need to come it's like we don't wake up until the second quarter and we we many games this year where we have double digit deficits to overcome in the first quarter that's frustrating. That's that's not good basketball. So I would love to have now I know game one we had a first good first quarter so that's the anomaly here but um you know we need to come out strong on the defensive end and and just show that it wasn't a fluke you know um but if we snooze you know and let them do it they they will pounce and they will continue to just pound us on it because I just imagine if they if they come up you know all the stuff that has been said they're going to you know it would be embarrassing. I don't the only bad thing about Jaden saying the Jaden stuff is that it just gives them a little bit of fuel. For sure you know and and sometimes that's all someone needs is just a little bit of they already have the MVP it's not like you know could be could be but has been and yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:19

One thing someone said on the internet which I agree with is why are these like our our matchup is the most exciting first round matchup other than there was an exciting Atlanta Knicks game last night as well.

SPEAKER_07 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:32

Otherwise these are big blowouts. So why are those big blowouts getting these early time slots? I know they're in the east I don't care. Like if everyone I have anyone who likes to watch basketball is like why I actually want to watch the Timberwolves and Nuggets because this is good this is like going to be competitive this is fun.

SPEAKER_05 29:53

And so I'm annoyed that it's at 8 30 it's not as late as 9 30 but still it just is another reason why we should be excited about potentially moving to the Eastern conference. Yeah but did you hear Jaden doesn't want to go to the Eastern yeah well I don't this is for the fans. Yeah do it for us just do it for us I I wanna I I want to be able to stay up and watch exactly and have Owen stay up and watch and not have to worry about you know a bad day at school or anything like that. And that goes for all the kids out there. So um you know with that in mind I was just going to give a quick rundown of how things went in the first you know game or two of the rest of the league. So um yeah okay it's basically there's only one upset going on right now really so OKC's up over the Suns 1-0 Lakers are up over the Rockets Spurs are um up over the Trailblazers Orlando is up over the Pistons which is really the that's the upset yep and then Cavs are up how many times have they played only once um Cavs are up by two over the Raptors Knicks and Hawks are tied and the Celtics are up over the 76ers. So it's it's been and and most of the games have been blowouts. They've been pouncing the 76ers well I just mean like all of the games like all of the like top seeds have been it they haven't been close. Yeah so um so that's kind of like the quick rundown there. You already told everybody where you know what's up next for us so you know I'm excited hopefully we'll get another um pod in before you know episode sorry episode in between um you know the games here so we'll we'll see what we what we can do. It's busy.

SPEAKER_08 31:34

Probably not yeah we don't usually record that quickly so I know it's past though yeah so maybe after Saturday's game. Yeah um we did want to talk about so a lot has happened with the links our last episode we talked about just all the things that were you know the contract finally was solidified that was the last thing we talked about we're like oh yay we're gonna be able to start signing our players and it was actually pretty emotionally draining um because I think we first well it took a while first of all we talked about the balloon um issue with yes I forget uh Nika Nika is that her name yeah our Nika anyway we ended up not signing her so um here is who we currently have we did we talk about Nafisa and coring her did we already talk about this yeah well we yes we talked about coreing Nafisa and she officially signed since like after our our last episode and we also signed Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams so those are our big three from last year that are re-signed um and we were very excited about that are very excited about that but there was a lot of momentum with other teams other teams were like signing this player that player this player that player and we kind of like signed our big three and then it was quiet. Yes and as it was quiet um a lot of our former players were signing exciting deals with other teams and we were not faulting them but we were hoping like other people we would sign other people in there instead and it just was kind of slow and it was scary. But I mean that comes with this new contract people are going to try and get as much money as they can. So the the key people that we lost the biggest one being that the stud buds are no longer together. I know um so Natisha is going to be a starting point guard with starting pay in Seattle so exciting. Alana and Jess are both in Dallas and they're gonna be with Paige and AZ I mean they're gonna be like really good. They're gonna be good like probably better than us. And then we already talked about Bridget she's she signed the she was cord in Portland she was the number one expansion draft pick and then Dijanae went to Chicago which was surprising I think we thought you know maybe um kind of heard that she never really was a lynx in her blood or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 33:55

So that's too bad.

SPEAKER_08 33:57

So um the other but we also but we did get you know we signed some people yep so Natasha Howard is the biggest name outside of um you know our big three and then we also in the draft we drafted Olivia Miles from TCU she's a point guard she's really a cool human um in oh she's if you watch any of her clips she is really skilled at moving the ball dishing the ball no looks this that could be exciting could be really exciting we always thought that Courtney was our true point guard but it sounds like Cheryl kind of turned her into a point guard and so uh Courtney will go back to the two Olivia will be at the one so yeah so that's exciting some fun comments um Kayla has talked about the fact that she's coming home she really considers Minnesota her home her best friend is an assistant gopher coach on the women's team um and she has another connection here I'm for oh she loves you know the the women's sports bar a bar of their own yeah she's really tight with the owners there so um not a lot of uh WNBA players make their city their home because they're not here that long it's not like the NBA where they're here for eight months or 10 months like it's brief you know it's like four months.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

So she you know obviously does go elsewhere to play but um she considers Minnesota her home she's also down 16 pounds which she's talking about because they're like why aren't you wearing your arm sleeve anymore and she's like I'm cut now basically like so I didn't know that that's amazing that's amazing um and I do have a video I can share of Courtney talking about um Natisha going to Seattle um it was yeah I think not just us not just Lynx fans I think everyone was was hoping they could stay together but here's Courtney talking I ain't gonna lie bro obviously I know I've been knowing T I've been telling T like T you finna get a bag bro like you gonna have to go go get you that money but I ain't gonna lie bro every time I see something about T bruh I be ready to cry bro I be like dang bro I'm shit about T bruh that's my dog man I'm so happy for her bro because I know it's time for her to really like spread her ring spread her weave you know what I'm saying go like run her own team but I was shit about my dog man what I'm so happy for bro she's gonna do my so um the stud buds are still together they are as you know buds they are going to they still um what's it called when they record it's stream they're gonna stream the WM uh the All-Star game but they they do it like regularly now yeah like on random saturday nights so but it is a different it's a different vibe because they're not sitting like side by side in Minneapolis so it's a little bit sad.

SPEAKER_08 37:00

It is but I'm glad that I'm glad that all of the players and so I know you are too um we're really happy for all of them to you know sign big contracts it shows how strong our team was that so many of our players got max contracts yeah um and are leading other teams I mean it's a big it's a really it's an impressive the contract really benefited the players it didn't benefit the Minnesota Lynx because if the maximum amount of money that we can have on our team is seven million and that's just not very much money and if players are making so what happened with other teams is some players decided they wanted to win and they were going to take a little bit of a pay cut. Our players didn't think that way and I don't blame them. This is the first year you can get as much money as you can like go get it. And then you know there will be a time where they've they've made their money and they want to make a little bit less in order to win. So we have to be prepared not to to be the Minnesota links that we're accustomed to especially because Nefisa is not going to be playing until June.

SPEAKER_05 37:58

I know the earliest that's that stings. It's gonna we're gonna we're gonna see what's going on I heard um coach Reeve talk about um Dorca and how she she just won the European um MVP over there so there's there's hope and she's she's a big so that's that's gonna be you know hopefully some size will will be helpful so um and and you know we have a great coach I think and coaching staff and coaching staff I think that they if there's anyone that can handle something like this it's the Minnesota Lynx and I'm excited to see what they can do.

SPEAKER_08 38:30

Yes. So I'm not I'm not you know checking out it's gonna be you know Cheryl said working with so many because we have so many young players the people we mentioned aside from Olivia are not that young but everyone else on our roster is young because we can't only we can only afford the youngins. And she said it's bringing her a lot of energy to coach people with that energy. And I would imagine that's the case.

SPEAKER_05 38:53

And she said some really nice things you know admitting that it's been a little painful to see her team split up like it is but really you know cheering on her her her team to go get you know what they deserve her former players. And so that that's that's the right thing to say but uh you could see that it's it's dung yeah you know um but she's so training camp started two days ago so they're already all working and getting to know each other and figuring that out preseason starts on the 25th so that is four days from now so is that Friday uh it's Saturday it's Saturday we play the Washington Mystics play at the same time yes they do um so we have a the game on Saturday is against the Mystics um and then the game on Monday is against the Nigerian national team for preseason.

SPEAKER_08 39:45

Where is that game?

SPEAKER_05 39:46

It's um here.

unknown 39:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

So interesting right during playoffs.

SPEAKER_08 39:51

Yeah I mean they're just interesting okay and then regular season tips off um May 8th so not that long. It'll still be I mean hopefully the Timberwolves are still in the playoffs we don't know that yet but right um but for sure the NBA and then our first um home game is the 10th. Okay our our yeah so should be fun all right well that's exciting a very exciting week ahead and nerve wracking we're gonna have to implore more breathing strategies to get through the next few I know I know do say a little prayer I guess no I'm so hopeful mostly because we're not playing in altitude yes and our crowd is super loud and fierce go ahead and brag about that you get to go and we don't okay I'm going on Saturday we're happy for them. Actually I'm such a mess at home I can't imagine I mean I did go last year we went we've gone every year but usually yeah we go to playoff games every year but so why not this year?

SPEAKER_05 40:55

I'm just it's just round one I know but like we have to pick and choose let's see what let's see what happens yeah it's true very true um no I was just gonna say I'm okay watching it from home because I'm kind of a mess so yeah it should be fun yes yes well let's keep our fingers crossed stay positive and have a good week good week yes sounds good all right