Anthony Edwards makes the game sealing block on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to cap a 25 point comeback victory for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita discuss the latest embarrassing loss for the 76ers and the Detroit Pistons 7-game winning streak. Then, the Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski joins the show to relive the Timberwolves epic comeback against the Thunder, discuss the performance of the young guys for Minnesota, and Anthony Edward’s block.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Jon KrawczynskiExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Ua2qrEe7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened during the Timberwolves' comeback against the Thunder?
Chapter 2: Why are the Sixers struggling this season?
Yeah, there's just been so many aspects of this team piling up. Of course, we all know about the Joel Embiid issues. We've talked about the fact that Paul George just joined back into this mix, and they should have been playing together all season long and building this chemistry. Even last night, Yabusella gets hurt and goes to the back room. I mean, there's been so many factors at play, but...
Now you're starting to see a loss of not just chemistry out on the court, but really belief in what's going on. There were so many plays in which the Sixers were disconnected. They felt as if they were talking on defense. People weren't moving their feet. I mean, it looked like the Sixers realize the situation they're in and they're like 20 games only won this season. We're way under 500.
What are the chances we're going to be in the play-in? Maybe we mail it in.
Yeah. I mean, you start hearing the chatter and it's, The Sixers need to try to tank to keep their pick. Yeah. Right. I imagine as a player, that's got to be pretty tough to go through. You know, they they spend the summer. They bring in Paul George thinking they've got this big three. And it just has never come to fruition through, you know, for health reasons.
Obviously, it's like this team has been, as we said yesterday, completely snakebitten.
Imagine if you're Joel Embiid and you've been putting all of your effort to try and get back on the court. You've been playing through this inflammation. You've been playing through this pain. Imagine if you're Tyrese Maxey, who in the absence of Joel Embiid and Paul George was burdening 40 something minutes, a quarterback.
every night trying to keep this team afloat while those two were getting back on the court. I mean, there's so many reasons that you would be disappointed if you're a Sixers player, let alone a fan that believed this was the season that they could elevate to the top of the East. It's disappointing all around.
And it's really disappointing to hear a Nick nurse, you know, be asked about the situation with Joel Embiid and, and you're learning, okay, today is a, there was a test and that's why he was sidelined and he was benched. Uh, It just seems vague. You're not getting real answers. It's disappointing all around.
It doesn't feel as if the organization really has grasp on what they're doing and moving forward and how to get, make the best of the situation.
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Chapter 3: What are the key factors in the Pistons' winning streak?
Chapter 4: How did Cade Cunningham elevate the Pistons' performance?
It's going to be a matter of who has the consistency and their aggressiveness all night long.
Yeah, it's the James Edwards Bowl. So that means we're destined.
I can't wait.
He's going to have to cover both sides. Probably, you know, Hunter Patterson and there you go. And we're going to have three guys on this one series. Guys, stick around after the break. We're going to ask John Krasinski why Ant was on the bench for that big comeback in OKC.
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You know, just when we thought the Timberwolves were going to stay down a little bit, they mount a 25 point comeback improbably and beat the best team in basketball. So we got John Krasinski to stay up late and relive this game with us. John, you were in the building. We all thought the game was over.
I was doing a little bit of dinner prep and I come back and 25 point deficit is almost completely gone. How the heck did that happen?
Yeah, I mean, one of the wilder games that I've ever seen, Dave, at least in the regular season. And I, too, I thought it was over. I was packing up, just getting ready to just sort of have a ho-hum summary of this back-to-back with OKC and trying to figure out where this team is going. And then all of a sudden, this sort of ragtag group of...
Jaden McDaniels, Rob Dillingham, Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Terrence Shannon Jr. They just decided that, no, we're not going to give up. Anthony Edwards was on the bench. Nas Reed was really struggling. What Nikhil Alexander-Walker told me was, I was just trying to get us to feel good about ourselves coming out of the game, going to LA next. I didn't think we were going to get back into it. Instead,
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Chapter 5: What can we expect from the Pistons in the playoffs?
Whether it's Houston or the Clippers or the Warriors or whoever, all of these teams have faults, but all of these teams have times where they can strike fear into your hearts. And I think one thing about these Wolves is...
while everyone or many people around seem to want to just move on from them and just kick them to the curb after two straight losses coming out of the break to the Rockets and the Thunder, after having 21 losses this season in clutch time, a lot of these things that have happened, the Julius Randle fit, there's all of these reasons to say, No need to worry about these guys.
But every time they're just right on the brink of really seems like derailing, then they put something together like this. And then it's a team that just has bands together, and there's a little bit of defiance in them right now. They know that people are down on them. They know that people are doubting them.
And so when they kind of put together the collective will that they had, and let's also, guys, get to Chris Finch, who has taken plenty of criticism recently. This season, he switches to just straight up blitzing Shea Gilgis-Alexander to get the ball out of his hands. And that turned the entire game.
All of a sudden, the rest of these Thunder players got real tight taking these shots in the fourth quarter. And you could just see it. As the game went on, Kaysan Wallace, Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams, all these guys just were not used to having the ball in big-time situations. And I think that really swung the game in the favor of the Wolves.
And that's a credit to Chris Finch, just changing it up there right at the last minute to do something.
Also, that's one of the benefits of having those young guys out there. Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. were awesome down the stretch of this game, especially from a defensive energy standpoint. At one point, the Wolves kind of zoned up a little bit. Rob Dillingham's back there running the entire baseline, corner to corner, contesting shots in both corners.
I mean, this guy was all over the place. And, you know, we just laid out there. No Rudy Gobert, no Randall, no DiVincenzo. But these were two rookies that coming into the year, I mean, at least... From my standpoint, I'm thinking they really want to see what they've got because obviously we talk a lot about Dillingham potentially being a replacement for Mike Conley down the line.
But Terrence Shannon Jr. is a really big ball-handling guard. I mean, if that guy can come off the bench and give you anything, that's valuable. So these two guys getting a chance to sort of close this game, I mean, this is something that prepares them for playoff minutes potentially. Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 6: How did the Timberwolves manage their comeback?
Chapter 7: What are the implications of Joel Embiid's injury for the Sixers?
Well, if you guys have been listening to the NBA Daily since we launched, I've been saying Cade Cunningham is a star for a min-min.
And I'm just really happy that he is validating everything that I've been saying and just being able to continuously put up these 30-point performances, creating for his teammates, creating for himself, coming off of screens, just attacking the basket, doing everything right that he's capable of doing. But what was not...
predicted for detroit was just how good his supporting cast would be around him namely asar thompson asar thompson came back after you know his blood clot incident playing only 20 minutes a game still trying to find his way through the game and the feel of the game 24 minutes now a game 13 points almost six rebounds but the defense This man is in passing lanes.
And for a rookie, he knows exactly where to be when it comes to help defense to be able to find his way to help off ball, to get on back on his defender, to chase down blocks. I mean, we've seen something similar. Yeah, his twin in Houston. But it has taken a little while to be able to see, you know, a star ascend to that level of play. Jalen Durant said it best tonight.
I've never seen anyone like him. Like he might be, he does everything. That's what he said. He does everything. And so you've got a Desar Thompson that can be counted on to do everything. You've got three vets in Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley, who is currently shooting the lights out in the last seven games that they've won, shooting over 51% from three.
So you got these three veterans doing exactly what they're supposed to do. And then, Kate Cunningham is finally getting to become the star that he is. J.B. Bickerstaff, bravo. Bravo. Because he has taken this team to another level. They've won 32 games this season. That's more games than they've won in the last two years combined.
It also helps that this roster, as you mentioned, the veterans, it helps to have NBA quality players, which they didn't the last couple of seasons. And, you know, we saw this with San Antonio this year. You know, Victor is obviously this huge talent, but you have to have NBA players around these talented guys like Cade, like Victor. Otherwise, you have no idea what they are.
I mean, you know, we said for years, Zena, you know, you may not remember this, but Devin Booker was an empty calories guy.
until he wasn't you know until that bubble run where they go eight no and then they you know they make their big run the next season i mean there was a lot of people who felt like you know devin booker yeah he's a really good player but it's good numbers on a bad team and i think that kade was running the risk of you know getting that sort of that that sort of moniker and that label that label and so i think it's been big that they're winning games and also
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Chapter 8: What role did Anthony Edwards play in the Timberwolves' victory?
Human nature of the Thunder, you're up big. Anthony Edwards is on the bench. You're relaxing. You're chilling out a little bit. And all of a sudden, that momentum gets rolling, and these young guys believe in themselves. And now you're like, oh, bleep. We let the cat out of the bag, and there's no putting them back in.
I appreciate your self-censorship. Right. The self-censorship was amazing. And I'm so happy that you brought up Jalen Clark. You took the words right out of my mouth. Between his length as well as Jaden McDaniels, especially at the top of that zone that they were doing, you could see that the OKC guards were so bothered. And now they've kind of laid out a
a blueprint for the rest of the league in terms of what to do with OKC and tiring them out and then making them feel uncomfortable and speeding up their offense. So I'm curious to you, John, is this game more of a tell for Minnesota and what they're capable of? Or is it more of a tell of OKC and how easily they can be disrupted?
Yeah, I mean, I mean, part of it, you look at, you know, largest comeback, fourth quarter comeback in franchise history. I think they were still down 16 with 345 to go and only one team since 2002 and 03 has come back from that big of a deficit in that short of a time. So there is some element of, you know, outlier here that you wonder about.
Like, did it just go crazy and everything go right for them? But I do think that the Oklahoma City Thunder have to look in the mirror a little bit on this. Because I can guarantee you other teams are going to throw more zone at them. They are going to blitz Shea Gilgis a lot more. And they are going to say, hey, if we are going to lose to you by Aaron Wiggins and Alex Caruso and –
Jay Lynn Williams, you know, hitting threes, we're going to shake your hand and go with it. And so I do think that those other supporting role players for the Thunder who have been great all year, they're going to be tested more and more, especially in a playoff series and say, all right, like,
it's cool in the regular season but are you really ready to do this at this high of a level for this many games in a row and i think that there's still an element of uh the thunder that have to prove and have to show that and games like this give people just a little bit more belief and maybe inject just a little bit of doubt in the thunder's minds about what to do in those situations
Uh, you mentioned that Anthony Edwards was on the bench during the big comeback at the, at the end of this game. And it wasn't like he was benched number one. Um, it was confusing that he wasn't out there, but it was only because we, he, a lot of us missed that big chunk of that comeback. And we were like, wait, where's that? But yeah.
He made it back into the game in overtime, and he still won this game for the Wolves with a block at the rim on Shea Gildas Alexander. What is it like for this team that their best player just comes up with ways to make plays, even on a night? I mean, what was he, 5 of 15? He didn't shoot the ball that well. He did rebound very well.
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