Wolves Come Back to Tie the Series! PLUS A Look Ahead to Game 3

In this episode of the Splash City Basketball Podcast, host Steve Hartman breaks down the Minnesota Timberwolves' gritty 119-114 victory over the Denver Nuggets to tie the series at 1-1. We dive deep into a "Plus-Minus" analysis of the performance, highlighting the tactical shifts and individual efforts that allowed the Wolves to reclaim momentum as the series heads back to Target Center.

The Plus: Winning Basketball

• Physical Tone-Setting: Julius Randle’s decisive 24-point performance and aggressive early mindset set the temperature for a successful bounce-back game.
• Elite Ball Movement: The offense hummed with 30 assists on 43 made field goals—nearly 70% of baskets—showing a massive improvement in flow over Game 1. 
• Dominating the Glass: A relentless effort on the offensive boards led to a staggering 20-3 advantage in second-chance points.
• The Twin Turbos & Bench Spark: Bones Hyland and Ayo Dosunmu provided the "Turbo" energy off the bench, combining with Naz Reid to outpace Denver’s second unit.
• The Soul of the Game: Donte DiVincenzo’s "winning plays," including back-taps and a critical late-game triple, provided the essential energy needed to seal the win.

The Minus: Areas of Concern

• Defensive Discipline: Mental lapses led to multiple fouls on jump shooters and uncontrolled, late closeouts.
• Focus Fails: Giving up a dunk immediately after a made free throw and losing focus during a 19-point comeback highlighted dangerous lapses in concentration.
• Lost Momentum: A late 1st half lull let Denver regain momentum after the Murray halfcourt shot tied the game. The Wolves had controlled the 2nd quarter until poor shot selection and a couple lapses allowed the Nuggets to capture the momentum heading into halftime.

The Game 3 Blueprint: Keys to a 2-1 LeadLooking ahead to Thursday night, the Wolves must refine their strategy to protect home court:

• Controlled Closeouts: Shifting from frantic reactions to disciplined, high-hand closeouts to take away the three without fouling.
• Defensive Awareness: Anthony Edwards and the backside defenders must eliminate "napping" to prevent Jokic from exploiting cutters.
• Hunting the Stars: Continued pressure on Jokic and Murray—both on the defensive end and by pounding the offensive glass—to ensure the Nuggets' stars remain gassed in the fourth quarter.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Bag in them, back in them, back again. Whoa, whoa, back again. Hey, what's up everyone, and welcome to the Splash City Basketball Podcast, your go-to basketball podcast, where we're diving deep into the game that matters most right here in the land of 10,000 lakes. I am your host, Steve Hartman. The Wolves rebound from a lackluster game one to defeat the Denver Nuggets 119, 114 in game two of the NBA playoffs. I'll break down the pluses, minuses, and what the Wolves may do in game three as they return to Target Center. Before we tip off today's episode, make sure to take a minute, follow Splas City Podcast on Instagram, follow it on Facebook, Blue Sky, and of course, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts like Apple, Spotify, and Amazon. You can even listen to the podcast on your connected devices. Appreciate you following the podcast and being here with me today, as always. All right, the Voned Wolves defense showed up again. They come back from down 19 early. How did it happen? Let's get into it. All right, there are a few things early in this game that I really like. We're going to go through the plus-minus today. The plus, let's talk about the positives. First things first, I thought the way Julius Randle started the game off was really indicative of the Wolves' attitude in this game. I know the first quarter wasn't great defensively, but Julius Randle early was cooking. He was being decisive. Even though he's not a great three-point shooter this year, he was catching in rhythm, making shots, getting to the basket. That physical mindset, I feel like, kind of set the tone, at least early, even though the teammates maybe didn't follow his lead on that. But I did think this was a nice bounce back game from Julius. Uh more well-rounded, um, 24 points, um, you know, six, seven assists, rebounds. I mean, sharing the basketball, making some great passes that led led to baskets, you know, hockey assists. Um, I think later in the in the second half, his his post up at the elbow attacking a smaller defender, immediately skip into the corner, swings up to Nas for an open three. Um, great example of how Julius kind of uh just looked a lot more comfortable in the game last night. My second positive is sharing the basketball. The ball was not sticking. Game one, the Timberwolves had 21 assists on 30 made shots, and they had or on 40 made shots and on 30 assists on 43 made shots in game two. That's almost 70% uh baskets made off an assist compared to just over 50%. I think that's a very good indicator for how the Wolves' offense is humming when the ball is moving. They are much harder to defend. Um, even late in the game. The double team on ant kicks it to uh Dante in the slot and he drills that three. Um, put him up four at that point. Just uh or no, sorry, up two after that was after Gordon's uh three. Oh yeah, it wasn't four. Uh after Gordon's three cut it to one, Dante comes right back and bangs a triple. So just a lot of good indicators on how the the Wolves were moving the basketball last night. Um I thought another key play was um Ant kind of at the top of the key, and Jaden had was trying to set a flare screen on the backside, and he slips it, he cuts to the basket, doesn't get it on his cut, but then he holds his ground in the ducker spot and gets a pass from Ant, touch pass from Jaden to Julius for an easy two. Again, just a great example of moving without the ball, letting things develop, finding the space, and Ant being aware. And Ant just played, he played an outstanding floor game. I mean, he had 10 boards, but also again, moving the basketball key times, not really forcing it uh when it wasn't there. So I just thought overall the sharing of the basketball was so important. And again, it's why this team has been a little frustrating, right, for the last few years, is because it is quite obvious uh when they do certain things, they're more successful. And and one of those things is sharing the basketball. Um, I thought the the second chance points was another great, telling statistic um indicator of their effort. They put up 20 second chance points to three for Denver. Denver's not a great offensive rebounding team. I think they're like 25th in the league in offensive rebound rate. Um, they just don't have a ton of athleticism around the basket. Um, but punishing someone, winning that margin by 17 is just really important for the Wolves. When you're playing against a team who in the half court can score so efficiently, you have to manufacture easy baskets, opportunities. And one of the ways you can do that is on the offensive rebounding. Another way is in transition, which again wasn't as high as I would like it to be. Um, playing against the Nuggets, but the Nuggets just don't turn it over a lot. I think they were single digits in turnovers in game two. So um, you know, second chance points was huge. You know, Io had a tip in, Nas was active on the glass. Nas ended up with nine rebounds. Um, Rudy's put back dunk over Jokic late was was huge. Um, so just a lot of positives there on on rebounding, especially on the offensive end. Um, my third positive from this game, there's gonna be a lot more positives in this game than game one, of course. Um, my third one, though, is Dante DiVincenzo. I thought he was um maybe not the best player on the court, but maybe one of the most important. I mean, just the amount of little winning plays that he does in a game is something I think young players should watch because he's not the guy with the ball in his hands all game, but he makes plays. Um, I think about that that stop that Rudy had on Jokic late uh about four or five minutes ago, and the balls kind of get tipped around, and Jokic looks like he's about to grab it. And from the backside, Dante comes and snags that rebound, and he goes off to the races for a lay-in on fast break. Just a huge play, right? Um, he had a back tap when they were coming down four on two, and it was him and I maybe Io, but it was a guard for sure, two small guys, and he has no chance to rebound it, but he taps it out, and the wolves get the ball back. And so you saved a possession from from Denver there. Um, so just tons of winning plays from Dante, and you know, not to mention, again, floor game, 16 points, six rebounds, seven assists. Like he's just filling that stat sheet. Not to mention all the other little plays that he does. Um, I mean, the the three at the end was huge. He's just um, you know, I think the guys on the Scalabrini and Austin Rivers on the broadcast even were talking about how Dante looked confident. He looks like every time it's going up, it's going in right now. And that's huge for the Wolves, obviously. So just loved everything about Dante's game last night. And um, he was definitely a big, big piece of the the soul, the effort, the energy that they need. And he brings in most nights, um, but I thought last night was really uh telling and how how he showed up. Um, the twin turbos, Bones and Io, both strong performances. Bones provided a scoring spark, you know. Um, they're gonna need that like 30 points a night off the bench because their bench should definitely outscore Denver's, and Bones provided that spark. Io had five assists, Nas had double-digit scoring. So just you know, they bring that element that, and I've talked about it before, and I've talked about it with uh on this podcast and others, but just the the flexibility of their roster right now. They can play slow, they can grind it down, they can ISO, they can, you know, move the ball like they did last night a little bit at times. They can find hunt mismatches like they did a little bit at times in that game, and they can also go super fast and play a different speed and put Nas at the five, and now you're playing up tempo, and you know, I Denver's just gonna have to. I this it's early, it's one-one, a lot of games to be played, great series upcoming. But I do think over the course of what we all hope is seven games, this energy and effort and speed and athleticism is gonna wear out Denver. I mean, Murray and Jokic looked completely gassed at the end of that game, and they there could be five more of these things coming. So um it'll be interesting to see if Bones gets that kind of run every night because uh game one, he only got five minutes. Um, even last night he got pulled. He had a couple really dumb mistakes, he had some fouls, um, took some, you know, just made some ill-advised decisions, but he can fill it up. And so you kind of gotta have him in there um as that spark and just trust. Um, IO played a much better, much more solid game outside of a couple silly fouls, which we'll get to later. Um, but I did think that uh overall the bench, twin turbos plus Nas are really providing uh what the Wolves need. Um there was also an interesting lineup where the Wolves went with um Bones, Io, Aunt, Julius, and Nas. And I thought that was a again another interesting the reason I find that in the lineup interesting is because sometimes you'll get um you're kind of mixing your your ISO, your kind of slowdown. Um Ant and Julius typically aren't going to get it and push it, but then you're mixing that with Bones, Io, and Nas, who love to get out and push it. Um, so that was an interesting lineup. Now, defensively, uh not not the best lineup when you have Bones, Julius, and Nas out there um together, but um for a few minutes here and there, um they they can they can hold up because I think that that group can get enough scoring to to kind of give Rudy a rest, uh, give Dante the break that he needs, give Jaden a break. Um, you know, they didn't they didn't run that long that lineup, but I did make a note of it because it was definitely kind of an interesting lineup that I don't remember seeing a lot of in the past. So um just you know, mixing and matching. I thought Finch did a great job as one of the positives, that one of the pluses here. Finch thought he called a great game, pushed the right buttons, left guys in the right amount of time. Rudy got into fall trouble, but he was able to ride that a while. And also Ant and Julius seemed fresh. Uh, Ant definitely seemed more fresh in this game um than he did in game one. And I think whatever was said at that first quarter timeout or uh end of the first quarter did the job because that that level of intensity that the defensive um effort the attacking the basket really changed. And we've all been saying it, and we all know it's true. Denver has nobody at the rim to slow you down, and they finally punished them for it. Um, I would be shocked if Denver doesn't do something different, maybe a zone, maybe they play a little bit of zone uh in game three to try to slow down the drives. Um but I don't know how much you can do that against this Wolves team either. Uh, I guess we'll find out. But you know, that that's something that they gotta continue to hammer, get into the rim, and even getting there, if you don't finish, you draw defense, you create opportunities for offensive rebounds, and the wolves were able to take advantage of that in game two. All right, let's go to the then minus. So we talked about the plus, let's talk about the minus. Obviously, from the start, the fouling jump shooters, right? Huge issue. Um, I think that was uh uh some mental lapses. I think it was a little bit of late closeout, late reactions. So you're you're flying out on shooters instead of being there meeting them on the catch. Um so you know, those things were were worrisome. Um that volume of them and the fact that they kept happening was really, you know, for some in some ways the wolves were um kind of lucky to to overcome that, but um, I thought, you know, the the the the free throw issue from game one almost carried over into game two. You could see a lot of frustration on the wolves players in that in that run in the first quarter with all the fouling on the jump shots. I don't know how Denver was making these shots, by the way. My son was like, oh my gosh, like I said, man, they can't continue to do this, right? They were shooting, I think it was 60 some percent in the first quarter. They ended the game in the mid-40s. Regression to the mean, right? Water finds its level. So eventually they cooled off, but a lot of that was just the effort the Wolves put in defensively to be better. So um, that was the one thing I didn't like. Uh, a couple other mental lapses, I thought um the Christian Brown had a dunk after a made free throw where we're you know, there's some confusion on who's guarding who. And you know, in a game that that's that's that close, that that that those are just things like man, that that just that could hurt you. That could really kill you if you just aren't paying attention or you're not communicating on who's got who. So um, you know, that was that was a negative. Free throw shooting almost hurt us. Uh, I think there was a chance where we had four missed free throws in a row between Rudy and Julius. Um, but you know, credit to Julius. He hit the two that really mattered the most at the end to put us up three. So those uh those free throws, the free throw shooting was a concern. Uh I'm overall not concerned, I guess, about the free throw shooting, but the the problem is if you get Rudy shooting too many of your free throws, you're gonna be you're gonna have a low percentage and you're gonna struggle from the free throw line. And so um thankfully he was he didn't shoot a ton last night, but uh um Ant got there a decent amount. Julius got there a good amount. I think he was six for eight at the line. So um the other thing is like early again. This was mostly early. I feel like after the first quarter, they were pretty solid on a lot of this, but like um Ant couple times had Jokic out on the perimeter and he settles for a contested three. Still don't like that. Like to me, that's gotta be almost 90 plus percent. You gotta be attacking him because obviously when he did, there was nothing Denver could do about it. Jokic can't hang with him. There's nobody there to shit block shots. So uh they did they did correct that, I think, for the most part. Um, and I think what you see then is the threes they do take in those moments are the good threes, or the kick outs, or the swing to the corner, swing it up to the slot. Like it's not the I have nothing else to do, step back three. I have shot clock running down, here's your grenade, right? Those aren't the threes. The threes are attack, kick, swing, and those are the ones you want. Those are the ones Dante wants, Nas wants, even Jaden. Um, so um, I also didn't like the way they closed out the half. You know, they they were down 19, they climb all the way back. I think they had an eight-point lead at the end of the second quarter, and they give that up, punctuated by Murray's half-court shot. But there was possessions before that. I think that ended with like um an ant three and a Julius three after you had just played so well in that second quarter. Um, that was disheartening, I thought. And I was worried, and it did, you know, start of the third quarter. Denver kind of took came came out and took a little control. So again, in these games, there's like small margins. Um, this is gonna be a close series. Those are things on the minus side that I just worry about. Um, so you just can't can't lose focus for two minutes at the end of a half. You know, you just gotta stay stay locked in, stay with what's working, keep attacking, uh, pay attention to to uh Jamal and just make things tough. Just make things tough. So, game three. Let's look ahead. Now we got uh return Thursday night, target center. Uh home court. I don't know if home court means anything to these two teams. It seems like the the road teams winning a lot of these games the last couple times they meet. Um, but I do think there's a couple key things uh for the Timberwolves that I'll be watching for that I think are important to the game. Um, the closeouts. Again, I think Denver um late in that game, there was a lot of Murray and Jokic getting frustrated. I think they're gonna find a way to get more movement away from the ball, and and Joker's gonna get more assists. He's going to be looking for shooters. There was times in the game that Ant was caught napping, backside defenders were caught napping, and that led to these long closeouts, uncontrolled closeouts, and I think some of those fouls. And I I just don't the the one thing I worry about with the Nuggets is Johnson and Hardaway get going. Um, and we saw Murray shoot it pretty well from three in the last game, but you get um, you know, Aaron Gordon too. Like he's he's the sleeping giant, in my opinion. Um, he's obviously hurting, but if he's a guy that somehow a couple days off comes back feeling really good and starts playing really well and shoots 40% from three like he has all year, that's a problem. Uh right now, he's not making anything. And honestly, Jokic isn't really either. Uh his you know, I think he earbed his first three. So I think the shooters, staying connected to the shooters, um, which is important in the fact that right now Rudy is be doing a pretty good job on Jokic alone. If that changes and you have to send help, that's when the nuggets are really gonna hurt you. So um, I'll be watching the closeout game, but also the the ability of Rudy and whoever's guarding Murray, usually Jaden or Io, um, how they can handle those two one on or in a two-on-two situation. Um, biggest difference I thought in game two from game one with with Murray and Jokic was the our ability to fight through screens. Um, Jaden got skinny, got around Jokic's screen. He was fighting over it more. Io did a better job in this game. There was a lot less of Murray mid-range with six, eight feet in front of him. Um, they did a really good job, I thought, of handling that. Allows Rudy to not drop as far. They're looking to get that pocket pass from Murray to Jokic, and I think the Wolves are doing a pretty good job of shutting that down for the most part. So continue to control that uh middle of the floor, pick and roll, Murray, Jokic, and you can stay connected to your shooters on the outside. If any of that starts to break down, we're scrambling, giving up open shots, chasing shooters out to the three-point line. So um, you know, I still think you know, you make Brown and Christian Brown and you make uh Aaron Gordon continue to prove it uh until you know maybe they hit three or four in a game. But right, but right now it's you you're gonna take your chances with those two, and you're gonna probably try to cover up Johnson and Hardaway. Uh, and then maybe Bruce Brown too. He he looks pretty comfortable at times out there. But um, so that that's one thing. I think the other thing is um Edwards just off the ball. Like when he's on the ball, he's always been pretty engaged. I think he looks um his effort, I will say, on some of the chase down blocks and you know, that the block he had after he shot the three and he short rims it and he has a chase hard away down. He blocks. I mean, that's that's just like leadership stuff, right? That Ant needs to do. Um, that was huge. But I think my concern with Ant is is the kind of knock on him defensively, is off the ball, he gets a little impatient, he turns his head a lot to the to his man. So I'm nervous in game three that Jokic is going to start finding cutters, specifically Edwards' man cutting, or shooters because he's not paying attention. So though that's what I'm uh another thing I'm uh I'll be looking for in game three to see if the Nuggets can solve for some of that and and get back to kind of some movement and opportunities for Jokic to spray it around. And then the last thing um is just will the wolves continue to hunt Murray and Jokic? Um there's no Peyton Watson who's the Nuggets best defender, but they do have other better defenders, but the wolves have been doing a good job, especially late in that game, I thought, of really putting Murray and Jokic in bad spots defensively. Um so again, that's Chris Finch and and the players for recognizing, but um, you know, getting Jokic out on ant on the perimeter, there's just either he's getting to the rim because Jokic can't stay with him, or you're throwing a lob to Rudy or Nas on a cut for a dunk like. There's just nothing on the back end um to help and and Valenchounis isn't providing anything either in the non-Jokic minutes. So um I think if the Wolves are gonna continue to try to get those matchups, I don't really know what Denver can do about it. Because Murray and Jokic just aren't good defenders. I mean, I'll get I was gonna save this for later, but Jaden called it out. He said basically none of the Nuggets are good defensively. Uh and I think that's only gonna ramp up this rivalry. He's gotta be prepared to back that up. Uh I'm a little nervous about Denver's mentality coming into game three. I can't imagine that they're loving that language, but I think it's I think that's kind of how Jaden is, right? Like just wants to, he's kind of tells the truth, let's be honest. And so uh if you're gonna hunt that mismatch, um, if you get Murray on Ant, they're gonna send two. When they send two, we're getting Dante and we're getting uh corner shots and uh you know long closeouts to drives for easy buckets. So I I think I I don't think Denver has as many options defensively, I guess, long story short, as Minnesota. The Timberwolves can play multiple ways. They could play Rudy on Jokic straight up. They they do a better job of getting over that and managing the the Jokic Murray pick and roll. Um, they have length on the back end to block some shots, um, especially with you know Jaden if he's if he's not even out on the top, if it's Io or whatever. Um, Rudy's blocking shots, obviously, altering tons of shots. So there's just a lot of things the Wolves can do, I think, to to kind of slow down the Nuggets. You've seen two games so far. The Nuggets have not hit their season average in points per game. So um it's it's just a matchup that seems to lend itself to great games, intensity, different styles, which is really fun. Um, and so it'll be a great game three. I'm looking forward to it. Can't wait. This has been awesome. Uh, I stayed up and watched the whole game the other night. Stayed up and was so jacked after the game that I had to listen to a podcast to calm down. So appreciate uh hitting the hardwood of the Missing Wolves podcast for letting me uh wind it down with them uh Monday night. But game three, Thursday night, Timberwolves Nuggets should be another classic. Can't wait for it. Thanks again for listening. Um, again, if you get a chance, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, primarily on Instagram, but also on Blue Sky and Facebook. If you're there, check out YouTube for some shorts and uh video versions of the podcast as well. Uh, appreciate you all for being here. This is Steve Hartman, and this is the Splash City Basketball Podcast. Bag and then, bag and bag again.

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