Episode Transcript
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(00:18):
There's too many, father, there'stoo many. Die. We got that
away. It's so long today.Father, we don't need to west lay
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and side. Now you're allowing AnthonyEdwards to wake up. Well, we
again slid away. If the fingersongs deeper, spills blood. They locked
down before, Yeah they were againside still steam go get a flood,
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you know, show up time.So say, let's what's coming upstrolling off,
what's trolling around? What's going on? And what's coming up? What's
coming off? What's coming up,what's coming off? This is you're moving
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the goal posts. Leader fan FanRadio Network and k fa N dot Com,
two minutes twenty two seconds past thehour of three o'clock central daylight time,
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on what I like to call abeautiful Monday afternoon here in the twin
cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.My name is Dan Barrero. I host
the program guards he is the producerof the show. And however you're listening,
whether it's the one hundred point threeFM one hundred thousand one, I
guess I should say Juggernaut, whetherit's iheartradiokfan dot com podcasting it later.
(02:53):
We are delighted that at some pointor another. You are along for today's
right. I am the host ofthe program. I am the Sultan of
Snark. My name is Dan Barrero, also known as the Afternoon Afternoon Ardvark,
the a Hole in the Afternoon,as well as the Beast. Isn't
there a radio station in Dallas calledthe Beast? I mean we have to
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get up to speed on the Dallasstuff. Dallas, the longstanding Dallas Minnesota
rivalry of which they've tended to getthe better of us. I'm not mistaken.
Unfortunately they have. We have allweek to cover all of those things.
Guards He is with us. Heis the producer of the program,
and he is fresh off a tripback to Denver to watch the triumphant Game
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seven for your Minnesota Timberwolves. Thinkabout it, bratch on Brian Cafe in
text line is wide open. Iexpect a lot of texts today. I
hope to get some talkbacks today aswell via the Iheartappcafe dot com. Click
on the microphone and praise to yourtill well, you have thirty seconds to
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go your praise out. I can'tthink there'd be much savagery at this point,
but people have tended to surprise meover the years. We have a
very good guest lineup today, whichwe will get to in a couple of
minutes. I mentioned that we areindeed you are moving. The goalpost's leader
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made the mistake last night in thewake of the stunning Game seven comeback,
the greatest Game seven comeback in thehistory of the National Basketball Association. Game
sevens to note my belief that reconcybias should not get in the way of
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the obvious. And the obvious isthat last night represented or represents the most
mythic moment in the history of thisfranchise, and I laid out some of
the reasons for that above and beyondwhat took place twenty years ago on the
same date. And by the way, we talked some even as recently as
sermons, that don't discount how bigthat was then, just because you're too
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young to remember it, or recencybias. It was big. It was
enormous. You and I were there, The atmosphere was absolutely electric. It
was you invoke whatever cliche you want. It was a magical moment. But
what we saw, or what mostof us saw last night, devours what
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took place twenty years ago. Becauseof the particulars. You're not playing at
home, you're playing on the road. As I said, you're down.
You're trying to do something that's neverbeen done. Down fifteen or more at
the half, and to steal gameseven. You do it with your number
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one franchise player and abysmal what wasit six for twenty four yep from the
field. You include all of thosethings against also the defending world champions,
and you say, this is it. This is as good for this franchise
it as it has ever been period. End of story, and like clockwork
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text Paul, we'll find a whatis screwed up? And as much as
I you know me, I hesitateto admonish via Twitter, I might have
admonished, and I will tell thoseindividuals who continue to wait for the other
shoot to drop. You don't getto move the goalposts because you told me
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last week this team was jinxed thatfor that reason it was going to lose
to the Denver Nuggets. I didn'trule out the possibility after Game five that
the Wolves were going to lose tothe Denver Nuggets. I did not think
it looked particularly good at that point. But my point was, well,
if you're going to lose this series. You're going to lose it because they're
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the better team, they are playingbetter. Other people wanted to put it
on. It'sers to Jenks, theongoing Jinks. We just never goes our
way. Told you they'd screw itup. And so when I say,
well, wait a minute, theydidn't screw it up. They If there
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is a Jinx, they beat it. If the Denver Nuggets are better than
they are, they beat them too, fair and square in a Game seven
in Denver. And that's of coursewhen you move the goalposts. Well,
next this roule will be Jinks.It's Dallas. We're gonna be Jinx.
We'll find a way to screw itup. The problem I have. And
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by the way, none of whathas happened to this point guarantees a damn
thing. There is no parade forreaching the conference finals. I looked it
up. I don't think any teamin the history of sports has held in
a major metropolitan area has has helda parade on the basis of reaching effectively
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the final four. Right before hewalked off the Dais last night, Anthony
Edwards tried to give Jaden McDaniels MVPof the series and then realize they don't
have one for the Western Conference semifinals. To your points, I guess they
don't have one of those, butwe did. I'd give it to them.
The problem with missing the goal posts, I should say moving the goalposts,
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is by doing so, by concentratingon that about what might be coming,
what must be inevitably coming, isthat you missed the moment, You
missed the place that last night,this series, but the culmination of it
last night represents everything that has comebefore it, what they have come from,
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and where they are as we speak. It also, I think opens
the door to what this might bethe start of, and could that be
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several runs at a title. Wedon't know for sure. But this is
a process, this is a progression, and I'm speaking of it more mechanically
than I really mean to. Imean the emotion of the moment, this
particular spot that they are in afterwhat took place yesterday. You heard Mike
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Conley say, Mike Conley's gonna bewith us at four thirty, He's telling
the reporters after the game. I'mnot even sure if my teammates realized what
we just did. Let's remember something. They're down three games to two,
they're given last rites by a numberof people. I was pessimistic. I
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refused at that point. You andI talked about it to say they can't
win game six because it would justseem foolish on the basis of the twist,
the major twist. But you knowthat between the start of the series
games one and two and what taketook place three, four, five to
say, well, there's no waythey can come back, especially given the
Game six was here. But let'sremember what they've done the last two games.
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I mentioned this stat after Game six, Wolves were down nine to two
early in that game, time out. Over the next forty one minutes,
Minnesota outscore Denver one twelve to fiftyfive. I mean, that's ridiculous,
as we said at the time,and as we also said at the time,
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that seemed to indicate that even ifyou don't win game seven, that
the notion that this is business asusual as it pertains to this franchise is
probably dead and buried. Good chanceit's dead end buried. Then you fast
forward to game seven, They're downfifty eight to thirty eight early in the
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third quarter, fifty eight to thirtyeight, and they then outscore the Denver
Nuggets, the world champions, athome, fifty four to twenty four.
That's pretty good. That's pretty goodright there by thirty points. Previous game
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by what we say, fifty sevenpoints. Go back even to what was
it Game two against Denver, itwas a forty three to eighteen beat down
during Game two. It goes onand on. So you have to appreciate
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that this goes beyond just winning thisseries. It's the way they are doing
it, making history to the degreethat they did so for a day,
I would say stop moving the goalposts. You're allowed, I think, to
savor the moment, and you're especiallyallowed to remember how many times, no
matter how old you are, evenif you're young, you have to have
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even if you didn't live through allof the ineptitude and the embarrassment and the
scandal, you had to know ofit. You had to be aware of
it. Hell again, it's asCat said after the game, we've been
losing for twenty years. So tosavor that, enjoy that, understand that
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what you're hearing again from people nationallyis well, this is crazy. This
is not just emerging. This isemerging in such an emphatic way, in
such a dramatic way, especially asI said in Game seven, take notice
of it. Don't be afraid toenjoy that particular moment. And but if
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you're too busy doing the goalpost thingabout God, I know heartbreak's coming,
that won't will not give you time, I think to savor what this particular
moment should represent. You were there, We're going to talk about what it
felt like in the building, forsure, and we got a million talking
points, we got a lot ofaudio. I mentioned Mike Conley's going to
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join at four thirty. Johnny Athletic, who was also there in Denver,
is scheduled to join at five pointthirty as well. And believe me,
if they get swept by the DallasMavericks, we'll probably I'll probably rip them.
I don't know that i'd call foranybody's head. I don't know that
I would say that means the seasonwas a was a failure. Given where
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this has come from, we've alwaysgraded on a curve on this show.
Right, if you're a team thathistorically gets to the playoffs loses in the
first round. After a while,that's going to get tiresome. Right,
You're not going to get any rewardfrom us for they keep getting there.
But if you're a team that hasstruggled a franchise, it's to struggle to
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the degree that they have and theyshow I heard this again today from was
it Antonio Daniels. I don't rememberwho it was that they show. It
may have been at any number ofnational people who are championing I want you
to remember this word, the toughnessand resolve that the Minnesota Timberwolves showed in
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a Game seven situation down twenty.Now, if you're an old time Wolves
fan, you go, We're neverthe toughness team. We're the soft team.
Where the trembling timber shahwaha was,We're the team that curls up in
the fetal position. So don't bedon't apologize, I guess I would say
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for enjoying the moment. And ifyou're at work and there's a guy around
the water cooler, like tech tweeterPaul last night, a little screw it
up later, they'll laugh. Don'tenable him because he thinks he's saying the
cool thing that'll get the chuckles aroundthe water cooler and the ah yeah,
good point. You're right, don'tdon't enable that chumblone today. Tell him
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stop moving the goalposts. Enjoy thismoment. Fannin bigdeck dot com, I'm
gonna give you a shot to puta grain in your hand with our national
cash contest. The first keyword ofthe week is money. Go to kfa
n dot com and enter the keywordmoney. You know, special moment.
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This is a hell of a team. You're the best player on the planet.
And this series was wild, andthis game was just a microcosm of
the entire series. You know,teams getting a big handle on each other
and just you know, trying tofight through it. We lost last year.
That that's different. You have tolose at a bigger stage. Usually
teams. It's the playoffs. Welost last year, we lost the last
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two years. We gotta lose.How much you want us to lose?
Lose it for twenty years? Imean, that's just the truth. Uh.
An entertaining postgame exchange between Karl,Anthony Towlenge and Anthony Edwards and I
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know what the reporter the Jackal wastrying to say. We've talked about it.
The rule is supposed to be toget to the conference finals or the
NBA Finals. You got to kindof do what Denver did, for example,
you got to have about a threeor four year stretch of some success
and some really disastrous failure, includingI believe the year before they won it,
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they got swept in the first roundin four games. And so the
Wolves seem to be trying to shortcircuit that concept and to a degree,
reaching the final four of the conferencefinals on the Western side, that's exactly
what they have done. Six foursix eighty six is the bratch on Bryant
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Kiff and text line again. MikeConley is scheduled to join at four point
thirty this afternoon, and we alsohave Johnny Athletic at five thirty. We've
got already were lining up a reallygood cavalcade of guests. I think will
obviously be broadcasting live from the CageTarget Center both Wednesday night and Friday night.
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Those are both the game times arethe same for every game, right
seven thirty, I think not alot of Yeah, you don't have to
worry about wiggle room. I don'tthink, because the Eastern Conference Finals are
in a different day and the WestFinals. As I recall it, it's
literally every other day. The restof the way, which I love.
Yeah, you don't have those,you know, two or three days where
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you got to sort of make stuffup. You got one off day and
then you're back at it, whichshould build things as well. The of
course Dallas Mavericks are indeed the theopponent in any case. I everybody's looking
for, how do we explain exactlywhat took place in Game seven? You
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were there? What's going on toyour head? When? As I said,
I think as Jamal Murray hit athree couple minutes into the third quarter
to advance the lead to action?Do we have that? I think we
do, don't we? We do? Now the Wolves have some numbers,
and now, of course, offto Rudy takes a dribble, drives his
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finger roll came up short. Idon't know why it's given it a cruity
in that situation. Too far outMurray wide open corner three thing go.
Can's learning a lesson right now?I mean, Jamal Murray is really giving
Minnesota spanking ten of eighteen four sevenfor three twenty nine points here in the
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third quarter, Boom, not feelingreally good there? How did it feel
in the arena? Well? Ihad just gotten off the stream yard I
was doing with Max at halftime,and I said, essentially the halftime analysis
was Denver Stars are taking over thegame. The Wolf Stars. Thank goodness
for Cat because he really kept themin it in the first half. I
said, it's a miracle that they'reonly down by fifteen, should have been
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ten. But then they obviously scoredthe last five points of the half,
So you got to find a wayto get a handle on Jamal Murray.
And what's Jamal Murray do? Bythe time I even sit back down for
the third quarter, he's got fivepoints already in the first two minutes and
it's twenty and you're thinking, likethey if they don't get it under control
in the next four or five minutes, it's over. It's going to be
over. The place is on fire. Those two guys, Yoka Yokich and
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Murray were unstoppable in the first half, and no one really besides Cat has
shown up for the Wolves. Soat that point you're just thinking, you've
got like three or four minutes nowto make this a game. And they've
been a good battle back team,the Wolves, mostly because they started so
poorly often in the first halves rightduring the regular season, so they've always
been able to kind of figure itout for the most part this season and
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get themselves back on track and guardjust enough to keep them close. And
that's kind of what they did inthe first half, was they didn't let
it get completely out of control,and so at that point it was mostly
just you got to get it undercontrol here in the next couple of minutes,
and then they did, and thenit was just to me a twenty
two twenty four minutes soot a Timberwolvesbasketball game where the defense never stopped.
Yeah, the shots all of asudden stopped falling for the other team.
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They grew frustrated, the crowd grewfrustrated, and the Wolves just feasted on
all of it. I want tofocus on one stretch, as you say,
to get the door open at all, you've got to find a way
to improve your offense, which wasa disaster in the first half. It
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has rarely looked more disjointed. Andby the way, that's with Mike Conley
on the court, So it couldn'tbe well, we didn't have our adult
in the room. We had him, and he didn't have a good first
half. I did not have agood first half. You heard the call
there from Alan Horton, where onthat the play he called that led to
the Murray three. On the otherend, it was a pass in the
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open court on a fast break thatmade no sense for Edwards to give it
up to Rudy. He's not agood on the run guy. The fan
has learned no, and earlier wasit. I think in the first half
similarly, there was a steal inwhich Conley needed to give up the ball
to Edwards, didn't, and thenConley tried to go onto the basket,
and I think that either the shotgot blocked whatever, they did not take
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advantage of it. So everything seemedoff. But the key stretch to me
that opened the door to the possibilityof this being a ballgame is in the
third quarter. And it was builtlargely. It was slow offensively, it
was just slow drips, but steady, and it was coupled with some really
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really good defense. So walls aredown, still down sixteen fifty nine to
forty three with seven forty eight togo in the third quarter. What happens
from that point forward, Well,Towns, like I said, this wasn't
spectacular stuff. Towns gets bold,makes a pair of free throws. I'm
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not even sure he was shooting there. We might have already been in the
bonus. That was another sneaky goodthing that happened. The Wolves were in
the bonus at I think the eightminute mark in that ball game. So
Towns goes to the line, hitstwo. Now it's fifty nine to forty
five. What happens next, Well, Draymond Green's best friend, Rudy Gobert,
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blocks a Jamal Murray five foot layup. We get the ball back.
In fact, I think it's AnthonyEdwards who got the rebound off the block,
and he makes a two pointer alayup. Fifty nine forty seven.
Nuggets call it time out there.Malone is a quick trigger time out.
Now that's twelve. You know,it's only really basically a four point run.
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But he's not going to mess around, so he takes a time out
there. Jokic misses a twenty fivefooter go bear defensive rebound. Edwards misses
a twenty four footer joker rebound,Murray misses a running pull up jumper.
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Karl Anthony Towns gets the rebound.This is sneaky important stuff. No offensive
rebounds in this stretch, like thefirst half for Denver. Our defense is
good, but we're also part ofgood defense is making sure you get the
rebound. You gotta finish it.That's followed by Jaden McDaniels, who had
his second consecutive outstanding basketball game.Hits a twenty three foot three pointer from
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Edwards. Now it's fifty nine tofifty. Porter misses a twenty six foot
three pointer, Conley gets the rebound, and then Conley, with five forty
eight to go, hits a twentythree footer to make it fifty nine to
fifty three. I think that waswhen the shot clock expired while the ball
was in the that's right, that'sexactly right. That's exactly right. Right
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session basic, that's ten in arow for Mike Keyo. Now they build
the lead back up to eight,but it doesn't get then it goes back
down to six point. Is that, to me is what opened the door
you had to have for all theother stuff to happen after that. You
had to have that stretch, andthat stretch was great defense, killer rebounding,
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not giving Denver, who's gone cold, any second shots, and you're
just making enough. You're plugging alongyou're making enough plays offensively, because we've
got a lot of good stuff fromthe fourth quarter that we're going to lay
out. But none of that Ithink would have been relevant without that stretch
where you bring it down to amanageable number, a single digit number.
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You start putting some doubt into theNuggets, like, God, these guys,
they're pain in the ass. Theydon't they they don't go away.
And you're probably picking up on somevibes within the crowd where there's some nervousness
as the game that seemed to beutterly and completely under control the defending world
champions in Game seven at home seemsto be a little bit more competitive than
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it had been in you know,like I said, just four or five
minutes before, and the only shotthey really made in that entire stretch,
and we're talking, you know,by the end of the third quarter and
basically in the final seven or eightminutes was the Christian Brown floater. That
was a lucky break in a sense. Yeah, it was an airball.
Aaron Gordon tapped it to him overnas and he just had no choice but
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to shoot it. Like that wasgood defense there too, really was,
and that but that was the onlyshot they made for like a six or
seven minute stretch, and you couldfeel it, I know, Jamal Crawford
said it on the broadcast. Everytime it just clanked and one of the
Wolf's seven foot are scribed a rebound. You could just hear the groaning,
like, what's going on here?Everything was so fat, yeah, footloose
and fancy free. It was great. We were making everything. Murray's flexing
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in front of Glenn and Becky Taylor. It's unbelievable. Here. We're going
to the Western Conference finals again andwe're going to host the Dallas Mavericks.
It just immediately the brakes were puton in like a four or five minute
stretch. I actually thought the Wolvesmissed some good opportunities to even close.
They absolutely did their offense. Itwasn't great, No, it was better,
but it wasn't great. But theirdefense was, as you say,
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exemplary, and their rebounding was onpoint, and it had to be after
the first half as well. We'llget to some sound from a lot of
stuff that took place in the fourth. We'll mix in some text. They're
coming in fast and furiously, andas I said, the point guard himself
Mike Conley will join about an hourfrom now. Find our Mall of America
Street team all summer long and allof our events. You can find them
(27:37):
asking about their All of America mysterycards where everyone is a winner. See
where they will be next kfa Ndot com you were calendar, you know.
I don't believe in I didn't believein that. I think the team
who was this better team? Sodo you have a seven game? So
the best of seven? So ifsomeone beat too the thing, they're the
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better team. I guess them likewe we if you have a chance,
as of course we did. Butuh, I know someone be to it.
I mean, je is better.I love the way he talks,
man, I really do. Ihave so much respect for Joker. He
obviously was very cold shooting from three. Some people said we got to stop
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taking the three. Somebody had toshoot. Somebody had to shoot. I
mean beyond the big two. Itdidn't look like in the second half anybody
wanted to even get off a shot. They denver looked frightened in the second
half of that ball game. ButI liked it. I think Joker is
if he's got a gend as hehides them well, I guess I just
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don't think he has a bunch ofthem. I think he's he's pretty straight
out and straightforward about what he sees, and in this case, I think
offering some proper respect as well.Bumper bumpers. The name of the show
Barrero and guards you with you tillsix thirty tonight. Mike Conley will join
(29:02):
at four thirty and Johnny will joinus from Denver at five thirty as well.
I'm getting this is a production meeting. I don't usually do this on
here, but a bunch of peopleare saying that the talk, the audio,
the sound bites are not coming throughclear. I don't know if there's
anything we can do, but I'vegot actually the last five people saying they
(29:23):
can't hear what we're playing. Thatyou that I could hear through my headset
and what you were hearing. SoI don't know how to explain it,
and I don't know if there's anythingwe can do it. But they're saying
that they're just getting the music andnot the actual sound. Now, I
mentioned you were doing a couple thingswith Harlan on the open in which I
(29:44):
could only hear the background of thecrowd, but not Harlan's speaking, So
we may have some some funky technicaldifficulty. We only have like eighty more
sound bites that I'd like to playthese all. Yeah, I'm not.
I'm afraid now. I'm afraid toplay any of them because, yeah,
they're coming in there. We continueto to get them to to come in.
What the heck? So I allright, let's try this as an
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experiment. No, everyone's telling methey're no, it's terrible. Ill,
then I won't play any of them. All right, Well, then we'll
just have to maybe uh reconsider allof that. It sounds amazing in our
ears. Yeah it does. Idon't know what's happening. Unfortunately, that
that that, but that is veryunfortunate. Well, that kind of that
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kind of ruins the direction I wasgoing to try to go on. I'll
try to I'll try to to toto to bring it to the audience this
way, Edwards looked oddly out ofsorts in the first half. I give
some of that credit to what theDenver defense was doing to him. He
looked a bit flummoxed to get helooked. It was a little bit like
(30:51):
Game five, where it looked likethey had him in a box. They
had Anthony Edwards in a box,and he didn't really know what to do
about it other than you know,okay, I'll try to get the ball
to other people, which he diddo on occasion and ultimately missed eighteen of
his twenty four shots in the game. And you know, I think it's
(31:14):
fair to say that most of uswould assume that if Anthony Edwards goes six
for twenty four in a game seven, the Wolves are effectively cooked. And
what that's a reminder of is,you know, we work hard to prepare
you for game seven, and wesay this has to happen, right,
(31:37):
and this has to happen. Andhere are the other two or three key
components that will determine whether Denver comesback and gets it done and wins game
seven and hosts then the Dallas Mavericksor whether the Wolves are able to host
the Mavericks as well. So youknow, all honest see, for me,
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what this game represented from the Wolvesstandpoint was and this is the danger
the dangerous part of the Denver approach, which a lot of people nationally said,
Look to me, like Denver checkedout a game six pretty early,
and maybe they shouldn't have, butthey know they got Game seven at a
(32:23):
home and so to me, likethey just kind of mailed the damn thing
in. That was one of thewell that was I think either the first
or second worst loss in a ina best of seven series for a defending
champion. It was awful and asa result, I think you say to
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yourself that, well, we're goingto come home and we'll be fine,
because that's where the defending champions inthis Game seven, the crowd's going to
be prime, We're going to beprimed, et cetera. The risk I
think the Nuggets learned the hard way. One game there is no telling the
(33:07):
pattern that might ensue, and eventhe rules that you have adhered to through
the series as well. If theNuggets do this, this and this,
they win for the In order forthe Wolves to win this, this and
this must have must happen, notfor one game. When you reduce a
series to a single game, andthis is really the beauty of it.
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I think if you're the underdog,if you are in this case, the
road team, if you are theWolves, you reduce it to one game,
madness can can ensue, Weird thingscan happen. Players can come out
of nowhere and do stuff that youmight not expect them to do, right,
And so it's not necessarily true thatif Anthony Edwards misses eighteen of the
(33:54):
twenty four shots he takes, thewolves are cooked. They might be nine
times out of ten, but theymight not be in Game seven because as
that's happening, this, this,and this is happening. And one of
the things that most of definitely happenedas we got to the fourth quarter was
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Nazrid. Nazrid's been interesting through theseplayoffs because he's had some really memorable moments
and he's had stretches where you whereyou I could see nationally people going,
this is sixth man of the year. Yeah, what the hell? How's
that possible? Are there no goodsixth men in the NBA anymore? Where
he just made some bad decisions,tried to dribble the ball up in the
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open court, just lost it.Maddening passages. But I will tell you,
by the way, I don't knowif you're seeing the text, the
text are indicating that on the iHeartapp I am Everything sounds fine, yeah,
but I'm an AM station in hermantown. It is too. But on
on the FM frequency, is thatwhere the problem is? You know,
(35:05):
let's can we do a test.Well, that's what I wanted to do
earlier. You wouldn't let me.Well we had to change something. Oh
all right, so let's just playthe same joker SoundBite that we just played.
Okay, let's hear how it comesout this time. We need everybody
to respond. This isn't a conspiracyto get more tax either. By the
way, Bright, we don't.We don't have that problem. Six four
six eight six. Let us knowhow this sounds. You know, I
(35:25):
don't believe in I didn't believe inthat. I think the team Humans is
better team. So you have aseven game, so over the best of
seven. So if someone be too, I think they're the better team.
Gass to them like we did youhave a chances, of course we did.
But if someone be too, Imean, they're just better. Who
(35:50):
was that Anthony Edwards? Oh no, that's joker you said. That was
Kevin Durant from six one. Now, if you're listening on FM one hundred
point three, yeah, maybe that'sthe key to this. We know on
the app it's seems be fine.But if you're listening on the Juggernaut,
let us know how it sounds sixfour, six eighty six, because I'd
like to get that cleared up beforeI get to yea the Nas medley,
(36:12):
because me, it sounds good,awesome. I will tell you in this
game of who's the MVP of thegame and who did this and who did
that? Obviously, the moral ofthe story for the Wolves is it's the
consummate team performance that allowed Anthony Edwardsto arrive offensively as late as he did.
(36:37):
That's the beauty of I think thegroup, quite frankly, and and
that was several different players, allto varying degrees at various times, contributing
in a way that all we canwait, it should have been what caused
dread in the building that well,if this is a six point game and
(36:58):
we're going to the fourth quarter,you know Edward's gonna start hitting some shots
what the hell? Or making someplays, which he ultimately did, right,
including the three that put the Wolvesup ten. Yeah, right off
to Conley after the Nas put back. But I if I'm ranking them for
just this one game, I'm puttingthis montage of outstanding naz Red offensive and
(37:25):
perhaps even more importantly defensive moments asthe key to the breakthrough at the elbows,
KCP hold the answer. Mike Conleyback to Yoki. Jokics works on
NAS read right side of the floor, picks it out. Tomorrow they move
it to KCP out of the cornerMP. He'll rise up with the Triplet's
off by the Wolves. Couldn't securethe rebound. Yoki doz puzz back up.
(37:45):
He got smarted. NAS leave withthe block and back the other way.
On the attack, he got stripped. It's out of bounds with fifteen
on the shot. Flock works tothe right side, now left side Nas
to hand the guarded. My KCPgoes back to NAZ. He fakes the
pass, drives and gets around.Yo gets finger roll, good huff thing
(38:06):
last What a finish by nos ReidTimberwolves eighty five nuggets eighty with five h
two left. That's the way youanswer back. Jamal Murray's got some space.
He'll drive to the right side inthe paint, try to get at
trying to strip him. Here's Yogets inside against two defenders and his shot
up blocked by NOAs Mike Contley scoopsup the loose ball. Here come the
(38:29):
Wolves by five with three forty fiveleft hand ball in hand forty feet out
right side. Erdie comes to setthe screen. Hand waves him away and
is huffing and puffing. He's gotGordon on and Porter Junior taking on the
double. Don McDaniels to nas Reidleft side, back to Jade six to
shoot. Ant's got it up topagainst court frees himself rises up three ball
all the way off the rim hillclaim follow nos Reid, the sixth man
(38:52):
of the Year comes soaring in fromthe wing and he puts the walls up
eighty nine eighty two Nas with abunch for fourth. There it is,
I mean, honest to God,you can even hear the Wolves fans in
the background on that follow slam,not to be confused with the Cat follows
slam that was also big but laterread and again this is where we like
(39:15):
to say the basketball gods are alwaysagainst us, but it ends up being
a blessing that your best starter,Karl Anthony Towns finally does have to sit
because of foul trouble. Right,And they were in this case not affected
in any meaningful way. In fact, I began to wonder whether Cat was
(39:37):
going to come back at all.I don't think he did to like two
minutes to go. He didn't untilRudy fouled out. N til Rudy fouled
out, exactly it was, andthat's because this was one of those stretches
where you say, this is thebeauty of the depth of this club.
You got another big man who's makingevery play, and as I said,
as good as as solid as Cattended to be defensively against Joker, Naz
(40:02):
was handling him pretty well. Nasis obviously a better shot blocker than Kat
quicker to getting up which and hefrustrated a Joker on a couple of those
as well. So I get it. This was the consummate team effort.
But in the fourth quarter, tome, there's no topping the series of
(40:22):
plays that nas Reed made both offensivelyand defense, and those are the nas
Reid heaters. I mean, that'sthe type of thing that he's known to
do and has done for the lastcouple of seasons. And really this whole
series was about almost the nas Reedsand Aaron Gordon's yes, because they're just
energy plays, like when Aaron Gordondunks it at Ballerina the place hits a
(40:44):
different level than even when Joker Murraydoes something because he's like a bit player,
he's kind of a folk hero.It's the same. It's the nas
Reed concept here, and it wasthey needed somebody. You know, we
all talked about how you're gonna maketwo big men work and then they signed
and it's like, wow, that'sa lot you're paying. You know,
your seven footers like ninety million dollarsthis year. And their thing was,
(41:07):
but we like all of them,They're all important. We're gonna need all
of them at some point. Andlast night was a perfect microcosm of that
that they needed something from every singleone of their centers that they brought,
except Luca, who his time willcome. I think this might be the
serious I still have a hole matchups. I think Lucas joined us from the
cage one of the days. He'sactually an hour an let him cut open
(41:30):
a vein. Yeah, do youthink he'd like demand playing time. He's
kind of ants number one hype man, like he with that ship up real
quick. He's a good he's agood teammate obviously, you know, as
I'm listening to you in all seriousness, how how many years have we waited
for this? This is and thisis not about again. We know the
title hasn't been one. What anybodywho listened to this show, well,
(41:52):
I think understand if you've listened fora while, is what we're talking about
here about what we've been waiting foris just the opportunity to, in this
case, on the twentieth of BleepingMay to talk pro basketball and not have
to apologize for it, to talkabout the local team in the mix now
favored. The Wolves are favored toget to the National Basketball Association Finals,
(42:16):
and they should be home court.Think they're a better team. Quite frankly,
that doesn't mean it's won. Butthis is what we've been looking for,
the chance to Okay, layout soundbites talk about specific stretches of games
decades literally. So that's just becauseyou just you just want to join the
battle. You want to you wantto feel connected to this larger, outstanding
(42:42):
event. And I think now italso helps people say, well now I
see why other people when other marketsget into this, because this stuff's fun,
the ebb and flow of it,the dramatic changes that take place within
a series, The lessons I thinkwe've all learned, including me in this
series that you can't assume anything onthe basis of what you've just seen that
(43:04):
a team's done or a team's gonnawin it in four. Although I never
thought they were gonna sweep Denver infour. I never thought that made any
sense as well. But I digressnas Reed was absolutely magnificent yesterday, And
it almost seems like with he's oneof those guys who is on it.
It's a heater thing where it buildsfor him once he goes. Once he
(43:27):
goes, he's feeling it. Helooks more confident going to the basket again.
It's more sure of himself. Yeah, exactly when he struggles for a
minute, then all of a sudden, you know, one turnover can turn
into two and then a bad shotor a bad foul or whatever it is.
Was there much booing from den orwas it? Were they just too
stunned to ever get to the booing. The only time there was booing was
when Let's Go Wolves broke out,So I think you could hear on the
(43:50):
broadcast. And it happened. Happenedearly when the Wolves started well, and
then obviously as the third quarter washappening, it happened a lot during breaks,
let's go Wolves, and they wouldimmediately. I was telling Abbot earlier.
It reminded me of when the Vikingsaren't very good and gerb Schmidt buys
up us Bank Stadium and go Packgoes at us Bank Stadium. That's what
it reminded me of. And there'sreally nothing you can do. You want
(44:12):
to drown them out, but it'salso kind of embarrassing that you have to
drown them out, and there's reallyonly one way to do it, and
that's booing. And that's that wasthe only time the booze happened. They
were all just stunned that that wasgoing on. They got on Joker a
little bit late when they needed togo, and Joker was kind of standing
there, remember that he with theball. That's when they got kind of
frantic lancy that. But before andafter that it was mostly just stunned silence
(44:36):
and Wolves fans trying to take overthe building. You're not gonna lie to
you. I got a little worriedwhen we we bungled that out of bounds
play. Yeah, with two timeouts. That was dumb, which was strange.
They it, you know, all'swell, that ends well, but
I got a little worried there becauseagain, Denver, do they have two
players especially who can hit trees atany point, even if they've been cold.
And it got to five at thatpoint, and it did get to
five, got to five with fortysome sites, I even was a little
(44:59):
worries. Like on the broadcast,it was almost like they were already saluting
the Wolves that the Wolves had wonit. That hold off a little bit
on that. Well, even Isaid this on the Howlum with the Homies
last night too, I was surprisedhow early Denver just hoisted the white flag.
With thirty seconds they're down six,right or seven? Yeah, it's
(45:19):
like and the Wolves let them backin kind of polishly because even with thirteen
seconds left they're down six, likeobviously it's probably over. But in the
NBA, maybe they didn't have timeouts. I wasn't really looking at the situation
there, but with thirty seconds left, I was surprised they didn't at least
foul once and try to extend thegame for one extra possession. I think
it's about the fabulous series. Probablyget them. Who do you like?
(45:46):
I like the Wolves? Okay,Yeah, it's not unusual that oh,
I think, Oh that's not abouthow I thought it was pretty good.
(46:07):
How much do we have to worrywe're very insecure market? Oh yeah,
how much do we have to worryabout Charles ripping our women, ripping our
downtown, ripping our restaurants scene?You know, he's we're already over the
top on the restaurant thing. Itmay not matter. Maybe it won't.
Maybe we're so giddy that it won'tmatter what he does. But I think
(46:28):
we'll take it personally. Like youknow that he got himself in trouble in
San Antonio Davy many years ago abouthow he described the women. That turned
into a bit that I think waspretty fun for all involved. He's got
Galvus crosshairs this year, because that'sright, the dirty water. So what's
he mostly and this would be agood bit for the whole week? What
(46:49):
is sir Charles most likely to savageus once he gets here? What's what
do you think would be the toptwo or three things that might get in
his crosshairs once hear too many bikepaths? Number one? Yeah, probably
true. That's a good question.We're gonna need some help bratchew Brian Kafan
text line. So, yeah,give us some ideas there, because I'm
(47:09):
trying to think that if we anticipatethe ideas and they were right, maybe
it won't hurt as much once weactually hear it from him, because we
have already will have sort of digestedit. We're already preemptively mad at him
though, because he told Anthony Edwardshe hasn't been to Minnesota in like twenty
years. And I'm pretty sure,as most people have tried to clarify,
(47:30):
he was here for the twenty nineteenFinal four. But it must have been
so unmemorable, right I forgot?Yeah he did, You're right, he
says, twenty years. Yeah,so I haven't been there in like twenty
years. I was twenty nineteen.That was I know. Either it was
a really bad experience or we madeno impression on him on that occasion.
And obviously between that and now,there's been a worldwide pandemic and none of
us remember our lives before then,So maybe he just blocked that part out
(47:52):
of it. But he was herefive years ago. I don't know where
he is six' five to one, guy, You're gonna get Chuck on
the show. We're trying believe me. We're trying for everybody this week,
all hands on deck. We can'tpossibly do enough on this series. Don't
forget Mike Conley in about a halfhour when we come back. I am.
I think likely going to ensure atop seed according to some in the
(48:16):
in Commons PST tournament for two thousandand twenty four, but bleep it,
I don't care that's coming up.
There's too many, father, there'stoo many. Die. We got that
away. It's so long today.Father, we don't need to west lay
(00:53):
and side. Now you're allowing AnthonyEdwards to wake up. Well, we
again slid away. If the fingersongs deeper, spills blood. They locked
down before, Yeah they were againside still steam go get a flood,
(01:18):
you know, show up time.So say, let's what's coming upstrolling off,
what's trolling around? What's going on? And what's coming up? What's
coming off? What's coming up,what's coming off? This is you're moving
(02:08):
the goal posts. Leader fan FanRadio Network and k fa N dot Com,
two minutes twenty two seconds past thehour of three o'clock central daylight time,
(02:30):
on what I like to call abeautiful Monday afternoon here in the twin
cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.My name is Dan Barrero. I host
the program guards he is the producerof the show. And however you're listening,
whether it's the one hundred point threeFM one hundred thousand one, I
guess I should say Juggernaut, whetherit's iheartradiokfan dot com podcasting it later.
(02:53):
We are delighted that at some pointor another. You are along for today's
right. I am the host ofthe program. I am the Sultan of
Snark. My name is Dan Barrero, also known as the Afternoon Afternoon Ardvark,
the a Hole in the Afternoon,as well as the Beast. Isn't
there a radio station in Dallas calledthe Beast? I mean we have to
(03:15):
get up to speed on the Dallasstuff. Dallas, the longstanding Dallas Minnesota
rivalry of which they've tended to getthe better of us. I'm not mistaken.
Unfortunately they have. We have allweek to cover all of those things.
Guards He is with us. Heis the producer of the program,
and he is fresh off a tripback to Denver to watch the triumphant Game
(03:38):
seven for your Minnesota Timberwolves. Thinkabout it, bratch on Brian Cafe in
text line is wide open. Iexpect a lot of texts today. I
hope to get some talkbacks today aswell via the Iheartappcafe dot com. Click
on the microphone and praise to yourtill well, you have thirty seconds to
(04:03):
go your praise out. I can'tthink there'd be much savagery at this point,
but people have tended to surprise meover the years. We have a
very good guest lineup today, whichwe will get to in a couple of
minutes. I mentioned that we areindeed you are moving. The goalpost's leader
(04:26):
made the mistake last night in thewake of the stunning Game seven comeback,
the greatest Game seven comeback in thehistory of the National Basketball Association. Game
sevens to note my belief that reconcybias should not get in the way of
(04:47):
the obvious. And the obvious isthat last night represented or represents the most
mythic moment in the history of thisfranchise, and I laid out some of
the reasons for that above and beyondwhat took place twenty years ago on the
same date. And by the way, we talked some even as recently as
sermons, that don't discount how bigthat was then, just because you're too
(05:13):
young to remember it, or recencybias. It was big. It was
enormous. You and I were there, The atmosphere was absolutely electric. It
was you invoke whatever cliche you want. It was a magical moment. But
what we saw, or what mostof us saw last night, devours what
(05:38):
took place twenty years ago. Becauseof the particulars. You're not playing at
home, you're playing on the road. As I said, you're down.
You're trying to do something that's neverbeen done. Down fifteen or more at
the half, and to steal gameseven. You do it with your number
(06:00):
one franchise player and abysmal what wasit six for twenty four yep from the
field. You include all of thosethings against also the defending world champions,
and you say, this is it. This is as good for this franchise
it as it has ever been period. End of story, and like clockwork
(06:26):
text Paul, we'll find a whatis screwed up? And as much as
I you know me, I hesitateto admonish via Twitter, I might have
admonished, and I will tell thoseindividuals who continue to wait for the other
shoot to drop. You don't getto move the goalposts because you told me
(06:55):
last week this team was jinxed thatfor that reason it was going to lose
to the Denver Nuggets. I didn'trule out the possibility after Game five that
the Wolves were going to lose tothe Denver Nuggets. I did not think
it looked particularly good at that point. But my point was, well,
if you're going to lose this series. You're going to lose it because they're
(07:15):
the better team, they are playingbetter. Other people wanted to put it
on. It'sers to Jenks, theongoing Jinks. We just never goes our
way. Told you they'd screw itup. And so when I say,
well, wait a minute, theydidn't screw it up. They If there
(07:36):
is a Jinx, they beat it. If the Denver Nuggets are better than
they are, they beat them too, fair and square in a Game seven
in Denver. And that's of coursewhen you move the goalposts. Well,
next this roule will be Jinks.It's Dallas. We're gonna be Jinx.
We'll find a way to screw itup. The problem I have. And
(08:01):
by the way, none of whathas happened to this point guarantees a damn
thing. There is no parade forreaching the conference finals. I looked it
up. I don't think any teamin the history of sports has held in
a major metropolitan area has has helda parade on the basis of reaching effectively
(08:22):
the final four. Right before hewalked off the Dais last night, Anthony
Edwards tried to give Jaden McDaniels MVPof the series and then realize they don't
have one for the Western Conference semifinals. To your points, I guess they
don't have one of those, butwe did. I'd give it to them.
The problem with missing the goal posts, I should say moving the goalposts,
(08:43):
is by doing so, by concentratingon that about what might be coming,
what must be inevitably coming, isthat you missed the moment, You
missed the place that last night,this series, but the culmination of it
last night represents everything that has comebefore it, what they have come from,
(09:18):
and where they are as we speak. It also, I think opens
the door to what this might bethe start of, and could that be
(09:39):
several runs at a title. Wedon't know for sure. But this is
a process, this is a progression, and I'm speaking of it more mechanically
than I really mean to. Imean the emotion of the moment, this
particular spot that they are in afterwhat took place yesterday. You heard Mike
(10:01):
Conley say, Mike Conley's gonna bewith us at four thirty, He's telling
the reporters after the game. I'mnot even sure if my teammates realized what
we just did. Let's remember something. They're down three games to two,
they're given last rites by a numberof people. I was pessimistic. I
(10:24):
refused at that point. You andI talked about it to say they can't
win game six because it would justseem foolish on the basis of the twist,
the major twist. But you knowthat between the start of the series
games one and two and what taketook place three, four, five to
say, well, there's no waythey can come back, especially given the
Game six was here. But let'sremember what they've done the last two games.
(10:48):
I mentioned this stat after Game six, Wolves were down nine to two
early in that game, time out. Over the next forty one minutes,
Minnesota outscore Denver one twelve to fiftyfive. I mean, that's ridiculous,
as we said at the time,and as we also said at the time,
(11:09):
that seemed to indicate that even ifyou don't win game seven, that
the notion that this is business asusual as it pertains to this franchise is
probably dead and buried. Good chanceit's dead end buried. Then you fast
forward to game seven, They're downfifty eight to thirty eight early in the
(11:33):
third quarter, fifty eight to thirtyeight, and they then outscore the Denver
Nuggets, the world champions, athome, fifty four to twenty four.
That's pretty good. That's pretty goodright there by thirty points. Previous game
(11:56):
by what we say, fifty sevenpoints. Go back even to what was
it Game two against Denver, itwas a forty three to eighteen beat down
during Game two. It goes onand on. So you have to appreciate
(12:22):
that this goes beyond just winning thisseries. It's the way they are doing
it, making history to the degreethat they did so for a day,
I would say stop moving the goalposts. You're allowed, I think, to
savor the moment, and you're especiallyallowed to remember how many times, no
matter how old you are, evenif you're young, you have to have
(12:46):
even if you didn't live through allof the ineptitude and the embarrassment and the
scandal, you had to know ofit. You had to be aware of
it. Hell again, it's asCat said after the game, we've been
losing for twenty years. So tosavor that, enjoy that, understand that
(13:09):
what you're hearing again from people nationallyis well, this is crazy. This
is not just emerging. This isemerging in such an emphatic way, in
such a dramatic way, especially asI said in Game seven, take notice
of it. Don't be afraid toenjoy that particular moment. And but if
(13:31):
you're too busy doing the goalpost thingabout God, I know heartbreak's coming,
that won't will not give you time, I think to savor what this particular
moment should represent. You were there, We're going to talk about what it
felt like in the building, forsure, and we got a million talking
points, we got a lot ofaudio. I mentioned Mike Conley's going to
(13:52):
join at four thirty. Johnny Athletic, who was also there in Denver,
is scheduled to join at five pointthirty as well. And believe me,
if they get swept by the DallasMavericks, we'll probably I'll probably rip them.
I don't know that i'd call foranybody's head. I don't know that
I would say that means the seasonwas a was a failure. Given where
(14:16):
this has come from, we've alwaysgraded on a curve on this show.
Right, if you're a team thathistorically gets to the playoffs loses in the
first round. After a while,that's going to get tiresome. Right,
You're not going to get any rewardfrom us for they keep getting there.
But if you're a team that hasstruggled a franchise, it's to struggle to
(14:39):
the degree that they have and theyshow I heard this again today from was
it Antonio Daniels. I don't rememberwho it was that they show. It
may have been at any number ofnational people who are championing I want you
to remember this word, the toughnessand resolve that the Minnesota Timberwolves showed in
(15:03):
a Game seven situation down twenty.Now, if you're an old time Wolves
fan, you go, We're neverthe toughness team. We're the soft team.
Where the trembling timber shahwaha was,We're the team that curls up in
the fetal position. So don't bedon't apologize, I guess I would say
(15:26):
for enjoying the moment. And ifyou're at work and there's a guy around
the water cooler, like tech tweeterPaul last night, a little screw it
up later, they'll laugh. Don'tenable him because he thinks he's saying the
cool thing that'll get the chuckles aroundthe water cooler and the ah yeah,
good point. You're right, don'tdon't enable that chumblone today. Tell him
(15:48):
stop moving the goalposts. Enjoy thismoment. Fannin bigdeck dot com, I'm
gonna give you a shot to puta grain in your hand with our national
cash contest. The first keyword ofthe week is money. Go to kfa
n dot com and enter the keywordmoney. You know, special moment.
(16:18):
This is a hell of a team. You're the best player on the planet.
And this series was wild, andthis game was just a microcosm of
the entire series. You know,teams getting a big handle on each other
and just you know, trying tofight through it. We lost last year.
That that's different. You have tolose at a bigger stage. Usually
teams. It's the playoffs. Welost last year, we lost the last
(16:42):
two years. We gotta lose.How much you want us to lose?
Lose it for twenty years? Imean, that's just the truth. Uh.
An entertaining postgame exchange between Karl,Anthony Towlenge and Anthony Edwards and I
(17:03):
know what the reporter the Jackal wastrying to say. We've talked about it.
The rule is supposed to be toget to the conference finals or the
NBA Finals. You got to kindof do what Denver did, for example,
you got to have about a threeor four year stretch of some success
and some really disastrous failure, includingI believe the year before they won it,
(17:26):
they got swept in the first roundin four games. And so the
Wolves seem to be trying to shortcircuit that concept and to a degree,
reaching the final four of the conferencefinals on the Western side, that's exactly
what they have done. Six foursix eighty six is the bratch on Bryant
(17:47):
Kiff and text line again. MikeConley is scheduled to join at four point
thirty this afternoon, and we alsohave Johnny Athletic at five thirty. We've
got already were lining up a reallygood cavalcade of guests. I think will
obviously be broadcasting live from the CageTarget Center both Wednesday night and Friday night.
(18:10):
Those are both the game times arethe same for every game, right
seven thirty, I think not alot of Yeah, you don't have to
worry about wiggle room. I don'tthink, because the Eastern Conference Finals are
in a different day and the WestFinals. As I recall it, it's
literally every other day. The restof the way, which I love.
Yeah, you don't have those,you know, two or three days where
(18:30):
you got to sort of make stuffup. You got one off day and
then you're back at it, whichshould build things as well. The of
course Dallas Mavericks are indeed the theopponent in any case. I everybody's looking
for, how do we explain exactlywhat took place in Game seven? You
(18:56):
were there? What's going on toyour head? When? As I said,
I think as Jamal Murray hit athree couple minutes into the third quarter
to advance the lead to action?Do we have that? I think we
do, don't we? We do? Now the Wolves have some numbers,
and now, of course, offto Rudy takes a dribble, drives his
(19:17):
finger roll came up short. Idon't know why it's given it a cruity
in that situation. Too far outMurray wide open corner three thing go.
Can's learning a lesson right now?I mean, Jamal Murray is really giving
Minnesota spanking ten of eighteen four sevenfor three twenty nine points here in the
(19:37):
third quarter, Boom, not feelingreally good there? How did it feel
in the arena? Well? Ihad just gotten off the stream yard I
was doing with Max at halftime,and I said, essentially the halftime analysis
was Denver Stars are taking over thegame. The Wolf Stars. Thank goodness
for Cat because he really kept themin it in the first half. I
said, it's a miracle that they'reonly down by fifteen, should have been
(20:00):
ten. But then they obviously scoredthe last five points of the half,
So you got to find a wayto get a handle on Jamal Murray.
And what's Jamal Murray do? Bythe time I even sit back down for
the third quarter, he's got fivepoints already in the first two minutes and
it's twenty and you're thinking, likethey if they don't get it under control
in the next four or five minutes, it's over. It's going to be
over. The place is on fire. Those two guys, Yoka Yokich and
(20:22):
Murray were unstoppable in the first half, and no one really besides Cat has
shown up for the Wolves. Soat that point you're just thinking, you've
got like three or four minutes nowto make this a game. And they've
been a good battle back team,the Wolves, mostly because they started so
poorly often in the first halves rightduring the regular season, so they've always
been able to kind of figure itout for the most part this season and
(20:44):
get themselves back on track and guardjust enough to keep them close. And
that's kind of what they did inthe first half, was they didn't let
it get completely out of control,and so at that point it was mostly
just you got to get it undercontrol here in the next couple of minutes,
and then they did, and thenit was just to me a twenty
two twenty four minutes soot a Timberwolvesbasketball game where the defense never stopped.
Yeah, the shots all of asudden stopped falling for the other team.
(21:06):
They grew frustrated, the crowd grewfrustrated, and the Wolves just feasted on
all of it. I want tofocus on one stretch, as you say,
to get the door open at all, you've got to find a way
to improve your offense, which wasa disaster in the first half. It
(21:26):
has rarely looked more disjointed. Andby the way, that's with Mike Conley
on the court, So it couldn'tbe well, we didn't have our adult
in the room. We had him, and he didn't have a good first
half. I did not have agood first half. You heard the call
there from Alan Horton, where onthat the play he called that led to
the Murray three. On the otherend, it was a pass in the
(21:48):
open court on a fast break thatmade no sense for Edwards to give it
up to Rudy. He's not agood on the run guy. The fan
has learned no, and earlier wasit. I think in the first half
similarly, there was a steal inwhich Conley needed to give up the ball
to Edwards, didn't, and thenConley tried to go onto the basket,
and I think that either the shotgot blocked whatever, they did not take
(22:11):
advantage of it. So everything seemedoff. But the key stretch to me
that opened the door to the possibilityof this being a ballgame is in the
third quarter. And it was builtlargely. It was slow offensively, it
was just slow drips, but steady, and it was coupled with some really
(22:37):
really good defense. So walls aredown, still down sixteen fifty nine to
forty three with seven forty eight togo in the third quarter. What happens
from that point forward, Well,Towns, like I said, this wasn't
spectacular stuff. Towns gets bold,makes a pair of free throws. I'm
(23:02):
not even sure he was shooting there. We might have already been in the
bonus. That was another sneaky goodthing that happened. The Wolves were in
the bonus at I think the eightminute mark in that ball game. So
Towns goes to the line, hitstwo. Now it's fifty nine to forty
five. What happens next, Well, Draymond Green's best friend, Rudy Gobert,
(23:25):
blocks a Jamal Murray five foot layup. We get the ball back.
In fact, I think it's AnthonyEdwards who got the rebound off the block,
and he makes a two pointer alayup. Fifty nine forty seven.
Nuggets call it time out there.Malone is a quick trigger time out.
Now that's twelve. You know,it's only really basically a four point run.
(23:48):
But he's not going to mess around, so he takes a time out
there. Jokic misses a twenty fivefooter go bear defensive rebound. Edwards misses
a twenty four footer joker rebound,Murray misses a running pull up jumper.
(24:11):
Karl Anthony Towns gets the rebound.This is sneaky important stuff. No offensive
rebounds in this stretch, like thefirst half for Denver. Our defense is
good, but we're also part ofgood defense is making sure you get the
rebound. You gotta finish it.That's followed by Jaden McDaniels, who had
his second consecutive outstanding basketball game.Hits a twenty three foot three pointer from
(24:36):
Edwards. Now it's fifty nine tofifty. Porter misses a twenty six foot
three pointer, Conley gets the rebound, and then Conley, with five forty
eight to go, hits a twentythree footer to make it fifty nine to
fifty three. I think that waswhen the shot clock expired while the ball
was in the that's right, that'sexactly right. That's exactly right. Right
(24:59):
session basic, that's ten in arow for Mike Keyo. Now they build
the lead back up to eight,but it doesn't get then it goes back
down to six point. Is that, to me is what opened the door
you had to have for all theother stuff to happen after that. You
had to have that stretch, andthat stretch was great defense, killer rebounding,
(25:21):
not giving Denver, who's gone cold, any second shots, and you're
just making enough. You're plugging alongyou're making enough plays offensively, because we've
got a lot of good stuff fromthe fourth quarter that we're going to lay
out. But none of that Ithink would have been relevant without that stretch
where you bring it down to amanageable number, a single digit number.
(25:44):
You start putting some doubt into theNuggets, like, God, these guys,
they're pain in the ass. Theydon't they they don't go away.
And you're probably picking up on somevibes within the crowd where there's some nervousness
as the game that seemed to beutterly and completely under control the defending world
champions in Game seven at home seemsto be a little bit more competitive than
(26:08):
it had been in you know,like I said, just four or five
minutes before, and the only shotthey really made in that entire stretch,
and we're talking, you know,by the end of the third quarter and
basically in the final seven or eightminutes was the Christian Brown floater. That
was a lucky break in a sense. Yeah, it was an airball.
Aaron Gordon tapped it to him overnas and he just had no choice but
(26:30):
to shoot it. Like that wasgood defense there too, really was,
and that but that was the onlyshot they made for like a six or
seven minute stretch, and you couldfeel it, I know, Jamal Crawford
said it on the broadcast. Everytime it just clanked and one of the
Wolf's seven foot are scribed a rebound. You could just hear the groaning,
like, what's going on here?Everything was so fat, yeah, footloose
and fancy free. It was great. We were making everything. Murray's flexing
(26:53):
in front of Glenn and Becky Taylor. It's unbelievable. Here. We're going
to the Western Conference finals again andwe're going to host the Dallas Mavericks.
It just immediately the brakes were puton in like a four or five minute
stretch. I actually thought the Wolvesmissed some good opportunities to even close.
They absolutely did their offense. Itwasn't great, No, it was better,
but it wasn't great. But theirdefense was, as you say,
(27:15):
exemplary, and their rebounding was onpoint, and it had to be after
the first half as well. We'llget to some sound from a lot of
stuff that took place in the fourth. We'll mix in some text. They're
coming in fast and furiously, andas I said, the point guard himself
Mike Conley will join about an hourfrom now. Find our Mall of America
Street team all summer long and allof our events. You can find them
(27:37):
asking about their All of America mysterycards where everyone is a winner. See
where they will be next kfa Ndot com you were calendar, you know.
I don't believe in I didn't believein that. I think the team
who was this better team? Sodo you have a seven game? So
the best of seven? So ifsomeone beat too the thing, they're the
(27:57):
better team. I guess them likewe we if you have a chance,
as of course we did. Butuh, I know someone be to it.
I mean, je is better.I love the way he talks,
man, I really do. Ihave so much respect for Joker. He
obviously was very cold shooting from three. Some people said we got to stop
(28:21):
taking the three. Somebody had toshoot. Somebody had to shoot. I
mean beyond the big two. Itdidn't look like in the second half anybody
wanted to even get off a shot. They denver looked frightened in the second
half of that ball game. ButI liked it. I think Joker is
if he's got a gend as hehides them well, I guess I just
(28:41):
don't think he has a bunch ofthem. I think he's he's pretty straight
out and straightforward about what he sees, and in this case, I think
offering some proper respect as well.Bumper bumpers. The name of the show
Barrero and guards you with you tillsix thirty tonight. Mike Conley will join
(29:02):
at four thirty and Johnny will joinus from Denver at five thirty as well.
I'm getting this is a production meeting. I don't usually do this on
here, but a bunch of peopleare saying that the talk, the audio,
the sound bites are not coming throughclear. I don't know if there's
anything we can do, but I'vegot actually the last five people saying they
(29:23):
can't hear what we're playing. Thatyou that I could hear through my headset
and what you were hearing. SoI don't know how to explain it,
and I don't know if there's anythingwe can do it. But they're saying
that they're just getting the music andnot the actual sound. Now, I
mentioned you were doing a couple thingswith Harlan on the open in which I
(29:44):
could only hear the background of thecrowd, but not Harlan's speaking, So
we may have some some funky technicaldifficulty. We only have like eighty more
sound bites that I'd like to playthese all. Yeah, I'm not.
I'm afraid now. I'm afraid toplay any of them because, yeah,
they're coming in there. We continueto to get them to to come in.
What the heck? So I allright, let's try this as an
(30:07):
experiment. No, everyone's telling methey're no, it's terrible. Ill,
then I won't play any of them. All right, Well, then we'll
just have to maybe uh reconsider allof that. It sounds amazing in our
ears. Yeah it does. Idon't know what's happening. Unfortunately, that
that that, but that is veryunfortunate. Well, that kind of that
(30:29):
kind of ruins the direction I wasgoing to try to go on. I'll
try to I'll try to to toto to bring it to the audience this
way, Edwards looked oddly out ofsorts in the first half. I give
some of that credit to what theDenver defense was doing to him. He
looked a bit flummoxed to get helooked. It was a little bit like
(30:51):
Game five, where it looked likethey had him in a box. They
had Anthony Edwards in a box,and he didn't really know what to do
about it other than you know,okay, I'll try to get the ball
to other people, which he diddo on occasion and ultimately missed eighteen of
his twenty four shots in the game. And you know, I think it's
(31:14):
fair to say that most of uswould assume that if Anthony Edwards goes six
for twenty four in a game seven, the Wolves are effectively cooked. And
what that's a reminder of is,you know, we work hard to prepare
you for game seven, and wesay this has to happen, right,
(31:37):
and this has to happen. Andhere are the other two or three key
components that will determine whether Denver comesback and gets it done and wins game
seven and hosts then the Dallas Mavericksor whether the Wolves are able to host
the Mavericks as well. So youknow, all honest see, for me,
(32:02):
what this game represented from the Wolvesstandpoint was and this is the danger
the dangerous part of the Denver approach, which a lot of people nationally said,
Look to me, like Denver checkedout a game six pretty early,
and maybe they shouldn't have, butthey know they got Game seven at a
(32:23):
home and so to me, likethey just kind of mailed the damn thing
in. That was one of thewell that was I think either the first
or second worst loss in a ina best of seven series for a defending
champion. It was awful and asa result, I think you say to
(32:45):
yourself that, well, we're goingto come home and we'll be fine,
because that's where the defending champions inthis Game seven, the crowd's going to
be prime, We're going to beprimed, et cetera. The risk I
think the Nuggets learned the hard way. One game there is no telling the
(33:07):
pattern that might ensue, and eventhe rules that you have adhered to through
the series as well. If theNuggets do this, this and this,
they win for the In order forthe Wolves to win this, this and
this must have must happen, notfor one game. When you reduce a
series to a single game, andthis is really the beauty of it.
(33:28):
I think if you're the underdog,if you are in this case, the
road team, if you are theWolves, you reduce it to one game,
madness can can ensue, Weird thingscan happen. Players can come out
of nowhere and do stuff that youmight not expect them to do, right,
And so it's not necessarily true thatif Anthony Edwards misses eighteen of the
(33:54):
twenty four shots he takes, thewolves are cooked. They might be nine
times out of ten, but theymight not be in Game seven because as
that's happening, this, this,and this is happening. And one of
the things that most of definitely happenedas we got to the fourth quarter was
(34:19):
Nazrid. Nazrid's been interesting through theseplayoffs because he's had some really memorable moments
and he's had stretches where you whereyou I could see nationally people going,
this is sixth man of the year. Yeah, what the hell? How's
that possible? Are there no goodsixth men in the NBA anymore? Where
he just made some bad decisions,tried to dribble the ball up in the
(34:44):
open court, just lost it.Maddening passages. But I will tell you,
by the way, I don't knowif you're seeing the text, the
text are indicating that on the iHeartapp I am Everything sounds fine, yeah,
but I'm an AM station in hermantown. It is too. But on
on the FM frequency, is thatwhere the problem is? You know,
(35:05):
let's can we do a test.Well, that's what I wanted to do
earlier. You wouldn't let me.Well we had to change something. Oh
all right, so let's just playthe same joker SoundBite that we just played.
Okay, let's hear how it comesout this time. We need everybody
to respond. This isn't a conspiracyto get more tax either. By the
way, Bright, we don't.We don't have that problem. Six four
six eight six. Let us knowhow this sounds. You know, I
(35:25):
don't believe in I didn't believe inthat. I think the team Humans is
better team. So you have aseven game, so over the best of
seven. So if someone be too, I think they're the better team.
Gass to them like we did youhave a chances, of course we did.
But if someone be too, Imean, they're just better. Who
(35:50):
was that Anthony Edwards? Oh no, that's joker you said. That was
Kevin Durant from six one. Now, if you're listening on FM one hundred
point three, yeah, maybe that'sthe key to this. We know on
the app it's seems be fine.But if you're listening on the Juggernaut,
let us know how it sounds sixfour, six eighty six, because I'd
like to get that cleared up beforeI get to yea the Nas medley,
(36:12):
because me, it sounds good,awesome. I will tell you in this
game of who's the MVP of thegame and who did this and who did
that? Obviously, the moral ofthe story for the Wolves is it's the
consummate team performance that allowed Anthony Edwardsto arrive offensively as late as he did.
(36:37):
That's the beauty of I think thegroup, quite frankly, and and
that was several different players, allto varying degrees at various times, contributing
in a way that all we canwait, it should have been what caused
dread in the building that well,if this is a six point game and
(36:58):
we're going to the fourth quarter,you know Edward's gonna start hitting some shots
what the hell? Or making someplays, which he ultimately did, right,
including the three that put the Wolvesup ten. Yeah, right off
to Conley after the Nas put back. But I if I'm ranking them for
just this one game, I'm puttingthis montage of outstanding naz Red offensive and
(37:25):
perhaps even more importantly defensive moments asthe key to the breakthrough at the elbows,
KCP hold the answer. Mike Conleyback to Yoki. Jokics works on
NAS read right side of the floor, picks it out. Tomorrow they move
it to KCP out of the cornerMP. He'll rise up with the Triplet's
off by the Wolves. Couldn't securethe rebound. Yoki doz puzz back up.
(37:45):
He got smarted. NAS leave withthe block and back the other way.
On the attack, he got stripped. It's out of bounds with fifteen
on the shot. Flock works tothe right side, now left side Nas
to hand the guarded. My KCPgoes back to NAZ. He fakes the
pass, drives and gets around.Yo gets finger roll, good huff thing
(38:06):
last What a finish by nos ReidTimberwolves eighty five nuggets eighty with five h
two left. That's the way youanswer back. Jamal Murray's got some space.
He'll drive to the right side inthe paint, try to get at
trying to strip him. Here's Yogets inside against two defenders and his shot
up blocked by NOAs Mike Contley scoopsup the loose ball. Here come the
(38:29):
Wolves by five with three forty fiveleft hand ball in hand forty feet out
right side. Erdie comes to setthe screen. Hand waves him away and
is huffing and puffing. He's gotGordon on and Porter Junior taking on the
double. Don McDaniels to nas Reidleft side, back to Jade six to
shoot. Ant's got it up topagainst court frees himself rises up three ball
all the way off the rim hillclaim follow nos Reid, the sixth man
(38:52):
of the Year comes soaring in fromthe wing and he puts the walls up
eighty nine eighty two Nas with abunch for fourth. There it is,
I mean, honest to God,you can even hear the Wolves fans in
the background on that follow slam,not to be confused with the Cat follows
slam that was also big but laterread and again this is where we like
(39:15):
to say the basketball gods are alwaysagainst us, but it ends up being
a blessing that your best starter,Karl Anthony Towns finally does have to sit
because of foul trouble. Right,And they were in this case not affected
in any meaningful way. In fact, I began to wonder whether Cat was
(39:37):
going to come back at all.I don't think he did to like two
minutes to go. He didn't untilRudy fouled out. N til Rudy fouled
out, exactly it was, andthat's because this was one of those stretches
where you say, this is thebeauty of the depth of this club.
You got another big man who's makingevery play, and as I said,
as good as as solid as Cattended to be defensively against Joker, Naz
(40:02):
was handling him pretty well. Nasis obviously a better shot blocker than Kat
quicker to getting up which and hefrustrated a Joker on a couple of those
as well. So I get it. This was the consummate team effort.
But in the fourth quarter, tome, there's no topping the series of
(40:22):
plays that nas Reed made both offensivelyand defense, and those are the nas
Reid heaters. I mean, that'sthe type of thing that he's known to
do and has done for the lastcouple of seasons. And really this whole
series was about almost the nas Reedsand Aaron Gordon's yes, because they're just
energy plays, like when Aaron Gordondunks it at Ballerina the place hits a
(40:44):
different level than even when Joker Murraydoes something because he's like a bit player,
he's kind of a folk hero.It's the same. It's the nas
Reed concept here, and it wasthey needed somebody. You know, we
all talked about how you're gonna maketwo big men work and then they signed
and it's like, wow, that'sa lot you're paying. You know,
your seven footers like ninety million dollarsthis year. And their thing was,
(41:07):
but we like all of them,They're all important. We're gonna need all
of them at some point. Andlast night was a perfect microcosm of that
that they needed something from every singleone of their centers that they brought,
except Luca, who his time willcome. I think this might be the
serious I still have a hole matchups. I think Lucas joined us from the
cage one of the days. He'sactually an hour an let him cut open
(41:30):
a vein. Yeah, do youthink he'd like demand playing time. He's
kind of ants number one hype man, like he with that ship up real
quick. He's a good he's agood teammate obviously, you know, as
I'm listening to you in all seriousness, how how many years have we waited
for this? This is and thisis not about again. We know the
title hasn't been one. What anybodywho listened to this show, well,
(41:52):
I think understand if you've listened fora while, is what we're talking about
here about what we've been waiting foris just the opportunity to, in this
case, on the twentieth of BleepingMay to talk pro basketball and not have
to apologize for it, to talkabout the local team in the mix now
favored. The Wolves are favored toget to the National Basketball Association Finals,
(42:16):
and they should be home court.Think they're a better team. Quite frankly,
that doesn't mean it's won. Butthis is what we've been looking for,
the chance to Okay, layout soundbites talk about specific stretches of games
decades literally. So that's just becauseyou just you just want to join the
battle. You want to you wantto feel connected to this larger, outstanding
(42:42):
event. And I think now italso helps people say, well now I
see why other people when other marketsget into this, because this stuff's fun,
the ebb and flow of it,the dramatic changes that take place within
a series, The lessons I thinkwe've all learned, including me in this
series that you can't assume anything onthe basis of what you've just seen that
(43:04):
a team's done or a team's gonnawin it in four. Although I never
thought they were gonna sweep Denver infour. I never thought that made any
sense as well. But I digressnas Reed was absolutely magnificent yesterday, And
it almost seems like with he's oneof those guys who is on it.
It's a heater thing where it buildsfor him once he goes. Once he
(43:27):
goes, he's feeling it. Helooks more confident going to the basket again.
It's more sure of himself. Yeah, exactly when he struggles for a
minute, then all of a sudden, you know, one turnover can turn
into two and then a bad shotor a bad foul or whatever it is.
Was there much booing from den orwas it? Were they just too
stunned to ever get to the booing. The only time there was booing was
when Let's Go Wolves broke out,So I think you could hear on the
(43:50):
broadcast. And it happened. Happenedearly when the Wolves started well, and
then obviously as the third quarter washappening, it happened a lot during breaks,
let's go Wolves, and they wouldimmediately. I was telling Abbot earlier.
It reminded me of when the Vikingsaren't very good and gerb Schmidt buys
up us Bank Stadium and go Packgoes at us Bank Stadium. That's what
it reminded me of. And there'sreally nothing you can do. You want
(44:12):
to drown them out, but it'salso kind of embarrassing that you have to
drown them out, and there's reallyonly one way to do it, and
that's booing. And that's that wasthe only time the booze happened. They
were all just stunned that that wasgoing on. They got on Joker a
little bit late when they needed togo, and Joker was kind of standing
there, remember that he with theball. That's when they got kind of
frantic lancy that. But before andafter that it was mostly just stunned silence
(44:36):
and Wolves fans trying to take overthe building. You're not gonna lie to
you. I got a little worriedwhen we we bungled that out of bounds
play. Yeah, with two timeouts. That was dumb, which was strange.
They it, you know, all'swell, that ends well, but
I got a little worried there becauseagain, Denver, do they have two
players especially who can hit trees atany point, even if they've been cold.
And it got to five at thatpoint, and it did get to
five, got to five with fortysome sites, I even was a little
(44:59):
worries. Like on the broadcast,it was almost like they were already saluting
the Wolves that the Wolves had wonit. That hold off a little bit
on that. Well, even Isaid this on the Howlum with the Homies
last night too, I was surprisedhow early Denver just hoisted the white flag.
With thirty seconds they're down six,right or seven? Yeah, it's
(45:19):
like and the Wolves let them backin kind of polishly because even with thirteen
seconds left they're down six, likeobviously it's probably over. But in the
NBA, maybe they didn't have timeouts. I wasn't really looking at the situation
there, but with thirty seconds left, I was surprised they didn't at least
foul once and try to extend thegame for one extra possession. I think
it's about the fabulous series. Probablyget them. Who do you like?
(45:46):
I like the Wolves? Okay,Yeah, it's not unusual that oh,
I think, Oh that's not abouthow I thought it was pretty good.
(46:07):
How much do we have to worrywe're very insecure market? Oh yeah,
how much do we have to worryabout Charles ripping our women, ripping our
downtown, ripping our restaurants scene?You know, he's we're already over the
top on the restaurant thing. Itmay not matter. Maybe it won't.
Maybe we're so giddy that it won'tmatter what he does. But I think
(46:28):
we'll take it personally. Like youknow that he got himself in trouble in
San Antonio Davy many years ago abouthow he described the women. That turned
into a bit that I think waspretty fun for all involved. He's got
Galvus crosshairs this year, because that'sright, the dirty water. So what's
he mostly and this would be agood bit for the whole week? What
(46:49):
is sir Charles most likely to savageus once he gets here? What's what
do you think would be the toptwo or three things that might get in
his crosshairs once hear too many bikepaths? Number one? Yeah, probably
true. That's a good question.We're gonna need some help bratchew Brian Kafan
text line. So, yeah,give us some ideas there, because I'm
(47:09):
trying to think that if we anticipatethe ideas and they were right, maybe
it won't hurt as much once weactually hear it from him, because we
have already will have sort of digestedit. We're already preemptively mad at him
though, because he told Anthony Edwardshe hasn't been to Minnesota in like twenty
years. And I'm pretty sure,as most people have tried to clarify,
(47:30):
he was here for the twenty nineteenFinal four. But it must have been
so unmemorable, right I forgot?Yeah he did, You're right, he
says, twenty years. Yeah,so I haven't been there in like twenty
years. I was twenty nineteen.That was I know. Either it was
a really bad experience or we madeno impression on him on that occasion.
And obviously between that and now,there's been a worldwide pandemic and none of
us remember our lives before then,So maybe he just blocked that part out
(47:52):
of it. But he was herefive years ago. I don't know where
he is six' five to one, guy, You're gonna get Chuck on
the show. We're trying believe me. We're trying for everybody this week,
all hands on deck. We can'tpossibly do enough on this series. Don't
forget Mike Conley in about a halfhour when we come back. I am.
I think likely going to ensure atop seed according to some in the
(48:16):
in Commons PST tournament for two thousandand twenty four, but bleep it,
I don't care that's coming up.
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