Knicks SNAP SPURS' WIN STREAK With Win In MSG | The Big 3 in 30 NBA

0:00Today on the Big 3 in 30, the next beat Victor Wembenyama in the spurs. Demiishkanas, Monster Knight. The Timberwolves take down the nuggets in Denver. Just had their best win of the season. And the Celtics get a win over the 76ers. They finally beat a good team at full strength. All the rope. This is the Big 3 in 30 NBA. The three biggest stories in the NBA from our local experts at the Lockdown Podcast Network. We bring you the real story. Why it matters. What's next? Who wins the big game and more? All in 30 minutes. The Big 3 in 30 NBA starts now. Thank you for making the Big 3 in 30. Your first listen of the day. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team. Every day. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com. And win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. The Knicks hosted the Spurs last night and took a win that snapped San Antonio's 11 game winning streak.

1:04Lockdown Knicks host XJ breaks down just how big this win is for New York. I'm going to dive right in to the guy. Muhammad D.O.R. Oh man. The Knicks, like I said, just had their best win of the season. And I'm starting off talking about Muhammad D.O.R. 51st overall pick. Can't legally drink in the United States of America yet. Muhammad D.O.R. And you guys know if you listen to this show consistently. It shows that I'm on. This is my first season doing Lockdown Knicks. And I've loved doing it. I've loved interacting with you all. Learning, you know, commenters, your names, your perspectives and experiences. All of those kinds of things. It's been truly a pleasure. If you learn stuff about me. You've learned that I'm a pretty cautious guy. I don't generally jump to really strong conclusions. And let's say it's grounded in substantiated research or evidence. Or there's a strong grounding for it. And that's really about anything related to basketball.

2:07Especially young players. Because you never know what you're going to get from a young player. You don't know if they'll have an explosive couple of weeks. And then they completely fall off. If they'll be terrible for the first five months of their career. They'll be one of the top players in the league. All of those things can happen with young players. Shredectories are very unclear. And we still know very little about how guys develop and become really, really good. And what things look like when they're going to be really, really good. But ladies and gentlemen, with that being said, you were right about my mom at D.O.R. You were right about my mom at D.O.R. I am not a guy who will look at a young player like that on my team. Overrate him or overhype him. That is not something I'm going to do. And the reason for that. I don't think you guys were doing that to be clear. But I am overly on guard for personal bias. I do not want personal bias to leak into my, you know, attempted objective analysis of the team. And so for that reason, if I sense anything like that could be happening,

3:09I'm going to be more cautious about it. So I waited and waited and. But the evidence is here for me, man. And this spurs game, it's enough. It's the cherry on top. It's the straw that's stirring the drink. Whatever you want to call it, it's the straw that broke the horses. But can you leave in the comment? What is that phrase? I don't even know. I can't even think of it. But the guy is legit. He is just so confident himself to see, you know, a guy that his age drafted where he was drafted, have no fear whatsoever. It is stunning to me. It is stunning to me. The way he came out in a second half to me is the clearest representation of that. The spurs, as I mentioned, put on an absolute masterclass of ghost coverage deployed over the first six minutes of the game. It was absolutely textbook. I'm going to go deep dive into that. Super. If you are a film. X and O's nerd, you'll love to hear that segment. I'm going to talk about that in a second segment. But right now, I want to talk about the fact that the nicks bring in D.

4:10War after that. And the spurs are like, oh, you guys are just going to bring another Josh heart. We're going to do the same thing. Watch what happens. D. War is like, no. That's not the case. He ends up getting a wide open three early into his insertion into the game on a kick out from towns, pulls it. No hesitation. Caches it. And then the look and his face as he just stares down the spurs, like the whole spurs team is hilarious. He's just like, y'all got me F that like this is not going to go how you think it's going to go. And then the interesting thing is he gets two more looks later on from three. And he kind of hesitates. And, and, and I tweeted it out and shout out to my god Jeff Johnson who, you know, replied and was like, the war was probably hesitating because he doesn't want to get subbed out. And those were pretty deep threes. And, you know, he's, he's thinking about like, how do I play the right way? And, and how do I do things within the flow of the team and all those kinds of things?

5:10And I think there's a lot to that. I think he wants to feel like, okay, the coach, look, I'm making good decisions. I'm doing the right thing. But you can tell he kind of regretted it. He's like, why did I hesitate on those? Like, I know I can make these. And so when the second half he comes in, he gets his opportunity again. And he's just gunning nine, nine at three point attempts in the second half. I think, let me just double check and make sure I'm not yet. Three of nine in the second half. Nine three point attempts in eight minutes from how the DOR and the second half. That is, I'm not going to calculate it for you. How many three point, I mean, we know it's, it's 27 per 36 three point attempts. This is how it is astronomical in terms of, that's just gunning. There's no way around it. He didn't care at all. He just pulling threes wherever he's open. He's like, you're not going to guard me this way. I'm too good a shooter. He believes it in his core. And again, to me, I look at behaviors to reflect belief. Like I talked about this with Josh Harden and Josh Harden. I thought I had actually a really good game after the first six minutes,

6:12which was terrible. And he was completely damaging to the team. But then had a really good game after that point. And we'll talk about why. But Josh Harden, although he's shooting nearly 40% from three this season, I don't think he believes he's a 40% three point shooter because I look at behaviors to reflect deep true beliefs, right? Like if you believe you're that good a shooter, you're not hesitating and pump faking and passing up wide open corner threes. You're just not. And Muhammad Diawara is like, no, I believe it. I believe it. And I'm going to shoot these because I know I'm that good at it. And if you believe it, your opponent will start to believe it. They have no choice but to be like, oh man, this guy's legit. Like he's good, man. And this is not stuff we see from a 20 year old raw rookie. That's not supposed to be good yet. Not supposed to have a jump shot. Yeah, all these things. These are not things you see from a guy in his situation at his age. And it was his pedigree. It just doesn't really happen. And we saw specifically, I'm going to make this concrete because I'm not just talking about theory.

7:16We saw when we start to believe it. We saw on the one attempt later in the second half. The bar has it has the ball from the top of the key. Begins his shot motion because he's like, yeah, I'm shooting everything. And when he is like sort of in no man's lane, he's in the middle. And he decides to contest. He goes forward towards Diawara with an outstretched arm. And he decides to contest it. And guess what happens? He's out of the play. Now, Karan Thunny Towns, who's guarded by the smaller Stefan Castle, is able to get the offensive rebound and go back up. I forget the result of the play. I don't know if the town's got foul. I think he got fouled, but he did get fouled because I remember him falling on the floor and the camera being in his face while he's on the floor. So he got fouled after that. And that's set up by Muhammad Diawara's pressure. He's creating pressure by saying, are you sure about this whole ghost coverage thing? Are you sure this is what you want to do? Because you're saying, hey, we're going to just let you shoot all night. And we're going to live with it. And ha ha ha. Yeah, it being smug and all that. And it's like, okay, cool.

8:18I love that train. I love that exchange. I love that trade off. I love that you want to live with that because I want to live with that too. And that is a level of confidence, a level of poise, a level of true belief in oneself and skill sets. That a player that is under 21 that has only played, you know, a few, you know, I don't know how many hundreds of minutes that he's played in the NBA. Not many. Like to have that confidence at that point is incredible. And obviously he does a ton of other things. He played really great defense. You know, Michael Malone on the broadcast was saying at some point, like, uh, sorry to Jeremy Shilohan, but you're going to have trouble getting back your minutes. You know, I think it was when Diawara guarded Stefan Castle. Castle makes like a nice crossover move. Diawara turns his hips and gets his hips flipped back in front and gets the block at the rim. And it's like, yeah, now this guy is guarding like this. He's shooting with confidence. He's attacking closeouts.

9:18He's, you know, he's affecting the game both ways now. And this guy is just, he's just good. There's no other way around it. To the extent that I'm just utterly convinced he's going to be a playoff rotation player for this team. 20 years old, man, 20 years old, 51st pick, a playoff rotation player for this team is crazy to think about. It just doesn't happen. And so again, I haven't held out saying Diawara is not that good or anything like that. I've held out just saying like, let me see more. Let me see more. Let me give me more time. Give me more evidence. Give me more data to work with before I start making broad claims. And to your credit, all of you, you guys are like, man, I've seen enough. I can tell what we have in this kid. And you were right. You were right. This guy is legit. And I don't know what is ceiling going to be. It's going to be, you know, sub all star, all star superstar. Who knows? I have no idea. And I won't put a cap on it. But right now, he is an impact player. He is a guy who can play for you. And if Diawara lineups start to be five shooter lineups,

10:20meaning that five shooter lines are not, you know, what your shooting percentages are. They are how defense guards you. And if defense is starting to say, no, we have to respect Muhammad Diawara as a shooter. Good luck to the Eastern conference as the nicks make their way through it. Hopefully making it to a finals appearance. Ever wanted to experience the NBA finals live. And in person, Fandall is giving you the chance to turn that dream into a reality with the NBA sweepsticks. Here's how it works. Use your profit boost on any NBA future. And you'll be automatically entered first shot to win an NBA finals trip for two. That's right. Flight tickets. The whole experience. If you're already looking at the board and thinking about which team can make a deep run. This is the perfect time to lock it in. Not only can you pick cash, but it could also send you to the finals. Visit fandall.com to get started. Use your profit boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with Fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA.

11:25Welcome back to the big three and 30 NBA. The timber wolves had six players get to double figures and use the team effort to beat the nuggets last night. Ben Beacon recaps the road win unlocked on wolves. The wolves win over Denver. And I was an important win. I said in the open, a much needed win. Not because the wolves have lost a bunch of games lately, although they're like 500 in their last 12 before coming into this one. But because they finally beat a good team at full strength on the rope, right? Like it's been a little while since this has happened. We all know the wolves can do it and it doesn't necessarily certainly doesn't solve the plane to the competition piece of things. But it's certainly an important we'll call it box check, right? We know that the wolves can be good teams like this. And now they did it and they did it in a unique way. And what I mean by that is the wolves had a very balanced offense. We'll get into this here in just a minute. We'll talk about how aunt handled the unique way Denver, not that unique, but the specific way that Denver tried to defend him. And then also how the wolves, you know, did what they needed to do along the way.

12:27Denver pushed back several times. The wolves and the wolves just kept pushing ahead and eventually pulled away in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. So we'll break down how the wolves were able to do all that. We'll talk about lots of impressive individual performances. Really everybody that played had a significant role in this one. It was a very balanced game for Minnesota. But I want to start with my three big things. And we'll do that here in just a moment. First a big thank you for making locked on wolves your first listen every day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Where we like to listen to podcasts. You can find locked on wolves. You could also watch a lockdown sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon fire TV. All right. So this game obviously super important. Wolves have already lost the tie record to Denver. Coming into this one, but coming into the game with an identical record as the nuggets. Obviously winning this game puts them ahead of Denver by a game in the Western conference. And now the wolves stand alone and forth and actually are in a virtual tie with Houston for the third seat in the west.

13:28So an important. An important game for that reason and important reason important game for the reason I already mentioned, which is just beating a good team on the road. And there's a lot that went right in this one for the Tim Wolves. I'm going to start with like my three big things number one. Like this is this is a very broad topic and sometimes that's what happens in the three big things. But I want to hit on resiliency. That's my number one thing. Minnesota was down nine at the end of the first quarter. And Denver. Was getting getting the free throw in a lot. They did throughout the game. I mean, Denver ended up shooting what ultimately I guess only eight more free throws in Minnesota. But for while they were doubling up the wolves in the free throw attempt category. Denver's getting to line a bunch. They were playing physical. They were doubling Anthony Edwards will talk more about that. The wolves just missed a ton of threes like Dante even Chenzo made his first three point attempt to the game. The wolves first three point attempt to the game early in the first quarter. Minnesota missed like their next eight threes. Julius Randall looked awful early in the game. It looked like a continuation of the other night when he scored four points last Thursday night.

14:32And, you know, obviously a low in intervals uniform low in the years for Julius Randall. He couldn't score the wolves couldn't make a three. It just looked like, oh man, whether it's the altitude or. You know, the residual of everybody being concerned about Finch and Anthony Edwards relationship and some of the other stuff those narratives that are out there. Right. But in the second quarter. And he got 16 minutes off the bench. He scored 18 points on seven shots. And 15 of his 18 points were in the first half. He almost single-handedly kept the wolves in the game early. And it sounds crazy. And I know I just did a show like a week ago talking about how bone style needs to play less. I'm not at all recanting that because I think at the grand scheme of things. You'd rather see some minutes from depending on the matchup. Jalen Clark to Jason and Kyle Anderson once he's officially joined the team. Any other. I mean, there's another potential move that could come. There was some ties Jones rumors this weekend. That's something we'll cover maybe tomorrow show. But in this particular game.

15:32It's exactly why you bring any guy like bones Highland and a year ago. I talked about the almost exactly a year ago when they added him on a two a deal in the first place. I said, look, he's the sort of guy due to injuries or. You know, file trouble, whatever you bring him in and he can get you a quick 20. And he's usually not going to be good defensively. Sometimes he's going to shoot you out of the game. If you let him play too much. But if you need it, it's a high variance play with bones. Right. Now, of course, the kicker is he is actually part of the rotation now. And that's part of some of the challenges here is the high variance with bones like. You know, you're not always. You're not always going to get this version of bones. And actually, if you look at it and this is a noisy thing. But he had the second worst plus minus on the team in this game. All that to say. He was awesome in the second quarter. And he almost single handedly. Allowed Minnesota to stay in the game and then eventually to take a lead. Minnesota was up. I think eight and a half time after being down by nine at the end of the first quarter. The wolves outscored Denver 36 to 19 in the second quarter. And then also is the game more on.

16:33More resiliency. They were great in the non-Yoke it's minutes when Yoke it's on the floor. It was a lot tougher. We saw Denver continue to get to the line as the game were on. We saw some, you know, the. The challenge not go the timbrels way, which happens, of course. But this sort of like. I don't know, not avalanches in the right word because it wasn't. Didn't come with that sort of. You know, ferociousness. But it was like. One thing after another Denver would make a push and it would be a closer game. And then the wolves could push back, right? And they didn't have variety different ways. And it really one of the things they hung their hat on. And I just go ahead. Throw this into this first thing is, is how the wolves did against. I'll put this in air quotes. The transition defense of the Denver nuggets. The nuggets have one of the worst defenses in the league. And it's been like bottom five over the last month, six weeks or so. And they've been bad in transitional season. They also turned the ball overlap, which is not a recipe for success. And that. For the way that this version of the timbrels plays. Which is very fast.

17:34That is a very good thing for the wolves. And sure enough, Denver turned over 14 times. They have 22 points on those 14 turnovers, which is a huge number. By comparison, the wolves turned it over 14 times. And Denver got only 11 points off of the same number of turnovers. So the wolves got twice as many points off of nuggets turnovers. As the nuggets got off of Timberwolves turnovers. Because I think it's part of its live all the dead ball. And then the other piece of it is just how bad the Denver transition defense is. And yeah, the wolves can look really bad too in transition defensively. But not as bad as Denver. And that was a huge piece of this. And that fed into the timbrels being able to push back with some runs of their own. And again, that that point of resiliency. The second thing. Well, actually, so one other one other quick note on that. I had made a note about three point shooting. The wolves ended it. The game shooting great. 39% from three. They started like one of eight. And then they kept at it. And they kept shooting threes. They kept running plays to get threes for Dante to get threes for Nas to get threes. For, you know, Ant. And ultimately they made 14 threes in this game.

18:36Denver only made six. They attempted 14 more threes than Denver and eight. And they made eight more threes. They were 39% to Denver's 27. So I'd lump that in with resiliency. As, as, you know, something that didn't start out well. But we know the wolves are going to die. Right. The other thing. Is the non-Yo-Kitch minutes. That's that's big thing number two. This is an obvious thing for any team that plays Denver. But in the non-Yo-Kitch minutes, you have to be great. And the wolves were. Yo-Kitch was a plus four in a game. The wolves won by nine. So in the non-Yo-Kitch minutes. And this I guess includes garbage time and stuff. But there wasn't a whole lot of that. It was like a minute, minute and a half. But in the non-Yo-Kitch minutes, the wolves were plus 13. The wolves were nine minus four with Yo-Kitch was on the floor. That's huge. It's what you have to do. And there's only 11 of those. Yo-Kitch played 37 minutes. So you only have 11 minutes to make. Hey, when Yo-Kitch is off the floor. And I thought the wolves did a good job of mixing and matching. Lineups. Would go bearers, or excuse me, when Yo-Kitch was off the floor. And also, I'm going to say,

19:36I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, when Yo-Kitch was off the floor. And also, Jamal Murray shared some of that time off the floor. Like the nuggets are miserable when both yo-kitch and Murray were off the floor. Or off the floor. Because the defense is bad, no matter what. No matter who's on the floor, it's bad for Denver. The offense can survive with Yo-Kitch off the floor in Murray on, but not when they're both off the floor. Go bear 8. Jonas Vellanci Greeks lunch. Vellanci Students got the flagrant one for the nobo. And Dante Dimene-Chenz em was a minus 15 in 10 minutes. Gobert was really good in this game. I thought he competed. I know he got dunked on that happens when you actually challenge shots Instead of just like guys have free runs to the rim like some big dude are trying to avoid getting dunked on Gobert was really good and and and I thought he was great in the non-yo-kitch minutes like I get it He doesn't guard yo-kitch great one-on-one. He just doesn't I mean first of all not many guys do although Carlton he tons does weirdly enough But I thought he held his own when given a really impossible assignment and

20:39And I mean ultimately yo-kitch turned it over five times and He's still got his 35 13 and 9 but the wolves won the non-yo-kitch minutes by 13 points, and that's how you beat Denver What are you gonna do with yo-kitch, right? I thought the wolves handled that about as well as you possibly could Ever wanted to experience the NBA finals live and in person Fandall is giving you the chance to turn that dream into a reality with the NBA Here's how it works use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll be automatically entered first shot to win an NBA finals trip for two That's right flights tickets the whole experience if you're already looking at the board and thinking about which team can make it deep Run this is the perfect time to lock it in not only can you pick cash, but it could also send you to the finals Visit fandall.com to get started use your profit boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals Play your game with fandall the official sports betting partner of the NBA

21:39Welcome back to the big three and 30 NBA the Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter and beat the 76ers in Boston last night John Carralis goes over the 16 point win unlocked on Celtics Namiish katas monster knight and just an incredible performance all the way around for him 27 points 17 rebounds 10 of those were offensive rebounds 27 and 17 an incredible night for keta who joins like select company in having the Having the night that he did it's I think it was Kevin McCale and Like two other guys. I don't have the stat in front of me, but It was it's it's very slight company here to to have 27 points 17 rebounds 10 offensive rebounds

22:40In fact, if you throw in this is from dick light his field goal percentage the assists in the steal Only david robinson did all of those things. So I love adjusting sliders to make make performances look great But yeah, Nami was incredible and It was funny because The first sign of Nami doing something he had like a move where he brought the ball like low and he practices stuff like this Before games at he does like these kind of like the fun like the crazy moves and stuff He has a nice touch around the rim But he he had a move where he just kind of like brought it low and brought it around and finished and I was like Wait, what? Nami did that Okay, interesting and then he He got the ball. It was I think he had a steal Then he got the ball kind of in transition and he

23:41Hit a power dribble look like he was going to go up for a big dunk And it got challenged and he just brought it up and under and laid it in and you were like Wait a second. Like it immediately. I was like this. This doesn't make any sense. What's happening here I know Nami has catered has been very much improved, but This all of a sudden is just bringing it up and around. There's a picture of him with the with the arm Extended out and you're like what is that's not the meish kato. What was But it was it was in this game. Kato was just brilliant and big start to the game big first quarter and then big fourth quarter and if there's I don't know who's improved their game more in the league this year than then kato if if he's not the most improved I don't know what they're doing with that award. And no normally

24:41Most improved player goes to the the guy that's scoring. Hey, he went from six points of game last year to like Now he now he's scoring uh, you know 18 or something like that And that that's not necessarily meany, but he has improved Basically every facet of his game every aspect of his game has been Markedly improved his screening his recognition his reading is passing The finishing He has a nice touch around the rim. He's got a decent little floater. He's got a nice little jump hook and You know, I see him extending his range Taking three pointers in shoot around and pregame and you're like I was watching the other day before the Brooklyn game. I'm like The jumper doesn't look half bad. The jumper looks good

25:45I don't know that he's gonna ever become a stretch five But I don't know. I didn't think he was gonna become this so I can't put anything past them He's working on it But he's got a nice touch and the finishing It's Jalen after the game was talking about it and he was going through the box score and He's talked about like the up and under. He's just started to smile And so I had the mic. I was gonna. I asked them a question. I was like You're you're you're already smiling looking at The you know describing the finishes. What what what's going on there? Like where were you talking and he just laughed He's like let's just say that those aren't things they would normally finish But he finished him tonight. It was great. But he was he was laughing at the finish the guys in the bench were laughing at some of the finishes

26:45No one could believe what Mimi was doing But more importantly than all of that stuff It was the offensive rebounds because in the first quarter especially the Celtics were They missed everything they three of thirteen from three eight of twenty six from the field the fact that they matched the sixers At a twenty six field goal attempts in the first quarter is a miracle But that's because Mimi had five offensive rebounds and the Celtics had seven and it was The The Celtics had an opportunity there that they gave themselves chances extra bites at the apple so to speak and normally when a team shoots eight of twenty six and three of thirteen from three That's a chance for the other team to get out into transition to get out run put up a bunch of put up a bunch of field goal attempts

27:46What should have happened in all honesty was the sixers should have had 30 31 shots and the Celtics should have had 21 and that would have meant maybe six of 21 for Boston and you know, let's just say 12 or 13 of 31 for Philly so you take two buckets away For the Celtics and just even if we just say there are two pointers you you give them 22 points you put An extra what I say four six on Philly side Now they're at 32 and Instead of instead of being down to you're down 10 And it just changes the dynamic of the game now in the second quarter Maybe Philly's coming out with a little bit added intensity maybe they're they're feeling themselves a little bit more and and you

28:51Just again the butterfly effect of the game changes in that way so Getting those offensive rebounds even if they didn't even result in in more makes The Celtics were able to get themselves they got themselves to the line where they were perfect seven for seven in the first quarter They they were plus four in that they were able to match the sixers in 3.makes even though they took six more They still were able to get the three and Okay, so they they were they had three fewer baskets But they had four more free throws so There's your two-point difference You know Philly was plus six in the made baskets and the Celtics were plus four points in the free throws And you put now you're only two-point game That's critical that is critical for the Celtics and you know is listening to

29:53Sixers podcasts on the on the way home and They said it like after that first quarter where the Celtics were Awful shooting absolutely awful and the the sixers were only up two They even said like we knew we were losing this game. We just knew it and they did and Keta in the first quarter was huge Kind of you know, you still good in the second quarter But then he kind of sat for a while and then it was the fourth quarter Where the Celtics went on eleven one run to close the game and it was just Bucket bucket bucket He had a Kind of lost the ball in a big strong, you know, put back or not put back But a big strong finish and then an offensive rebound in the layup and then the ball gets tipped around and he gets it and gets a dunk And it was just boom boom boom. So Shout out to Neemie. He should be the most improved player of the year

30:53He's been he's been great and Yeah, I'll just leave it at that Neemie's been awesome That's all for today's big three in 30 NBA If you follow football or college sports the big three and 30 has shows for the biggest news in the NFL and on campus Going up every weekday just like this one Just search the big three in 30 NFL or the big three in 30 college wherever you're listening or watching right now Thanks again for tuning in to the big three in 30 NBA