The Minnesota Timberwolves’ defensive shot profile is driving their sustainable defensive efficiency

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ defensive shot profile is driving their sustainable defensive efficiency

Hello and welcome into another episode of lockdown wolves today on the show we’re talking about the Timberwolves shot profile defensively and why it’s so impressive really the the reason behind the timber rves number one defense and and also combating the some of the talk of oh there’s a lot of good luck with

How opponents are shooting I’ll tell you why that’s maybe the case but how the wolves are kind of creating their own luck on the defensive end of the floor we’ll also preview wolves Thunder it’s all up coming welcome and you are locked on wolves you are locked on on Timberwolves your daily Minnesota

Timberwolves podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day hello and welcome to the lockdown wolves podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day my name is Ben Beacon I’m the host of lockon wolves today’s episode is brought To Us by our friends at game time download the game time app create an

Account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase all right uh wolves thunder tonight we’ll talk about that a little bit later a rematch from a fantastic game just a few weeks ago actually the game that Anthony Edwards initially got injured in um so

We’ll talk a little bit about that game towards the end I want to spend most of today though talking about why the Wolves defense has been so impressive this year or really the reason behind how they’re generating all this uh quote unquote good luck when it comes to

Opponent shot attempt so we’ll get to that here that’s what we’ll spend most of today on a big thank you here though off the top for making lock done wolves your first listen every day of course this show is free and available everywhere including YouTube as well as

All of your favorite audio platforms wherever you like to listen to podcasts you can find lockon wolves you can also watch on the lockon sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV and you can follow along on X at lockon wolves and at B Beacon with 2bs 2 e

Cken all right all right so the ti rolles of course through play on Christmas Day have the the League’s best defense still uh pretty easily the League’s best defense they have a defensive rating of 107.7 I guess it depends on where you look but that’s that basketball reference they continue

To have the League’s best defensive effective field goal percentage opponents don’t shoot threes well against them no they don’t shoot open shots against them either and there’s been a lot of like I I want to be clear like overall the national discourse surrounding the Wolves has been um I

Mean it has to be positive right they’re 22 and six best record in the west they’ve been going back and forth with the Celtics kind of keeping Pace with the best record in the league um but there’s always kind of this but related to their schedule and related to um

Opponent shooting uh percentages or you could call it defensive shooting luck based on how opponents are shooting certain shots against them right now I’m a big fan of of some of these caveats in general when it comes to saying oh this team’s awesome like you have to look at the peripherals

Right I do that all the time on this podcast like what are we looking at in terms of predicting future performance where’s the flakiness here so I’ll be the first to tell you there A lot of times is flakiness when it comes to um you know certain things like how’s

An opponent shooting threes against you at some point that’s going to even out right well the point I made maybe a month ago when I kind of covered this topic was like hey um well somebody has to have the League’s best defensive field goal percentage or defensive effective field goal percentage against

Or three-point percentage against right like somebody’s got to rank best in the league and when I did this again about a month ago I pulled kind of historicals like uh what was the best defense the last three or four years in terms of effective field goal percentage what was

The best defense three-point percentage and are the wolves in line and the answer was basically yes at the time we were only a fifth of the way through the season but it felt like they were pretty in line that’s still the case I don’t want to focus on that today because

Again we did it a few weeks ago and maybe we’ll get back to it mid-season but I want to look at this from the lens of um or I guess through the lens of if I’m going to use the uh that phrase correctly the type of shots that opponents are

Getting what the wolves are trying to force opponents to do and then also what is their success um in those places on the floor really um so just kind of taking this a layer deeper to see like hey is this all very intentional what the wolves are doing and if so how

Sustainable is it um the other thing that I’ll point out and we talked about this maybe last week was how good the wols have been against top 10 offenses and top 10 defenses this year I think this was maybe last Wednesday or Thursday I talked about this and the

Wolves to this point are six and one against teams with the top 10 offense they’re only loss coming against the Sixers and embid last week um because the Kings like right now they aren’t a top 10 offense uh and now they’re one in one against the Kings anyway but they

Were last year right the Kings had the League’s best offense last year so if you look at this year’s top 10 offenses the Wolves were six and one against top 10 offenses they’re also um I believe I think they’re undefeated against top 10 defenses too if I if I’m not mistaken I

I would need to pull that again but they’re varying really well against both right um so that kind of combats some of the uh some of the concern about like the strength of schedule because that’s another thing like early in the year the Wolves had a really tough schedule and

There was no denying that it had been much softer of late and so that was another thing you’re starting to see like ah but their schedule well yeah I mean now it’s back to a really tough schedule you look at the last week and a half the wolves are you know dep again

Depending on where you look and depending on which metric you’re looking at they have a top five difficult the strict of schedule to this point in terms of games that they play like um the uh simple rating system over at uh basketball reference has them fourth in terms of how difficult their schedule’s

Been so it hasn’t been a cakewalk so if anyone tells you yeah but their schedule that’s not true either now we know the wolves are in the middle of this Gauntlet of like 16 games against likely playoff teams and they’re I think five- two so far if I’m not mistaken on that

Um so all that to say let’s focus in on the shot profile and and how that has lifted the wolves overall Defense number one um and the stat over at cleaning the glass is location effective field goal percentage so the definition according to cleaning the glass is if this team

Allowed the league average field goal percentage from each location what would their opponent’s effective field goal percentage be this gives a sense of the efficiency of a team’s defensive shot profile right or put another way are they forcing teams to take twos non non- paint twos or non

Rim twos right like that’s the goal so the further away from the rim that they’re shooting that it’s not a three-pointer that’s what’s going to drive this number in the right direction and the Tim rolles as of right now this is where I want to start the Tim rolles

Have the second best location effective field goal percentage next to Golden State right so the wolves have based on based on what an opponent’s if they shot League average from the shot profile what the defense is forcing they’d be a 53.9% effective field goal percentage now what are they actually this year 50.2%

Right so they have the League’s best defensive effective field goal percentage and the second best location effective field goal percentage and there’s two factors there right one is what they can control the actual personnel and the people that are contesting these shots and also the frequency in which these shots are

Contested right because this is just simply based on location not based on how open the shots are and then the second thing is obviously a little bit of luck right because if if teams are um are shooting more threes and missing more threes uh that’s going to help your

Effective heeld go percentage was your location effective field goal percentage goes down right so both those can play into it but this is just a very face value type metric that just says hey are you forcing teams into taking tough twos and sure enough if you dig into the profile

It makes sense why they’re second here the wolves are second in terms of lowest Rim attempt percentage League average is just under 33% of shot attempts coming at the rim for an opponent the wolves are at 28.7% that is more than four points better than League average that’s

Significant now if you look at three point so that’s second in the league at The Rim you look at three-point attempts their seventh overall in terms of shot frequency they’re allowing just over 34% of opponent shots to come from three-point range which is you know League average is about 36% so a couple

Points less than League average Corner threes though this has actually gone a little bit in the wrong direction they’re ninth and they’re 11th on non- Corner threes so the in general the wolves are driving opponents away from corner three-point shots they’re top 10 in that metric and overall seventh in in

Deterring three-point attempts so where’s everything else it’s in the mid-range the Wolves allow the most mid-range attempts of any team in the league the second most long mid-range attempts and the third most short mid-range attempts so obviously you combine those two and you get the 30 30

Or first I guess in terms of mid-range attempts League average defenses allow 31% of shot attempts to come from the mid-range the wolves are over 37% more than a third well over a third of opponent shot attempts are coming as mid-range attempts not at the rim and not outside the arc

That is a number one defense shot profile that is how you do it um probably in any era fre frankly although obviously the the frequency of those mid-range shots is is going to be way higher the further back you go right uh but especially today’s NBA forcing those

Mid-range shots is really really it’s the name of the game that’s exactly what the wolves are trying to do and it’s why when they do struggle and they they um you know I think all the Wolves losses except for one have been double- digit losses this year um and they can

Struggle against these fast guards that get off mid-range jumpers that can also shoot the three if they try and switch up their pick and roll coverage right because the wolves like to play drop but if you play Drop against you know I mean insert and they haven’t faced Kyrie yet

This year but like Kyrie Irving or um Tyrese Maxi dearen Fox these guys that are very CJ McCullum that are very comfortable shooting mid-range jumpers that are very efficient in that range and also like say Joel embiid right um if you want to look at a big that excels

From the mid-range that’s what K you know the mid-range jumpers and the the free throw attempts are what killed the Wolves last week against the Sixers those are the teams that can give the Wolves trouble and that’s when the Wolves can fall apart if you could be

Really which again it’s few and far between it’s happened six times this year the wolves have actually lost a game out of 28 U so I want to be clear this is this is very but if if I’m an opposing team the only way you can beat

The Wolves defensive defense is by being really really good from the mid-range with either your big or your guard and force them Force the Wolves to change their coverage now if you can’t shoot threes the Wolves will just make you shoot the threes that they want you to

Take anyway right instead of playing drop and giving up a mid-range two like say uh which is why which is how both the uh the Kings and Sixers have gotten the Wolves once each this year is if the Wolves say okay we can’t play Drop

Against these guys we have to um we have to come out to the level or we have to we have maybe even we’re switching we’ve seen that a little bit The Wolves did it against the bavs and Luca a little bit um then you just you find I mean you

Could rotate the ball shoot threes is what you’d have to do offensively or if you have a guard if the wolves are not playing drop and they’re not being aggressive enough you could just pop and shoot a three from a couple feet outside the arc but again there’s very few teams

That are Dynamic enough at the guard position to be able to equal you know dominate from the mid-range and dominate from outside the arc it really is a pick your poison against the Wolves defense all right I want to get into um take that a step further and look at how

Teams are shooting the ball against the Wolves not just the type of shots but how the percentage of those shots going in and also mention again those Mike Brown comments after the Wolves game against the Kings on Saturday night so we’ll do all that here next our partners at eBay motors have

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Every leag go to lockon sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel all right um so the wolf shop profile we’ve already established is the League’s best or second best I guess using that metric over at cleaning the glass behind Golden State but the wolves

Are top 10 in avoiding Corner three-point attempts against them top 10 avoiding three-point attempts number two in terms of avoiding Rim attempts and um that’s step one right like to have the correct shot profile related to that I want to mention Rudy goar’s Rim deterrence opponents are shooting this

According to clean in the glass 6.9% less frequently at the rim with him on the court versus off the court so um we’ll round that up to 7% opponents are shooting 7% less attempts at the rim with goar on the floor versus off the floor plus they’re shooting 5.6% less

Accurately when he’s on the floor versus off the floor so they’re not only not shooting well at The Rim against Rudy goar they’re just not shooting at The Rim when he’s on the floor it’s the exact perfect convers of Rim deterrence and um Rim protection from Rudy Gober

Now if you look at said a little bit of a different way opponents are shooting way more long mid-range shots against Rudy goar in fact if you look at this is interesting if you look at cleaning the glass and look at um flip it around look

At the teams or the guy the individual players who allow more mid-range shots when they’re on the floor Rudy goar is first percentile in the league in terms of opponent shooting more long mid-range shots when he’s on the floor 3.2% more mid-range shot attempts when goar is on the floor the

Only players ahead of him are Jeremy Grant and Nicole yic because why Denver plays a ton of drop coverage yic is really good at it now of course his Rim deterrence isn’t nearly what goar’s is it’s still pretty good and people forget that about yic and the actual um teams

Actually shoot the ball okay against yic at The Rim but they don’t actually shoot it against him at The Rim very much because they’re allowing mid-range jumpers it’s the same design right the difference is that if teams decide to go into the paint or if so you know if they

Get penetration off a different action and it’s not off the initial pick and roll in the middle of the floor then goar is gonna SWAT a shot yic isn’t necessarily going to do that but because the nuggets are so good in their drop coverage that’s why their league their

Defense is decent and you know jokic’s Rim deterrence is still really good goar in terms of all mid-range shots same deal he’s top three in fact he’s just a hair behind embiid in terms of total mid-range shots uh the frequency going up when they’re on the floor so teams

Are shooting almost 7% more from the mid-range when goar and embi are on the floor versus when they’re off the floor that’s exactly by Design and again I go back to the rim deterrence and then the actual um lack of success that opponents have when goar’s on the floor uh in

Terms of shooting the ball at The Rim um okay now addressing the open shots thing because this is something you’ve no doubt seen sh thrown around like hey when teams start hitting threes against the Wolves this defense will regress to the mean a little bit and it

Is true the wolves have the third best three-point percentage against League wide on this season 33.2% is what opponents are shooting from three against them which is uh you know it’s it’s an incredible stat it’s not something that that uh we’re necessarily like I don’t know that that number specifically is attainable the

Only teams better the Blazers are 0.2% two10 better teams are only shooting 33% from three against Portland 31.6% against Houston so the wolves are third and then it’s a drop off of a point 1.2 points before he gets to number four in terms of opponent three-point percentage so is that fluky

Well the short answer is it could be a little bit but it doesn’t have to be because again I go back to they’re seventh in terms of um not allowing Corner threes so it’s the type of Threes you’re allowing if you’re going to allow a three you want it to be above the

Break and you want it to be contested as much as possible and then I go to uh let’s go to Mike Brown’s quote now I mean I mentioned this kind of in passing I summarized it on Monday’s show but after the the Timberwolves uh beat the Kings

On Saturday Kings head coach Mike Brown said after the game I’m going to read this quote exactly he said quote you got to give them credit they’re long they’re athletic and they fly around you feel a little bit more pressure to get that shot off a little bit quicker even

Though they’re not going to block most times a perimeter three-point shot but they make it tough on you and this is a game that you got to go in with a mental resiliency because there’s no telling what can happen throughout the course of a game with their length and the way

They scramble and the protection they have at The Rim so right there from an opponent an opposing head coach who just lost to the Wolves perimeter jumpers he like guys know hey they’re not going to block this and there’s nobody like near me quote unquote but I first of all I better rush

It so that this length doesn’t get out to me and second of all I better make it because I don’t know how many open attempts I’m going to get and sure enough if you actually look at opponent um at the percentage of uh of O you know percentage made on open

3es the T wolves are indeed one of the League’s best in terms of that overall percentage so number one is Houston who’s number one in overall three-point percentage against but if you look at what nba.com or nba.com stats classifies as closest Defender you know four to six

Feet which is what they call open opponents are only shooting 31.3% against the Wolves it’s tied with Portland for second best just a tenth of a percent ahead of the Dallas Mavericks for third and um so that tracks right but if you also want to look at frequency the actual frequency that the

Wolves are allowing three open three-point shots that’s also pretty low it’s middle of the pack it’s 14% of of Threes against them are considered open so that number right so that number should be higher right because that percentage should track with the frequency You’ think right it’s it’s not

You know it’s not exactly how that works but you’d think there’d be a little bit of a correlation there but the Wolves just don’t allow that many open three-point attempts you look at uh wide open three-point attempts so six plus feet no Defender within six plus feet

The wolves have the fourth best Mark in the league in terms of not allowing wideopen three-point attempts only 18.2% of three-point attempts against them are wide open that’s fourth best in the league and yeah when teams get them they don’t make them they have the third best

Mark in terms of percentage on wideopen threes 34.8% only Golden State and Houston are better so yeah it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg in the sense that the Wolves defense puts so much pressure on you that when you think you’re open you’re not really open because of the

Closing speed and the length of the Wolves Defenders there’s also so much more pressure to actually make the shot because you don’t know when that next open shot attempt is going to come around I’m not at all saying that the wolves are going to hold opponents to

33% from outside the arc all season long or that opponents are only going to shoot you know 35% on wide open threes All Season I’m not saying those numbers will hold I’m saying that the Wolves ranking League wide will very likely be in the top three top five all season

Long and that’s only combined with the rim deterrence and the in the effective Rim protection of Rudy goar and also the relative lack of fouling unless you’re playing Joel embiid that the wolves have had this year um because that’s improved too they’re still top 10 in the league

In fact I have it right here they’re uh eighth in defensive free throw rate so uh doing a really good job at defending without following at least not allowing a ton of free throw attempts that’s going to be a top probably number one defense right even if they’re not number

One even if they’re not suppressing three-point attempts to third or three-point percentage to 33% all season long the defensive shot profile the length the speed um Etc that this team has is going to lend itself to having a topf flight defense all season long whether or not opponents are making

Their wide open threes at a 33% clip or a 36% clip because again if only 15% of their shot attempts are wide open from outside the ark I don’t care if that number ends up going up because you’re doing a great job in every other area so

100% this defense is sustainable I I I don’t know that all of the all of the underlying data where there is some flakiness and some luck I don’t know that that’s all going to stand up the exact same way all season but the Confluence of all these different

Factors is going to lead to the Wolves always being a number one or or a top a Top Flight they may not be number one all season but I think it’s likely that they will be like we’re now a third of the way through and this thing looks like it’s going to hold

Up all right I want to close today by talking wolves Thunder as we get ready for the game here tonight so we’ll do that next today’s episode of lock ey wolves is brought To Us by our friends over at game time you shouldn’t have to worry when you’re buying tickets to your next

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Just a couple of weeks ago I don’t know what three weeks ago now it was an inseason Tournament game yeah was it was almost a month ago and that was the game when ant initially got hurt the dunk attempt he falls on his hip ends up

Missing the rest of that game misses I think two and then came back for the Spurs game then left a game early missed another game uh maybe only missed one won the first time around but anyway he missed basically three and a three and a couple half games um because of the

Injury he got hurt in the third quarter of that one the Wolves were still plus six in the third quarter remember the Wolves were down at Halftime by eight to OKC this was in Minnesota Minnesota wins the third quarter by six they’re trailing by a bucket heading to the

Fourth they end up holding on late and this was kind of when people really started to say hey Rudy goar might win another Defensive Player of the Year award and and obviously there’s still so much season left to be played now but that was when people kind of sat up and

Were like wait a minute he just stopped Chet hren like three times on a possession he was stunting on the perimeter recovering to block shots at The Rim it was just a complete and utter dominant performance from Rudy goar in this game he had 17 points 16 rebounds

And four blocks and how many shots did guys including Chad hren not take because of goar’s Mobility Chad had 16 points but it took him 20 shots to get it he was six of 20 shooting overall three of eight outside the arc uh which by the way meant that he shot three of

12 on twoo attempts in this this game Chad hren shot three of 12 on two-point attempts and that is Rudy goar that’s his influence now Shay guildas Alexander did what he does uh you know he was much much better in this game against his cousin n Alexander Walker than he was in

The playoffs remember Al or in the playing game I should say Alexander Walker shut him down really last year in the play in in this game uh Shay had 32 on 22 shots he only turned it over three times was really good Alexander Walker was one of seven shooting for this game

And not as effective defensively on the wolf side of things it was all about goar um The Wolves didn’t get a very good have a very good shooting night at least inside the arc Conley was three of 14 overall shooting Alexander Walker was one of seven so I mean that’s the Wolves

Starting back court Edwards getting hurt in the third quarter and then Alexander Walker and Conley combined to shoot four of 21 from out from Total from the field four of 21 Nas was huge Off the Bench of this game 15 and seven the Wolves did shoot

42% from three and they had 32 free throw attempts in this game a lot of that was cat cat had 13 points but eight of them came at the line uh he had six turnovers it was a bit of an uneven performance but this was like professional Mike connley and dominant

Rudy goar down the stretch and just enough from Nas and some you know Troy Brown Jr oh yeah this was the 17-point Troy Brown Jr explosion late in the game after ant got hurt um so this was just a well-rounded team win and now this time

It’s going to be in Oklahoma City and the wolves have a couple days rest uh as does OKC and you could bet that OKC especially at home is going to want to try and maintain this uh or not maintain avoid falling behind 2 in a potential tiebreaker against the Wolves because

OKC’s been phenomenal still right like OKC’s won let’s see they’re 18- n they just lost to the Lakers uh the other day before that though they beat the Clippers Grizzlies they beat the Nuggets by a point they did lose to the Kings but they also beat the Warriors a couple

Weeks ago they beaten the Mavs they beat the Lakers a couple weeks ago so it’s been a pretty consistent consistently strong um showing by OKC the defense has not been as good lately they’ve given up a ton of points um and it’s really been more just about outscoring teams and

Obviously the Wolves major advantage against the Thunder is their size uh besides Chad homin like OKC doesn’t have anybody that plays rotation minutes with real size uh like there there isn’t anybody there there’s nobody that’s even I mean usmani Deng is is a part-time player Off the Bench uh you know guys

Like Berton and povi aren’t even in the rotation and don’t play Big even if they were so that’s the area the wolves have their advantage OKC’s 29th in defensive rebound rate e in offensive rebound rate and they’re tiny um so it’s all about Rudy Gober call 30 Towns now I should

Say cats listed his questionable as of right now for the game he was listed as out early before Saturday’s game so you’d think there’s a chance he plays in this one remember he tweaked the knee at the end of the game last Thursday but whether or not C plays Nas and goar have

This massive size Advantage even Kyle Anderson should be able to do what he wants in the paint in this game it’s really all about trying to make shil just Alexander a little bit less efficient try and make him shoot threes he’s under 31% from deep um the Thunder

Don’t shoot a ton of Threes overall they’re 21st and three-point rate but they are third percentage wise because they’ve got guys that can make them right Chad lud Dort um these guys are good three-point Shooters Off the Bench um you if you’ve got more rotation type guys that are that are

Fringy I don’t know that on like a I don’t know I don’t want to say a true playoff team because the Thunder are a playoff team obviously but guys like case Wallis and Isaiah Joe and and players that are maybe a little bit um they’ve done what they need to do to

This point right so you want to still try and make those guys beat you but also make sh Alexander into a less effective scorer less efficient score try and make him shoot more threes don’t let him get to the line as much and use your size to your advantage make sure

That there there should really be no Second Chance opportunities for this Thunder team the Wolves need to do a good job shutting off the paint and and uh you know boxing out grabbing defensive boards not allowing those Second Chance opportunities um but defensively the Thunder are actually sixth in terms of

Defensive rating on the season but lately they’ve given up a ton of points they’ve been in more of these track meets like the only team they’ve held under 100 points here recently was Memphis um and that was I think right before ja came back if I’m not mistaken

Otherwise they’re given up 110 plus over the past couple of weeks so that defensive rating for them has slipped backwards theyve been top three for much of the season it’s sixth now um again offensively it’s more about when they get open threes they make them um and

Then they’re also they’re trying to get to the free throw line they’re seventh in free throw rate offensively actually 13th in free throw right they’re seventh in terms of freee throw attempts two field goal attempts um so how however weone to look at that they’re they’re in

The top tier of the league in terms of getting to the line and so much of that is SGA um he’s the biggest one and then second in terms of free throw attempts per game is of course Chad hren so uh Minnesota this is gonna be a tough game

For the Wolves they do match up well against the Thunder because they should be able to just dwarf them with their size SGA is the only high volume perimeter guy you really have to worry about I know Jaylen Williams is averaging 17 a game uh you know ludor

Can hurt you if you leave him open but it’s it’s really about making SGA as inefficient as possible and using your size to beat them on the glass and the Wolves this is a good matchup for Minnesota I think what it’s all said in D the Wolves probably win three out of

Four against OKC in the regular season um you know hopefully this is a w if towns doesn’t play I could see them losing this game um just because the Thunder are good but as far as matchups go it’s not a bad matchup for the Timberwolves I should mention the

FanDuel line for this game and I’m sure it’s complicated a bit by you know cat’s status the wolves are actually plus two on the Road at OKC so the Thunder are favored by a couple of points in this one if cat doesn’t play I wouldn’t be surprised to see that move to three

Right before the game starts um but if cat does play I don’t hate that bet like I think the wolves are still a better team and matches up well against OKC now the Thunder are good at home and you know the whole thing but anyway all that

To say I love the matchup it’s fun I like it for the Wolves uh we will have a live postcast following the game over at lockdown Sports Minnesota on YouTube and if you can’t catch the game live uh or if you can’t catch the postcast live the

Audio will be right here on the lockdown wolves feed if you can’t watch it you can listen on SiriusXM our friend Alan Horton on the play byplay 7 P.M Central tip tonight on the hometown broadcast on the sxm app just search Minnesota Timberwolves and you can find that on

The sxm app and SiriusXM we’ll have a postgame pod on Wednesday probably midm morning we’ll have that up for you so talking wolves Thunder and I’ll have that right here on the lockdown wolves feed as well all right that’s all we have for you today a big thank you for

Making lockdown wolves your first listen every day of course this show is free and available everywhere including YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms wherever you like to listen to podcast you can find lockon wolves you can also watch on the lockon sports Minnesota app on both Roku and

Amazon Fire TV and you can follow an X at lockon wolves and also at B Beacon with two B’s Two e cken of course the lockdown wolves podcast is part of the lockdown podcast Network remember the lockdown network is your local experts on all the biggest stories once again

I’m Ben Beacon this is the lock on wolves podcast and we’ll catch you next time

The Minnesota Timberwolves have had the NBA’s best defense all season long, and while it’s easy to point to opponent shooting luck, it’s important to note that the Wolves’ defensive shot profile is one of the league’s best — and suggests that this level of defensive efficiency is largely sustainable. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) breaks down the Wolves’ defensive shot profile and what’s been most impressive about the Timberwolves’ defense to this point, as well as a preview of Wolves-Thunder.

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