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MrBuckBuck: Victor Wembanyama blocks Naz Reid for his 8th block of the 1st half (with a replay). The announcer says 7th block, but it is 8 blocks according to the play-by-play on the NBA's website. EIGHT FUCKING BLOCKS
Victor Wembanyama blocks Naz Reid for his 8th block of the 1st half (with a replay).
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) May 5, 2026
The announcer says 7th block, but it is 8 blocks according to the play-by-play on the NBA's website.
EIGHT FUCKING BLOCKS pic.twitter.com/F4WwRQi1Uh
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is well aware that the Timberwolves allowed him to exit via free agency last July in part because of the money Minnesota committed to Naz Reid ... plus their belief in Donte DiVincenzo and his cheaper contract. Those circumstances led to Alexander-Walker, now the heavy favorite to win the NBA's Most Improved Player race as a Hawk this week, being sacrificed in the Wolves' build around Anthony Edwards. “Nobody really expected me to be doing this," Alexander-Walker told The Stein Line, referring to the 20.8 points per game he posted this 2025-26 campaign — nearly double his highest single-season average during any of his prior six seasons.
Dane Moore: Asked Naz Reid about Jaden McDaniels' comments about Denver not having any good defenders and why that's a way Jaden tries to motivate himself. "I mean, he's guarding the best player every night. So I think for him it's kind of a mentality thing, just to keep himself engaged, keep himself going... It's probably just for his own good. Everybody has their own techniques and intangibles that keep themselves inside the game. And I think that's one of them for him."
Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels have been together for six seasons, an eternity in the turnstile NBA. They have played 382 regular-season games together since uniting in 2020, 113 more than the next closest active trio: Boston’s Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White (269 games), according to Elias Sports Bureau. They’ve reached two straight Western Conference finals, unprecedented success for a franchise that has spent most of its existence toiling in dysfunction and self-pity. “It’s pretty cool. It’s like going to high school freshman year with your friends and just sticking together the whole way, building each year,” McDaniels said. “Each year we’ve been together, we’ve gotten better and went further (as players) than we have the previous season.”
The more time they spent around one another, the more the Wolves benefited. It is not just that their games fit together. Their personalities complement one another in a way that makes it hard to envision the partnership fracturing under the normal stressors of fame and fortune. “Jaden is super quiet. Naz is quiet, but he is outgoing around the right people,” Edwards said. “Me, I just don’t care who I’m around. I’m going to be myself no matter what. And I think we all just click.”
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When they take the floor Saturday in Denver for Game 1 of the conference quarterfinals against the Nuggets, they do so knowing that they are largely responsible for a new era in Minnesota. “There are obstacles we all have had to go against in our careers,” Reid said. “It worked out in a better way. We were able to help each other through that and prove we are who we are and that we’ve been that way all along. I think all the questions and stuff are pretty much out the window now.”
Minnesota @Timberwolves Status Report in advance of tomorrow night’s game vs. New Orleans Pelicans: pic.twitter.com/ZdRE6WkJ1b
— Timberwolves PR (@Twolves_PR) April 11, 2026
Varun Shankar: Injury reports for Rockets-Wolves - Eason still questionable (FVV and Adams OUT) - Ayo will play for Minn, Ant and Naz Reid questionable. - Rudy, Bones, Ingles, Randle all OUT
Jon Krawczynski: Chris Finch on Naz Reid: "Naz’s game today was awesome. That’s two games in a row it looks like he’s back a little bit more like himself. He found his touch. I really liked how he made a lot of gritty plays defensively."
Paolo Banchero had 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists as the Orlando Magic beat the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 132-120 on Wednesday for their fourth consecutive victory. Desmond Bane scored 18 points and Franz Wagner added 17 for Orlando (44-36), which moved into seventh place in the tight Eastern Conference standings, one-half game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (43-36) with two games remaining. Goga Bitadze had 14 points and a season-high 15 rebounds, Tristan da Silva added 12 points, and Jalen Suggs and Jevon Carter finished with 11 apiece. Orlando led by as many as 24 in the third quarter and completed a two-game season sweep against the Wolves. Terrence Shannon Jr. set career highs with five 3-pointers and 33 points for short-handed Minnesota (47-33), which clinched the sixth position in the Western Conference on Tuesday. Jaden McDaniels returned after missing six games with a knee injury and scored 18 points in 19 minutes. Naz Reid had 15 points and Donte DiVincenzo added 12.
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Reid entered the game against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night in a miserable slump. He was shooting 21 percent from 3 over the previous 14 games and had only grabbed more than six rebounds three times. His 11.1 points per game in that stretch puts him in the same tenements inhabited by Cam Spencer and Jock Landale, nowhere near the penthouse befitting an NBA Sixth Man of the Year. “I’m dealing with some injuries and just trying to make things happen,” Reid told The Athletic after the 113-108 loss to Detroit. “Just trying to compete at a high level and do what I can do.”
Finch has stressed to Reid the need to concentrate more on the little things to get himself going. The coach wants his bench star to attack the glass, play good defense and get out in transition to get himself going. Finch is also drawing up more plays for Reid, as he did out of a timeout in the fourth quarter with the Wolves trailing 98-92. Reid curled off a screen at the top of the arc and got a clean look at a 3, but it didn’t go down. “It’s up and down. It’s kind of frustrating,” Reid said. “I want to be able to compete and do the things that I need to do to help the team win, and it’s so hard. But I’m not just going to roll over.”
The Timberwolves — who 47 seconds into overtime were also without Jaden McDaniels (injury), Rudy Gobert (fouled out) and Naz Reid (ejected) — scored the next 15 points to take a two-point lead. Durant had a chance to tie the game with 3.3 seconds left, heading to the free-throw line on a night where he’d made his first 10 foul shots and Houston had made its first 23. He missed the first, sealing the loss and the largest overtime comeback since the NBA started keeping play-by-play stats, per ESPN. Şengün and Durant each scored 30 to lead all scorers. Jaden McDaniels scored 25 points to pace the Timberwolves. “I’m still trying to figure out how they won that game,” Durant said. “It happened so quick,” Sengun said. “I don’t know. I don’t know what we could have (done). It just happened too quick and we didn’t even understand what happened.”
