Minnesota Timberwolves wing Donte DiVincenzo returned to play against the New York Knicks, who recently traded him for Karl-Anthony Towns.
After the preseason game, DiVincenzo got into a heated exchange with Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson. The coach is also the father of New York’s point guard Jalen Brunson, who attended college with DiVincenzo. The pair actually won two collegiate national championships playing alongside each other.
While we may never learn exactly what happened during the argument between DiVincenzo and his former assistant coach, there were some preceding incidents that perhaps led to the tension. For example, he also had a back-and-forth with his former head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Donte DiVincenzo is still so bitter with the Knicks.
Sunday night was the first time that Donte DiVincenzo faced his old team, the New York Knicks, after being thrown into the shocking Karl-Anthony Towns trade. And let me tell you, DiVincenzo, now with the Minnesota Timberwolves, did not seem remotely interested in holding back any ill feelings over his life being uprooted just days before Knicks training camp.
It started with DiVincenzo appearing to trash-talk Tom Thibodeau while shooting free throws. The guard was seen jawing at Thibodeau, with some incorrectly assuming it was about his trade from New York.
As DiVincenzo clarified after the game, he was actually rhetorically asking Thibodeau about whether he could finish at the rim, a criticism he apparently heard during his Knicks stint:
“Thank you for the trade Thibs. Thank you for the trade… that’s what happens when they let you run the show. That’s what happens when they let you run the show” pic.twitter.com/9F8LD8YRLI
Donte DiVincenzo says that he was not talking to Tom Thibodeau about being traded to the Timberwolves when he yelled towards the Knicks' bench during the game tonight: pic.twitter.com/SfMNclGOhv
DiVincenzo and Brunson were caught in a heated argument on the postgame court where they actually had to be separated by other Timberwolves and Knicks players. It was not clear what was said between them:
Whatever happened here, it sure seems like we have the early makings of a tasty interconference rivalry. The Knicks will visit DiVincenzo’s Timberwolves again in late December.
But winning a title in the NBA is often about ideal matchups. Every team — and this is without exception — has its fatal flaw, an unavoidable kryptonite. A superstar like Jokic is transcendent, but he and his Nuggets teammates are not unbeatable.
Karl-Anthony Towns was the primary defender on Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic in back-to-back series, credibly guarding Hall of Famers with vastly different skills while also averaging 19 points on 52/44/83 shooting.
With everyone healthy and at their best, Jokic’s Nuggets two most notable playoff losses have come at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2020 Western Conference Finals and to last year’s Timberwolves in the second round.
How both teams primarily beat Denver is no coincidence.
In 2020, the Lakers used a rotation of three bigs featuring Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee to overwhelm Jokic. Jokic is arguably the most skilled center in the league — especially thanks to his all-time floater game. He is a one-man matchup problem who can score at will against sizable NBA defense in isolation or the post as he pleases. However, the Lakers ensured that they always had someone with size and athleticism fronting Jokic while the other forward roamed as a low-man backup in case the initial line of defense was lost.
With an exhausted Jokic still maturing as an All-NBA-caliber player, the Lakers cruised to a five-game series win. Though, Davis had his remarkable individual moments on offense, too:
The two-big lineup is not an unbeatable coverage for Jokic, per se, who has shown he can find a way to the rim and get a quality shot off anyway. But that requires the Serbian star to use a lot more of his energy. This sort of mix wears him down over time. When Jokic is tired and gassed, he’s eventually no longer working tirelessly for quality shots, he’s settling for random 3-pointers, and he’s often even failing to swallow a litany of defensive rebounds his reputation is centered around.
The Nuggets, in effect, are a shell of themselves with Jokic in this state.
The Timberwolves had a near-carbon copy of this equation to defend Jokic. They could use Towns or power forward Naz Reid to front him while four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert roamed, waiting to send over his help defense or to block the shot. To his credit, Jokic still found ways to make an impact against this defensive coverage — his masterful 40-point, 13-assist, seven-rebound effort in Game 5 of the series comes to mind — but again, that takes a lot out of him. And Towns certainly seemed like he challenged Jokic the most of all three defenders.
There’s also a reason the Timberwolves don’t usually prefer putting Gobert on Jokic in single coverage because this is what happens:
By his high standards, after having to metaphorically break his back against Towns, Gobert, and Reid all series, Jokic almost appeared ephemeral in stunning back-to-back losses in Game 6 and 7. It’s because the Timberwolves had the perfect defensive coverage to combat his skill. With all due respect to Julius Randle, he is not nearly the same kind of defender as Towns, let alone as talented.
And if the Timberwolves want to use more of Reid against Jokic while Gobert roams, well, I’ll let the screenshot below from their most recent playoff battle tell the story about how that would likely go:
With Towns out of the picture now, Minnesota got a lot worse against Denver, specifically, as a result.
None of this is to say that the Nuggets’ path through the Western Conference to another NBA championship this season has parted like the Red Sea. The West remains a daunting gauntlet, with juggernaut contenders like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, and yes, even the Timberwolves without Towns, still standing in Denver’s way, among others.
But if you’re Denver, you likely always feel great about your chances in any playoff series the easier Jokic has it. The looser his individual matchups are, the more likely it is the Nuggets will find a way to beat you in a back-and-forth best-of-seven. I would not be shocked to learn that Denver’s front office celebrated this Towns trade just as much as anyone actually involved in the deal. As Denver aims for two titles in three years, this might have been the organization’s biggest move of the offseason, and it didn’t even have to lift a finger.
As it currently stands, no other West championship contender has proven they have the ultimate antidote to trying to beat Jokic. With Towns, the Timberwolves did. But that reality is dead and gone now.
This massive move will give New York an incredible starting five, but there is one small problem: The organization cannot actually discuss the terms and implications until the league processes the transaction. That usually isn’t a big deal but that comes at a very inconvenient time: Media day.
With so many reporters around the team, they all want to know about Towns. But they are only getting coy, canned answers. Here are a few of them so far:
The Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges on Tuesday night, recreating the team that lost to the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2017 NCAA Tournament:
The New York Knicks made a blockbuster trade on Tuesday night, acquiring star forward Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets for a deal highlighted by five first-round picks.
The trade, in essence, makes the Knicks the Villanova Wildcats of the NBA. The team is now led by former Villanova stars Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo.
The reaction to the trade on X mostly revolved around the Knicks ‘recreating Villanova’s 2016 national championship-winning team.’ Many point to that title win as the last time these four players shared a court.
But that is not the case.
The Knicks’ blockbuster trade actually recreated the 2016-17 Villanova Wildcats team that was a No. 1 seed in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, but lost 65-62 to the Wisconsin Badgers.
That day saw Nigel Hayes lead the 8-seed Badgers with 19 points, 8 rebounds and the game’s deciding basket:
He was guarded by Villanova’s Mikal Bridges, the newest member of the New York Knicks.
Wisconsin handed Villanova its only NCAA Tournament loss in a three-year period, as the Wildcats went on to win the national championship again in 2018. Another note: this game punched the Badgers’ ticket to the Sweet Sixteen, a round the program has been unable to reach since that date.
Here is a full look back at Wisconsin’s big win over the Wildcats — or, now the Knicks:
That included a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo that we can only assume is joking, with just three words aimed at Brunson and Hart: “Y’all was tampering!”
Indeed, Bridges will join his old Nova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo with the New York Knicks, which instantly makes them one of the most enjoyable and dangerous NBA teams going into next season.
Soon after the news broke on Tuesday night, all four of the former Villanova teammates got on a group call right to discuss their reunion.
Hart shared an absolutely delightful image on Twitter (X) of the four friends all celebrating their reunion, with Bridges the final piece of the puzzle to put all of these old pals back together again.
Donte DiVincenzo led the Knicks with a 39 point effort in Game 7 against the Pacers on Sunday.
In the second game of Sunday’s pair of Game 7s in the NBA, a former member of the Golden State Warriors was on the floor with a chance to punch a ticket to the Eastern Conference finals.
After the Indiana Pacers blasted the New York Knicks in Game 6 to force a Game 7, the series shifted back to Madison Square Garden for a win-or-go-home contest on Sunday.
With multiple players dealing with injuries, including All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo took over for the Knicks. The former Villanova standout notched a game-high 39 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the floor with a red-hot nine-made 3-pointers. DiVincenzo added four rebounds, two steals and an assist in 41 minutes against the Pacers.
Despite DiVincenzo’s explosive performance, the short-handed Knicks couldn’t keep pace with the Pacers on Sunday in Game 7. All five members of Indiana’s starting lineup tallied 17 or more points. Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting in Game 7.
Behind Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembard, the Pacers secured a spot in the Eastern Conference finals with a 130-109 win over the Knicks on Sunday. The Pacers will meet the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
DiVincenzo exploded in the postseason, scoring in double figures seven times, including two games with over 30 points. In his first regular-season with the Knicks, DiVincenzo averaged 15.5 points on 44.3% shooting from the field to go along with 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
The former Golden State guard tallied 17 points during the Knicks’ Game 6 loss against the Pacers on Friday.
After falling down 3-2 and facing elimination in Game 6 at home, the Indiana Pacers battled the New York Knicks to force a Game 7 with a 116-103 win on Friday night in Indiana.
In Game 6, former Golden State Warrior Donte DiVincenzo played 39 minutes while recording 31 points on 11-of-26 shooting from the field to go along with two assists and four rebounds against the Pacers.
The Knicks didn’t have an answer for Pascal Siakam. The former Toronto Raptors All-Star forward notched 25 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the field to go along with seven boards, five assists and two steals in 31 minutes.
With Indiana’s win on Friday, the series will shift back to New York for a highly-anticipated Game 7. The win-or-go-home Game 7 is slated for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT at Madison Square Garden.
Donte DiVincenzo and the Knicks are just one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
After two straight losses in Indiana, former Golden State Warrior guard turned New York Knicks wing Donte DiVincenzo returned to the Big Apple on Tuesday for a highly anticipated Game 5 in front of a fiery crowd.
In Game 5, DiVincenzo recorded eight points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field with seven boards, four assists, three steals and a block in 30 minutes against the Indiana Pacers. DiVincenzo wasn’t able to knock down a 3, shooting 0-for-6 from deep in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.
The interactions between DiVincenzo and Indiana center Myles Turner turned chippy in the third quarter. Following a big dunk by DiVincenzo, the pair had a heated exchange and had to be separated on the other end of the court.
Despite DiVincenzo’s cold shooting night, the Knicks cruised to a dominant 121-91 win over the Pacers behind a fiery effort from Jalen Brunson. The Knicks All-Star point guard notched 44 points on 18-of-35 shooting from the file to go along with seven assists and four rebounds in 43 minutes.
Through the first three games of the series, DiVincenzo tallied 25 or more points, including a playoff career-high 35-point outburst in Game 3. However, DiVincenzo has been quiet over the last two games, scoring in single figures against the Pacers.
DiVincenzo and the Knicks will be back on the court for Game 6 with a chance to close out the Pacers and punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Villanova.
(@Bam1of1) 
