Things Go From Bad To Worse For The Timberwolves With Jaden McDaniels Officially Breaking His Hand After Punching A Wall Before Halftime

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After a wild final day in the NBA, things are finally set in both conferences

It's hard to say who was the true winner of the day, I guess you could make the case it might be the Warriors who avoided the Play In and also avoided a first round matchup with the Suns. The Kings won't exactly be an easy opponent, but it certainly could have been worse for the defending champs.

The Lakers had a pretty good day, even though we now live in a world where people do KING/CROWN celebrations for making the Play In

which is a pretty sad move for a once proud franchise in the Lakers. Now securing the Play In in 2 of their last 3 seasons, maybe this is just the new normal? It's hard to say.

In terms of the losers of the day, I suppose you could go with the Clippers. They willingly signed up for a first round series with the Suns, which potentially not having Paul George available for seems like a pretty big deal. Playoff Kawhi is still a different beast and we have no idea about these new looks Suns yet, but winning today could prove to be fairly costly in about two weeks.

For my money though, it has to be the Wolves. Now I get why this might be a little confusing considering they had one hell of a win over the Pelicans with Anthony Edwards doing some BIG TIME shit down the stretch

But here's the thing. Rudy Gobert is punching teammates. He got sent home by the team and who knows if he's going to play in their Play In game. I guess he kind of has to, but that's a team that feels like it's coming apart at the seams. 

They now have to play a motivated and healthy Lakers team, something that I imagine they wish wasn't the case. 

Sadly, it gets worse. There's also this

Now if you aren't a huge Wolves fan or even really watch them play, you may not understand why this is such a huge loss. For starters, Jaden McDaniels has been one of the better players on this roster the entire season. He started 78 games, put up 12/4/2 on 51/39.9% splits all while playing elite, All NBA caliber defense

We're not just talking about any defender here. We're talking about one of, if not the best on ball defenders in the entire league who thrives against guarding the best players in the league. That feels like a pretty important piece you want to have for not just a massive Play In game, but a potential playoff run as well. Now, because he punched a wall out of frustration before the half, his season very well might be over for good and with it, the Wolves might go down with him.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that McDaniels would have been pretty valuable in a game against LeBron James and Anthony Davis, so I guess when it rains it really freaking pours huh. All I can think about is the fine people of Minnesota who just can't seem to catch a break. Call it a curse if you want, but man is this brutal to have to go through on the final day of the season. You want to be pumped about the awesome win you witnessed and the fact that Anthony Edwards looks like the real deal at just 21, but how can you feel great right now? The entire organization hates Rudy Gobert at this point, that trade alone set the franchise back decades, and now one of your most important two way players breaks his hand by punching a wall for some unknown reason. 

You can't really make that up.

The good news I guess is that this win today kept them in 8th, so if they happen to lose to the Lakers they'll get another home game against OKC/NO, and they did just beat NO without Gobert or McDaniels. The bad news is that grants them a date with a rested and healthy Denver Nuggets, but I say don't worry about that yet. I say shock the world and beat the Lakers instead. 

They may need a prayer (or a few) though, because there's no chance Adam Silver doesn't want there to be a way to get LeBron into the real dance. That's tough.