Wolves

Wolves' Williams, newcomer Daniels have 'crossed paths'

Only months ago, Mo Williams made newest Wolf a rookie target.

By Jerry Zgoda

December 21, 2014 at 2:00AM

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mo Williams (25) watches during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, in Minneapolis. The 76ers won 85-77. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien) (Brian Stensaas — ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Actually, Mo is the one who knows.

Or at least Timberwolves veteran guard Mo Williams knows more about newly acquired Troy Daniels than Williams' other teammates do.

Williams and Daniels made acquaintances during last spring's NBA playoffs. That's when Daniels emerged from undrafted rookie anonymity — not to mention from the D League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers not long before — and made seven of 11 three-point shots in Games 3 and 4 of Houston's captivating first-round series against Portland.

Included was a clutch three-pointer with 11 seconds left that helped the Rockets win a tense Game 3.

With his team unable to stop a player he called "whatever his name is," Williams resorted to theatrics and gamesmanship. He came over toward the Rockets' tunnel as each team left the floor and said something to the rookie that triggered a commotion between the teams.

Now the two players are teammates after the Wolves acquired Daniels, two second-round picks and cash from Houston in Friday's three-way trade that sent Corey Brewer to the Rockets and injured Ronny Turiaf to Philadelphia.

That April night, Williams said he reacted to some transgression he wouldn't specify. "He know what he did," Williams said repeatedly after the Blazers beat Houston

Only Daniels swore he didn't have any idea what he had done.

That's because Williams later admitted the incident was just a veteran's tactic, an attempt to fluster a rookie. That night, though, he attributed his actions simply to the "emotion" and "intensity" of the playoffs.

"The crazy part about this league is we might be teammates one day," he told reporters that night, "and I might be going to battle with him just like I'm going with [my team] now."

Funny how the world turns: Suddenly now they are, and he is.

Seven months later at his locker stall after Friday's 114-98 loss in Boston, Williams smiled when that moment in time was mentioned.

"That's just basketball, man," Williams said. "It's funny, I remember Gordon Hayward, me and him got into it before I went to Utah. And it was kind of the same situation, I got traded to Utah the following season and all of a sudden we were teammates."

Here in December, Williams said he meant nothing by the gesture, other than he wanted to get Daniels off his game and put some pressure on a player he called at the time "the rook" while also perhaps taking some pressure off his own teammates by drawing attention to himself.

"It's all in competition and it was all in fun on my part," Williams said. "He really didn't do anything to me. He just made a couple of shots and I was like, 'Where did this kid come from?' It was like, 'Let me get in his head, being the veteran I am,' and I got a lot of attention on me, which was good. It took a lot of attention off my team, off LaMarcus [Aldridge] and Damian [Lillard] and put it on me. I was playing maybe 20 minutes, so I did what I had to do.

"But it wasn't to any point to where we were about to fight."

In the final two games after that, Daniels made one of three three-point attempts in a series Portland won dramatically in six games.

On Sunday against Indiana, they will play for each other. Williams was asked Friday if that will mean all has been forgiven.

"I don't think it's to the point of forgiveness," he said. "It's just basketball. After the series was over, we shook hands and I wished him good luck. He had himself a series and made himself some money."