They Stole Our Fucking Team (Wolves vs Lakers)

[FNG]

Well, that was a disaster. Ant was not himself, but I gotta pin this loss on JMac and Prince...2 for 15 and a combined -38. Dreadful performance.

But even though Ant, JMac and Prince were off all game, we still were up 10 midway through the 3rd quarter. And then AD hurt his ankle and the game turned very weird. We were outscored 4-0 while Davis was rolling around on the floor, and we just didn't show up after that.

Very weird game...and very disappointing.

[DNatagal]

No 3 second call on AD during that whole episode???????

[FNG]

No 3 second call on AD during that whole episode???????

He was under their defensive basket. Are you saying defensive 3 seconds? I don't think we ever had the ball on offense for three consecutive seconds the entire time he was on the floor, so there was no call to be made.

[Carlos Danger]

Ick. Well, this team does have an identity. It's called ".500" or "Even Steven". Every time I've started getting excited about them, the lay an egg. And last night was no different.

I want to cut them a little slack because they are running out of horses. Without Naz or Nowell, they didn't have much scoring punch off the bench. Jmac is catching a lot of heat in this thread (deservedly). But, I'm not sure he's totally healthy either and his role was never supposed to be scorer.

The shine has worn off NAW pretty quickly - I doubt they re-sign that guy. Prince is fine. But he's more of a supplemental guy - not someone you can depend on to carry the 2nd unit. They need a guy like Beasley last year. Maybe Nowell can be that guy...but for what he might cost, I'd probably just try to sign a vet as a more sure thing. Bottom line, the bench looks a lot worse now that Naz is out. He was becoming that 6th man/scorer they need.

[Lipoli390]

The recent illness that seems to be hitting Wolves players now is a bummer. The long KAT injury was a bummer. Also unfortunate that Nowell is out. Injuries and illness happen and we've certainly had our share. But as we sit here today with our Wolves at .500 and likely to finish 9th or 10th, let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Let's consider that three of our four best players - Edwards, McDaniels and Rudy have played the vast majority of games this season and so has our starting PG - DLO earlier and Conley since the trade. Then let's consider the following Wolves losses before KAT went down when we were at full strength. Most of those losses were either to a bad team or a good team missing a key player:

1. Oct. 26 - Lost to Jazz at home 132-126
2. Oct. 24 - Lost to Spurs at home 125-106
3. Oct. 30 - Lost to Spurs in SA 107-98
4. Nov. 1 - Lost to Suns at Phoenix 116-107 (Suns missing Ayton)
5. Nov. 5 - Lost to Bucks at home 115-102 (Bucks missing Middleton)
6. Nov. 7 - Lost to Knicks at home 120-107
7. Nov. 9 - Lost to Suns at home 129-117 (Suns missing Chris Paul)
8. Nov. 25 - Lost @Charlotte 110-108 (Suns missing LeMello)
9. Nov. 27 - Lost to Warriors at home 137-114
10. Nov. 28 - Lost to Wizards 142-127

These losses look worse when you look at some of the point differentials - losing to the Warriors at home by 23 points, the Wizards by 15 and the Spurs by 19. In addition to and after these 10 losses, the Wolves lost twice to a bad Pistons team and again to a bad Charlotte team.

So yes, injuries and illnesses have been a bummer this season. But there is something more fundamentally wrong with this team and it was apparent from the beginning of the season. I don't know what it is. Mainly I just think we don't have the right group of players. I love Ant, McDaniels and Slo Mo. And I still like what KAT can do. I also see keeping Conley for another year. Beyond those five, I think our front office will need to seriously consider some significant changes.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Early Morning DVR Review:

- The Wolves were up 76 - 68 when Davis hurts his ankle. By the time he stood up... the game was 76 - 73. The Lakers scored 5 points with its best player injured lying on the court. It must have rattled the Wolves. It was part of a 24 - 2 run. Game over.

- Dennis Schroder. He's often a maligned, forgotten player. But he and Davis won this game for LA. During that stretch, the Wolves were getting TERRIBLE look after TERRIBLE look. And it's easy to see the lack of ball movement in the last few seconds of the clock. BUT, Schroder's aggressive defense forced the Wolves to get into its offense with only 12 seconds left on the clock every time down the court. He was really bothering all three Wolves PGs during that stretch, but mainly...

- McLaughlin. Yikes. (1) The Lakers don't respect him. They wanted him to shoot, and he took 5 shots in 10 minutes, including 4 misses during the game-deciding stretch. (2) He was the one struggling the most just to get the ball across halfcourt vs. Schroder. (3) He offered nothing defensively. I'm gonna assume he's one of the "sick players" because he didn't look like an NBA player tonight. He was atrocious.

- There was a play earlier in the embarrassing 24 - 2 run when the Lakers had a 3-on-2... they missed the first shot but got the rebound and put it back in... all the while Kyle Anderson was on the bench desperately and pointedly waving guys on the offensive end of the court to get back into the play on defense. They never did. And for me... it revealed why the Lakers were able to impose their will and run away with this game.

- Anthony Edwards has had a few stinkers recently, especially since returning from the ankle. He was very bad tonight. Not much else to say. The Lakers game-planned for him and it showed. He had no answer. No craftiness to his game to counter. He's not ready yet. Hopefully, he starts to show off counters next season.

- My gimmick remains intact! The Lakers now have taken more free throws than their opponents for 25 of the past 26 games. They outshot the Wolves from the line 23 - 9 in the 2nd half. Conspiracy theorists unite!!! But the officials weren't the problem in this one. The differential was just a byproduct of what we watched. The Lakers were GREAT on defense. And the Wolves played into it. I'd be uneasy being any team in the West having to play that team in the 1st round.

- Jaden McDaniels is really good on defense. And he really seemed to be trying to push things on offense, too... to very missed results on that end. Still... that defense.

- Stay healthy Mike Conley. The cagey veteran is playing well and the Wolves are in trouble if he goes down.

- Karl Anthony Towns is very good. But I don't know how much I missed him. I'm a much bigger fan of guards than big guys to begin with... and well with his game and demeanor and ... well... ummmm... I don't dislike him. But... ummmm...

[FNG]

Can't disagree with anything in Abe's review...most significantly, the JMac minutes were atrocious, and the Laker 5-0 run with AD lying down were flat-out weird.

I really wanted this win, but I think we have to take it with a grain of salt. While it was discouraging to see a usually-slow Lakers team looking much quicker and active than our team, we can't discount the impact of this flu bug. I've had it this week too, and while I went to the gym yesterday, I was no more than 50%...that's how some of our guys looked to me last night. KAT said he was really hit hard by this virus, and Ant was throwing up in the tunnel at halftime.

We get to decide how to conclude after this loss:

A) We are a flawed team going nowhere in the playoffs if we can't neat the Lakers at home

B) It's pretty apparent our 2 best players shouldn't have even suited up last night. I'm going to give them some credit for playing with a bad flu bug, and a pass on this game.

Some here may say I'm rationalizing, but how many teams are going to win with their best player vomiting during the game, and their 2nd best also feeling terrible?

(This in no way excuses JMac and Prince who pretty much killed any chance of our surviving this game during their horrible minutes...I hope we find out they were sick too).

[Lipoli390]

Can't disagree with anything in Abe's review...most significantly, the JMac minutes were atrocious, and the Laker 5-0 run with AD lying down were flat-out weird.

I really wanted this win, but I think we have to take it with a grain of salt. While it was discouraging to see a usually-slow Lakers team looking much quicker and active than our team, we can't discount the impact of this flu bug. I've had it this week too, and while I went to the gym yesterday, I was no more than 50%...that's how some of our guys looked to me last night. KAT said he was really hit hard by this virus, and Ant was throwing up in the tunnel at halftime.

We get to decide how to conclude after this loss:

A) We are a flawed team going nowhere in the playoffs if we can't neat the Lakers at home

B) It's pretty apparent our 2 best players shouldn't have even suited up last night. I'm going to give them some credit for playing with a bad flu bug, and a pass on this game.

Some here may say I'm rationalizing, but how many teams are going to win with their best player vomiting during the game, and their 2nd best also feeling terrible?

(This in no way excuses JMac and Prince who pretty much killed any chance of our surviving this game during their horrible minutes...I hope we find out they were sick too).

I think you're rationalizing, FNG. :). Then again, I think you're right about last night's game. Our two best players were sick and unable to play anywhere close to their best basketball as a result. I think we win if they were both healthy in spite of the horrendous shooting of JMac and Prince. Of course, MJ had one of the best games of his career when he had the flu (or food poisoning). But it's not fair to compare any mortal human being to Michael Jordan.

So the Wolves caught a tough break in a must-win game last night. Again, I just come back to the 10 losses I listed along with the 2 subsequent losses to Detroit and the additional loss to Charlotte. That's 13 losses - most to bad teams, 10 of them when the Wolves were completely healthy. Never mind all the other losses to bad teams or blown leads. If the Wolves were worthy of being taken seriously as a contending team with the chance to advance in the playoffs they would have won at least 10 of the 13 games I identified. Then we'd be talking about playoff seeding instead of clinging to a play-in opportunity.

Seriously, your assessment of last night's game isn't rationalizing; it's a fair and largely accurate assessment of why we lost. I just think it's critical that our front office avoids the temptation to rationalize when looking at the season as a whole.

[ItsJustSoSab]

Now the pressure is gone from the GDT. We can all wake up and realize it's the Wolves players, coaches, and yes, Glen Taylor

[Sundog]

That game sucked for a host of reasons... and I agree with Lip that we shouldn't rationalize the losses he listed. Those are bad losses. But I don't think we need to overreact either. We never got to see this team altogether, healthy and used to playing with one another. Yes, this team can drive you nuts, but it's also a fun team to follow. It'll be tricky and interesting to see how the front office manages salaries and retention. I'd like to see whether and how the idea of going huge can actually work, and see the young guys continue to develop together.