Houston, We Do Not Have a Problem! (Wolves v Rockets GT)

[Q-is-here]

Ant's demeanor and play lately reminds me of that stretch last season when he had the tendinopathy. He just isn't the same when hobbled like this and doesn't have enough shot-making abilities and savvy to his game yet where he can still find ways to take over. Still, we needed him tonight otherwise we would have over-burdened DLO and Kyle Anderson.

[Q-is-here]

Keep adding W's

Yup, gotta keep stacking them up here. It would have been a real buzz-kill to lose this one. Any road win is a good win in my book, even if kinda ugly.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Late Night "Under the Influence" Review:

- Bad teams lose. Good teams win. ... but honestly, bad teams lose is the primary reason here. We've seen many, many Wolves teams over the years find ways to lose. Houston is doing a great facsimile right now. They're terrible.

- Steve Silas will definitely be fired. Of all the NBA coaches I've seen canned over all these years... no guy has screamed "I'm a part-time coach, full-time dead-man-walking who is just lucky to be here in the 1st place" more than Silas.

- There's a lot of blame to go around for that first 16 minutes of the game. Obviously, D. Russell is the biggest culprit. He was embarrassing.

But hold on... he had a very good 2nd half. And he ended up with 23/6. He's the best player ever! Rinse. Repeat.

- Now to the specifics...

- The 2nd half just started, Wolves within 2... After a free throw, Kyle Anderson just messes with the inbounds long enough to force another pass and waste 3 seconds... then he deflects a ball. By the time A. Sengun dunked later in that possession, the shot clocked had already expired. It's the very little, minute things sometimes.

5:45 left and Wolves up 11 (Lipoli addressed this earlier)... Edwards misses a contested, selfish three... Houston makes an open three. Edwards dribbles and dribbles and dribbles into a selfish TO... Houston makes an alley oop.

- Later with about 3 minutes left, Kyle Anderson gets fouled. It seems like there was a question of who was fouled or something and they waste just a few seconds figuring it out. There's a slight delay and we see Anderson frustrated at the free throw line. It just struck me just how much these guys want consistency. Whether it's playing time or the ebb and flow during a game...

- As noted, Jim Pete said Eric Gordon still shits/shoots. And that's fine... but I was more amused at the awkward pauses over the next 30 seconds as Peterson and Grady stayed professionals with commentary while trying to stifle laughter.

- Good win... over a very bad team.

Now, Houston is bad. They're the worst. Literally, the worst! As a result, the Edwards gaffes didn't matter. But hopefully, we see less of this moving forward.

-

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Steve Silas will definitely be fired. Of all the NBA coaches I've seen canned over all these years... no guy has screamed "I'm a part-time coach, full-time dead-man-walking who is just lucky to be here in the 1st place" more than Silas.

I see your Steve Silas and I'll raise one Ryan Saunders. But yes, your point is well-received there.

[Leado01]

Thunder over Rockets for the next 5 years

[Q-is-here]

Steve Silas will definitely be fired. Of all the NBA coaches I've seen canned over all these years... no guy has screamed "I'm a part-time coach, full-time dead-man-walking who is just lucky to be here in the 1st place" more than Silas.

I see your Steve Silas and I'll raise one Ryan Saunders. But yes, your point is well-received there.

Not to be crass, but whenever the camera panned to Steve Silas on the sideline I felt he looked more like a guy with a drug problem wandering the streets and asking for money. He just seemed like a forlorn figure out there.

[FNG]

Yep, Houston is terrible, but I'll still take the 4-game winning streak that has us now just 1/2 game out of 6th place...with a last place Pistons and decimated Suns team on the horizon.

Such a difference between our bigs and our guards tonight, at both ends of the court. Our bigs were a +47 (despite a -8 from Naz who obviously isn't ready to play), while our guards played lazy defense (except Rivers), had only 10 assists with 9 turnovers (!) and were collectively a -7...it's hard to even understand how that math works. It sort of proves what we're all seeing...SloMo is actually playing PG on offense now, a la Ben Simmons.

But what a game from our front court! They shot an extraordinary 21-35. Prince and SloMo are so smart and reliable. Jaden is an elite defender and developing scorer and rebounder. And Rudy has been dominant at both ends of the court during this win streak (yes, I know Sengun was hot in the first half, but you can't defend hook shots 8 feet from the basket...we knew he'd come back to earth in the second half).

I will toss a couple bones to our starting backcourt...their 12 for 12 in free throws was terrific, and Ant deserves some respect just for showing up tonight.

Things looked bleak when we were down 20, but this was a win we needed. Now we need Naz, Ant and JMac to heal up to give us a good chance against Detroit and Phoenix.

[Q-is-here]

Yep, Houston is terrible, but I'll still take the 4-game winning streak that has us now just 1/2 game out of 6th place...with a last place Pistons and decimated Suns team on the horizon.

Such a difference between our bigs and our guards tonight, at both ends of the court. Our bigs were a +47 (despite a -8 from Naz who obviously isn't ready to play), while our guards played lazy defense (except Rivers), had only 10 assists with 9 turnovers (!) and were collectively a -7...it's hard to even understand how that math works. It sort of proves what we're all seeing...SloMo is actually playing PG on offense now, a la Ben Simmons.

But what a game from our front court! They shot an extraordinary 21-35. Prince and SloMo are so smart and reliable. Jaden is an elite defender and developing scorer and rebounder. And Rudy has been dominant at both ends of the court during this win streak (yes, I know Sengun was hot in the first half, but you can't defend hook shots 8 feet from the basket...we knew he'd come back to earth in the second half).

I will toss a couple bones to our starting backcourt...their 12 for 12 in free throws was terrific, and Ant deserves some respect just for showing up tonight.

Things looked bleak when we were down 20, but this was a win we needed. Now we need Naz, Ant and JMac to heal up to give us a good chance against Detroit and Phoenix.

We've really seen the vets come on strong during this winning streak: Gobert, Anderson, Prince. The reality is we have no superstar on this team, and no, Ant isn't playing like a Top 25 player even if you take out his slow-ish start to the season.

As a result, we need to rely on our depth, team work, and savvy coaching if we plan on making a big playoff push.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Steve Silas will definitely be fired. Of all the NBA coaches I've seen canned over all these years... no guy has screamed "I'm a part-time coach, full-time dead-man-walking who is just lucky to be here in the 1st place" more than Silas.

I see your Steve Silas and I'll raise one Ryan Saunders. But yes, your point is well-received there.

Not to be crass, but whenever the camera panned to Steve Silas on the sideline I felt he looked more like a guy with a drug problem wandering the streets and asking for money. He just seemed like a forlorn figure out there.

YES!

I couldn't quite describe it... but there was something odd... and you pretty much nailed it.

[FNG]

I'm not going to say we played well last night, but it feels good to be back in the playoff picture with a 4-game win streak. And we have some scheduling good fortune in our next two games with Detroit missing Cunningham and Bagley and on the second game of a back to back, and Phoenix as banged up as any team in the league. We'll be favored in both games, and have a chance of following the 6-game losing streak with a 6-game winning streak.