Pacers at Wolves GDT

[Q-is-here]

Refreshing to see the Wolves win a game where we were handily outshot beyond the arc. That being said, we just aren't going to win a lot of games this year if we don't figure out how to make more 3s and stop more 3s. Frustrating to watch game after game.

[Q-is-here]

Overall I am very happy when the win tonight. Pacers are really solid and the wolves swept the season series.

Wolves continue to play with this effort they are going to win games. Turnovers need to go down. Shooting is still not great, Dlo really mad the 3pt numbers respectable in the 4th. We saw why Garza was not getting minutes and that is because he is so slow on D (to be fair Turner is a tough matchup).

Wolves need to figure out though how to defend when Rudy sits. They just have to.

Happy with the win. 2 games out of the 4 seed. Let's go a little run here

Yeah, I love Garza and he's been dominant in the G-League (scored 44 points his las outing!), but he is more of an instant offense bench scorer. He's going to struggle to protect the rim and match up with guys like Turner.

[FNG]

Refreshing to see the Wolves win a game where we were handily outshot beyond the arc. That being said, we just aren't going to win a lot of games this year if we don't figure out how to make more 3s and stop more 3s. Frustrating to watch game after game.

Yep, narrowing the 3-point gap is a big key to our future success this season. And as excited as I am for the return of Rudy to Utah Friday night, I don't like the matchup of our starting backcourt against a team that makes the 3rd most 3's per game at a 37.5% clip. Your frustration level may reach a new level Friday!

Another night, and another game where DLo does the near-impossible...leading the team in scoring while finishing with either the worst or second worst +/- on the team. Finchie needs to find a way to change that.

[FNG]

Nice win. A few thoughts.

1. Russell answered my "let's trade DLO and start JMac" mantra by putting the team on his back and doing more than any other player late in the fourth quarter to get the win.

2. Gobert can be frustrating with his mediocre hands and what I perceive as a lack of toughness, but he had a huge game tonight and was obviously a key to the win.

3. Naz Reid was fantastic. He looked like Vando the way he was flying around the court on both ends. Terrific game from Naz as always.

4. JMac and Nowell were also terrific tonight. Credit them and our entire second unit for the critical role they played in getting the win.

5. I mentioned earlier that this team lacks physical and mental toughness. I think that's true in spite of the nice win tonight. But I think there are three players who could qualify as tough - Edwards, Austin Rivers, and Naz Reid.

Some very good observations here, Lip. Lots of evidence that Russell read your "start JMac" post during a time out, and it inspired him to a terrific 4th quarter...game ball to Lip! Man, Russell's fun to watch when he gets hot like that...huge shots and a nice pocket pass to Rudy after Turner ties the game! That said, if anything, tonight reinforced my belief that JMac needs to start and DLo needs to be our instant offense off the bench. On nights where he is hot like tonight, we need him out there in the 4th quarter...more and more he reminds me of Jamal Crawford, and he had a brilliant Crawford-like 4th quarter tonight. But a case can also be made that his poor play in the first three quarters were the reason we needed his points in the 4th quarter. It's like a broken record, but you can't avoid the fact that again JMac had a strong +/- at +9 while again Russell was at the bottom with a -7 despite a brilliant 4th quarter...it happens night after night. You also can't ignore that JMac leads the team in on/off at the quarter mark at +21.6, while DLo is dead last (among players with more than 200 minutes) at -12.5. Finchie needs to review Einstein's definition of insanity, and soon!

And speaking of brilliant, how about the way Ant has been getting to the basket recently...this is the Ant we all want to see, focusing more on getting to the basket and drawing contact than relying on threes. His offense is getting better and better. I'm convinced he is going to be a perennial All-Star. He's 26.2/5.8/4.4 with 2.9 steals his last 10 games!

I'm a big KAT fan...he's without a doubt a unicorn on offense. But it's telling how much more fun this team has been to watch the past three games. I'm not giving up on the Rudy/KAT experiment, but my confidence in the pairing is wavering. This season has become very interesting, and I can't wait to compare how the team plays the next month compared to how they look when KAT come back

Can't help but feeling excited about the upcoming Utah game, but I'm also apprehensive about it. We absolutely have to tighten up our 3-point defense.

Anyway, another really fun game to watch an impressive win against a very good Pacers team...if only we could play them every night! Go Wolves!

[FNG]

One more comment...what a game by Gobert! He clearly came out with more intensity in this game after his bonehead game-costing blunder against OkC. He was brilliant at both ends of the court, and was the key to our incredible 51-31 advantage on the boards! And what a block to seal the game...remarkable quickness after getting beaten off the dribble by Hield!

Also kudos to Finchie for making the right move after Gobert hit the two game-winning free throws. He benched the guy whose 4th quarter shooting won the game for us, and put the right defensive lineup out there...Rudy/SloMo/Ant/Jaden/Rivers/

[Q-is-here]

One more comment...what a game by Gobert! He clearly came out with more intensity in this game after his bonehead game-costing blunder against OkC. He was brilliant at both ends of the court, and was the key to our incredible 51-31 advantage on the boards! And what a block to seal the game...remarkable quickness after getting beaten off the dribble by Hield!

Also kudos to Finchie for making the right move after Gobert hit the two game-winning free throws. He benched the guy whose 4th quarter shooting won the game for us, and put the right defensive lineup out there...Rudy/SloMo/Ant/Jaden/Rivers/

I've also noticed Rudy begging for the ball deep in the paint a bit less and quickly moving into the dunker's spot. That helps.

The other thing I will say about Ant....boy, he still has a ways to go to be a lead guard. A lot of his passes were ill-advised or just not accurate even though he had the right thought. Not a natural in that regard....Was hoping we'd see more refinement from him in this area by now. Great game overall though for him.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'm not a big fan of using ESPN's Real Plus-Minus (RPM) as the go-to catch-all statistic, and I still maintain that using a plethora of measures is the best way to capture an individual player's impact, but RPM is at least better than traditional -- and often misused -- plus-minus in that regard because it at least tries to incorporate the context within the game, such as who Player X shares the court with and who they're playing against, as well as other various uncontrollable factors. For instance, playing against starting-level talent is much different (and more difficult) than playing against bench-level talent, and it should be accounted for in some way, and so on. If you're a big fan of plus-minus stats, like many seem to be here, then I would assume you would also value RPM to some degree because basic plus-minus is the core of the stat itself, but it attempts to adjust for context, which is certainly appreciated.

With that said, the polarizing D'Angelo Russell currently ranks 16th in the NBA for players classified as point guards with a 1.97 value and positive marks in both ORPM (offense) and DRPM (defense). He currently ranks 63rd in RPM among all NBA players. That singular statistic paints a much different picture than the narrative that has been presented here repeatedly despite using essentially the same accumulation of data. Is RPM a perfect stat? Absolutely, positively NOT, but neither is traditional plus-minus when gauging an individual player's contributions in various five-man lineup combinations. This is just a different perspective through a similar-yet-flawed lens.

As of December 8th, Timberwolves' players rank as follows--

54th. Rudy Gobert: 2.43 (8th-best C)
55th. Karl-Anthony Towns: 2.42 (9th-best C, 14th-best PF)
57th. Anthony Edwards: 2.33 (13th-best SG)
63rd. D'Angelo Russell: 1.97 (16th-best PG)
139th. Naz Reid: 0.22 (31st-best C)
174th. Jaylen Nowell: -0.58 (40th-best SG)
185th. Jaden McDaniels: -0.76 (32nd-best PF/SF)
196th. Jordan McLaughlin: -0.95 (37th-best PG)
330th. Bryn Forbes: -2.90 (65th-best SG)
363rd. Taurean Prince: -3.37 (64th-best SF)
373rd. Kyle Anderson: -3.49 (65th-best SF)
402nd. Nathan Knight: -4.06 (N/A)
406th. Austin Rivers: -4.10 (N/A)
421st. Wendell Moore Jr.: -4.29 (N/A)

RPM: Player's estimated on-court impact on team performance, measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and defensive possessions. RPM takes into account teammates, opponents and additional factors

PS: Some things look very different through the scope of RPM, BPM, RAPTOR, VORP, LEBRON, etc., which is why we should typically try to look at everything zoomed out to form some sort of conclusion about a player and their impact rather than rely heavily on one or two measures.

[thedoper]

I think watching the games it is hard not to recognize that Dlo has started to play better and as a result so has the team. I hope he stays hot, and I hope we can learn to defend without Rudy. He clearly hasn't solved our rebounding problem as a singular entity. Imo Jaden has to get a hell of a lot better in this area if we are going to have any chance of really becoming a better defensive team. I know he's running all over the place, but his primary role is supposed to be D, that has got to include getting in there to box out. It's hard, but his movement on offense gives him a chance to catch his breath. I also think we need Prince back, I think his injury has hurt us more than expected.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Refreshing to see the Wolves win a game where we were handily outshot beyond the arc. That being said, we just aren't going to win a lot of games this year if we don't figure out how to make more 3s and stop more 3s. Frustrating to watch game after game.

- 33 last night.

It's not sustainable.

I wasn't able to stay awake long enough for any sort of late night DVR review... it made for a very interesting viewing experience. I fell asleep when the Wolves were up about 20, woke up to a close game, woke up again down 8, and woke up again at the very end.

Looks like Russell and Gobert brought the team home.

I know steals aren't always the best measure of defensive prowess... but 17 steals in the past 3 games for Edwards is impressive any way you slice it. Going for 25+ in 6 straight games is a nice touch, too.

[Lipoli390]

Overall I am very happy when the win tonight. Pacers are really solid and the wolves swept the season series.

Wolves continue to play with this effort they are going to win games. Turnovers need to go down. Shooting is still not great, Dlo really mad the 3pt numbers respectable in the 4th. We saw why Garza was not getting minutes and that is because he is so slow on D (to be fair Turner is a tough matchup).

Wolves need to figure out though how to defend when Rudy sits. They just have to.

Happy with the win. 2 games out of the 4 seed. Let's go a little run here

Yeah, I love Garza and he's been dominant in the G-League (scored 44 points his las outing!), but he is more of an instant offense bench scorer. He's going to struggle to protect the rim and match up with guys like Turner.

Yes, Q. I'll just add that we probably shouldn't draw any conclusions about Garza based on his very limited minutes last night against Myles Turner who is healthy now and playing at the top of his game. So I'm not putting a lot of stock in the defensive weaknesses that Myles Turner exploded in Garza. I'm putting far more stock in the offensive abilities we saw from Garza last night. He was getting to spots quickly and probably would have had at least one uncontested dunk if the ball handler (can't remember who) hadn't been so slow to spot him. He has a really good feel for the game on the offensive end. He showed his ability to draw fouls and hit his foul shots.

The good news for Garza (and the Wolves) is that there just aren't many guys like Myles Turner in the League.