Game Report - Wolves v. Thunder

[Lipoli390]

Target Center was rocking again tonight at a level I haven't seen very often since the KG years. Big and engaged crowed from start to finish.

This was a huge win. The Wolves have been struggling and a very talented Thunder team comes in highly motivated to avenge a their heartbreaking loss to the Wolves in their building. Then the Thunder get an early 10 point lead. But the Wolves fought back and persevered with Butler and Towns leading the way on both ends of the court.

Can't say enough about KAT and Butler. I won't repeat their stats, which speak for themselves. But the stats don't tell you how hard those two guys, especially KAT, had to fight on both ends of the court. KAT was repeatedly being grabbed, held, and smacked by Adams and others. He should have a least five more trips to the line than he got. KAT's clutch three-pointer down the stretch was so huge. You could see when he released the ball that he wasn't going to miss. He's a gamer and he just willed that into the bucket. Jimmy took over from there. Speaking of Butler, I just love the way he plays -- so much grit and heart. It's an entirely different team with him out there. He brings so many things to the team when he's playing -- ballhandling, passing, rebounding, toughness, intelligence, confidence and of course big shot-making ability. His ability to handle the ball and playmake may be his most critical contribution. He takes pressure off Teague, which makes Teague better and he's actually a better passer than Teague. His presence relieves Wiggins of ballhandling responsibilities he would otherwise have.

Speaking of Teague, I thought he was terrific tonight. I watched him closely tonight and saw two things that I think he's struggling with. First, I think he's adjusting to his new team, something that's particularly challenging for a PG. That shouldn't be a surprise. So I see him getting better as he gets more comfortable with the offense and his teammates. Second, he's clearly adjusting to Thibs and that's not easy. I could see him distracted a number of times tonight by Thibs' constant barking from the sideline. Ricky went through that the first half of last season. I also saw the same thing last season with KAT. I'm growing more confident that the best of Teague is yet to come.

Taj was very solid tonight. He's definitely a steadying force on the team.

The bench was disappointing. However, I was surprised Belly didn't get more minutes. He hit a big three and looked solid tonight. Gorgui didn't play particularly well, but that 2-pointer as the clock ran out was clutch. Gorgui's seems to have taken a step back from last season, but again, we have to keep in mind that he's playing with an almost entirely different set of teammates now that he's part of the second team. So he needs to adjust. Watching our bench underscores just how helpful it would have been to sign CJ Miles. I like Crawford, but he's incredibly streaky and tends to take some really poor shots. Bazz gives great effort but clearly hasn't improved his three-point shot or significantly expanded his game.

The pre-game shoot-around was interesting. Jimmy's presence that we see during games extends to pre-game warmups. He struts around with such an air of confidence, but not cockiness. He talks to all his teammates. Interestingly, at one point he started to work with Aldrich on passing out of the post. Aldrich was in the paint and Jimmy was spotting up behind the arc. Butler would tell Cole to pass him the ball with Jimmy repeatedly talking to Cole and having him do the drill over and over until Cole consistently delivered the ball exactly where Jimmy wanted it in his shooting motion. Then he had Cole come out to guard him and Jimmy got Cole to foul on a pump fake. Fun to watch. Wiggins spend a lot of time during the shoot-around working on his foul shot. At one point, Towns came out and stood next to him giving him pointers and giving him encouragement. I see some nice team chemistry forming on this team.

Anyway, it was a fun game and a great win. We're 3-3 now. Although it's hard to forget those previous two embarrassing performances by our Wolves, tonight's performance was encouraging.

[Mr. Brightside [enjin:16464947]]

Lip, good point on Teague adjusting to Thibs. I had forgotten how long it took Ricky (and to a lesser extent KAT) to adjust last season. Teague has played well in both OKC games now. Hopefully he can carry over his play from last night to ndct week's games and string a few together.

Always enjoy reading the game reports!

[kekgeek]

Jimmy is such a calming influence. Something the wolves haven't had in a long time. Last year when the flood gates opened they never stopped (same with 2 east loses this year). When jimmy is out there he has stopped the bleeding with his all around play.


With the belly minutes, I think some of it is matchup. He would had to continue to guard Melo. And even though he tried Melo was in a grove against him. Probably some of the reason, also still coming off his injury

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Well, this game highlights why I don't bet the NBA anymore. With Butler coming off an illness and OkC bent on revenge, I saw this pick em game as a lock for OkC...man, was I wrong. Great to read the game report, and to hear the arena was full of energy for the second consecutive Friday...Lip, I think you will agree Target Center was dead for the Pacers game (except for the boos). As everyone has said, Butler is a huge difference maker...so great to really have a 2-way star on the team! And I completely understand the KAT comments here...a marvelously skilled offensive player who needs to get better defensively. It's terrific to be 3-3 having played half of our games against elite West teams, and to be 3-1 with Butler on the court.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The one thing I will say about our league-worst defense in the context of last night.....Man, OKC made a lot of contested long 2's. George and 'Melo each made more than their fair share of tough 2-point jumpers. These are the shots we want other teams to have to take, but man, they were knocking them down. We generally held them in check otherwise and limited their 3-point makes, which is good.

[Lipoli390]

LST -- Good point about 3-3 as a good record considering the elite West teams we've played against so far. I'd add that we should also cut the Wolves some slack considering that we have a new starting PG, which requires a lot of adjustment. I'm concerned about the dramatic fall-off with Butler out of the lineup. That has to be addressed, but I'm not sure how. It would really help if Bazz would take a big step forward, but so far we haven't seen that from him.

I looked ahead at our schedule and did a fresh evaluation of the Wolves' prospects game by game based on what we've seen so far from the Wolves and other teams. Assuming that our core three stay relatively healthy thoughout the season, I can see a realistic path to 50 wins based on games we should win. I see a floor of 42 wins.

[TAFKASP]

Assuming that our core three stay relatively healthy thoughout the season, I can see a realistic path to 50 wins based on games we should win.

Great minds think alike, or something.

[Monster]

I'll add my game thoughts after finishing the game a while ago and posting in the game thread.

Roberson was matched up on Teague a lot early on. I'm telling you he cannot guard Teague off the dribble in space. I saw it in games and highlights doing some research on him and tonight he blew past him again. I'm actually surprised they didn't take advantage of that matchup more. Teague seemed more comfortable and they seemed to give him the ball more to do his thing making plays and being the PG. jimmy has been trying to be the good guy making plays and that's good but he needs to be in attack mode more and also let Teague start the offense.

Dieng is struggling but I think the last 2 games he has found himself a bit. I don't think either Dieng or Taj have found their groove yet and when they do it's gonna make this team pretty good even when one of them doesn't have a good game.

Belly is a flamethrower from 3 right now. He is shooting like a guard out there from deep. What is really significant is that he is able to hit shots at the top of the key it's not like he is just a corner threat.

Bazz looks lost. He is even worse than last year but he struggled mostly for like 20 games and then proceeded to have a career year in many ways. His flawed game really shows up right now. Huestis made him look bad on one post up but Huestis is huge.

Tyus wasn't great but he was good enough as an individual player to keep things from getting out of control with that bench unit even though they struggled.

Wiggins 3 point shooting is a revelation. I hope we can keep that rolling it would change the whole narrative about him as a player. He needs to do more Q score stuff but he is on the right track this year. In this game he had a go tot he flor and get floor burn moment had 2 blocks (one on PG if I remember right) and 2 steals. That's doing some other stuff.

Overall just a good win AT HOME against a good team and it was a really fun game to watch. At one point in the 2nd half I said to myself "I'm just going to enjoy the rest of this game even if we don't win this one. It's been a heck of a game."

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Yeah I too had this pegged as another big loss. Nice win.

[Crazysauce]

How do you post an image on here?


https://twitter.com/Phantele_/status/924249442223521792?s=09

Not sure if this works