No takers? - Wolves at Pelicans GDT

[KiwiMatt]

Side note - I though Taj played well tonight. Got us ahead with early buckets and played solid D on Davis and Cousins. He brings a toughness that we haven't had in our front court for a long time. Him and Jimmy feed off each. Great offseason acquisitions.

[kekgeek]

A frustrating game watching the Wolves blow multiple 10 point leads, but its wins like this that have eluded us over recent years.

I have lost all respect for Cousins after tonight's game. Yes he's an incredible talent but the way he acts is a cancer to his team and to the NBA in general. Bring back the flopping fines I say, he would have clocked up a few tonight.

A tough assignment for Towns tonight against the twin towers and early foul trouble didn't help. But if we can win a game with Towns only scoring 2 points shows that we have the personnel to step up when these things happen.

Really liking our bench this season. Good group of players who compliment each other well. Tonight they shot 16 from 23 attempts. Belly is our best 3pt shooter by a mile and is developing into one of the best in the league. Such a sweet stroke and his height means few defenders can defend it. Active game by Gorgui, love the passion he showed vs Cousins. Jamal, Tyus and Bazz all chipped in too. Crawford is such a great addition for this team and is the glue in that second unit.

Pretty much agree with everything you said. Belly has been a big X Factor early this year. I hope the 3pt stroke continues because he hasn't been solid at that area so far in his career.

I got a feeling a lot of games are going to seem ugly but they are a grit and grind type of team now.

Jimmy is such a calming influence, last couple years when leads were blown or late in games we tried to win it all in one possession. Now we seem so calm.

Taj and Gorgui deserve the MVP for me tonight. Both played very good defense on the bigs and both did a ton of dirty work

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Big road win against a playoff competitor. These wins OKC, Utah, and now the Pels are just huge wins.

What a sloppy game though....by both teams.

- Agree with others that Cousins is a really talented player, but ultimately is a loser due to both his antics and some of the sloppy plays and decisions he makes.

- I'm with Khansy.....we need to see more Bjelly. I know Thibs is making an offense/defense tradeoff with him and Gibson, but man, we REALLY need Bjelly's shooting and his defense is generally pretty solid.

- Wiggins - meh....makes a couple breathtaking forays to the basket (including his patented spin move) combined with a bunch of tough shots and 3-point clanks. Just not separating himself much as a top NBA wing IMO. We'll need more from him to compete with the really big boys.

- Dieng is so much more defensively sound than KAT. He's not great, but we just play better defense when he's on the floor. It was nice to see him get some extended burn and make some solid plays.

- I'm both impressed and unimpressed with Butler. He does make some big plays on both ends of the floor, but he has also taken some really tough shots and made some critical errors down the stretch. Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad. His tough 2-point jumper + 1 is really what sealed the win.

All in all, another sort of sloppy, but important win that we somehow grind out at the end. Not impressed by New Orleans at all. The way we played tonight will get us spanked by teams that are much more fundamentally sound and disciplined (e.g. San Antonio).

[Crazysauce]

Great night from belly tonight. I just love smart basketball players. Also speaking of love .... damn i think im in love with jamal crawford. Honestly i want to see him shoot more. Wiggins is playing much better this year. It feels like whenever he takes it to the hoop he is going to score. Just really awesome when he gets in the lane and super efficient in there. Wish he would do more of that instead of settling so much. Kid is so very good. Also really happy to see wiggins getting his hands on a lot more balls on defense and rebounding more. It feels like i can really see him progressing in just being more smart on the defensive end and reading the plays the other teams are running and much greater anticipation. I really like the progress overall he is making. This team will get better too with time. Kat.... well that was absolutely terrible how he just loses it against cousins. Concerns me how mentally weak he can tend to be against the adams and cousins of the league. Very disappointing game from him but hopefully it will humble him a bit. Honestly i thought we played better without him on the floor tonight.

[kekgeek]

I wonder if belly is not playing more because of his injury last year.

He is being super effective in his limited minutes probably don't want to wear him out especially coming off a pretty big injury.

And it's not like Thibs doesn't trust him he played big minutes last year before he got hurt

[KiwiMatt]

I wonder if belly is not playing more because of his injury last year.

He is being super effective in his limited minutes probably don't want to wear him out especially coming off a pretty big injury.

And it's not like Thibs doesn't trust him he played big minutes last year before he got hurt

Could be a combination of that and the addition of Gibson into the rotation. I'm pretty happy with our big man rotation. Can't wait for Justin Patton to get healthy.

[thedoper]

Just keep winning. Any way to get one on the road.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Big road win against a playoff competitor. These wins OKC, Utah, and now the Pels are just huge wins.

What a sloppy game though....by both teams.

- Agree with others that Cousins is a really talented player, but ultimately is a loser due to both his antics and some of the sloppy plays and decisions he makes.

- I'm with Khansy.....we need to see more Bjelly. I know Thibs is making an offense/defense tradeoff with him and Gibson, but man, we REALLY need Bjelly's shooting and his defense is generally pretty solid.

- Wiggins - meh....makes a couple breathtaking forays to the basket (including his patented spin move) combined with a bunch of tough shots and 3-point clanks. Just not separating himself much as a top NBA wing IMO. We'll need more from him to compete with the really big boys.

- Dieng is so much more defensively sound than KAT. He's not great, but we just play better defense when he's on the floor. It was nice to see him get some extended burn and make some solid plays.

- I'm both impressed and unimpressed with Butler. He does make some big plays on both ends of the floor, but he has also taken some really tough shots and made some critical errors down the stretch. Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad. His tough 2-point jumper + 1 is really what sealed the win.

All in all, another sort of sloppy, but important win that we somehow grind out at the end. Not impressed by New Orleans at all. The way we played tonight will get us spanked by teams that are much more fundamentally sound and disciplined (e.g. San Antonio).

We're not contenders anyway. It's too soon to start thinking about trying to take down teams like the Warriors and Spurs on a regular basis. Beating teams like the Thunder, Utah and NO on a regular basis no matter how sloppy shows we are playing like we are a cut above them (closer to 4/5 than 7/8.). That would be fantastic to improve that much this season. If we can win sloppy just imagine how we'll look in the 2nd half of the season when it starts to come together? I'd say we are well ahead of expectations so far in games Butler has played. We have to take our end of game luck while we have it now and hope as the season goes on we'll need to rely on it less and less because we will regress closer to the mean at some point when it comes to close games.

[TheFuture]

I had stated a few days ago that these close wins are such a relief from years prior - actually the last 13 years. Going forward, this is building a ton of chemistry and bodes well for what to expect in the playoffs (should we make them). Loving the grit and ability for any of our top 4 players to make plays in crunch time!

Would anyone have guessed we would beat the elite big man team in the league - let alone any team - with Towns being absolutely non-existent? This is the most impressive win so far, by far.

[Lipoli390]

New Orleans didn't play well, but we made a lot of sloppy plays turning the ball over. KAT had an unusually terrible day offensively and played only 22 minutes because of foul trouble. So I'll take a 6-point win on the road against a playoff contender with perhaps the two best bigs playing together.

We're still not clicking offensively as a unit. Wiggins and KAT are up and down while Butler and Teague still seem to be finding their way on this new team. Gorgui has been playing well below his proven capability while Bazz has also been in a bit of a slump offensively. Those two guys, especially Gorgui, will definitely play better as the season progresses and we already got a nice glimpse of the old Gorgui tonight. Wiggins is playing with a lot more determination and energy this season and it shows on the defensive end and the boards. His shot has been streaky, but I do think he and KAT will get better and more consistentas the season goes on. Meanwhile Taj has been a great stablizing force while Crawford has added much-needed offensive firepower off the bench.

ThisWolves team is 5-2 not playing it's best basketball and playing two games (the two losses) without Butler. Bottom line is that we haven't seen the best of the Wolves yet. Grinding out a 5-2 start to the season really bodes well as we look ahead to when this team really starts clicking -- Teague and Butler fully adjust to their new teammates, Gorgui gets comfortable with his role and gets back to the player he was last season, Bazz breaks out of his scoring slump, KAT and Wiggins stabilize. I don't have a complete handle on this team. I see them finishing anywhere from 5-7 in the West, most likely 5 or 6. But they could possibly capture a 4th seed.