Game Report - Wolves v. Suns

[Lipoli390]

It should go without saying that this was a horrible loss. Losing at home to one of the worst teams in the League that also happened to be playing without its best player is completely inexcusable.

Looking at individual players, KAT, Teague and Gibson were the only Wolves players who played well. Butler played his heart out, but he was really hampered by a bad back most of the second half.

I thought the officiating was decidedly biased against the Wolves. But Teague should have known better than to put himself in a position to get called for two 3-point fouls. Odds are at least one of those threes would have been missed if Teague hadn't committed those two fouls. So those mistakes cost us the game. But you still can't blame Teague for the loss. He played hard, scored 17 points on 57% shooting and came through with some nice defensive plays, including 3 blocks. He showed great competitiveness tonight.

KAT was, once again, our best three-point shooter tonight. He did all he could, scoring 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds while also getting 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. He got to the line 12 times and hit 83% of them while also hitting 57% of his 7 three-point attempts. He played hard. Taj had his typically solid game with 18 points and 10 boards.

Unfortunately, what KAT, Taj and Teague gave the Wolves tonight obviously wasn't enough. So what went wrong? It boils down essentially to two things in my view: Thibs and Wiggins.

Regarding Thibs, it was a familiar tale tonight from a coaching standpoint. It was the typical motionless isolation offense that typically ends up in contested midrange jumpers. Wiggins was horrible, yet Bazz continued to remain planted on the bench. Butler could barley walk in the 4th quarter, but Thibs stubbornly kept running plays for Butler down the stretch instead o the team's best scorer, Towns.

Regarding Wiggins I hardly know where to begin. His shooting slump returned after a one-game hietus as he went 5-16 from the field, 1-6 from behind the arc and 2-4 from the line. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was his familiar ball-watching self tonight. He had 1 rebound and 1 assist. Yes, 1 rebound and 1 assist. That's inexcusable. The Wolves were grossly outrebounded tonight. They needed more than 1 rebound from their 6-8 SF with long arms and a 43" vertical. The worst moment of the night was when Wiggins took the ball down the stretch in the 4th quarter into the fringe of the paint one-on-three and missed a highly contested jumper. What was especially horrible about it was the fact that Towns was right behind him just behind the 3-point line in his favorite spot totally unguarded and calling for the ball. Wiggins had to see and hear him, but chose to take a contested one-on-three two-point shot after some of his familiar sloppy dribbling. The way KAT was hitting threes, the odds are he would have hit that shot and the Wolves would have won.

This is a poorly coached team with a soon-to-be grossly overpriced SF. I'd also say we have a grossly overpaid PG at $19 million per year for three years. We're at the salary cap and could even hit the luxury tax threshold next season. We're 4 games over .500, but headed down the road to a much tougher part of our schedule. Things are not looking good.

[Wolvesfan21]

Trade Wiggins for DeAndre Jordan, maybe the Clippers will take a chance on the lack of effort POS. Jordans contract is expiring. At least this way we can start Bazz or anyone else who can grab a board or make a pass or make a shot.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Wow, we lost to the Suns AGAIN???
And Butler's hurt from playing 40 minutes a game? Shocking. Taj will be next so maybe this team isn't quite the 4 or 5 seed some here had envisioned. We'll be lucky to sneak into the playoffs, which was my only hope for this season but we could be so much better.

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

38 wins here we come...

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

So MGH gives 17 quality minutes off the bench against the Kings and gets downgraded to 6 minutes with Wiggy stinking up the joint and Butler injured? Got it.

[TAFKASP]

LOL, that's all I have to say about this team.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Wow, we lost to the Suns AGAIN???
And Butler's hurt from playing 40 minutes a game? Shocking. Taj will be next so maybe this team isn't quite the 4 or 5 seed some here had envisioned. We'll be lucky to sneak into the playoffs, which was my only hope for this season but we could be so much better.

Yeah, such a sad state of affairs. You may be right that sneaking into the playoffs might be our most likely outcome, although I still think we easily have the talent to finish in the top 4. The talent, but not the coaching. But even with Thibs' ridiculous coaching (which is starting to get a lot of attention at the national level), we are still holding on to that 4th spot. Incredible. More than ever, I need Thibs to be gone, and I'm afraid the only thing that is going to move Glen to fire him would be missing the playoffs again. So that's what I wish for this team, just to get rid of this knucklehead. No, what I really wish is that Thibs would pull his head out of his ass and learn to use his roster like a normal NBA coach...if he did that (like he did in the previous game), this team has proven they can win at a Top 4 pace. But we all know it's unlikely that the Barking Ogre can change his ways...he's been doing the same thing for too long. So I'm now hoping this team misses the playoffs and Glen dumps the BO...it seems to be the only hope for this immensely talented roster to reach its potential.

[Lipoli390]

Wow, we lost to the Suns AGAIN???
And Butler's hurt from playing 40 minutes a game? Shocking. Taj will be next so maybe this team isn't quite the 4 or 5 seed some here had envisioned. We'll be lucky to sneak into the playoffs, which was my only hope for this season but we could be so much better.

Yeah, such a sad state of affairs. You may be right that sneaking into the playoffs might be our most likely outcome, although I still think we easily have the talent to finish in the top 4. The talent, but not the coaching. But even with Thibs' ridiculous coaching (which is starting to get a lot of attention at the national level), we are still holding on to that 4th spot. Incredible. More than ever, I need Thibs to be gone, and I'm afraid the only thing that is going to move Glen to fire him would be missing the playoffs again. So that's what I wish for this team, just to get rid of this knucklehead. No, what I really wish is that Thibs would pull his head out of his ass and learn to use his roster like a normal NBA coach...if he did that (like he did in the previous game), this team has proven they can win at a Top 4 pace. But we all know it's unlikely that the Barking Ogre can change his ways...he's been doing the same thing for too long. So I'm now hoping this team misses the playoffs and Glen dumps the BO...it seems to be the only hope for this immensely talented roster to reach its potential.

I agree with you completely, LST. As much as I hate to root for another lottery finish, I think that would be in the best long-term interest of this franchise because it's probably what it would take to get Thibs out of here. The added benefit is that we'd have two first round picks. Like you, I'd prefer to see Thibs pull his head out of his ass this season and stay on as our head coach. But I share your skepticism in that regard. His stubborness is off the charts. Sometimes it seems as if he makes contrarian decisions simply to defy those who criticize him. Not giving Bazz ANY minutes while Wiggins stinks it up repeatedly is the height of stubborness.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

...Wiggins at his worst is still better than Muhammad. And that's coming from someone who dislikes their games equally.

[Lipoli390]

...Wiggins at his worst is still better than Muhammad. And that's coming from someone who dislikes their games equally.

I'm not so sure about that. At least Bazz will crash the boards and dive for loose balls. But I think I'd still have to concede your point overall. Nevertheless, with Wiggins playing as poorly as he has five of the past six games, I still think Thibs should have at least given some minutes to Bazz. Thibs re-signed him and in our season ticket holder meeting with Thibs he seemed excited at the prospect of re-signing Bazz.