Game Report - Wolves v Warriors

[Lipoli390]

Great true capacity crowd with no visible empty seats and lots of energy. A real playoff atmosphere. This was a great and critical win that keeps the Wolves in the running for a top 4 finish in the West. Yes, Curry and Iggy were out, but this was still an impressive win playing without our best player, Butler, against a team that still had 3 allstars (including one superstar) in their starting lineup.

Tonight was the formula for success down the stretch for the Wolves to finish in the top 5 without Jimmy Butler. Overall that formula as a team consists of good ball movement, tight defense and getting after it on the boards. More specifically, it breaks down as follows in my mind:

First ingredient: Towns stepping up as our best player with Butler out and dominating down the stretch. Towns was fantastic tonight with 31 points and 16 rebounds. He put the team on his back downt he stretch and carried the Wolves to this win.

Second ingredient: Wiggins scoring with decent efficiency and defending. Wiggins doesn't have to be great, he just has to be good. Tonight he was very good on both ends of the floor. He attacked the basket, taking only one of his disgusting fade-away jumpers, which he took late in the 4th quarter with a familiar bad result. Otherwise, this was the Wiggins we need to see the rest of the way. Wiggins has the ability to score 30-40 points with 8-10 rebounds in a game like tonight's, but he doesn't have to do that for this team to win even without Butler. Tonight he was terrific with 23 efficient points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. If we had seen anything close to this Wiggins the other night against Boston we would have won that game.

Third Ingredient: Belly continuing to play a terrific all-around game. He wasn't shooting particularly well, but he was superb in every other facet of the game with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and all-around excellent defense and smart play. He may be our best all-around player outside of Butler and KAT. He does so many things well.

Fourth Ingredient: Taj continuing is stellar play on both ends. This has been the one constant all season.

Fifth Ingredient: Tyus and Crawford playing well off the bench. Crawford was borderline tonight with his overdribbling, poor defense and poor 3-point shooting. But he hit some big 2 pointers and ended up hitting 44% of his field goal attempts while also hitting 3 of 3 free throws. Tyus was terrific tonight and offers yet another example of how poor the plus/minus is as an indicator of a player's contribution. Tyus played excellent defense and did a nice job running the offense, also hitting 4 of 5 field goal attempts, including two really big shots.

A telling moment tonight after KAT was called for a a phantom foul after getting beat up with far too few calls his way as usual all night. Green was on the free throw line and Towns was obviously highly agitated. Taj lined up directly across from KAT and talked him down, telling him to relax and play his game. Towns nodded and clapped his hands. From that moment on, Towns took over the game. Can't say enough about the value Taj adds to this team.

We need to build on this win by winning at least one of our next two road games against the Wizards or Spurs if not both. This Wolves team is fully capable of beating both teams on the road even without Butler. The Wizards are a middle-of-the-pack team and the Spurs are really short-handed and struggling. I had both these games down as looses in my last prediction. So stealing at least one would be huge. After these next two road games, we're home against the Rockets. I'd be really surprised if we won that game, but playing at home this season we're capable of pulling it off with some luck and multiple Wolves players stepping up with great games.

After these next 4 games, the Wolves can make their run in their final 11 games. I see 6 of those as games the Wolves absolutely should win: @Knicks, Memphis, Atlanta, Utah, Memphis and Nuggets. We could also pick up a win on the road against the Mavs and/or Lakers. Let's go Wolves!

[kekgeek]

Once again thank for the report.

I agree with your ingredients. Let KAT be special. Let wigg play the perfect 2nd fiddle game, efficient, quality defense and contribute in other areas.

Also thought Teague was solid tonight, his steal on Draymond was a huge turning point. Also he was quoted after the game saying, he told KAT get in the post and we are going to ride you. Like you said about taj, Teague vet leadership I feel like has been huge this year.

Curious to see what belly gets in the open market but damn we can't afford to lose him.

It's was a good don't let the season spiral game. And even though we are not as consistent without Butler and we need to play damn good. It is nice to know we at least have the talent to beat the Raptors and the Warriors without Jimmy. Something a lot of teams can't say.

Also KAT is probably the only person in the NBA who continually works Draymond. It is a huge weapon that other teams don't have.

[mrhockey89]

Yes! Here and I was bracing for an 8 game losing streak causing a loss of confidence. Big win for the Wolves tonight. Curry or no Curry, we were without Butler and the Warriors are still a championship level team. We got a bit lucky that Klay was ice cold (relative to his normal self) from 3, but we'll take it. Some better contests this game as well.

Bjelica is proving each night since Butler went out that he's deserving of big minutes. Hopefully this opens Thibs eyes so that he keeps good minutes when Butler comes back. Hopefully they can pull out a couple more wins in this ridiculously tough stretch to give themselves a bit of a chance to score a home playoff series come playoff time.

Oh, and that Towns guy, he's pretty good. Thibs really disappointed me when he tried to back up the fact that Towns was getting 7 shots a game by saying that's what the defense was dictating. RIdiculous.

As Corey Brewer would say...Go Wolves

[AbeVigodaLive]

Solid win.

- It would have been a BAD loss. Golden State is good. Very good. But they played a night game on Friday on the Coast and had a lot less on the line. They had Curry out. Iguodala out. And... David West out. He's a critical rotation guy, too. Jordan Bell also missed and while he's a high-energy guy with promise, he's probably not nearly as essential.

- Durant and Thompson didn't shoot well. Was that because of the Wolves defense? Maybe a bit. Hopefully... a lot.

- Bjelica is pretty versatile. He had a great 1st quarter to spur the Wolves fast start.

- Derrick Rose. Ugh. He played 7 minutes... took 5 shots, had 2 TOs... and the Wolves were outscored by 17 points. I'd like to think it was enough for Thibs to see what virtually everybody else sees... but I have my doubts.

- Towns with 24 shots. Wolves win. Seems like there's a connection there... maybe?

[Lipoli390]

Solid win.

- It would have been a BAD loss. Golden State is good. Very good. But they played a night game on Friday on the Coast and had a lot less on the line. They had Curry out. Iguodala out. And... David West out. He's a critical rotation guy, too. Jordan Bell also missed and while he's a high-energy guy with promise, he's probably not nearly as essential.

- Durant and Thompson didn't shoot well. Was that because of the Wolves defense? Maybe a bit. Hopefully... a lot.

- Bjelica is pretty versatile. He had a great 1st quarter to spur the Wolves fast start.

- Derrick Rose. Ugh. He played 7 minutes... took 5 shots, had 2 TOs... and the Wolves were outscored by 17 points. I'd like to think it was enough for Thibs to see what virtually everybody else sees... but I have my doubts.

- Towns with 24 shots. Wolves win. Seems like there's a connection there... maybe?

I think the relatively poor shooting of Durant and Thompson was due mainly to our defense in the second half. Belly made Durant work and I don't think Durant is used to being defended by someone with Belly's length. Wiggins did a nice job staying glued to Thompson. Thompson could have shot better, but Teague and Crawford could have shot better as well.

More ball movement from the Wolves all game than we've seen all season. And more shots for KAT. Did Thibs finally get the memo? Those were probably their two keys to the game and they are, I believe, the keys to finishing strong the rest of the way -- ball movement and featuring KAT in the offense.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

My big takeaway was that the drop off from Curry to Quinn Cook was much larger than the drop off from Butler to Bjelly.

[Monster]

My big takeaway was that the drop off from Curry to Quinn Cook was much larger than the drop off from Butler to Bjelly.

Yes he had some good moments defensively but man he was killing them on the other end after hitting a couple shots early. Zaza and Livingston were basically the only guys that did anything off their bench. I was hoping they would have to put him back in and not just play Linvingston a bunch.

[KiwiMatt]

How good was Belly? You're never going to stop KD but Belly's defense on him was tremendous. He is fast becoming my favourite player. His ability to play both forward positions and stretch the floor has been a god send for this team, especially while Butlers been out.

Side note: Derrick Rose looked pretty average. I was so mad when Thibs went with the lineup of Jones, Rose and Jamal for an extended period during the 2nd quarter and we surrendered a 10 point lead into being down 7. Hopefully Thibs has learnt and we don't have to witness that again! I did feel that Rose got fouled on two occasions driving to the hoop. Three years ago he would get those calls 9 times out of 10. How a star has fallen!

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Rose was not average. That would indicate that he had some positive to his game, which he lacked. He forced the issue, he was reluctant to pass far too often, and he looked lost on defense. If this was an 18, 19, or even 20-year old player just getting his feet wet in the NBA, I'd say have just a little bit of patience, but this is a veteran and those are basic components of the game. Rose is washed and any time he's on the floor, he's a disadvantage.

It feels like we traded Bass for... for Bazz.

[BloopOracle]

I'm going to give Rose more than 7 minutes of gametime on the Wolves before I make up my mind on him