CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[Coolbreeze44]

I have to admit to feeling an awful lot of anger following this one. You lead 20-3 to start the game, you have a new hard nosed coach, our big 3 is more experienced and yet we don't finish. I waited 6 months to see this game and I'm left feeling even worse than my usual disappointed self. Oh well, have to remind myself it's just one of 82...........Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.................. Here's the inaugural 2 + 1 for the season:

1) I'm not going to sugarcoat this first point. After looking like the best player in basketball for parts of the first half, KAT performed far below his talent level the rest of the way. Some questionable shot selection, poor shooting, poor recognition when he had open teammates, and the inability to come up with key plays or rebounds. I thought this was a klunker for Towns. If he plays anywhere near his normal self in the 2nd half we probably win easily.

2) How many 15+ point leads did we blow last year? It was quite a few, so this doesn't sit too well. And it's hard to put my finger on what caused tonight's meltdown. Memphis got hot and stayed that way for a while, but a lot of the shots weren't properly contested. Our bench was mediocre at best. Ricky was terrible. I felt it took too long to find Andrew in the 2nd half. Once we did he helped to keep us in the game. Might have employed that strategy earlier and a little more often.

Plus 1 - I think the type of player Zach Lavine is going to become is coming into focus. I see a guy that plays in some all star games. Along with his marvelous athleticism I saw some good signs tonight. He didn't force things and let the flow of the game come to him. He went to the basket decisively. He hustled on both ends of the floor. And his shooting appears like the 2nd half of last season wasn't a fluke. I also like his confidence and demeanor at crunch time. He knows he belongs now, and you can just see the burgeoning maturity.

And that's tonight's 2 things I didn't like + 1.

[worldK]

Good take cool.

i expected the anger from you after you had an erection in our hot start only to watch us limp the game away :LOL:

[Coolbreeze44]

Good take cool.

i expected the anger from you after you had an erection in our hot start only to watch us limp the game away :LOL:

Yeah, talk about an emotional roller coaster. I went from not believing what I was seeing, to not believing what I was seeing.

[thedoper]

I agree about KAT 100%. He is not a player who needs to force it. It will come to him too easily. I get that he is wanting to establish himself. But shooting from everywhere is detrimental to the team. Just an immature performance in the 2nd half.

[Monster]

Good takes Cool especially your thoughts on Lavine.

A couple other thoughts.

Dieng was better than his stat line and also worse. The guy puts forth a ton of effort and seems to have been unleashed a bit to go for blocks. There were other times he was not in position on defense and looked bad. He wasn't the only one though.

Dunn I thought gave about what I was expecting from him this year or maybe more. He had like 3 terrible passes and at least one he should have just kept going to the rim to try and score himself. The guy is a rookie though he is gonna make mistakes. Overall if he plays like he did tonight he is gonna help the team plenty. It was more than encouraging for his first NBA game.

Wade Baldwin looked terrific. I thought where they got him was a pretty good pick. They had him basically playing with another PG a lot of the time which helps.

Usually when the Wolves miss those FTs early like they did they tend to make up for it by hitting nearly every one down the stretch. They didn't. It was kinda weird. That won't happen too often they have too many good FT shooters.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Others have mentioned it, but we just didn't have much ball movement tonight and a lot of it was due to us having virtually no drive and kick outside of dumping off to the pick and pop big. The first 8 minutes guys were moving and we were getting open looks and then that just died. Meanwhile they were attacking the basket in meaningful ways that either led to layups or kick outs to open 3's. We penetrated the defense a lot, but then just kind of got stuck in no mans land not making the defense have to make any rotations and we would end up throwing up contested garbage or passing to a covered player. I'd like to see Zach get a little more free reign in this area to attack the basket because he seems to be the only one who can do it with scoring and passing balance. Ricky always passes and Wiggins always shoots. Too much hero ball and just not enough movement, but that's probably going to be our offense under Thibs unfortunately.

[Monster]

Others have mentioned it, but we just didn't have much ball movement tonight and a lot of it was due to us having virtually no drive and kick outside of dumping off to the pick and pop big. Meanwhile they were attacking the basket in meaningful ways that either led to layups or kick outs to open 3's. We penetrated the defense a lot, but then just kind of got stuck in no mans land not making the defense have to make any rotations and we would end up throwing up contested garbage or passing to a covered player. I'd like to see Zach get a little more free reign in this area to attack the basket because he seems to be the only one who can do it with scoring and passing balance. Ricky always passes and Wiggins always shoots. Too much hero ball and just not enough movement, but that's probably going to be our offense under Thibs unfortunately.

We that's not how they started the game. Part of the problem too is guys on this team can be too unselfish. They pass up good looks sometimes when they should just take them. What you said about Zach i agree with. Sometimes just forget setting those screens just let him take his man. Dunn same thing. It's still early and these guys are still young. They got rattled and didn't trust what they were supposed to be doing especially Towns. He might break something watching the film of this one.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

Good report, glad these are back.

Just watched the replay, overall I'm not concerned. I think the Grizz got very lucky to win tonight, as they were on fire from 3 when they needed it, and we gave away too many points at the line. Also, as Cool pointed out, Towns uncharacteristically disappeared in this game, and while I don't mind seeing him shoot an open 3-pointer, it seemed like he was hunting that shot tonight, and he's just too valuable from mid-range and under the hoop to take that many.

Dunn is going to be fine. I love his tenacity. He makes mistakes but his intangibles will always give us something. On the other hand, our 3 main bench scorers--Belly, Rush, and Bazz--gave us nothing across the stat line (2-13 for 5 points, 5 rebs, 1 asst, no steals in 43 mins). It was like the three of them combined for a classic Ryan Gomes line.

Again though, I like what I saw tonight, we were the better team and we didn't even play good. We'll be fine and payback is coming next Tuesday for the Grizz.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Thanks cool and others for the game notes. Weird game indeed. Blowout starts each half. I hope Wiggins moves from less free throws to more 3s this season. Veteran team that knows how to close. We'll get there.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Well, somehow it's comforting to wake up to the 2 + 1 after such a tough loss...kind of like having an old friend reappear.

My worst part of the game is different from all of yours. I came home from a function at about 9 looking forward to enjoying the DVRd game (my Wolves' owner friend was there too, and we shared our optimism about the opener as we were saying good night). Unfortunately, the game "timed out" with about 90 seconds left in the game right after KAT had hit a long shot (they were reviewing to see if it was a three pointer as my screen went black). I uttered an expletive and then went to the ESPN website to get the final results, and I uttered a louder expletive when I saw they lost (sorry neighbors). Early season rookie mistake by me...gotta remember to DVR the show after the game too rather than just the game to make sure this doesn't happen again. Oh well...both the Wolves and I have to improve.

Yes, KAT didn't have his best game...he didn't rebound well, and took some ill-advised shots when teammates were open. But the guy is so good, his stat line was still very good...21-4-5 on efficient shooting. I think he is poised for an incredible sophomore year.

Here's the most depressing part of the night for me...Thibs was outcoached by some guy I've never heard of before. And that just can't happen if we have any hopes of making the playoffs. We got off to a ridiculously great start just based on athleticism and hot shooting (and a nod to some defensive concepts Thibs has drilled into them). But after the first 5 minutes, I saw no difference between this team and last year's Mitchell-coached team...the same lack of ball movement and inability to defend the perimeter (a 24 to 18 3-point deficit is worse than our average from last year). There were several times I was screaming at the TV for Thibs to call a timeout, but he choose to let Memphis get back in the game by "letting them play". Maybe he needs to shake the rust off after a year off.

This is a game we should have won, and now we have to travel to Sac-town to play a talented team that just won in Phoenix by 19. Target Center just isn't going to be as much fun next Wednesday if we come home 0-2.