I can feel it...

[Monster]

A couple thoughts:

Reddick is a tough cover moving off the ball. Martin has done a decent job on those guys but Reddick burned him pretty good in this game. Martin is just really struggling on offense stuff isn't falling and yet at times he has to work kinda hard for buckets.

Offense on this team is ugly at times and despite all that the Wolves made it kept it sorta interesting. Sam has focused on defense is playing with some young guys (a decent chunk of games without Rubio) etc so maybe it will look more smooth at some point but it may take even till next season to see what Sam can really get out of this team when it comes to guys really moving the ball around.

Sam gave Bazz some minutes late and I think he deserved them because I thought his defense was pretty solid in this game. I really watched him a lot on that end in the 2nd half.

Prince can still really defend. He guarded Crawford a number of times and his length helps him so much he can contest so much while playing back.

Dieng really has seemed to find a bit of a groove lately and been better. He has had some nice crushing screens lately. It's a nice development to see him playing better.

Lavine did a pretty good job on CP3. I mean I wasn't expecting him to suck or be great or whatever but he didn't get embarrassed going up against maybe the best all around PG in the game that's pretty impressive.

pierce can still hit shots and that was key for the Clippers. They were able to hit shots when it mattered and the Wolves couldn't. It felt like a game that in some key spot of the game Rubio would have helped even thought Lavine and Miller both played well.

Bottom line this is a game that you hoped maybe we could pull out because the Clippers haven't been that great this year and watching this game you can see why but especially with Rubio out its a game I wouldn't have expected to win. Wolves drop to 8-9. Tip the Cap to the Clippers making shots when they needed to hopefully Tubio will be ready to roll the next game and we can get on a nice winning streak.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I ripped both of our PGs at halftime for their first half performances, but I thought they both played well in the second half. Zach was only 6 for 15 shooting, but he had 7 assists and only 1 turnover. And the turnover was an offensive foul that was a terrible call (Griffin was both in the restricted area and moving), so he really had no turnovers. Our centers were very good also...31 and 18 between them. Kevin Martin, not so much...again.

[TAFKASP]

pierce can still hit shots and that was key for the Clippers. They were able to hit shots when it mattered and the Wolves couldn't.

They weren't just hitting shots, many of them were extremely well defended and yet they still go in. When Pierce is hitting long fallaway jumpers with a Wolves defender all over him its just not your night.

[Monster]

pierce can still hit shots and that was key for the Clippers. They were able to hit shots when it mattered and the Wolves couldn't.

They weren't just hitting shots, many of them were extremely well defended and yet they still go in. When Pierce is hitting long fallaway jumpers with a Wolves defender all over him its just not your night.

Yeah and they forced Clippers players to beat them and at times they did. Luc hit two 3's in this game. There have been seasons in his career he hasn't hit that many. Lol

[kekgeek]

pierce can still hit shots and that was key for the Clippers. They were able to hit shots when it mattered and the Wolves couldn't.

They weren't just hitting shots, many of them were extremely well defended and yet they still go in. When Pierce is hitting long fallaway jumpers with a Wolves defender all over him its just not your night.

Yeah and they forced Clippers players to beat them and at times they did. Luc hit two 3's in this game. There have been seasons in his career he hasn't hit that many. Lol

Ya, there have been games that have frustrated me this season, but not this one the clips made shots, what can you do.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The Clippers have one of the best starting 5's in the NBA. Jordan-Redick-Paul-Griffin-[insert anyone with four appendages] is a really, really strong team, especially on offense. The high pick and roll with Chris Paul is almost unstoppable. Their bench is a total mess and that's where a team like us needs to make hay. We didn't.

[WildWolf2813]

Free Towns

[Yosimar]

3 game in a row where sam goes with Dieng again basically throughout the entire 4th quarter. This time though he at least brought Towns back in for the last 2 minutes when the game was basically out of reach, nice job Sammy! Idk what his obsession with Gorgui is and frankly i don't care and no world should Dieng be getting more minutes especially 4th quarter minutes over KAT unless Dieng is playing out of this world (which he wasn't) or KAT is injured (which he isn't). That's 3 straight games in a row where Gorgui got basically all of the minutes in the 4th. He's not better offensively, he's not better defensively so what in the hell is he doing getting this much playing time over towns? especially in crunch time. He wasn't in foul trouble and he was playing well. KAT's playing time the last 3 games, 22/21/26 minutes. Im sorry, isn't not like you're playing back to backs and you need to rest your aging star. This kid should be getting 30 minutes a night plain and simply.

Rant over.

Positives - Lavine is showing why he should be the starting 2 guard when/if ricky comes back. The moment Ricky comes back it's time to end the Kmart experiment.
Wiggy with another solid game and it tells me how good he is when 21 points just isn't enough in my book and felt like he could've gotten much more.
Belly being back is a sight for sore eyes.
Dieng hasn't looked like a lost puppy out there which is nice dude is playing well (shouldn't be taking minutes away from KAT especially in the 4th quarter when KAT has shown to be extremely good).
3 point shooting - It's improving rapidly. I think this is their 3 or 4th game in a row where they've shot the ball from behind the arc extremely well. Lavine is making them, Rudez, Bazz, Belly is back and even KAT is getting in on the action. The only downside is since they've started shooting so well their FT attempts has gone down. They need to continue with this improved 3 point shooting and remember to take teams to the woodshed at the FT line. It's going to be tough to beat this team if they continue making 3's and getting to the line as often as they were early in the season.

Negatives -
Kmart - If this man can't shoot he is useless. Either trade him or bury him on the bench. It was nice to see Andre and Lavine playing together.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Yosimar, Sam has been favoring G over KAT the last three games, and I don't know exactly why. KAT is clearly our starting center and G our backup, so you would expect KAT would be on the court most of the time with the game on the line.

But it does seem like it's working. We're 2-1 in those three games with G playing the entire 4th quarter, and the only loss was on the road against the Clippers. And we made a nice run at them in the 4th quarter yesterday too.

I'm guessing Sam thinks we are a playoff team, and is carefully monitoring KAT's minutes to not burn him out. Rookies often hit the wall at some point, and it's even more likely with a big guy like KAT who only averaged 20 MPG last year. I think it's a lot to ask a guy to go from playing 40 games at 20 MPG to 82 games at over 30 MPG. As long as G keeps having games like yesterday (14 and 10 on 5-7 shooting), playing him more allows Sam to keep KAT fresh for the rest of the season. And that will only get easier if Pek come back and can give us some minutes.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

One of the things J-Pete mentioned is how the ball tends to stick in KAT's hands at times. He can be indecisive and it stops the flow of the offense, which is understandable given his inexperience. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

As long as this team is hanging around the .400 to .500 range in terms of record, I really can't complain too much. We can certainly question Sam's piece-part moves, but they are exceeding expectations in the overall scheme of things (at least in my opinion).