Q12543 wrote:Absolutely shocking win.
Jazz have 4 home losses this year. 2 are to the wolves
Wolves v jazz GDT
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
Jazz have 4 home losses this year. 2 are to the wolves
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
They just need the pressures of the playoffs lifted.
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
thedoper wrote:They just need the pressures of the playoffs lifted.
That or the wolves needed their best 2 players to play together all year
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
Edwards hasn't hit the rookie wall. He seems to be improving as the season moves on. Nothing but positives in my eyes. Clearly the Jazz are missing Rubio.
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Coolbreeze44
- Posts: 13192
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Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
kekgeek1 wrote:thedoper wrote:They just need the pressures of the playoffs lifted.
That or the wolves needed their best 2 players to play together all year
KAT and Edwards have been playing together all year.
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
I haven't watched the game yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing the recording tomorrow. I've been saying for some time that the Wolves aren't going to finish in the bottom three. I thought the Wolves would finish strong and that's what's happening. It shouldn't be a surprise. It's the result of 4 things:
1. KAT's return to the court. He's had a consistent stretch to get back in full game shape. Remember, he missed most of last season, had a gut-wrenching off-season with the death of his mother, had no bubble playing time or meaningful training camp, tore ligaments in his wrist and they suffered a bout with Covid.
2. Ant's steady improvement. Ant came in as an 18-year old one-and-done rookie with no summer league and no meaningful training camp. But he's improved his stats, including his shooting efficiency, every single month of the season.
3. DLO's return. I'm not a DLO fan and I didn't like the deal that brought him here, but he's definitely an upgrade over Ricky.
4. McDaniels becoming a regular part of the rotation/starting lineup. He gives this team length and defense it was sorely lacking earlier in the season before he was getting regular minutes.
5. The arrival of Chris Finch. We finally have an NBA-caliber head coach. Actually, I think he's more than just NBA caliber; I think he's a really good head coach. I'm sure Ryan Saunders is a great guy, but he had no business being a head coach in the NBA.
1. KAT's return to the court. He's had a consistent stretch to get back in full game shape. Remember, he missed most of last season, had a gut-wrenching off-season with the death of his mother, had no bubble playing time or meaningful training camp, tore ligaments in his wrist and they suffered a bout with Covid.
2. Ant's steady improvement. Ant came in as an 18-year old one-and-done rookie with no summer league and no meaningful training camp. But he's improved his stats, including his shooting efficiency, every single month of the season.
3. DLO's return. I'm not a DLO fan and I didn't like the deal that brought him here, but he's definitely an upgrade over Ricky.
4. McDaniels becoming a regular part of the rotation/starting lineup. He gives this team length and defense it was sorely lacking earlier in the season before he was getting regular minutes.
5. The arrival of Chris Finch. We finally have an NBA-caliber head coach. Actually, I think he's more than just NBA caliber; I think he's a really good head coach. I'm sure Ryan Saunders is a great guy, but he had no business being a head coach in the NBA.
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SameOldNudityDrew
- Posts: 3127
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Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
Just watched the game. Wow. We just beat the team with the best record in the West on their home court (I'd still pick the Lakers or Clippers over them, and I could see them losing to another hot team in the West playoffs potentially). They were without Mitchell, whose outfit looked louder than Utah's fans. And to some degree, it looked like we caught them a bit off guard, like they weren't really expecting to have to play very hard. But still, that's a great win.
We looked dead in the water in the first quarter. Just getting burned on the defensive end constantly, especially from the perimeter. DLO came in and gave us a quick shot in the arm offensively, otherwise we'd have been down 25 at the end of the first.
Then in the second quarter, we started making some really good defensive stops, especially Jaden and Josh. I don't think it'll show up in the boxscore because they were a lot of non-stat plays, but just a lot of great contests, deflections, and hustle plays. And it just got contagious, then Utah went cold and we were able to claw back.
Edwards was generally very Edwards-like on the offensive end. Lots of 3 pointers, and probably a third of them he shouldn't have taken. Lots of drives to the rim and tough, one-handed layups, which he was finishing fairly well at. I just checked the boxscore, and I think his rebound numbers were inflated somewhat by just being in the right place at the right time a few times. But defensively, he really seemed to lock in, especially feeding off of Josh and Jaden, and was opportunistic about picking off cross-court passes.
It wasn't a pretty game, bad shooting from both teams, there were a couple of weird injuries (Bill Kennedy went out, Ant got hit on the head--I think by Naz's knee--and I was worried about a concussion), there was a lot of blood on the court at times, literally, but I loved the hustle throughout. DLO made a few really nifty plays, including a D-Wade-eque save along the sideline. JMac came in and was really a good pest for us defensively and gave us a shot of energy defensively. Vando and even Juancho came in and gave us some of that hustle Jaden and Josh were bringing. Towns really took advantage of Favors a few plays there, but the Jazz were double-teaming him a lot, so it was tough to run the offense through him. And Edwards played a fairly balanced game on both sides of the ball, which is good. I'd way rather have him playing like this than if he gets 10 more points on 5 more shots but doesn't bring anything on the defense.
But really, I gotta hand it to Jaden and Josh, especially Jaden. He did such an effective job defensively, walling up and (mostly) avoiding fouls. Between those two, there were probably 3 or 4 plays where they played great defense, then managed to save the ball as it was going out of bounds, sometimes triggering the break. The effort just looked contagious too. And both of those guys made plays on the offensive end as well.
Great game. Maybe one of my favorites this year. It was one of those games where I think the other team figured it would be a cakewalk, and at first it was, and then things started going our way, we picked up a lot of energy off of that, and they weren't able to recover enough. If they had, they could have put it away when it was close down the stretch, or they could have held us off more in the middle stretches of the game and avoided falling behind like they did. But still, we were the better team tonight. It was great to see.
We looked dead in the water in the first quarter. Just getting burned on the defensive end constantly, especially from the perimeter. DLO came in and gave us a quick shot in the arm offensively, otherwise we'd have been down 25 at the end of the first.
Then in the second quarter, we started making some really good defensive stops, especially Jaden and Josh. I don't think it'll show up in the boxscore because they were a lot of non-stat plays, but just a lot of great contests, deflections, and hustle plays. And it just got contagious, then Utah went cold and we were able to claw back.
Edwards was generally very Edwards-like on the offensive end. Lots of 3 pointers, and probably a third of them he shouldn't have taken. Lots of drives to the rim and tough, one-handed layups, which he was finishing fairly well at. I just checked the boxscore, and I think his rebound numbers were inflated somewhat by just being in the right place at the right time a few times. But defensively, he really seemed to lock in, especially feeding off of Josh and Jaden, and was opportunistic about picking off cross-court passes.
It wasn't a pretty game, bad shooting from both teams, there were a couple of weird injuries (Bill Kennedy went out, Ant got hit on the head--I think by Naz's knee--and I was worried about a concussion), there was a lot of blood on the court at times, literally, but I loved the hustle throughout. DLO made a few really nifty plays, including a D-Wade-eque save along the sideline. JMac came in and was really a good pest for us defensively and gave us a shot of energy defensively. Vando and even Juancho came in and gave us some of that hustle Jaden and Josh were bringing. Towns really took advantage of Favors a few plays there, but the Jazz were double-teaming him a lot, so it was tough to run the offense through him. And Edwards played a fairly balanced game on both sides of the ball, which is good. I'd way rather have him playing like this than if he gets 10 more points on 5 more shots but doesn't bring anything on the defense.
But really, I gotta hand it to Jaden and Josh, especially Jaden. He did such an effective job defensively, walling up and (mostly) avoiding fouls. Between those two, there were probably 3 or 4 plays where they played great defense, then managed to save the ball as it was going out of bounds, sometimes triggering the break. The effort just looked contagious too. And both of those guys made plays on the offensive end as well.
Great game. Maybe one of my favorites this year. It was one of those games where I think the other team figured it would be a cakewalk, and at first it was, and then things started going our way, we picked up a lot of energy off of that, and they weren't able to recover enough. If they had, they could have put it away when it was close down the stretch, or they could have held us off more in the middle stretches of the game and avoided falling behind like they did. But still, we were the better team tonight. It was great to see.
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AbeVigodaLive
- Posts: 10272
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Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
Abe's Late Night DVR Review.
- Jazz best three point shooting team vs. worst three point defending team.
- The Wolves gave up 40 in the 1st quarter. (3rd straight game).
- Wolves gave up only 53 points in the final 3 quarters. It's one thing to watch a team gradually get better during a game. But I dozed off sometime late in the 1st quarter... and when i awoke an entire different team was playing. It was crazy how much of a difference one quick little nap made. The Wolves were flying around the court defensively and filling lanes and getting steals.
- Surprising win. More please.
- Jazz best three point shooting team vs. worst three point defending team.
- The Wolves gave up 40 in the 1st quarter. (3rd straight game).
- Wolves gave up only 53 points in the final 3 quarters. It's one thing to watch a team gradually get better during a game. But I dozed off sometime late in the 1st quarter... and when i awoke an entire different team was playing. It was crazy how much of a difference one quick little nap made. The Wolves were flying around the court defensively and filling lanes and getting steals.
- Surprising win. More please.
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
I'm watching the replay (watched the 4th quarter on DVR late last night) and I honestly can't figure out how we won this game. We shot 24% on threes and allowed 19 three's on 40.4%...that's not a prescription for a victory. Here are a few things I noticed.
Chris Finch. Has he ever been more animated and angrier than he was in that 1st quarter? I want our coach to be as pissed off as we fans are when we give up open looks beyond the arc! I don't know what Finch said (yelled?) at this team during that 1st quarter time out, but it worked. Our defense was unbelievable after that. Utah only scored 14 more points in the last 3 quarters than they did in the 1st! And the main reason for that was:
Josh Okogie and Jaden McDaniels. These two guys continue to get better and better. I continue to marvel at Jaden's footwork...I don't think Joe Ingles is looking forward to facing him again Monday night. And how much fun is it to watch Josh these days. The reason I gravitate toward +/- stats is that is is literally the only box score number that reflects Josh's value tonight...a team-best +12. The box score only has him with 8 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, but watching the game, I would have thought each of those numbers (except points) were twice as much. The guy is just so fricking disruptive out there!
But all that said, there were some surprising other contributors on defense tonight. Jim Pete said it, and I agree...Towns has become an excellent perimeter defender. It's one of the main reasons Finch is comfortable now playing him with Reid. I rip Dlo's defense more than almost anyone here, but he might have been the player most effected by Finch's first quarter rant. He seemed much more engaged on defense, and it showed up in the box score. I've been waiting for the moment I could say this, because it's so critical to this team's success. Other than Josh Okogie, DLO LED THE TEAM IN PLUS/MINUS WITH A +9!!!! Dlo only shot 30% on threes, but still was a positive player on the court tonight, and Finch rewarded him with 31 minutes and court time down the stretch. Will Dlo get the message? I'll be at Target Center Monday night and will have my eyes glued on Russell, and I'll provide my report post-game.
Ant was our best offensive player tonight. He was our only efficient 3-point shooter tonight at 40%, but more importantly, he finished at the rim better than we have seen in a long time...just an excellent offensive night for him. He's becoming a thief on defense and had 5 steals tonight, but don't get too excited about that...he was the recipient of some of the worst cross-court passes I've ever seen from the Jazz, Still, 5 steals of 5 steals, and his on-ball defense continues to improve.
So we beat the Jazz on a night where KAT and Dlo were only 5 for 18 on threes, and we got almost nothing from Rubio, Juancho and Reid. It's all about defense with this team, and for three quarters tonight, we were surprisingly good. This team is now 5-6 with Dlo coming off the bench...I think his best role. Will Finch continue to have him as 6th man?
Chris Finch. Has he ever been more animated and angrier than he was in that 1st quarter? I want our coach to be as pissed off as we fans are when we give up open looks beyond the arc! I don't know what Finch said (yelled?) at this team during that 1st quarter time out, but it worked. Our defense was unbelievable after that. Utah only scored 14 more points in the last 3 quarters than they did in the 1st! And the main reason for that was:
Josh Okogie and Jaden McDaniels. These two guys continue to get better and better. I continue to marvel at Jaden's footwork...I don't think Joe Ingles is looking forward to facing him again Monday night. And how much fun is it to watch Josh these days. The reason I gravitate toward +/- stats is that is is literally the only box score number that reflects Josh's value tonight...a team-best +12. The box score only has him with 8 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, but watching the game, I would have thought each of those numbers (except points) were twice as much. The guy is just so fricking disruptive out there!
But all that said, there were some surprising other contributors on defense tonight. Jim Pete said it, and I agree...Towns has become an excellent perimeter defender. It's one of the main reasons Finch is comfortable now playing him with Reid. I rip Dlo's defense more than almost anyone here, but he might have been the player most effected by Finch's first quarter rant. He seemed much more engaged on defense, and it showed up in the box score. I've been waiting for the moment I could say this, because it's so critical to this team's success. Other than Josh Okogie, DLO LED THE TEAM IN PLUS/MINUS WITH A +9!!!! Dlo only shot 30% on threes, but still was a positive player on the court tonight, and Finch rewarded him with 31 minutes and court time down the stretch. Will Dlo get the message? I'll be at Target Center Monday night and will have my eyes glued on Russell, and I'll provide my report post-game.
Ant was our best offensive player tonight. He was our only efficient 3-point shooter tonight at 40%, but more importantly, he finished at the rim better than we have seen in a long time...just an excellent offensive night for him. He's becoming a thief on defense and had 5 steals tonight, but don't get too excited about that...he was the recipient of some of the worst cross-court passes I've ever seen from the Jazz, Still, 5 steals of 5 steals, and his on-ball defense continues to improve.
So we beat the Jazz on a night where KAT and Dlo were only 5 for 18 on threes, and we got almost nothing from Rubio, Juancho and Reid. It's all about defense with this team, and for three quarters tonight, we were surprisingly good. This team is now 5-6 with Dlo coming off the bench...I think his best role. Will Finch continue to have him as 6th man?
Re: Wolves v jazz GDT
One more thing. Yes, Donovan Mitchell missed the game, but that's not why we won this game. Mitchell is a terrific scorer, but I've mentioned before how untypically horrible he has been on defense this year (guys who follow the Jazz are talking about it and wondering what's going on, but so far it's far from being a crisis because the team is doing so well).. If Derrick Favors were not on the team, Mitchell would have the worst on/off number on the Jazz at -7.2. And before the Wolves' upset last night, the Jazz were 5-1 with Mitchell out...with the only loss an overtime loss. Mitchell's injury means more minutes for Joe Ingles, and this year the Jazz have been much more effective when Joe Ingles is on the court with his league-leading 3-point shooting (an absurd 49%!) and better defense. We can be assured Finch will have Jaden defending him again Monday night, and any chance we have of beating the Jazz again will depend on whether Jaden can harass Ingles into another terrible game (and also how well Josh defends Conley). Utah is going to be revenge-motivated, and it should be a fun game!