On Green Dolphin Steet - Wolves@Jazz

[worldK]

We are dominating a playoff team on the road. They are playing back to back but who cares. We used to lose this types of games before so its great to watch.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Tim, I hear you on being cautious. We never know with our guys. But the Jazz play such a slow pace, it's going to be tough for them to get back into this one. We just need to not turn it over and give up 3's.

(knocking on wood)

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

[worldK]

Time to rest towns for the evening

[worldK]

Excellent win.

Towns outplayed the jazz's big. Another superb effort from him on the glass.

Rubio outplayed hill and with some nice finishes around the rim.

Wig got his 20points in 3 quaterters with his 19th straight 20+points game. He did not shoot well but he drew 2 fouls on gobert in the 2nd quarter by attacking him hard and that forces gobert to sit and we build on our lead from then on. He also had 3 steals.

Dieng and rush did their part and the bench guys(bazz,belly,tyus and dunn) did their part. Great defensive effort from the whole team.

Ps. I like thibs new rotation with subbing towns out after 7 mins in the 1st and 3rd quarters and getting him back to start the 2nd and 4th quarter with the bench. It ensure that we have at least 1 of wig and towns on the floor at all times and helps the bench out.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Damn, what a pleasant surprise to wake up to this great win...never saw this coming! A couple more anti-tankers like this will shake me out of my "no chance of making the playoffs" mood. If we can beat a team like Utah decisively on the road, and IF Thibs can stay with the formula which has us playing so well, many of those L's in Q's thread can easily become W's. And if so, 2 1/2 games isn't that much to make up. This is fun!

And the "formula" becomes clearer and clearer with every game...play Tyus, and play your bench. 98 minutes of bench time last night...even more than last game. As a comparison, Thibs typically played his bench 50-60 minutes the first half of the season. It's so clear that guys like Belly and Bazz thrive with more minutes, and our starters thrive with fewer...so good to see!

I give Thibs credit for our defensive turnaround also. Yes, our starters do play better defense when they aren't exhausted...better footwork and less reaching. But it is apparent that Thibs' defensive philosophy has had a huge positive impact on players like Belly, Bazz and Tyus.

Losing Zach was unfortunate, but as some of us suggested, there has been a silver lining by forcing Thibs to move Rush into the starting lineup, Wig to the 2, and Tyus to the rotation. Q's latest post in the Damning Stats thread lays this out in spades. I'm still a Zach fan though, and believe that adding his scoring punch to the bench next season is going to take us to the next level...maybe even a (gasp) first round home game.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't think I have seen such a dominant Wolves performance like this since the '03-04 season! Of course, we need to close this thing out...

How quickly we forget that the '14 team had TEN 30+ point wins by the midway point of the season. It was one of the greatest frontrunning teams of all time.

[BloopOracle]

I would like to see more credit given to Thibs for Wiggins newfound consistency. Thibs forcing him to initiate the offense over and over to begin the season was obviously a smart move especially in hindsight. Maybe JUST maybe he is actually a smart coach and was doing these things early in the season for a reason instead of the theme that he himself had to change in order for our team to improve.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Good win.

- It was the lowest combined point total for Wiggins + Towns in 19 games.
- Belly's confidence is growing. You can see it in so many ways...
- Defense. What?
- It's fun to even consider being in a playoff race. To be fair, I think Denver might be too tough to catch. They're just a different team running everything through Jokic. They have a top 5 offense... and it's even better when you only count the games after they figured out Jokic >>> Nurkic.

[Monster]

Good win.

- It was the lowest combined point total for Wiggins + Towns in 19 games.
- Belly's confidence is growing. You can see it in so many ways...
- Defense. What?
- It's fun to even consider being in a playoff race. To be fair, I think Denver might be too tough to catch. They're just a different team running everything through Jokic. They have a top 5 offense... and it's even better when you only count the games after they figured out Jokic >>> Nurkic.

Hey you gave Belly some love. :) I'll mention here that he has the 2nd best 2 point FG percentage on the team to only Towns. I think other than his ability to be at least solid decibels this year i think his finishing near the rim on drives has been the other big surprise. He has become pretty effective doing that this year.