Mano a Mano

[Volans19]

I wish KAT would get a few calls now and again.

[worldK]

3 straight 3 pointer made by the wolves from bjelica, rudez and wiggins! how long has it been since that happen!

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

21 at the half for Wiggy, but he's a -4 on the +/- scale that some people love on here. He sucks!

[Coolbreeze44]

Nice Andrew, glad to hear it. Zgoda commented that Tyus was displaying quick hands tonight.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wow, ugly game. Lots of referee timeouts, tons of free throws...just no flow.

- Wiggins got off the schneid tonight which was good to see. Actually, both Wiggins played pretty well! Andrew sat the entire second half, but his bro played a bit late in the game and looked pretty good!

- Although we gave up a ton of points (again!) our defense wasn't quite as bad as the first two games. Basically Lowry and Joseph destroyed our point guards and everyone else was held in check. And Toronto "only" made 9 3-pointers.

- Lorenzo Brown seems like he'd be good defensively, but he doesn't finish plays, meaning he can be a real pest bodying up his guy on the perimeter, but once they get a step on him, he can't recover.

- Tyus Jones once again proved very crafty offensively, with 4 assists and 0 turnovers in a limited amount of time. Unfortunately, he was absolutely no match for Lowry, who pretty much did whatever he wanted against Jones.

- Towns struggled in the first half, but had a burst of productive plays in the 3rd quarter, including a steal, a jumper, a pretty give and go assist to Andre Miller, and a tough post-up bucket. He is going to be really good someday. He's just a really smart, talented kid.

- I'm worried Mitchell may have been a bit premature in his declaration that Zach is starting. Was he really that much better than Martin in camp? He just doesn't look very comfortable right now.

- We've scored 99, 105, and 105 points in each of the first three games. Those are all solid outings offensively. Despite Mitchell's lack of imagination on that end of the court, it seems like we have enough skilled guys to at least be OK-ish offensively. Defense remains the #1 issue.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Wow, ugly game. Lots of referee timeouts, tons of free throws...just no flow.

- Wiggins got off the schneid tonight which was good to see. Actually, both Wiggins played pretty well! Andrew sat the entire second half, but his bro played a bit late in the game and looked pretty good!

- Although we gave up a ton of points (again!) our defense wasn't quite as bad as the first two games. Basically Lowry and Joseph destroyed our point guards and everyone else was held in check. And Toronto "only" made 9 3-pointers.

- Lorenzo Brown seems like he'd be good defensively, but he doesn't finish plays, meaning he can be a real pest bodying up his guy on the perimeter, but once they get a step on him, he can't recover.

- Tyus Jones once again proved very crafty offensively, with 4 assists and 0 turnovers in a limited amount of time. Unfortunately, he was absolutely no match for Lowry, who pretty much did whatever he wanted against Jones.

- Towns struggled in the first half, but had a burst of productive plays in the 3rd quarter, including a steal, a jumper, a pretty give and go assist to Andre Miller, and a tough post-up bucket. He is going to be really good someday. He's just a really smart, talented kid.

- I'm worried Mitchell may have been a bit premature in his declaration that Zach is starting. Was he really that much better than Martin in camp? He just doesn't look very comfortable right now.

- We've scored 99, 105, and 105 points in each of the first three games. Those are all solid outings offensively. Despite Mitchell's lack of imagination on that end of the court, it seems like we have enough skilled guys to at least be OK-ish offensively. Defense remains the #1 issue.

Thanks for the wrap up Q, was only following on GameCast. I'm starting to feel the same about LaVine too. So did any of our PG's even challenge Lowry on his shots?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Lloyd, A few of Lowry's shots from beyond the arc were challenged and he was just hot. But he had a number of blow-by's where our guy simply couldn't stay in front of him and he ended up with an easy layup at the rim. Unfortunately Tyus was exposed big time. It's part of the rookie learning curve, no doubt, but physically he just isn't in the same league as guys like Westbrook and Lowry (people like SJM will argue with me about this, but Lowry is a strong SOB built like a fire hydrant. Once he gets a half-step on someone he can easily seal them off with his strength and create space for a layup. He did this on one drive against Prince on a switch and Tayshaun was totally helpless).

One criticism about Towns....He's a little late with the help at times and ended up either goal-tending or simply not getting there before the shot went down. I'm not sure he's going to be a major shotblocker at this level.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Yeah, guys like Lowry, Paul, Lillard scare me. I hope a healthy Rubio can at least contain some of the quick scoring drives these guys always seem to put up on us.

[Lipoli390]

I'm not worried about Zach. He already showed he can play well at the NBA level the last 4-5 weeks of last season. He's looked a bit shaky and tentative so far this preseason, but I'm reminded of Chaucey Billups when he was with the Wolves. Billups wasn't impressive in games. But I remember Flip saying that Billups was impressive in practice and that players who consistently do well in practice eventually transfer what they're doing in pactice to games. I think we'll see that from Zach by the start of the regular season.

[Coolbreeze44]

I'm not worried about Zach. He already showed he can play well at the NBA level the last 4-5 weeks of last season. He's looked a bit shaky and tentative so far this preseason, but I'm reminded of Chaucey Billups when he was with the Wolves. Billups wasn't impressive in games. But I remember Flip saying that Billups was impressive in practice and that players who consistently do well in practice eventually transfer what they're doing in pactice to games. I think we'll see that from Zach by the start of the regular season.

Agreed Lip, this nitpicking on Zach right now isn't necessary. You said it well, he's already shown he can play at this level. Perhaps Martin is a better player today (I doubt it), but Sam is smart to show his confidence in Zach, and he has good reason to do so. I know it's preseason and we are looking for things to talk about, but we should at least focus on as much positive as negative at this point. Let's see how we look once Ricky is back running the show.