sjm34 wrote:I thought DW looked fine guarding him. Melo just got hot on the outside jumpers for a stretch. DW wasn't letting him drive by to the hole, and was contesting his shots. That's all you can do.
The effort was there and he certainly didn't look lost out there so I agree. It is hard to shut down a guy like Melo, but at least he slowed him down a bit. I don't think anybody expects DW to defend like Brewer at this point, but at least be a pest.
Yes, the effort was there, but I couldn't help noticing Melo got hot as soon as Corey sat down. In all fairness, though, Derrick did a much better job keeping Melo away from the boards. Corey was really getting pushed around.
Great win. We've been very smart with our defensive game plan these last two outings. In both cases we double-teamed and played ball denial on two of the more elite isolation players in the NBA. This has a better chance of working with OKC and NYC because neither team is very good from beyond the arc. We pretty much accepted the fact that guys like Ibaka, Jackson, Artest, Shumpert, and Felton would get open looks. This is where a couple years ago Miami said, "Fine. You want to double LeBron, then we'll load up with 3-point shooters and good luck to you." Mike Miller, Ray Allen, Shane Battier.....If New York had JR Smith and Steve Novak around, this game would have been a LOT tougher to win.
Tim, Love has been brilliant and has come up big in all three games: The clutch 3 to tie it up against Orlando; the 3rd quarter flourish to put the game away against OKC; and tonight that stumbling banker to help hold off the Knicks rally. I love how he's added passing to his game this year. We've all talked about that aspect of his game sort of lagging. It helps to have cutters and runners like Martin and Brewer in the starting 5.
Great win tonight. Love continues to play at a superstar level. And nice to see k-Mart have a breakout game. I thought Williams played well defensively on Melo. Melo couldn't drive on him and was limited to jump shots. Unfortunately I thought Williams took a step back offensively tonight as he reverted to the D-Will who can't finish in the paint.
Although the win was great, I thought tonight's game exposed two weaknesses on the Wolves: The first is the team's lack of depth after the first 6 without Budinger unless Shved or D-will can step up and play consistently well. The second more troublesome weakness is the absence of anyone other than Barea,and to a limited extent Martin, who can create off the dribble. And Barea isn't great. This weakness really shows down the stretch like tonight when the opposition really turns up the defensive pressure. It becomes really hard to set up teammates for good shots off the pass and passes that may have worked earlier in a game tuen into turnovers late under intense defensive pressure.
I agree that The team needs to do a better job of getting points from Pek down low, but I don't blame the coaching staff. It's tough to get him the ball down low the way teams defend him. And when Pek does get the ball low he has to stop missing so many layups.
But I'm just quibbling. A great road win tonight. And it's nice to be 3-0.
