Gut check- Wolves/Mavs GDT

[kekgeek]

two bright spots in this game, Shabazz has been real good, and Kmart found his stroke tonight

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Why is Bennett playing when he is clearly hobbling out there? I'd rather see GR3 get some run as a 4 than put Bennett at risk of a nastier injury. It makes no sense to shut down Pek when he looks hurt, but play an important piece for the future when he is clearly hobbling.

[Papalrep]

It started for me with the post on Okafor, after Ricky's injury. I am thinking about where we will be in the lottery. Again. Jesus, I had such high hopes for this season. These last two games have been unwatchable.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Another record-setting performance defensively (points in the paint for Dallas). We are quickly becoming the worst defensive team in the league after these last two games.

'Bazz looked good.....just relentless in the paint and popped a 3 for good measure. He'll never stuff a stat sheet, but if he can score efficiently and learn how to defend, he will definitely have a role in this league.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

It started for me with the post on Okafor, after Ricky's injury. I am thinking about where we will be in the lottery. Again. Jesus, I had such high hopes for this season. These last two games have been unwatchable.

This roster was built on a house of cards and most of us didn't want to admit it. One injury to a key guy and we would have to rely too much on the rookies/2nd year guys. While I'm not surprised at our struggles, I am surprised at how severe the collapse has been.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

This season is falling apart faster than season 3 of Homeland

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Whew, I'm glad that 3-game series is over. Three very good teams away from Target Center with Ricky out...we didn't have a chance for a win in any of the three. I labled the Houston game a moral victory, and I am making the same call on the Dallas game...we needed a better effort after the NO debacle, and largely we got it. I mentioned 6 things I wanted to see last night, and I got all of them except my first request.

1) Pek did NOT work to establish position close to the basket, and accordingly ended up with no baskets in his 12 minutes.

2) Right from the opening minute, I could tell Martin had come to play. He's fun to watch when he is motivated on offense, and he was moving without the ball in peak form...nobody on the team knows how to use multiple screens better than him. Mo, corey and Bennett were able to find him when he got open, and he made his shots. He was horrible on defense again, but you get what you get with Kevin. I think he deserved the 29 minutes Flip gave him.

3) Even before Pek told Flip he was hurt (I think), Flip must have noticed that Pek was going to have another ineffective night on both ends of the court, because he limited his minutes in the first half before benching him (with injury) in the second half. Who knows how long Pek will be out this time, but unlike other times he got hurt, I don't know that I will really miss him this time. Gorgui will get more minutes, and Ronny will easily replace Pek's rebounding and offer an upgrade on defense. Ronny won't provide many points, but Pek hasn't either recently...and at least Ronny isn't a ball stopper.

4) I'm not giving up long-term with the Gorgui as PF experiment, but it's not feasible right now...especially with Pek at center. Kudos to Flip for recognizing this and starting AB at PF and giving Gorgui 26 minutes at center. And Gorgui responded with a nice game, at least on offense.

5) And kudos to Flip for giving Bud meaningful minutes in a game that he knew we weren't going to win anyway. Bud's box score wasn't great, but his play looked better than we have seen. He was active on offense, both in moving without the ball and moving the ball quickly, and adequate on defense and the boards. And he made 1 out of his 2 threes. He's not a rotation guy yet, and we have better options ahead of him, but I think Flip wants to know he can turn to him if there are injuries or Kevin shows he is taking another night off.

6) Muhammad obviously was a scoring machine last night...18 points in 14 minutes. But my pre-game request was that he do more on offense than pound the boards and score. I didn't see that much of the second half, but I did see him look to make the productive pass a couple times, and I notice that he had 2 assists. I don't know, of course, but I suspect that this is what Flip needs to see in order to give Shabazz regular minutes. His defense was erratic again last night, but if he learns (or decides) to add productive passing to his game, he can be an effective starter in the NBA.

So, I'm happy because I got 5 of the 6 things I wanted. Mo was effective also with 13 and 8, and although Corey didn't shoot well and forced some plays, he still added 13 and 3 and a remarkable 6 assists. Our rookies, though, were largely invisible.

Now we come home for games that would all have been winnable if Ricky were healthy...yes, even San Antonio...but his absence makes any win less possible. I've found Tim's first two 3-game prediction polls kind of easy to forecast, but not this time. I'm waiting for his next poll, and right now I could go anywhere from 2-1 to 0-3...just don't know about this series.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LST, While the team met 5 out of 6 of your criteria for success, I think you should have had a 7th, especially after the New Orleans debacle: Better team defense.

We were once again just horrible. And it's a worst-case scenario: Teams are torching us from beyond the arc and at the rim - the two most efficient places to score from. We're now 30th in the league in opponent FG% and 3 Pt %. Even Dieng, who I had high hopes for as a game-changing defensive presence, was easy to score over and around on last night.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Q, I agree that team defense is ridiculously bad right now, bur there's a reason I didn't include it in my 6 Things I Need To See...similar to a win, I didn't see good team defense as a feasible thing to ask for. Based on both the eye test and the numbers, I'm convinced that we are a decent defensive team with a healthy Rubio, and a horrible defensive team with him out. How else can you explain the incredible increase in points given up since Ricky went down? Ricky is disruptive and effective enough on defense that our opponents sometimes struggle to run their offense. Not so with Zach and Mo at PG. We are making every opposing PG look like all-stars, and it ripples through the entire defensive effort. It's incredibly painful to watch. Mo and Zach aren't the offensive facilitators Ricky is either, but we have enough offensive fire power that we are scoring at a good pace anyway. But we are sorely missing Ricky's defense...everything is different when he is out.

And yes, I agree that Gorgui has been a disappointment on defense...at least last night. I never thought that after the first couple weeks of the season, I would be much more impressed with his offense than his defense.

[Hicks123 [enjin:6700838]]

Does anyone believe that these games would have been winnable with Rubio? I really wish he would have been around so we could have assessed our true potential. Personally, while we certainly would have been a bit more competitive over the past few games, I think these teams we played are simply much better teams, and win handily with or without Rubio.

Expectations of this team coming into the season seemed substantially inflated IMO. While I think the longer-term prognosis for this team is strong, they will struggle to win games over the next couple years.