Game Report - Wolves v. Hawks

[Lipoli390]

It's been a while since my last game report. Part of the reason is that I've missed some games recently. The other reason is that, even when I've attended games lately, what I saw on the court left me completely unmotivated to write anything. The last month or so has taken me beyond anger all the way to apathy. Not surprisingly, a number of long time season ticket holders I know told me recently they didn't renew for next season.

But I'm writing a game report on tonight's game because I saw some signs of hope. The two biggest signs of hope were Chase Budinger and Gorgui Dieng.

CHASE AND GORGUI:

If you didn't notice it on TV, I'll attest to the fact that Chase finally has the old bounce back in his step. He was springing off the hardwood -- evident in him cutting to the bucket for layups, grabbing 7 rebounds and getting nice lift on his jumper. He was 5-8 from the floor tonight and 2-5 (40%) from behind the arc. He also had 2 steals to go with his 7 boards. He's been showing some improvement before tonight's game, but tonight was a breakthrough for him. It could be a anomaly, but I don't think so.

I mentioned Chase first, but the biggest (literally and figuratively) sign of hope tonight was Gorgui Dieng. I wouldn't be saying that if tonight's performance had come out of the blue, but he has put together a string of impressive outings. Gorgui's stats speak for themselves -- 15 points going 6 for 8 from the floor and 3-4 from the line to go with 15 boards, 1 block, 1 steal. But beyond his own offensive and rebounding stats, you need to look at his impact on the defensive end. Consider the fact that the Hawks shot only 37.8% from the field. Consider further poor shooting of Atlanta's bigs tonight -- Milsap shooting 4-13, Pero Antic 1-5, Mike Muscala 3-8. I can tell you that those poor shooting stats reflect the impact of Dieng. It wasn't just Atlanta's bigs. Dieng altered shots taken by just about every Atlanta Hawk player tonight. Not only that, but he intimidated a lot of Hawk shooters into passing up shots they would otherwise take. I love the way he refused to bite on pump fakes. Then there were those nifty moves we saw a few times from him tonight on the offensive end.

No doubt Gorgui is raw and he'll struggle from time to time the rest of this season and next season as well. But tonight's game was not an anomaly. At a minimum, Gorgui is a towering presence on the court. But he's more than that. He's supple, fairly quick, skilled and very smart. I also love his competitiveness. He's definitely make my "all game face" team. He's a special talent who could turn become a big time impact player.

COREY AND RICKY

As I have in many prior game reports, I find myself praising Corey Brewer again. I've criticized Flip for the cumulative contracts he gave Corey, Chase and Martin. But I've mentioned a number of times that I'm glad we have Corey on this roster. And it's games like tonight's that remind me why. It's his effort and his heart. But it's also the way his effort and heart yield results that impact the game. In other words, he seems to come up big when we need him. While everyone else initially struggled to score tonight, Corey put up points for the Wolves -- attacking the basket and often putting the ball in the basket by sheer force of will. He and Ricky created havoc for Atlanta on the defensive end and it made a difference tonight.

Rubio had a set-back tonight in the shooting department. But he was masterful and impactful in nearly every other phase of the game. His stats only tell part of the tale, but they tell a pretty compelling tale when you see he had 10 assists and 6 steals with only 2 turnovers. I'll add that you could credit him with at least two more steals that he generating by knocking the ball out of an Atlanta Hawk players hands and into the hands of a Wolves player who actually got credit for the steal.

A WORD ABOUT KEVIN MARTIN

Kevin Martin had his best game as a Timberwolf tonight. Yes, he's had much better scoring nights and he continued to be pretty unimpressive from behind the arc, taking just 3 three-point shots and making only 1. However, he played defense like I've never seen him play defense before. He was fighting threw picks as if his life depended on it and he really go after it, getting credit for 3 steals although at least one of those was tipped into his hands by Ricky. Nevertheless, Martin had a nice game tonight. Sure would be nice if we could have him as our 6th or 7th man rather than relying on him as our starting SG. And I continue to have doubts about whether we will ever see consistent effort and performance from him game to game.

HOW ABOUT ROBBIE AND SHABAZZ?

Not surprisingly, Adelman went with Robbie Hummel off the bench, giving him 12 minutes of PG while limiting Shabazz to 4 minutes of garbage time. Admittedly, Robbie came through tonight with 9 points on 3-6 shooting from the field (2-3 from behind the arc). Nevertheless, I still can't understand why Adelman went with Robbie over Shabazz. The latter has proven that you can rely on him for rebounding consistently game to game and he's shown flashes of scoring ability. Between Robbie and Shabazz, it is Shabazz who could be our future. So congratulations to Robbie for a nice performance tonight, but I can't understand why Adelman hasn't inserted Shabazz as a regular rotation player.

OVERALL

All too often, teams shoot 50% + from the field against the Wolves. And when that happens, the Wolves generally lost. No wonder then that the Wolves remain a .500 team. But tonight was different. Tonight, the Hawks shot only 37.8% from the field and 25% from the three-point line. Everyone stepped up defensively for the Wolves tonight, but the biggest reason for Atlanta's dreary shooting tonight was, I maintain, the play and presence of Gorgui Dieng. Shows the difference one long, quick vertical rim protector can have defensively. Oh, and note that we didn't miss Pek tonight. If anyone missed Pek tonight it was the Atlanta players who probably wished many times tonight that they weren't caught in the shadow of Gorgui tower.

It would be nice to see the Wolves close out the season on a great run. I won't hold my breath, but I'll continue to hold out hope. We won't make the playoffs and I think it's unlikely finish 9th and lose our 1st round pick. So let's go out and win game and finish strong. Watching Gorgui show his stuff and develop over the few weeks may be worth the price of admission. Even better if we get to see more of Shabazz (come on Adelman!!!) As frustrating as this season has been maybe, just maybe, we'll finish on a relatively positive note.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Good to have the game report back, lipoli. Let's hope the 2014-5 Wolves are compelling enough to keep your reports a regular feature.

I noticed the same thing last night about Bud...he looked good on both sides of the court. I'm cautious though, because there have been 2-3 other times when I was ready to announce "Bud is back". Let's see if he can keep it up this season. Regardless, I'm a little more optimistic about the value Bud can provide off the bench next season.

I'm not sure that Robbie was taking Shabazz' minute last night, lip...I think he was taking Dante's minutes. And I'm in favor. Rick sees Robbie as an option at PF (he is exactly the same size as Dante, after all), and maybe he is an answer for us a bench stretch forward. He hasn't been making his 3-pointers this year, but maybe you see what I see pre-game and at halftime...Robbie is the purest long-distance shooter on the team. Better than the Kevins, better than JJ, better than Bud. He could be an interesting role player for us.

A big thank you to Big G for providing some entertainment as another disappointing season winds down. Last night was fun!

[Coolbreeze44]

Agree with you Lip on Corey. He has been really good for us this year. It's not his fault he has to start for us. He should be the 6th or 7th man, and I think he would still be worth the investment. Of all the questionable moves we made, I really can't count Corey among them. We wouldn't be a .500 team without him.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Nice report Lip. Like LST, I'm not convinced Bud is back yet either. But loving the play of GD. Was that 5 double doubles since being a starter? If we can just get him to start doing the Dikembe finger waive, then I'd be happy.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Nice report. I think it's obvious that something happened behind the scenes with Shabazz. He went from earning more and more minutes to suddenly being back at the end of the bench. He was also being praised by both Wolves personnel and Jim Peterson, and that has stopped as well. Jim Pete hinted at it last night saying, "Shabazz needs to learn how to be a professional still."

I think rather than all of the "Adelman is an idiot" posts, it's pretty obvious Shabazz did something to earn his spot back on the bench.

[thedoper]

Nice report. I think it's obvious that something happened behind the scenes with Shabazz. He went from earning more and more minutes to suddenly being back at the end of the bench. He was also being praised by both Wolves personnel and Jim Peterson, and that has stopped as well. Jim Pete hinted at it last night saying, "Shabazz needs to learn how to be a professional still."

I think rather than all of the "Adelman is an idiot" posts, it's pretty obvious Shabazz did something to earn his spot back on the bench.

Yeah he probably questioned Adelman's iron clad logic. Dementia is a sad thing, I wish Adelman the best in the twiliight of his life. Jim Pete always tows the company line. The problem is there is an illness in this franchise that was created by the owner. Impossible to have real accountability when you leader is such a doofus.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Nice report. I think it's obvious that something happened behind the scenes with Shabazz. He went from earning more and more minutes to suddenly being back at the end of the bench. He was also being praised by both Wolves personnel and Jim Peterson, and that has stopped as well. Jim Pete hinted at it last night saying, "Shabazz needs to learn how to be a professional still."

I think rather than all of the "Adelman is an idiot" posts, it's pretty obvious Shabazz did something to earn his spot back on the bench.

It's possible, kms, but I doubt it. Shabazz has acted like a true professional publicly all year, despite not getting the minutes he deserved. And I don't agree at all that Peterson has stopped praising him. For every comment like that from Jim Pete, there are 20 from him talking about what a hard worker Muhammad is and how he deserves regular minutes.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

If we could only get Luc to become a decent bench player. Seems like Bud, Bazz, and certainly Dieng have shown flashes of strong play this season. A backup PG via draft or Barea trade and the right coach could make this 2nd unit pretty good, yes?

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

I'm in the group of people that did not renew season tickets. I split them with a couple friends and none of us even thought twice about it. That being said I think the turnaround could happen next year. Gorgui looks like a player, Shabazz has shown flashes when he's allowed to play, we get to keep our pick, and all signs point to a new coach and (hopefully) a new backup point guard next season.

Also I think if we get off a decent a start next season K-Love will stick around. At the end of the day we can pay him the most money and that counts for something.

[Hicks123 [enjin:6700838]]

Bud....I think we are putting just a bit too much weight on 1 game. He played 3 games in the past week where he played 20+ minutes, and he averaged 39% shooting; 31% from 3; 4.5 rpg; 10 ppg on 10.3 shots. I just don't see what others see here.

Dieng on the other hand, holy cow, what a great stretch for someone that seems like a great guy. I actually love this guy as a bench big. Regardless if Pek is here or not, Dieng will be on the floor a lot next year, either due to injuries, regular rotational minutes and situational play at the end of games. I am absolutely fine starting Pek and rolling in Dieng more as a defensive anchor late in games.