Lakers/Wolves GDT

[thedoper]

Maybe Ant's nickname should be The Exorcist. It's been a different team since he has been here in spite of all of the episodes of immaturity trying to derail everything.

[Q-is-here]

Don’t know what to think of this game. Lebron and AD almost put up 60 pts and Kat was non factor.

We held Reaves, Hachimura, and DLO in check. Those guys are pretty potent as bench pieces and they were non-factors.

That’s what I’m saying I should be happy but still feel like the past ghosts are still there.

Yeah, every time I feel like we're not a team that can make a deep playoff run, we pull out a gritty win that feels like a playoff game and it makes me think twice....but I'm still not confident. I feel like we can win one series, may be two. But I have my doubts about getting to the WCF with the way this team currently plays and some of the immaturity we see. Mike Conley can only do so much....

[kekgeek]

We held Reaves, Hachimura, and DLO in check. Those guys are pretty potent as bench pieces and they were non-factors.

That’s what I’m saying I should be happy but still feel like the past ghosts are still there.

Yeah, every time I feel like we're not a team that can make a deep playoff run, we pull out a gritty win that feels like a playoff game and it makes me think twice....but I'm still not confident. I feel like we can win one series, may be two. But I have my doubts about getting to the WCF with the way this team currently plays and some of the immaturity we see. Mike Conley can only do so much....

I don’t disagree with you but there is some wolves PTSD that we all need to fight

[Jester1534]

That’s what I’m saying I should be happy but still feel like the past ghosts are still there.

Yeah, every time I feel like we're not a team that can make a deep playoff run, we pull out a gritty win that feels like a playoff game and it makes me think twice....but I'm still not confident. I feel like we can win one series, may be two. But I have my doubts about getting to the WCF with the way this team currently plays and some of the immaturity we see. Mike Conley can only do so much....

I don’t disagree with you but there is some wolves PTSD that we all need to fight

Not just Timberwolves PTSD but Minnesota sports PTSD.

[Lipoli390]

Instead of starting a separate game report thread, I’ll offer a few observations from Target Center in this thread.

First of all, it was a big crowd, but it was probably the quietest crowd I’ve been a part of all season. I sensed a lack of intensity among the Wolves players as early as the pre-game shoot-around. With the exception of Mike Conley, the other players were throwing up trick shots and just sort of going through the motions. Conley was the only guy who seemed serious about tonight’s game.

Finch and TC were highly critical of this team’s immaturity last season. I’m starting to notice too much of that immaturity creeping back into the team culture. I would put tonight’s game down as a loss because of what it portends down the road if this team continues to play the way it’s been playing lately, including tonight. We were playing at home against the Lakers in front of a capacity crowd. How can you not be ready for and pumped up to play the Lakers? And this is not a particularly good Laker team. I think it’s ridiculous that the Wolves narrowly escaped with a two-point win.

Tonight, the Wolves continued to showcase their propensity for careless turnovers tonight, doubling LA’s turnovers with 19. Add to that the plethora of dumb fouls. Jaden continues to display an uncanny inability to stay out of foul trouble and KAT’s no better. While I don’t think Rudy deserved a flagrant on that one call, what he did was really foolish. We’re more than 35% into the season and we continue to see the sloppy turnovers, dumb fouls and lack of offensive fluidity. We continue to see no growth or improvement from Jaden. Shake Milton has played himself out of the rotation.

We should all be thankful that TC re-signed Naz Reid. More than anyone, Naz was responsible for the Wolves narrow win tonight. He was phenomenal making big buckets both outside and inside. He also played some nice defense. Mike Conley was solid. Ant continues to frustrate with his sticky fingers and immature decision-making, but he produces and comes up big in big moments. As my wife said tonight, Ant frustrates her, but he’s mentally tough. She then compared him to KAT who she referred to as “weak-minded.” I was actually playing around last night with the trade machine, looking at various hypothetical trades with the Knicks involving KAT. But I don’t see anything like that happening after the Anunoby trade today.

I agree with those who have said it’s time to make a deal for Tyus. I’d love to get Tyus, but I’m not sure how we land him.

[AbeVigodaLive]

To be fair Lip...

I don't know how much stock we can put into a pregame shootaround of an NBA game. Repeat story:

My buddy had courtside to the Wolves vs. Sonics about 25 years ago. Gary Payton and Greg Anthony had a shooting contest for shots after the game during shootaround. Payton made like 10 or 12 in a row or something. Greg Anthony missed his first shot so had to take the difference in shots. The Sonics players were goofing around with the crowd and each other... and won by 30.

Despite some carelessness with the ball (a given with this team right now)... it seemed like the effort was mostly there tonight.

As for the crowd... I assume a Lakers/LeBron crowd is a very different type of crowd?

[AbeVigodaLive]

And LeBron's PR drive to get a better whistle continues...

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/392 ... all-wolves

The best part is that he brings up all the "bad calls" last season. Let's not forget... that after LeBron's PR drive to get a better whistle... the Lakers shot more FTA than their opponents in 40 of the next 43 games or something ridiculous. And not only that... they shot 11+ more FTA per game after that game. The next best team was at +3. He knows these antics work.

He even mentions the two-minute report and how the Lakers got screwed 5 or 6 times last season.

Into February... the Lakers were #2 in the NBA for getting favorable (bad) calls in the two minute report. They got a favorable whistle 62% of the time. The report showed that it was the smaller markets that tended to get a more unfavorable whistle (Sac was around 35%).

All-time great player. 2nd best of all time. And kind of a putz.

[Carlos Danger]

To me, this further illustrates that we've finally turned the corner. This isn't meant to be directed or disrespectful to anyone on here personally. I fully understand game threads are instant reaction and that's what makes them fun to read after the fact. But as I read through the game thread, one the biggest complaints is that we didn't win by a big enough margin. Contrast that to about 30 years where many (myself included) would have been happy to write the next day "we played a tough Lakers team close, but didn't have enough at the end". We are winning. It's not always pretty. But dang - we're the second best record in the NBA as we are nearing the half way mark! We all need to let that soak in.

Now - that doesn't mean the complaints logged on here are without merit. We do have room to improve. And we probably do need to make some tweaks at the trade deadline to improve our shot at a longer playoff run (PG and another bench sniper). But man - how great is it to be able to only complain about not winning good enough?

[FNG]

My first in-person game of the season, and it's meaningful to me to hear that Lip called it a quiet crowd compared to other games he has been to. I found the crowd loud and engaged, but I'll defer to Lip as to comparison to other games.

This was an incredibly entertaining game for the fans, but I don't think either coach was happy post-game. Ham has to be disappointed with his squad's 29% 3-point shooting. And Finchie is at the end of his rope with our lack of ball movement and excessive turnovers. You aren't going to win many games against good teams when you have 19 TOs and only 24 assists (the Lakers were 10 and 23). I think only two things might prevent this team from winning a championship...injuries of course (like every team) and sloppiness with the ball. They simply have to clean this up soon.

But let me explain why I think this is a team more than ready to compete for a championship. The veteran leadership of Bite Bite, Rudy and SloMo at the end of games is a key reason we now lead the league winning close games...we're now 11-1. you need to have poise down the stretch and win the close ones to win a championship, and we are doing that.

I mentioned Ham can't be happy with the 3-point shooting, but let's give credit where credit is due. We close out on the perimeter better than any team I have ever watched. Many of us here played or play the game. Imagine how difficult it is to make a 3-pointer when you have players with the length of KAT, Jaden, NAW, SloMo and even Rudy charging at you as you launch your shot...your percentage is going to go down if you can't even see the rim as you shoot! And Rudy's presence in the paint gives our perimeter defenders (and I'll include defenders without length like Ant, Conley and TBJ) to sell out and disrupt the perimeter shooter. We have to really be difficult to play against.

I'm not going to disagree with the consensus here that Jaden's T was inexcusable, but I'm going to soften it a little. First, I saw no foul on the play (correct me if I'm wrong), and it has to be enormously frustrating to foul out on a play where you did everything right. Secondly, T's and temper were a huge issue for Jaden in college, and I assumed it was going to continue in the NBA. Fortunately it seems like NBA Jaden is a much more controlled person than college Jaden. Still, this was not a good time for a T.

Naz Reid has turned himself into an almost unstoppable offensive force...he's shooting 47.3% on threes in his last 10, and 52.2% overall. I've been a little concerned recently about Naz's reluctance to put the ball on the floor and utilize his extraordinary footwork to get to the hoop. But he was terrific tonight, and Dane Moore pointed out why. Naz is much more comfortable driving to the basket against bigger but slower defenders, and that's exactly what the Lakers are. What an unbelievable inside/outside scorer...definitely a 6th man of the year candidate.

While I'm reluctant to kick that dead horse also known as DLo, was the upgrade to Bite Bite ever more on display than tonight. DLo's defense was so abominable, the game literally changed the moment he entered the game...he earned his -19 in his 20 minutes. Contrast that with Conley and his timely shooting, 7 assists and only 1 turnover on a turnover-prone team. The biggest moment of the game for me was the play Finchie called out of a timeout to free up the Biter for an open corner three...did anyone here think he was going to miss it?

Fun night and a hard-earned win against a team that really wanted a win. Now on to see a retooled Knicks team on New Year's Day.

[FNG]

To be fair Lip...

I don't know how much stock we can put into a pregame shootaround of an NBA game. Repeat story:

My buddy had courtside to the Wolves vs. Sonics about 25 years ago. Gary Payton and Greg Anthony had a shooting contest for shots after the game during shootaround. Payton made like 10 or 12 in a row or something. Greg Anthony missed his first shot so had to take the difference in shots. The Sonics players were goofing around with the crowd and each other... and won by 30.

Despite some carelessness with the ball (a given with this team right now)... it seemed like the effort was mostly there tonight.

As for the crowd... I assume a Lakers/LeBron crowd is a very different type of crowd?

I don't necessarily disagree, but I also sometimes learn a lot from pre-game warmup. KG was one of the most focused pre-gamers I ever saw, always working on shots he expected to get in the game. In contrast, I knew Nate Knight would never be an NBA player the first time I watched his clownish pre-game behavior...spending 10 minutes mastering a shot from out of bounds behind the basket...really?

Some pre-game observations from last night:

1) I'm down on Ant for a few reasons currently, but I never question his workout routine. His focus on his 3-point shot pre-game was impressive. It didn't pay off last night (2-8) but over time it will pay dividends.

2) Kyle Anderson knows he needs to take (and make) an open 3-pointer occasionally. His defender sagging off him has been a big detriment to Ant driving to the hoop. Last night Kyle must have taken 100 pre-game threes, and unfortunately they were not dropping. That had to influence his willingness to try one in the game. In fact, he only tried one, missed it, and said "nope, not tonight". His coaches and teammates are encouraging him though, and I think continued focus is going to bring him around and really help this offense.

3) Mercurial Christian Wood drained three after three effortlessly pre-game, and I turned to my Laker-loving Little Bro and said "watch out for Wood tonight...he's feeling it". Fortunately for us, Ham gave him only 13 minutes, because he was 2 for 2 on 3s in those minutes.

4) Maybe Lip can identify the clownish Wolf who was trying to perfect his 45 footers pre-game. Thankfully, whoever it was didn't get any minutes from Finchie. Guess what...the coaches are always watching.