Do you believe in Magic-GDT

[FNG]

What this team, specifically Ant, needs is a Popovich moment. Yank them off the court when they don't pass the ball.

Thank you, D'...you're speaking the truth. Kekgeek pointed out something on the previous page that infuriated my honey and me as we suffered through a late night replay...the five consecutive possessions midway through the 4th quarter where Ant had the ball the entire offensive possession. And the results? Missed shots, turnovers, and finally a crucial technical foul on yet another stupid whining performance. He's such a talented player, but man, he is becoming really difficult to like. Fortunately Orlando is not a great offensive team (very good defensive team though), and they also missed a lot of opportunities at their end of the court, so the game was still winnable despite Ant's hero ball. But we can't ignore the fact that we could have built an insurmountable lead during those 5 possessions when Ant decided to get away from what was working and play one on five instead.

To D's point, Finchie needed to yank Ant after the second hero ball possession. Sure, Ant is our most prolific scorer and the game was on the line, but still...Finchie needed to send a message right then. His passivity enables Ant to do the same thing again.

But as I've said before, this is Mike Conley's team with some nice supporting pieces, and we are almost always going to lose when he has a game like he did tonight. Okay, he did have 9 assists and only 1 turnover, but I think most of those assists came in the first half when our offense was cooking. He was largely invisible as the game slipped away. I can live with the poor shooting night...it's going to happen sometimes. But Ant looks up to him, and Bite Bite needed to grab him after the second hero ball possession and look him right in the eyes and say "Ant, no...pass the effing ball".

Finchie gets an F tonight. We all loved the 5 minutes he bequeathed JMac where he moved the ball and produced 6 points and 2 big steals. But apparently the coach didn't like what he saw, because JMac never saw the court again. Really? What did you see that made you say "Well, I can't play him anymore".

All these negative things aside, I'm glad I stayed up to watch this one. Orlando is really a fun team to watch...they play hard and move the ball. And Rudy's physical dominance night in and night out is going to be huge for us once the playoffs begin. And while SloMo has become a board whipping boy, he may have been our second best player tonight behind Rudy. He was terrific at both ends of the court and not surprisingly was a team-best +10. We need him playing like that if we want to make a deep run this year.

[Coolbreeze44]

Same old 4th Quarter pattern. It's like watching the same show over and over again.

*Offense run through Kyle Anderson fails to score and loses 10 point lead within 3 minutes of start of 4th quarter.

*Edwards subs in for him and tries to play hero ball for the next 6 minutes. Ball movement non existent. Shot selection atrocious.

*We start to make a few buckets after better offensive sets due to BALL MOVEMENT.

*Momentum still all with the opposition team and we fail to claw back the lead and lose the game by a couple of points.

Seriously it's like it 3 out 4 games at the moment. ITS NOT WORKING. How many 4th quarter blown leads do we have to witness before Finch thinks it might be a good time to change something.....

Finch will blame the defense again, but that isn't the problem. It's the offense. We can't score points in 4th Quarters. We are 27th in the league in point per game in 4th Quarters.

I think you nailed it here. It has become a predictable story. I love Ant and know he is our ticket to contention for many years, but he is also the most to blame for our late game failures. The coaching staff has to intervene.

[60WinTim]

Finch did say in the post game presser that he didn't play JMac in the 2nd half and he should have, and that is on him.

[Lipoli390]

Same old 4th Quarter pattern. It's like watching the same show over and over again.

*Offense run through Kyle Anderson fails to score and loses 10 point lead within 3 minutes of start of 4th quarter.

*Edwards subs in for him and tries to play hero ball for the next 6 minutes. Ball movement non existent. Shot selection atrocious.

*We start to make a few buckets after better offensive sets due to BALL MOVEMENT.

*Momentum still all with the opposition team and we fail to claw back the lead and lose the game by a couple of points.

Seriously it's like it 3 out 4 games at the moment. ITS NOT WORKING. How many 4th quarter blown leads do we have to witness before Finch thinks it might be a good time to change something.....

Finch will blame the defense again, but that isn't the problem. It's the offense. We can't score points in 4th Quarters. We are 27th in the league in point per game in 4th Quarters.

I don’t disagree with anything in your post, Matt. But I’ll point out that we’re 25th in points per game overall (nearly tied with Detroit for 26th). So the problem goes beyond the 4th quarter, although it’s magnified in the 4th. There’s no getting around the fact that the Wolves are a bad offensive team. I don’t have an answer. Yes, more ball movement. But is that possible with the personnel we have? I’m not sure. All I know is that when you have the 25th or 26th worst offense in a League of 30 teams, that’s a big problem if you want to contend for a championship. I also know you’re not just one trade for a bench player away from fixing the problem.

Maybe we should hire Phil Jackson to implement the triangle.

[thedoper]

Our scoring guard depth is limited and Ant is tired. We need another scoring guard.

[60WinTim]

From Alan Horton:

"Wolves had lengthy 60+ minute film session today in which Chris Finch said they watched the entire 4th quarter from last night’s loss to ORL.

Finch said he emphasized “absolute clarity” on expectations & roles down the stretch. Said they’re playing like a .500 team right now."


I am sure they have had these conversations before. But glad to hear Finch keeps trying to hammer it down.

[60WinTim]

And from Dane Moore today:

Great line of questions from @brittrobson to Chris Finch at today's practice about what is happening to the Wolves at the end of games, what the players need to differently and what Finch will do if those changes don't happen...

Do you have a breaking point?
"Yes, I do."

What's the next step in making them do what you want them to do at the end of games?
"Yeah. Listen, I mean many times I've reached a breaking point with guys in situations, particularly in the film room. I think what was needed today was absolute clarity and redefining some roles and getting some people back in their boxes and get 'em to worry about the right things and the things that they do best, rather than the things that everyone should be doing for them, and also how they can help their teammates. So there was a lot of clarity today in the film session, kinda cleaning up the small pieces around their role."

Mike Conley said you have added more structure to the late-game offense but that there are still reads within that structure?
"Absolutely. I think two things happen at that point. One is, first of all, we have a few sets that we feel are really good and have been good to us to close games with. They involve getting our best players the ball in space, in action. When that happens, they have to make the right play. That is paramount to any basketball play. Ok. If they dust off the play and just go iso, then we don't know what's coming next often times, so the rhythm of the offense just falls down, maybe we turn it over, maybe we get caught in poor transition, certainly we maybe don't get a good shot. That's one. At that point in time, my breaking point is I don't give them the ball at the end of games. I think the ball has to be back in Mike's hands a lot more at the end of games. And that's something you'll see differently coming up here.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's super quick DVR review (without reading any other posts in the thread)...

- That loss was on Anthony Edwards. Just selfish, bad basketball. Not fun to watch.