Wiz/Wolves GDT

[Q-is-here]

FNG, the one good thing about Washington playing without a Center and starting off hot from 3 is that I think it's a look we may see in the playoffs and it gives Rudy reps on closing out on perimeter shooters. That is a huge area of growth for him defensively this year. I know I've previously been concerned about a team playing a spread offense on us and forcing us into rotation, but Rudy plus our other perimeter defenders have largely eliminated those fears.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Excellent work on the GDT boys! We weren't going to watch this one, but when I read the first page of the GDT about the disastrous first quarter, we had to turn on the replay. Glad we did...really fun game to watch.

We got to see Ant, NAW and JMac all play their best games of the year. As always, the entire pace of the game changed when NAW and JMac came in, and I don't think anyone is surprised they shared the team lead with an extraordinary +27 (JMac also now leads the team for the season in on/off with a +6.1). Ant was extraordinary. Great shot creating and making, and the best job we have seen all year passing out of triple teams. And only 2 TOs. I thought he was signaling 50 cent with his pantomime after getting to 50, but he might have actually aimed it toward Micah Nori who turned 50 yesterday...either way, fun.

Rudy of course was his usual dominant self with a 19/16 with 4 blocks. But it was almost unfair to see him playing against a team without a center and not even having legitimate PFs. The fact that we only won the rebounding battle 44-41 was a strong indicator that we didn't want this one as much as the Wiz did. Understandable...our season is tonight against the Nuggets. Still, we had enough to pull this one out.

We need second half Conley tonight and in the playoffs. First half Mike missed shots and made sloppy passes.

I know I've already mentioned NAW, but his defense is so much fun to watch. When is he going to start getting some all-defense recognition. I'm going to say there is no better defending bench in the Association with NAW, JMac, Morris and SloMo...they are going to be huge for us in the playoffs.

KAT comin' back, y'all.

Damn it. McLaughlin deserved a mention in my recap. There is no analytics for this... but I'm 100% certain he gets to more loose balls than anybody else on the Timberwolves. Kudos for the guy for forcing his way into the rotation. With all the talk about the "two bigs" moving forward for cap reasons... one interesting subplot this season is how well the Timberwolves play in spurts by going super small with two PGs out there. Last night, they ran with three smaller guys (Conley, JMac and NAW) for a stretch and it worked.

[FNG]

Great point, Q. Our terrific depth also allows Finchie to put his 4 (or 5?) PG lineup out there when he doesn't like how we're guarding the perimeter.

[FNG]

One more comment about Naz Reid. I love the guy, and I recognize him as a unique offensive talent. And i respect the fact that there are differing opinions and statistical evaluations about his defensive impact. But I thought his defense in the first quarter last night was particularly atrocious. Of course he wasn't entirely responsible for his -15 in only 8 minutes, but he was clearly the worst defender on the court during that period. When he got ejected, I said two things to my gal: that was a BS ejection, but we're now going to tighten up on defense and win a game we have to win.

KAT is coming back (I'm still guessing friday against the Hawks), and I'll be happy to see Naz back in his best-suited offensively explosive 6th man role.

[Carlos Danger]

One more comment about Naz Reid. I love the guy, and I recognize him as a unique offensive talent. And i respect the fact that there are differing opinions and statistical evaluations about his defensive impact. But I thought his defense in the first quarter last night was particularly atrocious. Of course he wasn't entirely responsible for his -15 in only 8 minutes, but he was clearly the worst defender on the court during that period. When he got ejected, I said two things to my gal: that was a BS ejection, but we're now going to tighten up on defense and win a game we have to win.

KAT is coming back (I'm still guessing friday against the Hawks), and I'll be happy to see Naz back in his best-suited offensively explosive 6th man role.

I'm in agreement that it will be great to have Naz back with the second unit. But I have to defend Naz again (hopefully not becoming too annoying yet). It was a shit Q1. I was watching online and all the starters had similar +/- to Naz at that time he was ejected. And the shit show didn't immediately stop when Naz was ejected. In fact the Wiz scored 12 more points during the final 3:36 minutes (5 of 7 shooting). The bleeding didn't immediately stop. They were down 15 when he was ejected and down 18 by the end of the Q.

I assume Finchy either made some adjustments after Q1, or the Wiz simply regressed back to the mean - IDK. But it was an ugly start to the game all the way around. Regardless. We all welcome Towns back with open arms as he will make this team deeper.

[Q-is-here]

Excellent work on the GDT boys! We weren't going to watch this one, but when I read the first page of the GDT about the disastrous first quarter, we had to turn on the replay. Glad we did...really fun game to watch.

We got to see Ant, NAW and JMac all play their best games of the year. As always, the entire pace of the game changed when NAW and JMac came in, and I don't think anyone is surprised they shared the team lead with an extraordinary +27 (JMac also now leads the team for the season in on/off with a +6.1). Ant was extraordinary. Great shot creating and making, and the best job we have seen all year passing out of triple teams. And only 2 TOs. I thought he was signaling 50 cent with his pantomime after getting to 50, but he might have actually aimed it toward Micah Nori who turned 50 yesterday...either way, fun.

Rudy of course was his usual dominant self with a 19/16 with 4 blocks. But it was almost unfair to see him playing against a team without a center and not even having legitimate PFs. The fact that we only won the rebounding battle 44-41 was a strong indicator that we didn't want this one as much as the Wiz did. Understandable...our season is tonight against the Nuggets. Still, we had enough to pull this one out.

We need second half Conley tonight and in the playoffs. First half Mike missed shots and made sloppy passes.

I know I've already mentioned NAW, but his defense is so much fun to watch. When is he going to start getting some all-defense recognition. I'm going to say there is no better defending bench in the Association with NAW, JMac, Morris and SloMo...they are going to be huge for us in the playoffs.

KAT comin' back, y'all.

Damn it. McLaughlin deserved a mention in my recap. There is no analytics for this... but I'm 100% certain he gets to more loose balls than anybody else on the Timberwolves. Kudos for the guy for forcing his way into the rotation. With all the talk about the "two bigs" moving forward for cap reasons... one interesting subplot this season is how well the Timberwolves play in spurts by going super small with two PGs out there. Last night, they ran with three smaller guys (Conley, JMac and NAW) for a stretch and it worked.

Yeah, a big thing we've learned from KAT's absence and Finch's deployment of multiple PGs is that we CAN go toe to toe with pace and space type lineups by the opponents because of the quality smalls that we have. Plus Ant has proven he can guard 4s (recall how he shut JJJ down when nobody else could on the Wolves). I think if we end up playing the Pelicans at some point in the playoffs we'll see Ant assigned to Zion for spurts.

As for JMac, he's always done the unsexy stuff like get to loose balls, keep his TOs down and keep the ball moving on offense. Once he started hitting the open 3s, he became an honest to goodness weapon out there. Now the question is how his shot and one on one defense hold up in the playoffs.