But shame on our coaching staff for now challenging the foul call on Jaden last in the 4th. The replay showed that Jaden’s had was all ball with absolutely not arm or hand contact. Maybe there was some lower body contact, but not much. There were 3 minutes left in the game and we still had both our challenges. There’s no excuse for not using one of those challenges on that play.
Another thing that bothered me was Rudy repeatedly defending the paint with his hands at his side. Rudy just wasn’t a presence defensively tonight. Not acceptable.
But in the end, blame for this loss doesn’t fall on our coaching staff or Rudy. Our two best offensive players and only all-stars were a combined 9 for 33 or 27% from the field. That’s why we lost. Jaden was off but Naz came up huge. NAW was a bit better and Slo Mo did a nice job. Rudy was good enough. This was a game we should have won by 10 points but our two stars failed to come though. Again, I’ll cut Ant more slack than I’ll give KAT since Ant played more minutes and got to the line 10 times.
These past two games have confirmed three things in my mind:
1. The team with the two best players on the floor is almost always the team that wins Conference and NBA finals series. Luke has been far better than Edwards and Kyrie has been light years better than Towns. We have more depth and have gotten great performances from other guys like Jaden and Naz. But at this point in the playoffs, it’s all about your two best players. Jordan and Pippen were better than Stockton and Malone. Luka and Kyrie are much better right now than Edwards and Towns.
2. Edwards is 22 years old. Sometimes we forget how young he is. I my view, he just isn’t ready to be our Kobe or Dwayne Wade (he’ll never be as good as Jordan).
3. KAT has one of the lowest basketball IQs in the League and is mentally weak. He’s repeatedly had one-on-one matchups against smaller defenders just outside the paint, but has usually chosen to drive widely to the basket rather than put up the easy high-percentage 10-foot shot over the defender. Missing as many bunnies as he’s missing strikes me as choking.
The crowd was great again tonight as it was Wednesday night. They should have been rewarded with two wins, which is what we’d have now if Towns had simply hit a bad 35% of his FG attempts instead of 25-30%. And that’s with Ant playing poorly.
Wendell Moore was at it today - constantly laughing and walking from player to player talking or whispering in their ear with a big grin. Interestingly at one point he walked with big smile and started talking to Slo Mo who promptly glared and him and said something tersely that wiped the smile off Moore’s face. Moore than walked away and started laughing and joking with his buddies Miller and Clark. He carried on his antics all game long, including down the stretch when we’re fighting to win a razor close game.
I love that Minott won’t have anything to do with Moore on the bench. Minott would gather with his teammates around the coaches huddle with his arms around his teammates listening intently to the coaches. I like the idea of the Wolves sticking with him for the remainder of his contract. But Moore has to go and I’d send Clark and Miller packing with him.
I know I’ve been a broken record on Moore’s antics, but he’s taken Wes Johnson’s “I’m just here to have fun” attitude to a whole new level. It’s astounding. Winning teams have serious-minded, mentally tough high competitive players from the top to the bottom of their rosters. You can’t have a Moore doing what he’s been doing on the bench. I’ve noticed that Monte Morris has come into Moore’s “let’s laugh it up” orbit. It’s like spreading cancer. One reason I love Slo Mo is that he’s serious and hyper-competitive. So it wasn’t surprising to see him so visibly irritated by Moore tonight and It was great to watch him give Moore the brush off. Speaking of Slo Mo, at one point, Slo Mo was yelling at KAT for a screw up on the court. His criticism of KAT was well deserved at that moment. Of course, we remember him challenging Rudy last season, which lead to the Rudy retaliatory punch.
. I expect the Mavs to sweep the Wolves with two wins in Dallas. So I’m sticking a fork in the Wolves and looking ahead to what the Wolves might do this off season. I’ve been pretty consistent lately in suggesting that the organization should bring this same team back next season. I’m beginning to question my position after watching the Wolves these past two games. However, improvement from Jaden and Ant next season could be enough to take us further. So I’m still thinking we should take one more shot with this core team minus Moore. And we should probably swap our 2024 first round pick for a future pick in either 2025 or 2027 when we don’t have any first-round picks.
