thedoper wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:01 pm
Houston just beat Dallas in Dallas with some great perimeter D. I think we just need to wake up against those guys.
I didn't watch the game, so I will trust that Houston defended them well. That being said, the box score says Irving and Doncic scored a combined 57 points on 45 shot attempts and only had 4 turnovers. Not a bad night for the duo.
What stood out to me was Houston's 8 turnovers. That's 12 less than the Wolves the other night! They also went 20-27 from the line.
The bottom line is that you can live with a really good Irving/Doncic performance if you aren't constantly shooting yourself in the foot with unforced turnovers and poor free throw shooting.
thedoper wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:01 pm
Houston just beat Dallas in Dallas with some great perimeter D. I think we just need to wake up against those guys.
I didn't watch the game, so I will trust that Houston defended them well. That being said, the box score says Irving and Doncic scored a combined 57 points on 45 shot attempts and only had 4 turnovers. Not a bad night for the duo.
What stood out to me was Houston's 8 turnovers. That's 12 less than the Wolves the other night! They also went 20-27 from the line.
The bottom line is that you can live with a really good Irving/Doncic performance if you aren't constantly shooting yourself in the foot with unforced turnovers and poor free throw shooting.
Houston played small the whole night, ran Doncic and Kyrie off of a lot of shots and then the smalls helped wall up Lively and Gafford. Irving and Doncic made most of their noise end of 3rd and 4th when Houston was up double digits. Houston dominated the inside by their perimeter players helping out.
Yeah turnovers killed us, but our D on the outside has been shit so far this year. Jaden, Ant, DDV all need to wake up. No way should Lively and Gafford look like Samson and Olajuwon against us if everyone is helping out.
Seems like Denver is just hanging by a thread at this point with injuries starting to take their toll. Even at full strength, all but one of their four wins was by the skin of their teeth.
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 8:52 am
Wolves 6th in Offensive Rating and 15th in Defensive Rating.
Meets the eye test too. On offense we're doing so many things we haven't in the past...moving without the ball, and also moving the ball. I expect our offensive rating to stay high all season. But defense is a different story. Close outs have a lot to do with effort, and we just don't seem to be putting in the same effort on defense that we did last year. We need to get better defensively.
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 8:52 am
Wolves 6th in Offensive Rating and 15th in Defensive Rating.
Meets the eye test too. On offense we're doing so many things we haven't in the past...moving without the ball, and also moving the ball. I expect our offensive rating to stay high all season. But defense is a different story. Close outs have a lot to do with effort, and we just don't seem to be putting in the same effort on defense that we did last year. We need to get better defensively.
I'm actually surprised our defensive rating isn't worse. Goes to show how damn talented the NBA is. Teams are going to score. But yeah, I agree that the defense has room for improvement, even if being top 5 may be out of reach. I underestimated the downgrade from KAT to Randle on that side of the court. We obviously miss SloMo too, but I feel like we get that back offensively with better spacing and shooting.
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 8:52 am
Wolves 6th in Offensive Rating and 15th in Defensive Rating.
Meets the eye test too. On offense we're doing so many things we haven't in the past...moving without the ball, and also moving the ball. I expect our offensive rating to stay high all season. But defense is a different story. Close outs have a lot to do with effort, and we just don't seem to be putting in the same effort on defense that we did last year. We need to get better defensively.
I'm actually surprised our defensive rating isn't worse. Goes to show how damn talented the NBA is. Teams are going to score. But yeah, I agree that the defense has room for improvement, even if being top 5 may be out of reach. I underestimated the downgrade from KAT to Randle on that side of the court. We obviously miss SloMo too, but I feel like we get that back offensively with better spacing and shooting.
Meets the eye test too. On offense we're doing so many things we haven't in the past...moving without the ball, and also moving the ball. I expect our offensive rating to stay high all season. But defense is a different story. Close outs have a lot to do with effort, and we just don't seem to be putting in the same effort on defense that we did last year. We need to get better defensively.
I'm actually surprised our defensive rating isn't worse. Goes to show how damn talented the NBA is. Teams are going to score. But yeah, I agree that the defense has room for improvement, even if being top 5 may be out of reach. I underestimated the downgrade from KAT to Randle on that side of the court. We obviously miss SloMo too, but I feel like we get that back offensively with better spacing and shooting.
We miss Slo-Mo a ton
Agree they do miss slow mo.
When Rudy is on the floor they are equivalent to the 7th best defensive team in the NBA but when he is off the floor they are 3pts worse than the worst defensive team in the NBA. Teams are rebounding one in every 3 shot attempts they try. What is crazy high
