Namibia Vibes - Lakers at Wolves GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

On the fouls, the Lakers were charged with 23 personal fouls and the Wolves had 19. Julius shot 10 free throws, so obviously the refs didn't turn a blind eye on the contact he was drawing. So overall, I didn't think the refs had all that much influence on the game and both teams played pretty clean (physical, yes, but clean).

In terms of clutch time, starting at the 4:37 mark after a Wolves timeout the game was tied at 103-103. From that point forward, Ant had 8 points on 5 shots, 2 assists, 1 rebound, and a defensive stop on Rui Hachimura right underneath the Lakers basket. And most importantly, zero turnovers! He delivered when we needed him most.

Not sure what the hell is wrong with Rudy. I know he's getting frozen out by his team mates, but I think that's mostly because the Lakers switch everything and pack the paint, making it really crowded in there. He's not exactly the best target in traffic! He simply has to find a way to coral more offensive rebounds given his size advantage. He has three O-boards in three in games, so one per god damned game! His hands have been TERRIBLE!

Q im not gonna lie i hate the stat of they had more fouls than us. A foul is a foul in my opinon. As abe said and i even made joke comment that Jaden had to be shot to get to the line. Just cause 23 were called doesn't mean 15 more weren't called correctly.

Vando has been called for one illegal screen this whole series yesterday on 3 separate occasions we had player fall down cause he shoved them or grabbed them by there shorts or jersey.

To be fair... my comment about the Wolves not whining was much less about officiating than just how novel it is in 2025 to see players in a physical game NOT begging or arguing calls nearly every play.

It seemed like a concerted effort/plan to just play through everything.

There are always a few calls to point out... right now, I'm just glad this series isn't like what's going on with Houston or Orlando. Those teams are basically fouling every play and daring officials to call fouls. Physicality is good... fouling constantly is a gimmick.

This is entertainment, I imagine the NBA doesn't want to see the game stopped over and over seeing foul shots constantly. So here is the conundrum, the less they call, the more physical it gets, and so on to the downward spiral to as physical as it can get. The refs should probably call more early in each quarter, then later let more stuff go. I think thats the only way to try and mitigate it.

[AbeVigodaLive]

DAMN IT. THERE WERE SCREENSHOTS FOR ALL OF THESE. ZACH LOWE'S JOB IS SAFE BECAUSE ABE CAN'T FIGURE THIS OUT.

Abe's 1st Playoffs DRV Review:

- McDaniels was spectacular. Scotty Pippen v2.0 or not... I see the allure. Everyone sees the allure.

- Edwards was the closer. Great game.

__________________

- Doncic fouled McDaniels 7-ish times in the 1st 5 minutes. He was not called for a foul once. When he finally did get a foul call against him... he keep pointing #1. It felt like trolling... LOL.

- (1) Fun with free throw violations. Again! Gobert at the line. Doncic acts like a 7th grader and steps in right as he goes into his motion. The best part... it was his 1st of two.

- (2) 9:24 in the 3rd... Conley flanked by Edwards and McDaniels. Two Lakers back. All at halfcourt.
- (3) Ends up with a wide open Edwards for three to take the lead. Point guard!


- (4) Foul... shmoul.


- (5) Point guard Conley... this ends up with another easy three.


- Clutch time. I felt doom.

- Divincenzo passed up open looks.

- I want everyone to remember this game when a Wolves player whines about a call in game #48 next season. The amount of whining the Wolves did compared to the physicality they battled through was amazing. Right or wrong... it was endearing in the 2025 version of the NBA. It's an easy team to like for that alone.

[Yosimar]

Amazing game, my favorite part was the concerted effort once again from the start to make Doncic do something he doesn’t wanna do. Defend. It was beautiful to see them seek that and execute. Stomach bug or not the man has always and will always be a traffic cone defending. McDaniel or ANT need to keep going at him. Don’t just settle for 3s make that fat ass move.

Someone explain to me how ANT doesn’t shoot a single FT in this game?

[Coolbreeze44]

Regarding Rudy - It's always been a problem and it seems to fluctuate in severity, but in this series he simply can't catch and/or hold on to the ball. We need him to be at least a 50% version of himself.

[Q-is-here]

Abe's 1st Playoffs DRV Review:

- McDaniels was spectacular. Scotty Pippen v2.0 or not... I see the allure. Everyone sees the allure.

- Edwards was the closer. Great game.

__________________

- Doncic fouled McDaniels 7-ish times in the 1st 5 minutes. He was not called for a foul once. When he finally did get a foul call against him... he keep pointing #1. It felt like trolling... LOL.

- (1) Fun with free throw violations. Again! Gobert at the line. Doncic acts like a 7th grader and steps in right as he goes into his motion. The best part... it was his 1st of two.

- (2) 9:24 in the 3rd... Conley flanked by Edwards and McDaniels. Two Lakers back. All at halfcourt.
- (3) Ends up with a wide open Edwards for three to take the lead. Point guard!

- (4) Foul... shmoul.

- Clutch time. I felt doom.

- Divincenzo passed up open looks.

- I want everyone to remember this game when a Wolves player whines about a call in game #48 next season. The amount of whining the Wolves did compared to the physicality they battled through was amazing. Right or wrong... it was endearing in the 2025 version of the NBA. It's an easy team to like for that alone.

On the fouls, the Lakers were charged with 23 personal fouls and the Wolves had 19. Julius shot 10 free throws, so obviously the refs didn't turn a blind eye on the contact he was drawing. So overall, I didn't think the refs had all that much influence on the game and both teams played pretty clean (physical, yes, but clean).

In terms of clutch time, starting at the 4:37 mark after a Wolves timeout the game was tied at 103-103. From that point forward, Ant had 8 points on 5 shots, 2 assists, 1 rebound, and a defensive stop on Rui Hachimura right underneath the Lakers basket. And most importantly, zero turnovers! He delivered when we needed him most.

Not sure what the hell is wrong with Rudy. I know he's getting frozen out by his team mates, but I think that's mostly because the Lakers switch everything and pack the paint, making it really crowded in there. He's not exactly the best target in traffic! He simply has to find a way to coral more offensive rebounds given his size advantage. He has three O-boards in three in games, so one per god damned game! His hands have been TERRIBLE!

Q im not gonna lie i hate the stat of they had more fouls than us. A foul is a foul in my opinon. As abe said and i even made joke comment that Jaden had to be shot to get to the line. Just cause 23 were called doesn't mean 15 more weren't called correctly.

Vando has been called for one illegal screen this whole series yesterday on 3 separate occasions we had player fall down cause he shoved them or grabbed them by there shorts or jersey.

Jester, I get it, but your premise is that the other team is getting away with more fouls than the Wolves are. I think our own fan bias leads us to not even really notice uncalled fouls we make against the other team in real time, but to really notice uncalled fouls against our own players, which then makes things seem tilted.

I would submit to you that there were false negatives (i.e. no-calls on actual fouls) that went both ways, but without literally re-watching every possession for both teams, it's hard to say for sure if the game was fairly called or not.

[kekgeek]

Regarding Rudy - It's always been a problem and it seems to fluctuate in severity, but in this series he simply can't catch and/or hold on to the ball. We need him to be at least a 50% version of himself.

Rudy has bad offensively this series but he has dominated defensively what is huge.


Rudy Gobert has the BEST defensive FG% of any player in the NBA playoffs.

When Rudy is the primary defender opponents are shooting just 35.4%.

That's 13.7% lower than their expected FG% -- also #1 in NBA.

[Coolbreeze44]

Regarding Rudy - It's always been a problem and it seems to fluctuate in severity, but in this series he simply can't catch and/or hold on to the ball. We need him to be at least a 50% version of himself.

Rudy has bad offensively this series but he has dominated defensively what is huge.


Rudy Gobert has the BEST defensive FG% of any player in the NBA playoffs.

When Rudy is the primary defender opponents are shooting just 35.4%.

That's 13.7% lower than their expected FG% -- also #1 in NBA.

And yet, we're not able to play him many minutes due to how inept he's been on the other end.

[Monster]

Regarding Rudy - It's always been a problem and it seems to fluctuate in severity, but in this series he simply can't catch and/or hold on to the ball. We need him to be at least a 50% version of himself.

Rudy has bad offensively this series but he has dominated defensively what is huge.


Rudy Gobert has the BEST defensive FG% of any player in the NBA playoffs.

When Rudy is the primary defender opponents are shooting just 35.4%.

That's 13.7% lower than their expected FG% -- also #1 in NBA.

And yet, we're not able to play him many minutes due to how inept he's been on the other end.

Part of the reason he plays less is Wolves have other options. Plus it's not like you gonna get beat up on the boards when the Lakers aren't playing anyone that's a true big. People were ripping on Naz in this thread. Offensively the guy is shooting very well and he is far from a disaster as a man defender on the perimeter. Plus the Wolves have a glut of playoff worthy wings. You don't have to worry about anyone other than LeBron or Donic in the post. DfS and Rui are not super threats so you can guard them with smaller players. Gobert does have flaws but in this series the Wolves can play smaller and it doesn't hurt them much. Not having anyone worth playing much with Size hurts the Lakers more IMHO.

[Coolbreeze44]

If you think the officiating has been equal (of course it hasn't), Ant and Jaden have driven to the basket for shots a collective 74 times and the result has been 4 free throws.

[Phenom]

If you think the officiating has been equal (of course it hasn't), Ant and Jaden have driven to the basket for shots a collective 74 times and the result has been 4 free throws.

That's insane. No one can objectively say they've only been fouled between 2-4 times out of 74 with how physical LA has openly been.