Wolves vs. Spurs

[AussieWolf3]

Call it an overreaction, but I'm calling the series in no more than 6 and I think they'll do it in 5.

This team is so locked in right now and playing winning basketball all the way down. San Antonio doesn't have the scars to know how to do that. Outside of Wemby's shot blocking they don't have a single edge over the Wolves and Wemby still has a lot of growing to do as an playoff offensive player.

Wolves are winning this series

[WildWolf2813]

What was the line for sweep it was crazy even odds right?

+150

Freaking Wild

True story, I put $10 on Wolves +1100 to win the series.

Before the game even started I was offered $20 to cash out. Vegas knows they screwed up

[KiwiMatt]

Great win. Ant almost gave it away with that notorious brain fart inbounds pass he so often does and some very poor defensive rebounding and boxing out late in the 4th that kept the Spurs in it.

Spurs guards aren't good defensively and it showed tonight. Very handsy like OKC, but don't have the defenders to get away with being that handsy.

Wemby is a freak and I love his temperament, but he got away with two fouls in the first 5 mins of this game that were rewarded as blocks. He swipes down on a lot of block attempts because he's so tall, but often he hits opponents arms first before the ball.

Ant certainly looked hobbled and is really hindered laterally with those knee injuries, but you have got to hand it to him. He was huge offensively in the 4th.

[Yosimar]

Im not that familiar with the Spurs aside from Wemby but I can already tell I’m going to absolutely despise Castle by the end of this series. His flopping was already annoying the hell out of me, the head snapping he was doing to draw some of the fouls he did, SGA level acting. Hopefully the Wolves see this and are smarter defending him in the upcoming games.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's "I Wish I Was As Locked in on this Forum As the Wolves Are on Defense Right Now" DVR Review:

- Why play Conley when he was struggling? Why get him back after trading him? Why start him now? Well, about 90 seconds about midway through the 2nd quarter was the full Mike Conley shortly before he retires experience...

1. Conley leads the break, gets it to Shannon for the lay in. Such poise. For two years, I tried to describe the Dillingham vs. Conley difference. That break helps explain it. Conley controlled the play from beginning to end by controlling the pace. It's a unique skill... reserved for savvy playmakers/PGs.

2. Conley immediately gets overpowered by Harper on the other end for a layup. It happened multiple times with different plays. That's the trade-off.

3. Right after Harper's bucket, Conley comes back and hits a three. That's when I knew he wasn't done making threes...

And to think I remember writing "That might be Conley's last bucket in the NBA" late in the season during garbage time. I'm happy to be wrong.

- Hey Julius Randle, just a little tip... do not... DO NOT... DO NOT EVER FUCKING THROW A GAWD-DAMN POCKET PASS off the bounce to Rudy Gobert. He got lucky to get the ball back and score. Later, he'd get lucky and get his 2nd free throw miss for a putback. Randle is putting in work on defense. Moving up a position allows him to play more physical.

- Too much Bones and too much Randle has the Wolves down. But the team still seems so locked in, from the coaches to the players. The OTA stuff has been solid to great the past few games.

- Oooh. Tough flop there Conley. It lead to a wide open three.

- 10:00 in the 4th...
Edwards hits a stepback three on Wemby. Years from now, that will still be shown on an NBA Films intro or something. We're going to see that shot a lot for a long time. Incredible.

- Randle misses a box out, leads to a Barnes putback. (It won't be the last missed boxout in this game.)

- McDaniels almost gets a steal. Wolves almost get a rebound... Nope... Spurs get a three.

- Questionable call on Castle for his 5th foul. Officials immediately do the NBA-branded makeup call to give McDaniels his 5th. Too obvious with that one boys. Unfortunately, McDaniels is more important in this game than Castle is.

- There's a 5-minute stretch midway through the 4th quarter where I couldn't keep up. Good play after good play from the Timberwolves. Just incredible stuff. Ant draws the double team, finds Randle, open three. But that's one play of many, I hate to shortchange them, but it was all a blur of basketball bliss.

- It all sort of culminated in a great possession from both sides. Wemby gets his 12th block, only for McDaniels to get the rebound and find Conley in the corner for a dagger-ish three.

- Whew. Things got dicey as Edwards decides not to box out down the stretch... it would have been a gut punch loss (an all-time gut punch loss) if Champagne hit that shot.

But it's not a loss. Add it to the growing collection of best wins in franchise history.

[FNG]

I'm still processing Ant coming back for Game 1...nobody in the national media would have said that was possible. And not only did he come back, he played his best game of the playoffs...we don't win tonight without him. It's too bad that his poor rebounding and sloppy inbound pass are fresh in our minds (and his too after hearing his post-game interview) because he was very good the rest of the game. And I credit him...and Finchy! Clearly there was a game plan for Ant to play off ball, and for one of the first times all season: ANT FOLLOWED THE GAME PLAN! Ant likes the ball in his hands, and that's why more often than not this season, he was the guy who originated the offense. But not tonight. In my imagination Ant and Finchy had a conversation in which Ant was pleading to play, and Finchy said okay...on one condition: the moment I see you playing point guard, you'll bring y'ass to the bench! If Mike was in the game, he brought the ball up and originated. And if TJ was in the game without Mike, as he was most of the 4th quarter, he brought the ball up. Who had Shannon as the primary PG during game 2 on their bingo card?

And it worked. I don't know that Finchie went into this game thinking Ant would play 25 minutes...I suspect he was planning on fewer than 25. But the Spurs would have put two guys on him if he were the primary ball handler, and that has to take a toll on you. Playing off ball and being given the easiest defensive assignment was the best way to prevent Ant from limping to the bench midway through the first half. Sure, he made a stupid pass late in the game that had us all screaming. But he made some huge shots in the 4th quarter and only had one turnover for the game. I think we saw Ant growing up tonight.

[Carlos Danger]

Wow. I did not see that coming. It's always a kick in the nuts for the higher seed to lose the first game (at home). But to lose to a short sided/wounded team, is even worse. Ayo I assume will be back soon. Edwards showed last night that he can play. Even if he's limited in minutes/ability, he's going to be a better option than anyone else they have.

I like that they keeping Kyle Anderson off the court. If we can get Ayo back soon, we are fine. Naz has been good again right when we needed it most. Hopefully he's healthy again. Bones is a streaky dude and I like that Finch is limiting him when his shot not falling. But with all streaky shooters, there will be a game or two where he will make a difference.

Game two is playing with house money - yes, we want to win, but if you told me we'd split the first two at SA, I would have been totally ok with that. The longer this series goes, the more I like our chances.

[Monster]

I saw a friend's post on Facebook that led me to believe this was a win but it could have also been surprise that Edwards was even playing.

First half the Wolves were getting pretty much anything they wanted except Wemby blocking their shots. I was like well if this is gonna happen it's gonna be interesting. The Wolves played less good on offense and Spurs D was a little better in the 2nd half.

Edwards was way better than I could have expected or even hoped for considering the circumstances.

A couple other thoughts I had during the game that may be hot takes.

What we are getting from Conley is what this team to make a run. He is way more aggressive looking to score (still not a lot but still) and is making plays. He is looking closer to the guy we have seen as a playoff contributor before than the old guy that still knows how to play but at the end of his career guy earlier in the season. Can he keep it up?

TSJ looked really good in this game. I'm not overpaying Ayo this off-season when TSJ looks like this. Will he be able to keep it up? We are gonna find out there are at least 4 more playoff games and he is gonna get run in them.

Heck of a win even if they almost gave it away at the end.

[Wolvesfan21]

I never saw Ant coming back and being this good. I thought he'd be hobbled too much, missing shots and without him performing well I thought we were fried. I did think we could hold their offense down to a reasonable number, and we did. Although if Wemby just goes 2/8 from 3P land they win.

If Ant can keep playing well, which is still questionable to me with his knees, then we got a good shot at winning the series. We'll see.

[AussieWolf3]

Man this board is awesome, thanks to all of you for your great insights and morning after thoughts.

What a great win!

I just wanted to shout out a few macro observations I've had.
One, how nuts is it that wolves have gone, in just a few months, from living and dying by the 3 to an aggressive downhill team? A huge credit to coaching staff and to the adaptability of the players

Two, which is kind of a splinter of one, adaptability has pretty much become the theme for this team in their current playoff run. It's always been more true in theory than in practice with these guys that they can vary their offensive and defensive approach --- go big, go small, play fast, spread you out, attack the basket, play drop, switch everything ---- but in the last six games they have really proven the theory. It's the biggest reason that I continue to believe (while often doubting) in a Julius Randle wolves future, because he is more or less the centerpiece of that variability

Three, I'll double down here on my post from above: the Wolves are the better team right now, and they're not even fully healthy yet--- I think they're going to shock the world and win in 5. Yes it was only a 2 point win and they were inches from a gutting loss, but in a lot of ways the 2 points undersells the margin of victory. The wolves are a more mature, physical and adaptable team and I don't think Wemby and company are championship ready, and to be honest I have to wonder if there isn't a bit of reverence on their end towards the Wolves. They're looking across the court at a team that's gone to b2b WCFs, just took down the nuggets as huge under dogs and just came into their house with a hobbled superstar and kinda big brothered them. What I see from the Spurs is young team and the lights look a little too bright for them. We're not really talking enough about the fact that Vic went 0 for 8 from 3 or the fact that is not used to playing 40 minutes of playoff basketball and was completely gassed at the end of the game. Castle has been bad in the playoffs thus far and he does not look ready for this moment.

Last I'll just say how impressive it is the scalability of nearly every player on the Wolves roster. Naz quietly had 9 rebounds and is finding more and more ways to contribute beyond scoring, but he can also bring a scoring punch when it's needed. Julius is finding the same kind of "win on the margins" identity. Jaden is slowing --- or maybe suddenly --- becoming one of the most versatile players in the league, on both sides of the ball! There is just a long list of players on this team that can grow or shrink their role as needed for the team and better yet they're all totally bought in on that