Minnesota Sports Forum

All I have is a box score evaluation.

While LaVine scored only 9 points I like that he grabbed 8 boards and contributed assists. Last game he wasn't scoring much either but he had 5 boards. Nice to see Zach show that he can be counted on to contribute in other areas. The next step I want to see from Zach is to see him starting getting to the line a bit.

I'll take what we appeared to get from Wiggins tonight. Ideally, with his size and hops at SF he should be pulling down 6-7 boards a game. But I'm not going to complain about what he contributed tonight. 23 efficient points with 4 boards and what appeared to be excellent defense on his SF counterpart, Winslow.

KAT's 14 boards in less than 30 minutes along with his 16 points was solid.

I liked Gorgui's 2 blocks and what looked like efficient scoring.

Belly contributed 6 boards along with double-digit scoring.

Looked like a nice game from Ricky with 6 assists and low volume but high efficiency scoring.

Dunn continued to struggle protecting the ball with 5 turnovers tonight.

Still no court time for Tyus. Looks like Thibs has a vey good idea who he wants as his rotation players to begin this season and Tyus isn't in the picture yet.

I also only have the box score, so I have no idea how we looked. But it's hard for me to get excited about beating a Miami team resting 3 starters by just 5 points. Then again, a win is a win...and Thibs is showing us that even in preseason he knows how to win.

Thibs got the team to follow his blueprint in the 3 previous games...rebound, protect the ball, and take (and make) more threes than the other guys. But it looks like we strayed from the plan this game despite the win. Miami won the TO battle 20-13, and also more than doubled us in threes at 32-15. But with Whiteside and Haslem out, we totally dominated the boards 51-36. And it looks like free throw efficiency was the real difference in the game...both teams went to the line 22 times, but we made 20 to their 15. Good to see, because we haven't been very good from the line in the preseason, and that should be a strength for us.

Thibs stayed with his preferred 10-man rotation, but he again belied his reputation by playing the second five almost as many minutes as the starters. He's also belying his reputation of not favoring rookies by continuing to give Dunn a lot of rope at PG despite his sub-2 PER. While I would like to see Tyus out there more (and I suspect we will tonight in OkC), this is a good thing. Dunn has already shown Thibs (and us) that he is ready to contribute as a rookie, at least on the defensive end, and getting 25 MPG in preseason will help him learn the NBA PG game. His 5 TO's against only 2 assists can't make Thibs happy (especially since his college A:TO ratio was not very good), but I have to remember that he is a rookie and should be expected to struggle early. Plus, even if he ends up as a Dwyane Wade-like SG (where I think he belongs), this experience of running the point will be helpful for his development, just like it was for Zach (LaVine mentioned yesterday again how helpful it was for his development that Flip and Sam played him at PG, and his 3 assists and only 1 TO last night is evidence of his comfort in handling the ball).

Wig continues to show he might be a 25 PPG efficient scorer by getting 23 on 16 shots last night...and he added 4 rebounds. Belly had his first poor shooting night (1-4 beyond the arc), but was 3-6 on 2-pointers and continues do "do shit" (6 rebounds, 2 assists and a blocked shot). And Thibs emphasis on winning (even in the preseason) shows why he has never won fewer than 50 games in a season, and why some of us think he can repeat that this year.

What, we have another game tonight?? How stupid is that? And a look ahead has us playing Memphis three times in the first 15-20 games.

Well done NBA scheduler!

BizarroJerry wrote:What, we have another game tonight?? How stupid is that? And a look ahead has us playing Memphis three times in the first 15-20 games.

Well done NBA scheduler!

I'll just say that I would think scheduling for the NBA would be a bit of a nightmare.