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Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 8:42 am
by AbeVigodaLive
longstrangetrip wrote:I appreciate the game report, lipoli, despite the huge disappointment of a loss to the Knicks. As a long-time season ticket holder before my move to Hollyweird, I feel bad that you had to watch such a poor performance. I understand the psychology of the season ticket holder, and I imagine there is a lot of pent up emotion ready to support this team if they can show they deserve it. Unfortunately they laid an egg last night.
I'm usually not a Zgoda fan, but he nailed a tweet before last night's game. He correctly called it a classic trap game, coming home after a good road trip to face a bad team. They came out ridiculously flat, but I really thought they were going to pull it out when they came within two. Huge let down.
Like you, I think this is the kind of game a team must win if they expect to make the playoffs. But I would argue that Dallas and Memphis also lost games last night that a contender needs to win. Denver was 1-9 before last night, and the Nets just aren't very good. Their losing is the only thing that allows me to retain my playoff optimism this morning, and even though my model has the Wolves just missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker to Memphis, I still think they are going to do it.
The wolves will undoubtedly come out smoking against Detroit on Friday, and hopefully that carries over against a pretty good Toronto team. And hopefully they can win back the home crowd because we're going to need them with a home-friendly schedule ahead of us.
Brooklyn has a better record than the Wolves. Granted... another conference... a weaker conference.
They've won 20 of the past 28 games. The Wolves haven't done that in a decade.
They've won 4 straight games. That's the 3rd streak of 4 or more in a row in the past two months. The Wolves haven't done that this season.
Right now, I'd say the Nets would be a better playoff team than the Wolves would be.
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 8:55 am
by longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]
AbeVigodaLive wrote:longstrangetrip wrote:I appreciate the game report, lipoli, despite the huge disappointment of a loss to the Knicks. As a long-time season ticket holder before my move to Hollyweird, I feel bad that you had to watch such a poor performance. I understand the psychology of the season ticket holder, and I imagine there is a lot of pent up emotion ready to support this team if they can show they deserve it. Unfortunately they laid an egg last night.
I'm usually not a Zgoda fan, but he nailed a tweet before last night's game. He correctly called it a classic trap game, coming home after a good road trip to face a bad team. They came out ridiculously flat, but I really thought they were going to pull it out when they came within two. Huge let down.
Like you, I think this is the kind of game a team must win if they expect to make the playoffs. But I would argue that Dallas and Memphis also lost games last night that a contender needs to win. Denver was 1-9 before last night, and the Nets just aren't very good. Their losing is the only thing that allows me to retain my playoff optimism this morning, and even though my model has the Wolves just missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker to Memphis, I still think they are going to do it.
The wolves will undoubtedly come out smoking against Detroit on Friday, and hopefully that carries over against a pretty good Toronto team. And hopefully they can win back the home crowd because we're going to need them with a home-friendly schedule ahead of us.
Brooklyn has a better record than the Wolves. Granted... another conference... a weaker conference.
They've won 20 of the past 28 games. The Wolves haven't done that in a decade.
They've won 4 straight games. That's the 3rd streak of 4 or more in a row in the past two months. The Wolves haven't done that this season.
Right now, I'd say the Nets would be a better playoff team than the Wolves would be.
No, you're right Abe...our loss was the worst of the 3 last night. Brooklyn's playing well lately and Denver isn't a doormat with Lawson back. I took a look at my playoff model schedule last night and realized I had an error in there with Memphis at the Nets last night. Should have been a loss for Memphis, and it was. I have the Wolves losing in Brooklyn on the 30th, but noticed that I have Phoenix winning there on the 17th. Inconsistent, but good for the Wolves' playoff chances.
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:41 am
by Camden [enjin:6601484]
Guess I'll point out the obvious. It's also something I was screaming at the beginning of the season. WHY AREN'T WE FEEDING PEKOVIC? Brewer and Bundinger had a combined 21 shot attempts (11 and 10 respectively). Pekovic finished the night with 12 (made eight of them). Why in the hell weren't we going to Pek over and over and over? He can dominate Amar'e and Tyson; it doesn't matter who on the Knicks guards him. When something's working that good, why go away from it? Instead we have Corey and Chase shooting 1-8 on 3Ps and K-Mart having an off night. Even Love struggled to a degree. These games are where Pek should be fed and fed again! Feed the man til he's full and then some. This is a matchup that has favored Pek in the past.
- Last night: 17 points, 6 rebounds, 8-12 FG
- 11/3/13: 11 points, 12 rebounds, 4-10 FG (wasn't in game shape here)
- 2/8/13: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 6-10 FG
- 12/23/12: 21 points, 17 rebounds, 7-16 FG, 7-8 FTs
- 2/11/12: 21 points, 13 rebounds, 9-10 FG
All against the Knicks while they've had Tyson Chandler/Amar'e Stoudemire. He's too big for them. He knows how to score on them. Why this mismatch isn't exploited MORE is beyond me. Instead of getting him involved more down low against a guy he routinely beats up, we took and missed plenty of threes from guys who shouldn't be taking them at that rate anyway. Feed Nikola. He's a beast.
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:51 am
by BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]
Cam, maybe Pek needs to be more vocal with Tired Rick? PEK HUNGRY- PEK NEED BALL-PEK SMASH!!
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:08 pm
by Papalrep
Agree. I read this report, I was thinking the same thing. Brooklyn, and also Portland and the Suns can rip off win streaks when the schedule is in their favor. The Wolves just can't. There are just too many holes (still). Is Bud going to improve, or is this it?
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:46 pm
by KiwiMatt
A huge factor with this team underachieving this season is the fact we have no one who can come off the bench and be a threat to score 20 points, no one.
Barea might be good for 6 points, but it will take him 10 shots and 3 turnovers to get you that.
(Insert Barea bashing below)
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:49 pm
by BloopOracle
KiwiMatt wrote:A huge factor with this team underachieving this season is the fact we have no one who can come off the bench and be a threat to score 20 points, no one.
Barea might be good for 6 points, but it will take him 10 shots and 3 turnovers to get you that.
(Insert Barea bashing below)
Shabazz
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:56 pm
by KiwiMatt
^ Even with his generous 10 minute playing time per game, the Bazzmeister would still struggle to put up 20.
Re: Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:16 pm
by markkbu [enjin:6588958]
Lip, thanks for the write up. Your perspective on the game is always an interesting read. We have some other good analysis on this thread also.
That said........We will win very few games as long as we get 1 point in the second half out of our superstar.