Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 10:16 am

kekgeek wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 8:41 am

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 12:08 am
I would ask you to take your eye off the ball when watching defense, and pay attention to how the full unit functions. Breakdowns occur just as often off the ball as they do on it.

Sure a breakdown here and there happens but the wolves are in the 75th percentile so far with Kat on the floor defensively and in the 100th percentile defensively when he is playing center (Rudy off the floor). So maybe you are see things I’m not seeing but in the small sample size of 4 games these breakdowns are not leading to opponents scoring when Kat is on the floor. Once again super small sample size

Small sample size, for sure.

So maybe Towns deserves some credit through four games, even from those who don't like him. Don't worry Cool, you'll shirley have plenty of chances to rip Towns' defense when it's actually warranted a lot more moving forward.

I've seen the slow rotations and failure to help too many times to ignore it. And, stop calling me Shirley.

Statistic of the night:

Wolves hit 26 out of 27 free throws in the game

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 10:01 am

60WinTim wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 9:15 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 9:04 am Good stuff Lip. This was hopefully a big boost to their confidence. Not just getting the win, but basically maintaining control of the game the entire 2nd half and snuffing out Denver's runs.

It's hard not to call the Atlanta loss a collapse, but god damn, DeJounte Murray put on a ridiculous display of shot making in the second half that was literally unstoppable. And he's just not a guy where you put two guys on him to get the ball out of his hands and that risks getting Trae Young off.

But that's where Finch deserves some blame - how long can you let Murray single handedly destroy you without taking some sort of action, even if it means risking Young going off?

It didn't help that Jaden, who was phenomenal against Murray last night, was on a minutes restriction. That and Conley being off with food poisoning.

If I'm Finch, I think this team is a top 5 defense. Top 5 defenses don't need to double an above average scoring guard. So you just take your lumps and tip your cap - it was game 3 of a super long season.

Last night we never doubled Jokic and it worked.

I think the frustration in Atlanta has to also go back to offensive execution and how this team will go through these spells of unforced errors and bad shots. Ant is part of that problem by the way....

I think that’s a great point, Q. Actually KAT said essentially the same thing about the Atlanta collapse. He blamed poor shooting and bad shot selection by the Wolves, mentioning himself appropriately, for the collapse. That wasn’t the only thing, but I think it was the main reason the Wolves lost.

I’m liking this team’s defense through 4 games, excluding the second half of the Atlanta game. And two of those games were without Jaden while the third had Jaden on minutes restriction. Every player on the team has played well defensively except perhaps Ant who has been disappointing in my view on both ends of the floor so far. NAW’s shot looks bad, but he’s playing terrific defense. KAT and Rudy have been really good defensively both separate and together. I still have concerns about the mix and the team’s mental toughness. But there are some good signs. KAT’s shooting will progress to his mean. I’m still unsure of Ant’s shooting.

But putting all the piece parts aside, I like Cool’s quote from Slo Mo: “Just win the damn game.” It’s about winning games. As a great winning head coach named Bud Grant used to say, “winning begets winning.”