Mike Conley Era Begins - Wolves @ Mavs GDT

[thedoper]

Wizards and Hornets coming in for a back to back Thurs-Fri. No excuses, we must have two wins before we head out on the road again.

Hard not to feel good going into this break. If Kat comes with any type of sincere motivation to fit into a team concept we're going to be moving in the right direction. Its been a fun season in spite of the let downs to inferior opponents.

[Lipoli390]

Wizards and Hornets coming in for a back to back Thurs-Fri. No excuses, we must have two wins before we head out on the road again.

Yep. To absolute must-wins for the Wolves. And definitely no excuses.

[Phenom]

Wizards and Hornets coming in for a back to back Thurs-Fri. No excuses, we must have two wins before we head out on the road again.

Yep. To absolute must-wins for the Wolves. And definitely no excuses.

Actually the Hornets game is the first game after the break. But traditionally these are games the Wolves would lose and dim any shine they had built up. Time to smack these teams around.

[60WinTim]

It hasn't been mentioned, but this was the Gobert we traded the farm for tonight. It doesn't bother me Finch was forced to go small to close the game. His +17 is what helped give us a commanding lead to begin with. Plus we have the depth to go small when needed.

And Conley had a solid, if unspectacular, game. Exactly the way I want it. (Although he could have hit that last free throw!)

[Phenom]

It hasn't been mentioned, but this was the Gobert we traded the farm for tonight. It doesn't bother me Finch was forced to go small to close the game. His +17 is what helped give us a commanding lead to begin with. Plus we have the depth to go small when needed.

And Conley had a solid, if unspectacular, game. Exactly the way I want it. (Although he could have hit that last free throw!)

Agreed Gobert was fantastic. It will be great to get him a week off and have a fewer games than most teams for the stretch run.

[kekgeek]

Want to also say wolves now hold the tiebreaker over the Mavs. Such a huge win

[Jester1534]

Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson and Jmac 17 assists 2 turnovers

Take care of basketball and good things happen

[AbeVigodaLive]

Late Night DVR Review:

- Luka Doncic demonstrably complained to the officials 6 times from about the 9:43 to about 4:30 mark... of the 1st quarter! I don't think he's ever scored in the paint without immediately calling for an And 1 from the official. Remember this the next time Towns complains or Edwards does his "hey" to no avail. The very best players do it A LOT.

- Rudy Gobert had a very solid game, even if he got in a little bit of trouble when they went small. He still caught "most" of the passes thrown his way, even had a nice assist. But you also see his impact near the rim. For example, I think it was Green who was right under the rim and didn't even attempt a shot. He forced it back outside for an easy Timberwolves steal.

- Dallas looks like a completely different team from last season. The defense had already taken a big step back. I can't see it improving at this point with the guys they lost.

- We saw the good and bad of Mike Conley tonight. He's a nice floor general. He helped build the lead. But he was largely non-existent during the Mavs comeback.

- A Kyle Anderson-led offense in the 4th quarter is not going to lead to many wins. But it was just enough for one tonight.

- Ant was incredible going downhill in the 2nd quarter, but I thought he made some awful decisions in that 2nd half. I get that he's young, but he's still so far away from making smart decisions during tough times. His talent bails him out enough... usually.

- Kyrie Irving went on a heater. I don't think the Wolves played terrible defense or anything. He just made buckets. And buckets. And more buckets. The Dallas fans seem to like him. He seems happy. I'm sure it'll last. ;)

- Nice win. 2 - 2 on the road trip while out a starting PG in one game... and a new PG in the next two games. Not bad.

- Now the tricky part... they come home to play the Wizards and Hornets at home before an even tougher 4-game road trip. You know what I'm gonna say...

[60WinTim]

If you haven't yet, you should count the Wolves among the likes of the rest of the West. Teams need to hang with the Wolves. Everyone is making a deal about who the Wolves face the rest of the way but guess what? They have to face the Wolves too.

This team has built up some grit this season and I love it.

While this is true, the Wolves have a lot of those games on the road where they have not faired as well. But the performance by the new-look Wolves on the road against a very good Mavs team is quite encouraging. I did not see this win coming.

[FNG]

It hasn't been mentioned, but this was the Gobert we traded the farm for tonight. It doesn't bother me Finch was forced to go small to close the game. His +17 is what helped give us a commanding lead to begin with. Plus we have the depth to go small when needed.

And Conley had a solid, if unspectacular, game. Exactly the way I want it. (Although he could have hit that last free throw!)

Agreed Gobert was fantastic. It will be great to get him a week off and have a fewer games than most teams for the stretch run.

Yeah, Gobert seemed different tonight for some reason...can't quite put my finger on it ;-) . Somebody made a (I believe) sarcastic comment early in this thread about Rudy's shooting efficiency, but it turned out to be uncharacteristically prescient. I'm not positive about this, but I think 21 points on only 9 shots (9 for 9 by the way) is pretty efficient, right?

Rudy is a frustrating guy to watch because he is so clumsy...I love the guy, but he has to be in the top 5% of clumsiest players in the league. But he's so big and strong, he simply can't be stopped if he is delivered the ball in the right spot. Many analysts commented after the trade that Rudy only likes lobs, not bounce passes. Not true. Conley delivered three perfect bounce passes to Rudy for dunks during the game. The difference is they were delivered high...Rudy is terrible catching the ball below his waist. In the second half, Jaden delivered a perfect bounce pass to Rudy, but it was below the waist and Rudy kicked it out of bounds. DLo was ripped for not developing chemistry with Gobert, but in all fairness, many of his pocket passes were accurate but mishandled. But for some reason Russell wasn't able to learn where Rudy wanted to receive the ball. Conley knows.