Battle of the Soft Schedules - Kings at Wolves GDT

[Lipoli390]

I agree, Cam. I still intensely dislike the Gobert trade and I have no doubt we'd be better now with Kessler and the players we gave up. We'd also have draft assets and salary flexibility to work with as well.

However, there's no doubt this team is on a roll now and coming together even without what I'd consider their second best player and one other all-star caliber player. And as you noted, our front office went all in on winning now with the Gobert deal and signing Anderson. DLO is playing really well now and so is Rudy these past few games. Therefore, I agree it makes no sense to make any significant moves now. The 5th, 4th or even 3rd seed in the West is there for the Wolves to grab. Let's see if this group can do it. I like what we've seen lately.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

The five-man lineup of D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, and Rudy Gobert was +19 in 18 minutes tonight against Sacramento.

Just another day at the office, I suppose. Minnesota's current starting five continues to be dominant.

The Russell, Edwards, McDaniels, Anderson, and Gobert lineup has a 116.3 Offensive Rating, 102.4 Defensive Rating, and a +14.0 Net Rating in 223 minutes together.

Among 21 five-man lineups across the NBA that have played 200 minutes or more, Minnesota's current starting lineup has the third-best net rating.

The only lineups better are:

- Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney with a +19.6 Net Rating

- Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic with a +15.6 Net Rating

[FNG]

Second game of a back to back. Playing the #3 team in the West, and they're completely healthy...again. No Prince. No JMac. No Prince. NO PROBLEM!

I came home last night after perhaps too many cocktails and planned to just watch replay of the first quarter before going to bed. But I couldn't turn it off. First half DLo and second half Edwards were unconscious...really fun to watch! But what really impressed me is the continuing improvement and aggressiveness of our defense. This is not anything close to the defense I have been forced to watch all season. Sure, we expect Rudy to dominate inside and Jaden to be effective against their best (non-center) scorer, but the problem all season has been our inability to defend the perimeter. Is anyone really surprised that we have the 5th worst 3-point % against at 37%? But Russell is playing the past two games like he did after the players' meeting, and has sparked a perimeter defense that held the 7th best 3-point shooting team to 27.3%! Gotta keep that going!

The good: 44-36 rebounding advantage with a surprising 8 by Jaden. Stifling perimeter and interior defense. 12 for 16 3-point shooting by our starting backcourt! Naz's footwork in the paint.

But even in our best win of the season, the bad: Our rebounding and defense when Rudy goes out...Naz/Knight/Garza were terrible on defense and had only 2 rebounds in 25 minutes. And the return of Eye Chart...some absurdly bad missed 3-pointers.

And the worst part of the evening? The second consecutive game where I didn't see KAT in the building Prince and JMac were there of course). Perhaps KAT had something better to do, or maybe if we paid him a little more, he might show up for the game.

I'm lucky to have tickets to watch this fun team in the return game on Monday, and I can't wait. Finchie has said it is difficult to win back to back games against the same team, and Sac-Town is going to come out smoking. We're going to have to play the same kind of inspired defense to beat this very good team. But if we do, we will find ourselves only one game out of 3rd place! Go Wolves!

[kekgeek]

Second game of a back to back. Playing the #3 team in the West, and they're completely healthy...again. No Prince. No JMac. No Prince. NO PROBLEM!

I came home last night after perhaps too many cocktails and planned to just watch replay of the first quarter before going to bed. But I couldn't turn it off. First half DLo and second half Edwards were unconscious...really fun to watch! But what really impressed me is the continuing improvement and aggressiveness of our defense. This is not anything close to the defense I have been forced to watch all season. Sure, we expect Rudy to dominate inside and Jaden to be effective against their best (non-center) scorer, but the problem all season has been our inability to defend the perimeter. Is anyone really surprised that we have the 5th worst 3-point % against at 37%? But Russell is playing the past two games like he did after the players' meeting, and has sparked a perimeter defense that held the 7th best 3-point shooting team to 27.3%! Gotta keep that going!

The good: 44-36 rebounding advantage with a surprising 8 by Jaden. Stifling perimeter and interior defense. 12 for 16 3-point shooting by our starting backcourt! Naz's footwork in the paint.

But even in our best win of the season, the bad: Our rebounding and defense when Rudy goes out...Naz/Knight/Garza were terrible on defense and had only 2 rebounds in 25 minutes. And the return of Eye Chart...some absurdly bad missed 3-pointers.

And the worst part of the evening? The second consecutive game where I didn't see KAT in the building Prince and JMac were there of course). Perhaps KAT had something better to do, or maybe if we paid him a little more, he might show up for the game.

I'm lucky to have tickets to watch this fun team in the return game on Monday, and I can't wait. Finchie has said it is difficult to win back to back games against the same team, and Sac-Town is going to come out smoking. We're going to have to play the same kind of inspired defense to beat this very good team. But if we do, we will find ourselves only one game out of 3rd place! Go Wolves!

On the Kat thing Finch talked about it that the trainers advise him to come to the game because sitting on the low chairs is bad for his calf. Also there is speculation that Kat had a set back when he started to do on court stuff, Kat mentioned last week he is back in a boot for the first time since the first week of the injury.

[FNG]

Second game of a back to back. Playing the #3 team in the West, and they're completely healthy...again. No Prince. No JMac. No Prince. NO PROBLEM!

I came home last night after perhaps too many cocktails and planned to just watch replay of the first quarter before going to bed. But I couldn't turn it off. First half DLo and second half Edwards were unconscious...really fun to watch! But what really impressed me is the continuing improvement and aggressiveness of our defense. This is not anything close to the defense I have been forced to watch all season. Sure, we expect Rudy to dominate inside and Jaden to be effective against their best (non-center) scorer, but the problem all season has been our inability to defend the perimeter. Is anyone really surprised that we have the 5th worst 3-point % against at 37%? But Russell is playing the past two games like he did after the players' meeting, and has sparked a perimeter defense that held the 7th best 3-point shooting team to 27.3%! Gotta keep that going!

The good: 44-36 rebounding advantage with a surprising 8 by Jaden. Stifling perimeter and interior defense. 12 for 16 3-point shooting by our starting backcourt! Naz's footwork in the paint.

But even in our best win of the season, the bad: Our rebounding and defense when Rudy goes out...Naz/Knight/Garza were terrible on defense and had only 2 rebounds in 25 minutes. And the return of Eye Chart...some absurdly bad missed 3-pointers.

And the worst part of the evening? The second consecutive game where I didn't see KAT in the building Prince and JMac were there of course). Perhaps KAT had something better to do, or maybe if we paid him a little more, he might show up for the game.

I'm lucky to have tickets to watch this fun team in the return game on Monday, and I can't wait. Finchie has said it is difficult to win back to back games against the same team, and Sac-Town is going to come out smoking. We're going to have to play the same kind of inspired defense to beat this very good team. But if we do, we will find ourselves only one game out of 3rd place! Go Wolves!

On the Kat thing Finch talked about it that the trainers advise him to come to the game because sitting on the low chairs is bad for his calf Also there is speculation that Kat had a set back when he started to do on court stuff, Kat mentioned last week he is back in a boot for the first time since the first week of the injury.

Kek, I have the greatest respect for you if you can tell us you were able to type that with a straight face!

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Early Morning DVR Review:

- Russell was crazy in that first half. Fun.

- Only TOs and fouls kept it close early. Nothing new there.

- Edwards makes so many silly, careless plays. And his iso ball can be infuriating. But damn. Damn. DAMN! He does some truly amazing things and I've come around on his All Star berth. He's out there every night. That needs to get more credit than it has. He's been (mostly) incredible.

- Naz Reid showed up. Offensively.

- Gobert (and the Timberwolves) are getting there. Sabonis is a very good player and had his moments. But Gobert "controlled the paint" in this one. Deterring people. And a bunch of little things that might not show up in traditional statistics. Pretty important stuff. Winning type of stuff.

- The Wolves made about 5 mind-numbingly dumb plays over the final 12 minutes. It ended up fine. But it's THAT type of silliness I hope they start cleaning up down the line to keep rising up the standings.

- Very solid win. Cool.

[Q-is-here]

Abe's Early Morning DVR Review:

- Russell was crazy in that first half. Fun.

- Only TOs and fouls kept it close early. Nothing new there.

- Edwards makes so many silly, careless plays. And his iso ball can be infuriating. But damn. Damn. DAMN! He does some truly amazing things and I've come around on his All Star berth. He's out there every night. That needs to get more credit than it has. He's been (mostly) incredible.

- Naz Reid showed up. Offensively.

- Gobert (and the Timberwolves) are getting there. Sabonis is a very good player and had his moments. But Gobert "controlled the paint" in this one. Deterring people. And a bunch of little things that might not show up in traditional statistics. Pretty important stuff. Winning type of stuff.

- The Wolves made about 5 mind-numbingly dumb plays over the final 12 minutes. It ended up fine. But it's THAT type of silliness I hope they start cleaning up down the line to keep rising up the standings.

- Very solid win. Cool.

Good stuff Abe. Yeah, Ant does make some dumb plays, but man....the home runs baby. That defense on Fox to force a bad miss with 2 minutes left was big and then he hit the dagger 3 to put the game away. Just big boy stuff there.

[FNG]

Good summary of the game, guys. Gobert is truly a game-changer in the paint. But the fact that Sabonis was able to score close to the basket is a testament to his extraordinary footwork and instincts around the basket. There are very few centers in the league who have the skill to go at Gobert.

(By the way, I have to give a shout out to Naz's footwork in the paint also...he's taken a big leap this season. We all know what hie deficiencies are, but man, what a great 2-way scorer (threes and paint moves). I've said it before though, and I'll say it again. What's his problem on corner threes? He made about 45% of the corner threes his first three years in the league, and this year he's at 16.7%...I cringe every time he takes one!)

[Monster]

Second game of a back to back. Playing the #3 team in the West, and they're completely healthy...again. No Prince. No JMac. No Prince. NO PROBLEM!

I came home last night after perhaps too many cocktails and planned to just watch replay of the first quarter before going to bed. But I couldn't turn it off. First half DLo and second half Edwards were unconscious...really fun to watch! But what really impressed me is the continuing improvement and aggressiveness of our defense. This is not anything close to the defense I have been forced to watch all season. Sure, we expect Rudy to dominate inside and Jaden to be effective against their best (non-center) scorer, but the problem all season has been our inability to defend the perimeter. Is anyone really surprised that we have the 5th worst 3-point % against at 37%? But Russell is playing the past two games like he did after the players' meeting, and has sparked a perimeter defense that held the 7th best 3-point shooting team to 27.3%! Gotta keep that going!

The good: 44-36 rebounding advantage with a surprising 8 by Jaden. Stifling perimeter and interior defense. 12 for 16 3-point shooting by our starting backcourt! Naz's footwork in the paint.

But even in our best win of the season, the bad: Our rebounding and defense when Rudy goes out...Naz/Knight/Garza were terrible on defense and had only 2 rebounds in 25 minutes. And the return of Eye Chart...some absurdly bad missed 3-pointers.

And the worst part of the evening? The second consecutive game where I didn't see KAT in the building Prince and JMac were there of course). Perhaps KAT had something better to do, or maybe if we paid him a little more, he might show up for the game.

I'm lucky to have tickets to watch this fun team in the return game on Monday, and I can't wait. Finchie has said it is difficult to win back to back games against the same team, and Sac-Town is going to come out smoking. We're going to have to play the same kind of inspired defense to beat this very good team. But if we do, we will find ourselves only one game out of 3rd place! Go Wolves!

On the Kat thing Finch talked about it that the trainers advise him to come to the game because sitting on the low chairs is bad for his calf Also there is speculation that Kat had a set back when he started to do on court stuff, Kat mentioned last week he is back in a boot for the first time since the first week of the injury.

Kek, I have the greatest respect for you if you can tell us you were able to type that with a straight face!

FNG how tall are you?

[FNG]

Second game of a back to back. Playing the #3 team in the West, and they're completely healthy...again. No Prince. No JMac. No Prince. NO PROBLEM!

I came home last night after perhaps too many cocktails and planned to just watch replay of the first quarter before going to bed. But I couldn't turn it off. First half DLo and second half Edwards were unconscious...really fun to watch! But what really impressed me is the continuing improvement and aggressiveness of our defense. This is not anything close to the defense I have been forced to watch all season. Sure, we expect Rudy to dominate inside and Jaden to be effective against their best (non-center) scorer, but the problem all season has been our inability to defend the perimeter. Is anyone really surprised that we have the 5th worst 3-point % against at 37%? But Russell is playing the past two games like he did after the players' meeting, and has sparked a perimeter defense that held the 7th best 3-point shooting team to 27.3%! Gotta keep that going!

The good: 44-36 rebounding advantage with a surprising 8 by Jaden. Stifling perimeter and interior defense. 12 for 16 3-point shooting by our starting backcourt! Naz's footwork in the paint.

But even in our best win of the season, the bad: Our rebounding and defense when Rudy goes out...Naz/Knight/Garza were terrible on defense and had only 2 rebounds in 25 minutes. And the return of Eye Chart...some absurdly bad missed 3-pointers.

And the worst part of the evening? The second consecutive game where I didn't see KAT in the building Prince and JMac were there of course). Perhaps KAT had something better to do, or maybe if we paid him a little more, he might show up for the game.

I'm lucky to have tickets to watch this fun team in the return game on Monday, and I can't wait. Finchie has said it is difficult to win back to back games against the same team, and Sac-Town is going to come out smoking. We're going to have to play the same kind of inspired defense to beat this very good team. But if we do, we will find ourselves only one game out of 3rd place! Go Wolves!

On the Kat thing Finch talked about it that the trainers advise him to come to the game because sitting on the low chairs is bad for his calf Also there is speculation that Kat had a set back when he started to do on court stuff, Kat mentioned last week he is back in a boot for the first time since the first week of the injury.

Kek, I have the greatest respect for you if you can tell us you were able to type that with a straight face!

FNG how tall are you?

Ha, closer to Jordan "the Warrior" McGlaughlin's height than Karl Anthony "the Iron Horse" Town's height, to be honest! Get him a high chair if he needs his legs to dangle...heck, he can probably afford a comfortably padded high chair for $30 million a year! I may be wrong, but I think this has more to do with the current below zero temps in Minnesota and being a prima donna than needing his legs to dangle.

(Come to think of it, a high chair might be appropriate for a couple reasons ;-))