Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 9:47 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 9:27 am I just went back to rewatch the final 2:45 of overtime...after Houston had gone up 13, and I'm sure most if not all of us had given up. Mike hits a corner three, and I think "Doesn't mean a thing, but isn't that nice". Then after a stop (actually a miss on a wide open corner three...it looked like our defense had finally given up) Mike makes a nice bounce pass to Ju, and SloMo converts a 3-point play after getting the offensive board. Down 7 now, but I think "Still doesn't mean anything, but how great to have vets like Kyle and Mike to make plays like that". But then Finchy takes Mike out and puts in TJ! We need stops, and he puts in a guy who has struggled on defense???? I join the chorus of posters swearing at Finchy. But then Julius bodies up the insufferable Sengun for an 8 second call...I sit up a little straighter on the couch. I sit up even straighter when SloMo hits a backcutting Donte for a layup and a 5-point game. I'm still not at all confident we have enough offense out there to come all the way back, but I'm enjoying it. The Wolves have 3 guys in full court pressure and Donte almost gets a steal. The pressure looks like it's going to lead to an open look for Houston, but instead they go inside to Sengun...Randle bodies him up again and forces a missed layup, and gets a layup at the other end to narrow the lead to 3. I'm fully engaged now. FastMo (he's not at all slow on defense) is as tight as he can be on KD knowing they want to go to him, the ball gets knocked loose, and even though we can't see what happened along the sideline with the crowd standing, we get the ball...phew! I marvel at the energy our guys are bringing after playing so many minutes (40 for Ju). But since TJ nearly turned the ball over after securing the ball in the scramble (but Donte saved his ass), I swear at Finchy again for having him in the game instead of the more reliable Mike. Donte looks completely gassed after going so hard for all of his 35 minutes, but works hard without the ball to tie the game with a trey...I'm starting to think we're going to win this thing. Again, Randle bullies Sengun into a missed shot, and TJ (why is even in there?) secures the rebound with 30 seconds left. Julius knocks Thompson back three feet shoving him with his left hand (thank you for the no call, refs) and puts us ahead with a mid range on the paint with 8 seconds left...15-0 run! It's going to be KD of course, and he gets to the rim after getting a nice screen. Misses the layup but a foul is called...the Wolves are pissed (why not) but any one of three guys could have been called for the foul. KD is 10 for 10 on the night and the Rockets are 23 for 23, and Horton applies the jinx by mentioning it...it works, as KD is short on the first. Way short, Jim Pete says. The usually smart Jim Pete says they should put Naz Reid in the game for rebounding, somehow forgetting he had been tossed...Horton quietly corrects him (I had the ESPN feed on last night, so I missed all this). We know KD is going to intentionally miss the second, but that only works about 10% of the time...right? KD does it perfectly, but the rebound goes right to TJ, who lets it bounce off his hands out of bounds. Why the fuck is he in there at such a critical moment??? SloMo puts his hands on his head in anguish, but then in a vet move, goes over to encourage TJ. They obviously want to get the ball to KD for the tying midrange, but Donte wisely leaves the inbounding Thompson alone and instead doubles KD so he has no chance of getting the ball. So Thompson has to pass it out to Smith Jr. and someone knocks the ball away! OMG, it's TJ!!!! FNG gets down on his knees and asks for forgiveness from Finchy. Maybe he knows more about basketball than I do.

What a weird game, but what a finish! Posters are talking about Ju's defense at the end, but he was locked in the entire game on defense. If we can get that from him and Ant in the postseason, we'll have a couple more months of Wolves' basketball ahead of us.

Good injury news, too. Ant is ahead of schedule, and Jaden is not injured...only cramps. Let's go beat the Cade-less Pistons!

I chuckled at the Ant is ahead of schedule part. Is he ahead of schedule or is it because he needs to come back at the latest Monday to still make the game limit to make all nba

60WinTim wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 9:49 am Nice recap, FNG! I was also scratching my head at the TJ sub. I understand putting more length in the game, but my first inclination would have been Clark. But it was great to see TJ work hard and impact the game other than trying to score.

It's gonna be an interesting offseason. Ayo is a MUST extend/re-sign. Bones is pretty high up in the list, too, along with SloMo. But Clark is a FA (restricted), too. I'm not sure the Wolves would spend anything more than the vet minimum to retain him. And we haven't talked about the 3 players entering the season with only one more year of team control: Randle, Donte and Rudy.

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:33 am I just saw the post game ref report, and saw that Naz was tossed for "questioning the integrity of the crew""...really? Several reports say all he said was "he's moving". What an overreaction!

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:07 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:33 am I just saw the post game ref report, and saw that Naz was tossed for "questioning the integrity of the crew""...really? Several reports say all he said was "he's moving". What an overreaction!

Just such a terribly officiated game, and not because I think they purposely called the game against the wolves- I don't- but because they refused to do their job. Refs aren't there to get every call right, they are there to ensure the proper flow of a fair and competitive match.

That's completely impossible when there is zero consistency in what constitutes a foul. One minute the Wolves looked like they could get away with a back alley mugging, the next, breathing in the direction of a Rockets player was a capital offense.

Then constantly falling for and indulging Shengun's flopping is entirely embarrassing if not professional negligence. If it happens once, you got got and it is what it is, but in this one they stubbornly refused to admit that he was obviously acting and kept calling things for him

It's just such an embarrassing shit show to watch

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:22 am

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:07 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:33 am I just saw the post game ref report, and saw that Naz was tossed for "questioning the integrity of the crew""...really? Several reports say all he said was "he's moving". What an overreaction!

Just such a terribly officiated game, and not because I think they purposely called the game against the wolves- I don't- but because they refused to do their job. Refs aren't there to get every call right, they are there to ensure the proper flow of a fair and competitive match.

That's completely impossible when there is zero consistency in what constitutes a foul. One minute the Wolves looked like they could get away with a back alley mugging, the next, breathing in the direction of a Rockets player was a capital offense.

Then constantly falling for and indulging Shengun's flopping is entirely embarrassing if not professional negligence. If it happens once, you got got and it is what it is, but in this one they stubbornly refused to admit that he was obviously acting and kept calling things for him

It's just such an embarrassing shit show to watch

I guess I'm about the only pro-ref guy on this board, Aussie...I've umped and reffed a lot, and I recognize what a tough job they have (so many calls could go both ways, and fans are always going to see it their way), I reject any conspiracy theories, and I don't think the Wolves are targets of the referee community. That said, it's fair to talk about calls we think are faulty, and it's also fair to point out when a player is flopping, like the annoying Sengun last night. I think though comments here about bad calls have a lot more credibility when they are seen both ways...it seems like 95% of the bad calls cited are deemed anti-Wolves. All that said, I thought last night's game was unevenly reffed from moment to moment...I agree that there were times when obvious muggings were not called...both ways. But just to be intellectually honest, can we all agree that Ju doesn't get open for his winning shot if he doesn't shove Thompson back 3 feet with his left hand? It was a great play by him, but we don't go up 2 if the refs call the offensive foul.

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:22 am

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:07 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 10:33 am I just saw the post game ref report, and saw that Naz was tossed for "questioning the integrity of the crew""...really? Several reports say all he said was "he's moving". What an overreaction!

Just such a terribly officiated game, and not because I think they purposely called the game against the wolves- I don't- but because they refused to do their job. Refs aren't there to get every call right, they are there to ensure the proper flow of a fair and competitive match.

That's completely impossible when there is zero consistency in what constitutes a foul. One minute the Wolves looked like they could get away with a back alley mugging, the next, breathing in the direction of a Rockets player was a capital offense.

Then constantly falling for and indulging Shengun's flopping is entirely embarrassing if not professional negligence. If it happens once, you got got and it is what it is, but in this one they stubbornly refused to admit that he was obviously acting and kept calling things for him

It's just such an embarrassing shit show to watch

I guess I'm about the only pro-ref guy on this board, Aussie...I've umped and reffed a lot, and I recognize what a tough job they have (so many calls could go both ways, and fans are always going to see it their way), I reject any conspiracy theories, and I don't think the Wolves are targets of the referee community. That said, it's fair to talk about calls we think are faulty, and it's also fair to point out when a player is flopping, like the annoying Sengun last night. I think though comments here about bad calls have a lot more credibility when they are seen both ways...it seems like 95% of the bad calls cited are deemed anti-Wolves. All that said, I thought last night's game was unevenly reffed from moment to moment...I agree that there were times when obvious muggings were not called...both ways. But just to be intellectually honest, can we all agree that Ju doesn't get open for his winning shot if he doesn't shove Thompson back 3 feet with his left hand? It was a great play by him, but we don't go up 2 if the refs call the offensive foul.

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:49 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:22 am

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:07 am

Just such a terribly officiated game, and not because I think they purposely called the game against the wolves- I don't- but because they refused to do their job. Refs aren't there to get every call right, they are there to ensure the proper flow of a fair and competitive match.

That's completely impossible when there is zero consistency in what constitutes a foul. One minute the Wolves looked like they could get away with a back alley mugging, the next, breathing in the direction of a Rockets player was a capital offense.

Then constantly falling for and indulging Shengun's flopping is entirely embarrassing if not professional negligence. If it happens once, you got got and it is what it is, but in this one they stubbornly refused to admit that he was obviously acting and kept calling things for him

It's just such an embarrassing shit show to watch

I guess I'm about the only pro-ref guy on this board, Aussie...I've umped and reffed a lot, and I recognize what a tough job they have (so many calls could go both ways, and fans are always going to see it their way), I reject any conspiracy theories, and I don't think the Wolves are targets of the referee community. That said, it's fair to talk about calls we think are faulty, and it's also fair to point out when a player is flopping, like the annoying Sengun last night. I think though comments here about bad calls have a lot more credibility when they are seen both ways...it seems like 95% of the bad calls cited are deemed anti-Wolves. All that said, I thought last night's game was unevenly reffed from moment to moment...I agree that there were times when obvious muggings were not called...both ways. But just to be intellectually honest, can we all agree that Ju doesn't get open for his winning shot if he doesn't shove Thompson back 3 feet with his left hand? It was a great play by him, but we don't go up 2 if the refs call the offensive foul.

That's what I'm saying, it was uneven both ways. Maybe I didn't make it clear, but I'm not making a conspiratorial argument.

Reffing is literally an impossible job, you will always miss calls and get things wrong, so I don't really care too much about that.
But I'm bothered when referees do a bad job of controlling the game, and as Scott Foster so often does, make it about them. I also just think it's extremely embarrassing to keep indulging Sengun like that.

I didn't have much of an opinion about him before other than the fact that his game is kinda ugly, but after last night he might be one of my least favorite players

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:17 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:49 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:22 am

I guess I'm about the only pro-ref guy on this board, Aussie...I've umped and reffed a lot, and I recognize what a tough job they have (so many calls could go both ways, and fans are always going to see it their way), I reject any conspiracy theories, and I don't think the Wolves are targets of the referee community. That said, it's fair to talk about calls we think are faulty, and it's also fair to point out when a player is flopping, like the annoying Sengun last night. I think though comments here about bad calls have a lot more credibility when they are seen both ways...it seems like 95% of the bad calls cited are deemed anti-Wolves. All that said, I thought last night's game was unevenly reffed from moment to moment...I agree that there were times when obvious muggings were not called...both ways. But just to be intellectually honest, can we all agree that Ju doesn't get open for his winning shot if he doesn't shove Thompson back 3 feet with his left hand? It was a great play by him, but we don't go up 2 if the refs call the offensive foul.

That's what I'm saying, it was uneven both ways. Maybe I didn't make it clear, but I'm not making a conspiratorial argument.

Reffing is literally an impossible job, you will always miss calls and get things wrong, so I don't really care too much about that.
But I'm bothered when referees do a bad job of controlling the game, and as Scott Foster so often does, make it about them. I also just think it's extremely embarrassing to keep indulging Sengun like that.

I didn't have much of an opinion about him before other than the fact that his game is kinda ugly, but after last night he might be one of my least favorite players

Yeah, you clearly said the reffing was uneven both ways last night, and I agree. I was just pointing out that the comments on this board make it sound like 95% of the bad calls go against us, and that's not what I see! I agree that there are some players who, for whatever reason, seem to get more favorable calls than others. LeBron does because of star treatment, and SGA does just because he's good at fooling the refs (grifting, I know). As a guy who has umped and reffed many times, I will admit that on a 50/50 call I might be more likely to rule in favor of the player I like better. Ant should get more calls because he is generally friendly with the refs and so damn likable, but I think his tendency to ask for a foul every time he goes to the basket gets on the ref's nerves...he needs to learn that. I also think refs don't seem to like Rudy very much, and that's maybe why so often fouls aren't called when he gets hit in the head.

And yeah, Sengun is on my list too of unfavorite players.

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:36 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 12:17 pm

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:49 am
That's what I'm saying, it was uneven both ways. Maybe I didn't make it clear, but I'm not making a conspiratorial argument.

Reffing is literally an impossible job, you will always miss calls and get things wrong, so I don't really care too much about that.
But I'm bothered when referees do a bad job of controlling the game, and as Scott Foster so often does, make it about them. I also just think it's extremely embarrassing to keep indulging Sengun like that.

I didn't have much of an opinion about him before other than the fact that his game is kinda ugly, but after last night he might be one of my least favorite players

Yeah, you clearly said the reffing was uneven both ways last night, and I agree. I was just pointing out that the comments on this board make it sound like 95% of the bad calls go against us, and that's not what I see! I agree that there are some players who, for whatever reason, seem to get more favorable calls than others. LeBron does because of star treatment, and SGA does just because he's good at fooling the refs (grifting, I know). As a guy who has umped and reffed many times, I will admit that on a 50/50 call I might be more likely to rule in favor of the player I like better. Ant should get more calls because he is generally friendly with the refs and so damn likable, but I think his tendency to ask for a foul every time he goes to the basket gets on the ref's nerves...he needs to learn that. I also think refs don't seem to like Rudy very much, and that's maybe why so often fouls aren't called when he gets hit in the head.

And yeah, Sengun is on my list too of unfavorite players.

I'm beginning to wonder if even Gobert's mom and grandmother like him.

What is it about the guy that invites such venom from various groups of people?