Wolves at Grizzlies *(NBA not DL)

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Minnesota's Struggles in the Fourth Quarter

Points: 21.4 (29th)
Field Goal Percentage: 34.7 (30th)
Three-Point Percentage: 29.2 (26th)
Free Throws Made: 3.9 (20th)
Rebounds: 9.7 (27th)
Assists: 3.8 (30th)
Turnovers: 4.4 (27th)

I'm hoping someone can come up with a more optimistic explanation for this than mine, but here's what I think. NBA teams that come into a game expecting to win tend to coast during the first three quarters, and then turn it on in the 4th if they need to. We seem to have a team that can look really good in the first quarter while the other team is on auto pilot, and then awful when the opponent turns up the defensive intensity.

Can someone come up with something a little more positive?

I think that explanation works with past Wolves teams. What we're seeing here, I think, is an immature/young team crumbling when the pressure mounts because they're still learning how to win, how to close out games. Even our two max players are inexperienced in this regard because they've been on losing/bad teams for most of their career. This team looks awesome for three quarters proving their talent exceeds their opponent's, but the mental mistakes and situational lapses have to be fixed. We're not even 10 games into the season so there's time to figure it out on the fly, and a lot of it really is correctable, but the players have to step up.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The list of young "stars"... younger than Russell or Towns... who win at a much higher rate despite being inexperienced is quite long.

Inexperience should not be used with a team that ended the game with Towns and Russell in their prime and Beverley out there as well. Memphis made its comeback with Jaren Jackson, Desmond Bane and Deanthony Melton playing the most minutes down the stretch.

Basically if we're excusing Russell and Towns for "inexperience" in year 7... we're part of the problem. That just can't be an excuse for max guys in the NBA.

[Wolvesfan21]

The list of young "stars"... younger than Russell or Towns... who win at a much higher rate despite being inexperienced is quite long.

Inexperience should not be used with a team that ended the game with Towns and Russell in their prime and Beverley out there as well. Memphis made its comeback with Jaren Jackson, Desmond Bane and Deanthony Melton playing the most minutes down the stretch.

Basically if we're excusing Russell and Towns for "inexperience" in year 7... we're part of the problem. That just can't be an excuse for max guys in the NBA.

No one would consider DLO a star on here but one poster. The other KAT, has to more or less be set up to make plays most of the time. He has not proven to have been a clutch 4th quarter player in his career for the most part.

We are left with Ant who is 20 years old I think, so in that respect we are young.

It's not an excuse though. He has to be better himself.

I just don't expect it from DLO and KAT. They've never proven to be winners.

FNG is right, good teams a lot of the time simply struggle to play hard for most of the game. 4th quarter comes, they turn it up and we are overmatched. I think that is a really fair analysis of this teams struggles.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The list of young "stars"... younger than Russell or Towns... who win at a much higher rate despite being inexperienced is quite long.

Inexperience should not be used with a team that ended the game with Towns and Russell in their prime and Beverley out there as well. Memphis made its comeback with Jaren Jackson, Desmond Bane and Deanthony Melton playing the most minutes down the stretch.

Basically if we're excusing Russell and Towns for "inexperience" in year 7... we're part of the problem. That just can't be an excuse for max guys in the NBA.

No one would consider DLO a star on here but one poster. The other KAT, has to more or less be set up to make plays most of the time. He has not proven to have been a clutch 4th quarter player in his career for the most part.

We are left with Ant who is 20 years old I think, so in that respect we are young.

It's not an excuse though. He has to be better himself.

I just don't expect it from DLO and KAT. They've never proven to be winners.

FNG is right, good teams a lot of the time simply struggle to play hard for most of the game. 4th quarter comes, they turn it up and we are overmatched. I think that is a really fair analysis of this teams struggles.

Maybe it's not just good teams.

The Pelicans outscored MN in the 4th... and the Magic destroyed MN in the 4th.

[FNG]

The list of young "stars"... younger than Russell or Towns... who win at a much higher rate despite being inexperienced is quite long.

Inexperience should not be used with a team that ended the game with Towns and Russell in their prime and Beverley out there as well. Memphis made its comeback with Jaren Jackson, Desmond Bane and Deanthony Melton playing the most minutes down the stretch.

Basically if we're excusing Russell and Towns for "inexperience" in year 7... we're part of the problem. That just can't be an excuse for max guys in the NBA.

No one would consider DLO a star on here but one poster. The other KAT, has to more or less be set up to make plays most of the time. He has not proven to have been a clutch 4th quarter player in his career for the most part.

We are left with Ant who is 20 years old I think, so in that respect we are young.

It's not an excuse though. He has to be better himself.

I just don't expect it from DLO and KAT. They've never proven to be winners.

FNG is right, good teams a lot of the time simply struggle to play hard for most of the game. 4th quarter comes, they turn it up and we are overmatched. I think that is a really fair analysis of this teams struggles.

Maybe it's not just good teams.

The Pelicans outscored MN in the 4th... and the Magic destroyed MN in the 4th.

Ouch...Orlando is showing signs of potentially being pretty good with Anthony, Carter and Suggs but they're not good yet, and New Orleans is 1-10 and getting outscored by 12 PPG. So our 4th quarter malaise is perhaps due to two factors:

1)Good teams coast against us, and turn it on in the 4th quarter, and

2)Our "stars" are not clutch players, even when they are playing against bad team.

Possible silver lining? Lots and lots of ping pong balls in a stacked 2022 draft.

[Leado01]

Let's see...overtime loss which means realistically what?

One less stupid turnover in regulation?
One less stupid offensive foul?
One or two more kickouts on offensive drives by ANT?

This team wins last night if we make one of the layups we missed when things were going great in the third quarter.

They win if KAT chooses the easy pass instead of the 1% success pass a few less times.

A little less ISO in the 4th quarter and you win.

9 games in isn't the time to blow it up ...

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Let's see...overtime loss which means realistically what?

One less stupid turnover in regulation?
One less stupid offensive foul?
One or two more kickouts on offensive drives by ANT?

This team wins last night if we make one of the layups we missed when things were going great in the third quarter.

They win if KAT chooses the easy pass instead of the 1% success pass a few less times.

A little less ISO in the 4th quarter and you win.

9 games in isn't the time to blow it up ...

I agree. I'd give it another 20 or 30 games or so before looking to make a big move. The reality is that KAT and his agent are on a timeline. He needs to be put out of his misery sooner rather than later if things don't improve much in the next couple of months. Nearly every NBA GM and head coach would salivate adding him to their roster and would likely convince themselves that his leadership/emotional issues are largely a product of his circumstances in Minnesota (and they'd probably be right).

Also, does Finch deserve any blame? It's odd that he got the offense cooking at a top 10-12 level last season when he got both DLO and KAT healthy, yet they have clearly regressed this season despite adding better shooters.

Of course, logic and reason usually doesn't apply to this franchise. They might just be cursed.

[Leado01]

We lead the league in FT disparity. I realize that KAT shouldn't be mugged so far from the basket, but beyond that we give of 5-7 pts most games at the line due to lazy feet and stupid offensive fouls. Not a shooting issue.

We also have gone into extended (5 minutes) periods of ISO ball mostly with ANT, who is amazing...but both him and the team need to commit to being open, available, and ready to.shoot when he drives. Teams have learned to fully collapse on him and will continue to do so until they are punished for it.

Finally we can't be giving up 16 pts to all effort role players...which we have done for years. That's a straight up indication of consistent effort on defense, in transition, and in boxing out. Losing to low skill effort guys is the hardest thing to fix because our team has several people that occasionally go to sleep on defense. You don't have to be great against effort players, you just have to keep track of them and stay between them and the basket.

Players know when they're engaged and know when they lose focus and effort and it's REALLY hard to maintain 95% intensity and focus...but it's kind of their job (everyone who has played at any level remembers how much better they were when their focus influenced their short muscle twitch!)

Soap box on why the sky isn't falling is over now.

[thedoper]

We lead the league in FT disparity. I realize that KAT shouldn't be mugged so far from the basket, but beyond that we give of 5-7 pts most games at the line due to lazy feet and stupid offensive fouls. Not a shooting issue.

We also have gone into extended (5 minutes) periods of ISO ball mostly with ANT, who is amazing...but both him and the team need to commit to being open, available, and ready to.shoot when he drives. Teams have learned to fully collapse on him and will continue to do so until they are punished for it.

Finally we can't be giving up 16 pts to all effort role players...which we have done for years. That's a straight up indication of consistent effort on defense, in transition, and in boxing out. Losing to low skill effort guys is the hardest thing to fix because our team has several people that occasionally go to sleep on defense. You don't have to be great against effort players, you just have to keep track of them and stay between them and the basket.

Players know when they're engaged and know when they lose focus and effort and it's REALLY hard to maintain 95% intensity and focus...but it's kind of their job (everyone who has played at any level remembers how much better they were when their focus influenced their short muscle twitch!)

Soap box on why the sky isn't falling is over now.

I think the closeness of these games is likely why the responses to losing are extra dramatic (I am guilty). Thanks for this dose of perspective. I definitely want to see a world where there is improvement. But these problems do see all too Wolvesy to ignore.

[FNG]

LeadO- I appreciate the optimistic take, and like all faithful Wolves fans here, I hope you're right. That was a close loss last night, and you're right that one little change could have changed the outcome. But let's not lose sight of the fact that Memphis was missing its second best scorer (and a Wolves killer at that) while we were 100% healthy. Is the game even close if Brooks plays? I forecast 35 wins, and to get there I though thought we had to go at least 6-6 during that soft early schedule. With our guys likely now to come back from the West Coast 3-9 despite not having lost many games to injuries (unlike our opponents), 28-30 looks more realistic now.

Absolutely don't blow it up now. But if we're 12-29 midway through the season (and that doesn't seem unlikely right now), I think most of us will be calling for some significant changes.

Now if we somehow take 2 out of 3 the next few days, I may start to feel a little more optimistic.