Minnesota Sports Forum

FNG wrote:

Camden wrote:I'm expecting a big game from A1 tonight. It's the Lakers. It's against LeBron James. It's Klutch Sports Group. The highlights will be all over ESPN. I expect this to be a game he plays very aggressively. And then people will make comments about Edwards and James hugging after the game saying that there's a passing of the torch. I know how this goes.

I'm catching up on the GDT after watching the replay this morning. Sometimes early posts don't age so well...this one did. What a game for Ant! I really dug the smile on his face after going right at the incredible LBJ successfully. The kid is now 18/5/3 in his last 10 on 45% shooting (35% threes). He's still only 19...really fun to project what he might be in 4-5 years.

Very encouraging stretch he's had here since becoming a starter. And yeah, my favorite moments from the game was when he stuck that 3 on LeBron and was smiling like a little kid afterwards. He was smiling again when he side-stepped a fly-by close out late in the 4th and knocked down another 3. Seems like he plays with a certain joy.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

crazysauce wrote:At least kats well rested for this 14 point deficit. Also if you are kat arent you telling Ryan to let you back in as soon as you are ready? I don't get it. If we are tanking, which I have yet to think we were, it's so dumb. So sick of losing.

KAT is on a minutes restriction.

I think it's even more than that, WF. He's on a minutes restriction, plus at times Ryan can see he's just gassed. I respect KAT for playing so hard after his Covid bout, but it's clear he's about 80% healthy at best. We don't know, but I suspect he's feeling things in his lungs that we just can't imagine right now. Ryan is blamed for KAT only getting 10 shots, but the Lakers designed their defense tonight to stop Beas and KAT...let Ant and Rubio have their shots, but don't let KAT and Beas touch the ball in their favorite spots. KAT had to work his ass off to even get in a position to receive a pass, and it looked like he just didn't have the energy at times to do it. I think 33 minutes might have been pushing it frankly...he's clearly not himself yet.

Interesting game but I think Q nailed the reason for this loss...the Lakers' defense. Even without Davis they are long and experienced, and they just don't give you easy looks. You could tell their game plan was to focus on Beas, who has been absurdly hot recently, and our best player KAT. They were willing to give Rubio his shots as they should, and they also weren't going to worry too much about Ant...well, Ant almost willed us to a victory. It won't be long that he starts attracting the kind of attention Beas got tonight.

Beasley had 15 shots, but not many of them were open looks. We have become accustomed to him making open threes from the corner, but the Lakers just weren't going to give him any tonight. My only issue with Beas is he tried too hard to "get his" in the face of a defense designed to take away his game. Ryan needs to pull him aside and convince him to be a facilitator when a defense is rotating as well as the Lakers were tonight. More importantly, Beas shouldn't need a coach to help him recognize this. His forced shots when teammates were open were a big reason for the loss tonight. 1 assist for a SG in 36 minutes when a defense is looking to take away your shot is disgraceful.

Some other thoughts:

-nice to see Vando with a nice game...13 rebounds and 7 on the offensive end! Kudos to Ryan to give minutes to the more effective PF tonight. I still love McDaniels' potential, but he seemed intimidated tonight by the Lakers' length

-I so much want to see Nowell succeed, but his shooting is bizarrely off at times...is he going to lead the league in air balls? Ryan limited him to 10 minutes tonight, and that was probably 10 minutes too many. I still like this kid, but it would have been helpful to have a healthy Culver taking his minutes tonight.

-Ricky's 13-8-4 with only 2 TOs was almost identical to the averages he put up last year in a very good season in Phoenix, and he did it against an elite defense. He had problems keeping Schroder in front of him (and frankly J-Mac was even worse), but otherwise is starting to look like he's getting him legs (and lungs) back. Good to see, because we're not going to see DLO until the end of March probably.

-and finally...LeBron James. 'Nuff said.