Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

Camden wrote:Shot-making matters. Minnesota couldn't hit late. Washington did. That's a really bad loss.

This is the right take. The Wizards shot over 45% from the field and 40% from behind the arc while the Wolves shot 41% from the field and 27% from behind the arc. That says it all. We won't win many game with our two PGs shooting 0-9 from the field. And we're not going to win many games with Rudy taking 15 shots and hitting 53% of them. Note I'm NOT blaming Rudy for the loss. He played really well. We just can't have him taking that many shots. It's not going to end well.

Without Towns, the Timberwolves need more than a "game manager" at PG.

I shudder to think what happens if Edwards misses a game. Do the Wolves reach 80 points?

I do think that was a bit of the risk in trading DLO, but I thought it was also a signal that KAT's return was imminent, meaning he'd pick up the shooting/scoring slack. A game manager like Conley that is more reliable defensively than DLO looks a lot better if flanked by both KAT and Ant.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

sjm34 wrote:I'm a little surprised at the overreaction to the loss tonight. This is the MO for this team.

I am most concerned with two areas. Finch doesn't seem to have any idea of when to use his challenge. There are three criteria he should be looking for.

1) One of our main players have committed a foul (specfically guys like Mcdaniels or Edwards).
2) We have the chance to take points away (no foul shots).
3) We will gain possession of the ball.

Notice that "time of game" doesn't enter into it.

I would love to know how many games he actually uses his challenge, because he seems to think he needs to save it for later in the game. Tonight he saved us a point which was meaningless.

My other area of concern is no other scorer down the stretch. We needed DLO tonight!

You can't have another scorer when the primary scorer won't give up the ball.

Edwards took 26 shots tonight. Beal took 28. Beal simply made more of his shots. Ja Morant took 26 shots last night in a winning effort. He only made 8 of them. But other guys picked up the slack. One of their two bigs, Jackson Jr. took 19 shots, a few more than Rudy took tonight. But four of Jackson's made shots were three-pointers and he got to the line 7 times, hitting 6 of them. Star, ball-dominant players take a lot of shots. So there's nothing particularly troublesome about our star, Ant, taking 26 shots. He just didn't make some shots he should make while our point guards provided no scoring and our bench very little. The guy who took the next most shots for the Wolves was Rudy Gobert. They were all at the basket, yet he still missed nearly half of them with only 2 foul shots to show for his effort. Rudy Gobert can't have the second most shots on this team. They're all going to be two-point shots and he doesn't get to the line very often.

This team needs KAT. And it needs him even more now with DLO gone. This team was built by Rosas to score. That was its identity. Now it's a team that doesn't really know what it is - a team in search of an identity. Without KAT or DLO, they'll be searching in vain for scoring from someone other than the team's one all-star who has played every game and kept this team in the mix for a playoff birth.

The end of the season is approaching and this team is probably lottery bound even if they happen to make the play-in tournament. At that point, the Wolves front office executives will have to be willing to take an honest look at this team from top to bottom and decide what they want this team's identity to be. They'll need to decide who to put around Ant and McDaniels and who should be at the helm as the team's head coach. If it were up to me I'd go at least another year or two with KAT. Otherwise, everyone else on this team, players and coaches, not named Anthony Edwards or Jaden McDaniels should be considered moveable.

To be fair Lip...

It's less about the number of shots... as much as the quality of shots sometimes. Edwards took 4 or 5 absolutely TERRIBLE shots tonight.

He has blinders. He's young and sometimes it pays off. But it's definitely part of his game that he needs to improve.

I wonder if Beal will ever finally move? It seems like he kills us often. Guards getting hot in the 4th is becoming a theme. Good time for a break.

It felt bad in real time. The Wolves let up at the end of quarters just enough to make Washington think it had a chance. Then I saw a Tweet about it...

2nd quarter: Timberwolves up 57 - 41... Wizards close on a 10 - 2 run. 59 - 51 at the half.
3rd quarter: Timberwolves up 87 - 69... Wizards close on a 7 - 0 run. 87 - 76 after 3.
4th quarter: Timberwolves up 106 - 102... Wizards close on a 12 - 0 run. Game over.

Kyle Kuzma tried to gift that game to the Wolves by himself. What a terrible performance from that guy. Yet, he hits the contested bad shot dagger when it mattered most. The Wolves can only blame themselves for this one. The Wizards were begging the Wolves to take it for the first 36+ minutes.

"Another terrible loss that will haunt the Wolves."
- Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.



[Note: Jon Krawczynski already has his 10 games the Timberwolves Let Slip Away column in the can. Just waiting for the publishing date.]

As I watch this team build 20+ leads against good teams like Dallas and Washington, I'm thinking "Wow, we look like one of the best teams in the Association!".

But as I watch us give up leads in the 4th...holding on in one game, but losing the other...I'm thinking "What the hell is wrong with this team?".

I just watched the replay, and it's still difficult to believe we lost with every starter except Conley having a big game. SloMo and Jaden were terrific, Rudy was dominant, and Ant scored 34 points. You have to win at home when that happens.

But our two PGs didn't score, and our 4 reserves who played 10+ minutes were a -43. And Ant took ill-advised shots late in the game and turned the ball over 6 times. I can't understand why the ball was in Ant's hands so much in the 4th quarter instead of Conley's. We have to be smarter than that.

Bad loss. But somehow I'm left thinking that we are going to be very good the last 21 games of the season. Maybe I have to take off the rose-colored glasses...

FNG wrote:As I watch this team build 20+ leads against good teams like Dallas and Washington, I'm thinking "Wow, we look like one of the best teams in the Association!".

But as I watch us give up leads in the 4th...holding on in one game, but losing the other...I'm thinking "What the hell is wrong with this team?".

I just watched the replay, and it's still difficult to believe we lost with every starter except Conley having a big game. SloMo and Jaden were terrific, Rudy was dominant, and Ant scored 34 points. You have to win at home when that happens.

But our two PGs didn't score, and our 4 reserves who played 10+ minutes were a -43. And Ant took ill-advised shots late in the game and turned the ball over 6 times. I can't understand why the ball was in Ant's hands so much in the 4th quarter instead of Conley's. We have to be smarter than that.

Bad loss. But somehow I'm left thinking that we are going to be very good the last 21 games of the season. Maybe I have to take off the rose-colored glasses...

Isn't that the new formula though? That's the rub with Russell being traded.

What good is it to have the PG have the ball if he's literally no threat to score? It's going to be a bumpy road with Edwards over the next year or two... but if he's going to make the jump to ELITE status in the league... this is what needs to happen.

We've seen the team bog down late in games twice in a row now. Fortunately, they had a large enough lead (and just enough juice from Kyle Anderson) to hold off Dallas. Tonight it bit them. I think we're going to see more 4th quarter slogfests for a spell here.

Like you, FNG, I think we steadily improve from here. With Russell gone there is a new dynamic that needs to be figured out. They will get there.

The Wolves are suppose to lose 5 games in a row after the Hornets game. I sense some anti-klunkers coming our way!

BTW - I will miss a bunch of the steady improvement as I am embarking on an extended vacation. Please hold down the fort for me!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

FNG wrote:As I watch this team build 20+ leads against good teams like Dallas and Washington, I'm thinking "Wow, we look like one of the best teams in the Association!".

But as I watch us give up leads in the 4th...holding on in one game, but losing the other...I'm thinking "What the hell is wrong with this team?".

I just watched the replay, and it's still difficult to believe we lost with every starter except Conley having a big game. SloMo and Jaden were terrific, Rudy was dominant, and Ant scored 34 points. You have to win at home when that happens.

But our two PGs didn't score, and our 4 reserves who played 10+ minutes were a -43. And Ant took ill-advised shots late in the game and turned the ball over 6 times. I can't understand why the ball was in Ant's hands so much in the 4th quarter instead of Conley's. We have to be smarter than that.

Bad loss. But somehow I'm left thinking that we are going to be very good the last 21 games of the season. Maybe I have to take off the rose-colored glasses...

Isn't that the new formula though? That's the rub with Russell being traded.

What good is it to have the PG have the ball if he's literally no threat to score? It's going to be a bumpy road with Edwards over the next year or two... but if he's going to make the jump to ELITE status in the league... this is what needs to happen.

We've seen the team bog down late in games twice in a row now. Fortunately, they had a large enough lead (and just enough juice from Kyle Anderson) to hold off Dallas. Tonight it bit them. I think we're going to see more 4th quarter slogfests for a spell here.

I don't know, Abe. It seems to me Conley was ball-dominant and the ball moved well the first three quarters creating a lot of open looks. But when the Wiz went zone, we switched to Ant handling the ball at the top of the key with Conley in the corner and SloMo in the center...and we forced more shots. I like the way Finchie employs SloMo against zones (unfortunately he missed a couple easy shots though), but he is wasting Conley if he doesn't let him facilitate. I hope they learn from this loss.

FNG wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

FNG wrote:As I watch this team build 20+ leads against good teams like Dallas and Washington, I'm thinking "Wow, we look like one of the best teams in the Association!".

But as I watch us give up leads in the 4th...holding on in one game, but losing the other...I'm thinking "What the hell is wrong with this team?".

I just watched the replay, and it's still difficult to believe we lost with every starter except Conley having a big game. SloMo and Jaden were terrific, Rudy was dominant, and Ant scored 34 points. You have to win at home when that happens.

But our two PGs didn't score, and our 4 reserves who played 10+ minutes were a -43. And Ant took ill-advised shots late in the game and turned the ball over 6 times. I can't understand why the ball was in Ant's hands so much in the 4th quarter instead of Conley's. We have to be smarter than that.

Bad loss. But somehow I'm left thinking that we are going to be very good the last 21 games of the season. Maybe I have to take off the rose-colored glasses...

Isn't that the new formula though? That's the rub with Russell being traded.

What good is it to have the PG have the ball if he's literally no threat to score? It's going to be a bumpy road with Edwards over the next year or two... but if he's going to make the jump to ELITE status in the league... this is what needs to happen.

We've seen the team bog down late in games twice in a row now. Fortunately, they had a large enough lead (and just enough juice from Kyle Anderson) to hold off Dallas. Tonight it bit them. I think we're going to see more 4th quarter slogfests for a spell here.

I don't know, Abe. It seems to me Conley was ball-dominant and the ball moved well the first three quarters creating a lot of open looks. But when the Wiz went zone, we switched to Ant handling the ball at the top of the key with Conley in the corner and SloMo in the center...and we forced more shots. I like the way Finchie employs SloMo against zones (unfortunately he missed a couple easy shots though), but he is wasting Conley if he doesn't let him facilitate. I hope they learn from this loss.

The zone was a big part of this game. And maybe Edwards is in that spot for size reasons (and Edwards' shot chart is really impressive shooting threes from there).

As for the first 3 quarters vs. the 4th... things change in the 4th quarter of close NBA games when teams are trying to win.

Likewise, any playoff game would show warts that might be glossed over during the regular season.