Minnesota Sports Forum

Watching Rudez trying to guard Kobe the other night was pretty comical. Why is he playing again?

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

sjm34 wrote:I think this is a win if we focus on two things. Contesting perimeter shots, and more important, rebounding the BB. A big part of that is being physical with Faried. It takes him completely out of the game when you continually put a body on him. I would like to see how Bazz does against him, but using a guy like Rudez or Payne would likely work as well.

I don't like a Rudez/Faried matchup...Damjan is too soft and Faried would beat him up inside. But if KG and Belly struggle with Kenneth, I wouldn't be opposed to Payne battling him for awhile...his length and wild activity might frustrate him.

You are so correct about rebounding and contesting the perimeter being keys to tonight. The Wolves are struggling on the boards, but there are signs that they are improving on defending the perimeter. They're going to need that, because I think Denver made more threes than Houston in their opener :shock: .

Faried man we probably don't have an answer for that guy and it kinda sucks. Hopefully our length can bother him. If not oh well weather that storm and win in other areas.

LST have you gotten your Rudez shirt yet? lol

I keep trying, monster, but they're sold out every time I go to my shop. The clerk says they're selling like hot cakes... going almost as fast as the Jeff Adrien shirts last year!

Nemanja will be critical tonight against Danilo and be a big part of what I think will be another MN win.

sjm34 wrote:I think this is a win if we focus on two things. Contesting perimeter shots, and more important, rebounding the BB. A big part of that is being physical with Faried. It takes him completely out of the game when you continually put a body on him. I would like to see how Bazz does against him, but using a guy like Rudez or Payne would likely work as well.

Or Bjelica, who's been a good defensive rebounder the last several years and is smart enough a player to see that's an area that Faried can wreak havoc.

Bazz would get manhandled by Faried on the glass due to the size difference, by the way, and Payne relies on length and athleticism instead of technique (boxing out).

Bummer that I can't watch the game tonight because of work. Denver is a dangerous opponent. Underestimate them and they can sneak up on you. I expect some skirmish between kg and faried tonight. This should be a fun game.

I'm still trying to figure out how Denver waltzes into Houston in their home opener and blows them out by 20. I didn't see that one coming!

Advantage to Denver tonight because they are at home, but I guess anything can happen. Don't count on Rubio going 10-17 again though. Someone else needs to step up tonight.

Why are so many of you giving the edge to Denver? They're without Nurkic and Chandler and led by a rookie point guard. If we lose tonight, it'll be just as bad as a loss to the Lakers would have been, in my opinion. The Nuggets are a lottery team. Don't let one fluke win against a Dwight Howard-less Rockets team make you feel differently about them.

Camden0916 wrote:Why are so many of you giving the edge to Denver? They're without Nurkic and Chandler and led by a rookie point guard. If we lose tonight, it'll be just as bad as a loss to the Lakers would have been, in my opinion. The Nuggets are a lottery team. Don't let one fluke win against a Dwight Howard-less Rockets team make you feel differently about them.

The Wolves are also a lottery team and Denver has a big home court advantage. They rebound really well and shoot a lot of 3's. That's our kryptonite right now. They have multiple good players in their prime. We don't. That makes them a better team than us and they have home court. I think people are way too quick to crown our young guys after that first game against a bad team and think we are a borderline playoff team. We aren't. This is a tough matchup, especially on the road. Also, Houston didn't have Dwight for a majority of last season and still got the 2 seed in the West. They shouldn't get blown out by a lottery team run by a rookie PG even without him.

Camden wrote:Why are so many of you giving the edge to Denver? They're without Nurkic and Chandler and led by a rookie point guard. If we lose tonight, it'll be just as bad as a loss to the Lakers would have been, in my opinion. The Nuggets are a lottery team. Don't let one fluke win against a Dwight Howard-less Rockets team make you feel differently about them.

They're a lottery team, but so are we in all likelihood, and lottery teams don't often win consecutive games on the road. There will a raucous crowd there for the home opener, and the Nuggets are the kind of high energy team that feeds on that. Denver is a tough place to play because of the altitude, and that's one of the reasons they have had so much home success over the years. I think it's going to be difficult for the Wolves to sustain the intensity they showed in their Flip-tribute opener.

I think the Wolves are a better team, but Wednesday night we beat a lottery team by 1 and they beat a playoff team by 20, so maybe I'm overvaluing my team...I have a tendency to do that. We can try to diminish the Rockets win because they were without Howard, but they were 32-15 last year without him (and better than that at home) so I don't see that as valid.

By the way, it's not just us giving the edge to Denver...Vegas has them as a 4-point favorite. I'm hoping for a second consecutive upset, but I'm not going to be too upset if they lose this one.

Almost 500 posts in the game one thread. Let's double it for game 2!