More Home Cooking - Thunder at Wolves Game 4 GDT

[Yosimar]

Just finished watching the recording. What a tough game to lose. Wasted amazing games from the bench. Donte and NAW are not repeating what they did tonight. Someone explain to me how Jaden only got 3 more minutes of playing time than Randle.

But in the end this is simple. Their big two had 74 points, and ours had a grand total of 21. 74 to 21 in a 2 point game. That’s where you lose this game.

13 shots for ANT? Nah man that can’t happen. I absolutely love the player despite all the flaws in his game. 13 shots? That can’t happen. I don’t care if they quadruple teaming you man. In a game this big that’s inexcusable. I’d rather he take 25 shots and make 5 of them. I can live with the shot just not falling, but this?. Obviously the Thunder came with a different mindset this game that they were going to be more physical, and ANT couldn’t match it the same energy. I totally reversal of game 3. So disappointing.

[Wolvesfan21]

I hear ant talking about making the right play and all but Ant has to figure out how to impose his will on the game. When he attacks the rim he's literally almost unstoppable. He's such a special talent I feel he's almost shorting himself. When he wants to he will get to the rim.

It's all about spots. Going 1 on 4 and trying to score is a losing position. Our loss tonight wasn't on him, some share sure, though his off ball defense does need to get a lot better still. That's when I'm watching the game his man will make a play quite a bit, too often for my liking. Wether it be a cut or a rebound. He's not in ideal position. He's way better then as a rook, but still room to grow.

I would say this loss is simply the massive amount of turnovers and the lack of defensive rebounds. That's it. Who turned the ball over and who didn't get enough boards? That was our downfall.

[kekgeek]

I know the series isn't over yet and OKC would still have another series to play, but if the rest of the playoffs/Finals looks like what I saw tonight, they are indeed the best team in the NBA and no amount of roster or coaching tweaking on the Wolves' part will "fix" us to the degree that we get to that level. That might just be the reality.

It's tough to swallow since after all it's....OKC. Even as a humble Wolves fan in a market often overlooked, it's tough to admit that an NBA juggernaut could come out of Oklahoma, but here we are.

2nd apron could really change this. What is really dumb because OKC deserves all the credit in the world for building their roster. Will say though SGA, Jwill and Chet on pace to make 155 million a year for those 3 alone in 2 years, 165 million of Chet wins DPOY or all nba. For reference the wolves top 3 contracts are about 100 million on 2 years.

Now they have a ton of picks (they are projected not great picks anyone) but the apron system really could put OKC in a short run.

I don't think it will. They've found their core 3 guys. The rest of the roster will have to be interchangeable and they have the ammo to withstand that.

So Cason Wallace won't be their backup PG long term nor should he be. He's good enough to start. Shoot, I wish he was our starting PG.

Maybe Hartenstein can't stay, but he's only there 2 more years anyway.

It's about replenishing your talent.

I’m just saying those 3 guys alone will put them over the cap space and they will be around that first apron line. You also got to remember this owner traded Harden because he didn’t want to pay the Lux Tax.

Those 3 core guys might be enough but they can’t afford the Caruso, Dort, Hartinstien, Wallace, Joe, Wiggins caliber of players in 2 years. Yes they can add via the draft but their good vet role players will be no longer possible.

Jwill making all nba and SGA winning MVP/All NBA hurts them long term (what is dumb and who cares if they win the title). Ant making All NBA last year costs us Naw this offseason because he got more of a pay raise

[kekgeek]

I actually don’t think Ant played that bad tonight (too many turnovers in the second half). I think he is a main reason Donte and Naw popped off. Super interested to see how many secondary assists Ant had tonight.

They lost because OKC made a lot of tough shots and the wolves could not get a rebound and OKC punished them for it.

Randle was also terrible

[Wolvesfan21]

Just finished watching the recording. What a tough game to lose. Wasted amazing games from the bench. Donte and NAW are not repeating what they did tonight. Someone explain to me how Jaden only got 3 more minutes of playing time than Randle.

But in the end this is simple. Their big two had 74 points, and ours had a grand total of 21. 74 to 21 in a 2 point game. That’s where you lose this game.

13 shots for ANT? Nah man that can’t happen. I absolutely love the player despite all the flaws in his game. 13 shots? That can’t happen. I don’t care if they quadruple teaming you man. In a game this big that’s inexcusable. I’d rather he take 25 shots and make 5 of them. I can live with the shot just not falling, but this?. Obviously the Thunder came with a different mindset this game that they were going to be more physical, and ANT couldn’t match it the same energy. I totally reversal of game 3. So disappointing.

100% disagree, we lost because of 23 turnovers and giving up 19 offensive rebounds, some off ball defense should have been better too. Those offensive boards usually create wide open 3's or easy put backs also. It doesn't matter how good your defense is if you don't grab a damn rebound.

Jacking up shots 1 on 4 is simply idiotic. You know why those guys scored so well? Because Ant and Ju were doubled and tripled all night. Those guys were hitting wide fucking open shots, many created by Ant. He played fine. Not superb. I still would like to see his off ball defense improve along with his own rebounding. Same with Ju.

[Q-is-here]

I know the series isn't over yet and OKC would still have another series to play, but if the rest of the playoffs/Finals looks like what I saw tonight, they are indeed the best team in the NBA and no amount of roster or coaching tweaking on the Wolves' part will "fix" us to the degree that we get to that level. That might just be the reality.

It's tough to swallow since after all it's....OKC. Even as a humble Wolves fan in a market often overlooked, it's tough to admit that an NBA juggernaut could come out of Oklahoma, but here we are.

2nd apron could really change this. What is really dumb because OKC deserves all the credit in the world for building their roster. Will say though SGA, Jwill and Chet on pace to make 155 million a year for those 3 alone in 2 years, 165 million of Chet wins DPOY or all nba. For reference the wolves top 3 contracts are about 100 million on 2 years.

Now they have a ton of picks (they are projected not great picks anyone) but the apron system really could put OKC in a short run.

That's true Kek. The 2nd apron and some injury bad luck could shorten or disrupt their window, so I'm certainly not opposed to doing what we can to improve our team in the meantime, although in some cases it may involve taking a step sideways or slightly back in order to make a larger step forward eventually (e.g. do we really HAVE to bring Randle back????).

I just think it's almost too daunting to look at OKC as the benchmark that we have to match and attempt to list out all the things we need to fix based on this series considering the fact they are only the 3rd team in the last 50 years to win 68 games. And that's in a stacked Western Conference!

[Yosimar]

Just finished watching the recording. What a tough game to lose. Wasted amazing games from the bench. Donte and NAW are not repeating what they did tonight. Someone explain to me how Jaden only got 3 more minutes of playing time than Randle.

But in the end this is simple. Their big two had 74 points, and ours had a grand total of 21. 74 to 21 in a 2 point game. That’s where you lose this game.

13 shots for ANT? Nah man that can’t happen. I absolutely love the player despite all the flaws in his game. 13 shots? That can’t happen. I don’t care if they quadruple teaming you man. In a game this big that’s inexcusable. I’d rather he take 25 shots and make 5 of them. I can live with the shot just not falling, but this?. Obviously the Thunder came with a different mindset this game that they were going to be more physical, and ANT couldn’t match it the same energy. I totally reversal of game 3. So disappointing.

100% disagree, we lost because of 23 turnovers and giving up 19 offensive rebounds, some off ball defense should have been better too. Those offensive boards usually create wide open 3's or easy put backs also. It doesn't matter how good your defense is if you don't grab a damn rebound.

Jacking up shots 1 on 4 is simply idiotic. You know why those guys scored so well? Because Ant and Ju were doubled and tripled all night. Those guys were hitting wide fucking open shots, many created by Ant. He played fine. Not superb. I still would like to see his off ball defense improve along with his own rebounding. Same with Ju.

The offensive rebounds were 19 to 19. TO’s were a big reason for sure. I said it going into the game they needed to win that battle.

But this is simple. 13 shots in 41 minutes in what was essentially a must win game at home is unacceptable. Meanwhile your counterpart took 30 and scored 40. The whole he made the right play thing is nice and all but can you imagine a Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan taking 13 shots in a game of this magnitude?. Hell not even LeBron would be that passive. The fact is he wasn’t even doubled that much compared to other games. OKC just went out of their way to deny the ball as much as possible and meet him up high. He needed to do a better of job of fighting of those ball denials instead of just standing there and ball watching for way too much in this game. He was lucky the game was close, because if not he would rightfully be getting shredded for the disappearing act. Donte and NAW are not repeating those shooting numbers again.

In the end in these close games you need your best players to step up, OKC’s did and ours went out with a whimper.

[Coolbreeze44]

The question is how do we get Randle to opt in to his one-year or decide to test the market. If I'm the Wolves I am NOT entertaining an extension. Make him take the year if he wants to stay and then we can trade him any time or walk away the following year.

[kekgeek]

Just saying the wolves scored more points off turnovers and 2nd chance points tonight.

[kekgeek]

The question is how do we get Randle to opt in to his one-year or decide to test the market. If I'm the Wolves I am NOT entertaining an extension. Make him take the year if he wants to stay and then we can trade him any time or walk away the following year.

Agree. I want him to opt in, I do not want an extension (assuming it’s not a huge money downgrade that I’m not expecting)