Utah@Wolves GDT

[Duke13]

What was the rotation like when the rested starters we getting killed out of halftime and throughout the 3rd?

[Duke13]

I just finished watching the game, if anyone wonders why Tibs takes the ball out of Rubio's hands in the 4th need not wonder anymore after watching this!! Unreal, has no ability to beat anyone off the dribble.

Wig frustrates me to all end but I can't fault Tibs one bit for not giving it to Ricky. He couldn't get by Ingles off the dribble a number of times.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I will put some blame on Thibs for the inbounds play near the end there where we needed another timeout because he ran action for only Ricky who proceeded to not get open and nobody else was moving and we could have used that timeout at the end of the game. Who the hell designs an inbound play around 1 motion? Otherwise I think Towns deserve a lot of criticism for this loss. He was lost defensively allowing Favors to hit some buckets off basic PnR action to get the game within reach and then he is caught ball watching giving up inside position to Gobert for the game winning putback. There's not a winning bone in anyone's body on this team. Ricky has a horrible turnover instead of taking an easy runner. Then he commits the boneheaded foul on Hill to put him at the line to tie the game. G and Wiggins both missed wide open 15 footers. Zach has a mental lapse and has to chuck up a bad shot from 30ft and then he only gets a contested long two as the last shot of the game with Ingles guarding him while we are down 2. It's frankly unbelievable how hard this team folds when the game is on the line. Can't even trust them to run a play right because they'll make a stupid play. How do all 5 guys fuck up with the game on the line? Unbelievable.

In bold... yes and no. While I understand what you're saying... that play started with nobody guarding Dieng. Gobert was 10 or 15 feet away. The play wasn't to get a hoop, just to get the ball in bounds. Granted, setting it up the way they did for Rubio might have been dumb, but savvy smart players would know the purpose of it all and simply throw it to the wide open Dieng and go from there.

But Dieng didn't seem to realize this either. He took off to set picks immediately.

Then... at the very end... LaVine bringing the clock down all the way down even though they were down 2 only to shoot a contested 21 footer. Ugh. Woe. I can't even...

THAT is the dumb stuff that's killing me watching this team.

[Lipoli390]

It should also be noted since it doesn't show up in the box score that Wiggins drew fouls 4 and 5 on Gobert putting him on the bench for chunks of the second half. 4 assists, 5 boards and putting their best player on the bench with foul trouble. It wasn't a good game, but blaming him for the loss is overdoing it in my opinion. He contributed.

We just disagree on this. I don't put the blame solely on Wiggins because there is definitely blame to go around. But the numbers tell the tale. We can point to individual mistakes by every single player last night. And we can point to individual positive contributions from every player, including Wiggins drawing two fouls on Gobert. But that's no different from any other game or team - win or lose. We can always identify good plays and bad plays, mistakes and contributions by every player in every game. Yet pinning downs the primary reason for a 2-point loss shouldn't be mysterious when a particular player, especially one of your top three, finishes the game 6-19 from the field and 3-7 from the line with 5 turnovers and 4 fouls. Honestly, 5 rebounds from your starting 6'8 uber-athletic SF isn't anything to write about other than the fact that it was better than his average and better than his 1 rebound the night before.

What seems crazy to me is referencing individual mistakes by players whose overall numbers were substantially better than Wiggins as reason not to put the lion's share of the loss on Wiggins. In the previous game, Wiggins scored 41 points. And even though he had only 1 rebound and 2 assists and even though Thibs called him out for his poor defense, I mentioned that Wiggins was last on my list among players responsible for the loss. So I'm not looking to blame Wiggins, I'm just following the numbers because when the numbers are that stark they really do tell most of the story. Evaluating a player's overall impact on a game based on a couple individual anecdotes doesn't seem to make much sense to me when compared to a player's overall stats overly 48 minutes.

Importantly, I liked Wiggins' effort last night. He wasn't jogging back on defense and he worked hard consistently on both ends of the floor. So that was nice to see. But he missed a lot of shots and failed to protect the ball. If he hits 6 of his 7 free throws we win in spite of his 32% FG percentage and 5 turnovers. He simply had a very bad night overall and it was the main reason we lost in my view.

[Lipoli390]

As hard as it is to believe, there is still a thin line between winning and losing these games. The lapse doesn't always come in the 4th quarter, but it always comes. And that is the difference.

A skeptic would say Thibs isn't as good as we thought he was, and our best players aren't as good as we hoped they would be. But I can't go there yet. They just need to play 48. I wish I knew how to turn the corner. It's almost fascinating to watch.

I agree, Cool. The Wolves were the better team last night, but then they looked like they became a different team for that relatively brief stretch in the 4th quarter -- a small portion of the game but enough to lose by 2 points. That's why, as Q has pointed out, our point differential is better than the other bottom 7 teams in the West. We're losing close games and are (I think) a much better team than our fellow lottery dwellers.

It's strange, incredibly frustrating and I suppose fascinating as you suggested. I don't have an answer, but it's up to Thibs and the players to figure it out.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Jesus, so many fingers to point in this game. Missed FTs, strange play calls, weak picks, bad D generally, bad decisions with the ball and lack of heads up plays, too much whining about calls, and (once again) just fading as a team when it counts down the stretch.

It's just like perpetual punishment watching this team but I can't stop. You have to be some kind of sadist to stick with this team year after year. I know because I have and of course I will continue to do so. I just hope they start winning more game soon!

[Duke13]

Hopefully sooner rather than later this team will have an NBA caliber PG that can have the ball in his hands and take some of the pressure off these guys. That would be wonderful. I heard Souhan wrote an article shredding Rubio, haven't read it, usually not a big Souhan fan but I agree. He's holding us back.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Jesus, so many fingers to point in this game. Missed FTs, strange play calls, weak picks, bad D generally, bad decisions with the ball and lack of heads up plays, too much whining about calls, and (once again) just fading as a team when it counts down the stretch.

It's just like perpetual punishment watching this team but I can't stop. You have to be some kind of sadist to stick with this team year after year. I know because I have and of course I will continue to do so. I just hope they start winning more game soon!

Every opposing huddle, every game...

"Just keep doing what you're doing. They'll fold. They always fold. Always. Trust me (and the other 29 coaches)."

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Same tired arguments from the same posters all season long. This team is a joke. See you on draft night!

Jerry..out

[Coolbreeze44]

It should also be noted since it doesn't show up in the box score that Wiggins drew fouls 4 and 5 on Gobert putting him on the bench for chunks of the second half. 4 assists, 5 boards and putting their best player on the bench with foul trouble. It wasn't a good game, but blaming him for the loss is overdoing it in my opinion. He contributed.

There is a common theme on this board to always find a scapegoat after a loss. Whether it's Wig, Thibs, Ricky or someone else, we over simplify things by pinning our failures on one or two entities. It's not that simple. These are collective failures we are seeing. We don't have only 11 wins because of Wiggins or Thibs. The entire cast of characters is coming up short. It may make you feel better to bang away at your scapegoat, but it's a bunch of noise.