Minnesota Sports Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCy7lLQwToI

This 2nd unit looks 10 times better with Shved taking over the ball handling duties and playing Barea off the ball.

Good game, hats off to the bench tonight.

Rubio only played 27 minutes. Didn't play the entire 4th I believe. Almost came away with a trip-dub. 11, 9, 8, 3 steals. Just what we needed to see.

Barea was fantastic. 19 minutes, 17 points (8-10 FG), 4 assists. Controlled the second unit pretty well tonight.

Shved had 13 points and 5 assists. Got to handle the ball more tonight too. Also needs to be talked about is his defense. That aspect of his game is underrated. Very active.

Love and Pek continued their dominance. 32 and 34 minutes respectively. Should be good to go tomorrow night against the Bucks and get that B2B win.

Gotta like what you saw tonight from our guys. Game in hand for 3 quarters without much threat.

Classic Wolves win right there. We absolutely dominated the possession and free throw battle by turning it over only four times (!) and more than doubling them up on free throw attempts. By being simply adequate from the field on both offense and defense, we blew them out because of all the extra possessions.

Everyone driving to the rim instead of settling is exactly what they need to do moving forward. Good things happen when we drive to the hoop. Especially with Shved tonight. That was 1st half last year Shved we saw.

Definitely the most team drivin win Ive seen this year. Alot of contributions. Good game for the Wolves.

2 games behind Dallas for the 8th seed. 3 1/2 games behind Phoenix for the 6th seed, 5 games behind the Clippers for the 4th seed.

As long as we take care of business in January, I still don't see any real reason to pull back on expectations.

Expecting us to win these next two (@ MIL, vs DAL) and finish December 16-15.

Then, looking at the schedule, there's a five game stretch that looks favorable, in my opinion.

vs NO
vs OKC (without Westbrook)
@ PHI
vs PHO
vs CHA

New Orleans looks like the toughest game over those five games. We've played OKC without Westbrook before, and we spanked their ass. It's also in Target Center. That's where my confidence comes from for that game.

Even if we dropped one to the Thunder or Pelicans, we'd be looking at 20-16 before entering another favorable five game lineup:

@ SA
vs SAC
@ TOR
vs UTA
@ UTA

Another 4-1 (loss to Spurs) through that stretch and we're sitting pretty at 24-17 (.585 win%) and in the hunt for a mid-seed. .585 win% right now would be good enough for 7th place and 1 1/2 games behind the 4, 5 and 6 place teams.

Getcha popcorn ready. We've got 12 games that could spring us into a very nice position in the West.

Camden wrote:2 games behind Dallas for the 8th seed. 3 1/2 games behind Phoenix for the 6th seed, 5 games behind the Clippers for the 4th seed.

As long as we take care of business in January, I still don't see any real reason to pull back on expectations.

Expecting us to win these next two (@ MIL, vs DAL) and finish December 16-15.

Then, looking at the schedule, there's a five game stretch that looks favorable, in my opinion.

vs NO
vs OKC (without Westbrook)
@ PHI
vs PHO
vs CHA

New Orleans looks like the toughest game over those five games. We've played OKC without Westbrook before, and we spanked their ass. It's also in Target Center. That's where my confidence comes from for that game.

Even if we dropped one to the Thunder or Pelicans, we'd be looking at 20-16 before entering another favorable five game lineup:

@ SA
vs SAC
@ TOR
vs UTA
@ UTA

Another 4-1 (loss to Spurs) through that stretch and we're sitting pretty at 24-17 (.585 win%) and in the hunt for a mid-seed. .585 win% right now would be good enough for 7th place and 1 1/2 games behind the 4, 5 and 6 place teams.

Getcha popcorn ready. We've got 12 games that could spring us into a very nice position in the West.

However the Wolves will find ways to lose games and wind up going 7-5 during those 12 games. Let's hope not, but I'm not quite as sold as you that they go 10-2 over the next 12.

Loose Goose wrote:

Camden wrote:2 games behind Dallas for the 8th seed. 3 1/2 games behind Phoenix for the 6th seed, 5 games behind the Clippers for the 4th seed.

As long as we take care of business in January, I still don't see any real reason to pull back on expectations.

Expecting us to win these next two (@ MIL, vs DAL) and finish December 16-15.

Then, looking at the schedule, there's a five game stretch that looks favorable, in my opinion.

vs NO
vs OKC (without Westbrook)
@ PHI
vs PHO
vs CHA

New Orleans looks like the toughest game over those five games. We've played OKC without Westbrook before, and we spanked their ass. It's also in Target Center. That's where my confidence comes from for that game.

Even if we dropped one to the Thunder or Pelicans, we'd be looking at 20-16 before entering another favorable five game lineup:

@ SA
vs SAC
@ TOR
vs UTA
@ UTA

Another 4-1 (loss to Spurs) through that stretch and we're sitting pretty at 24-17 (.585 win%) and in the hunt for a mid-seed. .585 win% right now would be good enough for 7th place and 1 1/2 games behind the 4, 5 and 6 place teams.

Getcha popcorn ready. We've got 12 games that could spring us into a very nice position in the West.

However the Wolves will find ways to lose games and wind up going 7-5 during those 12 games. Let's hope not, but I'm not quite as sold as you that they go 10-2 over the next 12.

Too negative my fellow Wolves fan.

The "easy" games we should have won this year are: @ CLE (2nd game of B2B), @ WAS, @ BOS (2nd game of B2B), @ LAL.

The other games we let slip away were: @ LAC (2nd game of B2B), vs LAC (2nd game of B2B), @ SA, @ LAC (Game was won, K-Mart fumbled it away).

That's 8 games that were losses and they were either on the road or the second game of a B2B. Over the next 12, we have one B2B and that's tomorrow night against the Bucks. Road games are @ MIL, @ PHI, @ SA, @ TOR and @ UTA. Only road loss I see there is against the Spurs.

The thinking that we'll drop some easy games during the next 12 doesn't make sense to me. We play bad basketball on the second half of a B2B (tired legs) or against a decent opponent on the road, though we're getting better.