Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:It's amazing how different players can look from one game to the next. Remember how Whiteside removed KAT from a game about a week ago? His "effort" seemed to wane just a bit yesterday when guarding Kevin Love. Good gawd. That looked embarrassing.

Sorry, looks like we can't embed Tweets here...

https://twitter.com/_CSNation_/status/935674689715933185

Wow, horrible close outs. Whiteside is a bit of an enigma, no?

FWIW from listening to a few podcasts this offseason it sounds like it's widely known he basically has no interest in guarding anything out on the perimeter whether it's his own man or another player.

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:It's amazing how different players can look from one game to the next. Remember how Whiteside removed KAT from a game about a week ago? His "effort" seemed to wane just a bit yesterday when guarding Kevin Love. Good gawd. That looked embarrassing.

Sorry, looks like we can't embed Tweets here...

https://twitter.com/_CSNation_/status/935674689715933185

Wow, horrible close outs. Whiteside is a bit of an enigma, no?

FWIW from listening to a few podcasts this offseason it sounds like it's widely known he basically has no interest in guarding anything out on the perimeter whether it's his own man or another player.

Miami let Winslow guard Kat for much of that game and just let Whiteside stay inside on Taj. It worked well for them that game. I guess since Cleveland only played the one big it forced their hand to put Winslow on Lebron and Whiteside on Love.

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:It's amazing how different players can look from one game to the next. Remember how Whiteside removed KAT from a game about a week ago? His "effort" seemed to wane just a bit yesterday when guarding Kevin Love. Good gawd. That looked embarrassing.

Sorry, looks like we can't embed Tweets here...

https://twitter.com/_CSNation_/status/935674689715933185

Wow, horrible close outs. Whiteside is a bit of an enigma, no?

FWIW from listening to a few podcasts this offseason it sounds like it's widely known he basically has no interest in guarding anything out on the perimeter whether it's his own man or another player.

Miami let Winslow guard Kat for much of that game and just let Whiteside stay inside on Taj. It worked well for them that game. I guess since Cleveland only played the one big it forced their hand to put Winslow on Lebron and Whiteside on Love.

Ok. Whew.

I feel much better now knowing that KAT was taken completely out of the game by a 6'7" fringe NBA starter...



[Note: I didn't remember much specifics about that game, so I assumed it was Whiteside who guarded KAT that game. And I turned it off before KAT got a bunch of garbage-time stats late. You made me feel worse.]

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:It's amazing how different players can look from one game to the next. Remember how Whiteside removed KAT from a game about a week ago? His "effort" seemed to wane just a bit yesterday when guarding Kevin Love. Good gawd. That looked embarrassing.

Sorry, looks like we can't embed Tweets here...

https://twitter.com/_CSNation_/status/935674689715933185

Wow, horrible close outs. Whiteside is a bit of an enigma, no?

FWIW from listening to a few podcasts this offseason it sounds like it's widely known he basically has no interest in guarding anything out on the perimeter whether it's his own man or another player.

Miami let Winslow guard Kat for much of that game and just let Whiteside stay inside on Taj. It worked well for them that game. I guess since Cleveland only played the one big it forced their hand to put Winslow on Lebron and Whiteside on Love.

Ok. Whew.

I feel much better now knowing that KAT was taken completely out of the game by a 6'7" fringe NBA starter...



[Note: I didn't remember much specifics about that game, so I assumed it was Whiteside who guarded KAT that game. And I turned it off before KAT got a bunch of garbage-time stats late. You made me feel worse.]

It was a huge disappointment to me actually. But I thought it was a really interesting strategy by Spoelstra to give KAT that look. It was one of the reasons I thought we really missed Teague that game, was that although Tyus is a capable distributor, he still doesn't know how and when to attack the specific weaknesses a D is showing.

Thought I should mention again.... could be worse, we could be OKC right now. They're going to be pissed as hell after losing to Orlando. I'd be extremely impressed if we can get out of there with another win Friday and clinch our games with them this year.

Sixers beat the Wizards and the Knicks crushed the Heat last night. No excluse for the Wolves losing to those two teams on our homes floor. Those are the types of losses that will make the difference between a top 5 seek versus a bottom 3 seed position in the West at the end of the season.

Ben Simmons had 31 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks against the Wizards last night. This guy isn't Greek, but he's definitely a freak. He had an amazing 29 trips to the line. But he only made 15 of those foul shots. That's horrible. But that's also fixable. Joel Embiid played second fiddle to Simmons last night with only 25 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.

The Lakers almost took down the mighty Warriors, losing by only 4 points 127-123. The Lakers have a really good young nucleus. I wouldn't count them out as a possible 8th seed this season, although I'm still projecting a lottery finish for them. But next season they'll be a factor - with or without LeBron, but obviously much more so with him.

lipoli390 wrote:Sixers beat the Wizards and the Knicks crushed the Heat last night. No excluse for the Wolves losing to those two teams on our homes floor. Those are the types of losses that will make the difference between a top 5 seek versus a bottom 3 seed position in the West at the end of the season.

Ben Simmons had 31 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks against the Wizards last night. This guy isn't Greek, but he's definitely a freak. He had an amazing 29 trips to the line. But he only made 15 of those foul shots. That's horrible. But that's also fixable. Joel Embiid played second fiddle to Simmons last night with only 25 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.

The Lakers almost took down the mighty Warriors, losing by only 4 points 127-123. The Lakers have a really good young nucleus. I wouldn't count them out as a possible 8th seed this season, although I'm still projecting a lottery finish for them. But next season they'll be a factor - with or without LeBron, but obviously much more so with him.

The Wizards did hack a simmons in the 4th. 24 FT attempts in the 4th.

With the Lakers you have to remember they were 10-10 last year through 20 games. Think they will hit a wall. But I like how they are doing there rebuild.

It is kind of amazing wolves are 10-3 against the west. Best in the NBA but are 3-6 against the east. We have a lot of talent and if we don't get a top 5 seed we will look back at some of these games and see why.

thedoper wrote:Thought I should mention again.... could be worse, we could be OKC right now. They're going to be pissed as hell after losing to Orlando. I'd be extremely impressed if we can get out of there with another win Friday and clinch our games with them this year.

Classic saying of a long-time Minnesota sports fan...."at least we aren't X!".

But yes, I think most folks are pretty surprised at OKC's struggles.

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Sixers beat the Wizards and the Knicks crushed the Heat last night. No excluse for the Wolves losing to those two teams on our homes floor. Those are the types of losses that will make the difference between a top 5 seek versus a bottom 3 seed position in the West at the end of the season.

Ben Simmons had 31 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks against the Wizards last night. This guy isn't Greek, but he's definitely a freak. He had an amazing 29 trips to the line. But he only made 15 of those foul shots. That's horrible. But that's also fixable. Joel Embiid played second fiddle to Simmons last night with only 25 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.

The Lakers almost took down the mighty Warriors, losing by only 4 points 127-123. The Lakers have a really good young nucleus. I wouldn't count them out as a possible 8th seed this season, although I'm still projecting a lottery finish for them. But next season they'll be a factor - with or without LeBron, but obviously much more so with him.

The Wizards did hack a simmons in the 4th. 24 FT attempts in the 4th.

With the Lakers you have to remember they were 10-10 last year through 20 games. Think they will hit a wall. But I like how they are doing there rebuild.

It is kind of amazing wolves are 10-3 against the west. Best in the NBA but are 3-6 against the east. We have a lot of talent and if we don't get a top 5 seed we will look back at some of these games and see why.

We have yet to play Portland and Denver. I think those are going to be really important series.

Q12543 wrote:

thedoper wrote:Thought I should mention again.... could be worse, we could be OKC right now. They're going to be pissed as hell after losing to Orlando. I'd be extremely impressed if we can get out of there with another win Friday and clinch our games with them this year.

Classic saying of a long-time Minnesota sports fan...."at least we aren't X!".

But yes, I think most folks are pretty surprised at OKC's struggles.

I keep waiting for things to turn around for them. And waiting...

Westbrook is getting the lion's share of blame for it. And I can see why he's culpable. Definitely. But he's always been everybody's scapegoat. It says something about him that he takes it as well as he does after all these years. Even after Paul George shot 1 - 12 fg in a recent loss... Westbrook was blamed.

Keep an eye on that situation. Three stars (one on an expiring with a clear desire to play in LA) playing below .500 basketball is not sustainable. I'd be interested to hear any anecdotes about on-court interactions with that team. LIP... get to OKC for an up-close update now!