Minnesota Sports Forum

Whew! Held onto that one, hopefully it doesn't cost us too many lotto balls! Just kidding.

Here's my takeaways from this game:

1. Rubio...no way can he keep this pace up, but if he did, he'd be in MVP conversation. 29 points, 13 rebounds, 1 turnover or something like that? Sick.

2. KG... Solid minutes, glad we have him back

3. KAT.. Likely ROY candidate. I think he needs to refine that post game a bit more though and add a drop step (or show it if he has it) and/or an up and under move. Seemed he went to his hook shot a bit too quickly/obviously, taking a tougher shot than he probably had to. That said, the kid got a double double in his first game and played pretty well, no big mental mistakes.

4. Glad to see Payne played limited minutes. That's something I look forward to this year!

5. Dieng was outright payneful (pun intended). Hopefully if/when Pek gets back they cut Diengs minutes in half.

6. Wiggins... Liked his defense for the most part, specifically on Kobe, but the kid needs to take things over on offense more than he does. This is how he was playing last year until Martin went down for a while, after which we relied on Wiggins for scoring so he stepped up. Kid needs to step up and command and demand the ball and attack the rim.

7. Lavine... He's not a PG. I'm HOPING that Mitchell is playing him there just to get him experience with the ball in his hand. He IS a SG, but has a lot to learn.

8. Bjelica... Got into foul trouble early, but it's apparent that he belongs and knows what he's doing out there. Very excited about him. It's also nice to have a big who can handle the ball so well to take pressure off the guards.

9. Martin... Glad Mitchell left him in the game when we were down. He's the one guy on this team with the offensive skill and confidence to catch us up in a hurry (Ricky contributed to this tonight, but Martin can score in bunches)

Now for overall thoughts...

-This team needs to learn what the term 'box out' means. This is one thing that KAT needs to get better at as well. The Lakers got way too many offensive boards due to lack of boxing out.
-Martin is not a closer, please stop giving him the ball in the end-game situations. He's probably 0 for 10 in his past 10 end game key shots.

Good win! On pace for 82-0!

khans2k5 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Mitchell's vision seems to have played out pretty well. The young guys got plenty of experience winning this game down the stretch.

Yeah when it was all said and done he gave the kids a chance to win. Eventually Martin will become Bazz or Lavine in those situations. Great job so far.

Considering the lineups that got us back in the game and eventually won it versus his rotations in the first half, I'm not giving him that much credit. Who knows how the game plays out if he sticks with his 4th quarter rotation more in the first half and that was the rotation everyone on this board wanted to see for the most part (Bazz didn't play much would be the main critique).

All a coach can do is adjust. He brought the starters back in at the right time too. He's not perfect by any means (he might not even be good) but he certainly had a feel for the momentum of the game tonight.

khans2k5 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Mitchell's vision seems to have played out pretty well. The young guys got plenty of experience winning this game down the stretch.

Yeah when it was all said and done he gave the kids a chance to win. Eventually Martin will become Bazz or Lavine in those situations. Great job so far.

Considering the lineups that got us back in the game and eventually won it versus his rotations in the first half, I'm not giving him that much credit. Who knows how the game plays out if he sticks with his 4th quarter rotation more in the first half and that was the rotation everyone on this board wanted to see for the most part (Bazz didn't play much would be the main critique).

One thing that should be added is that Bjelica being on the bench in the first half with foul trouble was likely a pretty big deal.

oh...and how could I forget to add...Glad they got this one for Flip

I thought Dieng looked better when he came in for KG and played next to KAT. I've always thought he needed to be paired with a stronger type whether he's playing C or PF.

Q12543 wrote:Yeah, this is brutal for us East Coasters. 10:30 (actually more like 10:39) tip off!

Cry me a river. :) 3:30 am start time here in Europe. But it was WORTH IT! Nice to see a win!!!

thedoper wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Mitchell's vision seems to have played out pretty well. The young guys got plenty of experience winning this game down the stretch.

Yeah when it was all said and done he gave the kids a chance to win. Eventually Martin will become Bazz or Lavine in those situations. Great job so far.

Considering the lineups that got us back in the game and eventually won it versus his rotations in the first half, I'm not giving him that much credit. Who knows how the game plays out if he sticks with his 4th quarter rotation more in the first half and that was the rotation everyone on this board wanted to see for the most part (Bazz didn't play much would be the main critique).

All a coach can do is adjust. He brought the starters back in at the right time too. He's not perfect by any means (he might not even be good) but he certainly had a feel for the momentum of the game tonight.

Having to adjust your own shitty rotations for good ones that everyone thought would be better before the season (which was realized in this game) means I give him the minimum amount of credit for making the change. That's like giving someone credit for solving a problem they created.

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I just look at Payne as a wasted roster spot more then cost of his contract. We will have another lottery pick next year and Payne will be taking up space where we could have had a productive player.

(Jeff Adrien is available)

I love Jeff Adrien! Watching Randle against us inside tonight really made me miss him again.

Real Super Dave @SuperStatsDave
Bjelica (aka...Professor Big Shots) was a -10 in the 1st half but is +22 in the 2nd half and +12 overall

+22 lol damn

I love this win.

Rubio was amazing. He did what we all hope he could do. Hit his jumpers, make 3's, finish in the paint, run the team and was a wizard at the pick and roll game. I hope this could be his breakout game as far as taking his game to the next level. Of course his defense and leadership were stellar as usual.

Towns is the real deal. Going to be the best player of his draft class. We got a franchise player with him.

Wiggins. I'm one of his biggest fan and still am. But I was disappointed in his game offensively tonight. Expected more of an impact. His defense was outstanding though especially vs Kobe at the end. You can't defend Kobe any better than he didbin that stretch.

Overall a very satisfying win tonight.