Minnesota Sports Forum

Grady and Pete are good ppl took a pic with my sister and I after the game

Very winnable game tonight. Missing layups and an inability to connect from three-point range -- as a team -- cost them heavily tonight.

I also thought the officiating could have been much better. Dallas shot 17 (!) more free throws than Minnesota tonight and I didn't think they were any more aggressive going to the rim than the home team was. Not sure how that happens.

On the road again... The Timberwolves next four are at Boston, at Miami, at New Orleans, and at Milwaukee. Ruh-roh.

D-Lo stayed after the game and got some more shots up after his poor shooting performance. His shot looked a little flat to me throughout the game, front-rimming several of his attempts. Hope to see him hitting on Friday.

Chris Finch is also noticeably frustrated with the officiating tonight. Said he was pleased with the Wolves overall effort and aggressiveness. He notes that Minnesota had 40 shot attempts in the paint compared to Dallas' 23. Somehow the Mavs were awarded 17 more free throws. Finch was hinting that the whistle was... unbalanced. Completely agree.

Jester1534 wrote:Grady and Pete are good ppl took a pic with my sister and I after the game

Love to hear that. Stick around and see if you can steal D-Lo's shoes from whichever kid he inevitably gave them to tonight. Ah, I joke, I joke...

Also, I've really enjoyed Michael Grady and Jim Petersen together as a broadcast duo. They have a natural chemistry that I don't think was present with Dave Benz around. Grady especially seems more involved in the game and he's able to trickle in his thoughts without overdoing it. He grew on me quickly this season.

I missed tonight's game - thankfully. Looking at the box score indicates the team lost because of terrible shooting by DLO and Nowell. If either one had merely shot poorly rather that terribly, the Wolves would have won. Looks like another good game from Rivers. Ant hit 50% of his FG attempts. Or maybe the problem was Gobert. The Wolves won three in a row when he was out. He returned tonight and the Wolves lost. Must be Gobert. :)

lipoli390 wrote:I missed tonight's game - thankfully. Looking at the box score indicates the team lost because of terrible shooting by DLO and Nowell. If either one had merely shot poorly rather that terribly, the Wolves would have won. Looks like another good game from Rivers. Ant hit 50% of his FG attempts. Or maybe the problem was Gobert. The Wolves won three in a row when he was out. He returned tonight and the Wolves lost. Must be Gobert. :)

Ha, yep...it's gotta be Rudy! I don't know that you should be happy about missing this one though, Lip. I actually listened to the entire game on the radio as I was driving in that blizzard, and the crowd sounded really loud!. Our announcers mentioned it, and so did Finchie after the game. Jester was there, and maybe he can weigh in.

Yep, we needed one of DLo/Nowell to shoot well, but we got neither. Monday everyone played well to cover for Russell's poor night, but last night our 3 most prolific 3-point shooters went 0-16! It's actually kind of surprising that we made this game so close. Alan Horton said we looked really good on defense most of the game, so maybe that's how we kept it close.

Fun to see this version of Austin Rivers. He said his hot streak is due to a change in his mechanics. I hope he's right and this is sustainable to some degree.

FNG wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I missed tonight's game - thankfully. Looking at the box score indicates the team lost because of terrible shooting by DLO and Nowell. If either one had merely shot poorly rather that terribly, the Wolves would have won. Looks like another good game from Rivers. Ant hit 50% of his FG attempts. Or maybe the problem was Gobert. The Wolves won three in a row when he was out. He returned tonight and the Wolves lost. Must be Gobert. :)

Ha, yep...it's gotta be Rudy! I don't know that you should be happy about missing this one though, Lip. I actually listened to the entire game on the radio as I was driving in that blizzard, and the crowd sounded really loud!. Our announcers mentioned it, and so did Finchie after the game. Jester was there, and maybe he can weigh in.

Yep, we needed one of DLo/Nowell to shoot well, but we got neither. Monday everyone played well to cover for Russell's poor night, but last night our 3 most prolific 3-point shooters went 0-16! It's actually kind of surprising that we made this game so close. Alan Horton said we looked really good on defense most of the game, so maybe that's how we kept it close.

Fun to see this version of Austin Rivers. He said his hot streak is due to a change in his mechanics. I hope he's right and this is sustainable to some degree.

Interestingly, we didn't need the usual three-point shooting from any of those three guys to win last night. Edwards missed his 4 attempts from behind the arc, but he hit 52% of his FG attempts. If DLO and Nowell had combined for just three more 2-point buckets the Wolves would have won. Two more 2-point buckets by DLO would have put his FG percentage at 46%. That's not too much to ask. Nowell was worse than DLO an didn't contribute the assists and rebounds the team got from DLO. Again, I haven't watched the game yet so I can't comment on the nuances. The box score points squarely at two players as responsible for the loss.

lipoli390 wrote:

FNG wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I missed tonight's game - thankfully. Looking at the box score indicates the team lost because of terrible shooting by DLO and Nowell. If either one had merely shot poorly rather that terribly, the Wolves would have won. Looks like another good game from Rivers. Ant hit 50% of his FG attempts. Or maybe the problem was Gobert. The Wolves won three in a row when he was out. He returned tonight and the Wolves lost. Must be Gobert. :)

Ha, yep...it's gotta be Rudy! I don't know that you should be happy about missing this one though, Lip. I actually listened to the entire game on the radio as I was driving in that blizzard, and the crowd sounded really loud!. Our announcers mentioned it, and so did Finchie after the game. Jester was there, and maybe he can weigh in.

Yep, we needed one of DLo/Nowell to shoot well, but we got neither. Monday everyone played well to cover for Russell's poor night, but last night our 3 most prolific 3-point shooters went 0-16! It's actually kind of surprising that we made this game so close. Alan Horton said we looked really good on defense most of the game, so maybe that's how we kept it close.

Fun to see this version of Austin Rivers. He said his hot streak is due to a change in his mechanics. I hope he's right and this is sustainable to some degree.

Interestingly, we didn't need the usual three-point shooting from any of those three guys to win last night. Edwards missed his 4 attempts from behind the arc, but he hit 52% of his FG attempts. If DLO and Nowell had combined for just three more 2-point buckets the Wolves would have won. Two more 2-point buckets by DLO would have put his FG percentage at 46%. That's not too much to ask. Nowell was worse than DLO an didn't contribute the assists and rebounds the team got from DLO. Again, I haven't watched the game yet so I can't comment on the nuances. The box score points squarely at two players as responsible for the loss.

Lip, I haven't watched the replay either and probably won't...too much holiday stuff going on! I did listen to the radio though, and was somewhat heartened by Alan Horton praising the Wolves overall defensive effort. And it did sound like (on the radio) that we weren't allowing as many wide open threes as we generally do. That gave me some hope that perhaps DLo put in a little more effort on the defensive end...the fact that he was only a -5 for the game (actually comparatively good for him) despite a second consecutive 4-13 shooting night makes me think he may have been a little better on defense. I hope so, because we need him to lock in more while JMac is out.

Went to my first game in 3 years! What a night to do it. First we fly in from the east coast into a winter wonderland and then we braved the drive on roads that would shut everything down in most other big cities.

- The crowd was indeed pretty big considering the circumstances. It was a very convivial, celebratory vibe, probably because like us, they were there with family and friends that perhaps came in from out of town or home from college for the holidays, etc. Saw lots of folks hugging each other as they were meeting in the lobby outside of the entrance gate. Good times.

- Ant's block on Doncic was absolutely electric. The Wolves needed a big play there and he delivered. Everyone got on their feet on that play and it was indeed LOUD.

- As Kek's frustration in the game thread indicated, we just couldn't make shots. It reminded me of our problems earlier in the season when guys just could not hit their 3s. And some of these were good looks for Nowell and DLO. They just can't miss this many damn shots between them. And yes, Ant is guilty too, but he did enough other good shit out there to somewhat offset his poor 3-point shooting.

- Speaking of Ant, some of his drives to the hoop....to witness in person is a sight to behold. He might be one of the 10 or 20 greatest pure athletes in the world if your criteria is power, speed, and agility. The fact he doesn't get more whistles is absolutely criminal.

- Believe it or not, this game could have been won despite the poor shooting. There was a stretch in the second half where Luka essentially solved our high wall coverage and absolutely picked it apart with a series of buckets/free throws either at the rim (mostly Powell) or via corner 3s. It was maddening to watch because it made us look downright silly, the shots were THAT open. WTF happened? I'd need to watch the replay to see how much of it was Luka's genius versus bad defensive rotations.

- Back to the high wall coverage scheme....It was very interesting to see them deploy Rudy that way to start the game....and it seemed to work. That being said, you can only throw something at Doncic for so long before he and the coaching staff are going to figure it out. OK, so we stopped him from getting in the lane and got the ball out of his hands which is what the high wall is meant to do, but then things broke down during that crucial run they made.

It was going to be tough to beat Dallas twice in a row with an MVP-caliber player on the other side. As good as Ant has been lately, Doncic was clearly the best player on the floor last night. His floor vision and strategic understanding of how to break down a halfcourt defense is on a completely different plane from most other NBA players, including most other stars.