Minnesota Sports Forum

Longest five seconds on the inbounds pass ever. Goddamn.

Oof

We did not deserve that game. You cant fuck around with effort.

I thought the Wolves were pretty good defensively - perhaps a little undisciplined a few times when guys left their feet on pump fakes (ahem, KAT), but not bad. New Orleans was just flat-out making shots. Ingram's last second 3 was kind of emblematic of the whole night. Heroic shot making by Ant, Beasley, and DLO in that 4th quarter (mostly Ant), but they one-upped us.

Can someone tell me what the fuck Josh Okogie is doing on the final play?

If Ant keeps hitting 3's like this he is going to be absolutely impossible to guard. Next frontier for him is to figure out ways to draw the type of contact that officials will call. It's harder this year with the new rules, but plenty of other high-usage scorers are figuring out ways to get to the line with regularity (Fox, Tatum, DeRozan, Harden).

I still feel like he holds the ball too much at times, but you've got to give him some rope on this as a tradeoff for his ability to take over games. That's just part of the package. When he's feeling it, he likes to size guys up.

The Pelicans made their last 9 3 pt attempts. Sometimes you just need to tip your cap.

I feel like they'll definitely beat Memphis now. I'd imagine their energy will be through the roof -- Game 7, if you will.

Camden wrote:

crazysauce wrote:Yeah I disagree. I don't think defense and effort should ever be optional.

I agree that it shouldn't be optional, especially for guys getting paid millions, but it's not realistic to expect great effort/energy every night for most. And good energy isn't enough at the pro level.

My best comparison is this. Have you ever gone to the gym and felt sluggish? Like you end up getting through the workout, but you know it wasn't a great workout? Either your body wasn't feeling right or you were mentally off? It happens to the best of us. That's what happens sometimes in the NBA. Minnesota came out flat tonight and New Orleans has been the hungrier team so far.

That is only an acceptable excuse for a winning franchise.

TheFuture wrote:

Camden wrote:

crazysauce wrote:Yeah I disagree. I don't think defense and effort should ever be optional.

I agree that it shouldn't be optional, especially for guys getting paid millions, but it's not realistic to expect great effort/energy every night for most. And good energy isn't enough at the pro level.

My best comparison is this. Have you ever gone to the gym and felt sluggish? Like you end up getting through the workout, but you know it wasn't a great workout? Either your body wasn't feeling right or you were mentally off? It happens to the best of us. That's what happens sometimes in the NBA. Minnesota came out flat tonight and New Orleans has been the hungrier team so far.

That is only an acceptable excuse for a winning franchise.

I only watched the final 6 minutes... so I can't speak to "effort" earlier in the game.

But there have been many discussions about recent versions of Wolves teams taking off games after even the slightest moments of success. Time and time again.

Heck, you could take Towns' quote after last night's game and Mad Lib it into other games from earlier this season or last season or the previous season or... you get the point. It's always the same thing.

This is not a normal organization. This is the worst franchise in NBA history with a checkered past of inexplicable half-ass efforts. If that's what happened yet again yesterday... shame on the Wolves (not that they care).

But it's just another indicator that the team has to prove it's going to be different THIS time. Eventually.