They're more banged up than we are! Celtics GDT

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

Classy move by KG.

[Phenom]

Celts are just coached better.

[worldK]

Some of us here just expect us to beat teams that are less talented than us talent wise. We beat some good teams and we hang in there with some of the better teams. But we always play worse vs the lesser teams. That is not a sign that we are about to turn the corner soon. That is what disappoint me and others here.

Yes, the playoffs is a long shot but the effort and coaching is just hard to stomach at times. To think we have played one of the fewest games to date and had an easy schedule is frustrating.

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

It's easy to be disappointed after a loss but it is hard not to be excited when you look at the box score tonight for Wiggins, Towns, Dieng, and LaVine. The future is so bright!

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

I don't consider the Celtics one of the "lesser teams." I think the Celtics are a very good team, very fundamental and well coached. I think they arguably have the best bench in the NBA. Crowder is developing into a Demarre Carroll type stud. Thomas is talented. Bradley is underrated. Olynyk, Zeller and Jerebko are very good backups who can shine when they get minutes.

[Lipoli390]

What happened to the great defense that Prince brings to the starting lineup? :). At least Prince fills the stat sheet. Whoops, strike that. Well, the good news is that Prince will be with this team for the long haul. Whoops again.

Prince played 22 minutes tonight. Not optimal in my view, but it's ok, especially without KG's veteran presence on the floor. But Martin had 18 minutes and that's not ok. He was 1-6 from the field with free throw attempts, no rebounds and no assists. Meanwhile Bazz was 3-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line in 16 minutes. Martin's 32 years old while Bazz could be part of the future. A good lawyer can make an argument to justify almost anything, but nothing can persuade me that Martin should have been on the floor 18 minutes while Bazz had 16 and Belly 4.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

What happened to the great defense that Prince brings to the starting lineup? :). At least Prince fills the stat sheet. Whoops, strike that. Well, the good news is that Prince will be with this team for the long haul. Whoops again.

Prince played 22 minutes tonight. Not optimal in my view, but it's ok, especially without KG's veteran presence on the floor. But Martin had 18 minutes and that's not ok. He was 1-6 from the field with free throw attempts, no rebounds and no assists. Meanwhile Bazz was 3-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line in 16 minutes. Martin's 32 years old while Bazz could be part of the future. A good lawyer can make an argument to justify almost anything, but nothing can persuade me that Martin should have been on the floor 18 minutes while Bazz had 16 and Belly 4.

i mean, Sam is completely crazy if he thinks Tay can race with Bradley or Crowder on B2B away game, no point playing Tay vs lineup this small. Still Bazz stops ball movement too much to ever play in starting lineup of a good team (also is undersized as hell). I would go with Rubio-Lavine-Wig as starting 1-3 in this one.

[bleedspeed]

I am with Lipoli that we should be getting Shabazz more minutes. The young guys on this team are producing. Let them learn to play by letting them play.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

What happened to the great defense that Prince brings to the starting lineup? :). At least Prince fills the stat sheet. Whoops, strike that. Well, the good news is that Prince will be with this team for the long haul. Whoops again.

Prince played 22 minutes tonight. Not optimal in my view, but it's ok, especially without KG's veteran presence on the floor. But Martin had 18 minutes and that's not ok. He was 1-6 from the field with free throw attempts, no rebounds and no assists. Meanwhile Bazz was 3-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line in 16 minutes. Martin's 32 years old while Bazz could be part of the future. A good lawyer can make an argument to justify almost anything, but nothing can persuade me that Martin should have been on the floor 18 minutes while Bazz had 16 and Belly 4.

i mean, Sam is completely crazy if he thinks Tay can race with Bradley or Crowder on B2B away game, no point playing Tay vs lineup this small. Still Bazz stops ball movement too much to ever play in starting lineup of a good team (also is undersized as hell). I would go with Rubio-Lavine-Wig as starting 1-3 in this one.

Very good point about matchups, m4gor. Sam usually excels in finding the correct matchups, but he blew it last night. Crowder is a short but very athletic SF, and Tay coming off 35 minutes the previous night was not the right call...I would have gone with Bazz as our starting SF matched up with Crowder and used Tay in spot minutes off the bench. I don't fault Sam...Tay has anchored our defense all year and we have looked much tighter with him on the floor. But you could tell in the first 5 minutes that it wasn't working last night (note: I only watched the first 5 minutes last night, but the box score tells me thngs didn't change. I suggested in the prelude to the GDT that Tay might be the one affected most by the BTB, and it looks like that's what cost us this game.This will be the only time all year you will hear me advocate for Bazz in the starting lineup over Prince and I'm doing it with hindsight, but Tay just didn't look like himself from what I saw. Sam generally reacts to players having off nights faster than he did with Tay last night, and it cost us.

On the positive side, we knew that the defensively-challenged Olynyk and midget Bradley couldn't slow down KAT and Wig, and the boxscore tells me that Sam was able to run his offense through them for 31 shots. But you're just not going to win when you go 2-13 from 3-point range and let your opponent go 12-25...that's a 30 point defecit we had to make up! You guys will have to tell me what happened, but when I see Olynlk and Jerebko going 6-6 beyond the arc, I'm guessing Gorgui and KAT didn't chase either of them offf the line...maybe tired legs again.

With Utah winning last night, the Wolves are back to an almost insurmountable 2 games out of the playoffs with three tough games coming up. Wedensday is a home game against the Spurs. Doesn't sound promising on first blush. But it's a road game two days before Christmas when the Spurs play Houston, and it sounds to me like a classic Popovich "rest game". I wouldn't be at all surprised to see dnp-cd next to Parker, Duncan and Manu as Pop lets them skip this road trip to enjoy an early Christmas at home. Sounds like Pop, doesn't it?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Young inexperienced teams are inconsistent.

The Wolves will waver back and forth all season.