Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:

Camden0916 wrote:Yeah, baby. You can put it on the boooaaard... YES! That's two wins in a row, three of our last four, and the one loss easily could have been a win. I'd say we're turning the corner.

Its quite obvious we have turned a corner. These wolves finally seemed to settle down in the fourth and focus on making the correct pass, shot, defensive rotation etc. Far less hero ball the last two games in the fourth and it has proven itself to work with two straight wins! Again, LaVine continues to further impress. Team leader by next year??

Was it LaVine that made that nice extra pass to Dieng for the dagger mid-range jumper? That was very nice ball movement.

There was another play where Towns finally made a nice interior feed to Dieng for a little floater instead of trying to force his way to the cup. He also forced a pass to Wiggins that ended in a turnover, but at least he's trying to make the extra pass.

By the way, Dieng made some huge plays tonight on both ends.

Yes that was LaVine. Rubio touch pass to LaVine and Lavine took 2-3 dribbles to the paint to force Gorguis man to help, then made the correct pass to Gorgui for the wide open two.

LaVine seems to be taking notes on how to be a good NBA player!

That pass by Towns was excellent. Passed up a contested 12,footer to let gorgui hit the 4 footer. Chemistry seems to be coming for these guys. By the way, towns finished with 5 assists!!

17pts 18rbs 5 ast 1 blk for towns. He is really settling down and finding the path from last year.

Q12543 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:Giving wiggins credit also he got us/extended the lead

He made a couple of huge shots midway through the 4th, but Point Wiggins later in the game didn't have a good look in my opinion. I get it....Thibs wants Zach spacing the floor and KAT and Dieng crashing as the defense collapses on Wiggins. But he's just not a natural ball handler/passer. Hopefully it will pay off in the long run....

I think you better get used to it. He had his moments, but it was generally effective like it has been for most of the year.

Wolves gave up 0 fast break points I would say that is some progress.

Minnesota is now 6-2 when holding its opponent under 100 points and 7-2 when limiting them to a shooting percentage 45% or less

kekgeek1 wrote:Wolves gave up 0 fast break points I would say that is some progress.

Absolutely. Transition defense has been a big problem this year.

We only played 8 guys tonight and of course our starters played big minutes. I get that we need the wins, but you have to wonder what effect this has toward the end of the season.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:We only played 8 guys tonight and of course our starters played big minutes. I get that we need the wins, but you have to wonder what effect this has toward the end of the season.

I think this is far point, it is so hard because I think we lose if they don't play big minutes we will see

CoolBreeze44 wrote:We only played 8 guys tonight and of course our starters played big minutes. I get that we need the wins, but you have to wonder what effect this has toward the end of the season.

At least we have youth on our side. It's really killing us to not have a good wing coming off the bench. Bazz is too inconsistent to rely on night in and night out. It also hurts that you can't put Dunn and Ricky on the court at the same time. We really need a Jamaal Crawford/Lou Williams type who can come off the bench and score some points with the ball in his hands. Dunn doesn't score much yet, Bazz scores in less than ideal ways to put it nicely, Belly is a within the flow of the offense scorer and Aldrich is a janitor.

khans2k5 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:We only played 8 guys tonight and of course our starters played big minutes. I get that we need the wins, but you have to wonder what effect this has toward the end of the season.

At least we have youth on our side. It's really killing us to not have a good wing coming off the bench. Bazz is too inconsistent to rely on night in and night out. It also hurts that you can't put Dunn and Ricky on the court at the same time. We really need a Jamaal Crawford/Lou Williams type who can come off the bench and score some points with the ball in his hands. Dunn doesn't score much yet, Bazz scores in less than ideal ways to put it nicely, Belly is a within the flow of the offense scorer and Aldrich is a janitor.

You are spot on, Kahns. That's why Rush is such a big disappointment. He should be that reliable 3-point shooting wing off the bench, but so far he's been a total flop.

I watched Thibs interview after the game. As I've mentioned before, one thing I've liked about him all season is his smart, measured, no defensive responses to post-games press conference questions. It's a pleasant contrast to the highly defensive, often incomprehensible Sam Mitchell. But tonigh'ts post-game with Thibs was particiularly enjoyable. He had a huge grin and was joking about KAT and Gorgui giving each other a hard time in the locker room over the Kentucky Louisville game. He praised his players for the way they played tonight. He's still yelling on the sideline, but as I mentioned in a recent game report, he seems to have softened a little and you see him having more quite conversations with players on the sideline. Then of course I saw those pats on the back after the Phoenix game. :).

I see two things happening. First, I see the players improving as they start to adjust to their new head coach and internalize what he's been preaching/teaching. Second, I see the head coach lightening up just a bit as he makes what I believe to be a conscious effort to connect better with his players. I know I'm just speculating, but that's my sense. Bottom line is that we're finally starting to win some games.