Minnesota Sports Forum

Honestly we did nothing to try to actually generate an easy look near the bucket for most of the 4th. Every time Towns touched the ball it was 24ft from the basket. When they can get away with mugging you 24ft from the basket you have to get the ball inside to the bigs because you just won't get there trying to drive the lane.

4 of 19 shooting in fourth with 2 of 9 from 3, including that last second one by butler. Ugly finish. Even more telling, 3 shots within 10 feet. Looked tired and just settled for jumpers. Not a good finish.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:One vs five isn't going to work every night

Absolutely right, Cool. Tonight Jimmy and Crawford didn't play super iso basketball like they did last night, although Butler still played well. The result is that we couldn't stave off the Buck's closing surge.

Even the overtime win last night was instructive. It was a great win in the face of adversity. But we won primarily because of Butler's amazing individual talent and will. In contrast, Denver showed great ball movement and passing during the overtime, creating easy buckets for different players that nearly got them the win. Denver lost because Butler is a great player who had an unbelievably tremendous game. But it's not enough over the long haul.

We will make the playoffs this season on talent alone unless Butler goes down. But we need better ball movement and pace to get the most out of the talent we have. We've actually been moving the ball better lately, but not well enough and not in crunch time. In fairness, we might have run out of steam tonight on a back-to-back with Teague down. Yet, with Crawford jacking the ball up repeatedly tonight and missing, this would have been a good night to get Bazz in the game.

leado01 wrote:This team will not develop running 6 or 7 players and refusing to close games with the movement that gets you leads. I would have rather lost and spread the minutes out.

I'm not expecting to win all of our games, but I do expect some sense of decency and logic regarding playing time.

I wonder why Milwaukee blew right by us in the 4th?

Because the bench gave up the huge lead to begin with. Did you watch this game because this is example A of why it's so hard for Thibs to play his bench more. They were God awful tonight. It's just straight insane to criticize Thibs for minutes tonight given the huge negatives that came off the bench.

leado01 wrote:This team will not develop running 6 or 7 players and refusing to close games with the movement that gets you leads. I would have rather lost and spread the minutes out.

I'm not expecting to win all of our games, but I do expect some sense of decency and logic regarding playing time.

I wonder why Milwaukee blew right by us in the 4th?

3 starters played under there season averages (replacing Teague avg for Tyus). Hard to argue that point tonight. We looked like a team on the second night on a back to back. We shouldn't have blown the lead but we did, lets move on to the next one.

And I thought all the second half woes were all Zach's fault

I'm not sure everyone was tired. I think Butler was tired. This was the first game I'd say he really was more of a negative factor on many facets of the game. Overall we fought well and could have won. I can't ask for much more on the second half of a back to back. We'll get the next one.

khans2k5 wrote:

leado01 wrote:This team will not develop running 6 or 7 players and refusing to close games with the movement that gets you leads. I would have rather lost and spread the minutes out.

I'm not expecting to win all of our games, but I do expect some sense of decency and logic regarding playing time.

I wonder why Milwaukee blew right by us in the 4th?

Because the bench gave up the huge lead to begin with. Did you watch this game because this is example A of why it's so hard for Thibs to play his bench more. They were God awful tonight. It's just straight insane to criticize Thibs for minutes tonight given the huge negatives that came off the bench.

I agree, but he has to let them play thru it and try and develop some continuity. It's just not sustainable, fools gold.

Duke13 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

leado01 wrote:This team will not develop running 6 or 7 players and refusing to close games with the movement that gets you leads. I would have rather lost and spread the minutes out.

I'm not expecting to win all of our games, but I do expect some sense of decency and logic regarding playing time.

I wonder why Milwaukee blew right by us in the 4th?

Because the bench gave up the huge lead to begin with. Did you watch this game because this is example A of why it's so hard for Thibs to play his bench more. They were God awful tonight. It's just straight insane to criticize Thibs for minutes tonight given the huge negatives that came off the bench.

I agree, but he has to let them play thru it and try and develop some continuity. It's just not sustainable, fools gold.

In a normal game sure. Play the bench more. On a night like tonight with what they were giving you, you are literally throwing the game away if you play them more. Legit almost -1 per minute for all of them except Belly who's still not back yet. Tonight's just not the night to argue the bench needed to play more.

lipoli390 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:One vs five isn't going to work every night

Absolutely right, Cool. Tonight Jimmy and Crawford didn't play super iso basketball like they did last night, although Butler still played well. The result is that we couldn't stave off the Buck's closing surge.

Even the overtime win last night was instructive. It was a great win in the face of adversity. But we won primarily because of Butler's amazing individual talent and will. In contrast, Denver showed great ball movement and passing during the overtime, creating easy buckets for different players that nearly got them the win. Denver lost because Butler is a great player who had an unbelievably tremendous game. But it's not enough over the long haul.

We will make the playoffs this season on talent alone unless Butler goes down. But we need better ball movement and pace to get the most out of the talent we have. We've actually been moving the ball better lately, but not well enough and not in crunch time. In fairness, we might have run out of steam tonight on a back-to-back with Teague down. Yet, with Crawford jacking the ball up repeatedly tonight and missing, this would have been a good night to get Bazz in the game.

To be fair the Bucks were running similar sets with Bledsoe and Giannias but they just beat us off the dribble consistently. It was a game they should have won after building the huge lead. They ran out of gas and you are right they need better ball movement down the stretch. The thing I do like it small things they have to fix. It is not like we have a massive weakness.