Leado01 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 12:23 am
That was a statement game.
They played like a team on both sides of the ball and made the #1 power ranked team look awfully beatable
The Wolves really flexed in this one. Such an impressive win.
Yet I go onto ESPN this morning and there isn't a fucking peep about this game. Instead, the featured headline is on how the 11-43 Spurs beat the 19-35 Raptors. Here are the other "Top Headlines" from ESPN's NBA homepage:
- Draymond says suspension sparked red-hot Dubs
- Wemby logs triple-double with blocks in Spurs win
- Bucks' steady progress shines in rout of Nuggets
- Dinwiddie on picking L.A. "They know how to win".
You better believe that if the Clippers won instead of the Wolves, it would have absolutely been front page news for ESPN.
- Damn. 21-point win on the road vs. a healthy Clippers team playing well. Are we all back in? (The first few pages of any GDT is sort of amusing when you take it out of context and know the team ended up winning by 21.)
- The Timberwolves look like a bad matchup for the Clippers. The Clippers rely on A LOT of iso ball. But, the Timberwolves have some long defenders who can defend in space... backed by even longer guys at the rim.
- That being said... you always have to fear a team with 3 or 4 "superstars" in the big games. We saw a couple of interesting fouls called on the Timberwolves. Yes. The Clippers push off without calls. And yes. The Clippers seemed to be rewarded a couple of times for shooting over defenders with their arms straight up. I don't like trend in big games in the playoffs. Officiating getting into the heads of the Timberwolves seems like a recurring problem that pops up...
- We rip Anthony Edwards for his careless TOs (and dumb iso ball). But kudos to him over the last two games. He has 17 assists... and 0 TOs. ZERO! (Now, about those 5 assists he left on the court because he missed a wide open Towns above the break while being doubled... ahem, ahem... ) But seriously, that's a pretty damn good ratio that would make Conley and Morris proud.
- As a bonus, Towns has only 2 TOs combined in the past two games.
- Team: 67 assists... only 19 TOs over the past two games. Two blowouts vs. good teams. (You seeing a trend in my DVR review?)
- I wouldn't go so far to say I enjoy watching Gobert play. I'm not crazy. But damn... he does what he does exceedingly well.
- Dug the composed game from Towns. Just wondering, however, if it would have been the same if a couple of non-calls went against him instead?
Leado01 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 12:23 am
That was a statement game.
They played like a team on both sides of the ball and made the #1 power ranked team look awfully beatable
The Wolves really flexed in this one. Such an impressive win.
Yet I go onto ESPN this morning and there isn't a fucking peep about this game. Instead, the featured headline is on how the 11-43 Spurs beat the 19-35 Raptors. Here are the other "Top Headlines" from ESPN's NBA homepage:
- Draymond says suspension sparked red-hot Dubs
- Wemby logs triple-double with blocks in Spurs win
- Bucks' steady progress shines in rout of Nuggets
- Dinwiddie on picking L.A. "They know how to win".
You better believe that if the Clippers won instead of the Wolves, it would have absolutely been front page news for ESPN.
Don't forget about multiple stories about a bad call in the Knicks game.
Or, a clip of wifebeater Miles Bridges dunking over a guy.
Meanwhile... nothing of the Timberwolvs vs. Clippers... or even Bucks beating the Nuggets. Both were marquee games.
But yeah... basketball coverage is NOT about who wins and loses. We all know this at this point. It's about creating narratives and getting clicks. And the result of a Timberwolves game doesn't do either.
Drama wins.
Player adulation wins.
More drama... and more speculation!!!
It's a money-driven business decision... for the league, for ESPN, for any entity related to the NBA.
Leado01 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 12:23 am
That was a statement game.
They played like a team on both sides of the ball and made the #1 power ranked team look awfully beatable
The Wolves really flexed in this one. Such an impressive win.
Yet I go onto ESPN this morning and there isn't a fucking peep about this game. Instead, the featured headline is on how the 11-43 Spurs beat the 19-35 Raptors. Here are the other "Top Headlines" from ESPN's NBA homepage:
- Draymond says suspension sparked red-hot Dubs
- Wemby logs triple-double with blocks in Spurs win
- Bucks' steady progress shines in rout of Nuggets
- Dinwiddie on picking L.A. "They know how to win".
You better believe that if the Clippers won instead of the Wolves, it would have absolutely been front page news for ESPN.
Don't forget about multiple stories about a bad call in the Knicks game.
Or, a clip of wifebeater Miles Bridges dunking over a guy.
Meanwhile... nothing of the Timberwolvs vs. Clippers... or even Bucks beating the Nuggets. Both were marquee games.
But yeah... basketball coverage is NOT about who wins and loses. We all know this at this point. It's about creating narratives and getting clicks. And the result of a Timberwolves game doesn't do either.
Drama wins.
Player adulation wins.
More drama... and more speculation!!!
It's a money-driven business decision... for the league, for ESPN, for any entity related to the NBA.
I get that, but don't they have a shred of journalistic integrity left in terms of reporting real sports news? I mean, it's not that hard to feature stupid Wemby highlights for clicks AND at least elevate the already-written AP game recap to their "top headlines section". But because it was the Wolves that won...absolutely nothing. ESPN is practically in denial that the Wolves could beat one of their precious L.A. teams. They can't possibly cover such terrible news!
AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:53 am
Abe's next day DVR Review:
- Damn. 21-point win on the road vs. a healthy Clippers team playing well. Are we all back in? (The first few pages of any GDT is sort of amusing when you take it out of context and know the team ended up winning by 21.)
- The Timberwolves look like a bad matchup for the Clippers. The Clippers rely on A LOT of iso ball. But, the Timberwolves have some long defenders who can defend in space... backed by even longer guys at the rim.
- That being said... you always have to fear a team with 3 or 4 "superstars" in the big games. We saw a couple of interesting fouls called on the Timberwolves. Yes. The Clippers push off without calls. And yes. The Clippers seemed to be rewarded a couple of times for shooting over defenders with their arms straight up. I don't like trend in big games in the playoffs. Officiating getting into the heads of the Timberwolves seems like a recurring problem that pops up...
- We rip Anthony Edwards for his careless TOs (and dumb iso ball). But kudos to him over the last two games. He has 17 assists... and 0 TOs. ZERO! (Now, about those 5 assists he left on the court because he missed a wide open Towns above the break while being doubled... ahem, ahem... ) But seriously, that's a pretty damn good ratio that would make Conley and Morris proud.
- As a bonus, Towns has only 2 TOs combined in the past two games.
- Team: 67 assists... only 19 TOs over the past two games. Two blowouts vs. good teams. (You seeing a trend in my DVR review?)
- I wouldn't go so far to say I enjoy watching Gobert play. I'm not crazy. But damn... he does what he does exceedingly well.
- Dug the composed game from Towns. Just wondering, however, if it would have been the same if a couple of non-calls went against him instead?
Actually one TO for Ant last night (although I don't recall it), but still a point well taken. KAT (and DLo) used to be my most maddening T-wolves, but Russell is gone and Towns has taken huge maturity strides, so now it's Ant. Your post summarizes well the Dichotomy of Ant. He has become a more willing and quite talented facilitator, but I'm sure we all noticed times last night when he ignored a wide-open KAT. I find that a reason for optimism though, because I've seen Ant improve in his facilitating this year, and I expect that he is going to become a double digit assist guy as he learns to see the open man more frequently when he is doubled or tripled. He is already much better at passing than I would have imagined watching video of him in college (when he was always doubled or tripled and seldom made the right pass).
The biggest improvement recently though is he is protecting the ball better on his drives to the basket. So many times this season we've seen defenders poke the ball away from him before he got to the basket, but not last night. And this was against two guys with some of the best defensive hands in the game (Leonard and George). Is he learning to protect better, or were the last two games aberrations? I suspect mostly the latter, but there's still room for hope here.
Let's remember that every bone in Ant's body wants to isolate and score, so for him to make the quick pass is completely against his nature. I'm OK with him looking off guys when he either has an obvious mis-match or is on one of those white-hot scoring and shooting rhythms he gets into at times. But yeah...hopefully he keeps improving in this area and it becomes less and less of a "burden" to him. I always wince when he makes the right pass and his teammate either bobbles it (Rudy mostly) or clanks the wide open 3.
- He was 9th man in the rotation based on minutes played, although only 2 less than SloMo (although he did get a few extra minutes in garbage time).
- But he played more minutes this game than Jmac has played in any game this season.
- He enter the game in the 2nd half before SloMo.
It seems like Finch is trusting Monte right from the get-go more than he did any of those other guys -- JMac, Shake and TBJ. And Monte did not disappoint. Nothing spectacular, but solid, and deserving of further trust.
60WinTim wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:00 pm
A few more observations on Monte's minutes:
- He was 9th man in the rotation based on minutes played, although only 2 less than SloMo (although he did get a few extra minutes in garbage time).
- But he played more minutes this game than Jmac has played in any game this season.
- He enter the game in the 2nd half before SloMo.
It seems like Finch is trusting Monte right from the get-go more than he did any of those other guys -- JMac, Shake and TBJ. And Monte did not disappoint. Nothing spectacular, but solid, and deserving of further trust.
It's awesome that we can now have a seasoned, low-mistake PG on the floor 100% of the time between Conley and Morris. It's really an antidote to the volatility and (sometimes) poor decision making of Ant and KAT.
kekgeek wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 2:12 pm
Ant said postgame that Rudy cussed the team out at halftime and they responded to it.
Love that this team cares
I like Rudy's competitive fire, but I wonder who he directed his cussing at, because overall I thought we played pretty well in the first half. I'm guessing he might have been as frustrated with Ant taking contested threes as I was, and that he was the target. Well, it worked...because Ant did nothing but drive to the basket (successfully) the first half of the third quarter. Way to go, Rudy...leadership.
