Minnesota Sports Forum

I would. This team hadn't won since October. They are awful.

Phenom wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 9:29 pm Damn I thought that was going in

Yeah, NAW had a really great look. And it did look like it was going in. NAW is pretty streaking. Not a great shoot game for him.

Credit to Kuzma and JoVal. Those two guys cooked us in the final minutes with three big buckets against our two best defenders in Jaden and Rudy.

Well all that injury luck caught up to us. I guess without Ant we are the Wizards

thedoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:47 pm Well all that injury luck caught up to us. I guess without Ant we are the Wizards

And Randle, and DDV, and Naz in the second half. That is your top 4 scorers at 70 ppg. Tough to overcome.

Bad loss regardless of who wasn’t playing. Would have liked to see Dillingham get more minutes.

Wizards were playing to not have a franchise record losing streak.

I didn’t watch the game but I have the following take-always from the box score and reading through this thread:

1. This was a terrible and unacceptable loss in spite of the fact that Ant, Randle and DDV weren’t playing. We were playing at home as a team competing for playoff position against the worst team in the League with as much motivation to lose as to win.

2. This team depends on Ant more than any of us would like to admit and more than many have acknowledged. It seems we depend on him too much. Tonight’s game strikes me as a reminder that Ant isn’t the reason this team has fallen back so profoundly from last season. I’ve been concerned about this team’s MIX of talent. Maybe I should be concerned more than I have been about the overall LEVEL of talent on this team.

3. Jaden continues to be impressive and appears to have come up big in Ant’s absence both offensively and on the boards.

4. Naz and NAW really failed the team tonight. I’ve been one of the most vocal among many wanting the Wolves to re-sign Naz and possibly NAW, counting on those two (at least Naz) to be cornerstones of the next iteration of this team with Ant and Jaden. To be fair, this is just one game and I don’t want to get too carried away with conclusions about Naz or NAW based on this one episode. But they clearly failed the team tonight and their terrible offensive production was the reason this team lost.

5. Finch is starting to push me out of his corner. There’s no excuse for not giving Dilly significantly more minutes tonight. We needed offense and Dilly is a guy who can provide it. When you hold a team to 105 points in the NBA, especially a bad team, you should win. You’re not going to win many NBA games scoring 103 points. Again, Naz and NAW were the main culprits in the lack of offensive production tonight. But Finch has to be held accountable for his decision to give NAW, who was 4 for 14 from the floor, 41 minutes, and Mike Conley 34 minutes while playing Dilly only 18 when this team clearly needed more offensive firepower. I know Dilly had 4 fouls. So be it. Play him until he fouls out!

DNatagal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:55 pm

thedoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:47 pm Well all that injury luck caught up to us. I guess without Ant we are the Wizards

And Randle, and DDV, and Naz in the second half. That is your top 4 scorers at 70 ppg. Tough to overcome.

I watched this game, DN, and while I was counting this as an easy win yesterday afternoon, I'm where you are this morning. Did we really expect to replace the 70 points sitting on the bench with Ingles, Luka, Clark and Rob? Almost a mathematical impossibility. I'm going to chalk this one up to bad injury/illness luck, and hope all 4 are back soon.

FNG wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2025 9:21 am

DNatagal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:55 pm

thedoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:47 pm Well all that injury luck caught up to us. I guess without Ant we are the Wizards

And Randle, and DDV, and Naz in the second half. That is your top 4 scorers at 70 ppg. Tough to overcome.

I watched this game, DN, and while I was counting this as an easy win yesterday afternoon, I'm where you are this morning. Did we really expect to replace the 70 points sitting on the bench with Ingles, Luka, Clark and Rob? Almost a mathematical impossibility. I'm going to chalk this one up to bad injury/illness luck, and hope all 4 are back soon.

This game really showed that Finch is part of the problem. He needed to give the kids more run. If you are going to lose, use it to help the kids get time. Trotting out the old heads last night was the wrong answer.

Tough loss against a bad team but the Wolves were missing half of their usual rotation it's not like they lost against a bad team with their full squad or something.

Dillingham did some good things but he was not looking good that 2nd half. Garza did soke good things including taking 2 charges but he wasnt getting buckets.

Ingles ended up with 4 TOs but he was clearly a positive and that's why he was in there.

Clark was more of a mixed bag but still looks like a guy that can earn minutes.

Biggest loser in this game? Josh Minott. He had 2 guys play like they deserved minutes over him this season.

Also while I don't know who like 2 of the Wizards starters even are they have some NBA players that can play so in some ways I'm a little surprised just how bad they are. Same with the Jazz or maybe even more so. Not sure if the Wizards coaching staff is good at their jobs.