Wolves VS Bullets - A Rose by any other name GDT

[Lipoli390]

Watching the replay. With 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter Wiggins goes to the line for the first time. I'm looking forward to what's been described as a great 4th quarter for Wiggins, but there is no excluse for someone with Andrew's talent going almost 3 full quarters without any trips to the line, 1 rebound and zero assists.

[Duke13]

Belly is so huge for this team. I was so frustrated when he'd play 10 minutesa game early in the year. I know he wasn't playing great but for me I thought it was clear he needed more minutes. He gives this team exactly what we need, shooting, spacing, and passing, just a smart player. He's the perfect player to play the 4 next to Kat. No reason Taj should of been playing 35-40 minutes a game when Belly plays 10-12. I thought the spacing was great in this game. Can we revisit the preseason thread of who should start at PF?!?

[Lipoli390]

Just finished watching the replay. I'll offer my thoughts. KAT was great all game and his clutch 3 down the stretch was huge. But a number of guys stepped up. Teague and Tyus were terrific all game. Belly was cold shooting until the 4th, but he did other things all 4 quarter to help us win. Taj was solid all game and Jamaal hit some big shots.

The big turning point in my view was the run we had early in the 4th when we came back from 10 down to take the lead. It was Tyus and Belly who led us in that stretch. They were both terrific on both ends and what can about Belly's three 3-pointers in a row during athat stretch.

I wasn't as impressed as some by Wiggins' play in the 4th. Don't get me wrong, he played some terrific defense in the final quarter. He was also more aggressive and efficient offensively than he had been earlier. But he almost cost us the game when he dribbled the ball into a trap and picked up his dribble rather than taking it to the center of the court. Thankfully, Thibs had the presence of mind to immediately call a time out. If not, I'm sure Wiggins would have turned the ball over. But he did come through for the most part in the 4th, although I wouldn't call him K. Leonard on steroids.

So I'll give my main game ball to KAT. But honorable mention game balls go to Teague, Tyus and Belly. Those three were great and keys to our win tonight. And credit Thibs for some excellent coaching, including that timeout he called before Wiggins turned it over. I also liked the way he used Tyus and Teague -- alternating them at the right times. A great win tonight.

[Lipoli390]

I should add that the most important thing the Wolves did tonight was score a lot of points on plus 50% shooting from the field. As I've said repeatedly, the Wolves need to score over 110 points to win. That's who we are. We're not going to win many games holding the other team under 110. But of course, today's NBA is all about scoring. 8 of tonight's 11 winning teams scored at least 110 points and one of the other three (Spurs) scored 108. I'll predict that we won't win any of our remaining games in which we score less than 110 points.

[Coolbreeze44]

Just finished watching the replay. I'll offer my thoughts. KAT was great all game and his clutch 3 down the stretch was huge. But a number of guys stepped up. Teague and Tyus were terrific all game. Belly was cold shooting until the 4th, but he did other things all 4 quarter to help us win. Taj was solid all game and Jamaal hit some big shots.

The big turning point in my view was the run we had early in the 4th when we came back from 10 down to take the lead. It was Tyus and Belly who led us in that stretch. They were both terrific on both ends and what can about Belly's three 3-pointers in a row during athat stretch.

I wasn't as impressed as some by Wiggins' play in the 4th. Don't get me wrong, he played some terrific defense in the final quarter. He was also more aggressive and efficient offensively than he had been earlier. But he almost cost us the game when he dribbled the ball into a trap and picked up his dribble rather than taking it to the center of the court. Thankfully, Thibs had the presence of mind to immediately call a time out. If not, I'm sure Wiggins would have turned the ball over. But he did come through for the most part in the 4th, although I wouldn't call him K. Leonard on steroids.

So I'll give my main game ball to KAT. But honorable mention game balls go to Teague, Tyus and Belly. Those three were great and keys to our win tonight. And credit Thibs for some excellent coaching, including that timeout he called before Wiggins turned it over. I also liked the way he used Tyus and Teague -- alternating them at the right times. A great win tonight.

Belly wasn't great, he finished well but he was brutal for most of the game. In fact he was the worst player on the floor in the first half. And you're overly dramatic about Wiggins dribbling into the double team. You make some good points too, but your agenda is showing.

[thedoper]

Wiggins was 5-6 in the 2nd half and switched seamlessly between Washington's two best wings in the 2nd half shutting down both on the same possession a couple of times. Beal was 3-9 in the 2nd half and Porter was 3-8. Wiggins was amazing that half, no other way to look at it. Huge part of us winning with that amazing effort on the defensive end.

[Lipoli390]

Just finished watching the replay. I'll offer my thoughts. KAT was great all game and his clutch 3 down the stretch was huge. But a number of guys stepped up. Teague and Tyus were terrific all game. Belly was cold shooting until the 4th, but he did other things all 4 quarter to help us win. Taj was solid all game and Jamaal hit some big shots.

The big turning point in my view was the run we had early in the 4th when we came back from 10 down to take the lead. It was Tyus and Belly who led us in that stretch. They were both terrific on both ends and what can about Belly's three 3-pointers in a row during athat stretch.

I wasn't as impressed as some by Wiggins' play in the 4th. Don't get me wrong, he played some terrific defense in the final quarter. He was also more aggressive and efficient offensively than he had been earlier. But he almost cost us the game when he dribbled the ball into a trap and picked up his dribble rather than taking it to the center of the court. Thankfully, Thibs had the presence of mind to immediately call a time out. If not, I'm sure Wiggins would have turned the ball over. But he did come through for the most part in the 4th, although I wouldn't call him K. Leonard on steroids.

So I'll give my main game ball to KAT. But honorable mention game balls go to Teague, Tyus and Belly. Those three were great and keys to our win tonight. And credit Thibs for some excellent coaching, including that timeout he called before Wiggins turned it over. I also liked the way he used Tyus and Teague -- alternating them at the right times. A great win tonight.

Belly wasn't great, he finished well but he was brutal for most of the game. In fact he was the worst player on the floor in the first half. And you're overly dramatic about Wiggins dribbling into the double team. You make some good points too, but your agenda is showing.

Oh Cool. I don't have an agenda. I think my observations on Wiggins are pretty objective. I think everyone on this Boards knows you have trouble being objective when it comes to Wiggins. I said i thought Andrew's defense in the 4th was terrific, but 1 rebound and 1 assist with 2 trips to the line and no three point makes in nearly 40 minutes is certainly worthy of some minor criticism.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about Belly. Jim Peterson and Thibs share my view of Belly's play.

[Coolbreeze44]

Just finished watching the replay. I'll offer my thoughts. KAT was great all game and his clutch 3 down the stretch was huge. But a number of guys stepped up. Teague and Tyus were terrific all game. Belly was cold shooting until the 4th, but he did other things all 4 quarter to help us win. Taj was solid all game and Jamaal hit some big shots.

The big turning point in my view was the run we had early in the 4th when we came back from 10 down to take the lead. It was Tyus and Belly who led us in that stretch. They were both terrific on both ends and what can about Belly's three 3-pointers in a row during athat stretch.

I wasn't as impressed as some by Wiggins' play in the 4th. Don't get me wrong, he played some terrific defense in the final quarter. He was also more aggressive and efficient offensively than he had been earlier. But he almost cost us the game when he dribbled the ball into a trap and picked up his dribble rather than taking it to the center of the court. Thankfully, Thibs had the presence of mind to immediately call a time out. If not, I'm sure Wiggins would have turned the ball over. But he did come through for the most part in the 4th, although I wouldn't call him K. Leonard on steroids.

So I'll give my main game ball to KAT. But honorable mention game balls go to Teague, Tyus and Belly. Those three were great and keys to our win tonight. And credit Thibs for some excellent coaching, including that timeout he called before Wiggins turned it over. I also liked the way he used Tyus and Teague -- alternating them at the right times. A great win tonight.

Belly wasn't great, he finished well but he was brutal for most of the game. In fact he was the worst player on the floor in the first half. And you're overly dramatic about Wiggins dribbling into the double team. You make some good points too, but your agenda is showing.

Oh Cool. I don't have an agenda. I think my observations on Wiggins are pretty objective. I think everyone on this Boards knows you have trouble being objective when it comes to Wiggins. I said i thought Andrew's defense in the 4th was terrific, but 1 rebound and 1 assist with 2 trips to the line and no three point makes in nearly 40 minutes is certainly worthy of some minor criticism.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about Belly. Jim Peterson and Thibs share my view of Belly's play.

Read the game thread you will see me being plenty objective about Wiggins tonight. That's a cheap shot on me that wasn't necessary. YOU are not objective about Wiggins.

I didn't get the Jim Pete broadcast tonight, i had to watch the Bullets feed. So i couldn't have been influenced by anything the Wolves team said. So in essence I was completely objective on Belly tonight. He couldn't box out, couldn't defend anybody, and consistently left his teammates out to dry on defense. You know defense is pretty important, you spend half the game playing it.

[Shumway]

I can objectively say that no one on this board is really objective. No one thinks entirely mechanically. We're all emotionally invested in the team and in particular players and staff and we have our opinions on things and have our various confirmation biases.

But gee, that was a great win tonight. We're are starting to see a lot of the things we'd hoped to see from Wiggins. Lip, you've talked for some time that our future is dependant upon the development of Wiggins and KAT. True to form as Wolves fan, I'm prepared to grab onto any little ray of hope for the future.

[thedoper]

I can objectively say that no one on this board is really objective. No one thinks entirely mechanically. We're all emotionally invested in the team and in particular players and staff and we have our opinions on things and have our various confirmation biases.

But gee, that was a great win tonight. We're are starting to see a lot of the things we'd hoped to see from Wiggins. Lip, you've talked for some time that our future is dependant upon the development of Wiggins and KAT. True to form as Wolves fan, I'm prepared to grab onto any little ray of hope for the future.

Totally agree. It was learning the team concepts that was getting Wiggins on D. Nice to see him grasping some of it. We all hope it's a trend for the future because as we saw tonight it produces wins.

This Butler injury has been an opportunity for growth and it's nice to see them respond in the positive too. Next game will be super tough. San Antonio will be ready at home. If they can pull that one off I'd be really impressed.