Minnesota Sports Forum

The Nuggets are currently leading the Kings 87-85 with 1:40 left in the third quarter if any of you are looking for a game to watch. A Nuggets loss would bring the Wolves to just 1.0 game behind them for the sixth seed.

Update: Sacramento sucks. They're down 13 with 6:00 left to play. Minnesota will remain 2.0 games back of Denver.

Sorry if some of this has already been posted, but I haven't had time to read the thread. But I have a few points to make after this one. First, Jaron Jackson is exactly the type of big we need to solidify our roster. He would be perfect. Big, physical, competitive and only going to get better. At the beginning of the year we were talking about who might be the most improved player this year. I had two names I wanted to go with. I ended up going with Donovan Mitchell, but Jackson was the other guy I was thinking about. I would have been smarter to go with JJ. We have to come up with a guy like that, or try to trade for him.

The next point is in regard to DLO Russell. I know he had a great game tonight, but I would have said this even if he didn't. He is about as smart as you can get on a basketball court. He has some physical limitations but makes up for it with smarts, savvy, and guile. He's a little bit like Chris Paul in that his instincts are next level. How many times did he get the rip through move tonight? And then he's so patient and his timing on plays and passes is outstanding. I was really impressed tonight.

Really big win for the Wolves tonight. Ant didn't have it, Karl, Vando, and Jaden were in foul trouble, we couldn't grab a rebound to save our asses, but at the end of the night the scoreboard said we won. I'm really not sure how, but it shows we are getting better, especially against a team like Memphis.

Finally, I wish the league would do something about the constant complaining. Both teams tonight on the officials from opening tap to final whistle. It just made the game less enjoyable for me. Some calls are going to get missed, but do the players have to complain all game long? It's a turnoff for the fan who respects the game.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/_S2MMVgP6WU[/youtube]


D'Angelo Russell: 37 points* (13-21, 3-9 3P, 8-9 FT), nine assists (four turnovers)

* Nine (!) of D-Lo's 13 field goals made came in the painted area. He was carving Memphis up all game, but especially in the fourth quarter. He's outplayed Ja Morant in all four games this year. As a fan, how could you not want to see these two teams play a seven-game playoff series?

D'Angelo Russell accounted for 60 of the Wolves 119 points tonight vs. Grizzlies...

And in 4th quarter he scored or assisted on 31 consecutive points.

Great game. Just watched the replay. Great strategy to pick up Morant full court. Everyone had a hand in playing great D. Dlo was amazing.

thedoper wrote:Great game. Just watched the replay. Great strategy to pick up Morant full court. Everyone had a hand in playing great D. Dlo was amazing.

Edwards was on him in the last two Memphis possessions and was a major factor in getting stops. Ant is a tough guy to break down one on one if he's locked in.

So what if I told you...

- Edwards would shoot 1 - 11 fg
- Towns would only play 27 minutes (foul trouble), score under his average and shoot 33% in the second half
- Memphis would grab 26 OFFENSIVE rebounds to the Wolves 30 DEFENSIVE rebounds (season league high)

... and the Wolves won?

That was a fun 4th quarter from Russell. Wow. Maybe it was the Morant injury? Or something else... but when he attacks the basket, he opens up a new element to his game. All those points in the paint and from the foul line were the difference. Wonderful performance and I enjoyed him taking different types of shots than the contested jumpers. Russell carried the team last night.

Now... about Edwards...

He's 4 - 29 over his last 3 games. Even his free throws look terrible. He's only 11 - 21 ft over that stretch, too. Is it a minor tweak to his form? A Ben Simmons mental block? A coincidental blip? Something else? Or nothing at all?

Dunno. But he's looked TERRIBLE on offense for three straight games.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:So what if I told you...

- Edwards would shoot 1 - 11 fg
- Towns would only play 27 minutes (foul trouble), score under his average and shoot 33% in the second half
- Memphis would grab 26 OFFENSIVE rebounds to the Wolves 30 DEFENSIVE rebounds (season league high)

... and the Wolves won?

That was a fun 4th quarter from Russell. Wow. Maybe it was the Morant injury? Or something else... but when he attacks the basket, he opens up a new element to his game. All those points in the paint and from the foul line were the difference. Wonderful performance and I enjoyed him taking different types of shots than the contested jumpers. Russell carried the team last night.

Now... about Edwards...

He's 4 - 29 over his last 3 games. Even his free throws look terrible. He's only 11 - 21 ft over that stretch, too. Is it a minor tweak to his form? A Ben Simmons mental block? A coincidental blip? Something else? Or nothing at all?

Dunno. But he's looked TERRIBLE on offense for three straight games.

But we absolutely crushed them in the two metrics that for well over a decade this team has struggled with: eFG% and Opponent eFG%. Bottom line - We made a lot more of our shots than they did. In fact, they missed 60 shots, which partially explains all those offensive rebounds!

We're fortunate to have three different guys (and sometimes a 4th if Beasley is feeling it) that can pile up points in a hurry. But yeah, Ant has struggled for the entire month of February with the exception of just a couple of games. In the long run, his continued growth and development is THE most important factor for this team's playoff hopes, so it's a bit disheartening to see this. At least he played some good defense to help close out the game and also kept the ball moving versus jacking up ill-advised shots.

Q-was-here wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:So what if I told you...

- Edwards would shoot 1 - 11 fg
- Towns would only play 27 minutes (foul trouble), score under his average and shoot 33% in the second half
- Memphis would grab 26 OFFENSIVE rebounds to the Wolves 30 DEFENSIVE rebounds (season league high)

... and the Wolves won?

That was a fun 4th quarter from Russell. Wow. Maybe it was the Morant injury? Or something else... but when he attacks the basket, he opens up a new element to his game. All those points in the paint and from the foul line were the difference. Wonderful performance and I enjoyed him taking different types of shots than the contested jumpers. Russell carried the team last night.

Now... about Edwards...

He's 4 - 29 over his last 3 games. Even his free throws look terrible. He's only 11 - 21 ft over that stretch, too. Is it a minor tweak to his form? A Ben Simmons mental block? A coincidental blip? Something else? Or nothing at all?

Dunno. But he's looked TERRIBLE on offense for three straight games.

But we absolutely crushed them in the two metrics that for well over a decade this team has struggled with: eFG% and Opponent eFG%. Bottom line - We made a lot more of our shots than they did. In fact, they missed 60 shots, which partially explains all those offensive rebounds!

We're fortunate to have three different guys (and sometimes a 4th if Beasley is feeling it) that can pile up points in a hurry. But yeah, Ant has struggled for the entire month of February with the exception of just a couple of games. In the long run, his continued growth and development is THE most important factor for this team's playoff hopes, so it's a bit disheartening to see this. At least he played some good defense to help close out the game and also kept the ball moving versus jacking up ill-advised shots.

Well... obviously the Wolves had to win some of the categories to win the game. Russell and Beasley sure helped with those in the second half.

The defensive rebounding was/is a huge problem. Memphis even got multiple offensive rebounds off missed free throws. Was it three times? I swear I heard Peterson say it was 5 times though... maybe I misheard him.

For the season, the Wolves are last in defensive rebounding percentage (74.2%). Last night it was 53.5%.

I think we all agree that we want Ant to grow every game, just keep getting better and better, scoring at will, BUT, I am not sure these past few games should be discounted in his growth path. Has his offense been awful? Yup. Has his defense been suspect? Debatable. Have opposing teams learned his game? Probably. He did play some very engaged defense last nite. I think this is where Finchy needs to coach his 2nd year player up. Figure a way to move him past this wall so he is ready for the sprint to the finish. The Wolves are going to need him.