Minnesota Sports Forum

The first place Wolves look to shore up homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with back to back wins over a Pelicans team still without Zion. Superstition reigns, so I'm getting the game day thread going early again. And since Mrs. Lipoli has proven to be a good luck charm for our T-Pups, I'll be taking her to the game tonight while Lip stays home with the cats. I've promised to get her home by 11.

It's only been two games, but look who is at the top of the league in defensive ratings...yep, our Wolves. Okay, it helps that we've been playing two relatively hapless teams, but the difference in our defensive strategy and intensity is obvious. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it up. We're also close to the bottom in half court efficiency (and some of us have pointed out that our half court sets just don't look smooth yet), but with Josh, Jaden and Vando creating turnovers all over the court, we make up for our poor half court offense with fast break points. It's early, but this looks to be a new look Wolves team.

DLo will shoot and protect the ball better tonight- I think you can count on that. I'm more interested though in whether he can continue the smart (yep, I said that) defense he showed last game. His positive plus/minus seemed strange while he was having such a putrid offensive game against the Pels (except for his two big threes late), but not when you consider there are two sides of the ball. Some might say that DLo was the beneficiary of being on the court when guys like Josh and Jaden were creating turnovers and easy buckets, and they would be correct. But also posters here like Lip and monster noticed a rather dramatic change in DLo's defense. Two big differences I saw: he seemed to rotate to his man better than I have ever seen him do, and accordingly left fewer open looks beyond the arc then usual (to provide some balance here- the Pels seemed to miss every time DLo gave them an open shot). But more importantly his help defense looked more like Jaden (who is always extraordinary off the ball) than the usual DLo. Josh and Jaden will get all the credit for our exceptional defense in the first half, but NBA defense is complex and all five on the court need to be in synch to be effective. We were in synch most of last game, and if guys like DLo and Beasley can continue to play good team defense, it's going to make a huge difference in this team.

The oddsmakers think it's difficult for a lottery team like the Wolves to beat a team back to back, so they have actually lowered the spread to 5 1/2. I think they're not considering how bad New Orleans is without Zion and how different this Wolves team is starting the season. IF KAT can keep Jonas from living rent free in his head and not lose his cool, I think they win by double digits tonight (like they should have last game).

Go Wovles!

As an addendum, it will be interesting to see what Finch does for a starting lineup tonight. We got bullied on the boards last game and Vando was a rebounding monster with 8 boards in only 13 minutes. Finch has said his starting lineup is fluid, so I would not be surprised (or opposed) to seeing him start Vando instead of Josh. On the other hand, I don't like a lineup change when this team has played so well overall in its first two games, and Josh wasn't the problem on the boards with 5 in 18 minutes. So if I'm coaching, I leave the lineup and rotation as is. I have no problem though if Vando starts...he's been fun to watch so far this season.

While in theory you'd think inserting Vando into the starting lineup would help with defensive rebounding, in practice that has not been the case. Both all of last season and for two games this season, our Defensive rebound % is actually worse when Vando is on the court versus off of it. Now that could be for all sorts of different reasons, but the reality is that Vando's individual rebounding prowess has not translated to better team defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding is a different story.

Lip has cats? I thought Monster was the feline connoisseur of the board. Remember, Mrs Lip needs a pretzel during the first quarter and nachos during the 2nd half.

D-Lo goes off for 30 tonight. Book it. Big game upcoming.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Lip has cats? I thought Monster was the feline connoisseur of the board. Remember, Mrs Lip needs a pretzel during the first quarter and nachos during the 2nd half.

You're not dealing with an amateur here, Cool, but thanks for the reminder :) .

Yeah two takes I agree with...DLo going off tonight, and Finch staying with the same lineup.

Cam mentioned in the previous GDT that DLo didn't seem to be looking for his shot, and I didn't disagree. It's a slippery slope though, because our halfcourt offense seems to stall when DLo is too ball dominant. I think Finch has the answer though, and that is to give PatBev and JMac more minutes to let DLo play off ball at the 2 more...I've been advocating for that since the trade, but Rubio's poor start last season made the Rubio/Dlo pairing ineffective and colored Ryan's mind. I thought by the end of the season DLo was looking much better off ball when paired with Rubio or JMac. Playing the 2 combined with focusing on a 2-man game with KAT when he's playing PG will give DLo a lot more open looks I think.

I hear Q's stat about team defensive rebounding not improving with Vando, and that's a little disappointing. For their careers, Vando is a far superior defensive rebounder to Josh, with a DRB% of 24.5 compared to Josh's 7.6%. It's difficult for me to reconcile the team's poor rebounding stats with Vando on the court and his individual record...I'm scratching my head at that one. Regardless, I would start Josh tonight. I think KAT has to be embarrassed about the rebounding differential at center last game, and I think he closes the gap tonight. That will make a big difference.

I am excited for tonight, I hope Cam doesn't hack the website again so I can't enter and complain about Russell lol

Q12543 wrote:While in theory you'd think inserting Vando into the starting lineup would help with defensive rebounding, in practice that has not been the case. Both all of last season and for two games this season, our Defensive rebound % is actually worse when Vando is on the court versus off of it. Now that could be for all sorts of different reasons, but the reality is that Vando's individual rebounding prowess has not translated to better team defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding is a different story.

I was thinking something similar Q. I'll add a couple more thoughts.

1. Vanderbilt isn't being used like a typical PF. Often he has been chasing around guys on the perimeter. In the last game he spent a fair amount of time guarding ingrahm. It's different when you are Playing D all over the court and then going for rebounds.

2. Jonas was a massive reason the Wolves were out rebounded. Meanwhile Alexander Walker had 14 rebounds. Nobody on the wolves had more than Edwards 9 and Towns only had 4. Obviously some of that is a bit fluky as Towns is a good rebounder. In some ways there were a lot of fluky rebounding stats in this game. Hopefully the Wolves get on the boards more in game 2.

3. The Wolves didn't get out rebounded because they weren't playing hard.

4. It's possible the way the Wolves play on defense may leave them vulnerable at times in securing the defensive rebound. This will be worth monitoring as time goes on. Of course IF...they are able to actually continue to be a worthwhile defensive team and give up some ground on the boards...I'll take it.

5. It's not new but with the league taking so many 3's (78 between the Pels and Wolves) there are going to be some rebounds going all over the place.

6. If you put Vanderbilt in to start then that makes the bench lack length.

If we do go 3-0 I hope KAT doesn't start planning the parade like he did a few years ago.

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:While in theory you'd think inserting Vando into the starting lineup would help with defensive rebounding, in practice that has not been the case. Both all of last season and for two games this season, our Defensive rebound % is actually worse when Vando is on the court versus off of it. Now that could be for all sorts of different reasons, but the reality is that Vando's individual rebounding prowess has not translated to better team defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding is a different story.

I was thinking something similar Q. I'll add a couple more thoughts.

1. Vanderbilt isn't being used like a typical PF. Often he has been chasing around guys on the perimeter. In the last game he spent a fair amount of time guarding ingrahm. It's different when you are Playing D all over the court and then going for rebounds.

2. Jonas was a massive reason the Wolves were out rebounded. Meanwhile Alexander Walker had 14 rebounds. Nobody on the wolves had more than Edwards 9 and Towns only had 4. Obviously some of that is a bit fluky as Towns is a good rebounder. In some ways there were a lot of fluky rebounding stats in this game. Hopefully the Wolves get on the boards more in game 2.

3. The Wolves didn't get out rebounded because they weren't playing hard.

4. It's possible the way the Wolves play on defense may leave them vulnerable at times in securing the defensive rebound. This will be worth monitoring as time goes on. Of course IF...they are able to actually continue to be a worthwhile defensive team and give up some ground on the boards...I'll take it.

5. It's not new but with the league taking so many 3's (78 between the Pels and Wolves) there are going to be some rebounds going all over the place.

6. If you put Vanderbilt in to start then that makes the bench lack length.

Very good points, monster. I especially focus on #4. Finch has encouraged KAT to play less drop defense and to attack, and he has responded. But naturally that aggressiveness will leave him in a worse defensive rebounding position at times, and an elite rebounder like Jonas will take advantage of that. The jury's out, but right now I think I'll take the tradeoff.