Game Report - Played In Over the Clippers
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2022 12:45 am
Haven't experienced this atmosphere in Target Center since the last game of the season against the Nuggets the last time the Wolves made the playoffs. It was electric. Lore and A-Rod were both in the House and the crowd was into the game every second. My ears are still ringing.
I predicted a loss and I'll confess I thought the Wolves were going to lose this game until they took the lead in the 4th. At that point I actually started to entertain the notion that the Wolves might win this one. Sure enough they did. This isn't the Wolves of years past. This is a tremendously resilient group - better than the last playoff incarnation of the Wolves with Jimmy Butler. If I had posted before the game that the Wolves would win with KAT having 4 fouls at halftime, fouling out in the 3rd and scoring only 11 points, you'd wonder what sort of chemicals i consumed right before posting. Actually, you might all be wondering that anyway. In any event, this was a tremendously impressive and satisfying win.
I'm giving game balls to Edwards, DLO and Beverley. Ant and DLO carried us with their scoring, but you can't overlook Beverley's 11 rebounds along with his energy and leadership tonight. Honorable mention goes to Malik Beasley. He hit three of his 7 three attempts and shot 50% from the field. But just as important were his 6 rebounds. It was a reminder that he's a terrific rebounder at his position. Getting back to Edwards and DLO for a minute -- there aren't enough superlatives for the way they both played tonight. Ant was fantastic and a joy to watch, but DLO was cold-blooded and so savvy tonight. What we saw from DLO tonight was why Rosas want so intent on getting him here. He can be frustrating to watch sometimes when he stalls the ball or in those games when he jacks up shots and keeps missing. But there's no denying his high basketball IQ and mental toughness. Both of those attributes were on full display tonight. And I also thought he played as well defensively as any player can. He was absolutely tremendous on that end of the floor. Vanderbilt did a terrific job on the boards and Naz Reid also deserves mention for picking up the slack from KAT's poor play and foul trouble. McDaniels did some nice things and I thought Nowell's 9 minutes on the floor were important as well with 3 points and a steal in that short stint.
Then there was KAT. I'm not going to lay waste to him. He's obviously been our best player all season and the main reason the Wolves ended up with 46 wins. But I will say that what we saw from KAT tonight sort of validated a bit of Jimmy Butler's assessment of him. KAT simply showed an incredible lack of mental toughness tonight. He allowed the Clippers to knock him around physically and get inside his head - more the latter than the former. And once again he allowed the officiating to cloud his judgment. It looked like he was starting to come out of his funk when he came back into the game in the second half, but he already had 4 fouls and in the blink of an eye he picked up two more and that was all she wrote for KAT tonight. He has to be better. Finch needs to sit him down tomorrow for a one-on-one and tell him to get the hell out of his own head.
But it was a fantastic game and a great win for this franchise. Now it's on to Memphis and let's win there. And I'll go out on a limb to predict that KAT will have a great series against the Grizzlies. :)
I predicted a loss and I'll confess I thought the Wolves were going to lose this game until they took the lead in the 4th. At that point I actually started to entertain the notion that the Wolves might win this one. Sure enough they did. This isn't the Wolves of years past. This is a tremendously resilient group - better than the last playoff incarnation of the Wolves with Jimmy Butler. If I had posted before the game that the Wolves would win with KAT having 4 fouls at halftime, fouling out in the 3rd and scoring only 11 points, you'd wonder what sort of chemicals i consumed right before posting. Actually, you might all be wondering that anyway. In any event, this was a tremendously impressive and satisfying win.
I'm giving game balls to Edwards, DLO and Beverley. Ant and DLO carried us with their scoring, but you can't overlook Beverley's 11 rebounds along with his energy and leadership tonight. Honorable mention goes to Malik Beasley. He hit three of his 7 three attempts and shot 50% from the field. But just as important were his 6 rebounds. It was a reminder that he's a terrific rebounder at his position. Getting back to Edwards and DLO for a minute -- there aren't enough superlatives for the way they both played tonight. Ant was fantastic and a joy to watch, but DLO was cold-blooded and so savvy tonight. What we saw from DLO tonight was why Rosas want so intent on getting him here. He can be frustrating to watch sometimes when he stalls the ball or in those games when he jacks up shots and keeps missing. But there's no denying his high basketball IQ and mental toughness. Both of those attributes were on full display tonight. And I also thought he played as well defensively as any player can. He was absolutely tremendous on that end of the floor. Vanderbilt did a terrific job on the boards and Naz Reid also deserves mention for picking up the slack from KAT's poor play and foul trouble. McDaniels did some nice things and I thought Nowell's 9 minutes on the floor were important as well with 3 points and a steal in that short stint.
Then there was KAT. I'm not going to lay waste to him. He's obviously been our best player all season and the main reason the Wolves ended up with 46 wins. But I will say that what we saw from KAT tonight sort of validated a bit of Jimmy Butler's assessment of him. KAT simply showed an incredible lack of mental toughness tonight. He allowed the Clippers to knock him around physically and get inside his head - more the latter than the former. And once again he allowed the officiating to cloud his judgment. It looked like he was starting to come out of his funk when he came back into the game in the second half, but he already had 4 fouls and in the blink of an eye he picked up two more and that was all she wrote for KAT tonight. He has to be better. Finch needs to sit him down tomorrow for a one-on-one and tell him to get the hell out of his own head.
But it was a fantastic game and a great win for this franchise. Now it's on to Memphis and let's win there. And I'll go out on a limb to predict that KAT will have a great series against the Grizzlies. :)