Game Report - Wolves v. Suns

[Lipoli390]

Nice to finally report on a win. It's been too long. It was clear from the beginning that we're the more talented team, but that's not unique to tonight's game. We've lost too many games so far this season to teams with equal or inferior talent.

But I saw tonight's game as part of a positive recent trend. This should have been our 3rd win in a row but for a terrible collapse the last 2 minutes of the last game. Yet, it's 2 wins in our last 3 games and that's encouraging. I see the defense improving, the offense becoming more steady and the team starting to develop some mental toughness. As I mentioned in some previous posts, if this team finishes strong the last half of last season, then we'll all pretty much forget the parade of horribles we've seen so far in the first third of the season.

There were a lot of keys to tonight's win. We can point to the fact that the Suns are a pretty bad team, but focusing on that exclusively would be unfair to our team's effort and performance tonight. What we saw tonight was, in my view, the formula for this team's success. That formula consists of (1) Ricky generally running the offense and getting a lot of assists (12 tonight); (2) the big 3 scoring effectively and efficiently; (3) the starters showing mental toughness with our key guys making key plays on pure guts and effort; and (4) getting meaningful contributions off the bench from Dunn and either Bazz or Belly. All 4 parts of the formula were there tonight. We don't have to be, and should be expected to be, a great defensive team. We just need to be good enough defensively to outscore our opponents without having to score 115 points. This is a team that can and should score at least 108 most games. More specifically, I'll highlight a few key areas behind tonight's win.

1. The performance of our big three. All three -- KAT, Andrew and Zach played really well tonight. KAT was tremendous with 28 points, 15 boards and 2 blocks. And if I had to pick one play as the #1 key to tonight's win, I'd pick KAT's put-back layup plus 1 late in the 4th. That was a pure effort play and the kind of thing we often get from KAT more than any other player on this team except perhaps Ricky. KAT's driving layup on the pick and roll from Ricky down the stretch was another huge play. And it was nice to see him step up defensively tonight as well. The guy has been playing his heart out this season and he really came up huge tonight. Zach was terrific tonight, scoring 23 points to go with 4 boards and 3 assists. If I were to pick the #2 key play tonight it would be Zach's 3-pointer late in the 4th. That's what he does that no other player on this team can do -- hitting big three-pointers fearlessly in crunch time. Andrew also came up big tonight with 26 points and 3 steals. He also had some terrific buckets down the stretch. When you look at the scoring from the Suns' guards you might conclude that Zach and Andrew played poorly defensively, but I don't think that's the case. The Suns' guards are very good shooters who hit a number of really tough guarded shots. I liked the defensive effort from both tonight.

2. Dunn and Shabazz off the bench. These two guys really gave us a lift off the bench. Dunn's defense was tremendous and Bazz gave us points and rebounding we really needed to hold the lead while our starters were sitting. Dunn's defense is something to behold. He's probably the team's best defender already and has the potential to be one of the top defenders in the League. And he's starting to hit his shots. Bazz is Bazz. He's never seen a shot he doesn't want to take and he can make some bad mistakes as a result of his tunnel vision. But he plays with such heart and he can put the ball in the basket. I should probably mention Cole, who also gave us some nice minutes tonight. He's developed into a pretty steady, solid big off the bench.

3. Mental toughness. I recall a number of games ago, I mentioned that a key for this team will be whether the players start to absorb and reflect the intensity and mental toughness of their head coach. One way to put it is they'll either fold and fail or get tough (even nasty) and succeed. I'm seeing KAT, who has had shouting matches with Thibs, start to dig in and get tougher and more intense. Zach has always seemed comfortable with and a reflection of Thibs. Overall, the team has been showing what I believe to be more toughness the past 9 quarters with the exception of the last 2 minutes of the last game.

Here are a few interesting tidbits you probably didn't see on TV:

1. In the 2nd quarter, Thibs called a timeout after the Suns scored on a layup. As the players were coming to the bench, Zach was scolding Dieng for failing to let him know he was about to be picked from the blind side. Zach was right to call out Dieng for that. But I liked the fact that Zach actually got after him. I've seen other players chide each other lately. I actually think that's a good sign. It shows feistiness and a willingness to hold each other accountable.

2. Ricky and Thibs spent a lot of time visiting one on one during stoppages in play. Ricky would come over to Thibs on the sideline and you could see the two having a respectful two-way conversation, nodding and pointing at various places on the court. I like setting the PG and head coach connect that way. I haven't seen that much before the last two games and I saw a lot more of it tonight than any previous game.

3. After KAT's driving layup on a feed from Ricky down the stretch I saw something I had NEVER seen previously this season. I saw Thibs patting players on the back. And not just a polite pat -- I'm talking enthusiastic animated pats. There were two guys he patted -- Ricky and Zach. I thought it was interesting, that he felt impelled to pat those two. Ricky's pat made sense obviously because of his pass, which was a really nice smart play by him. But Zach's pat was the more interesting one. I'd have to see the film to see what he did, but it must have been a big deal on that play. Anyway, I dont' want to make too much of these two pats, but when you've been to every home game but one and never seen the head coach so much as high five or touch a player, you can't help but notice and put some significance to what I saw tonight.

I see something important happening on this team. I'm not going to get giddy over tonight's win against a pretty bad team or the Thibs' two animated pats on the back. But putting what I saw tonight together with what we saw in the 4th quarter of the Bulls game and in all but the last 3 minutes of the Houston game, I'm encouraged.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

Nice to win one at home finally. Will just add two things:

1) Finally we have started to push the ball up the court. When you have two of the fastest players in the league who are both strong finishers in the open court, and one of the best passers to get them the ball, you have to take advantage. Ricky gets greedy and throws an ill-advised one now and again, but you can live with that when the ones that get through almost always turn into points. You can really see the boost it gives the team when they score like this too. Not sure why it has taken us this long to really start doing it.

2) As we closed the Suns out I couldn't help but keep thinking how much better this would be if they had just not let the impossible happen against the Rockets--it sucked a bit of the joy out of it. Still, 2 out of 3 is a win streak this year, that's for sure. Maybe an actual win streak can happen on Wednesday.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Funny, I didn't read your entire post, Lip (gotta get to a breakfast meeting), but I had the exact same thought as you last night...tonight was exactly the formula for this team to win that many of us expected coming into the season. Let Ricky be Ricky (boom...12 assists), get the Big 3 involved (77 points on 50+% shooting) and watch Gorgui make the quiet solid contributions he seems to make every night (good defense on balance, efficient scoring).

There are only 3 things I would have changed last night. I still want Thibs to use his bench more...because of their gritty defense, the backups aren't hurting us when they are on the floor (albeit not always pretty to watch), and although it didn't hurt us last night, we need our starters fresher at the end of games...and the season. Secondly, Thibs' barking. I found it especially annoying last night...I can't imagine how annoying it had to be in person (BTW, I had some holiday cheer last night with one of the Wolves' owners in the group, and believe me, some of these sentiments are shared in spades by the ownership group). Finally, although it was less pronounced than other games, weren't there a couple times again in the 4th quarter where Thibs put Ricky in the corner and had Wig run the offense (can't remember because I wasn't watching closely)?

I appreciate the optimism, Lip, and I agree that there are some signs that, if we haven't turned the corner yet, we're at least approaching it. I thought last night was more evidence that the Wolves' ownership's theory that Ricky may have come back too early from his sprained elbow has some merit. He's still not back to where he was at the end of last year, but he is the straw that stirs this team's drink and he at least is looking better. I hope he can continue the trend.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm not one to get overly concerned about minutes for super young players. NBA history is full of good to elite players who played heavy minutes, especially early in their careers.

But this marks about 5 straight games where at least one starter received 40 or more minutes.

I think this says more about the team's bench than anything else.



[Note: I just noticed that the PAID attendance was only 12,008. Yikes. Yuck. I'm not blaming the fans either. But that's pretty small. Time for another Target ticket giveaway?]

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Thanks for the thorough report Lip and company, as I missed this one.

It's hard for me to get giddy over getting a fairly narrow win at home against a fellow bottom-feeder, but it sounds like the offense was clicking on all cylinders. The defense, at least on paper, didn't look so good. But a win is a win is a win.

We have come up with a couple of surprising road wins this year in Chicago and Charlotte. This team is capable of playing some good ball on the road. I feel hopeful for Wednesday.

I attend one game every year when I visit for the holidays. That will be the game against Atlanta next Monday. It would be nice to go into it with some momentum!

[Lipoli390]

Q - The defense didn't look much better in person than on paper, but it was better than it has been earlier this season and it was good enough for the win. And that's the key. I'm not expecting this team to become a defensive force. But we are loaded with scorers. Defensively, we just need to be "good enough."

Where will you be sitting next Monday?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Q - The defense didn't look much better in person than on paper, but it was better than it has been earlier this season and it was good enough for the win. And that's the key. I'm not expecting this team to become a defensive force. But we are loaded with scorers. Defensively, we just need to be "good enough."

Where will you be sitting next Monday?

Don't know yet....My parents are long-time season ticket holders, but there is a usually a big crew of us that go to a game during the holidays, which means we might be spread out a bit since we need more than just their two seats. Last year we rented a box for my Dad's 80th, which was very awesome (of course they lost that game though!). Normally a couple of folks sit in my parents' normal seats in Section 106 and then the rest of us are grouped together elsewhere.

[BloopOracle]

I noticed Thibs even high five Ricky when we after the game sealing 4th quarter run lol

also I was cracking up when THibs was yelling walk! fucking walk! when a sun traveled late in the 4th he is so damn loud you can see people sitting behind him laughing

[KiwiMatt]

Sorry Lip couldn't help but laugh about the 'pat on the back' paragraph. You should start taking a season home game telly of how many pats on the back each player gets from Thibs. I think Zach is leading with 2 with Ricky hot on his tail with 1. First to 10 wins (although we could go well into next season at this rate)!

[KiwiMatt]

I noticed Thibs even high five Ricky when we after the game sealing 4th quarter run lol

also I was cracking up when THibs was yelling walk! fucking walk! when a sun traveled late in the 4th he is so damn loud you can see people sitting behind him laughing

A high five! Jesus maybe Thibs got in on Hill and Rush pre game blunt ritual.