Game Report - Wolves v. Rockets

[Lipoli390]

I just got home so I'll get this over with. Great crowd and great game for Wolves fans until the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter and overtime. This was the most painful loss of the season for me because it was clearly a game we should have won.

There were mistakes and missed shots we can all point to as the reason we lost. Heck, if Zach or Bazz would have hit just one of their two missed free throws in regulation, we would have won the game in spite of everything else. KAT certainly had his share of mistakes, but he played his heart out and ended up with 40 points on better than 50% shooting from the field and 13 of 15 free throws to go with 15 boards. Zach made some mistakes, including that step out at the end, but he scored 24 points on 50% shooting and did some really nice playmaking as part of his 6 assists. Wiggins played well defensively. He and Zach switched of as a primary defender on Harden and both did a nice job considering how exceptional Harden is. On the offensive end, Wiggins was terrible, going 5-17 and only getting to the line 4 times. His worst was his failure to get a put back at the end of regulation or at least draw a foul. Actually, I think he might have been fouled on that play. But when you play soft as Wiggins typically does, you're going to get stuffed on a play like that and you're not going to get the call.

Nevertheless, I don't put this lost on Wiggins. It all boils down to this for me. What in the hell was Thibs doing having Wiggins run the offense at the end of regulation and in overtime???!!! You have to excellent ballhandlers in Rubio and Zach, but Thibs puts the ball in Wiggins' hands to run the show at the beginning of each possession in crunch time and through the overtime. The worst might have been our last play in regulation when Belly inbounded the ball under our basket. Thibs brought in Dunn, but had him camped out outside the 3-point arc at the other end of the court. He had Rubio and Zach break off and run down the court. That left KAT to take the inbounds pass and, obviously by design, he handed it of to Wiggins to bring the ball across midcourt. Someone next to me wondered out loud of Thibs wanted to lose the game for some reason. I wondered if Thibs is suffering from early dementia and has confused Wiggins with Rose or Butler -- both of them excellent ballhanders and good playmakers.

Anyway, we might have lost the game even if Rubio, Zach or Dunn had handled the ball the last 3 minutes of the second half or in overtime. But that's not the point. It's the head coaches job to put the players in the best possible position to succeed. Having Wiggins as our primary ballhandler down the stretch is NOT putting the team in the best possible position to succeed. That was painfully obvious tonight as it has been on numerous other occasisions this season. Again, I don't blame Wiggins for not getting it done late in tonight's game. He is what he is. But I do blame a stubborn head coach who appears determined to believe that Wiggins is something he's not. And that's a shame because we look like we're starting to gel defensively. But a great head coach can be counted on to coach well on both sides of the ball. I didn't listen to tonight's post game comments from Thibs, but I'm confident he took no responsibility for the loss.

[Duke13]

Like a two year old rant...

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

Like a two year old rant...

Huh? Your take on this is solid as ever I guess.

But yeah, Wiggins being forced into ball handler role is, was and will ever be a bad choice. His handle is shaky AF and he's a poor passer and decision maker to boot. It's one of the main reasons of late game collapses. Flip had in right with Wiggz when he had him receiving the ball in mid post and going to work being 2 dribbles away from the rim and no responsibility to pass and make plays for others.

[Monster]

It's kinda funny that Thibs is taking a developmental approach to this team when the consensus was he was gonna do everything to win games right away.

It sucked the Wolves lost. Like Lip said a missed shot or FT here or there and they win this game. If they keep playing like they have the last few games this team is going to rip off a bunch of wins. That's the best defensive effort of the season by far against one of the best/hottest teams in the league offensively.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Lip, I gave away my tickets tonight, but the guy I gave them to texted me that this loss was on Thibs. He mentioned two things: the point you made about Thibs taking the ball out of the PGs hands inexplicitly at the end of the game, and butchering his use of time outs. Did Thibs really blow through all of his time outs so we couldn't take the ball out in the front court after the Rockets tied the game with 5 seconds left? Really? That's the kind of stupid mistake a rookie coach might make, but not a veteran.

$8 million just doesn't get you as much as it used to...

[Duke13]

So now Flips a genius and Tibs is an idiot. That's a good take. You can spin anything you want I guess. The easy thing to do is always blame the coach, the first thing every rube does, I suppose that will never change.

[Duke13]

Someone please pull the most recent quote of Lip proclaiming Andrew the star we all want him to be. Shouldn't be hard to find, I'll take any of them. Should be about 30-40 of them.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Lip, I gave away my tickets tonight, but the guy I gave them to texted me that this loss was on Thibs. He mentioned two things: the point you made about Thibs taking the ball out of the PGs hands inexplicitly at the end of the game, and butchering his use of time outs. Did Thibs really blow through all of his time outs so we couldn't take the ball out in the front court after the Rockets tied the game with 5 seconds left? Really? That's the kind of stupid mistake a rookie coach might make, but not a veteran.

$8 million just doesn't get you as much as it used to...

I've noticed the timeouts multiple times. It seems like teams ALWAYS have a timeout late.

The Wolves have ran out of them multiple times this season, including tonight.

- Thibs needs them to get this team of dumbies to do the right thing?
- Thibs is micromanaging to the point of no return?

Becoming the story of the season, no?

[Lipoli390]

Duke. I'm worried about you. You seem a bit out of touch or just out of sorts tonight.

Like many, I was taken in by Wiggins' impressive play very early in the season and in a moment of exuberance I believe I said he was finally showing that he might become the star we all wanted him to be. You can hunt for my exact quote if it's that important to you. But, as I'm sure everyone else on this Board knows, I have long since gone back to my otherwise longstanding assessment of Wiggins (bad handle, suspect hands, lack of toughness and intensity). Having said that, please note that I haven't given up on him. I'm just calling it as I see it and I remain hopeful that he'll eventually become a great player. The talent is certainly there.

More important, as I noted in my initial post here, I thought Wiggins played well defensively tonight and I'm not holding Wiggins responsible for tonight's loss. Those are a couple quotes that should be easy for you to find since they're in this same thread. :)

[Lipoli390]

It's kinda funny that Thibs is taking a developmental approach to this team when the consensus was he was gonna do everything to win games right away.

It sucked the Wolves lost. Like Lip said a missed shot or FT here or there and they win this game. If they keep playing like they have the last few games this team is going to rip off a bunch of wins. That's the best defensive effort of the season by far against one of the best/hottest teams in the league offensively.

Monster -- I agree that our defense was terrific tonight. Even some of their threes were well defended. You used the word funny to describe what appears to be Thibs' developmental approach. The word I was using earlier tonight was "weird." I think we mean pretty much the same thing. :) But if this team continues to defend the way they did the second half against the Bulls and tonight, they should be able to put a nice win streak together. We'll see.