Minnesota Sports Forum

I just finished a DVR review of the game and, despite the disappointing loss, I would call it the most entertaining game of the year. I agree with Jim Peterson that it was a lot of fun to watch...despite being maddening at times. I don't know if many of you watched it on a Friday evening (or the replay), but this game is rich with discussion possibilities. The good and the bad of this team were definitely on display. We were sensational the first half, dogmeat for 10-15 minutes in the second half, and good enough to provide a thrilling 4th quarter finish to get us to overtime. I don't think anyone expected us to beat the Celtics in the Gaaaahden, so taking them to overtime is somewhat of a victory. But damn that would have been a fun one to win!

Okogie: Most of us have been down on Josh this year, but I thought he was extraordinary last night. I hold my breath when I say that because he may be unplayable in the next game, but what a game he played last night...16 efficient points, 3 steals and gritty defense all night. I almost wish he hadn't hit those two corner threes because now he may think he has the green light...and we know how that turns out. But for one night he was magnificent on both ends of the court.

Towns: KAT has turned into a warrior this season, and it was perhaps never on display as much as last night. I don't know that he has faced such a physical defense designed to stop him as what the Celtics threw at him, but he still powered his way to a 30/12/7 night. His turnovers continue to be a problem, but I would argue he is still getting used to the Finch KAT-centric offense where so much runs through him. His no-look over the shoulder feed to Ant for a slam was amazing. I have no doubt that his turnovers will decrease as he gets more comfortable with his new role in the offense.

Rubio/DLO: I'm putting these two together, because their respective play last night highlights why they are the two most mercurial players on the team. Rubio was brilliant up until the point DLO came in for him with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the Wolves up 13 on Boston's home court. By the time Finch put him back into the game with 8 minutes left in the game, that entire 13-point lead had disappeared. It was past midnight by that time, and I abandoned my DVR and went to bed...fully expecting we were going to get blown out after leading by 17 at one point. I was furious with DLO, whose lazy defense was responsible for all the wide-open looks Boston had beyond the arc as our lead dissipated...5 made threes during that disastrous stretch.

But everything changed as I watched the rest of the game today. Rubio was terrible during his short stint in the 4th, and Finch yanked him in favor of DLO with 3+ minutes left in the game after Ricky channeled EyeChart with a 3-pointer that was a foot to the left of the basket. And DLO redeemed himself for his poor play the first 3 1/2 quarters by almost single-handedly bringing us back to get us to overtime. He was outstanding during those last three minutes, scoring inside and out and nicely setting up KAT for a big 3-pointer. Even more important, he did a much better job defending the perimeter as the Celtics made no threes those last 3 minutes. Then unfortunately Bad D DLO returned in overtime, as the Celtics had more open looks and made 3 threes in a 5-minute OT.

Maddening to say the least. I don't expect either Ricky or DLO to be perfect, but last night their deficiencies were so fricking prominent. Ricky's missed 3-pointer (which left him 1-5 for the night) was so bad and so ill-advised, he forced Finch to yank him in the 4th quarter for the first time (and it was the correct move). But he offsets his shooting woes with aggressive defense (4 steals) and solid PG play (7 assists and another game with no turnovers), so he can still be a positive influence on the court. In contrast, DLO's defensive ineptitude essentially has us playing 4 on 5 on defense (and sometimes worse when Ant isn't engaged) and giving up far too many open looks beyond the arc. I praised DLO's defensive effort against Sacramento, but his poor defense last night left him with yet another double digit minus night (yes, we take one-game +/- numbers with a grain of salt, but not when it is a pattern that seems to repeat night after night).

All in all a very entertaining night and perhaps (another) moral victory against a Celtics team that has won 4 out of 5 and seems to be recovered from its Covid woes. Rubio and DLO consume over $45 million of our payroll, and need to be better for this team to be competitive.

DLO's in-game inconsistency might be his biggest problem. I loved him in the 4th quarter when he was occasionally brilliant. But there are times when he is so lost on defense it's comical. He will give good effort one time down the court, and then embarrass himself on the next. When he can get his feet set and shoot his jumper on balance, he is extremely accurate. But he takes too many shots off-balance and forced and his accuracy on those is poor. Like Jim Pete said, I'm not sure he gets it.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:DLO's in-game inconsistency might be his biggest problem. I loved him in the 4th quarter when he was occasionally brilliant. But there are times when he is so lost on defense it's comical. He will give good effort one time down the court, and then embarrass himself on the next. When he can get his feet set and shoot his jumper on balance, he is extremely accurate. But he takes too many shots off-balance and forced and his accuracy on those is poor. Like Jim Pete said, I'm not sure he gets it.

It bothers me when he gets visibly annoyed with players for a defensive mistake, I heard him a couple times during last night yell don't foul don't foul and then we ended up fouling and he was just disgusted. Then he does it a few times in crunch time and just shrugs it off.

It's absolutely fascinating how people can literally watch the same game of basketball and come away with polar opposite takes. Whew.

BloopOracle wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:DLO's in-game inconsistency might be his biggest problem. I loved him in the 4th quarter when he was occasionally brilliant. But there are times when he is so lost on defense it's comical. He will give good effort one time down the court, and then embarrass himself on the next. When he can get his feet set and shoot his jumper on balance, he is extremely accurate. But he takes too many shots off-balance and forced and his accuracy on those is poor. Like Jim Pete said, I'm not sure he gets it.

It bothers me when he gets visibly annoyed with players for a defensive mistake, I heard him a couple times during last night yell don't foul don't foul and then we ended up fouling and he was just disgusted. Then he does it a few times in crunch time and just shrugs it off.

That is a horrible thing to say as well. Mentally you need to focus on what TO DO instead of what NOT to do. If I say don't think of a pink giraffe with purple polka dots what do you think of?

By saying don't foul all the person hears is foul. Your brain doesn't register the negative and thus is more likely to foul.

Cam, you say that your view of the game is the polar opposite of what others here have said. I'll list the takes in this thread, and tell us which you disagree with completely (polar opposite) and why (although I suspect we can guess). It's okay to have different takes, but it's lazy to say you disagree without being specific.

1) It was a fun, entertaining game, albeit disappointing
2) Okogie was extraordinary with efficient scoring and gritty defense
3) KAT was a warrior, but turnovers continue to be a problem
4) Rubio was brilliant up to the point he was taken out with the Wolves up 13 in the third quarter
5) DLO's lazy defense was responsible for the open 3-point looks the Celtics had in the 3rd quarter as our lead disappeared
6) Rubio was terrible during his 4th quarter minutes, and took a wild ill-advised shot after which Finch benched him
7) DLO was outstanding the last three minutes and almost single-handedly brought us to overtime
8) DLO's defense was bad again in the overtime, as Boston made 3 open threes
9) Ricky's shooting was terrible all game, but his aggressive D (4 steals) and solid PG play (7 assists and no TOs again) offset his poor shooting and left him a +1
10) DLO's poor perimeter defense essentially has us playing 4 on 5 on defense at times, and was a major factor in another double digit minus performance for him
11) Ricky and DLO need to be better for this team to be successful
12) DLO is inconsistent. He was occasionally brilliant in the 4th quarter, but at times comical on defense
13) A couple times DLO yelled at teammates to not foul, and than acted disgusted when they did.

These takes all seem pretty balanced and accurate to me. Please explain which ones of the 13 you have a polar opposite view on, so we can return this board to a discussion forum rather than a stand up comedy bit (although I enjoy a little comedy too at times...just not devoting an entire GDT to it during a really interesting game).

You guys moved on me... So I copied and pasted from the game thread.

Abe's Early Morning "Perfectly objective and not at all bias in any way" DVR Review:

D. Russell.
Good: He's a sneaky good passer. As Jim Pete noted... he passed at least one player open last night. He's made some really pretty reads the past couple of games. I dig.
Bad: He also did that thing where he doesn't play defense so his guy gets past him... and Russell points to the spot or teammate or something to cover his guy. I chuckle.

Towns.
Good: Just a gifted, skilled player. Truly a marvel to watch.
Bad: Did anybody think Towns was NOT going to get called for an offensive foul when Smart was covering him? Again, it's tough to build around a 7-footer who can be guarded by a 6'3" PG.

Rubio.
Good: A lot of teams run similar action. Rubio knows this and blew it up a couple times by jumping in the passing lane. He didn't get a steal. But that wasn't the point. It makes the offense go to Plan B. They may still score. But at least it's making them work for it slightly more.
Bad: Everybody knows he can't shoot.

Edwards.
Good: He shot above 50% only twice in the first 47 games. He's shot above 50% 4 times in the past 6 games.
Defense: I'm sure he made several mistakes defensively... but they weren't the "too lazy to try" variety that scared me in other games. So I can live with them.

Okogie.
Good: Best offensive game of the season. Should have been 20 pts if not for those two horrible no-calls early.
Bad: Who cares. If that's the very best he can bring offensively... he's playing for defense. And the three primary perimeter guys for Boston scored 103 combined... with great percentages.

McDaniels.
Good: Looked to attack a couple of times. Are we sure this is a good thing right now?
Bad: Our +/- god was a team-worst -17 immediately after an article praising him came out. But that stat can be misleading. I guess I'd like him to rebound better? 5.8 per 36 min right now.

C

AbeVigodaLive wrote:You guys moved on me... So I copied and pasted from the game thread.

Abe's Early Morning "Perfectly objective and not at all bias in any way" DVR Review:

D. Russell.
Good: He's a sneaky good passer. As Jim Pete noted... he passed at least one player open last night. He's made some really pretty reads the past couple of games. I dig.
Bad: He also did that thing where he doesn't play defense so his guy gets past him... and Russell points to the spot or teammate or something to cover his guy. I chuckle.

Towns.
Good: Just a gifted, skilled player. Truly a marvel to watch.
Bad: Did anybody think Towns was NOT going to get called for an offensive foul when Smart was covering him? Again, it's tough to build around a 7-footer who can be guarded by a 6'3" PG.

Rubio.
Good: A lot of teams run similar action. Rubio knows this and blew it up a couple times by jumping in the passing lane. He didn't get a steal. But that wasn't the point. It makes the offense go to Plan B. They may still score. But at least it's making them work for it slightly more.
Bad: Everybody knows he can't shoot.

Edwards.
Good: He shot above 50% only twice in the first 47 games. He's shot above 50% 4 times in the past 6 games.
Defense: I'm sure he made several mistakes defensively... but they weren't the "too lazy to try" variety that scared me in other games. So I can live with them.

Okogie.
Good: Best offensive game of the season. Should have been 20 pts if not for those two horrible no-calls early.
Bad: Who cares. If that's the very best he can bring offensively... he's playing for defense. And the three primary perimeter guys for Boston scored 103 combined... with great percentages.





Pussy...take a stand. None of this middle of the road malarkey.

I agree that Russell makes some great reads and is a very good passer...he gets rid of the ball in a hurry when he sees an open guy around the basket. When he's out there at SG with either J-Mac or Rubio, we seem to get a lot of easy baskets. 8 assists in 20 minutes, but only 1 at PG in OT...and it was when Boston was giving up the layup to prevent 3 pointers.

Nice to see Ant getting more efficient as he gets more comfortable with the NBA game. He's averaging 23.4 PPG his last 10 on 45.4 % shooting.