Game Report - Wolves v. Bulls

[Lipoli390]

Not a capacity crowd, but pretty full and plenty loud. It was a fun game to watch, although it was much closer than it should have been for much of the game. Let's not kid ourselves, the Bulls are a bad team. The talent disparity between the two teams tonight was absolutely huge. So a double-digit win for the Wolves was the bare minimum we should have expected.

As usual, our two best players tonight were Towns and Rose. Teague was better tonight than he's been lately, but as usual his stats overstated his contribution. Covington couldn't hit the broad side of a barn tonight, but he really made a big positive difference for the Wolves. It's not often you can say that a guy who shot 1-14 was a net positive, but if you'd say that about Covington tonight you'd be right. He had 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks, but even those stats understate his positive contribution to the team tonight. His defense was tremendous as it has been since he arrived here, but beyond that he has such a great positive demeanor and rapport with his teammates. His positive energy is powerful and contagious.

As for Wiggins, he was an embarrassment tonight. Zero points, 1 assist and 1 rebound in 28 minutes from our max player is obviously unacceptable. I wish I could say he made up for his pathetic offensive stats with his defense, but I can't because it wouldn't be true. And I wish I could say that he gave a great effort, but just didn't have it tonight, but that would also be a lie. Time and again, Wiggins would just jog down the court and take up a position in the corner behind the arc. Not once did he call for the ball. He would stand there every single time quietly with his hands handing down at his sides and body language that effectively said, leave me alone. He watched loose balls bound around. But it is what it is. He's not going anywhere.

Then there is Thibodeau. I don't quite know where to begin with him. I guess I'll begin at the end of the first half when, just after a red hot KAT hit a nice fade-away jumper, Thibodeau put the ball in the ice-cold hands of Wiggins to finish out the half. The result was predictable. No one but Wiggins touched the ball that possession and Wiggins ended up taking a contested long two-pointer that barely hit the rim. There are a number of other bad decisions by Thibodeau throughout the game I could point to. But I'll just jump ahead to the one that takes the cake. I'm talking about Thibodeau leaving Towns, Rose and Covington in the game with 3:30 left and a 15+ point lead while Okogie, Tolliver and Nunnally were sitting on the bench.

There is absolutely no rational explanation and certainly no excuse for Thibodeau's failure to replace our three key starters at that point in the game. The word is malfeasance. It is nothing short of malfeasance for an NBA head coach to leave his key three starters in the game under those circumstances just as it was malfeasance in his role as PBO when Thibodeau failed to address the Butler situation for several months before it boiled over into a public trade demand and a whole series of related embarrassing events. Each day that Thibodeau remains with the Wolves organization is another day too long.

It was interesting watching Andy Greer on the bench today. I've mentioned before seeing Greer leave his seat on the bench and walk up to Thibodeau to tell him something during games only to be completely ignored or waved away by Thibodeau. Well, it happened several times tonight. Each time, Thibodeau wouldn't even look at Greer as Thibodeau instead continued to gaze out at the action on the floor. It was as if Greer didn't exist to Thibodeau. The last time Greer walked up to Thibodeau, was with about 3:00 left in game. It looked then like Greer was suggesting that Thibodeau take his starters off the floor. But again, Thibodeau wouldn't even acknowledge Greer. As Greer walked back to his seat, he looked at the players and assistant coaches on the bench, smiled awkwardly and shrugged his shoulders. It was fascinating. The guy sitting in front of me and I both noticed quite a bit of interaction between players and Greer tonight. The guy in front of me said he's noticed that a lot in games this season.

What is readily apparent is that there is no rapport between Thibodeau and any of the Wolves players. The good news is that there appears to be a very good report among all the Wolves players, especially KAT, Covington, Saric, Rose and Taj. Those five guys talk to each other a lot and really appear to like one another in the way they interact.

Bottom line tonight is that the Wolves won a game they absolutely should have won. They won because of an enormous talent disparity and because of great effort from Towns, Taj, Rose, and Covington. Tyus and Saric didn't fill the box score, but they both played well. It's interesting to see how the team simply gets better when Tyus is in the game instead of Teague. But obviously tonight's game ball goes to KAT, who scored 36 efficient points, pulled down 22 rebounds and dished out 6 assists. His effort on both sides of the ball was tremendous. A good game and a good win.

[Porckchop]

Effort and attitude is the only thing that can be brought to the table consistently in any walk of life. If a guy can't bring that when everything else isn't working it'll always be a problem . Wiggins doesn't seem to be driven by any sort of ego that most athletes have.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Always great to get your up close look at what's happening on the court and bench, Lip. And as much as he deserves to be maligned, Glen Taylor is not a dumb guy and is even closer to the action than you are...you have to believe he notices things like the Greer/Thibs interaction and the lack of rapport Thibs has with his team. But the team is playing well since the Butler trade (with the exception of one game against Memphis, whom we always play poorly against), and Glen isn't going to make a move while the team is playing well...unfortunately.

Yes, the Bulls are 5-15 and not very good...but they also have been competitive in most of their games this year, so I'm not going to shortchange the team after a 15-point win. In fact, the world champion Warriors are the only Western Conference team to beat the Bulls by more than 15 points this season. And to think we did it with our wings making one out of 30 shots makes the win even more impressive.

Towns and Rose were terrific again, although contributions were made by almost everyone except Wig. I agree that the Wig isolation at the end of the half and leaving the starters in with the game decided were two more indications of why Tom Thibodeau should not be coaching an NBA team. Fortunately this immensely talented team is proving they can win in spite of Thibs' coaching...5-2 now since the trade.

Something that pleasantly surprised me was how Derrick Rose altered his game after we got up double figures. For the first three quarters of the game he realized that nobody on the Bulls could stop him, and that the Wolves needed his scoring to win this one. So he called his own number time after time and scored an efficient 22 points on only 13 shots. But instead of going off for 40 like he easily could have, he spent the 4th quarter being a distributing point guard and getting his teammates involved in the scoring. Rose knows this is a playoff team, but that they aren't going to make it if he is the only one scoring. Great teammate.

Very satisfying win. The suddenly rejuvenated Cavs are next tomorrow night...not going to be a pushover, but we should win it and move closer to the 8th position.

[Monster]

Lip's report of the interactions with Greer is strange for several reasons. This might be the weirdest one. I think even the biggest Thibs ditractors give him credit for doing some different things this year and chilling out a bit. The Wolves are winning a game they should putting their foot down in the 4th quarter after struggling making shots earlier in the game. Thibs should be relatively happy. Instead he seemed (based on Lip's report) to go back to his usual thing although Teague didn't return to the game (maybe Teague showed no interest in doing so). I've tried to give Thibs credit and benefit of the doubt where it's due but it's stuff like this that bring's on legit criticism.

Having said all that I think Glen realizes that it makes little sense to fire Thibs now. It's also possible even if this team makes the playoffs (that's looking more like a legit possibility) and plays plenty decently he makes a move because of the interactions Lip reports. The Raptors fires Dwayne Casey for having the best season in franchise history. Glen can Fire Thibs if he doesn't feel he is the right guy. Will he? Idk How players feel about Thibs is gonna matter also.

Meanwhile I think Thibs is generally trying to play a different brand of basketball on both ends of the court so he probably isn't holding them back as much as he could be. I'm kinda hoping some team stupidly fires someone or they want out. Watching this game I felt that way even before I read the game thread and Lip's report. It does feel like even though the Wolves did miss shots in this game they could be more.

[Lipoli390]

LST - Great observation on how Rose adjusted his game later in the game. He is such a terrific player. A true winner and consummate teammate. All the more unacceptable it was to have Rose playing the last 4 minutes of the game, creating more wear and tear on his body and worse yet needlessly risking injury.

While I continue to count the days to Thibodeau's departure, I'm realistic enough to acknowledge it's unlikely Taylor lets him go before the end of the season.

I'm still hoping Thibodeau the PBO shops Teague aggressively before the Feb. deadline. Maybe he can get a first round pick like we did for Rubio.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Thanks for the report Lip. Any win is a good win for this franchise, but yeah, it was closer than I thought it should have been for the first three quarters.

I think the other thing to criticize Thibs on is how he hasn't realized yet that the offense should run through KAT 75% of the time, like it finally did in the 2nd half last night. Wiggins still leads this team in shot attempts, which is coaching malfeasance, as Lip likes to say. He's one of the most inefficient scoring wings in the NBA 5 seasons running now, yet we insist to force feed him possessions. We're well past the point of doing so for the sake of his development. He should really try to replicate Convington's game (mostly his game) of spot up 3's and basket cuts. Forget his drives to the hoop and pull up long 2s and midrange shots. Those are a lost cause at this point.

Covington played a great game despite the horrid shooting. He also took un-RoCo like shots that he really has no business attempting. I think because Thibs lacks any sort of creative, motion-based offense, a lot of our guys are stuck trying to create offense out of thin air when it's really outside of their comfort zone.

I thought Gorgui played a nice game defensively, but offensively he is also stuck in the 1990s with his mid to long range 2s that rarely go in. Ugh.

Overall, good win, but not something we can really gain much insight from in terms of how this team is trending.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

With Wiggins we have a Joe Mauer situation. Max money guy who should be moved down the order but won't because of that contract.

We can't trade him but he should be moved down the order as 6th man. Free Okogie!

[Lipoli390]

"Covington played a great game despite the horrid shooting. He also took un-RoCo like shots that he really has no business attempting. I think because Thibs lacks any sort of creative, motion-based offense, a lot of our guys are stuck trying to create offense out of thin air when it's really outside of their comfort zone."

Great insight on RoCo's shot selection and the related impact of Thibodeau's offense, Q.

[Monster]

Its great to win a game when you have a couple guys shoot that bad. Even if Wiggins and Covington taking the worst shots imaginable they probably don't shoot THAT bad many times. Good teams overcome things like that and win against lower teams. Part of why they won was they actually played some defense.

FWIW according to NBA.com Covington is driving only a bit more with the Wolves than he did last year with the sixers and the problem is that he has been horrifically unsuccessful when he does. Last year he was 45% FG percentage on his drives. Wolves...11% I'd guess he isn't going to keep being THAT bad.

[thedoper]

I think Thibs rotations were good last night. Saric was a huge factor in turning the momentum back our way in both halves. I was happy to see Thibs stick with him in the 2nd and get extensive time with KAT. I don't think it's a coincidence that KAT start taking off in the 2nd with Dario on the floor.