Game Report - Wolves v. Knicks

[Lipoli390]

Things were a step down in the arena tonight compared to the last couple games. By that I mean there were actually some empty seats in the arena tonight. But it was still a nice size crowd and the energy in the building was terrific. Another fun night, but the first half was unsettling as the Wolves were exhibiting the let-down I was worried about. But the starters came out and got us back on track defensively at the beginning of the second half and eventually our bench came in a gave us a nice lift in the 4th before our starters closed it out.

The defense in the first half wa pretty bad, although not as bad as we've seen it earlier this season. But the defense clearly picked up in the second half. And even as the defense faltered in the first half, the Wolves dominated the boards. We had a 10 rebound margin in the first half. We ended up with a 7 rebound edge by the end of the game. Importantly, we held one of the League's best offensive rebounding teams to only 9 offensive boards for the game. Rebounds and steals were our edge tonight.

My game ball obviously has to go to KAT with his 23 points, 15 boards and 9 assists. He was stellar on both ends of the court again tonight. My runner-up is Teague, but it could easily be Taj. Teague was aggressive on both ends from the beginning tonight and helped lot tonight. He's constant aggressive ball pressure produced his 4 steals for the night. Wiggins played really well defensively and hit some big shots. He didn't shoot particularly well, but he contributed to the win and I really like what we're seeing from him lately on the defensive end.

It was great to win one with Butler having a subpar game. Our young duo are starting to step up consistently now. This was their game far more than Butler's tonight.

But the real story tonight was our bench. Having Teague and Belly back with confidence really strengthens our bench. Gorgui had another nice game with 10 points, 5 boards and 2 steals in only 20 minutes. And Belly looked more like his pre-injury self again. Great to seee him back and playing with some confidence. His 10 points in 11 minutes were huge for us tonight. Crawford also added 10 points, helping our bench to a net positive plus/minus.

Again, a nice win again tonight. Now let's finish this homstand off with a win over Portland on Sunday.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Good NBA teams have always found ways to pull away for victories late. As Wolves fans, we've seen this literally hundreds of times over the last decade. We were left with false hope, feel-good nothingness and quotes like "We hung close, if only..."

F that.

This is the 2nd straight game where the Wolves beat down its opponent and showed they were the better team as the game progressed. Feels good to root for one of the better teams...

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Good NBA teams have always found ways to pull away for victories late. As Wolves fans, we've seen this literally hundreds of times over the last decade. We were left with false hope, feel-good nothingness and quotes like "We hung close, if only..."

F that.

This is the 2nd straight game where the Wolves beat down its opponent and showed they were the better team as the game progressed. Feels good to root for one of the better teams...

And we did it with mostly our bench, which was really nice to see!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Thanks for the report Lip.

This game reminded me a bit of those early season games where we come up against a few shooters that just can't freakin' miss. These guys made a good handful of well-contested 3's, but we won the turnover and rebounding battle and simply out-possessioned them.

[Monster]

Good NBA teams have always found ways to pull away for victories late. As Wolves fans, we've seen this literally hundreds of times over the last decade. We were left with false hope, feel-good nothingness and quotes like "We hung close, if only..."

F that.

This is the 2nd straight game where the Wolves beat down its opponent and showed they were the better team as the game progressed. Feels good to root for one of the better teams...

And we did it with mostly our bench, which was really nice to see!

The bench on the first half actually did fine. Yes the Knicks were still scoring but that bench was putting up points too. It was a reason that game never really got out of hand.

[Monster]

Thanks for the report Lip.

This game reminded me a bit of those early season games where we come up against a few shooters that just can't freakin' miss. These guys made a good handful of well-contested 3's, but we won the turnover and rebounding battle and simply out-possessioned them.

I thought the same thing Q. Lip had a great point about the rebounding win in this game.

[Monster]

One interesting part of this game that wasn't mentioned was possessions with Wiggins and Porzingis involved directly. Wiggins had that block on Porzingis which was just awesome and a couple times Wiggins had to guard him he did a good job with at worst his had right in his face not far away from the ball which considering the length of Porzingis...impressive. He also had at least one finish on him later in the game. Wiggins continues to impress me going against bigger players as a defender. O'Quinn...ok no but that's more of a traditional NBA big. Wiggins seems to have moved from being a skinny wing defender to a legit option as a small ball 4 Over the summer. It's a bit of an unexpected development.

[Monster]

One sequence I was curious if Lip saw was later in the game Butler was guarding Jack in transition giving ground and Jack got the foul and went to the line. Thibs was going at the official about the call and the official said something to Thibs and Thibs basically completely relaxed said ok and turned around and walked the other way. It was pretty hilarious.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

One interesting part of this game that wasn't mentioned was possessions with Wiggins and Porzingis involved directly. Wiggins had that block on Porzingis which was just awesome and a couple times Wiggins had to guard him he did a good job with at worst his had right in his face not far away from the ball which considering the length of Porzingis...impressive. He also had at least one finish on him later in the game. Wiggins continues to impress me going against bigger players as a defender. O'Quinn...ok no but that's more of a traditional NBA big. Wiggins seems to have moved from being a skinny wing defender to a legit option as a small ball 4 Over the summer. It's a bit of an unexpected development.

One of the good things about WIggins is due to his size, length and athleticism, he can switch on a number of different positions and not be completely overmatched. So while I don't think he's a very good all-around defender yet, he also isn't a guy that can be explicitly targeted in mismatches.

[Lipoli390]

One sequence I was curious if Lip saw was later in the game Butler was guarding Jack in transition giving ground and Jack got the foul and went to the line. Thibs was going at the official about the call and the official said something to Thibs and Thibs basically completely relaxed said ok and turned around and walked the other way. It was pretty hilarious.

I don't recall seeing that exchange. But I've seen a lot of what you described from Thibs in past game. It's pretty common for him to get on an official and then walk away from the conversation nodding affirmatively and saying OK. That's probably why he doesn't get more technicals. Officials expect him to go after them verbally, but also know that they can talk to him and that he'll listen and acknowledge their points.