Minnesota Sports Forum

As fans, we see things through our own lens... err, bias at times.

If I dislike Andrew Wiggins, I'm gonna notice the lack of effort and missed shots and dismiss a key strip late. If I love Crawford, I don't care about the hero ball if the shots go in. If I'm a Thibs hater... well you get the idea.

It's even more pronounced when watching games where we're rooting for our favorite team to win.

Last night marked only the 4th time in 3,836 games that a Trailblazers team shot 5 or fewer free throws. And one of those was a technical foul. Damian Lillard was not happy... surely drawing an upcoming fine.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21817027/fans-utter-slurs-portland-trail-blazers-guard-damian-lillard

Jim Peterson called out a foul on Lillard's last drive to the hoop. Q pointed out steps from Jimmy Butler on at least one play. Should we feel bad? Meh.

The Wolves have had it happen many times. Take any win any way. I just find it sort of amusing to see other teams crying foul... ahem ahem... after losing to the Wolves.

....one of the things the Wolves do well is not fouling. It's why our defensive rating is not dead last. So while Portland may have had some legitimate beefs last night, overall Minnesota really doesn't foul that often, so this type of stat is sorta more believable in a game against Minnesota.

In fact, this team is somewhat similar to the Love/Pekovic/Martin/Brewer/Rubio squad a few years ago. They had a positive turnover differential and didn't foul much, but still did crappy at the most important thing on defense: Preventing made baskets.

Our #1 issue as a team - and it's been a problem for literally years - is Opponent eFG%. Not even Thibs has moved the needle much on this.

Yeah I did it I went over to RealGM to see what they said. Here are a couple posts.

"that's pretty unusual for Dame to go off like that, but it was an unusual game...as in unevenly officiated
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in the 'so-that's-what-it's-come-to' department, Portland has always seemed to have higher participation in this forum then Minny has in theirs. It hasn't been a large gap but it's been there

so anyway, the Blazer game thread has 2 pages and Minny's game thread has 10 pages. Maybe that's what happens when one team looks like a rising young team, while the other team is going thru a 3rd season of near .500 basketball, exhibiting the same flaws and weaknesses it did 3 seasons ago; flat trajectory with no discernible upside. Maybe that's too pessimistic but I'm seeing less and less enthusiasm for this Blazer team"

This poster is super hyped about the foul machine Collins.

"I can't wait till Nurk and Collins play together fulltime they are gonna be really dynamic. Imagine if Denver kept there pick and traded up for him. That would've been a great complimentary player besides Jokic."

And this one looks like it came straight out of our board. :)

"Am I only one who got tired of seeing opponent backup guards having games of the season against Blazers?"

All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

TheSP wrote:All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

I miss Chuckdorn. I bet he is really enjoying those Warriors. It was good to get some thoughts from other teams fans.

Also what SEEMS like more and more Championship or bust thinking has stolen some joy out of watching sports.

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

I miss Chuckdorn. I bet he is really enjoying those Warriors. It was good to get some thoughts from other teams fans.

Also what SEEMS like more and more Championship or bust thinking has stolen some joy out of watching sports.

I don't think this board has a championship or bust mentality outside of feeling like a chance at a championship in the near future is a fading possibility. I think a season can be a success without winning it all, so long as you see positive movement in that direction for non-contending teams. Much of the negativity surrounding this team is because the two young players who're seen as key to any championship hopes are not showing enough progress to validate that hype!

TheSP wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

I miss Chuckdorn. I bet he is really enjoying those Warriors. It was good to get some thoughts from other teams fans.

Also what SEEMS like more and more Championship or bust thinking has stolen some joy out of watching sports.

I don't think this board has a championship or bust mentality outside of feeling like a chance at a championship in the near future is a fading possibility. I think a season can be a success without winning it all, so long as you see positive movement in that direction for non-contending teams. Much of the negativity surrounding this team is because the two young players who're seen as key to any championship hopes are not showing enough progress to validate that hype!

I should clarify I meant more in general of sports fans I wasn't really saying it about this board.

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

I miss Chuckdorn. I bet he is really enjoying those Warriors. It was good to get some thoughts from other teams fans.

Also what SEEMS like more and more Championship or bust thinking has stolen some joy out of watching sports.

I don't think this board has a championship or bust mentality outside of feeling like a chance at a championship in the near future is a fading possibility. I think a season can be a success without winning it all, so long as you see positive movement in that direction for non-contending teams. Much of the negativity surrounding this team is because the two young players who're seen as key to any championship hopes are not showing enough progress to validate that hype!

I should clarify I meant more in general of sports fans I wasn't really saying it about this board.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I'm quite the homer, I wouldn't even know other teams existed if they didn't play our teams! :D

TheSP wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:All this Blazers talk has me reminiscing of days not long since passed in which a poster named Blazer_Fanatic used to tell how her team was so much better off than our was with Kevin Love and the boys. Turns out she was right about our team, not so much about hers. That's one thing I miss about the ESPN boards, having fans of the other team participating made things quite a bit more interesting then us just bagging on each other!

I miss Chuckdorn. I bet he is really enjoying those Warriors. It was good to get some thoughts from other teams fans.

Also what SEEMS like more and more Championship or bust thinking has stolen some joy out of watching sports.

I don't think this board has a championship or bust mentality outside of feeling like a chance at a championship in the near future is a fading possibility. I think a season can be a success without winning it all, so long as you see positive movement in that direction for non-contending teams. Much of the negativity surrounding this team is because the two young players who're seen as key to any championship hopes are not showing enough progress to validate that hype!

I should clarify I meant more in general of sports fans I wasn't really saying it about this board.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I'm quite the homer, I wouldn't even know other teams existed if they didn't play our teams! :D

Lol I'm seriously pretty much that way with the Twins.

Ha, I remember Blazer fanatic. That troll was awful. Now you jinxed it SP. He's gonna come back:)