Minnesota Sports Forum

This will be a short one tonight. We played well the first half and gave me the impression we might actually pull it out. But alas, we had to play a second half and the rest was predictable. I'll offer a few observations.

1. Zach was terrific tonight with 25 points and some very good defense. Zach's play tonight underscored the fact that he's this team's best player right now. He's the one guy you an count on to show up and perform every game. Like every other player in the League he's better some nights than others. But you always get the feeling he'll do something positive to help the team. When he shoots, you always have the feeling it has a good chance of going in. When he shoots from the line you can be almost certain it will go in. When he handles the ball, you see a guy with command of the ball who can stop, start and change directions with the ball in his hand. What you might not see on TV is how active he is on both ends of the court. On the offensive end, he constantly moves without the ball and when he's dribbling he doesn't stay stationary but moves forward, backward and laterally. He still makes boneheaded plays from time to time on the defensive end, but the effort is always there and more often than not this season he's performing well defensively. He's also the one guy who's pumping up or supporting his teammates. At one point tonight he went up to Cole and patted him on the chest after he missed a shot inside when it was clear Cole was feeling really bad. He also took on a fan who was giving Ricky crap, telling the fan to shut the F up. I love Zach's talent, his effort, his intensity and moxie.

2. KAT had a bad offensive night tonight, but he brought effort as evidenced by his 14 rebounds. He also had a steal and a block. He consistently gives great effort, but he looks lost and almost demoralized. I can't put my finger on it, but that's what I see.

3. Ricky was terrible offensively tonight, but he played extremely hard and actually played well defensively. I like that he pulled down 5 rebounds and only turned the ball over once.

4. Dunn had another nice game defensively and actually shot well tonight. But his decision-making as floor general was bad.

5. Gorgui is another guy who gives great effort all the time and tonight's game was no exception. He still passes up too many quality shots that he should take. And he uncharacteristically bad from the free throw line.

6. I loved Bazz's effort tonight. The scoring wasn't there, but he crashed the boards. Again tonight, he showed that he's significantly improved his defense. He consistently gets down low in a great defensive stance and stays intense.

7. Belly was a nonfactor tonight.

8. Wiggins was embarrassingly horrible. 11 points with his last 4 points coming on uncontested hal-court drives in garbage time near the end of the game. No steals, no blocks and 4 turnovers -- more than Ricky or Zach even though he handled the ball far less than those two. My friend who came with me and who coaches basketball wondered out loud if Wiggins ever feels embarrassed when he gets beat badly by an opposing player. His demeanor is wearing thin with me. He walks around half the time like he's on liesurly stroll through the forest. Unless a play is designed for him on the offensive end he usually just finds a spot on the floor and stays there. Very little movement from him off the ball. I know he was defending a great player, but Andrew's soft defense made it especially easy for him. In contrast to Bazz, Andrew (as always) did not get low into a good defensive posture and he was easily screened way to often. But what took the cake for me and my friend was when Wiggins walking out onto the court to start the 2nd half looking like he just got out of bed. His shirt was untucked and amazingly he was tucking it in and tying his shorts while the Spurs were bringing the ball across half court. Glen Taylor needs to take Milwaukee's owner and front office staff out for drinks, get them drunk and offer to deal Wiggins for the Greek Freak. Offer to include Rubio if they say no. If they still say no, pull out a gun and threaten them. I honestly can't stand watching Wiggins anymore. Yes, he'll have great offensive games down the road just as he did early this season. But he'll never be somone we can count on. I'd look hard to deal him while his value is still high.

Looks like the Wolves won't be going 10-5 in this 15 game stretch. :)

Lip if you saw Lavine standing up for Rubio and what led up to it etc that would be cool. Brit expanded a bit on twitter but I'd be interested to hear more. I watched the condensed game just now I'll watch the full game in a day or so. I think the condensed game shows every shot make. I thought there were a few possessions Wiggins was playing pretty good D on Leonard he just made a heck of a shot.

Monster -- I don't know more about Zach's exchange with the fan other than reading Zach's lips. I couldn't make out exactly what the fan said either. It happened as Zach was walking to the bench. I'm 12 rows directly behind the Wolves bench.

Leonard was definitely hitting some tough shots tonight. My problem with Wiggins defensively was his complete lack of physicality or any real harassment of Leonard. Guys like Ricky and Dunn (and to some extent Zach) get the inside the jock of the guy they're defending and make him uncomfortable. Dunn is particularly good at it. Wiggins, even at his best defensively, doesn't do that and therefore players he's defending can get comfortable and into a rhythm. But my biggest problem with Wiggins tonight was his failure to answer the call on the other end and at least come close to matching KL. It's hard to stop guys like Leonard, which means that, if you're a top player, you need to answer a guy like Leonard with your own offensive output. KL had over 30 points tonight. Wiggins had 11. Actually, he should only get credit for 7 because his last two buckets were on half-court drives against the Spurs' scrubs in the last minute of the game when no one was guarding anyone.

Great report, Lip. I personally can't disagree with anything here. Seems like we watched the same game despite different vantage points.

Yeah, despite some poor individual performances, we battled the best road and coached team in basketball dead even in the first half before our tired legs took away our defensive intensity and offensive aggressiveness leading to yet another second half collapse (yawn).

And good point about Wig only really getting 7 that counted last night, Lip...my buddy and I remarked a couple times how the best defensive player in basketball completely took Wig's game away from him, while scoring almost 30 off of him. What a complete ass-kicking! When Pop sat down his starters with the game out of hand, you could see Wig licking his chops...almost like he was saying "Okay, those scary guys are gone...I better take advantage and keep my scoring average up". Harsh, I know, but Leonard against Wig last night was like a man playing against a boy.

The sad thing is how predictable the game was. Teams know that the Wolves collapse in the third quarter and the Spurs just applied the pressure and watch the Wolves collapse.

There were two things I really liked in the game:

1. At the conclusion of either the first quarter or the half Kris Dunn was guarding Leonard and actually did get in his jock and was disruptive.

2. Bazzl sprinting in transition like a 5th grader, as fast as he possibly can. It doesn't look good, but this team cannot worry about looking good at this point

There was more than one time in the game where Wiggins was isolated against KL and I said to myself let's see this great one on one defense he is supposed to have. The result was always a score by KL.

Wiggins only seems to get rebounds that come to him, not him hustling to get them. I am with Lip and think now is a good time to start thinking about trading him. Let him get on another hot streak and then pull the trigger for a couple more solid glue guys to strengthen the bench. You just have to wonder what BAZ would do with more minutes and not looking over his shoulder to see when he is coming out.

Belly where did you go?

I can no longer watch a game on tv without hearing Thibodeau and noticing his general grumpiness.

Thanks for nothing, guys. You've made basketball watching less fun... and this is coming from a guy who's watched the Wolves religiously since 1989. You did the impossible. Congrats.

leado01 wrote:The sad thing is how predictable the game was. Teams know that the Wolves collapse in the third quarter and the Spurs just applied the pressure and watch the Wolves collapse.

There were two things I really liked in the game:

1. At the conclusion of either the first quarter or the half Kris Dunn was guarding Leonard and actually did get in his jock and was disruptive.

2. Bazzl sprinting in transition like a 5th grader, as fast as he possibly can. It doesn't look good, but this team cannot worry about looking good at this point

I guess we'll take what we can get, but man, these are pretty miniscule slivers of light!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I can no longer watch a game on tv without hearing Thibodeau and noticing his general grumpiness.

Thanks for nothing, guys. You've made basketball watching less fun... and this is coming from a guy who's watched the Wolves religiously since 1989. You did the impossible. Congrats.

Sorry, abe, but it's even more annoying when you're at the game. The grumpiness, the bellowing, and the weirdest thing...the oddly, uncontrollably twitching right hand. I can't take my eyes off it sometimes it's so distracting. My friend was at his first game this year and after watching Thibs' bizarre twitching and bellowing, he said to me "I just figured out who he is...he's Joe Cocker!"

Oh well, as long as he keeps getting the most out of this roster like he has been doing, I can live with his sideline antics.