Minnesota Sports Forum

Fun to be at Target Center with the seats filled again. We're starting to get a nice atmosphere and vibe at Target Center. Totally different feel from the past too many years.

Like the win at Indiana the night before, last night was another game we should have won. I'm glad we won both games. But regarding Sunday night, let's keep in mind that Indiana had lost 3 consecutive before we played them and they were playing without their best player, Oladipo. Regarding last night's win, note that the Lakers have the second worst record in the entire NBA and were playing without their starting PG and center last night. The good news is that we won both games and the even better news is that we dominated those games. And that's where I think this team may have turned the corner.

I like the way we moved the ball last night and the night before against Indiana. And although Butler was our leading scorer in both games, we didn't depend on him as much as we had in the wins leading up to those games. We played well on both sides of the ball last night and looked like a team ready to do more than just make the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed. Of course, we'll know more in the next week as we take on the Cavs and Thunder.

My game ball goes to Andrew Wiggins. He actually wasn't the biggest difference maker for the Wolves last night, but he has to be rewarded for what I consider his best game of the season to date. He played with an energy level and alertness that too often seems absent from his game. The result was 21 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. Yes, 9 rebounds! Oh, and he hit all but one of his 7 free throws. Wow!

Honorable mention goes to Gorgui Dieng, who played really well off the bench with 17 points on 7 for 8 shooting, 2 blocks and a nice all-around smart game in his 22 minutes. KAT's defense was terrific again. Although credited with only 1 block, he altered a ton of shots, got 2 steals and played intelligently. Buter was Butler with 28 points and 9 assists. The beauty of Butler is that he can be whatever you need him to be. Need 30 points, he'll get you 30. Need 7-10 assists with your starting PG down and he'll do that. Need 8-10 rebounds, he'll do that as well. Taj was Taj with 14 efficient points and good defense, but he looked tired last night. Actually, he looked like he was dragging a bit in the Indiana game. Tyus continues to do a superb job running the offense. He's a natural PG and it shows. Aaron Brooks isn't bad. He gives great effort on both ends of the court.

In a break-through moment, Thibs patted KAT on the back when he came to the bench. I swear it's the first time I've ever seen Thibs pat KAT. Thibs doesn't pat any players often, but I think he had patted every player but KAT before last night. :)

There seems to be some nice chemistry developing on this team that's becoming more apparent on the bench. Guys are standing up and cheering each other a lot. They're talking more than I've seen earlier in the season. Teague has been great on the bench. He's a quiet guy, but he's been anything but quiet on the bench. He's the first guy to stand up and pump his fist when a teammate makes a good play and he's one of the first guys to great players coming off the court in a timeout. I don't want to read to much into what I saw last night and in the past several games, but it looks different to me and those things do matter.

Tyus's younger brother was at the game last night, sitting pretty close to us. If you haven't seen him, he looks almost exactly like Tyus. He was pretty stoic all night -- very different from KAT's dad who's always yelling and cheering.

All in all, a nice win. The going gets tougher in the next 23 games before the allstar break. But we won the two games we had to win and we did it convincingly. Now let's keep in going with a road win over the Nets, a suprise home win over the Cavs and another home win over the Thunder.

Thanks for the report Lip, glad you could witness a fairly stress-free victory!

- The fact we are so breathlessly impressed with Wiggins' stat line says more about his level of mediocre play over the past 3+ seasons than his performance last night. Good to see? Absolutely, but this should be what he does every single night and it's hard for me to see that happening. I hope he proves me wrong!

- The Lakers are going to be really good again soon. They play hard, they play fast, and they have some real talent on that squad. I like Luke Walton a lot.

- I think Bjelly is the most picked on player in the NBA by refs. First they miss him literally getting shoved out of the way on a fast break and then he gets called for a ticky tack shooting foul guarding Ingram where I thought he did a great job keeping his verticality. He gets zero respect.

- KAT is blocking more shots and getting more deflections, but I still think he swats down too much. Those often lead to fouls or blocked balls out of bounds. Still, you can see improvement.....

- This team has skated by with a pretty lucky set of circumstances of late in terms of opposing team injury situations. I still don't think we're as good as our record, but at this point, we just need to know how it feels like to win, no matter what. It feels good.

Great report Lip. I especially like what you said about Butler being able to give you whatever is needed. I totally agree. He was noticeably upset after Wig got fouled and didn't finish a play late in the game. He really wanted that 10th assist.

I also noticed Teague's energy level on the bench. You don't see that from him on the court, so it's cool to see he has that fire for his teammates.

This team is getting better as they should with all the new parts coming together. Some of those disappointing early season losses probably wouldn't happen if those games were played now. But as one of my favorites - John Madden - used to say, you are what you are. And we are 10 games over .500 and comfortably in 4th place in the West.

Lip honestly so don't know that losing Ball and Lopez hurts the Lakers all that much especially Lopez who wasn't playing super great this year. Ball has played better of late but remember that team without both guys took a Harden and CP3 team to a bunch of overtime's the night before. Their bench is pretty good for any team much less one with that bad record. They aren't a good team and it's likely they were tired and It was suggested that was the reason Kuzma didn't do much except a couple 3's.

Lip there have been reports about Teague REALLY hating missing games and being out there with his teammates doing as many drills as possible. Jon K said some of these things are really impressing teammates and some others in the organization. He said Teague's popularity around the team has really gone up the last few weeks not that it was bad but it has gone up. He may have found himself/his role within the team to a certain extent and he has plenty of vet experience and can be a leader in his way. I've noticed some of the same things Lip reported watching the telecasts bit it's great to hear what Lip can see in the arena. I like getting these reports. :)

Lip, I got the next report from Brooklyn tomorrow night.

This team is getting better as they should with all the new parts coming together. Some of those disappointing early season losses probably wouldn't happen if those games were played now. But as one of my favorites - John Madden - used to say, you are what you are. And we are 10 games over .500 and comfortably in 4th place in the West.

- It takes time for a team with 3/5 of the starting unit being brand new to the organization and a couple "new" contributors off the bench to blend and learn how to play together.

- "You are what your record says you are." Right now, and moving forward, we're a team that's won 63% of our games and currently find ourselves just 2.0 games behind the 3rd-seed Spurs and 3.5 behind the 2nd-seed Rockets. That's well within striking distance. Minnesota's also shown signs of drastic improvement both defensively and in 4th-quarter production. That's real life, not a dream.

So, I agree with everything in Cool's post above -- mainly because I've made these points time and time again throughout the early part of the season. Just keep winning.