Game report Wolves vs. Nuggets

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I'm going to keep this fairly short:

- Target Center was sold out and rocking.

- Denver is a damn good team.

- Cam was right about Murray.

- Jokic is massive.

- KAT effed up late when we were up in the 4th and he took a quick midrange shot from an awkward distance instead of kicking it out and running more clock.

- Refs almost took that game from us.

- Wiggins with the 3s and nice D without fouling on final shot.

- This is a 25 win team without Butler and Gibson.

- Huge win!

[Porckchop]

Best record in conference play right now. Who would've thunk it

[thedoper]

What a game to go to. Hope you had fun.

[AbeVigodaLive]

- Fun... maddening... game to watch. Another win. Keep collecting them. OKC is figuring things out. Denver is legit even without Millsap. Portland isn't going anywhere. And even New Orleans might have 2 of the top 12 guys in the league.

- Jimmy Buckets is good. I think there are parallels with this team and OKC. After a feeling out period... the best players are simply taking over and letting others follow suit if they want to... but neither guy is playing a complementary role nearly as much and it's working. Let the best players be at their best and everything else will sort itself out.

- The Teague injury. That's a biggie. I don't want more of Jamal Crawford... 20 mpg is fine. But I'll gouge my eyes out if it's a lot more than that. No Aaron Brooks at all. And I don't know if Tyus Jones is a 34 mpg guy yet. But what do the Wolves have as bait? Does Aldrich's contract really offer much of anything? Would they dangle the rookie Patton before he even steps on the court in a bit of a myopic move?

- Jokic drew 13 fouls. I WANT to like the guy because I dig any willing passer. But chalk him up as yet another really annoying player. The flopping and complaining... it's not at Demarcus Cousins' level... but it's really bad.

- I thought to myself when the wolves were up 86 - 68... don't blow this one. And then I thought to myself... "not tonight"... they're playing with too much energy. Oops. Denver just took over that game the moment the Wolves took a breath. Sure, the Wolves stumbled a bit... but Denver just got hot.

- Even after that ridiculous stretch behind the arc to start... the Nuggets hit more three pointers. They shot 15 - 39.

- I think I like Thibs the GM A LOT better than Thibs the coach thus far. The timeouts are just terrible. It's one thing to waste them... but there's no creativity on the inbounds plays after them so they're such a waste! Now as for Thibs the GM... Butler + Gibson + Crawford. All three play critical roles in one win after another.

- Impressive comeback from Denver. Not a lot of teams are playing with that much energy and determination on the second night of a back-to-back after falling behind by 18 midway through the 3rd. Having two legit 20+ point guys off the bench is a nice perk for them.

- I'd put big money on Milwaukee tomorrow. Between the drain of the big conference win... and the back-to-back... and no Teague, I don't think we're seeing the New Orleans game revisited. I think we're seeing a schedule loss.

[Lipoli390]

Thanks for the report Q. I just got done watching the first half replay. Hard to believe the Nuggets came back to tie after what I saw the first half.

KAT was absolutely terrific in the fist half - scoring rebounding, blocking shots, defending and passing. Then I look at the box score and notice he ended up playing only 30 minutes and finished with only 14 points. Wow, things must have gone horribly wrong for him in the second half. I'd be interested in getting some details on what happened from folks who watched the game.

Looking at the box score and what I saw in the first half, it appears that Wiggins had his shooting stroke back for tonight's game. Still only 3 rebounds and 0 assists on 40 minutes while missing 3 of 5 free throw attempts. But at least he was shooting well. And his defense looked pretty good in the first half.

Gorgui also looked good in the first half. As Thibs often notes, he does a lot of good things that don't show up in the box score and I saw a number of those things form him in the first half. Taj didn't appear to rebound well looking at the box score. But he scored 20 efficient points and from I saw in the first half he was playing his typical super solid game on both ends.

Can't say enough about Jimmy Butler. Obviously, his stats were tremendous with 39 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. He looked terrific in the first half, but apparently he was even better in the second half and overtime.

I'm really worried about Teague. Interestingly, my wife and I were home watching the first half replay tonight and we were both commenting on how well Teague was playing. We noticed that he seemed to be moving the ball better, which made me think that perhaps part of the issue with him overdribbling has simply been adjusting to a new system and new teammates. After we stopped watching, we read about Teague's injury on line. It was like a kick to the gut. I really hope he's OK. If it turns out to be a torn ACL, then Thibs will have some tough decisions to make. I actually think that Tyus is up to stepping in as the team's starter. The problem would be having to rely on Aaron Brooks as our only backup PG. Nevertheless, if the news on Teague is bad, I think it's important not to make a panic move. We just don't have the assets to get a good PG without giving up too much. We're already thin on wing depth and we don't have extra draft picks. If it were up to me, I'd sign Deron Williams or a G-Leaguer and go with Tyus and Brooks the rest of the way. But let's hope we don't have to go there.

[AbeVigodaLive]

My stat of the day:

Andrew Wiggins has played in 35 games. He's 2nd in minutes played.

And he has either 1 or 0 assists in 18 of those 35 games.



[Note: Shabazz Muhammad is smiling as he reads this post.]

[Leado01]

He doesn't have the ball in his hands that often to dish assists - he tends to get it later in the clock being the 3rd option on the floor. Wiggins stock is going up in my mind - I think he is seeing more of the court - last night he had a few great dishes that weren't converted for wide open 3's.

I would prefer to see Bazz in the game over MGH - I actually thought we could have used him last night. He's way in the doghouse.

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

I thought the platooning of Tyus and MGH in crunch time was interesting. Very indicative of how Thibs must view their skill sets.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see some Shabazz tonight as someone will need to make up Teague's minutes.

[Lipoli390]

Any word on Teague's MRI?

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

sprain - see thread