Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm really tired of reporting on losses. But alas, that's all we have at home so far this season. So here goes.

Very moving to stand for the French national anthem today in the aftermath of that heinous attack in Paris.

A surprisingly small crowd for a Sunday afternoon with good weather. But it was a pretty good crowd - decent energy throughout the game. I also like the energy from most of the Wolves on the court tonight. Unfortunately, another loss in a winnable game. So why did we lose? I'll offer what I consider the three main reasons:

1. Ricky was on the bench in a sport coat. Yes, as master of the obvious I'll just state for the record that Ricky's absence yet again was responsible for yet another loss. I won't even get into the LaVine at PG debate. The fact is that Ricky is a superb PG who profoundly raises the level of this team's play on both ends. Ricky has to get healthy and stay healthy for this team to avoid another season like last. Or he has to learn to play and play effectively with soreness that would not typically keep an NBA player off the court. I honestly don't know which one it is with Ricky - an injury no one could play with effectively or a lack of will and mental resilience -- but one way or the other this can't go on. Miller did a nice job running the offense and Zach was solid on both ends as our best scorer tonight. But neither one came close to providing what Ricky gives us as a playmaker, defender and rebounder at his position.

2. Horribly one-sided officiating. Most of you know I rarely complain about officiating, much less blame the officials for a loss. But I am still disgusted by what I saw from the officials tonight and I can honestly say they helped hand this game to the Grizzlies. They assessed 5 fouls to Zach, but 2 of them were complete phantoms and one was highly questionable. The officials seemed to have a target on LaVine's head. At one point they attributed a foul to Zach on a play he wasn't even near, although they did change the call to assess it properly. These fouls were critical to the outcome of the game because they caused Sam to limit Zach to 17 minutes, taking him out at one point in the 3rd quarter when he was on fire. At the same time they were calling phantom fouls on Zach (and Towns), the officials were ignoring multiple muggings of Wiggins and others. At one point Tayshaun was knocked to the floor right in front of us (and in front of an official), but no call. Sam and the coaches were furious over the calls tonight. And Sam rarely makes much of the officiating.

3. Sam's coaching. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched Sam's game plan unfold before my eyes. It was evident early on that the Wolves were going to play a slow half-court game tonight. Yes, a slow half court game with lots of post-ups against probably the best slow down half court team in the League. All the more inexplicable when you consider the fact that the Wolves roster is replete with young fast athletes.

Some other thoughts or observations:

1. Zach, KG, Dieng, Shabazz and Miller played well. Wiggins was ok, but he disappeared for stretches and showed again that his ball-handling is far short of where it needs to be as an NBA wing. What's troubling about Wiggins is that he needs plays run for him to score effectively. The problem with Wiggins is further illustrated by comparing his stats with Zach's in today's game. Zach had 3 assists and 3 boards to go with his 25 points in only 17 minutes. Wiggins had 1 assist and 1 rebound in 36 minutes. This wasn't an aberration. This was reflective of what we typically see.

2. Martin struggles when he doesn't get foul calls and doesn't add anything else if he's not scoring. He's also a liability as a ball-handler.

Thank you for the game report. I always look forward to your view point.

I think the attendance had to do with awesome weather making it hard to want to go sit in the Target Center and then competing against Vikings and NFL line up of games on an afternoon. That is sucking up a lot of entertainment time for most people.

Ha, I'm surprised there were even 5000 fans there competing with a Vikings game and the most beautiful November 15 ever! Thanks for the first-hand game report. lip...I appreciate your reports and cool's 2+1 even more with games I miss.

First, I'm sure it was moving to stand for the stirring French national anthem...such a terrible tragedy. The Wolves now lead the league in moving pre-game ceremonies, but are last in home wins...I'd like that to be reversed the rest of the year.

Your first point may be belaboring the obvious, but it still can't be ignored...this team just hasn't shown it can win without Rubio. You're right...we don't know the level of pain he is feeling or whether some players would try to play through it. I will say that the team isn't doing his reputation any favors by continuing to classify his injury as a "mild hamstring strain"... seems to call his toughness into question.

Your call out of Martin is appropriate...we're simply not going to win with him shooting 3-11, and only getting 2 fouls and shooting 2 threes. Britt Robson tweeted yesterday that Kevin has fallen in love with his foul hunting in place of 3-point attempts. He needs to understand that both elements are integral parts of his offensive game, and neither can be ignored. When he eschews the 3-point shot and instead tries to draw fouls every time, he's not going to be effective...especially when the refs aren't giving him the calls. We need his scoring, since he provides little else, and his 5 consecutive poor games are a big part of our losing streak...he's shooting 32.7 % since coming back from several days off with his personal issue. It's very remindful of what happened with Thad Young last year, and makes me wonder if Kevin is playing with something on his mind.

I feel like Bazz is playing better team defense again this year - but he has no identity in the offense with the exception of the night where they didn't leave him as the weak side option (which we never get to with Lavine on the court). His footwork is still awkward on D sometimes, but his pick and roll and help defense have both improved. Anyone else seeing this? And can we find a way to get him more minutes?

leado01 wrote:I feel like Bazz is playing better team defense again this year - but he has no identity in the offense with the exception of the night where they didn't leave him as the weak side option (which we never get to with Lavine on the court). His footwork is still awkward on D sometimes, but his pick and roll and help defense have both improved. Anyone else seeing this? And can we find a way to get him more minutes?

I think Bazz is definitely giving good effort on defense and that by itself is a good thing. But effort has never really been the issue with Bazz.

He has two things going against him that still make him a liability defensively, albeit perhaps not as bad as his first two years: 1) He has poor awareness and often gets caught ball watching, sagging off his guy when he doesn't have to, or messes up on switches. When the opposing team has a wide open shot or dunk, it's often Bazz that was part of the mistake that led to it. 2) He possesses poor lateral foot speed and is often beat by his matchup off the bounce.

The problem on offense is that he's usually out there with Martin and/or LaVine, two other guys that need shots. Also, he's reverted back to his old ways as a passer, averaging only .6 assists per 36 minutes!

Q12543 wrote:

leado01 wrote:I feel like Bazz is playing better team defense again this year - but he has no identity in the offense with the exception of the night where they didn't leave him as the weak side option (which we never get to with Lavine on the court). His footwork is still awkward on D sometimes, but his pick and roll and help defense have both improved. Anyone else seeing this? And can we find a way to get him more minutes?

I think Bazz is definitely giving good effort on defense and that by itself is a good thing. But effort has never really been the issue with Bazz.

He has two things going against him that still make him a liability defensively, albeit perhaps not as bad as his first two years: 1) He has poor awareness and often gets caught ball watching, sagging off his guy when he doesn't have to, or messes up on switches. When the opposing team has a wide open shot or dunk, it's often Bazz that was part of the mistake that led to it. 2) He possesses poor lateral foot speed and is often beat by his matchup off the bounce.

The problem on offense is that he's usually out there with Martin and/or LaVine, two other guys that need shots. Also, he's reverted back to his old ways as a passer, averaging only .6 assists per 36 minutes!

I think Bazz has been better and he has solid stretches on D where he does fine. There was one time on a screen where he took his own defender out on the play I think it was Belly and it was pretty awful. One other thing that gets left out when mentioning his D is he is actually not that lengthy of a SF. The way he makes up for that is hustle and his throwing his body around like a PF. Overall I think Bazz has refined his game but other than maybe adding a right handed shot (he says he has it not sure I have seen it) I don't see that he has improved much in any area too significantly. He is still young though and quite frankly of the young Wolves he may be put in the toughest spot coming off the bench playing with a guy that isn't a natural PG and another guy that hunts for shots so he is basically fighting for scraps. The good thing is that Bazz with do just that but he would also benefit from getting some opportunities as well. On defense Bjelica is probably the most solid defender of the bunch he plays with which doesn't help him either.

longstrangetrip wrote:Ha, I'm surprised there were even 5000 fans there competing with a Vikings game and the most beautiful November 15 ever! Thanks for the first-hand game report. lip...I appreciate your reports and cool's 2+1 even more with games I miss.

First, I'm sure it was moving to stand for the stirring French national anthem...such a terrible tragedy. The Wolves now lead the league in moving pre-game ceremonies, but are last in home wins...I'd like that to be reversed the rest of the year.

Your first point may be belaboring the obvious, but it still can't be ignored...this team just hasn't shown it can win without Rubio. You're right...we don't know the level of pain he is feeling or whether some players would try to play through it. I will say that the team isn't doing his reputation any favors by continuing to classify his injury as a "mild hamstring strain"... seems to call his toughness into question.

Your call out of Martin is appropriate...we're simply not going to win with him shooting 3-11, and only getting 2 fouls and shooting 2 threes. Britt Robson tweeted yesterday that Kevin has fallen in love with his foul hunting in place of 3-point attempts. He needs to understand that both elements are integral parts of his offensive game, and neither can be ignored. When he eschews the 3-point shot and instead tries to draw fouls every time, he's not going to be effective...especially when the refs aren't giving him the calls. We need his scoring, since he provides little else, and his 5 consecutive poor games are a big part of our losing streak...he's shooting 32.7 % since coming back from several days off with his personal issue. It's very remindful of what happened with Thad Young last year, and makes me wonder if Kevin is playing with something on his mind.

I was surprised in Preseason he was getting all those calls and then it continued into the first few games of the season. Martin is good at drawing fouls but some of them were pretty cheap ones and he was obviously just hunting for fouls a lot. Now there have been a few games he has encountered officials that aren't giving him some calls. It's up to Martin (and possibly the coaching staff if he isn't figuring it out himself) to adjust his approach. He hasn't lost any game unless like LST said there is something on his mind. I like my theory better. :)

Well, Memphis just hung 114 points on OKC and shot 70% from 3, so I guess we shouldn't feel so bad (?).

The moral victories are piling up!