Minnesota Sports Forum

Really nice tribute to Flip tonight. The entire crowd stood through the entire thing. KAT said after the game that he was crying through the entire tribute. I suspect that nearly everyone in the crowd shed more than a few tears.

I don't want to make excuses for what should have been a win against a pretty bad team on our home court. But the whole experience had to really drain our guys. kG in particular looked uncharacteristicly subdued.

This was a terrible loss. It's one of those games this team needs to win if it has truly turned the corner and put itself on track to possibly challenge for a playoff slot. Even worse to lose after coming out so strong in the first quarter and building a 17 point lead.

As for the particulars, I'll go with the good/bad/ugly framework. But I'll be fairly brief

THE GOOD -- Tonight was mostly bad, but there were a few bright spots for the Wolves:

1. Ricky Rubio. He was tremendous again tonight. Not a good shooting night for him; yet not a bad one either at 40% from the field. In any event, his 9 boards, 9 assists and 3 steals tell the tale. Had we won, the biggest play of the night probably would have been Ricky's clutch steal down the stretch. What he does for this team is phenomenal. Since he is this team's ONLY ball-handler, he bears a huge burden and its amazing how well he protects the ball while also setting up teammates for good shots. He plays with great passion and a very high IQ. He's the best player on this team and its not even close.

2. KAT - Not his best game tonight, but he makes a positive difference on the court. He had an impressive 4 blocks tonight to go with his 11 points. And I love the passion he plays with. His 3-pointer in the 4th was clutch and rivaled Ricky's late-game steal for Wolves' play of the game. It's looking more and more as if KAT and Ricky will be the future cornerstones of this team.

THE BAD - Nearly everything and everyone on this team could legitimately fall into the bad category. So I'm going to move quickly into the ugly category.

1. Sam's coaching. Watching Sam tonight triggered some horrible Kurt Rambis flashbacks. Like Rambis before him, Sam spends most of every time out standing by himself near the top of the key staring at or writing on his white board. Otherwise, he spent the vast majority of the game just sitting in his chair. I really missed watching Flip standing up and roaming the sideline almost the entire game as he did every season he coached. Sam was way too slow getting his starters back in, played too many guys and continued to cling to notion that LaVine's a PG when he clearly isn't.

2. Wiggins -- His horrific shooting continued tonight as he went 5-17. And if it wasn't clear before it was certainly clear tonight that Wiggins is still a terrible ball-handler. If he worked on his ball-handling it sure doesn't show!

A lot of us were weeping in front of our TV screens, Lip, so I can only imagine what it must have been like to be there. I think the emotions had a lot to do with our jumping off to a 17-point lead, and a lot to do with us running out of gas. It was a disappointing loss to say the least.

The only thing I will add is that your boy CJ McCollum had a terrific night. The marvelous Lillard was the best player on the court by far, but CJ was second (Ricky was third). I've mentioned before that I got to watch Lillard a couple times in small gyms when my daughter was at Colgate, and I didn't recognize the guy I watched tonight. We all knew he could shoot, but he wasn't a ballhandler or a defender in college, and he was both tonight. Still, Andrew Wiggins should hang his head in shame for his offensive performance against a guy at least 5 inches shorter than him and half as athletic. I don't know what's going on with Wig, but I don't like it.

Thanks for the report Lip. Maybe Sam was affected my the emotions of the night idk. Your report of his lack of engagement seems weird because during the game any call that goes against the Wolves Sam seems to be backing up his guys he is up yelling etc. I'll be interested in hearing more reports from you on how things look in person as the season goes on.

Your boy CJ looked pretty good. :). I think most everyone that was here on the board then liked him and wouldn't have minded picking him. I don't know where he fits in long term but he looks like he can absolutely play. Good for him.

We have too much overreaction by some on this board. I am giving the team a pass last night given all the emotions at play. Mistakes are a great learning tool. The team has two days to prepare for Miami. They will be fine.

Not much went our way in crunch time last night. Let's say just one or two things did go our way and we won by a point or two. We would all be feeling great today with how the team fought through an emotional night and still got the win. It seems a bit overboard to do a complete 180 just because the scoreboard didn't end in our favor.

There are so many positive things going on with this team. Rubio has been terrific. KAT has been dynamite. We have a lot of guys that can score. Our defense looks like it should be a strength, or at least not a weakness. It sure seems like we will be a team that wins more than it loses. So enjoy the process we have to go through to get there.

60WinTim wrote:

There are so many positive things going on with this team. Rubio has been terrific. KAT has been dynamite. We have a lot of guys that can score. Our defense looks like it should be a strength, or at least not a weakness. It sure seems like we will be a team that wins more than it loses. So enjoy the process we have to go through to get there.

LOL!

I'm extremely worried about Wiggins.

Camden wrote:I'm extremely worried about Wiggins.

Don't do it, Cam. Don't you dare do it.

Camden wrote:I'm extremely worried about Wiggins.

I was stunned that Wig struggled so much against CJ Freakin' McCollum last night...never would have predicted that in a million years. But I also saw something last night that gave me some cause for optimism about Wig. At the end of a dreadful game, he wanted the ball at crunch time...in fact, was working his ass off to get the ball. It didn't turn out well and I agree that is cause for some concern. But I saw a fire in him that was really good to see. The kid had to be "the man" last year, and although his stats weren't efficient, by most measures it was a very good rookie season. But maybe Wig's personality doesn't translate easily into being "the man", and if KAT's early brilliance turns out to be the real deal, it wouldn't surprise me to see Wig flourish as 1B to KAT's 1A, and what a 1-2 punch that could be for many years.

KAT has shown an almost KG-like intensity out there, and for just a brief moment in the 4th quarter, Wig showed some of it too. Maybe KAT's intensity will rub off on Wig, and he will start to play with more of a sense of urgency. The talent is there...we're waiting to see if the will is.

I've already raved about CJ last night...who would have thought he would outplay Wiggins so badly? But the discussion has never been, and will never be, McCollum vs. Wig...it will always be McCollum vs. Bazz/Gorgui.

And even though CJ was the second best player on the winning team last night, I think it was close between him and Bazz/G. Minutes were fairly even (our guys played a combined 2 minutes more than CJ) so comparing production is fair. CJ scored 18 points on 18 shots, Bazz/G scored 21 on 15 shots (much more efficient). CJ had 6 rebounds and 4 assists, our pair had 9 rebounds and 1 assist. Finally, CJ had 4 TO's to none for our guys. So while Bazz/G won the offensive battle, I give the nod to CJ last night in a close call because of the way he defended Wig and the fact that Portland won.

This discussion is not over, and will be a talker for a long time