Game Report - Wolves v. Kings
Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:46 am
This loss should trouble every Wolves fan because it calls into question the notion that this team has actually turned the corner. Losing to the Kings at home with a big crowd is unacceptable. I guess the good news is that this loss might help our draft position, perhaps snagging us the the 6th or 7th position rather than the 8th or 9th.
Why did we lose? The Kings scored 123 points, so the obvious answer is poor defense. Breaking it down, your can further narrow the cause the bench. Our bench play was simply putrid -- especially the play of Bazz and Dunn. Bazz continues to hurt his market value as a free agent this summer while Dunn continues to erode the tremendous trade he value he had last summer. As most of you recall, I wanted to draft Buddy Hield last summer. Watching the performances of these two players last night .... well, I'll just leave it at that. Tyus is clearly the better back-up PG between the two. We really did miss Belly last night -- his rebounding and defense in particular. Highly likely we win the game if he had played.
Getting back to our poor defense, I'd say the entire team played poor defensively, but the two worst were Brandon Rush and KAT. They were both disgustingly bad. KAT looked tired, but still no excuse for his late close-outs and mistakes on that end of the floor. Ricky and Andrew actually played well defensively.
Still, in spite of our bad defense and terrible bench play, we would have won the game if Ricky had gone 3-10 overall rather than 1-10 and 1-3 rather than 0-3 from behind the arc and if Wiggins had gone 5-6 rather than 2-6 at the line. But then again, I can't fault either of these two guys for last night's loss since they were the two guys who made the game worth watching -- Ricky with 13 assists, 6 boards and 2 steals; Andrew with 32 highly efficient points.
A couple off-the-court observations. Zach was in the house to receive the Flip Saunders community service award in a ceremony just before tip off. He was walking around without a limp. I'm not sure when he had his surgery, but it was good to see him walking and smiling. He got big hugs from Glen Taylor and his wife and from Ricky as he came out onto the floor. Also noticed that KAT's dad, who sits near me, is off his crutches. He looked fine, walking up the stairs without favoring his other leg. He even climbed over chairs to get to his seat from the row behind him. Also saw Zach's sister along with Gorgui's mom. Gorgui's mom hasn't missed a game this season. She sits with Wiggins sister.
Anyway, that's it for this report. Now it's on to the June draft.
Why did we lose? The Kings scored 123 points, so the obvious answer is poor defense. Breaking it down, your can further narrow the cause the bench. Our bench play was simply putrid -- especially the play of Bazz and Dunn. Bazz continues to hurt his market value as a free agent this summer while Dunn continues to erode the tremendous trade he value he had last summer. As most of you recall, I wanted to draft Buddy Hield last summer. Watching the performances of these two players last night .... well, I'll just leave it at that. Tyus is clearly the better back-up PG between the two. We really did miss Belly last night -- his rebounding and defense in particular. Highly likely we win the game if he had played.
Getting back to our poor defense, I'd say the entire team played poor defensively, but the two worst were Brandon Rush and KAT. They were both disgustingly bad. KAT looked tired, but still no excuse for his late close-outs and mistakes on that end of the floor. Ricky and Andrew actually played well defensively.
Still, in spite of our bad defense and terrible bench play, we would have won the game if Ricky had gone 3-10 overall rather than 1-10 and 1-3 rather than 0-3 from behind the arc and if Wiggins had gone 5-6 rather than 2-6 at the line. But then again, I can't fault either of these two guys for last night's loss since they were the two guys who made the game worth watching -- Ricky with 13 assists, 6 boards and 2 steals; Andrew with 32 highly efficient points.
A couple off-the-court observations. Zach was in the house to receive the Flip Saunders community service award in a ceremony just before tip off. He was walking around without a limp. I'm not sure when he had his surgery, but it was good to see him walking and smiling. He got big hugs from Glen Taylor and his wife and from Ricky as he came out onto the floor. Also noticed that KAT's dad, who sits near me, is off his crutches. He looked fine, walking up the stairs without favoring his other leg. He even climbed over chairs to get to his seat from the row behind him. Also saw Zach's sister along with Gorgui's mom. Gorgui's mom hasn't missed a game this season. She sits with Wiggins sister.
Anyway, that's it for this report. Now it's on to the June draft.