Minnesota Sports Forum

Feels good to get back into the win column. It was a struggle but I'll take any win right now. Losing was beginning to be a habit, so this was much needed. I think you saw tonight that we need to have more clearly defined roles, and guys need to be comfortable playing together. We seem to struggle whenever we have an odd combination on the floor, or we are trying to play too many people. We played 12 guys tonight, just too many. So here's the "boat is too full and we're taking on water" version of the 2 + 1:

1) What's with all the empty seats in the lower bowl? I've noticed this most of the year, and it sure doesn't look good for as much promise as this team has. Some of you guys can comment on this that have been to some games. Is the upper bowl just as sparse? Is there much energy in the building? I haven't paid much attention to the attendance figures, but it seems a little disappointing.

2) As I said above we played too many guys and I thought it had a negative impact on the game. And then when you consider we played 12 guys and Rudez wasn't one of them, I have to wonder what the thought process is. By now we should have an idea what guys work well together (Gorgui and Towns for example) and what guys don't. And I hate to harp on this, but it would be great if either Towns or Andrew was on the floor at all times.

Plus 1 - He's 20 years old. He scored 32 points, had 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. The boards and assists may have been aberrations, but don't tell me this kid can't be a star. I think he already is one, it's just a question of how bright it's going to burn. I'd suggest all you naysayers get some really good sunglasses, with extremely high UV ratings.

And that's Cool's 2 things I didn't like tonight Plus 1

I think Bazz and Wiggins work great together with Ricky at the point and we haven't really seen this lineup until tonight. We absolutely worked the mismatches with size. 25 games into the season you would think we got more of this lineup by now. Ultimately some of the fat (Martin) has to be trimmed. We were fine without him tonight.

Wiggins is a star. You are right about that. It is here. He was 3 feet above the rim on that two handed dunk. He is so much more athletic than anyone out there.

Agreed with both of you cool and doper. This was a fun game to watch.

I sure hope wiggins rebounding tonight is something that can be counted on. He had highlight plays left and right tonight with his dunks, and 1's, spin and euro steps. But my favorite wiggins moment was seeing him chasing those two defensive boards tonight. He skied for those and really chase them down. He wasn't standing around and letting those rebound come to him, he went after them. He and towns are are going to do great things together in a year or two.

To your points, cool:

1) It's a hockey town, and it's difficult for a losing team to sell tickets when the guys across the river are selling out every game. I've been to 6-7 games this year, and only the Lakers game had a good crowd. It will change when we start winning (it did when we were in the playoffs), but until then we can expect sparse crowds. I'm expecting about 8000 next Wednesday for the Spurs.

2) I'm sure this won't surprise you, but I thought Sam's rotations tonight were brilliant. I think most of us want to see Belly regain form, so Sam put him out there. But when it was apparent that Belly just didn't have it and KAT got in foul trouble, he had to turn to Payne to guard Koufos...and Payne responded with 7 very good minutes. We also all want to see Zach out there, but he was off tonight no matter what position he was playing. So that forced him to play Miller. Andre wasn't very good either, but he was better than Zach. I think Sam would prefer to keep it to 10 guys, but poor play by Belly, Zach and Martin along with KAT's foul issues forced his hand. I thought it was Sam's best game of the year. Every time I suggested a move in the GDT, he did it, so his moves must have been brilliant :) .

Plus 1: +1. Sure, he still has handle issues as his 4 TOs show, but the kid is 20 and is great already...he is going to be something special. The athleticism of Wig, Bazz and Zach (on an off night) were in full bloom tonight, and our other kid had a terrific game too against DMC. We needed sunglasses tonight to not get blinded by the bright future of this club.

According to the wolves pr feed, Ice Cube was in the house tonight, so I'm giving him credit for the win. Also, I like seeing the bench into the game, is that part of the KG mentoring? Or is it just on awesome dunks that they all stand up?