Minnesota Sports Forum

Here I go with the inaugural regular season game report for the 2013/14 season. First of all -- wow! Quite a game.

Regarding the atmosphere in the arena, there were a surprisingly large number of empty seats in the lower bowl, which reflected a disappointing turnout for this team's home opener, especially given the general sense that this is a playoff-bound team for the first time in 9 years. However, it was a really good crowd that generated a lot of energy.

As for the game, it was highly entertaining. But the Wolves were very fortunate to win. And I think it's safe to say that the Wolves will not be a playoff team this season if they continue to play they way they did tonight. I'll offer my good, bad, and ugly breakdown of tonight's game. Then I'll offer up an interesting episode I witnessed on the Wolves bench in overtime:

THE GOOD.

1. Kevin Love. He played like a superstar tonight. And it wasn't just his 31 points and 17 boards combined with 4 assists including some tremendous passes. It was his effort, intensity and leadership -- leadership both by example and vocal.

2. Ricky Rubio. He didn't shoot well tonight. Nothing new there. But he had a terrific game on both ends, especially the defensive. He was undoubtedly the best defender on the court for both teams tonight. His 11 assists, 6 boards and 3 steals tell only a small part of the tale of Rick's play tonight. He was our engine on the offensive end and a disruptive force on the defensive end. His defense in overtime was spectacular.

3. JJ Barea's first half. Although he wasn't much of presence in the 2nd half, JJ was a catalyst for us on both ends in the first half. He looked like a 6th man of the year candidate in that first half.

4. Dante Cunningham. His efficient mid-range shooting and 6 boards in 20 minutes were big for the Wolves tonight. And as it turns out, his high-flying dunk at the end of the 1st half was critical to the Wolves win tonight.

5. Corey Brewer. I wasn't sure whether to put him in the good or bad category. In fact, at times he looked like he might be headed for the ugly category. Like always, you take the bad with the good when it comes to Corey. Tonight, on balance, I'd say we got more good than bad. His hustle on both ends, including 3 steals and his fast break points were invaluable tonight. On the other hand, we saw a lot of the bad Brewer tonight -- i.e., poor hands/inability to catch passes, poor 3-point shooting even when wide open, and poor one-on-one defense except for a few instances like his excellent D on Afflalo at the end of regulation. But note that Afflalo had 28 points on 50% shooting along with 9 boards and 5 assists. If you were at the game and watched closely, you could see Brewer really struggling to stay in front of Afflalo and struggling even more trying to fight his way through picks.

THE BAD

1. Kevin Martin. I know he had 23 points and that he came up big a few possessions in overtime. But he was otherwise terrible on both ends tonight. His poor performance overall was evident in his 6-19 shooting. But his play was worse than his stats. He showed tonight why he's generally regarded as a poor defender. I'm not sure how much of it is his lack of athleticism and how much is a lack of toughness or instincts. Maybe some of it is his light 185 pound frame. But whatever it is, he was not good on the defensive end. No surprise there. As his poor shooting persisted into the second half, Martin stopped moving without the ball and you could actually see him shy away from the ball. It was very troubling. Hopefully, his poor shooting tonight was just an aberration.

2. Pekovic. Pek's poor preseason play carried over into tonight's regular season opener. He still looks out of shape, which made his natural propensity to miss bunnies even worst tonight. But he did come through in overtime. In any event, if this team expects to make a serious run at a playoff spot, Pek will have to elevate his play substantially.

THE UGLY

1. Shved. I just don't think this guy is NBA material. Yes, it was only one game tonight. But what we saw from him tonight was a continuation of what we saw consistently from him the last two-thirds of last season. That's what you'd have to call a pattern - a pattern of poor shooting (1-5 tonight), over-dribbling and very poor decision-making. I'd really like to believe that he'll turn it around. But more likely, someone else will be replacing him in Adelman's 9-man rotation before long. It may be Derrick, Shabazz or Hummel. But I don't think we'll see a lot more of Shved unless he turns it around the next few games.

2. Derrick Williams. Why am I mentioning Derrick in the ugly category tonight when he didn't even play. Well, the answer is below in that interesting episode on the bench that I mentioned at the beginning of my post.

BENCH EPISODE.

As you know, tonight's game was intense, especially in overtime. During a timeout in overtime, the Wolves starters were standing in a huddle around coach Adelman as he barked out instructions. The other Wolves players were standing just outside the huddle or in some cases at a distance, but all of them looked as serious and intense as the starters. Well not all of them. There was one player smiling and talking to one of the Wolves equipment managers. That player was Derrick Williams. I thought I was watching the ghost of Wes Johnson. Poor Derrick couldn't find a teammate to share his frivolity, so he found a young equipment manager who probably felt flattered that a player would take such an interest in talking with him. Then suddenly, Kevin Love looked up from the huddle and glared at Derrick with one of the most intense and angry looks you'll see from anyone. Kevin then threw his towel to the kid talking with Derrick. The kid quickly walked away from Derrrick and looked embarrassed. Derrick just stood there alone looking lost and sheepish. I saw two things of significance in that episode. First, it offered a telling insight into why Derrick isn't in the rotation and why both Adelman and Flip are so down on him. And make no mistake about it, when you hear Flip publicly criticize Derrick's motor, you know Flip is down on him. Second, it provided another example of Love stepping up as a leader.

There you have it. I feel good that we won, but concerned about where this team is headed. Let's hope we can put together a better game on Friday and beat the Thunder.

It was depressing to not see Derrick on the court tonight. Especially with us going small so much to match the small ball the Magic were playing, I feel like Derrick could have taken advantage of being guarded by much smaller players.

I think the chances are growing greater that we package someone with Williams, perhaps Shved if he has any trade value, for a defensive minded small forward so we can move the energy of Brewer to the bench.

After the first quarter I had high hopes, I even said to myself that I liked Shved trying to blend in, he made a nice hustle play on defense and he was moving within the offense. It was the whole team though, it seemed as the game wore on our ball movement died for a little bit, at least to the extent we saw in first quarter. As you said, it was a continuation of last season where he took unbalanced jumpers, left his feet, and showed poor judgement. It was a fun run, but it looks like his time in the NBA is drawing to a close before it really ever got going. (Probably an overreaction but he has played professional ball in Russia and plays for the national team, so he might be who he is)

The only player you could be happy with through all four quarters was Love, and to an extent Ricky. The offense looks poised to have a good year, but the defense was atrocious. The best thing that could happen to us is we acquire through trade a good defensive wing, and Gorgui Dieng can come in at some point and provide us with a strong post presence.

Overall, a fun game towards the end. Glad to see Love show more clutch ability, and us pull out a win against a team that on paper we should have beat.

Not a whole lot to complain about with it being opening night and both Portland and Denver losing to lesser teams, but the grudge or example Adelman is making toward Williams is ridiculous. To not be able to garner ANY minutes with Martin, Shved, and Turiaf laying eggs through 4 quarters is just stubbornness by Adelman.

After the fine 2nd half he had last season and the work he continuously does losing weight you would have figured he gained an ounce of Adelman's respect/trust.

I guess he should double fist pump more when he's on the bench in case Adelman is watching.

Thanks Lip, I've been looking forward to that. I wish it were the old forum, but it's good to see so many of the same old folks. Good anecdote about Williams and Love too. Those are the things those of us at home don't see watching on League Pass, so keep those kind of details coming Lip!

What's up with Pek? Why's he out of shape? He wasn't running the floor well tonight, and I wonder if they were resting him because he was winded. To be fair, we really need to feed him the ball more.

I liked a couple baseline cuts I saw Martin and Brewer make tonight. With Rubio and Love with the ball, they should be able to find those guys on those cuts, and we haven't really had much of that off-the-ball movement on offense in recent years.

I was hoping to see Dieng out there tonight. I like Turiaf's energy, but I was hoping to see Dieng out there and see if he could really clog up the paint and stop Afflalo from getting to the hole. Afflalo's good, but he shouldn't look that good. I feel like a little more size and length down low would have helped us out tonight.

And I really want to see some defensive tenacity. I love that we've got Rubio and Brewer hassling ballhandlers and passes (that Brewer-Rubio play to kick off overtime was awesome!), I always like Cunningham's hustle on defense, but I really want this team to develop a tough, defensive attitude and tone all around. Get in guys' faces, foul hard, talk to each other and help fast. Pick up the other team quick and press them, and get back in transition super fast to prevent any fast breaks. We might not have great one-on-one individual defenders, but as a team, with Rubio and Brewer setting the tone, hopefully Dieng can emerge as a force down low, and we can develop some defensive aggressiveness. If we're going to make the playoffs, we need to be able to shut a team down, especially down the stretch. We didn't see that tonight. Nice to get the win, but we gotta become more like Memphis or Indy defensively in my opinion if we really want to make an impact.

Drew -- I agree with your point about the Wolves defense (or lack thereof). The magic found it all too easy to score tonight. Turiaf is actually a pretty good rim defender. But he doesn't block out well. And he's A butcher on the offensive end. Speaking of Dieng, he hit 3 of 4 three point shots in warmups before the second half.

Drew-Pek was questionable for tonight's game with a quadriceps injury of some sort.

Lip thanks for the insight especially that instance on the bench.

IMO Shved was brutal in the 2nd half, but int he first half he was looking pretty good then he tried to do too much in the 2nd half. It seemed like the whole team sort of forgot what they were doing making stupid plays that let the Magic back in the game. They aren't a terrible team and they were missing a couple solid players. Anyway the Wolves looked to me like a team thats got talent, but hasn't played alot together. Wait thats exactly what they are. We have to keep in mind that most of these guys haven't really had alot of minutes ont eh floor together as a group and/or in the role they are supposed to be playing. I saw alot of good stuff out there that passing from Love was by far the most impressive I have ever seen from him multiple times in a game.

Vucevic is the best center nobody knows about. I said when he was included in that trade it was a nice addition and I hadn't really seen him play that much. He is a heck of a nice player and even if Orlando had only received him back for Dwight Howard considering the circumstances that wouldn't have been too bad. a 23 year old true center thats a double double machine that has range on his jumpshot? Nice.

monsterpile wrote:Lip thanks for the insight especially that instance on the bench.

IMO Shved was brutal in the 2nd half, but int he first half he was looking pretty good then he tried to do too much in the 2nd half. It seemed like the whole team sort of forgot what they were doing making stupid plays that let the Magic back in the game. They aren't a terrible team and they were missing a couple solid players. Anyway the Wolves looked to me like a team thats got talent, but hasn't played alot together. Wait thats exactly what they are. We have to keep in mind that most of these guys haven't really had alot of minutes ont eh floor together as a group and/or in the role they are supposed to be playing. I saw alot of good stuff out there that passing from Love was by far the most impressive I have ever seen from him multiple times in a game.

Vucevic is the best center nobody knows about. I said when he was included in that trade it was a nice addition and I hadn't really seen him play that much. He is a heck of a nice player and even if Orlando had only received him back for Dwight Howard considering the circumstances that wouldn't have been too bad. a 23 year old true center thats a double double machine that has range on his jumpshot? Nice.

Out of USC. I've been high on Vucevic since before the draft he came out of. All it took was watching some video of the guy to know he was skilled and a bruiser on the glass.

Good report as usual lip. I agree that we are not a playoff team if we play the same way the rest of the season. We have To play much better. I felt Rubio, Martin and pek can play much better than they did tonight. Pek in particular looks like he was going tru the motions and only woke up in ot.

The way the first game goes, Kevin love is definitely back.

While Martin struggled for most of the game, I thought he showed great upside in overtime, both drawing fouls and creating shots...something we have been sorely missing.