Minnesota Sports Forum

Best crowd of the season so far. It wasn't just a big crowd. The building had a lot of energy tonight start to finish, which is pretty unusual at Target Center these days. We were treated to an exciting game. Unfortunately, we ended up watching a horrible loss of a game we definitely should have won.

We can point to a number of things that contributed to tonight's loss, including Durant's tremendous shooting in the 4th quarter. But above all else, tonight's loss comes down to free throws -- namely the Wolves inability to make them. The Wolves missed 11 of their 29 free throws (62%) while the Thunder missed just 1 of their 28. What more do we need to know. That's obviously far in excess of the final 3-point margin of the Wolves loss. (I'm saying 3-point margin because the final 2 points of the 5-point difference were on two Durant free throws at the end that never would have happened if the Wolves had hit just a few more of their free throws.

Other than the Wolves' terrible free throw shooting tonight, we can point to the following as contributing factors to tonight's loss:

1. Ricky's failure to hit jump shots. He missed way too many shots in the 4th. One caveat is that he was tremendous in every other phase of the game. His defense was great and he did a beautiful job of running the offense and getting great looks for his teammates. Another caveat his shooting tonight was consistent with what we can expect from him at this point in his career. That's who he is right now. Yet, his defense and great quarterbacking of the offense put us in a position to win this game. We do have scorers on this team and they need to hit their free throws. No excuses. That's what they're supposed to do.

2. Adelman's slow trigger again putting Ricky back in the game in the 2nd half. Once again, Adelman stayed too long with JJ after he had already inserted the other starters. Maybe it wasn't as obvious on TV, but watching live really drives home the enormous difference between the offense with Barea versus Ricky. Barea was horrible again tonight.

3. The Wolves pathetic bench. Even with the horrible free throw shooting from our starters, the game was still winnable but for the absolutely embarrassing performance from our bench again. In a familiar storyline, our bench scored a grand total of 5 points -- all of them by one of our four bench players tonight. Between these 4, they had a total of 1 steal, no blocks, 4 rebounds, 1 free throw attempt and zero three-point baskets. That's totally unacceptable on an NBA team that expects to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.

4. Kevin Martin's disappearing act in the 4th quarter. We needed Martin to step up tonight and his 17 points with only 1 three-pointer doesn't suffice.

5. Absence of a player who can create his own shot off the dribble. This huge hole on our roster shows up even more in 4th quarters as it did tonight. Getting a shot off a pass is difficult in crunch time with a frenetic defense bearing down on you. Feeding Pekovic isn't easy. First, he has to get position. Second, you need to have a passing angle to get him the ball. Third, he has to actually catch the ball. Pek had a great night tonight. But Rubio made two really nice passes to him in the 4th quarter and he just couldn't hold onto the ball. Rubio is a great ball-handler and very good penetrator off the bounce. But he's not a reliable scorer on his dribble penetration -- in spite of some really nice dribble drive layups from him tonight in the 1st quarter. This team has to have a SG or SF who can create his own shot and score on dribble penetration at a fairly high level. Neither Martin nor Brewer is anything close to that kind of player.

As for positives, Love had a great night except for his four missed free throws in the final minute of the game. Pekovic had a very nice game as well. Ricky was as good as any PG in the League tonight at defending his position and orchestrating the offense. And Brewer was all heart again tonight as always.

But a tough loss. This team is missing some things they desperately need to secure a playoff spot. Maybe the return of Budinger and Turiaf will be enough. Maybe there's a free agent left somewhere. Or maybe there's a deal to be made that will strengthen out bench. Time will tell.

Yeah that about sums it up, except for one thing not touched on: what about the two phantom calls on Brewer late in the game?

The first one, KD is dribbling out near the half-court line, Brewer brushes his arm against KD's jersey, KD jerks back and then hobbles off like he got hit in the knee (this is the best I remember it). Anyway they called the foul and KD makes the two free throws.

Next one was even bigger: tie game Wolves take a shot and miss, KD pushes Brewer sideways into Lamb who awkwardly fell over his back. Brewer is whistled for the foul, Lamb makes two free throws, and Brewer fouls out forcing Dante to guard KD for the last shot. (and no doubt KD could have scored regardless of who was guarding him, but still, Dante was coming in cold off the bench at that point)

My only hope is that things will even out later in the season and the Wolves will win a game or two because the refs actually screw up in their favor.

This loss is 100% on Love in my mind. He had 3 freebees to win the game and he missed all three of them. It's ok for him to call out his teammates earlier in the year for their performance because of how they were playing, but he lost this game tonight and he needs to put the loss on himself. It is ridiculous that our best player gets to the line and chokes 3 straight free throws to lose the game. If he wants to be considered a closer and superstar, he can't choke like that in the future. It's one thing to miss the game winning shot. It's another to choke at the free throw line. As far as I'm concerned, nothing up until his free throws matters in terms of the outcome of the game because we had our fate in our own hands and choked. They're called free for a reason.

It was a fun game to watch, unfortunately if the game is within ten in the fourth Im expecting this team to lose . I hope the team doesnt adopt the mentality of playing not to lose as oppesed to playing to win. I feel like we've seen that in years past.
On the Ricky note he has played better of late, I've just got different expectations for him. I can appreciate that u guys are okay with what he brings to the table. What confuses me tho is u follow it up by saying whats holding this team back is a guy that can create his own shot off the dribble. Shouldnt a guy Rubios size be that guy? Becuz of that I just have a hard time looking the other way. Gave that dead horse another kick..

Good write up Lip

PorkChop -- I would really like Ricky to be that guy -- i.e., guy who can create his own shot. Maybe he'll become something closer to that guy down the road. But since he's not that guy now (but does so many other things extremely well), and wasn't that sort of player going into this season, it was incumbent upon our front office to get that sort of guy on this roster at one of the wing positions. Flip and his "brain" trust (Rob Babcock etc.) failed.

Is there another team in the League with a ball dominant PG, where the PG can not create his own shot?

markkbu wrote:Is there another team in the League with a ball dominant PG, where the PG can not create his own shot?

In fairness to Ricky, there's never been a player in the NBA like him. The answer to your question is likely no, but we can still win with him. I'm more-so believing that since the last week and a half or so.

EDIT: Do you consider George Hill a ball-dominant PG? He can't create his own shot much better than Rubio, though he's a better finisher and shooter than Rubio. I also consider him more of a 3/D SG anyways. Just trying to think of anyone close, but no cigar.

The starters were soooo much better tonight when Ricky was on the court rather than Barea. You really appreciate what he does watching him live. The passing (not just the assists, but the passes leading to assists), the spacing, the ball-handling that opens up lanes and spots for teammates, the tenacious, relentless defense, etc. As Cam said, Ricky is a unique NBA player. Ricky was a major net positive tonight in spite of his poor 4th quarter shooting. If his teammates hit their free throws at the same rate that Ricky hit them tonight, the Wolves would have won going away. Even without better free throw shooting from his teammates, the Wolves probably would have won if Pek had caught the two Ricky passes down the stretch that hit Pek squarely in the hands.

We all want Ricky to shoot better and I still think he will if he works at it relentlessly next off-season. But this team can and should be a playoff team even without improvement in Ricky's shooting. The key scorers on this team have to hit their free throws. Kevin Martin has to step up more often and not fade away so often. And more than anything, this team needs an NBA caliber bench -- something we don't have now. We really need the return of a healthy Budinger and Turiaf. Will that be enough? I don't know, but it's a start.

What is the bigger liability: Rubio's offense or Love/Pek defensively? Personally I'd say it's the defense.

I think people Rubio's shooting to big of an issue just because shooting is so obvious. If you watch the games it's easy to see shots clank off the rim and if you look at a box score and see something like 0-5 with no points it's obvious he didn't shoot well. As Lip said the team is so much better with Rubio in the game, he's smart, he creates for others, he finds open people, and he gets the ball to them on time. These things are hard to see on tv and impossible to see in a box score.

On the other hand defense is not obvious, there isn't a stat for good defense, it's subjective. Sure you can see if someone gets beat consistently 1 on 1 but it's more difficult to see team defense. In my opinion Love and Pek are slightly below average 1 on 1 defenders but extremely poor at team defense. They almost never rotate and contest shots near the rim.

Rage --

I agree with you. But I'd say that Kevin Martin is as much of a defensive liability as the Love/Pekovic combo. And while I like what Brewer brings, he's not a great defender as some seem to think. Love has actually been playing some nice defense lately.

While we can all debate the relative weaknesses in our starting lineup, the bottom line is that the Wolves' overriding problem is their pathetic bench.