Game Report - Wolves v. Celtics

[Lipoli390]

Good crowd tonight, although not the sort of capacity crowds we used to see at Celtic games here when KG was one of the Celtics. But the crowd got into it and it was definitely a very fun game. The Celtics are a bad team. So this was obviously a game the Wolves had to win. And the good news is that the Wolves not only won, but did so convincingly even though some of our starters did not have particularly good nights.

Four of our five starters struggled a bit. Love had 23 points on 44 shooting, 50% from behind the arc and 7-7 from the line. He also had 12 boards. That's a darn good night in spite of his 7 turnovers. Not his best performance, but he was obviously very solid. Ricky had another poor shooting night, but had 6 boards, 7 assists and a steal. Martin had a terrible shooting night, but he did get 6 boards and 2 steals. Corey also had another poor shooting night, but he had 2 steals and held Green in check defensively. Not bad for struggling. :)

The keys for the Wolves tonight were Pekovic, Dante and JJ. Those three were huge for the home team and made sure the Celtics never really had a shot at winning this one. That's the second good game in a row for JJ. He looks like he's finally gotten back to his old self. Pek was terrific tonight. It's becoming clear that his early season struggles were the product of poor conditioning, not lack of effort. He really does give a great effort. But he's now getting into game shape and it's making him much more effective. He moves better and the touch on his shot is much better now that he seems to have his legs under him.

I also really like Hummel out there tonight. He is a really smart player. He gets to the right spot on the offensive end and rarely misses an assignment on the defensive end. His shot is coming along. I also noticed that he's a heck of an athlete. He has really gets up for rebounds and runs the court extremely well. I noticed that he's not wearing any knee braces. He's definitely establishing himself as an important part of the rotation.

Interesting moment during a time out with about 3 minutes left in the game. Adelman was talking to the players in the huddle along the bench as he always does. All the players suited up for the game were listening except Derrick Williams who was joking around with Shabazz who was in street cloths with a sprained ankle. Adelman looked over at Williams, got his attention and pointed at his eyes, telling him to pay attention because he was about to be inserted in the game. I suspect that was a microcosm of what Adelman sees every day in practice as well as games -- and it is likely the source of Adelman's frustration with Derrick. The other source of frustration with Derrick was obvious in those last 3 minutes when Derrick was in the game. Not moving without the ball, showing terrible form on a jump shot and then getting stuffed going to the hole as he, to paraphrase Flip's, again showed an aversion to contact.

Watching Derrick's demeanor on the bench AND in recent games is perplexing. He seems to want to look cool and nonchalant rather than intense or aggressive. Very strange. What a waste of talent.

Otherwise, this was an important win -- one we had to get. Now let's see how we do next week against the Clippers and Nets.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Good report Lip. So nice, you did it twice!

I couldn't agree with you more on Hummel. He seems to have a very good feel for the game. Ultimately, his value is mostly tied to his ability to hit open 3's. If he can knock those down at a 35-40% rate, he will be a valuable 8th, 9th, or 10th man. If he can't, well, then there isn't much he can do other than avoid mistakes. Remember Gelabale from last season? He's the perfect example of a guy that played hard and didn't make many mistakes, but you hardly knew he was out there. We need Hummel to knock down 3's.

It's disappointing how the season has gone for Derrick Williams. I was hoping he could play an Antawn Jamison/Al Harrington instant offense role off the bench for us, but he clearly can't get out of Adelman's doghouse. At this point, I can't believe we are going to hang onto him past the trade deadline.

Unfortunately, all of our Western Conference opponents are beating up on Eastern Conference teams, so we are getting no help when it comes to playoff positioning. We need to plan on winning at least 45 or 46 games to guarantee ourselves a playoff slot. It is not going to be easy.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

You nailed the key elements of this game, Lip. Many of us have worried about how this team would compete if the Kevins came back down to earth. Well they did, albeit with still good production, and we still were able to easily defeat a bad team...because of our ( thin) bench and Pek. It's been really fun to watch JJ the past two games, weaving his way to the basket and making improbable layups under and around much bigger defenders...he's an unbelievable finisher. And DC finally had the kind of game we need him to have as long as he remains a RA favorite. Now, we need the rest of the bench to elevate their games.

As excited I am about Pek's suburb game tonight, I'm still wary about him. As I wrote in the game thread, I'm not sure if his dominance tonight was because of his return to form, or because he was matched up against a very soft Faverani. Faverani can be a reasonably effective center in this league because of his length and shooting touch, but he's exactly the kind of center Pek can dominate. All night he allowed Pek to easily establish position on the offensive board, resulting in a flurry of rebounds and putback baskets. Vintage Pek. I'm guardedly optimistic, but I need to see him do it against real competition before I jump on the Pekwagon. One thing I do know: we are a much better team when Pek is physically dominant.

Thanks for the timeout observation about Williams, Lip. I love to bench watch when I am at a game, and find that I learn a lot about the team. I think that Williams, Turiaf and Price are the three guys that would be the most fun to hang out with, but Turiaf and Price seem to be able to channel their magnetic personalities into a team concept, while Derrick usually looks like he is just there to have fun. With some coaches this might not be a huge problem. But Adelman is a serious guy, and I just think he finds Derrick to be annoying. It's difficult for me to envision a role for Derrick on this team barring a rash of injuries.

Now we travel to play a very bad Washington team (especially with Ariza nursing a hammy) and then home to face a rested Clippers team in another BTB. Both games are winnable and 9-4 would look really good, but the schedulers again aren't helping us with the Clips.

[Eitan]

Great report Lip, Thank you for the very interesting insight from the game.

Hummel is a nice surprise for me, I didn`t expect him to become part of our rotation, at least not so early i the season.

It`s clear that Adelman took Williams an Shved (thanks for that) out from our regular rotation (Williams will have to earn his place back by hard work and by understanding Adelman`s system).

Great point Q regarding the Westren conference opponents beating Eastren conference teams - It really look like that, but obviously it won`t last for the entire season and hopefully we will win the games we should win for making the playoff.

[DNatagal]

As always, great read Lip. I live in Maryland and will be attending the Wolves game at the Phonebooth on Tuesday night. Hope to see lots of Wizards fans heading for the exits early so I have an easy drive home after the game.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

D-Will needs to go. Love the guy, love his talent, but it's not going to work out here. Trade him for what you can. Trade Alexey too if we can get anything for him.

Hummel > D-Will

Price > Shved

[worldK]

Godd report and insights as usual lip. Appreciate it.

[TAFKASP]

D-Will needs to go. Love the guy, love his talent, but it's not going to work out here. Trade him for what you can. Trade Alexey too if we can get anything for him.

I used to be of the same opinion as you, good guy just not going to work out. But after all I've heard of his bench antics I've come to the conclusion that no, he's not a good guy, he's a punk who even given $5M will not put in the work, or give the attention required to succeed. To hell with the Lion, he's gotta go! Hopefully it doesn't take throwing in draft picks to be rid of him.

Hummel > D-Will

A guy with a significant injury history 11 games into his career is earning minutes over a more athletic player in his third year. Hummel will never be as good as DWill could be... but then DWill will never be as good as DWill could be. The bigger question sadly is will DWill ever be as good a player as Hummel can be? Sad sad sad...

Price > Shved

This is one that really baffles me. Shved showed more last year than DWill has in the NBA, and yet he has actually regressed this year to the point of being less effective while being given more minutes that DWill himself... and that isn't an easy thing to do. Shved has the ability to be a good rotation player, not just an end of bench type so I just don't understand what has happened with his game.

I will say I still have hope that Shved will be a positive piece of this team going forward something I cannot say for the Lion.

[Lipoli390]

Cam -- I'm glad you included your reference to Price being better than Shved. The little we've seen from Price so far this season and the preseason gives me a lot of confidence in him off the bench. If JJ ever went down, I think Price could step in and give us very solid backup PG play. I can also see him possibly getting some PT alongside JJ. Credit Flip. He was a nice signing.

SP - I agree with you that Shved seems to be underperforming his talent. But last season wasn't as good for him as you might recall. He had a good, promising first third of the season, but he was terrible for about the last two-thirds of last season. What we've seen from him so far this season looks like a continuation of what we saw from him for at least the last half of last season. So I don't hold out much more hope for Shved than I do for D-Will. Two disappointing examples of wasted talent.