Minnesota Sports Forum

Good game. Not many Wolves fans out here tonight, but the ones that were there, including me, definitely celebrated afterwards. I know I wasn't the only one thinking somehow the Knicks would make a game of it, even up 23. It never felt like the game was ours lock, stock, and barrel. Ricky Rubio did everything he could to blow this game, but we won. If nothing else, this team has gotten so good at completing the collapse for the last few years, that holding them off felt that much better to watch live.

The good:

Love; 34, 15, and 5. We missed this guy so much. I will say this. He started to complain to the refs A LOT in the third quarter. There was one play where he didn't get the call, just walked up the court while everyone else is on the other side and Brewer had to commit a foul. Love can't let that happen. Other than that, he was amazing.

Kevin Martin has arrived! I didn't think he could be the Kevin Martin of old. I don't wanna make rash assumptions and overreactions, but 3 games in, he's doing the things that made him such a lethal scorer in Sacramento /Houston. If we get this on a somewhat consistent basis, print those playoff tickets. He's so much fun to watch when he's on. And the best part is, he was so cool, calm and collected with the team and it rubs off on everyone else. It's that kind of leadership that has really made this team look good. We're not wilting under pressure because we have guys that have been there before in Martin and Turiaf. Great to see.

Lastly, I hated the Corey Brewer signing. I still kinda do, but he all but earned his salary these last 2 games defending Melo and Durant the way he did. I still cringe at him offensively, but defensively he was very good. Even Kevin Martin was playing decent defense tonight. When the offense is clicking, this team looks as good as any team in the West other than maybe Golden State.

The Bad:
Pekovic has always had Tyson Chandler's number. While Pek was missing plenty of bunnies tonight, he should have gotten the ball more. Keep feeding the beast. I feel like whether it's Adelman, Rubio, Barea, whoever, we forget that Pekovic in the post should be a safety valve. 2 points in the paint can stop a run, can calm a team down. They didn't feed Pekovic as much as they should have. We'lll need him tomorrow.

Rubio: Very good 3 quarters. That fourth quarter was Rubio's best imitation of JJ Barea playing heroball. It was awful to watch and he was flustered. Ricky looked for the first time, unsure of what play to run. That was weird to see. I'm glad we won, but he should be extra happy that there's a game tomorrow, so hopefully he forgets this one because this great start could have all gone away because of him.

The ugly:
The bench better be ready because they gave us nothing tonight. Derrick looked awkward at the rim. JJ Barea was trying to win the game despite being up double digits. Shved didn't play much at all which really confused me, and most of all, Dante Cunningham has really played poorly so far in my opinion. I found myself at some point actually hoping Rick would get Hummel or Muhammad in there just to see if they could do better. It wouldn't have been a tall task given how he's played. And Adelman, Dante is NOT a small forward.

Speaking of Adelman, the team is up 23, the team doesn't go below double digits until the 4th quarter, yet he had his starters out there most of the night. I didn't think it was necessary (turned out to be but still) and I feel like being up that much, he needs to trust his bench to not blow games like this. If the lead shrinks considerably, then of course, get the starters back in, but while the win is good tonight, we'll be at a major disadvantage tomorrow. Like I said, the bench better be ready.


3-0 THOUGH! Tomorrow in my opinion is a free game. If we win, great. If not, let's get ready for the Warriors, but this team just looks different. Something feels different about this team. As fans suffering for the last 9 years, it sure is fun to see this team on the up and up again. Go Wolves!

Thanks for the report, Wolf! I think Adelman clearly did the right thing relying so much on his starters tonight. If he hadn't, I think we would have lost. We clearly have a problem in our lack of quality reliable players after our top six (Starters and JJ). Until Budinger returns and unless we see something consistently good from D-Will or Shved, we will have to continue relying too much on our starters to consistently win. I'm hoping we can shore up our roster by dealing Williams, Shved and/or Shabazz. If only we could have drafted Oladipo.

Wow Wolf, you and I are were thinking along the same lines tonight. I didn't read your report until I posted mine. But I could have just left yours stand as is and saved my effort. Good job.

I really loved that the team was able to throw the ball to Martin when things got sloppy and let him control the offense.It really is an invaluable asset that the team hasn't had since Sam and Spree. Sometimes Ricky and JJ can get rattled and try to do too much and now KMart can help out. He was calm and collected and was a large part in salvaging this game. He is more than a scorer. He is a vet who is battle-tested and knows how to win. He is a wonderful asset for the young stars to learn from.

Thanks for the game report!

It looks like we are closing the door on talking about whether or not Brewer is a good 1on 1 defender. Last year we didn't have anyone that could slow down either Durant or Carmelo. I am glad that we now have a defender that makes them look human. We are lucky to have Brewer. I'm sure that he won't be able to do this every time.

I am very impressed with the Rubio, Brewer, Martin defensive team. Rubio and Brewer are good defenders and Martin is active enough to keep the unit good.

It was great to see Martin have the break out game. Hopefully Dwill will figure out how to put together 2 good games in a row.

lipoli390 wrote:Thanks for the report, Wolf! I think Adelman clearly did the right thing relying so much on his starters tonight. If he hadn't, I think we would have lost. We clearly have a problem in our lack of quality reliable players after our top six (Starters and JJ). Until Budinger returns and unless we see something consistently good from D-Will or Shved, we will have to continue relying too much on our starters to consistently win. I'm hoping we can shore up our roster by dealing Williams, Shved and/or Shabazz. If only we could have drafted Oladipo.

Lip- if we had Oladipo, I don't think Rick would trust him either.

The fact is, 2 out of the first three games, he's relied heavily on the starters while up big, first game, we lost the lead. Tonight, we almost lost the lead, and through no real fault of the bench. The bench didn't do anything tonight, but they also haven't been given the task of maintaining a lead. Good benches can do that. We haven't given our team much of a chance to hold on (the OKC game was an example of the bench maintaining a lead). If Rick won't use the reserves he has, trading for different reserves won't do anything.

As I said after game 1, if Rick won't use his bench up 15+ points, at home, on the road, against a good or bad team, when will he? If Rick doesn't trust the bench, ok, but he's not exactly giving the bench opportunities to earn that trust. One day, we're gonna need our bench to win a game for us (that may be tomorrow). Rick is simply gonna have to trust ALL 13 active guys to get this done when we need it.

Excellent game report, WW. We are so lucky to have "foreign correspondents" to give us the in-person story. I will take next Sunday and Monday against the Lake Show and the Clip-joint, although you all have permission to go to bed before I file my report!

I actually thought Adelman was outcoached tonight. You're correct that he didn't use his bench enough, and it almost cost us with tired legs at the end of the game. Bound to cost us tomorrow night too.

I only take issue with one part of your report. I thought JJ had a spectacular second quarter. After we built the big lead in the first quarter, JJ single handedly kept NY from closing the gap. In his first seven minutes he had 5 points, 5 assists and 2 steals. He did disappear in the second half though.

Nice job bringing home the win, WW!

Long and Wolf -- I disagree completely. Our bench is bad. Did you guys see Shabazz, Shved, Dieng etc the last 6 plus minutes of the Thunder game? They were embarrassingly bad. Williams got a lot of minutes that game and played well. But he was terrible in his limited minutes on the offensive end tonight. Shved has looked bad to terrible so far this season after looking terrible the last two-thirds of last season. He got a lot of minutes last season and bombed the last two thirds of the games he played.

Adelman was Smart enough not to rely much tonight on our highly unreliable bench. We really started to go south tonight when Love was out of the game in the second half. Even our best bench players, JJ and Dante, played poorly tonight. We saw the bad Barea tonight - suffering from LeBron delusions. For the second game in a row, Dante couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from 12 feet. We won tonight because of the extended minutes Adelman gave Love and Martin who then put up huge numbers and hit big shots in the 4th quarter in spite of what might have been tired legs. If Oladipo were here, he'd be getting solid minutes based on his play in games and practice. Putting Shved, Shabazz, or Hummel on the court tonight would have been the basketball equivalent of medical malpractice. Same thing if Adelman had played Dieng after watching how lost he looked in his 6 minutes against the Thunder. The problem isn't Adelman. The problem is Kahn's legacy of poor drafting and FA decisions that have left us thin after our top six. And Flip didn't help matters drafting Shabazz who looked terrible even against the low level competition he faced in Summer League and who looked slow and totally overmatched in his 6 minutes against the Thunder.

lipoli390 wrote:Long and Wolf -- I disagree completely. Our bench is bad. Did you guys see Shabazz, Shved, Dieng etc the last 6 plus minutes of the Thunder game? They were embarrassingly bad. Williams got a lot of minutes that game and played well. But he was terrible in his limited minutes on the offensive end tonight. Shved has looked bad to terrible so far this season after looking terrible the last two-thirds of last season. He got a lot of minutes last season and bombed the last two thirds of the games he played.

Adelman was Smart enough not to rely much tonight on our highly unreliable bench. We really started to go south tonight when Love was out of the game in the second half. Even our best bench players, JJ and Dante, played poorly tonight. We saw the bad Barea tonight - suffering from LeBron delusions. For the second game in a row, Dante couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from 12 feet. We won tonight because of the extended minutes Adelman gave Love and Martin who then put up huge numbers and hit big shots in the 4th quarter in spite of what might have been tired legs. If Oladipo were here, he'd be getting solid minutes based on his play in games and practice. Putting Shved, Shabazz, or Hummel on the court tonight would have been the basketball equivalent of medical malpractice. Same thing if Adelman had played Dieng after watching how lost he looked in his 6 minutes against the Thunder. The problem isn't Adelman. The problem is Kahn's legacy of poor drafting and FA decisions that have left us thin after our top six. And Flip did t help matters drafting Shabazz who looked terrible even against the low level competition he faced in Summer League and who looked slow and totally overmatched in his 6 minutes against the Thunder.

Told you we should have drafted Steven Adams Lip! :thumb:

Lol. Ok, Matt, I'll admit it! :)