Minnesota Sports Forum

Well, the Wolves weren't going to win this one. Anyone grounded in reality knew before tipoff that the Wolves would lose; the only question was by how much. The result? Another lopsided loss for this young, depleted Team.

The crowd was relatively small and quiet, especially for a Friday night. But there wasn't much happening on the court to bring us to our feet.

The players, for the most part, gave a good effort. On the other hand, the team continued the horrific defensive play we've seen from them recently. Mo is a terrible defender, but beyond that it's hard to get a handle on why this team is so bad defensively. Flip has never been known as a stellar defensive coach to say the least and perhaps we're simple seeing confirmation of who he is as a coach. Yet, at least some of it, as evident tonight, is a function of the team's youth - guys simply not knowing where to be or lacking an understanding of what it takes to effectively defend against really good NBA players. Whatever the root cause, this team has to improve defensively even before Ricky returns and there is no legitimate reason for this team continuing to perform this poorly defensively.

Some individual bright spots?

At the top of this list is Anthony Bennett. 20 points on 9-14 shooting along with 3 steals and 3 boards in 32 minutes makes for an impressive stat line. He showed both his nice mid-range shooting touch and explosiveness tonight. Make no mistake about it, this guy is quick, strong and explosive. And I noticed something else tonight. He has an excellent nose for the ball, getting put back dunks and often ending up around loose balls. I also like his hands, which he displayed on one of his monster dunks tonight taking the feed from Corey Brewer in the lane. I thought Dieng played really well. He was very active around the bucket and showed some really nifty footwork. I loved the toughness he showed tonight as well. He never backed down and really took it to Duncan.

Wiggîns had a nice stretch in the 3rd where he almost took the game over as a scorer. But then, in mystifying fashion, he passed the ball out of the paint towards the top of the key where it was intercepted. With his extraordinary athleticism and long arms, at a time in the game when he was the hottest scorer on the court, he chose an ill-advised risky pass over going up strong and at least drawing a foul. He then disappeared for the rest of the game - at least on the offensive end. There is a very disturbing passivity in his game that we have to hope will change significantly.

Another great effort from Corey. But not a lot of productivity to show in the box score. Mo shot better tonight - at least in the first half. But his failure to consistently get the ball to Wiggins when Andrew was hot was disappointing to say the least. Too JJ -like too often, but without JJ's dribble penetration ability. GR3 looked really good in his short time playing against the Spurs' scrubs.

But the most hopeful sign tonight came during a timeout later in the 4th. I sit not far behind the Wolves bench and I noticed something tonight I haven't seen since KG was here. I noticed that every single Wolves player during that timeout, from those playing to those in street cloths like Ricky and Pek, looked serious and genuinely upset with what was happening in the game. Ricky looked particularly upset. In prior years, as I've reported a number of times, there would have been at least 4 or 5 players laughing and joking on the bench during the timeout in a similar situation as they and their teammates were getting their asses kicked. That one moment tonight gave me a great deal of comfort and signaled to me that things are different and that better days lie ahead.

lipoli390 wrote:
But the best most hopeful sign tonight came during a timeout later in the 4th. I'm not far behind the Wolves bench and I noticed something tonight I haven't seen since KG was here. I noticed that every single Wolves player during that timeout, from those playing to those in street cloths like Ricky and Pek, looked serious and down. Ricky looked particularly upset with what was happening. In prior years as I've reported a number of times there would have been at least 4 or 5 players laughing and joking on the bench during the timeout in a similar situation as they and their teammates were getting their asses kicked. That one moment tonight gave me a great deal of comfort and signaled to me that good things are different and that better days lie ahead.

That is impressive. That shows true color of the guys. Was Kevin Martin there tonight?

I saw Kevin Martin was on the bench.

Good Report. That's pretty much how I saw the game. The defense is pretty bad right now. Tony Parker could have scored anytime he wanted to last night. I sort of think the Spurs eased up on the throttle vs. completely destroying us last night. I was happy with the effort I saw knowing they were at such a big disadvantage in experience and man power.

The Wolves have some talented guys....but there isn't any consistency right now. Every night someone plays really well and then disappears the next night (Bazz 17 against Knicks and then 2 last night). Obviously anyone can have a bad game on any given night. But it's going to be rough sailing until they can show more consistency. I guess it goes with the territory with young players/new system and coach.

Carlos Danger wrote:I saw Kevin Martin was on the bench.

I was curious how much he was into the game.

I didn't notice Martin much on the bench. Mainly I noticed Ricky and Pek. Pek was noticeable primarily because of his size. But Ricky was noticeable because of how active he was on the bench. He's still on crutches, but he was standing up a lot and he would participate in the team huddles during timeouts.

One more thng about Ricky. He still can't put any weight on that ankle. He tried a couple times and it was painful to watch. I'll say it now. Ricky probably won't be back until late January or February at the earliest. I'm still thinking he might need surgery and be done for the season.

Brewer played better in the 2nd half, but in the first he let the Spurs get under his skin and made soem boneheaded plays. I almost wanted him out of there at one point but then you consider the options and I backed off a bit.

Bazz just had a tough night and the Spurs seemed ready for him. Part of that is they pack the paint usually but that hurts Bazz. It also just seemed liek he was off in general.

Bennett. What can you say the guy can shoot it. It sure doesn't look like a fluke either. What I saw which was really strk contrast was his D compared to Bazz. Bennett gets his hands on ball does does a decent job overall as a team defender. Its really nice to see him be able to be at the very least a decent factor on that end.

Hummel I tried to do a google search to see where this guy is in the league leaders of charges taken. Its nto a sexy stat so I didn't have luck finding it. He hasn't hit shots quite at the rate he should but damn the guy can be a positive player out there on the court. He is like a guy you would expect to be on the Spurs bench which is a pretty good compliment.

Wiggins. Yeah so he disappears for stretches but lets also realize teh guy is 19. He blew pass Leonard once and overall looked pretty good a few times against the Spurs. Pretty good despite overall not shootng the ball well. Also damn that guy is really fast for someone his size. A couple times he was running back in transition and it was like everyone else was in a slow jog and he was gliding past them. I continue to be happy he is on the team.

Zach...tonight was an example of why if we can sign a player it needs to be a backup PG. Zach comes in...the game gets away from the team its pretty much that simple. I think if Zach had to play these backup minutes with some legit vets he would be able to do alright but he is playing with young guys too and yeah its just a tough spot. I actually liked how he was more aggressive in the 2nd half even though it resulted in some poor results. ts clear he is caught between trying to be a solid no mistake guy and playing c ball being aggressive which is his game and he doesn't know what to do. I still like Lavine alot but for this team a PG with more game woudl help. Bring in AJ Price or something that would help even if he isn't amazing or even barely adequate.

Bud seems to continue to find his way a little out there. I know he missed that wide open 3 and looked bad on a drive to the hoop but you can see him figuring it out. you can see he still has hops he gets up there for rebounds and his D he at least knows what he is doing out there. I'm not saying he looked great but I think he is getting better and thats a good thing we need him to be something the next few weeks or months with Martin out.

Overall even though it was really lopsided it didn't feel anywhere nearly as embarrassing as the NO and Dallas game. Guys played hard they played a good game in the first half and they were severely undermanned. It showed up on the boards as much as anywhere. I thought for the most part the team gave a sold effort just a tough game to win with some many guys out and they didn't have alot of time to prepare without Martin. If they can give that type of effort every night they might come up with a win here and there against some bad teams.

lipoli390 wrote:I didn't notice Martin much on the bench. Mainly I noticed Ricky and Pek. Pek was noticeable primarily because of his size. But Ricky was noticeable because of how active he was on the bench. He's still on crutches, but he was standing up a lot and he would participate in the team huddles during timeouts.

One more thng about Ricky. He still can't put any weight on that ankle. He tried a couple times and it was painful to watch. I'll say it now. Ricky probably won't be back until late January or February at the earliest. I'm still thinking he might need surgery and be done for the season.

If Ricky is out until Feb, then that dude must be made of glass. Even George could be shooting jumpers after a few months from breaking his leg. It's a sprained ankle, it's not like he was shot

Wiggins made that pass because he was going to get stuffed. He had no chance of finishing that play and it did not look like it would have been a foul on the Spurs. I don't know how you can call him passive based on one play when he was getting to the line pretty frequently before that. The fact is that the guy he tried to pass it to should have cut to the lane instead of sitting on the 3 point line. Wiggins is getting to the bucket pretty well, but nobody is moving around him. It was something AK47 did very well and was supposed to be one of the things Bud thrived on. Wiggins drew the defenders so if somebody cuts down the lane it is an easy bucket.
The ticky-tac criticism of a 19 year old continues to amaze me when he is showing to be more offensively versatile than many gave him credit for coming out of college and he is already taking the toughest defensive assignment every night. He's been getting to the line, shooting pretty well and already has some moves that could be reliable options for clutch shots at the end of games (his step back move is already a tough guard). He's been getting better as the year has progressed and he is less than 20 games into his career. Let's give him a break instead of already criticizing pieces of his game every night because he hasn't taken over the team and been the guy yet

One other thing I have been thinking watching the last couple games is I have praised Jim Peterson for his abilities for a couple years but I'm now gonna say Dave Benz has really rounded into form and both these guys really do a fantastic job. Benz struggled his first year last year he became solid to maybe good but this year he is really on top of everything and knows the league really well. Fantastic hire by the Wolves it makes it easier to watch brutal games in losses because you don't hear garbage from the commentators and Pete teaches you why the other team is beating you and why the Wolves are struggling.