Minnesota Sports Forum

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:57 pm I was not at the game, but from my “under the influence” perspective, it seemed we had a better chance to win games 1, 2 and 3 than we did in game 4. So that leaves me scratching my head and unsure how I feel about any of the upcoming games!

But who cares how you win, just find a way…

ItsJustSoSab wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 5:50 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:57 pm I was not at the game, but from my “under the influence” perspective, it seemed we had a better chance to win games 1, 2 and 3 than we did in game 4. So that leaves me scratching my head and unsure how I feel about any of the upcoming games!

But who cares how you win, just find a way…

Tim said it better than under the influence me.

For context: I went with 3 buddies. 1 is a Rockets fan who just loves basketball, 1 who is a bucks and semi-Wolves fan (his family is from both states), and 1 just went for the fun of the experience ("I'll go watch the sports ball!")

4 different people with similar conclusions/perspectives on the Wolves players. Let's run it down.

Ant: I get it. He's an athletic and charismatic, I'm ecstatic he's a wolf. Bah gawd did he try to throw this game. Every single time the Wolves had the momentum or were building a lead, there was ANT to throw it all away, and I mean EVERY.SINGLE.TIME (I'm getting riled up just thinking about it). Terrible passesr, god awful turnovers, or horrendous shots...that usually lead to the Mavs going on their own mini runs. The Rockets friend kept saying "man, ANT is so great but he's really dumb, he jumps in the air all the time without a plan" and "if Ant improves his playmaking off the dribble like Luka he'll be a top player in the league, he's just so bad right now". I'm happy he made some big shots but KAT really bailed him out late in the game when he asked for the ball, then proceeded to dribble around into nothing and throw a grenade to KAT for a contested 3. KAT bailed him out on that one. That foul on Luka had all 3 friends laughing at my misery as I figured the Wolves would choke it away.

KAT: Cupcake is what the causal Wolves fan called him. I'm glad he came up clutch. I'm glad he redeemed himself a bit. I'm also going to be glad when he's gone. The idiot could not stop committing these dumbass fouls. Everybody in our section was LAUGHING at KAT. Comments and jeers were flying at his pea sized brain. The epitome of KAT stupidity was when he tried to be like Luka and draw a foul only to elbow the Mavs player in the face!!!! Even I had to laugh and the sheer buffoonery of it. KAT legit was perplexed why he was called for a foul, the assistant coach (not sure which) literally lifted up his elbow to mimic what KAT did because this idiot didn't get it!!!! Actually I just thought of another thing. When a Wolves player was driving to the basket, KAT tried to I guess set a screen (or something) and just randomly threw his elbow completely out! It was like he was practicing martial arts on the air!!!! Thankfully the two Mavs players had already flown by him because he probably would have been ejected from the game if he landed that elbow. It's like his whole entire existence demands that he throw elbows on drives, shots, screen, apparently when he's not even near anybody. End of rant.

SloMo: alright I'll give him credit, he was actually decent so I guess by not being horrible he was actually...good? You gotta see it in person though, nobody goes near SloMo. They not only dare him to shoot, they literally beg him to...letting him even get in the paint uncontested....not sure how much props I can give a player who is so disrespected, but hey, he did enough.

McDaniels: Love this guy. Still needed more. Need McDaniels from those great games against the Nuggets. Playing good defense is awesome but we need points, rebounds and assists from this guy.

Naz: Again the other 3 friends saying this: "Where is Naz?" "He's been invisible all game" "How does Naz only have 4 points?" etc. etc. thank god he made that lay up at the end but just like Mcdaniels....we need more, a lot more.

Gobert: Dallas hates this guy, every time the crowd chanted Rudy sucks, we chanted Rudy rocks lol. The man needs to make his damn free throws, holy shit. "He has no bag" "How is this guy defensive player of the year?" etc. Again all coming from the other 3 friends. Rudy was getting cooked by everybody and their mama. You have one job!!! (This was also without Lively)

Conley: Wasn't atrocious, may have been too harsh on him in the moment, just felt like he's the vet but seems to fold under pressure as much as young guy in the big moments.

NAW: He made a 3.

Finch: Very few adjustments, how can they run the same play that leads to an open 3 over and over and over and over, back to back to back to back, and not change up anything till the 4th quarter. Unbelievable.

The bigs in general: We should have dominated the glass instead they grabbed so many loose boards. How is this possible?

Random Mavs like Exum were burning us....good lord it was embarrassing. "Who's that guy who just made the shot?" was heard quite a bit, I don't even think Mavs fans knew some of these guys punking us

So yeah, I stand by what I said overall. I felt like we played terrible, it's just that they didn't have Lively and Irving was having one of the worst games I've seen him play. Missing open shots and making bad decisions. We won't have these 2 luxuries for the remaining 3 games. Better play better

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 7:38 pm

ItsJustSoSab wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 5:50 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:57 pm I was not at the game, but from my “under the influence” perspective, it seemed we had a better chance to win games 1, 2 and 3 than we did in game 4. So that leaves me scratching my head and unsure how I feel about any of the upcoming games!

But who cares how you win, just find a way…

Tim said it better than under the influence me.

For context: I went with 3 buddies. 1 is a Rockets fan who just loves basketball, 1 who is a bucks and semi-Wolves fan (his family is from both states), and 1 just went for the fun of the experience ("I'll go watch the sports ball!")

4 different people with similar conclusions/perspectives on the Wolves players. Let's run it down.

Ant: I get it. He's an athletic and charismatic, I'm ecstatic he's a wolf. Bah gawd did he try to throw this game. Every single time the Wolves had the momentum or were building a lead, there was ANT to throw it all away, and I mean EVERY.SINGLE.TIME (I'm getting riled up just thinking about it). Terrible passesr, god awful turnovers, or horrendous shots...that usually lead to the Mavs going on their own mini runs. The Rockets friend kept saying "man, ANT is so great but he's really dumb, he jumps in the air all the time without a plan" and "if Ant improves his playmaking off the dribble like Luka he'll be a top player in the league, he's just so bad right now". I'm happy he made some big shots but KAT really bailed him out late in the game when he asked for the ball, then proceeded to dribble around into nothing and throw a grenade to KAT for a contested 3. KAT bailed him out on that one. That foul on Luka had all 3 friends laughing at my misery as I figured the Wolves would choke it away.

KAT: Cupcake is what the causal Wolves fan called him. I'm glad he came up clutch. I'm glad he redeemed himself a bit. I'm also going to be glad when he's gone. The idiot could not stop committing these dumbass fouls. Everybody in our section was LAUGHING at KAT. Comments and jeers were flying at his pea sized brain. The epitome of KAT stupidity was when he tried to be like Luka and draw a foul only to elbow the Mavs player in the face!!!! Even I had to laugh and the sheer buffoonery of it. KAT legit was perplexed why he was called for a foul, the assistant coach (not sure which) literally lifted up his elbow to mimic what KAT did because this idiot didn't get it!!!! Actually I just thought of another thing. When a Wolves player was driving to the basket, KAT tried to I guess set a screen (or something) and just randomly threw his elbow completely out! It was like he was practicing martial arts on the air!!!! Thankfully the two Mavs players had already flown by him because he probably would have been ejected from the game if he landed that elbow. It's like his whole entire existence demands that he throw elbows on drives, shots, screen, apparently when he's not even near anybody. End of rant.

SloMo: alright I'll give him credit, he was actually decent so I guess by not being horrible he was actually...good? You gotta see it in person though, nobody goes near SloMo. They not only dare him to shoot, they literally beg him to...letting him even get in the paint uncontested....not sure how much props I can give a player who is so disrespected, but hey, he did enough.

McDaniels: Love this guy. Still needed more. Need McDaniels from those great games against the Nuggets. Playing good defense is awesome but we need points, rebounds and assists from this guy.

Naz: Again the other 3 friends saying this: "Where is Naz?" "He's been invisible all game" "How does Naz only have 4 points?" etc. etc. thank god he made that lay up at the end but just like Mcdaniels....we need more, a lot more.

Gobert: Dallas hates this guy, every time the crowd chanted Rudy sucks, we chanted Rudy rocks lol. The man needs to make his damn free throws, holy shit. "He has no bag" "How is this guy defensive player of the year?" etc. Again all coming from the other 3 friends. Rudy was getting cooked by everybody and their mama. You have one job!!! (This was also without Lively)

Conley: Wasn't atrocious, may have been too harsh on him in the moment, just felt like he's the vet but seems to fold under pressure as much as young guy in the big moments.

NAW: He made a 3.

Finch: Very few adjustments, how can they run the same play that leads to an open 3 over and over and over and over, back to back to back to back, and not change up anything till the 4th quarter. Unbelievable.

The bigs in general: We should have dominated the glass instead they grabbed so many loose boards. How is this possible?

Random Mavs like Exum were burning us....good lord it was embarrassing. "Who's that guy who just made the shot?" was heard quite a bit, I don't even think Mavs fans knew some of these guys punking us

So yeah, I stand by what I said overall. I felt like we played terrible, it's just that they didn't have Lively and Irving was having one of the worst games I've seen him play. Missing open shots and making bad decisions. We won't have these 2 luxuries for the remaining 3 games. Better play better

Got it, thanks for the additional context.

Your rant is cathartic. Thinking back to the game, I was alternatively putting my head in my hands screaming, "What are we doing!?" and pumping my fist saying, "Yes!".

The Wolves play a fairly ugly, chaotic brand of offensive basketball. Rudy clogs the lane and looks downright comical when he gets the ball outside of 4 feet from the basket; SloMo can't shoot it beyond 15 feet; KAT commits the dumbest fouls in the history of the sport; Ant throws skip passes into the stands every other game; Naz and Jaden disappear on offense for stretches; other than Rudy's screens, there is ZERO synergy between him and Ant offensively and Rudy is literally in his way on many of his drives; NAW's shot has been iffy at best of late.

I could go on, but what you described isn't wrong. You know what though? We won 56 games and find ourselves in the Western Conference Finals. We got there because of defense. We make others look more stupid and silly than us at times. I wish we had a well-oiled machine for offense too, but it is what it is.

ItsJustSoSab wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 5:50 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:57 pm I was not at the game, but from my “under the influence” perspective, it seemed we had a better chance to win games 1, 2 and 3 than we did in game 4. So that leaves me scratching my head and unsure how I feel about any of the upcoming games!

But who cares how you win, just find a way…

Tim said it better than under the influence me.

For context: I went with 3 buddies. 1 is a Rockets fan who just loves basketball, 1 who is a bucks and semi-Wolves fan (his family is from both states), and 1 just went for the fun of the experience ("I'll go watch the sports ball!")

4 different people with similar conclusions/perspectives on the Wolves players. Let's run it down.

Ant: I get it. He's an athletic and charismatic, I'm ecstatic he's a wolf. Bah gawd did he try to throw this game. Every single time the Wolves had the momentum or were building a lead, there was ANT to throw it all away, and I mean EVERY.SINGLE.TIME (I'm getting riled up just thinking about it). Terrible passesr, god awful turnovers, or horrendous shots...that usually lead to the Mavs going on their own mini runs. The Rockets friend kept saying "man, ANT is so great but he's really dumb, he jumps in the air all the time without a plan" and "if Ant improves his playmaking off the dribble like Luka he'll be a top player in the league, he's just so bad right now". I'm happy he made some big shots but KAT really bailed him out late in the game when he asked for the ball, then proceeded to dribble around into nothing and throw a grenade to KAT for a contested 3. KAT bailed him out on that one. That foul on Luka had all 3 friends laughing at my misery as I figured the Wolves would choke it away.

KAT: Cupcake is what the causal Wolves fan called him. I'm glad he came up clutch. I'm glad he redeemed himself a bit. I'm also going to be glad when he's gone. The idiot could not stop committing these dumbass fouls. Everybody in our section was LAUGHING at KAT. Comments and jeers were flying at his pea sized brain. The epitome of KAT stupidity was when he tried to be like Luka and draw a foul only to elbow the Mavs player in the face!!!! Even I had to laugh and the sheer buffoonery of it. KAT legit was perplexed why he was called for a foul, the assistant coach (not sure which) literally lifted up his elbow to mimic what KAT did because this idiot didn't get it!!!! Actually I just thought of another thing. When a Wolves player was driving to the basket, KAT tried to I guess set a screen (or something) and just randomly threw his elbow completely out! It was like he was practicing martial arts on the air!!!! Thankfully the two Mavs players had already flown by him because he probably would have been ejected from the game if he landed that elbow. It's like his whole entire existence demands that he throw elbows on drives, shots, screen, apparently when he's not even near anybody. End of rant.

SloMo: alright I'll give him credit, he was actually decent so I guess by not being horrible he was actually...good? You gotta see it in person though, nobody goes near SloMo. They not only dare him to shoot, they literally beg him to...letting him even get in the paint uncontested....not sure how much props I can give a player who is so disrespected, but hey, he did enough.

McDaniels: Love this guy. Still needed more. Need McDaniels from those great games against the Nuggets. Playing good defense is awesome but we need points, rebounds and assists from this guy.

Naz: Again the other 3 friends saying this: "Where is Naz?" "He's been invisible all game" "How does Naz only have 4 points?" etc. etc. thank god he made that lay up at the end but just like Mcdaniels....we need more, a lot more.

Gobert: Dallas hates this guy, every time the crowd chanted Rudy sucks, we chanted Rudy rocks lol. The man needs to make his damn free throws, holy shit. "He has no bag" "How is this guy defensive player of the year?" etc. Again all coming from the other 3 friends. Rudy was getting cooked by everybody and their mama. You have one job!!! (This was also without Lively)

Conley: Wasn't atrocious, may have been too harsh on him in the moment, just felt like he's the vet but seems to fold under pressure as much as young guy in the big moments.

NAW: He made a 3.

Finch: Very few adjustments, how can they run the same play that leads to an open 3 over and over and over and over, back to back to back to back, and not change up anything till the 4th quarter. Unbelievable.

The bigs in general: We should have dominated the glass instead they grabbed so many loose boards. How is this possible?

Random Mavs like Exum were burning us....good lord it was embarrassing. "Who's that guy who just made the shot?" was heard quite a bit, I don't even think Mavs fans knew some of these guys punking us

So yeah, I stand by what I said overall. I felt like we played terrible, it's just that they didn't have Lively and Irving was having one of the worst games I've seen him play. Missing open shots and making bad decisions. We won't have these 2 luxuries for the remaining 3 games. Better play better