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The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 9:02 am
by Phenom
I'm going to let my GDT streak ride since its my best ever :lol:

Starting it early cause today is my little girl's birthday today and I anticipate being occupied most of the evening.

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 10:10 am
by AbeVigodaLive
Feels like a long time since I watched an NBA game...

I think the Wolves take the final 26 games more seriously... or at least more of those games... and finish the season strong despite a tough schedule. But who knows with this team.

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 12:31 pm
by Wolvesfan21
AbeVigodaLive wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 10:10 am Feels like a long time since I watched an NBA game...

I think the Wolves take the final 26 games more seriously... or at least more of those games... and finish the season strong despite a tough schedule. But who knows with this team.
21-5 to finish the year.

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 12:31 pm
by 60WinTim
AbeVigodaLive wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 10:10 am Feels like a long time since I watched an NBA game...

I think the Wolves take the final 26 games more seriously... or at least more of those games... and finish the season strong despite a tough schedule. But who knows with this team.
Yeah, the Wolves have a track record of playing well after the All-Star break under Finch. And it seems like some stars are aligning. We had a glimpse of Ayo on this team heading into the break, and it looked pretty darn good, albeit against some weaker competition. While Joan is not "part of the rotation", he's shown enough that we could see him at times. Shannon's return could be a boost if he looks anything like last season.

They get to kick off the stretch run with two home games, with the first one being a tune-up game (hopefully, that is not a jynx!).

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 1:08 pm
by FNG
I share in the optimism here about a strong finish, but define that as a 16-10 finish that gets us to 50 wins...I think there are far too many road games left against playoff teams to expect any better than that. I find it both a reason for some optimism and an embarrassment that the national media now regularly reports what we've known on this board for some time...our two high scorers take a lot of plays off on defense. But we've seem both of them flip the switch as we get toward the end of the season, and we have to hope that is going to happen again. I also think the arrival of Ayo and TJ helps us a lot.

Unfortunately we don't get to watch Flagg tonight. As great as Kon Knueppel has been this year, I think Flagg is still the clear choice for ROY. The Mavs aren't very good anyway, but without Flagg, Gaffort, Lively and maybe Christie, this one better be over early.

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:08 pm
by 60WinTim
I was hoping to see Rocco's first NBA minutes in garbage time tonight, but I see he was transferred back down to Iowa...

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:52 pm
by 60WinTim
Why would we want to feed the hot hand…

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:55 pm
by Q-is-here
Team looks appropriately engaged on both ends. Cold hands night for Rudy, as he's fumbled away two nice Julius passes.

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:57 pm
by Q-is-here
60WinTim wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:08 pm I was hoping to see Rocco's first NBA minutes in garbage time tonight, but I see he was transferred back down to Iowa...
With the long break for both the Iowa and big league team I think they wanted Rocco up for the last couple of days to get some reps in with the big boys in practice.

I really like what I've seen from Rocco in Iowa, but at the same time I can tell you he is absolutely not ready for real NBA minutes yet (not that you were implying he was).

Re: The playoff push starts tonight Mavs @ Wolves GDT

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:03 pm
by Q-is-here
Ant mostly just bringing the ball up and handing it off to others to initiate half court sets. On the one hand it seems like a waste of energy for him to bring the ball up and be purely a set-up guy. On the other hand, I like that others are getting lots of touches early without Ant being completely passive by just setting up in a corner.