Game 33: Minnesota @ Houston

[younggunsmn]

We have a Dwight Powell problem we need to fix against Dallas.
We can't let him clown us with offensive rebounds and putbacks like last time.

And we can't afford for Hardaway to bring out his flamethrower again with Luka and Kyrie back.

[thinktank]

A win is a win is a win is a win is a win.
Taking care of Business.

This wasn’t taking care of business. A win by 10 is taking care of business. This was a STATEMENT WIN!!!!!!!!!!

Any win is taking care of business. At the end of the season when team are being seeded for the playoffs they don't look at average margin of victory. How many by 1 and how many by 30. However, I agree this game did make a statement that we aren't as dead/bad as some (mostly Wolves fans) were thinking.

It really doesn’t.

The teams we will need to beat in the WCF Finals and/or Finals won’t be .500 and without their best defender. Maybe without their best defender, if we’re lucky.

Good win tho!

[twolves31]

This wasn’t taking care of business. A win by 10 is taking care of business. This was a STATEMENT WIN!!!!!!!!!!

Any win is taking care of business. At the end of the season when team are being seeded for the playoffs they don't look at average margin of victory. How many by 1 and how many by 30. However, I agree this game did make a statement that we aren't as dead/bad as some (mostly Wolves fans) were thinking.

It really doesn’t.

The teams we will need to beat in the WCF Finals and/or Finals won’t be .500 and without their best defender. Maybe without their best defender, if we’re lucky.

Good win tho!

Houston is a great home team 14-6 at home after losing to us, they've taken down Sacramento twice, Denver twice, and OKC so far this season.

[winforlose]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

[Domejandro]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

For this year's Playoff run, it is much more important that players like Shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr. are given some run to try to build a bit of confidence back. Leonard Miller just turned twenty and is locked in for four years on a deep team. It isn't likely that he will be getting many minutes (even in garbage time), this season.

[winforlose]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

For this year's Playoff run, it is much more important that players like Shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr. are given some run to try to build a bit of confidence back. Leonard Miller just turned twenty and is locked in for four years on a deep team. It isn't likely that he will be getting many minutes (even in garbage time), this season.

Lineup should have been Shake, TBJ, Minott, Miller, Garza. You don’t need WMJ. He is gonna get traded for space as a result of failing in the G.

[thinktank]

Any win is taking care of business. At the end of the season when team are being seeded for the playoffs they don't look at average margin of victory. How many by 1 and how many by 30. However, I agree this game did make a statement that we aren't as dead/bad as some (mostly Wolves fans) were thinking.

It really doesn’t.

The teams we will need to beat in the WCF Finals and/or Finals won’t be .500 and without their best defender. Maybe without their best defender, if we’re lucky.

Good win tho!

Houston is a great home team 14-6 at home after losing to us, they've taken down Sacramento twice, Denver twice, and OKC so far this season.

That’s great.

They’ve also lost to a bunch of bad teams and are ~.500.

I’m not going to apologize for saying I won’t say this win changes much about our Wolves longer-term future.

[Slim Tubby]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

Why did the vets have Miller doing pushups on the bench?

[KGdaBom]

Any win is taking care of business. At the end of the season when team are being seeded for the playoffs they don't look at average margin of victory. How many by 1 and how many by 30. However, I agree this game did make a statement that we aren't as dead/bad as some (mostly Wolves fans) were thinking.

It really doesn’t.

The teams we will need to beat in the WCF Finals and/or Finals won’t be .500 and without their best defender. Maybe without their best defender, if we’re lucky.

Good win tho!

Houston is a great home team 14-6 at home after losing to us, they've taken down Sacramento twice, Denver twice, and OKC so far this season.

Thanks for having my back. Think Tank makes it his mission to try to belittle every comment I make and that is why I have him on ignore.

[winforlose]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

Why did the vets have Miller doing pushups on the bench?

No idea, but Grady seemed to think he did something.

[KGdaBom]

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

Why did the vets have Miller doing pushups on the bench?

No idea, but Grady seemed to think he did something.

Sounds like your basic good natured rookie hazing to me. Nothing to see here. These are not the droids you're looking for.

[winforlose]

Why did the vets have Miller doing pushups on the bench?

No idea, but Grady seemed to think he did something.

Sounds like your basic good natured rookie hazing to me. Nothing to see here. These are not the droids you're looking for.

That’s what I thought too. Another couple possibilities are he might have assumed he was playing, and then the vets hazed him when Finch told him no. Or maybe he was late to something (practice, shoot around, hotel curfew, ect…)

[thinktank]

It really doesn’t.

The teams we will need to beat in the WCF Finals and/or Finals won’t be .500 and without their best defender. Maybe without their best defender, if we’re lucky.

Good win tho!

Houston is a great home team 14-6 at home after losing to us, they've taken down Sacramento twice, Denver twice, and OKC so far this season.

Thanks for having my back. Think Tank makes it his mission to try to belittle every comment I make and that is why I have him on ignore.

Having a different take is not belittling. I even said good win. Think positive. I love the team, too.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Houston giving a good fight and lead against Bucks. We definitly beat a good team yesterday.

[younggunsmn]

Solid win, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot with dumb live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets or commit a ton of fouls.

Houston is not the same team without Brooks (as much as I can't stand him) and Eason.
Brooks is their best defender and actually has some pretty great shooting splits this year.
I like Eason a lot, I think he's underutilized. Outside of Sengun he has as much potential as any of their young players.

We did a good job getting into passing lanes tonight. 3 point contests were not good and rim protection was a mixed bag, but at least we were more aggressive and made them take tougher shots in the paint for the most part.
We weathered a few hot shooting storms to keep the lead at 10+ for most of the game.

Ant has been showing some good craftiness these past few games with ability to get guys in the air and draw fouls.
That's a big step. His teammates did a much better job of not putting him in a bad spot with awful spacing when he was trying to attack tonight.
You can't teach the top 1/10 of 1% athleticism and short area quickness he has, combined with his size and ball skills he is just a really really special player.

Bench was fantastic tonight, NAW, NAZ, Jmac, Kyle all with really solid defense and got good shots on offense.
Whatever has infected Kyle's outside shooting has spread to his ability to shoot layups though, just brutal.

Houston had a big experience gap tonight.
Amen Thompson super raw and my word even Okogie would smoke him in a shooting contest.

Garza looked awful again in garbage time.
Shout out to Finch for keeping Miller out after getting benched for absolutely dogging it in the G-League the other night.

Jaden's defense this year is not at the super high level he played last year.
He might not even be first team all=defense on his own team.
Conley, Ant, NAW, and Anderson all have arguments as possibly having better defensive seasons this year, and foul less.
But I'm glad he broke his shooting and scoring slump tonight because we really need him.

Miller had a much better game after that where he showed the other game was an anomaly. Not playing him was straight up stupid, as Miller is going to be in the rotation next year and as a rookie needs minutes to develop. I get why Finch used everyone else, but I worry there is something going on between him and Miller.

Absolutely the right move he's a rookie who didn't earn his garbage time like everyone else did.
There's no guarantee he's going to see any minutes next year, we all love his potential but he's the one who's going to have to do the work and show he can earn them, no matter how many players leave or what our roster looks like.

This is not the same franchise that dished out roles and minutes to guys just because they were a draft pick for a decade plus.

[TimberKat]

Watched most of the game. In my opinion this is an "Identity" win. It's not signature win because we didn't play great but this is who we are.

We can't blow teams away, still see Towns' faults, Ant's tunnel vision (in a more controlled and acceptable way), Gobert's good/bad, bench is about as good as it gets with KA doing everything except scoring, Naz put up 16, NAW 10+, still no room for Brown, no show for Milton, JMcL give us a little run. At the end of day, we shot 50%, 40%, 80% as a team.

Assuming the shooting pct will fall off a little. How many games can we realistically win playing at this level? I think 52 win is very possible.