Game 43 Hornets at Wolves 1/22/24 30-12

[KGdaBom]

W4L it seems that Ant isn't a fan of the Hot Hand. Neither is coach Finch.

In the locker room, Anthony Edwards admitted the West-leading Wolves were focused on feeding the hot hand rather than winning the game, which they led by 15 entering the fourth quarter.
Head coach Chris Finch was irate, calling his team's performance "disgusting" and "immature." He also said Towns was "hunting a big number."

[jpatrick]

I’m on vacation, so I’ve seen zero of the last two games. But this strikes me as a Hangover game after OKC, where we thought we could just pull it out at the end so didn’t play with our normal intensity, especially on the defensive end.

KAT definitely was fouled on that last play but you can’t leave a game against the hornets at home up to the refs. And while the refs blew that call, the Gobert push towards the end should have been a flagrant and/or take fouls. Refs calls go both ways.

It’s interesting that JMac only played ten minutes in a game without Conley. Finch doesn’t trust him. Maybe we do need a backup PG.

[shangrila]

Isn’t this the typical bad luck for Towns? In the game that he scores 62, the national media is going to be talking about Embiid, and when they get to Towns for the second story, it will be about his “empty stats,” since the Wolves lost.

Sums up all the talking point pretty well honestly.

Try hard that wants to be in the same class as Embiid but comes up short and chases individual stats at the cost of team success.

Not saying the above represents him as a player but this game is the poster for everything negative said about Towns throughout his career.

62 points on great shooting is not a poster for everything negative. However, the 4th quarter our whole team including KAT went into a shell and couldn't make a shot.

I literally laid out why it did.

[shangrila]

I’m on vacation, so I’ve seen zero of the last two games. But this strikes me as a Hangover game after OKC, where we thought we could just pull it out at the end so didn’t play with our normal intensity, especially on the defensive end.

KAT definitely was fouled on that last play but you can’t leave a game against the hornets at home up to the refs. And while the refs blew that call, the Gobert push towards the end should have been a flagrant and/or take fouls. Refs calls go both ways.

It’s interesting that JMac only played ten minutes in a game without Conley. Finch doesn’t trust him. Maybe we do need a backup PG.

The issue with McLaughlin is on the defensive side. I think Finch, and I agree, realises that if we lose any kind of step defensively then we don't have the offence to compensate.

[KGdaBom]

Sums up all the talking point pretty well honestly.

Try hard that wants to be in the same class as Embiid but comes up short and chases individual stats at the cost of team success.

Not saying the above represents him as a player but this game is the poster for everything negative said about Towns throughout his career.

62 points on great shooting is not a poster for everything negative. However, the 4th quarter our whole team including KAT went into a shell and couldn't make a shot.

I literally laid out why it did.

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

[BlacJacMac]

62 points on great shooting is not a poster for everything negative. However, the 4th quarter our whole team including KAT went into a shell and couldn't make a shot.

I literally laid out why it did.

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

If KAT dominates the ball to that level, no one else is going to get into any kind of rhythm.

[BlacJacMac]

And last night is a perfect example of why people were hard on the team when they'd squeak by a bad team (as opposed to the all wins are great, no matter what guy).

Because those same problems that made games against bad teams close wins, turn into losses against good teams.

We should not have lost to Dallas, Boston, OKC or Charlotte. We had all 4 of those games in hand late and we blew them all by playing the way we did against bad teams.

[KGdaBom]

I literally laid out why it did.

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

If KAT dominates the ball to that level, no one else is going to get into any kind of rhythm.

If he's shooting 60% or better including 10 3s out of 15 attempts I'll take that 7 days of the week and twice on Sundays. Funny thing is it was Sunday.

[KGdaBom]

And last night is a perfect example of why people were hard on the team when they'd squeak by a bad team (as opposed to the all wins are great, no matter what guy).

Because those same problems that made games against bad teams close wins, turn into losses against good teams.

We should not have lost to Dallas, Boston, OKC or Charlotte. We had all 4 of those games in hand late and we blew them all by playing the way we did against bad teams.

A win is a win is a win is a win is a win. Last night's game was proof of that. A win and I'd be happy. A loss and I'm bummed.

[Klomp]

The wild thing about all this "who to blame" talk...it's easy to blame Ant's 3-11 shooting, but he was literally the best plus-minus on the team.

Also an interesting observation: The second best plus-minus was Naz Reid at +6, but he only played 15 minutes. I think Finch stuck with Rudy (team-worst -10 in team-high 39 minutes) too much, especially without Conley available. I know Finchy was looking for any defense he could get, but in games like this against up-tempo teams devoid of talent, they usually devolve into tempo games and mobile defenders become more important.

[winforlose]

The wild thing about all this "who to blame" talk...it's easy to blame Ant's 3-11 shooting, but he was literally the best plus-minus on the team.

Also an interesting observation: The second best plus-minus was Naz Reid at +6, but he only played 15 minutes. I think Finch stuck with Rudy (team-worst -10 in team-high 39 minutes) too much, especially without Conley available. I know Finchy was looking for any defense he could get, but in games like this against up-tempo teams devoid of talent, they usually devolve into tempo games and mobile defenders become more important.

There is no world, no universe in any world where you talk about that loss and don’t begin and end with defense. We let them shoot 56.8% from the field, 37.8% from deep, and 63.6% from the field in the fourth with 60% from deep. You don’t blow a 15 point lead by missing a few shots. You blow it by not getting stops. When a team like Charlotte drops 36 in the fourth quarter someone or multiple someone’s didn’t cover their assignments. Everything else follows from that one critical failure.

Ask me why we played such bad defense, the answer is 3 fold.

1. Guys felt disengaged from the offense.
2. KAT was exhausted on offense and was not able to chase, with his teammates not picking him up.
3. We seem to love playing with our food. We don’t play a full 48 against bad teams and that finally bit us.

[Klomp]

The wild thing about all this "who to blame" talk...it's easy to blame Ant's 3-11 shooting, but he was literally the best plus-minus on the team.

Also an interesting observation: The second best plus-minus was Naz Reid at +6, but he only played 15 minutes. I think Finch stuck with Rudy (team-worst -10 in team-high 39 minutes) too much, especially without Conley available. I know Finchy was looking for any defense he could get, but in games like this against up-tempo teams devoid of talent, they usually devolve into tempo games and mobile defenders become more important.

There is no world, no universe in any world where you talk about that loss and don’t begin and end with defense. We let them shoot 56.8% from the field, 37.8% from deep, and 63.6% from the field in the fourth with 60% from deep. You don’t blow a 15 point lead by missing a few shots. You blow it by not getting stops. When a team like Charlotte drops 36 in the fourth quarter someone or multiple someone’s didn’t cover their assignments. Everything else follows from that one critical failure.

Ask me why we played such bad defense, the answer is 3 fold.

1. Guys felt disengaged from the offense.
2. KAT was exhausted on offense and was not able to chase, with his teammates not picking him up.
3. We seem to love playing with our food. We don’t play a full 48 against bad teams and that finally bit us.

To the second point, if Finch had played Reid more minutes (with Towns), Towns would have spent less time chasing because he's in the 5 role. The chasing responsibilities would have gone to Reid, which he is more adept at.

[TimberKat]

To be fair, CHA didn't lay down and die after 3rd qtr. They shoot lights out in the 4th and not just bad defense by Wolves. Refs missed 10 calls in the last two minutes (see ESPN report) 3 favor Wolves and 6 favor CHA including the critical Towns foul at the end. It's shouldn't had come down to that. I still think execution or another shoot creator/quick trigger is a better answer. You will run into teams with crazy runs and you need to hang with them. Defense is certainly important.

[Guest84]

When a player has it going like Towns did, they’re going to feed him until he runs dry. This is the case with most teams, even the great teams. I don’t think the team was disengaged on offense, I think just wanted to see their teammates succeed.

The issue was that they lost sight of the bigger picture, the WIN. We could tell through the TV that towns was starting to burn out but nobody on the team saw it in real time.

In Edwards case, he was already under the weather. So when he saw Towns on a heater, he prob said let him take it for the night. It sucks because wolves fans have ptsd with all of the nonsense we’ve seen over the history.

This team is learning and for the most part has taken care of business so far. Bad habits are creeping in and some guys are prob looking forward to the break already.

Finch needs to step in and start correcting. But it may be a good idea to consider staggering a little rest. Especially with ant’s sickness and nagging knee issue.

All in all, this game was lost on the defensive end.

[shangrila]

62 points on great shooting is not a poster for everything negative. However, the 4th quarter our whole team including KAT went into a shell and couldn't make a shot.

I literally laid out why it did.

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

If you ignore all context and anything else beyond the raw box score numbers in this game...sure, let's get him to drop 60 every game.

[KGdaBom]

I literally laid out why it did.

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

If you ignore all context and anything else beyond the raw box score numbers in this game...sure, let's get him to drop 60 every game.

Context or not I'll take a repeat of KAT's game for every game the rest of the season. We should be up by 30 and hold on when he gets cold.

[BlacJacMac]

I'll take KAT's game from last night every game the rest of the season. As long as everybody else doesn't suck we will win almost every game.

If you ignore all context and anything else beyond the raw box score numbers in this game...sure, let's get him to drop 60 every game.

Context or not I'll take a repeat of KAT's game for every game the rest of the season. We should be up by 30 and hold on when he gets cold.

Why?

If KAT scores 60, you can't assume anyone on else on the team hit (or came close to their averages). KAT had a single game usage of 56.5%. Ant, Jaden and Rudy combined for 31 points.

Embiid scored 70 and they only beat the Spurs by 10 - and only scored 13 points over their average.

Having an outlier scoring game does not generally lead to a blowout.

And KAT didn't just "get cold". He got selfish. He was record hunting and taking very poor shots leading to a 2/10 4th quarter for him.

[KGdaBom]

If you ignore all context and anything else beyond the raw box score numbers in this game...sure, let's get him to drop 60 every game.

Context or not I'll take a repeat of KAT's game for every game the rest of the season. We should be up by 30 and hold on when he gets cold.

Why?

If KAT scores 60, you can't assume anyone on else on the team hit (or came close to their averages). KAT had a single game usage of 56.5%. Ant, Jaden and Rudy combined for 31 points.

Embiid scored 70 and they only beat the Spurs by 10 - and only scored 13 points over their average.

Having an outlier scoring game does not generally lead to a blowout.

And KAT didn't just "get cold". He got selfish. He was record hunting and taking very poor shots leading to a 2/10 4th quarter for him.

I'll take a repeat of KAT's game every game for the rest of the season without a moments hesitation. Other players just need to take care of their business and we would win 90% of our remaining games. However, this is a moot point. KAT will not score 62 points in every remaining game on 60% plus shooting and 10-15 from 3.

I will leave it to you to find the dark cloud in every silver lining.

[BlacJacMac]

Context or not I'll take a repeat of KAT's game for every game the rest of the season. We should be up by 30 and hold on when he gets cold.

Why?

If KAT scores 60, you can't assume anyone on else on the team hit (or came close to their averages). KAT had a single game usage of 56.5%. Ant, Jaden and Rudy combined for 31 points.

Embiid scored 70 and they only beat the Spurs by 10 - and only scored 13 points over their average.

Having an outlier scoring game does not generally lead to a blowout.

And KAT didn't just "get cold". He got selfish. He was record hunting and taking very poor shots leading to a 2/10 4th quarter for him.

I'll take a repeat of KAT's game every game for the rest of the season without a moments hesitation. Other players just need to take care of their business and we would win 90% of our remaining games. However, this is a moot point. KAT will not score 62 points in every remaining game on 60% plus shooting and 10-15 from 3.

I will leave it to you to find the dark cloud in every silver lining.

The dark cloud is we lost the game.

[KGdaBom]

Why?

If KAT scores 60, you can't assume anyone on else on the team hit (or came close to their averages). KAT had a single game usage of 56.5%. Ant, Jaden and Rudy combined for 31 points.

Embiid scored 70 and they only beat the Spurs by 10 - and only scored 13 points over their average.

Having an outlier scoring game does not generally lead to a blowout.

And KAT didn't just "get cold". He got selfish. He was record hunting and taking very poor shots leading to a 2/10 4th quarter for him.

I'll take a repeat of KAT's game every game for the rest of the season without a moments hesitation. Other players just need to take care of their business and we would win 90% of our remaining games. However, this is a moot point. KAT will not score 62 points in every remaining game on 60% plus shooting and 10-15 from 3.

I will leave it to you to find the dark cloud in every silver lining.

The dark cloud is we lost the game.

Yep that was. You're finally figuring it out. A win is a win a loss is a loss. All that matters, but we weren't talking about that game. We were talking about if it would be a good thing for KAT to repeat that game every game for the rest of the season. I was claiming I would like KAT to score 62 on 60% plus shooting and 10-15 from 3 every game. You and Shangrila were saying that would be a bad thing.