Game 62 POR vs Wolves

[younggunsmn]

You have a positivity bias that borders on the delusional.

I've never had a problem letting you have your lollipops and rainbows,
but your need to crap on people who don't share your view and label opinions you don't like as "hate" is a pathology.

But then again, following pro sports is a pathology in and of itself.

[winforlose]

You have a positivity bias that borders on the delusional.

I've never had a problem letting you have your lollipops and rainbows,
but your need to crap on people who don't share your view and label opinions you don't like as "hate" is a pathology.

But then again, following pro sports is a pathology in and of itself.

I finished this game about 20 minutes ago, so I missed all the fun you guys were having. If I had been here I would have pointed out that Reath is a 32% above the break 3 point shooter who shot 100% on 4-4 in this game. He missed an elbow 3 and hit a corner 3, to go 5-6. Rayan Rupert was 5 of 14 from deep heading into tonight and he shot 3 of 3 tonight. He is shooting 34.8% after this game having hit 5 of 7 from the field. He was 11 of 39 coming into the game, or 28.2% from the field coming into tonight. The Blazers are one of the worst shooting teams in the league and hit 41% of their 3s on 16 of 39 shooting. Bad teams are only bad teams when they play like themselves. Tonight Portland kept making shots, that made them better than their record tonight. I know you believe teams can be better than their record, because you believe we are worse than ours.

I would also point out a terrible whistle tonight that limited Karl to 6 minutes in the first half, fouled out Rudy at the end of the game, and kept us from playing our usual brand of physical defense. To their credit the refs were equally bad against the Blazers and we shot a ton of free throws, but it must not be ignored that they backed us off.

I could talk about other factors, such as Ant getting injured and missing a chunk of the 3rd. Or how tonight was the back end of a back to back. Or how it was our 5th game in 7 days. Or how we let our foot off the gas after we pretty much won it with 6 minutes left in the fourth and a double digit lead. I will grant you we played with our food. But, we never felt for a moment like we couldn’t devour it.

I share your frustration at our recent losses and our poor play and coaching. That said, we swept Portland and Memphis, we beat Detroit and Washington, we won 3 out of four against the Spurs, we split Charlotte, and I believe we are 9-2 against the bottom 6 teams in the league (or maybe I misheard that.) There is nothing wrong with any of that. We need to clean things up in a big way come playoff time, but that doesn’t mean we suck either.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Is this Gobert's best game as a Wolves?

It doesn't get much better. This Rudy is the one I thought we traded for. What a difference a year makes. The coaches to their credit finally figured out how to use him.

What was you guys's favorite part? Getting cooked for 26 points and 5 wide open 3's by an undrafted scrub center or giving up 34 points and 14 assists to a very mediocre Anfernee Simons?

Our pick and roll defense is an absolute goddamn mess and Karl is the main culprit, but this has to be the worst defensive game I have seen from Rudy this year.

Offensively, yes, he had a great game and we badly needed that from him tonight, cleaning up a lot of awful shots and making his free throws.

And it's kind of weird to write all that where Rudy is great on offense and terrible on defense.


This was not a game to be proud of against a team only really playing one rotation worthy player.
There are so many things broken on this team right now.
Ant and KAT were both awful.
Maybe there is a bug going around or something with Ant sitting on the potty at tipoff, but this team has looked like hot garbage since the All-Star break.


I wonder if you ever watch a jazz game when Rjdy was there. Obviously not much as you woud not write what you do. The Rudy we got this year is exactly the Ryty jazz got when he was DPOY. Fantastic defender under paint, weak offense and struggle to defend the perimeter if he not surrounder with the right guys.
Rudy is the best player this year for Minny and for the regular season. At PO this may be a different story.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I'd love for us to play perfect basketball. Win every game pretty. It's not the way it works. I'd like our offense and defense to both be #1 in the NBA. It's not the way it works.
We are who our record says we are. 43-19 and first in the west once the Lakers complete their annihilation of OKC tonight. I recommend you take a close look at OKC and spread some Doom and Gloom on their board.

I'm going to go over there right now and post a rant about how they only control about one of every 5 draft picks for the next 10 years.
Then I'm going to post a really angry rant about why the F they saved up all that cap space for next summer.
Then I'm going off on how they don't even have to worry about sniffing the luxury tax for at least 3 years.
Then I'm going off on a long non-basketball related tangent about how none of their young stars have knocked up any groupies lately or paid them 100k to cover their women's health care.

Their future looks bright. I'm glad you can really appreciate their team while hating ours. Tonight they got blown out by the Lakers. Final score was only 12 points, but OKC closed the gap in garbage time. They have a very good team. If they didn't they wouldn't have a chance to beat us for first in the west. I'm happy for them. We have a very good team. I wish we hadn't lost in OT to Sacramento and by one point to the Clippers. Our lead would be larger. Despite those 2 losses over the last 10 games we are 7-3 which is tied for the best record in the west in that time span. Being first in the west at about 80% of the season has been played is something I'm proud of. I'm not going to whine every time we lose or don't win pretty enough.

I agree with you about OKC. Very talented teams but not a contender yet. They need to add some 3pts shooters if they want to compete. But they are young and got plenty of assets. I'm sure it's not for this year but in one or two years, they will be very dangerous. For the moment i still see Denver and Clippers better than OKC ( and us).

[TimberKat]

I wonder if you ever watch a jazz game when Rjdy was there. Obviously not much as you woud not write what you do. The Rudy we got this year is exactly the Ryty jazz got when he was DPOY. Fantastic defender under paint, weak offense and struggle to defend the perimeter if he not surrounder with the right guys.
Rudy is the best player this year for Minny and for the regular season. At PO this may be a different story.

Yes, agree. Overall his defense has been very good this year. His blocks number are back to his avg. He is more effective guarding our to the perimeter. His FT shooting motion had improved lately and will translate to better pct. He played reasonably good defense this game. In order to be more effective in the playoffs, we are going to need some scoring like tonight to open things up for other players.

[shrink]

This year’s success has changed me. Instead of feeling happy when we win, I feel relief when we don’t lose. Moreover, even when we win, I sometimes get frustrated when we don’t win by more.

That’s a net negative proposition, where the team can only disappoint me.

[winforlose]

This year’s success has changed me. Instead of feeling happy when we win, I feel relief when we don’t lose. Moreover, even when we win, I sometimes get frustrated when we don’t win by more.

That’s a net negative proposition, where the team can only disappoint me.

When you are bad you want to win as many as possible. When you are good you want to lose as few as possible. When you are young you want to develop your players well. When you are a vet team you want your players to perform to their standards. The question is stakes and developments.

[Calinks]

Something that might be a factor. Ant may be off because he just had a kid, maybe it's messing with him somehow. KAT might be off because he just had a friend die, maybe that's affecting his game too. Don't know if that is the case but those could be factors, they have both had a significant drop in recent games.

Edwards not scoring until damn near halftime yesterday is very out of character plus he missed the opening tip. Towns has reverted back to some of the worst parts of his game and is racking up fouls again and his efficiency has dropped off big time. They aren't playing like they were all season.

[Note30]

This year’s success has changed me. Instead of feeling happy when we win, I feel relief when we don’t lose. Moreover, even when we win, I sometimes get frustrated when we don’t win by more.

That’s a net negative proposition, where the team can only disappoint me.

Probably because the FO bet the next half decade on this squad working out with next to no proof.

We're so used to losing, then the FO goes and drains all of our resources on this team without wining even one playoff series and bets the farm for a chip.

Now we have to win or we're relegated to the dark years again if any number of things happen from KAT getting traded for peanuts or Rudy leaving after next year, or cross those fingers real tight, we lose our younger players to injury or in McDaniels case they never get better.

You're feeling pressed to win because we've lost for so long and if we don't things are looking pretty bleak again.

[winforlose]

Something that might be a factor. Ant may be off because he just had a kid, maybe it's messing with him somehow. KAT might be off because he just had a friend die, maybe that's affecting his game too. Don't know if that is the case but those could be factors, they have both had a significant drop in recent games.

Edwards not scoring until damn near halftime yesterday is very out of character plus he missed the opening tip. Towns has reverted back to some of the worst parts of his game and is racking up fouls again and his efficiency has dropped off big time. They aren't playing like they were all season.

Interestingly and somewhat sadly, Ant’s performance last night was fairly consistent with how he plays against bad teams. Against good teams he has something to prove and tries to go off. Against bad teams Ant wants to pass and prove he can be a facilitator. Ant needs to find the balance and have the maturity to play with energy against all types of teams.

KAT’s foul trouble isn’t nearly as bad as prior years. The refs yesterday were pretty aggressive for both teams. Rudy actually fouled out. Karl against the Clippers was also absorbing a lot of contact and the Wolves were getting bad whistles. Karl getting called for a clamp down when PG was fouling him was especially egregious. I do think Karl needs to improve his form and eliminate the hook from his game. But I also think Refs dislike him and look for excuses to punish him. He doesn’t get away with nearly the same stuff that other top scorers get away with on drives, or get the protections that they get. I am hoping come playoff time this will get fixed by the less aggressive playoff whistles.

[SSUBluesman]

I'll be the first to admit I don't keep up with the league like I used to, but I can't have been the only one who had no idea who almost every players was on the floor for the Blazers.

After having only watched the first half I was surprised to find out this morning that we won. That should not be happening when you're the #1 seed against a bunch of randoms.

[winforlose]

I'll be the first to admit I don't keep up with the league like I used to, but I can't have been the only one who had no idea who almost every players was on the floor for the Blazers.

After having only watched the first half I was surprised to find out this morning that we won. That should not be happening when you're the #1 seed against a bunch of randoms.

When you are playing your 5th game in 7 days and they are making shots they have been missing all year, games can get close.

[Klomp]

I'll be the first to admit I don't keep up with the league like I used to, but I can't have been the only one who had no idea who almost every players was on the floor for the Blazers.

After having only watched the first half I was surprised to find out this morning that we won. That should not be happening when you're the #1 seed against a bunch of randoms.

When you are playing your 5th game in 7 days and they are making shots they have been missing all year, games can get close.

That's another very important contextualization that needs to be made. Tanking team or not, when you're at the tail end of a stretch like this, records should be thrown out the window because any opponent becomes much more difficult.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Something that might be a factor. Ant may be off because he just had a kid, maybe it's messing with him somehow. KAT might be off because he just had a friend die, maybe that's affecting his game too. Don't know if that is the case but those could be factors, they have both had a significant drop in recent games.

Edwards not scoring until damn near halftime yesterday is very out of character plus he missed the opening tip. Towns has reverted back to some of the worst parts of his game and is racking up fouls again and his efficiency has dropped off big time. They aren't playing like they were all season.

After ASB most of the teams start to get tired specially the one fighting for position as we do. ANT is probably affected with the baby born and KAT with his friend gone. We have a rough trip road right now. Hope all players can get some rest and stay healthy. At this part of the season, beeing healthy is crucial. WE probably not have much game where we can rest players if we want to keep top 1 or 2. If we have a bad road trop and ended up 3 or 4, we may give up the position and rest some players during the last 10 games. But i hope we stay where we are right now.

[winforlose]

Something that might be a factor. Ant may be off because he just had a kid, maybe it's messing with him somehow. KAT might be off because he just had a friend die, maybe that's affecting his game too. Don't know if that is the case but those could be factors, they have both had a significant drop in recent games.

Edwards not scoring until damn near halftime yesterday is very out of character plus he missed the opening tip. Towns has reverted back to some of the worst parts of his game and is racking up fouls again and his efficiency has dropped off big time. They aren't playing like they were all season.

After ASB most of the teams start to get tired specially the one fighting for position as we do. ANT is probably affected with the baby born and KAT with his friend gone. We have a rough trip road right now. Hope all players can get some rest and stay healthy. At this part of the season, beeing healthy is crucial. WE probably not have much game where we can rest players if we want to keep top 1 or 2. If we have a bad road trop and ended up 3 or 4, we may give up the position and rest some players during the last 10 games. But i hope we stay where we are right now.

This is the last real road trip of the season. We have 10 road games left and 6 of them are upcoming on this stretch. The final four are 2 1 and dones, and 2 in a row with a day in between.

[TimberKat]

Something that might be a factor. Ant may be off because he just had a kid, maybe it's messing with him somehow. KAT might be off because he just had a friend die, maybe that's affecting his game too. Don't know if that is the case but those could be factors, they have both had a significant drop in recent games.

Edwards not scoring until damn near halftime yesterday is very out of character plus he missed the opening tip. Towns has reverted back to some of the worst parts of his game and is racking up fouls again and his efficiency has dropped off big time. They aren't playing like they were all season.

After ASB most of the teams start to get tired specially the one fighting for position as we do. ANT is probably affected with the baby born and KAT with his friend gone. We have a rough trip road right now. Hope all players can get some rest and stay healthy. At this part of the season, beeing healthy is crucial. WE probably not have much game where we can rest players if we want to keep top 1 or 2. If we have a bad road trop and ended up 3 or 4, we may give up the position and rest some players during the last 10 games. But i hope we stay where we are right now.

This is the last real road trip of the season. We have 10 road games left and 6 of them are upcoming on this stretch. The final four are 2 1 and dones, and 2 in a row with a day in between.

We also play a back to back on the last day of the road trip. 3/18 @Utah and 3/19 Denver, so really is a tough 7 games.