Game 37: Wolves vs Magic

[jscott]

Anyone impress you guys on Orlando?

Cole Anthony was better than I expected.

[winforlose]

Aaaaarrrrrrroooooooo!!!!!!! Held another team to under a 100! Beating the Clippers is the tonic the Wolves needed

I missed the game, but going in, it was one I was worried about. Third game in four nights for us, ORL is a top defensive team, and the team plays hard defense despite all their injuries. I was concerned we would struggle getting the ball up the court, but if we could do that, I thought 90 points might win a game like this. I was happy to see the win! Aaaarooo, indeed!

They were missing their top 4 and arguably top 5 players. We didn’t beat the Magic, we beat the corpse of the Magic.

[Klomp]

Aaaaarrrrrrroooooooo!!!!!!! Held another team to under a 100! Beating the Clippers is the tonic the Wolves needed

It's funny you say that, because even while it was going on, that Clippers game somewhat reminded me of the game last March when they made a big comeback against the Clippers. That game stopped a 4 loss in 6 game slide (it was in that stretch where Ant went on a heater, two games before the Collins dunk.

Watch on YouTube

[Klomp]

Aaaaarrrrrrroooooooo!!!!!!! Held another team to under a 100! Beating the Clippers is the tonic the Wolves needed

I missed the game, but going in, it was one I was worried about. Third game in four nights for us, ORL is a top defensive team, and the team plays hard defense despite all their injuries. I was concerned we would struggle getting the ball up the court, but if we could do that, I thought 90 points might win a game like this. I was happy to see the win! Aaaarooo, indeed!

They were missing their top 4 and arguably top 5 players. We didn’t beat the Magic, we beat the corpse of the Magic.

A similar lineup beat the Celtics right before Christmas. And they just beat the Knicks. You can't even count against me that there was no KAT, since the narrative around here is that having Randle is even worse than just having no KAT.

[winforlose]

I missed the game, but going in, it was one I was worried about. Third game in four nights for us, ORL is a top defensive team, and the team plays hard defense despite all their injuries. I was concerned we would struggle getting the ball up the court, but if we could do that, I thought 90 points might win a game like this. I was happy to see the win! Aaaarooo, indeed!

They were missing their top 4 and arguably top 5 players. We didn’t beat the Magic, we beat the corpse of the Magic.

A similar lineup beat the Celtics right before Christmas. And they just beat the Knicks. You can't even count against me that there was no KAT, since the narrative around here is that having Randle is even worse than just having no KAT.

1. The Celtics didn’t use a number of guys including Tatum. Suggs was healthy and played almost 30 minutes for Orlando. Also Boston shot 8 of 33 from deep. As a high variance 3 point team, they are susceptible to odd losses.

https://www.nba.com/game/bos-vs-orl-0022400393/box-score

2. KAT is going to be an All Star. He might even be All NBA if he stays healthy enough to qualify. He is easily a top 3 center in the NBA (under the old rules,) especially with Embiid having injury issues, and Rudy struggling to get much offense going with his current teammates. But of course him being out isn’t relevant

[shrink]

They were missing their top 4 and arguably top 5 players. We didn’t beat the Magic, we beat the corpse of the Magic.

A similar lineup beat the Celtics right before Christmas. And they just beat the Knicks. You can't even count against me that there was no KAT, since the narrative around here is that having Randle is even worse than just having no KAT.

1. The Celtics didn’t use a number of guys including Tatum. Suggs was healthy and played almost 30 minutes for Orlando. Also Boston shot 8 of 33 from deep. As a high variance 3 point team, they are susceptible to odd losses.

https://www.nba.com/game/bos-vs-orl-0022400393/box-score

2. KAT is going to be an All Star. He might even be All NBA if he stays healthy enough to qualify. He is easily a top 3 center in the NBA (under the old rules,) especially with Embiid having injury issues, and Rudy struggling to get much offense going with his current teammates. But of course him being out isn’t relevant

My point was that even when they are missing players and have less talent on the floor, Jamahl Mosley is a really good coach and gets his team up for games. They are one of the league’s best at creating turnovers, which is a particular weakness of ours. Plus, when this team looks at games they think they should win (like ORL missing players), they don’t tend to play hard.

This was the opposite. As I learned more about the game, it was the Wolves and not the Magic that came out strong, and even had periods of stifling defense. This is a particularly encouraging sign to me.