Thunder @ Timberwolves! OPENING DAY! 12/26

[abrewbro68]

You guys are being way to hard on Beasley after just one game.

Don't forget, 2 preseason games and no real practice time with a new coach and a new system. Because of those things, we looked really lost at times on Offense, really lost, forcing Mike to shoot some horrible shots. Don't get me wrong, he will take some bad shots on his own, but you can't just dump them all on him after tonights game.

I remember the play where Love say there was like 6 seconds left on the shot clock and almost had a I'm not taking this shot look on his face and threw it out to Mike who was way above the 3 point line. Love was smart and took perkins to the basket leaving the lane open for Mike to get an easy dunk, but plays happen like that alot on this team, especially now with a new system.

I also like the fact the adleman wasn't just going to say that yes Beasley shot too much, he wanted to look at the film first and see why those shots were taken. An actual smart coach!?!?!?! What?

Anyways, I can't wait to see these 5 finish games every night, should be exciting

[Basti]

For the record, I don't mind Beasley trying to be aggressive or wanting to be the go-to-guy but I seriously question his decision making. As someone put it perfectly earlier (I think Esohny was it) he should only shoot long range J's when he's wide open or ridiculously hot. If none of these are the case, take it to the rack or post up. Just play smart basketball.

Considering how little we have to complain about compared to the last few years, that's a massive leap in progress that has been made. WE SO EXCITED!

[moss_is_1]

My only point was he can shoot, and he can. I didn't say he was a good player, so take that argument somewhere else.

He can shoot reasonably well, when he's open and doesn't need to move or dribble the ball before the shooting motion. That's not a valuable skill in the NBA. To make a living of that kinda skill you need to be great at it a-la Kapono/Korver, not simply above average.

He can shoot off of curls. Let's just remember that Rambis didn't run him off of curls last season as much as he should of. Then Wes settled for a lot of long 2s.


I didn't think Wes was really invisible. He at least tried to drive into the hole 2 times from what I remember but was called for a charge and the other time the d rotated and stopped him. I think he will still get burn because of his D/shooting stroke, but he has to make smarter passes as he picked up a few easy turnovers and then didn't see much more burn with JJ/Rubio playing so well.

[funkatron101]

The heat on Beasley is unwarranted in this case.

We lost because of two factors. 1. Our 3pt shooting was terrible. 2. OKC went to the line a lot and shot a stellar percentage. 29-31, 93.5% from the line . That's stellar.

Had we hit a couple more threes and avoided some of the ticky-tack fouls, we would have won.

[UK-Wolf]

Positives

Everyone making their debut for the Wolves impressed, some more than others but I think they all got off to a very solid start. JJ Barea totally changed the game, Rubio & Williams showed flashes and both look like they can cope so far.

The intensity was there from the off, something we badly, badly missed under Rambis & Wittman. Darko's shove on Perkins being top of the list. Brilliant. Love looked pumped too.

We competed with one of, if not, THE best team in the West. Not just competed, we gave them one hell of a game. It's next to impossible to defend Durant, Westbrook bullied his way to 30 or so points and they showed why they'll be a contender this year.

Turnovers..don't get me wrong..we had a few stupid ones but nowhere near as many as last year. Think we had less than OKC, that speaks volumes.

Negatives

Couldn't see any improvements from Wes, Rid and Beas though let's be serious, it's our first **** game. Though on this evidence Ridnour needs to improve drastically.

Had we nailed our FT's we'd have won the game, seriously pisses me off when we miss free ones. Even Love was off at the line tonight.

Our decisions in the clutch were again, like last season, poor. At least Beas had the balls to try something though it did fail, badly.

Our shooting beyond the arc was very, very poor.

Mini-summary

In all, the positives outweigh the negatives, in my opinion anyway. We competed and showed a hell of a lot of heart whereas last year we'd have crumbled into a piece of turd and faded away. Love looked a leader, Barea and Rubio clicked together magically and with a bit of time they could build a very strong partnership. We won't get in the playoff's this year, but next year I think we'll be in there with ease. This year is all about building up a strong team bond and an understanding. The future's bright and after the dreadful couple of seasons we've had, we deserve it more than anyone. We're back, baby.

[Klomp]

“Sometimes when you lose, you actually really win.” – Poet Laureate, Rosie Perez.

If I told you the Wolves had a fourth quarter lead and eventually lost it, you’d probably first make a joke about how there was no way they’d ever lead in the fourth quarter. After I showed you how many times they blew fourth quarter leads under the reign of Kurt Rambis on the sidelines, you’d feel a bit sheepish, but still feel valid in knowing it’s ridiculous to think about the Wolves having a chance to win games, especially against good teams.

To watch what happened with the Minnesota Timberwolves on opening night is to understand just how important this loss was toward a change in the culture of basketball in the city of Minneapolis. Sure, they had a lead late in the fourth quarter and ended up losing out on upsetting the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nobody really expected them to win coming into the game. It was a new team with a new coach and very little time to implement schemes and comfort. As the game progressed and we saw a dissemination of hope filling the stuffy Target Center atmosphere, the expectations grew.

Each drive into the lane by J.J. Barea was an assumption of production. Each time Kevin Love crashed the offensive boards for mop-up duty scoring, we bowed to our historic leader. And the Ricky Rubio era went from hoping he can make a couple of plays to expecting him to negotiate a victory with basketball fortune.

To say Ricky Rubio had a nice debut is to pretend that crispy bacon can be part of an slightly enjoyable breakfast. Rubio’s false advertising was a myth. He controlled the game in ways you can’t really expect of a rookie point guard in his first game. Hell, he controlled the game in ways you can’t expect some veterans to do. He knew when to excite the crowd with bounce passes that immaculately conceptualized squeals of bewilderment. He knew when to slow down the game to ensure the Wolves weren’t just recklessly bounding from highlight to highlight in an attempt to seem relevant.

What we expected from Rubio came to fruition. His passing is some Third Kind, Richard Dreyfuss in a pick-up truck type of stuff. It’s not that they’re flashy. It’s that they’re flashy with a purpose. Some people throw a behind the back pass because it makes them look good. Rubio’s threads were to make the team look good. When you can inspire your teammates by giving them the ball, that’s a special quality. Everything had flair, but it didn’t have the minimum of 15 pieces of flair. Even Chotchkies would ask him to tone it down a bit.

While Rubio was busy exciting the crowd with remarkable bounce passes, he was also figuring out that he belonged on the court.

Russell Westbrook didn’t respect Ricky Rubio’s presence on the court. He didn’t respect his presence as someone to talk about. He was upset when asked questions about Rubio. He was upset when the crowd cheered for Rubio. He wanted to make sure everybody knew that HE was the All-Star and RUBIO wasn’t. He burned Ricky on backdoor cuts. He powered through Ricky in transition for buckets and fouls. With every score, he glared in Ricky’s direction. With every bit of success the Wolves enjoyed during the competitive fourth quarter, Westbrook made sure to dismiss Rubio’s contribution by smiling when Ricky dare accept his assignment and defend Russ.

And I get it. I don’t fault Russell for these tactics. He waged psychological warfare on Rubio like he was opening up a nice Chianti and slow-cooking some fava beans. He wanted to intimidate and frustrate the rookie. He was hazing him without giving him a Hello Kitty backpack. The beautiful thing about the entire situation was Ricky didn’t bend or break. In fact, it brought out a competitive streak I wasn’t sure he had.

Rubio turned Westbrook into an iso player, and it briefly took the Thunder out of their sets. With 3:30 left in the game and the Thunder up one, Westbrook drove the right side of the lane against Rubio. Despite being presumed to be too slow to stay with guys like Westbrook, Wall, and Rose, Ricky slid his feet, stayed in front of Russ and sold a charge to the ref for the turnover. Next play down, he ran a quick pick-and-pop on the left side of the floor. Dribbled to the middle and pulled up for a 17-footer. The kid can’t shoot a lick, but he dropped a go-ahead basket with just over three minutes remaining like it was something he just does to do it.

An All-Star point guard, who turns ankles into dust, couldn’t put away a team trusting an allegedly over-matched rookie. He tried to break him. He tried to embarrass him. He tried to make him wish he never left Barcelona. Like a puppy learning the boundaries between playfully biting and being in full attack mode, Rubio kept coming back for more. He kept testing the boundaries of stuff he’s not supposed to do and did it.

Is it possible I’m overrating a 6-point, 6-assist, 5-rebound, zero-turnover effort? Is it possible I’m jumping the gun on one game when I should be pacing myself for the ups and downs of a oddly condensed season? Absolutely.

But all I’ve heard for the past two-and-a-half years is how Ricky Rubio couldn’t play in the league. All I’ve heard about is how overrated, over-hyped, under-talented, overestimated he is and that he has no place in the NBA. His passing isn’t going to be that good. His defense is going to be terrible because he’s slow and European. He can’t shoot and won’t be able to score at all in the NBA. He’s just not good and he’s already a bust before he plays a minute in the league. I’ve defended Rubio and said we needed to give him a chance to play before we could make such absolute accusations. I and my fellow Wolves fans have been laughed at for thinking he could help this team. We’ve been chastised for holding out hope that he could make a difference.

After one game? It all looks like a congealed, steaming slab of malarkey.

Rubio can play and he sure as hell belongs in this league. Is he going to have bad nights? Absolutely. He’s also going to have nights better than this modest and yet crucial debut. He’s going to push back at the top point guards he has no business being on the court against and he’s going to win some of these battles. He’s going to help Rick Adelman, Kevin Love, and all of his teammates fix this organization.

Yeah, the Wolves ended up losing tonight. But it kind of feels like they won.

http://hoopspeak.com/2011/12/more-than-a-loss/

[lazfa199]

I get people saying beasley shouldn't have shot so much but at least three of those shots were end of quarter shots that had to be taken. Lets be honest the Beasley and Barea are the only two players, well actually lets put Williams in there too that can create their own shots. Wes needs to stop disappearing and be aggressive and I would like Adelman to start small next game with our best five.

Even with the bad shooting they played well against a really good teams and everyone was high energy on defence but we they need to guard the perimeter better. I think they can go 3-2 in the first five games so its not that bad.

[Dewey]

2 things: Both players do not read help defense very well, but for different reasons. Beas reads help defense to plan for his drive rather than the assist. Wes is completely opposite ... he cannot improvise and gets caught guessing which results in him forcing up bad shots in traffic. For example: Part of a PG's job is to manage court space - not only must they have the ability to beat their own defender - but also draw a 2nd defender. A SG/SF needs to beat the defender and create on the fly. If they cannot finish both ways or create space, they will struggle with consistency/efficiency.

Beas' left hand dominance does not always affect how he approaches the basket, but is significant in how he finishes. When teams take away his path/left, he may switch to his right for a dribble or two, but then always revert to a fade away if he cannot finish left. Last night he went right and got to finish with a left hand dunk because the defense didn't slide to help. Most other times, this is not the case.

Wes' first dribble are alomost always lateral allowing defense to slide, and being such a verticle player, this stalls his attack. He really struggles (A to B) with a defendersider and slide-step into gaps and seems where he can get a quality shot off in traffic. I'm not certain he develop this at the NBA level. His best bet is to put more energy into defense, hit his weak-side J's, and sneak in a back-door lob here and there.

[invno1]

Anyone have post game interview with coach RA ?
What a game !!!!!!

[B Calrissian]

Anyone have post game interview with coach RA ?
What a game !!!!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr_3m24KpCo[/youtube]

[EddyCool]

Great post, Dewey - love the take on Wes, and completely agree. Your best bet case should fit really well with what we understand of the way Adelman has run his offense in the past, but Wes still needs to figure it out and knock down those open shots.

On Beasley, it's confusing when he finishes with his left on the right side of the rim and there's a defender in the lane. He's supposed to be ambidextrous, and IIRC he chose to develop primary left-handedness because of a young injury (that might be inaccurate). If he's comfortable with the right, I wish he'd use it more in fundamental times like that, though maybe it's better not to think out habits in game situations.

[shrink]

The more I watch Westbrook, the more I think OKC should trade him for a more conventional PG. Imagine Chris Paul on this team.

[eyeteeth]

Wes and Luke will lose their starting jobs soon. I just don't think there's a lot of improvement to be made there.

Wes should probably be traded, but who knows. He will probably be a decent player someday, but right now he is a reserve.

Beas and Darko looked good. Both had their "moments of d'oh" but both played hard and did things that showed they are developing as players.

Barea and Rubio are lights out fantastic. Superlative. What a difference good guard play makes.

Derrick Williams won't miss all those 3's most nights.

If the Wolves' had their 3 pointers falling this probably would have been a win.

OMG Kevin Durant is good.

[Saltine]

Durant is awesome.

But we shoot better and we win this game, not often we could say that last year against a good team...

Wes and Luke have some issues. I assume Luke is gone by February once we get Webster back in game shape. Wes still has all the tools, hopefully good coaching brings out the talent.

Rubio and JJ looked great, Williams was nice as well. Props to Darko for laying Perkins out

Best loss we've had in a long, long time, lol

[the_bruce]

I didn't think Rubio's game would translate well to the nba and was not a fan of drafting him. After watching last nights game and the preseason opener I gotta say I was wrong. Kid can flat out pass the rock and looks like he's 5 steps ahead of everybody else. Guarding a guy like westbrook is virtually impossible but he held his own when guarding him.

When rubio is leading the break points are virtually automatic. Very impressive. Bonus points for his rebounding. Wonder if/how many triple doubles he will get this year.