Game 3: New Orleans at Minnesota , 7 pm, BSN

[AbeVigodaLive]

DLo can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

KAT can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

One guy is shooting 30% on the season and was 1 - 8 yesterday.
The other guy is shooting 50% on the season and was 4 - 10 yesterday.

I'm ok with Towns shooting wide open threes against a big plodding big like Valunciunas who wants to clog the lane.

[TaylorTag]

I'm not stressing about D'Lo yet... He'll start making shots.

I am more concerned about Beasely. What he's dealing with physically and psychologically seems worse than your typical funk.

Couple that with Prince not offering any perimeter shooting, we are all of a sudden a bad offense.

For us to be a Top 10 offense, that projection is based on the assumption that Beasely and Prince are 40% 3-point shooters--right now they are shooting 16% and 25% respectively.

That's where our offense is falling apart. We need those guys to be giving us at least 25 points collectively each night, and they are coming up short.

The truth is, this team should be able to survive a bad shooting night from Russell. We can't expect them to win games when Russel, Beasely and Prince are all bricking shots.

I have been telling myself that if the Wolves start out 4-2 they will be in a good place. With last night's loss, the Wolves will have to beat one of Milwaukee or Denver to make that happen. You lose a game you should have won, now you have to steal a game that is projected to result in a L.

[beezy]

I'm not saying trade him or anything like that BUT, KAT is a big problem. Yes he scores, he rebounds, he collects a lot of stats but he is so freaking immature in the way he approaches the game. He starts the game off being a soft baby about his missed calls while JV goes about his business and destroys us. The trend he set early in the game threw everyone on the Wolves off their rhythm. I mean, please, he's supposed to be the teams' leader. His awkward ill conceived drives against JV and other physically imposing bigs because he's got to prove his manhood when a nice mid-range would do the trick, his constantly falling on the floor after drives for whatever nutty reason, his literally stomping the floor like a toddler if he doesn't get the call, the outright glee refs have when they can call a foul on him et. etc. etc. etc. There is a reason GMs and other players across the league consider him soft and not a winner. Take off homer glasses and realize it's gonna be very hard to win with him going forward. if he's pissed at years end and demands a trade I could imagine worse fates.

[Krapinsky]

I'm not stressing about D'Lo yet... He'll start making shots.

I am more concerned about Beasely. What he's dealing with physically and psychologically seems worse than your typical funk.

Couple that with Prince not offering any perimeter shooting, we are all of a sudden a bad offense.

For us to be a Top 10 offense, that projection is based on the assumption that Beasely and Prince are 40% 3-point shooters--right now they are shooting 16% and 25% respectively.

That's where our offense is falling apart. We need those guys to be giving us at least 25 points collectively each night, and they are coming up short.

The truth is, this team should be able to survive a bad shooting night from Russell. We can't expect them to win games when Russel, Beasely and Prince are all bricking shots.

I have been telling myself that if the Wolves start out 4-2 they will be in a good place. With last night's loss, the Wolves will have to beat one of Milwaukee or Denver to make that happen. You lose a game you should have won, now you have to steal a game that is projected to result in a L.

I don't blame these guys. They aren't getting any shots in the rhythm of the offense. The only shots they get are broken plays and calling their number in transition. This goes to what Ant called out at the end of the game. D-Lo and Towns are playing a two man came at the top of the key, forcing contested 3 pointers and not passing the ball.

[m2002brian]

DLo can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

KAT can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

One guy is shooting 30% on the season and was 1 - 8 yesterday.
The other guy is shooting 50% on the season and was 4 - 10 yesterday.

I'm ok with Towns shooting wide open threes against a big plodding big like Valunciunas who wants to clog the lane.

Those are overall stats that dismiss the moment of the game we were in when this post was made.

Ant has had many games where’s he’s missing shots outside and I don’t see anybody pointing out overall game stats as to why he shouldn’t defer when his shot isn’t falling.
Ant even said it himself in his post game, that he should have deferred more.

Same goes for
DLo and KAT in moments of games where they have taken multiple shots and failed, maybe it’s time to defer. DLo was all front iron but kept chucking. Same thing over and over again same result is just insanity.

Good team get to the line when shots won’t fall. That’s our next level. Plus, putting pressure on JV would have maybe got him into fouls trouble has we pressed the issue.

[Mattya]

Biggest thing is letting Ant be primary option to start the game. I don’t like no pass 3s unless you are hot, especially if you are ice cold. I don’t like early shot clock KAT isos on the perimeter. No matter how successful it is. Now Ant was settling for threes in the first half and he can’t settle that much. Ant attacking, forcing rotations, moving the ball is our best offense. Let KAT space when Ant attacks and let him roll when Ant is pulling up. Let DLo space and react off those rotations. Like him much better as a catch and shoot or attacking rotations.

I think there are a lot of overreactions in this loss. Our floor spacers have been ice cold, but I also think if we just give the ball to Ant good things happen.

[AbeVigodaLive]

DLo can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

KAT can’t hit a 3. His “cure”? Keep shooting 3s.

One guy is shooting 30% on the season and was 1 - 8 yesterday.
The other guy is shooting 50% on the season and was 4 - 10 yesterday.

I'm ok with Towns shooting wide open threes against a big plodding big like Valunciunas who wants to clog the lane.

Those are overall stats that dismiss the moment of the game we were in when this post was made.

Ant has had many games where’s he’s missing shots outside and I don’t see anybody pointing out overall game stats as to why he shouldn’t defer when his shot isn’t falling.
Ant even said it himself in his post game, that he should have deferred more.

Same goes for
DLo and KAT in moments of games where they have taken multiple shots and failed, maybe it’s time to defer. DLo was all front iron but kept chucking. Same thing over and over again same result is just insanity.

Good team get to the line when shots won’t fall. That’s our next level. Plus, putting pressure on JV would have maybe got him into fouls trouble has we pressed the issue.

Maybe. But Towns is also a career 40% three point shooter playing vs. a large center mostly content clogging the lane.

If you can't take Valunciunas out of the game via foul trouble... making him guard in space against the three pointer from a 40% shooter isn't a bad strategy.

Towns has proven over 400+ games that he's an all-time efficient shooter. I don't know why we'd want him on the same type of leash as a guy who's much closer to average shooting the ball.

[Calinks]

I'm still so disappointed in our performance last night. It like put me in a wolves funk, damn.

[TaylorTag]

I'm still so disappointed in our performance last night. It like put me in a wolves funk, damn.

what sucks is that we will likely be feeling this way into next week with our next two opponents

[Neeva]

I'm still so disappointed in our performance last night. It like put me in a wolves funk, damn.

We all have a bad taste in our mouths, Dlo and Beasley in particular I would pack their bags for them right now.

[Calinks]

I'm still so disappointed in our performance last night. It like put me in a wolves funk, damn.

what sucks is that we will likely be feeling this way into next week with our next two opponents

I can handle a loss if it's competitive. The effort last night just sucked so much. Like if we play the Bucks well and lose, ok, fine but I will be livid if play as terribly as we have for a lot of these last two games.

I'm even fine with guys like Beasly and Dlo struggling to hit shots but the rebounding, KAT's antics, collectively bad play, that really took a lot of joy out of me.

[Slim Tubby]

I’ve had enough of KAT’s incessant whining, childlike tantrums and emotional outbursts on the court. The terrible moving screen call in the first half was the direct result of his constant complaining. You could see that call coming from the ref a mile away.

If this behavior doesn’t improve dramatically, you can move me to the “trade KAT and build around Ant” camp.


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[ChiefKeith91]

Rewatched the 4th Q and that lineup we started with was horrible for being within 4 pts.

Jmac
Beverly
Prince
Vando
Reid

Those 5 should never be on the floor together in a close game. Vando and Reid didn’t have one reb and Prince 3 pt shot hasn’t been falling. Then Ant came in at 9:50 for Prince (should’ve been for Vando) and got a charge because of poor spacing due to our bigs. By the time KAT came back in we were down 11 again and that was pretty much it.


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[Neeva]

Finch was horrible yesterday

[KG_And1]

This is why KAT should be our PF. Ironically, JV would be the ideal C for us…

[TheProdigy]

KAT needs to stop trying to create off the dribble. He's great from triple threat and the post, but when he tries beating people off the dribble, it usually doesn't end well.

[m2002brian]

Watch on YouTube

[winforlose]

Rewatched the 4th Q and that lineup we started with was horrible for being within 4 pts.

Jmac
Beverly
Prince
Vando
Reid

Those 5 should never be on the floor together in a close game. Vando and Reid didn’t have one reb and Prince 3 pt shot hasn’t been falling. Then Ant came in at 9:50 for Prince (should’ve been for Vando) and got a charge because of poor spacing due to our bigs. By the time KAT came back in we were down 11 again and that was pretty much it.


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To be fair, Dlo was god awful to that point and Finch didn’t want to use him. Ant and KAT had just played a lot of minutes and probably needed a breather, and Beasley was a massive liability on both ends of the floor. Finch didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

[jpatrick]

KAT needs to stop trying to create off the dribble. He's great from triple threat and the post, but when he tries beating people off the dribble, it usually doesn't end well.

I think he’s fine with his pump and drive. The problem Monday were the Pels packed the paint. Thus every shot at the rim was highly difficult. We needed to keep shooting threes and passing out for open threes even though we were missing them. It’s still a better shot than highly contested shots in the paint.

[ChiefKeith91]

Rewatched the 4th Q and that lineup we started with was horrible for being within 4 pts.

Jmac
Beverly
Prince
Vando
Reid

Those 5 should never be on the floor together in a close game. Vando and Reid didn’t have one reb and Prince 3 pt shot hasn’t been falling. Then Ant came in at 9:50 for Prince (should’ve been for Vando) and got a charge because of poor spacing due to our bigs. By the time KAT came back in we were down 11 again and that was pretty much it.


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To be fair, Dlo was god awful to that point and Finch didn’t want to use him. Ant and KAT had just played a lot of minutes and probably needed a breather, and Beasley was a massive liability on both ends of the floor. Finch didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

Agreed but with a game that close you have to have some offense out there. DLo or Beasley would’ve required Pels to not help so much in the PNR with JMac and Reid.


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