Game 20:Lakers at Timberwolves (9-10)

[Calinks]

Gobert Olajuwon tonight

[winforlose]

The plus minus is fascinating for this one.

https://www.nba.com/game/lal-vs-min-0022400318/box-score

Pretty much confirms that the only person worse than Anthony Edwards at basketball tonight was LeBron James!

LOL, well said

[Dalvin]

Aaaaarrrrrrooooooo!!!!! Winning consecutively feels nice. Feels better it's against the Lakers!

They also kept them to 80 points! More defensive wins again, please!

[Loaf_of_bread]

We needed this.

[Klomp]

Clearly the look of a team that has turned on its coach

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

[Loaf_of_bread]

Clearly the look of a team that has turned on its coach

Or the look of an unselfish team

[cmoss84]

Game is being hosted in Minnesota, and it's still blacked out for me in Southern California. Only online stream with Minnesota broadcasting has horrendous motion smoothing. Garbage!

I'm a MN transplant living in SoCal. I have a superbox and I love it for sports. You can find it on Amazon.

[winforlose]

Clearly the look of a team that has turned on its coach

Again, really Klomp. Are we really gonna go game by game to decide the health of the team or the trajectory we’re on? It was a nice win, but let’s look at context. We won a home game after two days rest against a team that played last night. We had our entire roster available they were missing Reaves, Vando, and I don’t even known who else. They don’t typically turn the ball over, they were making quite a few unforced errors and not scoring off of our unforced errors. Also, it was very telling that we played our best basketball with Ant and Randle out of the game.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Just watch replay. Obviously Lakers were tired but we play well except ANT. The team look very different when Randle play defense, DDV play well shoot and assist. Hope it last and we can keep playing this way.

[Benjams]

I thought Rudy played well. When Rudy plays well, Minnesota is a much tougher team to beat. I'd like to see more plays ran for Rudy to get easy baskets even though most would argue that's not his game. It's frustrating that a player with the most efficient fg% for a team sometimes gets like 2-3 attempts all game. That makes him look like a cone except for the rebounding.

I thought Minnesota could do better running time off the clock in the 4th also. Not just this game but many games this season. If up 14, taking a shot within the first 10 seconds of a possession gives opponent some life and energy. It would hurt closing out closer games and have seen it many times this season for them.

Pretty solid game though and need to stay above .500 throughout December. Get some win steaks going in 2025 and we should be fine.

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using RealGM mobile app

[winforlose]

I thought Rudy played well. When Rudy plays well, Minnesota is a much tougher team to beat. I'd like to see more plays ran for Rudy to get easy baskets even though most would argue that's not his game. It's frustrating that a player with the most efficient fg% for a team sometimes gets like 2-3 attempts all game. That makes him look like a cone except for the rebounding.

I thought Minnesota could do better running time off the clock in the 4th also. Not just this game but many games this season. If up 14, taking a shot within the first 10 seconds of a possession gives opponent some life and energy. It would hurt closing out closer games and have seen it many times this season for them.

Pretty solid game though and need to stay above .500 throughout December. Get some win steaks going in 2025 and we should be fine.

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using RealGM mobile app

I think going early in the clock is an adjustment that our HC made to try and keep people moving. In general our players tend to like to park in the corners or their otherwise designated spot and wait for the offense to come to them. Passing and shooting earlier promotes more pace which promotes more movement, and thus more engagement. I could be wrong, but that is the sense I get.

Regarding Rudy, I think players are either already figuring out (or at least will sooner rather than later,) that the ideal spot for Rudy to catch a pass is head height or higher. I joked about not wanting to hit Rudy in the face, but his hands are not as bad when he doesn’t have to bend down. Just give it to him in a position where he either goes straight up without needing to bring the ball up, or better yet just interacts with ball in the air for an easy dunk or lay in. I think trying to pass to Rudy has led to turnovers, but I agree with you that in set actions Rudy might thrive. For example, tonight there was a fake handoff that gave Rudy an open driving lane and an easy dunk. Another thing I think we will see more of this season is 4/5 PNR. Karl and Rudy ran it for profit quite well last year. I could see Naz or JR figuring that out and establishing the 2 man game.

[Benjams]

I thought Rudy played well. When Rudy plays well, Minnesota is a much tougher team to beat. I'd like to see more plays ran for Rudy to get easy baskets even though most would argue that's not his game. It's frustrating that a player with the most efficient fg% for a team sometimes gets like 2-3 attempts all game. That makes him look like a cone except for the rebounding.

I thought Minnesota could do better running time off the clock in the 4th also. Not just this game but many games this season. If up 14, taking a shot within the first 10 seconds of a possession gives opponent some life and energy. It would hurt closing out closer games and have seen it many times this season for them.

Pretty solid game though and need to stay above .500 throughout December. Get some win steaks going in 2025 and we should be fine.

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using RealGM mobile app

I think going early in the clock is an adjustment that our HC made to try and keep people moving. In general our players tend to like to park in the corners or their otherwise designated spot and wait for the offense to come to them. Passing and shooting earlier promotes more pace which promotes more movement, and thus more engagement. I could be wrong, but that is the sense I get.

Regarding Rudy, I think players are either already figuring out (or at least will sooner rather than later,) that the ideal spot for Rudy to catch a pass is head height or higher. I joked about not wanting to hit Rudy in the face, but his hands are not as bad when he doesn’t have to bend down. Just give it to him in a position where he either goes straight up without needing to bring the ball up, or better yet just interacts with ball in the air for an easy dunk or lay in. I think trying to pass to Rudy has led to turnovers, but I agree with you that in set actions Rudy might thrive. For example, tonight there was a fake handoff that gave Rudy an open driving lane and an easy dunk. Another thing I think we will see more of this season is 4/5 PNR. Karl and Rudy ran it for profit quite well last year. I could see Naz or JR figuring that out and establishing the 2 man game.

It makes sense trying to push the ball most of the game, but my concern is mainly in the fourth. I think there could have been better choices more than once this season when to slow it down and when to push the ball. I sometimes don't understand why they are rolling the inbound pass, conserving time when up by 10 in the fourth. If down, going for the quick shot makes sense to try and get more possessions. It shouldn't be a one strategy fits all possessions if thats what it is because of the HC. They are still a young team and maybe still figuring out how to control tempo which will help close out games.

Makes sense for Rudy, pass it high. We need to run a few plays for him to get him going on in some these games. I noticed there's a good chance to win when Rudy has more than 5 attempts looking at the stats this season. Somehow, I think under 5 attempts, especially games with 3 attempts, is unacceptable for how many mins he plays as a starter.

Sometimes, I think, if we only had a tall rookie guard that can help score when Mcdaniels goes cold and TSJ comes to mind.

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using RealGM mobile app

[shrink]

I thought Rudy played well. When Rudy plays well, Minnesota is a much tougher team to beat. I'd like to see more plays ran for Rudy to get easy baskets even though most would argue that's not his game. It's frustrating that a player with the most efficient fg% for a team sometimes gets like 2-3 attempts all game. That makes him look like a cone except for the rebounding.

I thought Minnesota could do better running time off the clock in the 4th also. Not just this game but many games this season. If up 14, taking a shot within the first 10 seconds of a possession gives opponent some life and energy. It would hurt closing out closer games and have seen it many times this season for them.

Pretty solid game though and need to stay above .500 throughout December. Get some win steaks going in 2025 and we should be fine.

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using RealGM mobile app

I think going early in the clock is an adjustment that our HC made to try and keep people moving. In general our players tend to like to park in the corners or their otherwise designated spot and wait for the offense to come to them. Passing and shooting earlier promotes more pace which promotes more movement, and thus more engagement. I could be wrong, but that is the sense I get.

Regarding Rudy, I think players are either already figuring out (or at least will sooner rather than later,) that the ideal spot for Rudy to catch a pass is head height or higher. I joked about not wanting to hit Rudy in the face, but his hands are not as bad when he doesn’t have to bend down. Just give it to him in a position where he either goes straight up without needing to bring the ball up, or better yet just interacts with ball in the air for an easy dunk or lay in. I think trying to pass to Rudy has led to turnovers, but I agree with you that in set actions Rudy might thrive. For example, tonight there was a fake handoff that gave Rudy an open driving lane and an easy dunk. Another thing I think we will see more of this season is 4/5 PNR. Karl and Rudy ran it for profit quite well last year. I could see Naz or JR figuring that out and establishing the 2 man game.

Welcome to the boards Benjams!

I agree on the Rudy point. I remember hearing an interview with Mike Conley when he was in Utah, who said it took him a full year to figure out how to pass to Rudy (and Mike was already a very experienced PG). He said that Rudy’s legs are so long, that the angle for his typical bounce pass would come up into Rudy’s knees. DLo refused to alter his game, and continued to throw unsuccessful bounce passes. Ant still hasn’t figured it out.

Thee are probably very few people in the NBA that have such a variance between strengths and weaknesses as Gobert. This team will thrive if they work together maximizing the things each does well.

[El Hespiritu]

That was a hopeful game.

Regardless the opponent level or even the scoreboard, you can tell when a team is focused or not.
Last night, we were.

Sure will be plenty of worse games in the near future; they being focused into what it matters alone gave me positive vibes enough.

[Klomp]

Clearly the look of a team that has turned on its coach

Again, really Klomp. Are we really gonna go game by game to decide the health of the team or the trajectory we’re on?

Isn't that what you have done? We had a few bad losses, so you are calling for coaches to be fired, star players to be benched, etc...

[Shaka_Zulu]

That's more like it! I saw a hungry, focused and very defensively aggressive team that reminded me of what we been missing this season so far. They genuinely looked like the team from last season.



Please for the love of God keep it up. That level of effort and cohesive team play. Much more enjoyable to watch.

[Baseline81]

Isn't that what you have done? We had a few bad losses, so you are calling for coaches to be fired, star players to be benched, etc...

A "few" is generally described as between a "couple" and "several".

Bad losses:
- Lakers
- Spurs
- Heat
- Blazers
- Blazers
- Raptors
- Kings

Appears Rockets are legit this year, thus I'll keep them off the list.

[winforlose]

Clearly the look of a team that has turned on its coach

Again, really Klomp. Are we really gonna go game by game to decide the health of the team or the trajectory we’re on?

Isn't that what you have done? We had a few bad losses, so you are calling for coaches to be fired, star players to be benched, etc...

Lol. I don’t think you and I are communicating well at all. I could care less about the specifics of the win or loss. We could drop a game to Detroit or Washington and as long as it was one game that happens. The reason for the fire finch talk and bench Ant is how we are losing and why it will keep happening. There is a reason we look much worse when Ant plays. When your best player is making you worse the scheme has failed. When guys REFUSE to play defense (I.E Julius Randle,) that is much bigger than they missed the odd rotation. Shooting splits are shooting splits. One night Ant might shoot 9 of 12 or 13 from deep, another he might shoot 2 of 12 from deep. The issue isn’t shot variance. The issues is Ant might go hero mode and decide not to pass the ball for 4 minutes. Meanwhile his teammates totally divorced from the offense lose their rhythm and when the ball does start moving again the shots aren’t falling. You are trying to look at the micro (night to night,) and ignore the macro (the trends, the issues, the reason behind the losses,) and that is what the rest of us are talking about. If we play well 5 games in a row we can talk about our having turned a corner. Last night was a sweet moment, but only relevant if it is followed with a similar level of intensity and defensive focus in the next few.

[Klomp]

Isn't that what you have done? We had a few bad losses, so you are calling for coaches to be fired, star players to be benched, etc...

A "few" is generally described as between a "couple" and "several".

Bad losses:
- Lakers
- Spurs
- Heat
- Blazers
- Blazers
- Raptors
- Kings

Appears Rockets are legit this year, thus I'll keep them off the list.

I would only classify three of those as bad losses: Blazers (x2) and Raptors. The rest were frustrating, but not really bad losses.