Game 42: Timberwolves at Grizzlies, 7:00 pm CST

[life_saver]

Memphis had 16 offensive rebounds...just ridiculously bad rebounding from Wolves...need to box-out better. Despite this, we still could have won the game but the players other than KAT, DLo, Ant, Vando shot 6/35 from field..that's where Wolves lost the game. Pat Bev was 1/9, Jaden was 2/7, Beasley was 1/8 and Naz was 1/8

[wolves_89]

The Wolves and Grizzlies are an interesting example of very different ways to fill out a team's roster. The Grizzlies focus on older high-floor guys like Clarke, Bane, Tillman, and Konchar and are getting incredible production out of them. The Wolves have swung for the home run with McDaniels, Bolmaro, Nowell, and Reid and are getting poor production (other than Nowell). Maybe the Wolves guys will be better in 3-4 years, but as of right now the Memphis approach is light years ahead of Minnesota.

[Nick K]

Letting a 6'5" guy get 17 boards is embarrassing. Memphis bench outscored us 48 to 13.

Reid and Beasley each were 1 of 8 shooting.

Officiating did us no favors. We shot 14 ft's they shot 35! We deserved much, much better.

Memphis points in the paint killed us.

[_AIJ_]

Morant didnt even beat us today. It was their bench. Acting like he was the reason why they won. **** outta here

[TRik]

Letting a 6'5" guy get 17 boards is embarrassing. Memphis bench outscored us 48 to 13.

Reid and Beasley each were 1 of 8 shooting.

Officiating did us no favors. We shot 14 ft's they shot 35! We deserved much, much better.

Memphis points in the paint killed us.

In fairness, 50 percent of our shots were from behind the arc. Compared to about 35 percent of the Grizzlies shots. They were going to the rim more and getting more calls because of that.

Finch needs to address this.

[_AIJ_]

Really hope Gupta was watching this game and realized how bad the bench was

[life_saver]

If Beasley was shooting atleast slightly below his career percentages this season, Wolves might be having atleast 3-4 more wins. This team has lost just way too many close matches and Beasley has had so many awful shooting nights

[Neeva]

If Beasley was shooting atleast slightly below his career percentages this season, Wolves might be having atleast 3-4 more wins. This team has lost just way too many close matches and Beasley has had so many awful shooting nights

And he continues to get tons of minutes even when he shoots like **** when he does nothing else besides shoot. What is Finch thinking?

[TRik]

Couple days off to figure it out before Warriors game. If the plan is to have a three point competition with the Warriors, might want to rethink that Finchie.

[Nick K]

Kat played 40 minutes and shot 1 flippin free throw. JJJ shot 10. There is no way in hell that's fair.

[Nick K]

Letting a 6'5" guy get 17 boards is embarrassing. Memphis bench outscored us 48 to 13.

Reid and Beasley each were 1 of 8 shooting.

Officiating did us no favors. We shot 14 ft's they shot 35! We deserved much, much better.

Memphis points in the paint killed us.

In fairness, 50 percent of our shots were from behind the arc. Compared to about 35 percent of the Grizzlies shots. They were going to the rim more and getting more calls because of that.

Finch needs to address this.

Yep. No doubt that was a factor. But they totally swallowed the whistle on Kat our inside guy and it was a close game. It made a huge difference.

[winforlose]

If Beasley was shooting atleast slightly below his career percentages this season, Wolves might be having atleast 3-4 more wins. This team has lost just way too many close matches and Beasley has had so many awful shooting nights

And he continues to get tons of minutes even when he shoots like **** when he does nothing else besides shoot. What is Finch thinking?

He is thinking with Nowell out Beasley, MCD, Reid and either Prince or Okogie need to score. Beasley isn’t any better from inside the arc and if he gets going then at least we get some bench production. It’s not like Finch was sitting on a gold mine of bench talent or that he featured someone who belongs on the end of the bench. He was featuring our legit best bench scorers in the position they usually perform from, while they couldn’t buy a basket. Worse still, if they don’t shoot to keep the defense honest, then the big 3 will be swarmed and forced to take contested low percentage shots.

[Neeva]

If Beasley was shooting atleast slightly below his career percentages this season, Wolves might be having atleast 3-4 more wins. This team has lost just way too many close matches and Beasley has had so many awful shooting nights

And he continues to get tons of minutes even when he shoots like **** when he does nothing else besides shoot. What is Finch thinking?

He is thinking with Nowell out Beasley, MCD, Reid and either Prince or Okogie need to score. Beasley isn’t any better from inside the arc and if he gets going then at least we get some bench production. It’s not like Finch was sitting on a gold mine of bench talent or that he featured someone who belongs on the end of the bench. He was featuring our legit best bench scorers in the position they usually perform from, while they couldn’t buy a basket. Worse still, if they don’t shoot to keep the defense honest, then the big 3 will be swarmed and forced to take contested low percentage shots.

Yea sure that’s why he had Nowell buried on the bench earlier in the season how are we gonna know what others can do if they never play even when Beasley is bricking everything.

[winforlose]

And he continues to get tons of minutes even when he shoots like **** when he does nothing else besides shoot. What is Finch thinking?

He is thinking with Nowell out Beasley, MCD, Reid and either Prince or Okogie need to score. Beasley isn’t any better from inside the arc and if he gets going then at least we get some bench production. It’s not like Finch was sitting on a gold mine of bench talent or that he featured someone who belongs on the end of the bench. He was featuring our legit best bench scorers in the position they usually perform from, while they couldn’t buy a basket. Worse still, if they don’t shoot to keep the defense honest, then the big 3 will be swarmed and forced to take contested low percentage shots.

Yea sure that’s why he had Nowell buried on the bench earlier in the season how are we gonna know what others can do if they never play even when Beasley is bricking everything.

I am a Nowell fan from his rookie season and will not defend him not getting minutes. I cannot fathom playing JMAC over him, especially after his excellent summer league performance. That said, Finch tried Leo, he is awful. Layman got quite a bit of run during Covid absences, and he proved consistently awful. JMAC has been bad all year, and Wright isn’t really necessary between Dlo and Beverly. It’s not that Beasley was the only bad bench player, everyone was bad. You could argue Knight should have had some run, and maybe your correct. That said, Naz didn’t play that many minutes and in theory he is more likely to get going than Knight (again in theory.) Either way if you give Knight 6 of Naz’s 11 minutes I doubt it makes a huge impact.

[shrink]

Reason 1: You play Beasley because he is a good three point shooter. The problem with the stat is that it can alter so much because of the smaller samples. For example, in less than a month, we’ve seen Edwards go from a 31% 3P% (bad) to a 37.1% shooter (pretty good). Beasley has been an average three point shooter this season (34.6% .. 34.9% is league average this year). However, he shot 40% each of the last two years for the Wolves. I understand he needs to shoot 40% to be worthwhile because he does little else, but it’s hard to believe that this year’s smaller sample is who he suddenly is now. And his sample won’t increase if he’s on the bench.

Reason 2: MIN needed scoring, and they particularly need three point scoring. Tonight, half (48 of 96) of the Wolves shots were three point attempts! This isn’t even much of a fluke - MIN leads all other teams in the NBA on 3PA. Some of our players are pretty bad at them, but it is a key to our whole structure.

Reason 3: We are only three weeks from the Trade Deadline. Keeping Beasley on the bench hurts his trade value. Many teams need three point shooting, and if Beasley has a hot streak, he could be incentive for a bigger trade.

[minimus]

Oh, good old overreactions! We faced #1 team in NBA, lets fire our coach and trade all players!

P.S. Although I am always disappointed when someone such as Koncar gathers 17 rebounds and in clutch situation we forget to box out. This is unacceptable.

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[minimus]

Reason 1: You play Beasley because he is a good three point shooter. The problem with the stat is that it can alter so much because of the smaller samples. For example, in less than a month, we’ve seen Edwards go from a 31% 3P% (bad) to a 37.1% shooter (pretty good). Beasley has been an average three point shooter this season (34.6% .. 34.9% is league average this year). However, he shot 40% each of the last two years for the Wolves. I understand he needs to shoot 40% to be worthwhile because he does little else, but it’s hard to believe that this year’s smaller sample is who he suddenly is now. And his sample won’t increase if he’s on the bench.

Reason 2: MIN needed scoring, and they particularly need three point scoring. Tonight, half (48 of 96) of the Wolves shots were three point attempts! This isn’t even much of a fluke - MIN leads all other teams in the NBA on 3PA. Some of our players are pretty bad at them, but it is a key to our whole structure.

Reason 3: We are only three weeks from the Trade Deadline. Keeping Beasley on the bench hurts his trade value. Many teams need three point shooting, and if Beasley has a hot streak, he could be incentive for a bigger trade.

Yeah, Beasley is a one-trick pony. I think we missed Nowell, because he brings that versatility in offence. I am not so worried about our 3pt shooting. I like Finch statement about Vando that at the end is about ability to score efficiently. So "five-out" or not I don't really care. I mean we might have "five-out" on paper with Beasley, but whole lineup does not work well.

[Calinks]

WE don't have the personal to play like Memphis. Not saying we can't adjust a bit but we don't have the guys they do. They have several guys who play like Vando, not as good but they bring that energy, we don't. They were really physical and they got to the line a lot. That said, if we were shooting better we could have won.

We are still putting this team together, we could use another player who can drive like Nowell, we could use some more interior size to help stip the Konchar's of the world from obliterating us. We just need to get retooling, we aren't as good as the Grizzlies this year but we can be in a season or two depending on roster tweaks.

[shrink]

I thought we played well, and we had the lead with like 2:30 left. But we continue to be like the old Wolves, and we fail to close teams out in crunch time. Instead of attacking, we stop passing, slow the ball down, and often struggle getting a good shot before the clock runs out - and even when we do, it’s often a difficult one. I had been encouraged that we finally had someone on the team that could score in those situations (DLo, and maybe Ant soon), but we still aren’t at the level of those truly competitive teams.

[winforlose]

I thought we played well, and we had the lead with like 2:30 left. But we continue to be like the old Wolves, and we fail to close teams out in crunch time. Instead of attacking, we stop passing, slow the ball down, and often struggle getting a good shot before the clock runs out - and even when we do, it’s often a difficult one. I had been encouraged that we finally had someone on the team that could score in those situations (DLo, and maybe Ant soon), but we still aren’t at the level of those truly competitive teams.

I am sorry, but we played poorly. Put aside the fact that Ant only scored 5 in the 2nd half. Put aside that our bench shot worse than high school JV team. Put aside the fact that Pat Bev couldn’t hit a 3 to save a school bus full of children from going off a cliff. Put aside the fact that V8 only managed 4 offensive rebounds (that is still pretty good, but we need more in a game like that.) No one, and I mean no one played good defense. We didn’t box out at all. We gave up so many open 3s, layups, and especially silly fouls for free throws. I agree the refs were biased and swallowed their whistles way too much in the second half, but we kept making stupid mistake after stupid mistake.

It wasn’t that the Griz played out of their minds and we just couldn’t keep up. We should have won that game by 25. If we played any kind of serious defense and put forth even minimal effort in box out they never come back. Add to that the bench didn’t just shoot poorly, they rebounded, poorly, didn’t assist well, and didn’t defend well. This is what happens when you don’t put in the work.