Official Thread - Wiz at T'Wolves (12/27/13)

[pineappleheadindc]

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Early thread as I'm outta here beginning Monday morning for two glorious weeks at home with my family in Hawai'i. So I wanted to get this up before leaving.

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Where: Target Center -- Minneapolis, MN
Time: 8:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Television: Comcast Sportsnet Plus, NBATV, quasi-legal internet streams
Radio: 106.7 The Fan

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The heck with all of you Luv-a-Bull haters. I tried the puppies and kittens approach for the C's game and it almost led to disaster. Only a quick-thinking Miller saved us with a timely Luv-a-Bull post to appease the gods. We're never making the puppies and kittens mistake again.

To win this game, the Wizards will have to neutralize Kevin Love. We're going to give him an extra helping of Luv-a-Bull juju to rob him of all his power.

























Go Wizards!!!

[JWizmentality]

Oh God yes, gimmie some of that sweet Luv-A-Bull lovin!!

[MarcoPolo]

Long break hopefully all the players will heal throughout this period of time.

Funny thing i've noticed. Wizards have their own Hustle Board in their locker room, here's a look:(expand photos to see them in full size)




Photos from early December

[Illmatic21]

The T-Wolves are one of those teams I thought would make noise coming into the season, but as of now it doesn't look like they're any better than us. They just suffered a demoralizing loss to LAC, and Love was crying postgame so I expect him to come out with a vengeance. Unfortunately I'm not sure if anyone else on that team shares his passion..

Outside of Love/Pekovic they have no one to worry about offensively. Their interior D is pretty soft, and they don't close out on shooters particularly well. If we move the ball like we did in the first game, we should win.

[nate33]

We beat them at home last time despite being without Ariza. Now, I think our rotation is clicking a bit better since Booker has come on as a serviceable starter, allowing Nene to provide a lot of balance to the bench.

On the other hand, this one is on the road and we were fortunate last time that Martin had a terrible shooting night.

This game is winnable, but I figure Minnesota should be favored by a few points.

[Rafael122]

Love had 45 and 19 last night, and Pekovic had 34 and 14. Nene needs all the rest he can get b/c this is going to be one of those games where he's gotta bring the lunch pale.

[doclinkin]

Picture KevLov throwing outlet passes to John Wall jetting up court. It'd be so unfair the league would institute an offsides rule to prevent it from happening. Or at least allow you to jam the player within 5 yards or tackle him inside the three point arc. Some shxt.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

[pancakes3]

Postpad to get this to page 2.

[nate33]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

I think it was Mike Prada on Twitter who kept posting that Boston was hitting an obscenely high percentage of their long 2's. Basically, they were taking and making a ton of the worst shots in basketball. That hot shooting was sure to cool down and it ultimately did. So, yes, I kind of felt that the Wizards were the better team and that is was only a matter of time until we wore them down.

Gotta give credit to the Boston coach though. That team is well prepared and stays competitive despite a serious lack of talent. The Wizards had arguably the 3 best players on the court.

[Rafael122]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

I thought we were going to lose since they were down 30-14 at the end of 1 but when the lead was cut to single digits (maybe even 12 at some point), I thought they had a chance. Boston was making everything, they were bound to cool off.

[dckingsfan]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

No doubt, watching the 3 quarter, I thought - this is just a matter of time...

[pancakes3]

For me, giving up 30 wasn't the problem. The problem was putting up 14. Our starters were off and our putrid bench was set to takeover. I was worried that we had dug a hole too deep to play out of. We were bailed out by Seraphin. Things are starting to turn up Milhouse.

[miller31time]

Only a quick-thinking Miller saved us with a timely Luv-a-Bull post to appease the gods. We're never making the puppies and kittens mistake again.

Hardest "submit" of my life.

[dobrojim]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

I wasn't confident and it especially didn't look good at 6 min down 8 after
we had fought back to even, but they kept playing hard/smart and gave
themselves a chance.

I don't think they're a mortal lock vs the T-pups at all. Love could
singlehandedly carry them. I wouldn't be surprised either way.
The T-pups are not as strong as some expected. It's winnable.

The games I am really keying on are the 2 after that vs DET. Now that
we've gotten the nix/Cs monkey off our back, it's time to do the same
to the Pistons monkey.

[dobrojim]

Just thinking about the Celtics game. Did anyone else have the gut feeling that even when they were down 6 midway through the fourth quarter, the Wizards would come back for a win? As a long time Wizards fan, I'm usually very pessimistic, but for some reason I had a good feeling that we'd still win. Wall's defense has made me a believer. Am I delusional, or have we turned some corner, now that everyone's mostly healthy? Or have we just been lucky to play alot of bad teams? I feel like the Wiz are a mortal lock vs. the T'Wolves - is that the kiss of death?

I think it was Mike Prada on Twitter who kept posting that Boston was hitting an obscenely high percentage of their long 2's. Basically, they were taking and making a ton of the worst shots in basketball. That hot shooting was sure to cool down and it ultimately did. So, yes, I kind of felt that the Wizards were the better team and that is was only a matter of time until we wore them down.

Gotta give credit to the Boston coach though. That team is well prepared and stays competitive despite a serious lack of talent. The Wizards had arguably the 3 best players on the court.

I kept think Omar Bradley is putting Brad Beal's 2 pt % to shame. He's gotta cool off.

Vs MIN, Love probably should be the best player on the court. We'll see what Wall has
to say about that. Also we'll see who MIN has besides Love. We might be able to
get away with having 3 or 4 of the best 5 players in the game.

Beal had a great game vs Brewer when we played them in NOV.

[verbal8]

Looking at the Twolves season, they seem to beat bad teams handily and lose close to good teams. Their differentially indicates they are quite a bit better than their record.

They should be favored at home, but it isn't an unwinnable game.

[TGW]

I'll predict a loss—I think double digits this time. They're going to bully us inside.

[jeffsays]

Jeez no Wizards games until Friday??

[montestewart]

The game score will be incidental. I'm looking forward to the epic game-within-a-game on Friday. That's right, I'm talking about the Maynor vs. Price grudge match.



PS: I'll also be comparing Miller's and Foye's lines with Rubio's line, to see who won that trade.