me 31: Minnesota Timberwolves @ Boston Celtics

[winforlose]

I am frustrated by some things tonight, but gotta ask. If I told you that Ant, Rudy, and Mike would all have really bad games by their standards, and it came down to a semi open buzzer beater, would you have believed me?

Two of their best seven didn’t play while our team was at full strength on paper.

I normally would say that but Celtics other guys stepped up - Hauser had 15, Tatum was great, White played like an all star and got his prayer answered. They didn't need their other players today.

When Rudy and Ant play as badly as they did it doesn’t take much to beat us. Or put another way, our margin for error gets quite small. We are top heavy because of an unbalanced roster. They had Queta, Horford, and Kornet to outsize us inside, and they out worked us on the glass getting to the long rebounds and 50/50 balls. Most importantly their guards protected the ball, everyone on our team did not.

[TimberKat]

The question then is, are the others starters struggle because of Randle, ANT keeping the ball way too long and not passing well or did they just don't improved or regress? I go for point 1..

Ant feels like he is better as a play finisher rather than a play starter. As a play starter, he gets trapped, which bogs down the entire offense. If he is playing as a finisher, the defense is already on tilt and he can take advantage.

Randle can be a play starter, but he often defaults to his backdowns and gets tunnel vision so he doesn't always see the simple play.

Conley and Gobert PnR used to be an automatic bucket, but Conley's floater issues and Gobert's struggles finishing just don't allow it to be a regular option.

I agree with you but on my opinion, this is also a coaching issue. Mike get some issues with his floater, due to not being at 100% and Rudy is Rudy.....All his career, Rudy never score a lot and will never as his Mike. But Mike is our best ball handler by far ( see ratio Ass-TO) so the option is for me to let Mike run the show and give ANT more freedom to be focus on scoring and find good spots.
Ant complain about being double team but it's mostly on him. When you keep the ball too long, defense have plenty of times to double you.. when he improve on catch and shoot it will make a big difference.

And if it doesn't work, then we have to trade a starter PG and move Mike to the bench.

At this point, trade Dilly and whatever it takes to get LaMelo Ball to pair with Ant maybe the best move. He is not Supermax and would allow Ant go back to be a scorer. I haven't check salaries but actually Towns contract may had been easier for the trade to happen. Now it would need a couple teams to facilitate. Dilly can work but that is not Ant's timeline.

[TimberKat]

I am not sure what to make of - Wolves shot 50% - 50%- 90% from the field. They didn't give up 120pts. It usually should be a win regardless who's hot and who is not. There was a few bad turnovers. Ant missed the layup with 2min remain certainly doesn't help but overall it's not a badly played game. So is it a good sign or bad sign to lose a game like this?

[winforlose]

I am not sure what to make of - Wolves shot 50% - 50%- 90% from the field. They didn't give up 120pts. It usually should be a win regardless who's hot and who is not. There was a few bad turnovers. Ant missed the layup with 2min remain certainly doesn't help but overall it's not a badly played game. So is it a good sign or bad sign to lose a game like this?

Turnover battle lost 15/3. 3 point battle lost 22/21 (final margin of defeat 3 points or that 1 extra 3 they made.) They had 16 fouls to our 11 and we shot 22 free throws to their 6. We hit 20 they hit 4. The real X factor, Field Goal Attempts (FGA,) they shot 92 we shot 74. We hung tough but turnovers and empty possessions doomed us. You should feel encouraged because Ant and Rudy won’t always play that badly, and if this game is played 10 times I am not sure we lose more than 5 of them.

[Klomp]

Ant is in his feelings right now, and might be physically not where he wants to be. In my pie chart of blame on a vibe check, Ant gets about 75% right now for last night's game. And that might be too low.