Timberwolves vs Warriors - Game 3

[CalGTR]

OK, some positives. I thought Jimmy looked like he was moving much better tonight, until he ran out of gas down the stretch. Maybe we'll get more Playoff Jimmy in game 4. JK was terrific. Hopefully he can continue to be a threat offensively and put in the effort defensively. It's still a very uphill battle to extend this series long enough to get Steph back, but it's not utterly hopeless. This W's team, without Steph, CAN beat Minny, but it's going to be tough. Need another off shooting night for Minny and for more of our guys to show up.

[DB23]

OK, some positives. I thought Jimmy looked like he was moving much better tonight, until he ran out of gas down the stretch. Maybe we'll get more Playoff Jimmy in game 4. JK was terrific. Hopefully he can continue to be a threat offensively and put in the effort defensively. It's still a very uphill battle to extend this series long enough to get Steph back, but it's not utterly hopeless. This W's team, without Steph, CAN beat Minny, but it's going to be tough. Need another off shooting night for Minny and for more of our guys to show up.

Yeah but we need an a+ game for dray and honestly he was shocking.

He has to step it up

[Nvnervous45]

Kuminga is the man.....Steve kerr needs to learn how to use him in the context of Curry.....or kuminga has to learn to be be scottie pippen to Currys jordan.

[CalGTR]

OK, some positives. I thought Jimmy looked like he was moving much better tonight, until he ran out of gas down the stretch. Maybe we'll get more Playoff Jimmy in game 4. JK was terrific. Hopefully he can continue to be a threat offensively and put in the effort defensively. It's still a very uphill battle to extend this series long enough to get Steph back, but it's not utterly hopeless. This W's team, without Steph, CAN beat Minny, but it's going to be tough. Need another off shooting night for Minny and for more of our guys to show up.

Yeah but we need an a+ game for dray and honestly he was shocking.

He has to step it up

Yes, we need another defensive masterclass from Dray, for him to be more of a threat on offense and to take some ball-handling load off Jimmy without incurring a bunch of lame turnovers.

Essentially, we need one game - the next game - where everybody plays close to their A games (without wishing for anything too unrealistic) to extend the series enough to perhaps get Steph back. With Steph at anywhere near healthy, W's cook Minny.

[DB23]

Kuminga is the man.....Steve kerr needs to learn how to use him in the context of Curry.....or kuminga has to learn to be be scottie pippen to Currys jordan.

He’s played really well the last two games and that’s great but let’s not pretend he wasn’t a complete disaster whenever he was on the floor last series.

[HiRez]

If they were gonna do it, this was the game. Winnable game they just let get away, too many mistakes down the stretch. They're toast.

[DB23]

If they were gonna do it, this was the game. Winnable game they just let get away, too many mistakes down the stretch. They're toast.

It does feel like that. Just a damn shame because we are clearly way better than them with curry

[ahmetmekin]

Some home cooking might be expected next game so both Dray and Jimmy better bring their A games. If it becomes 3-1, it is over. If it is 2-2 and Curry comes back healthy, dubs in 6 would be my pick afterwards.

[Indomitable]

Not a Warrior fan but Iam cheering for you guys.

Actually I am hoping Jimmy wins just to shut that arrogant fossil in Miami up.

I would have a real problem with someone telling me to shut up. Especially that way the fossil did.

Jimmy said after the elimination and I assumed it was to encourage his teammates.

People being ok with it bothered me.


Another reason is AirP. That man has been following Jimmy through 4 teams. That type of dedication deserves respect.

Good luck.

[HiRez]

Some home cooking might be expected next game so both Dray and Jimmy better bring their A games. If it becomes 3-1, it is over. If it is 2-2 and Curry comes back healthy, dubs in 6 would be my pick afterwards.

Steph already ruled out for game 5, game 6 at the earliest, so if the Wolves don't advance by then, one team will be up by 1 game 3-2. Next game is pretty much must-win for the Dubs.

[powerball1373]

Kuminga is the man.....Steve kerr needs to learn how to use him in the context of Curry.....or kuminga has to learn to be be scottie pippen to Currys jordan.

He’s played really well the last two games and that’s great but let’s not pretend he wasn’t a complete disaster whenever he was on the floor last series.

Weird situation that could end up being good long-term even if it's bad short-term, like how losing in the Finals to the Cavs allowed them to get Durant.

While it looks like they probably would have won the series with a healthy Steph, I still don't think they were legit championship contenders. However, JK's trade value was completely in the dirt. With Steph's injury, this game alone may have been enough to resurrect JKs trade value to the point where the Warriors could actually get a somewhat valuable piece back in a S&T, which would've been impossible before this game.

[GQ Hot Dog]

I've always heard when Curry is out Draymond either loses his mind or just does things to get tossed. It kinda seems that way so far the 2 games they've played without Curry. His first TO was playing dodge ball by hitting Butler in the side/back who was just going down court not looking for the ball, a few minutes later he makes another terrible pass for no apparent reason. Game 2 he basically was begging to be tossed.

Butler has to know he's gotta be ready to take on some PG duties without Steph so I kind of fault Butler for not being aware of the circumstances in that case.

But otherwise, he needs to get his passing in order. Especially throwing lobs in the low post to Butler or Kuminga. Those aren't easy passes. The timing has to be perfect and he's not accustomed to throwing those sorts of passes.

Butler went to get the ball a ton but he had other players bring down the ball which wasn't an issue, it allowed him to rest some during his 43 minutes tonight. Missing that over-the-top lob layup from Draymond was a bad miss by Butler.

Draymond also airmailed two entry passes to Kuminga in the low post, although one got whistled for a hold on Conley(but shouldn't have).

[GQ Hot Dog]

Kuminga is the man.....Steve kerr needs to learn how to use him in the context of Curry.....or kuminga has to learn to be be scottie pippen to Currys jordan.

He’s played really well the last two games and that’s great but let’s not pretend he wasn’t a complete disaster whenever he was on the floor last series.

Kuminga is an eager puppy that's looking for approval and some faith from his vets and the coach. When Kerr benched him suddenly at the end of the season it hurt Kuminga's confidence and unsurprisingly it took him some time to find that confidence again, really tonight for the first time.

That's 100% Kerr's fault. Kerr is kind of a hard-ass. He always preaches how everyone has to be ready even when he's jerking their minutes around, typical of a former role-player. But Kuminga feeds off the confidence he receives from the guys around him and I get the impression he was somewhat gutted when he got benched 15 games after coming off a two month layoff. He needed minutes to find the rhythm he had before getting hurt, but instead Kerr gave up on him. Shame on Kerr. You got to know your personnel better than that and he should have known that he would eventually need Kuminga to have a chance.

Kuminga playing well tonight isn't a fluke. It's a continuation of a process and a trend that dumb Kerr interrupted by benching him when he needed minutes most. Luckily, he seems like the sort of personality that forgives all as long as justice is eventually done. At least it seems that way since he's all smiles when he's on the floor.

[thunderdunk]

Tonight the Dubs played well enough to win, except that Podz couldn't throw it in the ocean, and Draymond had more turnovers than points and rebounds combined. So IMO, they wasted a great game from JK, which they really can't expect every night, and a really solid effort from Jimmy (who also missed several layups). This was such a winnable game. Hopefully they can grab a win on Monday. Otherwise, winning three in a row, even with Steph back for games 6 and 7, is a huge stretch.

[powerball1373]

Kuminga is the man.....Steve kerr needs to learn how to use him in the context of Curry.....or kuminga has to learn to be be scottie pippen to Currys jordan.

He’s played really well the last two games and that’s great but let’s not pretend he wasn’t a complete disaster whenever he was on the floor last series.

Kuminga is an eager puppy that's looking for approval and some faith from his vets and the coach. When Kerr benched him suddenly at the end of the season it hurt Kuminga's confidence and unsurprisingly it took him some time to find that confidence again, really tonight for the first time.

That's 100% Kerr's fault. Kerr is kind of a hard-ass. He always preaches how everyone has to be ready even when he's jerking their minutes around, typical of a former role-player. But Kuminga feeds off the confidence he receives from the guys around him and I get the impression he was somewhat gutted when he got benched 15 games after coming off a two month layoff. He needed minutes to find the rhythm he had before getting hurt, but instead Kerr gave up on him. Shame on Kerr. You got to know your personnel better than that and he should have known that he would eventually need Kuminga to have a chance.

Kuminga playing well tonight isn't a fluke. It's a continuation of a process and a trend that dumb Kerr interrupted by benching him when he needed minutes most. Luckily, he seems like the sort of personality that forgives all as long as justice is eventually done. At least it seems that way since he's all smiles when he's on the floor.

Just bad luck with JKs injury timing. When he finally came back, the team was rolling after the Jimmy trade and in a full-speed sprint to the finish line. Just wasn't the right situation to give him minutes and chances to play through mistakes. They tried when he first got healthy, but his minutes diminished the more they realized it wasn't working as well as they needed during those critical games.

[WarriorGM]

Disappointing result but still some promising takeaways. Kerr played a couple subpar players and pairings but at least kept it mercifully short. Giving Post probably one last opportunity to show if he can contribute to this series was maybe worth a shot. At this point though Kuminga should not be paired with Moody. They've been mediocre together the whole season. Playing with the foundational players probably limited the possibility of disaster. If this kind of tinkering was still going to be tried I would have preferred to see one of the promising Spencer lineups from Game 1 because being able to play Spencer might buy one of the main playmakers Butler, Draymond, or Podz some rest minutes.

A couple of interesting lineups: Butler, Podz, Hield, Kuminga, Looney and then Butler, Podz, Green, GPII, Kuminga plus minor mix and match variations thereof. Lineups with those guys minus Butler were solid throughout the whole year so I'm not surprised they found some success and weren't entirely played off the floor. I knew they would be important if only to give Butler some rest. Still they weren't quite as effective in the 4th quarter as they were earlier in the game. Butler may have been more tired. There is also the strange phenomenon that the lineup with GPII was more effective when Gobert played than when he sat which would be counterintuitive.

Oh another thing I noticed that may be related: Kerr didn't play the foundational 4 of Butler, Podz, Hield, and Draymond together except with TJD for the most part. Those lineups with TJD were able to hold their own but that is still a loss. If the 4 main guys are playing together the team needs to win those minutes outright. Those 4 cannot be played together all the time but when they are they form the backbone of what should be the team's best lineup. In the earlier games those 4 won going directly against the Wolves starting lineup with GPII, Santos, and Kuminga in TJD's place.

I'm still unsatisfied with Kerr's moves.

[GQ Hot Dog]

He’s played really well the last two games and that’s great but let’s not pretend he wasn’t a complete disaster whenever he was on the floor last series.

Kuminga is an eager puppy that's looking for approval and some faith from his vets and the coach. When Kerr benched him suddenly at the end of the season it hurt Kuminga's confidence and unsurprisingly it took him some time to find that confidence again, really tonight for the first time.

That's 100% Kerr's fault. Kerr is kind of a hard-ass. He always preaches how everyone has to be ready even when he's jerking their minutes around, typical of a former role-player. But Kuminga feeds off the confidence he receives from the guys around him and I get the impression he was somewhat gutted when he got benched 15 games after coming off a two month layoff. He needed minutes to find the rhythm he had before getting hurt, but instead Kerr gave up on him. Shame on Kerr. You got to know your personnel better than that and he should have known that he would eventually need Kuminga to have a chance.

Kuminga playing well tonight isn't a fluke. It's a continuation of a process and a trend that dumb Kerr interrupted by benching him when he needed minutes most. Luckily, he seems like the sort of personality that forgives all as long as justice is eventually done. At least it seems that way since he's all smiles when he's on the floor.

Just bad luck with JKs injury timing. When he finally came back, the team was rolling after the Jimmy trade and in a full-speed sprint to the finish line. Just wasn't the right situation to give him minutes and chances to play through mistakes. They tried when he first got healthy, but his minutes diminished the more they realized it wasn't working as well as they needed during those critical games.

The thing is, the entire Jimmy and Johnny can't play together narrative kind of fell apart tonight. Which means Kerr gave up on Kuminga figuring it out way too early.

I don't think Lacob and Dunleavy are going to give up on Kuminga after this performance, which means Kerr better figure out how to facilitate Kuminga getting minutes with both Jimmy and Steph going forward, because if he both continues to under-utilize Kuminga and also can't pilot this team to some impressive playoff finishes, the FO and owner will have a lot of questions. The FO gets Kerr by far the most dynamic athletic talent they've ever given him and he can't figure out how to use him? That's a bad look.

[powerball1373]

Kuminga is an eager puppy that's looking for approval and some faith from his vets and the coach. When Kerr benched him suddenly at the end of the season it hurt Kuminga's confidence and unsurprisingly it took him some time to find that confidence again, really tonight for the first time.

That's 100% Kerr's fault. Kerr is kind of a hard-ass. He always preaches how everyone has to be ready even when he's jerking their minutes around, typical of a former role-player. But Kuminga feeds off the confidence he receives from the guys around him and I get the impression he was somewhat gutted when he got benched 15 games after coming off a two month layoff. He needed minutes to find the rhythm he had before getting hurt, but instead Kerr gave up on him. Shame on Kerr. You got to know your personnel better than that and he should have known that he would eventually need Kuminga to have a chance.

Kuminga playing well tonight isn't a fluke. It's a continuation of a process and a trend that dumb Kerr interrupted by benching him when he needed minutes most. Luckily, he seems like the sort of personality that forgives all as long as justice is eventually done. At least it seems that way since he's all smiles when he's on the floor.

Just bad luck with JKs injury timing. When he finally came back, the team was rolling after the Jimmy trade and in a full-speed sprint to the finish line. Just wasn't the right situation to give him minutes and chances to play through mistakes. They tried when he first got healthy, but his minutes diminished the more they realized it wasn't working as well as they needed during those critical games.

The thing is, the entire Jimmy and Johnny can't play together narrative kind of fell apart tonight. Which means Kerr gave up on Kuminga figuring it out way too early.

I don't think Lacob and Dunleavy are going to give up on Kuminga after this performance, which means Kerr better figure out how to facilitate Kuminga getting minutes with both Jimmy and Steph going forward, because if he both continues to under-utilize Kuminga and also can't pilot this team to some impressive playoff finishes, the FO and owner will have a lot of questions. The FO gets Kerr by far the most dynamic athletic talent they've ever given him and he can't figure out how to use him? That's a bad look.

But they still didn't really work well together if you look at the offense as a whole. They just took turns going one-on-one, which isn't how the offense runs with Steph.

Don't get me wrong - JK was AWESOME tonight. But if Steph was healthy and Kuminga went back to 0 minutes, the Warriors probably win this game by 15 points.

Like I said in a previous post, I think the silver lining in this is that JK may have played his way into being able to get a useful piece in an off-season S&T.

[Old_Blue]

JK was AWESOME tonight. But if Steph was healthy and Kuminga went back to 0 minutes, the Warriors probably win this game by 15 points.

Like I said in a previous post, I think the silver lining in this is that JK may have played his way into being able to get a useful piece in an off-season S&T.

This is one way to look at it. Another perspective is that Steve Kerr is going to be raked over the coals by the national sports media over the next 48 hours for his outright refusal to play Kuminga down the stretch and into the playoffs. Yes, we here in the Bay Area understand Kerr's rationale. But, those outside the Bay Area are going to use Kuminga's performance in this one game as kindling for an inferno of second guessing.

[powerball1373]

These are from a Wolves fan lol:

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