Game 37: Minnesota Timberwolves (11-25) vs Utah Jazz (22-15) – Target Center – 7PM CST – FSN/WCCO

[Nick K]

This is what ugly looks like in print.

4:41 Zach LaVine makes a jump shot from 19 feet out. Ricky Rubio with the assist.
83-91
4:22 Gordon Hayward misses a jump shot from 21 feet out.
83-91
4:21 Gorgui Dieng with a defensive rebound.
83-91
4:07 Boris Diaw steals the ball from Ricky Rubio.
83-91
4:00 Joe Ingles misses a 3-point jump shot from 23 feet out.
83-91
3:56 Ricky Rubio with a defensive rebound.
83-91
3:35 Personal foul committed by Boris Diaw.
83-91
3:35 Karl-Anthony Towns makes free throw 1 of 2.
83-92
3:35 Substitution: Rudy Gobert in for Boris Diaw.
83-92
3:35 Karl-Anthony Towns misses free throw 2 of 2.
83-92
3:35 Derrick Favors with a defensive rebound.
83-92
3:10 Derrick Favors makes a cutting dunk. Joe Ingles with the assist.
85-92
2:51 Rudy Gobert blocks a Andrew Wiggins layup from 2 feet out.
85-92
2:50 Andrew Wiggins with an offensive rebound.
85-92
2:47 Zach LaVine misses a 3-point jump shot from 23 feet out.
85-92
2:46 Karl-Anthony Towns with an offensive rebound.
85-92
2:28 Andrew Wiggins misses a 3-point jump shot from 23 feet out.
85-92
2:27 Gorgui Dieng with an offensive rebound.
85-92
2:24 Zach LaVine misses a 3-point jump shot from 29 feet out.
85-92
2:23 Min with an offensive rebound.
85-92
2:23 Min with a turnover: Shot Clock Turnover
85-92
2:23 Uta take a full timeout.
85-92
2:08 Derrick Favors makes a jump shot from 20 feet out. Gordon Hayward with the assist.
87-92
1:44 Ricky Rubio with a out of bounds - bad pass turnover turnover: Out of Bounds - Bad Pass Turnover
87-92
1:29 Derrick Favors makes a 3-point jump shot from 24 feet out. Gordon Hayward with the assist.
90-92
1:09 Andrew Wiggins misses a jump shot from 20 feet out.
90-92
1:08 Rudy Gobert with a defensive rebound.
90-92
0:58 Zach LaVine kicks the ball. Uta' ball.
90-92
0:58 Uta take a full timeout.
90-92
0:52 Personal foul committed by Ricky Rubio.
90-92
0:52 George Hill makes free throw 1 of 2.
91-92
0:52 George Hill makes free throw 2 of 2.
92-92
0:52 Min take a full timeout.
92-92
0:52 Min take a 20-second timeout.
92-92
0:44 Gorgui Dieng misses a jump shot from 19 feet out.
92-92
0:42 Joe Ingles with a defensive rebound.
92-92
0:27 Derrick Favors misses a jump shot from 6 feet out.
92-92
0:27 Rudy Gobert with an offensive rebound.
92-92
0:27 Rudy Gobert makes a tip layup from 1 foot out.
94-92
0:27 Min take a 20-second timeout.
94-92
0:27 Substitution: Nemanja Bjelica in for Gorgui Dieng.
94-92
0:24 Karl-Anthony Towns misses a hook shot from 11 feet out.
94-92
0:19 Zach LaVine with an offensive rebound.
94-92
0:01 Zach LaVine misses a jump shot from 19 feet out.
94-92
0:00 George Hill with a defensive rebound.
94-92

[Zeitgeister]

Wiggins missing fts and Zach's lack of bbiq cost us this game.

Wiggins with a .362 TS% on the night and 5 turnovers really hurt us. Lavine not getting the ball up the court fast enough when Bjelica fell over in the first place was a bad play on LaVine's part and an important one but you're still talking about several scenarios having to play out for us to even win that game at that point.

[Calinks]

I still can't believe Bae Elite toppled over like that on the inboumd. It went right to him! Dude just did a break dance instead of getting it. The hell man!

[bulliedog8]

Just got back from the game. Great game. Crazy how often the wolves choke. Lavine should have shot the last shot early just because of the possibility of a miss.

[stitches]

Favors was in the lane almost six seconds

The Jazz teach their bigs to stay in the lane and not worry about the 3s call. They know refs rarely call it, so they are abusing the system. They think the advantage of the times refs missing the calls outweighs the negative from the times they call it.

[Murphs56]

Draft Express is so amazing right now. This is such a deep class.

[TwolvesFanRome]

It gets really frustrating losing every game in this way...

I am tired to see this...we can't handle the game until the end...incredible...

[firyGM]

Thibs doesn't learn.

[Grits n Gravy]

Have to



or i'd

Watch on YouTube

What a train wreck this season has been.

[Merc_Porto]

Another game that seems that Thibs doesn't trust or reward the bench for good playing. This is nothing to do with taking a long look to the young 3. Was like this in Chicago as well, Thibs overplays the starters a lot no matter what.

[Sugarless]

There's so much dumbness and absurdly low BBIQ in this team that it's starting to be funny.

The coach is a great part of that, by the way.

- Once again he chooses to go with Wiggins late in the game despite the catastrophic record he has in those situations (result: he won't look at anyone, he just takes a difficult shot and... misses) and the 6-18 FG, 3-7 FT, 5 TO line he had at the moment. Really really smart by Thibs.

- He also chose to go with LaVine inbounding late in the game only to burn a timeout with less than one minute to go cause he wasn't able to. Seriously, I've been seeing this for two years but he somehow hasn't noticed yet? Anyway, it would have been nice to have that timeout at the end before Zach made a boneheaded play to close the game, right?

- He keeps on killing the confidence of our rotation players: Wiggins can have 5 stupid TOs and he won't even roll his eyes, but Bjelica makes a mistake (that didn't even result in a TO) in that lob pass to Bazz on the break, and Thibs is immediately yelling at him with his madman eyes as he goes to the sideline.

Other than finding this absolutely funny at this point, I'm starting to question Wiggins more and more each day. I was already open to trading him last year (which was an anathema on this board then), but this season has been even more disappointing. Absolutely no improvement in any area (and Thibs is NOT helping him by putting him in the wrong situations and giving him a free pass on defense instead of working with him in what he can and needs to improve). He's got the worst DRTG on the team, one of the worst ORTGs, his TS% for the season is once again at (much-maligned) Ricky Rubio levels, only he takes the most shots on the team and continues to stay at a 1:1 AST/TO ratio or worse. He may get it right at some point -you never know when something might click in someone's mind-, but his low BBIQ, his lack of effort, his demeanor on the court and the bad situation he's being put in by the coach don't seem very encouraging.

[Krapinsky]

I didn't realize we were already so far behind last year's pace in total wins. 29 wins last year. On pace for 25 this year.

The only major difference between this year and last year roster wise are (1) the head coach, (2) the head coach's first round pick, (3) the head coach's personally assembled bench.

Yet, please everyone go ahead and blame Wiggins.

[Krapinsky]

I think AP guy's question to Thibs last night was right on -- does his sdieline demeanor/antics lead to the team tightening up in and of game situations? It seems clear that it does. These guys are so afraid of making a mistake and getting yelled at that they can't play the game freely.

[NewWolvesOrder]

I didn't realize we were already so far behind last year's pace in total wins. 29 wins last year. On pace for 25 this year.

The only major difference between this year and last year roster wise are (1) the head coach, (2) the head coach's first round pick, (3) the head coach's personally assembled bench.

Yet, please everyone go ahead and blame Wiggins.

A lot of it has much to do with how Thibs chose to coach Wiggins. Instead of making AW extract a lot of energy on defense and boards he makes his offensive load even bigger and trying to shoehorn him into a role AW doesn't have the skills for.

[NewWolvesOrder]

I think AP guy's question to Thibs last night was right on -- does his sdieline demeanor/antics lead to the team tightening up in and of game situations? It seems clear that it does. These guys are so afraid of making a mistake and getting yelled at that they can't play the game freely.

And what was Thibs answer?

[Grits n Gravy]

I think AP guy's question to Thibs last night was right on -- does his sdieline demeanor/antics lead to the team tightening up in and of game situations? It seems clear that it does. These guys are so afraid of making a mistake and getting yelled at that they can't play the game freely.

And what was Thibs answer?

FRUSTRATED THIBS

Thibodeau has a volatile demeanor on the sideline, barking at officials and cursing at turnovers and poor shot selection. But he dismissed a question on whether the players feed off of that energy when giving away big leads.

"You can look for all of the excuses you want," Thibodeau said. "We have to get the job done. You can say this, that, whatever. We have to do our job. Everyone has to do their job."

Players backed him, saying they had to be more mentally tough and not relax when they have a lead late. The Wolves are 0-10 in games decided by four points or less this season.

"We've just got to get a better attitude," LaVine said. "We've got to stop playing so relaxed like we've done something. Stop letting go of the leads. Even though we're up, it doesn't really matter. It's the NBA and we've blown almost every lead we've had."

http://www.espn.in/nba/recap?gameId=400899977

[walk with me]

Was at the game...

Was really on the blame of the players... all executional/mental mistakes. Utah cranked up the intensity and minnesota couldn't match the level. The guys were up a lot with a little bit of time left but 24 seconds = lots of possessions. A few turnovers, stupid shots, bad defense cost htem the game. Nothing thibs can do at the moment to fix having a scrub roster that can't execute down the stretch