Game 5: Nuggets @ Timberwolves , 8 pm, BSN

[winforlose]

Russell has started the 3 of the past 4 games like 1-10 in the first half and today he had spurts of disengagement on defense or he’d get caught watching. It’s unrealistic but Finch should start reeling in his minutes. D’Lo is Uber talented and can impact the game in multiple ways but right now he’s causing a lot of tough starts.

You have a point. That said I have a different solution. Move Ant to the second unit and tell him to take over. Your starting lineup Dlo, Beasley, MCD. V8, KAT. Your second unit
Beverly, Ant, Okogie, Prince, Reid.

Ant or KAT are often hampered by playing with the other. Ant needs to attack more and to do it he needs to be the center of the offense. KAT meanwhile needs to shoot more and Dlo needs to become more of a facilitator who shoots when wide open or when he has the hot hand. Meanwhile the addition of Beasley back to the starting lineup will give KAT and Dlo the space they need to operate.

Edit to include KAT took only 3 shots in the first half and 11 for the game. He cooled in the second half because A he didn’t shoot enough and B he was well defended without getting calls. The prior game KAT had 13 shots and made 9 of them. When the big 3 share the floor KAT cannot get the ball enough. If Ant is going to take more shots than KAT consistently, they need to be when KAT is off the floor (not counting end of game, obviously.) Meanwhile, getting Beasley going like he was tonight with consistent minutes and catch and shoot opportunities will make our offense considerably more dangerous.

Heading into tonight Ant and Towns were the best two man net rating in the entire NBA.

Most games Ant has one big quarter and is mostly silent after that. Tonight he had no big quarters and was a major liability. KAT remains a consistent and efficient scorer and the only real size we have on defense. How much time does Ant spend on the floor without KAT. In other words, KAT is carrying Ant more often than not. Meanwhile Ant is suppressing KAT.

Look at the efficiency difference and tell me we don’t have an issue with KAT taking 26 less shots than Ant in 5 games.

Edit to include: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/townska01/gamelog/2022

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/edwaran01/gamelog/2022

[Krapinsky]

You have a point. That said I have a different solution. Move Ant to the second unit and tell him to take over. Your starting lineup Dlo, Beasley, MCD. V8, KAT. Your second unit
Beverly, Ant, Okogie, Prince, Reid.

Ant or KAT are often hampered by playing with the other. Ant needs to attack more and to do it he needs to be the center of the offense. KAT meanwhile needs to shoot more and Dlo needs to become more of a facilitator who shoots when wide open or when he has the hot hand. Meanwhile the addition of Beasley back to the starting lineup will give KAT and Dlo the space they need to operate.

Edit to include KAT took only 3 shots in the first half and 11 for the game. He cooled in the second half because A he didn’t shoot enough and B he was well defended without getting calls. The prior game KAT had 13 shots and made 9 of them. When the big 3 share the floor KAT cannot get the ball enough. If Ant is going to take more shots than KAT consistently, they need to be when KAT is off the floor (not counting end of game, obviously.) Meanwhile, getting Beasley going like he was tonight with consistent minutes and catch and shoot opportunities will make our offense considerably more dangerous.

Heading into tonight Ant and Towns were the best two man net rating in the entire NBA.

Most games Ant has one big quarter and is mostly silent after that. Tonight he had no big quarters and was a major liability. KAT remains a consistent and efficient scorer and the only real size we have on defense. How much time does Ant spend on the floor without KAT. In other words, KAT is carrying Ant more often than not. Meanwhile Ant is suppressing KAT.

Look at the efficiency difference and tell me we don’t have an issue with KAT taking 26 less shots than Ant in 5 games.

Edit to include: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/townska01/gamelog/2022

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/edwaran01/gamelog/2022

KAT had the worst plus minus on the team tonight, so he didn’t exactly carry anybody. He continues to struggle against bigger centers.

I agree that KAT needs a bigger role in the offense but don’t blame Edwards for that. Edwards is bailing out the offense many times and forced to take contested shots, or shots at the end of the shot clock. I think what would solve all that is if we had an actual starting point guard. I think any line up with Bev-Ant-Towns is our best line up.

[winforlose]

Heading into tonight Ant and Towns were the best two man net rating in the entire NBA.

Most games Ant has one big quarter and is mostly silent after that. Tonight he had no big quarters and was a major liability. KAT remains a consistent and efficient scorer and the only real size we have on defense. How much time does Ant spend on the floor without KAT. In other words, KAT is carrying Ant more often than not. Meanwhile Ant is suppressing KAT.

Look at the efficiency difference and tell me we don’t have an issue with KAT taking 26 less shots than Ant in 5 games.

Edit to include: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/townska01/gamelog/2022

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/edwaran01/gamelog/2022

KAT had the worst plus minus on the team tonight, so he didn’t exactly carry anybody. He continues to struggle against bigger centers.

I agree that KAT needs a bigger role in the offense but don’t blame Edwards for that. Edwards is bailing out the offense many times and forced to take contested shots, or shots at the end of the shot clock. I think what would solve all that is if we had an actual starting point guard. I think any line up with Bev-Ant-Towns is our best line up.

Some basic thoughts.

1. Ant is shooting too many 3s relative to his consistent shooting percentage. He is streaky at best and outside of the occasional hot hand below average at worst.

2. Ant is too complacent within the offense when KAT is on the floor. Look at his scoring quarter by quarter this season. Coming alive one quarter and then being absent for the other 3 is not winning basketball.

3. We agree Dlo needs to shoot less and pass more. Dlo also needs to protect the ball better, and use better judgment with his passing and spacing. That said, Dlo is one of the few Timberwolves who can create his own offense. Unless we start Bev and move MCD or V8 to the bench, Dlo is our starting PG. The problem with making such a move is it forces JMAC or Nowell to run the second unit and neither is good enough at both defense and facilitating the offense to make it work.

4. We saw tonight that when V8 and MCD don’t rebound well we have issues no matter what the lineup is.

[FinnTheHuman]

DLo doesn't have good floor general capabilities, he has a weak handle, risks too much, likes his shot off the dribble too much, doesn't control the pace. He can't lead the offense. He should be 6th man. Beverley/Beasley/Ant/McDaniels(or Vando)/KAT is our best lineup 100%. Being afraid of hurting DLo's feelings by moving him into the 6th man role is hurting our chances of making the playoffs.

[gandlogo]

The ability to consistently make shots is by far this team’s biggest weakness. The good news is it certainly looks like they have truly turned the corner on playing better defense. Make some shots and that’s an easy win last night.

[shrink]

Right now, I am debating watching the game again. I know the outcome is disappointing, but the game is filled with spectacular Wolves plays, so I can’t decide.

I feel like this one got away from us, but it shouldn’t have been close for this to happen. We missed so many routine plays with dumb passes, blown lay ups, bad shooting decisions, etc. Our defense held DEN under 100 and our bench played well - this should have been a 20 point win.

Also, we are still a very young team, and it felt like we got frazzled as we saw our lead diminish. Jokic seemed cool as a cucumber at all points. I want to believe that we can be a team that can learn to be confident and play better in he clutch, and not that this will always be a character problem inside a couple of our top players.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Game tied at 89 then we had 4 straight misses by Beas 2X, KAT, and DLo. Nuggets score quick 4 points, Ant hits layup and misses the last second layup.

If the shot clock buzzer doesn’t confuse Ant we would’ve had a 2 on 1 fastbreak on Morris small ass


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The entire clock team was drunk last night. Didn’t ant dribble like twice before the buzzer went off? Is the person working the clock like a 85 year old volunteer?

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

The ability to consistently make shots is by far this team’s biggest weakness. The good news is it certainly looks like they have truly turned the corner on playing better defense. Make some shots and that’s an easy win last night.

I wouldn’t even consider those “shots”…5 point blank bunnies were missed. Ant had at least 4 and Beas missed the easiest one by far.

[TheProdigy]

As frustrating as it is to lose, I think it's important to remember that our defense is still looking great. That's the biggest development this season. The offense will come around sooner or later. Just keep playing with high effort on defense and we'll be in every game.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Anybody else think these 2-3 days off between games is interrupting any kind of rhythm? Play on Wednesday…wait until Saturday to play. They’re needed in January but the team is fine playing back to backs or 1 day off in November and early December

[Calinks]

Even though I don't thnk that was a terrible loss, (we lost to a better team, I really don't think we could take the nuggets in a series or anything this season). We do need to fix this offense ASAP. I really do not think we will be able to keep this level of defensive play all season. At some point it will fall off. I don't think we will go back to being terrible on defense but we wont be one of the best teams all season, we will have stretches where we are mediocre and times where we step it up.

Really good defense keeps you in every game but when our defense starts to drop, we will be getting destroyed if our offense continues to be this bad. Fortunately, I think a good 60 percent of our offensive woes are simply missing makeable shots which should solve itself over time. The other 40 percent I am hoping Finch can fix.

[fattymcgee]

Ant killed us tonight. Dlo was bad and Karl didn’t do much in the 2nd half, but Ant had what I consider the worst game of his entire career. Missing a point blank overtime shot was just the icing on the horrible cake.

Shout out to Beasley who finally took my advice and found his game. Let’s hope he doesn’t lose again anytime soon.

You're right that Ant couldn't shoot or finish tonight but that last second shot was impossible to make. He knew the clock was expiring so he had to immediately put it up. If he went straight up on the right side the Joker blocks it so he tried to go around the left side but he was too far to the right side and couldn't reach far enough to realistically make the shot.

[winforlose]

Ant killed us tonight. Dlo was bad and Karl didn’t do much in the 2nd half, but Ant had what I consider the worst game of his entire career. Missing a point blank overtime shot was just the icing on the horrible cake.

Shout out to Beasley who finally took my advice and found his game. Let’s hope he doesn’t lose again anytime soon.

You're right that Ant couldn't shoot or finish tonight but that last second shot was impossible to make. He knew the clock was expiring so he had to immediately put it up. If he went straight up on the right side the Joker blocks it so he tried to go around the left side but he was too far to the right side and couldn't reach far enough to realistically make the shot.

I went to dunking with wolves and saw a 19 second finish video which allowed me to watch it a couple of times only looking for what your talking about. It looks like he had plenty of space and just missed another layup.

[Mattya]

When our shooters actually start making shots like we expect we are going to be a problem.

[shangrila]

Let’s add some context here.

If I’d told you, before the season started, that we’d lose to Denver with our big 3 having the worst offensive games of both their combined and individual careers…how bad would you expect the score to be?

[winforlose]

Let’s add some context here.

If I’d told you, before the season started, that we’d lose to Denver with our big 3 having the worst offensive games of both their combined and individual careers…how bad would you expect the score to be?

Fair, but if I told you that Denver was going to shoot 40.9% from the field and 24.7% from 3 and only score 93 points, wouldn’t you expect us to find a way to score 94?

[shangrila]

Let’s add some context here.

If I’d told you, before the season started, that we’d lose to Denver with our big 3 having the worst offensive games of both their combined and individual careers…how bad would you expect the score to be?

Fair, but if I told you that Denver was going to shoot 40.9% from the field and 24.7% from 3 and only score 93 points, wouldn’t you expect us to find a way to score 94?

I’d have laughed at you for even daring to suggest we could hold anyone to 93pts.

[winforlose]

Let’s add some context here.

If I’d told you, before the season started, that we’d lose to Denver with our big 3 having the worst offensive games of both their combined and individual careers…how bad would you expect the score to be?

Fair, but if I told you that Denver was going to shoot 40.9% from the field and 24.7% from 3 and only score 93 points, wouldn’t you expect us to find a way to score 94?

I’d have laughed at you for even daring to suggest we could hold anyone to 93pts.

Houston probably gets held under 100 if we don’t empty the bench. The Pels, Bucks, and Nuggets all got held under 100. 3 of 5 really 4 of 5 games this season we have done it. So not as funny as you think.

[Neeva]

This loss sucks and I am sorry we really needed that **** pick and to get Mobley or Barnes, now the wolves will always be one player short to be real contenders . Thanks a lot Rosas..couldn’t get top 5 protection on that pick and tank right.

[Mamba4Goat]

This loss sucks and I am sorry we really needed that **** pick and to get Mobley or Barnes, now the wolves will always be one player short to be real contenders . Thanks a lot Rosas..couldn’t get top 5 protection on that pick and tank right.

For what it’s worth Barnes likely wouldn’t have been on the board for when Minnesota picked. You either pick in front of the Raps and take Mobley/Green/Cade or after them and take Kuminga or Suggs. Not getting Mobley who is legitimately perfect for the team is a bummer though.