Play-In Tournament: Clippers at Timberwolves, April 12th, 8:30PM CST on TNT

[life_saver]

I was pleasantly surprised by DLo's performance...really stepped up.

[life_saver]

Putrid FT shooting performance from Wolves..glad it didn't cost. Just way too many missed FTs

[life_saver]

Re-KAT, what concerns me the most is the dumb and low iq plays. That 6th foul from KAT was so freaking dumb for someone that already is at 5 fouls. He has to know better to not even attempt going for the ball there when he is at 5 fouls already.

The team and KAT himself needs to make better use of KAT's 3 point shooting ability..especially on nights like this.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

This might be my favorite Harlan call ever…and there’s been many

“HOLD ONN OHHHHHH”

Read on Twitter

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Legend

[TwolvesFanRome]

What a match!!!!!

I am so excited after seen it!!!

Pat Bev is something special!!!

GO TO THE PO BROTHERS WOLVES!!!!!!

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



PS: Beat LA!!!

[younggunsmn]

KAT just erased a whole season's worth of image rehabilitation with that turd. The temper tantrums, the dumb fouls, the flopping for foul calls rather than finishing his shot. He's very lucky he has at least another series to erase tonight's KATastrophe.

But the offensive gameplan for him was idiotic and played right into what LA was doing.
Why TF is he trying to get to the rim out of a double team from beyond the 3 point line constantly?
Is that what Finch drew up or was KAT just going HERO MODE?
Because all of Finch's playsets when was was out were great.
It would be much smarter to put him in a pick and dive to the rim and use the extra attention to free up shooters.

Zubac was the weak link on the clips D, he can't/won't come out to the 3 point line to challenge shooters (as we finally exploited at the end of the half). He also couldn't stop ANT or Russell in the lane. They should have run Ant or Russell pick action with Vando, with KAT spaced where he's a hockey assist or skip pass away from a wide open look.

Edwards has looked great the past couple weeks and hopefully the knee is back to 100%.
Just when you want to give up on Russell, he has a game like this and shows you the calm leader with the pure jumper and great floater/in between game. If you could get that Russel even 80% of the time, you could justify making him your 3rd cornerstone.
Luckily we have another playoff series to judge.

Impressive how well everyone maintained their composure and belief that they were going to win, even as KAT was melting down. Russell deserves a lot of credit for that along with Beverly and ANT. Really just an incredible effort from everyone tonight.
Even Beasley's defense and effort are miles better than last year.

If they are going to keep this play in, they really need to set better ground rules and preconditions. In the East, where your 7-10 seeds are all within 1 game, it makes perfect sense.
In the West, where 7-10 are separated by 4, 10, and 12 wins, it is ridiculus and unfair. No team with 34 or 36 wins deserves any shot at all at the playoffs, certainly not single elimination against a team it finished 6-12 games behind in the standings.
I kinda hope NO or SA knock out the clippers, because having a big market like LA knocked out in this type of scenario might be shock enough to get them to re-think this unfair abomination.

[life_saver]

KAT just erased a whole season's worth of image rehabilitation with that turd. The temper tantrums, the dumb fouls, the flopping for foul calls rather than finishing his shot. He's very lucky he has at least another series to erase tonight's KATastrophe.

But the offensive gameplan for him was idiotic and played right into what LA was doing.
WTF is he trying to dribble drive out of a double team from beyond the 3 point line constantly?
Is that what Finch drew up or was KAT just going HERO MODE?
Because all of Finch's playsets when was was out were great.
It would be much smarter to put him in a pick and roll and use the extra attention to free up shooters.

Zubac was the weak link on the clips D, he can't/won't come out to the 3 point line to challenge shooters (as we finally exploited at the end of the half). He also couldn't stop ANT or Russell in the lane. They should have run Ant or Russell pick action with Vando, with KAT spaced where he's a hockey assist or skip pass away from a wide open look.

Fully agree. I was shocked that Wolves offensive gameplan played right into LA hands..I mean pretty much most of us expected this defensive game plan from LA as they did the same thing during RS too but I was very surprised that Wolves just didn't come up with better preparation to counter that. Just a disastrous game from KAT but he has a chance to erase this mess in the Grizzlies series. Wolves have to use KAT the 3 point shooter more.

[m2002brian]

Wolves, regular season, 5-1 when towns fouls out.
Post season, 1-0

[Neeva]

7 should be safely in let the 8-10th seeds battle for the last spot in the play in.

[Neeva]

KAT just erased a whole season's worth of image rehabilitation with that turd. The temper tantrums, the dumb fouls, the flopping for foul calls rather than finishing his shot. He's very lucky he has at least another series to erase tonight's KATastrophe.

But the offensive gameplan for him was idiotic and played right into what LA was doing.
WTF is he trying to dribble drive out of a double team from beyond the 3 point line constantly?
Is that what Finch drew up or was KAT just going HERO MODE?
Because all of Finch's playsets when was was out were great.
It would be much smarter to put him in a pick and roll and use the extra attention to free up shooters.

Zubac was the weak link on the clips D, he can't/won't come out to the 3 point line to challenge shooters (as we finally exploited at the end of the half). He also couldn't stop ANT or Russell in the lane. They should have run Ant or Russell pick action with Vando, with KAT spaced where he's a hockey assist or skip pass away from a wide open look.

Fully agree. I was shocked that Wolves offensive gameplan played right into LA hands..I mean pretty much most of us expected this defensive game plan from LA as they did the same thing during RS too but I was very surprised that Wolves just didn't come up with better preparation to counter that. Just a disastrous game from KAT but he has a chance to erase this mess in the Grizzlies series. Wolves have to use KAT the 3 point shooter more.

The reason Kat is getting piled on is cause people remember his last playoffs against Houston, it was a disaster as well.

[life_saver]

Clippers pretty much ignored Vando when KAT was on floor..they were just doubling KAT. I wonder if Finch would have gone with Prince more instead of Vando if Pricne was available

[Dalvin]

KAT is important to this team. LA gameplanned for him hard that when he sat, they didn't know what to do. Lucky for us, the team capitalized on it.
KAT will rain threes on Memphis, book it.

[life_saver]

KAT just erased a whole season's worth of image rehabilitation with that turd. The temper tantrums, the dumb fouls, the flopping for foul calls rather than finishing his shot. He's very lucky he has at least another series to erase tonight's KATastrophe.

But the offensive gameplan for him was idiotic and played right into what LA was doing.
WTF is he trying to dribble drive out of a double team from beyond the 3 point line constantly?
Is that what Finch drew up or was KAT just going HERO MODE?
Because all of Finch's playsets when was was out were great.
It would be much smarter to put him in a pick and roll and use the extra attention to free up shooters.

Zubac was the weak link on the clips D, he can't/won't come out to the 3 point line to challenge shooters (as we finally exploited at the end of the half). He also couldn't stop ANT or Russell in the lane. They should have run Ant or Russell pick action with Vando, with KAT spaced where he's a hockey assist or skip pass away from a wide open look.

Fully agree. I was shocked that Wolves offensive gameplan played right into LA hands..I mean pretty much most of us expected this defensive game plan from LA as they did the same thing during RS too but I was very surprised that Wolves just didn't come up with better preparation to counter that. Just a disastrous game from KAT but he has a chance to erase this mess in the Grizzlies series. Wolves have to use KAT the 3 point shooter more.

The reason Kat is getting piled on is cause people remember his last playoffs against Houston, it was a disaster as well.

eh..I don't care much about GB posters. Young players can have rough playoffs. If KAT has a poor series against Grizzlies too, then I would be much more concerned. This is still just 1 game in his 2nd playoff appearance. I am much more worried about KAT's poor decision making in general..some of the fouls he commits are just due to stupidity. He still hasn't improved in that aspect

[MN7725]

Clippers pretty much ignored Vando when KAT was on floor..they were just doubling KAT. I wonder if Finch would have gone with Prince more instead of Vando if Pricne was available

it was the same thing as Rockets did with Gibson

KAT played pretty decent the last three games of that series once Thibs started getting more "shooting" (Rose/Crawford) lineups where Rockets couldn't double team so easily

No doubt that KAT being too emotional is bigger problem than who he plays with, but Wolves can put him in a better position to succeed too, especially early in games

[younggunsmn]

KAT is important to this team. LA gameplanned for him hard that when he sat, they didn't know what to do. Lucky for us, the team capitalized on it.
KAT will rain threes on Memphis, book it.

Good point. I was a bit shocked how drastically the clips defense declined once KAT was off the floor, and it's clear they had a poor gameplan for Russell, as Lue alluded to in his postgame presser.

[Calinks]

The Clippers were banking on shutting KAT down and our team crumbling, usually, it would work but this team is different.

[winforlose]

So I am not gonna defend some of KAT’s dumb fouls. The two rebound fouls were sloppy, and the offensive fouls were something else (especially #5,) but I have to ask if anyone else had problems with the officiating in the first half? They were grabbing KAT, bumping him before he even got the ball, pressing up and pushing into him. Take the Roco offensive foul, MCD did the same press up to PG13 and they whistled MCD for the foul instead of PG13. My point is that if you let multiple players foul KAT on offense of course he is going to struggle to score.

Memphis has both Adams and JJJ. Both players have given KAT trouble at times. I am not saying KAT needs Harden level protection to function, but he should get the benefit of common sense officiating.

[TwolvesFanRome]

Towns hasn't played his best game ... possibly his worst when calculating its importance. But no one says that perhaps he made the most important basket (or one of the most important) of the match: we were down by 10 points and he sent Zubac to the Pub in post for - 8. Losing that possession and suffering another basket would perhaps have meant the end of the match. Stop mortifying KAT, I'm sure he'll do it right away!

[Note30]

Super surprised with how the game went! Excited for the next round. First reall time we've been a good team since KG.

[A1FromDay1]

Side note, during the halftime show Barkley and Shaq kept insulting Finch. I wonder if anyone can ask them if they like apples. If not they can suck on something else, we won and Finch kept them together and going after KAT collapsed.

What did they say? Where can I see/read?