Game 12 MIN @ NOP

[Rauxcee]

How did Valencunias play that good against us jeez.

He's always been a Rudy killer. Seems like he has a big game every time he plays Rudy.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Was a great battle with Rudy. Rudy was okay, he did his job. Not his best game but he was important. IT's nice to see we can win when we don't have a good night. Ant was not good, Mike not good at all but we win !

[shrink]

The Wolves are #1 in the West!

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[Dalvin]

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Gut check win! They easily would've lost this game last year. Finishing the road trip at 4-1 and with the lone loss being pretty much a scheduled loss, I'll take it!

[younggunsmn]

Wow we stole one there. Didn't really deserve to win that one, against a team missing 5 rotation players playing on a back to back.

The Good:
KAT - Wow. 29 pts on 11 FG attempts, 9 assists and zero turnovers. It doesn't get much better than that.
Plus some pretty decent defense and physical play.
The passing was really impressive, the way he was accurately zipping the ball around finding open teammates, and anticipating the double team and help defense. Really love what I'm starting to see from him on this road trip, and the 3 point starting to fall is a bonus.
We lose by 20, maybe 30 without him tonight.

NAW - Playing some good defense, starting to look better as a PG and facilitator on offense, although not there yet.
When his outside shot is falling, he's a big plus out there.

Jaden played a good game but we need more than 7 FGA from him, played good D but Ingram hit some tough shots.

The bad:
Foul Trouble. Finch almost lost the game for us not challenging Ant's 4th foul and then playing that awful lineup last half of the 3rd (Zeller clearly in the restricted area), but maybe Finch is trying to teach the guys a lesson about not looking to get bailed out of foul trouble by challenges, be smarter.
Ant - pretty efficient game, but not a great game for him.
Conley - Need more from him, wasn't hitting 3's or floaters and got worked a bit defensively.
Shake - Need more from him on the 2nd unit. Haven't seen any ability at all to get to the basket and we are 12 games in already.
Kyle - His inability to get off a 3 point shot is starting to hamstring the offense, as good of a passer as he is, especially on the 2nd unit where we need some shooting. If he had a quicker release he could have got off 10 clean look threes tonight. He took zero.
I know his 3 point stroke is kind of a meme, but the effect is as bad as having a shooter who is so bad you can completely ignore him.
Naz - struggled on both ends. They stonewalled his drives and he got caught in between a lot.
Rudy - His defense and rebounding on this road trip has been a shadow of what it was on the homestand.
He couldn't even get a hand up when his own guy was knocking down 3 straight 10 footers. Not boxing out.
Destroyed by Jonas, we got bailed out of a bigger game from him by foul trouble.
A full step slow on drivers and floaters again. Afraid of giving up a lob again.
We are getting 2022-23 Rudy again lately, which is the one we get the rest of the year?
I hope it's the DPOY version we got on the homestand.
Because it's the difference between a #1 defense and championship contender and a middling team that gives up 120 + points in back to back games.
Is he just getting tired? Do we need to rest him a bit more?
If we had lost we would be talking about those 2 missed free throws in the final minute.

[shrink]

Rudy - His defense and rebounding on this road trip has been a shadow of what it was on the homestand.
He couldn't even get a hand up when his own guy was knocking down 3 straight 10 footers. Not boxing out.
Destroyed by Jonas, we got bailed out of a bigger game from him by foul trouble.
A full step slow on drivers and floaters again. Afraid of giving up a lob again.
We are getting 2022-23 Rudy again lately, which is the one we get the rest of the year?
I hope it's the DPOY version we got on the homestand.
Because it's the difference between a #1 defense and championship contender and a middling team that gives up 120 + points in back to back games.
Is he just getting tired? Do we need to rest him a bit more?
If we had lost we would be talking about those 2 missed free throws in the final minute.

Come on man.

Rudy was 5-7 FG, 7-10 FT, 11 RB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 17 PTS.

Yeah, he missed the last two FT’s, but he was instrumental in the fourth quarter, getting to the rim, keeping RB’s alive, and drawing fouls. He even was the first guy down the court one possession. We wouldn’t have won the game without Rudy’s fourth.

It always feels like you look for negative things to say about Gobert.

[TimberKat]

Rudy - His defense and rebounding on this road trip has been a shadow of what it was on the homestand.
He couldn't even get a hand up when his own guy was knocking down 3 straight 10 footers. Not boxing out.
Destroyed by Jonas, we got bailed out of a bigger game from him by foul trouble.
A full step slow on drivers and floaters again. Afraid of giving up a lob again.
We are getting 2022-23 Rudy again lately, which is the one we get the rest of the year?
I hope it's the DPOY version we got on the homestand.
Because it's the difference between a #1 defense and championship contender and a middling team that gives up 120 + points in back to back games.
Is he just getting tired? Do we need to rest him a bit more?
If we had lost we would be talking about those 2 missed free throws in the final minute.

Come on man.

Rudy was 5-7 FG, 7-10 FT, 11 RB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 17 PTS.

Yeah, he missed the last two FT’s, but he was instrumental in the fourth quarter, getting to the rim, keeping RB’s alive, and drawing fouls. He even was the first guy down the court one possession. We wouldn’t have won the game without Rudy’s fourth.

It always feels like you look for negative things to say about Gobert.

I was about to make the same comment. Gobert wasn't super but still a good game. Without him, our defense look so bad.

[younggunsmn]

Rudy - His defense and rebounding on this road trip has been a shadow of what it was on the homestand.
He couldn't even get a hand up when his own guy was knocking down 3 straight 10 footers. Not boxing out.
Destroyed by Jonas, we got bailed out of a bigger game from him by foul trouble.
A full step slow on drivers and floaters again. Afraid of giving up a lob again.
We are getting 2022-23 Rudy again lately, which is the one we get the rest of the year?
I hope it's the DPOY version we got on the homestand.
Because it's the difference between a #1 defense and championship contender and a middling team that gives up 120 + points in back to back games.
Is he just getting tired? Do we need to rest him a bit more?
If we had lost we would be talking about those 2 missed free throws in the final minute.

Come on man.

Rudy was 5-7 FG, 7-10 FT, 11 RB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 17 PTS.

Yeah, he missed the last two FT’s, but he was instrumental in the fourth quarter, getting to the rim, keeping RB’s alive, and drawing fouls. He even was the first guy down the court one possession. We wouldn’t have won the game without Rudy’s fourth.

It always feels like you look for negative things to say about Gobert.

I was about to make the same comment. Gobert wasn't super but still a good game. Without him, our defense look so bad.

I call it like I see it, I praise when I see good and I give criticism when I see bad.
I gave Rudy plenty of props when he was playing well in the homestand.
If you want to indulge in toxic"rudy hater" trashing in every game thread I can put you on ignore too, I could give two Fs.
I make a nuanced post about the whole team and you numnuts gotta pick out the Rudy bit. Every time.
I'm sick of it. He's a very hot and cold player and there is a lot of bad there too.
A guy misses two free throws in a tie game with 30 seconds left and you want me to praise that?

Valanciunas destroyed him tonight and he was not a factor in rim protection, Finch had to go to a ZONE to stop the bleeding.
Not a good game from him, I expect better, especially against a team down 5 rotation players including 2 max contract starters.
Just my honest opinion.

[shrink]

I call it like I see it, I praise when I see good and I give criticism when I see bad.
I gave Rudy plenty of props when he was playing well in the homestand.
If you want to indulge in toxic"rudy hater" trashing in every game thread I can put you on ignore too, I could give two Fs.
I make a nuanced post about the whole team and you numnuts gotta pick out the Rudy bit. Every time.
I'm sick of it. He's a very hot and cold player and there is a lot of bad there too.
A guy misses two free throws in a tie game with 30 seconds left and you want me to praise that?.

Dude, you spent 40% of your post on Gobert, and 100% of that was negative. If you claim you “praise when you see good,” you saw Gobert do NOTHING good tonight? When he went 5-7 FG, 7-10 FT, 11 RB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 17 PTS?

Do you honestly think you made a fair representation of Gobert’s performance tonight?

[TimberKat]

Come on man.

Rudy was 5-7 FG, 7-10 FT, 11 RB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 17 PTS.

Yeah, he missed the last two FT’s, but he was instrumental in the fourth quarter, getting to the rim, keeping RB’s alive, and drawing fouls. He even was the first guy down the court one possession. We wouldn’t have won the game without Rudy’s fourth.

It always feels like you look for negative things to say about Gobert.

I was about to make the same comment. Gobert wasn't super but still a good game. Without him, our defense look so bad.

I call it like I see it, I praise when I see good and I give criticism when I see bad.
I gave Rudy plenty of props when he was playing well in the homestand.
If you want to indulge in toxic"rudy hater" trashing in every game thread I can put you on ignore too, I could give two Fs.
I make a nuanced post about the whole team and you numnuts gotta pick out the Rudy bit. Every time.
I'm sick of it. He's a very hot and cold player and there is a lot of bad there too.
A guy misses two free throws in a tie game with 30 seconds left and you want me to praise that?

Valanciunas destroyed him tonight and he was not a factor in rim protection, Finch had to go to a ZONE to stop the bleeding.
Not a good game from him, I expect better, especially against a team down 5 rotation players including 2 max contract starters.
Just my honest opinion.

Sure, you see what you see. It's like Gobert's contribution to the game is totally replaceable. He has the 3rd highest points in the game but that is not important because Naz could had score those points and grab all those rebounds too. The other 7 FTs that he made is also inconsequential to the game. I see him run around helping on D and kept a couple key plays alive. Who's there to close out the last 5 seconds? If we have Naz/Towns in there, I bet the entry pass would have gone to Valanciunas.

Gobert is either great or sucks, is there anything in between? He was on pace to be DPOY before the last two games, so, basically, if he isn't DPOY, he sucks.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Rudy was okay, have to be blind not to see it. He was not as efficient in defense as usual also for a reason. Defense is a team effort and tonight except Jaden, no one really work hard in defense for 3 quarters.

[younggunsmn]

Any guy who camps around the basket on both ends and is 7'2" is gonna put up a ton of counting stats and be involved in a lot of action.

Do you want me to write a paragraph about his 2 offensive rebounds and another paragraph about drawing 10 FTs and write like 6 paragraphs so you can criticize that?
He did some good things too. I appreciate how hard he runs the floor, and he did have a few spurts where he was aggessive and created turnovers.
I split my post into "The Good" and "The Bad", and I included just the bad for Rudy, just like I did for Naz, Shake, Kyle, and Mike for guys I felt had subpar games. I felt it was a bad game for Rudy too, and he's a lot more important than those other guys.

He's the highest paid player on the team, and if he is NOT playing near DPOY level, he's honestly a replacement level player because of his incredibly low skill level on offense.
Do you think allowing a team to shoot 51%, take 23 FT's, and get 13 offensive rebounds is a great defensive effort?
The opposing center ate his lunch.
Saying I expected a better game from Rudy is not at all out of line.

You read too much into anything I write about Rudy, and it's toxic.
You can't simply write, naw I disagree, I thought Rudy had a pretty good game.
If what I write about a player you like gives you the bummers, you're only going to bring yourself more bummers by provoking an argument about it.

I got a lot of And 1's for the nice things I said about KAT, who actually WAS really good in this game.

[Nick K]

YES!!!!! Good teams find ways to steal those games baby! We should have lost it but we stole it. That's what good teams do. Incredible stuff! We are growing! Props to BI, dude brought some magic in those last shots but KAT was the man. Arrrroooooo!!!!

No truer post than this Calinks.

[Nick K]

Towns on court behavior is so much better. It looks like he's starting to master himself. Impressive.

Towns is a major talent so we need to stick with him in the hard times too. His last 5 games have been phenomenal and we had no chance tonight without him.

I think of the incessant trade talk to save a few bucks on the cap. That's a losing trade. We'd never get fair value. The writers got a lot of readers talking about that and they won big. I'm sick of the trade talk.

By the end of the year people will eat there words on Towns.

I hate to say it because I don't want to jinx them but good teams win games like we won tonight. Impressive for sure!

Oh Yea, AAARRROOOOOOO!!!

[TwolvesFanRome]

AAARRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Really a wonderfull Sunday "Good Morning" from Romeeeee!!!

Twolves wins in a wild ending!!!

Towns has been fantastic!!

Important victory because maybe we didn't deserve it but these are the most precious ones!

[Calinks]

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[gandlogo]

Other than the record and the play of KAT, not a lot of positives from the road trip. Only one quality win, and that was with the Warriors on a back-to-back (and now losers of six straight). The last three games have been very concerning. Struggle to beat the Warriors JV squad. Complete no-show against a depleted and struggling Suns team. And escaping with a one-point win against a team missing two major pieces. All of this while the Wolves have been healthy. The defense has either gone away or teams have figured out how to exploit it. Ant was very average all week. Shake is worthless. Naz was off. SloMo and Rudy have been meh. Conley looking a little old. The wins are great, but the red flags are there too. Hopefully they figure it out.

[vtime]

Any guy who camps around the basket on both ends and is 7'2" is gonna put up a ton of counting stats and be involved in a lot of action.

Do you want me to write a paragraph about his 2 offensive rebounds and another paragraph about drawing 10 FTs and write like 6 paragraphs so you can criticize that?
He did some good things too. I appreciate how hard he runs the floor, and he did have a few spurts where he was aggessive and created turnovers.
I split my post into "The Good" and "The Bad", and I included just the bad for Rudy, just like I did for Naz, Shake, Kyle, and Mike for guys I felt had subpar games. I felt it was a bad game for Rudy too, and he's a lot more important than those other guys.

He's the highest paid player on the team, and if he is NOT playing near DPOY level, he's honestly a replacement level player because of his incredibly low skill level on offense.
Do you think allowing a team to shoot 51%, take 23 FT's, and get 13 offensive rebounds is a great defensive effort?
The opposing center ate his lunch.
Saying I expected a better game from Rudy is not at all out of line.

You read too much into anything I write about Rudy, and it's toxic.
You can't simply write, naw I disagree, I thought Rudy had a pretty good game.
If what I write about a player you like gives you the bummers, you're only going to bring yourself more bummers by provoking an argument about it.

I got a lot of And 1's for the nice things I said about KAT, who actually WAS really good in this game.

You talked about how Gobert was a shadow of himself on the trip and how he looked but in this trip 4 days ago, he stopped Chris Paul in the paint and recovered to the corner to block the game winning 3 from the corner. That’s ridiculously great! Doth protest too much.

[KGdaBom]

Other than the record and the play of KAT, not a lot of positives from the road trip. Only one quality win, and that was with the Warriors on a back-to-back (and now losers of six straight). The last three games have been very concerning. Struggle to beat the Warriors JV squad. Complete no-show against a depleted and struggling Suns team. And escaping with a one-point win against a team missing two major pieces. All of this while the Wolves have been healthy. The defense has either gone away or teams have figured out how to exploit it. Ant was very average all week. Shake is worthless. Naz was off. SloMo and Rudy have been meh. Conley looking a little old. The wins are great, but the red flags are there too. Hopefully they figure it out.

Winning begets winning. Yes we should have won easier.

[thinktank]

It seems like the Wolves are completely flying under the national radar…

…which is good, actually.

A flyover-anonymity benefit.