Game 20 Spurs @ Wolves 12-6-23

[KGdaBom]

Good teams lose to bad teams all the time. The 73 win Warriors lost to...us.

What good teams don't do is lose to bad teams at the frequency we did last year.

Playing poorly and still beating bad teams is a sign of a very good team.

They lost to Shabazz Muhammad. He beat them single-handedly.

[KGdaBom]

The Wolves have the best record in the NBA and have beaten legitimately good teams. I think they are ahead of most people expectations at the beginning of the year. It feels like some are emotionally preparing themselves for the other shoe to drop, and it may, but you should also enjoy it when your team is playing this well.

Many sources had us out of the playoffs entirely this year and most that had us in was via play in game. Very few had us in the top 6. Tankathon for example was projecting us picking in the lottery. They now have us picking 30th.

[KGdaBom]

Other than my mistake of confusing two wins against the NOP JV for two wins against the Memphis JV, I disagree with pretty much everything you said. I have extremely high expectations for the squad and will judge them against those standards. Winning alone is not good enough. I'm guessing Vikings fans from last year would understand that. I will never be a cheerleader or homer, so I have no problem saying while the emperor is not naked, his new clothes are not all that people are saying they are - yet. They still lack consistent energy, effort, and focus, all of which are needed to overcome off shooting nights when they are not matched up against the Sisters of the Poor or the School for the Blind.

Let’s do it this way. Did you like our shot selection? Did you feel our ball movement was good enough to get open shots? Did you like our boxing out, did we do enough on the glass? Did you like our defense, did we do enough to force them to take shots we wanted them to take?

You cannot with a straight face tell me a 30% shooting night from deep and 41.6% night from the field is indicative of this team. You cannot tell me a year ago KAT, Ant, Naz, and Mike can have a bad game and we still win (no matter who we play.) This game is across the board a statistical outlier. When is the last time we gave up 56 points in the paint? Having a bad game is not an excuse, it is a reality. The difference is good teams win their bad games. In prior years we did not, this year we do!

This is exactly why I typically don't respond to responses to my posts. I am extremely confident that what I write is what I believe (mistake of fact previously noted). I don't have 10,000 posts for a reason. If you put Wemby on the Wolves he wouldn't start - that's how deep the Wolves are (when healthy) and how bad the Spurs are. The talent disparity is astounding. Other than a win and coming out of the game with no new injuries, the Wolves accomplished little last night. The Wolves beat a terrible team, that's it. And they have had a lot of those games this year. You may disagree - that's fine. I'm guessing that we're both adults, holding no personal animus, wanting good things for the Wolves. But your beliefs are not going to change mine no matter how many ways you want to try.

The Spurs aren't as terrible as you think. They've been playing most of the year without Vassell and that makes a big difference. He just moved back into the starting lineup.

[BlacJacMac]

The Spurs aren't as terrible as you think. They've been playing most of the year without Vassell and that makes a big difference. He just moved back into the starting lineup.

They're 3-12 in games he's played.

They're bad.

[KGdaBom]

The Spurs aren't as terrible as you think. They've been playing most of the year without Vassell and that makes a big difference. He just moved back into the starting lineup.

They're 3-12 in games he's played.

They're bad.

Bad yes, but not as terrible as Gandlogo thinks IMO. Record in games Vassell started fully healthy? I predict their record significantly improves rest of the season. Of course that isn't hard for them to do.

[younggunsmn]

Let’s do it this way. Did you like our shot selection? Did you feel our ball movement was good enough to get open shots? Did you like our boxing out, did we do enough on the glass? Did you like our defense, did we do enough to force them to take shots we wanted them to take?

You cannot with a straight face tell me a 30% shooting night from deep and 41.6% night from the field is indicative of this team. You cannot tell me a year ago KAT, Ant, Naz, and Mike can have a bad game and we still win (no matter who we play.) This game is across the board a statistical outlier. When is the last time we gave up 56 points in the paint? Having a bad game is not an excuse, it is a reality. The difference is good teams win their bad games. In prior years we did not, this year we do!

This is exactly why I typically don't respond to responses to my posts. I am extremely confident that what I write is what I believe (mistake of fact previously noted). I don't have 10,000 posts for a reason. If you put Wemby on the Wolves he wouldn't start - that's how deep the Wolves are (when healthy) and how bad the Spurs are. The talent disparity is astounding. Other than a win and coming out of the game with no new injuries, the Wolves accomplished little last night. The Wolves beat a terrible team, that's it. And they have had a lot of those games this year. You may disagree - that's fine. I'm guessing that we're both adults, holding no personal animus, wanting good things for the Wolves. But your beliefs are not going to change mine no matter how many ways you want to try.

The Spurs aren't as terrible as you think. They've been playing most of the year without Vassell and that makes a big difference. He just moved back into the starting lineup.

IMHO only the Wizards are worse.

Kat was awful on offense (6 TO and 6 FGA), but lost in the sauce a bit was that he did a good job on Wemby.
20 games in, teams have scouted him up a bit. Play him physical and don't give him a lot of space to operate.
KAT being able to guard Wemby straight up allowed Rudy to help more freely, it was a good game plan.

But the Spurs are a bad team who are down on themselves right now. They don't have a guard who can draw and kick or operate in the pick and roll and they are pretty awful if the outside shot is not falling more than it should be.

Wolves have a lot of stuff to clean up on offense and with turnovers. Winning games with veteran grit and defense right now.
Rudy has been a monster and Mike has come up huge in crunch time, but he's also playing more minutes than we would probably like right now.

[KGdaBom]

This is exactly why I typically don't respond to responses to my posts. I am extremely confident that what I write is what I believe (mistake of fact previously noted). I don't have 10,000 posts for a reason. If you put Wemby on the Wolves he wouldn't start - that's how deep the Wolves are (when healthy) and how bad the Spurs are. The talent disparity is astounding. Other than a win and coming out of the game with no new injuries, the Wolves accomplished little last night. The Wolves beat a terrible team, that's it. And they have had a lot of those games this year. You may disagree - that's fine. I'm guessing that we're both adults, holding no personal animus, wanting good things for the Wolves. But your beliefs are not going to change mine no matter how many ways you want to try.

The Spurs aren't as terrible as you think. They've been playing most of the year without Vassell and that makes a big difference. He just moved back into the starting lineup.

IMHO only the Wizards are worse.

Kat was awful on offense (6 TO and 6 FGA), but lost in the sauce a bit was that he did a good job on Wemby.
20 games in, teams have scouted him up a bit. Play him physical and don't give him a lot of space to operate.
KAT being able to guard Wemby straight up allowed Rudy to help more freely, it was a good game plan.

But the Spurs are a bad team who are down on themselves right now. They don't have a guard who can draw and kick or operate in the pick and roll and they are pretty awful if the outside shot is not falling more than it should be.

Wolves have a lot of stuff to clean up on offense and with turnovers. Winning games with veteran grit and defense right now.
Rudy has been a monster and Mike has come up huge in crunch time, but he's also playing more minutes than we would probably like right now.

IMO when the dust settles at the end of the season, Detroit, Portland, Chicago, Utah, Charlotte and the previously mentioned Wizards will have worse records. Possibly some other teams also. I could be wrong, but I could be right.

[BlacJacMac]

They're not doing themselves any favors playing Sochan at PG.

I get that they have 3 wings they like, but they should start Vassell and Sochan with Johnson being the primary back-up to both guys.

I'm not a big Tre Jones fan, but at least he can run offense.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

IMHO only the Wizards are worse.

Kat was awful on offense (6 TO and 6 FGA), but lost in the sauce a bit was that he did a good job on Wemby.
20 games in, teams have scouted him up a bit. Play him physical and don't give him a lot of space to operate.
KAT being able to guard Wemby straight up allowed Rudy to help more freely, it was a good game plan.

But the Spurs are a bad team who are down on themselves right now. They don't have a guard who can draw and kick or operate in the pick and roll and they are pretty awful if the outside shot is not falling more than it should be.

Wolves have a lot of stuff to clean up on offense and with turnovers. Winning games with veteran grit and defense right now.
Rudy has been a monster and Mike has come up huge in crunch time, but he's also playing more minutes than we would probably like right now.

Totally agree with that. Some of our recent win remind me the Grizz era where the 4 guys ( Allen , ZBO, Gasol and Mike) were really good in defense but struggle at time on offense. I follow Mike since that time and some games were quite ugly to watch. We have to improve on few points :

- Optimize KAT in offense, He have to shoot more. Mike will help as they have good connection, probably better than ANT'KAT connection.
- MAke sure that ANT is 100% on offense and defense and help him avoid the tunnel vision that he sometimes got when he is not 100% physically. I'm not worry the kids is so talented and smart.
- Get a backup PG asap. JML can be this one. I'm on the way to give up on Milton. But playing Mike 32-33 min per game is just too much.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Tomorrow for me is a real test. I watch last 2 Grizz games and they are much better. Trap game.

[winforlose]

Tomorrow for me is a real test. I watch last 2 Grizz games and they are much better. Trap game.

Much better in what way?

[BlacJacMac]

Tomorrow for me is a real test. I watch last 2 Grizz games and they are much better. Trap game.

Much better in what way?

They've won 3 of their last 4, but none of them were "quality wins". Utah, Detroit and Dallas without Luka.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Tomorrow for me is a real test. I watch last 2 Grizz games and they are much better. Trap game.

Much better in what way?

Much better defense and effort. I'm sure they will give us a good fight. WE have to be betterthen last game to get this one. Hope ANT is back on track, Go Minny !

[_AIJ_]

NAW is a dumbass