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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 11:40:56 GMT -6
Minnesota OUT: Jaylen Clark (right Achilles tendon rupture rehab)
Chicago PROBABLE: Coby White (left ankle contusion) Torry Craig (right plantar fascia sprain) Dalen Terry (right ankle sprain)
QUESTIONABLE: Alex Caruso (left adductor strain)
OUT: Zach LaVine (right ankle sprain) Lonzo Ball (left knee surgery) Patrick Williams (left midfoot bone edema)
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Post by kingsxman on Feb 6, 2024 12:24:24 GMT -6
Probably first game I will miss seeing this year. Maybe will be able to catch a little bit of it before I have to do some work. I'm hoping that we see the same effort that we saw in the 2nd half of the Houston game. I am worried that, with this team, they will let their foot off the gas now that they got Finchy into the all star game coaches slot. That would be very Wolvesy of them.
Speaking of Finchy: Johnny K had Finch on his last pod which was live from Headflyer. Finch sure comes across as a great guy. No wonder the players like him so much.
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 6, 2024 13:30:35 GMT -6
Speaking of Finchy: Johnny K had Finch on his last pod which was live from Headflyer. Finch sure comes across as a great guy. No wonder the players like him so much. I think getting buy in from players and allowing themselves to be coached is a big part of what makes a good head coach. I may not agree with all of what Finch has done, but we're a really good team and he's a huge part of that. As much as one might want better offense, lower TOs etc, Finch has to get credit for the big improvement the Wolves have made defensively. Yes, Rudy looks better this year, but our defensive schemes are more diverse then just Rudy fixing everything. Defensive rotations look much better overall.
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 6, 2024 13:37:48 GMT -6
The Bulls started this lineup in the last game:
Coby White Caruso Dosunmu DeRozan Vucevic
What are the matchups for the Wolves? What if Caruso is out? With Williams out at PF, they really don't have a PF with any size. The Wolves put Rudy on Fultz vs. Orlando, but not sure the Bulls have a guy you can just leave. DeRozan doesn't shoot 3s...could Rudy guard him? Make him shoot his mid rangers over Rudy? Likely not as it takes too much away from Rudy helping others. Not sure how good Chicago is, but the defensive matchups for this one are fascinating to me.
On the offensive side of things, who in the world are they putting on KAT? DeRozan? Maybe they change up the lineup and start Torrey Craig, but he's only 6'5".
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Post by quinn on Feb 6, 2024 14:00:09 GMT -6
Probably first game I will miss seeing this year. Maybe will be able to catch a little bit of it before I have to do some work. I'm hoping that we see the same effort that we saw in the 2nd half of the Houston game. I am worried that, with this team, they will let their foot off the gas now that they got Finchy into the all star game coaches slot. That would be very Wolvesy of them. Speaking of Finchy: Johnny K had Finch on his last pod which was live from Headflyer. Finch sure comes across as a great guy. No wonder the players like him so much. I gotta imagine this is a game we'll mail in. Right before the ASB, Finchy's in as coach, pre-trade deadline. I'd be shocked if we come out firing and playing well tonight. Expectations are veeeery low for this one against a bad team.
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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 14:22:21 GMT -6
The Bulls started this lineup in the last game: Coby White Caruso Dosunmu DeRozan Vucevic What are the matchups for the Wolves? What if Caruso is out? With Williams out at PF, they really don't have a PF with any size. The Wolves put Rudy on Fultz vs. Orlando, but not sure the Bulls have a guy you can just leave. DeRozan doesn't shoot 3s...could Rudy guard him? Make him shoot his mid rangers over Rudy? Likely not as it takes too much away from Rudy helping others. Not sure how good Chicago is, but the defensive matchups for this one are fascinating to me. On the offensive side of things, who in the world are they putting on KAT? DeRozan? Maybe they change up the lineup and start Torrey Craig, but he's only 6'5". Absolutely not. DeRozan kills us. We need to put McD on him and Ant on White www.canishoopus.com/2024/2/5/24060831/wolves-vs-bulls-preview-starting-time-tv-schedule-injury-report-odds-anthony-edwards-demar-derozan#comments
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 6, 2024 14:58:54 GMT -6
I don't like McDaniels on DeRozan for the reasons listed in the Canis quote. I imagine this to be a frustrating defensive game for Jaden as DeRozan is great at drawing fouls on those mid range shots and Jaden can't help himself. Without looking it up, I'm guessing those last 5 games had a lot of Jaden on DeRozan and it apparently isn't working given those numbers.
I threw Rudy out there because DeMar doesn't want to shoot 3s and doesn't drive all the way to the rim much. Rudy could sag off him and then bother those shots without jumping up/fouling given his length.
I might actually prefer Ant on DeRozan and Jaden on White. Jaden seems best on a guy like White who is more shooter than driver. White seems more like a Jamal Murray and Jaden seems to bother those guys by always contesting jumpers with his length. It breaks down when they're foul baiters though. Ant might bother DeRozan more given his strength.
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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 15:04:17 GMT -6
DeRozan has too much of a handle for Rudy. He'll just keep going around/past him (He does average 7 FTAs/game). Plus having Rudy 12-15 feet from the basket is going to let DD pick apart our defense.
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Post by Nick K on Feb 6, 2024 20:24:02 GMT -6
Are we having any fun boys? Up 22 just into the 3rd. Ant and Kat been great. They've all been good. MC has looked a lot sharper.
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Post by Scorched on Feb 6, 2024 20:33:48 GMT -6
Are we having any fun boys? Up 22 just into the 3rd. Ant and Kat been great. They've all been good. MC has looked a lot sharper. I blame this run on you Nick.
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Post by Nick K on Feb 6, 2024 20:42:51 GMT -6
Are we having any fun boys? Up 22 just into the 3rd. Ant and Kat been great. They've all been good. MC has looked a lot sharper. I blame this run on you Nick. Yep. It's a special talent indeed. Now if it only worked in the stock market. :)
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Post by Scorched on Feb 6, 2024 20:48:51 GMT -6
Out scored by 13 in the third. Bunch of bad turnovers and poor shot selection. Maybe we'll play better in the fourth since we got it out of our system now.
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Post by Nick K on Feb 6, 2024 20:56:36 GMT -6
Out scored by 13 in the third. Bunch of bad turnovers and poor shot selection. Maybe we'll play better in the fourth since we got it out of our system now. We've gone cold which doesn't help. They are hitting everything. Familiar story lately.
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Post by Nick K on Feb 6, 2024 22:09:15 GMT -6
We throw another one away. I wish I could say I can't believe it but we do it so often that.....
This losing games in the last part of the game goes way back to Finch's 1st season. We've lost far to often over the last 3 years late in games with big leads. I love Finch but teams adjust and we don't adjust back. We play the same then go cold and they get confidence and we lose ours.
I used to watch really good teams rarely ever lose with a lead going into the 4th at home or away. It just rarely happened.
It happens to us way, way too much. We have good players so what else could it be? Could it be the coach?
Hey Kingsxman, did Kat shoot enough 3s? It's a shame to waste his great night.
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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 22:12:22 GMT -6
Wolves were up 74-51 with 10:32 to go in the 3rd. Outscored 78-49 the rest of the way.
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 6, 2024 22:12:40 GMT -6
I just hate it when we get all cocky when things are bouncing well in a first half. Instead of a killer instinct we have a cocky instinct that comes back with a vengeance way too often. Let them get rolling and build momentum. Deserved to lose.
McDaniels is a major problem. At what point do you remove him from the closing lineup? If this is the player Jaden is going to be then we're absolutely hosed long term with the money he's due. Guys like Caruso and even NAW play D better or close to Jaden and cost a fraction while offering similar production offensively.
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 6, 2024 22:20:09 GMT -6
]I used to watch really good teams rarely ever lose with a lead going into the 4th at home or away. It just rarely happened. It happens to us way, way too much. We have good players so what else could it be? Could it be the coach? Hey Kingsxman, did Kat shoot enough 3s? It's a shame to waste his great night. We have lots of talent, but very little good decision makers in our top players. All teams blow leads occasionally. It happens to the Wolves more frequently because we're much more likely to make the bad decision that helps start runs or keep them going. We can blame Finch I we want (he's obviously not perfect), but he's not telling Jaden to make a lazy pass down points in overtime. KAT had a good night, but he got roasted defensively in the 2nd half. Our defense failed us and KAT was one of the biggest culprits.
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Post by Nick K on Feb 6, 2024 22:50:28 GMT -6
]I used to watch really good teams rarely ever lose with a lead going into the 4th at home or away. It just rarely happened. It happens to us way, way too much. We have good players so what else could it be? Could it be the coach? Hey Kingsxman, did Kat shoot enough 3s? It's a shame to waste his great night. We have lots of talent, but very little good decision makers in our top players. All teams blow leads occasionally. It happens to the Wolves more frequently because we're much more likely to make the bad decision that helps start runs or keep them going. We can blame Finch I we want (he's obviously not perfect), but he's not telling Jaden to make a lazy pass down points in overtime. KAT had a good night, but he got roasted defensively in the 2nd half. Our defense failed us and KAT was one of the biggest culprits. I don't agree on the Kat bad defense point. I was watching him all night. The guy that beat us was Corey White. Kat wasn't guarding him. We then went cold. The chippie by KA missed late was a key basket to have. How can a guy miss so many of those? McD continues to make bad decisions although he made some key shots.
Somehow we just don't adjust well when the other team does. Who is the blame for that? This has happened since day one of Finch. I love the guy but I have to call him out. The players should be drilled to know what to do in these situations.
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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 22:58:41 GMT -6
We have lots of talent, but very little good decision makers in our top players. All teams blow leads occasionally. It happens to the Wolves more frequently because we're much more likely to make the bad decision that helps start runs or keep them going. We can blame Finch I we want (he's obviously not perfect), but he's not telling Jaden to make a lazy pass down points in overtime. KAT had a good night, but he got roasted defensively in the 2nd half. Our defense failed us and KAT was one of the biggest culprits. I don't agree on the Kat bad defense point. I was watching him all night. The guy that beat us was Corey White. Kat wasn't guarding him. We then went cold. The chippie by KA missed late was a key basket to have. How can a guy miss so many of those? McD continues to make bad decisions although he made some key shots.
Somehow we just don't adjust well when the other team does. Who is the blame for that? This has happened since day one of Finch. I love the guy but I have to call him out. The players should be drilled to know what to do in these situations.
Coby wasn't alone in killing us. They're frontcourt destroyed us and KAT did nothing to stop the bleeding. DeRozan: 33 on 19 FGAs. Vucevic: 24 on 16 FGAs. Drummond: 16/16/4 and completely outplayed Gobert.
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Post by levine on Feb 6, 2024 23:03:21 GMT -6
]I used to watch really good teams rarely ever lose with a lead going into the 4th at home or away. It just rarely happened. It happens to us way, way too much. We have good players so what else could it be? Could it be the coach? Hey Kingsxman, did Kat shoot enough 3s? It's a shame to waste his great night. We have lots of talent, but very little good decision makers in our top players. All teams blow leads occasionally. It happens to the Wolves more frequently because we're much more likely to make the bad decision that helps start runs or keep them going. We can blame Finch I we want (he's obviously not perfect), but he's not telling Jaden to make a lazy pass down points in overtime. KAT had a good night, but he got roasted defensively in the 2nd half. Our defense failed us and KAT was one of the biggest culprits. Yup. Ant and Jaden are still incredibly immature players that really struggle when things get tight. KAT is who he is. He swings wildly from Brilliant to WTF. And we have a coach that is trying to play a Euroleague style flow offense with guys who are not nearly instinctive enough to do so.
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Post by Funkytown on Feb 6, 2024 23:40:44 GMT -6
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Post by jojo on Feb 7, 2024 6:28:28 GMT -6
What does that tell you? Teams have figured out how to defend the Wolves and they haven’t adjusted yet. It’s not easy for them. The lack of spacing with this lineup is coming back to bite them. The core guys with the ball KAT and especially Ant haven’t had to face this before. Another veteran ball handler who can also score would really help. And SloMo needs to be a situational defensive player at this point.
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Post by WolvesLife on Feb 7, 2024 7:49:07 GMT -6
In the words of Meatwad:
"It's over, we lost again. Let it go and accept the truth that we is dumb. Dumb as hell."
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 7, 2024 8:56:51 GMT -6
I don't agree on the Kat bad defense point. I was watching him all night. The guy that beat us was Corey White. Kat wasn't guarding him. We then went cold. The chippie by KA missed late was a key basket to have. How can a guy miss so many of those? McD continues to make bad decisions although he made some key shots.
Somehow we just don't adjust well when the other team does. Who is the blame for that? This has happened since day one of Finch. I love the guy but I have to call him out. The players should be drilled to know what to do in these situations. It's not just 1 on 1 D though. KAT was awful defending 2 man PnR actions. Finch shares in the blame for sure. I'm not sure how to handle it given that they're pros, but this game was lost in the first half when we tired ourselves out from all the patting ourselves on the back we were doing to be up 20+.
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Post by XRaySpecs on Feb 7, 2024 9:00:48 GMT -6
Jake Paynting pointed this out in his game wrap (check out Howls and Growls!):
He put the general unease I've had on Conley into words. Mike is great at what he does, but he really can't give more at this point. He can get the team into a set, but he's can't get a bucket on his own at all anymore and with Rudy out there, it really focuses late game offense on Ant, KAT, and Jaden who happen to be our worst decision makers.
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