***Official Hawks @ Timberwolves GDT 12 Apr Official***

[weimy froob]

geez louise. the wolves stack the W anyways.

Not to be a downer here, but we struggled to win a game at home where the opposing coach throws in the towel and plays a lineup the last 8 minutes of the game consisting of:

Kobe Bufkin
Vit Krejci
Garrison Mathews
Mouhamed Gueye
Bruno Fernando/AJ Griffin

If Snyder plays to win, we don't win this game and that's concerning. Time to get our shit together and refocus. We play like that in the playoffs, we ain't beating anyone in a 7 game series.

it's been a struggle for awhile now--but they kept stacking Ws. the playoffs are going to have to bring a whole new level of play or they're not going to get out of the first round no matter who the opponent is.

[EmeraldAxe]

geez louise. the wolves stack the W anyways.

Not to be a downer here, but we struggled to win a game at home where the opposing coach throws in the towel and plays a lineup the last 8 minutes of the game consisting of:

Kobe Bufkin
Vit Krejci
Garrison Mathews
Mouhamed Gueye
Bruno Fernando/AJ Griffin

If Snyder plays to win, we don't win this game and that's concerning. Time to get our shit together and refocus. We play like that in the playoffs, we ain't beating anyone in a 7 game series.

it's been a struggle for awhile now--but they kept stacking Ws. the playoffs are going to have to bring a whole new level of play or they're not going to get out of the first round no matter who the opponent is.

We have mentioned that in prior games. Whether it's their miserable 1st quarters or it's their allowing teams to come back after we are up 15 or 20 pts, the effort fluctuates so wildly with this team and especially Edward's.

In many of those situations they can just play a bit harder in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and then we win. Against junk teams that might work but against any of the playoff teams in the west, go down by 10 early in the 1st or not control the game flow after making a large lead, these teams won't concede so easily and we will lose some of those games. If that's the difference between us being up 3 games to 2 VS down 3 games to 2 in a 7 game series, we'll find ourselves losing those series.

Finch has not found a way to manage these types of situations, all year long.

[weimy froob]

Atlanta did Minnesota a solid Friday at Target Center.

After Atlanta rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit to hold a lead early in the fourth frame, the Hawks — who are locked into the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference play-in — sat their starters.

Meaning Minnesota just had to out-edge Atlanta’s reserves to pull off a victory.

The Wolves made it far closer than they would’ve preferred, but did manage to squeak out a 109-106 victory over the Hawks.

The Hawks won Trae Young’s 27 minutes by 16 points.

[Beef Supreme]

Nice choke job at the line, Slomo. Ya can’t make free throws when your hands are around your neck. SMH.

He had a really bad game today. 0 points, 0 rebounds, 3 fouls, and a -14 in 15 minutes.


Oh, and two bricked crunch-time free throws.

Something to consider...did Slomo just have an off night, shitty game? Or is it directly related to Towns returning to the lineup and Slomo getting pushed from PF to a different (SF) role?

Sadly, I think it's the latter and that sucks. Good (PF) Slomo is a huge asset to this team.

It could be.


But it doesn’t explain the free throw choke job.

[weimy froob]

Not to be a downer here, but we struggled to win a game at home where the opposing coach throws in the towel and plays a lineup the last 8 minutes of the game consisting of:

Kobe Bufkin
Vit Krejci
Garrison Mathews
Mouhamed Gueye
Bruno Fernando/AJ Griffin

If Snyder plays to win, we don't win this game and that's concerning. Time to get our shit together and refocus. We play like that in the playoffs, we ain't beating anyone in a 7 game series.

it's been a struggle for awhile now--but they kept stacking Ws. the playoffs are going to have to bring a whole new level of play or they're not going to get out of the first round no matter who the opponent is.

We have mentioned that in prior games. Whether it's their miserable 1st quarters or it's their allowing teams to come back after we are up 15 or 20 pts, the effort fluctuates so wildly with this team and especially Edward's.

In many of those situations they can just play a bit harder in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and then we win. Against junk teams that might work but against any of the playoff teams in the west, go down by 10 early in the 1st or not control the game flow after making a large lead, these teams won't concede so easily and we will lose some of those games. If that's the difference between us being up 3 games to 2 VS down 3 games to 2 in a 7 game series, we'll find ourselves losing those series.

Finch has not found a way to manage these types of situations, all year long.

Ant is obviously the key to any post-season success. i think he's going to bring his play to another level--but we'll just have to see how it all plays out.

i sure hope they find more offensive sets with KAT in the corner. Ant has been real good in finding those spot up situations and a guy that has hit 40 percent plus of his threes this season should be able to thrive in that spot. he hit a big one last night from there off the Ant pass.

[witljon]

OKC is now the number one seed. the wolves are two and the nuggets are three.

We gotta beat the Suns and the Thunder has to lose to Dallas.

OKC isn't losing to Dallas at home. Kyrie and Luka have already been ruled out for that game.

Things fell right for the Thunder with what was suppose to be 2 tough games to finish the season. No Dame and Greek Freek last night and Sunday no Luka and Kyrie. The Wolves get the Suns who are desperate to avoid the play-in.

[weimy froob]

We gotta beat the Suns and the Thunder has to lose to Dallas.

OKC isn't losing to Dallas at home. Kyrie and Luka have already been ruled out for that game.

Things fell right for the Thunder with what was suppose to be 2 tough games to finish the season. No Dame and Greek Freek last night and Sunday no Luka and Kyrie. The Wolves get the Suns desperate to avoid the play-in.

the wolves got to play a very hot laker team last sunday without lebron with an illness and AD out after one quarter. there were also a lot of games during the season where the wolves played teams without their best players. i feel like their record is slightly inflated--but they stacked the Ws and have a chance to finish no worse than second with a win on sunday against a team they might face in the playoffs. they have all the reason in the world to play well against a team that they haven't been competitive against in the two previous games against them.

[witljon]

it's been a struggle for awhile now--but they kept stacking Ws. the playoffs are going to have to bring a whole new level of play or they're not going to get out of the first round no matter who the opponent is.

We have mentioned that in prior games. Whether it's their miserable 1st quarters or it's their allowing teams to come back after we are up 15 or 20 pts, the effort fluctuates so wildly with this team and especially Edward's.

In many of those situations they can just play a bit harder in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and then we win. Against junk teams that might work but against any of the playoff teams in the west, go down by 10 early in the 1st or not control the game flow after making a large lead, these teams won't concede so easily and we will lose some of those games. If that's the difference between us being up 3 games to 2 VS down 3 games to 2 in a 7 game series, we'll find ourselves losing those series.

Finch has not found a way to manage these types of situations, all year long.

Ant is obviously the key to any post-season success. i think he's going to bring his play to another level--but we'll just have to see how it all plays out.

We going to need good health and our star players in mid season form throughout the playoffs. The west is so tough in a 7 game series we can afford to lose a Gobert or Towns or Conley or McDaniels or even Naz

[weimy froob]

it's been a struggle for awhile now--but they kept stacking Ws. the playoffs are going to have to bring a whole new level of play or they're not going to get out of the first round no matter who the opponent is.

We have mentioned that in prior games. Whether it's their miserable 1st quarters or it's their allowing teams to come back after we are up 15 or 20 pts, the effort fluctuates so wildly with this team and especially Edward's.

In many of those situations they can just play a bit harder in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and then we win. Against junk teams that might work but against any of the playoff teams in the west, go down by 10 early in the 1st or not control the game flow after making a large lead, these teams won't concede so easily and we will lose some of those games. If that's the difference between us being up 3 games to 2 VS down 3 games to 2 in a 7 game series, we'll find ourselves losing those series.

Finch has not found a way to manage these types of situations, all year long.

Ant is obviously the key to any post-season success. i think he's going to bring his play to another level--but we'll just have to see how it all plays out.

i sure hope they find more offensive sets with KAT in the corner. Ant has been real good in finding those spot up situations and a guy that has hit 40 percent plus of his threes this season should be able to thrive in that spot. he hit a big one last night from there off the Ant pass.

It wasn’t always pretty down the stretch for Minnesota, which was a little clunky all game offensively in Karl-Anthony Towns’ return from a month-long absence from a torn meniscus. Towns finished with 11 points, eight assists and five rebounds in 28 minutes. He hit a key triple to put Minnesota out front in the contest’s closing minutes — it was his first made triple of the night.

“You work so much on mental fortitude and mental toughness. It’s something we’re going to need if we expect to bring a parade here in Minnesota, and no better game to try that out than today to work on it and test it,” Towns said. “Missed five in a row (to start the game), something I feel is a staple of mine. I just stayed very confident in my shot, and I knew if I got another chance like last year, I’m going to make the shots. Got a chance from Ant, amazing pass, drive, kick to the corner, something I’ve been watching him do so much more since I got hurt. Just wanted to be able to be another person who can do that for him.”

[weimy froob]

For a team that has struggled so mightily down the stretch of close games this season — the Wolves entered the night second-to-last in clutch-time net rating since Christmas — it was nice for the Wolves to experience success with the game on the line. Anthony Edwards carried the load offensively, consistently finding his own offense over the final two minutes.

“Ant made a couple toughies, had the kick out, got to the free-throw line,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “I think we still need to vary what we do. I like the ball in Mike’s hands, too. We’ve got to get back to mixing it up a bit and being more dynamic down the stretch. But Ant certainly brought that home tonight.”