All Things 2021-2022 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

Boston obviously hadn't scouted Monroe which meant that they failed to recognize that he's a very good passer, especially out of the high post. Other teams won't make that mistake so it will be interesting to see Monroe's value over the next couple of games.

Offensively, Nowell has been the real deal for a while. I think his defense is at least as good as Beasley's and I'd like to see him get more of Beasley's minutes going forward. Nowell is more of a 2 and Beasley is more of a 3, but they are basically the same size and the positions are pretty interchangeable.
 

Two in a row with those guys would have been asking to much. Even Thibs coming back to the scene of his destruction wasn't enough to get Reusse to take a shot at what's left of the Timberwolves faithful. Instead he had a very lame shot at Gopherholers.

The man has really lost it. As for the Wolves their players start trickling back on Friday.

Effort was made, shots were not in Timberwolves' 96-88 loss to Knicks

Tuesday night at Target Center, on the back end of back-to-back games, the Timberwolves did much of what they did, successfully, the night before:
They hustled, hard, on defense. They moved without the ball and moved the ball.

Over and over again they got good looks, open shots. They just didn't hit enough of them in a 96-88 loss to the New York Knicks.

Really, it's as simple as that..

"On the back-to-back, I liked the composure we kept," said Beverley, who showed the affects of having recently exited the league's health and safety protocols. Beverley missed all eight of his shots.

"We didn't let go of the rope," Beverley said. "We kept fighting. You give us those kind of shots every game, I think we'll put ourselves in a position to be successful. Obviously, they didn't fall tonight. I guess you have to credit the Knicks."


Slowly, the Wolves should return to health. Beverley came back Tuesday, as did Naz Reid. Anthony Edwards and Taurean Prince should be available Friday at Utah. But one thing the Wolves have showed even shorthanded is a strong work ethic..

 

Utah is coming into tonight's game riding a 5 game winning streak. The Wolves are getting healthier but will still be short 2 of their Big 3.

Minnesota Timberwolves

NAMEPOSDATESTATUSCOMMENT
D'Angelo RussellPGDec 30OutRussell (COVID-19) is out for Friday's game against the Jazz, Dane Moore of BringMeTheNews.com reports.
McKinley Wright IVPGDec 23OutWright was placed in the league's health and safety protocols Thursday.
Karl-Anthony TownsCDec 23OutTowns was placed in the league's health and safety protocols Thursday.
 




Minnesota Timberwolves

NAMEPOSDATESTATUSCOMMENT
Karl-Anthony TownsCJan 3OutTowns cleared the NBA's health and safety protocols, but he is listed as out for Monday's contest against the Clippers due to conditioning concerns.
D'Angelo RussellPGJan 3OutRussell has cleared the league's health and safety protocols but is out Monday against the Clippers for conditioning purposes.
McKinley Wright IVPGJan 3OutWright (COVID-19 protocols) is out for Monday's game against the Clippers.




i
LA Clippers

NAMEPOSDATESTATUSCOMMENT
Luke KennardSGJan 2Out
Jay ScrubbSGJan 2OutScrubb (COVID-19) is questionable for Monday's game against Minnesota, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times reports.
Nicolas BatumPFJan 2OutBatum (ankle) is questionable for Monday's game against Minnesota, Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints.com reports.
Ivica ZubacCDec 30OutZubac has been placed in the league's health and safety protocols, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com reports.
Brandon Boston Jr.SGDec 29Out
Isaiah HartensteinCDec 26OutHartenstein (ankle) remains without a timetable for his return, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com reports
Paul GeorgeSGDec 25OutGeorge suffered a torn ligament in his right elbow and will be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.
Jason PrestonPGOct 7OutPreston (foot) underwent surgery Thursday and is expected to miss a significant part of the season, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.
Kawhi LeonardSFOct 2OutLeonard (knee) is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a torn ACL, Farbod Esnaashari of Sports Illustrated reports.
 

Good for Mr.Finch.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch is in no mood for moral victories after sloppy loss to Lakers


The tone of his remarks after the 108-103 loss in Los Angeles was one of a frustrated coach who knew a winnable game had just slipped through his fingers. The Timberwolves led by four points early in the fourth quarter but turned the ball over seven times in the final 7:45 of the game to hand it to the Lakers.

“I think guys are battling, for the most part,” Finch said. “They’re making young mistakes; that’s a little bit understandable given we have a lot of young guys out there. But at the end of the day, KAT and D-Lo not here, we gotta move forward and try to win these games. We’re not here just solely to develop talent. We’re trying to win these games.”..

“We just have to be better,” Finch said. “Tonight I thought we beat ourselves. They played a great game. They made tough shots. But we beat ourselves with the turnovers and the fouling.”

 

The game giveth, and it taketh away.

Or maybe it was just that the Clippers gave it away – they came crashing down after their upset victory in Brooklyn on Saturday with 21 turnovers on Monday night, miscues that led to 31 Minnesota points and helped seal their fate in a 122-104 loss to the Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena.

It was the first time in four meetings this season that Minnesota – and former Clippers lynchpin Patrick Beverley – got the better of them.

Beverley spent the game gesticulating and jawing with his former teammates at every opportunity. The 6-foot-1 Chicagoan whose outsized energy made him a star in his four seasons with the Clippers hit them with 11 points, a career high-tying 12 assists and a couple of steals.

He also helped hold Clippers guards Reggie Jackson to five points and Eric Bledsoe – fresh off a season-high 27 points – to one point and six turnovers..“I have a coach that trusts me,” he said of Wolves coach Chris Finch, who was an assistant coach in Houston when Beverley played there. “Obviously, he’s been knowing me for a long time, since I’ve been with the Rockets. He knows my abilities, my cans – I can’t say cannots, I’ve been playing my (butt) off this year – but my cans. He just trusts me with the ball and I’ve been trying to make the right decision...

The Wolves’ Edwards finished with a game-high 28 points against the Clippers. And Naz Reid –
who was shooting 34.7% in the 10 games prior to Sunday’s loss to the Lakers, against whom he shot 10 for 17 en route to a season-high 23 points, followed it up Monday by going 6 for 9 and finishing as one of six Wolves in double figures, with 13 points. Prince scored a season-high 17.

Minnesota dominated in the paint, where it outscored the Clippers 64-42..



 

I watched the first half and it wasn't pretty, but we were less ugly and shot the ball well. Nice to see Amir play so many minutes. Good win, let's get above .500

Howl Wolves!!
 



Dane Moore@ DaneMooreNBA

Patrick Beverley gets hard fouled by James Ennis, starts screaming "he ain't nobody", then Beverley goes and gives Steve Ballmer a high five. :LOL:

Now that Beverly is finally healthy we should start to see why Tikited has been such a fan over the years.
 

Back to back with OKC coming up. They need to win both.
 

Cant wait for wigs to make all star game

Here you go:


"The narrative, as explained by former teammate Kevin Garnett: "He's one of my favorite players to watch. And he pisses me off at the same time because he has the ability to be on another level."

There have always been flashes -- games like this one in downtown San Francisco -- but they've been rare.

"Wiggs' question mark has always been consistency," Garnett says, "not if he has the ability to be a superstar, but the consistency of being a superstar."

Garnett wanted more, he says, wanted to "light a fire" under Wiggins. But nothing worked.

"Listen, the one thing I learned about Andrew was that nothing's going to get done to Andrew until Wiggs says it's going to happen," Garnett says.

Back in the arena, Wiggins smiles when he hears about Garnett, a mentor whom Wiggins says pushed him on the court, off the court, all the time, and always wanted more.

Garnett echoes a brigade of people throughout Wiggins' life who say that Wiggins and the Warriors, the team to whom Wiggins was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves in February 2020, are "a perfect fit." They say it even more loudly now that Wiggins has established himself as a vital player on a championship front-runner.

But therein lies the rub: Andrew Wiggins was never supposed to be a role player. It's a damning indictment either of him or those who made him one of the most hyped players in modern NBA history. The 2014 No. 1 pick was supposed to be a superstar, an MVP, a cornerstone.

But the Warriors didn't need that. They needed the kind of player Andrew Wiggins had always wanted to be.."
 

Beasley, Russell and Prince were godawful and Towns fouled out. Yet they won 98-90, 'cus they played the Thunder. Who they will play again Friday night.

For the first time since Dec. 15 — and for just the 11th time this season — Wolves coach Chris Finch was able to pencil in his preferred starting lineup.

That starting lineup is now 9-2.

Up 19 with 4:11 left in the third quarter, but with that lead cut to one midway through the fourth, the Wolves reasserted control en route to a 98-90 victory over Oklahoma City.

Jaylen Nowell had seven points in a 10-2 run that put the Wolves back up by nine with 2:26 left.

That a one-sided game nearly went sideways didn't matter once the game ended and five Wolves players had scored in double figures.

Towns had 17 points and 16 rebounds in his return. Patrick Beverley made five of nine three-pointers, scored 20 points and had six assists. Anthony Edwards scored 21. Nowell (16) and Jaden McDaniels (11) were in double figures off the bench..

 



How the hell can we dump Beasley and get an actual shooter in here? He can't defend a potted plant, can't shoot, and we are paying him big money.

The bench just destroys us most nights.
 

How the hell can we dump Beasley and get an actual shooter in here? He can't defend a potted plant, can't shoot, and we are paying him big money.

The bench just destroys us most nights.
I like Nowell and think he needs more minutes. But hearing Jim Pete talk last night like he's about to be the second coming of Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson, I had to do a little bit of eye rolling.
 

Nowell is going to take at least some of Beasley's minutes because he can do more offensively and his defense is not quite as bad. McDaniels is starting to look like the player who had so much promise last year. He will be fine. I was hoping they would keep Monroe because he gives them more of an inside presence than Naz, plus he's a better passer. However, signing him for the rest of the year was going to put them in the luxury tax.

I've noticed that players don't look so good the first game back post covid and that was the case again last night. KAT looked slow and he had no lift. The 16 boards came because OKC had no inside presence. DLo had nothing last night as well.

The wolves have to win a minimum of two of the next three or they've got problems. Houston and OKC are both young and super athletic. Both are capable of losing to the wolves by thirty or getting hot and having a dunkathon night against us.

I like Josh Giddey a lot.
 

I like Nowell and think he needs more minutes. But hearing Jim Pete talk last night like he's about to be the second coming of Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson, I had to do a little bit of eye rolling.
JimPete does do that kind of stuff from time to time. However, he often openly criticizes wolves players which is a rarity for home team announcers. So, the occasional over the top praise doesn't bother me. Also, Nowell has been playing some pretty damn good ball now that they are finally giving him a real shot. (He's no Vinnie Johnson, though!)
 

JimPete does do that kind of stuff from time to time. However, he often openly criticizes wolves players which is a rarity for home team announcers. So, the occasional over the top praise doesn't bother me. Also, Nowell has been playing some pretty damn good ball now that they are finally giving him a real shot. (He's no Vinnie Johnson, though!)
You'll get no argument from me. Pete is very good and gives honest analysis. I'd love for him to be right about Nowell, this team certainly could use some sort of spark off the bench.
 

Patrick Beverly is the only important player missing tonight. The Timberwolves should win. OKC is that bad.


Minnesota Timberwolves


NAMEPOSDATESTATUSCOMMENT
Patrick BeverleyPGJan 7Day-To-DayBeverley (groin) is listed as questionable for Friday's game against Oklahoma City.
Leandro BolmaroSGJan 6Out


Oklahoma City Thunder

NAMEPOSDATESTATUSCOMMENT
Derrick FavorsCJan 7Out
Isaiah RobyFJan 5OutRoby was placed in the league's health and safety protocols Wednesday.
 

Nice blowout win. On cruise control most of the night.

Now go to Houston and get back to .500

Damitt Iceland, I'm watching with 6 minutes left and was wanting to see Bolmaro and I see he's listed as out
 

That is how the Timberwolves envision their offense functioning.

Minnesota’s “big three” erupted in the Wolves’ 135-105 win Friday in Oklahoma City — Minnesota’s third straight victory — as they were expected to do on a near-nightly basis at the season’s outset. The trio of Anthony Edwards, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns all took turns dominating on the offensive end.


Edwards erupted in the first quarter.

Russell went nuclear in the second frame.

The third quarter belonged to Towns.

Edwards took over in the first frame, scoring 17 points on a perfect 6 for 6 shooting, including five triples.

“When you’re feeling it like that, you don’t let the game come to you,” Edwards said. “Not at all.”

Russell followed that up with a 6 for 6 shooting performance of his own that resulted in 15 points in the second quarter.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said any one of the Wolves’ three top scorers can go off at any point. The coaching staff talked to Towns at halftime about how hard Oklahoma City was trying to make it on him by crowding him in the paint and sinking back on his drives. But they told Towns if he stayed patient, opportunities would come..

 

This was the third straight road game the Wolves were part of another road arena's "Star Wars Night," and maybe the force has been with them. The Wolves had little trouble dispatching Houston 141-123 for their fourth consecutive win overall, a win that got them back to .500 (20-20).

But the Wolves, who set a season high in points, haven't really needed any outside help in those four wins — they've taken advantage of undermanned opponents or roster that aren't as good as theirs. On Sunday Karl-Anthony Towns was the beneficiary of a rebuilding and struggling Rockets opponent.

Towns dominated as the Wolves got almost whatever they wanted on the offensive end. He finished with 40 points. D'Angelo Russell had another strong game shooting with 22 on 8 of 14 shooting with 10 assists while Jarred Vanderbilt had dunk after dunk in front of his hometown crowd with 21 points and 19 rebounds, both career highs.

The Wolves pushed their lead to the 20s by the second quarter and rarely let it slip under the rest of the night. Jaylen Nowell added 11 points off the bench. Christian Wood had 22 for Houston.

The Wolves are doing what they should be in this patch of the schedule that features teams below them in the standings. On Wednesday they squeaked out a game at home against Oklahoma City, but they followed Friday's blowout of the Thunder in Oklahoma City with another convincing win in Houston. Tuesday continues this run in the schedule with a matchup in New Orleans before concluding this four-game trip in Memphis..

 

The Wolves are definitely scoring a lot of points - and giving up almost as many points.

But the player of the game Sunday was Vando. 21 pts, 19 rebounds. the guy is almost Rodman-esque in his desire to grab every rebound out there.

another thought to ponder - they put up 135 and 141 in their last two games - without Pat Bev.
Pat doesn't add that much scoring, but I think they need him for defense and intensity.
 

The Wolves are definitely scoring a lot of points - and giving up almost as many points.

But the player of the game Sunday was Vando. 21 pts, 19 rebounds. the guy is almost Rodman-esque in his desire to grab every rebound out there.

another thought to ponder - they put up 135 and 141 in their last two games - without Pat Bev.
Pat doesn't add that much scoring, but I think they need him for defense and intensity.
Myles Turner
 

Myles Turner
When everybody is healthy, the wolves play very good ball. PatBev and Vando give them the defensive intensity they need to make it past the play in grouping. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't do. I think they should sit tight unless they can get value for some combination of Prince, Okogie, Layman, JMac and Knight. Nothing in that group would bring Turner.
 

The Wolves are definitely scoring a lot of points - and giving up almost as many points.

But the player of the game Sunday was Vando. 21 pts, 19 rebounds. the guy is almost Rodman-esque in his desire to grab every rebound out there.

another thought to ponder - they put up 135 and 141 in their last two games - without Pat Bev.
Pat doesn't add that much scoring, but I think they need him for defense and intensity.

Agree about Beverly. He does add a lot when he's out there. Particularly on D. That said, those two games were truly an anomaly. The game before they beat OKC 98-90.

The Wolves play much better when the run, but they need to have a good rebounding night to do that. Which doesn't happen very often. Not enough shooters to be dominate in a half court game.

Right now they are 12th in the league in scoring at 109.6 pts a game. They are 17th in points allowed at 108.7 pts. a game. A 1pt differential sounds about right for a .500 team.
 
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NBA Power Rankings today

16. Minnesota Timberwolves
2021-22 record: 20-20
Previous ranking: 19

Although Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell has posted a career-low shooting percentage from the field (39.3) and is shooting several points below his career average from 3 (33.7% compared to 35.8% in his career), Minnesota has undoubtedly benefited from having him on the floor this season, outscoring opponents by 16.7 points per 100 possessions with Russell on the floor. The Timberwolves are 17-12 when he plays and 2-8 this season when he sits. -- Collier

 

This team is so weird. They orbit around a winning record. Get to .500, go on losing streak, get back to .500. Repeat lol.
 

When everybody is healthy, the wolves play very good ball. PatBev and Vando give them the defensive intensity they need to make it past the play in grouping. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't do. I think they should sit tight unless they can get value for some combination of Prince, Okogie, Layman, JMac and Knight. Nothing in that group would bring Turner.
When everyone is healthy you have maybe a .500 team. Nothing more and nothing less.
 

This team is so weird. They orbit around a winning record. Get to .500, go on losing streak, get back to .500. Repeat lol.
They are back to giving up points on the defensive end where you need two calculators to keep up.
 




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