All Things 2023-2024 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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OKC wins. Looks like the Suns were up 6 with about 8 minutes left. Wolves really need a W tonight.
 


In all honesty the west is such a loaded mess I don't really know if anyone can be all that happy with any seeding. You get home court but you're going up against an absolute bruiser of a team in any series...I just don't feel safe if I'm any team in any series throughout the whole playoffs.

As a 1 through 4 seed you're looking at a potential first round series against Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix, New Orleans or MAYBE LA or Golden State...that's just yuck for a first round matchup.

Second round is us, clippers, Denver, OKC...again home court just doesn't give me any breath of fresh air.

Conference championship the winners of those 4?

I just don't think anything matters until you get in the playoffs and you get playing. Home court or not you're going to have to play near perfect basketball any game to get W's.
 



Edwards played 18 minutes and his night is done with an elbow contusion.

Wolves lead 88-82 after 3 quarters
 

Iceland12 said:
Wolves up 55-48 over the Blazers at the Half. Finch shook the line-up a little by having Edwards coming off the bench.
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Nope

Edwards had to use the bathroom at the start. He ran back but was too late. He was at the scorers table at the jump ball. He was not benched.
 
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Wolves beat Portland 119 to 114. At the same time Milwaukee, without Giannis and Middleton, came from behind and beat the Clippers 113-106.

OKC plays the Lakers in L.A. It starts in a few minutes.

www.espn.com

Timberwolves 119-114 Trail Blazers (Mar 4, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Portland Trail Blazers NBA game from March 4, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 





Back to first place. Bad news is that they have a couple of games against good East teams coming up at Indy and Cleveland. They're 30-10 vs. the West. 13-9 vs. the East.
 


Good that the Wolves got that back-to-back behind them. They don't have another one until Thursday and Friday.

Timberwolves beat Trail Blazers; Rudy Gobert's nearly perfect game covers for out-of-synch teammates​

Anthony Edwards didn't start because he was late to the court, Karl-Anthony Towns got into quick foul trouble and the Trail Blazers were keeping things tight for much of the night. But the Wolves had Rudy Gobert playing one of his best games.

All-Star forward Karl-Anthony Towns found foul trouble Monday night at Target Center, so fellow big man Rudy Gobert helped him and the Timberwolves out with a 25-point, 16-rebound, three-blocked shots performance that was everything they needed for a 119-114 victory over Portland.

Included was Gobert's 9-for-10 shooting from the field — many of them attacking the rim with two-handed dunks — and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line, too, before he fouled out in the game's final seconds.

It didn't hurt, either, that the Wolves won that free-throw battle, outdoing Portland with a 28-8 disparity in foul shots made.

Or that the Wolves' third big man, Naz Reid, went 4-for-4 on threes as the Wolves capped a four-game season sweep of the Trail Blazers. The victory also ended a brief two-game home losing streak to Sacramento and the L.A. Clippers.

Gobert punctuated the night with a big blocked shot at one end that point guard Mike Conley turned into a three-point shot and a 115-101 lead with 1 minute, 22 seconds left..


www.startribune.com

Timberwolves beat Trail Blazers; Rudy Gobert's nearly perfect game covers for out-of-synch teammates

Anthony Edwards didn't start because he was late to the court, Karl-Anthony Towns got into quick foul trouble and the Trail Blazers were keeping things tight for much of the night. But the Wolves had Rudy Gobert playing one of his best games.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

The one that Gobert missed wasn’t a dunk and as soon as he let it go thought the perfect night was over. A little too deep for Rudy.
Last 3 games
16 rebounds 3 blocks
16 rebounds 3 blocks
16 rebounds 3 blocks
He’s locked in.
 

They touched on it a little during last night’s game.
The Wolves have now gone 9+ quarters without any fast break points.
Baffling.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
They touched on it a little during last night’s game.
The Wolves have now gone 9+ quarters without any fast break points.
Baffling.
Click to expand...

That was before they got 7 fast break points in the 2nd Half last night.

Still awful and it's all about the scheme. Get everybody back on Defense then take it up slow and run the clock. Geesus..
 

Lately, this is looking like a pretty selfish basketball team. It starts with Ant and KAT. They played the Portland 10 Dayers last night and richly deserved to lose. Rudy saved them. Portland moved the ball crisply, played hard for 48 and hit almost all of the wide open shots the wolves gave them. Our wolves played sticky ball, bitched non stop at the refs (even Conley is starting to complain), kept driving into walls and coughing up the ball while ignoring open teammates. Did I mention that they bitched non stop at the refs? They are heading off for a nasty six game road trip that will require all of their focus, continuous effort, maximum ball movement, maximum composure and a little bit of luck. At the moment, I'm not seeing much of any of it.

Yes, I know it was a BtB and the fourth game in seven nights. It's hard to control for fatigue. They can control for effort and behavior.
 

jamiche said:
Lately, this is looking like a pretty selfish basketball team. It starts with Ant and KAT. They played the Portland 10 Dayers last night and richly deserved to lose. Rudy saved them. Portland moved the ball crisply, played hard for 48 and hit almost all of the wide open shots the wolves gave them. Our wolves played sticky ball, bitched non stop at the refs (even Conley is starting to complain), kept driving into walls and coughing up the ball while ignoring open teammates. Did I mention that they bitched non stop at the refs? They are heading off for a nasty six game road trip that will require all of their focus, continuous effort, maximum ball movement, maximum composure and a little bit of luck. At the moment, I'm not seeing much of any of it.

Yes, I know it was a BtB and the fourth game in seven nights. It's hard to control for fatigue. They can control for effort and behavior.
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Yep. Ant and Towns are sinking back into crybaby status again. The team as a whole isn't playing smart basketball right now. Rudy and Anderson played great ball last night.
 

Maybe Doc isn’t that horrible -

Since the AS break, the Bucs are -

6-0
3rd in O efficiency
1st in D efficiency ( why he was specifically hired). They were close to last in the league when he was hired.

They beat the Clippers last night with Greek Freak out.
 

TruthSeeker said:
The Wolves will be the 4 seed and lose in Round 1.
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Clippers are 5-5 in their last 10, so it seems like that’s theirs unless they turn it up a notch.

Wolves are 7-3 in the last ten.

Just looked out the window and the sky is still ⬆️ there 😀
TruthSeeker said:
I thought they'd lose in Round 2, but they don't have the offense to win.

They also don't have the alpha player to take over a game. Edwards isn't good enough yet.
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Clippers are 5-5 in their last 10, so it seems like that’s theirs unless they turn it up a notch.

Wolves are 7-3 in the last ten.

Just looked out the window and the sky is still ⬆️ there 😀
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Everyone has said for years that Defense wins playoff games, except for this year. Wonder why?

Last 10 for Western Conference Leaders?

Wolves 7-3
OKC 7-3
Denver 7-3
Clippers 5-5
Pelicans 6-4
Suns 5-5
Kings 5-5

www.espn.com

NBA Standings - 2023-24 season - ESPN

Visit ESPN for the complete 2023-24 NBA season standings. Includes league, conference and division standings for regular season and playoffs.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

Iceland12 said:
Everyone has said for years that Defense wins playoff games, except for this year. Wonder why?

Last 10 for Western Conference Leaders?

Wolves 7-3
OKC 7-3
Denver 7-3
Clippers 5-5
Pelicans 6-4
Suns 5-5
Kings 5-5

www.espn.com

NBA Standings - 2023-24 season - ESPN

Visit ESPN for the complete 2023-24 NBA season standings. Includes league, conference and division standings for regular season and playoffs.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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I’m not sure what your point is - please clarify.

We are behind the 8 ball as we have the 7th toughest SOS, while Denver has the 2nd easiest. Our saving grace may be thst we have three games left with the Nuggets.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
I’m not sure what your point is.

We are behind the 8 ball as we have the 7th toughest SOS, while Denver has the 2nd easiest. Our saving grace may be thst we have three games left with the Nuggets.
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Huh? This has us at 11th and Denver at 19th. LAC at 12th and OKC at 16th.

They all play pretty similar caliber opponents down the stretch.

www.tankathon.com

NBA Remaining Schedule Strength | Tankathon

Shows the remaining strength of schedule for NBA teams based on the winning percentage of the opponents left on their schedule.
www.tankathon.com www.tankathon.com
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
I’m not sure what your point is.

We are behind the 8 ball as we have the 7th toughest SOS, while Denver has the 2nd easiest. Our saving grace may be thst we have three games left with the Nuggets.
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Not sure where the confusion is. Was building on your point. You talked about how the Clippers have a worse record in the last 10 games than the Wolves. Just pointing out that all the Western Conference leaders have the same, or a worse record than The Wolves do overall, and in the last 10 games.

As for Strength of Schedule, the games against Denver probably create that SOS imbalance, but after the way things have gone for the NBA since the All Star game, guaranteed losses or wins haven't seemed to apply.

As for the Defense remark that was directly related to the post you quoted. It was talking about how the Wolves don't have the Offense to win in the playoffs. Ignoring the fact that it's very rare when people start talking about how Offense wins playoff games.

It's nearly always Defense that does that. Probably why Connolly made the trades he did and Finch has been emphasizing Defense. all season long.
 
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Iceland12 said:
Not sure where the confusion is. Was building on your point. You talked about how the Clippers have a worse record in the last 10 games than the Wolves. Just pointing out that all the Western Conference leaders have the same, or a worse record than The Wolves do overall, and in the last 10 games.

As for Strength of Schedule, the games against Denver probably create that SOS imbalance, but after the way things have gone for the NBA since the All Star game, guaranteed losses or wins haven't seemed to apply.

As for the Defense remark that was directly related to the post you quoted. It was talking about how the Wolves don't have the Offense to win in the playoffs. Ignoring the fact that it's very rare when people start talk8ing about how Offense wins playoff games.

It's nearly always Defense that does that. Probably why Connolly made the trades hw did and Finch has been emphasizing Defense. all season long.
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Stop making sense!
I was sundowning earlier than normal today 😉
 

So Ant wasn't going to the bathroom. He was literally late and not ready.

He played like schit last night. He's been off a lot recently.

This is not good.
 

kg21 said:
So Ant wasn't going to the bathroom. He was literally late and not ready.

He played like schit last night. He's been off a lot recently.

This is not good.
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He thinks he's a bona-fide superstar. The league hasn't given him that yet, because he hasn't earned it. He's got plenty of growing up left to do.
 

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