That 1st quarter was an absolute dumpster fire from us, so Iām glad we brought the game back within 10. Of course, we then got beat down again, but better than rolling over and dying the whole game. Now the Blazers and the fans get a much need week long break.
Piano9717
Here are my thoughts about this game:
Positives:
* I really like how the team as a whole responded to that garbage first quarter. Feel like there were parts of this season where the team would have just laid down and lost by 50 points but instead they fought back and clawed their way back into the game. Good for them. * I like that we started off the game using Camara as a roll man. I know the efficiency stats probably donāt back this up at all, but I feel like thatās one way we can hide his lack of consistent offense similar to how we used Winslow at times. Camara seems to be a decent-ish decision maker when heās asked to operate in space, so I like that we are doing that once in a while instead of leaving him in the corner to brick open shots (in general not today). Today Camara played pretty well on offense I thought. * Jabari needs more minutes especially going against a guy like KAT. I love Toumani, but I feel like defensively heās better against guards and Jabari is better against combo bigs like KAT because heās stronger and more physical. He was really active defensively and provided his normal hustle which was nice to see. * Scoot continues to put it together on offense. The stat sheet wonāt show it, but he did a great job (as usual) of running the offense, He also seems to gradually be learning how to finish at the rim, and when to play fast and when to play slow (and not always going 1000mph).
Negatives
* Not really a positive or a negative, but Iāve watched most of the Timberwolvesā games this year and I donāt think Iāve ever seen them use the low man so aggressively on defense to stop the short roll when Gobert is in the game. When Gobert is on the floor 99.9% of the time they 90% of the time defend the PnR 2v2 and let the ball defender and Gobert contain everything, and if theyāre playing against an elite pull-up jump shooter, theyāll hedge with Gobert and position the tag defender super low to stop layups. This opens up a huge amount of space in the midrange, where the Wolves are content to let the big man shoot wide open 15 footers which Ayton hugely took advantage of last game. This game, they were hedging with Gobert to stop Ant pullup three point shots, but the tag defender (Edwards or McDaniels usually) was suuuuuuper high and meeting Ayton at the FT line to take away the midrange jumper (and also knowing that our weakside āshootersā like Camara, Thybulle, Banton, and Jabari donāt really like to shoot the ball unless theyāre wide open, and probably wonāt shoot it super well against a closeout from McDaniels or Edwards who are both long, fast, and athletic. * Anyways, with all that being said, the counter to this kind of defense is to have Ayton roll harder to the rim every time and it will break the Wolvesā defense by putting the tag defender in a hard place, and will open up a bunch of layups and corner threes. Ayton did roll hard once and Ant got him for a lob, but against this kind of defense he has to do a better job of rolling harder and more consistently rather than trying to hunt that midrange jumper when the Wolves are clearly making it a point of emphasis to take it away. (this also goes partly on Chauncey for not adjusting to the adjustment by the Wolves). * I didnāt really like our defensive game plan as much as last game. I actually thought we had a solid gameplan last game defensively, with Camara really looking to pressure Edwards. Edwards still had a great game, but a lot of points were contested shots that you honestly just have to live with as a defense. Iām not saying that Camara canāt guard KAT, but when you have him primarily guard a non-ballhandler you take away his best attribute, which is his length and limitless motor being able to wear those guys down and force them into turnovers and bad decisions. And Grant just canāt stay in front of Edwards which forced us to send a bunch of help off the corners, and gave the Wolves many free points. * Not a good matchup for Reath at all. Itās one thing that he was missing shots (that happens in the NBA, canāt fault a generally good shooter for missing open shots) but he looked really bad on defense and couldnāt guard KAT. I think if I were Chauncey I would have just gone with Jabari to match KAT (so Jabari at the 4 when KAT is next to Gobert, and then small ball with Jabari at the 5 when Gobert comes out and KAT plays the 5). * Simons just gets erased every time we play the Wolves. The combo of McDaniels and Gobert just make it impossible for him to get to his spots. Sucks. I thought he passed the ball decently and had a good night (by his standards) on defense so at least he wasnāt a complete black hole out there, but heās at his best when heās scoring and he canāt score against this team. * I like 90% of what Kris Murray does ā heās long, moves his feet on defense and is generally a good team defender too, seems to have some connective passing ability, and makes smart cuts. That being said, he NEEDS to shoot semi-open and open threes. Heās not a good enough driver or ballhandler to be constantly passing up open looks to try to attack closeouts, and heās constantly getting stuck in the paint ā I call it Josh Hart syndrome where guys pump fake out of wide open shots and it just kills the whole offense.
ramblingsbyalan
Rough one tonight with a brief bright spot in the middle. I donāt know how else to put it.
Such-Egg-7584
Time to heal up and rest. Looked like some of our guys were already on vacation
TheLetterOh
I liked Scoot this game, dudes clearly made some good progress from the start of the season until now.
Would’ve been nice to go into the All-star break with a more competitive game, but oh well. You can see why Minny got the best record in the west.
Let’s hope Scoot shows out for the Rising Stars game!
Proper_Hurry_362
Last two games perfectly encapsulate the DominAyton experience
rocky0502
Timberwolves are a good ass team what else can I say lmao
Sa-Tiva
One positive i think we can take from this game is that Scoot seemed to be in a much better rhythm with the starter shifts tonight. He started off a bit rough, and i was like uh oh…. earlier this year it would have spiraled to a 1-9 night but Scoot is an improved player now and he bounced back. His middies are starting to fall, his finishing is becoming more reliable, and hes become quite the foul merchant. He was 5/11 tonight (5/12 but one was a heave) against the best defense in the NBA, we’ll take that and look forward to much better nights against lesser defenses.
LegitimatePotato3632
Ant with another stinker. I think we should move him the offseason.
I donāt understand the downvotes. Ant has been trash most of the year and Scoot is quite clearly the future point guard.
shelvino
Iām glad Badji got some run!!! He had two great stops on Gobert who seem like he wanted to assert himself and give Badji a welcome to the league moment but failed ahaha. Aside from the one Ant/Gobert lob + lane violation, I thought Badji looked sweet and would like to see him play more with Scoot. I think Badji has shown some awesome passing ability.
I love the Australian duo of Thybulle and Duop but I think Murray and Badji could use the development. Iām glad they got minutes today
StatusDropout
Wel there goes that Ayton has been stepping it up narrative.
obsidianstout
how did ayton get those last two fouls within 20 seconds of each other… wtf!
Ripcitytoker
We’re so bad, lol
thisisnotjr
At least it wasn’t the worst game they had this season. Still pretty bad tho
KillingTime_ForNow
Thybulle’s only stat was 1 steal. 0-4 from the floor, 2 fouls, and 1 steal. That’s his stat line.
effkriger
Glad I turned it off after 3rd
FullAutoLuxPosadism
These are the games that need to never happen if Ayton wants to claim he’s a max player.
17 Comments
That 1st quarter was an absolute dumpster fire from us, so Iām glad we brought the game back within 10. Of course, we then got beat down again, but better than rolling over and dying the whole game. Now the Blazers and the fans get a much need week long break.
Here are my thoughts about this game:
Positives:
* I really like how the team as a whole responded to that garbage first quarter. Feel like there were parts of this season where the team would have just laid down and lost by 50 points but instead they fought back and clawed their way back into the game. Good for them.
* I like that we started off the game using Camara as a roll man. I know the efficiency stats probably donāt back this up at all, but I feel like thatās one way we can hide his lack of consistent offense similar to how we used Winslow at times. Camara seems to be a decent-ish decision maker when heās asked to operate in space, so I like that we are doing that once in a while instead of leaving him in the corner to brick open shots (in general not today). Today Camara played pretty well on offense I thought.
* Jabari needs more minutes especially going against a guy like KAT. I love Toumani, but I feel like defensively heās better against guards and Jabari is better against combo bigs like KAT because heās stronger and more physical. He was really active defensively and provided his normal hustle which was nice to see.
* Scoot continues to put it together on offense. The stat sheet wonāt show it, but he did a great job (as usual) of running the offense, He also seems to gradually be learning how to finish at the rim, and when to play fast and when to play slow (and not always going 1000mph).
Negatives
* Not really a positive or a negative, but Iāve watched most of the Timberwolvesā games this year and I donāt think Iāve ever seen them use the low man so aggressively on defense to stop the short roll when Gobert is in the game. When Gobert is on the floor 99.9% of the time they 90% of the time defend the PnR 2v2 and let the ball defender and Gobert contain everything, and if theyāre playing against an elite pull-up jump shooter, theyāll hedge with Gobert and position the tag defender super low to stop layups. This opens up a huge amount of space in the midrange, where the Wolves are content to let the big man shoot wide open 15 footers which Ayton hugely took advantage of last game. This game, they were hedging with Gobert to stop Ant pullup three point shots, but the tag defender (Edwards or McDaniels usually) was suuuuuuper high and meeting Ayton at the FT line to take away the midrange jumper (and also knowing that our weakside āshootersā like Camara, Thybulle, Banton, and Jabari donāt really like to shoot the ball unless theyāre wide open, and probably wonāt shoot it super well against a closeout from McDaniels or Edwards who are both long, fast, and athletic.
* Anyways, with all that being said, the counter to this kind of defense is to have Ayton roll harder to the rim every time and it will break the Wolvesā defense by putting the tag defender in a hard place, and will open up a bunch of layups and corner threes. Ayton did roll hard once and Ant got him for a lob, but against this kind of defense he has to do a better job of rolling harder and more consistently rather than trying to hunt that midrange jumper when the Wolves are clearly making it a point of emphasis to take it away. (this also goes partly on Chauncey for not adjusting to the adjustment by the Wolves).
* I didnāt really like our defensive game plan as much as last game. I actually thought we had a solid gameplan last game defensively, with Camara really looking to pressure Edwards. Edwards still had a great game, but a lot of points were contested shots that you honestly just have to live with as a defense. Iām not saying that Camara canāt guard KAT, but when you have him primarily guard a non-ballhandler you take away his best attribute, which is his length and limitless motor being able to wear those guys down and force them into turnovers and bad decisions. And Grant just canāt stay in front of Edwards which forced us to send a bunch of help off the corners, and gave the Wolves many free points.
* Not a good matchup for Reath at all. Itās one thing that he was missing shots (that happens in the NBA, canāt fault a generally good shooter for missing open shots) but he looked really bad on defense and couldnāt guard KAT. I think if I were Chauncey I would have just gone with Jabari to match KAT (so Jabari at the 4 when KAT is next to Gobert, and then small ball with Jabari at the 5 when Gobert comes out and KAT plays the 5).
* Simons just gets erased every time we play the Wolves. The combo of McDaniels and Gobert just make it impossible for him to get to his spots. Sucks. I thought he passed the ball decently and had a good night (by his standards) on defense so at least he wasnāt a complete black hole out there, but heās at his best when heās scoring and he canāt score against this team.
* I like 90% of what Kris Murray does ā heās long, moves his feet on defense and is generally a good team defender too, seems to have some connective passing ability, and makes smart cuts. That being said, he NEEDS to shoot semi-open and open threes. Heās not a good enough driver or ballhandler to be constantly passing up open looks to try to attack closeouts, and heās constantly getting stuck in the paint ā I call it Josh Hart syndrome where guys pump fake out of wide open shots and it just kills the whole offense.
Rough one tonight with a brief bright spot in the middle. I donāt know how else to put it.
Time to heal up and rest. Looked like some of our guys were already on vacation
I liked Scoot this game, dudes clearly made some good progress from the start of the season until now.
Would’ve been nice to go into the All-star break with a more competitive game, but oh well. You can see why Minny got the best record in the west.
Let’s hope Scoot shows out for the Rising Stars game!
Last two games perfectly encapsulate the DominAyton experience
Timberwolves are a good ass team what else can I say lmao
One positive i think we can take from this game is that Scoot seemed to be in a much better rhythm with the starter shifts tonight. He started off a bit rough, and i was like uh oh…. earlier this year it would have spiraled to a 1-9 night but Scoot is an improved player now and he bounced back. His middies are starting to fall, his finishing is becoming more reliable, and hes become quite the foul merchant. He was 5/11 tonight (5/12 but one was a heave) against the best defense in the NBA, we’ll take that and look forward to much better nights against lesser defenses.
Ant with another stinker. I think we should move him the offseason.
I donāt understand the downvotes. Ant has been trash most of the year and Scoot is quite clearly the future point guard.
Iām glad Badji got some run!!! He had two great stops on Gobert who seem like he wanted to assert himself and give Badji a welcome to the league moment but failed ahaha. Aside from the one Ant/Gobert lob + lane violation, I thought Badji looked sweet and would like to see him play more with Scoot. I think Badji has shown some awesome passing ability.
I love the Australian duo of Thybulle and Duop but I think Murray and Badji could use the development. Iām glad they got minutes today
Wel there goes that Ayton has been stepping it up narrative.
how did ayton get those last two fouls within 20 seconds of each other… wtf!
We’re so bad, lol
At least it wasn’t the worst game they had this season. Still pretty bad tho
Thybulle’s only stat was 1 steal. 0-4 from the floor, 2 fouls, and 1 steal. That’s his stat line.
Glad I turned it off after 3rd
These are the games that need to never happen if Ayton wants to claim he’s a max player.