GameThread -6: vs. Raptors
by wyn on Oct 9, 2009 6:00 PM CDT
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PrintToronto Raptors at Minnesota Timberwolves, Oct 9, 2009 7:00 PM CDT
Educational video on tonight's opponents with some really excited scientists.
Game Time: 7:00pm CST | No Broadcast
Tonight is the first NBA game at the Target Center since Ike Diogu dropped 28 points in 39 minutes on the Wolves last April 15 to close out a 24 win season. Meanwhile, Kevin Love played 27 minutes yet still managed a 12/10 performance.
While preseason minutes for Love, Al Jefferson, Ramon Sessions and Jonny Flynn be truncated from the regular burn they'll get, tonight is the first opportunity for the Wolves to show their beleaguered fans that this is the start of something new. There's never any benefit in placing unwarranted importance on preseason games (after all, the Wolves went 6-2 last year). But it will be interesting to see how some of the Wolves' lineups handle court-time together.
Only Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani return to Toronto from last year's squad. The one team that had more roster turnover since last opening day? You guessed it, Minnesota. Toronto's core trio will be integrating Hedo Turkoglu, Jarrett Jack, Reggie Evans, Amir Johnson, Marco Belinelli, Antoine Wright and DeMar Derozan into the rotation. In this sense, preseason is important for both teams. Building chemistry early is critical with so many new bodies.
Strong chemistry will help the Wolves exit this season showing significant growth from where they were last year. A critical accomplishment in order to keep this summer's optimism and fan excitement going next summer.
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No broadcast for either team
Truly, the basketball world is waiting for this matchup with bated breath.
Yeah, their boxes are good.
GameChannel is sweet as well, but that doesn’t start still the season. Shame, really.
This is Chopper Dave's made for TV movie, Blades Of Vengeance. See, he's a chopper pilot by day, but by night he fights crime as a werewolf... YEAH!
by Kevin Loves McHale's Navy on Oct 9, 2009 6:39 PM CDT up reply actions
You can silence me but there will be others. Semper Fidelis Tyrannosaurus!
To the box scores!
This is Chopper Dave's made for TV movie, Blades Of Vengeance. See, he's a chopper pilot by day, but by night he fights crime as a werewolf... YEAH!
by Kevin Loves McHale's Navy on Oct 9, 2009 6:32 PM CDT reply actions
Oh, that's a good way to start a game.
15-5 Toronto.
Starters: Flynn/Brewer/Pavlovic/Love/Jefferson
This is Chopper Dave's made for TV movie, Blades Of Vengeance. See, he's a chopper pilot by day, but by night he fights crime as a werewolf... YEAH!
by Kevin Loves McHale's Navy on Oct 9, 2009 7:16 PM CDT reply actions
Thing that stood out to me was Pavs starting.
Obviously it’s just the preseason, but he did get the same burn as Gomes in the first game while he was coming off the bench. Rambis seems to like Sasha a lot. I don’t. Neither do cameras or mirrors, but that’s another tangent entirely.
This is Chopper Dave's made for TV movie, Blades Of Vengeance. See, he's a chopper pilot by day, but by night he fights crime as a werewolf... YEAH!
by Kevin Loves McHale's Navy on Oct 9, 2009 7:23 PM CDT up reply actions
Tweeting
I’ll be posting notes from the game at Twitter.com/canishoopus
www.canishoopus.com
by wyn on Oct 9, 2009 7:23 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
25-10.
So this is how Milwaukee felt.
On a side note, Love does have two blocks. One on Bosh, one on DeRozan.
This is Chopper Dave's made for TV movie, Blades Of Vengeance. See, he's a chopper pilot by day, but by night he fights crime as a werewolf... YEAH!
by Kevin Loves McHale's Navy on Oct 9, 2009 7:27 PM CDT reply actions
hooray tbs...
…right? what a joke. stupid cable.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Wow.
37 points in the firs quarter? Ouch. I see Flynn is still 0-fer-life. Still think that will change, ut doubts mount…
What is the story of the game? Are we just missing and playing poor D?
Twins into the ninth. Go Joe.
All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.
Homer
Jonny Upstairs!
I knew he had it in him :)
All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.
Homer
It would appear we still have no post defense
Love and Jefferson got killed by everyone in the Raptors’ frontcourt. Bosh and Bargnani. Amir Johnson. Patrick O’Bryant. REGGIE EVANS???
Doesn’t matter how much Al and Love can score as a duo. If they can’t defend the paint, we’re no better than we were last year.
These two guys killed us last year too
We were one of the worst defensive teams in terms of giving up two-point jump shots last season.
http://www.82games.com/0809/FDTEAM7.HTM
It’s teams like Toronto with long, face-up jump shooters that absolutely killed us…..and still are apparently!
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_ylt=AsdPLzcyLMesL2GTS9k0M05ZPaB4?gid=2009022428
by Rascal Flatts on Oct 9, 2009 9:39 PM CDT up reply actions
Don’t expect any change after just one training camp. It’s gonna take until february till we see ANY change at all in that area…
Official Kahn/Rambis band-wagon rider since 2009
by Wim (Belgium) on Oct 10, 2009 5:49 AM CDT up reply actions
On a Postive Love Note
Pre-Season
49 Minutes- 27 Rebounds. If he grabs Boards at a clip like this in the Regular Season- WOW!!!
Yes, almost 20 boards every 36 minutes would be pretty freaky
It’d be grand to watch a Wolves player turn in a truly notable season in any individual category.
Possibly that would reflect a sadder losing season, in which we told Love to play a less well-rounded game and concentrate on his individual game and numbers. I’d sure enjoy seeing the coverage of his being a board freak, though.
I was at the game.
Notable take away:
Every time Flynn was in the game, the Toronto lead ballooned to about 20.
With Sessions in the game for Flynn, the lead came back to about 12.
Sessions looked very good, Flynn had a terrible game. There are going to be some growing pains for him.
Yep...
….that was the huge takeaway. Flynn was -24 and Sessions was +19. Corey Brewer also led the team in shots. The guy is going to have a ton of opportunities this year in this offense. Too bad he won’t capitalize.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Who were they playing against?
I’m just wondering if the +/- of each was affected by Toronto’s starters potentially being better than the Wolves but the subs being about even.
by pagingstanleyroberts on Oct 10, 2009 10:14 AM CDT up reply actions
unfortunately...
….popcorn machine isn’t up for the preseason. There is a little of the on/off involved with Flynn and Sessions right now but the majority of it is that Sessions is a better point at the moment.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Thanks
And my question was built with that assumption in mind but just curious whether it was closer than the numbers indicated.
by pagingstanleyroberts on Oct 10, 2009 1:05 PM CDT up reply actions
I completely agree.
The whole team played better with Sessions on the floor on both ends of the court.
Flynn’s athleticism is amazing, but last night, his defense was terrible too. He couldn’t stay in front of anyone. I’m not passing judgement yet, or saying that he will bust. Only that he has a long ways to go to be an effective point in the NBA.
Flynn was +3 vs. Sessions' +11
in Game 1….and in both games, Flynn played more minutes than Sessions. Ramon Sessions gets no respect. I mean last year he was behind Ridnour on the depth chart, even though Ramon was the more talented player and now he’s stuck playing behind a rookie! And his contract is an absolute joke compared to what he’s probably worth. Rambis needs to be careful here. I know Flynn is a highly touted pick, but this is not a Derrick Rose vs. Kirk Hinrich type of situation. Sessions is our best guard and still has upside!
by Rascal Flatts on Oct 10, 2009 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions
I’ll be ticked if he doesn’t play at least as much as Flynn. There’s really no reason he shouldn’t see 30-36 mpg between the 1 and 2.. It would be completely stupid If he’s not playing so that junk players like Pavlovic can get time.
Jennings: F*** the Knicks, them n***** is always going to be weak.
I'm guessing that Rambis is letting Flynn prove himself...
…or not. He’s gotta let the draft pick play a lot & get his game established. And then, if it is apparent that Sessions is better, Flynn and the fans will all be content to see Sessions take the starter role.
He’s also having a long look at Brewer too, and with Wellington & other options, why give Sessions time at the 2 until Flynn emerges as a stud. Sessions is a known quantity, compared to Flynn, Brew & Boots.
The minutes make sense to me… that’s the way I’d do it if I’d thought of it.
So here it is: Kudos to coaching staff for managing minutes of Flynn & Sessions just right!
Sessions is a known quantity compared to those other guys, yes.
I agree — seems to me like the coaching staff is handling things okay.
It’s true that the team has less to learn about Sessions this preseason than they do about Flynn, and that Brewer’s (please don’t take it for granted, Kahn!) option is on the hot burner for this month.
However, it’s not as if Sessions has loads less “upside” than the other guys. There’s still plenty of potential development in the kid. Particularly if they intend to see whether his outside game might come around, there are things they could be actively finding out about Ramon.
Ramon Sessions turned 23 in April. Randy Foye was a month older than that the day he played his first game with the Wolves back in 2006. Corey Brewer is actually a month older than Sessions.
It’s preseason guys, preseason.
He should get minutes to develop, absolutely agree. The more I think about it the more Sessions was an absolute steal. In terms of “Championship cal team” Sessions could definitly be the starter on a championship team .. 3rd best player or so.. but this is the time to try out different stuff.
If Session doesn’t start at the regular season I’d be baffled …
Official Kahn/Rambis band-wagon rider since 2009
by Wim (Belgium) on Oct 12, 2009 5:33 AM CDT up reply actions
The difference in both games is staggering, but Flynn has never been a favorite of the stats guys. He’s really the test case regarding how closely to follow the stats guys, at least for a Wolves fan. Either way, they’re only slightly in competition with each other; I want them both to do well so that this team has above-average lead guard play for 48 minutes.
by pagingstanleyroberts on Oct 11, 2009 1:23 AM CDT up reply actions
Interesting
I’m glad Sessions looks like a legit starting point at least, and we all know Flynn has potential to be one. I feel good about our situation at point guard with Sessions providing a steady hand and Flynn being the streaky, dynamic one.
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