FANTASTIC!!!

Yes this was ugly, but this was a victory by any stretch of the means, and it was a decent one.

Considering that Beasley couldnt hit anything at all
Considering that we were on a back to back
Considering that Love played virtually one half of play
Considering that Ridnour played horrific

An ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Ill take this over that Thunder loss any day of the week.

Win or lose, he produces.

So you’re saying we win when everyone else does well? Preposterous!

Raptors are awful. Their shot selection was attrocious and many of the shots they made I remember thinking, “Wow that was lucky. We were playing pretty good defense on that play.” They also got a few breakaways. This makes me wonder just how many plays they got that were the result of good basketball. They really did not care tonight (sorry if any Raps fans are reading. It’s the truuf though).

Pekovic looks to be improving. That makes me happy. Now if he could just have a chat with Darko about that…

The headbands were a bad decision for Wes and Wayne. Wayne should go back to being the rookie bitch for that. Wes should be the rookie bitch’s rookie bitch. Pardon my language. They both looked stupid.

Bargnani backed down Tolliver at one point in this game. I like Tolliver, but we’ve got to call him what he is. And that’s an average 2nd/3rd backup option.

Bassy.

If the Wolves two biggest liability show further improvement (Flynn and Pek) This should be enough to turn a few close losses into close wins.

The highlight in the ESPN Game Recap was this line:

" Though his statistics aren’t quite as stunning as Love’s, Bargnani is in a similar bind as a standout on an unsuccessful team."

19-6-5 first half against NO. Fudge

We just WON A GAME, and the tone is pretty negative. If the losses are hard to take, and the wins are meaningless, it’s pretty hard to be a fan.

The outcome was very much in doubt until the 3rd. We were only up by 1 at the end of the 1st. We were on the second of a back-to-back and it must have been a late-arriving flight from Utah last night. The Raptors didn’t just miss shots for no reason…..Darko shut down Bargnani, who average 21.5. And even the Corey haters must have liked his dunks and energy….does anyone have a higher average dunk velocity in the league??? Overall, a nice effort from the team….Beasley must have been too tired, but we had his back….

Did Chuckd’s parents take his computer away?

We have had the 4th hardest sos
Of our 11 wins, 10 have been by at least 9 points.

Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking the 11-36 record is an accurate reflection of this team. A trade for a veteran (say c.billups) is all it would take for this team to find itself in the playoff race next year.

Frustration with management aside this team is much better than it’s record. And I think that’s a concencus league wide. They’ve been brutalized by injuries and coughed up at least 4-5 sure victories (out of 8-10 potential). They have also had an extremely tough schedule.
That stated, if they had 18-20 wins would that be satisfactory progress?

1. If the Wolves had played like this on Wednesday they would have been killed by the Thunder. It would have been a 20+ point blowout.
2. The bottom of the East is beyond terrible.

Last night looked like a team that was trudging through the second game of a away-home back to back. Beasley couldn’t hit a shot and Brewer was so passive on the offensive end that he took only one shot (which he did make at least since it was a dunk). The only starter who really played well was Love. Their play was pretty uninspired and it would have been an ugly result against a decent team. Eight turnovers from the starters was not a good thing either considering their limited minutes on the floor. Pek still doesn’t seem to understand the 3 second rule. I thought he had gotten better, but playing extended minutes showed he had not. Sure it was garbage time, but why was Bassy jacking up three pointers like he was the ghost of Shaddy?
Luckily, the Raptors were even worse. Until garbage time hit they were in the upper 20s for FG% and that was probably the best part of their game. Actually the Raptors were rebounding well, but they were really bad in every other area. I completely expect a different Raptors team in the rematch in Toronto this upcoming week. It won’t be a bloodbath next time. There is no way Bargnani and DeRozan turn in 5-24 and 2-11 performances again.
That brings me to the Eastern Conference and how bad the bottom is. Seven of the Wolves wins have come against the bottom half of the East and another win came against the Knicks who were in the bottom of the East at that time. How about the Cavs pulling out one of their 8 wins against the West? Can the Wolves petition to play in an easier conference to pick up some more wins?

On the positive side:
Beasley did start to make some drives to the basket to get himself to the foul line. This is a thing good scorers do when their shot isn’t falling. Beasley needs to get better at this to get himself on track. The Wolves also need to do more clear out/iso situations to allow him to work on a defender better. Way to many times when he tries to drive to the basket there are too many other Wolves and players guarding them clogging things up. Beasley seems to be better at passing out of trouble as the season has progressed and this could be a good added weapon having him drive and kick when the defense collapses on him.
Darko stayed out on the Italian Stallion pretty well most of the night. There were a few times when he strayed and got burned or AB missed an open shot. But overall he deserves some props for keeping in his face pretty well.
Pek used the window nicely a couple of times and did a good job of clogging things up with his wide body on the defensive end. He also didn’t foul every ten seconds which is promising. One of his fouls was even pretty poorly called since a guard was driving baseline and basically bounced off of Pek who was basically stationary with his arms down. The ref figured it had to be a foul because the guy was on the floor and Pek didn’t even flinch.
Jonny had a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio. Please let that be a trend and not an abberation.
It seemed like the backups where in tune with each other much better tonight than most nights. This may be a case of them actually being together as a unit for a few weeks now. Injuries had prevented much chemistry there before. If the second unit can elevate on a consistent basis it will help this team so much.
Love put up awesome numbers again: 6-10 from the field and 2-4 from beyond the arc.

I am really hoping that the combination of a more favorable schedule and improvement from the 2nd team gets things rolling a bit here in the back half of the season.